Around 100 people heard from City Manager Britt Lusk and Pilot Point ISD Superintendent Dr. Shannon Fuller about the growth underway around Pilot Point on March 19.
For the first half of the joint presentation hosted by the Pilot Point Chamber of Commerce, Lusk shared information about the city’s goals and a heavy look at the housing developments in progress and proposed that will change the landscape of Pilot Point.
“Our major master planned communities are advancing,” Lusk said. “We have several, as you’ll see, coming up that have actually broke ground and within 18 months, they’re going to start going vertical. By the time they start pulling permits and getting the civil engineering done and everything and start breaking ground, it takes about 18 months for them to get all that infrastructure into the ground—streets, water, sewer—before the homes are ready to start going vertical.”
Overall, the city projects the population to reach 12,270 in 2027; 40,540 in 2032; 53,610 in 2034; 112,850 in 2045; and 203,810 in 2065.
Some of the developments building now include Windrose with 377 lots; Mobberly Farms with its 1,986 lots; Creekview Meadows with its 2,415 residential lots; and Bryson Ranch with its 3,000 single-family lots, 120 townhomes and 20 acres of multifamily lots.
Several more developments are on the cusp, including The Lantern, formerly known as Hillwood; Heritage Ridge with 131 singlefamily lots; Mustang/Shelby Ranch with 2,821 proposed single-family lots and 2,246 multifamily units; Lakeside Grove, formerly Burks Ranch, with 444 acres for single-family residential de- velopment; Stillwater, formerly Eland Farms, with 2,271 single-family lots planned; Henzler Village with 392 single- family lots; Hat Creek Estates with 190 single- family lots; Maverick Farms with 1,348 single- family lots; and Pecan Creek on 936 acres that previously proposed around 4,000 single-family lots.
“When we talk about growth, it’s not that it’s coming; it’s not that we’re going to grow with it,” Lusk said. “It’s that it’s happening right now as we speak.”
Fuller stepped up then to explain that PPISD has about 101 square miles of responsibility and future growth to the city’s 69.78 combined current city limits and extraterritorial jurisdiction.
“[The school board] had several special sessions with our demographic company, with our financial company to really look to make sure that we have a good understanding of what’s coming, what’s happening and what can we afford and not afford,” Fuller said. “What would be a prudent decision to make sure that we are planning for that.”
Fuller again dug into the details of what the bond the $295 million bond would pay for, namely a new, replacement high school; a second, additional elementary school; and additional renovations to the existing facilities.
“I’m going to show you some renderings,” Fuller said. “… We have not hired an architect, so these are just sort of ‘Dream with me for a minute’ pictures, like what could it be.”
Formal design work for any of the projects depends on the bond being approved by the voters, as that expense would be funded with the bond issue.
Fuller again explained that the district will sell off bonds as it earns the capacity, relying heavily on rooftop and commercial growth in the coming years.
Fuller also explained that bond money cannot go toward salaries or operating expenses, and general fund money is not supposed to go toward debt for the construction of new schools in almost all cases.
“With this general fund, that’s where we pay our teachers, we pay to have the lights on, we pay for transportation, supplies— that’s where all of our money goes to; 85% of that money is salaries for our district,” Fuller said. “The other side … can only be used to pay down debt.”
She again referenced the calculator, which can be found at pilotpointisdbond. com/financials for property owners to enter their exact property value to see the individual impact it would have on their tax bill.
“The thing that I ask of you all, and the most important I think, is just to be informed voters,” Fuller said. “It’s so important that people know what the facts are and what’s going on, because I want people just to make informed decisions.”
