A rising tide on Lavon's shores
LAVON – The stretch of highway paralleling Lake Lavon's southeast corner used to be Texas' most famous speed trap.
But today, drivers scanning the State Highway 78 landscape for patrol cars will instead spot a busy armada of backhoes and tractors.Workers are scrambling to erect a master-planned community that's expected to more than quintuple this 800-resident town by 2010.
The swarm of activity offers a glimpse of the high-octane growth that is beginning to arrive on the periphery of Lake Lavon.
Developers and traffic planners are looking toward the long-ignored Collin County lake as people migrate farther north and east. But they're coming for cheaper land, not pretty views.
As plans unfold to turn fallow land within miles of Lake Lavon's shores into subdivisions and retail centers, communities near the lake also may be reshaped by massive road projects such as the Collin County Outer Loop and the Trans-Texas Corridor.
Traffic crossing the FM3286 bridge over an arm of Lake Lavon at sunset has been manageable so far, but many locals wonder how a surge of homebuilding on the horizon will affect the community's infrastructure.
"I see the growth washing over us and moving on," said Mike Jones, senior administrator in Lavon, where crews have begun work on the 1,600-home Grand Heritage project.
Visions for Lake Lavon's future do not include private lakeside homes and docks. All the lake's 121 miles of shoreline are owned by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, which manages the lake for flood control and water supply.
The corps leases land to marina operators at the lake's southwest corner and runs all but one of 17 lakeside parks, but officials say the agency does not have much of a hand in economic development.
Beyond the corps-owned lakeshore, however, landowners and developers are starting to think big. Tracts of vacant land near the lake in Lavon, Wylie and Lucas are being converted into large new subdivisions, most notably Lavon's Grand Heritage.
Developers Herbert Hunt and Paul Cheng battled more than a year with city, county and state officials to win approval for the 570-acre project, at the intersection of Highways 205 and 78 in Lavon. Residents are expected to start moving in this spring.
Mr. Hunt said he and other developers in that area are targeting buyers of more affordable starter homes than exist elsewhere among new subdivisions in Collin County.
The Hunt family, long an influential force in developing North Texas, will have a major say in the coming growth. Just west of the lake in Lucas, city officials are talking about a 425-acre retail/residential project at the intersection of Parker Road and Southview Drive (FM1378) on land owned by Hunt family interests.
Also in Lucas, the City Council has approved Lakeview Downs Equestrian Estates, where plans include horse barns and an equestrian arena in addition to 115 homes and nearly 100,000 square feet of commercial space. Lucas' 5,400 residents now shop mainly in Plano, Allen and Wylie.
Wylie has approved a D.R. Horton development called Wylie Lakes that would bring a combination of at least 181 single-family homes and 69 townhomes within minutes of the lake. Smaller subdivisions are cropping up east of the lake along the Highway 78 corridor.
Bob Collins, president of the Farmersville Economic Development Corp. and a former Plano City Council member, said the flurry of development occurring along Highway 78 brings to mind the early days of the telecom corridor in Plano and Richardson.
Mr. Hunt says that's a fair comparison, noting that when he and his partners were developing along U.S. Highway 75 decades ago, they started out with relatively modest homes.
"And we've all seen what's happened with Plano, and the same thing with Richardson," he said.
Not everyone welcomes the growth. The decision to allow Grand Heritage in Lavon divided the community between those looking forward to the project's amenities, and those fearing the loss of their rural countryside and the emergence of more-congested roads.
Sewer service is emerging as a key – and, in some cases, contentious – issue. Next year, Lavon will tap into a new sewage treatment plant in Rockwall County that could someday serve customers east of the lake as far north as Farmersville.
Princeton is requesting state approval to extend sewer lines to the Branch Peninsula, a move drawing public opposition. And a petition is asking that any decision on sewer services in Lucas be put to a referendum.
"Please protect our property values, character and unique appeal of Lucas, and our country setting," the petition states.
Cheaper land
The action around Lake Lavon is more about available land than the aesthetic perks of living near water.
Developer Brian Parks, who has a swath of land under contract east of the lake, said the area along Highway 78 is appealing because demand for affordable housing is rising as subdivisions fill up to the west. But the lake itself adds little value, he said.
If people could see the lake from their front door, they would pay for that view, he said, but the terrain around Lake Lavon is too flat to offer anything scenic. The level land is a bonus for developers who want to build higher-density master-planned communities that offer starter homes ranging from $125,000 to $150,000, he said.
"Lavon's got interest just because it's a half hour out of downtown Dallas and at the base of the Bush Turnpike," he said. "[Development] will happen, but it just won't be somebody saying, 'I've got to have a place out at Lake Lavon. That's just the coolest.' "
However, he said he expects builders to tout the proximity of the lake to individual sellers.
"That is a draw from the standpoint of, Bob's got his bass boat ... and he's five minutes from being able to put in someplace and go and fish," he said.
Current Lavon area residents didn't move east to be closer to the lake, Mayor Jim Albright said.
"I'm three minutes from there, and I don't own a boat," he said. "I don't even own a fishing pole.
"The primary focus for people to move to Lavon was to get out of the city."
A barrier to traffic
As the dominant physical feature in southeast Collin County, Lake Lavon factors heavily into the region's future traffic plans.
"Lake Lavon ... creates a big barrier," Mr. Collins said.
Four possible routes for the Trans-Texas Corridor touted by Gov. Rick Perry run east of the lake, as do all proposed routes for the Collin County Outer Loop, although final decisions on those projects are still years away.
The state is building two replacement bridges across the upper western arm of the lake near Lucas. And the county's thoroughfare plan identifies four "potential bridges" across parts of the lake. They are at best distant possibilities with no firm plans in place, said Ruben Delgado, county engineering director.
"Sooner or later we're going to need [another] bridge," he said.
In Lucas, landowners have offered to donate rights of way east toward the lake as part of the proposal to build a bridge across southern portions of Lavon. Building such a bridge would increase the attractiveness of the land on both sides of the lake and on the peninsula, said Don Dillard, vice president for a Hunt Petroleum real estate subsidiary.
Mr. Dillard has been working with city and county officials, as well as representatives of the Caruth family – another large area landholder – on the proposal.
Mr. Delgado said such a bridge is likely "10 to 20 years" in the future "if the money's there." A combination of county, state and federal dollars could be involved.
Services on rise
With more visitors and residents on their way to Lake Lavon and its outskirts, more services are being added around the lake.
Next year, the corps will open new swimming beaches at East Fork and Ticky Creek parks, as well as an extended equestrian trail west of the lake. Wylie has approved a 58-room hotel to be built about a mile south of the lake.
The Collin County Community College District is looking to expand near Wylie and Farmersville.
Charles Fenner, Lucas' city administrator, said rapid growth near the lake could overwhelm small cities unless they can share services such as schools, police and fire stations and animal shelters.
"It has to be a regional effort," Mr. Fenner said. "Everybody has to think that way. It would save everybody money and time, and I think provide better service."
As new roads and subdivisions bring more people closer to Lake Lavon, it will become more popular as a recreation destination, said John Lemley, vice president for Just For Fun watercraft rental in Grapevine and Lewisville.
Lake Lavon, like Eagle Mountain Lake in northwest Tarrant County, lacks visibility because it's in a "section of the metroplex that is less traveled," Mr. Lemley said.
Staff writer Roy Appleton contributed to this report.
E-mail jbatsell@dallasnews.com