Master Plan
If you are interested in learning more about the 2013 Master Plan land use plan review process, please click on the link to the left.
The Town of Flower Mound has become one of the most desirable communities in the north Texas area, since its incorporation in 1961. This achievement has been reached due to several circumstances in the Town's fifty years of existence. First, the Town is located along the north shore of Lake Grapevine, providing unique vistas and natural areas protected from development. Second, the Town is located very near to the Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport, which provides an important resource for the Town's residents and a source of job creation in the area. Third, the Town is located within a geographic area known as the "Cross Timbers," generally characterized by gently rolling hills, oak forests and native prairies. Flower Mound has benefited by these locational attributes, but has become a desirable community because of the effort of the Town's leaders to have a vision for the future and to successfully implement a plan to advance the fulfillment of that vision. Based on the Town's location and the development pattern of the region, the Town was poised to develop in a suburban manner indistinguishable from other areas of the Metroplex. However, a residential building boom in the late 1990s and the accompanying stress on public services caused the Town to reconsider its future. The result was the adoption of the Town's Master Plan 2001 and SMARTGrowth program. These two document and supporting ordinances required that development proceed in a planned manner in accordance with the Town's vision for the future, the Master Plan.
By continuing this planning tradition with this latest version of the Master Plan, the Town can continue its success as a highly desirable community and maintain its reputation as a great place to raise a family. Also, these elements can be further enhanced by establishing new and innovative planning-related policies. The product of this update is a Master Plan document that the Town can use in the years to come to effectively manage and maximize its everchanging environment.
Today, the Town encompasses 44.98 square miles and includes a population of approximately 64,669 residents. As a maturing municipality in an economically stable and burgeoning area of Texas, the Town has been diligent in its administration of its Master Plan to ensure that growth is steady and preserves and enhances Flower Mound's community character and quality of life.
The purpose of the Master Plan is to continue the past traditions of previous Master Plans and guide growth and development of the Town related to land use, urban design, open space, parks and trails, public infrastructure and economic development. The Master Plan maintains the Town's established SMARTGrowth Program which has been in effect since February 17, 2000. As a growth management plan based upon the community vision and values embodied in the previous Master Plan 2001, which utilizes SMARTGrowth analyses to emphasize the character and quality of development, the SMARTGrowth Program provides an effective and critical nexus between the Master Plan and the Land Development Regulations. This nexus ensures that the Town's Master Plan, its Land Development Regulations and the SMARTGrowth Program operate in concert to preserve and enhance Flower Mound's community character and its quality of life. The Master Plan is intended to continue the vision stated in the Master Plan 2001 to not only preserve the country atmosphere and natural environment that makes Flower Mound a unique and desirable community, but also create a great place to live, work and play that sustains the community that has been created.
What is a Master Plan?
A Master Plan is a statement of a community's goals and objectives for itself now and in the future. Used as a
guide to direct future growth, development, and redevelopment of a community, a Master Plan plays an important role in a community's decision-making process. The plan is comprehensive in that it links the different geographic and functional components of a Town to each other in such a way that the community's goals and objectives can be achieved, issues resolved, and opportunities for improved quality of life realized. The Master Plan is a document that sets the framework for the physical development of the Town over a 20-year period. The plan includes sections devoted to land use, parks, trails, open space, roadways, water, wastewater, and economic development. A super-majority vote is required to implement changes to the Master Plan.
The Master Plan is also an important policy tool that sets a vision for the orderly growth and development of the Town and provides the framework for many of Flower Mound's governing policies, specifically the zoning regulations. The zoning regulations provide the method of implementing the Master Plan by prescribing the use, density, and development standards for each parcel of land.
