Lake Highlands
The Lake Highlands Public Improvement district is picking up the pace, preparing a push for renewal and more.
The Lake Highlands PID is hiring a public safety coordinator.
Not only is this a good sign for qualified persons looking for a job, but it also is good news for the neighborhood. A public safety coordinator will work with apartment managers within the Lake Highlands PID boundaries, help develop crime watch programs and encourage good property management that will promote safer and higher-quality lives in Lake Highlands, says Kathy Stewart, executive director of the Lake Highlands PID.
If you want an up close look at how a PID with safety coordinator makes a vital difference during time of crisis, read our December story about Vickey Meadow and Ebola. Vickery Meadow PID director Becky Range (formerly the LH PID director) and public safety coordinator Stacy Roth (uprooted New Orleans beat cop) prepared as effectively as possible for the sudden chaos caused by a potentially deadly virus and a media maelstrom. Officials dealing with the situation — the mayor, police, city councilwoman, county healthy and law enforcement — all were fortunate that Vickery Meadow had a PID and a public safety coordinator in place. And on a day-to-day basis PID efforts such as crime control, economic development and social efforts including a farmers market have improved quality of life for residents of Vickery Meadow and business owners and residents in surrounding neighborhoods (like LH).
Anyway, the other big news regarding the LH PID is the fact that it is up for renewal in 2015. That means Stewart and the PID board are getting busy organizing database of property owners in the PID boundaries whose signatures they will need to obtain in order to renew the PID. Signatures and the rest of the paperwork will be due next April, so the renewal hopefully will be approved after that. For more about what a City of Dallas PID actually is, go here.
The current PID boundaries include a wide parameter around Lake Highlands Town Center, but Stewart says the organization hopes to expand. She’s not quite ready to pinpoint the boundaries yet, but this would mean more Lake Highlands land covered by the improvement district.
PID administrators need to talk to the property owners inside the current PID as well as those in the prospective expanded PID borders to determine the level of support as well as hammer out the specifics, Stewart explains.
Summary from a recent Advocate story about what the PID does:
Several years ago when developers began planning the Lake Highlands Town Center, they initiated the process of creating a Public Improvement District, commonly known as a PID, around the property. A PID, an agreement between landowners and local government, provides an avenue for the improvement of infrastructure, safety and economic growth in an established area. While Lake Highlands boasts a wealth of beautiful homes, parks and trails, reputable schools and development potential, it also includes plenty of problematic apartment and condominium properties, families living in poverty, sketchy businesses and high-crime hotspots, which are some of the reasons a PID arguably was in order. In the six years since the LHPID inception, significant relationships among apartment managers and representatives of the PID and government have been forged, crime has dropped and aesthetics have improved.
