City of Heath Neighborhoods featured in Dallas Morning News
Enjoy another great article about our community and its distinction as the BEST OVERALL NEIGHBORHOOD in Rockwall County and plans to ensure we remain a premier City in the DFW Metroplex.
Best Neighborhoods: Heath manages growth as it works to maintain charm of a simple life
Though Melody Hail’s subdivision in Heath keeps getting larger, she’s not worried about losing the small-town life that brought her here 11 years ago.
Her family’s two-story house in a quiet cul-de-sac in Stoneleigh sits next to the home of her husband’s childhood friend. Her two youngest children and many others in the neighborhood go to the same Vacation Bible School together when Amy Parks-Heath Elementary lets out for the summer.
And when the Fourth of July rolls around, the family of five will pile into a Jeep for the city parade and then head to the park to eat popsicles with other residents, which inevitably leads to invitations to a cookout or an evening by the lake.
“It does not get more Mayberry than that,” she said.
A part of Rockwall County that includes Stoneleigh and other neighborhoods in east Heath ranked as the best neighborhood overall in the Rockwall-Rowlett area, according to a data analysis by The Dallas Morning News. The No.1 area is bound by the intersection of Horizon and Ridge roads at its northernmost point, Smirl Drive to the west, Edwards/Kuban roads to the east and the Rockwall-Kaufman county line to the south.
Another section in Rockwall County that includes west Heath also made the list at No. 4. This corridor is bordered by the intersection of Interstate 30 and Ridge Road north, the Rockwall-Kaufman county line south, Lake Ray Hubbard west and Smirl Drive east.
Heath’s population has ballooned from 4,600 residents in 2000 to nearly 7,500 today. Low crime rates and large lots in bucolic, affluent neighborhoods have wooed families for the past decade. But despite this activity, the city hasn’t changed much in recent years, Heath Mayor Lorne Liechty said.
Large swaths of undeveloped land still divide neighborhoods. Stoneleigh has rolled out a fifth phase, but cows graze comfortably across one of the subdivision’s main entrances.
Drivers on the farm roads that cross the heart of the city negotiate their turns with the help of stop signs.
“Even though we have a lot more people, frankly, it’s stayed a lot the same,” Liechty said.
One change that Shepherds Glen resident Frank New has noticed in the west Heath subdivision is that his neighbors are getting younger.
“You have a lot of families moving into the area for the same reason we did — the good school system,” New said.
New and his wife came to Heath so they could enroll their children in the gifted-and-talented program at Rockwall ISD’s Amy Parks-Heath Elementary.
The tradeoff is sitting in a 50-car line on Laurence Drive during peak hours to drop off and pick up the kids, New said.
One of the first requests Liechty received when he took office in 2012 was to fix the traffic jam around the school. A $20 million capital improvement plan includes trails and a new road that officials hope will alleviate the problem.
Members of the City Council identified proposed projects during the past six months, Liechty said. Among them are improvements to Crisp, Myers, White and Rabbit Ridge roads; maintenance to the Shepherds Glen sewer system; upgrades to the Heath Department of Public Safety radio systems; an entry feature on the north side of the city; a new road to mitigate traffic near Amy Parks; and more trail connections, including one from Towne Center Park downtown to Terry Park by the lake.
The city will issue just below $10 million in general obligation bonds this summer for utility work and a road project that has yet to be determined. Thanks to savings from past years, the city won’t raise taxes or utility rates for this round of projects, but a tax hike might come in the future as the city finances the rest of the capital improvement plan, Liechty said.
At 34 cents per $100 valuation, Heath has among the lowest property tax rates in Rockwall County. The city has not raised its tax rate in 21 years.
“The commitment that the council has made, and frankly, the commitment that I made, is that we’re going to do as much as we can and raise our taxes as little as possible,” Liechty said.
Projections in the city’s 2008 comprehensive plan show Heath’s population swelling to 16,650 in the next two decades. The city’s goal for future subdivisions is one home per acre to maintain its country atmosphere, Liechty said.
“As long as we try to stay with goals like that, and stay with plans like our comprehensive trail plan and our park plan, I think we can definitely have a community which has more people and yet still has that community feel and that small-town feel,” he said.
Though the city prides itself on that small-town character, growth has brought along “some real benefits,” Liechty said. The four public schools that have created a tight-knit community here came to happen because the population eventually grew enough to support them, he said.
“As a matter of fact there are so many … they do like a lottery system where your name has to be drawn to be able to go and chaperone,” said Windels, a mother of two.
Now that school is out, the doorbell at Hail’s house is constantly ringing with neighborhood children who come to play with her kids.
To her family, more neighbors translates into more friends.
“It just seems to me that a lot of people out here have the same values,” she said. “We really value family and a sense of community, and being involved and active.”
Jana Windels is one of them. Her family settled in Heath for the schools and was impressed by the number of parent volunteers at Amy Parks.
“As a matter of fact there are so many … they do like a lottery system where your name has to be drawn to be able to go and chaperone,” said Windels, a mother of two.
Now that school is out, the doorbell at Hail’s house is constantly ringing with neighborhood children who come to play with her kids.
To her family, more neighbors translates into more friends.
“It just seems to me that a lot of people out here have the same values,” she said. “We really value family and a sense of community, and being involved and active.”
Data analysis by staff writer Daniel Lathrop.
By JULIETA CHIQUILLO
jchiquillo@dallasnews.com
Published: 21 June 2013 08:11 AM
