Same Flower Mound war, different battlefield

Town controversy is age old topic on new social media platform

Same Flower Mound war, different battlefield

Flower Mound has been rooted in controversy since its began in 1961 after a conflict known as the Denton County War. The town’s fear of growth stems from Irving’s attempt at annexing Flower Mound into its territory.

Since then, conversations regarding the town’s development have been at the heart of virtually every municipal election. Both town leaders and members of the community have made their opinions known since Flower Mound was known as the Voting Capital of Texas in its early days. Local writer and historian Mark Glover wrote that “Growth and change has made the politics in Flower Mound highly spirited, and sometimes bloody.”

While the drama seems to fluctuate, it has been lingering in the town over decades.

“Flower Mound was born in a fist fight and we’ve been fighting ever since,” Glover said.

The town began in the late 1950’s as Neiman-Marcus chairman Edward Marcus’ entertaining space for clients who expected a true Texas experience. His Black Mark Farm operated as a fully functional ranch with cowboys and cattle in abundance. This rural oasis served as the site for Marcus to host the likes of Coco Chanel and Elizabeth Arden in true Western fashion. However, as Dallas and Fort Worth continued to rapidly stretch north, inevitable growth brought about conversations of development vs. maintenance of the rural community.

“People have always been highly emotional in Flower Mound because there was something to be emotional about,” Glover said. “We had beautiful land and rolling topography and trees and all this beauty and there’s always been a conflict between those who just wanted to develop and those who wanted to preserve.”

In recent years, the heated debate of the town’s growth has spread to social media platforms. Forums like Flower Mound Cares seem to act as catalysts for vicious personal attacks surrounding development. The passion on both sides of the government seems to have escalated to a state of chaos with the rise of websites like Facebook and Twitter.

“I think some of the debate is really silly and I think the advent of Facebook and social media has created a new dynamic for Flower Mound,” Glover said. “I think it was always spirited, but social media has really brought a focus to that grow v. no grow debate.”

The now publicized debate creates a new arena for community discussion, but heightened emotions can have detrimental ramifications. The town’s adamant demands for quality development combined with its focus on preservation has hindered the ability of developers and other businesses to join the community with ease.

“It’s made it much more difficult for developers to develop, much more expensive,” Glover said. “Sometimes developers have just said, ‘anywhere but Flower Mound,’ and they refuse to develop in Flower Mound.”

Not only have members of the community turned on incoming businesses, but also on each other. Through social media, people attack the character of their neighbors, publish personal information like license plate numbers of cars they deem suspicious and feed off accumulated negativity in a mob-like fashion.

“There’s things that confuse me about this whole culture, the way that people go about these attacks in social media and it’s disheartening,” Glover said. “It seems people get over passionate and tend to attack each other, and that part of it’s really sad.”

While Glover said it’s important to discuss these issues, the current state of these social media platforms makes him concerned for the future of the town.

“I don’t know how we’ll go from here because it’s become so personal and so energized,” Glover said. “I’m not sure what happens in the future, how people will go back to rationally discussing some of these growth issues.”