Building What? Where? Our Farms Future.

Added: 2026-05-05

[00:00:01]Good morning community. Jill here with North Texas Festival Gardening Canning recipes, a little bit of everything.

[00:00:07]So many of you are going to be familiar with what I'm about to talk about. I'm going to talk about a couple of things here.

[00:00:13]So I woke up this morning to a Facebook post about a meeting that took place yesterday in Mansfield, Texas and several of the locals went and it was involving um interstate highway I think state highway 360 coming down through our county coming down through our town. And in fact, it looks like it's going to be right in our backyard. So we're not really sure what that means for us other than we're going to have a toll road right in our backyard. Now if you look at that tree line over there that is where they intend to make it go through.

[00:01:00]So we've been out here over 20 years. My neighbors to the south of me have been out here longer.

[00:01:06]My neighbors to the north have not. They got here after we did and all the people across the street have just come in the last 5 to 10 years. So we've got lots of neighborhoods popping up out here and um it could be extremely detrimental to our farm.

[00:01:25]So we only have 2 acres. Now there's some land over there for sale that I think is about it's either 40 or 80 acres and then we have farmland to the west of us and then to the north of us is more farmland but just over highway 67 they are building loads of homes and loads of neighborhoods and we had actually a really big one come in about a mile down the road. I'm not even sure it's a mile.

[00:01:52]But that means that all those homes that are a mile down the road is going to be right next to a major toll road in the state of Texas.

[00:02:02]The plan that they discussed last night was for highway 360 to pick up there in Mansfield where it hits at 287 and come right through farmland all to the north of us to the northeast of us and uh bypass one of the little towns which is Venus, Texas and drop off right here.

[00:02:25]So what does that mean for our farm? So me and Greg have we've known and we've heard some utterings and some mumblings about it and for the last couple of years but they were still thinking about it hooking up closer to Midlothian. So my friends in Midlothian, you know what I'm talking about. My friends in Mansfield, you know what I'm talking about and anybody in our area you know about 360. So 360 that's existing right now that runs all the way up to the airport DFW airport comes down into Mansfield and hits at 287 south of 20 significantly south of 20 and that toll road was planned for many years. When I was a girl growing up it was just they were just using the um they were just using the service roads and then they started working on the toll roads. I think they said in 2018 or something 2015. 2015 is when they started to complete that and that had been in the plans for a very long time. So we don't know how long this is going to take.

[00:03:29]So again right now they're talking about it ending at 67 for now but the plan is to continue through this farmland out here and go all the way to Austin at some point. The objective is to relieve some of the congestion on I-35W.

[00:03:46]So the one that they completed from it was right at I-20 and 360 up in Arlington it was that's where it turned into two um front of roads you might say frontage roads. And once they started on it in 2015 they were done in 2018. And and you know I have to say it was really that's a really nice drive when you're going up to the stadium or something cuz it does knock off a lot of time but we don't want 360 toll road in our backyard.

[00:04:17]A lot of things that that could bring in for us are either neighborhoods which I seriously doubt.

[00:04:24]It could be apartments very probable or retail or those large warehouses that we see popping up all over Texas.

[00:04:35]Simply crazy guys and I'm talking less than a mile from me probably about 3/4 to 1 and 3/4 of a mile from me having a main toll road. What does that mean for our farm and what does that mean for all these homes and what does that mean for that neighborhood that just went in in the last couple of years?

[00:04:54]So what does that mean for our farm?

[00:04:56]Back to what that means for us.

[00:04:58]Sorry I'm mumbling and I'm kind of going all over the place cuz we're Greg and I are still in kind of adjustment mode but it could help the farm. You know we could get more business with our produce and with our plants or it could force some kind of eminent domain. Is that going to force an eminent domain on us?

[00:05:16]I highly doubt that they're going to be able to move these brand new neighborhoods that are coming in out here and I know that for a fact that the man that posted on Facebook he said that it's going to go right through his family's land that they've owned for over 100 years and it's 140 acres and it's going to go right through their land.

[00:05:35]Often what that brings to us is the big city. And with the big city comes lots of traffic comes crime rates tend to go up. Our main road 67 out here which is about 2 miles to the north of me if I didn't have to go the side roads I could get there really really quick. It means that that's going to be quite congestion quite congested and I'll tell you that text dots not the best at maintaining our highways and infrastructure. They normally build um build around it before they build the infrastructure. So that's really going to bring the big city out here to the country.

[00:06:11]So in our plant sales we get a lot of people from all over. We get people from Granbury, from Itasca, from Midlothian, from Waxahachie, from Cleburne, Joshua, Burleson and many people that came out to the plant sale were all saying how they are looking for land south of here because of data centers.

[00:06:32]Data centers are going in everywhere in these little towns. Now Hood County is Granbury, Texas. It's probably about an hour Hear that? Probably about an hour west of us and people are leaving there in droves because they are building a data center I think a very large data center if not many and then they're talking about one in Itasca, Texas which is just south of us. It's where we go to our little Mennonite store. That's just going to wipe out the country down there and I know that people in Waxahachie and Midlothian are hearing rumblings out there about data centers coming to them.

[00:07:10]I'm not a scientist.

[00:07:11]Um I'm not a geophysicist or anything like that but I'll tell you what I've heard is that data centers consume a lot of our natural resources like our water.

[00:07:23]And we can thank our legislatures for that. They're not really thinking about the great state of Texas and the great people that live here in the state of Texas.

[00:07:30]So if you're concerned about some of this you need to write the governor and you need to write some of your representatives because they are trying to turn us in turn the state of Texas into a giant data center. Now just east of here close to Midlothian and I know all my Midlothian folks know this. They have a huge solar farm and it's right across the street from one of the big steel mills and it takes up uh probably 100 acres if not more and I would bet there's tens of thousands of those solar panels out there. So we have these huge solar farms out here and now we're going to get interstate or not interstate highway state highway 360 right here literally in our backyard and um these things are extremely detrimental to us especially us small farms and even the large farms.

[00:08:20]I had to come in cuz the weather's getting a little iffy out there again.

[00:08:22]But anyway so we have the data centers moving in and from what I understand the people that live near those says there is a constant hum. And so there is noise pollution. They're going to start taking up some of our ground water.

[00:08:36]Um and it's going to start taking up our farmland. This highway coming through here is going to start taking up some of our farmland and when we moved out here over 20 years ago we were far out from anywhere else guys. And in fact um it was during a lot of people started moving out here and then gas prices started going up and the building stopped for many years. But now it is back in full swing out here.

[00:09:05]There is our main intersections are just taking on more retail right now. It's coffee shops and car washes and service stations.

[00:09:14]Nothing really good. We don't get any good restaurants here in Alvarado or Venus, Texas.

[00:09:20]Um but uh it's it's astounding to me. It's astounding. So I don't know how long it's going to take them to get this planned. I know it's already been in the works and planned for quite some time but once they start construction I imagine it's only going to be about 2 or 3 years because it said that they finished 10 miles from Arlington to Mansfield in 2 and 1/2 years 10 miles of the tollway. So I really expect that once they get started we're looking at maybe 3 to five years from now.

[00:09:59]Hopefully it's longer. Maybe that they're not going to start for another three or four years. Now, Greg and I are are not young'uns, but we're not certainly not elderly yet.

[00:10:08]We're getting there.

[00:10:10]So, I don't know what's going to happen.

[00:10:11]I don't know what's going to happen to our property. I don't know what's going to happen to our property values. I don't know if um we're going to start seeing, like I said, apartments start to come up over there, retail, those big warehouses that are all up and down 67 and all up and down 35 already, and they're sitting vacant. Um they're having a hard time filling them. I don't know what they intend to do uh with these warehouses that are everywhere taking up our electricity, taking up some of our water resources here in Texas. And those are two things that you know uh Texas seems to have a problem with.

[00:10:46]We have When we get these winter storms and stuff, ERCOT starts saying, "Ah, you need to back off." And in the summertime when we're hot, "Ah, you need to back off. Don't run your dishwasher. Don't run your oven. Don't run your washer and dryer between 3:00 and 8:00 p.m." It's just utterly ridiculous. Something that just started in the last 5 to 7 years.

[00:11:04]Prior to that, we never heard any issues.

[00:11:08]Now, we know that the Lord looks ahead and sees for us and uh projects and guides our path, and we know that gosh, like 10 years ago, we would have never thought that we'd be doing what we're doing right now with the high tunnels and the plant sale and all the growing that's going on.

[00:11:23]So, I know that the Lord has a plan. We just don't know what it is. We do have to trust it, but I don't I do not want I do not want data centers, and I do not want a state highway right through my backyard, literally. And that would mean for my neighbor that lives behind us, um it would probably cut right through his land. I think he has about 10 or 15 acres back there. So, that could easily take up some of his land as well.

[00:11:49]The thing I'm going to start doing now is start looking for some of these homes out here start being put up for sale because people don't want that. And and I think that some of the uh the homes out here are going to start selling.

[00:11:59]Um some of the properties probably going to start selling to retail. I don't think it's going to sell for farm or ag.

[00:12:04]I think it's going to be for retail, probably for apartments, um um multi-family uh areas, residential areas.

[00:12:14]Now, I grew up in apartments. My mother was a single mom, and we lived in apartments right across from Miller Brewing um off I-35W up in Fort Worth almost my entire childhood um into my early adulthood. I do not have anything against apartments, but I don't want them uh this close, multi-housing. It It really just drives up our traffic. It drives up uh crime in the area, but also do neighborhoods and retail. Um and a main highway is going to drive crime up in our neighborhood.

[00:12:44]Anytime there's a small area where there's a lot of people, that's when you start seeing issues come up that when you move to the country, you're trying to avoid.

[00:12:55]This land and this property um is an inheritance for my child and my grandchild. The Bible says that a righteous person leaves an inheritance for their children and their children's grandchildren.

[00:13:07]And uh we really intended for our grandson uh to pick up this farm and take off with it.

[00:13:13]I'm just not sure that we're going to ever see that happen. I don't know if we're I just don't know. I don't know.

[00:13:18]Leave me some comments below cuz I'd like to know what you guys think is going to happen. And I know some of you have probably experienced this, and I'd like to know what your experience was and what you saw when something like this was going on.

[00:13:30]We're getting another little rainstorm, and it's quite chilly out today, guys.

[00:13:35]But anyway, there's so many thoughts going through our mind. We're we're you know, like I said, we're trying to be um optimistic and think that, man, this is going to help us sell more plants. It's going to help us sell more of our produce.

[00:13:48]And but at what cost? At what cost? So, um this is the last place I intend to live in my lifetime.

[00:13:56]Um I do not like to move, and I've been out here a long time, and I'm quite partial to our little farm and quite partial to our little area and our little town.

[00:14:04]Uh my job is only like 8 minutes from here, and so I really enjoy um you know, my commute, but I'll tell you that I have seen an increase in the traffic on one of our farm to markets out here uh probably fourfold. Um used to, I would see one or two cars in [snorts] the morning and maybe two cars, three cars in the afternoon coming home. And now there have been times I've counted over 50 cars that I pass on my way home. So, the area is building up out here, and people were moving out here to get out of the city, but guess what? The city is following them, and it is following us.

[00:14:43]So, this is not progress to us. This is an invasion here in Texas, and um I'm not very happy. I'm not very happy with what um our representatives um are doing here in the great state of Texas. They are ruining us. They're ruining us. That's how I feel. Some of you may feel different, but they're ruining us.

[00:15:04]So, if you're concerned about things like this, too, and I know a lot of you are around me, and uh probably this Highway 360, State Highway 360 is going to affect you all as well. Again, let me know below what your thoughts are, if you've experienced this, what the outcome was, cuz I am dying to know.

[00:15:23]Thank you all for watching. Um stay tuned for some more bright gardening environment or gardening some more gardening videos. Um we're getting ready to go meet my sister for uh lunch and tell them um goodbye while they head back to Australia.

[00:15:39]Please pray for their trip, and uh tomorrow looks to be a beautiful day, so we will be outside working, I'm sure, tomorrow. Take care. God bless. Hope to hear from a lot of you. See you soon.