If the American Dream is a house with a picket fence and a two-car garage, the Texas Dream is a house with a picket fence, a two-car garage and enough open space that you can do what you want without bothering your neighbor and — more importantly — without your neighbor bothering you.
The problems start, though, when one of those neighbors is a real estate developer with enough land, money and sway to remake a neighborhood, igniting a debate over property rights.
Just ask the residents of Redbird Lane, a narrow country road that intersects with FM 1187 a few miles east of Interstate 35W in southern Tarrant County. There, urban expansion is happening faster than some would like, leading to a complicated, if not entirely unique, situation in which homeowners believe their quality of life is eroding as development aspirations threaten to bring crowds to their doorsteps.
Expansion collides with rural living in south Tarrant County
The neighborhood of around 40 homes on Redbird Lane and adjacent Mockingbird Road is like a community unto itself. The houses sit on a couple of acres or more, so the area attracts the kind of person looking to escape the crush of city life…