For 14 months, Princeton, the once-tiny town in northern Collin County that has grown larger each year since COVID, found some breathing room.
It has been the fastest-growing town in the United States since 2020, rising from a population of 17,000 to nearly 40,000 by mid-2024. City officials estimate the town’s population is now over 45,000, far ahead of the population forecast adopted by Princeton leaders prior to 2020, which put the town’s size at 40,000 residents by 2050. City officials attempted to slow that growth, but a new law passed by state legislators is already speeding things back up.
The last time the Observer checked in, the rapid growth in Princeton had put a strain on resources such as water and sewage infrastructure, schools and police. Traffic on the four-lane U.S. Highway 380 had become unnavigable, made worse by the miles of new housing developments that seemed to emerge from the ground like spring flowers…