Update:
This story is part of Boomtowns, a look at some of the cities surrounding Dallas-Fort Worth that are attracting the interest of homebuilders, businesses and new residents as the area grows.
Once a small ranching community, Cresson stands on the brink of a boom
It’s a small town with no retail center, but progress is coming with the approval of four new housing subdivisions.
CRESSON — Diane Miles has lived on a ranch in Cresson since 1955, when she moved with her husband to the property owned by his family.
She remembers the days when Cresson was a “real ranch community.” After feeding their cattle in the morning, the ranchers went to the grocery store to pick up their mail, drink coffee and tell stories. The tight-knit residents worked together each year to make sure everyone got their cattle loaded on railcars to be shipped to feedlots.
“That is what made this town what it was,” said Miles, 86. “It was like everybody was family.”
A look at Cresson in images
9 images
Most of the ranches have disappeared, one by one, over the years. Today, the city has no major industry, and many residents work elsewhere, Mayor Teena Putteet Conway said. Cresson remains a small city, with about 1,400 residents and few housing developments.
That’s about to change. Fast. In a little over a year, four subdivisions have been approved in Cresson, and the city could see thousands of new residents within the next eight years.
The first to break ground, a luxury community called Putteet Hill, is on land that had been in Conway’s family for over a century. Conway, her mother and her brother inked a deal last year for the land to be developed.
Work soon began on several other developments, including a luxury community called Terraza Hills and residential communities by developers Mit-Mar Land LP and Land Fund Manager LP, which sold 240 acres to Houston-based builder LGI Homes for 850 homes.
“When the first person pulled the trigger, that would be Putteet Hill, it just went boom,” Conway said.
Conway is excited about the growth the developments will bring. There will be new congregants at the city’s churches. A doctor or dentist could come to town. Cresson has great local barbecue restaurants, she said, but residents are “also pretty hungry for something else.”
Putteet Hill’s developers are locals — they went to high school with Conway in neighboring Granbury. Lead developer Tom Mercer said the homes under construction in Putteet Hill are nicer than where anybody he knew lived when he was growing up.
“We’ve got a tremendous amount of pride,” said Mercer, who moved back to Granbury two years ago after working in real estate around the country.
Residents are also excited about an infrastructure project that’s been in the works for years. A relief road will let drivers avoid the Cresson train, which can block traffic through town for as long as 45 minutes. The train is so deeply despised that it inspired a Facebook page for people to complain about delays — and another page masquerading as the train itself.
“See y’all around 11:26 am we can sit and catch up for a bit,” the supposed train wrote in its most recent post, in 2020.
Yet some locals have mixed feelings about growth.
At a February City Council meeting, residents asked about the Mit-Mar project’s effect on the city’s water resources, according to the Hood County News. They also worried that the city would have to levy a property tax. Cresson doesn’t have property taxes, instead funding services through a sales tax.
At that meeting, the director of the local conservation district said the district would not run out of water and he didn’t foresee the development affecting personal wells. A Mit-Mar representative said the city won’t have to impose a new tax because the development will be responsible for its own infrastructure.
Conway told The Dallas Morning News that new developments won’t affect city infrastructure. But she said it’s likely the city will eventually have to impose a property tax.
“I don’t think it’ll be while I’m mayor … but you’re just going to get so big that that’s what it’s going to take,” she said.
Miles still lives on her portion of the old family ranch. One of her sons runs cattle, and another runs goats. She has refused every offer to buy her land.
She also fought to avoid having the relief route cross through her land, but the state eventually used eminent domain to purchase a section of the property for the road. The unfinished roadway cuts some of the houses and a pasture off from the rest of the ranch.
Miles understands that the development is “progress,” but she’s sad to see Cresson change.
“It hurts to see the land disappear, with all the cattle grazing and the horses being hauled in the trailers to do their job,” she said. “It was a great life and a way to raise your children.”
CRESSON AT A GLANCE
Population: Estimated 1,349 as of 2020, according to the U.S. Census Bureau
Location: 58 miles southwest of downtown Dallas
Racial demographics: 76.4% white, 9.6% Black, 13.9% Hispanic or Latino, according to the U.S. Census Bureau
Income: $66,328 as of 2020, according to the U.S. Census Bureau
Median existing home sale price: $470,000 as of July, according to Redfin
Annual home starts: There were only nine home starts in Cresson from mid-2021 to mid-2022, according to Residential Strategies, but that number will soon skyrocket as homes go up for sale in new subdivisions.
School districts: Aledo ISD, Granbury ISD
Master-planned communities: Mit-Mar’s Cresson Point project has 900 lots. LGI’s Brookside has 900 lots and could have up to 1,500.
Rental communities: Cresson Pods Rentals has “country-style single family” rentals.
Retail: Cresson doesn’t have a major retail center. There will be a retail center in the Mit-Mar community, but the retailers that will set up shop there have yet to be announced.
Festivals and events: Cresson has a fall festival at the historic Cresson school, which houses the city history museum. The city will have its second annual Christmas tree lighting this year.
Infrastructure projects: A bypass will take drivers around the dreaded Cresson train, which stops traffic in the middle of town. Two new wastewater treatment plants are under construction: One will serve the LGI development, and the other will serve the Mit-Mar development with some capacity for the city. The city is building a public park next to the Mit-Mar project.
History lesson: The community of Cresson dates back to the 19th century. But the city was only incorporated in 2001, when residents wanted to preserve their small-town identity.
Meet the next North Texas boomtowns
As Dallas-Fort Worth grows, smaller cities in every direction are attracting the attention of builders and new residents. Here are some of the ones to watch.
