Garland\u2019s District 5 is roughly bordered by Interstate 635 to the west and south, Miller Road to the north and\u00a0Centerville Road to the east. This is an aging part of the city, but the project to rebuild and widen I-635 promises some momentum to redevelop older commercial corridors in Garland. Council member Margaret Lucht, 44, has shown leadership to make the most out of this opportunity. Voters should elect her for another term.<\/p>\n
Lucht\u2019s history of civic engagement is one we wish we would see more often in local politics. Some years ago, she reached out to her council representative in Garland to make a complaint. The council member tapped her to serve in the city\u2019s Parks and Recreation Board. That four-year service was followed by a brief stint on the Plan Commission, before voters elevated Lucht to the City Council in 2022.<\/p>\n
Lucht, director of operations for the Allen Chamber of Commerce, told us she led an effort to rezone 317 acres in South Garland to facilitate mixed-use development in an area dotted with auto businesses, storage facilities and warehouses. And in our Voter Guide, she highlighted her role in starting conversations with H-E-B that will bring a Joe V\u2019s Smart Shop grocery store to a vacant shopping center on Centerville Road.<\/p>\n
Even as voters in other North Texas cities rejected bond programs, Garland successfully passed a $360 million package in 2025 to boost streets, cultural facilities, parks and economic development.<\/p>\n
Lucht said the council has a plan to provide some tax relief to property owners. That plan will lower the portion of the tax rate that goes toward paying debt and raise the part that pays for daily maintenance and operations, though the overall tax rate would go down. Voters will see this tax proposal on the ballot in November.<\/p>\n
Paul Dollar, a 40-year-old data analyst, is familiar with policy questions facing the city and offered thoughtful responses, but he lacks Lucht\u2019s experience in city government. He criticized what he described as inadequate communications from the city, which he said makes residents feel like the council is out of touch. As an example, he cited the council\u2019s decision to pursue a telehealth pilot program<\/a> that would have added a $6 monthly charge to residents\u2019 utility bills and required them to opt out. The council ultimately halted the pilot.<\/p>\n Lucht said the council\u2019s efforts were geared toward providing a health care option to residents in a city without a hospital. She acknowledged concerns about the rollout and said the city should have taken charge of communications about the telehealth pilot instead of letting its private partner front those efforts.<\/p>\n Regarding communications more broadly, Lucht said she conducts regular town halls and attends neighborhood meetings to field comments and concerns.\u00a0<\/p>\n Also running is Forest Bryant, an engineer. He didn\u2019t reply to messages seeking an interview.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Garland\u2019s District 5 is roughly bordered by Interstate 635 to the west and south, Miller Road to the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":248854,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[160,162,161],"class_list":["post-248853","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-plano","tag-plano","tag-plano-headlines","tag-plano-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/248853","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=248853"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/248853\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/248854"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=248853"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=248853"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=248853"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}