Stephen Mason, Mayor, City of Cedar Hill
In an interview with Invest:, Stephen Mason, mayor of Cedar Hill, talked about the new infrastructure and public service projects that Cedar Hill is working on to serve its community. He also highlighted how partnerships with real estate developers and direct public engagement are key to finding out what those needs are and how to serve them.
What key milestones has the government of the City of Cedar Hill reached in the last year?
In the past twelve months we made major progress on several legacy projects. We cut the ribbon when we completed phase one of our Downtown Complete Streets projects, which will catalyze substantial public and private development in our historic district. We broke ground on our new library and signature park, a development that will create an entire new gathering space for our residents and visitors. Finally, for some time we have recognized the need for a full-service hospital in Cedar Hill. We worked closely with Texas Health Resources as they recently purchased land for development of a new hospital. The project is currently in the design phase, and we anticipate hearing additional details on the timeline for construction later this year.
Cedar Hill was recently designated as a storm-ready community by the National Weather Service. How will this impact quality of life in this community?
We have an extremely effective regional emergency response team. During an emergency, the group operates out of a hardened facility at our government center. Being prepared by having the necessary resources available and communicating with our state and local partner communities and emergency response teams enables us to be proactive and notify our community when storms approach. As a result, we are able to respond to our citizens quickly and keep them as safe as possible.
How do we continue creating an affordable, accessible, and innovative transportation system for residents?
Cedar Hill is a small, emerging city with a heavy emphasis on trails for recreation. However, we do not have sidewalks in every community, which can cause challenges for our citizens. To address this issue, we will soon offer our very first mass transit option. STAR Transit, which began June 1, provides a ride-hailing service that will allow citizens to set a time to be picked up for medical appointments, shopping and other necessary outings. Our senior citizens and those with mobility impairments will now have a reliable way of conducting their business.
What kind of partnerships have resulted from Pratt Industries setting up shop in Cedar Hill?
Pratt Industries is moving into a 1.1 million-square-foot building to house an innovation and manufacturing center in Cedar Hill. The partnership developed because Hillwood purchased land to build several speculative industrial buildings here. The partnership with Hillwood has already resulted in additional developers identifying Cedar Hill as the spot for their next investment. In addition to the capital investment and new jobs coming to our area, our collaboration with Hillwood has enabled us to improve infrastructure in the area to alleviate traffic congestion that will come with new industrial development. In addition, we are working with Pratt Industries and the Cedar Hill Independent School District to build an internship and career training program for our students. I want our graduates to have an opportunity to stay in Cedar Hill when they graduate; this partnership will allow them to do that with great pay and benefits.
Why is it so important for the people to see their government officials active and engaged in building relationships?
Having active and engaged leadership is part of Cedar Hill’s DNA. For more than two years we gathered public input from the community to develop our award-winning Comprehensive Plan for future growth in Cedar Hill. We also engage our community where they live through targeted programs such as our Neighborhood Walks, a program of door to door visits made by teams of city leaders, including administration, myself, city council members, our fire chief, police chief, department directors and neighborhood leaders. The teams concentrate on a different neighborhood every couple of months, going door to door asking residents how they are doing and for suggestions on how we can better serve the public. Our citizens deserve engaged leaders, and we live up to their expectations every single day.
What is the current state of housing inventory and what strategies are you looking at in that regard?
Cedar Hill’s housing inventory is slim, but several new residential developments underway and several more in the pipeline that will change that. These projects include a broad range of types and styles of housing, from large single family planned developments to townhomes, active senior facilities and our first single family rental community. Several areas in our city will open up soon for new development, whether driven by a nearby catalyst like our new library and park, downtown revitalization or the future path of Loop 9. Our leadership has been visiting other communities around the Metroplex to learn about new styles of housing and to see how those cities accommodated the type of growth we anticipate here.
What new projects in Cedar Hill are you the most excited about?
On Memorial Day weekend we opened our new pool complex called The Lagoon to over a thousand visitors. The development offers water slides, a lazy river, a lap pool and children’s area, and several amenities including a clubhouse, snack bar and cabanas available for rent. In addition, we’re about halfway through construction of building a new library and signature park. This spectacular library in a park will offer our citizens nearly 47,000 square feet, including a history museum, an executive comfort room, professional meeting space, three rooftop decks, a recording studio and a video game lab. This library and park will open in the spring of 2024.
