PRINCETON, Texas — The facts of population growth in Princeton are undeniable — not that anyone is trying to deny it.

A graph of the population growth in this Collin County city looks like a hockey stick — 3,477 people in 2000, 6,822 in 2010, 17,027 in 2020, 28,027 in 2023.

"You’d just be driving by and the next thing you know you’ll see everything just cleared out, either they’re building a new school or 150 new houses," said Rickey Elmore, who moved to the area nearly 40 years ago for the tranquility living far from Dallas promised. "We needed to slow down."

Princeton's political leadership agreed and worked to institute a temporary ban on new building permits in September 2024.

"I don’t think that the city was prepared for the growth. I think everybody was surprised," Mayor

See Full Page