Albert Picardi is running for Flower Mound Town Council Place 2 seat. He will run against Sandeep Sharma in the election May 5. Community Impact Newspaper sent Picardi a series of questions about his candidacy. His written responses, edited for publication style, are below.
1. What do you think is the biggest issue facing Flower Mound?
When I started my campaign, I thought it was connecting our community trails. Now that I'm deep into the campaign, I see that it is transportation. People are worried about their commutes. Traffic delays increase until new capacity comes on and then abate for a while. I've seen it many times in my 25 years in Flower Mound. There are some short term fixes, and we need to continue to look at longer term ideas too. I suspect the Transportation Committee will become more busy in the next few years.
2. What are your plans to fix this issue?
Several short-term [fixes] are in the works already: increasing capacity to [SH] 121 via Lakeside; increasing capacity in Grapevine from FM 2499 to 635 and [SH] 114 east. They [are] looking at building an elevated structure on the Lake Grapvine Spillway, so the road remains open in the flooding years. Also, [I want to look at] exploring a north-south Lake Grapevine bridge. I also want to look into adding a bike lane to the Grapevine dam road. These, however, will require lots of work with state transportation teams, neighboring towns and the [North Central Texas Council of Governments] teams.
3. If elected, what will your top priorities be?
Protecting our trees and green space. The town recently saved a number of old growth trees by purchasing the lots at the Gibson Grant Cabin. We also saved a beautiful groove between the library and [Flower Mound High School]. I want to move toward cluster development, where trees, and vistas can be preserved. Our current terraced property lots concept must be redone. The fact that this requires clear cutting and scraping needs to end.
4. Where do you see Flower Mound in the next five years?
Flower Mound must remain a desirable residential community. Our schools, proximity to [Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport],  Cross Timbers protection zone and parks and trail system will all help.
5. As Flower Mound grows how do you plan to address traffic? Affordable housing?
Traffic will remain the top priority. Affordable housing a difficult opportunity. With land prices as high as Flower Mound, we are squeezing our seniors, and our young, right out of town. My children cannot afford Flower Mound today. I sure hope that they will be able to raise their children where they grew up. The sense of community that having our children live nearby will be the a great addition the the sense of community that I foster.