Colleyville, Texas: How the city leapt from country town to affluent suburb

If there’s a magic formula for combining luxurious urban development while maintaining an authentic rural feel, Colleyville is the master of it. In 1956, the city began a remarkable transformation and in just over 60 years went from a town with no sanitary sewer system to a top D-FW suburb.

The transition from rural to urban has not been easy. At the time, it was a risky move for residents and developers with the promise of a big payoff.

In between two creeks

Tarrant County is an area flush with resources. It boasts “four natural regions… from east to west.” Before settlement, the area now known as Colleyville consisted of lush prairie fields that would later produce bountiful crops for settlers. Among the city’s most notable natural resources are the two creeks that sandwich the community — Big Bear Creek and Little Bear Creek — and would provide crucial support for early settlers.

Although there is no documented evidence that the city and its surrounding area were permanently inhabited by American Indians, it was a “common migratory route for Comanche, Wichita and Kiowa tribes.” Today, the city preserves 46 acres of land at the Colleyville Nature Center where residents can enjoy their community at its most organic.

A band of ‘parent communities’

The first documented settlers, William Dunn and Samuel Cecil Holiday Witten, arrived in Texas a decade after the state joined the Union. With 360 and 1,222 acres of land respectively, these early pioneers came to Texas take advantage of the free land the state offered and uprooted their families in search of a better life.

However, the land was not immediately called Colleyville. Instead, four “parent communities” sprang up in the mid- to late 19th century. These communities — Spring Garden, Pleasant Run, Pleasant Glade and Bransford — would play a significant impact in modern-day Colleyville’s early development.

In 1880, Dr. Lilburn Howard Colley and his wife, Martha, settled in Bransford and became prominent citizens of the community. For Colley’s contributions, an area on Glade Road was named for him in 1914.

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Several decades later, the rural towns were placed under threat as the nearby city of Hurst planned to annex them. In an effort to avoid paying taxes to Hurst, the parent communities banded together under a new name — Colleyville — and became an incorporated city in 1956.

The great rural to urban leap

In 2020, Colleyville residents can enjoy fine dining, high-end grocery stores and luxury living within the city. With such easy accessibility, it’s hard to imagine that just two generations ago the town was still rural fields with few public amenities and scarce shopping options.

Colleyville is an attractive location because of its proximity to the Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport and to neighboring cities, but that was not always the case. The airport would not open until 1973, and Colleyville’s main intention to incorporate was to avoid paying municipal taxes.

The pioneer communities that made up the city maintained their strong, independent identities and were resistant to large change. City government remained small for over a decade, and there were strict zoning ordinances to maintain its rural quality. According to Colleyville: Then and Now, by 1969 “Colleyville had no ad valorem taxes, no municipally owned water systems, no sanitary sewer system, no garbage pickup, poor road conditions … and no city hall building.”

The early 1970s brought change in strengthening the local government’s role in building the community, and by 1979 residents began to demand more. The University of Texas at Arlington conducted a community appraisal, which found that citizens wanted to see more amenities, such as a library, and for smaller lots to attract new residents. In Jan. 6, 1980, The News captured this sentiment by writing that Colleyville hopes to become “the Highland Park of Tarrant County.”

Subsequently, residents got their wish when their first planned unit development, Tara Plantation, was approved. This was one of Colleyville’s first steps to attract affluent homeowners. The News wrote on Oct. 18, 1981, of the developer’s desire to create an “Old South type of living atmosphere” for their luxury homes.

Navigating into the present

Jumping into the 21st century, Colleyville has not only met the expectations stated in the 1979 community appraisal, but it has surpassed them. In 2003, City Hall and a library opened and residents now have the option of purchasing townhouses near those facilities.

Additionally, Colleyville holds many accolades, which includes being the fourth safest city in Texas and the highest percentage of college graduates in the state. The city has experienced tremendous growth since the 1980s, not only in population size, but in wealth, with an average household income of $199,168.

Despite its reputation as a prosperous and affluent city, Colleyville continues to invest in its community to preserve a tight-knit rural atmosphere in an urban space.