Jack Leavenworth has served as a city councilman, a member of the City of Howe’s Comprehensive Plan committee, and a board member of the Howe Development Foundation. Leavenworth Properties invested approximately half a million dollars into downtown Howe. He most recently served on Howe’s Planning & Zoning Commission, but was removed from the P&Z after he, in the October 18, 2022 meeting, opposed a zone change request that would allow a high-density planned development. According to Leavenworth, the city did not notify him that he was removed and he came to realize it last week when he didn’t receive a packet prior to the P&Z meeting.
In the December meeting, Mayor Bill French nominated his neighbor Madison Snapp to replace Leavenworth’s seat. A month later, Larry Duncan was appointed to the P&Z board. During that meeting, City Administrator Jeff Stanley told the city council that because several members had not shown up to meetings, Larry Duncan had been asked to join the P&Z.
“Me and him has talked and he’s willing to participate,” said Stanley. “Both him and the mayor and I have known him for several years, but I’ve known him for probably as long as anybody around here. Our kids went to school together and we did band together and he’s a super great guy—likes this town and wants to see nothing but good for this town.”
In the October P&Z meeting, Leavenworth made a motion to deny the Ponderosa Point development just north of Howe High School. Leavenworth stated the reason he didn’t support the development was because it didn’t include space for a school site and it didn’t match the city’s Comprehensive Plan established in 2010.
Stanley told Leavenworth that he had discussed the development with Howe ISD Superintendent Kevin Wilson and that there were other plans for school sites down the road.
“On a subdivision this small, we wouldn’t ask for something like that,” said Stanley.
“I don’t think 3,000 people is small,” said Leavenworth. “The acreage is small, but it’s high-density. The need for schools should be by people, not the acreage.”
P&Z meetings and council meetings generally do not draw members of the community, but this particular October meeting did draw a standing-room-only crowd. One of those was Crystal Lawson who lives in the Howe ISD school boundary who stated that the schools were already overcrowded and the development would impact the ISD.
Beyond the schools, her second stated objection was her concern for nearby roads that would be impacted by the heavy traffic.
“That’s a major site with a lot of accidents,” said Lawson.
After listening to comments from the audience and the development group, Leavenworth made the motion to deny the necessary zone change for the planned development. With only three P&Z members present, the motion died without a second.
During the following city council meeting, members of the audience were concerned about what the influx of population would do to the schools in which Mayor Bill French told the citizens that they needed to attend Howe ISD Board of Trustees meetings for their concerns with the school.
Councilwoman Sarah Myrick was the lone dissenting vote in the rezoning for the planned development. Since then, French’s mayor seat is being challenged by Karla McDonald who formally announced her candidacy in January, and by Cort Myrick (Councilwoman Myrick’s husband).
Leavenworth, 85, said he was not surprised by the removal. He said the city’s comprehensive plan is being ignored as well as the citizens.
“I’m not so much upset that I’m not on P&Z as I am that they aren’t following the 2010 Comprehensive Plan that was put in place,” said Leavenworth.
The Howe Enterprise reached out for comment from Howe City Administrator Jeff Stanley, but received no response.
