Saturday, January 18, 2025
AZLE — Last year was a big one for economic development in Azle.
In a Dec. 17 Azle City Council meeting, Economic Development and Planning Director David Hawkins presented an overview of business and community growth in the city. The Texas Economic Development Council presented Azle with the Economic Excellence Award for its third consecutive year. Azle is one of 72 cities in the state to be recognized with this distinction. The city also received the Texas Chapter Planning Excellence Award for the second time in three years. Azle is one of 53 cities to receive that award. For its second year, Azle also received the Tree City USA designation and planted 169 trees in 2024.
Among the biggest achievements of the year, Hawkins said, was the adoption of a new comprehensive master plan and increased development activities. In line with the plan, Azle saw continued growth and an increase in residential and commercial buildings coming to the community. This year, 195 new residential permits and eight commercial permits were issued, while only 112 and two, respectively, were issued in the prior year.
In 2024, the city issued and completed four façade grants, funding $17,866.12 to beautify local storefronts. It also amended its Facade and Signage Improvement Program Grant Policy to loosen requirements and increase accessibility to these funds.
The city registered 24 new mobile food vendors with the introduction of The FeedLot, making 30 in total that can operate in the city. In 2023 the city had 16. Sales tax collections saw an increase of $270,000 from last year, and the top sales taxpayers in alphabetical order for the city were Albertson’s, Amazon, McDonald’s, Walmart and Whataburger. The city made business retention and expansion a priority. The 8,500-square-foot Hornets Plaza retail space at 1000 Boyd Road was completed with the city funding $219,765 of the project’s cost.
“One of the changes that we made to make the increase in this number is we have Kristen (Pegues) actually deliver the certificate of occupancy,” Hawkins said. “It's a great way to introduce our department and make sure we make that connection.”
Azle made numerous amendments to its codes and ordinances during 2024, including those regarding donation bins, food truck parks, tattoo parlors in commercial business district and wineries. There were 43 total development applications, including variance requests, plats, site plans, zoning changes and the like, while there were 33 the prior year.
