Best Neighborhoods: Outdoor Amenities Help Cedar Hill, Desoto Top List of Healthiest Areas

Best Neighborhoods: Outdoor amenities help Cedar Hill, DeSoto top list of healthiest areas By LOYD BRUMFIELD Published: 31 May 2013 07:33 AM Updated: 31 May 2013 07:33 AM Andy Barger and Allie Dryer of Austin play with Ranger while visiting Dryer's parents at their DeSoto home near the Windmill Hill Nature Preserve. Dryer's father, Paul, As a child, Allie Dryer spent most of her has been taking care of the preserve for years. Staff photo by Loyd Brumfield days outdoors in DeSoto’s Windmill Hill Nature Preserve. The pastime led to a career in pharmacology. “We were always out here mixing up berries, and that’s how I became interested in it,” said Dryer, who just graduated as a doctor of pharmacy from the University of Texas. The preserve backs up to her parents’ home. The Dryers’ neighborhood, the Estates of Windmill Hill, ranks second in the Best Southwest area for healthiest neighborhoods, according to a data analysis by The Dallas Morning News. “We didn’t watch TV,” said Dryer as she and her fiancé, Andrew Barger of Austin, played catch with their dogs at the preserve. “We were always out here.” The Estates of Windmill Hill is one of several neighborhoods in a large Dallas County tract that finished second in the analysis. The tract is bordered by West Wintergreen Road to the north, North Duncanville Road to the west, West Pleasant Run Road to the south and North Westmoreland Road and Ten Mile Creek to the west. The News’ study measured factors including amount of pollution and the neighborhood’s proximity to trails, grocery stores and gyms or health clubs. Neighborhoods in Cedar Hill finished first and third, respectively. The No. 1 neighborhood includes downtown Cedar Hill and Cedar Ridge Preserve. The same area finished first in the Best Neighborhoods survey for young adults between 18 and 24 years old. Its borders are Mansfield and West Belt Line roads to the south, Highway 67 to the east, Joe Pool Lake to the west and FM1382 to the north. It includes Cedar Hill State Park and will soon be home to a new bike trail approved by the North Texas Council of Governments that will stretch from the state park through Northwood University and make its way downtown. Also nearby is a professional-grade disc golf course at Lester Lorch Park. The No. 3 area is a neighborhood in Cedar Hill that includes the upscale Lake Ridge development. It’s directly south of the top neighborhood and is bordered by the Ellis County line to the south, Tangle Ridge Golf Club and Joe Pool Lake to the west, Highway 67 to the east and Mansfield and Belt Line roads to the north. “We were at the time amazed by the beauty of the terrain and the wide vistas, which indeed reminded us of the Texas Hill Country,” said Bill Strock, who has lived in Lake Ridge since 2002 — the early days of the neighborhood. “When I come home from work in downtown Dallas and sit on my patio looking out over Joe Pool Lake with a majestic sunset, I feel as though I am on vacation far from the grind of the city — yet only a 30- minute commute.” Strock touted Lake Ridge’s recreational amenities, which include baseball, softball, soccer and football facilities in the 154-acre Valley Ridge Park, hiking paths and a fishing lake. Strock often walks the neighborhood with his wife and pet Labrador, and he said he enjoys camping at the state park — the second-most visited park in Texas behind Big Bend National Park — and kayaking on Joe Pool Lake. “Also, hiking at the new Audubon Dogwood Canyon facility is a great change of pace with lots of terrain changes,” said Strock, who also described golfing at nearby Tangle Ridge as “a great way to work out one’s frustrations from a busy work week.” Lake Ridge was developed with activity in mind, said Kristi Robinson, marketing director of SouthStar Communities, a development company that acquired Lake Ridge’s original developer, BlueGreen Communities, in 2012. “When we developed the Lake Ridge community, we wanted to design a neighborhood where people would enjoy being outdoors and relish the beauty of the area,” Robinson said. Allie Dryer’s father, Paul, has been caring for the Windmill Hill Nature Preserve as a volunteer pretty much since it was established in 1993. “This is my wildflower area,” said Paul Dryer, 57, surveying an open prairie before the preserve gives way to five and a half miles of trails, rocky terrain and a thick forest. “This is where we fly our kites and where we play disc golf [on two practice holes].” He mows whatever he can of the preserve several times a year and visits just for fun several times a week, he said. “I grew up in DeSoto. As a kid, we used to hunt on this land,” said Paul Dryer, who has a 34-year career as an estate planner. “It was a mess, but slowly we got the city to help.” DeSoto’s Parks and Recreation department has purchased mowers and trimmers for him. “They’ll buy it, and I’ll use it,” he said. The preserve plays a big part in the daily lives of the neighborhood’s residents, he said. “We’re all very, very protective of it,” he said. “And we’re very protective of the neighborhood. Everybody watches everyone else.” The typical age for residents in this upper-middle to upscale neighborhood appears to be over 40, Paul Dryer said. “We don’t get too many young families here,” he said, adding that the neighborhood was originally built to house employees of the now-defunct Superconducting Super Collider near Waxahachie. “This is one of the things that keeps us here,” Paul Dryer said, nodding toward the preserve again after a quick hike. Loyd Brumfield is the editor of Best Southwest/Grand Prairie/Oak Cliff neighborsgo and can be reached at 214-977-7686. Data analysis by staff writer Daniel Lathrop. .

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