A developer who purchased much of the J.C. Penney Company's campus in Plano promises to preserve the remaining bluebonnet fields there and plant even more.
“The property is open for people to take pictures, do what you want to do,” said Sam Ware, the developer of what’s now called The Campus at Legacy West.
North Texas families have been heading to the corporate campus for decades to take family portraits surrounded by bluebonnets.
“We send a lot of our friends out this way, because it’s such a beautiful place,” said Kim Higgins, who brought her two sons there from Carrollton.
But now, new construction on the campus means part of one bluebonnet field has been plowed under.
“It definitely makes it hard to find locations to try and shoot good pictures when you’ve got all this construction and dirt mounds,” said Higgins.
Professional photographers, who often take clients to the fields for pictures with bluebonnets, were dismayed by the new construction.
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“Every time we go somewhere another area is being developed and to see construction vehicles moving back and forth on what used to be our beautiful bluebonnets is very upsetting,” said Elizabeth Alexander, of Eliz Alex Photography.
A new bank building is going up on part of one bluebonnet field, and new roads could affect another.
“We will definitely create a plan to plant bluebonnets on countless acres that people could come see this time next year,” said Ware.
“In this area, this is one of the only bluebonnet patches left,” said Courtney Bliss of Bliss Photography. “So I think it’s so important that they help preserve what’s here and grow future ones too.”
JCPenney remains on the corporate campus, under an agreement to lease back part of the building it has occupied for the past 25 years.
