A job transfer brought the Logans here from Chicago. Good schools for their two young daughters and the promise of a swimming pool within walking distance attracted them to Canyon Lakes West in Cypress, one of the area’s ubiquitous master-planned communities.

Three years later, the two-acre site they were told was set aside for the pool, playground and other recreational features in the Grove section where they live remains untouched. A sign detailing where the pool and cabana, basketball pavilion and a splash pad water playground would be built was recently taken down and replaced with something less specific and, to the Logans and their neighbors, disconcerting.  Read more: