On the Council agenda today: the deal to not annex the Woodlands.
Woodlands residents have begun early voting on three ballot propositions related to the area's future. Although unable to vote on the agreement themselves, the residents will decide whether to give a special district the authority to tax and negotiate with the city of Houston.The agreement releases The Woodlands from Houston's extra-territorial jurisdiction, giving the area time to incorporate itself as a city. In exchange, The Woodlands will turn over
1/16 of 1 percent in sales tax revenue, to be used for regional improvement projects.
City Council members on Tuesday seemed to favor the agreement.
"We went through a very tough experience when we annexed Kingwood," Councilman M.J. Khan said. "I don't want anyone else to go through that."
The era of sweeping annexation is over, said Councilwoman Sue Lovell.
"Our tax base is growing within," Lovell said. "We're going dense, we're going vertical, we don't need to reach out horizontally. We have to take care of what we have here before we reach out and gobble up something else."
That attitude may relieve some Woodlands residents, but the fine print of the agreement bothers Cheryl Crandall Tangen, director of the Woodlands Community Association.
The agreement creates a governing body that will not be fully elected until 2010, even though it will have new taxation powers, Tangen said. The members will be elected from The Woodlands as a whole, with no geographical representation from the individual villages that make up The Woodlands. The agreement also does not require the new governing body to hold a referendum on incorporation as a city. Tangen said.
"An unelected board will be in control of the entire Woodlands for 2 1/2 years with ad valorem taxing authority," Tangen said.