The good news? Houston will not annex The Woodlands. The bad news? The Woodlands agrees to pay $45million over 30 years. Thank you Tommy Williams for looking out for the interests of the citizens of The Woodlands.
KHOU (subscription) The city of Houston has decided to never annex The Woodlands.
In return, The Woodlands will contribute $45 million for the next 30 years of the agreement to the city.
The agreement, announced Thursday by State Sen. Tommy Williams and Houston Mayor Bill White, lets Woodlands residents who were against annexation breathe a sigh of relief.
And how will The Woodlands show their gratitude for being set free from the clutches of Houston?
But to get that $45 million, it’s likely that sales taxes will be increased in The Woodlands.
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Damn! Government extortion at its finest.
Not like Occupied Kingwood….
Is the Woodlands Montgomery County’s Sudetenland?
When the bus lines come this far, I’m outta here… and I bet I won’t be alone!
I wonder what Kingwood would pay to get out of the Houston yolk?
yoke, that is.
It is not 45 million a year. Its 45 million total present value payable over the 30 years starting with a 16 million up front payment.
#5 trafficnerd
You’re probably right. I was thinking that the $45 million sounded cheap.
I wonder how much I can pay Houston so I can stop paying my property taxes?
this is essentially an Annexation for limited purpose. Which I understand a bill is going ot be introduced in the Lege this year making such agreements against state law. How this will impact The Woodlands (as well as my precinct which has a similar arrangement) is unclear. How an annexation for limited purpose works is you get annexed and actually become part of the COH, complete with a city councilman that you cannot vote for and a mayor that you cannot vote against. You get no city services (unless taking it in the arse counts as a “service”) and all businesses have to collect city sales tax but the city and the entity that was AFLP’d split the proceeds, or at least that is how it works with all the MUD districts they have AFLP’d. I gather that the arrangement worked out with The Woodlands is somewhat differnt but I’m unclear as to what the differences are.
Houston, should never be allowed to ever annex ever again.
Houston is quite unable to take care of the mess it has
No word yet on Mayor White’s plan to annex Cut-N-Shoot.
Saw this story earlier today…It’s important to mention that Rob Eissler is behind this as well. From the chron…
The deal would require enabling legislation, which Williams and state Rep. Rob Eissler, R-The Woodlands, pledged to get passed in the upcoming session.
Rob Eissler was one of the loyal supporters Tommy paraded before the convention in support of Perry’s business income tax last summer. I’m glad the Woodlands has him instead of Crosby. Crabb is bad enough.
Having grown up in the Spring/Klein area, and watched the Woodlands grow from a distant subdivision to the massive juggernaut it is today; I can’t help but figure why Houston would want to annex them… However, good for them in fending off the mess that has become Houston. And I thought it was bad when Tootsie was mayor…
Dang catfish! I just commented on you in open comments!
Just remember folks! The 1st part of Sawdust Road in Spring is 6.25 percent! Has been for over 25 years! Shop Sawdust! It, saves, you, muuuu-ney!
What a shame Kingwood was never allowed to make a deal like The Woodlands! This is totally unfair.
I wish that we could have had the choice about 8 years ago when Houston came out to the edge of Webster Texas and annexed us. We had several meetings with the city telling us how much we would be better off with their police and fire dept. but we found out later that it didn’t matter what we thought, we had one of the lowest Mudd districts in the area and it was almost paid off so we were a great deal for Houston. Bottom line, the Mudd tax was done away with ($180 a year), we started paying the city for water and the bills doubled to about $60.00, we started paying city taxes $360.00 a year and it’s gone up every year. We lost our Webster Volunteer fire dept (1/2 mile from my house) they built a real fire station 7 years later. We lost the two paid Constables that roamed our neighborhood and got the Blue cars on the last two days of the month only. But the main thing was that we could no longer shoot fireworks at our house!
I think we are missing the point…The Woodlands “gets” to pay Houston 45 million in exchange for not being annexed.
Stick-Up indeed.
To all of you who live in The Woodlands, Thank You Sincerely for those of us here in Houston. I hope our taxes go down 45 Mill over the next 30 years however I seriously doubt it.
Yes Houston just blackmailed The Woodlands. However just think of the alternative.
You could have been part of Houston. Recieved Houston Police, Houston Utilities, all of the Houston benefits……….. No I think 45 million was better.
17 - what would have been better is for houston to just mind its own business. I dread the day that Houston tries to annex Cypress now that it is growing so much…
18. jimb
That is exactly what Houston WANTS to annex. “growing so much”=Tax Base $$$
I like you prefer not being in Houston however the tax base in Houston is growing larger every day and the government wants more and more and (need I go on)
How is it possible that Houston could annex The Woodlands? I thought George Mitchell had The Woodlands incorporated when he developed it, thus preventing this sort of thing. How is Houston getting around annexing a self-sustaining community?
(Note this is different than Kingwood, as they were not incorporated).
# 20 thecodefoundry
I stand to be corrected however I am of the understanding that any city/area incorporated or not can be annexed by another city unless that area is protected on all sides.
That I believe is the reason Pasadena annexed a pipeline from Pasadena to Clear Lake. Houston could not surround them on all sides. The pipeline eliminated that.
I think the only protection against annexation is based on borders not incorporation.
I stand to be corrected yet I thing I am right
21. Dov
thing=think
It’s Houston from Porter to Conroe east (extra territorial jurisdiction). This is a good heads up to other unincorporated areas to get a move on.
Magnolia? Plantersville?
If you don’t incorporate you can’t have borders.
If you incorporate you define your borders.
If your neighbors can’t come together, maybe it’s time to move.
IMHO
Annexation laws were created long ago and the world has changed since then. We need the laws pulled as for their reasons…. have long been exhausted and now the annexations themselves are far worse than the cities being “hemmed in” The abuses have allowed tax hungry ill managed and corrupt operations to survive and grow to bigger problems without solutions…….
yea and you could have been a sancuary city like houston. wouldnt that be great?
Spring/Humble is right betwixt Kingwood and The Woodlands. How is it we’ve managed to go unscathed? I read somewhere that Spring could be annexed with a 30-day notice, and I doubt we could do anything about it. It’s bad/horrible/depressing enough I live in Harris County and in Spring ISD, but I’m locked in and couldn’t afford to move even if I wanted to. I see another battle looming - Spring ISD is gearing up to bring another Bond vote to the community in May 2007. I already pay over $1200/yr ISD taxes, and they want more????? If they would collect back taxes from dead-beat companies who won’t pay their share, they wouldn’t need more tax money.
I don’t believe I’ll be doing any shopping in The Woodlands area just so Houston can benefit.
#27, We haven’t escaped, my mud district got Annexed for limited purpose, as have a LOT of others. The Woodlands weren’t the only ones blackmailed.
I don’t think The Woodlands is currently incorporated. Part of this agreement gives them the option to incorporate themselves in 2014.
It would be interesting to hear George Mitchell’s take on this. I recall reading a few years ago that his original vision for The Woodlands included eventual annexation by Houston.
The Woodlands is doing the right thing. It may be extortion but if it keeps Houston at bay it is worth it.
Houston is doing the right thing. There is money just lying at their doorstep, free for the taking. How many Houston voters do you suppose would say they don’t want the city to have a larger income at no cost to them?
Change state law? You must be joking! What big city pol would support such a move? I don’t recall any altruism being in evidence.
Hence bowing to extortion is the only option. But their representatives don’t have to sound so grateful!
Touch me not, please Houston. The Woodlands residents are stiff necked, arrogant and spoiled brats who think they are better than anyone and don’t want to assimilate with the real world. Perhaps they should put gates up around their “city”.
Cities in Texas can annex land within their extra-territorial jurisdiction (ETJ) without permission of the landowner. The ETJ extends outward from the existing city limits a distance based on the population of the city. For Houston it is 5 miles. Many years ago, Houston annexed fence lines (NARROW strips) along highways to the north and west. Along I-45 it extends to Spring-Cypress, along TX-249 to Boudreaux where it then has two arms extending to block Tomball from expanding south. Along TX-6 Hempstead Highway almost to Waller, with arms extending outward. Fenceline annexations are now illegal, but existing ones remain in place.
Because Houston’s ETJ extends further from its city limits, it actually surrounds Waller, and surrounds Prairie View on 3 sides. It also includes city property. So IAH, Lake Houston, and the land WEST of Katy for the one-time proposed westside airport is included. Kingwood is connected to the rest of Houston by Lake Houston, and the West Canal, rather than a more direct route around Humble.
Land owners may also request their land be included in the ETJ. George Mitchell requested that The Woodlands be included in the Houston ETJ. Otherwise only the southern part would be in the Houston ETJ.
After Kingwood was annexed, state law was changed requiring cities to give 3 years warning before annexing an area (the idea being that if they had warning, Kingwood could have got the legislature to stop Houston).
Cities like sales tax revenue, but don’t like having residences that they have to provide services, or worse permit to vote. 97% of the potential sales tax revenue in Harris County is in a city, while only about 70% of the population.
Houston generally cherry-picks commercial and industrial sites, but took Kingwood because all the utilities, etc. were in place.
Now Houston generally does limited annexations, that permit sales tax revenues to be shared between MUDS and the city. Houston get some money, while the MUD gets money that they otherwise wouldn’t. As much as possible the city avoids taking in residential property - but by state law, any residents of the areas can vote for city councilmen, mayor, and comptroller.