New Outer Loop Freeway? (Houston, Dallas: buy, schools, incomes)

[Houston321]

I drive the Grand Parway every day, it's a great road and it's busy. So I have no idea what some of you are talking about here. They were also smart and left a ton of room in the middle to expand several lanes if necessary. The only issue is I have are the lights. If you are going to do it right, do it with overpasses from the beginning. I mean, you didn't have to be a brain surgeon to know that the Grand Pkwy and I-10 interchange would need a ramp.

It's such an open freeway and you want to open it up to 70-80, but the damn lights drive me insane. Besides that, it's a great road.

[HtownLove]

Originally Posted by Lost_In_Translation

You'd annex it but would you put a bird on it?

The ETJ was meant originally to prevent Harris county from dividing up into a hundred different municipalities and choking off the develop of the city of Houston but now that Houston covers all of Harris county and is looking to gobble up sections of other counties it may find it a little more difficult because why would other counties voluntarily give up their tax base to benefit a city not located within them. Houstons ETJ I imagine will begin to run into some serious turf wars soon.

shows you how much you know. Houston occupies 1/3 of Harris and barely touches FB and Montgomery. Dunno what you are talking about gobbling up other counties.

Originally Posted by Houston321

I drive the Grand Parway every day, it's a great road and it's busy. So I have no idea what some of you are talking about here. They were also smart and left a ton of room in the middle to expand several lanes if necessary. The only issue is I have are the lights. If you are going to do it right, do it with overpasses from the beginning. I mean, you didn't have to be a brain surgeon to know that the Grand Pkwy and I-10 interchange would need a ramp.

It's such an open freeway and you want to open it up to 70-80, but the damn lights drive me insane. Besides that, it's a great road.

Don't take this the wrong way, but I am just interested in how often do you actually venture into the city of Houston?

I think this is a regional road and a step in unifying the region. Dunno why some would deny the outer counties its fare share of transportation too.

[Lost_In_Translation]

Originally Posted by HtownLove

shows you how much you know. Houston occupies 1/3 of Harris and barely touches FB and Montgomery. Dunno what you are talking about gobbling up other counties.

Look up Houston annexes the woodlands. They tried to do to the woodlands what they did to kingwood but because the woodlands is in Montgomery county they successfully fought COH and have a chance to become their own city in 2014. Cinco ranch and south Katy may do the same thing if Houston tries to annex them.

I live in Houston btw. Just pointing out the possible limitations of the city proper's growth.

[HtownLove]

Originally Posted by Lost_In_Translation

Look up Houston annexes the woodlands. They tried to do to the woodlands what they did to kingwood but because the woodlands is in Montgomery county they successfully fought COH and have a chance to become their own city in 2014. Cinco ranch and south Katy may do the same thing if Houston tries to annex them.

last I checked TW sat between HARRIS and Montgomery.
Last I checked Katy, and Cinco fell in Harris too.

still dunno what you are talking about gobbling up other counties. These areas are still largely in harris.


FYI Houston never tried to annex TW so your Houston failed attempt to annex TW is all made up.
Furthermore it is not the fact the TW falls into Mont Co that prevented Houston from annexing TW. Houston ETJ falls into MontCo and Houston can annex into MontCo. What happened was that Houston and TW went into an agreement. Houston can still annex TW if TW plans fall through. But TW preemptively went into an agreement with COH BEFORE the COH tried to annex them.

as for Cinco and Katy, your original statement is not reality so I dunno what you mean by the same thing will happen if Houston tries to annex them. Houston never tried with TW.

[HtownLove]

Knowledge is one of the key wards against making irrational statements:

Mitchell's original plan envisioned for The Woodlands to be annexed by the city of Houston. In the middle part of the 2000s decade, some Woodlands residents feared annexation by the city of Houston, as had happened to the Kingwood development almost a decade before. To counteract any possible move by the city, a movement began to create an independent city government.[citation needed] However, the formation of an independent government by The Woodlands would require authorization by the State of Texas and the City of Houston, as Houston held extraterritorial jurisdiction over the area.
In 2007, two state legislators representing Woodlands voters, Sen. Tommy Williams and Rep. Robert Eissler, created and passed two bills in the 2007 Legislature - House Bill 4109 and Senate Bill 1012. HB 4109 called for a vote to allow expansion of an existing improvement district (now The Woodlands Township) and to allow The Woodlands to collect sales tax, while SB 1012 allowed for the creation of regional agreements between governments. The passage of these bills allowed an opportunity for The Woodlands to incorporate itself.
To make the City of Houston agree to release the Woodlands from its ETJ, the city and the development entered into a regional agreement by which The Woodlands put 16 million dollars into a fund the city of Houston can use for general improvements. In return, Houston will release the development from its ETJ allowing The Woodlands to incorporate through an election in 2014 and create a city government.
In addition, The Woodlands entered into a similar regional agreement with Conroe to avoid annexation of a municipal utility district inside The Woodlands. The Woodlands put $320,000 into a fund to serve mutual interests. In return, Conroe ended annexation proceedings and will release the district to The Woodlands in 2014.

[Lost_In_Translation]

Was the woodlands annexed? Nope.

Do I think other extra-county MPCs will be able to resist annexation. Yes.

[HtownLove]

Originally Posted by Lost_In_Translation

Was the woodlands annexed? Nope. Because we didn't try to annex them

Do I think other extra-county MPCs will be able to resist annexation. Yes. dunno what you are talking about

comments in red hun

[cla]

Originally Posted by Lost_In_Translation

Look up Houston annexes the woodlands. They tried to do to the woodlands what they did to kingwood but because the woodlands is in Montgomery county they successfully fought COH and have a chance to become their own city in 2014. Cinco ranch and south Katy may do the same thing if Houston tries to annex them.

I live in Houston btw. Just pointing out the possible limitations of the city proper's growth.

Houston annexed Kingwood because it had a resource the city wanted - Lake Houston. After the annexation of Kingwood, legislation was passed to make it more difficult for a city to annex an area.

Houston doesn't really want to have to annex the suburbs - they are mostly residential and would end up costing the city more in services (not to mention it would take on the debt of the MUDs). And the suburbs don't want to be annexed.

Enter Limited Purpose Annexations. Houston has LPA's with almost every community within its ETJ - it only affects commercial properties (so the city gets the tax base it wants without having to provide services to the residential community). Houston enters into a 30-yr agreement with the utility districts and levies a 1% sales tax which it splits with the utility district.

So we don't have to worry about fighting general annexation any time soon.

[cla]

Originally Posted by Lost_In_Translation

Look up Houston annexes the woodlands. They tried to do to the woodlands what they did to kingwood but because the woodlands is in Montgomery county they successfully fought COH and have a chance to become their own city in 2014. Cinco ranch and south Katy may do the same thing if Houston tries to annex them.

I live in Houston btw. Just pointing out the possible limitations of the city proper's growth.

Conroe tried to annex their portion of the Woodlands, not Houston. Houston and the Woodlands had a "no annexation" agreement through 2011 (and in 2007 entered into another "no annexation for 50 yrs" agreement with a complete opt out in 2014 if residents vote to incorporate).

County boundaries have no affect on an ETJ.

[cla]

Originally Posted by Lost_In_Translation

You'd annex it but would you put a bird on it?

The ETJ was meant originally to prevent Harris county from dividing up into a hundred different municipalities and choking off the develop of the city of Houston but now that Houston covers all of Harris county and is looking to gobble up sections of other counties it may find it a little more difficult because why would other counties voluntarily give up their tax base to benefit a city not located within them. Houstons ETJ I imagine will begin to run into some serious turf wars soon.

Houston's ETJ already crosses into other counties. By state law a city's ETJ is set based on its population. Houston's ETJ boundary is 5 miles outside of Houston's city limits - regardless of the county.

And the purpose of the Annexation Act of 1963 was not to prevent a bunch of little communities from developing, but was meant to control the growth of towns. Before the act, a city could annex right up to the boundary of another city - "first-come-first-served". Or a new town could incorporate right up to the boundary of another. So, basically, towns were gobbling up territory just to prevent others from getting it.