Please explain the Houston Suburbs (Dallas, Sugar Land: sales, apartments, HOA)

[FreeVilley]

From my understanding there are alot of places in the Houston Metro that masquerade as suburbs or independent cities, but are actually still Houston (e.g. I think Pearland is its own city, but Friendswood is not). Someone please explain to me which places are their own city - as in having their own mayor, own police, and/or own school districts. Approximate populations would also be appreciated.

[WRM20]

Here's the list of incorporated entities and census designated places, which are n ot incorporated https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_o...reater_Houston

Friendswood is definitely an incorporated city.

The Houston area is not like Dallas. Vast areas around Houston are not incorporated, but are just in Harris or another county.

[LonghornHotspur]

Originally Posted by FreeVilley

From my understanding there are alot of places in the Houston Metro that masquerade as suburbs or independent cities, but are actually still Houston (e.g. I think Pearland is its own city, but Friendswood is not). Someone please explain to me which places are their own city - as in having their own mayor, own police, and/or own school districts. Approximate populations would also be appreciated.

Other than Stafford, you're not going to find school districts co-located with municipalities....thus the "I" , for independant in ISD

Even when named the same like Houston or Katy, the school district is a separate entity than the local government.

Like another poster said, so many government agencies (city, ISD, MUD, ISD, Water Authority, county, county commissioner) each with their hand out for your tax $.

For example, living in Fulshear, we see Fulshear Police, Ft. Bend Sherriff, Katy ISD Police, LCISD Police, and Fort Bend Precinct 3 constables providing law enforcement in the area. Anyone really know the limits of each entity?

[SugLandDAd]

Sugar Land is its own city. It actually has zoning. The School District however is Fort Bend ISD, which covers Fort Bend County.

[FreeVilley]

Originally Posted by LonghornHotspur

Other than Stafford, you're not going to find school districts co-located with municipalities....thus the "I" , for independant in ISD

Even when named the same like Houston or Katy, the school district is a separate entity than the local government.

Like another poster said, so many government agencies (city, ISD, MUD, ISD, Water Authority, county, county commissioner) each with their hand out for your tax $.

For example, living in Fulshear, we see Fulshear Police, Ft. Bend Sherriff, Katy ISD Police, LCISD Police, and Fort Bend Precinct 3 constables providing law enforcement in the area. Anyone really know the limits of each entity?

Yes, I know school districts don't really follow suit with the municipality, I was just quickly making examples, I should have said public libraries/rec departments.

[FreeVilley]

Originally Posted by WRM20

Here's the list of incorporated entities and census designated places, which are n ot incorporated https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_o...reater_Houston

Friendswood is definitely an incorporated city.

The Houston area is not like Dallas. Vast areas around Houston are not incorporated, but are just in Harris or another county.

Thanks for the link, this is exactly what I was wanting to know.

[crone]

My address is Houston. That is a USPS designation. Time was Houston intended to annex all the subdivisions surrounding the city. They are in the CoH extra territorial jurisdiction. The developers had to follow the city codes for subdivision.

The city would annex when the MUD bonds were partially paid off. That was stopped when an area realized the city could annex and charge taxes but not provide any service for 2 years.

Now the city annexes the commercial areas so they can collect sales taxes. The city splits the tax revenue with the MUDs. And promises to never annex.

That leaves an area with more than a million residents under state and county law. And HOA rules, that have little enforcement ability. It's like living in a disenfranchised no-man's land.

[usc619]

It’s a big mess

[Htown2013]

Originally Posted by crone

My address is Houston. That is a USPS designation. Time was Houston intended to annex all the subdivisions surrounding the city. They are in the CoH extra territorial jurisdiction. The developers had to follow the city codes for subdivision.

The city would annex when the MUD bonds were partially paid off. That was stopped when an area realized the city could annex and charge taxes but not provide any service for 2 years.

Now the city annexes the commercial areas so they can collect sales taxes. The city splits the tax revenue with the MUDs. And promises to never annex.

That leaves an area with more than a million residents under state and county law. And HOA rules, that have little enforcement ability. It's like living in a disenfranchised no-man's land.

THIS is why we bought in Sugar Land a long time ago. Would have considered Memorial and Katy back then due to location, but only parts we could afford weren't actually Memorial, but City of Houston and Katy was unincorporated County land. Tons of large apartments were built in the "Katy Area" shortly after we looked.

[gwarnecke]

I've lived in two enclave cities, West U and Spring Valley Village, as well as Houston proper. They are true cities with their own mayor, city council, courts, police dept, water authority, building codes, etc.

Compared with CoH, city services are much more helpful/competent and police response times are short (1-2 minutes). Additionally, tax rates are slightly lower, and HOAs are less common since a responsive city government renders them largely unnecessary.

The downside of such an "attentive" city government is that you cannot, for example, get away with unpermitted work on your house, since it's hard to stay under the radar in a city of ~a few square miles. The police dept "attentiveness" cuts both ways as well. Heck, I once had the West U police banging on my door at 6:30 AM because an overnight storm had blown a tree limb across the sidewalk in front of my house, and they expected me to move it immediately!