A decades-old county thoroughfare plan intended to prepare for future growth has caused a rift between The Woodlands Township and Montgomery County.

The plan was accepted by Montgomery County Commissioners Court in January after going through its fourth update since its creation in 1979. It has since been met with pushback from The Woodlands Township board of directors, which approved a resolution in February opposing five projects in the plan.

The projects named in the resolution would establish new corridors through The Woodlands, including an extension of Gosling Road from Hwy. 242 north to Conroe, a Woodlands Parkway extension to Hwy. 249 and a Branch Crossing Drive extension to FM 1488.

“To a certain extent, The Woodlands has created some of these issues our residents are concerned about with our own success,” township Director Mike Bass said. “It’s important that people—not just our own residents—can get into and out of our community. But there is a point to where that becomes a big issue when you try to create a thoroughfare through our community, especially when it’s in residential areas.”

County Judge Craig Doyal said county officials tried to work transparently during the process to update the thoroughfare plan, which began last fall. Four public meetings were held throughout the county in Conroe, Shenandoah, Magnolia and New Caney. However, township directors said residents of The Woodlands were not given a fair opportunity to provide feedback since a meeting was not held in the community. 

“Our feedback should have been included,” township Director Gordy Bunch said. “All these other municipalities, if they say ‘no’ to a project it doesn’t happen. If we say ‘no’, we’re given the bird and it happens anyway.” 

Doyal said he has heard concerns that the county is not considering the damaging effect certain projects could have on The Woodlands, but he said this is not the case as the projects have been in the thoroughfare plan for decades.

“[The Woodlands Parkway extension] has been vilified as something that’s eminent and will be detrimental to The Woodlands,” he said. “When Hwy. 249 gets constructed I think you’ll see a lot of people on the west side of The Woodlands [for whom] it would make a convenient alternative.”

Thoroughfare plan details

Although the thoroughfare plan does not dictate when, or if, a road will be developed, governments can use it to preserve a corridor and require a private investor to make a contribution for the right of way and construction costs.

“It also helps the private sector because they want to know where things are going to happen and what their accessibility is now and in the future,” said Alan Clark, director of transportation planning for the Houston-Galveston Area Council. “It promotes connections needed between areas as they grow and develop.”

Although the township’s population is expected to top out at around 130,000 people, there is a rapidly growing and urban area within 5 miles of the community, Clark said. Additionally, the county population is expected to reach 1 million residents by 2030.

“Clearly, one of the challenges for the township is to plot a path that says how it is going to relate, interact and be connected with this larger urban concentration,” Clark said.

Extension of contention

One of the most controversial projects included in the township’s resolution is the proposed Woodlands Parkway extension from FM 2978 to Hwy. 249.

The county purchased right of way for the project from FM 2978 to Dobbin-Hufsmith Road in 2007, short of three land parcels bordering FM 2978 that are within the township’s boundaries. The remainder of the right of way needed between Hwy. 249 and Dobbin-Hufsmith is owned by two developers, Doyal said.

“Because this project is on our thoroughfare plan, we would look to those developers to donate that right of way and construct at least two lanes as they develop,” he said.

However, the county needs to pass another bond election to build the road or establish a cooperative agreement with a developer or third party. There is no definitive timeline or funding for the project at this point, Doyal said.

“Most projects in the county are built by developers and accepted by the county for maintenance,” he said. “That’s the whole idea behind the thoroughfare plan.”

During the March 23 township board meeting, citizens and elected officials were given the opportunity to address the board regarding the plan. Conroe Mayor Webb Melder  urged the township board to reconsider its resolution in the spirit of cooperation. Portions of several proposed projects the township opposes are in the city of Conroe’s extraterritorial jurisdiction, meaning the city could annex the land in the future.

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“We can accomplish so much more by working together and not putting up fences or drawing lines on maps,” Melder said. “The city of Conroe is growing, and all these road projects are important not just to the city, but to the people who live in our ETJ and are county residents.”

Township Director Ann Snyder said she has always been a big believer in collaboration but was surprised when the Woodlands Parkway extension remained on the thoroughfare plan following the failed May bond election, which was voted down by more than 80 percent of township residents who turned out to the polls. The November bond election did not include the project and was approved by 63 percent of county residents.

“Two months later, the county and H-GAC announced it was going to happen anyway,” Snyder said. “It was almost a slap in the face of what this community said they did not want.”

Township Director John McMullan said he believes residents will continue to oppose the Woodlands Parkway extension.

“Voters of The Woodlands displayed blunt force and correctly defeated the May road bond,” he said. “It cannot be emphasized enough that real contempt has been demonstrated and shown to voters of The Woodlands. It’s my sincere hope that changes.”

Bass said the push for additional north/south connectors in the thoroughfare plan is going to receive pushback especially if the roads go through residential areas.   

“How much concrete can we pour until we wake up and say, ‘We look just like Harris County?’” he said. “Those are the things [on which] there has been no dialogue. Personally, until you have that dialogue and discussion among all the parties, you’re not going to see a lot of change.”

Moving forward

Because the vast majority of The Woodlands sits within the city of Houston’s ETJ, any changes to the thoroughfare plan will need to be reviewed and approved by the Houston City Council. However, this would not be the case if the township incorporates.

“If you became your own city, you would fall into the state code where you would have the authority to make those decisions,” Clark said.

In 2007, the township signed an agreement with the cities of Houston and Conroe that released The Woodlands from potential annexation until 2057. If the township chooses not to incorporate by 2057, it will become part of either the city of Houston or Conroe per the agreement.

“We have territorial boundaries ... and we have agreements with both Conroe and Houston that should we ever incorporate, those boundaries are the boundaries of our city,” Bass said. “We pay every year a fee to Houston, and we’ll pay it even after we incorporate.”

If The Woodlands were a city, updates to the throughfare plan would have required its approval, Bunch said.

“At the point of incorporation, all the roads and rights of way that are within the boundaries of our new city would convey from the county, providing the city road authority,” he said.

However, the township does have an incorporation policy that states it will not move forward with incorporation unless an issue occurs that cannot be solved by the current form of government.

“When you look at the thoroughfare plan and the Woodlands Parkway extension, there’s no legislation to solve it, and we’ve tried to negotiate with the county,” Bunch said. “I think we have triggered our own board policy to move forward with planning.”

The first steps to potentially incorporating would involve updating a 2011 township study to outline the true costs of becoming a city, analyzing the tax implication it would have for residents, and hosting residential meetings to solicit feedback and address concerns.

“It’s not a question of if we should incorporate, but a question of when,” Bunch said. “We don’t want to be a part of the city of Houston, and we don’t need to wait 50 years to permanently remove that threat.”