In the updated presentation, made by MCB President and CEO Garrett Martin, the developers acknowledged the consensus and recurring theme of traffic and safety concerns, proper road infrastructure and more commercial spaces.
Despite the developer’s plan to build new roads to help alleviate existing and future traffic congestion on RM 967, council members questioned how the roads would be paid for and when they would be built.
The new presentation lays out multiple options, either through a public improvement district, a PID, or a municipal utility district, a MUD. Through a PID, the roads could be built sooner than a MUD, which requires a certain number of houses to be built first.
“The PID is by far the more likely tool to use to get the road built. It will enable the construction of the road approximately three years sooner. It will enable paying for the construction of the road three years sooner than a MUD would,” Martin told Community Impact Newspaper.
PIDs take into account the future value of what will be built and enable the issuance of bonds early in the process that go to pay for the road, he added.
“[Three years] is a pretty massive difference, and given the criticality of the timing of the road in this context, it seems like [the PID] is the right tool,” Martin said.
If all goes according to plan, the East/West FM 1626 connector would be completed by early 2025.
In addition to proposing faster road work, Martin said MCB would also plan on making lots bigger, meaning not as many houses would be built as originally planned.
“The change [in] density will result in a reduction in the lot count of about 200 lots across the project,” he wrote in an email.
The developers are also aiming to reserve 28-30 acres of land for commercial use, according to the presentation, and 15 acres will be reserved for a future school site.
For the development to move forward, MCB and the city must come to a development agreement, which Martin hopes they will reach in July.
