The Conroe City Council on Oct. 22 approved a new law placing a cap on the number of units allowed per acre for certain higher-density housing types, such as townhomes and duplexes.
Zooming in
The ordinance affects unit developments, which city code says normally include housing forms recognized as patio homes, townhomes and duplexes.
The city will now allow a maximum of six dwelling units per acre of land for unit developments. Mayor Pro Tem John Sellars said the point of setting the cap was to prevent developers from using it as a loophole to build multifamily units and increase the number of rentals in the city.
“We simply have too many rental properties in accordance with the number of owner-occupied homes,” Sellars said, “which is something that I mentioned several times we need to increase in the city of Conroe.”
Sellars said a lot of unit developments are owner-occupied already and there is a demand for that type of housing. He said too many rentals would turn Conroe into a "commuter community."
"The only way to keep that in check is with home ownership," Sellars said.
In other news
The city council deferred taking action on a $2.6 million payment to the San Jacinto River Authority for Conroe's failure to pump four billion gallons of groundwater in its last fiscal year.
The issue stems from Conroe’s 2025 settlement with SJRA. The agreement requires Conroe to pay the SJRA pumpage fees for at least four billion gallons each fiscal year for water pumped from the city’s wells or imported.
Conroe pumped 2.9 billion gallons of groundwater last year, according to an invoice from the SJRA. The authority is asking Conroe to pay the rest of its required pumpage fees by Nov. 18.
“What a travesty it is that we are being fined while we all attempt to save groundwater,” said Mayor Duke Coon. “We are being fined because we didn’t pump enough groundwater.”
The settlement reached between Conroe and the SJRA in 2025 secured future surface water for Conroe.
Jason Miller, Conroe’s public works director, said the city pumped less groundwater than it expected this past year due to six wells being down.
“With the way the agreement is written, it definitely secures us for future needs — that is a good thing,” Miller said. “However, with the wells that we lost this last year, it put us in a tremendous bind.”
Conroe should get close to or exceed four billion gallons in groundwater pumped for the next year, Miller said.
Sellars said he hopes the SJRA works with the city on the issue.
“It’s a very hard number for all of us to swallow up here,” Sellars said. “This is an awful thing to have to face.”
Before you go
Conroe is restoring its partnership with Meals on Wheels Montgomery County.
Brandy Taylor, Conroe’s director of municipal development, said the city previously worked with Meals on Wheels but “concerns over the years” pushed the city to put its own chef in place. Preparing meals internally was “just not cost-conducive for us to continue that,” Taylor said.
The agreement covers 25,000 meals a year at $3 a meal.
