League City City Council approves first readings to establish two new MUDs

With League City City Council’s approval Oct. 27, the underutilized west side of League City will likely soon see some development.

Council voted 6-2 in favor of establishing two new municipal utility districts. Pending approval of a second reading, Galveston County MUD Nos. 81 and 82 will be created at the southeast quadrant of FM 517 and Dickinson Bayou and northwest League City, respectively.

The MUDs are being “created for the purpose of furnishing water, sanitary sewer, drainage, park and recreational, and road facilities and services to the area within [their] boundaries,” city memos read. MUD No. 81 will be 260 acres, and MUD No. 82 will be 621 acres, 100 acres of which will be park land for the city.

David Hoover, League City director of planning and development, said the MUDs are the first two pieces of the puzzle in figuring out how the west side of League City will be developed. Five or six property owners control about 80% of the undeveloped land on the city’s west side, and the city is in talks with them to come up with development agreements, which is something Hoover has been working on for at least a couple years, he said.

Mayor Pat Hallisey said that while some have the perception that MUDs are “the devil,” the quality of League City’s MUDs speaks for itself.

“I think this city has fared pretty well,” he said of the city’s MUDs.

Nick Long and Andy Mann were the only council members to vote against the MUDs. Mann said these developments would increase the traffic problem in League City, which is of high concern to those who live on the west side.

Council Member Larry Millican said that while both these MUDs are in League City, the residents living in them will be closer to Friendswood grocery stores than League City ones. The developments will likely not negatively affect League City traffic, unlike some other west side developments the city has seen, he said.

The votes to approve both MUDs on first-and-final readings failed to earn a supermajority, so the items will return to council at a later date for final approval.