Montgomery County commissioners approved the creation of the county’s first tax increment reinvestment zone, or TIRZ, on June 18 surrounding a new 1,465-acre residential and commercial development in the Magnolia area.

What it means

A TIRZ is an agreement between a governmental body and a developer—in this case Johnson Development Corporation—to reimburse the developer for the construction of road and infrastructure improvements over a period of time from collected property tax revenue.

“These early improvements encourage the development of the zone by increasing the appraised value of property. This generates increased tax increments from each property within the boundaries, which are forwarded to the tax improvement fund,” the Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts explains in its TIRZ guidelines.

The cities of Conroe, Oak Ridge North and Willis have TIRZs within their jurisdictions; however, this is the first TIRZ managed by the county.

A closer look

Stephen Barrera, vice president and general manager at Johnson Development, said the new development, Kresston, will contain a mix of multifamily and single-family homesites as well as commercial spots with:

• 3,500 homesites
• 21.7 acres of multifamily housing
• 120.9 acres of commercial development
• One Magnolia ISD-zoned school site

As part of the TIRZ agreement, Johnson Development will construct roads and utility improvements within the development in line with the county’s thoroughfare plan to increase mobility along Hwy. 249.

"This is going to tie together parts of our [Hwy.] 249 corridor to [FM] 149, and even I-45 in some cases," Montgomery County Precinct 2 Commissioner Charlie Riley said.

The agreement will be in effect starting in 2025 and will continue until 2055 unless terminated.