All Fulshear City Council seats—including the mayor’s—will be up for election in May after City Council approved a new district map at a Sept. 16 meeting.

Zooming in

Officials voted 7-0 to approve plan 3C, which unifies the Bonterra community within District 4 and puts District 2 council member Patrick Powers and District 5 council member Abhijeet Utturkar in the same district. Powers was absent.

City Manager Zach Goodlander said the plan also “generally follows” school district lines, as:
  • Districts 1, 4 and 5 are entirely in Lamar Consolidated ISD.
  • District 3 is entirely in Katy ISD.
  • District 2 splits the boundaries, “but only very slightly.”
“I think it’s hard to get a perfect map, but I believe the one that council selected is probably the one that balances interests the most in terms of geography and population,” Goodlander said. “Hopefully it sets us up well for the 2030 census.”

The context


The approval comes after a study conducted by law firm Bickerstaff Heath Delgado Acosta LLP showed the city has nearly doubled its population since the 2020 census.

The study showed the city's current districts had a standard deviation between the largest and smallest district at 153.22%—significantly above the court-interpreted requirement of 10%, attorney Sydney Falk said at a Sept. 2 Fulshear City Council special meeting.

Falk said he estimates the city now has a population of about 38,724, an average of 3.4 people per housing unit, which would put the average district size at 7,745 people.
The background

Redistricting was first brought up in February 2024 by Mayor Pro Tem and District 1 council member Sarah Johnson, who raised concerns about underrepresentation for Districts 1 and 4 due to population growth since maps were last drawn in 2022. The official process did not kick off until July 2024.


The process halted in October 2024, when council decided to wait until 2025 to revisit.

“The city’s rapid population growth has not been distributed equally across the city, resulting in some single-member districts having a greater population than others,” former City Attorney Byron Brown said in an email. “Therefore, redistricting is being considered to distribute the population among the districts as equally as practicable.”

What’s next

All eight City Council seats, including the mayor’s, will be up for election May 2, 2026. Filing will open Jan. 14, 2026, and close Feb. 13, 2026, according to the Texas Secretary of State’s website.


Council will decide how to stagger terms before then, officials said. The city will also be required to redistrict in 2031 following the 2030 census.