Two-minute impact
Among them are a police station, which officials have started moving into as of August; an expansion of the City Hall complex, which could begin in 2025; a public works building; and a water reclamation facility.
Those projects are meant to accommodate a city population that the U.S. Census Bureau estimates has more than doubled since 2009—a trend that is expected to continue.
“The culture we’ve built in the government is, we’re not kicking the can down the road,” Mayor Dan Davis said. “We’re setting up the future generation for success.”
However, margins are tightening for a city looking to keep living affordable while still meeting the service demands from residents, Davis said.
Incentive deals struck by prior administrations are also eating up much of the city’s new property tax revenue, Davis said.
Despite those concerns, city officials said they’re confident in their fiscal year 2025-26 budget and have found ways to offset possible gaps.
Why it matters
Since 2009, Manvel’s population has grown by 125%, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.
The growth has come quickly—but city officials don’t expect it to slow down.
While the city does not have exact projections as to what the population may look like in the next decade, city documents show the city is issuing hundreds of residential permits each year.
Director of Development Services Jose Abraham said city estimates suggest the population could increase by around 9% annually over the next several years.
Some numbers related to this growth include:
- 5.7K residents in 2013
- 12.8K residents in 2023
- 9% estimated annual population growth
- 2.5K+ residential permits issued since 2022
With all the growth and incoming projects, city officials are looking at a tighter budget.
Adding new staff, increasing their pay, paying for the new facilities and servicing the city’s new homes—all while keeping the tax rate steady—is a challenge for the city, Davis said.
Incentive deals created by previous boards are also eating away at the city’s potential property tax revenue from new homes, Davis said.
At an Aug. 26 budget town hall, City Manager Dan Johnson said city officials entered into the agreements at the time because the city didn’t have the necessary infrastructure to support these new housing developments.
As a result, these agreements helped get developments into the city and funded infrastructure at the expense of future property and sales tax revenue, Johnson said.
Across the city’s four major agreements, those total incentive deductions over the deals’ lifetimes could cost nearly $177 million, city documents show. Those deals are set to expire in the next 20 to 25 years, but do include a maximum amount of tax revenue that can be deducted.
After city officials discussed challenges in early August, they came up with ideas for more revenue, such as pulling $2 million from the city’s fund balance, which acts as a rainy day fund to cover city expenses in an emergency. This could help pay for new staff and staff requests for FY 2025-26, city documents show, but would take the city’s fund balance down to around $6.5 million.
Sales tax revenue is expected to grow by $3.3 million from last fiscal year too, and should grow more as new businesses come into the area. Officials said in September that they hope a growing revenue source could help recoup the money taken from the fund balance.
What they said
Davis has long said city officials are trying to learn from the past successes and failures of other cities that saw rapid growth, such as Pearland.
Pearland Mayor Kevin Cole said he’s encouraged Manvel officials to do so. Decisions related to areas such as zoning can have a big impact down the road in how a city develops, Cole said.
“I’ve encouraged the city of Manvel ... to come and use us as a guide," Cole said. "Use us to see how we did things. And learn what we got right, and learn from what we got wrong.”
Next steps
Over the next two years, projects will wrap up, all of which city officials said will help grow the city’s capacity for new staff, residents and services.
The new police department, for example, will give the city the capacity to have up to 180 police officers—up from its current force of about 50, Police Chief Keith Traylor said.
Looking ahead years into the future, city officials said they are potentially eyeing a new city center, which could total 160 acres and sit near Del Bello Boulevard and Manvel Parkway.
While much remains up in the air about the project—including timelines and whether the city will fund it as part of a public-private partnership—officials said they hope such a development could house commercial, recreation and city facilities. Some designs, for example, suggest City Hall could eventually reside at the center.
More plans to help guide the city are expected to be updated soon too, including the city’s thoroughfare study and its comprehensive master plan, Abraham said. Those plans could be approved by the end of the year.
“We want to be a government that doesn’t just listen to people but also takes action,” Davis said. “When we create a plan, we’re not going to just let it collect dust. We’re going to use it, ... because that’s what the people deserve.”
