Editor's note: This story was updated to clarify the approval process for the TIRZ-funded plan.

City staff presented plans to Pearland City Council on Monday to spend about $40.5 million in funds generated from Tax-Increment Financing Zone No. 2 as an alternative to borrowing and raising taxes to pay for a fire station, library and parks improvements in Shadow Creek Ranch. The City Council also asked staff to move forward with preparing a draft bond package of up to $120 million that could go to voters next year.

When it came to the larger question of putting forward a bond election in 2019, council members expressed worries that the lineup of projects may not win over many voters with popular items. Since the TIRZ-funded plan would take big building projects—a library and fire station—off the docket for the bond, it means most of the projects on the list are more on the east side of Pearland, which could make it difficult to explain to voters across the whole city, Council Member Tony Carbone said.

"I’m not sure how attractive they are to the public," Council Member and Mayor Pro Tem Derrick Reed said. "Marketing is going to be important. We need the voters."

Council Member Keith Ordeneaux cautioned that it was the council and staff's job to create the bond package, not to worry about marketing.

"We are close to a line that I won’t let us cross. It's our job to create the bond. Someone else will sell the bond," he said.

Staff presented three options for bond packages ranging from $77 million to $120 million, with the property tax rate for debt service ranging from 44 cents to 48 cents. This is below the original 53 cent rate estimated by city staff.

Despite the concerns, city council members asked city staff to prepare plans for a $120 million bond package as a starting point.

The projects on the list developed by city staff did not include the master drainage plan—that could be funded by a possible drainage fee—nor does it include projects for FM 518, as the city is still working with the Texas Department of Transportation to identify how much could be funded by the state and other sources.

Council members advised putting a placeholder for the drainage plan and to add FM 518 when more details get worked out with TxDOT.

To put the TIRZ plan into effect, the board that oversees the zone will first have to agree to fund it, and the council would need to approve a budget amendment increasing the amount it can spend from the fund from the current $13.8 million.

According to estimates by city staff, there is more than enough projected revenue to cover the proposed projects.

“I’m in favor of using TIRZ to move these projects forward," Council Member Trent Perez said. "Maybe it’s me, but I don’t see a negative here.”

To fund the projects initially, the city would look at short-term borrowing or it could borrow from itself, with reimbursement from the TIRZ coming back into city coffers with a to-be-determined interest rate.