Missouri City has over $1.5 million to spend for new parkland and for improving existing city parks, with another $523,600 on the way.
The money came from housing developers who, over the years, have opted to give cash to the city instead of dedicating a minimum amount of land in their residential subdivisions for park space, as required by the city’s municipal code.
The city’s code states for every 100 dwelling units in a proposed residential development, 1 acre of land must be earmarked for park purposes.
However, the code also gives developers the choice of giving money to the city in lieu of the park space. The code requires developers pay $1,400 per dwelling unit that will not be served by the amount of parkland called for in the municipal code.
Some developers choose to give the city cash. Most recently, Missouri City City Council approved two such cash offers from builders who had submitted plans for subdivisions that do not include the minimum amount of land dedicated for park space required by city code.
One of the cash offers approved by the council is for $287,000, and the other is for $236,600. The cash payments from the developers “are generally required at or prior to the time of final plat approval,” Missouri City media relations specialist Cory Stottlemyer wrote in an email.
Platting is the process in which each residential lot in a new subdivision is recorded with the county. Stottlemyer did not specify when the plats for the two subdivisions—Mustang Trails and Dry Creek Village—might be approved.
As far as how the money might be used, Stottlemyer wrote in the email that the city has allocated $452,600 for improvements to eight city parks, including Quail Valley North and Bicentennial parks. The upgrades consist of adding such amenities as picnic pads and landscaping, he wrote.
Missouri City is divided into 13 park zones. Each park zone has its own fund containing the money paid by those developers. The 13 zones held a total of over $1.52 million as of May 31, according to city records.
Some of the city’s park zone funds hold hundreds of thousands of dollars while others have little to nothing in them. Four of the 13 zones had fund balances below $1,000 as of Jan. 30 while fund balances of some park zones contain several hundred thousand dollars, city records show. Park Zone 1, at the northernmost tip of the city, has no money in it, Stottlemyer wrote.
Park Zone 8, located southwest of Hwy. 6, had a fund balance of $389,715.11, as of May 31. Park Zone 12, located predominantly southeast of the intersection of Hwy. 6 and Sienna Parkway, had a fund balance of $381,717.65 as of May 31.
Park zone funds can only be used for capital projects, and on park land in the same park zone. Routine maintenance and operational expenses are paid for with money from the city operational budget, not from the park zone funds, Stottlemyer wrote. Park zone funds cannot be transferred between funds, he added.
Taking money from developers instead of requiring them to set land aside for park space can be beneficial depending on the size of the housing development, said James Thurmond, director of the master of public administration program at University of Houston and a former city manager of Missouri City.
Because the amount of park space required is based on the number of dwellings in a proposed development, small developments only net the city land for a small neighborhood park. If the city takes cash from many small developments, however, it can use those funds to build a much larger park with more amenities, Thurmond said.
Maintenance costs for large parks tend to be lower compared to the cost of maintaining many small parks sprinkled around the city, he said.
“It’s more expensive to have to send crews all over the city to cut grass,” Thurmond said.
