During its June 1 meeting, Tomball City Council discussed the possibility of establishing brick facade requirements for new buildings along FM 2920 outside of the eight-block Old Town Tomball area to encourage the construction of more upscale buildings.

The council previously discussed the idea after seeing an increase in the number of developers interested in the area surrounding Old Town Tomball.

“The idea of potentially establishing minimum building facade standards on Main Street outside of Old Town and the mixed-use zoning district came up,” Tomball City Planner Harold Ellis said. “The Old Town and mixed-use zoning district is the only area in the city where we do have building facade requirements.”

The proposed requirements could require new buildings to feature a percentage of brick construction or a brick facade covering the outside walls. Facade requirements could be implemented by creating an overlay district on FM 2920, including and extending past Old Town Tomball and the mixed-use district, Ellis said.

Tony Topping, government relations specialist for the Texas Masonry Council in the Greater Houston region, gave a presentation during the City Council meeting on implementing the new building design standards.

“Cities that adopt the overlay districts often extend the overlays quickly to go citywide, and these types of implementations have the best impact if implemented before the development happens,” Topping said. “If you wait, you may have little control over what is built. Tomball is growing, and it won’t be small for long.”

These requirements could bring more uniformity to the Main Street and FM 2920 area, Topping said.

Jeff Taebel, director of Community and Environment Planning for the Houston-Galveston Area Council, spoke June 8 at a Greater Tomball Area Chamber of Commerce meeting about revitalizing Main Street and Old Town Tomball. The H-GAC is a regional organization designed to help local governments with community planning and solve issues. Through grants from H-GAC, Tomball could improve the functionality of Main Street by improving the facades of existing and future buildings, adding landscaping and making the area more pedestrian-friendly, Taebel said.

These grants would be similar to the H-GAC grant that Tomball officials applied for in 2014, which would be put toward improving FM 2920 west of the railroad tracks to the Four Corners Shopping Center area.

The mobility improvement project is estimated to cost $25 million to $30 million, according to the budget submitted to Tomball City Council last December. If approved, H-GAC would fund 80 percent of the project, and the remainder would be provided by the Texas Department of Transportation. The grant is expected to be decided on in late summer or early fall.