Tomball City Council gave the Tomball Economic Development Corporation a starting point for the future of Legacy Square on Aug. 17, voting 4-1 on a list of directions that includes preserving three buildings, demolishing others and exploring a smaller, more flexible use for the former church campus.
The vote does not lock in a final design. City staff emphasized after the vote that the direction can change as details are worked out. Council members and the TEDC board are scheduled to meet again in a special joint City Council and TEDC meeting at 1 p.m. on Aug. 21.
Diving in deeper
Staff summarized six points that emerged from an Aug. 14 workshop before council ultimately approved the direction.
Legacy Square is the roughly 4.6-acre former First Baptist Church campus in Old Town Tomball.
Under the direction, TEDC will explore:
- Converting Building A, the main sanctuary, into a multifunctional facility that could also serve community-center functions;
- Prepare Building C, the small chapel, for a potential use involving Pearl Fincher Museum of Fine Arts;
- Develop plans for Building F, the fellowship hall, for possible retail, workshop, maker, arts and crafts or rental space.
Council members said the fellowship hall concept should not be subsidized by the city and should not leave the city responsible for liability.
The direction also calls for demolishing buildings other than the main sanctuary, small chapel and fellowship hall—Buildings A, C and F—and creating green space in the cleared area. TEDC was also asked to prepare a more detailed transition plan addressing operations and maintenance costs, who would operate the facilities, programming responsibilities and projected revenue.
The sixth point was to begin planning for parking lot N, located behind The Depot, as one possible way to address parking needs tied to Legacy Square.
The parking direction drew some pushback from council member Lisa Covington, who said the Aug. 14 discussion had only landed on lot N as the option that “made the most sense,” not necessarily as a final parking decision.
“At this point, we just don’t know,” Covington said.
Much of the discussion centered on what exactly the main sanctuary would become.
Council members moved away from describing the building as a music venue, with multiple members saying that was not the direction they wanted to pursue. Instead, officials discussed a “multifunctional event center” that could accommodate uses ranging from weddings and plays to community activities.
Council members also made clear that rejecting a dedicated music venue would not necessarily mean banning live music from events at the facility.
The distinction between an event center and a traditional community center also matters operationally, officials said. City staff noted Tomball’s existing community center has rules that prevent someone from renting the facility and then charging admission for a for-profit event.
If Legacy Square operates differently, officials will still need to determine who manages and maintains the facility, what rules apply and how rentals would work.
Council ultimately left those details unresolved. The approved direction describes the sanctuary as a multifunctional facility that could also act as a community center, while the discussion leaned toward the broader “multifunctional event center.”
Also of note
Covington, who also serves as TEDC board president, repeatedly questioned whether council should vote on the direction without the TEDC board present.
“I have no idea what we’re approving,” Covington said early in the discussion. “I don’t think this should be discussed without the EDC board here.”
Covington said she did not believe the Aug. 14 workshop had produced consensus on all six items and described that meeting as one where “a whole bunch of ideas” were discussed rather than finalized.
Mayor Pro Tem Paul Garcia said his understanding was that staff had recorded consensus points from that workshop and council was formalizing them to give TEDC somewhere to start.
TEDC Executive Director Kelly Violette acknowledged the direction still raises questions but said TEDC has been seeking clearer guidance from the council.
“I think we’ve been asking for direction for a long time,” Violette said. “We’re kind of flailing ... waiting for direction from y’all so that we can move.”
Funding also remains unsettled. Earlier in August, council had discussed reducing TEDC’s original $8 million Legacy Square budget placeholder to roughly $1.5 million, with demolition included and TEDC able to return later for budget amendments as the project develops.
During the Aug. 17 meeting, council members said the amount discussed at the Aug. 14 budget meeting had since dropped to about $750,000. Covington said that money was intended for demolition and repairs needed to keep the remaining buildings from deteriorating—not to convert the sanctuary into an event center, the chapel into an arts space or the fellowship hall into retail or workshop space.
Garcia said TEDC could return with budget amendments as specific proposals come forward.
“We’ll work closely with each other to make sure all parties involved are getting what they want, and that the public is getting also what they want,” Garcia said.
How we got here
A feasibility study previously recommended an 800- to 1,000-seat performing arts hall in the former sanctuary, a visual arts center in the 1949 chapel and an arts education center in the fellowship hall.
Residents have raised concerns about parking, traffic, noise and the scale of the proposed project, while officials have repeatedly said plans remain preliminary.
More recently, TEDC officials have described Legacy Square as still being in the early planning stage, with decisions about the project’s size, phasing, funding and long-term operations yet to be settled.
