Montgomery County moves ahead with Wood lands Parkway plan
The Woodlands may have won the battle to remove the controversial extension of Woodlands Parkway from the $280 million Montgomery County road bond that passed in November, but the county’s Commissioners Court, armed and ready for round two of the fight, plans to proceed with building the roadway.
Commissioners approved the Montgomery County Thoroughfare Plan, a long-term blueprint for the future of roads in the county, at its meeting recently. The plan included the extension of Woodlands Parkway to Texas 249 — a project that was met with great opposition in The Woodlands because studies showed it would worsen traffic on the already-congested thoroughfare that cuts through the heart of the community.
When the extension was presented as part of the $350 million road bond proposed in May of last year, Woodlands residents succeeded in voting down the bond measure.
County Commissioners agreed to drop the project from the bond list last summer and the revised $280 million bond passed in November.
But county Judge Craig Doyal and Precinct 2 Commissioner Charlie Riley have said all along that they will proceed with the parkway extension using other funding.
The Thoroughfare Plan, put together by the Houston-Galveston Area Council, was presented to the public in November at four public meetings— one held in each county precinct.
Asurvey that was taken at the meetings showed support for the Woodlands Parkway extension. But none of the meetings were held in The Woodlands.
“If that meeting were held in The Woodlands, I can assure that you would not be seeing support for the Woodlands Parkway extension,” said James Noack, commissioner of Precinct 3, which encom- passes The Woodlands and south Montgomery County, during the meeting. “Our governing body at some point needs to address the future of that parkway extension and decide perhaps we should remove that from the major Thorough fare Plan.”
Noack’s statements riled up the persisting tension on the court over the road project.
“I think it needs to stay right where it’s at,” said Riley, whose precinct includes the land where the extension is planned. “Magnolia wants the road.”
“It’ll never happen as long as I’m sitting here,” Noack replied.
“I fully support the project,” Doyal interjected. “It’s been on the plan for 30 years.”
As commissioners continue to spar over the extension, the community leaders who mobilized a force within The Wood- lands to oppose the project last May don’t plan to go down without afight.
While they have little direct power over the project, with Noack as the sole opposing voice on the commissioners court, they intend to make their voices heard.
“The problem with the extension is it introduces even more traffic into our community,” said Laura Fillault, a member of The Woodlands Township Board who has been outspokenly opposed to the project. “I’m convinced that it would be the straw that broke the camel’s back in terms of taking away any sort of hometown feel we have left.”
Fillault plans to rally The Woodlands residents again to find a way to stop the extension.
“The biggest resource we have is our voters — to get them to speak out,” Fillault said. “If we are a representative government, I would hope that all of the commissioners would listen to the voters in our community.”
Woodlands resident Ed Bowman spoke during public comment at The Woodlands Township meeting Jan. 27, urging the board to accelerate the process to incorporate and be- come a city so that it might have more influence when it comes to projects like the Woodlands Parkway extension.
“We don’t have a full government for our community,” he said. “Unless we’re willing to not just pretend at politics, we’re just going to be playing whack-a-mole instead of having a seat when these plans are made ... We need to incorporate ... so when things like this Woodlands Parkway extension come up again — and they will — we’ll have a seat at the table.”