Montrose has services halted over dispute
In midst of dispute with property owners, area’s management district stops paying for graffiti abatement, security patrols
In the midst of a dispute with property owners, Montrose’s management district stops security patrols and other services.
Locked in a lengthy legal battle with property owners in the Montrose neighborhood, the area’s management district has stopped paying for graffiti abatement, security patrols and other services after a judge signed a temporary restraining order last month prohibiting it from collecting money to do so.
The Montrose Management District also said it suspended services because there wasn’t enough money in its coffers to pay for them.
“None of our bills are being paid right now,” executive director Ben Brewer III said Friday, noting that more than $350,000 in property assessments that were due at the end of January 2017 are still unpaid.
One of the group’s priciest and most visible projects — the lighting of seven arched bridges over U.S. 59 — is also at risk of going dark over time, depending on the outcome of an ongoing lawsuit over the validity of the district.
“Probably the most critical services are those security patrols and then the graffiti abatement,” Brewer said.
Yet Philip Navratil, who owns a 22-unit apartment complex in
Montrose and is assessed about $1,000 per year, wants to see the district dissolved.
He stopped paying the assessments because he says he hasn’t benefited from them.
“It’s simply not that valuable,” he said.
Since services were halted last month, Brewer said, there’s been more graffiti in the neighborhood and the homeless population has grown in some areas.
The off-duty police officers the district had paid to patrol the area are no longer on the payroll.
Security cameras at “hot spots” known for criminal activity are no longer being monitored.
The judge’s temporary restraining order, signed Dec. 11, is related to a yearslong legal battle between the management district and Montrose commercial property owners who have paid millions of dollars for services and improvements they say have not benefited the area. They have widely criticized the district’s assessment powers and said their payments have amounted to double taxation.
A hearing in the case is scheduled next week.
The Montrose district is one of dozens in the Houston area created to promote economic development and make improvements to public areas in specific neighborhoods. Property owners help pay for the improvements through assessments.
In Montrose, owners of commercial property had been assessed at a rate of 12.5 cents per each $100 of property value. Residential property owners were not assessed.
In October, a judge ruled in a separate case filed against the district in 2012, now on appeal, that it illegally collected nearly $6.6 million in assessments and that it must pay the money back. That judge also ordered the district to refrain from spending any of the assessments it has collected but not yet spent.
Until the legal wrangling is settled, the future of the U.S. 59 bridge lights remains uncertain.
As of now, they are under the purview of the Texas Department of Transportation and warranties are in place for several years on the equipment, Brewer said.
But the district was expected to take responsibility for the maintenance once it re-authorized a service and assessment plan for the coming years.
The district took on the project at the request of the city, Brewer said. It was paid for by a combination of district funds, federal funds through TxDOT and the Houston-Galveston Area Council. The total investment was about $3.7 million.
If a new service plan isn’t renewed, TxDOT would have to find another group to assume responsibility for the project, Brewer said.
He said the lights have generated a lot of interest.
“We’ve had over 80 requests from nonprofits wanting to light the bridges pink, orange or whatever their colors are,” he said.