Tomball seeks input on FM 2920 project

Residents have chance to offer thoughts on how $30 million could improve street

Tomball and the Houston Galveston Area Council are soliciting input from residents that could enable the city to receive up to $30 million in state transportation grant funds to improve FM 2920.

The city sent out letters to residents at the start of the public comment period, which continues until Aug. 25, so that people will have plenty of time to express their opinion.

So far, H-GAC has received responses from more than 100 Tomball residents.

“It’s been unusual for us to receive that many — mostly emailed — responses,” said Alan Clark, who serves as transportation planning director for H-GAC. “I think they are almost universally in favor of the project idea.”

Clark said the project is ambitious, and he understands that the city is looking for ways to improve the downtown area.

In December 2009, Tomball adopted the FM 2920 Access Management Study, which set forth transportation improvements along FM 2920 from Interstate 45 to U.S. 290.

In December 2014, Tomball City Council voted to submit a Transportation Improvement Program Grant application to

H-GAC to fund improvements within the city along FM 2920 between Business 249 and Willow Street.

However, the 2009 Access Management Plan stops at the city’s downtown depot, while the call for improvements crosses the tracks and extends east to Willow Street.

Craig Meyers, Tomball’s community development director, told the council in December that there had already been preliminary discussions with H-GAC about the additions.

If the grant application is approved the project would be added to H-GAC’s Transportation Improvement Program for 2015.

Under the program’s terms, projects that are approved would receive federal funding over the next four years.

Eighty percent of the grant is federally funded, with the remaining 20 percent coming from the Texas Department of Transportation.

The scope of the improvements include the addition of sidewalks at Business 249 and FM 2920, rebuilding the sidewalks in parts of downtown, and adding raised medians and center turn lanes.

Since FM 2920 is a state road, TxDOT would play a significant role in funding and upgrading the downtown area.

However, amenities such as median landscaping or enhanced decorative lighting, which was discussed by city council in December, would have to be paid for by the city.

“If we are successful in getting that grant, then the city of Tomball will kick in monies as well,” said City Councilman Mark Stoll.

If the city is successful, it would have to provide up to $3 million in matching funds toward the grant, however, none of those funds have been budgeted for Fiscal Year 2016, which goes into effect on Oct. 1.

Stoll said adding those funds for a grant that has not yet been awarded would have been premature.

“We can’t budget for a project that’s not there,” he said.

Tomball is not the only city looking to obtain this funding. Nearly 200 local entities have applied for grant funds to complete their local projects.

“Some projects are larger and some are smaller, you just never know how (H-GAC) is going to rate them,” said Tomball City Manager George Shackelford.

“Ours is a good application. It meets a need for safety improvements, TxDOT did the access management plan, and this does some of the things they recommended; it does some things in the livable center’s study that H-GAC approved. A lot of the components are further steps of studies and plans that have been approved by government agencies. We’ll just have to wait and see.”

The city hopes to receive approval from H-GAC’s Transportation Policy Board before the end of September.