County judges seek consensus on transportation options

its destiny, Judge Trey Duhon said. With assistance from the Houston-Galveston Area Council that oversees regional planning, Duhon said the county completed a long-range mobility plan it hopes to put into action.

“We wanted to see the middle of the county stay as rural as possible,” he said.

The roundtable among the county judges occurs annually, but took on a different tone, as three of the county judges — Hidalgo, George and Montgomery County Judge Mark Keough — were sworn in last month. In the case of Hidalgo and George, the change also altered the political affiliation of the counties’ commissioners courts, placing Harris County and Fort Bend County in Democratic control.

Though newcomers to county politics, they quickly joined their more seasoned peers in pointing out that they need state support — not obstruction — to do their jobs.

“I do not believe Austin should take away our tools,” said Keough, a former state lawmaker who campaigned other than a car ride.

“Part of our ability to get things done comes from being able to get there,” Hidalgo said, citing the need for safer options for pedestrians and better transit.

Despite being a region teetering on 7 million people and expected to add another 3 million people in the next 30 years, the discussion among the judges highlighted that the Houston metropolitan area remains a different place depending on where you live. Strained to handle more automobiles, urban parts of Harris County are clamoring for more bike lanes and transit; suburban areas, such as Sugar Land, Montgomery County and Galveston County, are looking for ways to expand freeways or add tollways to get workers to corporate campuses across the region — but are wary of just endless construction.

“We don’t want to overbuild because you don’t want to pay to maintain that,” Galveston County Judge Mark Henry said.

Waller County, meanwhile, is watching fields turn quickly into subdivisions and looking to control the southern segment of the Grand Parkway through Alvin and Pearland.

Rather than wider freeways, Sebesta laid out a scenario in which the region’s growth and more travel is managed by new technologies, and changes in how people work in the region.

“We are going to have to rely on businesses, on their work hours,” he said.

What was missing from Sebesta’s recipe, however, was noticeable to two of the other judges.

“I have not heard anything about mass transit,” said Fort Bend County Judge KP George, adding that transportation plays a major role in quality of life in growing Fort Bend communities.

“I think it is about a mindset we need to change,” George said, referring to focusing on making driving easier rather than offering other options.

Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo agreed, adding that many in the region do not have sufficient access to jobs because they are limited by long commutes or few options for county judge opposing toll plans promulgated by the previous administration.

Still, Keough said state lawmakers should give local officials and local voters, a chance to choose tolls or other ways to raise the money for roads.

Even with shifting political factions, officials agreed they face similar challenges.

“There are no Republican or Democrat roads,” Duhon said, noting infrastructure is handled across the entire area. “The floodwaters don’t care (about party).”

Beyond urging a new way of thinking, George encouraged his peers to think about their relationship with state officials differently, as well, delivering the most provocative statement of the discussion.

“We complain about the lawmakers in Austin, but we keep electing the same people,” George said. “Why are we doing that? I don’t get it.”

A new crop of county judges cannot change the overall tenor of regional transportation issues: There is not enough money and local officials need all the options they can to fund improvements.

What those improvements will be, however, was a little less uniform Monday as six Houston-area county judges gathered to discuss regional road, rail and transit issues.

During a discussion hosted by the Transportation Advocacy Group Houston Chapter, the county judges — three whom took office less than 40 days ago — cited explosive growth around the area as reason to invest now in transportation improvements. They even somewhat agreed that they cannot look to how things were done in the past for guidance on how to relieve congestion.

“We can only build our highways so big or so wide,” said Brazoria County Judge Matt Sebesta, even as he continues to push for