Montrose district to hold off on sending tax assessments
After Mayor John Whitmire blasted the Montrose Management District for operating with what he called an “illegal” board, a district spokesperson said the group has not sent tax assessments to local businesses and will not until its board is fully staffed.
The Montrose Management District, after years of dormancy, announced in December that it had reactivated to offer additional security patrols and other services to area residents. Whitmire, however, said Wednesday that the board fails to meet state law’s minimum requirement of five members, calling for the group to “cease and desist” all activities.
“There’s currently a lack of transparency and just a dysfunction,” Whitmire said during Wednesday’s City Council meeting. “I’ll make certain that we agree and communicate to the residents and certainly the businesses that there will be no activity taken by this self-acknowledged management board.”
The district’s website indicates that its board currently has four members. After Whitmire’s remarks, the group’s spokesperson, Alan Bernstein, told the Houston Chronicle that the management district will not issue any tax assessments until all 13 board member seats are filled.
Houston has utilized management districts as an economic development tool since the 1980s. Created by the Legislature, these districts have the power to issue tax assessments for some commercial properties and collect a district tax to fund improvements that would benefit the business community.
The Montrose Management District, initially created in 2005, received mixed reactions from area business owners, with many objecting to the extra taxes.
After a lawsuit filed by a property owner, board members voted to disband the district in 2018, but the move was conditional upon a judge’s approval, which never came. Bernstein previously told the Chronicle that the district never technically went away.
The reactivation announcement has angered a number of longtime business owners in Montrose.
Daphne Scarborough, owner of custom metal fabricator Brass Maiden, recently told the Chronicle the move is akin to “taxation without representation.”
Pat Greer, who runs Pat Greer’s Kitchen, said the management district was poorly run in the past and did not provide any useful services to justify the additional taxes.
Bernstein previously said the district has been discussing its reactivation plans with property owners for years and has secured the support of many major developers.
Notably, the district would levy assessments only against commercial property owners, rather than any business owners who don’t own the properties in which they operate. Some properties — such as residential complexes with no more than 25 units — will also be exempt.
Whitmire and District C Council Member Abbie Kamin, who represents the Montrose area, said they are open to helping establish a new management district for the historic neighborhood but that it has to be done properly.
“The question is, how do we create a management district that does fit the needs of the Montrose area, that does support the businesses in the community as a whole in a way that we as a city know that it should be done,” Kamin said.