Sugar Land Poised for Greater Growth with Looming Annexation

SUGAR LAND, TX -- Plans are moving forward for the the city to annex two subdivisions into the Sugar land City Limits.

Greatwood and New Territory have been in the city’s extraterritorial jurisdiction for over a decade, and the concept of being taken in by the city has loomed ever since.

The Sugar Land City Council hosted a workshop in September, and passed the first reading of a resolution to annex those subdivisions at a meeting Nov. 2.

The council will vote on the second reading and present a final annexation budget amendment for approval Nov. 15.

Although the city has not yet determined when annexation of those communities will occur, Lisa Kocich-Meyer, the city’s director of planning, said it’s happening soon.

“The way we are evaluating annexation is it wouldn’t have an impact on our current services,” Kocich-Meyer said. “It wouldn’t increase the cost of services or diminish quality of service.”

Kocich-Meyer said property taxes collected from those areas would go toward increased service needs for Greatwood and New Territory.

City Finance Director Jennifer Brown said that annexing Greatwood and New Territory into the city limits would increase Sugar Land’s population by about 34 percent and its land area by 16.6 percent.

When Sugar Land signed strategic partnership agreements with Greatwood’s and New Territory’s MUDs in 2007, residents negotiated with the city to make annexation “a win-win,” said Louis Manuel, vice president of the New Territory HOA and president of MUD No. 111.

“We negotiated to keep some of the land that is actually on what I would call on the other side of the levee,” Manuel told Community Impact News.

Brown added that annexation of those communities would require 71.5 more employees and 36 more service vehicles than what was budgeted for fiscal year 2016-17.

Meanwhile, Greatwood HOA President Jack Molho said he expects annexation will be an overall seamless transition, although he said residents would notice a change.

William Solis, who owns Ruthie’s Tex-Mex restaurant, said he does not expect to make too many changes after annexation.

“If it’s in the good spirit of progress, I don’t have a problem with it,” he said.

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