What’s at stake for The Woodlands in this Election?
Position 1 - Gordy Bunch - ENDORSED
Position 2 - Jason J. Nelson - RECOMMENDED
Position 3 - John Anthony Brown - RECOMMENDED
Position 4 - Bruce Rieser - ENDORSED
The Woodlands was originally intended to be a quiet, secure enclave - a ‘Hometown’ where residents could raise their families. Since 1997, when the first of a series of developers purchased The Woodlands, the original vision has been drastically altered with the tacit agreement of Montgomery County officials. To safeguard The Woodlands’ way of life, residents must elect candidates to the Township board who will stand up for residents’ interests over the interests of these developers and of the County.
The County Commissioners are the controlling legal authority for The Woodlands. They control our roads and our policing and have been disinclined to prioritize Township issues over the needs of other areas in the County. In 2015, when Montgomery County, catering to developer interests, planned to make Woodlands Parkway a major east-west artery by expanding it to SH249, The Woodlands Township’s board was powerless to prevent it. The only reason the expansion did not occur was that Township board member Gordy Bunch, along with Bruce Rieser, John Anthony Brown, and others, organized a massive voter turnout in The Woodlands that was sufficient to defeat the county-wide bond to fund the expansion (83% of us voted against the bond).
The Woodlands Township Board has no authority to prevent Montgomery County from executing the current plan that seeks to expand our roads (e.g., Woodlands Parkway, Research Forest, Gosling, Kuykendahl, and Branch Crossing) into major County thoroughfares to promote less developed areas of the county. Under its current legal structure, the Township has no authority to protect resident interests with respect to our drinking water supply or to prevent subsidence or flooding. Perhaps, most importantly The Woodlands Township is not entitled to a voting representative on the Houston-Galveston Area Council, the regional board that plans the future infrastructure of our area and serves as the gateway to federal funds for large-scale community projects.
Recognizing the need to strengthen the community’s ability to protect itself from unwanted encroachment by outside interests, the current Township Board of Directors, which includes Gordy Bunch, Bruce Rieser, and John Anthony Brown, commissioned studies to comprehensively explore incorporation of The Woodlands. This study is nearly complete, and majority of the details and conclusions of this study are currently posted on the Township’s website. The decision to incorporate can only be done through a referendum of The Woodlands citizens, not by a vote of The Township Board. It is you who will decide the future governance structure of your community – to either become an incorporated city with standing to participate in regional planning and take legal action if necessary – or to continue as a township largely governed by outside interests.
What’s at stake in this election is a choice between candidates dedicated to protecting the residents and candidates who would return the Board to developer control.
Gordy Bunch, Bruce Rieser, John Anthony Brown, and Jason Nelson pledge to stand up against developers, the County and the City of Houston to preserve the uniqueness of the community we know and love and to protect the future of The Woodlands, our hometown.