Petition to remove Woodlands Pkwy expansion from Road Bond gaining momentum

MONTGOMERY COUNTY, Texas - The petition to remove the Woodlands Parkway expansion from the $350 million Road Bonds proposition for Montgomery County voters has exceeded more than 1,500 signatures, according to Gordy Bunch, community and business leader and originator of the petition. The Change.org petition calls upon the proponents in Commissioners Court to “listen to the 110,000 residents of The Woodlands who overwhelmingly do not support this expansion.” It asks that commissioners remove the $22 million now slated for an expansion of Woodlands Parkway beyond The Woodlands boundaries out to Texas 249. The petition is featured on the Gordy Bunch Facebook page.

Currently, the Road Bonds proposal is planned to be included in the May 9 election that will be open to registered voters in Montgomery County. Commissioner James Noack of Precinct 3 recommended a $365 million bond issue to his fellow commissioners because it would help to mitigate the impact of extending Woodlands Parkway, the main and most vital artery of The Woodlands. The fact that the Commissioners Court, for reasons known best to them, refused to agree to add $15 million more to their announced $350 million is another issue that could doom the entire bonds issue.

Bunch says he and other opponents are not trying to doom the bond issue. He, in fact, believes there are many worthwhile and needed projects within the overall scope of the bonds proposal. However, he also strongly believes, and studies show, that Woodlands Parkway does not have the capacity to accommodate a 50% increase in traffic, or 6,000 more cars per day, which the extended road would generate. He would like to see that controversial item dropped and replaced with more-needed road improvements in other parts of The Woodlands and county. He gives, as an example, and a higher priority, the 1488 corridor which is generally crowded, disorganized, and dangerous. The stretch of road connecting FM2978 to SH249 is another major priority as is Hardin Store Road where commissioners failed to budget for a right-of-way through this existing connector.

Given the negative impact on the community, which he also represents on The Woodlands Township board of directors, and the nearly 90% opposition to The Woodlands Parkway expansion, he will continue to oppose, along with other groups and several thousand residents of The Woodlands, who recognize that, as currently composed, it will only increase traffic and offer no quality of life improvements here. The tax dollars of the 110,000 people in 35,000 homes in The Woodlands should be spent on the people who are already here, not those who may come in the future. Quality of life is paramount to residents throughout Montgomery County. The Woodlands should not suffer an intrusion by contiguous communities where more than 1,005,003 people will reside within a 15-mile radius of here as soon as 2018. Even a small percentage traffic increase onto already overcrowded Woodlands Parkway is unsupportable. If we do not add lanes to widen Woodlands Parkway we will have ensured a state of perpetual gridlock, not to mention creating the prospect of increased danger and more accidents.

Bunch says he is on record as saying the 2015 Road Bonds plan is ill-advised without, at the very least, adding additional lanes to the artery. Therefore, he says, he cannot support the proposal in its present format. He is encouraging commissioners to take another look at their project list and find better and more effective projects on which to spend $22 million of taxpayer dollars.