Magnolia prepares to lift development moratorium From the cover
How we got here
The overview
Magnolia enacted its water moratorium in December 2022 after nearing state-mandated limits for water system capacity, Robertson said. He said the city was approaching the threshold where infrastructure such as wells, booster pumps and storage tanks could no longer reliably serve the growing number of water connections. “The [Texas Commission on Environmental Quality] has regulations about what capacities you have to have on water infrastructure … to serve the number of connections that we have. And that’s why we went into a moratorium—because we were bumping up against that,” Robertson said. “We said we need to put ourselves in a position where we build infrastructure to get ahead.” At the time the moratorium was enacted, Magnolia had only two operational water plants and limited storage space. Since then, city sta have worked to expand capacity through phased improvements, Robertson said. Without proper infrastructure before the morato- rium was in place, even routine maintenance could have left residents underserved, Robertson said.
moratorium as early as September, Dantzer said. “All of our [key performance indicators] are saying that by October, we will be in the clear,” Dantzer said. City Engineer Tim Robertson con rmed that several improvements—from new elevated and ground storage tanks to two soon-to-be- completed wells—will bring Magnolia’s system capacity in line with state standards. Once complete and in service, Robertson said he believes the additions will expand redundancy and future-proof the city’s water infrastructure for growth.
Magnolia’s development moratorium, rst enacted in December 2022, has restricted new water connections due to limited infrastructure capacity. In turn, the moratorium halted many large-scale residential and commercial projects while the city worked to boost its water supply, Mayor Matthew “Doc” Dantzer said. Now, with several infrastructure additions and maintenance projects nearing completion— costing $30.2 million—including new wells, tanks and booster pumps, the city will begin operating with a lifted development
Magnolia’s new and updated
ATER PLANTS
149
Magnolia
1488
Magnolia has added two water plants to its water infrastructure,
4
2
3
and undergone maintenance and rehabilitation of existing water storage tanks at two existing plants since the development moratorium was enacted.
249
1774
1
Combined water well capacity
KEY:
Cost
N
WATER PLANT NO. 1
WATER PLANT NO. 3
“Moving forward, I think that we’ll do a much better job of when we make commitments [for water connections] that we are putting the infrastructure to
Underwent tank rehabilitation work
New plant (completion within next 4-6 months)
700 gallons per minute
2,500 gallons per minute
$275,000
$12.7M
WATER PLANT NO. 2
WATER PLANT NO. 4
maintain those commitments.” MATTHEW “DOC” DANTZER, MAGNOLIA MAYOR
Added 189K gallons of ground storage tank capacity and 700 gpm of water well capacity
New plant (completion within next 4-6 months)
1,500 gallons per minute
$11.5M
2,000 gallons per minute
$5.8M
SOURCE: CITY OF MAGNOLIA COMMUNITY IMPACT
Commercial and residential PERMITS APPROVED Prior to the moratorium, commercial and residential permits saw a spike before declining once enacted. Single-family permits Commercial permits
What they’re saying
are necessary for scalable growth,” said Skip Col- vin, chair of the Southwest Montgomery County Chamber of Commerce’s economic development committee. Dantzer said the city worked with developers to maintain trust, and agreements were made for limited monthly connections to allow for some residential properties to come online that were grandfathered in from the moratorium. “They gave us numbers, and we abided by them,” Dantzer said.
With the moratorium nearly lifted, builders and developers are preparing for a new wave of opportunity. Cody Miller, director of government a airs with the Greater Houston Builders Associa- tion, said he believes lifting the moratorium opens doors across the industry. “You’re creating economic opportunity not just for builders, but for tradespeople, lenders, realtors. … Everyone re-engages,” Miller said. The pause slowed new development, but indus- try professionals said they understood the need. “Most developers understand temporary pauses
0 100 200 300 400 500
33
30
415
16
366
303
226 16
2021
2022*
2023
2024
*MORATORIUM ENACTED IN DECEMBER 2022 SOURCE: CITY OF MAGNOLIA COMMUNITY IMPACT
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COMMUNITYIMPACT.COM
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