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The City of Houston recently announced that land has been purchased for the future home of the quadplex sports facility in Houston.
In April of 2019, the citizens of Houston passed a one cent tax increase that read “Shall the City of Houston implement a one cent sales tax within the city limits of Houston for the purpose of increasing funding for police and fire services, and parks and recreation.
The program would fund vehicles, equipment, training and manpower issues in the police and fire departments, as well as create revenue for our parks and recreation department. The funds would create a safer work environment for our public service workers and a safer community for our future. Parks and Recreation would use the funds to create a new aquatic park; secure land to build new baseball and softball fields, develop a recreation facility and improve existing parks facilities. Distribution of the revenue would be as follows: Parks and Recreation = .5 cent Fire = .325 cent Police = .175 cent This would not replace the majority of existing budgets for departments, but would supplement them for new facilities, police and fire vehicles, equipment and manpower.”
On Dec. 15, 2023, the City of Houston contracted Linda, Matthew and Misty Evans to purchase the land at the end of Thomasville Road. The City of Houston purchased a total of 40 acres for the total amount of $440,000 that was paid out of the city’s checking account. When entering the contract, the City of Houston put down $3,000 in earnest money and the land was closed on Jan. 31, 2024, at Hiett Land Title. When working with the Evans family there were some restrictions that were asked to be put on when developing the land for ball fields. The restrictions were that no sale or consumption of alcoholic beverages take place and that the land only be used for recreational purposes which the city agreed to.
Several different pieces of land were looked at when trying to decide which property to build on, city officials said. Several great factors of this property are that it was already close to a stoplight for people to safely enter and exit onto the highway, there was not a high volume of citizens that lived in the area that would be affected by traffic during later night games during the spring, summer, and fall and that it could lead to the potential development toward Highway 17.
The city engaged in the services of Turf Solutions Group who recently gave the City of Houston a very rough, high-end sketch of what the potential ball fields could look like. Now, the city’s park board and council members will produce exactly what needs built and what will work best in the area.
“Not only has this tax helped our Parks and Recreation program to create the pool, and now working towards the quadplex, but it has also been instrumental in the fire department and their ability to get current up to date gear, working on the fire training tower, equipment that has been used to help during accidents and fires, but also allowed the City of Houston to add manpower, vehicles and equipment for our police department,” said Mayor Viki Narancich.
“We look forward to the possibilities of what is ahead for the City of Houston.”
I find it amusing that the ballot language for the tax, listed the spending priorities for the revenue derived, in reverse order. The cynic in me suspects a subtle technique of deception.