HB5686

HB5686 creates Montgomery County Management District No. 3 on a described 144.058-acre tract along Seven Coves Road. It authorizes public improvements and services, including water, wastewater, drainage, roads, recreation and parking, as well as economic-development programs, loans and grants. County, Conroe and Willis services must be supplemented, not replaced. The district may contract for law enforcement, establish a supporting nonprofit corporation and add or exclude land under the cited general laws. It may not use eminent domain.

Five directors serve staggered four-year terms. The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality appoints successors from people recommended by the board—not by a district-wide director election. Initial directors Michele Burke, Andrew Williams and Benjamin Mellado have terms ending June 1, 2027; Mehmet Okumus and Joey Sergio Soto have terms ending June 1, 2029.

Property taxes require voter approval. Operating taxes cannot exceed the approved rate. Voter-approved property-tax-backed bonds require continuing debt-service taxes without a rate or amount limit specified in this act. The first such bond issue also requires applicable municipal consent to district creation and land inclusion. Specified revenue- or contract-payment-backed bonds do not require a separate election; contract payments remain subject to the cited Water Code requirements. The act exempts the district from Water Code 49.4645’s outstanding-debt limitation. Assessment-financed improvements or services require a petition from owners holding a majority of assessed real-property value subject to assessment. Assessments carry personal liability and enforceable property liens.

A sales and use tax requires voter approval, in increments of one-eighth of one percent. Subsequent board changes must stay within both the voter-approved maximum and the applicable combined local-rate limit. Revenue may support any district purpose and secure debt. A tax cannot be cut or abolished if that would impair repayment of secured obligations; after abolition or a zero rate, a new election is needed to impose it again. Newly included territory is subject to an existing district sales tax without another election, as provided by the cited Tax Code.

The district may divide only if it has never issued bonds and is not imposing property taxes. New districts must hold confirmation elections and any required tax or tax-backed bond elections. Separately taxed areas for specially benefiting improvements also require elections within those areas. Dissolution may follow a board vote or a qualifying two-thirds property-owner petition, but outstanding debts, contract payments and responsibility for public facilities must be resolved first.

The act became law without the governor’s signature on June 20, 2025, effective immediately that day. Certified passage votes were 106–36, with two present but not voting, in the House and 26–5 in the Senate. Sources: enrolled act and certified votes and official history.