Tuesday evening was the public hearing at City Hall about restricting golf cart use on public roads in League City.  About 10 people including myself spoke against restricting golf cart use by adults in the city. No one who spoke at the meeting wanted to restrict golf cart use for adults.  The Mayor and Police [...]

They were all discussed in a spirited debate at a recent League City Planning meeting.  La Quinta Inn and Suites would like to build a hotel on a site located west of the Victory Lakes in League City.  As reported by Galveston News about 16 residents showed up to oppose hotel stating they were told by the developer Roy Mease that the commercial property would be office buildings.

Photo Source The City of League City

There is a Comfort Inn & Suites that League City has already approved which is being built next to the La Quinta site. The demand for hotels is coming from the Big League Dreams sports complex.  The city indicated they are losing $750,000 in revenue because out of town players stay in hotels in Webster, because there are few options in League City.  Victory Lakes residents felt customers would come from a different demographic.

“  People who generally stay there are hardworking construction workers, welders and truck drivers,” Kim Tecca said. “At night, they relax like they like to relax — they stay up all night drinking.”    Several residents argued sexual predators could live in the hotel, which they said is less than 2,000 feet from a school…One resident said the hotel would become an after-hours rendezvous spot for men who frequent Heartbreaker’s Gentlemen’s Club.

Then Jack Owens a planning and Zoning Commissioner jumped into the mix by bring up Ike and the need for hotel space.

pointed to the hundreds of displaced Galveston Hurricane Ike victims who lived in island hotels for six months or longer, and said, “You deduce what that means.” He promptly voted against the hotel.

A representative of La Quinta Corp. indicated the facility would be an 8 million dollar upscale hotel.  As a personal note when I represented Prudential in handling their real estate the corporate hotel was a La Quinta. The hotel was very nice and oddly enough I never witnessed any truckers or construction workers there. Land use is always a sensitive subject with all parties involved. Who knows what the residents were told when they purchased their home but its never good for developers to indicate the exact use for property because there is no way of knowing what the market will demand in 5 to 10 years.  The vote was 4 votes for and 4 votes against. It will be interesting to see the outcome of the May 26th city council meeting.

Galveston News Victory Lake Article

November Election for Proposed League City Municipal Development District The City of League City will hold an election on Tuesday, November 6, 2007 to propose the creation of a Municipal Economic Development District and the adoption of a sales tax of ¼ cent to finance projects beneficial to the district. The proposed district will comprise all of the city limits and its extraterritorial jurisdiction.

In February 2007, City Council voted unanimously to support the creation of the district. The city often competes with other communities to recruit the types of businesses that citizens want located in League City. These businesses bring highly paid jobs and generate large sales tax. They often locate in communities that can offer land with utilities and roads already in place. In order to recruit these businesses, League City uses its general fund (funded by property tax payers), but this will change with the creation of the Municipal Economic Development District.

In Texas, voters in over 500 small and mid-size cities have already adopted the sales tax for economic development, including area cities like Galveston, Dickinson, Kemah, Pasadena, and Webster. The additional ¼ cent sales tax will generate approximately $1.1 million in revenue during its first year of collection. According to a study by CDS Market Research, by 2011 both League City resident households and non-resident households will pay approximately 38% of the sales tax and businesses will pay the remaining 24 percent. In 2011 this ¼ cent sales tax will cost the average League City resident household approximately 50 cents per week. Early voting will be held from October 22nd to November 2nd at the Galveston County Annex located at 174 Calder Road. November 6th Election Day locations will be at the Johnnie Arolfo Civic Center at 400 W. Walker Street and Ferguson Elementary School at 1910 Compass Rose.