Last year, Jersey Village City Council addressed a perceived problem of some residents parking their cars in their driveways in a way that blocked part of or all of the sidewalks that cross the driveway. The decision by JVCC to have the police issue tickets to all cars parked where any portion of the sidewalk, caused a lot of concern for many homeowners with many of them having received Warning Notices. They were informed that they would receive actual Parking Violation Tickets starting November 1st last year. As you may know, that issue was not easily resolved as you would have expected it to be. I spent hundreds of hours working on that issue, researching the full extent of how homes were affected, the approvals for the original construction of those homes, the development of new sections with similar problems after the state law was in effect. Several of you presented your personal case and request for reconsideration to City Council during a virtual City Council Meeting last year. Those actions, caused the members of the City Council to put a “pause” on their original directive to the Police Chief; however, JVCC instructed him to use discretion regarding issuing tickets for cars parked in their driveways. Some homeowners may think this has actually been resolved. The fact is that JVCC took no action that would keep them or future Council Members from doing the exact same thing again. The promise that Bobby Warren made to address the issue with our State Rep. never happened.
My efforts during that issue brought me into contact with many homeowners and they shared several other issues that affected far more of us homeowners. They shared their experiences with trying to work with Council Members or even to get answers to their questions. Those discussions and personal contacts brought daylight to the plans of JVCC of building a new city hall across 290 on land that Jersey Village had bought for $8.2 million without voter approval. Many residents knew some of what was being discussed, but they felt they could do nothing to stop JVCC from whatever they chose to do. That led to a group of concerned citizens getting a Petition signed by over 900 registered voters. That Petition required JVCC to put the issue to the voters for approval. Ashley Brown took the lead with that effort. She and a small group went door to door to get that done. After that was submitted to City Hall, the names were validated and the number of validated voters was sufficient to require the issue to be voted on before JVCC could move forward with their plans. Then JVCC ruled that the Petition was invalid because they did not like the wording. Then JVCC tried to get the developer to sign the contract to get started on the project. JVCC was ready to sign a $10.2 million contract with a contractor to begin building a new city hall within “Village Center” – the vacant land across 290 even though not one penny has been received from the developer for any of the land and they have no signed tenants for any of the “planned” buildings to be built.
Even with that major project failure (they however are still trying to push forward without voter approval), now we see that they also plan to build a new Golf Course Convention Center estimated to cost around $7.5 million and other major projects. In order to have those funds they can use without voter approval on specific plans, they are considering putting a $20 million Bond Issue on the ballot in May. The interest on those bonds would cost the taxpayers at least another $8.6 million and it could be much more than that. The additional $30 million debt backed by residential property taxes, would cause a very large increase in property taxes in Jersey Village. The council members think Jersey Village can use the new golf course convention center to book weddings, conventions, and get golf tournaments hosted at Jersey Meadows. Not sure where the experience of running conventions, weddings, and major golf tournaments was attained. Again, no Cost/Benefit Analysis has been provided as to the operation of that facility.
There are many more issues that need to be considered, but this information is being provided to you to say we need your help to make Jersey Village City Council listen to the Taxpayers again. “Jersey Village Concerned Citizens Committee” was first created several years back when JVCC tried to get the voters to approve bonds that were for building the new fire station, a new city hall, and major reconstruction of streets and utilities in some sections. JVCC wanted the voters to approved all of those projects with one vote. The JVCCC group submitted a Petition to require each of those projects to be separate ballot issues. The voters at that time decided against taking on that much debt at one time and approved all but the city hall project. The time has come again for the residents to get JVCC reportable to the voters. JVCCC now has this website and it is being used to put documents on issues like property taxes, city hall actions, details not provided about the Village Center project and those involved with the project, and many more issues.
We need you to join our effort and participate with your abilities and ideas. When someone says “What can I do, I’m only one person”, there is some truth to that. However, there is strength in numbers. More ideas, more people sharing with their neighbors and friends, and some actions will require money. This group only wants good things to happen to Jersey Village that some of us have made our home for more than 40 years. Please check out all of the documents on this website, and take a few minutes to consider other things you believe can be improved – “if only someone would do something”. Much of what you see is about concerns; however, that is not all we are about but something must be done before it is too late to be fixed. We need residents serving on City Council that are concerned and listening to other homeowners and not just their own ideas.
Please tell others you know about our group and our mission. We need as many involved as possible. Thank you for taking the time to consider this request.