With early voting concluded, your last opportunity to cast a ballot in this critical election is Saturday, May 6th from 7am to 7pm at the Jersey Village Civic Center. Your vote matters.

At this point, the choice in this election is clear. Are we going to settle for more of the same sort of development in Jersey Village? More car lots? More warehouse space? More industrial development? My opponent thinks that’s the best we can do because that’s all we have seen for the last 30 years. He wants to just give up and settle for more of the same.

I think we can do better. We must do better.

Why haven’t we seen better development in Jersey Village up until now? Because before 2016, the last time Jersey Village updated its plan for development in the city was 1989. We didn’t see change because we didn’t have a plan for how to affect change. In essence, the city did not have a clearly articulated vision for what it could be.

Today, we have an updated Jersey Village Comprehensive Plan developed by citizens with assistance from consultants and our city staff. With completion of the expansion of Highway 290 now approaching, we need a city council that is fully dedicated to executing this plan. We are at a critical junction for our city with development delayed over the last ten years by road construction, an unprecedented economic recession, and the recent downturn in the energy industry.

All indications are that the Houston economy, and the 290 corridor in particular, are primed for extraordinary growth. We must be ready to harness that growth in a manner that preserves the character of our community, serves the needs and desires of our citizens, and enhances the quality of life for everyone in Jersey Village.

We can accomplish this by:

  • Continuing to improve our community by rebuilding aging infrastructure, improving existing parks and amenities, and developing new amenities which will continue to draw young families into our city.
  • Implementing solutions from the long term flood plan which will make the best use of the available resources to reduce the risk of flooding in our city, and work closely with the Harris County Flood Control district to address causes of flooding outside of the jurisdiction of the City of Jersey Village.
  • Enact measures to attract development to our city which fits our shared vision of Jersey Village. We can achieve this by using economic development tools such as Tax Increment Reinvestment Zones (TIRZ), which have been extremely effective in other communities across Texas seeking to jump start development.

We can and must see the potential that exists in Jersey Village. Just because it hasn’t been done before doesn’t mean that it cannot be done. That is precisely why this election is important – we need elected officials who share our vision for what Jersey Village can become, not merely lament what it is not today.

I am asking you to see Jersey Village for what it can be. I am asking for your vote on Saturday, May 6th.