To the editor:Courier of Montgomery County,
I am disturbed but not surprised by the continued efforts of Charlie Riley and Craig Doyal to ram the Woodlands Parkway extension through our community against our will, votes, township resolutions and constituents’ petitions.
Since the announcement last week, 750 new signatures were added to the petition against extending Woodlands Parkway from FM 2978 to Texas 249, bringing the current total signatures to 5,750.
We already had this debate and over 80 percent of The Woodlands voted against this project May 9, 2015. Do our votes mean anything to these elected officials?
The county and HGAC held meetings in several communities trying to show support for this project and excluded meeting with The Woodlands. The largest community affected by their plans, 20 percent of the population and 40 percent of the county tax revenue is ignored again.
Judge Doyal and Commissioner Riley have no respect for The Woodlands and continue to push their agenda ahead of much higher-needed projects and their constituents’ feedback. Both these men represent The Woodlands, yet they reject, deny and ignore our feedback. The Woodlands resides within Precincts 2, 3 and 4, with the proposed extension actually beginning within The Woodlands Township’s borders. I’m tired of hearing we have no say and no way to stop this complete disregard for a community with 110,000 residents.
James Noack, our Precinct 3 county commissioner, is the only one advocating and representing The Woodlands on Commissioners Court. I could not have fought against the parkway extension without his help. Noack’s traffic impact study helped illustrate the extension’s increased traffic counts that fails Woodlands Parkway’s level of service, his leading of the South County Mobility Plan identified, prioritized and mapped out the near-term and long-term needs for our area that highlighted $1 billion in projects more important than the Woodlands Parkway extension.
This extension is crony government and developer driven, not serving the best interests of the citizens of Montgomery County.
I encourage more folks to sign our petition, share, post, re-post and let these elected officials know that no means no.
Gordy Bunch
