THE WOODLANDS TX - Two days after early voting began for an election that will determine the governance model for the master-planned community, the Houston City Council meets today to adopt a regional participation agreement struck between its mayor and a local representative in December.

Council members will discuss the agreement after a presentation by Mayor Bill White during its regular meeting at 9 a.m. at City Hall, located at 901 Bagby Street in downtown Houston. Cheryl Crandall Tangen, a director on The Woodlands Community Association, and residents Ed Forsley and William Bingman attended the City Council's pre-meeting workshop Tuesday to voice their concerns about the proposed agreement.

The document lays the groundwork for the community's monetary contribution - 1/16th of a cent in sales tax - for regionally beneficial projects. In exchange, Houston will release The Woodlands from its extraterritorial jurisdiction - thereby removing the threat of annexation - and the Town Center Improvement District will become the governing entity until at least 2014, when a moratorium agreement with Houston expires.

Tangen told council members she hopes the final agreement allows The Woodlands Tx to be released from Houston's ETJ sooner than 2014 so the community can incorporate into a city. Forsley said his chief concern with the proposed model is that the TCID board of directors will not be fully elected until all current board members' terms expire in 2010. ""More than 80,000 residents in The Woodlands could be facing taxation without representation,"" Forsley said.

As a founder of The Woodlands, Roger Galatas supports the propositions and has joined a political action committee aggressively advocating a ""yes"" vote called The Woodlands V.O.I.C.E. Galatas, who also was a founding member of the TCID board, told The Courier in a previous interview he believes many Woodlands residents will be better represented under the TCID - which will be renamed The Woodlands Township - because they will have the opportunity to have elected representatives long before they will with the current governance structure.

Currently, residents who live within The Woodlands Association are governed by a board of directors that is half composed of elected representatives and half composed of appointed members from The Woodlands Development Company. Only when those areas are built out will the TWA board be fully elected. ""I think that transitioning to an all-elected (Township) board is part of an evolutionary process that follows the dictates of the law,"" Galatas said. ""I don't think it should be considered threatening to anyone.""

Meanwhile Tuesday, members of the three governing boards of directors in The Woodlands received what might be the final draft of the agreement.

The 19-page document, which includes the unsigned pages designated for the signatures of TCID and Houston City Council leaders, stipulates the community will be released from the city's extraterritorial jurisdiction ""only on or after May 29, 2014."" The Woodlands Community Association, which represents residents in Grogan's Mill, Panther Creek, Cochran's Crossing and Indian Springs east of Falconwing Drive, will meet at 7 p.m. today at 2201 Lake Woodlands Drive.

TWA members, representing residents in Indian Springs west of Falconwing Drive, Alden Bridge, Sterling Ridge and College Park, will meet Thursday at 7:30 p.m. at the same location.

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