Future of Water and Wastewater Infrastructure and Policy in Sugar Land: A Story of Collaboration between Planning and Engineering

Investing in future water and wastewater infrastructure is one of the major decisions a City has to make. In May 2019, the Texas State Legislature passed House Bill 347 which severely limited cities' annexation authority by requiring landowner or voter approval for most annexations. With the limited ability to annex, cities must consider if they are willing to invest in infrastructure that is not within the City limits with the possibility that the area will never be annexed into the City. The City of Sugar Land, TX is in a position where it is approaching buildout with remaining growth opportunities consisting of limited redevelopment within the City limits and new development in the extraterritorial jurisdiction (ETJ). When the City began updating their water and wastewater master plans in 2019, the major focus was to address their concerns about the extension of utilities into the ETJ and the impact on City growth in the future. Sugar Land completed the master plan update process in 2021 and has insights to share with other cities. Since the completion of the master plan, Senate Bill 2038 allowed residents of an area to petition or have an election, depending to the population, to leave the ETJ. This presentation will provide implications of this new legislation on the planning process. Background The City of Sugar Land is the largest city in Fort Bend County, Texas with approximately 120,000 people and is located about 20 miles southwest of downtown Houston. In the past, growth primarily occurred though the creation and annexation of Municipal Utility Districts (MUDs). Currently, most the remaining ETJ areas are not large enough to be likely candidates for MUD development. As a result, the City is exploring alternative solutions to infrastructure development in the ETJ. Finding a solution to this unique set of circumstances required an innovative, collaborative approach utilizing the expertise of the City's planner and engineers. Through this innovative planning process, the project team was able to address the immediate concerns regarding the extension of utilities to individual properties in the ETJ, update City codes, ordinances, and policies to align with the council direction, and establish recommendations to address capital investments in water and wastewater infrastructure. The master plans update study had the following three objectives that were interrelated and dependent upon one another: 1.Conduct an assessment of Sugar Land's existing codes, ordinances, and policies; benchmark the existing policies against other cities; and provide recommendations for a policy to address the extension of utilities in the ETJ; 2.Develop water and wastewater master plan recommendations to plan for infrastructure growth in the City and ETJ; and 3.Combine these two separate tasks into a singular tool that could serve the planning and public works departments and outline a plan for implementation. Unique aspects of this study are listed below. The presentation will expand on each of these items and give the conference attendee insight on how Sugar Land approached their future capital project and policy questions. Non-traditional Master Plans In a traditional master plan, collaboration with City staff occurs during a small handful of workshops. In this study, planners and engineers from Sugar Land and Freese and Nichols met to collaborate, brainstorm, and work through the innovative policy and infrastructure planning process continually for about 2 years over a series on biweekly phone calls. These calls facilitated discussions that forced both planners and engineers to think outside the box and consider how the policies and master plans can, and should, work together to effectively plan for future water and wastewater infrastructure given the annexation challenges faced by the City. Involving City Leadership in the Planning Process Due to the significant financial investment required to provide regional water and wastewater service, the City needed to decide whether they wanted to be the regional provider of water and wastewater to the ETJ. During the process, presentations were made to City management to educate them as to how growth had historically occurred in Sugar Land, why the previous utility policies were no longer applicable, and what appropriate options to consider. Once the City management staff were looped in, City Council was asked to make the policy decision mid-way through the project such that the master plan and policy recommendations could be aligned with the City's direction. Action Oriented Work Plan Instead of a traditional Capital Improvements Plan (CIP), this master plan culminated in an action-oriented work plan. The work plan included recommended policy updates and future modeling/rehab/financial studies to develop specific water and wastewater infrastructure recommendations for the ETJ. Each work plan task included an easy-to-reference summary with associated information such as how the recommendation aligned with City goals, leading and partnering departments, scope of future studies, desired outcomes, staff action items, and recommended timeframe for implementation. A Document for All The study was delivered in a new and innovative reporting format unlike any prior master plans this team had worked on. Along with a traditional report, executive summaries were developed in a magazine-style format utilizing InDesign software. These executive summaries captured the highlights and recommendations of the study in an easy to understand, graphic heavy format, which caters to both technical and non-technical readers. While these executive summaries are designed to be go-to documents for the City staff, council members as well as public citizens can also easily access and understand the master plans, increasing transparency with the public. Takeaways Sugar Land approached the question they were facing with a non-traditional master plan that incorporated policy recommendations regarding the extension of water and wastewater service into the ETJ in response to changing legislative action. Utility managers, planners, engineers, public works staff, and consulting engineers of all experience levels will walk away from this presentation with unique perspective about a question most cities and utilities are currently facing or will be facing in future.