The City of Conroe City Council on April 16 voted to extend a temporary development moratorium covering specified areas of the city after staff said the water system is approaching regulatory thresholds.

City staff told council the system is currently operating near the regulatory limit used for planning and that earlier modeling showed even higher usage when the moratorium was first adopted. At a public hearing before the vote, resident Betty Born Avery told the council she supported the moratorium and urged the city to plan for fire flows and long-term water reliability.

City staff recommended denial of an individual appeal to allow irrigation at a property on Pinehill Trails Court; the council approved the staff recommendation to deny that request. City staff explained that outdoor irrigation accounts for a substantial share of summer water demand and that permitting irrigation now would worsen supply risk.

As part of a three-step approach staff presented to provide relief in the moratorium area, the council awarded a construction contract for a 1,600-foot bypass water line at Silver Springs (Water Plant No. 15). Staff reported the chosen contractor was the second-low bidder based on qualifications and prior work history; the contract documents show a substantial-completion target of 45 construction days and a low-seven-hundred-thousand dollar bid (bid amount reported in the meeting packet as $718,006.32). Staff told council the bypass will route production water from Well/Plant No. 15 and provide additional service and redundancy to sections of the moratorium zone.

Councilmembers and staff also discussed additional capacity projects planned this year, including two new wells mentioned in the meeting as coming online as later phases of the relief plan. Staff cautioned that while projects will add local capacity, regulatory capacity calculations used for the moratorium could still require broader adjustments to the moratorium map.

The council took the votes during an open meeting after a public hearing; the extension and the Silver Springs bypass contract both carried.

What happened next: staff said it will continue planning and modeling and pursue the remaining elements of the multi-project relief strategy, and council directed ongoing communication with developers who have raised questions about how the bypass and other infrastructure will affect development in Woodland Hills and adjacent areas.