Manvel leaders have inched a nearly 400-acre development closer to reality, and with it, a tidal wave of traffic and infrastructure questions. On June 15, city officials voted to advance a rezoning that would open the door for The Presidio, a mixed-use project planned east of Highway 288 along Highway 6. A traffic study projects about 52,000 daily vehicle trips and water demand nearing 600,000 gallons a day, figures that left residents and council members pushing hard for clearer plans on congestion, drainage and groundwater. The proposal now heads to a second reading at City Council on July 6, where several neighbors say they plan to keep the pressure on.
Project footprint and traffic study
According to Manvel city documents, the concept plan carves up roughly 200 acres for commercial uses, about 58 acres for residential lots and about 5 acres for a Manvel civic site. The same packet includes a traffic impact analysis that pegs the build-out at roughly 52,000 daily vehicle trips, with nearly 2,300 trips in the morning peak and about 4,700 in the afternoon peak. City Council has set July 6 for a second reading and possible final vote on the rezoning.
Developer and site
The Presidio is being marketed by Transwestern, which lists the property at the northeast corner of SH 288 and SH 6 and identifies Steve Williamson as the contact. According to city staff, Williamson has indicated that the residential acreage is essentially a placeholder and could be shifted to commercial use if the market points that way, a move that would tilt the project even further toward retail and office space.
Neighbors and council push back
That potential scale has residents and officials worried about how anyone will actually get around. At the June 15 meeting, speakers pressed the city and the developer on how existing roads would absorb the additional traffic and how nearby neighborhoods would be shielded from the impact.
"If we start construction there now, how are we going to get to work? The traffic is going to be ridiculous," Manvel resident Josh Armstrong told Community Impact.
Mayor Dan Davis called for a larger separation between The Presidio and the Del Bello Lakes neighborhood and raised concerns about how the project might affect the area where an MD Anderson facility is proposed.
Drainage and city design rules
Stormwater is another sticking point. City materials show the plan leans on more than 40 percent pumped detention, a setup that runs into Manvel’s design rules, which generally restrict pumped systems and require at least 50 percent gravity drainage, according to Manvel city documents. While some portions of the proposal show nearly 60 percent gravity drainage, staff cautioned that the overall mix may still fall short of the city’s standards for projects that include residential uses. That warning fueled calls at the meeting for stronger protections around buffering, trees and open space.
Utilities and timing
On the utility side, city officials told council members they expect to have sufficient wastewater capacity once a new membrane bioreactor treatment plant comes online in 2027. Groundwater demand, however, remains a concern, with projections that The Presidio could need nearly 600,000 gallons of water each day, Community Impact reports. The schedule for the treatment plant and any required off-site improvements is expected to play a major role in how the city conditions the project’s approvals.
What’s next
The rezoning is set to return to City Council on July 6 for a second reading and potential final sign-off. Council members signaled they plan to keep pressing the development team on buffering, allowed uses and drainage fixes if the project is to move ahead. If the ordinance passes, The Presidio would shift into entitlement and engineering phases, where city standards on traffic, utilities and drainage will be tested in far more detail.
