Sugar Land Votes

01/09/2024

Lame duck Sugar Land Mayor seeks to end public comments on apartments and give developers the right to build them

Fort Bend County Community News

10/09/2023

This is very sad for the future of Sugar Land. Taking the right of citizens away, handing it to developers. Send City Council YOUR message! Change Council! Let your members hear from you.
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09/28/2023

Save Imperial, Save Sugar Land! 1195 apartments at Lake Pointe on P&Z agenda, up from 444 in the Land Use Plan. IMPERIAL and Lake Pointe are the two "test" code changes under the direction of City Council. PUMA still does not own the Char House!

09/06/2023

City Council update: So the Char House "is in amazing condition". That's not what Council member Whatley told community members, saying it would require demolition within 6 years. And making excuses for the broken windows, not acceptable. Maybe it would have encouraged the current owner to get the property sold if the City had required him to comply with City codes over the past years. Office rental market is in the tank right now, even in the town square. With the proposed plan costs at almost twice that of new construction, is this even feasible? More questions than answers.

08/30/2023

Looks like the City caught wind of all that social media chatter. Time for another performance.

08/18/2023

This is how Council member Jennifer Macha Lane responds to the pet crisis situation.

07/28/2023

The latest press release (July 2023) from the developer who purchased the 90+ acres at Imperial. Interestingly, the City has never mentioned them or introduced them to the community and Council member Kermally had to recuse himself from the vote due to his financial investment with this group. How do they plan to issue a substantial return on investment at Imperial by year end 2023.

Award-Winning Publisher

07/26/2023

Time to put the brakes on this self absorbed City Council! Let's elect representatives who will truly represent the citizens.

(l-r) Local realtor, Diana Miller, and Marcus Johnson, Director of Strategic Initiatives, represent the newly formed PAC - Sugar Land Votes in opposition of the development code changes proposed in Sugar Land.

“We’re going to go out to recruit and possibly change city council,” said Marcus Johnson, resident of Stafford and Director of Strategic Initiatives, who was joined by local realtor Diana Miller, both of them in their capacity as representatives of Sugar Land Votes, a newly formed Political Action Committee (PAC). They were in the foyer of Sugar Land’s city hall about 30 minutes before a joint meeting of the Sugar Land City Council and Planning and Zoning (P&Z) Commission was about to take place in council chambers last Wednesday, July 19.

The joint meeting was to be about discussing recommended updates to a draft mixed-use zoning code and review community feedback on the development code proposing two mixed-use zoning districts.

And before the joint meeting started, Miller said the PAC’s goal is “to have in place council members that will truly be responsible to the citizens,” noting that the residents overwhelmingly don’t support the code change. “They want to have their public hearings. They want to continue being a part of the process. This change takes it out of the hands of planning and zoning and out of the hands of city council. There will be no more public hearings.”

07/20/2023

It's no secret that the City of Sugar Land has long envied and referenced the City of Plano as a model in multi family development. Is this the plan? Plano is haulting their low income housing program plan to get the permitting process out of the way, clearing the path so developers can earn more tax credits. Click the link to read how it works.

https://communityimpact.com/dallas-fort-worth/plano-south/city-county/2023/02/27/plano-halts-housing-tax-credit-program-to-make-changes/

07/13/2023

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

JULY 13, 2023

Sugar Land Votes PAC will be holding a press conference at Sugar Land City Hall, Wednesday July 19 at 5pm. Our conference will come before the City Council meeting at 5:30pm where City Council will discuss removing public hearings from major development plans. The purpose of our Press Conference is to announce future plans to address the alarming dismissal of public opinion by this Mayor and City Council members. From major development plans, all the way to animal rights concerns, this Council has demonstrated a disregard for those whom they represent.

Over the past months, Mayor Zimmerman has been so emboldened so as to file a frivolous complaint against a P&Z Commissioner. The complaint was dismissed following the Mayor's alleged false testimony to the Ethics Commission in the second of three meetings. See our atteched letter to the City Attorney concerning the testimony and whose response was we should "file an ethics complaint".

Prior to this action, on April 4, 2023, Diana Miller, a Sugar Land Real Estate Broker, and now Treasurer of the Sugar land Votes PAC, filed a formal complaint against Mayor Zimmerman with the Fort Bend County DA's Public Integrity Division over other alleged violations that occurred during the vote on the Imperial Redevelopment vote, a vote in which Council member Kermally was recused regarding a conflict of interest and Council member Whatley refused to recuse although she owns commercial property directly across the street from the proposed billion dollar development.

We are now moving forward with a grass roots community plan to take back City Council. Our team now includes Mr. Marcus Johnson, Director of Strategic Initiatives, where he will direct committee members in the planning and implementation of political activities that will further advance the goals of Sugar Land Votes PAC. Those activities include candidate recruitment, candidate training programs, media relations, and candidate forums. Mr. Johnson has led political strategic planning at both the National and State level. He also currently leads grass roots political programs at the local level, including candidate campaign management. Diana Miller, a long time community advocate in Sugar Land, will fill the role of Treasurer.

Read the letter to the Sugar Land City Attorney, link is located at the bottom of the press release on our web site.

Sugar Land Votes in the News

07/12/2023

THIS IS NOT WHAT THE PUBLIC ASKED IN THE 2018 LAND USE PLAN! Taking away public comment, Planning & Zoning review, so you can hand over development that you know the public DOES NOT WANT! This will forever destroy the quality of life in Sugar Land!

06/22/2023

SAVE THE DATE! Sugar Land Votes' Director of Strategic Initiatives will be holding a press conference outside City Hall prior to the meeting. Yard signs will be available to those who sign up and reserve a sign on our web site. www.SugarLandVotes.com

Official website for Sugar Land Votes PAC. We are a community of concerned voters seeking to restore the public trust by endorsing candidates and policies that protect our suburban quality of life

06/17/2023

Yard signs and t shirts available soon! Take back City Hall! Like our page to find out when/where they will be available!

05/20/2023

Sugar Land is watching what is happening in their City. This is on Nextdoor.

05/19/2023

The presentation the "Independent" Ethics Committee would NOT ALLOW on screen, demanded that Commissioner Patel speak no more than 5 minutes, kept cutting her off in that five minutes. BURY THE EVIDENCE! To those attempting to shut down this post, these screen shots are public record, this is a portion of the presentation given to the Ethics Committee.

05/11/2023

DISMISSED! The City of Sugar Land and Mayor Zimmerman owe Commissioner Patel a public apology! The Ethics complaint by Mayor Zimmerman was dismissed today. The committee members returned from their very lengthy closed executive session and attempted to move directly with their vote. Commissioner Patel insisted on giving her presentation although they refused to play this video. Was the information too damaging to the Mayor and the City. This once aggressive committee suddenly turned meek and made a unanimous decision to dismiss. Each member described their decision, interestingly, the reasons given were in front of them when they first made the decision to proceed with an investigation. It was obvious at that time this was a frivolous complaint, but they chose to move it forward. Who would dare questions the Mayor? This process is badly flawed and should be eliminated. There is no “independence” in this Independent Ethics Committee.

How did one plan go to Planning & Zoning and another plan appear before City Council two weeks later. There must have been a lot of wheeling and dealing behi...

05/10/2023

HELL NO!! SKIP P&Z, SKIP COUNCIL, 45 DAYS!

05/09/2023

Blah, blah, blah…joint City Council Planning & Zoning meeting. We need multi family, we need mixed use districts, blah, blah, blah!! YOU HAVE THEM! FIVE REGIONAL ACTIVITY CENTERS ARE IN THE 2018 LAND USE PLAN AND THEY ALLOW APARTMENTS!! But you haven’t built any! You haven’t attracted businesses, you’ve lost them! THE PROBLEM ISN’T LACK OF APARTMENTS. THE PROBLEM IS POOR LEADERSHIP, WORST MAYOR EVER, INEPT ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT STAFF. Change City Council, don’t change the zoning.

05/03/2023

What an embarrassment to the City...Looking forward to see that Council members email and Barbara's text message to the Mayor, what training did the Mayor request; our current Open Records Request.

Fort Bend County Community News

04/29/2023

!! CALL TO ACTION !! DON'T LET CITY COUNCIL REMOVE OUR ZONING!
On 4/27/2023 Sugar Land Planning & Zoning was presented with a plan by City staff to transfer planning decisions to City staff by changing Sugar Land's long standing strict zoning ordinances. It is those strict ordinances that have made Sugar Land the award winning community it is today. This change will destroy that FOREVER! Don't change the zoning codes, change City Council!

04/27/2023

Did you know, according to Mayor Zimmerman, under sworn testimony, Planning & Zoning members “can’t take into account public comment or public sentiment or anything else” 😳 Yes, that’s what he said. And the Ethics attorney repeated it to confirm it. Yes, P&Z Commissioners need to comply with the three City guiding documents but that does not exclude considering public comments. This is training by Joe, if staff recommends it, YOU MUST ACCEPT IT! If you don’t comply, he may come for you…via the Ethics committee.

04/26/2023

City of Sugar Land Ethics Committee Meeting on 4/25/2023 wasn’t quite so ethical. Two hours of watching the committee struggle to find ANY legitimate conflict of interest against the P&Z Commissioner who voted against the Imperial plan and Land Use Amendment, no decision was made and another meeting scheduled. Their dilemma, if they can’t find she violated the code, they must dismiss it as frivolous. How can they go against the Mayor? The Mayor brought nothing in the way of facts, just a proclamation that she must be found guilty. After all, he is the Mayor. He opened his presentation by playing the victim, how his reputation has been disparaged. Uh, what about the person you have accused? The committee barely found the strength to question him and allowed him to leave after a few minutes, then they proceeded to grill the accused for well over an hour. And most of the questioning had nothing to do with the video in question, the video that the Mayor could not even describe. But he knows it’s a conflict because he saw a screen shot of her in front of the Imperial building. The public hearing speakers all described the complaint as retaliatory, including two attorneys. How low has this mayor stooped in his effort to retaliate? Watch the performance on the link below. To be continued… Fort Bend Independent Fort Bend Star

04/24/2023

Ahhh, the propaganda begins. According to one Council member, the goal is to make Sugar Land like Austin. 2024 ELECTIONS WILL MATTER

Ruth Lohmer, the assistant director of planning and development services for the City of Sugar Land, knows a thing or two about what makes a city work.   Lohmer began working for Sugar La…

04/22/2023

Is the Sugar Land Ethics Board investigating a valid conflict of interest or looking to remove ALL REALTORS from serving on City Boards? The questions that were raised in the decision to move forward with an investigation had NOTHING to do with the frivolous complaint that was submitted by the Mayor. BECAUSE THEY HAD NOTHING RELEVANT TO THE COMPLAINT TO DISCUSS! GET THE NO VOTES OFF P&Z.