Willis ISD asks Conroe for selective tree‑ordinance variances; item dies for lack of motion

Willis Independent School District sought selective exemptions from Chapter 102 (vegetation/tree ordinance) for a 109‑acre campus expansion (Willis High School campus, FM 830 and Highway 75). The petition requested that existing, nonconforming conditions along the FM 830 frontage and within existing parking lots be grandfathered and asked to defer certain landscaping and irrigation requirements into 2026–27 timelines.

Staff explained it had received landscape plans later than civil plans; civil revisions altered detention pond and tree‑stand footprints and the two sets of plans did not match. The city’s landscape reviewer noted the school’s plan includes about 80,000 square feet shortfall of canopy credit and flagged that tree removals in protected zones equate to roughly 231 inches (about 17 protected trees) subject to mitigation penalties (about $250 per inch under the ordinance), producing a potential penalty figure the city must reconcile. The applicant’s representative said the current planting plan proposes substantially more new trees than removed and that some site constraints (old plats, detention requirements) create limited options.

Council debated but did not make a motion for approval or denial; without a motion the agenda item died for lack of action. Staff and the applicant were left to reconcile civil and landscape plans; staff indicated follow-up and potential revised submittals would be necessary.