Groves, Texas — The Groves City Council on Dec. 1 heard a presentation on a proposed transportation use fee intended to generate ongoing revenue for street maintenance and large reconstruction projects. Matthew Garrett of NewGen Strategies and Solutions described how the fee would be calculated, who would be charged and what the city could expect in implementation steps if council directs a feasibility study.

Garrett said the fee is typically allocated by estimating trip generation for different land uses and converting those trips into a single-family-equivalent billing unit. "It's linked to the way individual properties use your roadways," Garrett said, describing the approach used in dozens of Texas cities. He cited Copperas Cove's $10 monthly fee (effective January 2026) as an example that will produce "a few million dollars" for that city.

The consultant outlined a multi-step process: collect trip-generation data (using the ITE Trip Generation Manual), consolidate land-use categories for administration, map parcels to use categories via appraisal and billing records plus Google Street View and on-site validation, compute billing units (per room, per pump, per 1,000 square feet or per dwelling), and convert the resulting universe of billable accounts into single-family-equivalents to estimate revenue at a selected monthly rate.

City staff put local context around Garrett's presentation. City staff reported Groves maintains 182 streets totaling just under 75 miles (about 393,662 linear feet) and said a 2017 pavement condition assessment showed roughly 37% of streets in "good" condition and 63% in "fair or poor" condition. Staff supplied cost examples to illustrate funding needs: a seal coat at roughly $21 per linear foot, a two-inch overlay at about $76 per linear foot (about $38,000 per typical 500-foot block), mill-and-overlay at roughly $77,000 per block, and full reconstruction at about $173,000 per block (about $1.8 million per mile).

Council and residents raised several practical questions about design and impacts. Topics included whether privately operated park-and-ride lots would be classified as a billable use (Garrett said the ITE manual contains a park-and-ride category); how to account for heavy vehicles or trucks that pass through but do not originate or terminate in Groves (Garrett said such pass-through traffic is difficult to capture and that franchise fees for specific services can address some heavy-vehicle impacts); whether the fee would be kept in a dedicated fund (Garrett and staff recommended a dedicated special revenue or utility-style fund to keep trailable revenues and expenses separate); and whether the fee would replace existing street maintenance allocations (staff said current maintenance funds would remain in place and that the new fee would likely be used to fund major projects or debt service).

Residents asked about exemptions and multiple-vehicle households. Garrett said most jurisdictions charge a single residential base fee per household and offer case-by-case discounts or exemptions in limited circumstances; he cautioned that tracking vehicle ownership per household can be administratively costly and may not be worth the value added.

On schedule and cost, Garrett said a feasibility phase of roughly 60–90 days could produce an 80–90% confident estimate of billing potential and recommended a two-phase approach in which a modest feasibility study precedes any deeper data-perfection work. Staff and Garrett cited roughly $42,000 as a ballpark cost for the feasibility work based on prior engagements, noting that a later phase to finalize billing data and upload accounts would require additional funding.

Mayor Warren (referenced in discussion) and other council members thanked residents for attending and said the next step is for council to decide whether to proceed with the feasibility study and how to fund it. No formal action or vote was taken at the workshop.

If council moves forward, Garrett recommended a public engagement plan, early quick wins to demonstrate progress, and a dry-run billing test before sending the first customer bills.

The council adjourned the workshop at 6:45 p.m.; the question of funding the study and scheduling follow-up workshops is expected to return to a future meeting.