MONTGOMERY COUNTY, Texas – Montgomery County’s new forensic center and the land it was built on took center stage in commissioners court this week.
The $13 million project on 9900 Carl Pickering Drive was approved in 2020 and opened in 2022.
It was supposed to help with a backlog in cases but has instead become the focus of a property dispute between the Federal Aviation Agency, TXDOT and county officials.
Precinct 3 Commissioner James Noack told KPRC 2 the FAA believes the forensic facility was mistakenly built on Conroe-North Houston airports property.
“Montgomery County built a new forensic facility, and that facility was built on airport property owned by Montgomery County. There is a disagreement between the FAA and Montgomery County on the actual ownership of the land. The FAA believes that land was owned by the government. Montgomery County’s assumption is we own that land, and we lease it to the FAA. Regardless, of the ownership of the land, when land that is leased to the FAA Is used for a non-aviation purpose, you have to get a release from the FAA to do something different with that property and Montgomery County failed to do that in this case,” said Noack.
Commissioner Noack said the FAA believes the county must now buy the seven-acre property, which was recently appraised at $1.3 million.
“My big concern with all this is when did people know there was an issue, why wasn’t it discussed in open court,” Noack said.
Noack claims he just found out about the issue but claims others in charge of the project knew two years ago.
Precinct 2 Commissioner Charlie Riley told KPRC 2 he became aware of the problem when construction first started but said it was too late to stop or pause the build.
“My message to taxpayers or anybody that’s concerned about this is we certainly didn’t do anything deliberately,” Riley said. “We did our due diligence by checking the county clerk’s office, there was no restrictions that we could find on it and the county clerk’s office says we own the seven acres.”
Montgomery County Attorney B.D Griffin and airport Director James Brown said the county and FAA are working to come to a solution but even if they don’t, the money for the property would not go to the FAA it would go to the Conroe-North Houston Airport budget.
Griffin also suggested in commissioners court Tuesday that the issue could be sent to a federal Judge.