Tomball City Council approved a 30-year land lease with Harris County on Sept. 21 in a 5-0 vote.

The big picture: The agreement allows Harris County Precinct 3 to build the Mathews Community Center on city-owned land at 1414 E. Hufsmith Road, beside Broussard Park. Tomball will retain ownership of the land. The planned 24,000-square-foot building will feature:

• A gathering room seating about 170 people

• A stage

• Five classrooms

• Two flexible activity rooms

• Roughly 160-175 parking spaces

What’s next: The county has funding through its 2022 parks bond and is not asking Tomball to pay for construction. Precinct 3 expects to seek bids in October, begin construction around April 2027 and open the center in summer 2028.

Additionally, Tomball City Council requested a separate memorandum of understanding within 30 days regarding a traffic signal at the intersection of Hufsmith and Zion roads, though officials noted this work will not hold up the community center agreement.

Store officials confirmed that the Magnolia location of Petsense by Tractor Supply will be closing down in September 2026.

Two-minute impact: The company confirmed in a July 28 press release that the Magnolia location is closing along with 74 other stores nationwide due to underperformance over the past year.

As of now, this Petsense location is holding a store-wide sale offering up to 70% off select items.

The nonprofit organization United Way of Greater Houston announced Sept. 21 that CEO Amanda McMillian will retire on May 1, 2027. The board unanimously selected Angel Harris, the current vice president and chief advancement officer, to succeed her.

Harris will assume the president and CEO role immediately, while McMillian remains in her role through a nine-month transition.

Read all about it: Harris joined the nonprofit in 2021 with 30 years of nonprofit experience. In her five years in Houston, Harris has accomplished the following:

• Led organizational efforts for the Building Possibilities Campaign, raising more than $30 million to upgrade infrastructure and technology

• Helped rebrand marketing and communications initiatives

• Developed an eight-year revenue growth plan to generate over $580 million by 2031

A search for United Way's next chief advancement officer to replace Harris is currently underway, nonprofit officials said.

Something to note: United Way of Greater Houston is a nonprofit organization that connects residents in need with basic resources, financial stability programs, healthcare and support services, according to the organization's website.

The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality must stop issuing new permits for data centers, Gov. Greg Abbott said Sept. 21.

The overview: His order expands an existing pause on data center development in the state amid consistent public criticism of the booming industry. Abbott, who is running for a fourth term as governor, has recently moved to slow the growth of data centers after calling Texas “the epicenter of AI development" last year.

The context: Hundreds of proposed data centers are currently being audited by the Electric Reliability Council of Texas, which operates the state power grid.

Some developers may be able to get around the ERCOT pause by building in-house power infrastructure that is not connected to the grid, experts have said.

However, any construction project impacting at least 1 acre of land requires permits from TCEQ.

What they're saying: "As Texas faces increasing pressure on our water supplies and electric grid, we need to ensure that data centers operate efficiently and sustainably," said Luke Metzger, executive director of Environment Texas.