Baytown is building. Here's what, where, and who's paying.

Why this list matters

Our stories on your water bill and the city tax rate covered what residents are paying. This one covers what is being built. Both are true at the same time, and a fair reader should see both sides of the ledger.

More people, more pressure

The Census Bureau estimates Baytown had 86,561 residents on July 1, 2025, up about 1.2 percent from its revised April 2020 starting point of 85,547. The 2020 census itself counted 83,701; the Bureau's starting point is higher because it folds in later corrections, so the 1.2 percent is the fair growth figure. Lee College, the community college in town, reported a record 9,616 students in fall 2026, up 7.7 percent from a year earlier and above its previous high of 8,943 in fall 2024.

More people means more water through the plants, more sewage through the pipes and more cars on Garth Road. That is where most of the city's money is headed.

The city's five-year list

The city's adopted FY2027 budget includes a capital improvement plan for 2027 through 2031 that totals $982,107,134. That figure includes projects already under way, $111,275,087 in new allocations this year, and future needs. Some of this year's allocations are money moved from other projects, and one drainage project, about $7.4 million for the Danubina area, is marked unfunded.

By category, the five-year plan breaks down like this:

• Transportation: about $278.5 million.
• Wastewater treatment: about $237.2 million.
• Wastewater collection: about $135.6 million.
• The water treatment plant run by the Baytown Area Water Authority: about $121.1 million.
• Water distribution: about $93.6 million.
• Public buildings: about $50.7 million.
• Drainage: about $35.2 million.
• Parks: about $30.2 million.

Most of the money goes into pipes, plants and roads that few people ever see.

The big-ticket items

Some of the larger items on the city's current list:

• Garth Road reconstruction. The budget lists $76,800,676 for Phases A and B and the same figure for Phases C, D and E; we have asked the city whether the matching numbers are correct.

• The Baytown Area Water Authority's East surface water treatment plant, Phase 2 expansion: about $79.6 million. The city says it received a $69 million loan from the state's SWIFT water fund for the BAWA East expansion.
• The East District wastewater plant, Phase 2: about $41 million.
• Market Street: $26 million.
• The annual asphalt program for neighborhood streets: $20 million.
• An Interstate 10 lift station and force main for sewage: $29 million combined.
• Fire Station 2 replacement: about $14.8 million.
• Water meter replacement: about $7.2 million, and lead service line replacement: $6 million.

This year's new list adds sewer overflow pipe replacements on Steinman Street ($6.7 million) and at the West Texas Avenue bridge ($7.7 million), $3.25 million in reallocated funds for Sterling Municipal Library and its grounds, and $1.6 million to dredge Bayland Marina out to the channel. Among the topics the council weighed in on, the budget lists "sewer capacity/compliance issues and water and sewer rate increases."

What voters said yes and no to

In November 2025, the city put six bond propositions on the ballot, about $151.3 million in all. Two passed.

Approved: - Proposition B, $30.45 million for neighborhood streets, sidewalks and traffic: $20 million for asphalt renewal on 31 named streets, $2.5 million for sidewalk and crossing upgrades, about $7.5 million to replace and reprogram traffic signals on North Alexander Drive, and $451,000 to plan a trail link from Jenkins Park to the Goose Creek Trail. In the unofficial count the Baytown Sun reported on election night, it passed by a single vote, with provisional ballots still to be counted. - Proposition D, $4.25 million to design and buy land for a new Fire Station 4 on East Fayle.

Not approved: - Proposition A, about $69.9 million: Garth Road Phases C, D and E, the Cedar Bayou Lynchburg widening, and West Lobit Avenue. - Proposition C, about $14 million: West Baytown drainage Phases 2 and 3, and design work for Rollingbrook and West Main drainage. - Proposition E, $13 million: a new wetlands education center and arboretum at the Baytown Nature Center, which the city's project sheet describes as a new home for the programs at the Eddie V. Gray Wetlands Center, open since 1998 in a renovated bowling alley that floods. - Proposition F, about $19.8 million: synthetic turf and drainage at Wayne Gray Sports Complex, football fields at Unidad Park, and the city's share of Gene and Loretta Russell Park.

The city's bond project sheet for Garth Road Phases C, D and E listed $53.8 million in hoped-for grants on top of the bond share, for an $89.6 million project; the budget book carries a different figure, $76.8 million. Without the bond, those phases need another way to be paid for.

What private money is building

• San Jacinto Marketplace. The developer, Fidelis, describes a 500,000-square-foot open-air center on the 105-acre site of the old San Jacinto Mall at I-10 and Garth Road, with openings expected in late 2026. Named tenants include Sam's Club, Dick's Sporting Goods, Barnes & Noble, HomeGoods, Havertys, EoS Fitness, Five Below, Ross, Burlington, Portillo's, Pluckers, Bubba's 33, Texas Roadhouse and Einstein Bros. Bagels.
• Houston Methodist Baytown. A $17 million, 11,900-square-foot freestanding emergency center with 10 exam rooms broke ground in April 2026, with completion expected in mid-2027.
• ExxonMobil Baytown. The company started a project to rework three existing refinery units so the 584,000-barrel-a-day complex can make about 8,000 barrels a day of high-grade lubricant base stocks. Start-up is planned for 2028.
• TGS Cedar Port Industrial Park. The 15,000-acre rail-and-barge park outside town reports more than 25 million square feet of warehouses and plants. A 420,510-square-foot distribution center at 5300 E. McKinney Road was leased in September 2025, before it was finished.
• Port Houston. A 318-acre container terminal on Spilman Island, next to Barbours Cut, is in federal review. The plan calls for construction to start no later than 2032, with capacity from around 2036.

What stalled

Not everything announced gets built. ExxonMobil paused its proposed low-carbon hydrogen plant at the Baytown complex, a project reported at about $7 billion, in late 2025. No restart date has been announced.

Read the fine print

• The $982 million is a plan, not a promise. About $320 million of it is listed as future needs for 2028 through 2031, and the plan itself does not set aside money for them.
• Some projects appear in both the bond list and the city's plan. Proposition B's North Alexander signals show up in the FY2027 list as $6.9 million from the 2026 bonds.
• Private figures come from the companies or their developers. We have not seen contracts.
• The population estimate is the Census Bureau's. The city's budget book uses different population figures from several sources, so we used the Census numbers for both years.

Before you go

• Look up your own street in the asphalt list on the city's 2025 bond projects page.
• Check the Marketplace's opening dates with each store before you drive; the developer gives only "late 2026".
• If drainage on your street was in Proposition C, ask your council member what comes next.

More Baytown by the numbers: A year of Baytown building permits: warehouses, a new ER, and 136 new homes; Baytown's sales tax is up 41 percent since 2019. The plants still pay more.; Most Baytown-area flood claims came from outside the flood zone.

See the federal case behind much of the sewer spending: Baytown's sewer case: four years of talks, and what it means for your bill.

Sources

• City of Baytown, FY2027 Adopted Budget, Capital Improvement Program, pages 214-224 (https://www.baytown.org/ArchiveCenter/ViewFile/Item/1317)
• City of Baytown, 2025 Bond Projects (https://baytown.org/1447/2025-Bond-Projects)
• City of Baytown, GO bond project sheets for Garth Road Phases C, D, E and the Baytown Nature Center (https://baytown.org/1447/2025-Bond-Projects)
• Baytown Sun, "Incumbent councilmembers win, two bond propositions pass in election" (https://baytownsun.com/local/incumbent-councilmembers-win-two-bond-propositions-pass-in-election/article_4b821ff7-9874-4590-9bb1-ad3c388a6fae.html)
• U.S. Census Bureau, QuickFacts, Baytown city, Texas (https://www.census.gov/quickfacts/fact/table/baytowncitytexas/PST045224)
• Bluebonnet News, Lee College record enrollment (https://bluebonnetnews.com/2026/09/17/lee-college-in-baytown-hits-record-enrollment/)
• Fidelis, San Jacinto Marketplace (https://www.frpltd.com/blog/renaissance-of-retail-houstons-sprawling-open-air-marketplace-slated-for-late-2026-grand-opening)
• Baytown Economic Development Foundation, Houston Methodist emergency center (https://baytownedf.org/news/article/hospital-giant-breaks-ground-on-new-24-7-er-as-baytown-keeps-growing)
• Oil & Gas Journal, ExxonMobil Baytown reconfiguration project (https://www.ogj.com/general-interest/news/55356953/exxonmobil-kicks-off-construction-for-baytown-complex-reconfiguration-project)
• Baytown Economic Development Foundation, Cedar Port distribution center lease (https://baytownedf.org/news/article/tgs-cedar-port-industrial-park-signs-tenant-for-entire-420510-sf-distribution-center-underway)
• DredgeWire, Barbours Cut expansion enters federal review (https://dredgewire.com/port-houston-takes-318-acre-barbours-cut-expansion-into-federal-review/)
• Energy Capital HTX, ExxonMobil pauses Baytown hydrogen plant (https://energycapitalhtx.com/exxonmobil-pauses-baytown-hydrogen-plant)

En español

Baytown está creciendo. La Oficina del Censo estima 86,561 habitantes en julio de 2025, cerca de 1.2 por ciento más que en 2020, y Lee College tiene una matrícula récord de 9,616 estudiantes. El plan de obras de la ciudad para 2027 a 2031 suma unos $982 millones, sobre todo en agua, drenaje sanitario y calles. En noviembre de 2025, los votantes aprobaron unos $34.7 millones en bonos para calles, banquetas, semáforos y una estación de bomberos, y rechazaron unos $116.6 millones para Garth Road, drenaje, parques y un nuevo centro de humedales. Entre los proyectos privados están el San Jacinto Marketplace, una nueva sala de emergencias de Houston Methodist y una obra de ExxonMobil en su refinería.