La Salle supports Cotulla’s Whitetail Ridge development

By Marc Robertson - Editor | February 25, 2026

Affordable housing project moves forward…

An estimated $2 million may be earmarked by the La Salle County government during the coming year in support of a housing development launched by the city of Cotulla, according to commissioners’ votes Monday, February 23.

The Whitetail Ridge project is based on tax credits and supplemental funding from a range of sources to build more than 40 family residential units on hitherto undeveloped real estate between the

Las Palmas business park and the Ramirez/Burks Elementary School. The project aims to alleviate a local housing shortage, according to Cotulla city councilors.

During the past two months, the project has undergone a number of changes, with a 2025 competitive application to the state government for nine percent in tax credits resulting in Cotulla being ranked out of the running for the funds.

An alternate plan based on four percent in tax credits for the project meant a design change last month and a doubling of the number of family units to 80 in a development based primarily on rental apartments.

An announcement last week that Hidalgo County may decline to accept the funding for projects it had planned may return Cotulla’s Whitetail Ridge to the eligible few, according to City Administrator David Wright and Pegy Brimhall, housing consultant to the city.

Cotulla councilors are scheduled to hold a special meeting this week to put their names to a new resolution supporting the Whitetail Ridge development and submit a second application to the

Texas Department of Housing and Community Affairs for the competitive nine-percent housing tax credits award.

The reversal means Cotulla may dust off its earlier plan to develop fewer units as well as a park with a pedestrian walkway to the elementary school, and to open the project for construction of single-family homes.

Built under contract with the non-profit Volunteers of America organization, the housing development is aimed at middle-income families and will require credit checks of all its residential applicants. and will expect occupants to remain employed while living at Whitetail Ridge, both Brimhall and Volunteers of America representative Deborah Welchel have indicated.

Brimhall told La Salle County commissioners on Monday that the current plan for Whitetail Ridge is a 48-unit multi-family housing development on Mars Drive “for working families earning less than the median income.”

Those residents, she indicated, may include foodservice employees and retirees on a fixed income.

“This is a great amenity for all those working people who qualify,” Brimhall said on Monday, “but it requires local contribution.”

Cotulla city councilors have thrown their support behind the project and have begun talks on committing funds to the development.

Brimhall was joined by the city administrator at the county county commissioners’ meeting this week to announce that Cotulla’s contribution will likely extend to installation of utility services at the site.

“The city is looking for more grants,” Brimhall said in her request to the county for $2 million. “The city also wants to explore the possibility of establishing a public facilities development corporation with the county and sharing seats on the board.”

Council permission for the administrator to initiate formation of the corporation is also on the agenda for the special meeting at City Hall.

Attorney Keith Franklin, legal counsel to the commissioners’ court, said after a 20-minute closed-door meeting with elected officials that he would recommend the county approving support for the project, subject to legal examination of any agreement.

The county government has yet to announce how much it is prepared to contribute, and a construction cost estimate for the housing development has yet to be confirmed.

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