ww www.fbindependent.com .fbindependent.com
Phone: 281-980-6745
VOL 6 No. 27
FORT BEND FAIR. BALANCED. INFORMATIVE. WEDNESDAY, JULY 3 , 2013
P. O.BOX 623, SUGAR LAND, TX 77487-0623
Official newspaper of Fort Bend County, Missouri City & Sugar Land
Bond Advisory committee presents $50 million wish list By SESHADRI KUMAR Twelve tennis courts, a cricket field, a lake for Dragon Boat races, a festival site, and a hike and bike trail that goes under U.S. Highway 59 to connect to Highway 6 and Highway 90 are among the projects recommended by the Sugar Land Citizen Bond Advisory Committee for inclusion in a proposed $50 million parks bond referendum. Sugar Land City Council established the Citizen Bond Committee to prioritize projects for a bond election in November. Jarvis Hollingsworth and Dr. Betty Baitland, both Sugar Land residents, served as co-chairs of an executive committee comprising John Heineman, Terri Wang, Tim Stubenrouch, Michael Schiff, Mona Parikh, Rodney Vannerson, Mary Favre and Greg Stirman. Four subcommittees with several interested citizens studied the proposals. The committee studied the following four projects:
Parkland development along the Brazos River that could include kayak launches and other new active and passive amenities; A network of hike and bike trails throughout the City that address recreational and mobility needs; A festival site accommodating large-scale events like the City’s annual Fourth of July celebration and other cultural and entertainment events that benefit the local economy; and A community sports park that could include a multi-use recreational facility and facilities for lacrosse, tennis, cricket and more. The committee’s recommendations were presented to city council on June 18. Stubenrouch presented recommendations regarding a 77acre community park in the Telfair subdivision, estimated to cost about $17 million. The park will include 12 tennis courts,($1.4 million) a cricket field,( $735,000) a
Recommendations Summary .
Community Park Brazos River Park Hike & Bike Trails Festival Site Issuance/Escalation TOTAL Artist’s sketch of the proposed park in Telfair soccer field, a multipurpose field tee did not have any information including soccer ($2.9 million), a on operation costs either. Howcommunity park building ($1.25 ever, the committee was made million), landscaping and irriga- aware of tennis courts like the one tion ($2 million) and infrastruc- in New Territory, which generates ture and lighting ($2. 4 million). adequate revenue to maintain. The The community park project idea of so many tennis courts was also includes improvements and to make it a venue for major tourbeautification of a cemetery in naments and league matches. At this juncture, city officials Telfair. The committee did not have in- clarified that the list of projects formation on the use of other ten- and cost estimates were provided nis courts in the city. The commit- by the city to the committees. Committee members did not have any input in the design or other elements. Nor did they change any cost estimate provided by the city. Within the budget allocated to each of the four projects, with the total not exceeding $50 million, 3.5 million will move into the the committees simply prioritized ten-county area as a whole. How various components within each will the region accommodate that project. growth? If meaningful alternatives to car-centered suburban sprawl are not made more widely avail- By SESHADRI KUMAR Amidst accusations of misable for those who would choose fear-mongering, them, much of the county’s re- information, maining farmlands, prairies, bullying, and angry exchanges, forests, and marshes will surely Missouri City City Council apdisappear into subdivisions and proved rezoning of a parcel of parking lots, according to Kline- land along the Fort Bend Parkway Toll Road and Highway for berg. The challenge today is not in apartments. The vote was 5-2. The second and final reading finding people who want to live in more compact, urbanized com- of the ordinance elicited widemunities, but in building places spread email communications across the region that can accom- among different sections of Missouri City residents, urging city modate them, he said. Attitudes toward immigration council not to approve the apartand diversity have improved sig- ments. Increase in crime rate, nificantly over these years, the falling home values, school overcrowding, missed opportunity for survey shows The proportion of area resi- a ‘town center’ were among the dents who would like to see the most common reasons cited by United States admit more or the opponents of apartments. Two Fort Bend ISD trustees same number of immigrants in the next ten years as were admit- Jenny Bailey and Dave Rosented in the last ten years grew from thal, who are also Missouri City residents, with other residents 37% in 1995 to 68% in 2013. The percent in favor of “grant- Noel Pinnock and Kris Allfrey ing illegal immigrants a path to spoke at the council meeting, oplegal citizenship if they speak posing the apartment project. “We have a right to expect our English and have no criminal record” increased from 64% in leadership to hold a vision to our community...We want a com2009 to 83% in 2013. In 2013, 61% asserted that the munity that is good for business, increasing immigration into this good for jobs, good for our chilcountry today “mostly strength- dren, good for those who protect ens” (rather than “mostly threat- us and good for those who need ens”) American culture, up from protection. We depend on our leaders to deliver a better city,” 51% in 2009. The number of area residents Pinnock said in his remarks. Pinwho consider homosexuality to nock has plans to run for mayor. Bailey, speaking as a resident be “morally wrong” dropped from 59% in 1997 to 43% in this and not a trustee, said Missouri City residents want a leisure year’s survey. In 1997, only 32% agreed that destination like the Sugar Land “marriages between homosexu- Town Center as such centers inals should be given the same le- creased “community cohesion.” gal status as heterosexual mar- She believed the best place for riages.” Support for same-sex such a development is Highway marriage grew to 37% in 2001 6/ FB Toll Road intersection. Sugar Land understood that a and to 46% in 2013.
‘Alternatives to car-centered suburban sprawl needed’ By SESHADRI KUMAR The single, most ethnically diverse county in the United States is Fort Bend County. The county’s population is almost equally divided among four ethnic groups, Anglos 36 percent, Latinos 24 percent, African Americans 21 percent and Asians 19 percent. Houston area’s destiny is to be the ethnic center of the demographic revolution and be the microcosm of the world, says Stephen Klineberg, Rice University researcher and codirector of Kinder Institute for Urban Research at Rice University. Klineberg presented the findings of the 2013 Houston Area Survey conducted by the Kinder Institute at a luncheon hosted by the Fort Bend Chamber of Commerce at Safari Texas Ranch recently. Through 32 years of systematic research, the annual Kinder Institute Houston Area Survey has measured this region’s remarkable economic and demographic transformations and recorded the way area residents are responding to them. The study is now reaching representative samples of residents from the entire 10-county Houston metropolitan region, including Harris and Fort Bend Counties. Houston has been a great magnet for immigrants and no other city has benefited due to immigration like Houston, Klineberg said. Demographically no city has been transformed as irreversibly as Houston in the last 30 years. “We are a special place,” Klineberg said. Harris County residents today are feeling better about the area’s economic prospects. In 2012, respondents identified the economy as the city’s biggest concern at 37%. This year, respondents’
concerns are more diversified, and only 26% identify the economy as the biggest problem. In the 2013 survey 73% agreed that, to succeed in today’s world, “it is necessary to get an education beyond high school.” Fewer than one in four believed instead that “there are many ways to succeed with no more than a high school diploma.” Houston is arguably the most sprawling, least dense, most automobile-dependent major city in America. It is the epitome of the new and now-dominant form of urban settlement in America, known as the “MCMR” (the Multi Centered Metropolitan Region). Houston area contains some 15 to 18 important “activity centers,” concentrations of employment, retail outlets and residences that are spread over an area of more than 10,000 square miles, larger than the entire state of New Jersey. Surveys have documented a strong preference for the option of “walkable urbanism.” Only 47% of the respondents in 2012 said they would prefer to live in “a single family home with a big yard, where you would need to drive almost everywhere you want to go.” More than half (51%) would opt instead for “a smaller home in a more urbanized area, within walking distance of shops and workplaces.” In 2013, fully half of respondents indicated an interest in living in “an area with a mix of developments, including homes, shops and restaurants.” Areas like Sugar Land and Pearland are providing this alternative, Klineberg said. In the course of the next 20 years, the Houston-Galveston Area Council forecasts that Harris County will add another one million residents, and another
Next, Michael Schiff presented the plan on the proposed Brazos River Park, Phase II. This included a lake for Dragon Boat races, at a cost of $3.7 million. The total project cost for the Brazos Park, including access road and parking is $13.3 million. Heineman presented the plan on connecting existing hike and bike trails at a total cost of $9.2 million. The Ditch H trail, including the U.S. 59 underpass would cost about $6 million. The hike and bike trail would be 10-footwide, concrete pavement. Finally, the 52-acre festival site would include a 32-acre site for the festival itself. It will have an 80-foot road and a 65-foot access drive. There will be no structure on this site. Preparing
$16,802,491 $13,379,200 $9,213,765 $5,929,200 $4,672,715 $49,997,371 the ground, building parking lots and access roads and laying water lines and power lines would cost about $6 million. Suggestions for permanent restrooms were ruled out because the existing terms agreement with the University of Houston regarding the site usage, excludes any permanent structure on the site. The city plans to implement the new park projects over five years and the potential impact on the debt service tax rate is likely to be about 5 cents per $100 property valuation. The next steps are acceptance of the recommendations by city council (July 16) and a public hearing on Aug. 6, following which city council is expected to call for a bond election on Aug. 20.
Council votes 5-2 on apartments town center would enhance the quality of life in the community and the city even removed a golf course to accommodate more businesses, she said. Bailey also expressed concern that the proposed apartments, being built across the street from Hightower High School would have a major impact on the attendance boundary. The transient nature of apartment residents would not help create a cohesive community, she said. Rosenthal also echoed Bailey’s sentiments regarding the potential impact on Hightower High school if the apartments are built. Mayor Allen Owen engaged in a lengthy exchange with Bailey and Rosenthal and sought to educate them on the issues and concerns they raised. Such dialogues are unusual during public comments. A town center is planned elsewhere in the vicinity, Owen said. Missouri City has 88 percent of the people living in their own homes and only 3.8 percent live in apartments. In Sugar Land, 11 percent live in apartments, Owen said. Allfrey, who has been spearheading a campaign against the apartments, began his angry remarks by accusing the mayor of “bullying” the two school board trustees. “You are talking down on these people. I get offended. I don’t appreciate it,” Allfrey said. Councilman Don Smith asked Allfrey not to yell. Allfrey said the hundreds of apartments proposed would burden law enforcement as the city is already 30 police officers short. Ten years from now the city will have run down apartments, af-
fecting home values, he said. “We want high income individuals living here,” he said. “Quail Valley residents have everything they want; the rest of the city does not,” Allfrey said. Councilman Robin Elackatt said he listened to his constituents and they did not want the apartments. Apartments should not be built merely to support a shopping center, he said. Also, the city has a shortage of police officers, he said. He praised the development in Sugar Land and wanted Missouri City to emulate it. He described the land under discussion as one of the last remaining major piece for development. He voted against the proposed change of zoning. Councilman Jerry Wyatt, who has never before voted for apartments in Missouri City, citing all the misinformation, decided to change his mind and voted for the apartments for the first time. Councilman Danny Nguyen, who voted previously for the project, changed his mind saying the project would not contribute to economic development or improve the quality of life. Yolanda Ford, who took office Monday night as Dist. A councilwoman, replacing Bobby Marshall, cast her vote in favor of the project, with Owen, Wyatt, Smith and Councilman Floyd Emery. Four weeks ago, during the first reading, Wyatt and Elackatt voted against the project. Two weeks ago, when the item came up for a second and final reading, Elackatt tagged it. This gave an opportunity for the opposition to organize.