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Westward Expansion


Dariusb

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It depends on far into the future you're thinking. In-fill suburbs will definitely take over Grand Parkway and spread west, but exurban subdivisions will likely start sprouting in places like Hempstead. Once 249 reaches Navasota, the sprawl that separates greater Bryan-College Station and Houston will get blurrier.

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It depends on far into the future you're thinking. In-fill suburbs will definitely take over Grand Parkway and spread west, but exurban subdivisions will likely start sprouting in places like Hempstead. Once 249 reaches Navasota, the sprawl that separates greater Bryan-College Station and Houston will get blurrier.

 

Do you think it's possible for the suburbs of Houston and the outer reaches of Bryan-College Station could actually touch?

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Over time, all smaller cities neighboring larger ones will grow. No matter how far west or north it goes, at some point you're going to sound ridiculous saying you live in a suburb of Houston. I personally think those along the Grand Parkway or Woodlands are already in that boat. The city boundaries haven't changed and probably won't. I view the westward expansion more of a product of time. People need cheaper places to live, and cities everywhere continue to grow. There's nothing special about the west.

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I really don't see a masive shift into Brookshire because of Royal ISD. They don't have the reputation of a upper end sububan school district. Right now the big subdivision with a Brookshire address is Willow Creek Farms but it is Katy ISD. You may get some starter neighborhoods in Brookshire (Royal ISD). I think where your major growth will be is between 290 and 10 along Grand Parkway. You already have big MPC planned for that area that are just now building or about to take off.

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  • 2 weeks later...

All of these suburban school districts started somewhere. Waller doesn't have that reputation either, but some of those master planned communities along 99 will be zoned to Waller ISD.

That's how all these suburbs develop--they'll tend to latch onto an existing town and essentially transform it into a suburb. At one time, Sugar Land and Katy were small towns independent of Houston with their own identity. The subdivisions grew like cancer, but they at least grew to some measure of success.

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Sugar Land never latched on as they probably did it best out of the suburbs and took time to develop their own brand.....they never associated with Stafford (next door) but caused Missouri City to adopt similar principals on the HWY 6 corridor

 

Sugar land requires that "look" as you can't build a restaurant with the Houston or other area "look"...you got to have that generic look and some hate that as they say you cannot distinguish basic fast food restaurants 

 

 

 

 

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I think it depends on where the jobs will be. As our Satellite Cities grown and form their own gravity (Woodlands esp.), they will have their own "suburbs". People who live in places like Cut and Shoot (the sticks), already commute to the Woodlands. That's really what Houston has become, just a bunch of islands of large employment. Of course, people still commute in from the far west and from the Woodlands to Houston, but as these further out office locations get bigger they start to attract their own commuters from places equally as far from their center to Downtown. Unless this cycle is broken, then there is really no stopping this mega-suburban sprawl to continue out further and further out until no more employment centers develop. 

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  • 1 month later...

That's how all these suburbs develop--they'll tend to latch onto an existing town and essentially transform it into a suburb.

 

I was shocked about a year ago to see that this had happened to Fulshear. I started going out there to Dozier's Grocery for barbecue in about 2000, usually via Westheimer/FM 1093, and pretty fast after you got past Highway 6, it seemed like you were out in the country all the way. Seemed to be that way well into the late 00s at least. But then when I went out there last year it seemed that Fulshear had become surrounded by Katy suburbs, and the old town had been made-over into a faux-folksy strip mall. It seemed like it happened overnight and is so disheartening.

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I doubt the suburbs will touch but they'll develop if the city can support the infrastructure

 

You gotta have a big development first to spur growth as Fulshear has Cross Creek, a decent school district plus its next to Katy and in the path of the Westpark Tollway so it was a natural so to speak....plus, the perception of "small town" helps along with being close to Weston Lakes

 

Brookshire is only 7 miles to the North and near Katy but they're ingrained in old politics, the ISD is not considered the same as its local peers and it has a different rural feel than Fulshear......you may have industry come to Brookshire for tax breaks but Katy will be the desired choice for residential living

 

Waller is attracting large industry but like Brookshire, the residents will prefer Cypress first until a development can offer a Cypress type feel in the area

 

 

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 It depends on who is doing the investing and who is willing to invest . Most will develop near a major transportation infrastructure or corridor which is likely a catalyst for business then residential use .The West is vastly undeveloped and is available for any future use. 

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The Woodlands controls Conroe and Willis' growth...

 

Katy is not as developed as the Woodlands to drive growth to far flung cities....Brookshire may get a new strip center at best off I-10 and 359 as demographically, the city is too small 

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The extent of westward expansion will depend largely upon development (or lack thereof) of the Prairie Parkway. New highways lead to new master planned communities. On that note, the next big development area has to be along and north of the under construction Grand Parkway between 290 and 249--even moreso if they continue extending the Tomball Tollway as the Aggie Expressway.

 

What will be more interesting is if/when the high speed rail is built and if/when the College Station/Huntsville area (Shiro) station is built, to what degree will that area evolve as a city.

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The Woodlands controls Conroe and Willis' growth...

Katy is not as developed as the Woodlands to drive growth to far flung cities....Brookshire may get a new strip center at best off I-10 and 359 as demographically, the city is too small

The Energy Corridor is what will fuel the growth out that way. There has been an increase in office development west of the energy corridor too. Most of it is springing up along the Grand Parkway (mostly north of I-10) and between Mason and Katy-Ft. Bend road along I-10.

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  • 3 weeks later...

again, they may be in Brookshire limits but growth will occur in the Katy ISD part first....Royal ISD's perception is going to keep the mega developments away for now unfortunately unless a development can enter and get their own elementary school built....These new developments in Hockley zoned to Waller ISD wont take off until the new high school is announced so the East part of the district can keep to themselves 

 

Magnolia ISD built Magnolia West for the old guard and turned Magnolia High to the Woodlands folks in that zone

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