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That facility was built on Bond Money not Property taxes collected. Two entirely independant entities. Taxes were rasied in Cy Fair due to budget projections expecting property to be apprasied at a certain value by a certain year. When those projections fell short the district faced a budget shortfall. Cy Fair's facilities have absolutly nothing to do with the tax increase becasue they were built with bond money which was passed by the voters. And you can not use bond money for any other purpose than it was approved on by yhr voters. Side note, the proprty taxes in Klein were lowered from $1.72 per $1000, to $1.58 per $1000 at the last meeting. Nice job Klein School Board. And they are still building great new facilities to meet the districts need, all with Bond Money.

I do have a problem with Rick Perry, he is not a good leader for the State of Texas. And I even as a conservative will vote for someone else in this election. I am not for building tollroads to fund education, I remember that is why the lottery was created in Texas, to fund education. Building tollroads with taxpayer money is illegal I think in Texas so that is one problem, another is getting foreign investors to fund it, I have a problem with Perry putting up a big "For Sale" sign on the State of Texas to build his "Legacy" Texas Trans Corridor, or more tollroads. You want more highways built? Why, why does it have to be a tollroad? It already costs a fortune to drive with gasoline prices, I prefer the State invest in a Mass Tansit system instead of building more Tollroads, and or Freeways. How about some real rail in Texas? Houston is soooooo far behind the curve in mass transit it is a freaking joke. Every other major city in America has a legit mass transit system in place, or is building one. Houston is the 4th largest cityin America, that is spread over an enormous area and yet we have a joke of train that runs downtown. And the light rail expansion plan is just idiotic, where's the plan for the daily commuter? TXDOT and the Gov't is encouraging energy consumption not conservation by building more highways and not investing in Mass Transit. Damnit I hate this you make me sound like an enviromentalist whacko.

Get your facts straight? Let me educate you on how building highways works. These projects were on the books probably before you were born depending on your age. It takes an incredibly long time to get these projects rolling due to the planning stages of where it is going to go, land aquisistion, impact studies, approval, funding, design, and finally construction. Some projects never get built, but shelved for years until the money is there. Perry didn't create these himself, but his current position is to build bigger highways, and make them tollraods to generate money for the State. Rick Perry is a major cheerleader for many of these projects, Texas Trans Corridor, Grand Parkway, and anything else that ha the word Tollroad attached. And he has no problem getting foreign investors to fund the building of these tollroads. What I am saying is that these wish list roads will probably "die on the vine" if he doesn't get re-elected. His opponents have publicly said they oppose building more tollroads, Hell Strayhorn even says it in her commercials. I know you want your precious aggie highway from Houston to College Station built so you can get to the Motherland easier but some of us would rather have that money spent elswhere where it is needed like education.

You want to kill the 249 expansion to *cough* College Station *cough* excuse me Navsota, and You want to kill the Grand Parkway, and the Hempstead Highway Tollroad, and all this tollroad expansion? Then vote Rick Perry out of office. He goes, many of these projects would be shot down by his competition.

A 290 Expansion has already been awarded to a design firm and is currently in design. It involves a new interchange at 290, and 610 with expanded freeway all the way out to Highway 6. Timeline, about 15 years. And it is just too bad we all aren't as smart as Niche. Just a damn shame.

Didn't they try this high speed rail a few years back and it fell through becasue SWA has political influence and killed it? If it did go down the 249 corridor would it use the existing rail track that is currently there, or would they lay down new track?

While a rail link between Galveston and Houston is a great idea, it would need to be done right. If you wanted this to help spur on the cruise industry, which is the future of Galveston imo, then you need a real train, not a trolley car or a metro rail. People gettign off from a plane at hobby will not want to lug around lugagge onto a small trolly for the ride to Galveston. It will need to be a Mass Transit style train with room for lugagge. Also leave metro out of it, they are doing a good enough job screwing up the "mass transit" in Houston at a snails pace no less. Galveston will need to study areas that deal with this issue on the East Coast where outlying cities use rail to get into major urban areas. If this is done right then it would be an incredbile asset to the Island. Don't use Houston as any kind of rail model if you want success.

How in the world did a comapny like Anslow Baily Construction Ltd land a project like this? Hermann has a select group of Contractors they like to use and I do not remember a $700,000 a year volume housing Contractor being on the list.

Wow, I used to work on Hermann Projects and never saw this building in their master plan. Who is the Architect, and the Contractor for this Project?

pine, is there anywhere online I can get an actual updated map that shows the real route of the F-2 segment. From what I have read it has not changed really at all but I just need to see for myself. Also I plan on being at this hearing on the first night, how many people are you expecting to come out and speak against the road, and how many of those people are people of influence, not just a regular joe like myself who's opinion doesn't matter to those who are trying to build this road through my living room? I just want to know what to expect and it sounds like you have been through this before.

I have been driving past this site which is now moving forward and have been wondering if it was actually this named project. Since that sign has been sitting there for years, and the property looked so unattended for years I wonder if this actually is these residential condos, or just another strip center being put in by a developer who bought the property.

mr football I couldn't agree more. I graduated from Klein Forest in 1990 and it is not even close to the same school it was back then. I had friends at Cy Creek, and dated a girl that was at Westfield and i can see how far these schools have slid. It is very dissapointing to see what used to be a great schools go downhill so fast. Unfortunatly I think the downhill slide all these schools are facing is a irreversible trend.

Niche it is becoming painfully obvious to me and probabaly a few others that you have no idea about things that occur outside a book. Don't get me wrong, when it comes to quoting economic theories that can be looked up in a half second on google your great, but, when the real world needs a problem solved you would probably be one of the last people to call. I suggest that if you don't know the particular details about a very controversial topic like the Grand Parkway, speciffically segment F-2, and concrete sound barriers you shouldn't chime in. Leave the discussion to those who actually do know what is going on. Economist

Again I am the idiot for responding to Niche, and now that you claim to be an economist shows me you have no real world experience. Sound walls are more than poured concrete. Actually they are 8" thick precast concrete panels about 15' tall and 10' wide containing a few tons of steel reinforcement placed on a concrete grade beam with anchor bolts, and supporrted by additional cast in place columns on each side of each panel. Since you are a self proclaimed economist I guess you would know what concrete is going for these days, and steel is going for these days, not to mention the high cost of these being precast pieces as is industry standard. Your looking around $5,000 per panel, not including the grade beam work, the columns for support and the labor to install. This is not an economics debate genius, it is an enviromental one, and how this road will impact the residential communites that already exists. You want the economics of it here it is, existing residential property will decrease, potential commercial property value will increase. More tax dollars are generated through the commercial business than from the residential, so guess who wins there. Not to mention developers like the ones in Gleannloch Farms have already filled up the residential zones in their community, no w they could care less abou those folks they are goin go to do whatever it takes to in crease the value of their commercial zones, which is why they have DONATED land for the GP. and already made plans on future commercial development around it. It is now nothing more than a money grab for them. As far as economics is concerned in this case you should know that the need for the road does not balance with the expense for it. This road is not driven by need, it is driven by the allmighty dollar. And yes I do have something at stake in this, the value of my home, which by your logic is irrelevnat becasue it not worth a half million and located in West Universty, or the Woodlands. Us poor people in Spring who only have $350,000 homes can take the hit I guess.

Niche, I know you are just trolling on this topic. Obviously you have nothing at stake with this road going through, and it is obvious you do not know the area of Spring very well, or anything about road construction. Soundwalls are not inexpensive, and do not work, the fact that you think they are inexpensive is laughable. I would know,I spent many years in the Heavy Highway construction business. They are nothing more than an attempt in place to appease a neighborhood. When after the fact the neighbors find out they have nothing more than a 15' concrete wall in their backyard to stare at to go along with the noise. And if you think it is ok to lower the propertyvalue on home that has been there for years before the route of this road was even put in to place, create noise pollution, and be an overall menace to an area that has announced many times that it does not want this road just to give a fraction of the access to a freeway that is already easily accessable then you are nothing more than an ass. Many homes above your estimated price range will be DIRECTLY affected by this road, not that the cost of any home should be an issue on this. Moving this road north puts it in a more rural area so it would have the most minimal impact on decreasing residential property values, yet increase the potential commercial values of the property around it.

Niche, people in this area already have good access to I-45, FM249, and US 290, it's called beltway 8. And the home value argument is retarded. So it is ok to lower the value of homes in Spring because they are not the same value in West U? And guess again on that price range, many of the houses that could be affected cost well over 300K. There is a neighborhood right on Boudreax that will either be right under the freeway, or relocated, but those homes are around $90K at the most so it's ok according to your logic. And sound walls, those are a joke. If you actually think thse work go ask someone who has one in their backyard. Not to mention the three years of construction it will take to complete a section behind these neighborhoods that are already established.

Niche, what pineda is sayng is the demand for the roadway is furter north in Montgomery County, not in Harris county in Spring. She is saying the road should be further north because that is where it is needed more. But John Lindsey apparantly doesn't own some land up there that he can sell to TXDOT, and developers for the road. After all he only wants $5,000 a day to be a consultant for land aquisition for the Grand Parkway after he retires from his seat up in Austin. No wonder he is the biggest cheerleader for this project which seems to be driven by personal gain not a need for the residents.

These people are happy because they won't lose their property for the addition of a road that is not intended for the residents, but intended as a bypass around Houston proper. It will be a heavy traffic road for traffic traveling along the future I-69 corridor. This is not intended for the locals to gain access to I-45, or FM 249. The people building this road could care less about the residents, which is beconing more obvious as this project moves forward.

Does the GP come off 249 heading east right ontop of the now existing Boudreax road, or a few yards south of Boudreax road like the original design? The new map on the flier is very misleading as I think is the intent. And in the Gleannloch Farms edition where you state it passes less than a mile from Frank ES, it is more like it passes about 500 to 1000 yards from it.

Got a certified letter in the mail from the Grand Parkway People. It was a flier talking about the public hearing on July 11th. It had a map on the flier but it looks as if the path for section F-2 has not changed at all. And according to the flier the northern route through montgomery county was not studied due to the lack of need. Looks like the residents of Spring are going to get screwed. Estimated time for construction to begin on F-2 is 2009.

HP is getting ready to pull the triggger on a deal on another piece of property out there and start developing. That stretch along 249 is about to explode.

I have heard that a Barnes and Noble is going in, along with some nicer restuarants. No word on any grocery stores.

Thanks it is our second actually. We have a three year old daughter, and this one due in July is a boy. We are very happy. Good to know that they are at least looking into the Northern route instead of the current one. As it stands now I could lose part of my backyard to it. If it gets moved off the Boudreax Road path just east of 249 and goes north I will throw a party and everyone will be invited.

pineda, please keep the board of that Parkway meeting. I will plan on attending if i can, my wife and I are expecting around that time so if I make it, I make it, if I don't I don't. Please Lord have them move it north.

I will be there. I am leaning towards Jim Smith. He has lived in Klein for a long time, kids went to Klein schools, and has had a vested interest in the district for a long time. The other guy, who's name is escaping me has only lived in the district for about 8 years, and has no kids. So I am not quite sure I understand his motivation for running. It will be sad to see Rick Mann leave the board, and he will be tough to replace. I know Rick and went to school with his kids. I believe Rick and some other board members are supporting Jim in this election.