The Lone Star College System is planning to build a new campus in the Village of Creekside Park in The Woodlands even though plans for the campus were seemingly scrapped after a May bond election failed.

The LSCS board of trustees voted in July to approve a $296 million budget for the 2013-14 year, a budget that includes $36.3 million for the new Creekside campus. Laura Morris, associate vice chancellor for marketing and communication for LSCS, said the new 85,000-square-foot campus will be on West New Harmony Trail, west of Kuykendahl Road.

The new campus is a few miles from the city limits of Tomball, and will provide residents living in northeast Tomball a closer location for classes, compared with LSC-Tomball on Hwy. 249.

Morris said construction could begin next fall.

The Creekside campus was initially part of a $497 million bond package brought to voters in a May bond election. Voters rejected the bond proposal, with 55.6 percent opposing the plan. According to LSCS, the new Creekside campus will be funded by revenue bonds. Revenue bonds are bonds paid for by the revenue a facility or program generates through its user fees.

Trustee David Vogt voted in favor of the bond, and he said there is an increased demand for a campus in Creekside.

"We expect to see a lot of demand there," he said. "That is an area of growth for The Woodlands and also an area of growth for all of those other communities, and [the location of the campus] is real close to the ExxonMobil campus."

Vogt said the revenue generated will come from higher fees for business training. He said student fees will not be increased to pay for the bond.

According to LSCS, a higher demand for workforce training programs is also driving the need for the Creekside center.

"We do training for a lot of businesses," Vogt said. "We offer technical training for laboratories, and there is still a huge demand for welders."

Vogt said the costs incurred by corporate training will be used to pay down the bond money to fund the campus.

In addition, the Lone Star College System Board of Trustees approved its 2013-14 property tax rate of 11.6 cents per $100 valuation, a 3 percent decrease from the previous year's rate.

We are pleased to be in the position to reduce the tax rate which will benefit LSCS taxpayers," LSCS Chancellor Richard Carpenter said.

The board of trustees approved the recommendation Sept. 5. The approved 2013-14 rate will cost an LSCS homeowner $116 per $100,000 of home value, down from $120 the previous year based on the tax rate of 11.98 cents per $100 valuation. Taxes remain unchanged for disabled residents and those over 65 years of age as part of a $75,000 property tax exemption and tax freeze, where the dollar amount owed is frozen the date the taxpayer qualifies for the exemption.

With additional reporting by Matt Stephens