Missouri City City Council approved a zoning ordinance July 20 that allows Houston Community College to build a new campus next to City Hall. HCC will relocate its existing Sienna Plantation campus to the new site once it is complete.

The new 75,000-square-foot campus is slated to break ground in October and is expected to open in January 2017. The $33.2 million project is intended to serve a larger student base in neighborhoods along Texas Parkway as well as spur future development along the corridor, city officials said.

“In my experience I have never had all entities on board that say this is the right thing to do,” Mayor Pro Tem Don Smith said. “The county, Johnson Development [Corp.], the city of Missouri City and [HCC] all participated in this thing. HCC will be put right in the middle of the targeted demographics.”

Missouri City Mayor Allen Owen said the relocation of the HCC campus in Sienna Plantation will serve as an anchor to revitalize growth along Texas Parkway. The project is a part of the city’s strategy to transform the city from a bedroom community to an economic hub, city officials said.

“This is our opportunity to put a facility on Texas Parkway to spur something we have wanted all along,” Owen said.