Once two-lane thoroughfares with little traffic and few residents, Kuykendahl and Gosling roads have seen an onslaught of development and hundreds of new homes built in the last few years.
“I guess the thing that you’ve got to get your arms around is we used to be a sleepy little neighborhood,” said Jim Sheffield, general manager of the Northampton Municipal Utility District. “You got home, and there wasn’t any traffic or anything. That’s all gone now.”
Rapid development and increasing congestion along the two roadways have prompted plans from Harris and Montgomery counties to expand the roadways as the two entities try to find funding for transportation projects throughout the region.
Projects increase congestion
Work has begun on two master-planned communities along Kuykendahl Road in the last year. Augusta Woods Village, south of August Pines Drive, could house a Wal-Mart and multifamily development. Meanwhile, the Lakes at Creekside—developed by J. Alan Kent Development—will bring 600 homes in the next few years to the area near Kuykendahl and Hufsmith roads.
J. Alan Kent also developed the Creekside Augusta Pines neighborhood at Kuykendahl and West Rayford roads. Creekside Augusta Pines has seen more than 400 lots built over the last three years and more than 250 homes occupied in that time, said Duane Islet, development manager for J. Alan Kent.
“[This region] seems to be the area that’s on fire here lately,” Islet said.
Robert Heineman, vice president of planning for The Woodlands Development Company, said the traffic counts are already high on Kuykendahl and Gosling roads. He said they will only increase because of developments like the Wal-Mart, which is due to begin construction this fall with an opening date planned for fall 2016.
“The primary driver will be the opening for the Grand Parkway, with traffic on all of the north/south major thoroughfares,” Heineman said. “[Traffic on] Gosling and Kuykendahl [roads] and [FM] 2978 should increase significantly.”
According to TWDC, the daily traffic traveling south of Flintridge Drive on Kuykendahl Road has increased by 28 percent from April 2013 to April 2015 while daily traffic at Gosling Road and Creekside Forest Drive has risen 29 percent in two years.
Heineman said the projections of even higher numbers of traffic are based on certain assumptions, including the Grand Parkway attracting drivers away from I-45. Drivers will use Gosling and Kuykendahl roads as avenues to get to and from the Grand Parkway.
The Grand Parkway has been a key selling point for Maverick Development, which has two separate mixed-use projects planned along Gosling Road. President Bryan Frenchak said Gosling Road will be the first exit for motorists traveling westbound from Springwoods Village once segments F-1, F-2 and G are complete later this year.
Frenchak said he had no idea Gosling Road would develop as quickly as it has when he purchased 400 acres along the roadway in 2000.
“It was a dead-end road before the bridge went through [across Spring Creek],” said Frenchak, who sold much of the land to other developers.
Expansion money woes
Harris County has plans to accommodate the growth along Gosling Road by expanding the two-lane road from Spring Stuebner Road to Creekside Forest Drive. The county will expand the thoroughfare through three different segments and a bridge across Spring Creek that could total a combined $28.7 million.
Harris County Precinct 4 Commissioner Jack Cagle said funding has been identified for the first phase of the widening, from Spring Stuebner Road to Mossy Oaks Road, which could be put out to bid later this year. However, funding is not available for the remaining two segments or the bridge, which may be funded through a partnership with Montgomery County and The Woodlands Road Utility District.
“I guess the thing that you’ve got to get your arms around is we used to be a sleepy little neighborhood. You got home, and there wasn’t any traffic or anything. That’s all gone now.”
- Jim Sheffield, general manager of the Northampton Municipal Utility District
Mike Bass, board member for The Woodlands RUD, said there is no disagreement about the congestion on Kuykendahl and Gosling roads, but there is a lack of available funding for their expansions. Voters in Montgomery County turned down a potential road bond in May, while Harris County Commissioners Court has placed an $848 million bond referendum on the Nov. 3 ballot.
If approved by voters, Harris County’s bond will provide $700 million in road projects across all four precincts.
“We are encouraged we should be able to have funding to go forward,” Cagle said. “But if we do not pass the bond, we’ll have to do some serious belt tightening, and we don’t know where that belt tightening will have to be.”
The bond would only help build up to the Montgomery County line, however. Bass said widening Gosling Road in Montgomery County and building the bridge across Spring Creek will require money from both counties. Both counties and the RUD are also attempting to partner for an additional bridge for Kuykendahl Road across Spring Creek.
Growing pains
The rapid development along Gosling and Kuykendahl roads and its accompanying congestion create challenges for local entities.
Sheffield said the Northampton MUD services about 1,700 homes within the district, but about 700-800 homes are being built in the MUD by homebuilder D.R. Horton. The MUD is working on a nearly $2 million sewer plant expansion and has plans for a new water plant to accommodate the growth.
“We have to pass bonds and sell those bonds, and we have to spend a lot of money on engineering and legal to get these plants built,” he said. “But the return is there will be taxable property on the ground, and we’ll make this money back at some point.”
Despite the additional homes the MUD has to service, Sheffield said the new development has benefited the community, including the new grocers and retailers along the roadways.
Klein ISD has also planned for the growth along the two roads with a new school—French Elementary—that will open this fall. Robert Robertson, associate superintendent for facilities for KISD, said the school was needed to alleviate overcrowding at Northampton and Zwink elementary schools.
“It has just boomed in the last two to three years,” Robertson said. “It’s not just the subdivisions like McKenzie Park and Hampton [Creek], but the multifamily housing that’s going in.”
Voters approved a $498 million bond referendum for the district in May that will fund three additional schools on the north side of the district. Robertson said the district will need several schools before it reaches completion and is examining possible sites north of FM 2920.
