Missouri City officials' hopes for increased development along Texas Parkway may be coming to fruition. City Council approved on its second and final reading a rezoning ordinance Tuesday for a mixed-use development on 23.06 acres.

Submitted by Christian Bible Church in partnership with Gardner Capital Development, the proposal includes the facility's existing youth outreach center, commercial land and two senior housing facilities—Gala at Texas Parkway and Jubilee at Texas Parkway—with a total of 160-240 units.

"What we know is that we're creating a lifestyle for our residents, and a part of that lifestyle is the age restriction," Jervon Harris, senior vice president of Gardner Capital's Texas region said at the ordinance's first reading Jan. 3. "But a big part of that lifestyle is the amenities that we provide."



The church currently owns the property and the land will be rezoned from local retail district to planned development district according to meeting documents. Christian Bible Church received a special use permit to open in 2008.

The site at 3222 Texas Parkway is north of the Turtle Creek shopping center and Roane Park, south of the Foodarama shopping center, east of the Quail Valley Thunderbird North subdivision, and west of the Quail Green South subdivision, according to meeting documents.

Harris said that after meeting with nearby community stakeholders and the Thunderbird North neighborhood, the proposal dropped its original plan to make one of the multifamily facilities general occupancy rather than age-restricted, or 55 years old or older. On Jan. 3, residents had voiced their support and opposition to the plan.

 



Police getting new license plate recognition equipment

Also at the meeting, council authorized the Missouri City Police Department to purchase two license plate recognition cameras and related equipment with a $59,225 grant from the Houston-Galveston Area Council

The equipment—sold by Vigilant Solutions Inc.—is mounted to police vehicles and allows officers to scan and process data from multiple licenses plates at the same time. Currently, officers can only process data manually for one license plate at a time, according to meeting documents.

Vigilant Solutions also maintains a commercial database of tolling, asset recovery and other information that users can access. As of now, MCPD cannot capture historical license plate data but the new equipment will have the ability.

"We plan on using [the cameras] on undercover vehicles and marked units,"MCPD Capt. Dwayne Williams said. "We can tap into data from other agencies."

Legislative priorities adopted

The council also adopted its legislative agenda for the 2017 session, which outlines what the city will advocate for in the state capital this year. According to meeting documents, the council agreed to support legislation that promotes "preservation of local control, maintenance of local funding mechanisms and control, preservation of the authority for home-rule municipalities, [and] rejection of unfunded state mandates."