Missouri City’s 60th anniversary of incorporation this year coincides with a review of the city’s Comprehensive Plan. Reminiscing on the past half-century has brought to light transportation and development needs in some of the city’s oldest subdivisions.

From Fondren Park in Harris County and Hunters Glen east of Texas Parkway, to Sienna Plantation and Riverstone master-planned communities south of Hwy. 6, officials acknowledge residents’ needs vary throughout the city. After he was re-elected May 7, Mayor Allen Owen said the city’s major issue for the next five years will be the aging infrastructure of older areas.

“For us to remain as one the best cities in the nation to live in, one of the safest cities, and one of the most scenic cities, we have to do what is necessary to keep up with our growth and long -term needs of the citizens,” Owen said.

At the Missouri City State of the City address April 25, the mayor said the time for simple street repairs had passed, and complete replacements are now more critical.

“We have begun in areas like Quail Valley East replacing streets like Quail Valley East Drive, and [we’re] just finishing up on Turtle Creek Drive from Texas Parkway to Hilton Head,” he said.

Both streets were identified as needing repairs in a citywide street study in 2013, which rated city roads on a scale of zero—meaning worst—to 100. Among the roadways ranked toward the bottom, most were concentrated near Cartwright Road, Quail Valley and Hunters Glen.

Before the city presents a draft of the updated Comprehensive Plan to the City Council this fall, staff members will meet in an advisory committee and solicit public input on what projects to include in the five-year document.

In addition, a five-year, citywide sidewalk repair program, with a projected budget of $4.3 million, is expected to be completed in 2020, according to the city’s Capital Improvement Program.

A new Comprehensive Plan

Updating the city’s Comprehensive Plan—a framework for future city projects that was last adopted in 2009—began in February with a public symposium. The goal is to identify potential projects that encourage a variety of land uses, manage city growth, enhance parks and recreation, and address mobility needs.

In keeping with the first and fourth goal, Owen said the plan will address public safety, drainage, transportation mitigation and redevelopment of the Texas Parkway and Cartwright Road corridors. The City Council is optimistic that a new campus for Houston Community College in 2017 will spark the momentum along Texas Parkway that Mayor Pro Tem Don Smith said came slower than expected.

“The district I represent, which is along the [Texas] Parkway corridor, it was an underserved area for sometime, and it’s taking a little while for that to catch up,” he said. “We’ve got absentee landlords on long strips of it—that don’t feel the way [the City Council does] about aesthetics.”

Additionally, Smith said land along the roadway needs restaurants and lunchtime crowds. He said residents would benefit from more shopping options nearby—particularly a major grocery store.

Hunters Glen III homeowners association member Ertwyn Henry also said he was unsatisfied with his neighborhood’s access to stores and amenities, but he is not surprised Texas Parkway lacks the same chain businesses as Hwy. 6.

“Businesses have to be able to survive where they’re located,” he said. “Starbucks is not going to be on Texas Parkway.”

When considering what should be included in the updated Comprehensive Plan, Henry said he wanted to see more opportunities for public art. A frequent bicyclist, Henry said he appreciated the city’s bicycle and mobility plan that began in 2015 as well as previous upgrades to Hunters Glen Park.

Fondren Park HOA members Valerie Kuenzel and Eunice Reiter said they have their hopes set on development of the Hwy. 90 and Beltway 8 corridor. After plans for a light-rail station in the area lost traction, commercial development is the primary concern.

“We have no retail around here to speak of,” Reiter said. “That corner is our last hope for some retail.”

Kuenzel also said she was grateful the neighborhood has a fire station nearby, but now she wants the city to increase its police force.

“It helps the neighborhood. It helps all the neighborhoods,” she said. “Missouri City is very widespread.”

Road reconstruction, such as the work on Gregory Boulevard in Fondren Park, is more critical in older areas.[/caption]

Older neighborhoods

Residents can see the range of home designs and ages in Missouri City driving from one end of town to the other. Maintaining the quality of life lies in part with the HOAs, which are responsible for upholding residential construction and aesthetic restrictions, according to Scott Elmer, Missouri City assistant city manager.

In Hunters Glen, one of Missouri City’s oldest subdivisions, Smith said he has seen the area evolve as young residents have grown up to have families of their own.

“I have this sense of belonging to something,” said Smith, president of the Hunters Glen III HOA and a resident in the neighborhood since it was founded in 1979. “That’s kind of what a neighborhood should be like.”

The subdivision has five sections and was intended to be a bedroom community for Houston, but that changed due to economic decline and a slowdown in housing sales in the early 1980s, he said.

“The sidewalks in this area here are the oldest part of town,” he said. “Our infrastructure in this part of town, compared to [Sienna Plantation], compared to the [Lakes at Brightwater], [Lake Olympia]—they need repairs.”

Hammerwood Drive, Independence Boulevard, New Tree Lane and Gentle Bend Drive were among the neighborhood roads requiring the most upgrades in the 2013 street study. Henry bought his home in the neighborhood in 2012 because of the price and the growth in Fort Bend County.

Some residents of Hunters Glen, a subdivision dating back to the 1970s, want more retail options along Texas Parkway.[/caption]

“From my perspective, I’ve had good experiences because, when we first moved in, our road used to collect water,” he said. “[The city] actually mud jacked the slab of concrete in front of my house and actually lifted up the grade so the water doesn’t sit there anymore.”

For getting problems addressed in the subdivision, Henry said the city’s SeeClickFix app has worked consistently. The program allows users to anonymously notify Missouri City of issues around town and send pictures directly to the city staff. He used the app to prompt the city to repair drainage at the Spray Park public splash pad in Hunters Glen, he said.

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“[I] snapped [a picture] and within a couple of days, it was fixed,” Henry said.

Residents of Fondren Park, an even older subdivision bordered by Beltway 8 and Hwy. 90, also use the app.

“[SeeClickFix] is well used in our neighborhood,” said Kuenzel, president of the HOA. “It’s amazing.”

Kuenzel sees the neighborhood changing due to an influx of younger residents and residents from other countries. She called it a sign of the subdivision’s future and vitality after 50 years of being a deed-restricted community.

“We are having people move back into the neighborhood that grew up here,” Kuenzel said. “That would not happen if the neighborhood were not sustaining itself.”

Reiter, a former Missouri City City Council member, has lived in Fondren Park since before it was formally recognized in 1964. She considers the communities in her corner of Missouri City somewhat independent as they are located within Harris County and families there often send their children to Houston ISD.

“I really like the friends I’ve made here,” Reiter said. “The location is fantastic.”

But she and Kuenzel had a request they hope will be addressed in the city’s updated Comprehensive Plan: more retail.

“What could you want except one more thing: a lovely grocery store,” Kuenzel said.

Keeping to code

As the city crafts an updated plan, Owen said officials will reach out to subdivisions for input. A tool such as SeeClickFix can help in the short term, but Smith said he thinks a code department would help the HOAs handle deed violations in their respective subdivisions more effectively.

“There are neighborhoods that have over 500 homes and over 200 deed restriction violations,” he said. “That’s out of proportion.”

Missouri City imposes building codes on commercial structures only, Elmer said.

Aside from public input on what to include in the plan, Owen said the support of residents will be necessary to accomplish mobility projects.

“As we look at the immediate needs, we may have to consider a tax increase to do that,” Owen said. “No one likes raising taxes, but sometimes it is necessary to do the work in a timely manner.”