Fort Bend County preparing to take over old HCC campus

Fort Bend County is scheduled to open satellite offices for its tax assessor and county clerk in May at the site of the former Houston Community College Sienna Plantation campus on Sienna Springs Way.

The buildings are being renovated, and the work should be complete by the end of April, said Jamie Knight, Fort Bend County director of facilities.

The county purchased the building for $8 million to use as an annex as part of a voter-approved $98.6 million bond in November 2015. HCC chose to sell the building and relocate its Missouri City campus to a new site on Texas Parkway because of what it considered to be low enrollment at the Sienna site, as previously reported.

Next month, county residents will be able to pay their taxes, register vehicles, transfer automobile titles and get disabled access placards and permits at the new annex. The satellite county clerk’s office will also be able to provide copies of vital records, according to the county.

Precinct 2 Commissioner Grady Prestage will also have a satellite office and meeting room in the annex. Prestage works out of the Missouri City County Administrative Building on Texas Parkway, where he said he has seen people sitting on the floor while they wait to visit the crowded tax assessor’s office.

“This just gives us another place that people can go that is more convenient,” he said.