SH99 shifting growth outside of City of Sugar Land

Tollway inducing sprawl

Matt Dietrichson, Jan 19, 12.

State Highway 99 Segment D has facilitated low-density residential development on previously open land, but as residents are drawn away from the “heart” of Sugar Land, so are many businesses and even schools, according to yourhoustonnews.com:

Since being built in the mid-1990s, the Grand Parkway’s impact on the Sugar Land and greater Fort Bend area have been widely felt by residents, commercial businesses, and even the school system.

According to local Realtors, the Grand Parkway has opened up a part of Sugar Land to potential home buyers that was not as attractive in the past.

Susan Friedman, who is in charge of residential service for the Fort Bend Real Estate Corporation, said that Highway 99 has opened up many areas that were not as accessible in the past.

“As far as how it’s impacted growth, it’s opened up a lot of new areas. All of the new subdivisions and developments along the Grand Parkway have been made accessible to the Sugar Land area” Friedman said. “What I’ve noticed is that more and more people being willing to move out of the ‘heart’ of Sugar Land so to speak.”

As an alternative to popular Sugar Land neighborhoods such as First Colony, the Grand Parkway has made the areas further south along 59 and west of the freeway more popular. The New Territory master-planned community and, farther north, areas such as Pecan Grove and the future Aliana communities all run along or near the Grand Parkway and have been granted easier access to the freeway thanks to the Grand Parkway.

All of the areas listed in the article as experiencing growth are outside of the city limits of the City of Sugar Land in unincorporated areas.