With the passage of Fort Bend County facilities bond Prop 4 on November 3rd, Houston Community College and Jacobs Program Management will host a town hall meeting to discuss the Missouri City New Campus Bond Project on Tuesday December 1, 2015 from 6 p.m. – 8 p.m. Missouri City city council chambers on 1522 Texas Parkway will be the site of the town hall meeting.
The site of the first Houston Community College campus in Missouri City was 5600 square feet of leased space at 1681 Cartwright Road and according to this document hosted on the Legislative Budget Board website, in 2000 Missouri City residents voted to annex themselves into the Houston Community College System. In Fall 2008, students began attending classes at the second Houston Community College campus in Missouri City at Sienna Plantation.
HCC Trustee Neeta Sane’s Spring 2009 newsletter read:
“Students began attending classes at HCC’s new Missouri City campus last fall. Situated on a 50-acre site at Sienna Plantation, this campus offers undergraduate and continuing education courses to residents of Fort bend County. HCC built the campus because of the growth in the area and to provide community services, including a new public library. The 45,000 square foot Academic Center, completed in July 2008, has 22 new classrooms and labs for 2162 students.”
Missouri City Mayor Allen Owen commented on the opening of the new HCC Missouri City campus at Sienna Plantation:
“As businesses in our city expand and they seek qualified and educated employees and as new residents move to Missouri City, the advantage of having quality undergraduate and continuing education opportunities close to home is crucial for us—it builds on the sense of community that we are so proud of in our city, and the addition of the Fort bend County Library will soon offer the complete package of learning.”
The location of the second HCC Missouri City campus at Sienna Plantation though was reportedly targeted towards Sienna Plantation residents who quickly discovered residence outside the voting and taxing jurisdiction of HCC meant they’d pay out-of-district tuition to attend the college.
Fast forward seven years later and amidst enrollment levels at the second HCC Missouri City campus failing to reach enrollment projections, work began on the development of the third HCC Missouri City campus in less than 20 years —this time on Texas Parkway near Missouri City City Hall.
From the Fort Bend Star:
“The Missouri City government, along with Fort Bend County, Johnson Development and HCC have been working to bring a campus to Texas Parkway in an effort to revitalize what was once the city’s primary corridor. The city (Missouri City) and Municipal Utility District (the Blue Ridge West MUD) are expected to assist with some infrastructure needs.
The project also received a $1.2 million grant from the George Foundation, a Fort Bend-based non-governmental organization.”
The Fort Bend Star reported that “enrollment is expected to be higher at that location – along Texas Parkway – than at the current Sienna campus.” but failed to cite this new and third location of HCC Missouri City is now less than 2 miles from the HCC campus in Stafford and even a Houston-Galveston Area Council map does not identify Missouri City as a “Driver 1 Demographic” critical growth area for placement of new facilities or expansion of existing facilities.
Exit question: What would Thornton Mellon have advised?
Wow! Had no idea it was Three campuses. These NGO’s are always the cause of our current corruption problems. Surprised they didn’t mention the meme “growing Arabic population” as the reason like HISD.