Fast forward Fort Bend From the cover
High growth areas
What residents need to know
Fort Bend County has been designated a “two-speed” county with di erent rates of development throughout the county.
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The report, which was released May 13 after press time but was shared with Community Impact prior to the o cial release, o ers planning suggestions for the county in several key areas, including opportunities to shape mobility, housing, infrastructure and public safety as the population climbs from 953,983 in 2025 to over 1 million by 2030. At the center of the report is maintaining quality of life for the diverse county, Cortina said. Prioritizing that growth is done in a way that prepares the area for future generations to come. “I think the most important thing we found in the report is that there are a lot of opportunities—a lot of opportunities to do things very di erently,” said Cortina, who serves as the director of faculty research initiatives for population health. “And di erently not because things in the past were done bad or whatnot … but being innovative about how you come up with new things, especially public policy.” Mobility is considered the county’s core constraint, with congestion and long commutes stemming from housing-led expansion and a transportation system still built for single- occupancy vehicles, per the report.
Westward Katy/Fulshear
610
59
6
1093
99 TOLL
90A
Sta ord
Rosenberg
36
Missouri City
521
288
90A
Fresno
SIENNA PKWY.
59
36
Sienna
6
N
MAP NOT TO SCALE
Fort Bend County’s population is expected to reach 2 million in 2050. Fort Bend County population growth
Stakeholder priorities
The report shared stakeholder priorities gathered throughout the research process. Transportation and mobility infrastructure Economic development and job creation
Population growth and housing needs Water resources Energy and power resilience
2.5M 1M 1.5M 2M 500K 0
2 million
585,379
Future projections
2010 2015 2020 2025 2030 2050
SOURCE: FORT BEND 2050 REPORT COMMUNITY IMPACT NOTE: DATA FOR 2015 WAS NOT FOUND AVAILABLE.
Zooming in
Diving deeper
an aspect in the sense of how we can improve our transportation system, not only by building more roads but also by thinking outside the box in terms of what else can complement this issue with mobility,” Cortina said.
The current mobility system leaves residents stuck in tra c and competing with other priorities, including sleep, caregiving, school participation, preventive health and community participation, the report shows. “We need to start thinking about mobility as
Fort Bend County was described by stakeholders as a bedroom-community model, which is a residential area where most residents commute to another area for work. As the county grows at di erent rates, Fort Bend has been designated a “two- speed county,” meaning there are di erent rates of development across the county— with high-growth nodes seeing marginal demand for services and infrastructure rise quickly, while mature neighborhoods shift toward reinvestment and maintenance. Survey results show stakeholders are looking for a countywide shift to prioritize economic development with: • Job centers • Shovel-ready sites for development • Selective industry strategies with focus on technology, manufacturing, health care and education
Congestion areas
Possible tra c solutions
The map is measured by the amount of people traveling one to two hours to work.
The report o ers several options to help alleviate tra c congestion concerns.
98-102 minutes
102-115 minutes
115-132 minutes
Target transit options
Cinco Ranch
Missouri City
Build a County Transportation Demand Management Program
Rosenberg
Align land use and infrastructure to reduce jobs-housing mismatch
Fix bottlenecks and reliability through operations and expansions
SOURCE: FORT BEND 2050 REPORT COMMUNITY IMPACT
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