Conroe - Montgomery Edition - February 2022

INCREASED TRAFFIC

Local effects While the developments on FM 1486 are outside of Montgomery’s extraterritorial jurisdiction, they will still affect growth, according to Mont- gomery City Administrator Richard Tramm. With the current population of the city at around 2,000 residents, Tramm said he expects to add 1,000 more residents in the next five years. “One of our big things that we have to keep a close eye on is to make sure that … we keep both our construc- tion and development of our drinking water system as well as our wastewa- ter system ahead of the development curve,” Tramm said. MISD is also preparing for signifi- cant growth and evaluating its facility needs following a 2021 demographic study, Marino said. Communities on FM 1486 are zoned to Montgomery Elementary School, whichMarino said has space to accommodate growth at the far west side of the district. The district’s bond proposal of a seventh elementary school and an expansion of Lake Creek High School would accommodate immediate growth on the south side of the district and longer-term growth projected on the west side by maintaining capacity needed in the Montgomery Elemen- tary feeder pattern without the need to rezone, Marino said. MISD trustees were slated to decide whether to call a spring bond election during a meet- ing Feb. 15, which was after press time Feb. 14. ”The addition of a seventh elemen- tary school and the expansion ... of Lake Creek proposed in the bond rec- ommendation accomplish [the] two planning objectives of the district,” Marino said in a statement. Additionally, preparations for the construction of the Lone Star Col- lege-Magnolia Center, a planned sat- ellite campus of LSC-Montgomery, are underway. LSC-Montgomery President RebeccaRiley said the locationwas cho- sen at FM 1486 and FM 1774 partially to accommodate the growing area. “The selection of a site near 1486 and 1774 fit the criteria for a growing area, good visibility, and excellent mobility infrastructure,” she said in an email. “Lone Star College-Magno- lia Center will fulfill a need for afford- able higher education in a rapidly growing community.” Maegan Kirby and Anna Lotz con- tributed to this report.

MOCK LN.

105

Average daily traffic counts steadily increased between 2011-20 at the intersection of FM 1486 and Hwy. 105 in Montgomery, according to data from the Texas Department of Transportation. FM 1486 is a two-lane road with no plans by TxDOT to widen it.

1486

4,000

+41.9% in traffic counts from 2011 to 2020

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3,500

2,838

3,000

2,500

2,000

1,500

SOURCE: TEXAS DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION/COMMUNITY IMPACT NEWSPAPER

Houston,” Schoenfield said. In addition to the larger develop- ments, Parkside Capital also owns 29 acres on the corner of FM 1486 and FM 1774 with 15 acres devoted to residential and the remainder planned for commer- cial uses, Vice President DanMoody said. With all these developments planned, Montgomery County Pre- cinct 2 Commissioner Charlie Riley said he believes Precinct 2 residents will see a lot of change in the next three to five years as the additional homes and businesses change the environment in the county. “It’s going to be amassive change that people may not be ready for and people may not be expecting,” Riley said. In addition, Wolling said wild- life native to Montgomery County is being displaced because of the devel- opment. One of the biggest problems in the county is deer, which become displaced and then overcrowd natural areas left for them. “They have no place left to go,” Wolling said. “[Deer] that used to be in the woods are now in neighbor- The tolled extension of Hwy. 249 through Montgomery County, which opened from FM 1488 to FM 1774 in March 2021, has made places such as the FM 1486 corridor more accessible and desirable for developments, said hoods getting hit by cars.” Regional transportation

Carlene Mullins, principal planner for the Houston-Galveston Area Council, the region’s metropolitan planning organization. Schoenfield said he thinks the extension of Hwy. 249 has been a game changer for development in the region. “[Hwy. 249] is a complete paradigm shift in people’s buying decisions,” Shoenfield said. However, with development fol- lowing the Hwy. 249 extension, Mul- lins said local roads such as FM 1486 could see increased traffic. FM 1486 is a two-lane road. Traffic grew 41.9% from 2011-20 at the intersection of FM 1486 and Hwy. 105 with more than 800 additional daily drivers, according to the Texas Department of Transportation. TxDOT Public Information Officer Danny Perez said TxDOT does not have a plan to widen the road. How- ever, a project is planned to overlay the roadway for a smoother drive and to extend the life of the road, which is set to begin within the next four years and cost about $5.3 million, Perez said. In light of the large developments planned, Mullins said the H-GAC may need to prioritize a project to widen the road sometime in the next five to 10-plus years. “There’s a need to start planning for the future now,” Mullins said. “It’s eas- ier to do it now and plan ahead than it is to try to fix something in retrospect.”

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CONROE - MONTGOMERY EDITION • FEBRUARY 2022