Sugar Land

 

Sugar Land boasted the highest growth among Texas’ largest cities per the U.S. Census 2000, with a population of 63,328. In 2003, Sugar Land became a “principal” city as the title changed to Houston-Sugar Land-Baytown metropolitan area. Sugar Land replaced Galveston as the second-most important city in the metropolitan area, after Houston, as the title used to be Houston-Galveston-Brazoria.

The new millennium also saw the need of higher education facility expansion located within the city. In 2002, the University of Houston System at Fort Bend moved to its new 250 acres campus located off the University Blvd and U.S. Highway 59 intersection. The city helped fund the Albert and Mamie George Building, and as a result, the multi-institution teaching center was renamed to the University of Houston System at Sugar Land.

In 2003, the Imperial Sugar Company refinery plant and distribution center was put out of operation, but its effect on the local economy was minimal, since Sugar Land today has much more of a reputation as an affluent Houston suburb than the blue-collar, agriculture-dependent town it was a generation ago. However, the company maintains its headquarters in Sugar Land.

The Texas Department of Transportation sold 2,018 acres of prison land in the western portion Sugar Land to Newland Communities, a developer, by bid in 2003. Thereafter, the developer announced to build a new master-planned community called Telfair in this prime location. In July 2004, Sugar Land annexed all of this land into the city limits to  control the quality of development, extending the city limits westward. This was unusual, since Sugar Land only annexed built-out areas in the past, not prior to development.

On December 1, 2005 at 12:01 a.m., Sugar Land annexed the recently built-out, master-planned community of Avalon and four sections of Brazos Landing subdivision into the city limits, adding approximately 3,200 residents. The city is currently negotiating with the communities of Greatwood, New Territory, and River Park, along with the subdivisions of Tara Colony and Tara Plantation, to annex in the near future. This annexation will be the largest, surpassing the annexation of First Colony in 1992 and 1997, which will bring the city proper’s population to approximately 120,000.