Ever since Sugar Land City Council approved plans to move forward with apartments near the new Constellation Field, home of the Sugar Land Skeeters baseball team, other communities are looking harder at plans for apartments and not liking what they see.
In a Fort Bend County subdivision so new, houses are still under construction and some streets have yet to be built. The one thing you don't see is apartments. Not yet.
"How is that going to affect traffic an how is that going to affect home values?" said Sugar Land resident Farha Ahmed.
But under a general plan between the developer and the city of Sugar Land, apartments are coming.
"We negotiated with the developers to put a cap on the number of multi-family units they could include and that cap is 600," said Doug Adolph with the city of Sugar Land.
That's not what Ahmed wants to see in this neighborhood.
"They're very concerned. They own a lot of high-value homes," said Ahmed.
The homes in River Stone start at $200,000 on up into the millions. And apartments don't fit in here, Ahmed and other residents say.
River Stone is currently outside of Sugar Land city limits, although there are plans to annex River Stone in the coming years, and 600 new apartments is a part of those plans.
A spokesperson for the city of Sugar Land says city council does not plan to take up the issue right now and says apartments in River Stone isn't going to change the future face of the city.
"Back in 2000, the percentage of multi-family to overall dwellings in the city of Sugar Land was just under 9 percent, when the city's ultimately built out, that percentage will remain at 9 percent," said Adolph.
But Ahmed says the neighbors don't feel that way and they'll be pushing the issue.
"They feel the apartments close by are going to affect the appraised value of the home, but also traffic and safety," said Ahmed.
Johnson Development Corp. did not return our phone calls.
The River Stone committee will have its first meeting Thursday night at 7pm in Sugar Land to talk about the possibility of apartments.
