Navasota, Grimes County leaders making plans for pending growth

NAVASOTA — Grimes County Judge Joe Fauth III had local realtors raise their hands during his speech at Navasota’s 2024 State of the City event Wednesday morning.

“Get excited,” Fauth told relators with raised hands. “Once the interest rates go down, maybe some houses will start to sell.”

Growth is coming to Grimes County, and city, school district and county officials are working with private developers to make plans for the pending growth coming to the rural county.

At the crux of Grimes County’s looming growth has been the completion of Texas 249, coined the Aggie Expressway. The 26-mile road from Tomball has expedited access to north Houston for those in Navasota and the Bryan-College Station area. Construction for the road began in 2017 in two phases. The final 11 miles from F.M. 1774, near the southeast border of Grimes County, to Texas 105 opened in October 2022.

One developer told The Eagle in May 2023 he expects the next wave of growth from the greater Houston area to creep into southern Grimes County. Local and county officials are anticipating similar trends.

“It’s kind of a domino effect,” Navasota Superintendent Stu Musick said. “Once that door got kicked in, all those other pieces started to fall into place from there.”

Navasota City Manager Jason Weeks told the audience of over 165 inside the gym at First Baptist Church of Navasota growth is coming, whether they believe it or not. Local elected officials shared details on what they’re doing to prepare.

“I don’t know if we can outstep the growth, but at least we’re not going to be behind for a while,” Fauth said. “I think it’s important we try to get ahead of it as much as we can.”

Planning for infrastructure

Expanding existing roads and building more schools are at the forefront of city and county leaders’ minds as developers dive into the untapped ranch lands of southern Grimes County that in some ways still resemble the plains settlers saw when they first came to Texas in the 1800s not far from Washington-on-the-Brazos where Texans declared independence on March 2, 1836.

The first 15 miles of Texas 249, a tollway, opened in 2021 from Grand Parkway to F.M. 1774 between Plantersville and Todd Mission, and included four lanes — two in each direction with a median. The final 11 miles, which encompasses most of the Grimes County portion is just two lanes, one in each way and is not a tollway. Fauth said there’s been four fatalities on the road since it opened. He hopes to work with Department of Transportation officials to get the final 11 miles expanded to four lanes and has a meeting with TxDOT members in Bryan on Jan. 30.

Fauth noted county officials also hope TxDOT will widen Texas 105 from the convergence of Texas 249 to Texas 6, which is about a 6-mile stretch. The final piece is to build a flyover entrance ramp from Texas 105 westbound onto Texas 6 northbound. The Texas 105/Texas 6 intersection has created a chokepoint during events like Texas A&M home football games and the Texas Renaissance Festival in the fall when traffic can back up between 3-5 miles while cars wait for the light in Navasota. Building a flyover would mean commuters wouldn’t have to deal with a stoplight from south of Beltway 8 in Houston until downtown Hearne.

According to the Navasota Examiner, the project isn’t scheduled to begin until 2030.

“You start bringing in 2,500 people here, 800 people here, 1,500 people here, along with the pass through traffic, the congestion’s going to rapidly be a problem,” Fauth said.

Hundreds, and possibly thousands, of new homes going in across Grimes County over the coming years are likely to bring families with children, and Navasota school district leaders are gathering community input this month on how the sprawling district should look ahead.

On Thursday, Navasota hosted the first of four bond committee meetings over the next three weeks. Musick said he hopes the meetings can culminate with the community-led committee bringing forth a bond package proposal for the Navasota school board to vote on in February to put on the May ballot. The district has until Feb. 16 to call for a bond package this May.

Imminent growth within Navasota’s school boundary is actually in southern Brazos County. Millican Reserve, a master-planned community, is beginning a 10-year build out in March and is expected to have around 2,000 homes that will bring in 5,000 residents. Musick said in December this growth equates to about 400-600 elementary students pre-K through fifth grade in the Millican area. Land has yet to be purchased for a fourth elementary school but Musick is in discussions with developers about buying land near Millican for the anticipated school.

Fortunately for Navasota, Musick said the district is in a positive financial position to go all-out for a bond this May. He told the audience Wednesday that Navasota could call for a bond up to $71 million without raising taxes. This could provide capital funding to build a fourth elementary school, which almost always require Texas school districts to pass a bond package to complete.

“There’s no magic formula or crystal ball to prepare as a school district, as a superintendent, to know other than staying as informed as we possibly can and then being able to work with developers when they approach us or finding them when they’ve approached the city or the county and finding out as much information as soon as possible,” Musick told the audience.

In December, Musick mentioned multiple developments coming or in discussions to be built in Grimes County. Pecan Lakes, on the west side of Navasota, already has development underway. Out east on Texas 90, there are two developments, but Musick said district officials are unaware of their timelines. He also mentioned two developments along Texas 249 between Todd Mission and Plantersville. This has led district officials to think long-term. Musick said they are already thinking about a fifth elementary school, along with a second, and possibly third, junior high over the next two decades.

“That’s a lot of homes,” Musick said. “That growth is coming. What we don’t know is when.”

An evolving identity

Grimes County rests between the Bryan-College Station metropolitan area and the greater Houston area with bordering counties Brazos and Montgomery seeing booms since the turn of the century. Yet, Grimes County is still considered rural with a population of almost 32,000, according to Fauth.

More people means an evolving identity for a county that once claimed to be the Land of Milk and Honey with dairy farms and honeybee operations scattered among the ranchlands, but those days have changed. The county’s last dairy farm closed in 2022.

There’s folks on both sides of the fence when looking at the county’s future, Fauth said.

“You’ve got some families that have been here for four or five or six generations and just like anywhere else, they’re kind of shaking their heads like, ‘Man, Grimes County isn’t the place it used to be,’” Fauth said.

People who live in rural America often do so for a reason, Musick noted. He added the good thing about Grimes County’s projected growth is it is likely to be spread out, whether it’s in Navasota, Stoneham or Todd Mission.

“It can still feel like rural Texas,” Musick said, “but also have some of the nice things positive growth brings, too.”

Navasota is by far the county’s largest city with a population of around 8,500. City leaders shared Wednesday the town’s population has grown 13.5% in the last decade.

Navasota city leaders have invested in tourism efforts during that time as the city boasts a vibrant downtown. Local restaurants and stores compliment franchises from larger companies. Fast food chains Chicken Express and Jack in the Box have opened at the intersection of Texas 105 and Texas 6. H-E-B bought land in September 2022 with plans to build a grocery store in the same vicinity. Although big box stores aren’t likely to come to Navasota due to its proximity to B-CS and the Houston area, Navasota Mayor Bert Miller said there’s been steady growth of varied industries and regional retailers.

Communication about growth and development between entities such as the city, county and school district are critical, Miller said.

“We have to have it and I know many communities that don’t and it’s sad if you don’t because you have to,” Miller said. “Everyone knows the growth is coming. You don’t want it to run you over, so you’ve got to partner up.”

The rural lifestyle with access to the city is appealing for some, Grimes County leaders noted. Musick mentioned how working conditions have changed since the COVID-19 pandemic and that there’s been a shift to more hybrid or remote models that only require employees to work in the office one or two days per week instead of five.

Nonetheless, the change and growth are inevitable and Fauth said those in Grimes County can’t resist the reality of it. He said it’s his job to look out the window and see where they’re headed 20 years from now, not just the present day.

“When you come to Navasota or Anderson or Plantersville, you’re still going to get that small town America feeling,” Fauth said, “but you’re still going to be able to get a number of the amenities you enjoy from the big city.”