The city of Conroe is exploring a project to develop a portion of its failed technology park into public green space, including an amphitheater and a lake.<\/p>\n
Council members approved a resolution Thursday to reserve about 40 acres of the park on the city’s north side for future public space. The concept for the space would combine\u00a0features of Discovery Green Park in Houston and the Woodlands Pavilion. Mayor Pro Tem Howard Wood voted against the resolution.<\/p>\n
The city purchased 248 acres near East Wally Wilkerson and FM 1484 in 2008 and opened the\u00a0Dieson Technology Park in 2013. The city built the park infrastructure, including drainage, streets, water and sewer, investing $26 million, including $10 million for the land purchase.<\/p>\n
While the land is undeveloped except for the\u00a0VGXI tract, it does include a 20-acre park with a pathway and fountain.<\/p>\n
Deputy City Administrator Nancy Mikeska said that park was intended for employees of businesses to have lunch or take walks during breaks. At\u00a0some point, she said, the businesses would take ownership of the park. Without any tenants, Mikeska said, the park and fountain have fallen into disrepair.<\/p>\n
\u201cNo one has taken it over and we are still mowing it,\u201d Mikeska said.<\/p>\n
The phased plan for the public space would include the existing park and surrounding land totaling about 43 acres. The city would have 163 acres left it could sell for possible development.<\/p>\n
Mikeska said the park could feature an amphitheater, special events, movie nights, walking trails, a lake, a dog park, a children\u2019s area and family-friendly activities like bumper boats.<\/p>\n
The park would be a joint venture with the city, the Conroe Industrial Development Corp. and Visit\u00a0Conroe.<\/p>\n
There is no timeline for the project, but Mikeska said the first step is reserving the land or \u201cit will eventually be gone.\u201d<\/p>\n
While the council was supportive, Mayor Duke Coon and Wood were hesitant.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think it\u2019s a slippery slope,\u201d Coon said, adding that he didn\u2019t have a vision for the park. \u201cWe have many challenges we\u2019ve got to meet in this city. I am a little uncertain why we would be going down this road.\u201d<\/p>\n
Coon didn\u2019t support reserving the land and said the city should continue to market the park to businesses and potentially change it to an industrial park.<\/p>\n
Councilwoman Marsha Porter said she supported preserving the land.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf we don\u2019t reserve some land for things, the land won\u2019t be there,\u201d Porter said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The city of Conroe is exploring a project to develop a portion of its failed technology park into…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":118154,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[41346,56,58,57],"class_list":{"0":"post-118153","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-houston","8":"tag-conroecp","9":"tag-houston","10":"tag-houston-headlines","11":"tag-houston-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/118153","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=118153"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/118153\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/118154"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=118153"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=118153"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=118153"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}