Shadow Creek Ranch

History

The City of Pearland annexed areas that are now Shadow Creek Ranch in 1996, 1997, and 1998.

The community is being developed by the Shadow Creek Ranch Development Co. In 2001 sales of houses in Shadow Creek Ranch began. In June 2001 four lakes were created and 600 acres (240 ha) of land were excavated as part of the first phase of development. One of the companies that built 300 of the original houses was Perry Homes.

In 2014 the Houston Business Journal, in its Most Active Residential Communities List, ranked Shadow Creek Ranch as number six.

Geography

The plans call for there to be about 12,000 housing units, including 6,200 single-family houses, when the development is fully built out. The lakes are scheduled to take up 300 acres (120 ha) of land.

As of 2007 the housing prices range from $150,000 to $1 million. That year, David Goswick, a real estate advisor for the development, stated that the average sale price was $249,955.

In October 2016 the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) identified the Blue Ridge Landfill as being the source of an odor along a section of SCR. The City of Pearland planned to hold a meeting on it in 2017.

Economy

As of 2007 the Texas Medical Center houses the workplaces of most SCR residents.

The Shadow Creek Ranch Town Center, a 616,000 square feet (57,200 m²) retail development near Shadow Creek Ranch that is named after the master planned community, is located at the intersection of Texas State Highway 288 and Farm to Market Road 518. As of 2008 the center was 80% leased. Prior to 2008, WCF Development, Transwestern Development Co. and Buchanan Street Partners owned the center. In 2008 JPMorgan and an affiliate fund of AmREIT closed a deal which let them purchase the center for an amount not disclosed to the public. As of 2008, tenants in the center include Academy Sports & Outdoors, Ashley Furniture, H-E-B Plus!, and Hobby Lobby.

Kelsey-Seybold Clinic has its corporate headquarters in Shadow Creek Ranch.

Public schools

The Brazoria County portion of Shadow Creek Ranch is within the Alvin Independent School District. The Fort Bend County portion of Shadow Creek Ranch is within the Fort Bend Independent School District.

One subdivision, the Village of Diamond Bay, is in FBISD.

Alvin Independent School District

Students are zoned to:

Elementary schools:

Secondary schools:

As of 2016 11th grade students may choose between Manvel High School (Manvel) and the new Shadow Creek High School, but in fall 2017 Shadow Creek HS will be the only high school assigned to SCR. Previously Manvel High School was the assigned high school for SCR.

Prior to the opening of Manvel High in fall 2006, students were zoned to Alvin High School in the city of Alvin, and prior to the opening of Nolan Ryan students were zoned to Manvel Junior High School. Prior to the opening of Marek in fall 2004, all Shadow Creek Ranch students were zoned to Don Jeter Elementary School in unincorporated Brazoria County

In 2015 Children at Risk, a nonprofit organization, gave favorable rankings to the AISD schools serving SCR.

Fort Bend Independent School District

Zoned schools include the following, all in the Blue Ridge area of Houston [2]:

Students who attend the FBISD schools use school buses, as the schools serving the community are about 3 miles (4.8 km) away from the FBISD section while AISD schools are about 1 mile (1.6 km) away. In 2015 Children at Risk gave low rankings to the FBISD schools serving SCR. FBISD plans to build a new elementary school for its section of Shadow Creek Ranch. The Fort Bend County portions of SCR include: Arbor Lakes, Autumn Brook, Azalea Creek, Black Berry, Brook Run, Cedar Wood, Country Glen, Eden Cove, Edgewater, Holly Landing, Lake Meadows, Pelican Shore, Orchard Village, Piney Trails, West Haven, Westwood Spring, and Windy Shore.

Around 2005 the president of the Shadow Creek Ranch Development, Gary Cook, asked Alvin ISD to make an exception for its transfer policy for Shadow Creek Ranch residents living in Fort Bend County. The Alvin ISD school board approved the policy, and beginning in the 2005-2006 school year students in kindergarten through sixth grade in the Fort Bend County portion were allowed to transfer to Alvin ISD until Fort Bend ISD builds schools to accommodate Shadow Creek Ranch children in its area. Previously some residents also got transfers to Pearland Independent School District (PISD) schools. In 2007 a section of SCR in FBISD was rezoned from Hightower High School to Willowridge prior to its development. By 2016 transfers generally were no longer issued as AISD and PISD schools became overcrowded, and some residents proposed seceding from FBISD and joining AISD.

Private schools

The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Galveston-Houston operates the St. Helen School, a K-8 parochial school, in Pearland. St. Helen is east of Shadow Creek Ranch.

Public libraries

The Brazoria County Library System operates the Pearland Westside Library, located on 6,000 square feet (560 m²) of space in an area at the intersection of Business Center Drive at Memorial Hermann Drive, behind the H-E-B in the Shadow Creek Ranch Town Center.

Colleges and universities

Additionally, Alvin Community College provides basic undergraduate courses and adult education; the AISD portion is in the ACC taxation zone.

Parks and recreation

According to the development plans by the Shadow Creek Ranch Development Co., parks, hike and bike trails, and parks are to occupy over 700 acres (280 ha) of land in Shadow Creek Ranch.

In 2003 the developers of the community donated 120-acre (49 ha) of parkland along Kingsley Drive, north of Shadow Creek Parkway in the northeast of the community, to the City of Pearland. At the time, the land was worth over $11 million. This land was scheduled to be used as a regional sports park. KGA Deforest was hired as the landscape architecture firm for the new park.