BRIDGELAND, Houston, TX*
Bridgeland is an 11,400-acre master-planned community northwest of Houston, Texas, which will be home to 65,000 residents when complete in 2037. Like the Woodlands, its predecessor, the Bridgeland site plan centers on scenic lakes that improve water quality, irrigate during droughts, and draw residents to common areas for recreation. These lakes form a stormwater system that exceeds local design requirements, and which has managed storm events much larger than those anticipated.
It is a successor of the Rouse Company, a pioneer in MPCs on the "new town" scale—including Columbia, Maryland; Summerlin, Nevada; and The Woodlands, 28 miles north of Houston. Like other large-scale MPC business "build[s] small cities that are their own ecosystems and high-barrier submarkets," MPC are resulting in "some of the highest risk adjusted return opportunities" among public real estate companies.
Bridgeland began construction in October 2003, and home sales began in 2006. At buildout, currently estimated for 2037, it will have 65,000 residents on its 11,400 acres.
The first of Bridgeland’s four planned villages, Lakeland Village, is almost complete, with 8,300 residents in 3,400 homes; Parkland Village, the second village, opened in spring 2018. Lakeland Village fills most of the northeastern quadrant of Bridgeland, Parkland Village the southeast quadrant, Prairieland Village the southwest, and Creekland Village the northwest. At the site’s center, along Grand Parkway, a future 900-acre Bridgeland town center is planned.
TND Neighborhood Lakeland Heights Village Center with 50,000 SF of Retail space- Planning in 2008
Parks and Landscape
When complete, Bridgeland will have over 3,000 acres of open space, including 900 acres of lakes, 400 acres of parks, and 250 miles
of interlaced trails, positioning parks within a quarter-mile of every home.
As befitting its name, Bridgeland is centered on miles of lakes crossed by numerous streets, some on actual bridge structures, but most across enhanced culverts sized to manage
water flows. Boathouses offer homeowners use of canoes and kayaks on the two-mile-long Cypress Lake or the three-mile-long Josey Lake. An island within Josey Lake’s upstream pool
is punctuated with a two-story birding tower, accessed by a skybridge that sweeps across the lake and offers unobstructed views of the lake, which stretches for a mile to the west, east, and south. It engages visitors with the environment with fixed binoculars and interpretive signs introducing local wildlife.
Playgrounds are scattered throughout the site, as are small green spaces with special focuses—for instance, Tree House Park, where a two-story aerie sits within the branches of a century-old oak. Active-recreation amenities are clustered into larger community parks, including two within Lakeland. The 20-acre Village Park contains a pool, a skate park, a dog park, tennis courts, and basketball courts; the six-acre Activity Center within Lakeland Village has an indoor community center and swimming complex. In addition to conventional swimming pools, three “spray parks” offer relief from the summer heat.
