Sienna Parkway Widening: What the 2027 and 2029 Dates Mean

"It took me an hour and ten minutes to go. Like less than two miles." Planning and Zoning Commissioner Atwood said that at the April 27, 2026 joint meeting of Missouri City's City Council and Planning and Zoning Commission. He was talking about a drive on Sienna Parkway from Waters Lake Boulevard and Scanlan Trace up to Steep Bank Trace. At the same meeting he said fire engines, ambulances and police cars had been driving down the median to get through when the road jammed.

Five months later, on September 21, City Council approved the road package meant to address that drive. The package doesn't reach every part of Sienna at the same time. Sienna's north end already has another way out. Its south end gets new connections to FM 521 by the end of 2027. The stretch by the railroad tracks, where Commissioner Atwood sat for 70 minutes, comes last.

Sienna Has One Spine and Three Pockets

At the April meeting, city staff described Sienna Parkway as running about five miles north–south from Highway 6, then about three more miles east–west to FM 521, south of McKeever Road. Staff also said circulation in the area was limited. One resident told the council that the stretch of Sienna Parkway from Lionetti to Highway 6 has about 15 lights over five miles. The resident said the drive takes about ten minutes late at night and 20 to 25 minutes during the day, and that the area up to Steep Bank has no way in or out except Sienna Parkway.

One council member at that meeting split the community into three access zones:

• North of McKeever Road. Residents can leave by Sienna Ranch Road, and the council member said they "will get out."
• South of Waters Lake Boulevard. The trip is longer, but residents can head out to FM 521.
• The middle, by the railroad tracks. This is the pocket the council member said was stuck, and where the city needed to "be creative" about a way out.

Commissioner Atwood put the choke point in the same place, on the Sienna Parkway segment between Steep Bank Trace and Scanlan Trace. Asked about the road's current level of service, a city representative answered, "current service is not good." The same speaker said widening Sienna Parkway "still provides one way in and one way out."

Three Deadlines in the September Package

Missouri City's October 2 press release describes the agreement among the city, Toll-GTIS Property Owner LLC and Sienna Municipal Utility District No. 5. Each project in it reaches a different part of Sienna.

The two 2027 projects carry firm deadlines. Both add routes to FM 521, the road the south end can already reach. The railroad widening carries a projected date instead. It covers the stretch Commissioner Atwood and the council member both called the problem.

Why the Middle Is Fixed Last

The order follows the money, and the money follows the land.

MUD 5 will pay up to $10 million toward the railroad widening. Community Impact reported that the funding is spread over three years: $2 million in 2027, then $4 million in each of 2028 and 2029. The agreement in the council's September 21 agenda packet lists those figures as calendar-year targets for bond-funded costs.

The agreement also sets steps before construction can begin. The district has 45 days to authorize its engineer to prepare plans, and it can advertise for bids only after the plans and plat are approved. The staff summary in the packet adds a condition. The widening over the tracks goes forward "provided that the City and area partners are able to acquire the necessary right of way." The roads to FM 521 face no such condition in that summary. They have hard deadlines and run across the developer's own land.

Those roads also make room for more homes. City Attorney E. Joyce Iyamu told Community Impact that staff had held off approving new developments in Sienna because they wanted traffic circulation addressed first. Public Works Director Mustafa Albassam said the improvements will let developers keep building homes in the area. He explained the reasoning to the outlet this way:

"Anticipating what the future will bring, you need to have capacity and alternate routes for the residents to use."

So the new south-end routes are tied to new south-end growth. One planning commissioner raised this in April. Sienna is "going to be developed out to 521," the commissioner said, and any plan using FM 521 has to account for "the additional traffic that's going to come."

Albassam also told Community Impact that past city efforts focused on chokepoint intersections, while this plan focuses on connectivity. "Each single one of the projects is literally just one piece of the puzzle," he said. In April, one council member cited a figure of about $150 million for widening all of Sienna Parkway and said a city of Missouri City's size does not have that money. A $10 million widening over the tracks fixes the worst point, not the whole corridor.

Two Routes Coming Off the Map

The September vote also changed the long-range plan for streets that are already built and lived on.

The city's Major Thoroughfare Plan update, adopted May 18, had laid out possible north–south routes through the Sienna area. Community Impact's May coverage reported that Route 2 would have designated Sienna Lakes Drive, Crown Ridge Drive, Lawson Road, Broussard Lane, London Lane, Brushy Lake Drive, Shipmans Landing and Fenn Road as major thoroughfares. A third route was added between Routes 1 and 2 at that May meeting.

The September amendment removes Route 2, which ran through Crown Ridge Drive and Broussard Lane to Fenn Road. It also removes Route 3, which ran through Cottage Place and Gussie Mae Lane to Fenn Road. The removal takes effect only after two things are built: the portion of Route 1 on Toll's property, and all four lanes of Sienna Parkway from Waters Lake Boulevard to FM 521.

That condition ties the change to the 2027 south-end work. Until the Phase 7 lanes are open, Routes 2 and 3 stay on the map as possible future thoroughfares.

The April meeting shows why that matters. An earlier draft would have routed traffic through New Point, and residents objected that New Point Drive was narrow and already congested near Highway 6. That proposal belonged to an earlier conceptual map, not the September agreement. It still showed how a line on a planning map can draw traffic onto streets that were never built for it.

What Has No Date Yet

Several pieces of the bigger plan have no construction schedule in the September agreement or the city's October release.

1. Bees Passage Bridge. This is a proposed bridge connecting Sienna Ranch Road and Sienna Parkway. It was listed in May as a concept for the next one to five years, and the May 6 Planning and Zoning packet puts its approximate cost at $5 million. It is not part of the September package.
2. Miller Road connector. This would extend Waters Lake Boulevard south across the levee to Miller Road. The packet says right-of-way across the levee is already part of the Sienna development agreement, and that the Miller Road end lies in Fort Bend County outside the city's ETJ. It is also outside the September package.
3. Park Crossing to One Oak Chase. The September agreement creates a path for this connection. Because it crosses several jurisdictions, it still needs right-of-way, Fort Bend County requirements, approvals from the City of Arcola, and authorization from Missouri City.
4. FM 521 itself. Fort Bend County's FM 521 South project proposes widening about five miles of FM 521, from SH 6 to CR 56, from two lanes to four. At the April meeting, city staff said FM 521 widening is in the plans, that a funding mechanism already exists, and that the city and county are working with TxDOT to move the project forward. Staff also said the timing depends on TxDOT's schedule.

The fourth item matters most for the south end. By late 2027, two more Sienna roads will lead to FM 521, and the city has given no construction date for widening FM 521 to four lanes.

The schedule as of October 2026 has three dates. New south-end routes to FM 521 are due December 31, 2027. The six-lane crossing over the tracks between Steep Bank Trace and Scanlan Trace North is projected for 2029, depending on right-of-way and approved plans. The north end keeps its existing exit by Sienna Ranch Road.

When it's time to buy or sell, the section of Sienna a home sits in affects its daily routes as well as its price, and those routes will change on different dates over the next few years. Kristi Bajjali follows these Missouri City council decisions as they move from agreement to construction. If you'd like to talk through how the 2027 and 2029 timelines line up with your own plans, let's connect.