Council and Planning & Zoning take public comment on permanent zoning for 57-acre Sienna annex

City Council and the Planning & Zoning Commission held a joint public hearing March 23 to receive comment on permanently zoning roughly 57.4 acres annexed into Missouri City in December 2025.

Shashi Kumar, a city staff presenter, said the annexed area contains four tracts and that most parcels are already built out with multifamily and retail uses; roughly 6.6 acres remain undeveloped. He described the prior development agreement’s allowable uses — "multifamily residential, condominium, commercial office and retail users, concert and performance halls, movie theaters, and outdoor amphitheaters" — and explained that the city now applies a default SD (Suburban District) zoning pending permanent zoning via a Planned Development (PD) process. "Tonight’s public hearing is to receive public comments regarding the permanent zoning," he said, and staff outlined the next steps: P&Z recommendation (Apr. 8), council first reading (Apr. 20), and adoption tentatively at the first council meeting in May.

Developers who spoke at the hearing urged different outcomes. "We are currently the developers for Tract A3," said Sofia Khemani, who described traffic studies completed with the city's economic development team and said her team's plan is retail in the rear and restaurants in front. Vibhor Mehrotra, who said he built the shopping center and bought land from Johnson Development, cautioned against additional use restrictions and said the development agreement accompanying the land purchase limited certain restrictions; he said he "strongly oppose[d] any change to the zoning of LC 3."

Council and commissioners pressed staff on traffic and the long-term vision for the corridor. Councilmember Brown Marshall and others urged using the PD process to define higher-quality gateway development rather than a blanket LC3 listing, noting the corridor's visibility along Fort Bend Parkway and future expansion toward Highway 59.

The hearing provided information to the commission and council; no zoning decision was taken at the meeting. Staff recommended that the body treat the area as a PD with a tailored list of permitted users to be determined through the PD process and follow required traffic-impact review and mitigation for high-traffic generators. The P&Z Commission will consider a formal recommendation at its April 8 meeting; council will receive the ordinance for first reading April 20.