HTX-SLM: Impact 10/14/2025

Fort Bend County officials are imposing a burn ban in all unincorporated areas of the county following the Texas A&M Forest Service's report of worsening drought conditions across the state.

Zooming in: Commissioners unanimously approved the ban at an Oct. 13 special meeting, making Fort Bend County one of the 121 counties across Texas to impose a burn ban, according to the Forest Service.

What else: However, Fort Bend County Fire Marshal Justin Jurek said the burn ban will not impact the Diwali firework sale season, which started Oct. 13 and ends Oct. 23.

Looking ahead: The ban will last up to 90 days, until rescinded by commissioners or until the Forest Service determines drought conditions no longer exist, according to agenda documents.

The newly opened $65 million University of Houston Sugar Land Academic Building 2 now houses programs from the UH Cullen College of Engineering—offering labs, classrooms and student services to meet workforce demands in Fort Bend County.

The specific: An Oct. 10 tour, led by Kim Williams, executive director of external relations and partnerships for UH, featured the building’s work and office space and specialized labs like digital electronics, power engineering, robotics and a senior project lab, along with active learning classrooms. 

While some students are already using the active learning spaces, many of the labs are still in preparation for use, with Williams adding that future tours will display ongoing research taking place by spring at the instructional site. 

Managing the impact: The university owns over 200 acres of land in the area, including property stretching from University Boulevard to the Brazos River, which Neal said gives the instructional site room to accommodate future growth.

Moving forward: Campus officials will host a ribbon-cutting for the new building Oct. 16. 

Home affordability in the Houston region has a more balanced position in the September housing affordability report from the Houston Association of Realtors.

At a glance: Single-family homes priced from $250,000 to $499,999, which accounted for more than 55% of all September sales, experienced a 1.3% decline compared to the same time last year, according to the report.

Digging deeper: The median home price was $327,000, which is 2.1% less than last year’s figure. The average price inched up 2% to $421,655, largely due to a rise in luxury home sales in September, per the release.

Quote of note: “The past few months have brought lower mortgage rates, and it has helped boost buyer confidence,” HAR Chair Shae Cottar with LPT Realty said in a statement.

Check out several new restaurants that have recently opened across the Houston metro, as recently reported by Community Impact.
Smash City Burgers: The new halal smash burger and hot dog eatery concept recently opened in the Galleria area, serving a variety of halal comfort food items, including milkshakes and loaded fries.
Smash City first opened as a food truck location in Baton Rouge, as previously reported by Community Impact.

• Opened Sept. 13
• 6377 Westheimer Road, Houston

Krua Thai & Sushi: What was once occupied by the popular Thai Gourmet restaurant is now a new establishment called Krua Thai & Sushi.
Krua specializes in Thai cuisine, featuring noodle dishes and curries such as kaeng rawang, also known as green curry, and panang curry, also known as red curry. Customers can also order pineapple fried rice as well as kao soi, a curry noodle soup with chicken.

• Opened Aug. 28
• 6324 Richmond Ave., Houston