La Marque Livable Centers Study

Summary and Goals

The La Marque Focused Livable Centers Study is a targeted planning initiative designed to support a fast-growing community located 36 miles southeast of Houston, where transportation demands, development patterns, and safety concerns are rapidly changing. As a Focused Livable Centers Study, it advances the Livable Centers Program goals of creating multi-modal travel choices and resilient quality places, while also prioritizing the local need to promote safe and accessible infrastructure.

La Marque’s transportation network – defined by I-45, SH-3, Highway 146, and the Union Pacific Railroad – primarily serves industrial freight, creating barriers to mobility and limiting access between neighborhoods, jobs, schools, and services. Historically, the city’s auto-oriented street system has offered limited support for walking, biking, or transit, placing disproportionate financial and safety burdens on lower-income and minority residents who lack equitable mobility options. The Focused Livable Centers Study seeks to address these long-standing challenges by improving connectivity, reducing transportation-related household costs, and strengthening overall travel safety.

To achieve these outcomes, the study will collaborate with regional partners and identify best practices for building an equitable, resilient, and multimodal transportation network. Key focus areas include:

• Parking management strategies
• Smart parking technologies
• Pedestrian-friendly parking design
• Resilience improvements
• Multimodal network redundancies

As La Marque continues to grow, incorporating these strategies into future development will help ensure that its transportation system becomes safer, more efficient, and better able to support the needs of the community. Through this study, La Marque is working toward a more connected, equitable, and resilient community where all people have safe, affordable, and accessible ways to move through the city.

Study Area Map

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