FALLING FAR FROM THE TREE
Dr. Ray Perryman, President and CEO of The Perryman Group, has some news for Rockdale in his report titled Williamson County Economic Development Partnership Conducts Economic Impact Analysis of the US 79 Corridor.
Dr. Perryman and his company are analysts from Waco, and he has 40 years of experience doing what he does. Just know he’s a big deal in the world of economics.
There are several reasons for this report and only one of them is Samsung. The US 79 corridor, because of announcements made by several companies, is “quickly becoming an advanced manufacturing and talent corridor” according to Perryman. The other businesses listed are Soulbrain in Taylor, Titan Hutto Mega Site in Hutto, Skybox Data Center Campus in Hutto and Sandow Lake Ranch’s own 3,200-acre Advanced Manufacturing and Logistics Campus.
One caveat before I get into the nitty gritty of the report on Rockdale’s future: Dr. Perryman isn’t very specifi c about a time frame for all of this to happen except to say, “over the next several decades.”
Because of the announcements listed above, the report says Taylor will see a population increase of 24,100 with 8,600 new housing units. Hutto will see a population increase of 32,800 with 11,700 new housing units.
Are you ready for Rockdale’s numbers? Better sit down! Rockdale will experience a population increase of 42,000 with 19,800 housing units. Can you imagine a 750% increase in population in our little town? That’s a bunch.
What does he have to say about Williamson and Milam Counties? A lot. Williamson County will add 34,700 jobs and have $4.9 billion in annual gross product.
Are you ready for Milam County’s numbers? Better sit down again! Milam County will add 196,400 jobs and have $24.3 billion in annual gross product.
What??? I’ll bet the city and county officials like those numbers for tax purposes.
Again, remember my caveat: Dr. Perryman says, “over the next several decades.”
If it’s too many decades I won’t be around to see it.
So, of those housing units we have 660 going in at Cornerstone Subdivision, 200-something supposed to be going in at Republic Ridge on Texas Street. There’s another one that, so far, has only been talked about in executive session at both the city council and MDD board meetings, but it is supposed to be 1,200 housing units. Let’s round that up to 2,100 housing units that we know of. That leaves only 17,770 houses to reach Dr. Perryman’s estimate of 19,800 new housing units “over the next several decades.”
Where is Rockdale going to put all those houses?
This report was sent to me by Rockdale MDD Economic Director Jim Gibson after it was discussed at the last MDD board meeting. In the email, which he sent to a lot of other people as well, he said, “These numbers are staggeringly large.”
At the MDD board meeting, Board President Nathan Bland said, “If even half of this is true it’ll be great.”
I told Dad he said that, and Dad said, “Even a quarter of it would be great.”
At any rate, people much younger than me are in for some big changes over the next several decades.
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