Surrey Ridge neighborhood in Robinson Waco (Hewitt, Midway: rentals, buying a home, buying) - City-Data Forum

osiders · 03-09-2012, 06:54 PM

We are moving to Waco and will be out next month house hunting. We are looking to rent. There are a few rentals in Surrey Ridge so I was just looking for feedback about this neighborhood. It looks like new construction and the schools are MISD. Any info on yard size, surroundings, proximity to shopping and schools would be much appreciated!!!

texasdiver · 03-09-2012, 09:33 PM

I'm not sure what the situation is right now, but there was a huge controversy a couple of years ago about the State DOT widening I-35 and converting the access road to one-way. Surrey Ridge is a pocket subdivision on the east side of I-35 that feeds into Midway ISD. The rest of the school district is entirely on the west side of I-35.

Basically as I remember it, when the access road on the east side of I-35 was 2-way there was reasonable and easy access into Surrey Ridge from I-35 but when it was changed to one-way with the widening and upgrading of I-35 it completely changed the access to Surrey Ridge and forced the residents to drive miles out of their way. I tried to google up some information to find out what the current situation is and frankly I'm not sure if it has been resolved or not but there is still massive freeway construction going on out there. I did find this online petition on the the topic and you can read the enraged comments

http://www.thepetitionsite.com/1/SurreyRidgeVillage/

You will want to be certain about future freeway construction and access to the subdivision before thinking about buying out there. If you are renting it is obviously not as big of a deal but be certain about the access and check it out during rush hour.

The actual neighborhood is fine. Construction is pretty new. But it is kind of an isolated pocket.

Frankly if you are looking for Midway ISD schools there are a lot of other comparable subdivisions that will be more centrally located to schools, shopping, and most jobs. There are new subdivisions going up all around Hewitt that would be in the same general price range as Surrey Ridge. Shop around. This isn't New York or San Francisco. You should have options.

osiders · 03-09-2012, 10:35 PM

thank you so much! That info helps a lot. We will look around over there, but since there is quite a few rentals, many of them homes that have never been lived in, it led me to believe that there was something amiss! Our plan is to rent for a year and get settled and get to know the area well before we buy. We do have children, so we want to rent in an area that has desirable schools and sports programs and where we'd want to buy. Thanks again for the feedback.

CalallenMom · 03-30-2012, 10:50 AM

We relocated to Waco on Oct. 2010 and moved into the Surrey ridge subdivision. Personally, we love it here! Very quiet and secluded, yet minutes from shopping and schools. We've never had any problems with loud neighbors, crime, etc. We were looking into buying a home in the neighborhood, but it's looking like we'll be trying to relocate soon, so no point in that now.

As for the txdot situation with changing the road to a one way, because they are building brand new homes, you can now access the neighborhood through Sun Valley (this doesn't show up on mapquest). I would definitely check out Surrey Ridge!

texasdiver · 03-31-2012, 12:14 PM

It sounds like they fixed the traffic access problem that I described above, in which case Surrey Ridge would be a good option. I do see lots of Surrey Ridge rentals listed on Craigslist.

texas_resident · 05-02-2012, 02:14 PM

The did originally fix the issue of access to Surrey Ridge via Sun Valley, but as of about a month ago it is no longer accessible. We had a huge storm with 6+ inches of rain and ever since then the road was closed. After several days of it being closed off, I called the city Streets Department and spoke with someone who said that the developer had never really received permission to build the road and that it basically wasn't up to code but they just kind of allowed it. That all changed when someone's SUV apparently was washed off the road (there's a small creek that runs through and there wasn't really a bridge built to go over it). They informed the developer that he needed to block it off, and he decided to just wipe it out instead. The city said they have absolutely no plans to put in a road here and said it was up to the developer to do something, which likely isn't happening anytime soon. So now we're back to having to go all the way through Robinson to Moonlight Dr., or from I-35 going down to the next exit and then circling back (~ 5 miles extra).

Surrey Ridge is a nice area, but this really does cause quite an inconvenience and to be honest would be a deal breaker for me if I wasn't already there. It not only adds several minutes to the commute home, but also makes the nearby gas stations and restaurants much less convenient to get to (well, to get back home). Most importantly, the extra distance we have to drive to get home is the same extra distance that emergency vehicles would have to travel in case of a fire or someone needing an ambulance.

I actually found this page by searching for others who are upset and frustrated in the area and to find more info, and just thought I'd throw my .02 cents in here.