A NEW HEIGHTS PARK FOR THE SHUTTERED BUS STOP ON N. MAIN? 
METRO rendered the Heights Transit Center just north of Cavalcade obsolete when its new bus routes went into service in 2015. Although 3 routes still converge below the southern tip of the 0.88-acre, triangular property where Studewood dies into N. Main, not all of them let on at that location and none of them arrive at the covered waiting area riders once used for boarding. Now, reports the Chronicle’s Mike Morris, the City plans to buy the unused lot. The price: $1,425,000, to be funded by fees imposed on developers who didn’t include green space in their projects as specified in a 2007 ordinance. The fees, writes Morris, “must be spent there within three years and can be used only for park improvements.” The city council will vote on the land purchase today. [Houston Chronicle] Photo: Save the Heights Transit Center
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Dear Metro
We have $1.425MM on our hands that we need to spend pronto. What say you write up a contract for the property where the Heights Transit Center used to be located? We’ll be sure to put our best negotiators on this.
Sincerely,
Mayor Sylvester Turner
Back in the Mayor Parker days, the city would just take the greenspace fees and use them to plug holes in HPARD’s budget. As was typical for the time, the reasoning from the Parker administration was basically “nothing says we can’t do that”. Sadly, back then, market value was about half of what it currently is in the Heights and other hot markets in town where larger tracts are becoming exceedingly rare. Many opportunities to add park space were missed.
It’s actually a very reasonable price. Do you know how many townhomes could be built on that? Like 1 billion
Would be $2.3 million at $60 per foot ($65 is pretty standard in this area). The odd shape, easements and setbacks are dragging it down to $1.4 million. I was hoping that would have turned into a “Cafe Du Monde” style place, but a park sounds nice