Hillocks of dirt dot the landscape west of T.C. Jester, adjacent to the train tracks near the end of Shirkmere Dr. where Lovett Homes is now elevating some of the 77 lots that’ll make up its new Stanley Park subdivision. Since receiving a commercial fill permit from the city in April, the developer has stacked soil across the site — which lies entirely within White Oak Bayou’s 100-year floodplain and has never before been built on.
Also included in that flood-designated realm: the Timbergrove Manor neighborhood just north of the development. Its southernmost street, Queenswood Ln., had it up to here during Harvey:
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Areas where roads will go have been cleared throughout the soon-to-be neighborhood:
A parting glance at one of the site’s flatter portions:
- Previously on Swamplot: At the Southern Tip of Timbergrove Manor, Where the Lines Are Drawn for 78 New Lovett Homes
Photos: Swamplox inbox
Isn’t this right next to the bayou? Have we forgotten Harvey already?
Why was this fill project even allowed?. By reducing the volume in the 100 “year” floodplain, it endangers those structures in the 500 “year” floodplain. Meanwhile the purchasers of the new housing on these lots are guaranteed to be flooded on a regular basis costing YOU money in extra FEMA bailouts. This land should have been bought out and deepened as a flood water reservoir, but that makes too much sense.
Wow. Is that still allowed? Is there some kind of detention area built into the development? Seems kind of blatant.
This. Is. Lunacy.
Building houses in a floodplain?
Next to the bayou?
Adding fill dirt to a floodplain?
Reducing the places for water to go? Endangering both existing adjacent development and downstream areas?
Lunacy.
So Lovett is raising the elevation of the development…and all the water will flow back into Timbergrove? Lovely way to treat the new neighbors.
Less floodplain means more flooding somewhere else. But Lovett and the City make out fine.
Wont this affect the Timbergrove Manor neighborhood on the other side of the bayou dumping more water in that neighborhood. I just read and article about the Mississippi River and a community that raised their levees causing more water to flood the other side of the river more than in the past.
Good luck selling these lots after Sept. 1 – the new ordinance will require these homes to be 2 feet above the 500 year, then.
The current construction is just for the water, sewer, roads and lot grading – not for the homes.
The 100 yr. BFE here is about 52 (home FF 53 – for the current ordinance).
The 500 year here is about 55, so after Sept. 1 any home permits pulled will require FF of 57 – pier and beam foundation homes, at least 4′ above the grade they are filling to now. Which will add roughly $50,000 to the foundation cost – compared to a slab on grade foundation. 9 stair risers just to get to the front door.
Are they kidding? This is just infuriating. WTF are they thinking…oh, yeah, money for them to make and we’ll continue to flood. Thanks Lovett Homes. I think I’ll go protest.
It seems obtuse to build in a known flood plain after the deluge of Harvey. As if all that dirt will mend any difference. Who would insure the houses in this development and those who do: at what cost?
Yep, on the map this street looks like it’s in the bayou (which according to recent history, it is.)
Maybe the homes should be built connected and form a dyke.
Upside: Could cram twice as many in there
Exactly, get while the getting is good – before Sept 1st!
This should end well…
Well…with a name like “Stanley Park” I’m predicting these homes will sit uninhabited, be mind-bendingly luxurious, and will be more than sufficiently insured for every eventuality. And 9 steps is just the right number.
Someone call the mayor and county commissioner and all the news networks, this is crazy!
Turner has to go!
For more information on this project : http://www.stopstanleypark.com
Finally. We are starting to get a glimpse of the post harvey corruption that the city and county have been waiting to implement after all the hoopla died down. Unfortunately houston is a swamp that we can’t drain
This is so incredibly stupid. I hope they get stuck with all of these houses built and unsold.
Who would ever, ever buy one of these?
Wash, rinse, repeat! Doesn’t anyone remember the shenanigans with Jenard Gross and the T. C. Jester apartments. He actually claimed this piece of property (Stanley Park) as storm water detention for the complex and then promptly sold it to Lovett Homes. Timbergrove flooded again severely in Harvey yet Lovett Homes thinks it is a great time to build there. Here is a great article from 2010 on all of this and more, like three developers including Jenard Gross claiming the Timbergrove Baseball fields as their mitigation.
http://www.houstonpress.com/news/brandon-brooks-did-not-like-his-time-under-bill-obrien-10531249
Greed and stupidity. We cannot learn from our mistakes. Government is doing nothing to protect innocent home-buyers.
I hope they pour a pile of money into it and NO ONE buys a home. Only way to get to a developer is through his bank account…..
If I lived in Timbergrove I would be hiring a good law firm and sue the hell out of Lovett and city planning for putting them in more peril.
You’d think they would be screaming right now. This is insane
This is actually progress. Mayor Parker would have given the developer a 380 agreement.
The neighborhood to the north was built out by 1980, clearly that developer turned it back on this low lying land by RR tracks. Now 40 years later, just after 3 colossal floods, the city decides it is OK to build on it now, but only if you truck in a bunch of fill dirt. So you can then built house on stilts (Frank is already doing it in Shady Acres) that will sit by a RR tract. With that said Frank has been killing it in his deals to the south in Cottage Grove.
I also understand that the 11 acre pipe site to the west is probably going to go residential. It is in the 500 year.
Allowing this is the definition of insanity. With all we know today, in a repeat flood area that was meant to be mitigation/detention for adjacent projects that were never mitigated thereby causing the flooding issues in the first place. Yet t the fill dirt comes in…
And dont worry @Old School, they have their 380, complete with Annise’s signature:
http://www.houstontx.gov/ecodev/380/intown_homes.pdf
So our City/State pay developers to build in the floodplain in 2018. WOW.
How is this allowed? Houston will never learn. Timbergrove will flood all the more. And just how many feet is the area being raised?
Without the city land banking these flood prone properties, it’s fair game for developers. Remember folks, there is no zoning in Houston and that give the city very very limited authority to dictate where uses can be built- so long as you meet minimum requirements. If you meet the rules, then you’re good to go.
Agree with all comments above. Was feeling confident living in the Heights at 59 Ft above sea level. But now, where will the flooding water go? This is just plain nuts.
I used to live right next door to Stanley Park. The fill dirt was comically claimed to have come from the detention area across TC Jester from Stonewood Apartments? Stanley Park is (was) made up of a couple of ravines and little else. It is much worse than building in the 100-year, because they are putting tons and tons of dirt in floodways, 20 or 30 feet deep before even getting to the 100 yr flood level. The amount of dirt needed to fill Stanley Park would have made that small detention area about 200 feet deep… it is insane to assume they followed guidelines to provide fill within 1/4 mile.
As many have said, this plan is ridiculous. It is like a bad version of the Bill Murray movie “Groundhog Day” where we repeat the same things over and over.
.
Unlike the movie, there are real people involved and actual tragedies that this boondoggle will cause.
Meanwhile trees are removed from the banks of Buffalo Bayou.
Legalized bribery aka campaign “ contributions “ ..
The city cares more about collecting taxes on new homes than it does about creating a guaranteed flooding danger for our established subdivision . . . where do they really think that water is going to go if you fill up our watershed areas?!!! My section of Timbergrove barely squeaked by Harvey – but so many of our neighbors did NOT make it out dry! And now you want to build even more? And in the floodplain!!!?? Did anyone actually think this one through at all??? Or were the dollar signs just too alluring?
Rebecca Edwards, its your long lost friend Ken from Shepherd Drive Day Care Center LOL
Erbody’s a flood engineer these days…
Mayors want two things: more population and more taxes. As a result, the people who already live in the city suffer the consequences. And Harris County is no better. Last year, Harris County lost a net of 10,000 residents, but the real story is the make up of the change: 40,000 Americans moved out of Harris County and 30,000 immigrants moved in. The biggest line item in the planned use of Federal flood money by Houston and Harris County is not flood control or drainage, but rather more low income rental housing. If you build it, they will come. More population…more tax money from the people already here.
@William B: What is the source of the statistics you cite? According to this website, Harris County’s population increased 0.78% last year. http://worldpopulationreview.com/us-counties/tx/harris-county-population/
Also, I’m curious about how the movements of “Americans” (U.S. citizens?) and immigrants was traced.
Not trying to give you a hard time, but I like to verify these things.