Without making a big alert-the-neighbors fuss about it, CenterPoint Energy appears to have begun expanding the electrical substation across the street from the new Alexan Heights apartment complex going up on Yale St. into an adjacent vacant lot, a reader reports. Crews began breaking up the 6,600-sq.-ft. lot’s concrete surface yesterday. CenterPoint has owned the lot at 612 Yale St. since 2004, according to county tax records, though the neighboring 6th and Yale Collision and Repair shop had often used it as parking space.
The lot appears at the top center of this recent aerial view of apartment construction and the substation:
***
- Previously on Swamplot:Â Unwiring the Yale St. Oaks in Front of the Alexan Heights Apartments
Photos: Swamplot inbox (lot); AeroPhoto/Trammell Crow Residential (aerial view)
Not Shocking
*Alert* the neighbors? That’s funny.
Thank God that they can expand such a facility without any public comment period needed. It has no emissions, discharges, noise, or odors, and the traffic will actually be less than before because the parking lot is being removed. There will be no increased disease transmission, effects on local employment patterns, or archaeological treasures lost. And they’re not condemning any land for this.
Too many projects in this country are delayed for years because of a small minority making unfounded claims about project impacts. Pre-1970, there wasn’t enough environmental review or opportunity for public comment. We’ve now gone too far in the other direction.
Totally agree eiioi. That’s why the East End is getting that awful METRORail OVERPASS instead of the underpass that the community wanted. All because the “soil is contaminated”….
Walker,
As you stated, the Metro underpass was scuttled because of soil pollution. Soil testing for contaminants is pretty much standard in former industrial/commercial areas as it is a huge legal liability. Instead of condemning Metro you should be thanking them for involving the public and then making the correct decision.
This is where cell phone reception disappears for a few blocks. Drop a bothersome call and blame the location.