Here’s just one paragraph from a nine-page variance request application submitted for consideration at today’s Planning Commission hearing:
So what message does this whole process send to people like me who are willing to go out and spend their time and their hard earned money and take risks in order to improve the city and improve our neighborhoods? The message is: Only the guys with deep pockets and deep connections—the Perry Homes, the Tricons, the Fingers, the Olmsteads, the Levits, the Weingartens—only those guys get to win at this game. Those guys can build what they want when they want. Everybody else loses. Everybody else gets bad advice and the run around. Everybody else should just stay home and sit quietly on their couches and watch TV.
There’s more to like in Jared Meadors’s request to subdivide the 49-by-120-ft. property he owns at 2601 Baylor St. in Sunset Heights into three separate lots — including an accounting of his annual net adjusted income over the last three years, two HAR.com screen shots, and some occasional heavy leaning on the CAPS LOCK key. But it’s nothing, really, compared to his more wide-ranging complaints about his difficulties with his neighbors and the Prevailing Lot Size ordinance that he has posted on the website of his company, Medusa Properties. It begins:
NEW CONSTRUCTION! SUNSET HEIGHTS - MODERN CRAFTSMAN STYLE - AVAIL SPRING 2008
*** UPDATE *** THE BLUE HAIRED LAWN NAZIS OF EAST SUNSET HEIGHTS STRIKE AGAIN!
More name-calling, after the jump!
* * *
Meadors’s website continues:
Looks like I�m famous: http://www.chron.com/ . . . 5589475.html
What a predictable bunch of saps these Sunset Heights “neighbors” of mine are! They are too funny. I set �em up and they go right for the bait! :) (I spoke with one of them after the last hearing and he told me “oh, yeah, we�re familiar with your website”, so I went home and wrote a bunch of crazy stuff on here that I knew would get their goat!
I just feel sorry for that sad excuse for a “journalist”, Betty Martin, who just sullied herself by letting Ms. Davids write such a completely one-sided article about the whole situation–without bothering to contact me for my side of the story–and then putting her name on it! Wow. Only in the Chronicle! :) I�m going to try and remember to send Betty a personal invitation to the house razing party in a few weeks. We�re gonna get a keg and a bunch of sledgehammers and let everyone take a few whacks at it. (Hey, Vicki–you�re definitely invited!)
I forwarded this article to everyone I know–they got a huge kick out of it… especially the 26 tenants in my vintage apartments all over town… Jared–”The Evil Developer”! What a riot.
Meadors is a serial restorer of older rental properties in Houston and Salt Lake City, and he provides detailed descriptions and photographs of his projects on the Medusa Properties website. He claims representatives of the Planning Dept. told him no minimum-lot-size application existed for his property when he bought it, and that he only learned from the department that one did exist after he had applied for the replat. The Chronicle story by Betty Martin he refers to quotes from an earlier version of his website, and ends with:
“Obviously there are a lot worse things I could build on this lot (than) what I originally intended, which the neighbors may soon find out if this drags on too long,” he warns on the Web site. “Can anyone say ‘methadone clinic?’ “
It’s not an exact quotation, though — Meadors apparently had placed a smiley at the end of his comments. And Meadors has since posted a response:
I do have to say that I have reconsidered the methadone clinic, however. I’m now leaning more toward a halfway house for recently released pedophiles at this location… that’s really what the neighbors really deserve… that or a strip bar. Sunset Heights really doesn’t HAVE a really good strip bar…
:)
(And you can “quote” me on that, Betty!)
- Public Meeting Agenda (see item 92) [City of Houston Planning & Development Department]
- City postpones decision on Baylor Street property in Sunset Heights [Houston Chronicle]
- Sunset Heights - Modern Craftsman Style - Avail Spring 2008 [Medusa Properties]
Photo of the former post office at 2601 Baylor St.: Jared Meadors
6 Comments
Hi Betty Martin,
I’d like to meet you because if you are as pretty as you are good at misjudging people you must be a beauty.
I have rented from Jared Meadors and he has taught me a lot about renovation, real-estate, architecture, and the history of Houston. Most important he has taught me fiscal responsibility and choosing quality over quantity.
I would agree with you that most developers build cheap and fast with little concern for the neighborhood. I lived in Rice Military on Crooms St. where there physically is not enough room for the Fire Engines to turn the corner and put out fires if need be - not to mention no parking. Did you cover that story? My neighbors and I fought the developer and lost. I guarantee that Jared is not in that class of developers. He is in an entirely different league. If you had rented from Jared and lived in one of his remodels you’d know what I mean.
I am disappointed to read your statement that Jared was not reachable. According to my sources he wanted to meet with the Heights association. They did not want to meet with him. Is that true? If you need his phone number, I will give it to you. Just post a comment asking me.
Heck, I’ll meet with you to give my side of the story. Will you contact me and quote me in your future articles? I will meet you, take you out to dinner and then go introduce you to Jared. You’ll enjoy meeting him - he is very nice, intelligent and fun to hang out with.
Anyway, it is a shame that it has come to this because it only creates animosity between neighbors and the end result will be vengeance and name calling. If the heights people had met with Jared they could have worked together and build something cool. Jared is innovative and manages his life so well that he can afford to build something cool, hip and helpful for the community. Now that you have labeled him as an evil developer you may just get what you have manifested in your mind. Careful what you predict.
I look forward to hearing from you. By the way, I forgive you because I myself have been guilty of misjudging people.
Christopher Walker 37 and single :)
Christopher,
We’re happy to host your letter to Betty Martin, but until she finds this, you might have better success reaching her if you add your comments to her original article in the Chronicle, or send her a direct email — her address is listed at the bottom of her story.
Gus,
Thanks for hosting my letter and I will send it to her. Thanks for the tip.
Chris
How can I see the 9 page variance application? I put my eMail address and the item number in at the bottom of the city’s site so it would allegedly be eMailed to me but I haven’t received jack.
Starkeshia: Unfortunately, the application was part of the Draft Agenda available on the Planning Commission website, but it’s since been replaced with the Final Agenda, which merely records the commission’s decision. Draft Agendas apparently are apparently available from the website only on Wednesdays and Thursdays on the weeks of Planning Commission meetings. But I’ll email you the proper section of the copy we downloaded and saved before the meeting.
For future reference, here’s the needlessly complicated way you can download agendas yourself. (If you do this now, you’ll get the Final Agenda, but if you do it two weeks from yesterday, you’ll get the latest Draft version, which will contain all the goodies for the next meeting.) Ready? Here’s what to do:
First, click on the “Public Meeting Agenda” link at the bottom of the article above. On the DRC System page that comes up, click on “View Planning Commission Meeting Schedule.” On the next page that appears, click on the meeting date you’re interested in. On the Public Meeting Agenda page that appears, scroll down to the section marked “Detailed Public Meeting Agenda” and click on the button marked “Download Agenda Now.” Click “I agree” on the next page that appears. Then wait as a 200-plus-page PDF file downloads . . . slowly. Save it!
If anyone else wants a copy of the application discussed in this post, just leave a comment below.
Gus,
I appreciate all the coverage you’ve given this story. I would like to respond to Christopher, if I may. I’m sure Mr. Jared is a decent human being and an all around good guy to RENT from. That’s not the issue here. Neighborhood preservation by OWNERS of homes in the area IS the issue.
Thanks.