A TEMPORARY HOLD ON THAT TEMPORARY HOLD City council yesterday postponed for a week a vote on some temporary changes to the city’s historic-preservation ordinance — but not before supporters added an amendment that would exempt neighborhoods already in the process of applying for historic-district status from a proposed 7-month ban on the creation of new districts. As Swamplot reported last week, the changes would temporarily prohibit historic-district homeowners whose demolition, renovation, or new construction projects are rejected by the city’s historic commission from simply waiting 90 days and proceeding with their plans anyway. Mayor Parker wants the ban on 90-day waivers to allow a “breathing period” — during which more permanent changes to the historic-preservation ordinance could be crafted. [HTV]
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So somewhere out there is someone who is trying to do away with some old building and this whole thing is an attempt to stop it. Will the real historic demo please stand up?
completely unrelated here, but anyone else in the montrose area dissapointed in the closing of dunlavy park while they tear out the swimming pool?
me and the kids were hoping to get a lot of action out of that pool this summer, but so much for that idea.
The above comment is off topic and should probably be part of a new entry. Having said that, here is more information about the Ervan Chew Park (Dunlavy Park) construction from the City’s Parks web site:
“The Ervan Chew Park swimming pool complex is being removed, and a water sprayground will be built to replace it. Parts of the park near the construction area will be closed in the interest of safety. The project should be finished during September 2010. Nearby swimming pools include MacGregor Park at 5225 Calhoun Road, Memorial Park at 6402 Arnot, Love Park at 1001 West 12th Street, and Stude Park at 1031 Stude.”
(Parenthetical aside: Those “nearby” swimming pools are only nearby by auto or adult bicyclist’s standards.)
“The Ervan Chew Park swimming pool complex is being removed, and a water sprayground will be built to replace it”
That sucks, as an adult “spraygrounds” don’t do a lot for me, but I enjoyed the pool there. Why not have both? Not everyone in this neighborhood has private pools. If the city is catering to a demographic of young kids you don’t know how to swim, they are grossly misjudging this neighborhood.
thanks for the info marmer.
it’s too much of a hassle to drive to memorial for a quick swim, and although the one near emancipation park is relatively close it’s not like i’m ever going to consider taking a kid there.
just dissapointing that now it’s difficult to go swimming and i can’t go to the library on the weekends with the kids. so much for having a city-life in the city.
More off topic banter….This is why I have a lakehouse.
On topic – YEA!!!
Oops, meant yea to the possible historic-preservation ordinance, not to the hold. ME sometimes idiot girl.
Anyone would be mistaken to think Houston Historic Society’s motives are in the best interest of home owners or the community. ‘You pay the mortgage, preservationist own your property rights’ is the true outcome they seek.
Houston’s ‘preservationists’ repeatedly claim they have done great things for Sixth Ward. They conned city-government into permanent restrictions on demolition and new structures under the guise of historic preservation. Now they want to do the same for your community.
The truth about Sixth Ward is they turned it into a zone where, in the past eight years, property values have been flat or have dropped, half-way houses continue to thrive, and some Sixth Ward residents refer to the many bums and drunks roaming the streets as ‘homeless residents’. Crime is high, but it does not affect the city-commissioners who voted for restrictions; not one of them lives in Sixth Ward.
Don’t just take my word for it. Visit Sixth Ward and spend some time in evening (or anytime) and see for yourself. Once you’ve seen enough to form an objective opinion, fast forward five or ten years from now and picture yourself and your family living there, then ask yourself if what ‘preservationists’ have in mind for your community is good for the value of your property or the quality of your neighborhood.
My impression of this “protected district” as opposed to just any old “historic district” in Old Sixth Ward was several who had bought homes and renovated them thought they could force everyone else to do the same and end up with a perfect little neighborhood comprised of perfect little turn-of-the-century style cottages. Developers of course are not interested in cottages. So that leaves just “historic minded” people who are willing to come in and spend a fortune renovating the existing cottages or tearing down an old cottage and replacing it with a new cottage.
The standards of “historic” and “preservation” that were applied for Old Sixth Ward were not applied in Fourth Ward despite Fourth Ward absolutely being a historic district. Freedmans Town specifically. So my personal belief is it was a class thing. Or a color thing.
Or maybe a someone-pulling-strings thing.
Eventually a developer will probably test the “protected” status. And probably prevail. Along with all the other messes city council creates when it “pulls strings” as it did in Old Sixth Ward and as it did with regard to 1717 Bissonnet.
There also was probably the concern of gentrification. Land adjacent to downtown is prime land for development.
What happened in Fourth Ward can happen in Old Sixth Ward. Depends on who wants the land and how adept they are at pulling strings themslves.
As for the new preservation ordinance all anyone needs to do is look at Chapter 42 to get an idea of who it will protect.
Our mayor loves to take credit for the revisions to Chapter 42. . The ones that brought us “zero lot lines” and “setback variances” and all sorts of tricks the developers have used to get more “bang for their buck” in formerly single-family only neighborhoods.
Instead of getting signatures for a preservation ordinance everyone should hvae been getting signatures to put a zoning referendum back on the ballot.
Only zoning is going to protect the neighborhoods.
It is possible that what happened in Sixth Ward started as Matt Mistery describes it: “….several who had bought homes and renovated them thought they could force everyone else to do the same and end up with a perfect little neighborhood comprised of perfect little turn-of-the-century style cottages”.
I wasn’t there at the beginning, but I did spend seven years in Sixth Ward and came away with the impression that Sixth Ward’s preservation activists were neither wealthy nor interested in improving anything. They seemed, however, interested in supporting a small group of property grabbers whose goal seemed buying as many properties as they could ‘cheap’ before prices would go up. They did everything they could behind the scenes to keep values depressed. I don’t know how involved Annise Parker was at the beginning but it sure seems she was part of that initial group; Ms. Parker now owns more than a dozen properties in Sixth Ward.
No one in their right mind would sink $500K into a Sixth Ward residence today and expect to get their money back; developers now know that.
There are very few “historic minded†people wealthy enough and willing to spend a fortune renovating cottages; certainly not enough wealthy-historic-minded folks willing to renovate thousands and thousands of structures preservationist claim deserve saving in Houston. That leaves large numbers of middle-class folks who, if they want to stay in neighborhoods like Heights, are now forced to ‘own the mortgage while a few preservationists own the property rights’.
I also hope developers will prevail, although I dislike the crowded developments they are building in some areas. However, take new developments north of Washington for example: even those crowded new developments are much better than the rotting shacks they replaced which preservationists did nothing to maintain.
In fact, if preservation ordinances had been imposed on those areas, we would still have the slums that existed in place. Most sensible folks prefer clean, well maintained, although crowded, developments over crime ridden slums.
Houston Heights is poof preservation ordinances are not needed. Heights continues to thrive and its ‘character’ has maintained for 100 years without the ‘help’ of preservation ordinances. Don’t let preservationists do to Heights or your neighborhood what they did to Sixth Ward.
One of the best ways to zone and preserve is through deed restrictions. The problem is too many subdivisions that had them let them lapse. And once they lapse it is very hard to enforce them.
“But the house on the next block was allowed to…”
That has happened in many subdivisions that were platted and planned with single-family and single-story homes. It happened in Tanglewood and in Braes Heights.
So far it hasn’t happened in Briargrove which only allows the “one and a half story” facade at least from the street.
This mish-mash we see in most of our subdivisions and entire areas like the Heights is not the result of lack of zoning or the lack of “historic preservation” ordinances but simply the lack of enforcement of deed restrictions.
And thank you for pointing out the little conflict-of-interest on the part of Annise Parker. One of many.
I want to correct something I wrote on my June 6th posting: […Annise Parker.. now owns more than a dozen properties in Sixth Ward]
This no longer appears to be true; I looked up tax records and did no longer find her name associated with any property in Sixth Ward.
Everything else on my June 6th posting remains current and factual.
This no longer appears to be true; I looked up tax records and did no longer find her name associated with any property in Sixth Ward.
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So did she sell them or put them in her partner’s name or even a corporate name?
…so did she sell or put them in her partner’s name or …
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It is quite possible but that would just be speculation and unfortunately I do not have the oomph to research it.
What seems to be evident is the compulsion to control other people’s property without owning it is very strong in preservationists including Parker. They use language like ‘…our little bungalows’, ‘our historic neighborhood’ in reference to property they do not own as if they have been anointed by some real-estate deity to to speak for all of us.
They are also pretty sneaky about their methods. In Sixth Ward they tried to prevent a vote on preservation measures. After we (owners for property rights) finally prevailed on getting our vote and won by a small margin (51%) then the preservationist got Bill White’s backing to change the project boundaries so they could show a majority, sort of ala Tom Delay.
I expect they will try pulling tricks like this again and again as they march to gain control of any property within their reach.
After we (owners for property rights) finally prevailed on getting our vote and won by a small margin (51%) then the preservationist got Bill White’s backing to change the project boundaries so they could show a majority, sort of ala Tom Delay.
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They did the same thing in Fourth Ward when they had to have a new petition for creation of the TIRZ and the Antone family had second thoughts. And said no the second time. Actually they said a lot more than just no.
No problem. Houston Renaissance just drew a little line down the middle of West Dallas and added the new Trammel Crow property. No doubt claiming that it, too, was blighted.
Houston Renaissance demolished a number of truly historic properties in Fourth Ward. Claiming that they were “revitalizing” Fourth Ward. Destroying it was what they did. With everyone at City Hall, and a coouple of state legislators and of course Miss Sheila Jackson Lee, signing off on it. Including Annise Parker.
They did the same thing in Fourth Ward when they had to have a new petition for creation of the TIRZ…
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The real motives are hidden well but the messages from these ‘leaders’ are clearly inconsistent: revitalization one day / preservation another. It smacks more like power and influence brokering.
This blog is a great exchange for gathering and revealing facts and it is important to keep talking.
Stealth is another method used by our ‘leaders’ to pass City measures opposed by most. Take the new preservation ordinance proposed for the Heights. There will be a public hearing July 15 where citizens get a chance to voice comments publicly. Two things about it:
1) You would think mainstream media (Chronicle, TV, Radio) would be announcing it early so most people pro or con would know to prepare to attend. So far all I’ve seen is one 30″ X 20″ sign facing north on the north-bound lane of Heights Blv, (you get to see the back of the sign as you drive by). The sign is there so the city ‘leaders’ can claim they’ve met their obligation to inform the public of such important hearing.
2) A similar public hearing was held by Bill White prior to passing the iron-clad ordinance for Sixth Ward. Bill and the ‘preservationist’ used the hearing to learn the main public objections so they could spin answers for the press later and plug the holes prior to final vote by city commissioners. The public hearing was a total ambush for those of us who believed it would be an objective and fair public hearing.
As Lenwood Johnson and Gladys House will attest to the “public hearings” by Houston Renaissance were usually announced about five minutes before the hearing.
The only elected official who ever questioned the matter in which Houston Renaissance was operating was Martha Wong.
The rest, including Annise Parker, ignored it. As did the preservationists and other “civic” and “civil rights” leaders including one who as I put it to her was apparently afraid the invitations to the cocktail parties would stop if she spoke out.