NEIGHBORHOODS NOT PAYING FOR NO FRONT-YARD PARKING NOTICES Civic clubs won’t have to shell out thousands of dollars for postage if they want to apply for a front-yard parking ban after all, the Chronicle‘s Bradley Olson reported last week: “After the neighborhoods balked, the planning department purchased equipment that will allow it — instead of neighborhoods — to send bulk mailings. The department estimates it will pay $15,000 to $20,000 in mailing costs in the first year and $125,000 over five years for the bulk mailing equipment. ‘I’m really excited that the administration listened to the voices of the homeowners and the civic associations,’ said Councilman James Rodriguez, who pushed for city to revise its stance. As of [last] Thursday afternoon, the planning department had received four applications, all from neighborhoods in the Spring Branch area.” [Houston Chronicle, previously in Swamplot]
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Development Regulations
Plans for the Ashby Highrise were rejected by the city for the 9th time last week. But . . . this rejection appears to be a bit kinder than the others have been.
How much kinder? The West U Examiner‘s Michael Reed explains:
. . . the tone of the city engineer’s remarks seemed less perfunctory than in the project’s recent permit denials.
In his comments dated March 16, Mark Loethen said “conflicts in drawings sets have been addressed and revised†since the previous rejection Feb. 13.
Saying the city is still concerned about the distance between a proposed entrance on Bissonnet Street and the Dunlavy Street intersection and the volume of left-turns during peak traffic hours, Loethen offered a potential solution.
“Increasing distance between (the) entrance driveway and Dunlavy along with other mitigation measures may be considered,†his comments read.
That sure makes it sound like a building permit for the 23-story highrise — which developer Buckhead Investment Partners still insists on calling 1717 Bissonnet — isn’t that far away from actual city approval. Can’t these tiny remaining details just be worked out in a friendly little get-together?
The Chronicle’s Mike Snyder comments on the the Ashby Highrise’s latest failing grade:
Since March of last year, [Matthew] Morgan and [Kevin] Kirton have submitted various versions of their permit application eight times, and the city has rejected it eight times.
Since one definitition of insanity is taking the same action repeatedly and expecting a different result, some observers have speculated that the developers were building a record for a lawsuit. The language in their timeline shows they’re prepared to take this step, whether or not it’s been part of their strategy all along.
The developers are portraying this case as an example of heavy-handed and inequitable city regulation that all developers should worry about. How much support they’ll get from their industry colleagues if they choose to go to court remains to be seen.
But Jennifer Dawson, writing in the Houston Business Journal, notes that Buckhead Investment Partners has been fiddling with those plans they keep submitting:
ARAIYAKUSHIMAE STATION, THE WASHINGTON CORRIDOR, AND THOSE NARROW PRIVATE DRIVES “So why does an aerial photo of Rice Military look just like Tokyo? A few things set Houston apart from most other American cities here. For one, American cities have long had a prejudice towards public streets. Development regulations stipulating that ‘every lot must have X amount of frontage on a public street’ date to the 1800s in most American cities, well before the age of zoning. Interior lots reached through shared access easements are a common feature of rural and exurban development, but Houston is relatively uncommon in allowing such arrangements in a high-density setting. This results in narrow alleyways more characteristic of cities in Japan and, on a larger scale, Great Britain.” [Keep Houston Houston]
Yesterday’s City Council vote wasn’t even close — which means that Houston will no longer allow “attention-getting devices” on commercial property, effective January 1st of 2010. The ban excludes fake quoins, oversized Alamo-shaped parapets, and strip-mall turrets, but it pointedly includes the inflatable menageries that are so much simpler to put up and take down.
Houston sure knows how to destroy its architectural history! In honor of the passing of this singular era, which exhibited such a flowering of the local decorative arts — and in advance of the less-than-spectacular demolitions that are soon to follow, Swamplot presents this short photo salute to Houston’s soon-to-be lost commercial landscape:
ASHBY HIGHRISE: STRIKE SEVEN! “The developers of the Ashby high-rise sent their plans back to the city of Houston just days before Hurricane Ike hit, and not long after the Public Works Department resumed operations, Buckhead Investment Partners were rejected for a seventh time. Records show the plans were filed again Sept. 11, seven days after being returned. They were denied a remaining permit again Sept. 29. In his comments, city engineer Mark Loethen said plans for a driveway permit contained no revisions and there was ‘no current justification’ for restriping plans on Bissonnet Boulevard at Ashby Drive.” [West University Examiner; previously]
Calling it “perhaps the most elegant and beloved in the entire neighborhood,” some saddened neighbors send in a deathbed photo shoot featuring the former Southgate home of retired Rice University architecture professor Elinor Evans. Evans sold the home at 2202 Addison in January.
Lovett Homes plans to build a new house on the property. (HCAD lists the new owner as “5177 Builders Ltd.”) In June, the Planning Commission granted a variance allowing the new garage to maintain the existing 10-ft. setback along Montclair Dr. — in order to preserve a large live oak tree in the back yard. In applying for the variance, Lovett promised to maintain the existing home’s footprint.
After the jump: highlights from the photo shoot, plus a link to the riveting, tree-saving Planning Commission hearing video!
COLLECTING RAINWATER: NOT JUST FOR PLANTS The Public Works Department may modify proposed regulations requiring detention ponds or barrels on new construction and residential additions — before they go into effect in October: “City officials acknowledge the proposal is too broad and does not do enough to differentiate big projects from small projects that have less of a flood impact. They said changes will probably still require detention ponds for big projects – like town homes — that contribute to flooding, but smaller construction projects may be exempt.” [11 News]