04/30/12 6:32pm

COMMENT OF THE DAY: DELINEATING THE HOUSTON-KATY BORDER DMZ “I always thought George Bush Park was an appropriate boundary between what should be called ‘Houston’ and what should be called ‘Katy.’ However, this requires suffering a weird ‘interzone’ considering the feeder roads and Park Ten. Still, Park Ten has a feel of neutrality to it. Might still work.” [Katied, commenting on A Peek Inside Houston’s New J. Crew No. 2]

03/09/12 12:27pm

A few homeowners in Katy’s Nottingham Country subdivision have now filed 2 separate lawsuits against Kickerillo Company, Inc. — the successor company to the firm that originally developed the subdivision in the 1970s. In 2010, Kickerillo transferred a strip of land along the southwest side of Mason Creek to the Harris County Flood District; the agency plans to build a 10-ft.-wide, $3.25 million trail along the waterway. The trail would allow bikers and hikers a clear path from the Kingsland Park & Ride on I-10 near Mason Rd. to George Bush Park. In a couple of news reports covering the controversy last year, Harris County Commissioner Steve Radack declared that the land along the waterway, which passes beyond the backyard fences of many Nottingham Country residents, now belongs to the county. A county attorney said that homeowners’ claims to the property resulted from a “misreading” of the plat.

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01/25/12 1:07pm

CRAPE MYRTLE MAIMING SEASON HAS BEGUN “I ventured out into the burbs this past weekend (Katy) and witnessed the unthinkable — crape murder!” reports a reader. And here’s a photo, sent in from the scene of the triple-massacre aftermath, near the intersection of Pintail and Spoonbill streets in Hunters Terrace. Just a little off the top, please. [Swamplot inbox] Photo: Swamplot inbox

10/06/11 2:59pm

Independent grocery store Klein’s Super Market closed down in April, after doing business in Tomball for 89 years — almost half of them at the corner of West Main St. and Buvinghausen. Next up for the 31,628-sq.-ft. vacant space at 1200 West Main: New life as a “community-based outpatient clinic” for the Michael E. DeBakey VA Medical Center. The Veterans Administration has signed a 20-year lease for the property, Congressman Michael McCaul announced today. Renovations are expected to be completed next summer; the clinic should open to patients next fall. Also announced: a similar clinic at 750 Westgreen Blvd. in Katy, in an existing medical building.

Photo: Jesse Smith

09/28/11 11:51am

POSSIBLE SCAM TARGETED KATY-AREA HOAS Complaints from 3 suburban homeowners’ associations — including the one for the Estates of Avalon at Seven Meadows gated community west of the Grand Parkway near Fry Rd. in Katy — have been filed against Arrow Community Management, alleging the Cinco Ranch management company misappropriated HOA funds. Arrow’s owner, Taggert Mayfield, received a sentence of 3 years’ deferred adjudication earlier this month after he pled guilty to mishandling $20,000 in HOA funds. Sgt. David Schultz of the Fort Bend County Sheriff’s Office tells reporter Deborah Wrigley that one new report he’s investigating claims an Arrow-managed HOA is missing about $120,000. The company, which appears to have shut down its operations, had contracts with more than a dozen HOAs in Harris and Fort Bend Counties. [abc13] Photo of Estates of Avalon at Seven Meadows: Keller Williams Premier Realty

06/08/11 1:53pm

What’s missing from the set of images that goes with this Memorial Parkway brick 2-story? Only photos of the tile recently installed on the garage floor. Other than that, the listing does a pretty good job of illustrating the agent’s contention that this 1989 4-bedroom, 3-1/2-bath, 2,365-sq.-ft. home does, in fact, have “new tile throughout.”

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04/25/11 11:54am

A buyer has at last been found for the carefully constructed Forbidden City exhibit at the shuttered Forbidden Gardens attraction in Katy. Well . . . for a portion of it, at least. Ben Cornblath is director of the museum and cultural center that closed under mysterious circumstances in February, then held an open-to-the-public selloff of many of its holdings. He tells Swamplot that a group of people in an “environmental” company associated with the Houston Livestock Show & Rodeo has expressed interest in . . . that big shed that’s been standing over the model and protecting it from things like sleet, Hurricane Ike, and the Houston sun. The park is still awaiting the company’s bid. Cornblath says such structures appear to be a rare commodity around the metropolitan area, and this one has a strong track record of sheltering an entire miniature Middle Kingdom city for nearly a decade and a half. But getting the steel structure out of there won’t be easy: The move may require a crane.

What about that thing beneath the sought-after roof, the one-twentieth-scale model of Beijing’s Forbidden City?

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03/25/11 2:16pm

EVERYTHING WAS GOING FINE AT THE BERRYHILL IN CINCO RANCH — UNTIL THIS HAPPENED The Berryhill Baja Grill in Villagio Town Center — that Tuscan-themed shopping center in Cinco Ranch — has closed. “Not hugely newsworthy,” a Swamplot reader admits — except for one little part of the story. According to a lawsuit filed earlier this month by Villagio Partners, the restaurant hasn’t paid its rent in twenty-seven months. Berryhill moved into the shopping center in August 2007 but the franchise’s operators haven’t paid at all since the beginning of 2009, according to a filing with the Harris County District Court. [Ultimate Katy] Photo: Villagio Town Center