CITY RED TAGS WHITE OAK MUSIC HALL FOR ILLEGAL OUTDOOR STAGE CONSTRUCTION 
A city inspector issued a red tag to White Oak Music Hall on Tuesday to stop what appears to have been unpermitted construction work on a permanent outdoor stage, Zach Despart reports this morning. The venue’s permit for the long-term temporary stage it had been using for outdoor shows expired on October 5th, a few weeks after mayor Turner publicly nixed the organizers’ just-take-it-down-real-quick renewal plans; this week a real estate agent who lives in the area handed out photos to city council ostensibly showing that crews were already at work to put up a new structure, despite the plans for the stage still not having passed the city’s permitting review process. Despart also notes that a show previously billed on the outdoor stage for this Saturday is now marked on its ticket purchase page as planned for one of the venue’s indoor performance spaces. [Houston Press; previously on Swamplot] Original renderings of White Oak Music Hall with planned outdoor stage: Schaum /Shieh
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It’s about time that the City enforced the rules on WOMH. That place was a bad idea from the start, and has been a local nuisance since it opened.
Really hope they get it all figured out. It sure is nice to have a quality music venue, booking solid tours for a change!
Based on personal experience working with the City of Houston Engineering and Public Works agencies I can say that the current situation is very common with development projects throughout the city. It is perfectly normal for the approval process to drag on like this especially with such a unique project. HEB and Walmart can do their thing efficiently because they’ve done it 1000 times before, they know all the rules and regulations and have contacts within all levels of the local government. A one-off project like this will always hit snags unless they shell out big bucks to a politically active local engineer to help guide them through the difficult bureaucratic process. Even with a good engineer the process can still drag on. The real problem is that the person in charge of approving such projects is likely concerned that by making the wrong decision their job could be on the line. Instead, they kick the bucket down the road and hope someone else makes that tough decision for them! It’s a somewhat archaic, parochial system that is difficult to change until the powers that be move on and new blood comes in to revamp and revitalize. The system is far from perfect, but until now developers have been willing to work within the system because there are some that have learned how to manipulate it to their advantage. Having those bureaucratic layers can be a boon to some and a bane to others.
These cats are booking current hit bands like M83. They might be trust fund soakers but someone in their camp knows business really well. I wouldn’t underestimate them.
J: Omar Afra is clearly bankrolling city hall, ya know that one word that starts with B and rhymes with bride.. Business savvy, more like near infinite funds care of selling off summer fest and the aforementioned trust fund.. Was at the music hall Monday night, and will say it’s a nice place but do feel for the neighbors especially the apartment complex that sits next to the raven tower, hope they enjoy live music..
This place does NOT have adequate bathroom facilities. How in the world did they get their occupancy permit?
MaxC: If they don’t have adequate bathrooms, wouldn’t that be a problem for their customers and hurt their business and thus they’d make sure they had enough so they brought in the most amount of revenue they could? And if they decided not to add more, that’s their (bad) choice as a business owner and they’ll be harmed in the pocketbook.
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Why should the city define what’s adequate? It’s bad enough they define what paint color is too dark to have in a bathroom (yes, I’ve had one of my own buildings red tagged for bathroom paint that was too dark).
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Enough of the nanny state.