Note: Story updated below.
The 11th time’s the charm! According to Abc13 reporter Miya Shay, the city today gave the developers of the Ashby Highrise the final approval they needed to begin construction of the 23-story residential tower at the corner of Ashby and Bissonnet, next to Southampton.
Okay now everybody, show us your cards!
Update, 5:49 p.m.: Some details about why the most recent plans were approved, from a city news release via the River Oaks Examiner:
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The new plans reduce the number of residential units in the project as well as eliminate from the plans a commercial spa, retail space and executive offices. [Public Works & Engineering deputy director Andy] Icken emphasized that the plans significantly reduce the number of peak-hour trips expected from vehicles entering and exiting the property, one of the key restrictions in the code.
Original plans submitted by the developers called for more than 180 daily peak-hour trips into and out of the property. According to a Traffic Impact Analysis of the just approved plans, that number would be restricted to only 120, a 33 percent reduction from the original. In addition, the new plans would limit the residents’ vehicle entrances and exits from the property to Bissonnet only, not onto surrounding residential streets.
- The Friday night news drop: city approves 11th revised Ashby Highrise proposal. [Twitter]
- Modified Ashby high-rises approved [River Oaks Examiner]
- Controversial Ashby high-rise project gets green light [Houston Chronicle]
- Ashby Highrise coverage [Swamplot]
Rendering of proposed Ashby Highrise, 1717 Bissonnet: Buckhead Investment Partners
Oh, geez. I wouldn’t want to be selling a home in Southampton at the moment.
you know what they say… if at first you don’t succeed, try and try and try and try and try and try and try and try and try and try and try again.
The voters have never approved zoning. Particularly not zoning by ordinance. For those who don’t like that, well, move to a city that has zoning and allows you to restrict development of unrestricted land in your neighborhood. Until the voters say you can do so in Houston, you can’t. And don’t send us a postcard from wherever you move to. You will not be missed. Although please do take Bill White and the others at City Hall who supported this with you.
The city is making the smart political decision; let the sinking real estate market take on the role of stalling the project now.
I doubt we are going to see the developers move foward any time soon, given the difficulties in securing financing for a project like this today.
Hallelujah! Maybe now my Wroxton Court neighbors will finally get rid of their ugly yellow signs.
Finally. Good for them. They’ve been screwed by politics for two years.
How many years into its lifespan until parts of the building get “repurposed”?
The city is making the smart political decision; let the sinking real estate market take on the role of stalling the project now.
I doubt we are going to see the developers move foward any time soon, given the difficulties in securing financing for a project like this today.
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Supposedly they have solid financing. And probably will start demolition asap and construction as well. Before the next mayor arrives and decides to huff and puff and blow the hirise down.
By the time it’s completed, the market may be better. Even if it’s not, it’s aimed at people who have money regardless of the economy in general. And the location is hard to beat. Easy access to everything most consider “desireable” not to mention the ability to walk around in one of the truly wonderful neighborhoods to walk in. I suspect in the end you are going to see some real development on Bissonnet and in the end everyone will be real happy with it. Well, almost everyone. And eventually Bissonnet will be widened as a result. Which it needs to be anyway. It has not been a quiet two lane residential street as some have continued to claim it is for a long, long time.
Supposedly they have solid financing.
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What looked rock solid in 2007 is most likely sitting on quicksand today…..
Time will tell.
Congratulations, Buckhead.
Looking forward to a successful project that the surrounding community can be proud of.
Matt says:
“And the location is hard to beat. Easy access to everything most consider “desireable†not to mention the ability to walk around in one of the truly wonderful neighborhoods to walk in. I suspect in the end you are going to see some real development on Bissonnet and in the end everyone will be real happy with it. Well, almost everyone. And eventually Bissonnet will be widened as a result. Which it needs to be anyway. It has not been a quiet two lane residential street as some have continued to claim it is for a long, long time.”
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Eighteen months of construction is going to play hell with both the “desirable” and especially the “easy access.” I don’t think anyone has tried to claim it’s a “quiet” two lane residential street. But I don’t see it widened without a pretty big fight. Those houses, which are still pretty darned valuable, are close to the street.
But I don’t see it widened without a pretty big fight. Those houses, which are still pretty darned valuable, are close to the street.
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How wide is a car? A bus? A truck? Bissonnet is already basically three lanes through Southampton. It won’t take that much easement to make it four. As for fighting city hall, often the state gets involved and when the condemn, you negotiate because in the end they will take it. As everyone in Tanglewood discovered when they widened Chimney Rock. And compartively speaking you had much more money and power fighting that than you will a widening of Bissonnet.
It is unfortunate that the few parts of the development that were to serve the neighborhood have been eliminated.
I still plan to drag a chair to one of the sidewalks during peak hours and drink coffee/read the paper.
I wish I was around to try the Frenchy’s Chicken that was originally on the site!
http://www.buckfund.com/site-history.html
I agree with marmer about the hell to be unleashed. I had to pass by and around the future site almost every day for the past 1.5 years. I’m glad it is no longer on my daily commute route. The construction process is going to be an utter nightmare. Since we do everything backwards in this city, the building will be built with maximum traffic disruption for 2 years and then the necessary, and long overdue, street widening will take another 2-3 years. Nothing like a 4-5 year clusterf*** in your livable neighborhood. Best o’ luck.
I don’t have a proverbial dog in this fight, but I can only think this project is stone cold crazy. I liken it to a 250 pound guy squeezing into a pair of leather pants.Yeah, bidness interests will, eventually, have their way in this town. That’s what H-town is all about. If Buckhead bought up several blocks along Bissonnet and had a “master” plan like the one slated along Allen Parkway/ West Dallas, then it would be easier to comprehend and could be compelling. I’ve seen plenty of f.u. moments when it comes to “the best interests of development” over the past 40 years in this beautiful freak-fest I’ve called home, but this one just leaves me stumped.
Mayor White is a scumbag for every trying to stop thing to begin with. Ann Clutterbuck? I don’t even know where to begin.
A company can build facilities that are 1000x worse and the city won’t lift a finger. CoH to poor people: “Sorry. There’s nothing we can do. They can build anything they want right in your backyard as long as they follow the rules.”
Try to build near Southamption though, and the politicans will rewrite the rules to suit themselves and their wealthy neighbors.
The Ashby Highrise neighbors are some of the richest people in Houston. If controlling the Maryland Manor / Ashby Highrise site was SOOOOO important to the enjoyment of their multi-million dollar mansions, they should have bought it them selves long ago.
Bernard
The Ashby Highrise neighbors are some of the richest people in Houston…
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Actually they are not but they thought they were the most powerful. Which apparently Bill White and everyone else thought as well. Maybe someone finally explained the reality of life to them. Bottom line is the city charter is the city charter. And in the city of Houston you cannot restrict development of unrestricted land. No matter how hard you try. Had they gone to court the developers would have won. The city has not applied the same standard with regard to “traffic impact” to other developments.
I still say they should have donated the land to West U for a new sewage treatment plant.
Rise High, Ashby! The City may have done an immense favor to the developers by waiting out a year or more, through the finance/anxiety period. I am so very happy the fancy-pants neighbors lost out. Take down your elitist signs!
Am looking forward to getting one of these units at a good discount in a few years after the successor to RTC takes it over and sells it off.
Easy access to everything most consider “desireable†not to mention the ability to walk around in one of the truly wonderful neighborhoods to walk in.
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Such a funny comment. The thing that makes it nice and wonderful to walk in is the lack of traffic and development. Adios to that.
Wasn’t the Chimney rock expansion done on property already platted for the wider street, and the complainers knew that when they bought their property?
The thing that makes it nice and wonderful to walk in is the lack of traffic and development. Adios to that.
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You obviously don’t walk in the neighborhood. There is lots of development, just not all of it 23 stories high, and lots of traffic. Despite that, it’s still a wonderful neighborhood to walk in. Although of late you do have to hold your nose as you walk by some of the houses with the little signs in the yard. Hopefully those will go down as the hirise goes up. After the “homeowners” sue everyone of course. Not sure how many there are. Rumor is the signs started coming down when the attorneys passed the hat to pay for the lawsuit when it became clear the mayor might not be able to blow the old hirise down.
They really should stop while they’re not ahead. West U after all does need a new sewage treatment plant. And that land is just perfect. Close by as they say. The developers might decide to become civic minded after all. And donate the land for a new sewage plant.
Which, again, I and others wish they would.
Rise High Ashby!
Now that Bill White is in effect “out of here”, he don’t really give a rat’s ass about what happens in this neighborhood or the rest of Houston. He was stringing the process along until he was done here.
I live adjacent to Lanier Middle School… I came home from work on Thursday to find a soccer mom’s Suburban (with 3 yellow Ashby signs on it) partially blocking my driveway, by about 2 feet.
This particular anti-Ashby soccer mom couldn’t be bothered with finding adequate parking for her SUV while she tended to the school business, but it was her entitlement to block our driveway for a couple hours. I wonder how it would play if I went over to Southampton and blocked her driveway by 2 feet? I think next time it’s worth a call to HPD – will they do something about a 2 foot partial driveway blockage?
I hope the Ashby construction really mucks it up for the Southampton folks for a couple years to come, at least.
I think next time it’s worth a call to HPD – will they do something about a 2 foot partial driveway blockage?
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In a word, yes. They really do think they’re special. Rules and laws and ordinances do not apply to them. Including blocking people’s driveways. I would have let the air out of her tires. And then called HPD when she returned and couldn’t leave. And asked them to tow the trash along with the SUV.
Well,
The architecture firm associated with this project, EDI Architecture; is a nut-hair away from going out of business.
If this project has financing, this could be the ONLY thing to save the firm.
I’m in this industry. Believe me, there is no financing available for this. None. Randall Davis has canceled his last two projects. And these development virgins are gonna get money? If they presold 50% of the units, they still couldn’t get money. And they’ll be lucky to sell 20%. They would have to have cash in pocket to build this. And they don’t.
Rumor a year ago had it that their financing was sort of flaky. Who says they’ve got it now? In this economic environment, in an ultra-hostile, motivated neighborhood, for these developers, for this project? Surely not.
And while I’m at it, what’s with these asinine class warfare clowns who keep popping up in this thing. We live in a city without effective land use controls in some areas, so politics/money/influence is going to play a larger role in the development process. Lord knows that the local real estate community has been taking advantage of that for 100+ years–which is why the Buckhead boys are probably creeping them out. Put down Das Kapital and grow up.
From the Examiner; “The new plans reduce the number of residential units in the project and eliminate a commercial spa, retail space and executive offices.
Icken said the plans significantly reduce the number of peak-hour trips expected from vehicles entering and exiting the property, one of the key restrictions in the code.”
Further evidence that Houston’s Planning and Code Enforcement divisions need new blood. Andy Icken and his team wouldn’t recognize urban planning if it slapped them in the face. These developers planned a highrise that would FINALLY have retail on the ground level and the only way to get the project permitted was to take it out. That about sums up everything that is wrong with this backwards ass town.
…so politics/money/influence is going to play a larger role in the development process.
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There are far more powerful people in River Oaks and Tanglewood that could have probably pulled the strings to stop the various hirises that put them all in the shadows and disrupted their lives during construction and added to traffic problems but they decided to respect the will of the voters. The real asinine group in all of this is the “movers and shakers” in Southampton and Boulevard Oaks who believe that their you-know-what doesn’t stink. It does.
What’s the over/under on number of comments on this post?
I am both amazed and sickened at the negativity expressed above. Responsible urban development should not be looked upon as an inconvenience to force upon devalued neighborhoods, nor should irresponsible development be seen as karmic redemption for neighborhoods most of us have been priced out of. Swamplot has done an excellent job of highlighting some of the grossest examples of irresponsible development “projects” (Ashby, Wilshire Village, Bridgeway, etc.). Maybe now its time to start including some posts regarding Good development projects, along with why they are beneficial to the city, community, etc. in an effort to educate through entertainment. Just a thought. Anybody have a suggestion where to start? I’m thinking an elaboration of the 99K House project might be a good one – as people outside of the architectural community seemingly are having a hard time “getting it”.
…nor should irresponsible development be seen as karmic redemption for neighborhoods most of us have been priced out of.
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Oh it’s not a class war. It’s a matter of the attitude of some that they are above everyone else. Southampton and Boulevard Oaks are actually “mixed-income” particularly in this section of Southampton. It’s not just Rice students who enjoy the apartments. Although the remaining ones are not long for the world once the economy improves. They will be replaced with the 4 and 5 story $1 million townhome complexes. Which will be bought up quickly by, as it was put by someone in the Houston Chronicle, the Beverly Hillbillies.
God Matt could you be more of a proleteriat hater?
You are always so negative about everything.
Why shouldn’t we cheer these people on for taking on City Hall in a fight that is important to the majority of their neighbors? Houston cannot exist in this vacuum that developers know best and by god it has always been done this way and that’s the way it is going to be. Who cares which neighborhood has more money? Besides, Inwood Manor high rise sits in the middle of a residential River Oaks neighborhood and apparently they did not have the clout to stop it nor did the Tanglewoodians in regard to the Marathon Tower or several others abutting their neighborhood. As for your childish wish to build a sewage plant–there is no need–you seem to spew enough it yourself.
Besides, Inwood Manor high rise sits in the middle of a residential River Oaks neighborhood and apparently they did not have the clout to stop it nor did the Tanglewoodians in regard to the Marathon Tower or several others abutting their neighborhood.
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They had the clout. Just not the pretentious attitude. They accepted that the majority of Houstonians had rejected zoning and left it at that. It doesn’t mean that they were happy. There was an “unofficial” boycott of The Huntingdon and some withdrew their money from River Oaks Bank in protest. Some of them, however, ended up years later buying in The Huntingdon which allowed them to live in the neighborhood they had always lived in. Many were equally unhappy with Inwood Manor and there was an “unofficial” boycott of it as well. That didn’t last long since one of the first residents of Inwood Manor was Ima Hogg. At the time as I recall it was the only building that had an entire floor she could lease.
Everything has its place in our neighborhoods. Including the hirises.
I’m guessing the views from the building will be spectacular.
Everything has its place in our neighborhoods. Including the hirises.
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Everything? Even rendering plants? C’mon. Just about every other civilized city has realized that some guidelines need to exist.
It really is a stupid location. Mostly, on the developer’s part. There are many, many, many other potential sites for this building that would have been a better choice from traffic, condo sales, view, retail potential, etc. that would have been better. Given the lowered acquisition costs of today, the developer likey would have been better off selecting a better site, and land-banking the current site for something more appropriate. The developer should realize that some of the push-back is a sign that it’s a poor choice in the first-place.
Seriously, people are going to laugh at this for years as an example of the disjunctive and dysfunctional development of Houston.
As for all of the animosity of the neighbors… being rich doesn’t make one pretentious. Opposing a highrise that will is assininely sited in THEIR neighborhood doesn’t make them pretentious, either. People calling others names and drawing conclusions about their personalities based on their wealth and neighborhood… that is well… I don’t need to say it.
It really is a stupid location. Mostly, on the developer’s part. There are many, many, many other potential sites for this building that would have been a better choice from traffic, condo sales, view, retail potential, etc. that would have been better…
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Who are you to tell them it’s a stupid location? Or to tell them anything?
Who are you to tell them it’s a stupid location? Or to tell them anything?
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Matt, there are plenty of opinions to go around. I have mine and voiced it. As have you. The same question could be asked of those on either side. “Who are you to tell the neighborhood it’s a good location?” I’d venture that the neighbors have a greater vested interest in the neighborhood than the vocal Ashby tifosi. So why deride the neighbors as “pretentious” for voicing their opinion? Or anyone else for that matter. It hasn’t stopped you. (Nor should it!)
If your opinion differs, cool! Explain why it’s a good location. Chip away the merits of the building and location. Explain why it’s a good location to include ground-level-reatil and office space to maximize property cash flow for the developer. Nope, they were forced to eliminate that. Explain why it’s a good location because of the easy access. Nope, because they had to reduce the number of units (and profit) to shoe-horn it into the chosen site. Maybe there are some things I’m not considering that make this the best unique location in the entire city for a project of this size and scale. Enlighten us with your brilliance instead of attacking me, or the Ashby neighbors, you don’t personally know.
But feel free to keep calling people that disagree with you derogatory names. It really validates your opinions.
It’s their land. It’s UNRESTRICTED land. They can put up whatever they want. What is it about “unrestricted land” that everyone doesn’t understand? I don’t care what they build. Never have. I do care about their right to do so. And those who believe they don’t have the right to do so should just move somewhere else where they can dictate what can and cannot be built and where.
Does this mean I won’t see anymore of those obnoxious stickers on every Lexus SUV in town?
A planning board is going to give politics/money/influence an even larger impact on development. After all, it is a very potent tool with a lot of power. Who is going to sit on the planning board and make the decisions? Who is going to have the most influence with the planning board?
Those with money/power/politics on their side will use every available tool to get what they want. How much trouble did the Ashby highrise have getting a traffic approval?
Unrestricted land is the great equalizer. I have just as much control over my land as someone with money/politics/influence has on their land. Similarily, I have as much control over their land as they have on mine.
The Ashby Highrise is a harbinger of the future. Manhattan was once farmland too. Take a look at these photos of The Dakota from 1890, a short 120 years ago.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Dakota
Southampton might become the Sutton Place of the 22nd century.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sutton_Place,_Manhattan
Or Greenwich Village (Rice = NYU), or maybe even the Upper West Side. Point is, I think we should all start to expect more of this type of thing, especially as our city and our medical center grow.
It will be funny to watch this development build its way into bankruptcy….that is IF they can get financing in the first place.
I see J.V.’s point, but I take from it the need to be cautious about high rise development. True, Manhattan was once farmland and Houston was once coastal prairie, but Southampton is not farmland and hasn’t been for seventy years plus. My take on it is that this building MIGHT NOT be too bad, once the teeth-on-edge construction period is finished. (And I seem to be the only person who thinks the construction hassles should even matter to anyone. Big crane delivery and setup on Bissonnet, anyone?) But since there seems to be no legal way to stop this one, you can be sure that there will be some serious efforts to put rules in place to prevent any more. My own tongue-in-cheek explanation for why the neighborhood was so taken by surprise is that no-one ever thought for a minute that it made any kind of sense to build a high-rise on Bissonnet, for goodness sake.
I doubt any residential area in Houston is ever going to become Manhattan but you are going to see Manhattans all over Houston at some point. Galleria of course was built on unrestricted land. Which actually was still farmland which people don’t realize just as they don’t realize most of Piney Point which apparently is still the most expensive land in Houston was. So while we say we don’t have zoning, in a way we do. When subdivisions are platted the deed restrictions become the zoning.
What a lot of people don’t realize is that with regard to that section between Bissonnet and Rice and Cherokee and Ashby is not part of a subdivision. But there are sections of unrestricted land in many subdivisions like Sharpstown and Robindell in Southwest Houston that allow commercial use. But restrict any commercial development. We have along way to go to defining the problem and then refining the solution.
As for Southampton and Boulevard Oaks, either could have addressed the problem long before it became a problem and didn’t. What, again, a lot of people don’t like are the tactics used. The same tactics were not used when the homeowners protested Sonoma and the Medical Clinic of Houston. There was no Stop Sonoma or Stop Medical Clinic. That of course says a lot about the priorities of some of the “movers and shakers” in this. They were not really concerned with Sonoma or the Medical Clinic of Houston. Just the hirise. And all the arguments they used about it were just as valid with regard to Sonoma and the Medical Clinic of Houston.
As for the construction problems they at least have access other neighborhoods have not. As everyone in the Voss/San Felipe area is going to discover once again as the two new condo towers go up.
You live with it. You survive it. And yes, you survive the shadows of the monsters that eat the subdivisions.
It is beyond optimistic for developors to add to the oversupply of mid-rise and high-rise units. At the current rate of sales, it would take 15.6 months to sell all of the mid-rise/high-rise inventory available on the MLS. And, there is actually more inventory than that available in recent construction that developers are holding out of MLS.
Another Tremont Tower? Another Mosaic?
‘See-through’ buildings anyone?
Another Tremont Tower? Another Mosaic?
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The difference between them and 1717 Bisonnet is location, location, location. Get over it. Although do pass this on to the “movers and shakers” and maybe they can add this to their concerns in their next attempt to get a mayor to huff and puff and blow the old hirise down or in their lawsuit they have hinted at they will now file although it is not clear who they will file it against. The city has approved the project so Buckhead has the legal right to build. So I guess they will sue the city. Or threaten to hoping the voters will vote for whoever they decide will be mayor. They certainly like to decide how everyone in this city will live. Why not decide who shall be mayor?
But this certainly will add to the ridiculous assertions of how the hirise will bring disaster and calamity to all. Now we will have to live with a deserted hirise filled with mold and rats and probably vagrants who of course will cook the rats and then toss the remnants over the balconies causing a litter problem on top of everything else. Maybe Ann Clutterwhatever should go clutter up Ashby some more and add some “No Littering” signs to go with the “No Thru Trucks” so we are all properly warned of the fate that awaits not only the good people of Southampton and Boulevard Oaks but all of us. These towers that devour neighborhoods are going to devour us all!
Buckhead doesn’t have to build immediately Mr or Miss Inner Loop Realtor. And at this point, if the next mayor decides to pull the permits a second Buckhead will probably end up owning the city as a result of the lawsuit. So they may wait until the economy improves. Whether they do or don’t, well, location is all. And they have a wonderful location and no doubt will have no problem selling the units. And probably won’t need the friendly neighborhood realtors to sell them!
Matt don’t you have some rotten meat to buy on sale at Kroger?
Sonoma is hardly the same as Ashby. 5 stories in an already established shopping center vs. 23 stories in the middle of a residential area. Doesn’t take rocket scientist to fill in the blanks here.
I applaud the neighbors for trying to make a stand. If it does anything, it raises awareness that maybe things in regard to development, land use, restrictions etc…warrant some change here in Houston.
Those of us who want to see change should be lucky these people have the money, the connections or the sheer tenacity to know how to attempt to fight the system. How the hell does ANYTHING get done in government or city politics? Through influence obviously.
Building can be built AS-OF-RIGHT. End.of.story.
Building can be built AS-OF-RIGHT. End.of.story.
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No. One of the two “ringleaders” was on Channel 13 last night issuing veiled threats. Meaning as soon as they can figure out how to do it they will probably be in court seeking a restraining order to keep the city from issuing the permits or to keep the developers from building in order to give them time to throw their weight around some more with banks and construction companies to block financing and construction which is probably all they can do at this point short of suing the city and they may not have a case against the city. They don’t have one against the developers. Although if they keep it up, the developers may have a case against them.
How the hell does ANYTHING get done in government or city politics? Through influence obviously.
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Well then they should have used that influence to try to stop Sonoma and Medical Clinic of Houston. But didn’t. Wonder why.
By the way my signature is on the petition from several years ago when another developer was planning to build a 28 story apartment building on University which truly was inappropriate and also would have been partially built on unrestricted land that nonetheless was restricted to some degree by deed restrictions. 1717 Bissonnet is not restricted at all.
Why was the other building inappropriate? For the same reason many planned buildings in Galleria are. For the same reason the two new condominimum towers on San Felipe and Voss are inappropriate. They will add to existing gridlock. All 1717 Bissonnet will do is add to existing traffic and probably will add very little to existing traffic. As for traffic impact the city is obviously not using that standard in Galleria. And therein lies the problem if at some point the developers of 1717 Bissonnet file a lawsuit. And 1717 Bissonnet is not in the middle of a residential neighborhood any more than those two new condominium towers on San Felipe are. By perception they are. But both are on unrestricted land that has been used for commercial development from the moment they were platted.
The Southampton HOA by the way is worried about the Texas Medical Center and its right to condemn under eminent domain. Here’s to their condemning Southampton altogether and taking care of the problem.
Matt, let me guess, you work for Buckhead, right? From what I know of the matter, Southhampton HOA and BOCA were very much involved in the planning of the Sunset Medical Clinic and its parking garage. You have to at least concede JT’s point that 5 or 6 stories is a big difference to 23 stories, which might better explain the depth and tone of the reaction to Ashby as opposed to Sonoma or the Sunset Medical Clinic. With regard to your wishing that the Texas Medical Center would condemn all of Southhampton- for someone who is so concerned with ‘movers and shakers…who believe that their you-know-what doesn’t stink,’ you are the only one making elitist comments on this thread. You comment that you would have “[asked HPD] to tow the trash along with the SUV.” Such vitriol, where does it come from?
marmer,
I was only trying to point out that in a century or two, Houston will be very densely populated — whether one big Manhattan or a bunch of mini-Manhattans as Matt would have it — and that we should both accept and plan for this.
Matt’s points above about traffic flow are interesting ones, but I think Houston is relatively lucky to have street grids across most parts of the city, as opposed to the suburban lollipops in, say, Pearland’s newer subdivisions.
When the skyscrapers come — and they will — then Houston’s grids will handle the load better than the lollipops would; and if worse comes to worse, old blocks can be razed for new streets, or our existing streets can be turned into one-way, so that for example you might have Bellaire and Westheimer only go westbound, and Richmond and San Felipe only eastbound (or vice versa).
“Matt, let me guess, you work for Buckhead, right?”
Never met them. Doubt I ever will.
“From what I know of the matter, Southhampton HOA and BOCA were very much involved in the planning of the Sunset Medical Clinic and its parking garage.”
Actually it may still be on their websites. They were NOT supportive of it by any stretch of the imagination and certainly were NOT involved in the planning of it.
“You have to at least concede JT’s point that 5 or 6 stories is a big difference to 23 stories, which might better explain the depth and tone of the reaction to Ashby as opposed to Sonoma or the Sunset Medical Clinic.”
There will be far more traffic as a result of the clinic and the garage which Rice will also use than there will be from the hirise. And I thought we were all concerned with “traffic impact” or is that only when no one mentions the fact there will be very little “traffic impact?” Seems like when that fact is brought up, then suddenly it’s the height and the inappropriateness that is objected to. To which most say “look around because they’re building them everywhere.” And have been. Everyone else accepts the will of the voters. No zoning means just that. Not what you want it to mean. It means no zoning. No restriction of unrestricted land. Everyone but some in Southampton and Boulevard Oaks.
“With regard to your wishing that the Texas Medical Center would condemn all of Southhampton- for someone who is so concerned with ‘movers and shakers…who believe that their you-know-what doesn’t stink,’ you are the only one making elitist comments on this thread. You comment that you would have “[asked HPD] to tow the trash along with the SUV.†Such vitriol, where does it come from?”
Just being a little sarcastic. Which is obviously over your head.