- Transwestern Breaks Galleria Ground on 30-Story BHP Billiton Tower [Culturemap; previously on Swamplot]
- Hines Planning ‘European-Style’ Residential Development on Old Katy Road Inside the Loop [Houston Chronicle ($)]
- Aldi Postpones October 24 Opening of Kemah Store [Prime Property]
- What’s Going On at Georgia’s Farm to Market’s West Houston Location? [Houstonia Magazine]
- Metro Brings Back $3 Day Pass, Discontinued in 2008 [Click2Houston]
- City Sues Developer for Cutting Down Two 100-Year-Old Live Oaks in the Museum District, Montrose [Houston Chronicle]
- Five Of Houston’s Weirdest, Wackiest Buildings [Houstonia Magazine]
Photo of I-10: Russell Hancock via Swamplot Flickr Pool
fancy gated community off old katy road, next to railroad tracks, among industrial buildings == balls.
Any developer that cuts down a 100 year old oak on public land should be thrown into the same chipper as the tree.
The Pickard Chilton designed building going up on Post Oak fits the skyline well. This design isn’t exactly cutting edge, however it does have an elegance about it and it compliments Caesar Pelli’s office buildings and his Four Leaf Towers well. I look forward to watching it rise.
The fine for destroying those two oaks should include jail time. He willfully destroyed those trees, he knew exactly what he was doing, it’s just shitty beyond belief. Those trees were each 100!! Years old! It just shows how little these developers give a shit about the neighborhood or the city, just let me cram all the building I can on this property and then act like I had no idea I couldn’t cut down these trees or clear cut parkland, sure we usually never work at 1 am on a Sunday morning but I needed to get the equipment back by 5am you see. Or I was in San Antonio over the weekend I have no idea why they cut down 5 acres of Hermann Park.
I don’t know what the solution is, but the penalties for chopping down trees on public land should be made more severe, preferrably through fines without the need for courtroom litigation. Some ideas:
-a fine up to 50% of the value of their project (3 $300,000 townhomes –> $450,000)
-$10,000 per year per tree. Larger, older trees provide more shade and therefore more value for the public. Therefore, a greater fine is appropriate.
-Fine PLUS donation to Houston Parks or similar PLUS community service to plant hundreds of trees in Houston.
-Jail.
Any other ideas?
Oh chillax people, it’s an effin tree, not an arm, it’ll grow back. No, he shouldn’t have cut it down but penalize like they do in the woodlands (and they’re nuts about their trees)… 1 to 2k fine per tree plus you must replant new trees to be equal to or greater to the total trunk size of the original tree. Net effect … More trees!
@eiioi…I don’t know what the solution is…
I believe “Inner Blooper” came up with a reasonable enough solution…the “Fargo Treatment.” :)
Based on the location of tree on Bomar, I suspect the “developer” wants driveway access along the side street. Tree meet chainsaw.
> equal to or greater to the total trunk size
> of the original tree. Net effect … More
> trees!
This stupidity is so typical of libertoodlians. It will grow back — in a 100 years? And the value of a giant oak is only in the total wood surface area??
Fortunately, sensible people disagree and the city lawsuit seeks $500k.
For that same oak that will fall over and destroy something soon, you will get 5 or 10 oaks in the immediate area… more cannopy cover, more disbursed and in a few decades each one will be as big as the original tree. Treehuggers are way out of touch with what’s really important.
“Treehuggers are way out of touch with what’s really important.”
Says the person who loudly scorns everything outside the tightly zoned, very leafy miniature municipality s/he calls home, and who brags about its thuggish police (who we referred to as the “VoPos” when I was growing up, in homage to the Volkspolitzei).
One doesn’t have to be a treehugger to get pissed at someone damaging property that doesn’t belong to them.
Would you tolerate someone purposely destroying your car and giving you a couple bicycles as compensation? Or purposely damaging your house to the point that you couldn’t live in it and then compensating you with a $15 tent from Wal-Mart? There are penalties for these types of crimes, and they do include jail time. Reversible damage, such as littering or graffiti, rightfully has lesser penalties, but replacing a 100 year old tree is not reversible in the owner’s lifetime.
Even if you don’t value trees, the market does. Yes, public land can be assigned a value, as public land is sold and private land taken via eminent domain all the time. And most people value a large mature tree at more than $1000.
Got it! If you buy land to build townhomes on it and then cut down trees you are forbidden to cut down, you don’t get to build the townhomes. You get to build a city park on your townhome plot. And in 100 years, we will have our tree back. :D