HISTORIC DISTRICT HOLDUP Just one more thing about that temporary change to the historic-district ordinance Houston’s city council is considering today. Apparently there’s more to it than just a 7-month shutting of the wait-90-days “loophole” that allows property owners to demolish, build, or renovate historic-district properties as they wish, even if their plans have been rejected by the city historical commission. The proposal also includes a temporary ban on the designation of new historic districts. If it passes, that’ll give builders working in neighborhoods that have been working toward historic-district status — such as Woodland Heights and Glenbrook Valley — a clear 7-month window to clean out the riffraff. [Swamplot inbox; item 25 on the agenda]
Sign up for the Newsletter
Oh hell yeah!
This is Houston. There will always be a built-in loophole for builders.
Not surprsing. What is surprising is how Old Sixth Ward managed to become “No Developers Land” while everyone else was told to read Chapter 42 and the City Charter and “don’t call us, we’ll call you.” Of course that doesn’t mean a developer won’t find a loophole. Or that there isn’t one in the “fine print.”
Maybe the National Enquirer needs to go check under some bedsheets?
This article is totally inaccurate, bad reporting and one-sided b.s.
Sorry, its just not true. No one gains an advantage by delaying new districts, the preservationists do not have the signatures yet, and the builders are not building anyway.
The only building activity going on these days are custom homes and remodels. Spec homes are a thing of the past at the moment.
Maybe you SHOULD hire those two new reporters.
Chester- you are so wrong.
I know of four spec homes going up within about 5 blocks of my house. Please – come drive around the Heights. South of 11th- which is NOT in any kind of district, is busy with the teardowns.
Actually, the reason that the builders fought for a stop to new historic districts being added during this time was because the people getting the signatures have been using the “this will just establish a 90 day wait on all demolition and new construction, for education” line to get the signatures. Everyone that signed the petitions needs to be given the opportunity to revaluate the petition and decide, given the new rules, whether they really do support it. If 51% support it, great, but it is not fair to hold people to their innitial support when what they agreed to has changed. Most people that I have spoken with who signed the Heights East and West petitions now wish they hadn’t and there is no mechanism to remove your name once the petition is submitted to the HAHC.
Most people that I have spoken with who signed the Heights East and West petitions now wish they hadn’t and there is no mechanism to remove your name once the petition is submitted to the HAHC.
____________________________
And no doubt some will go “too bad, so sad” although usually it’s the city doing the shuffle around the little “bait-and-switch” which is usually with regard to what makes it to a ballot.
In the end, the developers and builders will get what they want. Always have, always will.
In reality these historic districts probably have little to fall back on if they end up in court. Unless they require “duplication” of whatever is demolished.
I and others saw that first-hand in Fourth Ward when someone pulled up with a pickup and tied a chain around a porch post and created an instant “uninhabitable” structure. And they didn’t build a turn of the century cottage or a shotgun house to replace it.
That house contained rare wood flooring and door frames. All reduced to rubble. And the historic preservationists just sat around going “too bad, so sad…”
Anyone who wants to know about “historic preservation” in this city should go talk to Gladys House or Lenwood Johnson.
No spec building going on? Been to Oak Forest lately? Of course, it isn’t any sort of historic preservation district (vintage 1950-1960 ranch homes are usually not worthy of being saved solely by virtue of their architectural importance), but there are plenty of spec homes to be had.
And the historic preservationists just sat around going “too bad, so sad…
Matt is right. And the most egregious offender is the Greater Houston Preservation Alliance. They have never saved one building, they do not lobby for any changes in law and their funding comes from builders.
The reality of even the “must be duplicated” is that unless it was in the original deed restrictions and was a matter that had been enforced through the years, it is doubtful it would hold up in court.
I look at the crap that has been “preserved” in Old Sixth Ward and quite ill thinking about what was determined to have no historic value in Fourth Ward and demolished without even an attempt by the “preservationists” to salvage anything.