- Single Family Home Sales Up 12.3% from Last Year with 6,639 Sold in October, According to HAR [Tom Plant’s Houston Real Estate Blog]
- Officials Propose Including Downtown’s Warehouse District in Tax Increment Reinvestment Zone [Houston Chronicle]
- Woodlands’ Howard Hughes Corp. Completes Acquisition of Nearly 2,000 Acres for 4,600-Home Community in Willis Area [Prime Property]
- Shepard Ross, Studewood Hospitality Group Opening The Del in Former Taste of Lebanon Space on Del Monte Dr. [Eater Houston]
- League City Restaurant Sudie’s Seafood House, Known for Its Large Neon Catfish Sign, Has Closed; Property For Sale [Galveston County Daily News]
- City Council Members Question Wisdom of Spending $1.2M To Buy Land for Park at Westheimer and Whitney [Houston Chronicle]
- $4.8M Galveston Beach Restoration Project To Begin December 1 [Click2Houston]
- New Memorial Park Master Plan Includes 8.5 Miles of Mountain Bike Trails [Houston Public Media; previously on Swamplot]
- Kroger Moving Forward with Fuel Station at Kuykendahl and Bay Bridge in The Woodlands’ Alden Bridge Subdivision Despite Opposition [Isiah Factor]
- The Wheelchair Ramps to Nowhere Along the East Beltway [KHOU]
- Architecture Center of Houston Show ‘Women in Architecture’ Honors Local and International Design Pioneers [OffCite]
Photo of “A Jackson in Your House” by Jamal Cyrus and Walter Stanciell at Alabama and Almeda: David Hollas
Headlines
“The Warehouse District, however, is not eligible to participate in the Downtown Living Initiative, which offers financial incentives to developers who build multifamily housing. Joining the TIRZ would not change that, Leach said.” – GOOD!
I would absolutely hate to see this charming isolated place “redeveloped”. When you are there, it feels and looks like nothing in Houston.
New mountain bike trails will be amazing!
“It could be argued that it’s a lovely place for a park, and then one might argue that it would be the perfect place for another business,” said Councilman David Robinson. “I need to be convinced that its highest and best use is truly in providing green space along lower Westheimer when one thinks about the revenue that might spin off in the tax base.”
I would hate for us to place a park where people live, shop, and eat. Then they might actually use it and ask for more parks… which would require the city to, like, do stuff.
Can you imagine? The horror.
YES, more bike trails in Memorial please. still remember the glory days before they shut down all the good trails because of “erosion” concerns. wasn’t that around 2001 or so? the trails built after that have never lived up to the past ones, except for the trails that were built on the west side of the loop before they got shut down too. those drops were amazing over there and I always wonder who had put them in. need to get those one reinstated ASAP though.
found some review on trails.mtbr.com and it was September 2002 when they shut it all down. I haven’t been an avid rider since 2008 myself and from the recent reviews it sounds like a lot has changed since i’ve been on them.
Re: Westheimer park
Councilman David Robinson said: “I need to be convinced that its highest and best use is truly in providing green space along lower West-heimer when one thinks about the revenue that might spin off in the tax base.”
Wow, Councilman Robinson hasn’t yet figured out that parks actually increase the property value (hense the tax base) of the entire area around it. It also eventually drives new construction such as that at around Bell, Dunlavy and Levy Parks because it makes the area more attractive. Does adding yet another Subway make that much difference? (The answer is… No!). This proposal would be a most welcomed improvement to the awful mish mash that especially dominates the north side of the street. Hopefully the city could eventually expand it so that the park could include a weekend farmer’s market or even a venue for small events.
Reviving the Warehouse District is great. But with all the development going on downtown, it has no significant retail. No Whole Foods, Macy’s, Nordstrom, luxury shops…nothing.
With all the downtown building action, especially residential, where are all these people going to shop?
Jesus, more pie in the sky dreaming from that crazy landscape architect Memorial Park Conservancy hired. I mean 20 years?? WTF. I highly doubt much of this comes to fruition, they will just have paid this guy to piss everyone off, I know of few that are happy about this assine plan, especially the covering of Memorial Dr. Why not just build really cool, stylish footbridges across Memorial, just like the did for Buffalo Bayou Park? I think this guy just likes to draw and charges the Conservancy on every redraw. I was at that meeting and believe me people were upset with this plan, he got raked over the coals. He doesn’t seem to have a clue about the natural pine forest that is the park, or the history of the park, he is like Frank Gehry getting ahold of The Empire State Building. He was a poor chore from the start and all he’s done is make himself a lot of money and upset a lot of people. More than likely next to none of this will ever be implemented. The Trails maybe, the rest, not a chance.
Shannon, your comments are misguided, although I am happy that you attended the meeting. Per Memorial Parks “Natural Pine Forest”, its a Riparian Forest not a Pine Forest. In fact, one of the main issues the drought exposed was the ill conceived planting of the Loblolly Pine tree once Camp Logan was abandoned and the Hogg’s worked the deal with Houston. When these trees were PLANTED in the park they were spaced close together to help create a dense forest in addition to the naturally occurring riparian forest. While this sounds great in concept, the species actually needs full sun for saplings to germinate and grow to adulthood. Thus there were no subsequent generations of trees and most of the trees in the forest matured at the same age. Without proper burns and clearing of the pines you have a forest just waiting for disaster, enter the drought and that is why we have all of the dead trees. I think having the Master Plan is good, but the conservancy holds the Park hostage at all times due to the fact that they look at it as River Oak’s private backyard. This is one of the reasons that I find this to be a fruitless cause for the public but a great way for the River Oaks crowd to continue controlling the largest public green space inside the city.
Im not sure what meeting you attended, but I was at the one on Monday night. Granted I left midway through the Q&A, but the only coal raking I heard was from the people who live on Commonwealth complain about parking. And they were complaining more about the current situation. Which to them, Im sorry, but your house fronts a public park in a driving centric city. The expectation that no one is going to park on the street in front of your house is nuts.
Also from the maps presented reflecting the native ecology, including pine forest near the bayou and the references to honoring Camp Logan. I felt he had a much better grasp of the landscape and history of the park than most Houstonians. The maps he presented weren’t redraws, they were continuations of the original presentation.
I think the overall plan is amazing. Group activities, spread out parking, return the southern side to a more natural state, reconnect the park to a more functional space, create noise barriers with built up land planted with trees, create ponds to irrigate the golf course. Rerouting the western edge of memorial may be a pipe dream, but overall the plan would create a very diverse park to visit.