HOW EASY IS IT TO GET OUT OF IDYLWOOD? 
A reader wonders if subdividing lots might get you new subdivision rules: “There is a great big ole sign [pictured at right] in the vacant lot at 6636 Meadowlawn in Idylwood. It is a notice of a request to replat the lot into two single family lots. It is plenty large enough, being one full lot and parts of the two lots on either side. As it stands, I can understand why they’d want to replat. The company that bought the property is Nadco LLC.
That in itself is not so strange but what is strange is that the sign also says that the two new lots will create a new subdivision known as Idylwood Partial Replat #1.
. . . I’m wondering if the ‘new subdivision’ would be subject to Idylwood deed restrictions or if they could totally disregard setbacks and lot lines among other things.” [Swamplot inbox; previously on Swamplot] Photo: Swamplot inbox
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- Houston Home Builds Up 23 Percent in Third Quarter [Prime Property)]
- CityCentre Cafe Flora & Muse Suddenly Closes [Food Chronicles]
- New Yard Signs Will Show That Prudential Anderson Properties Now Goes By Berkshire Hathaway [Prime Property]
- Architect and UH prof Patrick Peters Designs Structures Not Likely To Be Noticed To Avoid Vandalism [Art Attack]
- Texas Types Tend To Be Reserved, Aloof, Impulsive, Irritable, and Inquisitive, Finds Study [Hair Balls]
Photo of Imperial Sugar in Sugar Land: Bill Barfield via Swamplot Flickr Pool
Restoration has been swift at this concrete-block home in Garden Oaks that sold quickly in June 2013 — for $225,000. When the property reappeared on the market as a new listing late last week, the asking price was up to $475,000. Houston architect Allen R. Williams Jr. designed the solidly built home back in the day, the year of which was either 1950 or 1942, depending on which records apply. This year’s updates, by serial renovator Will Martin, hew close to the home’s mod origins. The original listing didn’t feature many interior photos, but the home’s latest appearance makes up for that:
COMMENT OF THE DAY: THE DILUTED CENTER CITY 
“. . . Maybe Houston’s growth seems slower . . . compared to other similar sized cities because Houston is almost unique in that our growth spreads out radially from the downtown core. There’s not a socially defined ‘good’ side of town where 98% of development takes place. In Atlanta, most of the growth is north, with a little bit to the east. In Dallas, the only ‘right’ place to live is north. LA favors its Westside, and most of the high dollar real estate in Chicago marches north up the Lakefront. Houston has long had a bias toward the west side of town, but the Museum District/Med Center to the south has grown, EaDo is moving ahead, and The Heights and The Woodlands are doing just fine. So instead of concentrating the development dollars in only one favored area of the city, growth here happens in all quadrants.” [ShadyHeightster, commenting on Stadium-Side Apartments in EaDo a No-Go] Illustration: Lulu
- 2518 Underwood St. [HAR]
What better way to rally voters in support of saving the Astrodome than a weekend-before-election-day sell-off of parts ripped from its vast interior? Will the resulting media attention to Dome history and the possible scrap value of its salvaged furnishings encourage voters to support the bond issue on the ballot that’ll preserve but reinvent Houston’s landmark venue? Or will focusing on the Dome’s already-in-progress dismantling and the junkyard-lot atmosphere (Get a piece of it while you can!) of this weekend’s all-day bleacher and AstroTurf yard sale have an opposite effect, allowing fencesitters an opportunity for clarity and closure — or even helping preservationists come to terms with the building’s possible demise?
COASTAL INSPIRATIONS BROUGHT HOME IN MEADOWBROOK 
“Needs lots of TLC,” says one of the captions of one of the few photos of this 1934 house, designed and built by the C.C. Bell Construction Company just southeast of the Glenbrook Park Golf Course here in Meadowbrook. But the caption and the rest of the photos in the listing suggest only what the house might need in the near future, failing to mention much about its past: The 3-bedroom, 2.5-bath Spanish Mediterranean is described in Stephen Fox’s most recent edition of the AIA guide as one of the “original Coral Gables-inspired bungalows” built in this neighborhood by Bell after a trip to Florida in the ’20s. Want this piece of — er, history? The 2,258-sq.-ft. fixer-upper went on the market on Friday, with an asking price of $135,000. [HAR] Photo: HAR
- H-E-B Planning Second League City Store; Would Be Located Across from Kroger [Galveston County Daily News ($)]
- Demand from New Houston Residents Speeding Up Development of Retail [KUHF]
- University of Houston Football Stadium Officially Halfway Finished [abc13; previously on Swamplot]
- Revisiting Positions on the Astrodome in Advance of Next Week’s Proposition 2 Vote [Offcite; previously on Swamplot]
- Values of Houston Residential Building Permits Have Doubled Since Recession, Finds City [Houston Business Journal]
- Houston’s Rental Rate Growth Not Sustainable, Say Real Estate Experts [Houston Business Journal]
- No Date Set When 39 New Metro Rail Cars Will Arrive from Spain [abc13; previously on Swamplot]
- Coalition Wants Port of Houston To Reduce Exhaust for Nearby Neighborhoods [Houston Chronicle ($)]
Photo of the Astrodome: Russell Hancock via Swamplot Flickr Pool
And here, from a reader perched at the top level of MD Anderson’s Braeswood Garage at Braeswood Blvd. and Pressler St., are photos of the land- and tree-clearing going on for the new just-across-the-bayou-from-the-Med Center apartments that Mill Creek Residential is going ahead with — after abandoning plans for a slightly larger complex (as close as it could get to Dynamo Stadium without crossing Dowling) in East Downtown. The photos are taken looking south, over Brays Bayou; the TMC South Extension Lot is behind the site, which fronts Wyndale.
Handling cavity searches since 1976, a 1940 home-turned-dental-office sits on a well-brushed corner lot in Montrose within spitting distance of a private school campus. The property appeared on the market earlier this month with a sparkly asking price of $499,900.
COMMENT OF THE DAY: WHEN TOWNHOMES COME TO LINDALE PARK 
“Most of the best appreciation in the Heights is in sections that are already deed restricted for lot size or have adopted the minimum lot size under chapter 42. Lindale is not like Midtown or parts of Montrose that have already been torn apart by non-residential development or have been chopped up with lots of townhomes. It looks more like Oak Forest did ten years ago. And if comps were a deterrent, no one would be replacing 1200 sq. ft. ranch homes in Oak Forest with 3500 sq. ft. custom homes.
When a neighborhood gets bought out for town homes, the incentive to maintain the existing housing stock is lost. Your house is only worth what the dirt is worth. A foundation that has $5,000 of repairs to get it level looks just the same as one without after an afternoon with back hoe ripping through it. The result is that the existing neighborhood will go way downhill while the new construction takes over.” [Old School, commenting on Headlines: A Giant Kroger for Kingwood; Inn at the Ballpark Rebranding] Illustration: Lulu
- 1217 Bomar St. [HAR]
Dallas developer Mill Creek Residential has “called off” plans to build a 5-story apartment block across Dowling St. from Dynamo Stadium in East Downtown. Set just south of the soon-to-open light rail stop at Texas Ave. and Dowling, the 315-unit complex was to have been called EaDo Station. The company recently announced a slightly smaller development near the Med Center: 265 apartments at 1755 Wyndale St. near Holcombe and South Braeswood.
- Deal of the Week: Mill Creek to put apartments near Medical Center [Houston Chronicle ($)]
- Previously on Swamplot: Home Games: Apartments To Go Up Beside Dynamo Stadium, Light Rail in East Downtown
Renderings of EaDo Station: Mill Creek Residential
