Parts of Jersey Village have been subsiding by about 2 inches a year, according to 2 UH professors and a former grad student who’ve been studying a decade’s worth of GPS data from 2 dozen area measurement points. Associate professor of geology Shuhab Khan, geology professor Kevin Burke, and former Ph.D. student Richard Engelkemeir note there’s been gradual subsidence in a “sprawling” 324-square-mile area of northwestern Harris County, but Jersey Village is the fastest to fall.
Just what is it that makes this little community so down-to-earth? Reports Khan:
The most likely reason for the sinking of Jersey Village is the withdrawal of water from deep beneath the surface. While groundwater withdrawal has ceased in most of the Houston area, it continues in the northwestern part of the county that has seen a rapid growth in population.
Continued subsidence, of course, will also help the entire northwest Houston area collect more water when it rains. But it isn’t all downhill for Houston.
We have a winner of that Rice Design Alliance membership!
First: your guesses in last week’s Neighborhood Guessing Game. We had “just outside the Loop,” Oak Forest, Katy, Olde Oaks, “Memorial/Dairy Ashford area” (2 guesses), the Memorial Villages, “somewhere south of I-10 and east of Highway 6,” “off Briar Forest between Dairy Ashford and Wilcrest,” south of Memorial City Mall, west of Bunker Hill between Hammerly and Memorial, Memorial close to Beltway 8, Kingwood, near Lake Houston, Bellaire, Westbury, Tanglewood, Meyerland (2), Riverside Terrace, Clear Lake (3), Braes Heights, Lakewood Forest, Brook Forest, Pinehurst, Humble, Wilchester, Westchester, Nottingham Forest, Nottingham VIIIage, Nottingham Country, “Nottingham something,” “around I-10 and the Beltway, Spring Shadows, south of I-10 “around the Gessner area,” Maplewood, Ashford Village area, 77077, Southgate, “near the Med Center,” Huntwick Forest (2), Quail Valley, “near the Costco on Bunker Hill,” near IKEA, Green Trails, Green Trail Estates, Champion Forest, Memorial Bend, “near off Memorial just east of Hwy. 6,” near Gessner south of Clay Rd., north of I-10, near Pinecrest Golf Course,” Sharpstown, “Braeburn area,” Katy near Katy-Hockley Rd., Baytown, Spring Creek Oaks, Mission Bend, West Bend, Walnut Bend, Northampton, Pasadena, Cypress, Jersey Village, Dickinson, Sugar Creek, near Hearthstone Country Club, Copperfield, Briar Meadow, Pearland, Memorial Northwest, River Oaks, and Texas City.
The winner of that one-year individual membership in the Rice Design Alliance? flake, for landing on Jersey Village! Congratulations, flake!
Want the details?
The Harris County Toll Road Authority is hoping its first expanse of Permeable Friction Course asphalt will reduce accidents caused by hydroplaning: “Taking a pitcher, [HCTRA engineer Quinton] Alberto poured water on a one-foot square block of PFC asphalt sitting in a plastic tray. Instead of running off as it would on concrete or regular asphalt, the water was absorbed – almost instantly. The water then trickled to the bottom and out the sides. It works because the PFC asphalt is full of tiny holes and air pockets that allow rainwater to drain through it. On RM 1431 in Austin, TxDOT says the PFC asphalt is a big reason why there has been a dramatic decrease in wet-weather accidents. Before laying down the new pavement, wet weather accidents accounted for nearly 60 percent of all crashes. After the PFC, they accounted for less than 10 percent. In Harris County, the Toll Road Authority is using PFC for the first time, spending $4 million to pave a five-mile section of Beltway 8 between US 290 and SH 249. The authority picked the section because it said in just the last two years, there have been over a hundred injury accidents there, many in wet weather.” [11 News]
If you want to see all the cool new homes on this weekend’s AIA Home Tour, it’s gonna cost you. If you want to go on the Old Sixth Ward Victorian Home Tour this weekend, it’ll cost you. But if you just want to poke into a few open houses in Oakwood Forest and Candlelight Forest West, taking Swamplot’s short-form open-house tour this weekend is completely free!
And the electronic version doesn’t even cost gas money. Here we go:
Location: 9619 Kindletree Dr.
Details: 4 bedrooms, 2 1/2 baths; 2,615 sq. ft.
Price: $179,900
The Scoop: Remodeled 1971 2-story home in Candlelight Forest West. New tile floors, carpet, granite countertops, appliances, paint, and wet bar. Pool. Balcony off upstairs bedrooms. Just listed.
Open House: Saturday, 2-6 pm
Just a couple more:
There was no furniture to ogle, but a lot of you liked this week’s contest!
Sugarland led the guesses with 5. Bellaire had 4, Katy had 3 (including one specifying Kelliwood), and so did the Energy Corridor. Champion Forest and Kingwood each had 2. The rest: West University, Mid Lane, Bay Oaks, Camp Logan, Sugar Creek, “south-ish and west-ish of the Galleria,” Jersey Village, “off Bering/Augusta between San Felipe and Woodway,” Clear Lake, Conroe, the Woodlands, “a suburb out 59 south,” Briarcroft, Champions, and Mission Bend.
The winner is karen, who pooled the helpful comments of many of you into this enthusiastic entry:
Well, you all have been very helpful! I definitely think this is a vintage ’80s home that has had a kitchen remodel and new floors put down on the first floor. I like that library upstairs, too. Too bad they couldn’t spring for a new master bath.
This home has got to be in the outer reaches and I’m guessing that they’re at the top of the market in their area. I still like Sugarland, but now we’ve got to add Katy and Jersey Village to mix as well. In fact, I like Jersey Village a lot.
Jersey Village to karen: You like us. You really, really like us! Hey, didn’t karen win an earlier match too?
So what helpful comments was karen referring to? Perhaps this Houston real-estate maxim spouted by kjb434:
If all of the first floor is non-carpeted, then I’ll say it’s in a flood-proned area!
. . . and this comment by David W:
Looks like late 80’s/early 90’s to me but with only a light cosmetic update. It still has corian counters and that cultured marble vanity in the bathroom but they added the kooky fans and plantation shutters. It must have been pretty expensive when new to have a Sub-Zero, but I bet it is not in a hot neighborhood or they would have invested in more updates.
. . . both of which win honorable mentions!
After the jump: the full Jersey Village reveal!
Looking for apartments? Can’t decide between, say, the Calais in Midtown, the Meyer Park or Meyer Park Lakeside, the Beverly Wilshire, or the Seasons on Hollister Road?
Why not buy them all? How about if we throw in a couple of complexes in Richmond, four more near Dallas, one in New Braunfels and another in San Antonio? That’ll make it easy for you, right?
Oh, and if you’ve got around $400 mil in cash that’ll make it a whole lot easier.
