INVESTING IN THE GRAND PARKWAY Commuters struggling to cross the Katy Prairie on congested House Hahl Rd. will be happy to learn that traffic relief is on the way: Harris County’s commissioners voted yesterday to apply for $181 million in federal stimulus money for the Segment E marshland cut-through of the Grand Parkway, which will connect major employment and shopping centers in Katy and Cypress. $20 million in engineering and other contracts for the project were awarded a few months ago, but the commissioners yesterday approved a “comprehensive traffic and revenue study” for the segment. The study, which won’t be complete before construction begins in February, will help support claims that the road will be able to pay for itself, with tolls. [Houston Chronicle; more from Houston Tomorrow, both via Off the Kuff]
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Tag: Grand Parkway
NO DEAL FOR BRIDGELAND Bankrupt General Growth Properties won’t be selling its Grand Parkway-lining sprawlchild to the Caldwell Cos. after all. The $95 million deal to sell Bridgeland’s 11,400 acres is off: “Jim Graham, General Growth’s director of public affairs, released a statement on Wednesday saying all discussions have been terminated with parties interested in purchasing or investing in Bridgeland, but would not disclose any further details concerning the negotiations. Graham says the decision was made ‘very recently.’†[Houston Business Journal; previously on Swamplot]
BUYING A BRIDGELAND The Caldwell Cos., possibly financed by Japan’s Sumitomo Corp., is in the process of buying all 11,400 acres of Bridgeland from bankrupt General Growth Properties for $90 to $95 million. “Caldwell notes the master-planned community will have the fourth-largest lake in Houston upon completion. The firm has spent three years moving more than 2 million [cubic] yards of dirt to create the body of water that’s large enough for boating and skiing, he says. The first part of the lake opened two weeks ago. . . . The master-planned community stretches between Katy-Hockley Road and Fry Road, south of U.S. Highway 290. The Grand Parkway will run right through the property. Construction on the roadway will begin in March 2010 with $180 million of federal stimulus money, according to The Grand Parkway Association.” [Houston Business Journal; previously in Swamplot]
From the website of New York graphic-design office Thumb:
This poster is designed as a sort of calling card for Rice School of Architecture, located in Houston. We collected ring roads from 27 international cities and layered them all at the same scale. As it turned out, Houston has the largest system of those we surveyed. (Beijing was second)
- Ring Roads of the World [Thumb]
Poster: Thumb
FLOODING REPORT FROM THE NORTHWEST HOUSTON PRAIRIE BOWL The worst flooding damage from those late April storms centered around a swath of Highway 6 stretching from the Katy Freeway to 290 in northwest Houston. The heaviest rainfall was centered further west, along the planned path of the Grand Parkway Segment E. “[Jennifer] Bayles said her section of Bear Creek Village wasn’t within the 100-year flood plain when she and her husband bought their house 17 years ago. But it was added to the flood plain in new maps developed after Tropical Storm Allison in 2001, and the couple purchased flood insurance despite the steep premiums. ‘We’re well-insured; we’ll be fine,’ she said, but some neighbors don’t have the coverage they need. And their recovery efforts grew more complicated when they learned that if their homes sustained sufficient damage they would have to elevate when they rebuild. In the past few years, Bayles said, her street has flooded regularly during heavy rains, stranding residents in their homes for hours. But the April thunderstorms were the first time she’s had water in her house, she said.” [Houston Chronicle]
BRIDGELAND OVER THE FLOODWATERS Last week’s flooding in northwest Harris County provided only a taste of the problems likely to stem from development in the Katy Prairie along segment E of the planned Grand Parkway, say supporters of a Sierra Club challenge to existing floodplain maps in the Cypress Creek watershed. “An executive of Bridgeland GP, the company developing the 11,400-acre community, said in a Jan. 9, 2008, affidavit that the revisions sought by the Sierra Club would cost the company $28 million in flood mitigation measures that would ‘adversely affect’ the development. Despite the company’s efforts, the maps are being redrawn under U.S. District Judge Lee H. Rosenthal’s supervision. Rosenthal has stayed the lawsuit until October to allow time to complete the maps, but officials said they aren’t certain when the task will be finished. Preliminary revised maps [(PDF)] shown to the Houston Chronicle by [Sierra Club attorney Jim] Blackburn and the Harris County Flood Control District show a significant expansion of the flood plain in an undeveloped western segment of Bridgeland’s property and a reduction of the flood plain in other areas. . . . Asked if Bridgeland could assure Harris County residents that its development won’t worsen future flooding downstream, [Bridgeland VP of Sales] Houghton said, ‘I would have no problem guaranteeing that.'” [Houston Chronicle]
GRAND PARKWAY SPRAWL STIMULUS “The road exemplifies an unintended effect of the stimulus law: an administration that opposes suburban sprawl is giving money to states for projects that are almost certain to exacerbate it. A new master-planned community called Bridgeland is rising on the prairie along the proposed site of the road; once completed, the development is expected to have 21,000 new homes on 11,400 acres. Other developers are eagerly awaiting the new road so they can start building on their empty land, too. . . . [Roger H. Hord, the president of the West Houston Association] pointed out that the road would connect two existing highways and said it would ease congestion on some of Houston’s other beltways. He said that an existing leg of the Grand Parkway, just to the south of the proposed leg, would give a sense of what the new stretch of the Grand Parkway might look like when it is done. The existing stretch is lined with strip malls and gas stations and drug stores and a huge 7,600-acre residential development called Cinco Ranch that is popular with families.” [New York Times]
GRAND PARKWAY SEGMENT E: MALL SHOPPER EXPRESS LANES Approvals by the Harris County Commissioners Court this week — along with the timely arrival of $181 million of the state’s stimulus money — means nothing but a new Sierra Club lawsuit now stands in the way of building Segment E of the Grand Parkway toll road. The segment, which will cut through the Katy Prairie between I-10 and 290, will allow shoppers a convenient and direct link from the Katy Mills Mall to the new Houston Premium Outlets mall in Cypress, just west of Fairfield. “Peter Haughton with General Growth Properties said, ‘We need this road to continue the build out of Bridgeland, which we hope will be one of America’s best master planned communities.’” [abc13]
The attorney for Lakes of Avalon Village developer Robert A. Hudson is now saying that economic conditions make it “unlikely” that Lennar Homes and J. Patrick Homes will build on homesites in the path of a new proposed route for Segment F2 of the Grand Parkway in Spring.
But there’s no need to give up hope entirely: Lennar and J. Patrick apparently encountered few difficulties building and selling 60 homes sitting on the new highway’s earlier proposed route, in a different portion of the same subdivision. The developer’s stated reluctance to repeat the trick means the homebuilding market must be pretty tough now.
The new route would swing around the homes that have already been built and into not-yet-developed areas of Lakes of Avalon Village and neighboring Willow Trace.
MORE SHOPPING CENTERS LIE IN WAIT FOR THE GRAND PARKWAY Under previous owners it was going to go residential, but now all the site at the southeast corner of Kuykendahl and Spring Stuebner in Spring needs is an offramp: “Steve Gregory, president of Hopkins Commercial, said the site is a long-term investment for a retail center that will be built, possibly in one to three years. The site is attractive to the company because a leg of the Grand Parkway that will start construction in late 2010 will go by the 56 acres. The site is just north of a big collection of retailers at FM 2920 and Kuykendahl, including Wal-Mart SuperCenter, Lowe’s Home Improvement, Kroger, Palais Royal and 24 Hour Fitness.” [Houston Business Journal]
THE RIDE-FOR-LESS-THAN-A-GRAND PARKWAY “Fort Bend County officials Oct. 14 signed off on a joint resolution with numerous government entities to establish a set of terms and conditions to build the Grand Parkway as a toll road. . . . The agreement stipulates the scope of work, initial toll rate and methods to increase toll rates as the Grand Parkway, also known as Texas 99, is constructed as a 180-mile road looping around Houston. Under the terms, the project will be a tolled, two- to six-lane road with overpasses at major intersections and direct connectors at interchanges with other major thoroughfares.” [Houston Chronicle]
Some brand-new houses sold by Lennar Homes will be very convenient to the new Grand Parkway!
Robert A. Hudson, a Spring developer who partnered with Lennar on the project, said builders knew the highway might come through the subdivision.
“We are not up there on a daily basis to make sure that the builders make it clear to everybody else,” he said.
Plans for the Grand Parkway have been on the books for 25 years, but only 28 of its proposed 185 miles have been built. Environmental and neighborhood groups have opposed the project.
It would include 11 segments traversing seven counties. The 12.1-mile Segment F2 would cut directly through the Lakes of Avalon Village, a subdivision with several hundred homes located on FM 2920 just west of Kuykendahl Road.
About 60 homes are in the right-of-way and would have to be demolished to make way for the parkway once construction began, [executive director of the Grand Parkway Association David] Gornet said.
Talk about offering transportation options! But it’s not just Lennar . . . J. Patrick Homes also is selling models in the Lakes of Avalon Village subdivision.
But hurry! The subdivision is in “close out”!
After the jump: pics of a Lennar Homes model for sale in this quaint little village in Spring!
WHY WE NEED THE GRAND PARKWAY BETWEEN 290 AND I-10 “If the commissioners approve it, it’s because they want new subdivisions built in the open space of the Katy Prairie. We’re building a highway for people who don’t live here yet in hopes that developers will build houses for them and that they will want to live on a toll road 30 miles from Downtown in a world of $4 gas.” [Intermodality]
Why do we need the Grand Parkway? To connect all those new green-living communities spreading way out into the Texas prairie!
An Arizona development company is master-planning a master-planned community for a tiny 4,000-plus-acre plot in Alvin, linking the Grand Parkway, FM 1462, and highway 288. Yes, that’s bigger than Shadow Creek Ranch.
It’s called Inspiration at Alvin, if you believe the mayor, or Inspiration @ Chocolate Bayou if you believe the Aperion Communities website.
Alvin mayor Gary Appelt announced that the expected population when the project is built out — in 30 years — is 25,000 people. That’s just over six people per acre. No wonder they’re calling it green!
Inspiration is the first lifestyle enhanced sustainable community model ever created. It’s where Aperion’s programs for energy, health, business and transportation are connected directly to your home.
The company website lists the development at a just-slightly larger 5,500 acres, which means residents will have even more room to spread their windmills. Aperion is also threatening a 6,000-acre development called Inspiration @ Lake Houston. All in all, there are five Inspiration communities proposed for Texas and two for New Mexico. That’s more than 36,434 acres of currently wasted farms and ranchland transformed into sustainable, productive living spaces. Go green!
Houston’s middle-age spread continues:
- Just north of I-10 at the Grand Parkway, Kickerillo is starting a large residential development called Grandeur Park. It’ll be across the street from The Grand, Simon Property Group’s new mall. Homes there will cost 300 to 600 Grand.
- Houston will soon stretch to Sealy:
Silvestri Investments of Houston has purchased 1,375 acres just west of Firethorne, which is a mile south of Interstate 10 on FM 1463.
The new owner will hold the land for future development.
“With the historical trend of development in Houston, it was only a matter of time before someone purchased land in the next logical pattern of growth,” said Michael Carroll, president of Riverway Properties, who brokered the deal. The price was not disclosed.
- Ross Perot Jr.’s Hillwood Development Company has bought Sienna Plantation South. What we’ll get there: about 7,000 single-family homes on the 3,827-acre site. Included in that total: 300 acres for offices and retail, 100 acres for schools and churches, and 1,000 acres of parks and open space. No breakdown available on the acreage of cul de sacs, lakes, or driveways.
- The fourth Del Webb retirement compound in Texas will be near Richmond, at Highway 59 and Thompson Rd. Fifteen hundred homes on 500 acres. You’ll need to be at least 55 years old to live there, and drive at least 55 to get there.
- It’s tough building slabs in Texas City:
After what developers described as a “minor slowdown,†the 574-home Grand Cay Harbour project in Texas City is back on track.
Persistent rain during the summer was part of the problem. But project manager Norman Reed didn’t elaborate about what other factors led to a long stretch of inactivity at the development. The project is on 250 acres beside Galveston Bay at the end of the Texas City levee system.
And don’t you worry about flooding after the construction’s done. This gated community will keep out the tides, too.
- Kickerillo Closes on Land Deal for a Community at I-10 and the Grand Parkway (PDF) [Kickerillo Companies]
- Commercial market still active [Houston Chronicle]
- Project targets older adults [Houston Chronicle]
- North Texas Real Estate Company Buys Sienna Plantation South [Fort Bend Now]
- Grand Cay Harbour sails ahead after delay [Galveston Daily News]
Plan of Grandeur Park: Kickerillo Companies
