Swamplot Archives by Tag: Master-Planned Communities

Tuesday, July 14, 2009

Cul de Sac City: Houston’s Ban on New Street Grids

July 14, 2009 – 7:36 pm

Working from a remote and undisclosed location, the now-expatriate Houston engineer known as Keep Houston Houston puts together a rough diagram identifying the city’s “traditional” walkable neighborhoods, and comments:

Houston has no shortage of gridded, walkable, mixed-use neighborhoods. Thing is, they’re all kind of squished together. And with a couple of exceptions, they were all platted out before 1935. What’s there is there. We’re not adding to it.

Why?

Developer conservatism plays a role, but is ethereal, subject to evaporate as soon as *someone* steps up and proves that suburban [Traditional Neighborhood Development] is sufficiently profitable. But several city standards and rules are standing in the way.

Are Houston’s development rules really the obstacle?

Keep Houston Houston scans through the city’s development ordinance, then throws together a quick design for a residential neighborhood following the basic requirements. What does that end up looking like?

Continue Reading This Story >

7:36 pm | 53 Comments | Read more about Development Regulations, Master-Planned Communities, Streets
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Wednesday, June 17, 2009

No Deal for Bridgeland

June 17, 2009 – 4:42 pm
   

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]

4:42 pm | 7 Comments | Read more about Bankruptcies, Buying and Selling, Land Development, Master-Planned Communities, Neighborhoods: Bridgeland, Quicklink, Sprawl
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Friday, May 22, 2009

Buying a Bridgeland

May 22, 2009 – 11:46 am
   

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]

11:46 am | 5 Comments | Read more about Bankruptcies, Buying and Selling, Freeways and Toll Roads, Master-Planned Communities, Neighborhoods: Bridgeland, Quicklink, Sprawl
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Monday, March 2, 2009

Hey, Hey, Stay Outta Our Chick-fil-A

March 2, 2009 – 12:13 pm
   

A brief excerpt from that satirical article in the Cinco Ranch High School newspaper that sparked protests from students of neighboring schools at the LaCenterra Shopping Center last Friday: “You can’t help but be a little bit angry when you’re stuck in the Whataburger drive-thru behind an unimaginably large caravan of Katy cars, each sporting at least 12 stickers reminding you of their accomplishments. If they’re so great why can’t they go to their own Whataburger? There’s this feeling in our little corner of the world that just says: This is Cinco. Some believe there is a sense of ownership to the neighboring businesses and restaurants… Cinco’s Mission Burrito. Cinco’s Target. Cinco’s Taco Bell, Whataburger, Sonic. Seeing anything but maroon clad students and parents roaming the aisles seems odd to some. Don’t they have their own places to go? ” [Fort Bend Now]

12:13 pm | 3 Comments | Read more about Master-Planned Communities, Neighborhoods: Cinco Ranch, Quicklink, Restaurants
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Monday, January 26, 2009

Selling a Piece of Bridgeland

January 26, 2009 – 8:20 am

General Growth Properties owns Baybrook Mall, Deerbrook Mall, First Colony Mall, Willowbrook Mall, The Woodlands Mall, and half of The Woodlands. And it’s holding onto all of those properties for now. But Jennifer Dawson reports in the Houston Business Journal that General Growth is trying to unload one of its specific growths: a portion of Bridgeland, the company’s 11,400-acre residential spread out in Cypress.

The name of the offered section is Lakeland Village, and it’s Bridgeland’s first, 2,370-acre phase.

8:20 am | Add a Comment | Read more about Buying and Selling, Land Development, Land for Sale, Master-Planned Communities, Neighborhoods: Bridgeland, Neighborhoods: Cypress
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Thursday, July 31, 2008

Obra Homes: Gone Missing

July 31, 2008 – 2:30 pm

5010 Cottage Creek Ln., the Trails at Seabourne Park, Rosenberg, Texas

A few months after abruptly shutting down operations in the Rio Grande Valley, McAllen-based homebuilder Obra Homes appears to have quietly abandoned its Houston-area business as well, leaving one Rosenberg subdivision littered with empty slabs.

So where the heck is Obra Homes anyway? A model home here at this subdivision is empty and closed, and the company’s attorney tells us no more Obra homes will be built here at the Trails at Seabourne Park subdivision. . . .

The company’s huge showroom on 290 looks like a ghost town. And according to a sign on the window, Obra Homes was locked out for failing to pay rent.

This office building on 290 says “Obra Homes” in big letters. but go inside and there’s no mention of the company.

The homebuilder’s attorney tells Fox 26 reporter Randy Wallace that there is no Obra Homes office. But there is a phone number!

Photo of 5010 Cottage Creek Ln., The Trails at Seabourne Park, Rosenberg: HAR

2:30 pm | 1 Comment | Read more about Homebuilders, Master-Planned Communities, Neighborhoods: Rosenberg, Openings and Closings
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Friday, July 18, 2008

And Just Imagine How Well They’d Do If There Were Jobs or Shopping Nearby!

July 18, 2008 – 3:34 pm
   

Discovery at Spring Trails, Land Tejas’s gated and solar-panel-badged community north of Spring, is selling well, says Lisa Gray: “. . . only a few weeks after Discovery put itself on the market, and without even a finished house that would-be buyers can tour, most of the lots ready for building have been optioned, and the developer is scrambling to make more available fast. In fact, Discovery is off to the fastest start of any development in the company’s 11-year history, and Land Tejas expects demand to pick up even more this fall. Already, propelled mostly by Google searches, 200 to 300 people a week are touring the neighborhood’s ‘Discovery Center.’” [Houston Chronicle]

3:34 pm | 4 Comments | Read more about Alternative Energy, Development Strategy, Green Design and Development, Homebuilders, Homebuying, Land Development, Master-Planned Communities, Montgomery County, Neighborhoods: Discovery at Spring Trails, Quicklink, Real Estate Marketing, Sprawl, Utilities
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Wednesday, January 2, 2008

Why Those Street Names in The Woodlands All Sound Alike

January 2, 2008 – 8:41 am

Woodlands Street View

Nancy Sarnoff’s short interview with the woman responsible for naming new streets in The Woodlands is just too rich:

We use a lot of words that are just appealing, pretty images, like Peaceful Canyon. That neighborhood sold really well and I think it’s because of the name. We even did radio commercials that played off the name and it really helped market the area. Others are Racing Cloud, Amber Glow and Destiny Cove. We even have ones from Star Wars. That day I was really desperate. Nothing was popping into my head. We have lots of nautical names around Lake Woodlands like Outrigger’s Run.

Woodlands Operating Co. marketing director Susan Vreeland-Wendt confirms every cliché about the origins of subdivision street names, from the historical revisionism (“One of our presidents is Alex Sutton, and we have a street named Sutton Mill”) to the what-I-drank-for-dinner-last-night story (“I’ve been known to pore over wine bottles looking for inspiration”) — except the one about suburban names coming from geographical features that were demolished or removed so the place could be built. Fortunately, The Woodlands does carry on the proud Houston tradition of naming places after imaginary or wished-for amenities:

We’ve got Arrow Canyon, Kayak Ridge, Arbor Camp and Rocky Point.

Surprisingly not on Vreeland-Wendt’s list of inspirations: Harlequin romance novels. But she does consult the internet, because it’s full of useful resources.

Photo: Flickr user kaatiya

8:41 am | Read more about Master-Planned Communities, Neighborhoods: The Woodlands, Real Estate Marketing, Streets
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Thursday, December 6, 2007

Fifth Ward: New Urbanists Meet Old Toxic Waste

December 6, 2007 – 2:35 pm

Residences at Seventh at 5th, by DPZ

A reader who lives in the neighborhood points us to drawings and information from New Urbanist planners Duany Plater-Zyberk & Co. about the firm’s designs for the former MDI Superfund site in the Fifth Ward. DPZ, of course, is most famous for the enormous small-town-sized stage-set the company designed for the 1998 Jim Carrey movie The Truman Show, which became so popular that it was kept on and is now used as a Florida Panhandle resort named Seaside.

InTown Homes and Lovett Homes owner Frank Liu bought the MDI site — a former metal foundry and spent-catalyst “recycling” facility famously polluted with lead and several thousand chemistry sets’ worth of other toxic substances — from the EPA late last year, with promises that he’ll spend a couple of years and $6.7 million remediating the property before letting Houstonians live there. Still, 36+ acres of inner-loop land at $5 a square foot doesn’t sound like too bad a deal.

After the jump: a look at DPZ’s MDI plans, plus large grains of salt.

Continue Reading This Story >

2:35 pm | Read more about Development Strategy, Environmental, Hazards, Land Development, Master-Planned Communities, Neighborhoods: Fifth Ward, Proposed Developments, Toxic Sites
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Tuesday, November 6, 2007

What Those Inspired Masters Are Planning near Alvin

November 6, 2007 – 10:48 am

Map of Proposed Aperion Communities Developments

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!

10:48 am | Read more about Brazoria County, Development Strategy, Land Development, Master-Planned Communities, Proposed Developments, Sprawl
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