Tag: Fort Bend County

Demolitions
12/08/10 1:10pm

The New Sugar Land: More Land, Less Sugar

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Fort Bend County, Industrial Properties, Redevelopment, Sprawl, Sugar Land
4 Comments

Late Update, 12/16: The implosions are back on, scheduled for December 19th.

Update, 12/8 3:30 pm: FortBendNow is reporting that this weekend’s implosion has been canceled and will be rescheduled later.

Fort Bend County fans of large building implosions won’t have to drive all the way into Downtown Houston to watch the next big boom. It’s gonna be taking place right in the heart of Sugar Land, this weekend! Johnson Development Corp. will be knocking down an old furnace house and a bin building — 2 metal structures from the former Imperial Sugar Refinery — this Sunday morning at 7. The ongoing demolition project is necessary so the company — part of a public-private partnership with the Texas General Land Office and the City of Sugar Land, run by private equity firm Cherokee — can create a giant historic-themed development on the surrounding industrial acreage, celebrating the area’s rich history of refinement. The Imperial Sugar Company, no stranger to refinery explosions itself, shut down the plant in 2003.

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Attractions
12/02/10 5:00pm

Will They Ever Get to Play the Houston Flood?

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Critters, Fort Bend County, Quicklink, Real Estate Marketing, Sugar Land
10 Comments

WILL THEY EVER GET TO PLAY THE HOUSTON FLOOD? In a rare and surprising victory for regional realism, prospective fans have chosen to name Sugar Land’s new minor-league baseball team the Skeeters, the Atlantic League team’s management announced yesterday. Defeated at the baseball ballot box: also-rans the King Canes and Lizard Kings. Fans should be able to watch the Skeeters and swat mosquitoes from $8 seats in Sugar Land’s new strip-mall-inspired open-air stadium on the banks of Oyster Creek by the 2012 season. While one rendition of the new team’s logo pictures a mosquito piercing a baseball with its proboscis, an animated version (featured at the top left of every page on the team’s new website) depicts it angrily and repeatedly stabbing into Fort Bend County on a map of Texas. (See also less-charitable responses to the name from Around the Loop and Deadspin.) [Skeeters News; previously on Swamplot]

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Firethorne
09/27/10 12:16pm

The Difference a West Makes: The Firethorne School District Divide

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Firethorne West, Fort Bend County, Fulshear, Katy, Master-Planned Communities, Proposed Developments, Schools, Sprawl
6 Comments

Speaking of Katy schools: The power lines in the photo on the left, a couple miles southwest of Katy Mills mall, flag the dividing line between Jefferson Development’s Firethorne subdivision, zoned to Katy ISD, and the just-announced Firethorne West addition in Fulshear the company just announced — which will be served by the Lamar Consolidated ISD. The new Katy ISD elementary school site waiting for November’s bond vote and proudly featured in the center of Firethorne’s master plan will not be serving the 1,400 planned homes in Firethorne West, even though they’ll be only 2 blocks away. The kids in Firethorne West will likely be attending Huggins Elementary, which is more than five miles to the southwest. And until new roads are built they’d actually get to drive past that “Future Katy ISD” elementary school every school day to get there:

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Apartments
05/20/10 1:22pm

Next Time Keep the Bill Below $3 Grand and You Can Avoid Those Costly Panic Attacks

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Crime, Fort Bend County, Hazards, Richmond
9 Comments

Just how big is the South Grand at Pecan Grove apartment complex in Richmond? Well, moving from one side of the complex to the other can cost you just south of $8 grand — and maybe a little hospitalization. Tentra Allen’s moving adventure last weekend began after she responded to a little Craigslist ad and signed a little contract with the moving company that showed up:

. . . Before unloading things, Andy said Allen had to pay the bill: $7,684. That included 35 units of shrink wrap for $2,800 and a “long walk” that cost $4,300.

Allen said Andy whipped out the contract, which said all previous verbal agreements were null and void and laid out a menagerie of outrageous charges in the fine print.

“If you don’t pay, we’re taking everything to Maine,” he threatened.

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Construction Problems
04/13/10 10:58am

The Golden Age of Fort Bend County House Construction Is Officially Over

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Development Regulations, Fort Bend County, Quicklink
1 Comment

THE GOLDEN AGE OF FORT BEND COUNTY HOUSE CONSTRUCTION IS OFFICIALLY OVER Damn! Y’all are ruining the last bastions of suburban homebuilding freedom. Could be worse, though. They could have made it so you don’t get to hire your own inspectors: “As of April 1, Fort Bend County residential home builders are required to report inspections for new construction within unincorporated areas of the county. A minimum of three inspections during construction will be required and include inspection of the following: the foundation, before the placement of concrete; the framing and mechanical system stage before drywall; and the final inspection once construction is complete.” [Fort Bend Now]

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Critters
03/26/10 9:30am

At Home with the Wildlife in Waterbrook West

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Fort Bend County, Gardening, Hazards, Missouri City, Quicklink, Waterbrook West
9 Comments

AT HOME WITH THE WILDLIFE IN WATERBROOK WEST A relaxing, light-suburban lifestyle with plentiful opportunities for hunting and re-landscaping — who says you can’t have it all in Fort Bend County? “Within the past five [months], Missouri City began a program to attempt to decrease the number of hogs in the Waterbrook West community after hearing complaints from several residents. The city authorized two independent contractors to work in the area to trap in the neighborhood and the surrounding property, and other properties as access is granted. So far, 60 hogs have been caught and removed. Unfortunately, the animals breed so quickly those 60 will likely soon be replaced with 60 more. According to Michael Weiss, a State Game Warden with the Texas Parks and Wildlife Law Enforcement Division, the hogs have two or three litters per year, and the babies are ready to breed at around one year. . . . The animals are considered ‘exotic’ and not a native game animal in Texas, so they can be hunted year-round and there is no limit to the number hunters can kill. Weiss said the feral hogs are intelligent enough that once one or two are caught in a trap, others tend to leave that area. He also said that although the hogs are generally afraid of people, if cornered they can be aggressive – especially a cornered sow with her litter. When Weiss started his career 25 years ago, he said he only saw the problem in certain areas of the state. Now, he said, there isn’t a county in Texas that doesn’t have the wild pigs roaming around and creating a nuisance. ‘When people go and do landscaping, the hogs love to come tear it up and search for food,’ said Weiss. ‘I don’t know what the solution is. There’s not one, really.’” [Fort Bend Now]

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Fort Bend County
03/19/10 10:51am

Extending Metro’s Main St. Rail Line to Fort Bend County

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Proposed Developments, Public Transportation, Quicklink
38 Comments

EXTENDING METRO’S MAIN ST. RAIL LINE TO FORT BEND COUNTY Metro’s lame-duck board gave its staff a half-million-dollar go-ahead yesterday to figure alignments, hold public meetings, and begin environmental studies on an 8.2-mile commuter rail line along U.S. 90A. The hunt for federal funding comes next: “It was the second development this month in efforts to bring commuter rail to the Houston region. The Gulf Coast Rail District recently hired a Houston engineering firm to study a line along U.S. 290 to Hempstead. A key advantage of Metro’s [Fort Bend] plan, [Chairman David] Wolff said, is that it would use trains Metro already owns on tracks that would parallel Union Pacific freight tracks in the same corridor, tying into the existing Main Street light rail line to create a seamless experience for passengers. The commuter line would begin at Fannin South, the southern end of the Main Street line, and continue to the Fort Bend County Line at Beltway 8.” [Houston Chronicle]

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Avalon
02/25/10 7:33pm

Neighborhood Guessing Game Over: Old River Side

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Fort Bend County, Home Decor, Homes for Sale, Interiors, Sugar Land
7 Comments

Our winner in this week’s game was Señorbanity. Congratulations — you’re the newest member of the Rice Design Alliance — via a one-year individual membership donated by the organization. Thank you, RDA! We’ll also recognize a neighborly guess and award second place to Jayci.

Sweet! So where can you find this home?

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Development Strategies
11/13/09 4:22pm

When Neighbors Make a Fence: Driveway Showdown in Missouri City

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Fort Bend County, Missouri City, Neighborhood Disputes
22 Comments

What are these Campbell Construction Company workers doing? Just building a fence down aways on Barron Ln. from their Missouri City office — in order to block the driveway belonging to their neighbor, Cesar Larias. Owner Jeff Campbell ordered the fence built after Larias refused to pay a $50 monthly fee to access his own garage.

Ten years ago, Campbell bought several parcels — one of which apparently includes Larias’s driveway and most of his front yard — from a tax auction. How’d they come up for sale? Channel 2 reporter Stephen Dean explains:

Court documents reviewed by Local 2 Investigates show that the original landowner who developed the entire neighborhood had divided off several of the strips of land in question, hoping to sell them separately someday if the government expanded Hillcroft Street down through the subdivision. That expansion never happened.

The original landowner died and Fort Bend County ended up selling the parcels of subdivided land at an auction on the courthouse steps because no one was paying taxes on those parcels anymore.

Until Campbell asked him and several neighbors to start paying a fee to access their own properties, Larias had no idea that his driveway and front yard did not belong to his family’s homestead. Alas, such appears to be the case.

Asked if he has considered selling the land back to the homeowners, Campbell said, “Yeah, but the amount they want to give for it, I don’t want to sell it for that. You see the situation that I’m in?”

Campbell insisted he’s not trying to gouge the neighbors or force them from their homes, although he admitted he may want to expand his nearby construction business.

“Well, my decision was to have them pay something to use it,” said Campbell. “I’ve been really above and beyond fair about it. I’m not trying to hurt these people.”

He admitted that it may appear heavy-handed for him to have placed a Dumpster across the driveway when the Larios family stopped paying for access.

Wait! How’d you reporter dudes find out about the Dumpster?

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Fort Bend County
10/22/09 11:47pm

Neighborhood Guessing Game Over: Big Guessing Game Hunt

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Home Decor, Homes for Sale, Interiors, Neighborhood Guessing Game, Richmond, Shiloh Lake Estates
7 Comments

Who won that Rice Design Alliance membership?

First, your guesses in this week’s game: Four of you guessed Sugar Land; 3 Hunters Creek, Tanglewood, and River Oaks. There were 2 each for Memorial, Bayou Woods or Sherwood Forest, Piney Point Village, Katy, Magnolia, Sweetwater, Bellaire, and The Woodlands. Plus individual votes for “Memorial/Beltway 8,” “somewhere off Memorial Dr. near Voss,” “south of Memorial Dr. between Post Oak and Voss,” Memorial and Dairy Ashford, Crestwood, Glen Cove, Kingwood, Sugar Lakes, Venetian Estates, “the Peninsulas in Oyster Creek,” Pecan Grove in Richmond, Tomball, Indian Trail, Rivercrest, Augusta Pines, Homewoods, Tall Timbers, Mt. Belvieu, Cinco Ranch, “along the Bay Oaks golf course,” Camp Logan, Royal Oaks, Crosby, “off 249,” Pinehurst, “Champions area,” FM 1960, Northgate Forest, west Friendswood, Brazoria County, Lake Jackson, West Columbia, “the 290/Highway 6/1960 area,” Pearland, “along Buffalo Bayou near the Houston Country Club,” and “Holly Creek, west of Tomball.”

That one-year individual membership in the RDA goes to this week’s hardest guesser, Matt Mystery, who mentioned no fewer than 15 different communities in the course of 7 separate entries — including one that’s very close to the actual location:

Sugar Land. It could be Sweetwater or possibly Sugar Lakes/Venetian Estates. Or maybe The Peninsulas in Oyster Creek. Then there’s Pecan Grove in Richmond. So many subdivisions. So many areas. It just has that Tanglewood look. And it’s 9 pm on Thursday and it’s still a mystery.

Matt Mystery happens to be the same matt who won last week’s contest. Congratulations!

A lot of great guesses in there from the rest of you, too!

How about the deets?

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Fort Bend County
06/02/09 3:49pm

Where the Walls Come To Life: At Home in Venetian Estates

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Home Decor, Homes for Sale, Interiors, Sugar Land, Venetian Estates
3 Comments

One highlight of the decorating sampler provided by the listing for 403 Lombardy Dr.: the Monkey Bed.

What’s more to see in this fine home for sale in Venetian Estates?

There’s the multicolor cloud motif gracing the Media Room:

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Fort Bend County
06/01/09 12:03pm

The Pleasure Mounds of Shadow Creek Ranch: More Landscaping Fun at the Blue Ridge Landfill

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Fresno, Pearland, Proposed Developments, Shadow Creek Ranch, Toxic Sites
2 Comments

You saw the video. Now comes the detail: OffCite has more on recent Rice University architecture grad Lysle Oliveros’s proposal for turning that putrid pile of garbage next door to Shadow Creek Ranch into an exciting outdoor playplace! The fun comes in 3 phases.

In phase 1, trash haulers would start a new pile with each year’s take, completing a mound every 12 months:

Each monument compared to the next would create an awareness of the massive amount of disposed consumer goods. For example, the 2008 “index” created by Hurricane Ike debris would have been 400 feet tall.

Too bad about the City of Pearland’s recent agreement with Republic Services limiting those piles to a mere 130 ft. Oh, well — just wait until 2029!

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Fort Bend County
05/21/09 3:35pm

Blue Ridge Landfill Settlement: Shadow Creek Ranch’s New Race Against Waste

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Fresno, Landscape, Pearland, Shadow Creek Ranch, Toxic Sites
4 Comments

Shadow Creek Ranch residents worried that the Blue Ridge Landfill just across FM 521 would turn into a 170-ft.-tall mountain of smelly garbage can breathe deeply again, now that the City of Pearland has reached a settlement agreement with the landfill’s operator, Republic Services (formerly Allied Waste).

Among the most important changes: the landfill will be limited to its current height of 60 ft. for 12 more years. Will that be enough time for Shadow Creek Ranch’s homebuilders and Las Vegas developers to sell off whatever remaining inventory they own in the master-planned community? After that, the pile of trash will be restricted to hillock status, at 130 ft. tall — “for an additional 8 years.”

Also good for home sales: Garbage trucks will be banned from using Shadow Creek Parkway west of FM 521!

More details of the agreement from City Attorney Darrin Coker, quoted in The Journal of Pearland:

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Fort Bend County
05/12/09 10:20am

Garbage Playground: Developing Houston’s Blue Ridge Mountain

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Fresno, Hazards, Pearland, Proposed Developments, Shadow Creek Ranch, Toxic Sites
13 Comments

That gonna-be-170-ft.-high pile of trash going up across the street from Shadow Creek Ranch? Nothing a little smart landscaping can’t handle. Rice architecture grad student Lysle Oliveros’s proposal for the Blue Ridge Landfill makes for a rockin’ video. And Houston needs a mountain, anyway.

Video: Richie Gelles

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Airports
05/08/09 11:32am

Fort Bend County Condos for the Small Plane Set

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Arcola, Condos, Condos for Sale, Fort Bend County
11 Comments

Why would a couple of Bellaire Realtors want to build new hangar condos out by the Houston-Southwest Airport in Arcola? Because the hangar rental market there sucks, apparently.

With an option on a 60-year ground lease with the airport — near the intersection of Almeda and Highway 6 in Fort Bend County — owners Curtis Lawson and Ryan Dodds of CityLife Realty are now marketing 27 units in the Southwest Executive Hangars, featuring “75,000 square feet of hangarage” in 2 box-shaped buildings.

But this place isn’t just for storage and maintenance. There’s also that hangar condo lifestyle:

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