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]
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Tag: Katy
A story by Paul Knight in this week’s Houston Press adds a little color to the Houston foreclosure map:
Houston’s 77449 ZIP code, on the northwest side, made the top 100 in the nation for 2007. The area saw rapid growth in the early part of the decade, with retail strip centers and a sea of new homes popping up almost overnight.
“They started developing that area really aggressively,” says Erion Shehaj, a Houston realtor who specializes in foreclosed homes. “Like clockwork…[foreclosures] have been popping up one after another, because they were pushing them to people that couldn’t really afford them in the first place.”
Large signs are now planted along the roadside, advertising housing deals such as “Inventory Clearance!” and “Closeout Specials.”
One subdivision in the area that was hit particularly hard is Bear Creek Meadows. The neighborhood was developed about five years ago, with houses priced in the $120,000 range and marketed to first-time buyers.
Below the fold: More on Bear Creek Meadows, plus a few photos to illustrate Knight’s reporting on foreclosure cleanups.
Here’s the kind of project that ought to excite every truly patriotic Houstonian: County Commissioner Steve Radack wants to build a 500-acre lake — for fishing — on the Katy Prairie! How will it get filled? With rain, of course . . . and those regular floods from Cypress Creek! Apparently, they’ll have to excavate five Astrodomes worth of dirt. Where will they put the other four?
Best yet: Radack’s gonna name it after the Pope!
Them Katy birds want their wetlands? We’ll give them wetlands!
Of course, there are some naysayers:
Because the lake will not have a constant source of flowing water, biologists remain worried that there will not be enough oxygen in the lake to support a viable fish population, said [Donna] Anderson of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
Texas Parks & Wildlife has also questioned whether nitrates and fertilizer from farm runoff might pollute the lake, said Jamie Schubert, coastal biologist with the department.
Yeah, we’ve heard that line before. Isn’t that what they said about the Gulf of Mexico? Hey, maybe we’ll find oil here, too!
- Katy prairie someday may be an angler’s paradise [Houston Chronicle]
- Dead zones regularly haunt coast [Houston Chronicle]
Photo of snow geese on Katy Prairie: Houston-Galveston Area Council
[youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mVnx0vWPnE0 400 330]
Blogger and head Michael Pollack cheerleader Lou Minatti posts this street-level video report on the state of the real-estate market in Katy and West Houston, and includes the following odd claim:
I’ve never seen a stucco house in Houston before.
- Houston Real Estate, Valentines Day Edition [Lou Minatti]
The wave of foreclosures sweeping over neighborhoods at the outer edges of town has . . . an upside!
Remember back when these neighborhoods were new — like, four years ago? Well, for buyers it’s just like those good old days all over again . . . only cheaper! That’s right: if you’ve settled on one builder model, you can be pretty picky about which upgrades and finishing touches you really want — even though the builder has moved on.
If you’re shopping for a home in Bear Creek Meadows in Katy, for example, you’ll find the four distinct residences pictured above listed on MLS. That’s right, those are four different houses. But they’re all the same model — The Cairns, Plan 509, by Legend Homes — and they’re all resales!
Which one is right for you? Clockwise from top left, the contenders are: 19411 Billineys Park Dr., 19606 Ballina Meadows Dr., 19906 Brisbane Meadows Dr., and 19510 Buckland Park Dr.
After the jump, a look at the differences between these four newish but back-on-the-market homes!
Honey, stop the car! 2300 square feet, new construction, in-ground pool, spa, game room, on a man-made fake lake. $209k. Bonus: The Relitter actually typed in “HONEY STOP THE CAR!!” as a description.
That’s blogger Lou Minatti’s punchline, after a brief tour of tiny, chain-linked-fenced, or apparently leaning homes available at similar prices in Los Angeles.
Also in the description of the Katy home is this paradox:
POPULAR LENNAR FLOORPLAN! . . . A ONE OF A KIND GEM!
After the jump: more pics, plus the sad news about this some-of-a-kind Katy home.
Sure, Metro talks a lot about transportation in this city’s central districts. But a Houston Business Journal profile shows us Harris County Metropolitan Transit Authority Chairman David Wolff is also enthusiastic about Houston’s westward spread:
Many developers are building various types of commercial properties west of Houston and beyond.
The city of Katy, with an estimated population of 205,000, sits square in the path of Houston’s westward growth pattern.
“The whole city is going that way,” Wolff says. “I think Katy is going to be the next Sugar Land.”
He recalls the creation of Park 10, and how much the area has grown over the last three decades.
Says Wolff: “It was just rice fields. That was really the edge of the world then.”
After the jump, the METRO Board Chairman’s exciting projects way out west, plus how to get folks in the “next Sugar Land” to build freeway on- and off-ramps for your developments!
A Woodlands developer has decided its latest creation—a not-yet-opened shopping center in Katy—should be replicated statewide and beyond. Marcel Inc. CEO Vernon Veldekens told GlobeSt.com that
the concept behind Villagio involves smaller, mixed-use centers in neighborhoods rather than fronting freeways or interstate highways. “This gives a more intimate relationship with the community, similar to a European town square,” he says. “We feel like we can put these all over town in mid- to high-end areas and have the same success as we have in Cinco Ranch.”
The Villagio at Cinco Ranch, a boutique lifestyle center slated to open this fall on a 12-acre site at the corner of Westheimer Pkwy. and Peek Rd., is almost three-quarters leased. The center combines 112,285 square feet of retail and office space in a parking-lot-like setting. The developer’s marketing director told the Houston Chronicle that the Villagio will have a “Tuscan look and Tuscan feel to it.” Many of the cars in the 307 spaces surrounding the buildings and the 225-space garage will likely be European as well.
The project is a departure for Marcel Inc., a property development and management firm whose base portfolio includes more mundane shopping centers and a gas station and convenience store, and which previously developed a motorcycle superstore and a handful of Family Dollar stores. Already, the firm has plans for Villagios in north Austin and The Woodlands, and is contemplating additional locations in Round Rock, San Marcos, New Braunfels, and Dallas, according to Globe St.
After the jump, more views of the expanding Tuscan landscape, including the Tuscan villas on the lot!
One of the advantages of covering real estate throughout an area is the opportunity to spot larger opportunities—in issues that at first glance might seem only of interest to a particular neighborhood. Communities battling with new development, for example, might benefit from hearing how residents in other locations might deal with similar situations.
Over in Katy, residents up in arms about a low-income housing development proposed near the intersection of Clay and Elrod have been actively challenging the rosy picture of the low-density project presented by developer Barry Kahn. Residents of the nearby Bridgewater subdivision have been joined by the Katy Area Economic Development Council, Katy Rep. Bill Callegari, and the Katy Area Economic Development Council in opposition to Elrod Place, which would consist of 76 single-family homes and 50 apartment units for seniors.
Their complaints? The project would lower home values, put a strain on area schools, and increase crime in the neighborhood.
The Katy Area Economic Development Council sent a letter to state officials claiming that Katy was the wrong location for this project:
Our opposition should not be construed as a referendum on the need or lack thereof of affordable housing. We do not feel that the development of a project of this type is compatible with the stated goals and objectives of the Katy area.
More succinct are the comments of Jeff, one of many posters to news websites covering the controversy:
Fact is, Mr. Kahn just needs to pack his bags and go elsewhere. In fact, if he is such a philanthropist and wants to help the disadvantaged, why does’n he house 4 families of 4 in his 6000+ sqft mansion? Hmm…….
and:
This development must be stopped. We do not want Katy to become like the inner-city of Houston. We do not want an overburdened and underfunded school system. We do not want high-crime where gangs control neighborhoods while citizens lock themseves in their homes behind barred windows and doors.
This is what many of us moved to Katy to escape from.
So . . . readers, can we help out the people of Katy? Got a better spot for this development in your neighborhood? Just let us know, and we’ll pass the information on to Mr. Kahn. We’ll be waiting patiently for your email.
- Upset residents taking housing project fight to Harris County [Katy Times]
- Hearing on low-income housing project to take place Tuesday [Inside Katy]
- Neighborhood residents mobilize to fight low-income housing proposal [Inside Katy]
- Opponents of low-income housing have new concerns [Houston Chronicle]
Photo of Waterside Court, another development by Hettig/Kahn in northwest Houston, under construction: Hettig/Kahn Holdings
