November 6, 2012 – 3:46 pm
The Canadian developers behind an on-again-off-again 84-unit condo project planned for a 1.4-acre wooded property at the end of E. 5th St. adjacent to the Heights hike-and-bike trail have withdrawn their variance request to build a private street for a new Emes Place subdivision. But neighborhood opponents of the project, called Viewpoint at the Heights, may like Group LSR’s newest plans less than the ones they had been fighting against. The Planning Department’s Suzy Hartgrove tells the Leader’s Charlotte Aguilar that the developers of the Serento and Piedmont at River Oaks now plan to construct a public street over a bridge and build their own cul de sac. The latest plans make no mention of the size of condo the company is proposing. And if the new design meets city standards, the city’s planning commission wouldn’t have an opportunity to require any site changes on the project when it comes up for approval this Thursday.
Photos: Swamplot inbox (site and trail); Charlotte Aguilar/The Leader (variance sign)
Read more about: 77007, Condos, Development Regulations, Freeland Historic District, Houston Heights, Houston Planning Commission, Neighborhood Disputes, Proposed Developments, Variances
September 14, 2012 – 1:17 pm
The duplex at 720 Bomar St. adjacent to East Montrose’s tiny Peggy Shiffick Park is back on the market, a week and a half after its prospective purchaser, developer Vinod Ramani of Urban Living, scaled back his plans to build 3 townhomes on the site (pictured at left) to just 2, and just a few days after backing out of the deal altogether. Some neighbors concerned the planned 3-1/2-story townhomes would clip a large portion of the branches and roots of the park’s signature oak tree had opposed 2 variance requests Ramani had submitted for the project. In the meantime, both Urban Living and neighborhood groups were alarmed to discover that city-contracted workers had severed the main roots of large trees on the property at the corner of Bomar and Crocker earlier this month while installing sewer-line connections. [Houston Chronicle; previously on Swamplot] Image: Urban Living
Read more about: 77006, Buying and Selling, Cancellations and Delays, East Montrose, Neighborhood Disputes, Parks, Proposed Developments, Townhomes, Trees, Variances
Expect to see workers moving dirt on the 1.5-acre site at the northeast corner of Greenbriar and 59 within the next few weeks; the city’s planning commission last week voted to approve a variance granting permission for a 7-story auto dealership building at 2120 Southwest Fwy. to poke a few feet further toward Greenbriar (at left in the above rendering) than regulations allow. The result: the country’s largest — and tallest — flagship Audi dealership, featuring a 2-story car display case on the corner of the third and fourth levels that’ll bring the latest models up to eye level for drivers on the raised freeway who aren’t looking where they’re going.
More views:
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Read more about: 77098, Auto Dealerships, Development Regulations, Feeder Roads, Proposed Developments, Upper Kirby, Variances
April 24, 2012 – 11:36 am
A North Carolina company that already operates 18 car dealers in the Houston area plans to build the largest “flagship” Audi dealership in the U.S. on the north side of Hwy. 59 just east of Greenbriar. The dealership would consist of a 7-story building fronting the Southwest Freeway and containing offices, parts and service departments, a parking garage, and a ground-floor showroom. A more dramatic showroom, though, will be on the top floors, where drivers stuck in freeway traffic can ogle recent Audi models parked on display. A fenced-in parking lot for 87 cars would sit behind the building on the north side of Lexington St.
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Read more about: 77098, Auto Dealerships, Development Regulations, Proposed Developments, Upper Kirby, Variances
December 6, 2011 – 5:44 pm
The request for a variance that would allow developers of the 3.68-acre property at the corner of Dunlavy and West Alabama to avoid putting in cul-de-sacs at the ends of Sul Ross and Branard St. — and that prompted the posting of signs around the Fiesta Food Mart on the property — isn’t the work of a new owner. It was submitted by the same owner who has held the property since the early sixties when the current shopping center was constructed.
So why the need for a variance that would only matter if the grocery store were redeveloped?
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Read more about: 77098, Cul-de-Sacs, Development Strategies, Lancaster Square, Proposed Developments, Real Estate Marketing, Retail, Variances, Wilshire Village
December 5, 2011 – 2:09 pm
Over the weekend, variance signs were posted at the dead-ends of Sul Ross and Branard St. near the Menil Collection and in front of the bank of antique shops facing Dunlavy. The notices are the clearest indication yet that some big new development is being planned to replace the Fiesta Food Mart at the corner of Dunlavy and West Alabama in Lancaster Place. Last month, Swamplot posted a reader’s report that the property had been sold and that a 6-or-7-story “West Ave-style” mixed-use project was planned for the 3.68-acre site.
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Read more about: 77098, Cul-de-Sacs, Grocery Stores, Lancaster Place, Proposed Developments, Retail, Variances, Wilshire Village
October 12, 2011 – 1:56 pm
A new 6-story apartment building is being planned for the now-cleared Midtown block surrounded by Elgin, Smith, Rosalie, and Louisiana streets — one block north of the Calais at Courtland Square apartment complex and a block west of High Fashion Fabrics. A variance request for the 147-unit building doesn’t name the developer or show any renderings, but indicates that the bottom 2 stories of the building will consist of a parking garage, topped by 4 floors of apartments wrapped around an interior courtyard.
That’s similar to the configuration of some sections of the Calais — notably the dramatic arched streetfront along Smith St. (shown in the photo above), which contributes a dynamic tableau of headlights, bumpers, license plates, and the occasional hood ornament to passersby at street level. (The view changes daily.) The developers of this new apartment building are looking to recreate some of that Calais streetside magic, according to the variance:
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Read more about: 77006, Apartments, Building Setbacks, Midtown, Parking-Garages, Pedestrians, Proposed Developments, Retail, Variances
A narrow 3-story restaurant space is planned for this long-vacant lot on Travis St. between Prairie and Preston, right next to Frank’s Pizza and Cabo’s. Plans submitted with a variance application for “Milli Place” show most of the seating would be on the second and third floors, each of which would have outdoor patio space. Why the variance? So the building can take advantage of an extra foot of width, and spread a full 31 feet along Travis St. We’ve squeezed in those narrow floor plans below:
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Read more about: 77002, Downtown, Proposed Developments, Restaurants, Variances
The apartment complex the Richdale Group is planning to put in place of the just-vacated Houston Ballet building at 1916 West Gray will indeed have retail space on the ground floor — if you count the facility’s leasing office, that is. Also right in front on the first floor: 2 apartments and 4 head-in parking spaces, for potential tenants only. The parking garage will go in back, accessed from Bell St. A plan for the development, labeled the Graybelle subdivision, was submitted as part of a variance request for this Thursday’s planning commission meeting. The developers are requesting a 15-ft. setback along West Gray in place of the usual 25 ft. requirement. The lot is directly west of Randall Davis’s gargoyle-festooned Metropolis condo building.
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Read more about: 77019, Apartments, North Montrose, Proposed Developments, Retail, Variances
April 21, 2011 – 12:41 pm
Houston’s own Hanover Company wants to build this 5-story apartment complex on the current site of the Tavern on Gray, just east of the shopping district that extends along West Gray to Shepherd. And it’s hoping to get a variance from the planning commission that would allow the buildings to have smaller setbacks than current regulations allow: 15 ft. along Waugh (where 25 would otherwise be required) and just 5 ft. along West Gray (otherwise they’d need 15). Sure, the Hanover West Gray project would have 2 floors of parking (one of them underground) underneath 4 residential floors — but the extremely persuasive variance request kinda makes it hard not to wish the place had conditions that were less — you know, tough and urban:
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Read more about: 77019, Apartment Complexes, Development Restrictions, North Montrose, Pedestrians, Proposed Developments, Variances
February 25, 2011 – 5:53 pm
Despite rumors to the contrary, Hostelling International USA was granted a parking variance by the city for the Lovett Inn and plans to convert the Montrose B&B at 501 Lovett St. into a hostel are moving forward, says organization spokesperson Mark Vidalin. No permitting problems with the city have cropped up, Vidalin says, though the organization’s option period for buying the building has been extended. Lovett Inn owner Dan Lueken says the sale is still on, but declined to say when the option period would end or when a closing might take place. [Previously on Swamplot] Photo: Bart Vis [license]
Read more about: 77006, B&Bs, Buying and Selling, Hostels, Montrose, Variances
December 1, 2010 – 10:25 am
Turkestanian-rug dealer Geoffrey Vaughan was the mastermind behind that strange sign posted a couple of years ago threatening a 10-to-14-story mixed-use building on the corner of White Oak and Oxford — right next door to the Onion Creek Coffee House. His latest project is a bit more modest: Getting a variance approved by the city tomorrow that will allow him to build a 2-story law office building a few blocks to the southeast at 409 Cortlandt, just north of 4th St. There’s another commercial building a block to the south, along the I-10 feeder, but there are homes directly around Vaughan’s site, which isn’t platted for a commercial building. To build one there he’ll need the approval of the planning commission.
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Read more about: 77008, Office Buildings, Proposed Developments, Theming, Variances
November 29, 2010 – 1:15 pm
The dangling 2x4s on the ceiling and the photomurals of giant oaks inside just aren’t enough. And umbrellas on the patio just blow over. So Claire Smith and Russell Murrell of Canopy, the restaurant at the southern end of the strip center at 3939 Montrose, now want to build an actual wooden canopy outside on the side patio. One small problem: any extension from the building to Branard St. will cross into the neighborhood’s 10-ft. building line, which means they need a variance. Can’t they just say, “hey, it’s in our name?” Naah — variances aren’t granted as the result of “a hardship created or imposed by the applicant,” says the planning department. So part of the restaurant’s application reads, “The limitations on the use of outdoor space are the result of the Houston climate.” A neighbor who’s “fine with it” whispers to Swamplot about the submission: “My boyfriend and I think it’s funny how The Sun is taking all the heat here.” The issue goes before the planning commission on December 2nd.
Photo: Swamplot inbox
Read more about: 77006, Development Restrictions, Montrose, Patios, Planning Commission, Restaurants, Shade, Variances
September 3, 2010 – 11:32 am
Despite the protests of a number of speakers — including council member Ed Gonzalez — who wanted some study of neighborhood traffic to be conducted first, the planning commission yesterday approved a minor variance connected with the West End Walmart yesterday, after 2 earlier postponements. The variance allows Koehler St. to be extended from Yale St. to Heights Blvd., even though the resulting street alignment doesn’t meet city development standards. [HTV; previously on Swamplot]
Read more about: 77007, Neighborhood Disputes, Proposed Developments, Traffic, Variances, West End, West End Walmart
Signs have been going up and coming down around the West End site Walmart is reportedly buying. Yesterday, Swamplot reported that signs posted over the weekend across from Koehler St. on Yale had been taken down, though a representative of the planning firm hired for the project told blogger Nicholas Urbano, who’s been protesting the development, that the removal had been a mistake and that the signs would be back up soon. They are up now, Urbano reports. But the two other signs surrounding the Walmart site (for the replatting of a portion of the Houston Heights Addition, shown above) have been removed. Another member of the “Stop the Heights Wal-Mart!” group reported on the group’s Facebook page that an engineer he encountered on the property told him that Ainbinder Company would now be “looking to present this a different way” at the August 5th planning commission meeting.
The Yale St. variance sign, now back up:
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Read more about: 77007, Big Box Stores, Development Strategies, Proposed Developments, Signs, Variances, West End, West End Walmart
