Will construction of a new Walmart off Yale St. just south of I-10 and the Heights require any variances from the Planning Commission? This sign appeared over the weekend across the street from where Koehler St. ends at Yale, just south of Dirt Bar. It appears to refer to the proposed extension of Koehler St. to Heights Blvd. shown on the Ainbinder Company site plan for the property. That’s not for the portion of the property Walmart will be occupying, but for an adjacent tract.
By Sunday night, though, the sign had been taken down. According to Kent Marsh of planning firm Marsh Darcy Partners, it was removed “erroneously” and should be reinstalled soon. Meanwhile, a separate set of signs are up along Koehler and on the other side of Yale, closer to where the Walmart is likely to go. But they appear to be for the Yale St. pad sites in the Ainbinder plan. And they aren’t for variances:
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- Public Hearings, and The Mysterious Vanishing Variance Request … [They Are Building a Wal-Mart on My Street]
- Previously on Swamplot: Modern Urban Warehouse: Where the New West End Walmart Is Going, Only a Little Off Target: Walmart Heading Right Between Washington Ave and the Heights
Photos: Stop the Heights Wal-Mart! (top) and Nicholas Urbano
Great another cross street on Yale. I have already had 2 cars totaled by cross traffic on Yale along with all the other accidents that happen on the street. Additionally since the city considers Yale a major throughfare will they be putting another light up?
Diane – I am in agreement here. I also lost a car (and gained a painful lower back) from a bad wreck on Yale at Feagan. Confusing traffic flow and poorly marked intersections make this a VERY dangerous driving area.
I am most concerned in this specific case that we keep hearing that traffic studies aren’t complete, yet here we are trying to connect an already overburdened residential street with another major crossfare.
Even taking Walmart out of the immediate picture, how does something like this get done without measuring impact on local traffic?
Do streets that already cross at Yale NOT have stop signs or lights?
Talked to the developer. If they get the Plat variance changed they are going to extend the street. Since the street would be part of the Plat no traffic study needs to be done. Yes the are requesting a light to be installed.
Wait a minute…
The article quotes Kent Marsh as being the planning firm involved.
This is the same Kent Marsh that lives in a NEW HOME in the Heights and consistently stands before the HAHC and the Planning Commission in opposition to new construction and in support of the new Historic Preservation Ordinance.
I guess he has his new home, can make money off of Walmart, but feels that you cant have a new home and that the Heights should not have a Walmart. WTF?
What is going on in the Heights these days?
The Heights and Yale will have a full fledge feeder road connector. Adding this would only add another street crossing traffic to an overburdened Yale drive especially during train crossings. Traffic signal is definitely not needed at Khoeler.
My guess is all this comes out of recommendations from Walmart’s traffic studies to get traffic approval for their development.
From heightsresident:
Wait a minute…
The article quotes Kent Marsh as being the planning firm involved.
This is the same Kent Marsh that lives in a NEW HOME in the Heights and consistently stands before the HAHC and the Planning Commission in opposition to new construction and in support of the new Historic Preservation Ordinance.
I guess he has his new home, can make money off of Walmart, but feels that you cant have a new home and that the Heights should not have a Walmart. WTF?
What is going on in the Heights these days?
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Kent Marsh probably just suffers from a variation of Southampton Syndrome.
Definitely a hypocrite in any case…
What does everyone mean by “extend the street?” Which street? Yale? Koehler?
@DianeTX and Kristin – did you two check to make sure you didn’t wreck into each other?
I live on Eli and witness drug deals go down on a nightly basis. I don’t see the crime getting much worse than that. The traffic on Eli is my major concern. The roads are already torn up.
From Nearby Resident:
I live on Eli and witness drug deals go down on a nightly basis. I don’t see the crime getting much worse than that. The traffic on Eli is my major concern. The roads are already torn up.
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I don’t know, Nearby Resident, I can think of crimes that are much worse than drug deals. Like murders, rapes, robberies, assault, car jackings. The West End is still in transition and a Wal-Mart will only exacerbate the situation.
One thing that puzzles me a little bit is I keep on hearing how Walmart is no good for West End because of the increased traffic (+10,000 cars per day), but if something else besides Walmart goes there, won’t there still be traffic issues?
Seems the argument isn’t consistent because it’s ok for HEB (etc) traffic for West End, but not Walmart?
well, according to the west end residents with a wal-mart you have to account for the additional trips of people driving to wal-mart to cause some additional crime in the area as opposed to an HEB.
Is there any evidence of all the “Crime” that’s supposed to arrive with this new Walmart??
Pone Tonie, yes there is evidence. From a Houston Press blog post this morning (Heights Walmart: City Council Gets An Earful): “…according to the analysis “Crime and Walmart” prepared by wakeupwalmart.com in May of 2006, the Houston store located at 2727 Dunvale reported 1,123 police incidents, placing it in the top 10 stores nationwide.” What wasn’t posted in the blog is that a nearby Target only had 197 reported police incidents. There are plenty of other statistics out there that I won’t bore you or others with, just using this one as an example since it’s from a local store.
Those of you that can’t get it through your thick skulls that Wal-Mart is a magnet for crime must be living in a dream world.
are you serious, the Target wasn’t even there in 2006, right? do you have some more recent crime stats because i know a lot has changed since 2006.
a store fronting dunvale vs a store fronting westheimer is a huge difference and it would be baffling to compare the two. the walmart is much closer to the lower rent apts near richmond. it’s basically surrounded by these apt complexes so a lot of crime would naturally spill over into their area. the case for target there is completely different and i only know of the one complex across the street with higher rents. the point is the walmart there was already built in the middle of a crime-infested area and not in an annoying upper-income area like west end.
you’re going to have to provide a much better example if you want us thick-skulled folks to take note.
If Houston has no zoning, what does the planning commission do? (honest question).
ok, so on 2nd check the wal-mart is closer to some of the complexes than i thought, but still not as much as wal-mart.
but the case remains the same, you’re looking at a wal-mart built in a crime-ridden area. please provide some updated stats from the city (not some 3rd party website with an agenda) for the area and choose an example that is actually representative of the one going in at the west end.
Joel:
– Google “jrrobertssecurity walmart parking lot crime” and read the article “Wal-Mart Parking Lots Are A Virtual Magnet For Crime”. Criminals love Wal-Mart parking lots because of the lack of security. The only security Wal-Mart enforces is to keep people from shop-lifting, they don’t care about the safety of their customers.
– I wouldn’t call the West End an ‘upper income area’. We are not West U, Bellaire, or River Oaks. According to zipskinny.com, the median household income for 77007 (West End) is $37,785, for 77063 (Wal-Mart on Dunvale zip code) is $42,458, and for 77005 (West U) $104,035.
thanks for the info, but that zipskinny info is based on yr 2000 census data. the area has completely changed in the past few years. i would assume the income is at least double those numbers for all the zips you listed.
saw the article, but it’s still missing the point. every businesss could do more and i don’t see why walmart is unfairly targeted. it’s not up to businesses to lower crime in the city. why aren’t people asking the bars on washington to do more to fight drunken driving? are we seriously more worried about perceived threats against our property than we are about peoples lives?
and everybody please stop mentioning the low wages walmart pays. we live in a low tax state that inherently disadvantages the poor in the first place so it’s just a bit too much hypocrisy for me. if you don’t like low wages then propose texas raise the minimum wage like most other states have done long ago.
oh wait, the avg. 77063 income is probably lower than that now.
“thanks for the info, but that zipskinny info is based on yr 2000 census data. the area has completely changed in the past few years. i would assume the income is at least double those numbers for all the zips you listed.” -Joel
I realize that, but I am not a magician so I can’t give you data from the 2010 Census.
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“saw the article, but it’s still missing the point. every businesss could do more and i don’t see why walmart is unfairly targeted. it’s not up to businesses to lower crime in the city.” -Joel
Thanks for reading the article. I think you’re the one missing the point here. We are not talking about crime on city owned property. We are talking about crimes that occur ON WAL-MART’S PROPERTY. And they don’t give a damn about providing security for their parking lots in order to reduce the amount of crime that occurs on their property. Other businesses provide it when they have problems with parking lot crime, why can’t Wal-Mart? Greed.
I know my comment is not directly involved with the traffic or that of the statistics of the potential crime. However, I am concerned that I now have foundation problems in my home because of the construction on I-10 near Patterson. I now have spider-cracks and doors that will not close as they once did. I live in a 5 year old home and this type of damage so quickly in my opinion can come from the vibrations of pulling the existing concrete up and constant construction for the new ramps and service roads. If the construction was not so consistent and less frequent, I don’t think I would have this structural damage. Is anyone else facing this?