Here’s where the neighbors of the soon-to-be filled and graded Stanley Park subdivision will go, in a larger, adjacent 207-home community dubbed Palisades Park that’s also planned by the floodable rail yard west of T.C. Jester and south of Timbergrove Manor. Unlike the tract next door, it’s almost entirely outside White Oak Bayou’s 100-year floodplain (but still almost entirely inside the 500-year).
Its current occupant: the complex of industrial buildings eyed from the sky at top — which sits behind Grace Bible Church and adjacent to Better Bags, Inc.’s facilities off 11th St. In order to connect to that street, a new roadway would be built through what’s now the church’s parking lot, as indicated in the subdivision map below:
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Zooming in, you can see the beginnings of Stanley Park just east of Palisades Park, where Shirkmere Rd. now ends in a cul-de-sac — but will soon be extended southeast through the neighboring neighborhood:
Houston’s planning commission had been scheduled to vote 2 weeks ago on the request to create the Palisades Park subdivision and new public street — but the developer pulled it from the agenda. A public hearing on the plans is now slated for June 21.
- Previously on Swamplot: Piles of Fill Dirt Now Giving Rise to Lovett Homes’ 77-Lot Neighborhood in White Oak Bayou Floodplain
Images: Bowen Land Services/Houston Planning Commission
Thank you for the information, there are at least 3 other new developments nearby that have already been filled or are soon to be. One on 11th between Shirkmere and Maxroy and another on Ella. This development are Stanley Park are filling in the only flat surfaces that saved our neighborhood from flooding worse than it did.
You have got to be kidding! Obviously whatever is built there would have to be elevated five feet to not be flooded, and will dam up water right into Timbergrove! You can forget about any home south of 11th being with anything now!
Just pathetic. The street names, the 23′ wide lots, location on the train tracks, in the floodplain, street cut through a church parking lot, no guest parking. This isnt midtown, please try again city choice.
Can we sue?
Ignoring the absurdity of developing in the flood zone – It was only a matter of time before the area was redeveloped, but it sure is sad to see it turn out like this. No sidewalks, no street interaction, zero attempt to assemble any sense of neighborhood with surrounding developments. I get that the builders don’t give a damn when people are willing to pay $300k+ for a box next to a grease recycling operation, but the city should at least attempt to do a little “city planning”. 50-100 years ago Houston developers built neighborhoods like Shady Acres and Timbergrove. Is this what we’ve come to?
What is the property just west of the entrance off of Hurst used for? It looks like a big ol trash incinerator. I mean nothing says high end community like driving past a trash incinerator, to get to your house in the flood plain by the RR tracks. Maybe roof top terrace views of the trash incinerator, and the hobo camps near the tracks?
As a native of the Garden State, I love the fact that a development in Houston will be named after a city in New Jersey. https://www.palisadesparknj.us/
The density on these townhome developments is getting out of control. They are no longer townhome farms, but townhome high density feed lots. I fear the day when all of the industrial lots over there convert to townhome developments, leaving everyone to look to the sky and yell “my god, what have I done?”
It is almost certain that the rest of Timbergrove Manor, and perhaps other areas, will suffer an increased risk of flooding due to this development. Reckless behavior such as this only stops with increased regulation or free market pain inflicted upon the actors, in this case, Lovett Homes.
Sidewalks are required for all developments along with trees. Also, this site is already almost completely impermeable so it would not really exacerbate flooding, so most of the points are tone deaf.
This wouldn’t be as bad if it were developed like the adjacent Timbergrove and had houses sitting on 50×100 lots that hava yards which could absorb some rainfall. Here they are just squeezing in as many homes as it can hold with no yards and thus mostly impervious cover. I realize land values inner loop don’t really allow for big yards, but in a flood plane it would be a little more palatable.
We’ve all but intentionally ensured younger generations will never have the same levels of wealth as the post-war generations. We should be encouraging density everywhere there’s demand for it for very obvious reasons. The reality is whatever became the norm in housing between 1950 and 2000 is currently well on track to be a historical anomaly. Ever since we started cutting gov’t revenue and funding to public services after the tech crash the home / income price ratio has continued to soar.
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@JB3, voters determine what kind of city planning they want. There are developments just like shady acres and timbergrove manor still being built today all over the city. There’s plenty of townhomes in better developed neighbohoods, but as you note they just cost a whole lot more. The area will turn out exactly like washington heights has, as it probably should.
Sidewalks are required for all developments along with trees. Also, this site is already almost completely impermeable so it would not really exacerbate flooding, so most of the points are tone deaf.
I’m not sure that’s true for private drives that townhouses use. Most of the small gated townhouse communities I’ve seen don’t have sidewalks, probably because they don’t have public streets, just a series of driveways owned by the community. I don’t think there is any guarantee this development would have any trees or sidewalks, except what the developer may feel is wanted by the buyers (maybe some small parklet). I don’t understand where the detention area is, as I believed most new development required water retention areas so that rain events don’t immediately create runoff. I’d still be concerned that this development (along with Lovett) would be a natural ponding spot for all of Timbergroves runoff, exacerbating the flooding issues.
Nothing beats driving past southwest stench in/out of the driveway to your *million* dollar town home.
No. I will plant myself there in protest and not allow one thing to be built there. I will personally make that developer’s life miserable. Three years and three floods is too much.
To Timber man’s point, Palisades may not exacerbate flooding; however, in a post Harvey era are we okay with status quo on future development? It’s no secret how that’s worked for Houston thus far. Residential area right behind this project had several feet of water. This is another example of a developer trying to force feed projects ahead of more stringent regulations that are designed to help neighborhoods. Go ahead and develop this land. Does builder need to disclose to future residents this land was once contaminated and had to be rezoned so the land owner could remediate contamination with a less costly option? https://edocs.publicworks.houstontx.gov/documents/divisions/planning/msd/ordinance_2017_47.pdf
https://northwestpipecompany.gcs-web.com/static-files/c903de8b-5b13-46e0-ba79-432903464c64
More idiocy from a confederacy of dunces.
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Unfortunately, the logical course of action is for current owners to leave but the switching costs (sell a home, buy a home, hope for a better outcome) makes it a big pain in the keister to do so.
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Government regulation would be the reasonable answer but City Hall is in bed with any and all developers. [That’s a sight that I don’t want to see at all.]
the flooding thing is a big deal, but its also a problem that they are building homes all over this area on former industrial land. i know they supposedly do “remediation” before allowing residential development, but with everybody being so pro-business around here i wouldnt trust it. there’s no way i’d raise kids in a home on one of these lots.
Joel, Palisades has a single point of access off of 11th. Look at existing developments like Timbergrove Point, Kensington Green, Somerset Green, etc. off 11th or Hempstead or 12th street and you will see the same pattern repeated. Everyone of those developments is an island unto itself. If we’re going to cram 10,000 townhomes in this area shouldn’t we attempt to make it one unified neighborhood instead of 50 separate developments? I would welcome the development and density if it resembled Rice Military or Cottage Grove, but West 11th might as well be Fry Road with this crap.
Timbergrove: I see your point on the status quo, but all developments are required to provide detention nowadays. Timbergrove was actually developed with NO detention. Densifying the inner city will actually allow us to preserve the greenlands and marshes around the edges of the city that actually soak up a significant amount of rainfall. Grass with St. Augustine does virtually nothing to absorb heavy rainfall. Native grasses , prairie, and marshland actually do it much more efficiently. Our soil is almost completely clay in the inner city and therefore does not absorb at a high rate. The status quo of large inner city lots is what needs to be challenged.
Flat and impermeable is one thing, filling it in is another. If there are 11 more acres of fill dirt dumped there, where will the water go? I’ll tell you, kicked back into Timbergrove East…the hardest hit section of Timbergrove. White Oak overflowed and drained right into this part of our neighborhood and drained back to this land as well as where they plan to build Stanley Park.
I think it is shameful of Grace Bible Church to let Palisades Park have the land to build an exit road to Hurst St. That part of Hurst Street is a vary narrow road with draining ditches on both sides, that BTW drain into Section 5. The road was never meant to handle community traffic of this amount. Certainly there are roadway requirements that are being skirted here. The entering and exiting of 300 plus vehicles a day will overwhelm Shirkmere Rd and its residences. There will indeed need to be a red light placed at Shirker Rd and 11th street. Add to this the number of proposed (77) residences in Stanley park and your now over 500 cars and trucks driving on Shirker Rd 2 times a day which translates to 1,000 vehicles daily. Add that to the number of cars that race down Shirkmere a few times per week to attend church at Grace Bible Church and now we have a catastrophe waiting to happen. I guess any parents with kids living in section 5 better be prepared for keeping your kids indoors and away from the streets from now on. This is on top of both Stanley Park & Palisades Park using Section 5 of Timbergrove as their retention pond. I guess Grace Bible Church forgot the golden rule here since they covet the developer over all the families that reside all around them.
Timber man’s comments show a serious mis que in judgement.
He states “Timbergrove was actually developed with NO detention. Densifying the inner city will actually allow us to preserve the greenlands and marshes around the edges of the city that actually soak up a significant amount of rainfall. Native grasses , prairie, and marshland actually do it much more efficiently.”
Even by is own thinking or lack there of, Timbergrove was established in the early 1950’s and the White Oak bayou was the detention and worked quite well until 2001 as the city and county over 50 years allowed the developers to overload the bayous ability to handle the runoff from land that once was vacant prairie and marshland. The area of Stanley Park was Timbergroves’ wetlands made up of Native grasses , prairie, and marshland on the edge of our community. Now Stanley Park wants to that away.
Timber man goes on to somehow reason that “The status quo of large inner city lots is what needs to be challenged” by “Densifying the inner city”.
Holly hell, Texas is the land of wide open spaces and with that the privacy that comes with home ownership. Timbergrove set up their deed restrictions to prevent densifying. The restrictions include one house per lot and the lots can not be subdivided. Why would anyone want to see what their neighbors are eating and hear every conversation that takes place in someone else’s home as happens in his world of densifying?