luckytx

This information was revealed at the public meeting.

Supposedly, Frank Liu seems to be having a bit of a problem on how he is going to pack townhomes on this plot. According to Frank, the city doesn't plan on helping combat costs for utility hookups. Instead the city wants Clinton Gregg Investments to create a MUD for the property. Frank said he has tried to get Jarvis Johnson's assistance but his hands are "tied".

If this project is supposed to be LEED certified then why wont the city assist instead of hindering the project. I'd like to hear more on the city's take as I really find it hard to believe the city would hinder progress on a LEED project.

Update: From the EPA - June 2008

The EPA will hold an Open House to discuss the current and planned activities for OUs 1 and 3. The EPA will provide a brief background of the entire Site. The purchases will discuss the cleanup and planned activities for OU 1, including conceptual development plans for the future. The Open House will be held:

The project is being developed by InTown/Lovett Homes. The architect is Duany Plater-Zyberk & Company (DPZ).

http://www.dpz.com/project.aspx?Project_Nu...;type=undefined

Seventh at 5th, formerly the MDI site, is a 38-acre former superfund cleanup industrial tract located 2 miles to the east of downtown Houston. The extensive environmental remediation was paid entirely by the developer. The site is bound by an operating vinegar factory, a public housing development, a number of deteriorating shotgun houses, several new town home developments, a new school, . Constraining the site are various easements, which influenced the design of two plan options.

The first option extends the existing grid and subsumes the easements into the block structure, allowing the neighborhood to be bisected with an east to west linear green/pedestrian mall. The second option features a more organic block structure using the various easements and thin angles to create distinct sub-neighborhoods each with their own central green. Both plans include a proposed neighborhood commercial center to the south of the site, residences at 22 units per acre with a wide range of housing types and explicitly sustainable urban design. When built, Seventh at 5th promises to bring urbanity and stability to a neighborhood that is already showing signs of regeneration.

I heard about this large plot being sold about 8 months ago, but haven't heard or seen anything since. I confirmed with the EPA that the deal closed, so I wonder why clean-up hasn't started?

Here is the last Chroincle article I could find:

"Paper: Houston Chronicle

Date: Wed 06/21/2006

Section: B

Page: 8

Edition: 3 STAR

Superfund solution / Private cleanup of a contaminated site in Fifth Ward could provide a national model.

Staff

SINCE being abandoned as a metal casting foundry in 1992, the 36-acre Many Diversified Interests Inc. site off I-10 East has been a visual eyesore and toxic waste threat to surrounding neighborhoods and a nearby school. Over the years, lead, arsenic and other contaminants in the property's topsoil have washed onto adjacent playgrounds and yards, undermining economic revitalization of the area.

That may be changing thanks to a first-ever proposed agreement between the federal Environmental Protection Agency and a purchaser. Under the agreement, the nonliable private party pays to clean up a Superfund site. The prospective buyer, Clinton Gregg Investments, L.P., entered a winning auction bid of $7.8 million, including an estimated $6.6 million tab for the removal of contaminants. The site, near downtown, will likely be used for housing and thus require the highest level of pollution remediation.

While the use of private dollars to clean up a toxic waste dump is welcome, it limits avenues for community input, and residents in the area bounded by the freeway and Bringhurst and Waco streets are rightly eager to influence the site's future. Gentrification is already changing formerly low-income zones around downtown, where rising property values are creating a tax crunch for longtime homeowners.

"The issues are layered," said Reginald Adams, a Sierra Club organizer who resides near the MDI site. "You have gentrification, increased property values, a geriatric community and a housing project that has received an unsolicited bid for redevelopment." His environmental group is partnering with the Fifth Ward Superneighborhood Council No. 55 to educate residents about the MDI sale. The council held a neighborhood meeting to gather recommendations for the redevelopment.

Since the massive project will require some improvements to city infrastructure, Adams hopes residents can wield some political clout and the developers will have an incentive to cooperate in planning adequate green space and a mix of commercial and residential amenities in the project. The unique solution proposed for the MDI site won't work everywhere, because not every toxic Superfund site sits upon land valuable enough to pay for its own cleanup. The prospective Houston buyers will perform a valuable civic service and provide a role model for the nation if they can convert a poisoned property into a tax-generating development, while working with longtime residents to create a mutually compatible community."