The Heights Real Estate

[RedScare]

http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/page1/3241936

I live less than 3 blocks from this house and never knew it was there, so I can't say it offends me. How about the rest of you? This sounds similar to a homeowners fight against a HOA, but I've never seen it in a Houston neighborhood.

[pineda]

I had to laugh when I read this story yesterday.

The long-time president of our MUD has had his house completely camouflaged by nature for as long as I've lived here. He's also a Master Gardener and a Boy Scout leader. Everyone has always admired his yard because it is such a natural habitat. I don't even know what his house (outer facade) looks like because you cannot see it through all the trees and grasses and flowers and birdbaths and bird feeders and squirrel feeders... It's never bothered me or anyone else out here as far as I know.

[The Great Hizzy!]

Some of you would be surprised, but some of the best residential lawns/hedges/gardens can be found on the south side in Bellfort Park. Perfectly green lawns, elaborate shrubs and bushes and so forth. I really think it comes down to the HOA and what they allow. Some of them are progressive while some are more utilitarian.

[kjb434]

As long as it doesn't hurt anyone (snakes) else, I see no problem. If the HOA is really bothered, they should just require her to build a fence. There a house like that around my neighborhood. The lady owns two old cottages with an open lot between them. One is her business and the other one is her home. The lot in between is fenced off from the street. The yard behind is very wild and unkept in appearance, but yet it is quite beautiful.

[pineda]

Officials with the city, state and the nonprofit groups that encourage natural landscapes can't recall another case that has gone this far.

"It's a very severe case," said Bonnie Bradshaw, public relations coordinator for Texas Discovery Gardens in Dallas, which has certified Walker's yard a butterfly habitat, one of only two in Houston. "Neighbors don't realize the values of the specific plants. If you know what the plant is and its special qualities, it gives a whole different appreciation of what beauty is."

Therein may lie the solution to the problem of what to do with Kelly's garden lawn!

The Texas Discovery Gardens which has been in existence since 1997 has only certified two Houston gardens in all that time to be called Discovery Gardens. (These people could use a better approach to community outreach, but I digress.)

Perhaps Kelly Walker could schedule some free educational tours through her property just for her neighbors so that they may properly appreciate what she has accomplished.

Maybe they would like it so much that they would want to emulate what she has done and learn how to do this from her.

Maybe one of her groups that gave her certification for different things could sponsor some small neighborhood event to give it the cache she needs to be accepted by her own community.

TPWD, NWF, MonarchWatch, Texas Discovery Gardnes, time to step up here...

[RedScare]

In response to the HOA posts, this is in the Heights, so there is no HOA, and no deed restriction issues. It is the COH giving citations, after complaints from neighbors.

As part of my diligent research for my dear HAIF posters, I drove by the house on my way to work. It is indeed, very native. From my quick drive-by, the most obvious things were 5 to 6 foot tall sunflowers in the front yard.

I'll try to get pics later to aid the debate, including the monstrosities that have been built nearby.

I do wonder which side the Heights Association takes, given their strident efforts to protect the bungalow nature of the Heights?

[stolitx]

I'd love to see pictures. I saw the article today and I used to live on that block of Arlington.

[HeightsGuy]

Funny, you could probably find 40 lots in that general area that became nature havens with no help from anyone:). Someone must have an agenda against this lady. Who want's to bet it was this guy:

Lexus SUV driver

[jghall00]

Someone post pictures. I'd like to drive by on my way home, but I don't think I'll have time. I'd like to say people are overreacting, but I haven't seen the yard.

[westguy]

She should confine her wildlife refuge to the backyard. Otherwise, she's just like a neighbor who paints his house purple or sets up an outdoor firing range. I can imagine that property values around her house are much lower than others in the neighborhood.

[HeightsGuy]

Westguy, she lives in the Heights. People are allowed to paint their houses purple there, or green, or silver. You can build a tin house, a mansion, a house that looks like a houseboat, put up a picket fence made out of popcicle sticks, plant bamboo in your front yard, and pave your whole yard with concrete and lay down astroturf if you want to. It's the Heights.

[MidtownCoog]

My favorite quote:

"Neighbors don't realize the hazards of having a perfect, green turf lawn," Bradshaw said.

Yes, Bradshaw, we are all idiots. Only YOU have the brain power to see the truth.

Sheesh!

[pineda]

Food for thought,

a history lesson about weeds

[RedScare]

She should confine her wildlife refuge to the backyard. Otherwise, she's just like a neighbor who paints his house purple or sets up an outdoor firing range. I can imagine that property values around her house are much lower than others in the neighborhood.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Maybe not outdoor, but HPD has an indoor firing range 4 houses away from me in an ugly tin building.

[HeightsGuy]

Actually, Bradshaw is probably pretty close to the truth. The American lawn is an imported idea. We in Houston are spoiled because pretty much anything grows here, and what you typically think of as weeds may very well be native to the region. Think of that beautiful lush St Augustine lawn we have in your front yard. We spend millions in a quest to keep it green, people up north spend millions to kill it. The same companies make products to help you in either of these quests.

To a trained botanist, the typical Houston yard looks as out-of-place to the natural habitat of Texas in the same way a grassy manicured yard looks out of place in New Mexico.

[MidtownCoog]

You can do a mix of Texas Natives (like I do) without breaking the law.

[HeightsGuy]

Well, no doubt she breaking the law, but it's a law that sees very little enforcement without the input of "tattlers". Like I said earlier, you could probably find 40 overgrown yards within 2 miles of this place without tickets. Try taking a drive through my neighborhood Shady Acres, there are numerous lots that haven't seen a lawnmower in a decade or more.

I wonder if the Dixie Gay house is next, that place sure could use a lawnmower.......

Talk about your overgrown Heights yard.....

[pineda]

Thanks for the link, H/G.

What a fantastic place, have you been there?

[Heights2Bastrop]

My mom used to live next door to Dixie, and she and Ron bought Mom's house. That was the only house I ever knew growing up.

[westguy]

I think the Dixie Gray house is nice. The landscape was very thougthfully designed.

I've seen houses where people plant literally jungles in their front yards. There was a woman out in Katy who did something like this. I remember her story in the paper, and it looked like she went nuts at the garden center.

[dbigtex56]

My favorite quote:

"Neighbors don't realize the hazards of having a perfect, green turf lawn," Bradshaw said.

Yes, Bradshaw, we are all idiots.  Only YOU have the brain power to see the truth.

Sheesh!

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Coog,

This time I have to take exception.

Allow me to bore you. I grew up in a semi-rural area. As a boy, my amusements included exploring the local landscape. Luckily, my mother has an appreciation for nature, with which I have likewise been infected. Instead of playing video games or watching TV, I had the advantage of finding more humble amusements.

Wandering through tangles of brush, I'd find wild strawberries, blackberries and raspberries (and if you haven't eaten them at their source, you're missing something). Woodchuck holes, bird nests, deer, reptiles and insects were constant sources of wonder to me. Exploring nature was a wonderful part of my childhood.

Whenever I'd find an unusual flower or rock or insect, I'd bring it home. If my mom couldn't identify it, she'd direct me to ask our neighbor, who was a science teacher at our local high school. I learned about igneous,sedimentary and metamorphic rocks, monocotyledon vs. dicotyledon plants, the life-cycle of monarch butterflies...you know, utterly useless stuff. This, by the time I was ten years old!

Hey fool...what do you know about nature?

I suspect not much.

Instead of dismissing that about which you appear to be ignorant, perhaps you might find a reason to explore an essential part of life. Like it or not, we are all at the mercy of nature. And if your child brings home an interesting bug...maybe you should show interest, and not automatically pull out the anti-bacterial soap and the Raid.

[RedScare]

Tex has a point. American lawns are the biggest source of water pollution, with all the fertilizer and insecticide, many times improperly applied, running off the lawns into streams and rivers.

The Dead Zone, the huge and growing area of the Guld of Mexico at the mouth of the Mississippi River, that is depleted of oxygen, is largely blamed on fertilizer and insecticide runoff.

[pineda]

I agree and reiterate the need for education of the issue. Ignorance and fear of something different are all that's fueling this situation. If these neighbors could just be educated as to the worthwhile benefit of what Kelly's doing, perhaps they wouldn't be so quick to pick up the phone and call in the weed police.

[sevfiv]

from the article: "These yards are all over the Heights," said Spivey, who suspects newcomers may be to blame. In recent years, new town homes have replaced rundown bungalows nearby."

i would think that example, as well as tattling brought up earlier have the most impact. when "buffy" and "skippy" have their country club friends visit their new townhome, they might be embarrassed by Walker's "yard o' weeds."

although, having previously worked in horticulture for a few years, to my knowledge, most of the world sees st. augustine grass as a weed...heh

[MidtownCoog]

dbigtex56,

There are plenty of Texas natives in my garden. Five oaks in the backyward, and two in the front.

The problem with these know it alls is that they go around preaching, just like you did.

If they would change their approach, they would win more friends. Ruinning around like a wierdo from The Deer Hunter does not help.

Just like Pineda said, "these people could use a better approach to community outreach, but I digress"

[RedScare]

Education on many levels would be helpful. Many of the complaints may be attributed to new neighbors who have moved into a 100 year old neighborhood for the closeness to town, yet still picture a master planned community as idyllic. Master planned, by definition, means no individual choice is required, or welcomed. The attractiveness of the MP community is the fact that everything is in its place, like a well kept living room. The blandness of the MP community is directly attributable to the same qualities that make it attractive. Individual expressions of beauty or taste are discouraged, even prohibited. Sameness is encouraged, even demanded.

The Heights, while master planned 100 years ago, is no longer. It is, more than most neighborhoods, a collection of eclectic and individual tastes. On my street alone, there is an artist who uses human ashes as his medium, peace flags hanging from the porch, a gaudy blue, yellow and red house, and several that had Bush signs in the yard for months after the election. A neighborhood is great, not for the collection of artistic or architecturally significant homes it contains, but for the people who reside in those homes.

Kelly should be supported in her fight against the city, not for just the native plant vs. polluted lawn argument, but for the right of all neighbors to be individuals, not compliant corporate spokespersons for Scots Turf Builder.

[MidtownCoog]

the complaints may be attributed to new neighbors who have moved into a 100 year old neighborhood for the closeness to town, yet still picture a master planned community as idyllic

I hardly think that's the case.

Has the Heights really changed that much? Most people move there becuase it's the anti-burb.

El ley es el ley. Go City! Of course, the laws can be changed.

FYI - There are also properties like this off Almeda.

[RedScare]

Coog,

I was trying to be nice. I think this happened because people moved in who were assholes when they lived in the burbs, and they are assholes now. The only way things should be is the way they want them to be and anyone who disagrees should be made to conform.

Shorter, sweeter, more to the point. How's that?

[MidtownCoog]

Having lived in the city myself, I never really did see people demaing things be like the burbs.

[dbigtex56]

dbigtex56,

There are plenty of Texas natives in my garden.  Five oaks in the backyward, and two in the front.

The problem with these know it alls is that they go around preaching, just like you did.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Now there's some biodiversity for you. Oaks...and more oaks. I'll bet the squirrels are happy.

Sorry if you felt my post was preachy. The point I intended to make is that an appreciation of the various native plants is in itself educational and inspiring. For example, hummingbirds and butterflies feed on a variaty of native plants. I'm no expert, but I believe oaks and St. Augustine grass aren't among them.

If I'm mistaken, please feel free to correct me.

[RedScare]

I promised a photo a week ago. Here it is.

http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b395/dpward/P1010007.jpg

Note what appears to be a clipboard and petition by the street.

[sevfiv]

Now there's some biodiversity for you. Oaks...and more oaks. I'll bet the squirrels are happy.

agreed - i am sure oak trees weren't part of the issue at hand

[kjb434]

About the pesticides running off and causing the deadzones in the Gulf, the majority of the pesticides come from agricultural areas. Very little is contributed through home use of pesitcides and fertilizers. In many areas where storm water quality requirements are enforced and much of the suburbs are being built on farmland, the subdivision is seen as an ecological improvement over the farmland. Beaumont using this information form the EPA and USDA right now.

Many large cities that exist in heavy agricultural areas are taking this approach. In the sugarcane areas of Louisiana, the pesticides that are used on sugarcane often will kill weaker plants also. My parents lost a who crop of tomatoes and cucumbers from this. After many complaints, the sugarcane industry changed from crop dusters to level level spraying machines. Many of the suburbs of New Orleans use the concept the subdivision is less polluting than the sugarcane. The section of the New Orleans subburbs that doen't apply this is the areas north of the Lake (very little farmland in that area).

Baton Rouge set themselves up so that the development will have to adjust whether they are building on farmland or forested areas. The forested areas, will need storm water quality.

Just my two cents.

[MidtownCoog]

What was I supposed to do? Cut down 20 year old tress?

What a maroon.

[dbigtex56]

What was I supposed to do?  Cut down 20 year old tress?

What a maroon.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Please refrain from name-calling.

[citykid09]

The best part of Houston freeways, I think is the 610 west Galleria Area. The area is forested, and it looks very cool and shaded even in the summer.

[YakuzaIce]

The best part of Houston freeways, I think is the 610 west Galleria Area. The area is forested, and it looks very cool and shaded even in the summer.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

When you say forested are you talking about the area through memorial or the area through bellaire that has a ton of trees at the base of the freeway nest to the feeder. Both areas look good though. My personal fav. is the sunken part of 59, but that is for a different thread.

[citykid09]

^I like the part of the freeway on the oposite side of the area, the buildings on that side of the freeway are all surounded by forest, I think the Houston Business Journal is based over there.

[LTAWACS]

this is cnice

[segovia]

Hello Neighbors,

What is your opinion on restoration vs. new construction? What option does a better job in the long run of maintaining and preserving the architectural integrity of the neighborhood? Any personal experiences or projects undertaken?

Thank you.

[pineda]

That depends on so many variables, doesn't it? Mainly personal choices, I would guess, how much money you have, how much you care about preserving the integrity of the neighborhood, why you bought there in the first place, so many variables. I lived in a 30 year old home for 10 years, I just moved a few years ago into a 15 year old home, and now I have a 110 year old home. Each one has its' positives and negatives. I must say that even though the 110 year old one is the most challenging and frustrating (mainly because the previous owner let it fall into disrepair in certain aspects), it's also the most rewarding and enjoyable because of its' rich history. It's not fancy in any stretch of the imagination, but I love working on it, and knowing that it's still here 110 years from the time it was built when so many others were either bulldozed or burned down is pretty amazing. Plus, I'm learning all kinds of new skills!

[RedScare]

It depends a lot on the quality and appearance of both.

Certainly, restoration can bring back a neighborhood to its old glory, though with a different demographic living there.

New construction can completely reinvent a neighborhood that can be better or worse than was there before.

It is a case by case study, and frankly, different people will have different opinions on whether it is an improvement.

[sevfiv]

restoration restoration restoration!

and even more importantly: upkeep upkeep upkeep!

[segovia]

I have seen a lot of new construction in my area. I had the privilege of seeing it first hand across my street (6 homes). Not all builders are the same. They differ quite a bit from the quality of the products used and the skilled labor hired. Restoration can be rewarding but you might end up paying as much as for a new house without accomplishing all your goals. I guess...for new homes...buyer beware. Restoring an older home...have a defined plan with achievable goals.

House plans from yesteryear:

http://www.historicaldesigns.com

[pineda]

Chronicle story about preserving the Sixth Ward

How to Save Houston

[sevfiv]

Chronicle story about preserving the Sixth Ward

i am going by there today - what a waste!

and a nice quote from norman's wife:

"Right now that lot is full of bums. People come and put trash there. Cleaning it up -- that's my thing. The historical movement, it's not my bag."

[Sunstar]

I think you have to admit that restoration isn't always the answer. While nobody likes to see old buildings torn down, very few people want to take on a dilapidated old house with plaster walls and knob-and-tube wiring.

That being said, you have to wonder if some of these developers that tear down historic buildings to put up town homes are familiar with the concept of Karma.

[sevfiv]

i agree, renovating older places, especially those that have not been kept up, can be very expensive and time consuming.

BUT - in the case of these people on lubbock st., i doubt time or money is much of a concern...

PLUS - i think people like them probably emit noxious things in to the air that keep people in general away from them...

EDIT: i did forget to add this quote from the chronicle:

"Norman and Isabel plan to preserve the palm tree."

heh

[BrentO]

What option does a better job in the long run of maintaining and preserving the architectural integrity of the neighborhood?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

That's a loaded question. You have to look at what you're replacing. I bought a new Perry townhome (I know, I know) that replaced a trailer park on Airline. Literally, a trailer park. Nobody can make an architectural integrity argument that the neighborhood was better served by a trailer park than by townhomes, no matter how much you disagree with Perry's (lack of) architectural styling. I'll take a new home, no matter how cookie-cutter it is, over a trailer park any day.

People complain because new construction raises the cost of surrounding houses, but by that argument, you could say we'd be better off erecting cardboard shacks. It'd do a great job of keeping property values low and taxes cheap! Woohoo! Let's go cardboard shacks!

[sevfiv]

That's a loaded question.