Montrose Collective: Office building with Retail Coming to 888 Westheimer

[iah77 126]

4 minutes ago, Toopicky said:

 

The sad part is that of those 600 parking spaces, ONLY 25 are reserved for the library.

Reserved just means dedicated, there are still 575 other spots lol. The garage probably won't even be that busy during the hours the library is open anyways

 

Plus isn't the whole point to encourage walkabilty anyways?

[Toopicky 114]

37 minutes ago, iah77 said:

Reserved just means dedicated, there are still 575 other spots lol. The garage probably won't even be that busy during the hours the library is open anyways

 

Plus isn't the whole point to encourage walkabilty anyways?

 

"Walkability" is a useful term for those located nearby the area being walked too .... the library serves a very large area with most potential patrons not in a practical walking distance (especially in the heat of the day which is basically the only time when the library is open). BTW, I have nothing against walkable neighborhoods ...

Edited October 4 by Toopicky

[X.R. 438]

Yeah, I don't see them ever getting that full unless some major stuff moves in afterwards on westheimer. Maybe a good comparison is that Shake Shake. It has a large lot for its size (it seems) especially when compared to the lot shared by blacksmith and hay merchant. The Shack's lot is like half full at most on busy days. Went last night at 7 and it was a quarter full but a ton of people eating, so obviously they all did not get there by car. 

 

Its actually pretty forward thinking, because now they have all this parking just in case the area explodes in terms of development (it already is, but just more) instead of having a bunch of surface lots. 

 

16 hours ago, danielsonr said:

“People don’t like parking in garages ever in Houston,” he said. “But as areas densify, that’s no longer a choice.”

 

Lol that is a ridiculous statement. "people care about the housing of the concrete they park on" 

[wilcal 660]

2 hours ago, Toopicky said:

 

The sad part is that of those 600 parking spaces, ONLY 25 are reserved for the library.

 

It talks about how the TIRZ may fund part of the garage to have 100 spaces open to the public. 

 

I honestly wish that they would just charge for parking for all of it. Maybe exempt the 25 library parking spots. 

[phillip_white 1324]

11 minutes ago, wilcal said:

I honestly wish that they would just charge for parking for all of it. Maybe exempt the 25 library parking spots. 

 

Maybe they could take a cue from the Midtown parking garage and charge "event pricing" for Astros games.

[trymahjong 356]

Noticed the Variance sign and got an email about it.

 

Seems they want to reduce the building set back from 5 feet along California and Grant street and by pass the requirement of a visability triangle at the intersection.

googled it just to be sure but it means the triangular area adjacent to the intersection of any public street or public alley within which no obstruction may be placed which would block the sight lines for vehicular traffic. The triangle is established by measuring a distance of 45 feet from the intersection of the extended curb or edge of the pavement of a major thoroughfares, and 25 feet from the extended edge of the curb or pavement of local streets. A straight line connecting the ends of each measured distance which forms the hypotenuse shall establish the visibility triangle. The visibility triangle should not contain any visual or physical impediments or obstructions to the vertical view between 30 inches and seven feet in height.

 

Messing around with the "visibility triangle" sort of sets off a few warning bells to me. A few Civic Clubs wrote  wrote a letters of Objection when Shaws jewelry wanted to do that at Gray and MOntrose-- of course the traffic through Grant and California is minimal but still.........

 

BTW........I never heard the number 600 used by the developer at Cohens Town Hall thingy when talking about number of parking spaces.....I wonder why?

[phillip_white 1324]

10 hours ago, trymahjong said:

Noticed the Variance sign and got an email about it.

 

Seems they want to reduce the building set back from 5 feet along California and Grant street and by pass the requirement of a visability triangle at the intersection.

googled it just to be sure but it means the triangular area adjacent to the intersection of any public street or public alley within which no obstruction may be placed which would block the sight lines for vehicular traffic. The triangle is established by measuring a distance of 45 feet from the intersection of the extended curb or edge of the pavement of a major thoroughfares, and 25 feet from the extended edge of the curb or pavement of local streets. A straight line connecting the ends of each measured distance which forms the hypotenuse shall establish the visibility triangle. The visibility triangle should not contain any visual or physical impediments or obstructions to the vertical view between 30 inches and seven feet in height.

 

Messing around with the "visibility triangle" sort of sets off a few warning bells to me. A few Civic Clubs wrote  wrote a letters of Objection when Shaws jewelry wanted to do that at Gray and MOntrose-- of course the traffic through Grant and California is minimal but still.........

 

BTW........I never heard the number 600 used by the developer at Cohens Town Hall thingy when talking about number of parking spaces.....I wonder why?

 

With Grant traffic not stopping at the intersection with California, I see it very unlikely that this would be approved. If they add a stop sign in both directions on Grant it might get approved. Typically I've only seen the visibility triangles removed where one way streets intersect since there's no need for visibility in the downstream direction.