hawee Posted October 22, 2021 Share Posted October 22, 2021 Just curious why the area south of 610 and NRG is so undeveloped. Any rhyme or reason why areas northwest of Houston and north east of Houston would develop more while south of 610 seems so undeveloped and just raw land. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ross Posted October 22, 2021 Share Posted October 22, 2021 5 hours ago, hawee said: Just curious why the area south of 610 and NRG is so undeveloped. Any rhyme or reason why areas northwest of Houston and north east of Houston would develop more while south of 610 seems so undeveloped and just raw land. The area just South of 610 was an oil field, and the owners of the rest of the land were running their cattle businesses and had no interest in selling for development. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Arboosto Posted October 22, 2021 Share Posted October 22, 2021 Part of the answer is that decades ago the city placed landfills in the Black suburban development of Sunnyside. This article highlights present day reclamation of some of that land for a solar farm and provides historical context, particularly in the 5th paragraph. In Houston's Sunnyside, overburdened from decades of discrimination, you learn to provide for yourself 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nate99 Posted October 22, 2021 Share Posted October 22, 2021 1 hour ago, Ross said: The area just South of 610 was an oil field, and the owners of the rest of the land were running their cattle businesses and had no interest in selling for development. That would have been my guess. Old oil fields are typically seen as oil fields waiting on technology to surpass what existed when they stopped producing the last time. Mineral rights owners will go generations waiting for it to come around, and I'd imagine no developer would want to build on top of land with a permanent easement for future development of wells, if doing so is even legal. Mineral rights changing hands is a completely different economic ballgame compared to the real estate it is attached to. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
s3mh Posted October 22, 2021 Share Posted October 22, 2021 Long ago there were plans to build a huge retirement community on the land where Astroworld used to be. That blew up for many of the same reasons a lot of pie in the sky development ideas went down in flames in the early 2000s. Not sure why the land still hasn't been redeveloped other than it is a lousy location. Otherwise, there are a couple of superfund sites around Wildcat Golf Club. I think a lot of the land around there has too many environmental issues to allow it to be redeveloped. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
H-Town Man Posted November 30, 2021 Share Posted November 30, 2021 On 10/22/2021 at 9:22 AM, Nate99 said: That would have been my guess. Old oil fields are typically seen as oil fields waiting on technology to surpass what existed when they stopped producing the last time. Mineral rights owners will go generations waiting for it to come around, and I'd imagine no developer would want to build on top of land with a permanent easement for future development of wells, if doing so is even legal. Mineral rights changing hands is a completely different economic ballgame compared to the real estate it is attached to. They will get developed if the land value goes up enough. Lots of oil fields around Houston have been developed and now look like any suburban area - Humble, Tomball, Fairbanks, etc. Some have been mostly developed with just a small core area remaining. This link is fun to explore: https://gis.rrc.texas.gov/GISViewer/ 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hbcu Posted April 12 Share Posted April 12 it's starting to develop now - drive down Buffalo Speedway Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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