Aztec Events & Tents At 601 W. 6th St.

[emmanume]

Heard from somebody that this property will/has change/d hands and the new developers are seeking a roadway extension of W 6th St across the detention pond. Can anyone do some magic to find out any proof of this? My take is that there should be a connection across West 6th St on the detention pond but they should be boardwalk style and for pedestrians only. 

Edited December 6, 2022 by emmanume

[hindesky]

I could see the Aztec property being developed but the Heights Reservoir belongs to TX Dot probably for flood abatement. It seems that a road could be built, seems to be plated for one @wilcal?

 

[Purdueenginerd]

That retension pond has only been there since 2012 or so. Used to a be a ware house and laydown yard there. Looking at satellite imagery, it looks like 6th street never cross there. The 6th street on the west side was added after the fact. 

[s3mh]

It has been a long time, but I recall the Rutland Detention Pond site had very serious environmental issues because it used to be a, not sure which, refinery/city incinerator/steel mill or some sort of other industrial site.  There was a brief attempt to make the detention pond a "wet bottom" detention pond with some park amenities kind of like Willow Waterhole.  But the cost of remediation was very high due to all the past industrial uses and there was no way to cost effectively dig any deeper to have a permanent water feature.  There was also talk about connecting W 6th and the same issue was raised about having to dig to build supports for a bridge.  So, I would doubt the prospects of building a bridge to connect W 6th.  Even if it was a possibility, it would probably be a ten plus year project given the environmental issues and planning/construction process.

[emmanume]

This isnt the first time I hear of this concern due to environmental cleanup, but never from TxDOT themselves. I've had a few meetings with TxDOT about making the area into a park with more defined trails and other amenities such as boardwalks, amphitheaters on the banks, etc.  Their Director of Hydrology approves any use that does not affect the volume capacity of the basin. Of course, they approve of the project so long as someone else is maintaining it - this is the tricky part.

They have not expressed any environmental concerns.. Maybe he doesnt know about them? Or is it possible that after 10 years of filtering rain water, the ground may have remediated much of the impact 🤪? 

[Ross]

2 hours ago, s3mh said:

It has been a long time, but I recall the Rutland Detention Pond site had very serious environmental issues because it used to be a, not sure which, refinery/city incinerator/steel mill or some sort of other industrial site.  There was a brief attempt to make the detention pond a "wet bottom" detention pond with some park amenities kind of like Willow Waterhole.  But the cost of remediation was very high due to all the past industrial uses and there was no way to cost effectively dig any deeper to have a permanent water feature.  There was also talk about connecting W 6th and the same issue was raised about having to dig to build supports for a bridge.  So, I would doubt the prospects of building a bridge to connect W 6th.  Even if it was a possibility, it would probably be a ten plus year project given the environmental issues and planning/construction process.

The Aztec site plus some other property belonged to Swift Agricultural Chemicals until the 70's. Here's the 1907 map that shows the Heights block numbers https://www.harriscountyarchives.com/Maps/imgZ.html?img=houston1907_1 and here's a snip of the area from that map

Blocks 272 and 273 appear to be the retention pond, along with the blocks to the South. 6th is platted as a through street, but there were buildings on it on 1944 and 1953 as shown on Google Earth. In addition, the bayou was rerouted, but the old path can be seen in the pond. Construction of the pond started in 2010 or 2011. Before that there were a number of trailers and objects stored there, along with some buildings.

I would not be surprised if there is contamination, given that there appears to be some sort of manufacturing facility on the old aerials, and it was owned by a chemical company.

I've attached the pdf files of the deeds where Swift sold the properties.

Blocks 269 etc.pdf Blocks 271 etc.pdf

[wilcal]

15 hours ago, hindesky said:

I could see the Aztec property being developed but the Heights Reservoir belongs to TX Dot probably for flood abatement. It seems that a road could be built, seems to be plated for one @wilcal?

So that's the HCAD parcel data, which looks kind of weird because it shows that corridor for 6th street, and I don't know this for sure, but I would imagine that TXDOT acquired it from the city, which is why when you click the parcel on either side, the whole thing lights up. Basically, 6th does not exist in the detention anymore and the city prob doesn't own it.

The current legal description is showing as tracts "TR 40 BLKS 272 273 294 & 295 HOUSTON HEIGHTS" so if anyone builds something, they're going to have to replat. When they replat, they are going to have to address the stub street on 6th. That means either dedicating ROW for 6th (the rest is 70') or getting a variance. 

We're getting a bit out of my knowledge here, but the south of the detention reserve has enough frontage on the 6th stub for street access, so they might not have to build 6th or could built the portion of Rutland that is dedicated, but not built. 

[Ross]

1 hour ago, wilcal said:

So that's the HCAD parcel data, which looks kind of weird because it shows that corridor for 6th street, and I don't know this for sure, but I would imagine that TXDOT acquired it from the city, which is why when you click the parcel on either side, the whole thing lights up. Basically, 6th does not exist in the detention anymore and the city prob doesn't own it.

The current legal description is showing as tracts "TR 40 BLKS 272 273 294 & 295 HOUSTON HEIGHTS" so if anyone builds something, they're going to have to replat. When they replat, they are going to have to address the stub street on 6th. That means either dedicating ROW for 6th (the rest is 70') or getting a variance. 

We're getting a bit out of my knowledge here, but the south of the detention reserve has enough frontage on the 6th stub for street access, so they might not have to build 6th or could built the portion of Rutland that is dedicated, but not built. 

6th in the pond had buildings on top of it from at least 1907. The map I linked to above shows a building on top of 6th between Ashland and Portland(now Tulane), and the aerials from 1944 forward show that as well. The City probably abandoned it way back in the early days. Or, the city of Houston Heights abandoned it before annexation. The attached file contains the metes and bounds from when the property was sold to Bracher Lumber by David Bracher in October 1972

 

Blocks 272 273 294 295 Heights.pdf

[hindesky]