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If You Thought 290 Was Bad Now...


PureAuteur

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Given the enormous traffic crisis on Houston's 290 freeway, someone had the wise and forward thinking idea of building a Sugarland-sized community right off 290 near Fairfield. It was going to be called The Bridgelands, then just Bridgelands, and now just Bridgeland. I think the plan to get every decent family out of the 610 to Beltway 8 area is nearly complete. Let's just leave a huge gap between inner loop and the suburbs to be filled up by crime, gangs, drug cartels, and illegal immigrants.

the following is from the company's website: www.bridgelandtexas.com

About Us

Welcome to Bridgeland, Houston's newest master-planned town - a living environment of unsurpassed natural beauty that will inspire its residents to excel.

Encompassing more than 10,000 acres, Bridgeland is bordered by Mallard Lake and Cypress Creek. This creates an extremely attractive northern perimeter rich with vegetation and wildlife that is perfect for natural trail systems and parks. This amazing waterside town, conveniently located off U.S. 290 in northwest Houston, is being developed by General Growth Properties, Inc. Bridgeland will feature an extensive lake and trail system connecting residential, recreational, educational and cultural amenities along with employment, retail, religious, health and fitness offerings. The "Town Center" area, to be located in the heart of Bridgeland along the future Grand Parkway (connecting U.S. 290 and I-10), will be the heart of the town and home to numerous office and retail spaces.

Coming Spring 2006!

Notice how the description of the community says that it's "conveniently located off U.S. 290". That alone should tell you that you're being duped.

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Well, the "good" news is that US 290 is scheduled for an expansion project, with construction beginning in 2013. TxDOT is preparing the Draft Environmental Impact Statement and schematic layout right now. This project is expected to be near the scale of the current I-10 widening. However, it's my understanding that this one will potentially incorporate mass transit (commuter rail).

2013 may sound like a long ways off, especially with a 10,000-acre land development coming on line, but keep in mind that the Bridgelands is on the scale of building The Woodlands, which has been going on for what, 40+ years...and still going! It's going to take decades to build out the Bridgelands.

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Well, the "good" news is that US 290 is scheduled for an expansion project, with construction beginning in 2013. TxDOT is preparing the Draft Environmental Impact Statement and schematic layout right now. This project is expected to be near the scale of the current I-10 widening. However, it's my understanding that this one will potentially incorporate mass transit (commuter rail).

2013 may sound like a long ways off, especially with a 10,000-acre land development coming on line, but keep in mind that the Bridgelands is on the scale of building The Woodlands, which has been going on for what, 40+ years...and still going! It's going to take decades to build out the Bridgelands.

I think The Woodlands was built in the late 70s, so it's been almost 30 years. There is a reason the Woodlands worked well as a community, and that is its unique geography. I know the area very well where they plan to build Bridgeland, and it's not going to be picturesque like the images on their website. Those pictures were probably taken in some other part of Texas or in another state even. Whatever trees or lakes it has will be planted/manmade, and it will have a fake look to it. They are building it on the south end of 290, which is nothing but flat farmland on that side.

The freeway expansion project of 2013 is not good news at all. It will just encourage more development until the entire countryside is wiped out. Then even with the widening, the freeway will be full to capacity. Then what? Freeway expansions do nothing to move society away from enslavement to the automobile.

Setting the start date of construction at 2013 is also a bad idea, because it leaves 7 years of room for the unknown. Nobody knows what will happen between now and then. We are living in unpredictable and unstable times. What if oil goes to 200 dollars per barrell? What if the 20s and 30s generation of today rejects suburbia as they move up toward middle age in favor of inner city living? I just think the whole project is a huge huge risk. I don't think The Woodlands would be affected by these factors simply because it is established, has geography, is self-supportive, and becoming more independent of Houston.

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Nobody knows what will happen between now and then. We are living in unpredictable and unstable times. What if oil goes to 200 dollars per barrell? What if the 20s and 30s generation of today rejects suburbia as they move up toward middle age in favor of inner city living? I just think the whole project is a huge huge risk.

You're right. This project is way too risky. In fact, there's just so much risk, and so many projects take so long to realize any benefit. Why pay out the high initial cost of light rail? What if oil goes back to $20-$30 per barrel? What if the 20s and 30s generation rejects inner city living as they move up toward middle age in favor of suburban living? I think that the whole project is a huge huge risk.

You can't live life afraid of taking risks. Otherwise, you may as well smother yourself in a pillow...because the most certain thing in life is death, and if you hasten it, then you'll know the outcome.

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I meant that it's risky for the developers. The light rail isn't risky at all. People are using it right now and will continue to use it as it expands. It's a forward thinking idea.

The idea of building a masterplanned community is not risky, it's this particular investment at this particular time that's risky. They will lose alot of money if there is a housing bust, which will result in a decline in home values and a decrease in home sales.

The idea is to turn a profit, but they won't if they build it up and nobody buys. I drive around alot and see brand new neighborhoods that are having a heck of a time trying to sell their homes and lots.

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Well, the "good" news is that US 290 is scheduled for an expansion project, with construction beginning in 2013.

The plan is to build the tollway along Hempstead Road in advance of the construction on US 290. So the tollway could potentially open within 4 years. Of course, right now TxDOT and HCTRA are in a dispute so (as far as I know) the tollway project is on hold.

The Woodlands was designed around 1972 and the first section was opened in 1974. The total build-out should be after 2014, making it a 40+-year project.

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I meant that it's risky for the developers. The light rail isn't risky at all. People are using it right now and will continue to use it as it expands. It's a forward thinking idea.

The idea of building a masterplanned community is not risky, it's this particular investment at this particular time that's risky. They will lose alot of money if there is a housing bust, which will result in a decline in home values and a decrease in home sales.

The idea is to turn a profit, but they won't if they build it up and nobody buys. I drive around alot and see brand new neighborhoods that are having a heck of a time trying to sell their homes and lots.

:blink:

They're still setting records for home sales, both new and used. Whatever you think you see in driving around, it bears no resemblance to the numbers. Plus, the Houston metro is 9,000 square miles, with over 5.3 million people....and growing. No offense, but it would be nearly impossible to drive the area and figure out the shape of the home building market. You would have to look at the numbers to figure it out, and the numbers are all still pointing up. Employment is growing, some New Orleans residents are finally deciding to stay, and housing prices are not out of whack. A relatively close in development will do well. Suburban Houstonians have rarely, if ever, used freeway congestion as an excuse to avoid an area. Look at the growth of Katy PRIOR to the freeway construction.

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You make some good points, RedScare, but I just have a gut feeling that some of these numbers although accurate, may be misleading. There was an article last year in the Chronicle about housing foreclosures. I think it's become way too easy to get a home loan and to finance with home equity. People over the last 5 years have been buying homes that they should not have been able to afford. So, even though houses are being sold, they are also being foreclosed. The foreclosures are not used in calculating home sales per month, which is why I say the numbers are misleading. What you end up with is numbers that support the building of more homes when there are neighborhoods with vacant homes all over the place that had recently been sold. When you have more homes being built than you need given your population, the value of the homes begins to decline.

But back to my original topic, I am firmly against the building of this community. I just think it's the wrong time to be doing it, and it will put too much pressure on the 290 freeway, which I have to use for my daily commute to U of H from Jersey Village. I know I talk like an inner-loop guy, but I didn't choose to live out there, my parents did. It's tough to move when you have to pay tuition without loans. Anyways, 290 cannot support the community. Currently, morning commutes for anyone living beyond Barker Cypress Rd. or Telge Rd is 1 hr 30 mins to downtown. That is ridiculous, and it's a waste of people's time. Once Bridgeland is built up, I predict morning commutes to be something of the equivalent to the Rita evacuations.

Anyone know how I can protest this?

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Anyone know how I can protest this?

No way that I know of, other than picketing outside the development.

In keeping with our great tradition of private property rights, an owner can do what they wish on their own property. As long as they're following all County laws, rules and regulations, there's nothing you can (that I know of, at least) to stop them. And that's a good thing, in my opinion. I don't like all the sprawl myself, but I do support private property rights.

If you don't like the proposed land use, then buy the land yourself. Or, support a conservation group, like the Nature Conservancy or something similar, who buy land, or who help obtain conservation easements on private property.

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We are all leaving out another piece of the Bridgeland puzzle: The Grand Parkway. Hopefully the Grand Parkway will equally disperse the traffic to 10 and 290.

By the way, I have lived in the Hades near Copperfield--to go to work at the Belt@Westheimer was 45 minutes most days. And I hate it when the news says commute to downtown from Barker Cypress--2 hours!

290 is insane. Maybe the uncertainty of the next seven years will lead to some sort of marked improvement in the investment in rail along the corridor.

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By the way, I have lived in the Hades near Copperfield--to go to work at the Belt@Westheimer was 45 minutes most days. And I hate it when the news says commute to downtown from Barker Cypress--2 hours!

290 is insane. Maybe the uncertainty of the next seven years will lead to some sort of marked improvement in the investment in rail along the corridor.

2 hours? I didn't realize it had gotten that bad out there.

2 hours is toying with the edges of human endurance. L.A. has several areas where 2+ hours are normal, so they are demonstrating to us, and to all futures megacities, how far we can go before people stop sprawling, or before edge cities pop up due to large populations that were created when commutes were tolerable. Increasing commuter rail will be a definite need in those areas over time.

I am a bit amazed that there continues to be enough demand to warrant such large-scale developments such as Bridgeland, and all of the other projects around the outskirt areas, but apparently our middle class and above is healthy.

Suburban sprawl is natural and doesn't worry me. The results of filling in open land are predictable; close in housing skyrockets as commutes rise. Time to worry is when we see large scale affordable housing projects going up inside the belt as quickly as these projects in order to support the population growth caused by illegal aliens and displaced lower income residents.

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You're exactly right on this. The more inner beltway housing that is available to the poor and illegal aliens, the more crime will spread to increasingly larger areas. I think we are overbuilding, and the more apartments you have available, the more illegals there will be in the city. I've heard that they violate apartment rules by having between 5 to 10 people living in a one or 2 bedroom apartment. This is also misleading for data collectors who underestimate the population of the city. No wonder the traffic is so bad. There are probably half a million illegals in Houston, but they are not included in the population.

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Urbanists keep hoping that once traffic gets bad enough, people will start moving back into town. That will happen to an extent (and already has), but what you will see to a much greater extent, and which nobody seems to be mentioning, is that businesses will start moving out of town to follow the residents. In this day of internet technology, there is not much to keep companies centrally located ... rather than forcing employees to change their living patterns, they will simply follow them out.

Thirty years ago, people moving into their nice new neighborhoods in Memorial got tired of driving downtown. Did they move back in? No, they built Uptown. Then people living further west got tired of driving there. So they built the Energy Corridor. Now the Woodlands is putting up new office space at a faster rate than downtown. We are in the era of the town center, and peripheral town centers are going to start getting most of our office growth. Look for a new town center of sorts to serve Bridgelands and Fairfield.

Welcome to the decentralized metropolis. Not one central nervous system a la Chicago or Houston 1970, but a hundred independent ganglia scattered around East Texas.

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I work out in Prairie View...commute from 1960.....they are building out 290 from Fairfield to Becker Road and are now making it a full-fledged freeway with frontage roads...I guess they are doing that for future expansion

new quest properties bought a chunk of land on the northside of bauer and 290 and will build 1,500 houses (not bridgelands)

2 miles down in front of ranch country past becker...a lenner homes community has been plotted but not built yet...

and from that point, most of the land on the freeway from Hockley to Prairie View is up for sale now...

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2 hours? I didn't realize it had gotten that bad out there.

2 hours is toying with the edges of human endurance. L.A. has several areas where 2+ hours are normal, so they are demonstrating to us, and to all futures megacities, how far we can go before people stop sprawling, or before edge cities pop up due to large populations that were created when commutes were tolerable. Increasing commuter rail will be a definite need in those areas over time.

Yeah, look at L.A. for a little bit. People over there got tired of communting to Downtown LA, and new "mini" downtowns sprouted up. Those are on the likes of Wilshire Center, Irvine, and Ontario. But, what Los Angeles has that Houston doesn't is commuter rail. A very extensive one. From Lancaster to Oceanside (154 miles); Los Angeles to San Bernardino (60 miles); and soon a Los Angeles to Santa Monica line (16 miles).

This is something Houston NEEDS to take into consideration, vast commuter lines.

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I may not be an expert urban planner or anything, but there is no way that the current U.S. 290 can support this population influx. I doubt the developers of this masterplanned community have ever had a morning commute on 290. I hope their project fails or at least a lot of people protest it. They are ruining what little is left of the countryside outside of Houston.

Here is the expected population upon completion of the project from their website, www.bridgeland.com:

How many people will ultimately live in Bridgeland?

Approximately 65,000 residents in 21,000 homes.

Keep in mind, that so far, no house has been built, and it is already a 1.5-2 hour commute from Cypress to downtown Houston in the mornings.

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and it is already a 1.5-2 hour commute from Cypress to downtown Houston in the mornings.

Which begs the question, if you work downtown, while in the world would you live in Cypress?

It's not like people are forced to live out there. It's a choice.

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That's the problem, Midtowncoog. People who live in the suburbs don't really care that they contribute to a major problem of traffic congestion. They would rather deal with it than to move back inside the Beltway, and many of them have no other option than to work in downtown Houston, but they would never actually live in Houston. Also, they're just not comfortable enough yet giving up their car and taking a commuter rail. I say forget Bridgeland and use those resources to build the commuter rail along Hempstead Hwy, which should have been started years ago. It needs to go up before the Hempstead Tollway also.

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Given the enormous traffic crisis on Houston's 290 freeway, someone had the wise and forward thinking idea of building a Sugarland-sized community right off 290 near Fairfield. It was going to be called The Bridgelands, then just Bridgelands, and now just Bridgeland. I think the plan to get every decent family out of the 610 to Beltway 8 area is nearly complete. Let's just leave a huge gap between inner loop and the suburbs to be filled up by crime, gangs, drug cartels, and illegal immigrants.

the following is from the company's website: www.bridgelandtexas.com

About Us

Welcome to Bridgeland, Houston's newest master-planned town - a living environment of unsurpassed natural beauty that will inspire its residents to excel.

Encompassing more than 10,000 acres, Bridgeland is bordered by Mallard Lake and Cypress Creek. This creates an extremely attractive northern perimeter rich with vegetation and wildlife that is perfect for natural trail systems and parks. This amazing waterside town, conveniently located off U.S. 290 in northwest Houston, is being developed by General Growth Properties, Inc. Bridgeland will feature an extensive lake and trail system connecting residential, recreational, educational and cultural amenities along with employment, retail, religious, health and fitness offerings. The "Town Center" area, to be located in the heart of Bridgeland along the future Grand Parkway (connecting U.S. 290 and I-10), will be the heart of the town and home to numerous office and retail spaces.

Coming Spring 2006!

Notice how the description of the community says that it's "conveniently located off U.S. 290". That alone should tell you that you're being duped.

i know this is old but i get sick of this, that gap between the beltway and 610 you speak of (the ring rot as some of you call it) guess what its already there so we (the people who cant afford to or dont want to live inside the loop) dont want to live here either. so you dont want to live here we dont want to live here, guess who will keep living here the poor and the immigrant. no arguement there you cant force me to live there. I have a right to choose a community where i can be happy and safe. and by the way inside the loop is not the business center of town there are jobs all over this town so I'M DON'T COMMUTE!!!.

Urbanists keep hoping that once traffic gets bad enough, people will start moving back into town. That will happen to an extent (and already has), but what you will see to a much greater extent, and which nobody seems to be mentioning, is that businesses will start moving out of town to follow the residents. In this day of internet technology, there is not much to keep companies centrally located ... rather than forcing employees to change their living patterns, they will simply follow them out.

Thirty years ago, people moving into their nice new neighborhoods in Memorial got tired of driving downtown. Did they move back in? No, they built Uptown. Then people living further west got tired of driving there. So they built the Energy Corridor. Now the Woodlands is putting up new office space at a faster rate than downtown. We are in the era of the town center, and peripheral town centers are going to start getting most of our office growth. Look for a new town center of sorts to serve Bridgelands and Fairfield.

Welcome to the decentralized metropolis. Not one central nervous system a la Chicago or Houston 1970, but a hundred independent ganglia scattered around East Texas.

This pretty much sums it up. one of the most intelligent posts i've read on this forum. Thanks

I think the concern over ring-rot is partly disingenuous. I think there is an element of fear by some inner-looper types (not all) that crime will over take them from the outside in and if they work in the inner city they dont want to move out. and i don't blame them i wouldn't want to commute in. let's hope that crime goes down and all peoples continue to prosper so we can all be happy and safe. very simple but not likely in the near term if ever.

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