wilcal

22 hours ago, editor said:

The problem is that the "adds to housing costs" boogieman is brought up every time any new regulation is proposed, no matter how minor the cost.

How much would this add to the cost of a house?  50¢?  A dollar?  Ten dollars?  Nobody ever says.

Is the cost added to a single house more or less than the benefit delivered to the general public?

Except that they will still be allowed to build 3 homes on a 5,000 sq ft lot with a shared driveway.

This would mostly prevent 50x100 ft lots from being divided into two 25x100s and each getting their own driveway.

Basically, the more affordable choice is still available. The more luxurious choice (a private driveway and more land) will become more restrictive. 

Also, we have a Livable Places thread! 

LP is much more than driveway restrictions! 

The last time I asked METRO, the parking is going to be free. I just don't understand how METRO can justify spending tens of millions to provide free parking. 

Mayor just announced at city council that they would be proposing $500k in funding next week to BCycle to bridge a gap of METRO taking over.

39 minutes ago, 004n063 said:

Wouldn't this count as TOD? Eastwood TC is across the street

Ernestine is a secondary TOD street, so it is optional.

It'll switch to a primary TOD street when BRT construction contracts are signed. 

Link to Cajun Street's website: https://cajunstreet.com/

I miss the Peruvian Chicken spot, but will love to have another food option. 

On 9/16/2023 at 12:56 PM, 004n063 said:

I know there are some folks on here who are loathe to any kind of centralized planning, and especially loathe to slow permitting, but I really wish the the city would adopt a policy (even if it's unofficial and internal) of just delaying the permitting indefinitely for proposed surface parking lots. At least within a short distance of Downtown. It is a severe local climate issue, and absent a land value tax, it's a fiscal issue as well. The city needs to treat all Houston lands (not just those it technically owns) as assets, and surface parking lots are exceptionally unproductive uses of those assets.

Not legally possible unless the voters approved zoning. 

It is already in a market-based parking area. As sad as it is, this would be the market working. 

We are much better off extending market-based parking everywhere and showing that it works. 

I'm just going to be happy that something is going in. High-end retail works for me. 

I think it fits the vibe of EaDo, too. 

They submitted this with a 5' BL setback along Ernestine and they are asking to take advantage of a 42-154.

TLDR: They would normally be required to have a 25' BL (like they are showing along 45) but you are allowed to do 42-154 if the major thoroughfare is 80' wide or less. 

It is kind of like TOD or Walkable Places-lite. An example of a project that opted in to this was the Montrose Collective. 

You get a 5' setback, but you have to use the next 5' inside the building line for pedestrian realm, the building has to be placed along the street (no front parking), and limited curb cuts. 

The use also has to specifically have some retail use, but it can be a mixed complex.

However, you are completely allowed to "opt-in" for this at the time of platting, but if your plans change, then you can switch back to the standard setback at the time of permitting the construction. 

Also, I would have initially assumed they want to use the existing building along Ernestine, and maybe even the skybridge, but both of those would need to be shown on the plat and would require a dual-building line. 

So we have quite the scale of eventual possibilities. If they really really really intend to do what the plat says, then expect all new structures, a really nice pedestrian realm along Ernestine, and some form of retail component. 

4 hours ago, Houston19514 said:

The batter's eye paint is interesting, but I'm pretty sure the building permits referenced up-thread are not related to this new paint.

Yeah, definitely not. 

7 hours ago, samagon said:

if that's the case, the they don't even need to worry about Brenners, just jog over the bayou to get to the Hogg side, follow that till you get to the pedestrian bridge that's part of the Hogg grounds, jog back over, and follow the bank the rest of the way to Memorial park, or to get into the neighborhood street that gets you into Memorial park...

 

as an aside, I hope they don't replace the current pedestrian bridge over the bayou to Hogg land, I love bouncing on that thing :)

I feel like your yellow line might be the actual solution here.

City of Houston already owns this entire piece and I've circled in red publically dedicated right-of-way.

The dead end of that street just goes into the trees right now. I marked a guesstimate on the where the city land runs. 

On 9/14/2023 at 3:28 PM, steve1363 said:

Who acquired?  Brenner’s?

Houston Parks Board

On 9/8/2023 at 12:55 PM, sapo2367 said:

Here's my guess -- I have a feeling Brenners on the Bayou will try to avoid having the trail run between the restaurant and the bayou

FWIW, they acquired this piece I circled in purple.

On 6/18/2023 at 6:55 PM, Ross said:

I bet the property owners of the dog place say no, since they encroach on the alley.

On 7/30/2023 at 1:23 PM, TX3G4R said:

So what’s going to happen if the dog place doesn’t agree to abandon that section of the alley? 

Each side of the abandoned street is entitled to half of the abandonment. Basically, they'll be acquiring half of the alley which I think is the only part that they are actually encroaching on.

I know these comments were from a few months ago. No idea if it is cleaned up now. 

There is also a pending JRC request to acquire the piece in the SW corner to potentially connect Halong Bay Dr to Bellaire Blvd.

These renders look great!

Such a joke that METRO keeps building these parking garages with hundreds of free parking spaces. (in reference to the 500 parking space garage on Fulton at the new Northline Transit Center) when 3/4 of bus stops in their service area are just a post in the ground. 

4 hours ago, steve1363 said:

I give Metro credit for recognizing and rectifying the mistake.

Pretty sure they are just trying to be a team player. There's always politics at play. The other floating bus stops haven't been a problem, but they haven't really been placed in yuppy neighborhoods for the most part. 

It isn't like engineers didn't sign off on the design.

Who wants to bet there was a bunch of distracted SUV-driving ding dongs behind the wheel that caused these?

22 hours ago, IntheKnowHouston said:

There is a lease listing for 3608 Polk St on LoopNet.


Property details:

• Lot size: 0.21 ac
   
• Building size: 8,000 sf
   
• Year built/renovated: 1980/2023

https://www.loopnet.com/Listing/3608-Polk-St-Houston-TX/29383562/

 

 

 

Space Use: Industrial

*boooooooooo*

2 hours ago, Amlaham said:

These are great recommendations! Any ideas on when these would most likely get implemented? It seems like Houston is starting to get plagued by the poorly designed multiple driveway lots :/ 

2 hours ago, Justin Welling said:

@Amlaham I believe it is at the final stage, which means it needs to be adopted by city council. Timeline on that is unclear (can't seem to find any announcements about it). The last major action item was the public hearing back in June, which was also a little bit of a bummer with Mayor Turner completely removing market based parking from the recommendation. 

Current plan is to have it for final vote before city council next week. Implementation is at their discretion. Typically 30-60 days after passing. 

I would highly highly recommend you take a minute and write to your city council members and let them know that you support Livable Place as-proposed.

2 hours ago, hindesky said:

At every single Planning Commission meeting about this proposal, the developers show up en mass against it. 

And to be clear, they are supportive about most of it, but some developers do not like pushing the garage setback from 17' to 19' (distance between garage door and the sidewalk) and not allowing individual driveways on lots that are narrower than 33'. If dividing a standard 50x100 lot into two 25x100 lots (ultra common) the proposal would make them use one of the new options above posted by Beernut. 

Maybe it is a revised batter's eye or lighting?

Astros have underperformed at home for several of the last few seasons. 

Just as an FYI for everyone:  a dual-building line variance allows they to be granted a much smaller building line for their existing structure, which typically couldn't be built today. If/when the historical building is demo'd, then it reverts to the second building line that is being established today. 

35MM Studio has now moved into this space

https://studio-35mm.com/

https://www.instagram.com/35mm_studio_/

It appears to be space available for rent. A four-hour block for a party/event is $700 and a one-hour block is $85

On 8/25/2023 at 1:44 PM, EaDolivin said:

That makes sense what they're trying to do (make money), but to me the area doesn't justify that kind of density. Also a bunch of those houses were finished in the 2020/2021 timeframe and they left the other lots empty. I thought that was odd. They missed the window on building out the rest of the townhomes while rates were down and prices were up.

The city, via Livable Places, is on the precipice of increasing our density requirements from 27 dwelling units per acre to 32. This subdivision was originally platted at 26.34 and they asked the planning commission to grant them a higher density and split a few of their larger lots. Generally, lots are allowed to be as low as 20' wide, but with lot width averaging you can bring it down to 18' average. Lots 14 and 24 were originally 32' wide and they are dividing them into 2 16' wide lots each. Original lots 3 and 4 were 35' wide each and are now 2 17' wide lots. 

So some of the new ones will actually be even skinnier.

HOWEVER, where else would we want ultra dense housing? It is arguably walkable to downtown, a bike lane is going in on Commerce, there are commercial uses close by, the Canal bus is at the end of the block, etc. 

And these will likely end up being the lowest cost new builds in the neighborhood. New housing = new neighbors = good. 

I know that you mentioned you are a directly nearby neighbor (I'm about 1.5 miles east of here, but I do ride my bike down Commerce most days), but I don't think a few extra townhomes on this parcel will make that much of a difference. 

1 hour ago, 004n063 said:

That's an awfully deep setback.

25' setback required along Westheimer in most situations. You can put parking there, so people end up putting parking in the front. 

On 5/25/2023 at 8:01 AM, wilcal said:

Lots of good discussion at the BAC Infrastructure meeting yesterday. They did mention that Commerce would be the next major city-tackled project. 

Another Commerce-related update at the BAC Infrastructure meeting last week.

Basically, there had been some... concerns that only a small portion of Commerce was happening. Basically, the city is only doing a small portion, but Harris County would be taking it east to the Harrisburg Trail terminus and the railroad underpass would take it west, and then NHHIP would take it into downtown.

It'll take awhile, but will get done eventually.