wilcal

On 12/13/2019 at 9:41 AM, residentsss said:

As someone literally across the street (from where this project is being built) for the last 8 years after moving into a pretty well gentrified neighborhood already (want to correct Angostura's timeline of "5" years) I do wonder how the streets will accommodate the traffic increase (already bad going from 1 house to 6 townhomes and now this). My main concern is parking - I hope they build sufficient resident and guest parking because street parking is already an issue here.

People buying trucks too big to fit in their townhome garages?

On 12/14/2019 at 10:53 PM, BeerNut said:

Wasn't aware they plan to block through traffic on Hutchins at Elgin.  They were also working on sidewalk cutouts at Hutchins and Alabama this weekend. 

 

I think they have one more planned as well. These will have bike cut-throughs in them (you can see the rebar raised out of the ground where the curbs will go).

I was at the meeting where they presented this, and the traffic info for Hutchins was terrifying. The goal is for cars cutting through the third to skip over to Emancipation. 

I made a quick and dirty MS Paint of the situation.

Hutchins is all residential, and there were cars driving 40+ through the neighborhood. The road is super wide at some points allowing extreme speeds. Like 50' wide for two driving lanes plus cars parked on the curb. 

At least part of Hutchins is scheduled to get separated bike lanes as well. 

54 minutes ago, trymahjong said:

Oh my

Better perhaps to hope the Lower Westheimer initiative goes through....Then all the wonderful shiny new builds will be at the front of the lots and the parking at the back, hopefully hidden by new build.

 

secretly, despite all the restaurants Built nearby, I am hoping to revive “Pipe Organ Pizza”  a modern building with carillon tower that plays recognized melodies, perhaps reclaimed large stained glass windows  morning two sides, and seasonal flowering beds planted out front........

Walkable Places Ordinance to be presented next month. Really feel like Lower Westheimer would be a prime target!

Property owner having tax issues?

Says judgement is from back in July

http://taxsales.lgbs.com/detail/1012331877

12 minutes ago, jsabo said:

I noticed that your map has light rail stations along Washington Ave. Have these been approved? Are they still happening?

They were briefly added into the MetroNEXT plans and they were scrapped the next month when they said that they wouldn't have enough time to study the corridor to make it work. 

So yeah, not happening. 

Ahhh, I didn't realize that it would be shifting over. Just assumed it would be stretching wider.

Thanks for the actual research.

40 minutes ago, Kinglyam said:

 While I'm sure it's widening (I don't remember the dimensions and am too lazy to look), I'm pretty sure it's not 3x wider. It's just being moved closer to the residential area because some traffic design software somewhere said eliminating the curve would reduce travel times by 0.5 seconds or something...

I am fully aware of how completely unscientific this is, but based on that rendering of it stretching all of the way to the railroad tracks...

1 minute ago, iah77 said:

This complex is so pretty why would you sigh that it's not being torn down?

I guess I assumed that it would be torn down. Do you know how they would use the existing buildings?

In my mind, I really didn't consider that they would keep them like that. 

39 minutes ago, Triton said:

 

The latest plan I had seen from the city, because they needed to coordinate with TXDOT for the I-45 realignment, was to go below grade with the Fulton connection.

 

It looked like it has a somewhat steep grade going down and up, similar to Navigation Blvd rising up/coming down under Commerce St. In the last meeting I attended, the issue that they faced was that Fulton would also travel below the northside (west bound) feeder so they were trying to figure out how they could have at-grade ramps going to and coming from the northside feeder over to Fulton with the ROW that is there. 

 

Based on the last meeting, this connection is definitely presenting some challenges.

Yeah, ouch. 

Also, wow @ the highway expanding all of the way to the railroad tracks. That's like 3X wider than it is currently right there. Really gives some scale. 

Just now, Avossos said:

 

 

St. Thomas already owns that entire block... It will be used for the school. There will be no sale as the owner is already planning on using the space when the Library moves. We are seeing everyone vacate that block likely because St. Thomas is pushing them out by not renewing leases.

Fantastic.

*sigh*

16 minutes ago, Skyboxdweller said:

It's outrageous that this development gets a 90% tax abatement for basically providing market rate office facilities in a city that has a 20% + office vacancy rate downtown and nearby in the Energy Corridor.  If this project couldn't make it without a subsidy from you and me, Joe Taxpayer, then it shouldn't get built.  By giving it a tax advantage it hurts the ability of existing owners of taxable property to fill their buildings, which in turn results in  their lower tax valuation, thus a double whammy to the tax base.  Follow the money......how many of those elected reps who voted for this corporate welfare directly or indirectly received campaign funds from the developers, their attorneys and/or other interested parties or cut-outs? 

Totally fair question. I would also imagine that the funds help provide the concessions about "workforce or affordable" housing. I'm not sure how much tech companies prefer to have certain types of office space and how that compares to office space in the region. Not sure what portion of their expected tax bill they are having rebated represents, either.  Isn't it like .65%? So, a significant chunk of the expected tax bill with the benefit that their receiving is $600k/year for 10 years. 

12 minutes ago, Skyboxdweller said:

The Chronicle statement that the Founder's District is funded by Mark Toon is inaccurate.  At least $6M of the funding has now been provided by the City of Houston.

Isn't the six million coming in the form of tax rebates after it opens? I don't think you typically count future tax costs as part of the funding. 

8 minutes ago, Toopicky said:

 

I have to wonder what price they plan on selling the old library .... if it is like the sweetheart deal the city gave Olsteen for The Summit then I want a chance to better the bid.

Surely there's some deal already in place with everything else closing on that corner.

Gonna be pretty disappointed if it's St. Thomas. 

It's a little bit bigger than the footprint of the La Colombe d'Or tower. 

Would be super cool to get another residential tower. That would be a fourth in like 5 years in that stretch of Montrose. 

Someone on /r/Houston posted about some construction has started at Hardy Yards this week.

Quote

I drive by this area every day, and I noticed last week they've chained off the area by the hardy yards apartments and they've broken ground. Does anyone know anything about what they're building there?

I'm guessing it's the Red Line apartments that were platted earlier this year? 

On 10/21/2019 at 4:02 PM, Triton said:

Really hope we get the Fulton/San Jacinto connection sooner rather than later but chances are it won't happen until the I-45 project starts in this area.

Is that actually going to happen? I just assume that anything that goes over or through a rail isn't going to happen unless there is big money involved, and that would be a city project unless it was rolled into NHHIP. 

23 hours ago, Amlaham said:

https://abc13.com/traffic/houstons-busiest-street-to-be-repaved/5742532/

 

Unrelated but the other portion of Westheimer is getting repaved (even though its in mint condition).

That portion is maintained by TxDOT. Lower Westheimer maintained by the city

Wait.... Glass Cypress sells $160 screen printed tshirts?!?!?

https://www.glasscypress.com/shop/

I'm not sure what's more farfetched. Their business model or thinking that they can buy all of the real estate on that block of Indiana. 

Wilson Montessori is a recently renovated Houston ISD magnet K-8 school. Good luck buying that, too!

16 hours ago, j_cuevas713 said:

So what are the changes? 

I wish I knew!

Also, they bumped back the presentation

Quote

We presented a preliminary project timeline at the community meetings and announced that a project presentation would be made to the Planning Commission on December 5, 2019. However, drafting the ordinance language is taking longer than expected, therefore, we are moving the December 5^th Planning Commission presentation to Thursday, January 9, 2020. 

 

Here is the updated project timeline:

 

Planning Commission Presentation

Thursday, January 9, 2020, 2:30 PM

City Hall Annex Council Chamber

900 Bagby St., Houston, TX 77002

 

 

Planning Commission Public Hearing

Thursday, February 20, 2020, 2:30 PM

City Hall Annex Council Chamber

900 Bagby St., Houston, TX 77002

12 minutes ago, Houston19514 said:

 

Curious why you're not too excited about Kirby.

Wasn't a fan of him at AA. Reputation as a hard cost cutter. That didn't work well with Smisek and it killed morale. 

Oh man, my friends says Loro is absolutely delicious. Can't wait to try this. 

Someone making the bet about the Astros losing a big chunk of their surface lots from NHHIP?

4 minutes ago, Texasota said:

That's great. I'm a little concerned about the sections proposed to be neighborhood bikeways, but overall it looks pretty good.

With the cost/effort they were spending, I would assume that they might not have much of a choice. 

https://sbmd.org/trailsurvey/

Link to 200+ page report (which I've only glanced through)

TLDR: 10.75 miles of new length. About 7 off-street trail. 

First 2.4 mile segment construction to start next year 

Signature bridge to go over White Oak Bayou: 

7 hours ago, samagon said:

 

ah. so this is a United bashing party. Carry on.

Looks like we were so mean in this thread we caused Oscar to step down 😂

I'm actually pretty sad about that because he's done such a great job after $misek. Not too excited about Kirby tbh.

1 hour ago, Houston19514 said:

 

Mai's  Open 'til 3 am

Cali Sandwich & Pho  open 'til 9pm

Simply Pho  open 'til 10pm

 

 

Thought I was gonna checkmate you by saying on a Sunday at 8pm, but turns out Simply Pho is open on Sundays until 10. 

7 hours ago, corbs315 said:

what?

I SAID THAT A NEW FOOD HALL IS COMING...

But yeah, pretty much what I thought.

I'm just looking forward to potentially being able to get a banh mi after 8pm in midtown. 

Oh wow. Do we know what's going in?

This really sucks, but having a modern commercial spot at that corner would be nice.