BWSchultz

Maybe so, but I wouldn't rule out pure greed.

For example, from my perspective they are getting ripped off, because SCR probably has 8-10 times more residents than my subdivision (ST), yet our HOA dues were not increased this year, even after all the money that AWH spent to repair Ike damage here.

I have also heard, true or not, that HOA dues have gone up simply because not everyone is paying. So those that do pay have to make up for your neighbor that doesn't pay. Because the unfortunate thing is that the cost to prosecute someone for NOT paying can be considerable. And may or not be worth it. I've paid all 4 of my years and don't know of anyone who hasn't but it actually seems fairly logical to me. I for one would like to see a detailed breakdown of revenue/expenses. Because in my opinion, the number of houses increased far more than the amount of services in the last four years. Amount of landscaping is nearly the same. I think the 3rd rec facility opened about three years ago (and the fourth was supposed to be already open but hasn't started. So where is all the money going? I guess there was maybe some overtime to fix a few hundred trees after Ike but that's all I got. Doesn't the developer also get some of our MUD taxes (to then pay the city)? I realize it's paying for different things but the idea of the MUD tax is protect the developer and the city while spreading the burden to the taxpayers.

SCR is obviously in a recession - my builder is pulling out of our subdivision for at least 6 months after they finish four more homes. But I don't really believe that SCR is actually losing residents. It's gotta be going up, even if it's very slowly. But I don't think the costs should be rising... what has really been added in the last 3 years? If they were operating at a deficit all along well, then they must be related the federal government, I guess.

Agreed about the traffic. The intersection of Shadow Creek Parkway and Business Center Drive badly needs a traffic light, what with all the people trying to turn there for access to Nolan Ryan Jr. High, Bucee's, and the businesses down by HEB.

Business center and SC Parkway is a death trap. People are always making stupid left turns of out of bucees. Speed limit is still 45... used to be 60 of course so that's what most people are still doing. But slow down even more than that! Oh, and be smart about when you go to Bucees. I never make a left turn out of there. I always stop on the way home so it's right turn in, right turn out. And that's what I'll do until they put a stop light there.

Many of you know that the current construction on west 518 has placed stop signs at the intersection of 518/Half Moon Bay/Southern Trails Drive. It occurred to me that stopping there is probably good practice for us, since eventually a stop light will go up at that intersection. (At least, that is what Ashton Woods told us at our HOA meeting last month.)

I would guess that stoplights at 518/southern trails drive and at 518/kingsley will be part of the construction effort. At least, I would hope it is. I doubt they lost too much time due to Ike so they should still be on track to finish before Christmas. I haven't taken a bike ride recently to see how the progress is doing on the new stretch of 518 west of Kingsley, however. Last I saw, they were working hard near the new intersection of Windward Bay (SCR side) with 518.

The old stretch of 518 between Half Moon Bay/ST Drive and Kirby has been closed. Traffic is now diverted to use the brand new stretch of 518 that was laid between those intersections.

The new stretch of road seems nice, although I'm not sure of it's drainage. I didn't see a reassuring number of storm drains...

I think I drove past in the afternoon after Ike and water was not on the new road, only in the dirt area to the south of 518, east of southern trails. It was pooling back there but the road itself was ok.

On a happier note, Wendy and I must try the Thai Cottage soon!

Thai Cottage is excellent. I have been enjoying them for years over in Clear Lake for lunch. I told them as soon as I moved to SCR two years ago that they need to put in another restaurant in SCR. I told them the area was booming! They finally listened to me. My wife and I are absolutely thrilled to have a Thai restaurant nearby finally.

I wouldn't cross 2234 on foot with or without stoplights for at least five years. By then, the speed limit will be 30 mph and there will be 8 to 10 stoplights from 521 to 288.

I understand that the library should be accessible to a large number of people. But some should still be able to walk to it. I mean, the most accessible place to the largest number of people would be to put it over by the HEB but I don't see that as beneficial.

Would any SCR library be a branch of Brazoria County? The sign along SCR Parkway that has been there forever is in Brazoria County. Or would it be a city of Pearland library? Teaming up with Brazoria or Harris would give access to a lot more books from sister libraries. I don't know how this works.

I agree that putting it on the "outside" of SCR is a bad idea. It needs to be on the inside, preferably as close to the center of SCR as possible. I don't like the idea of keeping everything on the perimeter of the development as it stifles the sense of community. The Laura Ingalls Wilder school is the most centric non-residential building.

It's hard to believe Shadow Creek Parkway will remain a 2 lane country road for another four years. My biggest concern is that they will be putting up stoplights soon, out of necessity for safety, at the Marketplace entrance (east of Business Center drive) and then another light at Business Center drive. Perhaps a third at Reflection Bay. With only one lane in each direction, we'll be headed for gridlock at the busy times of day. It also seems to me that they should be doing 6 lanes on 2234 right away instead of going from 4-6 a few years later. I feel they could spend a little more money up front to save a lot more on the back end. But I certainly don't understand city finances. The way I read it, they project $11 million to go from 2-4 lanes and $20 million to go from 4-6 lanes on a shorter stretch. Probably some inflation in that.

I was at the PTC on Wednesday night and found the traffic to not be a problem at all! Everything ran very smoothly especially if you were an SCR resident. Getting across 288 to go back to silverlake looked to be more of a problem due to the short light going east on broadway.

I guess there was a fair amount of traffic for the people who decided to do a driving tour by going straight through the center. But that would be silly, right? I parked on the side of BJs and walked to all the stores in 3 minutes. My wife and I put in a reservation at BJs, they said it would be an hour, so we went for a walk around the complex and enjoyed the look of things. Went to B&N, bought a book, walked back to BJs 40 minutes later and they seated us immediately. It all worked very well.

I think it's funny how the biggest traffic problem with the new mall is actually the short light to get over to the silverlake side, which has always been a problem. I just left the mall via Kirby and it was easy.

That's not entirely true. Sometimes it IS necessary to stare. They are only outlawing UNnecessary staring, for instance, staring at mediocre chicks is unnecessary. Staring at hot chicks, however, is very necessary.

Finally someone who gets it!

I did a loop around around PTC the other day and yeah, it looks nice. Not as many high-quality stores as I would like but that's the way it is. I'm just happy to have a bookstore finally. Sometimes it's just necessary to browse instead of dealing with the cold Amazon.com.

I have friends who live east, near Halfmoon Bay Dr (0.7 miles east of Kingsley Drive, opposite to Southern Trails Drive) who could smell this many times. The smell will not be thru out the day. Most of times I noticed was during the night after 11pm and before 8 am.

That is correct. It's mostly late at night and early in the morning. I live about 0.5 miles west of Kingsley and I could smell it 4 times in the last two weeks. Prior to that I hadn't noticed it for a couple of months.

I did not know about it before I bought my house three years ago. Did I not do enough due diligence? Probably not. But I still love my house and big backyard. And it's not like I'm going to live in SCR forever. I just don't want to take a loss which is what most people are doing right now selling homes in SCR. I know a few people who took 20k-50k losses just to get away from the landfill. That's not cool with me. I'm too young to take that kind of damage. But I do think home prices will stabilize in the next 2-3 years out there with better infrastructure and entertainment.

I certainly didn't mean to sound antagonistic in my post; I was just making some observations. I don't post as often as I like but I have read everything under "Coastal Prairie" before it was even called that for about four years niw. I lived in Clear Lake for 3 years and now SCR for 2 years.

My wife and I chose SCR because it provided us with some measure of equality in terms of commute at an affordable price. I work in CL and she works downtown. If we had lived in east Pearland, my commute might be 5 minutes shorter, but hers would be 30 minutes longer. I don't want to make generalizations but people choose to live in East or West Pearland for very different reasons. East is more of a self-sustaining community. I live on the west side because of the easy access to Houston. We'd live inside the loop if we could afford the type of house we want. Hopefully, in a couple of years, if we're still in Houston, that will be a possibility.

I actually find the traffic in both the west side and the east to be fairly equal. I've been through the area around 35/518/Dixie Farm enough times to get a general idea of things. Having been in both areas at 5pm on a weekday, I'd say that the east side probably has the worse traffic on the main roads.

The reason I joined this board in the first place was the strong community here that wants to see Houston improve. Unfortunately, too many people see that as a "I hate Houston" vibe which isn't true at all. It's just a desire to improve and not become stagnant. There's a million threads on here about Houston needs to stop trying to be like <insert city here> and just be itself. Having been here for all of five years, I have seen a lot of improvement inside the city and beyond the city limits and that's a really good thing. While some see it as being too critical, it's that kind of discussion that I think really does benefit all of us.

Hmmm... I guess I fit the type of person you mention having problems with - northerners. I'm from Wisconsin and I wish many things could be better here but that doesn't mean I'm a complainer or a Houston hater. Obviously, I had problems with Wisconsin, too. The best part of living here is the endless supply of restaurants and entertainment in Houston and the very low cost of living. That's why quick freeway access to Houston is important to me. To some extent, that does mean I live in a "bedroom community" so seeing more development in the west Pearland area is exciting for me. I won't go into Houston any less but it would be great to have some higher quality choices nearby.

Since this is mostly about restaurants... Tokyo Bowl is all right and I go to their CL location every now and then for lunch. Generally, if I'm doing sushi I'll go to Azuma or Uptown Sushi. And I've been to the Perry's on Bay Area Blvd a number of times. I would really enjoy a restaurant of that similar quality in west Pearland. I'm just tired of the typical chains. I understand that chains are family friendly and all but it's true, I don't go out to eat in Pearland much at all. I was recently recommended O'Cajcen Seafood Restaurant but we haven't made it there yet. We go to On the Border once every 6 weeks or so but that's about it. Or we'll pick up some central market meals from HEB. The rest of the time we're in Houston for dinner, especially on Fridays and Saturdays. From my house, east Pearland has to compete with Houston because it takes the same time to get to both on a Friday or Saturday night. That's a tough battle for east Pearland to win with my stomach.

brerrabbit, every time you post here, it's about how great east pearland is and how great the restaurants are. But you never back it up. I can't decide if you're hiding something great from the rest of us or if you're just hiding over there. Trust me, if I'll drive 35 minutes to work and 30 minutes for fine dining in Houston (restaurants you've probably never heard of) , I'll drive 15 minutes down 518 ... if it's worth it.

Landry's is a nice restaurants but they are overpriced. Everything in the Landry's chain is overpriced. But that's ok.

I definitely think West Pearland can support nicer restaurants and nicer shopping. In my very average priced subdivision, there are about 45 houses and there's a doctor or attorney living in almost every one of them.

hbcu, what would be a 'real' seafood restaurant or a 'real' hamburger joint? Or a 'legitimate' Chinese restaurant? All I can gather from your posts over the years is that you were here before there were houses.

I'm essentially middle class and live in SCR and there are very, very few places I'll go to eat or shop in Pearland. The new PTC offers very little of an improvement. Which is why I was excited that the Waterlights District was going to be offering some higher end restaurants. If you're going to drop in 44 15 foot tall presidential heads (most of which are completed) and the idea is to form a more touristy type place, I don't know why there wouldn't be nicer restaurants. I think this is a "build it and they will come" type venture. What can I be excited about at PTC? I'm happy to have a BJs since I've been to the one in Clear Lake about 30 times, it's a good place to meet friends, grab a beer, watch a game. As for shopping? I'll go to Macy's and that's it really. My wife is happy there's an Ann Taylor Loft but what about Banana Republic and others? The restaurants in the area definitely need a kick in the pants. No Pappas yet? Really? They usually come in pairs so let's see Pappadeaux and Pappasitos soon. The SCR area can definitely support some nicer restaurants; it's easy to see from the demographic numbers put out by all these developers. But the thing is, if there is too much that caters to the lowest common denominator, then there won't be room for nicer things in Pearland. I only hope that Waterlights is reevaluating things because of Promenade Shops falling through so that their new plan is bigger and better.

Are my eyes deceiving me? Is that a Berryhill I see on the site plan? That has long been on my wishlist. Let the parties begin!

I actually don't see Berryhill listed on the maps...

Overall, I'm still slightly disappointed by the list of stores. I'm over the age of 21 so I was hoping for some more adult stores than Chico's or Hollister. Specifically, it would be nice if there was a Jcrew or Banana Republic. But thank goodness for a book store!

Sucks that feeder roads are coming in. 288 is a pretty well planned freeway though. Should be very easy to expand, because all you have to do is add a lane to the middle, and you would still have room for commuter rail or an HOV lane.

Commuter rail? What city do you live in? I'm imagining a similar situation as the new Katy Freeway with multi "express, aka big toll" lanes going down the middle of 288 with dedicated off ramps INTO the medical center. As for trains? Houston prefers buses and concrete.

The feeders will help traffic flow with these massive new developments. However, I don't like the exit they made to the feeder/Spectrum on 288 southbound. That's going to be accident central once the Waterlights District opens up. I've already had nearly 3 accidents from people turning into the Bass Shop.

Speaking of speed traps and all of that, Shadow Creek Parkway has changed it's speed limits. I think it is 50 mph east of Kingsley, dropping to 45 east of Kirby. This is all in preparation for the expansive retail being built now and the Nolan Ryan Middle School opening in the fall.

Next up: Stoplights. I'm sure we'll see stoplights at Reflection Bay and Business Center Drive in no time. When they'll make the road a 4 or 6-lane divided street, I have no idea. My idea would be something like Bay Area Blvd in Clear Lake. If they only make 2234 four lanes, I would be disappointed. It's going to be very busy, very soon. Especially when they drop in another 2 or 3 stoplights.

Ah..thanks, I didn't know about this 'Spectrum'.

I'm not sure if anyone knows anything about the Spectrum project. It's been very shrouded in mystery. Much of it is supposed to be office buildings but let's wait 10 years for that to really take shape.

i guess my "lifestyle" is different cause i don't go to any of those stores on a regular basis. i have been to the disney store and BJ's however i wouldn't go to BJ's again. very weak.

I like BJs in Clear Lake for their beer and pizza. That's worth it, IMO. Most of the stores at the PTC look more high-schooly than I would like but whatever. I'm just happy there will be a Macy's and a B&N. Truthfully, I don't go to ANY store on a regular basis or an infrequent basis for that matter. There is this new-fangled thing called the "Internet" that ships stuff to my door.

living at a mall sure wouldn't be my thing.

It's not a mall, it's a "lifestyle center."

The entire complex is really starting to take shape. While progress has been quick lately, July 2008 is a bit optimistic, in my opinion.

The Beer Guy at HEB told me yesterday that HEB will be getting their new liquor license on 12/20 or 12/21 at which point they will be able to greatly increase their beer selection. I was unaware that the current laws prohibited quantity (and thus quality) of beer. Absolutely fascinating to me. Or maybe it's certain brands that are deemed inappropriate for the general population? I don't know. But the beer guy seemed pretty stoked about this and was telling everyone who was pondering the beer selection choices.

I don't know if they'll be able to sell wine the same day or not. My priority was beer last night and wine slipped my mind.

That white brick is ugly to me, but some like it.

Yeah, some love it. The couple who built it are from Miami. Maybe white brick is more popular there? There's another home now in Brookglen on the lake that almost looks orange to me. I'm cool with some homes that look a little different. Gotta spice up the neighborhood.

We were watching BrookGlen for sometime and there is something intresting. RYLAND had a 1.5 story inventory home (lake view) on White falls drive listed for 345K last January. We saw (in their HoustonChornicle ad) the same house listed for 273K few months before. That is a PURE 20% markdown. That is the day I confirmed Houston market is weakening. (It appears that house is sold now).

Oh, I know that house. I even met the couple before they backed out because of the landfill. (They moved to the other end of SCR). Personally, I found the house to be rather ugly (and that's saying something for the burbs where everything is made out of ticky-tacky and we all look just the same). It was white brick and had not-so-nice prego floors almost everywhere. And then black appliances with black countertops. To each their own but man, just not my style at all.

Another house sold on White Falls for about 20% off new. I think that one was the first person who sold after moving in to the house. I would guess there have at least 8 dropouts before closing day in the last year. Some because of money, most because of landfill. If I knew about the landfill before I bought, I obviously would not have. That said, I know SCR is going to recover just fine because of the massive retail developments along 288. Much of that will be up and running by next summer along 518.

Just a couple stats from my little corner of SCR, Brookglen. My wife and I moved into our house in May 2006 as the 13th of about 72 homes. Right now, there are about 35 homes built or lots sold. So that's about 22 sales in 18 months. I'm sure that is much slower than they'd like. Especially when Perry in the adjacent subdivision is at about 75/110 homes built right now. Granted, Perry keeps a larger inventory but the homes are ready to move in now and that seems to be a priority for Perry. For me, I just like to see homes spring up. I still don't have a neighbor to my right, despite the lot being bigger than average for no premium. There have about 10 consecutive homes built with smaller lots. Someone please build next to me! It doesn't makes sense!

Sooooo, is the HEB going to have Beer and Wine, or what?

Beer? Of course. Wine? I believe that will be up for the general election in November. Enough signatures were acquired. Unless I'm wrong, that's what I think will be happening. If it passes in November, I think wine sales can start January 1st. Anyone, feel free to correct me.