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So what are our options? Leave them vacant...or leave the whole development vacant because it might take a while to sign someone up for one or two pads?

What a disappointment! Fast food instead of a chef driven restaurant when I'm leaving Wal*Mart? How could they do that!?

I guess your point is that if the WalMart in CS isn't a supercenter, then no WalMart is a Supercenter anymore, but the Heights store will not even come close to the size of that behemoth. I think the store in CS is probably at least 100,000 SF bigger than any store they could possibly stick at this location.

Some new renderings.

Come to think of it, I dont even think you can get to the Silber location from I-10 west. You either have to U-turn or exit the Old Katy/Post Oak exit at the loop.

You make this too easy. The new Walmart at Crosstimbers is not on the feeder road, even though the mailing address is I-45. Best access is via Crosstimbers, coincidentally, a 4 lane road, just like Yale. There is also a Walmart on Sawdust Road in the Woodlands that sits on a 4 lane road just like Yale, that is about a mile from any freeway. It does just fine. The 185,000 SF supercenter that they are building outside the loop will be on Silber, a 4 lane road with no median or center lane, and that site is between Westview and the feeder probably about 1000 ft from either one with no access to either except Silber itself. There is also no access/outlet at the rear of the property north south, east, or west. The only way to get to it AT ALL is Silber.

That's not even to mention just the fact that this WalMart will actually cut down my trips to Target since they are in competition and WalMart will be closer to my house, so its a positive impact from my personal traffic on Sawyer/IH10, with mostly minimal impact on Yale since I drive down Yale to I-10 to get to Target/PetsMArt/Staples ALREADY. Hell, if Ainbender can sign BoA as the bank branch and move them from Washington, my world will get a whole lot better as I will now be able to use Yale/I-10 exclusively for my trips to the bank rather than coming home from work down Memorial to Waugh, left on Washington and back up Yale to my house to/from their existing branch (waiting for my company to figure out that direct deposit exists, but whatever).

It seems like the entity with the most experience and expertise in "the infrastructure needed to support a WalMart store" is, well, WalMart and they seem to have decided that this location and developer have a site worth signing onto. Perhaps Heights residents know better? I know that I manage to go over to Target, Staples, PetsMart, etc, in addition to driving down Sawyer to get to Sawyer Park so the trips add up to multiple trips through that area per week and I never have a problem with traffic somehow. Theres a couple bank branches and fast food places over there, the stores I mentioned, plus a few restaurants, a loft apartment complex, and theres only 4 lanes in/out, no feeder road, no extra north/south thoroughfare like at Heights to help take some traffic to/from traffic from the secondary retail space, no other side street that also gives access from IH10 or Washington, and Sawyer is NOT grade separated at the railroad tracks, and somehow, someway there dont seem to be many problems at all... Of course you will no doubt counter with "SuperCenter" and 24 hour, as if a handful of cars at 2 am is going to cause a logjam at 5pm, or that a couple departments in WalMart are going to make up for more than the large amount of bigger secondary retail like PetsMart and Staples that are at Sawyer Heights, but whatever.

Koehler along the development is being widened to 44 feet (I assume thats 4 lanes) all the way from Bonner to Heights Blvd. I believe Bonner and Bass streets on the back side (assuming Yale is considered the frontage) are also being improved and widened. I think Bass was expected to be connect as an outlet/inlet from I-10 as well. And like you mention, they are building access to I-10 west from/to Yale now.

So what lower density use do you propose this 18 acre parcel be used for since, in your mind, it would clearly be too much of a traffic burden in this area?

"I spent my life savings buying a house next to a 18 acre industrial site located on a city of Houston designated major thoroughfare only 700 ft from a major interstate highway and now my life is ruined because they are building something there" doesnt exactly smack me as an argument put forward by the sharpest tacks in the cork board.

Agreed, nobody ever built anything undesirable like a WalMart in the suburbs.

We could do a little analysis of the mind of the Heights HAIFer, its like a computer program. Situation-COH wants to cuts down some trees to widen Yale. Thought-But I like the trees. Solution-The trees should not be cut down. Argument-Yale does not need to be widened. Supporting Fact-Traffic is not a problem on Yale. Situation-WalMart is building a store on Yale. Thought-But I dont like WalMart Solution-WalMart should not be built. Argument-WalMart will bring gridlock to Yale. Supporting Fact-Traffic is already a huge problem on Yale.

I long for the days (ie a year or so ago) when my neighbors were bitching incessantly that Yale was not a major thoroughfare, was not amajor traffic problem, and usually was a faster route than others such as Heights, and thus did not need to be widened, and that therefore some trees would not need to be cut down.

I can't keep up. Are you suggesting that commercial developments should be put on quiet side streets? I cant figure out if Yale is too small or too large and important for this store.

Perhaps you can get those apartments declared a historical landmark to commemorate the 70s-80s craptastical nature of the neighborhood.

O rly? I do not think it means what you think it means.

It was never "meant" to attract anything. In fact one of the negatives is that it seems to attract folks like you...

Are we to the point not where we can equate "Responsible Urban Development" as meaning "Dont build anything asshole!"

First they came for the new home developers but I did not speak up because I was not a new home developer Then they came for commercial developers, but I did not speak up because I was not a commercial developer Next they came for the burger and beer gardens....

How many years did we do fine in the Heights without preservation and histroic districts?

Step 1:Buy Appartment complex Step 2:Tell residents to move Step 3:Bulldoze your property ? Profit

Wal*Mart will most definitely increase the amount of crime committed on that block. Its inarguable. What most of the anti-WM folks won't tell you is that in the vast majority of the cases, Wal*Mart will be the victim of the crime. Cost of doing business.

I'm nostalgic for my youth. I think the Heights should remain perpetually as it was in 1987.

Rest easy friend. I imagine Ainbender will put in adequate parking to satisfy their anchor tenant and their many customers.