JJxvi

Seems like a West Ave style mixed use apt complex would do well in this area on a parcel of this size.

http://blog.chron.com/primeproperty/2014/06/galleria-area-development-site-trades-hand/

High rise?!!! I live within 1000 ft of this thing now!  OMG! Revolt! Traffic! Out of scale! They're ruining the neighborhood!

Its hard for me to see how those single family communities nestled right up to Uptown Park, 4 Oaks Place, and Riverway are going to successfully argue that highrises and big commercial developments are a problem for them.

The Heights forum has been dead without him.  His mocking of the peddlers of the Yale St. "Bridge of Death" was priceless.

The actual neighborhood is dead, killed by WalMart. Nobody even lives there anymore.

Reminds me of the AD Players theater

Which reminds me of a Ford dealership!

I like how he threw in the sunset reference to make it crystal clear he isn't concerned about views.

Isn't it green under those bridges right now?

From that angle it reminds me of the design for new Ford dealership showrooms.

This is an interesting location for a large multifamily development, IMO.  Its going to be an apartment complex with no major road access in the middle of a sea of single family (though admittedly a sea of pretty dense large townhomes)? 

If I was in the market for another home and a realtor suggested the Heights, I'd quickly say no and find another realtor. 

 

You sound like a great person to do business with.  If I felt that strongly, I'd probably just tell my realtor "No, I don't like the Heights" and move on to their next suggestion.

Or maybe you wouldn't really do that and its all a crazy exaggeration.

I'd like to meet the powerful executive willing to snuff out careers from the strands of time in order to preserve his beloved tree.

At least it doesn't look like a jail.

Perhaps you're right and we'll wish that the neighbors had all done more petitions and put out signs to "Stop the Heights Hotel Driveway!" but I doubt it. 

Also this driveway is just the covered luggage drop off, not the main traffic driveway.  The main car entry and exit to the parking garage is on 4th St.

 

The finger wagging really needs to go at whoever bought this property with plenty of notice (i.e. look at google maps notice) that there would be an issue with the driveway cut and the proximity of the feeder. 

Well, I'm a bit of an odd duck, but MY hope is that common sense would rule and that people would realize that this is obviously a commercial lot on a multi-lane access rd for a 10 lane major highway and is not remotely going to be dumping people into the middle of a neighborhood and grant a variance.

Thank God we don't have property laws that are on stone tablets like the 10 commandments saying "THOU SHALT NOT BUILD THY HOTEL DRIVEWAY ON A RESIDENTIAL STREET EVEN IF THE ONLY PLACE PEOPLE ARE GOING TO GO TO AND FROM YOUR PROPERTY IS STRAIGHT ONTO THE HIGHWAY"

My goodness, I hope these Hotel residents won't get lost in the Heights.  Hopefully they will be able to find I-10 somehow from the hotel's driveway.

As for light rail one of Houston biggest neg point is getting around, even DT.. I was downtown and a guy in a business suit asked me how to get to dynamo staduim ( The fact that he did not know how to get to DT from DT was a dead give away he was not from here. Now if the rail was up and running at the time how easy would it have been to say go one block over and take the purple line it will drop you right off in front of it.. Instead of telling him the names of a bunch of streets he was most likey not going to remember.. or sending him all the way to the transfer center to catch the bus.. or all the way back up the block to the greyhond to catch a cab... or saying yea it a 7 block walk in Houston heat

I would have just turned and pointed a single finger silently. A helpful downtown direction giving version of the Ghost of Christmas Yet To Come.

I bet the Super Bowl would be totally ruined if they don't get that light rail extension done...

No effect.

I disagree.

That block is parceled up between 5 or 6 unrelated owners.

Ah, so since this is outside of the Woodlands and Houston city limits, then this area does have lower taxes?

Exxon should expect to be annexed to Houston.

The problem I have with the current method of building higher and higher capacity roads that run further and further away from the city center, with regard to "efficiency" is that it is no doubt inherently more inefficient than building high capacity transportation in the central city. It takes exponentially more land, more miles, more vehicles, more fuel to cover the transportation costs of 5 million people spread over 10,000 square miles than it does to cover the transportation of 5 million people spread over 2,000 square miles.

The only way it is more "efficient" is that more of the cost is borne by the user.  And as time goes by, more and more of the costs are being shifted as even the initial construction costs are being financed by the future users through tolls, because its really damned expensive to have big roads to all areas 20-50 miles from city centers.

Freeways are cheap for government when you consider the ongoing costs are shifted to the user.  The average I-10 driver probably uses up $5,000 (or more? $10,000? I duuno) per year in depreciation, fuel costs, registration and safety compliance, maintenance, some amount of real estate costs for storage of the vehicle, possibly financing costs related to the vehicle, insurance, etc.  350,000 times $5000 is annual ongoing costs of almost $2 billion per year paid by the users (plus on I-10 you also have fees being charged to some users as well). I dunno how that should get allocated to just I-10 (since some portion of the costs would be allocated to trips on other roads), but my guess is a significant portion of some commuters annual transportation costs come from miles on I-10.

I think in a perfect world Houston would consolidate freeway ROW in the downtown area.  It's fairly useless to have highway on all borders, particularly ones that are just passing through without providing good access.