kjb434

The Katy Freeway will lose the need for a train when the construction ends. The HOT lanes will provide higher volume transit that the raill would provide.

The section to US 90 is not finished yet. The toll road is pushed by the developers and will provide some relief to US 59 by letting traffic access the south and west loops from S Post Oak. This project will also make the land between the Beltway and the Loop along it's corridor developable because of access.

All the money they spend on advertising is one of the many problems they have experienced. To build a building like this, they set up a group of investors and partners. If they begin to squabble back an forth, the project could just end.

I see this project going forward faster now the hurricane has hit.

We need to stop over reacting. Sure, some buildings will get damaged, but the city will not get destroyed. I've been sick of all the coverage on the news exaggerating how bad this is really is. The 30 feet of water thing will not happen. This gets me sick when people take this information and don't know what they are talking about. Every year in the spring time the Mississippi River reaches high on it levees from all the snow melt up north. The spillways are opened up to lower the river. Remember the big midwestern flood of '93? New Orleans and Baton Rouge were fine. The Lake Ponchartrain Levees can hold up to 18' surges. The 20-30 predicted surge will get buffeted down before they hit the citie portion of the lake. Don't for get there are tons of swamps to the west of Lake Ponchartrain and the on the north side to absorb this water before it breaches the levees. Sure, there will be flooding in the streets, but that happens all the time in major rains. I just don't see this being that bad. I just received phone calls from people all over south Louisiana. Power it out, but cell phones are still operating currenlty. I think the biggest appearance of damage will be window blowouts from the skycrapers (because the windows don't open). Trees will also be an issue, but that's in every Hurricane.

Well, one good thing is to be said is that Randal Davis rarely dissappoints. From the time I started hearing about the Empire project on here to consruction was fairly quick. The website actually went up shortly before construction started. I think this project will be a little different due to its size, but his track record is impressive and I feel a little better about it moving forward. I guess Houston-development will tell us in the future if we are just blowing smoke up our a$$ or if it really is going to happen.

^^^ lol Yeah, because by the time we have reached near dallas, we would have all of southeast texas already. Anyway, If any of you have seen the Houston ETJ boundary, you'll agree it's pretty impressive. Almost any part of unicorporated Harris County is free to be annexed and portions of Fort Bend, Waller, Montgomery, and Liberty Counties. The rule of thumb is approximately a 5 mile radius around the Houston city limits. Also, Houston has lots of strip annexations along highways for only the right of way (which is illegal now in the state of Texas) which increase the ETJ substantially. The 5 mile radius thing will vary with the size of the city enforcing the ETJ.

The project site is a good piece of land for a project like this. Maybe one day another developer will by the land and definitely change any Orion names and propose another project. We can all dream. Good thing what was already built (welcome center and entrance driveway) is fairly hiden from any major road. It won't really appear as a busted project to people passing by.

I guess they are doing to scouting work for the new frontier before the City Annexes. They also could be doing some off duty work since the Woodlands doesn't really have a police force. Also, anything within the ETJ will probably have a City of Housotn manhole cover.

Yeah, And many of those trees aren't that old or can be grown fairly quickly.

I haven't hear anything since this thread. As with many proposals, after the initial excitement it dies down until someone finds it's not a go or it's getting ready to start.

You are the one getting your hopes up. If the developer does drum up press on PROPOSALS (not garunteed), then he can get more sources of finacial backing to make the project go through. This in particular to residential projects. If finacing falls through or if the group of interested parties faulter (Orion), then the project goes. That's why know who the development group an their history is just as important as the proposal.

Toll Descriptio page with Maps I don't think there should be any between the Belt and I-610. The toll-lanes are primarily for people living outside the belt. They are going to pay to use the facility. The toll portion will end once inside the loop. Also, I-10 will be 4 lanes in each direction under I-610 unlike the current configuration of 3 in and 2 out. One of the major backups in each direction on I-10 will be removed and be for free to drive.

Why? Can there be two? There many stores in the Galleria, but there are many others that the Galleria doesn have. This may have been the reason the Pavillion didn't succeed in the first place. Some store may duplicate and possible move, but not necessarily. It would be good for Boulevard Place to pull in stores not typical to Houston or Uptown. Then it would be a different than the Galleria.

Yeah, most of the closings in this city was due to mergers or other conditions outside of the economic situation in Houston. It's not something Houston could have prevented or stopped. They were just business decisions for those companies.

Don't think either will be better than the other. Both a little different. The Post Oak one is more fitting for the Uptown area by being a little more spread out. I think it'll be more of a Mall type than an entertainment type place. I think Houston Pavillons (downtown) will be more entertainment geared with restraunts and bars beside being mainly stores.

Perfectly OK for you to be that way. You looking out for yourself. Nothing like being slapped in the back of the head with a government action you didn't see comming. I wish more people were concernced citizens and ask questions about what happening.

Uptown is quite mixed used. Mixed-use doesn't mean pedestrian friendly urban environments. Developers invented the term mixed use many years ago with masterplanned suburban development and areas like Uptown. Only recently had the termed mixed-use been applied by urbanist and in building new projects in cities. I would still qualify Uptown as mixed use and I'm continually seeing people walking in Uptown along Post oak. Also, the Uptown management district is planning to slowly turn the streets in Uptown into more of a grid. The pavillions tearing down and rebuild will be a part of this when South Post Oak Lane connects to Ambassador Way. Click on "Connecting the Community Map- Uptown Street Connectors" Maps This is to creat a more of a grid concept in Uptown so that key roads won't handle all the traffic.

Hey, In the early 80s that was a possibility. I'm glad it didnt' happen though. It would probably be defunct now.

Houston would have never gotten a subway system. Not feasible for the city. Olympics wasn't a big lost, much of the improvement from an Olympics are already built such as the stadiums. Monorail does not provide good urban transit, but functions much better as a commuter rail for longer distance. METRO has already moved forward and is working on two commuter lines. Also, the improvements in downtown and inner core urbanization is impressive over the last 10 years. Uptown continues to see massive growth. The TMC and the area around doesn't seem to stop moving either. This city and region has done a lot. Sure we let some things go, but you can't live in regret. Look at all the stuff that's comming up.

The Eastern portion is still open. I know the path is crazy and doesn't make sense, but since the I-69 is primarily being pushed because of truck traffic and freight the eastern portion will take it through the port and around the city. The are already build the section south of I-10 to the Harris County line. Eventually it'll use the new bridge acros the bay and head down 146 to Galveston County. Then it'll head west until it meets up with US 59. This will would be a great truck route for bypassing the city and not taking it through the primarily residential north. When the Grand Parkway was mentioned relieveing traffic, they meant shifting of truck traffic from the core of the city. I don't think they conveyed this information correctly though, implying it was for relieving commuter congestion. Also, TxDOT is looking at the TTC as mention before and I think you are well aware of to handle I-69.

we have a thread on it somewhere, also the project has a real nice new website.

Also, The Venezuelan Oil Company owns all the Citgos in America (a lot) and some refining and transport facilities. This company has now been taken over by Chavez. He runs it. I don't know what will happen with this.

I think some of the city council members from poor socio-economic areas of the city would be the ones that oppose TIRZ expansion. They clame the TIRZs are just boondogles for developer and rich people and don't benefit everyone. This can be the sticking points. Also, if you were a city council member from a district that doesn include downtown but includes uptown, would you be for it. This could hurt your district. I don't think it'll be a slam dunk, but I can see Mayor White putting his political force in support of the TIRZ expansion and talk about how good it will be for the overall city and squash other opposing council members.

Chavez is going deep into Communism passing up Socialism. It's all to common for Communism, once in power, to abolish all other politcal parties and thought. Then, they can never be ousted. Except for a revolution. Venuzuala has a chance to be a premier country, but taking this country to the extreme political left where it enters communism will only make it turn downhill. The oil also give him some leverage in power on the World Stage, but his power is little diminshed as he is part of OPEC. Which means he has to follow there decisions unless he pulls out from them. This could be good for us. He will then have to sell his Oil on the free market and could underprice OPEC like Russia often does. We need to start producing more of our own oil since we have tons of reserves that haven't been tapped. This will aleviate some of our dependance on other oil producers.