kris3179

HISD is asking $9,000,000 from the City of Houston.

HISD purchased the land in the 1950s for $65k. They have a real estate option with the City of Houston for $9 million, but the city is only willing provide $4,000,000. The rest of the money must be raised by the community by 12/31/06 (option expiration date) or the property goes to the highest bidder.

Timbergrove, Lazybrook, Old Timbergrove, Shady Acres,and Heights neighboorhood associations are very much involved in the fund-raising efforts. The residents just discovered that this land would be sold 2 months ago. Prior to that everyone believed that the City of Houston permantly secured the land based on what the civic clubs were told.

The land currently appraises for $12,000,000, but HISD is giving the city a "deal." I personally do not agree with HISD charging the tax-payers $9 million for land that was bought with tax money to begin with.

The Timbergrove civic club found out by accident while someone was attending an HISD board meeting.

While I concede the CAPS is annoying, I did this to get anyone's attention who cares about preserving greenspace in the city. I did not intend to SPAM the group, but rather try and get support from a group that displays interest in the happenings of our city. I visit the forum weekly and have received wonderful information on many occasions.

I currently live in Rice Military and anyone who is familiar with the "townhome disease" in our neighborhood would not want to wish this on anyone. This 21 acre is in a deed-restricted neighborhood and this parcel would not be subject to any restrictions and therefore anything could be constructed. It currently has over 99 species of birds, 1800 trees and the tallest cluster of pine trees in Houston.

The recent study on air pollution identified downtown and the ship channels areas as having the highest levels of particulate matter. The proximity of this forest to downtown does help filter some of this. Greenspace inside the loop is finite and once it is gone, that's it.

People will continue to move to Houston but who wants to move inside the loop if you can't enjoy the outdoors because the air quality is so poor? People will just continue to choose the suburbs over downtown.

Besides the nature argument, it is wrong that HISD used tax-payer money to purchase this parcel from UT 55 years ago for education purposes and now wants to charge the city and tax-payers $9million to have it back. They have never paid taxes on this property and after 55 years now they want to sell to the highest bidder.

Do you have a survey of just how many Houstonians use this park everyday for jogging and biking ? Does it rival Memorial Park ? Or, is it just another nice area for Bums, to lounge around and set up camp, or for drug users to go run off and get their highs ? What kind of developments have been announced for going up in this area ? Is there a townhome development in place to start breaking ground on Jan.1,2007, or is that just speculation from your groups part ?

If you use the links I originally provided you would not have these questions. This will be my last reply to you.

Have a nice day!

You think we'll lose all 1800 trees ? Are they just building a 20 acre parking lot ?

I think you might be missing the point. This is a 21 acre urban forest benefitting all Houstonians. Once this is gone, it cannot be re-created. This is not just about the tree, but a quality of life issue for all of those living in the city.

I am gonna have to be in the opposition to your crusade here. 20 acres of newly developed land is not gonna make a big dent, besides, there will be lots of trees left in place I am sure. I am also sure that Houston's Urban development has done plenty of research into that area to insure proper standards are met in the development of said area.

You are doing alot of assuming.

Do you the know the impact of over 1800 mature trees to the quality of air?

Everyone on this forum has always been very helpful and a great wealth of information to me in the past, and now I feel the need to share too.

The City of Houston could soon lose over 20 acres of Urban Forest located inside the 610 loop to real estate development. It is the last remaining un-protected forest in the city and if $3.5 million is not raised by 12/31/2006 this natural preserve could be lost forever.

At a time where Houston AIR QUALITY is making headlines locally and nationally for being ranked among the lowest in the nation, we could sustain yet another blow to our air quality through the loss of this urban forest.

I urge everyone to get involved and SPREAD THE WORD and let City Hall know that air-quality is a major concern and that chopping down 20 acres of trees only makes our air WORSE.

www.savethispark.org - Grass-roots website to spread the word

www.west11thstreetpark.org - detailed information about the park

www.houstonparksboard.org - On-line donations to save the park

Everyone on this forum has always been very helpful and a great wealth of information to me in the past, and now I feel the need to share too.

The City of Houston could soon lose over 20 acres of Urban Forest located inside the 610 loop to real estate development. It is the last remaining un-protected forest in the city and if $3.5 million is not raised by 12/31/2006 this natural preserve could be lost forever.

At a time where Houston AIR QUALITY is making headlines locally and nationally for being ranked among the lowest in the nation, we could sustain yet another blow to our air quality through the loss of this urban forest.

I urge everyone to get involved and SPREAD THE WORD and let City Hall know that air-quality is a major concern and that chopping down 20 acres of trees only makes our air WORSE.

www.savethispark.org - Grass-roots website to spread the word

www.west11thstreetpark.org - detailed information about the park

www.houstonparksboard.org - On-line donations to save the park