Triton

This is turning into a damn circus. I feel like everyone's backed themselves into a corner. My bet is this project moves forward after the midterms. 

5 hours ago, Triton said:

Did the Alley shut down? It's not listed on their website nor appears on Google Maps. 

Went there tonight. Not sure what happened to the Alley but it got replaced by Ice Ice Boba. Maybe that was the plan all along or did the franchise name get pulled. Talked to a few people and apparently that's not quite easy to do... So not sure what happened here. 

Did the Alley shut down? It's not listed on their website nor appears on Google Maps. 

Interesting. I guess we are the opposite of most countries then. lol

There is a very real possibility the federal government may want to jump start transit projects in cities hosting the World Cup. We've seen this done in other countries.

Ah yes, our neighborhood met with Bike Houston about this project. We have a lot of concerns around traffic volumes during concerts at White Oak Music Hall, which there are surprisingly a lot of. So they are revisiting a few of the intersections along the route to see if they can add in right and left turn lanes here and there. That being said, the project is ready to go forward once they get final approval from TXDOT.

Phase 1 is from Pecore to Boundary.

Phase 2 is Pecore to Airline.

Sort of poor timing but another contractor is repaving N Main right now. Wish they had waited for the bike lanes to come in so they don't have to remark it twice.

I think this project is looking more dead by the day but my main concern is the major price increases on everything that make this project harder to see going forward.

That being said, I'm not sure how you can say it was never financially feasible. This is a private company... I'm pretty sure they had detailed analysis on how they could make this thing run, in the right conditions. Plus, I'm sure support from the federal government was going to be part of the goal as well.

Edit:

That being said, I don't see how any American can applaud this project's demise. Seeing a private company trying to accomplish what other developed nations have proven time and time again... to see that come to our soil... to see a group of people trying to actually build something, instead of tearing it down... that truly says something. Almost all the infrastructure you drive on today was once someone's property and sometimes it takes some fields to get things built in this country. We don't dream big anymore and if this project were to collapse, this would further strengthen that argument.

Makes me wonder how many years it will take before they buy the Target property and convert it. The way they developed this, it would be very easy to connect all the way to San Felipe. 

I think Railway Heights was a good addition to the area

Railway Heights by Marc longoria, on Flickr

Bike Trail Connection by Marc longoria, on Flickr

7 hours ago, sapo2367 said:

I haven't biked it but I believe it is open today

It's open:

New Heights Bike Trail by Marc longoria, on Flickr

Is this going across the train tracks? Or is this somehow going around it?

Looks like the original I-45 website is gone. Anyone know where I can get the detailed PDF schematics at?

https://www.txdot.gov/nhhip.html

It's the exact opposite on all the points you guys stated. 

It's not so the rich can protect their homes. I'm on the Northside and it's to protect lower income Hispanic residents who can be priced out of their area by developers looking to make a buck on multiple townhomes on a single lot. 

And of course it's to "save our homes." That's not explicitly written in any document but it preserves the single family nature of an area if the residents care about such things. Some in an area aren't willing to commit to a historic designation because of the overhead it brings so this always felt like just one step below it, a compromise for residents. 

Look, you guys may not like residents having a voice and like to see all the new fancy commercial development come in. I get it. But zoning is the only thing some people have in a city with zero zoning laws. 

Most of you guys probably live in areas that have HOAs that offer your own protection. Us innerloopers don't have that luxury. 

Four homes were bulldozed before this was replatted for commercial use. It's not like this was commercial and the neighborhood fought to then make it residential. If you guys don't like these zoning laws, then what prevents developers from completely bulldozing the rest of the Heights (if they didn't have historic designation). Just turn the Heights into a commercial mecca right? 

6 hours ago, Texasota said:

Minimum lot size areas never should have been allowed to include lots on Studewood, and they never should have prevented replatting for non-residential purposes.

Excluding any kind of commercial use is anti-urban, backward thinking, and I'm glad this (pretty good looking) development was able to find a loophole.

It shows the city sided with developers over residents in the area. And there's a lot of residential on Studewood already so if residents want it, they should be allowed to have it.

Developers have a lot of tools at their hands to get what they want and residents should have some sort of tool too... And that's called zoning laws. 

Nice try with backward thinking and anti-urban argument... The truth is your silencing the voices of the people that live in the area and allowing people who have power and connections to get what they want. 

I spoke to my neighbors last night about this troubling fiasco that happened. There are a few odd exceptions here but the city made a very bad call. We filed for Minimum Lot Size near White Oak Music Hall to save our homes here and it's good to confirm that it looks like the same cannot happen where we are. 

On 8/17/2021 at 12:41 PM, Texasota said:

poor babies.

Wow can't disagree more with a comment here. 

We did the same thing in our neighborhood. We went door to door, collected signatures, presented our case to the city and after quite a bit of effort, passed Minimum Lot Size in our area. It was not an easy endeavor. I can't comprehend or even imagine the anger these residents must be filling.... This is so wrong on so many levels that the city is allowing this. This would cause a lot of people to doubt any zoning law trying to get enforced. 

Edit: rereading the article, the guy is exactly right. Newer ordinances should supercede older ones. "Sovereign said in an email this week he thinks newer Special Minimum Lot Size ordinances should supersede older ones, in part because there is a greater threshold for having them rescinded than there is for implementing them in the first place. The older block ordinances require at least 51 percent support from impacted property owners, according to Zorrilla, while the newer area ordinances require at least 55 percent support."

On 5/21/2020 at 10:55 PM, Triton said:

Sorry for the double post but here's a new rendering that matches up with the markers on site:

 

 

 

https://www.abcahouston.com/ouieats

It's been so many years since this info first came out. I wonder if any of this vendors are even going forward with this:

LEASE SPACE (S): 
First Floor
- VENDOR 1 | Oui Eats | ±1,246 SF
- VENDOR 2 | Available | ±1,248 SF
- VENDOR 3 | Good Dog Hot Dog | ±1,205 SF
- VENDOR 4 | Available | ±1,226 SF
- VENDOR 5 | Double Trouble | ±1,226 SF
Second Floor
- VENDOR 6 | The Lantern by Ruggles | ±5,833 SF

If they can build this, it's going to transform Chinatown. Here's to hoping we get a lot more Asian retail and restaurants in Houston!

On 5/16/2022 at 8:20 AM, hindesky said:

All those homes are gone today.

Interesting enough, they used the sites for parking tonight... with debris, nails, and everything else still on the property. Honestly surprised me.

4 hours ago, freundb said:

I would like to know as well. I came home tuesday and my freshly washed car is now covered in dust from that damn road.

Ha! Samething happened to me. It looks like they are digging down to the pipes below. Not sure either...

@Urbannizer is correct. Not sure if you saw the variance request or not.

Anyway, this is the proposal with N Main being on the top end of this schematic (attached).

White Oak Music Hall cancelled their variance request and will work with the city to widen E Woodland St nearby.

Since this thread is for Metro Next, I'm moving the topic back to that.

Yea, the below grade proposal honestly looks like the best one, since the buses simply keep traveling along the same line without having to make any turns or travel to an above-grade platform. 

Most will probably disagree with me here but I would hope they can maybe buy some additional land so they can at least maintain 4 lanes at all time. I see it goes down to two lanes abruptly next to the Jack in a Box... looks sort of like a bottle neck. I know the argument will be that that's the point... to shift away from vehicles but I feel like we need to make this work for all modes of transportation. Just my 2 cents.