fwki

Or maybe a new chiller will fall from the heavens onto the roof

correction, 5am-5pm Sunday May 19, and ALL surrounding streets to be closed to vehicles and pedestrians, fairly extensive area.....Andrews, Shaw, Ruthven, Smith, Louisiana, Pease and Bell Employees will be allowed if work critical, but no exit or entrance 6am-8am and if necessary 5pm-8pm.

Both Chevron buildings are closed to all employees Saturday and today they placed a giant electronic sign stating Smith is closed at Clay 5am-9pm Saturday.

Placing him clearly in the lead of the “Do as I say, not as I Do” category of elitist pigs, HAHC radical hijacker David Bucek demolishes historic bungalow under “renovation” on the Menil campus. From Swamplot: http://swamplot.com/renovation-of-menil-bungalow-into-menil-cafe-will-be-more-extensive-than-originally-planned/2014-04-07/#comments It wouldn’t be so bad if he hadn’t bragged about it on the Stern and Bucek website linking here, here and here. Well, yeah, it would. I watched him lie to the Planning Commission in person as he unsuccessfully tried to block an HAHC appeal trying to force a back-wall starting point for a termite-infested dump renovation. I guess he found a termite or two at Menil….try that excuse when you beg for your CoA to demo a Heights bungalow….Bucek say no way homey, termites are good source of protein for you peons .

Oh yes, in general business travelers are idiots with very poor eyesight, and once on 4th St I don't think they'll stop at Heights, they will likely continue searching for I-10 across Yale and right into the Trammell Crow green space, spinning donuts all over the pristine White Oak Estuary and mosquito factory. Somebody alert the West Heights Coalition about this threat pronto. And in unanimously granting the variance, the Planning Commission did not even mention that if pigs could fly we'd have a Pink Floyd concert. It just goes to show you that the Heights is not well represented on this PC.

Variance granted, unanimous vote.

I'm not sure why anyone would oppose a new hotel on an interstate feeder surrounded by commercial tracts. One thing for sure, if it is built, I'll use it for friends and family, especially during events and holidays when Sara's is booked.

The agenda is big with all the plats, takes a minute or so to download, be patient and it will complete. The variance is for a typical hotel lobby driveway loop on Columbia since the rules say no hotel driveway on a residential street. They cite safety as a big reason with the highway exit right on top of Oxford St. They also state the main traffic entrance will be behind the hotel into the garage on 4th St. which is not residential. Edit: Here's just Item V attached Item V 2014-07_DraftAgenda.pdf

Hotel tower and parking garage, 148 rooms....I'm guessing 7 total floors including ground level lobby given the small foot print of 8,250 SF. It's on the April 3 PC agenda for a driveway Variance, see Item V: ftp://edrc.houstontx.gov//2014/2014-07_DraftAgenda.pdf

About a year ago Pappas bought the old Glazier warehouse at 2727 Summer behind the Kay Roger....to go along with the entire 20-block parcel they own on the south side of 2400 Summer. I believe the City is to punch Summer St through to Oliver as part of the Kroger deal and turn Summer/Stude into a major intersection for E/W traffic to Houstron Ave. 2727 looks big enough for Pappas and already was used for restaraunt supply.

District Clerk webpage http://www.hcdistrictclerk.com/edocs/Public/Search.aspx and search for Cause# 2012-36113. (leave out dash)

Case dismissed on March 7th, non-suited for trial.

Please shoot me.

Thanks for the excerpts. I first heard of the murders from neighborhood friends when I moved here in '92 but really didn't grasp the extent until subsequent research. My contemporaries (grad HS in 70's) almost brushed it off as a homosexual thing therefore it hadn't been a real threat to them personally, while my friends of their parents' gen never spoke of it at all. The historical thing I remember having the most impact on the Heightstonians was the riots around Moody Park after that Mexican American kid was killed by HPD and latino integration in general. Olsen's description of the Heights does not correlate with accounts I have from local friends....it was all quite normal here except for gang activity. Maybe on the inside you don't know you're in "appalachia". Sure it was run down like a lot of inner city at that time, but the blessing of no zoning allowed many independent citizens to bootstrap businesses like motorcycle repair or flooring or tile work or a chicken plant, and thus were able to live comfortably and send their kids to good schools....that freedom is far more important to lower/middle class than curbside appearances, thus my view that zoning advocates (and perhaps Olsen) tend to be elitists who never knew poverty.

January 16, 2014 HAHC meeting...http://houstontx.swagit.com/play/01222014-1006...Houston Heights HD's had four Additions presented for CoA and all four were denied by the emboldened HAHC knowing that the newly neutered appeals process is no longer a threat to their power. This meeting alone could make the case to the general public that the Ordinance must go. Watch the applicants, your friends and neighbors, tell their tales of dealing with the unprepared staff and beg for mercy only to be slapped down by the snickering boobs. Listen to the political commentary on zoning by the apartment-finder Chairperson Welsh. Common folk had one measure of revenge when the all-powerful commission was forced to retroactively approve a stucco replacement on a project they had Denied CoA but the Planning Commission overturned on appeal (prior to the Gafrick jury-rigging). Their disdain for the applicant was palpable and the looks on their faces was priceless as they were each forced to bite the turd. The applicant himself gave me a first-hand description of the disrespect he and the others endured at this meeting, and the video doesn't capture all of it, such as the eye-rolls and other condescending behavior by the HAHC. Mr. Bastian (Chicken Plant Project) ended the meeting getting lectured on how "typical" means "average" and other legal opinions from the all-powerful commission. They all wished him well in the end, like a cat lifting its paw off the tail of a mouse while licking its chops in anticipation of his next visit.

What's incompatible about a 4000 sqft and a similarly situated 1500 sqft home is.the people who live in them, of course, and for the social engineers on the HAHC, this the metric. Yes, you are cursed with logical thinking, and you did not do your homework on this HAHC which rarely applies or appreciates the logical thinking of real engineers. This modus operandi is nothing new to the regulars around here.

Spot on.....this pretentious HAHC has turned the ordinance on itself with an attitude of disdain for traditonal families and businessmen/women alike. Go see one of these meetings in-person and watch the dandy who fancies himself as overlord of the coterie roll his eyes when property owners are speaking, see hijackers twerk their Ipads in disrespect for the applicants, hear the condescending tone and imperial attitude of the do-nothing, glad-I-got-this-gig filler commissioners. It all makes for a nauseating introduction to governance by the Parker administration. The relatively minor battle over the Chicken Plant could serve as a turning point that the attracts attention of the uninformed and unaffected Houston voters. NOBODY wants an apartment/condo/townhome development, but that is exactly what this clueless HAHC could deliver, making Houston's "preservation" effort the laughing stock of the nation once again. One year ago, with the asinine Kelman Denial, the HAHC changed the debate from the ordinance to the HAHC. Since that turning point influential members of our community, the local press, the Planning Commision, one member of the HAHC, our two CM's and the mayor herself have gone on record pointing to the problems with this Commission and its foolhardy decisions. The foremost supporter and architect of this HAHC, former Director of Planning Marlene Gafrick, resigned unexpectedly last fall, literally amid a torrent of letters to the Mayor critical of the HAHC. And the HAHC continues to fiddle about, prancing around like the Belle of the Ball in a gown of invisible thread. So fiddle away and say goodby to Mr. Bastian.....the ordinance may very well follow.

I vote #1 for big families on big lots. Traditional families are the best long-term defense against the soulless elitists.

Barber's works are listed in wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_George_Franklin_Barber_works#cite_ref-Texas_79-29) and the exterior along with floor plans of the Rutland house were published in Barber's The Cottage Souvenir No. 2, design no. 2 on page 16: http://books.google.com/books?id=JYDnAAAAMAAJ&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false . The new kids on the HAHC planning staff would have no idea wtf Barber is or architectural historian Stephen Fox, author of several guides to Houston architecture. His lecture dated December 1998 included the slide show linked by Michael Bastian above (many thanks for that gem, even has the old Kaplan's photo asked for in another thread). The lecture is here: http://community.rice.edu/focusresources/reference/fox.html and ends with this.... "The Heights is home to some very provocative new architecture. Many examples, like this house on Bayland Avenue by Thompson-Frater Associates, architects, pay homage to the historic house types of the Heights. Others, like this house in Woodland Heights by the architect Peter Waldman, or this house in Norhill by the architects Pia Wortham and Joan Callis, are bold departures from existing types but carefully adjusted in terms of scale and siting so as not to disrespect their neighborhood settings. What these examples suggest is the vibrancy and excitement that the Heights continues to generate after more than a century as Houston's first new town." Back in 1998 we had architectural vibrancy and excitement, now we have the ordinance and its clueless future.

So Parker admits she has a problem on the HAHC, in effect calling out Elliot, Bucek and perhaps mod as hijackers. Then she points to some mythical DG ghosts as having caused the problems with the ordinance which is complete revisionist history because the DG problem didn't surface until they removed the Heights DG's after we were beating them over the head with them at the appeals. Even SM3h knew this because he graciously posted a link to the Heights DG's for me on this site years ago. Brie's email trail proves above all that the city administration is changing the law as they go along to suit an unknown or at least unstated goal. Furthermore, Gafrick's lame-duck, career-ending move was to completely hijack the appeals process with new draconian rules like Obama and his executive order pen. And all this is after the illegal HD ballot in a city that outlaws zoning. The Leader just stated the obvious to the those who weren't paying attention. Now Sue Lovell is trying to "save the ordinance" by simply adding new DG's. Sure, right, now I am supposed to trust this bunch? New DG's may save the builders because frankly, they just want clarity, good or bad. But not the property owner victims, they are hosed either way. I'm with Ross. And it will be much easier as Elliot, Bucek and mod continue to wreak havoc along with the new kangaroo court appeals process. The victims' screams will be too loud for Council to ignore.

In Chronicle article, my favorite quote from Mayor Parker herself about the HAHC: "There are a couple activist commissioners over there who are hijacking the process." Message received, finally. I'm not sure she ever got it with Gafrick around, or at least couldn't acknowledge such publicly.

Here's the editorial summary: http://www.theleadernews.com/?p=15142

Two or three weeks ago I talked to the maintenance man for those car washes on the day that one first closed. The owners of the eyesore condo next to it bought it for retail parking.

He he he he he, knew that one would get ya Tex. You shoulda seen the first draft, but it crashed Windows 8.1, took it as a sign and removed all satanic Halloween references....but then again, it coulda just been Windows 8.1.

The verdict is in. The Planning Commission is no longer the opportunity for fair judgment for those hapless Heights families aggrieved by whimsical HAHC decisions. After months of attempting to beat HAHC opponents at the Planning Commission by tweaking the rules but still getting their collective asses handed to them by superior arguments, Gafrick has thrown in the towel and will no longer allow public comment. Also the appellants will no longer be allowed to address any issues other than those pre-determined by the HAHC as relevant to the appeal. So HD buyers beware: if you are not prepared to grab your ankles and take what the HAHC is giving, stay away from any property that needs work. Unless of course you are a DINK, Empty Nester, barren old lady or alt.life.style. Time for me to join the Repeal the Ordinance team, there's no middle ground for Parker and her fellow freaks.