Forest Hill Deed Restrictions

[AwShucks]

Does anyone know if Forest Hill is deed restricted? I've looked online for a home owner's assoc., and didn't find one. I was out looking at houses this weekend, and love the wide streets. There are some great vintage homes there. I heard loud tejano music on a couple of streets and that concerns me, but I LOVE the houses...well, most of them! I've learned a lot from these boards about the East End. Thanks for all the great information. Maybe I'll soon be an Eastender, too.

[Guest danax]

Does anyone know if Forest Hill is deed restricted? I've looked online for a home owner's assoc., and didn't find one. I was out looking at houses this weekend, and love the wide streets. There are some great vintage homes there. I heard loud tejano music on a couple of streets and that concerns me, but I LOVE the houses...well, most of them! I've learned a lot from these boards about the East End. Thanks for all the great information. Maybe I'll soon be an Eastender, too.

Welcome aboard, AwShucks. That's a good question. The person to answer it would be Marilu De La Fuente. Marilu is a HAIF member so I would just PM her. She used to be the president of the East Lawndale Civic Association and now runs the Eastside PIP meetings that HPD holds at 7525 Sherman St. That's a good place to hear about any crime situations going on on the East End crime-wise (not a whole lot really). The East End HPD boasts the best response time in Houston too.

I am guessing that deed restrictions are in force there since there's only one rinky-dink home business there that I've seen, and that's a daycare. There was a Mexican bus barn along Brays Bayou but he luckily got condemned when Project Brays bought his land to widen the bayou. I finally met Marilu at the PIP meeting and she said something to the effect that the civic club had a lot of in-fighting going on and that she thought it might be in shambles. You might be the one to help pick up the pieces .

Forest Hill is prime real estate, topographically and geographically speaking. As you've seen, there are some cute houses, some great old houses, and a lot of mediocre houses. People are starting to discover the area but finding an attractive house takes a little patience, although some of those Plain-Janes can be transformed in the right hands. I would speculate that most of those homes are not going to survive once the transition wave really starts to break, which might take awhile as the East End is still "way out", "crime-filled" or "ghetto" to most Houstonians.

[jm1fd]

You're in luck. I have firsthand experience with, as well as PDFs of, the deed restrictions in Forest Hill and Mason Park Terrace. Last year I almost bought a house on Alta Vista that was in violation of the restrictions.

From memory:

The original restrictions have either lapsed, or were so broad and vague as to be meaningless.

What I know to be a fact (from reading copies of the restrictions):

The East Lawndale Civic Club formed a committee, August 31, 1989 to enact deed restrictions in Forest Hill and Mason Park Terrace. The restrictions are pretty much the standard issue (no businesses, no trash, no apartments/duplexes, etc). The part where it gets intersting is that they couldn't just blanket these restrictions across the entirety of both 'hoods. EACH LANDOWNER had to sign a document to bind their property to the restrictions. It appears that all of four people jumped on the bandwagon. At least in the document I have, only 4 people are listed. There might be more in the files of the county/city somewhere, but that's all I have.

If anybody wants the PDF, let me know.

Edited April 11, 2006 by jm1fd