Dollar Tree At 1000 Elgin St.

[Mr. Chenevert]

Why should it matter if it's near a transit stop anyway? Do people only walk around those and not other places?

People rarely walk more than 15 minutes to get to a transit stop.

Even in NYC, and surrounding communities, if your residence is more than a 15 minute walk to a transit station, people usually take a bus, bike, or cab to get to the transit station.

[TheNiche]

People rarely walk more than 15 minutes to get to a transit stop.

Even in NYC, and surrounding communities, if your residence is more than a 15 minute walk to a transit station, people usually take a bus, bike, or cab to get to the transit station.

...actually, most urban planners use the 1/4 radius as the boundary for walkability from a transit stop. If you assume that a walker goes 3mph, then it's actually closer to a 5-minute limitation.

[Mr. Chenevert]

...actually, most urban planners use the 1/4 radius as the boundary for walkability from a transit stop. If you assume that a walker goes 3mph, then it's actually closer to a 5-minute limitation.

Just because Christoph uses that, doesnt mean most urban planners do But your example illustrates my point even more. Why should CVS cater their building (and therefore business) to the light rail, when light rail doesnt even serve the store?

[TheNiche]

Just because Christoph uses that, doesnt mean most urban planners do But your example illustrates my point even more. Why should CVS cater their building (and therefore business) to the light rail, when light rail doesnt even serve the store?

I don't read Christoph's blog. Most urban planners really do use 1/4 mile.

But you're basically right...LRT's impact on development looks more like a string of pearls than like a corridor.

[musicman]

Why should CVS cater their building (and therefore business) to the light rail, when light rail doesnt even serve the store?

it is the people who believe everything should be "urban" development who want this. it has to make economic sense for a business to come in. not having parking will definitely limit their customer base which doesn't make sense economically.

[lockmat]

No one walks in Houston ... didn't you know that?

better tear up the sidewalks and widen the lanes then. Don't know why we wasted money those silly things.

[MiDTOWNeR]

it is the people who believe everything should be "urban" development who want this. it has to make economic sense for a business to come in. not having parking will definitely limit their customer base which doesn't make sense economically.

YEAH! We can't have the suburb of midtown ghetting all urban on us yokels.

[musicman]

YEAH! We can't have the suburb of midtown ghetting all urban on us yokels.

ghetting? it's pretty ghetto in that area now.

[bach]

I can't find the URL, but the Zone 10 Chronicle This Week section yesterday had an article: "Midtown - Residents have issues with new CVS store."

Midtown Mgmt District and others tried, and it'll help people understand why we might want a few incentives and code changes.

[Mr. Chenevert]

Link the article....

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/nb/hei...ws/4833123.html

basically says CVS rejected midtown proposal of a more urban feel. Midtown asked for apartments on the second floor... CVS said "homey dont play that".... Midtown asked for the store to be brought up against the sidewalks, which would have meant aquiring a waiver from the city since its against currect ordinances.

Why doesnt midtown get the codes changed so that each developer doesnt have to get special waivers?

[musicman]

Link the article....

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/nb/hei...ws/4833123.html

basically says CVS rejected midtown proposal of a more urban feel. Midtown asked for apartments on the second floor... CVS said "homey dont play that".... Midtown asked for the store to be brought up against the sidewalks, which would have meant aquiring a waiver from the city since its against currect ordinances.

Why doesnt midtown get the codes changed so that each developer doesnt have to get special waivers?

i can't believe that people are asking them to build apartments. they aren't in the landlord biz. midtown wants the city to make the changes but if midtown wants the changes, then they should do more than whine and go through the process of changing the land usage/setbacks. the ed wulfe comments were interesting particularly since he hasn't developed anything there.

We like the Planning Committee to review all pending projects in Midtown because we like to encourage those projects to be urban in character.

Power of persuasion

``There is no requirement to (meet with the committee), we ask that they do that. I would guess we get to see 30 to 40 percent of projects that go into Midtown. The only power we have is the power of persuasion.

Obviously not.

Edited June 1, 2007 by musicman

[Mister X]

Well, at least it's good to know that there are enough people interested in changing the building codes so that maybe these types of developments in Midtown could be a thing of the past one day. I was beginning to think that HAIFers were the only ones who even cared about it.

I would love to see people picketing that awful CVS once it opens and really getting the word out on a large scale that changes in buiding codes are needed and pedestrian friendly building guidelines ought to be enforced in Midtown.

If the Midtown planning committed is organized enough to interact with companies like CVS to make suggestions and come up with their own renderings of what they want, then why don't they have any enfluence with the city? Does anyone know if this organization is actively putting any pressure on the city or has started any real attempt to get building code laws changed? And if they have, what is the likelyhood of success?

Forget about campaigns to get better lighting on downtown towers, I think the first goal of everyone interested in urban developement in Houston should be making Midtown pedestrian friendly - especially on the rail line. When I think of the enormous potential Midtown has to become a true urban neighborhood with its great location, tight street grid, and rail access - it makes me a little ill to think that more CVS's could happen in the near future.

Where can I sign a petition? What can I do short of throwing rocks at people who will be driving in to the new CVS parking lot? (just kidding about the rocks)

Edited June 1, 2007 by Mister X

[musicman]

If the Midtown planning committed is organized enough to interact with companies like CVS to make suggestions and come up with their own renderings of what they want, then why don't they have any enfluence with the city? Does anyone know if this organization is actively putting any pressure on the city or has started any real attempt to get building code laws changed? And if they have, what is the likelyhood of success?

changing codes is one thing, whining about them is another. you really have to get a councilmember to sponsor the effort. councilmember peter brown campaigned actively on making midtown an urban development and he's done nothing to further that goal. i'm still laughing about the "power of pursuasion" that was mentioned repeatedly in the article.

Edited June 3, 2007 by musicman

[Jax]

Here's a photo of what they have done so far (sorry for the low quality cell phone image). I took this on Friday as I drove past the construction. The site facing the Metro rail isn't set back too far, but its hard to tell if it's going to be the back of the building with a blank wall and some dumpsters or if they are planning on putting an extra entrance there. It seems like it wouldn't be hard to put up some kind of a facade to make it appear like a front entrance from the metro rail and have a door, and then have an entrance on the other side as well with the parking lot. Would that be possible, or am I just dreaming?

Hmm.. Does anybody know why the max file size I can upload is 24 kb? It's pretty much impossible for me to upload anything useufl with that sort of restriction.

I guess I found another place to upload it. ANy idea why HAIF is so annoying with upload file size restrictions?

[musicman]

It seems like it wouldn't be hard to put up some kind of a facade to make it appear like a front entrance from the metro rail and have a door, and then have an entrance on the other side as well with the parking lot. Would that be possible, or am I just dreaming?

it wouldn't be hard but to maintain two entrances for a drug store in that location would be a nightmare. from the article the main street side will be glass

While CVS added landscaping and glass storefronts to the building's Main Street side, it rejected Midtown's proposals to orient the front of the building to Main Street and bring the building up to the sidewalk.

[Jax]

Hmm interesting. I guess we can only wait and see how bad it is. It's strange that they wouldn't move it a bit closer to the sidewalks. It's going to look weird compared to the storefronts (or office fronts?) at the bottom of the HCC garage, although unfortunately they are mostly empty (or at least they look empty).

[musicman]

Hmm interesting. I guess we can only wait and see how bad it is. It's strange that they wouldn't move it a bit closer to the sidewalks. It's going to look weird compared to the storefronts (or office fronts?) at the bottom of the HCC garage, although unfortunately they are mostly empty (or at least they look empty).

very few people walk on main in that area. that's another reason why the HCC storefronts are empty.

[nmainguy]

The site facing the Metro rail isn't set back too far, but its hard to tell if it's going to be the back of the building with a blank wall and some dumpsters or if they are planning on putting an extra entrance there.

No extra entrance. The Main Street side will be the drive-thru pharmacy.-just the kind of slap in the face the Midtown Association and many chronic posters here on HAIF have no problem with. CVS will work with you if you apply the pressure. We did it in the Heights so all I can assume about Midtown is they don't care that much.

[Jax]

Few people walk on that part of main but amazingly I always see people walking several blocks from there near Taco A GoGo. Too bad that sort of atmosphere can't spread past that one block.

So which will it be? Glass storefronts and landscaping, or a drive through on main? Or somehow both?

[citykid09]

They got a little greedy when the wanted apartments on a second floor. But I still don't think its fare that CVS treats Houston the way it does when it comes to being more pedestrian friendly. CVS build two Urban stores in Atlanta Midtown, but built two Suburban stores in Houston. What does that tell you CVS thinks about Houston?

Here is one of the ones in Midtown Atlanta:

[citykid09]

Now that I read the rest of the article I see why, because of city ordnances. What I can't understand is the mayor seems like a really nice guy, why don't people complain to him and the city council about changing this and making Houston more of an Urban city inside the loop. Why would the the major and the council reject that? ITS WHAT THE PEOPLE WANT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Edited June 8, 2007 by citykid09

[Jeebus]

Here is one of the ones in Midtown Atlanta:

This is actually nice. Too bad we'll never see one - except maybe downtown, perhaps.

[Mr. Chenevert]

Interestingly, three of the four corners of the building (including both corners facing Main St) have angled corners... I see that as meaning they will have doors.

[Jax]

That sounds promising...

[musicman]

CVS will work with you if you apply the pressure. We did it in the Heights so all I can assume about Midtown is they don't care that much.

pressure is one thing but asking for apartments above becomes ridiculous. if CVS is fairly successful, it can only help for future retail in the area.

[RedScare]

You don't ask drugstores to put an apartment building on top of their stores. You DO ask drugstores to put their stores in the first floor of your apartment building. If Midtown would have asked me to do that, I would have laughed at them, too. It sounds to me like the Midtown people don't know what they're doing, more than CVS doesn't care.

Are these the same people that tried to rename Midtown?

[WesternGulf]

You don't ask drugstores to put an apartment building on top of their stores. You DO ask drugstores to put their stores in the first floor of your apartment building. If Midtown would have asked me to do that, I would have laughed at them, too. It sounds to me like the Midtown people don't know what they're doing

Ditto.

An example from the 1001 Ross mixed use development in Dallas:

[musicman]

An example from the 1001 Ross mixed use development in Dallas:

which is similar to the one downtown across from main street square.

[TheNiche]

Know that I read the rest of the article I see why, because of city ordnances. What I can't understand is the mayor seems like a really nice guy, why don't people complain to him and the city council about changing this and making Houston more of an Urban city inside the loop. Why would the the major and the council reject that? ITS WHAT THE PEOPLE WANT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Streamlining the urban permitting process is being worked on--it is in fact one of the very few major projects that City Planning has responsibility for at all anymore.

Even still, those who care which direction a CVS Pharmacy faces are very much in the minority, and compared to other problems that this city faces, their complaints are enormously petty. Mayor White doesn't give this a great deal of attention because he's got more important things on his plate.

Edited June 4, 2007 by TheNiche

[TheNiche]

You don't ask drugstores to put an apartment building on top of their stores. You DO ask drugstores to put their stores in the first floor of your apartment building. If Midtown would have asked me to do that, I would have laughed at them, too. It sounds to me like the Midtown people don't know what they're doing, more than CVS doesn't care.

Concur. Most neighborhood activists only know what they want but have very little grasp of how to come about it except by bullying others in one form or another.