Briefly: Ashby gets the go-ahead
From the Chronicle:
More than two years after they first applied, the developers of the Ashby high-rise will receive permits for a project that generated protests and a renewed debate over how to regulate development in Houston, city officials said today.
The decision was based on changes developers Matthew Morgan and Kevin Kirton made in their 11th submission of plans for the building at 1717 Bissonnet, said Andy Icken, deputy director of public works and engineering. City engineers concluded that the changes would reduce traffic sufficiently for the development to meet the city’s standards, he said.
The building will be 23 stories high, the same as originally proposed. Houston’s development codes don’t restrict the height of buildings.
The new plans reduce the number of residential units and eliminate a spa, retail space and executive offices, Icken said. These changes significantly reduce the number of peak-hour trips expected from vehicles entering and exiting the property, one of the key restrictions in the code.
Original plans called for more than 180 daily peak-hour trips into and out of the property, while the latest, approved plans would reduce that number to 120, Icken said. In addition, he said, the new plans would limit the residents’ vehicle entrances and exits from the property to Bissonnet only, not onto surrounding residential streets.
Even so, the decision allows for construction of a high-rise tower adjacent to two affluent, single-family residential neighborhoods whose leaders say the location is unsuitable for such a project.
Soon after the development company, Buckhead Investment Partners, applied for permits in July 2007, “Stop Ashby High-Rise” signs appeared in hundreds of front yards in the Southampton and Boulevard Oaks neighborhoods next to the project site at the intersection of two, two-lane roads, Bissonnet at Ashby.
The developers and neighborhood leaders weren’t immediately available for comment.
Somehow I suspect that the drama from this one is just getting started.
Categories: think
Tags: Ashby Hi-Rise, development, entitlements, Houston, permitting, regulation
Share:
3 Comments
Permalink
YAY!
The Southampton folks really made their bed with this one by trying to pretend their objections were about “traffic.” Except residences don’t cause traffic – retail causes traffic.
Eliminate the retail, and – PRESTO! – no significant impact.
Permalink
So now it’s time to air the real objections – this thing is horribly out of scale for the neighborhood – and Houston needs new regulations to deal with such cases.
Permalink
“Even so, the decision allows for construction of a high-rise tower adjacent to two affluent, single-family residential neighborhoods whose leaders say the location is unsuitable for such a project.”
That quote alone gets to the real crux of the issues here. When developments like this happen in affluent neighborhoods people can say it’s unsuitable and out of context; when it happens in poorer neighborhoods people say they are making it better. I think the developers know what type of neighborhood they are going into and will design the building and residential units appropriately.
If people really wanted to be protected, they would fix the no zoning issue by at least providing height restrictions in the city, especially in established neighborhoods they choose to “protect.” I personally have no problem with the Ashby project, these things happen when you let the market dictate what gets developed where, with minimal restrictions; these issues sometimes arise.