[Houston Heights] Tollway Considered Through Neighborhood

This was in the Chron This Week section and a story was at the top of the 11 news tonight. Anyone who lives in or near this area should be concerned.

Neighbors fear toll road will be built in the Heights
Abandoned rail line could turn into widened part of U.S. 290
By TOM MANNING
Chronicle Correspondent

An abandoned railroad line that weaves its way through the Heights is becoming one of the most important properties in the area, thanks to a recent vote by the Harris County Commissioners Court.

On Aug. 24, Judge Robert Eckels and the four county commissioners voted unanimously to allow the Harris County Toll Road Authority to enter into negotiations with the Texas Department of Transportation to purchase 100 feet of right of way that once was home to the Missouri-Kansas-Texas Railroad line.

For the toll road authority, the vote is an important step toward potentially easing traffic for drivers who commute to and from downtown Houston every day.

But Heights residents see it as something far more dangerous. They say it would cut a swath through the neighborhood and effectively send residents scurrying out of the area.

Patricia Friese, public information officer for the Harris County Toll Road Authority, said Heights residents are being premature in assuming the toll road is going to be built.

Heights residents also believe it is an example of the city of Houston and Harris County placing far more emphasis on the convenience of suburban commuters than the quality of life of people who choose to live in the heart of the city.

"We got this from a bunch of people all at the same time," said David Bush, director of programs and information for the Greater Houston Preservation Alliance, speaking of the notice of the Commissioners Court vote. "A number of people have begun to voice concern over it."

The reason for that concern, Bush said, is that the old MKT Railroad tracks cut right through the Heights. Residents who live close to the MKT line say that turning the track into a toll road would not disrupt the area, it would ruin it.

"The MKT Railroad snakes through the neighborhood," Bush said. "Outside the Loop, it runs along Hempstead Highway, and inside the Loop it runs by T.C. Jester north of I-10.

"It enters the Heights at West 7th and crosses Heights Boulevard, then jags southeast and crosses White Oak Drive, White Oak Boulevard and Studemont."

When the TxDOT pulled the rail tracks off the land in 1998, many residents expected the property would be converted into green space in the form of a hike and bike trail that would be part of a nationwide effort to turn abandoned train lines into community space using local and federal funds.

Project extension

But the toll road authority instead wants to use the abandoned trail as an extension of its Old Hempstead Managed Lanes Project, an effort to ease congestion along U.S. 290 by adding four lanes to the highway that could be used by high-occupancy vehicles as well as single-occupancy cars that wish to pay a toll.

The managed lanes along U.S. 290 were initially scheduled to end at the West Loop. But purchasing the MKT right of way would allow those lanes to be extended east to the University of Houston Downtown.

"When I built my house in 2000, I never expected it would be close to a toll road," said Mike Branda, who lives at the intersection of 7th Street and Courtland. "Obviously, I'm concerned. A lot of people would be personally impacted. At Heights and 7th there are homes. There's Donovan Park. There would be a lot of major disruption."

Friese said Heights residents may be overstating the impact the road would have in the Heights.

An existing right of way

"There's an existing right of way there, so they are not going to be tearing down houses," Friese said. "If this thing does go through, I think it would have minimal impact on the community."

Friese said the toll road authority went before the commissioners court to request that if the property is declared surplus by TxDOT — meaning TxDOT decides that it has no use for it — HCTRA can negotiate the possible purchase of the land from the transportation department.

"This property hasn't even been declared surplus yet," Friese said. "All we're doing at this point is looking at the possibility of purchasing it."

But that's enough to have residents like Branda worried.

"The Heights is one of the premiere neighborhoods in this city and this would isolate and destroy the blocks near that toll road and turn it into a no man's land," he said. "Maintaining the historical aspect of this city has never been a priority, but the interstate system has already chopped off part of the Heights and this would splinter it."

Concerned groups

Bush said he has spoken with a number of community groups that are concerned about the possibility of a toll road running through the neighborhood, including the Buffalo Bayou Partnership and Avenue CDC.

The Houston Heights Association will also address its concerns over the project at its December land use meeting, and Bush said he is also trying to arrange a meeting with City Councilman Adrian Garcia.

Garcia was in Washington last week, but a member of his staff said that the councilman was aware of the situation and wanted to meet with residents about the issue.

"At the moment, we're trying to find out where the project really stands and we're trying to coordinate our efforts," Bush said. "The concern really has to be voiced on the part of residents."

That doesn't appear to be a problem.

"I'm not a bleeding heart tree hugger by any means," Branda said. "People have every right to live in a huge home in Katy and commute to and from downtown every day. But those people shouldn't dictate our lives because we choose not to do that.

"We talk about easing traffic to and from Katy and the way a lot of us are doing that is by choosing to live here in the city. And we're being punished for that.

"You have the interests of people who live 20 or 30 miles from downtown who want to get to and from here as fast as possible versus the interests of the people who pay a lot more money to live here and are concerned about their quality of life," Branda added. "The only ammunition we have is to make this politically unpopular."

No immediate plan

Friese said the possible toll road through the Heights is "not even on the radar screen" for the next 10 years, but that if the HCTRA is given the opportunity to purchase the property and run the toll road through the Heights, it would likely take it.

"I think it's a good plan as a citizen, although I don't live in the community," she said. "You look at the Sam Houston Tollway on the south and the southeast sides and you can see what a huge boom to the economy it's been for both residential and commercial development.

"We're not coming in with a wrecking ball," Friese added. "The worst case scenario is that you'll have a toll road instead of a rail line — if you can even consider that worst case."

 

"I think it's a good plan as a citizen, although I don't live in the community," she said. "You look at the Sam Houston Tollway on the south and the southeast sides and you can see what a huge boom to the economy it's been for both residential and commercial development.

"We're not coming in with a wrecking ball," Friese added. "The worst case scenario is that you'll have a toll road instead of a rail line — if you can even consider that worst case."

In case you don't know where this is, it runs within feet of a park, an upscale preschool/daycare center and past houses that range from around $100,000 to over $700,000.

The quotes like those above really smack of ignorance to the problem. First off, this is a 100-foot patch of land meaning you would get no more than 4 lanes in there. It also raises the issue of where exits would be, where tolls would be paid and, just as importantly, how you could allow a speedy thouroughfare to run through a neighborhood, especially when this cuts across neihborhood streets, not just major one's like Yale and White Oak.

Comparing this thing to Sam Houston Tollway must be a joke. The Heights doesn't require an economy boom because it already has had one. The homes are some of the most valued in the city and have increased in value each of the past 5 years by higher percentages than any neighborhood in Houston. If anything, it would DE-value homes in the area because of the added noise and congestion.

The economic boom that came with the tollway came as the result of land development on large pieces of property that had been ranch land or undeveloped private land up until the tollway came through. They then developed businesses, new housing developments, etc. along the tollway. The Heights definitely does not have that problem.

Frankly, I don't think this will ever make it through anyway. There is some significant political clout in the area and, with home values this significant, I cannot imagine any council members or commissioners are going to want to be responsible for sending the Heights back to a crime-ridden neighborhood full of urban blight.

 

One thing to do is email Adrian Garcia - our city councilman. I actually know his chief of staff. He's a friend of mine. I'm going to find out what is really up.

 

I'm not disputing the need for roads into downtown, but, if you read the fine print, even commissioners think that this particularly throughway is WAY too small to accommodate any level of toll traffic. In some areas, it has narrowed to 80 feet wide, just barely enough for 3 lanes.

In addition, unlike Westpark or the Beltway, it doesn't have to cut directly through a neighborhood. Those tollways either went around existing one's or built in areas where there were no homes.

Anyway, now that TJ is posting his oh-so-predictable "this is all the light rail's fault" posts, I've lost interest.