People in the Heights area are so sensitive. They complain about bars in their neighborhoods, they bitch about chain restaurants, they whine about proposed toll roads cutting through their back yards — and they're upset that developers want to come in and demolish their neighborhoods for high-density townhome developments. Honestly, it's like they actually prefer living in unique, comfortable areas with picturesque bungalows along tree-lined streets. Can you imagine?
The Heights vs. Townhomes fight has been going on for some time, but it got more heated earlier this year when city planning commissioners rejected a petition to protect a 34-block swath of Sunset Heights from high-density development by establishing a prevailing lot size in the area. Residents argued that no home should be built on a lot smaller than 6,000 square feet, the standard in the neighbrohood, but other residents opposed the request and the Greater Houston Builders Association — surprise! — objected to the size of the protected area.
Under city law, petitioners who want to create a protected lot size area must establish that the proposal has "substantial support" among neighborhood residents and that at least 75 percent of the lots in the neighborhood meet the proposed size standard. That's "an obstacle, an incredible gauntlet, for any homeowner who wants to have a say," Sheila Sorvari, founder of Save the Bungalows, said during a Heights community meeting Monday.
"Many people are angry," said Sheila Sorvari ... "We feel we've been shut out of the decision of what happens to our neighborhood. This is our home, and it's been left to the hands of the profiteers."
Mayor Bill White, who was at the meeting, said the city has to represent all citizens and that he wants there to be opportunity for new development in the city — relatively weak words from the man who has called for preservation of historic structures on several occasions. Since the prevailing lot size ordinance was adopted in 2001, the city has received about 200 petitions, and only six had been rejected as of last month, including the one from Sunset Heights. But most of the approved petitions have involved very small areas; the Sunset Heights proposal was the largest yet. Without a strong preservation ordinance in the city, though, petitions like that are the best neighborhoods can do in many cases.
Janice Evans, who has lived in the Heights for 10 years, led a successful petition to establish a protected area in four blocks of Columbia Street. She said the feel of the neighborhoods — which is what brought her to the Heights — is worth preserving: "It's part of our character and if we end up with block after block of townhomes selling for half a million dollars, we've lost our character, and that's what the Heights is about."
Photo from flickr user Houstonian.
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