Weingarten begins process for River Oaks demolition

Save our Landmarks, one of the groups trying to save the River Oaks Shopping Center and Theater and the Alabama Theater/Bookstop, sent out an e-mail update about the River Oaks situation yesterday. Here's a overview of what's going on.

Weingarten Realty Investors, which owns all three properties, on Monday began the process to get approval to demolish the curved section of the River Oaks center on the north side of West Gray — the portion of the center set to become the site of a new, two-story shopping strip. Weingarten's first step was to file for a certificate of appropriateness — which is required because the Houston Archaeological and Historical Commission began the landmark designation process for the structures last month — and its next step will be to wait. The HAHC will consider the certificate at its May 23 meeting; if the commission denies Weingarten the certificate, the company will have to wait until Aug. 7, 90 days after it applied for the COA, to actually get demolition permits. (That 90-day waiting period is the best protection the city's preservation ordinance offers structures that aren't designated protected city landmarks — and few of them are.)

On June 13, the HAHC will meet to consider whether to recommend to the city planning commission that the River Oaks center and theater and Alabama Theater be named city landmarks. If the HAHC makes that recommendation, the planning commission and City Council would have to approve the designations before they become official. The whole thing would be a largely symbolic move: Even if the properties are named landmarks, Weingarten will still be able to tear them down, and so far the company has shown no interest in preserving them. Landmark designation would make the properties eligible for the city property tax exemption program, and they're already eligible for federal tax credits — but again, that doesn't matter if the buildings end up as rubble.

So what can you do now? A few things: Keep telling your friends what's going on, attend the HAHC meeting at 3 p.m. June 13 at City Hall to show your support for landmark designation, work with groups like Greater Houston Preservation Alliance and Save our Landmarks, write Weingarten brass and keep buying stuff at the Alabama Bookstop and letting the management know that you oppose Barnes & Noble vacating the Alabama building. It's not a lost cause until the bulldozers arrive.