Montrose residents and HEB in dialogue about development

Is this neighborhood planning?

Jon Boyd, Jul 09, 10.

Drawings of a potential plan for the proposed HEB at W. Alabama and Dunlavy show the possibility of incorporating HEB’s plans for a grocery store that meets parking requirements with community requests that some of the property remain open space, include event space, and space for small business and local farmers. The Montrose Land Defense Coalition(MLDC), a local advocacy group, proposed its own plan for retail development this spring, and has been in touch with executives from HEB, who also attended several recent Neartown Development Forums to solicit community input. HEB is now developing three scenarios for development of the site that the community will have a chance to have some input on, according to Culturemap.

As noted by Culturemap, Scott McClelland, President of HEB’s Houston and Central Market Divisions, revealed that they are seeking to develop a 70,000 square foot grocery “store on stilts”, a detention pond, two acres of green space, and an open air artisan’s market. Under this scheme, other retail would front Alabama with its own bank of nose-in parking, and the H-E-B would face south, toward the middle of the parcel, and the perimeter would be enclosed by a retaining wall. He said that the store’s size would be similar to the one on Buffalo Speedway at Bissonnet. The architectural renderings linked below were created by Robert Morris based on the parameters set by Mr. McClelland, but are not one of the three plans that HEB plans to unveil.

McClelland stipulated that HEB would like to pursue the dedication of public space, but that he expects this would require $3 million of public or philanthropic investment to pay for 2 acres of land. In an email forwarded to Houston Tomorrow by the MLDC, it doesn’t appear that HEB is demanding that the small community group come up with the $3 million itself, but that if the funding for the park, event space, and other proposals becomes available, HEB is willing to pursue an arrangement, and they are willing to help pursue that funding.

HEB has requested and received a variance in order to retain two dead end streets on Sul Ross and Branard streets, west of Dunlavy, leading to an agreement with the City of Houston that “the applicant will be required to coordinate with the planning department during the site plan stage to establish a reasonable landscape buffer between the subject site and and adjacent properties as well as reasonable preservation of the mature tree canopy on the site,” according to Swamplot. MLDC has requested that any site plan set aside significant green space, and H-E-B has vowed to retain some of the trees.

The University Light Rail Line will have a station at Mandell and Richmond, just a few blocks from the property in question. The METRO 78 bus line traverses the northern border of the property. The neighborhood is currently served by a Fiesta on the other side of Dunlavy.

Although it is within several blocks of a proposed light rail line, the property in question does not appear to be affected by the City of Houston Transit Corridor Ordinance. According to the ordinance: “Type A Street means a public street that intersects a transit corridor street and that abuts a blockface that is located within 1,320 feet walking distance of the end of an existing or proposed transit station platform.” In this case, Mandell is a “Type A Street,” and Richmond is a “transit corridor street,” but the corner of W. Main and Mandell is slightly further than 1,320 feet away by foot from the proposed light rail stop at Mandell and Richmond. The City of Houston Planning Department did not publish a map of “Type A Streets” along the proposed University Line at the time of the adoption of the ordinance - as was done for other current and future transit lines - as station locations were not determined on the University Line at that time.

Were this property to be subject to the Transit Corridor Ordinance, the developer would have the option of building walkable urbanism - which is currently illegal in the City of Houston without a variance - if they agreed to comply with a set of design and performance standards.

Proposed drawings of the proposed HEB at W. Alabama and Dunlavy by Robert Morris (.zip, 1.3MB)