Neighbors recovering from Hurricane Harvey fight new development
HOUSTON, Texas (KTRK) -- A Houston neighborhood is in a fight to stop developers.
The families who live in Timbergrove Manor near 11th and TC Jester in northwest Houston say two separate projects could increase flooding risks and congest streets during evacuations.
The first development is directly south of the neighborhood called Stanley Park.
The developer who operates as Lovett Homes, In Town Homes and 5177 Builders is working on a 77-townhome project.
"It's built directly in the floodplain next to a protected wetlands," said Jackie Scheafer, one of many neighbors who want to see the city put a stop to Stanley Park.
"The area that they are building on and that they're trying to fill in, they're not showing the mitigation that they need."
Timbergrove Manor flooded during both Tropical Storm Allison and Hurricane Harvey.
In fact, some folks are still not back in their homes.
"More concrete, less absorption in the ground, you know," said Rusty Kuehn, a neighbor who has lived here for more than 60 years.
Above ground, you can already see the fill-dirt piling high on land neighbors say used to help drain water.
Compounding their frustration is a second development called Palisades Park, by a different developer, where 177-townhomes are slated.
"It is a unprecedented dense housing development," said Scheafer. "All of our infrastructure, our streets, our drainage, sidewalks, it's not prepared for something of that size."
"What they really don't address is there is no evacuation route for this property that they're talking about," said Robert Delgado, another neighbor.
The spokesperson for the Palisades Park development, Wayne Dolcefino, argues there is already a concrete slab with existing warehouses.
"To be fair to them, they're taking a piece of asphalt, they're adding some green space and storm sewer drainage and even any property north of them to make sure there's more green space and they're designing it to what the city said the new rules are," he said.
But for neighbors who have seen mother nature at her worst, they are not eager to welcome more housing and congestion on their roads.
"All this property that we're talking about is in the flood plain. Either the 500-year or the 100-year," said Delgado.
There was a public hearing with the City of Houston Planning Commission on June 21 to address Palisades Park.
The hearing was deferred by two weeks.
Eyewitness News was told the Palisades Park developers are working to revise their plans and reduce the number of townhomes.
We reached out to the developer for Stanley Park, but have not heard back.
