Fourth Ward and the Siege of Allen Parkway Village

Cite Spring 1991 21 Fourth Ward and the Siege of Allen Parkway Village

Fourth Ward residents and members The Private Sector: Founders Park Venture of Houston Housing Concern picket the Founders Park tor un and Community Activism 18 August 1 9 9 0 .

Rives Taylor

The Houston city government's hesitant sTnci and ineffective participation in the urban planning process has created a vacuum, a vacuum that has in turn compelled a number of private actors and agencies to take action. Recently, the sweeping political and economic changes envisioned lot the city — comprehensive planning, a rail- oriented mass transit system, and council redistricting - have been driven by key, identifiable individuals with a wider (it not always widely supported) vision.

But the private ventures have often conflicted with the wishes of the communities they affect. Whereas the privately driven planning vision measures its progress in months and hundreds or thousands ot dollars, community-based planning measures its progress in volunteer efforts over a period ot years. Greater access to \l\ resources and political clout give private planning efforts the edge in any contested issue. Private efforts typically frame design economic (and in theory, racial) composi- more specifically, ot what they perceive two "grand thinkers," gazing down from notions in terms ot a single, focused vision tion, resource management, mixed-use to he its potential power of property their skyscraper offices ar the underutilized that grass-roots planning efforts of a areas integrated in an existing residential condemnation. and almost abandoned acreage between possihk diverse community often cannot neighborhood, and historic preservation. their two corporate empires, could not help attain. Even the vocabulary of physical The Founders Park planning mechanisms The Founders Park Venture proposal is but wonder what could be made ot it. and fiscal planning is foreign to all but the seem closely allied with the findings and driven by profit, as its organizers acknowl- Schuette had assisted the ciry with his planning experts - only the chosen, edu- mechanisms proposed by city councilman edge. This seems to be at odds with the banking and organizational expertise on a cated few understand the process. All Inn ( ! recti wood s committees lormulaiiug proposal's goal ot establishing a mechanism number ot occasions and had served on city planning efforts in a city must bridge this a zoning and comprehensive planning and steering group to create affordable commissions looking into Fourth Ward chasm of unequal resources and experience. strategy tor Houston. housing citywide, although profit is in fact economic redevelopment. As Schuette what will generate funds tor low-income related in the fall of 1990, it became obvi- In the fall and winter of 1990, the Founders Understandably, Fourth Ward community housing. Further, Founders Park's prelimi- ous to him that the private sector could Park Venture redevelopment proposal for organizations distrust all the corporate nary plan calls into question the need to most effectively orchestrate the complex Fourth Ward became the proving ground and city bureaucratic powers involved in maintain the integrity of the two National interaction of planning requirements, for three major city-planning initiatives that the planning. Neighborhoods citywide, Register historic districts atlccted, financial pro formas, and community call for a reappraisal ot urban planning and especially those with disadvantaged Frccdmen's Town and San Felipe Courts. collaboration that redevelopment would community redevelopment in Houston. populations, often feel powerless to control The standard concerns of planning also require. Fourth Ward needed a comprehen- These initiatives - comprehensive planning their own future. The planning record in remain: long-range implementation, sive vision and a strategy for accomplishing and zoning, Metro rail, and Pounders Park Fourth Ward and Allen Parkway Village is financing, and accountability. The good these goals free of rhe public sector's un- - are concerned with land use issues, the characterized by the willful destruction of intentions and alluring images in any wieldy decision-making process. Another investment of tax dollars in public infra- the community's fabric and institutions by master plan may persuade initially. But stipulation, even at the onset of this "grand structure improvements, power brokering, government agencies. The elimination of who is responsible over the long term for thinking," accompanied private sector and, inevitably, large sums of money. Each key blocks of the neighborhood began what happens when economic and political interest and involvement: "The basic truth initiative envisions some form of public- with the erection of a "whites-only" public realities set in? One response is that once a is that private sector investment is not private venture. Founders Park Venture, a housing complex, San Felipe Courts (now master plan is approved by city council made unless careful attention is given to collaborative project of Cullen Center, Inc., Allen Parkway Village), in the early 1940s, there can be no deviation in its implemen- the risks of the enterprise before any invest- and American General Investment Corpora- Occupying the most visible ot sites, facing tation without further public discussion ments in development or other economic tion, aims at redeveloping Fourth Ward and the Buffalo Bayou Parkway, San Felipe and approval. Yet this assurance then raises actions are taken.'" the sire ot Houston's largest public housing Courts was the first of a series of efforts to questions about the efficacy and immuta- complex, Allen Parkway Village. The eliminate a vibrant community that bility of the development controls, design Part of the planning process, as foreseen by mechanics of the planning effort, the planners s.iw .is being ai odds with I In.' guidelines, and legal restrictions used to Cullen Center in rhe spring and early orchestration of community involvement, adjoining downtown and the "image" of reach a desired planning end and imposed summer of 1 988, was to gauge interest and and the community opposition that has the city. The construction of Interstate 45 by a bureaucracy on the public realm. opposition in the community and the city resulted have made it a test case for city in the 1950s wiped out the eastern third Finally, the Founders Park Venture pro- administration. The tact that such concerns planning reality in Houston of Fourth Ward, where most of the com- posal accentuates the larger urban issue of arose in a private planning process estab- in the 1990s. munity's venerable civic institutions were balancing community concerns with the lishes a precedent for future development located. Thus Founders Park Venture city's planning and economic projections. here. A planning document produced by must labor in the shadow of troubling Is ensuring the highest and best use for To date. Founders Park has elicited a Cullen Center and its planners. Hoover & legacies. An already hostile African-Amer- land development and a city's economic community participation process orches- Furr, a 3D/lnternational company, in 1988 ican community continues to battle the vitality consistent with protecting a trated by "hired guns" (as distrusting succinctly stated the goals: outsiders, including the area's absentee neighborhood's interests or ensuring its community participants labeled them) from landowners (a bit of a misnomer, as the mere survival? Cullen Center and American urban design planning and architecture The participants desire long-term profits and landowners are from families who once- General Corporation have broken new firms who gained their experience in ciries the enhancement of the present holdings lived in the area), who it believes arc driven ground at a time of heightened suspicions elsewhere. The venture is relying on adjacent to the project area. At the same time by objectives alien to and destructive of of the motives of corporations and city the expertise of Gary Hack, of Carr Lynch the Venture will ensure a dedication to the their community. The community is by no government in attempting to act as both Hack & Sandell of Boston, and Frank S, enrichment and ultimate reward to the means united in organization or intentions. private developer and community facilita- Kelly and Ben Brewer, both of Sikes citizens of Houston for the economic growth The residents of Allen Parkway Village tor in an area of proud and stubborn rent- Jennings Kelly & Brewer of Houston. Their and well-being of the Central Business (directly appealed to in the Founders Park ers, landowners, and community activists. initial charge was to test the waters for a District, and the significant improvement of proposals) have been awaiting the outcome 650-acre development in the heart of the the socio-economic values of the existing of a federal lawsuit that sought a perma- inner city, as well as to prove that the residents.! nent injunction against demolition of the A Private Proposal expertise and management skills of private project. (See "AI'V Update,") The Freed- enterprise can fulfill the social and urban men's Town Association refuses to talk to The vision that guided Founders Park Max Schuette concluded in 1988 that any planning mandate that ought to be carried outsiders at all. Residents of North Mon- Venture originated in the minds of two redevelopment in Houston, and most our by the city. To its credit, the goals of trose and Temple Terrace, west ot Fourth individuals: Marvin Marshall, until recently especially Fourth Ward, warranted a Founders Park reflect both corporations' Ward, although apparently less hostile to president and chief executive officer of program of affordable housing. It appeared notions ot civic responsibility. Their the whole proposal than in the early tall, Cullen Center, Inc., and his counterpart at to him necessary to create a new, private preliminary plan addresses the critical need remain wary of the proposed tax increment American General Corporation, Max organization to deal efficiently with the for affordable housing, public open space financing district that Founders Park wants Schuette. Marshall instigated the first complex problem and to seek wider sources and improved amenities, safe and pedes- the city government to authorize, and, broad planning investigations in late 1987 of funding for affordable housing, "Some- trian-oriented neighborhoods of mixed and early 1988. He remembers that the thing had to happen to attract the attention :: Clite Spring 1991

Mrs. Martha Whiting addresses the Founders Park forum, IS August 1 9 9 0 .

of the politicians [in order| 10 help rhe scheme, a redevelopment project reputed to vulnerable people in the area."1 The entail "upscale townhouses and apartments V expression of such interest is rare lor a at 5 stories, a neighborhood shopping private developer in this city. There is no center, all organized by town squares, parks shortage of critics who see this as a smoke and small lakes."* The discussion of the screen to hide what they believe is really other two proposals showed that Founders going on - private corporations using Park was not the only interested and their power to displace a community for organized party involved. Lcnwood P.. private profit. Johnson, president of the Allen Parkway Village Resident Council, was on record Cullen Center, Inc., and American as doubting the efficacy of mixing eco- General [nvestment Corporation formally nomic groups: the "rich won't buy into the announced their 600-acre development notion," he said. Instead Johnson advo- during KUHT-TV's "Almanac" program on cated rehabilitation of Allen Parkway Friday, I S April 1990. I'he May-June I990 Village, which would be "followed by rhe issue of Texas Architect carried the develop- emergence of small community businesses ers' announcement that a series of open that would result in gradual economic forums would be held to make the plan a development to a neighborhood that reality.sThe three-year planning process remains low income" - sweat equity by set in motion by Founders Park Venture rhe African-Americans in Fourth Ward to 1 culminated in the December 1990 release remake their neighborhood.' Johnson's o f the Founders Park Venture preliminary rhoughrs followed at least seven years of master report by Sikes Jennings Kelly & outside volunteer and community-based Brewer and Carr Lynch Hack & Sandell. planning efforts, such as the several design charrettcs sponsored by local universities. Its evolution involved a number of plan- enhancement of Montrose-area residential The F o r u m , 1 8 - 2 1 August 1 9 9 0 As Srephcn Fox relates, this "poor and, ning efforts on the pares of such designers neighborhoods, Neartown developed presumably, unsophisticated" African- as Hoover & Furr and, later, Andres Duany land-use projections, a planning process to 1 he first day of the forum, attended by American community "has demonstrated 1 of Coral Cables with Phillips & Brown. build a cohesive community response, and 350 to 400 residents, landowners, and an extraordinary ability to use urban such nuts-and-bolts ideas as traffic busters other interested persons, was organized planning as a tool to define and articulate Contributions From A f a r (discontinued through-streets to slow along the lines of meetings in cities where grass-roots community objectives. Forging traffic) and ways to create different neigh- the public participatory process has been coalitions with local, regional, and national For two months in the summer of 1990 borhood identities. Some of their ideas refined. Gary I lack later summarized volunteers and social agencies, [it] pursued the prospective plan preoccupied Duany. were in fact adopted by the Founders the basis ol the meetings as the need to historic preservation as a tool to win whose fame and reputation have grown Park planners. establish a minimum public consensus. At recognition of the cultural significance of since he and his wife, Elizabeth Plater- the outset, the groups were confronted the endangered neighborhoods.""1 Zyberk, created plans for the Town of Notes with the issues and problems they all faced. Seaside, Florida. Though his involvement The forums goal was to frame the issues - was brief, his lasting contribution to Since the late 1980s the community had 1 Community activist Virgil Knox, in an August clearly and directly. ' "I'he four-day charrette 1990 interview, described Fount) Ward as the Founders Park was urban planning based was intended to be educational, outlining worked with Nia Dorian Becnel and her linchpin in a cirywidc developer conspiracy to for the participants the problems and on the planning principles of Savannah, University of Houston students to create a gain control ol soon-to-bc-valuable piece* of land with 65 percent of the land in public space. rehabilitation plan. The plan, as finally ried m the development nj hoth die Metro rail benefits of the proposed tax increment His proposed "democratic townscape" had drawn up on a pair of presentation boards, system and the intrastate bullet train. Sec David financing district, now defined as stretch- generous pedestrian paths, a mix of low- used the notion of public thoroughfares to Thcis, "Had (ionnections," Houston I'rrss, 30 ing from Waugh Drive (the American rise housing types for families of different connect the two historic districts directly August 1990. p. 12. General property) to 1-45 and from Allen incomes, and small city blocks that and called for development guidelines to Parkway south to a block beyond West 2 Interview with Max Schucttc, Tall 1990. continued the Fourth Ward fabric and protect rhe existing historic fabric as well as Gray, including the area around The Oaks, the old Parker-Raker estate. Frank Kelly discouraged fast-moving traffic/' This foster a supportive environment of neigh- 3 "Proposed Joint Venture,' front A 1'resrntation to concept, humane and supportive of urban borhood-related entrepreneurial zones. For Ameriam General Investment Corporation by enumerated the goals that the planning renewal in the best sense, was in fact example, Valentine Street, extended beyond Cullen Center. May 6, 1988, by Hoover & Purr. group had defined before meeting with the generated from afar; afrer an initial inter- its current limited right-of-way in Allen public: connecting the Buffalo Bayou view with the Founders Park principals, Parkway Village, was to become a pedes- 4 Ibid. Parkway green space to the community; Duany decided to do a quick charrette trian boulevard lined with spaces for civic reoccupying empty land located so close to 5 Joel W. Rama, "News." Texas Arr/iiiert 40 (May- rather than fly to Housron for a second services and institutions that would reunite downtown; preserving some part of the June 1990), p. 8. It was in this article as well that historic district of Freedmen's Town; and interview. "Its the way we work - from Allen Parkway Village and Fourth Ward. Andres Duany's involvement was officially resuscitating decent housing in the area. aerials we work quickly . . . five hours . . . Cither streets, interrupted when Allen announced. to create the framework for the plan. [ I'he Parkway Village was built in the neighbor- All id the issues were open for discussion. plan] was not yet fine-tuned. I'he key is hood's midst, would be rehabilitated to fi Jane Baird, "Miami Architect No longer Involved simplicity." The Houston office of Phillips serve as public spaces and neighborhood With Founders Park." Houston Chronicle, July 4. One argument against the forum process 1990, p. C I . & Brown was to have fine-tuned the plan linkages. The plan remains to be taken is precisely this framing of the issues. H o w to local conditions and assisted in imple- farther. With Mrs. Becnel s death in 7 Interview with Andres Duany, October 1990. the issues are framed, and what issues are menting the scheme. November 1990, an invaluable component When queried about his sudden departure, not addressed, can shape a discussion in of the planning process was lost. Duany said an amicable- parting had occurred such a way that "consensus" can be reached In July 1990. Founders Park Venture because of a difference of opinion over planning without really addressing what is on the authority: he believed that the process required The third vision was a compromise of sorts community's mind. Lenwood Johnson, abruptly turned to Sikes Jennings Kelly & equal participation rather than a typical speaking for the combined Fourth Ward Brewer. Not only did this Houston firm put forward by "a hodgepodge of low- employee-client relationship. Other participants have important local political contacts, it income-housing advocates, planners and in the first public presentation by Duany and the Freedmen's Town Neighborhood Associa- also had the smooth touch necessary to architects."" Peter Brown, who, as the planning team tell ol a conflict ol authority and tion and Allen Parkway Village Resident stroke all the parties involved. Moreover, article noted, worked for "American Duany's arrogance, liurilette kecland remembers Council, relates, "Information was being Sikes Jennings Kelly & Brewer had recent General, Cullen Center and the Ayrshire that the otherwise thoughtful and promising gathered by trained employees ol AIIH.-IK.III presentation was marked by Duany's disdain lor planning experience with building public Corporation on Founders Park," was General, while we had no similar represen- the architects and planners he was to work with: tatives to even begin to lay the groundwork consensus in an urban redevelopment quoted as referring ro rhe success in othei "He seemed ro prefer to run the show himself" for the negotiations." Those antagonistic project in Boston. Frank S. Kelly, at the lilies of mixed communities with a large Interview with Isurdettc Kecland, September time president of the American Institute of component of low-income housing. He 1990. to the process say that the way questions Architects/Houston Chapter, and Ben cited the model of Tent City in Boston, a I)ii.tm\ interest in designing the fine-grained were framed and moved through discussion Brewer, former president of the American 300-unit apartment complex of five to six details ol the master plan was thwarted with the in [he meeting constituted strong-arm Institute of Architects, were not afraid of stories in the Back Ray-South Paid. This assignments to the local architects, including planning tactics. Others in the audience the delicacy of the task. SJK&B associated idealized vision could lead to a demo- 3U/I, Morris Architects, S|K&B. and Phillips & felt that the apparent earnestness of the two Brown. A number of other participants in rhe with its planning collaborator from Boston, graphically balanced community of local moderators, Gary Hack and Frank Kelly, June 19911 meeting questioned whether Duany's indicated that maneuvering room was left. Gary Hack of Carr Lynch Hack & Sandell, residents and the new upper-income abrasive style might jeopardize both the com- a firm working with Kevin Lynch's notions gentry. A cautionary point made by this munity and political consensus and the financial of city planning. A professor of urban group of thinkers was that "in urban support thai would have to be created. After the Workshops on Saturday afternoon ad- design at the Massachusetts Institute of renewal projects developers, banks, and termination of the relationship with Duany, dressed the specific issues iluit Founders Phillips & Brown played r less visible role in the Technology, Hack brought different some political associates have benefited... . Park Venture had previously identified: process, apparently to keep the project clear of credentials to the project, having worked For the poor it has been too little, too late, any "taint ol Andres Duany's lack of success." urban open space, infrasrructure require- with inner-city redevelopment and housing even with well-intentioned people in- Kecland interview. September 1990. menrs, community services, the area's 1 reform in ilic older i ities of tin- Northeast volved." "' The exceptions to this rule image and character, historical resources, and Canada. He was included on the team tended to be in cities with strong local 8 Jane- Baird, "Whither the Ward: 3 Development and (led by Hack) housing requirements. to orchestrate the important community governments and strong neighborhood Visions Emerge as Debate Peaks," Houston Post, O n Sunday, Founders Park representatives forum, slated for August 1990. watchdog groups. Among Houston's com- •j March 1990, pp. E5-E7. met with specific community groups, munity activists is the Ncartown Associa- among them the Neartown Association and tion, which represents the Montrose 9 Ibid. Other Visions the North Montrose Civic Association, and neighborhoods. Relying primarily on 10 Interview with Stephen Pox, January 1991. attempted to meet with the Freedmen's professionals who volunteer their services, A March 1990 Houston Post article de- Town Association. Separate meetings were Neartown had a planning group and scheduled with the Allen Parkway Village scribed three current development visions 11 Raird. "Whither the Ward," p. E7. philosophical base well in place before Resident Council and the Fourth Ward for the Fourth Ward-Allen Parkway Village 1990. Dedicated to the stability and 12 Ibid., p. K6, quoting Joe l-eagin, professor ol Freedmen's Town Neighborhood Associa- area. The first was the Founders Park •.,.,. ml.ip .ii the I liiivershy ol lexas at Austin. Cite Spring 1991 23

A TIF Primer

Proponents of Founders Park Venture hope to raise part of its funding with a novel vehicle, a tax increment financing (TIF) district. A Houston Post article describes how the district would work: tion, but these groups chose not to attend. its own comprehensive planning committee As Lcnwood Johnson explains: "This was had refined. Although persuaded by the A special tax increment district is proposed that would last 20years. Such an illegitimate process being imposed on us process, Neartown is the first to admit that a district could be created by the city council after a public hearing. As against our wishes. . . . Our participation it acts primarily for its constituency. Allen development increases land value in the district, the added tax revenue would legitimize the process." Parkway Village and Fourth Ward are would be used for two purposes. Two-thirds would be pumped into the outside its bailiwick. district to help pay for infrastructure, parks, landscaping, and other For the next two days the design charrette improvements. One-third would be spent to build or buy and renovate carried on with informal reviews and Of course the absentee landowners and low-income housing.' meetings. The planners responded to the representatives of surrounding neighbor- concerns expressed by modifying their hoods who might benefit from Fourth The last element has been extremely important. Not only does the stated objectives. The planning team Ward redevelopment applauded the forum Texas Tax Increment Financing Act of 1981, as amended through the undertook a closer examination of the area and any improvement it would bring. efforts of then state senator Craig Washington in 1987, require the and, using quickly produced area maps, A few of the financially well off African- one-third allotment, but the emphasis on affordable and low-income perspectives, and charts, presented its work American speakers saw the discussion as a housing fits the thinking of American General and Cullen Center. The to the community forum on the evening necessary first step toward positive action, original TIF legislation was geared principally toward commercial of Tuesday, 21 August. The planners listed even if displacement of tenants and disrricts with no residential components; the amendment allows for the points of consensus reached in the destruction of the neighborhood's historic the creation of TIF districts in residential areas. workshops and the ramifications of each; fabric were to occur. in a relatively short time the Founders Park The mechanics of this legislation defy easy explanation. Briefly, a TIF Venture had defined the issues, framed The two groups who were not represented district may be created by a city council with the approval of the other them, and distilled their economic and and would be most affected were the city of local taxing authorities, the county, and the school district (as empow- planning implications in a way its planners Houston and residents of Fourth Ward and ered by the state legislature). The district is created in response to a believed the community could under- Allen Parkway Village, the former because petition of the owners of at least 50 percent of the assessed valuation of stand. The presentation was notable for its the issue was still too "hot." (Several the area, and their request must be accompanied by submission of a parallels with planning and housing months later, District C councilman Vince redevelopment plan, a relocation plan for any resident displaced, and consensus-building sessions in other cities. Ryan, who sent a representative to the a financial plan. The district must be characterized by urban blight and forum, asserted that only recently has the underutilized lands. It is in the distillation process that political tide turned sufficiently for the mayor to support the initiative.)'The issues charrertes have problems, though. The A nine-member district board oversees the redevelopment and directs for the city remain the relocation of the complexity of the issues can often be the managc-ment and allocation of funds, including issuance of bonds. residents, timely reconstruction of replace- overlooked; broad principles do not address Five of the members are appointed by city council and must be ment public and low-income housing, the mechanics of implementation or the landowners or their representatives. Two must be from the area's state and preservation of Houston's historical social upheaval that can follow in the wake senator and representative's offices; the remaining two represent the resources. of "democratic" decision-making and county and the school district if those agencies choose to accept the community consensus. A longer study of III'' district in the first place. This commission of citizens, none the proposal through the fall would take The other constituency intentionally not elected, could recommend condemnation to the city council of any these elements into consideration. To that participating was the very population to be property deemed vital to the success of the district. It then remains end, Hack and Kelly established a citizens' displaced. Cullen Center and American for city council to undertake the actual condemnation. steering committee that would meet with General Corporation's representatives met the planners throughout the fall and once with Gladys M. House, president of Not« provide a check on the system. the Frecdmen's Town Association. She believed that her community should not be I Jane Baird, "Whither the Ward: 3 Development Visions Kmcrge as the Debate One issue that could not be avoided: the ground zero for another try at the white Peaks." Houston Post, i March 1990, pp. E5-E7. tax increment financing (Til') district. community's notion of urban renewal, From the outset the planners stressed its power to target an area for infrastructure improvement. For the first time in Texas, improvements in affordable and low- income housing would be tied to the ITP to** '. ' district, accounting for a full third of the revenues the tax generated. But throughout [In tour-day forum, the most vigorous discussion centered around the issue of property condemnation under the lll;. • Problems of infrastructure and housing attracted much less interest and discussion, a disproportion that confounded Max Schuctte and other Founders Park leaders. •• \.>

The participants from North Montrose and &P- Temple Terrace feared for their homesteads. Virgil Knox, spokesman for the North Montrose Chapter of Individual Landown- ers and Homeowners, railed against the abridgment of basic property rights for the benefit of the developed Question sessions i: saw emotional pleas: Improve the area, \ but don't take our houses! This caught the ! m *£jfe planners off guard. Judy Butler, past v; president of the Neartown Association, believes that the effort started out on the wrong foot: "They did not include the & neighborhood - they did not take into account how people feel about their «s& homes," The Founders Park Venture and its planners sought quickly to allay the fears, and a number of homeowners, grateful for the earnest efforts of Kelly and 1 lack, have conceded thai since their worries were first expressed, Founders Park got on the right track. Discussion made it clear that setting up the TIF district was synonymous not with losing homes, but rather with improvement of the neighborhood. In fact, Judy Butler relates that the * » % Neartown Association informally asked if *•>•***^ - the TIF district might be expanded in order $&*. , „. for the benefits of such directed reinvest- ment to have wider impact. The North "^l*Si1 £ Montrose groups, on the other hand, con- I currently asked to be excluded from the TIF district.

The participatory process allowed the Neartown Association to bring up for dis- Illustrative aerial view of Fourth Ward and Allen Parkway Village redeveloped as Founders Park, 1990, Carr, Lynch, Hack cussion a number of planning issues that & Sandell, Boston, with Sikes, Jennings, Kelly & Brewer, Houston. u Cite Spring 1991

following years of misdirected city efforts. secure community involvement. It de- communiry is unknown in Houston; As of the end of April 1991 the federal Thus she chose not to participate in the scribes current conditions and the reason- getting the mechanics right to make it court case is still pending (see 'APV forum. Several meetings took place with ing for establishing such a wide TIF district work will be difficult. Update"), delaying the final fate of Allen Lenwood Johnson and Nia Becnel, (the advantages of higher neighborhood Parkway Village. The planning document representing the Allen Parkway Village land values and improved infrastructure The document by necessity deals with of Founders Park Venture has been circulat- Resident Council and the fourth Ward make the district attractive to landowners, the issues of public housing, the economic ing and apparently winning positive Freed mens Town Neighborhood Associa- as the Neartown Association's informal implications of the TIF district, and the reactions from the city. The mayor is tion. Though initially informative, both request can attest). In concise terms the future of the two historic districts of San rumored to support the plan; Founders leaders and their constituencies chose not document advocates such basic planning Felipe Courts (Allen Parkway Village) and Park meetings with her right-hand man, Al to participate in the forum. concepts as the creation of green boule- Freed men's Town. Hack believes the Haines, took place the first week of vards extending the bayou parkway into the challenge for the Frecdmen's Town recon- February. Most neighborhood groups seem The preliminary master plan outline, neighborhoods; the "consolidation" (which struction lies in identifying who the to feel that any action would be at least a released in early December 1990, is a may imply destruction, xs some knowl- residents will be and what buildings are to step in the right direction. Even with their credible planning document despite its edgeable critics fear) of the Freedmen's be rehabilitated through homesteading vocal but seemingly powerless outside short gestation period. The creators, lown Historic F)istrict into a denser 12- and block grant programs. To Kelly, the supporters, the residents of Fourth Ward stressing that the venture still awaits final block "historic area" to recapture the "fascinating dilemma" of this district is how and Allen Parkway Village stand divided, if economic reports and the support of character of what the larger area once was; to reconstruct the feeling of the area when not alone, in their attempts to frame the elected city officials, presented a compre- the complete elimination of Allen Parkway in fact so much of the physical fabric has discussion and to form their own proposal hensive but necessarily flexible plan. The Village; and the creation of "a community disappeared since the 1984 listing in for the future of their neighborhoods. • 58-page document illustrates a variety of of diverse, street oriented housing forms the National Register. The complex issue components of the proposal, from the which cater to a variety of life-style of Allen Parkway Village, whose future is Notes urban planning realm to affordable housing preferences. . . . At least 10% of the units more in the hands of the federal court than and the TIF legislation. Frank Kelly empha- in Founders Park should be available for in those of the city or private enterprise, is 1 Dee Gill, "Fourth Ward Proposal Draws Mixed s sized that the document was "merely (he low and moderate income households. " mentioned in the document; development Reaction." Hauiton Chronicle. 22 August 1990, p. 2B. first blush, schcmatics,"and called it "a first Residential areas would adjoin a shopping along Buffalo Bayou should have a special district along West Gray and Webster and high-profile character to reflect the value feasibility test . . . to serve as the basis 2 Interview with Gary 1 lack, January 1991. for documenting the steering committee a community and cultural center at of the land and the uniqueness of the site. consensus and as a basis for further Gregory School. The buffer area, a dense One of the provisos for continuing the 3 Interview with Vincc Ryan, January 1991. discussion." In the next step the planners commercial zone along 1-45, is oriented planning process into 1991 was the future must commit to specific plans as a compo- toward downtown. Of importance to the release of the Allen Parkway property for 4 "Founders Park" document. American General nent of their petition to city council for the rest of the city, the quality of the residential development. Founders Park planners Investment Corporation and Cullen Center, Inc., TIF district. The three elements of the TIF neighborhoods and commercial districts question the social and economic wisdom Hall 1990, p. 53. would be assured by detailed land use con- of housing 1,000 families on that key petition arc the project plan, the financing 5 Ibid., p. 7. plan, and a petition from owners of at least trols and a limited form of district zoning. location. "The architectural merit seems 50 percent of the appraised value of the the least of the equation," says Kelly/' 6 Interview with Frank Kelly, Deccmher 1990. land. In a process clearly outlined in the The planning document further depicts document, the project would go forward if 7 Interview with Jim Siockard, January 1991. the proposed community character with a The most completely thought-out response "a socially responsible and imaginative number of street perspectives that empha- to the Allen Parkway Village question plan could be agreed upon, the plan was S Interview with Frank Kelly, December 1990. size communal street life, a mix of housing comes from Jim Stockard of Stockard & economically viable, and there is support types, and low-scale but relatively high Engler, the Founders Park housing consult- from adjacent neighborhoods and elected densities. Gary Hack sees formulation of ants. Charged with investigating national officials."'The effort is privately funded design guidelines for the housing types as funding sources and the contentious and motivated, but it has to work with and the greatest challenge for project planners, mechanics of relocating residents and APV Update gain the support of city officials. along with developing the character of the replacing housing units, Stockard contrib- green spaces. I he document's renderings uted an extensive survey of funding On Thursday, 4 April, U.S. district judge The document, in text, aerial and sche- full of big shade trees and upscale cars - programs as well as a phased-development Kenneth M. Hoyt ruled on the lawsuit matic plans, and architects' renderings, are too cute to be taken for much beyond and construction costs spreadsheet. When brought by the Allen Parkway Village outlines goals as well as the process used to conceptual images. This type of residential interviewed, he said the document did not Resident Council against the Housing address the much-debated issue of replac- Authority of the City of Houston ing the destroyed housing stock quickly (FIACH) to prevent use of federal funds to enough. On the issue of Allen Parkway demolish Allen Parkway Village. Judge Village, his instinct from afar is that the Hoyt found for the plaintiffs. He directed viability of the complex is minimal because that funds remaining from the $10 of the small size of the apartments, their million awarded to HACH in 1979 by the high density, environmental hazards (lead U.S. Department of Housing and Urban w paint and asbestos), and the outdated Development for the rehabilitation of regularity and linearity of its site planning. Allen Parkway Village be applied only to (As presently arranged, the project does Allen Parkway Village and that disposi- not provide tenants privacy or a sense of tion of these funds, as well as FIUD rent personal territory.) In response to the city's subsidies that HACH continued to receive and the city housing authority's difficulty for Allen Parkway Village, be accounted in creating the needed public-assisted, low- for since l ' ) 7 9 . Judge I loyt prohibited income housing stock, Stockard proposes HACH from spending federal funds to in the planning document to establish promote or plan the demolition of Allen a citywide, privately organized, nonprofit Parkway Village. And he gave HACF1 60 housing development corporation that days to prepare a rehabiliration plan for could guarantee, through innovative the project using the funds the authority funding and management, a one-to-one had been granted for that purpose 12 replacement for units lost in the demolition years ago. Judge Hoyt's ruling is intended of Allen Parkway Village. "1 believe in to bring HACH into conformance with housing authorities," he says. "Our exper- the Frost-Leland Amendment of 1987. ience in general, and specifically in Cam- Sponsored by the late Houston congress- bridge, Massachusetts, is that residents man Mickey Leland and Dallas congress- prefer to stay in the public housing author- man Martin Frost, this prevents use of ity's developments for many reasons, not ledetal funds to demolish low-income the least of which is accountability and public housing projects. better stock." He adds that the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Devel- The housing authority board subse- opment favors resident initiatives and quently voted to appeal Judge Hoyt's ownership opportunities, both of which ruling. Meanwhile, Congressman Craig Stockard sees as key to the long-range Washington, Leland's successor, is seeking viability of mixed housing. Critics claim repeal of the Frost-Leland Amendment. that by encouraging the construction While a member of the Texas Senate, of public housing elsewhere in the city, Washington cosponsored legislation Founders Park Venture is creating the introduced by Senator Don Henderson mechanism to move most of the current that amended the states Tax Increment Allen Parkway tenants out of the area. Financing Act and the Texas Enterprise Zone Act. Without these amendments - All of the planners reiterate that what is which representatives of Founders Park missing from the process is the leadership Venture, at the August forum event, and mediating role that the city govern- stated they had sought - Founders Park ment should play. Kelly, with his experi- could not qualify as a tax increment ence in Boston, relates, "We are providing financing district, nor would corporate the framework for the process that the representatives be eligible to serve on a planning department should provide, and TIF district board of directors. we interpret and prioritize" a whole series of decisions from the community, yet "we Stephen Fox are viewed as the enemy, the developer's 1749 S Post Oak Road, Post Oak Plaza.Houston.Oren till 9 on Thursdays. hired guns