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 communi- ties they affect. Whereas the privately driven planning vision measures its prog- ress 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.