This city council agenda item’s wording is enough to make one’s eyes glaze over:
29. ORDINANCE finding and determining that public convenience and necessity no longer require the continued use (1) as public streets of a 13,380 square foot portion of South Post Oak Lane (Parcel SY5-011A) and a 5,238 square foot portion of Skylark Lane (Parcel SY5-011B), both located within Azalea Terrace, a subdivision according to the plat thereof recorded at Volume 33, Page 38, Map Records of Harris County, Texas (“HCMR”), (2) two utility easements on 0.0963 acres of land (Parcel SY5-011C) and 0.1098 acres of land (Parcel SY5-011D), both located within Restricted Reserve “A”, Saks Fashion Center, according to the plat thereof recorded at Volume 340, Page 51, HCMR, and (3) a water line easement on 0.1863 acres of land (Parcel SY5-011E) within Azalea Terrace Annex, according to the plat thereof recorded at Volume 34, Page 61, HCMR; vacating and abandoning said public street rights-of-way and easements to Boulevard Place, L.P., abutting owner, in consideration of the conveyance to the City of a public street right-of-way easement on 66,500 square feet (Parcel AY6-165), payment to the City of $1,500.00, and other good and valuable consideration; approving and authorizing the conveyance to the City by Crescent POC Investors, L.P. of public street right-of-way easements on 5,346 square feet (Parcel AY8-271A), 343 square feet (Parcel AY8-271B) and 526 square feet (Parcel AY8-271C) of land – DISTRICT G – HOLM
TAGGED BY COUNCIL MEMBER HOLM
This was Item 33 on Agenda of May 28, 2008
I see BLVD Place in there, which we posted on previously when the Chron wrote about the city using its eminent domain powers to obtain land for Ed Wulfe’s big development.
So how can we find out more about this item?
We have to go and find the “Agenda backup.” One has to exit the agenda page, go to the council page, click on “Agenda backup,” and download a large PDF file, in this case 122 pages. Then one has to page through to find where the backup is for the particular agenda item of interest. For agenda item 29, the corresponding backup is located starting on page 108 of the pdf file. What one can see in the backup is that the city will be abandoning property valued at $2.45 million, and in return BLVD Place will pay the city $1,500 and convey rights-of-way worth $6.54 million:
Inasmuch as the value of the $1,500 minimum fee plus the street right-of-way being conveyed to the City is greater than the value of the streets and easements being abandoned and sold, it is recommended City Council approve an ordinance authorizing the abandonment and sale of a portion of South Post Oak Lane, a portion of Skylark Lane, two 10-foot-wide utiltiy easements, and a 10-foot-wide prescriptive water line easement in exchange for a consideration of $1,500 plus the conveyance to the city of right-of-way for South Post Oak Lane and Ambassador Way, all located within Azalea Terrace Subdivision, Azalea Terrace Annex Subdivision, Saks Fashion Center, Post Oak Embassy, and/or Fashion Square.
It’s too bad there isn’t a way to provide links on the online agenda where folks can get more information. And what I didn’t see was the reason Councilwoman Holm tagged it.
UBU ROI ADDS: In 2004, the city cut S. Post Oak Ln. (not Blvd.) short and gave Wulfe several parcels of land (where the streets would have been located). In 2006, Council member Holm appears to have been involved in revising the deal; at that time Wulfe agreed to construct the streets around BLVD Place at his expense. The 2008 version frees him from that obligation, at the cost of his giving some of the land back. However, the land he is giving back, in combination with some minor/useless parcels, would re-route the streets, increasing the size of his development. The streets, if built, will be constructed with taxpayer money; Wulfe only has to construct a fire hydrant and cut some water /sewer mains at his expense (approx. $65k).
I’d guess that Pam’s not happy that he’s going back on the deal; or maybe it’s just the difference between treatment of BLVD Place and the Ashby high-rise.
