What’s All This About Downtown Redevelopment in Bellaire?

Do We Value Our Small Businesses?

Can’t the appearance of downtown Bellaire be improved without spending hundreds of thousands of dollars to drive out our longtime businesses?      

We already have everything we need to remain a successful and attractive community.  A great location, terrific schools and parks.  Friendly residents living on tree-lined streets in quiet neighborhoods.  A city government that includes our own library, police and fire departments, and a public works department.

We have a sizable number of eating places and a variety of small businesses, all conveniently located.  What more can we ask for,  who or what else are we trying to attract?  And why would we want to harm long established businesses?

My core belief is that it is morally wrong for a local government to plan to drive longtime businesses out of any town, but that’s just what the City of Bellaire seems to be doing. 

The city manager has cherry-picked the Zoning Code and the City’s Comprehensive Plan to justify adding a streetscape to a street/drainage project along 5100 and 5200 Spruce and Fifth St by H-E-B.  

And the Mayor and City Council may acquiesce.  Of note -Spruce had a fairly high rating on the pavement survey in 2013. (See graphic at right)  Find the entire 2013 pavement/sidewalks study under City Studies.  

The public works director stated that the cost of the 3-block streetscape portion, to include angled public parking, 7-foot wide sidewalks, underground wiring for the new streetlights, irrigation systems for the trees and plantings along 3 blocks of right-of-way, is an additional $190,000.  All that for less than $200,000?  (Cost for the fancy streetlights alone is $80,000).  In an area of commercial service businesses across from the rear of H-E-B.

How he arrived at that figure by January 7th is unknown, since bids for the project were not due until January 17th.  And the 4-block Holly St esplanade has already cost $250,000 – with nowhere near the amenities in this project.

The City’s Reasons For The Project

The streets along Spruce and Fifth in the H-E-B area are slated to be reconstructed and new drainage installed. Once completed the appearance of the entire area will be greatly improved because for now H-E-B had no reason to complete their planned sidewalk and landscape design.

The business and property owners have not objected to the reconstruction project.  Their concern is the addition the streetscape that will cover over half the width of the right-of-way and narrow the street width to 26 feet (the width of a residential street).

This streetscape was added to the $500,000 contract granted to Costello Engineering at the request of the city manager.    Costello _Executed Contract_May_25_2017

The narrow streets and the angled parking will hinder or block access to private parking lots.  Imagine your driveway is partially blocked or inaccessible, only a public street for parking your vehicles – if space is available.  The design will also create difficulties for deliveries to all the businesses in the area, including H-E-B.

The stated reason for the Spruce/Fifth streetscape portion of the project is to promote redevelopment in the area to attract new businesses that ‘conform’ to the Comprehensive Plan and our zoning ordinances. 

This is an excerpt from the January 7th council meeting agenda: “There are seven properties within the limits of the Spruce and Fifth Street Reconstruction Project that do not align with current zoning requirements”.   And this from a recent weekly memo from the City Manager: “The 2014 zoning change for the Urban Village Downtown district (UVD) created legal non-conforming uses for seven properties in this zoning district.”  Sounds serious, doesn’t it?

The black slanted lines indicate angled spaces. Access to every parking lot along the north side of 5100 Spruce is affected. 

Those non-conforming uses?  The City is using more recent zoning requirements as the basis for ‘non-conforming’ use – for instance, some of the businesses do not have enough parking spaces. 

The plan is to remove access to some of the ‘too-few’ private parking spaces by adding public spaces in front of them!

If there is any intent to assist the businesses this is a self-defeating plan.  Private spaces for customers will be lost and anyone can park in a public space.  Some examples – the Jax area stands to lose 14 dedicated parking spaces, the Builders Club would lose 9 private spaces.

The black slanted lines indicate angled spaces. Other areas in the street would be sidewalks or planters. Only the daycare in the 5200 block of Spruce retains clear access to parking.

Among the affected businesses are a restaurant, an auto repair, a bakery, a day care, an assisted-living facility, a wine and liquor store, a beauty salon, and an auto parts business.

They and others have been serving the needs of the city and surrounding areas for 20 to 30 years or more, all are valued by the community, and no one has complained about lack of sidewalks or parking problems. Recall the old adage: “If it’s not broke, don’t fix it”.

A quick drive through the Spruce/Fifth area on a Sunday morning is an eye opener.  The public parking in the 5200 block of Cedar and all the private parking lots made available in the area for after-hours parking are filled with H-E-B employee vehicles.  Who will be parking in the new public parking spaces?

Sunday morning at the corner of Spruce and Fifth

Sunday morning along 5200 Cedar