Last week, the Houston city council approved the first 150 homes to be built in the Wayside Village subdivision. While community members protested against the development, they now consider the approval to be a win-win situation.
Residents and Super Neighborhood residents from all over Houston showed up at City Hall July 11to protest an in-City MUD on an affordable housing project. Again on August 1, 55 community members wore black to the countil meeting to reiterate no more bad development.
While the community has not changed its position on the feasibility of having an in-city MUD on an affordable housing project, it was found that the city had no choice but to approve the MUD in this situation.
North Forest leaders were unaware that the city approved the MUD in July 2005 under the leadership of past District B. City Council Member Carol Mims Galloway.
If the MUD did not go forward, they city of Houston would have had a liability on their hands, said community organizer Ivory Mayhorn.
The City Council passed the MUD for sections one and two only on Aug..1th with the developer pulling the already approved general plan and will not go for plat approval until a new land plan is designed with community input. The council held an hour and a half discussion on the project and decided that the city will negotiate what will happen with the rest of the development.
Councilmember Jarvis Johnson and Peter Brown went to bat for our community and now we will have a better planned project, said Super Neighborhood 47 president Jackie Mayhorn.
The developers now have to revamp their plan and come back to the table willing to work with the community and NFISD.
