Feb. 27, 2015<\/p>\n
Here\u2019s the report from the Feb. 25, 2015, Uptown TIRZ 16 board meeting<\/a> about when the once-a-boat launch on Buffalo Bayou\u00a0 in Memorial Park\u00a0at Woodway might be reopened.<\/p>\n Please note that Texas constitution guarantees the right of the people to access navigable waterways through public land<\/a>.<\/p>\n The fenced-off Parks and Wildlife Paddling Trail takeout<\/a>, referred to by the TIRZ as the \u201cWoodway outfall,\u201d is in need of a guardrail above a steep drop-off, parking reserved for the handicapped, and a gate that allows the park area to be closed at night, according to Sarah Newbery, the TIRZ 16 project director for Memorial Park.<\/p>\n The bayou access point on public land west of Loop 610 has been surrounded by a locked, curtained fence and closed to the public without explanation for almost a year since construction and landscaping were completed on the $1.36 million \u201cerosion control\u201d and drainage improvement project<\/a>. The larger park area, known as the Old Archery Range, has been closed without explanation for nearly a decade.<\/p>\n The Houston Parks and Recreation Department is reviewing plans for the guardrail, parking, and permanent access gate for the former boat launch, Newbery told the board members meeting on the seventeenth floor of 1980 Post Oak in the Galleria. The TIRZ expects to send the plans out to bids in April and to finish construction by August, Newbery reported.<\/p>\n There will be a sign on the site by next week explaining all this to the public, said Newbery.<\/p>\n But why should the public not have access to the bayou through the park now, since there appears to be no legal or even safety reason why this part of the park should not be open in the meantime? The parks department could erect a temporary guardrail above any drop-off it deems dangerous, as it has done in Buffalo Bayou Park. There\u2019s already a gate and a parking lot.<\/p>\n