{"id":6896,"date":"2019-03-13T18:28:48","date_gmt":"2019-03-13T23:28:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.savebuffalobayou.org\/?p=6896"},"modified":"2019-04-03T19:00:43","modified_gmt":"2019-04-04T00:00:43","slug":"developers-plan-to-improve-memorial-park-by-cutting-a-lot-of-trees-re-establishing-streams","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.savebuffalobayou.org\/?p=6896","title":{"rendered":"Developers Plan to Improve Memorial Park by Cutting a Lot of Trees, “Re-establishing” Streams"},"content":{"rendered":"

Business Group Requests Federal Permit for Dredging, Filling Wetlands, Hardening Tributaries to Buffalo Bayou<\/h3>\n

Public Comment Due by April 4, 2019<\/em><\/h4>\n

 <\/p>\n

March 13, 2019<\/p>\n

A Galleria-area development group has asked for a federal permit<\/a> to fill wetlands and dredge and armor streams in Memorial Park<\/a> in order to build two \u201cearthen land bridges\u201d over Memorial Drive<\/a>. The project, part of a controversial $200-300 million landscaping plan<\/a> for the public park, requires the felling of hundreds of trees, including mature pines, digging up and lining the streams with concrete rubble and wire baskets of \u201crocks,\u201d covering Memorial Drive with concrete tunnels, and relocating playing fields and picnic areas.<\/p>\n

The Harris County Improvement District 1<\/a>, otherwise known as the Uptown Houston District<\/a> is a local government corporation composed of property owners and developers and funded by special property tax levies. Its members are appointed by the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality. In 2013 the boundaries of the Uptown District, which is also governed by the Uptown Development Authority or Uptown Houston Tax Increment Reinvestment Zone (TIRZ 16)<\/a>, though they have different boards, was expanded to include Memorial Park, a 1,500-acre semi-forested park on Buffalo Bayou in the center of Houston. The TIRZ uses local property taxes that would otherwise go to the City’s general fund.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Location of proposed concrete tunnels and “land bridges” over Memorial Drive and same location in 2017.<\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

The park, formerly the site of a World War I-era military training camp, is also a State Antiquities Landmark<\/a>. (See also here.)<\/a> Parts of a small constructed channel connecting the two originally natural though partially altered tributaries appear to be walled with stone possibly dating from that period. The two tributaries flow through deep wooded ravines lined with lovely dirt paths and empty in Buffalo Bayou.<\/p>\n

\u201cRocks,\u201d other than ancient sandstone<\/a>, are not natural to Houston\u2019s streams.<\/p>\n

\n
\n