Metro eyes redevelopment at Addicks lot
As Metropolitan Transit Authority officials weigh how to best use some agency-owned land in a more useful way, it is turning to developers, hoping pitches for homes and stores in and around transit stops can guide where Metro goes, when it comes to what gets built.
“We don’t know if we are going to be comparing apples and oranges and grapefruits,” said Metro board member Diann Lewter, chairwoman of Metro’s joint development and land use committee.
Officials will ask companies to submit broad development proposals for how to use 28 acres at the Addicks Park and Ride, a few hundred feet east of where Texas 6 crosses Interstate 10.
Though the Energy Corridor area south of I-10 has been densely developed, and seen unprecedented growth in the past decade, the portion north of the freeway, sandwiched between the interstate and Addicks Resevoir, has been built less, but with increasing redevelopment.
Broad parameters
The site could include both commercial and residential uses, Metro chairman Sanjay Ramabhadran said. The aim, he stressed, focused on linking transit and people’s lifestyles.
“We want a destination where those who want to choose to, can live next to transit,” Ramabhadran said.
The only parameters from Metro will be maintaining either the existing level of service, or what they think they will need later, Metro CEO Tom Lambert said. How that is arranged, from bus bays and parking to where someone stands or sit to wait for a bus, will be part of the designs, but open to interpretation, he said.
The aim aligns with transitoriented development, the terminology used across many city, county and state departments, as well as the development community.
In major metro areas such as Houston, though it has been slow to develop here, transit-oriented development focuses on building more dense shops and homes while assuming transit use — as well as walking and bicycling — will reduce but not eliminate the need for automobiles.
As a result, the thinking around transit-oriented development is a family of four could share a car as opposed to owning three or four vehicles if access to buses and trains is more convenient. In the neighborhood, that could allow for less spaces to park a car or truck, but better sidewalks and trails to bus depots.
Metro is exploring whether a more transit-centric design can work where large park and ride lots are now, and how that could affect commuter bus use still reeling from the COVID pandemic. While the 12,820 passengers who on average hopped a park and ride bus daily in May was an 8.4 percent increase over last year, use of commuter buses remained 59 percent below what the system did in May 2019.
That drop, however, did not stop Metro for pushing ahead with a deal with NewQuest
Properties for a 1,750-space parking garage, exclusively for Metro’s use, as part of the planned second phase of Fort Bend Town Center, near Texas 6 and the Fort Bend Tollway. As growth leads to a return to traffic, and people return to offices, officials said some growth is inevitable.
Even factoring growth, Metro might have more than it needs in some spots. At Addicks, Metro operates park and ride service, offering about 2,400 parking spaces. The aim of any partnership would be to maintain commuter bus bays and other services, while preserving 2,000 of those parking spaces, said Taylor Mercantel, transit oriented development program manager for Metro.
Tidwell center also
Addicks is the first, but not only, place where Metro is moving ahead with redevelopment plans, often tied to future bus service enhancements.
Metro last year received a federal grant aimed at redesigning and developing the Tidwell Transit Center, near Tidwell Road and Interstate 69. The transit center will be the northern terminus of the planned University Corridor, a 25-mile bus rapid transit that is the centerpiece of upcoming mass transit efforts.
As one end of the BRT line, more people and buses are expected to pass through Tidwell than ever before, and connecting it to the community is a priority not just for neighbors but Metro, Ramabhadran said.
“This exercise has the potential, not just for the transit center … but to the transform the whole community going forward,” he said.
In many Metro locations, the link between where people live and connect to transit is frayed at best. With the exception of transit hubs in the most urban parts of Houston, many riders require a car simply to get to a bus.
“I spent 35 years in prison and just got out. I can’t afford a car yet, so public transport is the only way for me to get around,” Richard Redd, 53, said as he waited at the Tidwell Transit Center.
As Metro thinks about the entire area, Redd’s needs are more simplified.
“It would be helpful if this stop had a public restroom.” Redd said.