Community troubled by I-45 expansion
Project could potentially affect dozens of homes and a storied church located in the right-of-way
For Tanya Debose, Independence Heights is rich with history. Before it became a Houston neighborhood, it was a city, one of the oldest — if not the very first — Texas cities to be founded by African Americans. Debose’s greatgrandfather became one of the city’s original homeowners in 1924; now, as executive director of the Independence Heights Redevelopment Council, Debose imagines tours taking visitors to sites such as Harris County’s first African American city hall.
So when the Texas Department of Transportation released an analysis of how the I-45 expansion would impact historical resources, Debose scrolled through the document looking for what the agency had to say about the project’s impact on Independence Heights, where dozens of homes and a storied church lay in the right-of-way.
Independence Heights is bounded on the south and east by I-610 and I-45, respectively, and while the 2,309page report mentioned that the community could potentially be impacted by the project, it did not address specific effects.
The omission could im
pact how the neighborhood, listed in the National Register of Historic Places, is compensated for any historical losses.
“I hoped for, you know, at least acknowledging African Americans and acknowledging our historical and cultural assets in the community,” Debose said. The Independence Heights Redevelopment Council recently worked with the nonprofit Lone Star Legal Aid to submit comments to TxDOT pointing out the community’s history.
Familiar tale
The agency could use the information in its final assessment. “It allows TxDOT the opportunity to do it right, and not just run over us,” Debose said.
The Texas Department of Transportation did not respond to a request for comment.
Independence Heights has been impacted by highway construction before. In the early 1960s, Loop 610 was built through the neighborhood, with 330 residences demolished to make way for the highway, according to Lone Star Legal Aid.
Since then, Independence Heights has been listed in the National Register of Historic Places, a preservation program that also has roots in highway construction.
In the 1950s and ’60s, Americans who came of age during World War II turned their attention back home with hopes of changing the country on a grand scale.
An interstate highway system was constructed, urban renewal programs were established and, in the process, countless buildings were demolished.
In the wake of the construction, Lady Bird Johnson commissioned a report analyzing the effects of urban renewal.
“I was dismayed to learn from reading this report that almost half of the 12,000 structures listed in the Historic American Buildings Survey of the National Park Service have already been destroyed,” she wrote in the report’s forward in 1966. “This is a serious loss and it underlines the necessity for prompt action if we are not to shirk our duty to the future.”
Impact uncertain
That same year, the National Historic Preservation Act was signed into law. Considered by some to be the country’s most influential preservation legislation, the act established the National Register of Historic Places — which lists Houston’s Independence Heights Residential Historic District.
That law directs that when destroying a historic resource is unavoidable, the agencies involved must look for ways to address the community’s historic loss.
For example, when a New York commuter line going through Connecticut required replacing a historic bridge, the Connecticut Department of Transportation offered as much as $3 million dollars to support nearby museum exhibits and historic restoration.
While the section of Independence Heights listed in the National Register of Historic Places is not adjacent to I-45, neighborhood representatives argue properties being impacted are also historic and hope that the community will gain more from this highway project than the last.
“They’ve already acknowledged there will be an impact,” said Amy Dinn, who is representing the Independence Heights Redevelopment Council with Lone Star Legal Aid.
“So given there is an impact … it’s kind of odd they would not even include it in their scoping to make a determination if there’s a historic aspect or not,” she said. “They’re prioritizing certain communities over others.”
The Independence Heights Redevelopment Council has requested TxDOT mitigate impact to the Independence Heights by relocating Greater Mount Olive Baptist Church, which will be impacted by the I-45 expansion, creating a pocket park in memory of the church, installing community gateways and historic signage and documenting the district’s historic assets.