Southampton, Coalition Back Repeal of “Texas Medical Center, Inc.” Condemnation Power Over Homes in Residential Neighborhoods
TMC Inc.—an obscure operator of parking garages and a real estate manager for the Medical Center—wields little-known but sweeping statutory condemnation power, and is now bulldozing deed-restricted homes in one nearby residential area, “extinguishing” its valid deed restrictions as they go. A residential coalition, Neighbors Against Eminent Domain Abuse (“NAEDA”), www.stopTMCinc.org, is leading a campaign to terminate TMC Inc.’s power to condemn homes.Like almost all Southampton residents today, homeowners in Central City once thought their homes were protected by the subdivision’s deed restrictions. But TMC Inc.’s lawyers assured the company that its statutory condemnation power not only empowers TMC Inc. to condemn, but also to abolish single family deed restrictions as they go. TMC Inc.’s lawyers assured their client that the company’s “extinguishment” powers blanket homes sold by “agreement,” as well as those forcibly taken by court order.
Southampton and the coalition are backing a strong eminent domain reform bill, HB 3709, currently pending before the state legislature. This powerful bill, authored by State Rep. Garnet Coleman, would repeal TMC Inc.’s eminent domain power in residential areas. The bill may be set for hearing in the Texas House of Representatives Land & Resource Management Committee as early as April 8.
Passage of Rep. Coleman’s bill will narrow TMC Inc.’s present unlimited condemnation power but leave unchanged its right to exercise eminent over commercial, industrial and other business property. Considering the tens of thousands of acres of non-residential property available to the north, southeast, south and southwest of the Medical Center, this repeal would in no way harm or hamstring the Texas Medical Center. Houston and the Medical Center neighborhoods derive great employment, economic value, and prestige from the Texas Medical Center. Terminating the abuses of its real estate manager, TMC Inc., would protect the integrity and property values of nearby residential neighborhoods while preserving the Texas Medical Center’s ability to grow and prosper.
Is Southampton Really Threatened?
Eminent domain risks of property facing the Medical Center is not academic, as the example of Central City proves. Nor is Rice the only member that could seek condemnation along the Rice campus perimeter: to the contrary, every single one of the Medical Center’s 46 members could get the condemnation process started through their real estate manager/service company, TMC, Inc. Until reform of the law is enacted, the target could either residential or non-residential—so long as the property “adjoins” or is “adjacent to” the existing Medical Center boundaries. Rice is a full member of the Texas Medical Center, and all current Medical Center maps include the three-mile perimeter of the Rice campus. Of course, nobody expects a good neighbor like Rice to seek condemnation, but the Rice segment of the Medical Center boundary empowers TMC, Inc., at the request of any of the Medical Center’s 46 members, to condemn deed-restricted residences adjoining the edge of the Rice campus to build a non-Rice clinic, hospital annex, parking garage, or support facility. In other words, the boundary establishes the eminent domain threshold, not the identity or policies of the nearest Medical Center member institution. Currently, the most threatened neighborhoods, after Central City, are Southgate and Old Braeswood. In the long run, however, the threat to Southampton, both directly—and indirectly through the largely unrestricted residential blocks east of Ashby to Cherokee—cannot be dismissed.Click here to view the TMC 50 year MasterPlan Map or here for the entire 2006 TMC master plan
Blockbusting and Blight: The Consequences of TMC Inc.’s Ongoing Residential Condemnation Program
Before TMC Inc.’s decision to condemn homes in the Central City subdivision, it was a quiet, wooded neighborhood of 94 lots, hidden behind businesses fronting its three defining major thoroughfares. The largest of these by far is TMC Inc.’s logistical building on Holcombe at Almeda, east of the VA Hospital. This logistical center occupies a renovated former National Biscuit Co. cookie factory building. Parallel to the rear of the former cookie factory is Lockett Street, where 17 of the 19 homes that once lined its north side have now vanished—the most recent demolished only a few weeks ago.This once-pleasant pocket of deed restricted homes, brimming with children, is now under siege from what can only be called blockbusting. For example, more than half of the lots, sold by residents fearful of the future, have fallen into the hands of speculators, investors, and TMC Inc. The multistory tin-sheathed parking garage looms over the neighborhood. Streets are scarred by vacant lots formerly occupied by homes before the bulldozers arrived. Boarded-up homes await a questionable fate. In additions, residents now are burdened with heavy cut-through traffic, light pollution at night, obstructed views, and growing blight. The neighborhood must even cope with parking problems on their streets by TMC Inc. employees who are unwilling to pay the fees charged to park in the employee garage.
Click here to see photos of the TMC Inc. parking structure oppressively looming over the Central City subdivision
Read the related article in the most recent SHCC newsletter
Neighbors Stand up to Medical Center - Houston Chronicle March 29, 2009 Front Page Article
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Ashby Highrise Information
High Rise Development Comes to our Neighborhood: Another Affront to our Quality of Life from Outsiders
Picture the shadow a 266-foot building casts over a surrounding neighborhood of 30-foot homes in winter and summer. Visualize what will happen to traffic on neighborhood two-lane streets when you add 500 more cars each day emptying out of a high-rise. Imagine the joy of looking out from your lovely garden into a six story parking garage which is 10 feet away and a 23-story tower rising 266 feet into the air.
Kevin Kirton and Matthew Morgan, principals in a company known as Buckhead Investments, have purchased the property currently known as Maryland Manor on the corner of Bissonnet and Ashby. Their intent is to reshape our concept of urban living by placing a 23 story high rise in our midst. These two gentleman do not live in Houston but prefer the restricted areas of West University and Southside Place, where local development regulations (zoning) provide protection against out of scale projects.
Help fight this project by signing the petition:
On the web at http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/Ashby_Highrise
or click
here to download the PDF.
Please write letters to our elected officials!
Direct Link to the Latest Highrise Information
NSRP Option for Streets and Alleys
Citizens can request reconstruction of residential streets using the city's Neighborhood Street Reconstruction process. The NSRP petition form is posted on the City's website. Southampton Civic Club recently asked the City to clarify how the NSRP petitions for alleys would be treated. Director of Public Works and Engineering Michael Marcotte's response is posted here.
Deed Restrictions Interested Goup
An informal group of Southampton residents has been meeting for over a year to discuss renewal of Southampton's deed restrictions. If you are interested in participating, please contact Clark Martin for more information. The Deed Restrictions Interested Group, which is not currently a committee of Southampton Civic Club, has asked us to post this initial notice to Southampton Property Owners concerning the Group's efforts.