Judge Hidalgo announces $2.6 million program to fight crime in unincorporated areas of Harris County (Houston: low income, apartment)

[Redlionjr]

You know Houston doesn't have to look 3 hours and 30 mins north of 45 for examples of competent cohesiveness quality suburbs. You at least have 2 in your metro that you could take cues from. If the remainder of unincorporated Harris county and some of these other unorganized burbs did what The Woodlands and Sugar Land has done than Houston MSA would be in a much better space moving forward.

You have examples right in your backyard. But hey you know

[DabOnEm]

Originally Posted by Redlionjr

You know Houston doesn't have to look 3 hours and 30 mins north of 45 for examples of competent cohesiveness quality suburbs. You at least have 2 in your metro that you could take cues from. If the remainder of unincorporated Harris county and some of these other unorganized burbs did what The Woodlands and Sugar Land has done than Houston MSA would be in a much better space moving forward.

You have examples right in your backyard. But hey you know

^^You can also say that's why master planned communities are so popular in the Houston area because they have some resemblance of planning similar to incorporated cities. Houston typically has the most MPCs in the top 10-20 best selling category for this reason (vast unincorp areas).

But The Woodlands and SL are more on islands versus the vast space of unincorp Harris County which is similar in population to Collin County. That's why CoCo was used as the example because both are the major suburban areas with 1M+ people.

[usc619]

Originally Posted by DabOnEm

^^You can also say that's why master planned communities are so popular in the Houston area because they have some resemblance of planning similar to incorporated cities. Houston typically has the most MPCs in the top 10-20 best selling category for this reason (vast unincorp areas).

But The Woodlands and SL are more on islands versus the vast space of unincorp Harris County which is similar in population to Collin County. That's why CoCo was used as the example because both are the major suburban areas with 1M+ people.

…and folks wonder why people run to MPCs in the Houston area. I learned the hard way when we purchased our first home. Eventually we got it right and purchased in the city of Fulshear… let hope they don’t ***** it up.

[WRM20]

Originally Posted by Redlionjr

You know Houston doesn't have to look 3 hours and 30 mins north of 45 for examples of competent cohesiveness quality suburbs. You at least have 2 in your metro that you could take cues from. If the remainder of unincorporated Harris county and some of these other unorganized burbs did what The Woodlands and Sugar Land has done than Houston MSA would be in a much better space moving forward.

You have examples right in your backyard. But hey you know

Those are nearly impossible in Harris County, and Ft Bend and Montgomery County had zero to do with the alleged cohesiveness. The Woodlands looks like it does because George Mitchell put together something like 27,000 acres and then made the rules. Since he died, and Howard Hughes Corporation bought what was left, the new developments are nothing special.

Sugar Land was much the same, with very large MPC's. I personally wouldn't live in First Colony, as it's ridiculous to have literally hundreds of pages of controlling documents. Their fine schedule is oppressive as well.

[WRM20]

Originally Posted by DabOnEm

^^You can also say that's why master planned communities are so popular in the Houston area because they have some resemblance of planning similar to incorporated cities. Houston typically has the most MPCs in the top 10-20 best selling category for this reason (vast unincorp areas).

But The Woodlands and SL are more on islands versus the vast space of unincorp Harris County which is similar in population to Collin County. That's why CoCo was used as the example because both are the major suburban areas with 1M+ people.

The developments in Collin County all appear to be within the city limits of incorporated municipalities that can actually control development. The municipalities in Collin County appear to have been incorporated for 70 or more years, with many of them 100 years or more. That never happened in Harris County, even before the Houston ETJ law was pased.

[crone]

Originally Posted by WRM20

The developments in Collin County all appear to be within the city limits of incorporated municipalities that can actually control development. The municipalities in Collin County appear to have been incorporated for 70 or more years, with many of them 100 years or more. That never happened in Harris County, even before the Houston ETJ law was pased.

Some days I think many in the area, especially the incorporated areas, have no clue about living in a disenfranchised no man's land. The previous county judge spoke about it being a terrible way to run what would be the 5th largest city in the country.

[usc619]

Originally Posted by crone

Some days I think many in the area, especially the incorporated areas, have no clue about living in a disenfranchised no man's land. The previous county judge spoke about it being a terrible way to run what would be the 5th largest city in the country.

Thank you, I couldn’t agree more

[LocalPlanner]

Those of you pining for "planning" seem to mean zoning, where elected officials / bureaucrats think they should decide what land uses go where. That's unambiguously bad in most cases; the market should decide on uses and density. And you don't need zoning to plan for connectivity and streets, urban design standards, and other planning features. Houston already has the power to do those things in its ETJ. I would agree that the City could do a better job at those things. But, you don't need to incorporate to do that.

And sorry, but I don't see Collin County as that dramatically different from unincorporated Harris County except that it just is a consistently bigger mass of affluent population, which is not necessarily desirable, because lower-paid workers also need places to live in proximity to their jobs.

[Dopo]

Originally Posted by LocalPlanner

Those of you pining for "planning" seem to mean zoning, where elected officials / bureaucrats think they should decide what land uses go where. That's unambiguously bad in most cases; the market should decide on uses and density.

So … land for schools shouldn’t be purchased until the demand requires it and the land cost 10 times more?

[WRM20]

Originally Posted by Dopo

So … land for schools shouldn’t be purchased until the demand requires it and the land cost 10 times more?

Developers generally dedicate land for elementary schools, sometimes middle schools.

If government planners, ie the school board had not been involved, Katy ISD's second stadium would have been build South of I-10, near Seven Lakes HS or Tompkins HS, instead of 50 miles away in the City of Katy.