Alert for Sugar Land residents (Houston, Austin: low income, apartment complexes, city hall)

[AK123]

I will paste the emails that were forwarded to me:


Apparently there has been an application filed by a developer for a low-income multi-family complex at 16827 Old Richmond Rd in Sugar Land. The area appears to be in the Austin High School or Kempner High attendance zone.

Here is the information:
Goldshire Townhomes
16827 Old Richmond Rd, Sugar Land
File #09166

This is still in application stages and not yet set in stone - there is still time stop this. There will be a hearing for this application on Monday, April 13th at 6pm at the Houston city hall annex, 900 Bagby in downtown Houston. I know it's in downtown, but if this is of concern to you, please try to attend this hearing.

I have seen many areas which were once great, suffer when overdevelopment of apartments and other low-income housing was allowed to proliferate in the area, the schools went from great to terrible and property values stagnated or fell. Along with this, many undesirable businesses entered the area and crime went up. It all starts with just one.

Here is another link, though I called the State and was told attending the hearing is the best way to try and stop this.
Complaint System - TDHCA

According to one of the documents in the other email, the project contact is Navdip S. Sobti. When I googled "Navidip Sobti", I found several other documents suggesting he has been trying to develop these low-income housing projects. I also got a whitepages address in Forum Park (anyone familiar with this area at Beltway & Hwy 59 knows it's not good).

Another document I found (on page 61) suggests he was perhaps first trying to develop a project by similar name elsewhere in Fort Bend
http://209.85.173.132/search?q=cache:_pqntKGjv9PsJ:www.tdhca.state.tx.us/pdf/transcripts/070510-board.pdf+"Navdip+Sobti"&cd=4&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us

(Another email)

We've been getting a lot of e-mails about a sign that went up recently
behind the old white church on Old Richmond Road, near West Airport
Blvd. The sign says that an application has been filed with the Texas
Department of Housing & Community Affairs (TDHCA) to build a
government subsidized, 150-unit, low-income, multi-family development.
It would be called "Goldshire Townhomes."

Details here: http://www.tdhca.state.tx.us/multifa...tiesAppLog.pdf

The TDHCA will hold a public hearing on April 13 at 6 p.m. at the City
Hall Annex Chambers Public Level, 900 Bagby, Houston, TX 77002.
Complaints can also be filed at Texas Department of Housing & Community Affairs - TDHCA (that's what
they say, but I can't figure out where to send the complaint).

Personally, I think that area is already saturated with low-income
housing, and having another 150 low-income families zoned to our
schools will have a negative impact on the schools and our property
values.

Just trying to get the word out. The more people who complain, the
more likely it is that we'll be able to shoot down this plan.

[AK123]

There's also a thread about it on HAIF with additional info.
Low-income housing on Old Richmond Road - Houston Architecture Info Forum - Houston's largest online community

This seems to be the "development" company.
GOLDSHIRE DEVELOPERS,LLC (http://www.goldshiretexas.com/My_Homepage_Files/Page3.html - broken link)

[txstate]

You have to accommodate Low income folks too. No one wants to live in the city anymore, come on Sugar Land, Richmond area, and your not shutting down this one either, please show me the negative impact because most people who stay are working, college students, new people to the area, I have friends over there.

[equalityofman]

This is what went wrong with America. We catered to the rich and look what happened. Its time to let everyone live in comfort. I am all for this development.

[Grunn]

Nimby

[AK123]

Originally Posted by txstate

You have to accommodate Low income folks too. No one wants to live in the city anymore, come on Sugar Land, Richmond area, and your not shutting down this one either, please show me the negative impact because most people who stay are working, college students, new people to the area, I have friends over there.

Originally Posted by equalityofman

This is what went wrong with America. We catered to the rich and look what happened. Its time to let everyone live in comfort. I am all for this development.

Funny how people make comments like this, as long as the development is not in their own neighborhood. And who said the rest of the immediate area is "rich"?

It's a little unfair for people to keep bringing up the lower-income and equality card. It's not that specifically, but the school overcrowding (150 families is larger than some subdivisions), traffic on that little two-lane road, falling property values, and potential crime problems (just read the news... most of the violent crime in Houston happens around apartment complexes, does it not?) So you want the complex citizens to have plenty of rights and privileges, but what about all the surrounding residents and homeowners?

If this equality were the view of the developer, I'd like to see him build it in his own part of town and school attendance zone. Do you think that would actually ever happen? Highly unlikely.

The developer just wants to make money off the project. It's a business venture and nothing else.

And yes - when it's a government subsidized project and my tax dollars are being used, I think I have a say in it. Especially when we up and moved our family from a perfectly good home six months ago, for the sole reason of getting into a better school zone. And unless you live in the school zone mentioned, I think you should kindly mind your own business.

[texas7]

The problem is when you don't want it in your backyard - it just moves to someone else's backyard (but people are okay with it as long as it is not in theirs). These sort of complexes actually need to be spread out rather equally across the city to avoid an area that is nothing but apts. and problems (like some of those along 59 in SW Houston where they have so many issues from those massive 70's and 80's complexes left to decay)

[Synopsis]

Originally Posted by txstate

You have to accommodate Low income folks too. No one wants to live in the city anymore, come on Sugar Land, Richmond area, and your not shutting down this one either, please show me the negative impact because most people who stay are working, college students, new people to the area, I have friends over there.

It is a well known fact that low income housing brings with it crime and other undesirable things.

I realize that low income people have to live somewhere, but the fact is that most of these people are not of the same standard as people that have already established lives in these areas. I wish there was a magic wand that could be waved to resolve this but there is none. Perhaps the answer is better government or administrative oversight to these accommodations, but the government appears to "dump" these people in areas and not follow up to ensure they live up to the standards of the neighborhood.

It's not fair, but it is a fact.

[jfre81]

Get to work people! Keep us trash out of your neighborhood!

Speak now or I'll park on your lawn.

[lacyandian]

So, the fact that me and my fiance can't find a job right now makes us criminals? We are low income, we get government benefits, for our child, he is the one that gets the benefits, so he can have food and diapers. Are we white trash? If you saw us out and about I bet you would not think so.

I understand that a lot of crime happens in low income neighborhoods, don't get me wrong, i lived close to Memphis, Tn and my fiance lived in Cincinnati for a while and we know the kind of stuff that happens.

But, the fact that it is being built in Sugar Land will most likely make it better and less likely crime based. The economy is in such bad shape right now and a lot of people that would not normally be considered low income, are right now. So you never know, it could very likely be the same people that live around there now, but can't afford their place anymore and have to go into a low income apt.

Don't judge on the amount of money somebody makes, it's just not nice.