Those same sources also told me that Perry Homes started out asking for their purchase price of the land PLUS the money they spent partially developing it. However, as I reported last week, based on the newspaper articles, that appears to have changed at this point.
Woodridge Village after the May 7, 2019, flood
Full Text of Perry Homes’ Fact Sheet about Land Sale
Below is the full text of a “fact sheet” along with a link to the original PDF Perry Homes PR people allegedly sent out about the sale of their Woodridge Village Property in Montgomery County. I say allegedly because I have never known a public-relations person to put out information that is not on a letterhead and without contact information.
“FACT SHEET ON WOODRIDGE VILLAGE”
“For several months, we have been in discussions with Harris County to sell the +/- 268-acre Woodridge Village site in Montgomery County so that it can be used for regional detention. Our offer price is our original acquisition cost of $14,019,316.85. This sale would represent a loss of the development costs we have already spent, which are over $9 million to date. We would also be foregoing the future profits we would earn from building and selling homes.”
“The draft study performed by LJA Engineering advised this regional detention concept would remove more than 800 homes from the 500-year floodplain and provide additional flood mitigation for hundreds of other area homes. We are willing to absorb the losses referenced in the paragraph above because of the enormous benefit it will offer to downstream residents in Houston and Harris County.”
“If the property is not going to be used for regional detention, we plan to either develop it for Perry Homes or sell it. Work is ready to start on the remaining detention facilities. We have also listed it for sale to other developers at an initial asking price of $23 million, which will increase as additional funds are expended.”
“We first requested to meet with Harris County back in October 2019, and our first face to face meeting occurred on November 8th. At the request of Harris County officials, we even delayed the construction bid process so the commissioners could consider our proposal in executive session. After the executive session, we were informed that Harris County needed the City of Houston to partner with them to make the project occur. However, we have been informed the city is not looking to partner with the county on this project. In any event, we are concerned about delaying improvements any longer. If, by March 31st, we do not have reason to believe a definitive agreement for regional detention is likely, we will move forward with the remaining infrastructure and continue to entertain private market interest in the property.”
In my opinion, there were four key pieces of new news in this when its was released.
First, Perry Homes has dropped its asking price by no longer demanding to recoup its development costs.
Second, Perry Homes’ supplier, LJA Engineering, has determined that turning the property into regional detention could mitigate flooding.
Third, Perry Homes is already trying to sell the property on the open market.
Fourth, Perry Homes has given Harris County a deadline to make a decision – March 31, 2020.
Reaction to the News
Dropping the asking price shows that Kathy Perry Britton has not become totally untethered from reality. However, it still seems high for someone trying to sell the Titanic with an iceberg sticking out of the side of it.
I wish LJA had told Perry Homes the property needed to become regional detention BEFORE Perry Homes bought the property. Duh!
Good luck, Kathy Perry Britton, with trying to sell this property on the open market. With oil prices below $30, the stock market gyrating wildly, 401K’s losing value, and businesses laying off employees, not many people will rush out to buy homes in the immediate future. Lest we forget, in 1985 when oil prices dropped to $35, housing values in Houston collapsed 50%.
Definition of Chutzpah: Perry Homes
Threatening the one potential buyer with a deadline shows, in my opinion, an incredible amount of chutzpah, as my Jewish friends say. Chutzpah (ho͝otspə) in the original Yiddish sense has a strongly negative connotation. It means “insolence,” “cheek,” “incredible gall” or “audacity.” However, since entering English, the word has taken on a broader, more positive meaning. Today, in the business world it usually means the amount of courage that a person has.
Leo Rosten in The Joys of Yiddish defines the term as “that quality enshrined in a man who, having killed his mother and father, throws himself on the mercy of the court because he is an orphan.”
For Perry Homes to put a deadline on this deal shows incredible chutzpah – especially when the world has become focused on the corona pandemic. It shows a similar and scary disconnectedness.
However, I must admit that everyone wants Perry Homes to do something with this property quickly. And it hardly seems fair to make them invest more money in it if Flood Control is going to buy it tomorrow.
An Offer to Perry Homes
So Kathy, I will make you a deal. I’ll buy Woodridge Village for a dollar. Then you can save face and say you dumped the property for 100 times what it was worth … before it flooded again in the spring rains. But the best part … you can take a $23 million tax deduction and make almost as much money as you would have if you had sold it in the first place. Boom! Done. You ditched that dog! You’re a hero again.
Woodridge Village after May flood.Saving money on earth moving by letting nature do it for you.
If they sell it to me, maybe I will get into the mud spa business.
Posted by Bob Rehak with Jeff Miller’s Titanic line
930 Days since Hurricane Harvey and 179 since Imelda
The thoughts expressed in this post represent opinions on matters of public concern and safety. They are protected by the First Amendment of the US Constitution and the Anti-SLAPP Statute of the Great State of Texas.
https://i0.wp.com/reduceflooding.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/DirtyPipe_01.jpg?fit=1500%2C1024&ssl=110241500adminadmin2020-03-16 12:34:012020-03-16 16:08:27Perry Homes Says “Now or Never”: Selling the Titanic With an Iceberg Sticking Out of the Hull
Bryce Canyon NP, Utah. Photo courtesy of National Park Service.
Bryce Canyon Hoodoos
Hoodoos are tall, thin spires of rock that have usually eroded from the edge of a drainage basin. Hoodoos typically consist of relatively soft rock topped by harder, less easily eroded stone that protects each column from the elements. In the case of the Conroe hoodoos, the vegetation at the top of the pit helps provide that protection.
Of course, the hoodoos in Bryce Canyon formed over the last 40-60 million years, through the relentless forces of erosion. The Conroe hoodoos formed in the last two years. They’re not quite as spectacular or as tall. And they’re made out of sand, not sandstone.
Sandstone is formed when sand is cemented by such materials as silica and calcium carbonate. Most sandstones form through the accumulation of river sediments on seabeds. They are then compressed and uplifted to form new lands. Bryce Canyon was uplifted 8,000 feet, Conroe about two hundred.
Liberty Materials vs. Mother Nature
Here are some more pictures of the Liberty Materials mine in question.
And to give equal time to Mother Nature, here are some more pictures of Bryce Canyon.
Liberty looks a little sloppier than Mother Nature. But then, Mother Nature takes her time.
It may take a few more years before 2 million people a year start visiting the Liberty pit.
Posted by Bob Rehak
929 Days since Hurricane Harvey
Note: Unlike the other images on this site which are public domain, please refrain from copying or distributing my images of Bryce Canyon. To see more of my photography, visit BobRehak.com.
The thoughts expressed in this post represent opinions on matters of public concern and safety. They are protected by the First Amendment of the US Constitution and the Anti-SLAPP Statute of the Great State of Texas.
https://i0.wp.com/reduceflooding.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/20200306-RJR_9337.jpg?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=18001200adminadmin2020-03-15 16:40:062020-03-15 16:59:47A Little Bit of Utah’s Bryce Canyon Comes to Conroe
Confluence of Spring Creek (left) and San Jacinto West Fork (top) on March 6, 2020.The Montgomery County line cuts left to right through the center of this picture at the tip of that white sand bar.
If the Clean Water Act were still being enforced, we might see scenes like this less often. You’re looking at the confluence of Spring Creek and the San Jacinto West Fork. It has looked like this during random flyovers in four out of the last six months.
Liberty isn’t the only sand mine on the West Fork. You can find approximately 20 square miles of sand mines in the twenty mile stretch between I-69 and I-45. Spring Creek on the other hand has only one mine – almost 30 miles upstream at SH249.
Most West Fork mines have a tendency to leak waste water from time to time. That’s part of what you see in the photo above. Below are seven NEW breaches spotted this month upstream on the West Fork.
Mine water leaks into wetlands and out past perimeter road at LMI E. River Road mine in Conroe.Pumping water over dike at same Liberty Materials Mine on River Road.At same mine, a pipe through the dike discharges water at a fixed height into an adjoining ditch that leads to the West Fork.Liberty Materials leaks water into backyard of home in Bennett Estates. From here it goes into a storm drain on Calhoun and into the river.Difficult to see at this resolution, there’s a pump in front of the trees on the left. It’s sending waste water into the wetlands below the mine. Hallett sprouts another leak into the West Fork (lower right).Most of these breaches happen out of sight and never get reported.
Another part of the West Fork turbidity problem is upstream construction in Montgomery County. Believe it or not, Montgomery County starts at the tip of that white sand bar at the confluence of Spring Creek and the West Fork.
That’s how you get construction practices like those in the new 2200 acre Artavia complex going in next to the West Fork sand mines, just south of SH242 by FM1314. Brand new culverts are already clogging. See below.
Artavia drainage ditch and culverts. A river of mud.
More on Artavia in a future post.
The erosion is so bad, even the erosion is eroding in many places.
Decline of Clean Water Act
Then, of course, another part of the problem is the gutting of the Federal Clean Water Act. States, counties and municipalities used to have someone setting standards and looking over their shoulders. The rollback of key provisions, such as the redefinition of “waters of the U.S.”, has been heralded as a boon to developers and the death knell of wetlands.
Of course, you don’t have to change regulations to kill them. You can just not enforce them. By turning a blind eye. Gutting enforcement staff. Overruling staff. Reinterpreting policy. Ignoring evidence. Or resetting priorities. To name just a few.
Don’t Know What You Got Till It’s Gone
Many of us who grew up before the Clean Water Act (formerly known as Federal Water Pollution Control Act, passed in 1972) remember how bad things were. Like the Cuyahoga River fire in 1969.
The San Jacinto West Fork has already been named one of the most endangered rivers in America. But my biggest fears are not for the river. They’re for the health of the millions of people who depend on water from the river. For the people who will flood when the river becomes clogged with sediment. For the poor and elderly who can’t afford sky high bills to cover the cost of water treatment. And for the long-term health of the economic hub of the region, Houston.
Posted by Bob Rehak on 3/14/2020
928 Days after Hurricane Harvey
The thoughts expressed in this post represent opinions on matters of public concern and safety. They are protected by the First Amendment of the US Constitution and the Anti-SLAPP Statute of the Great State of Texas.
https://i0.wp.com/reduceflooding.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/20200306-RJR_9506.jpg?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=18001200adminadmin2020-03-14 21:46:342020-03-14 21:47:53Clean Water Act, R.I.P.
Perry Homes Says “Now or Never”: Selling the Titanic With an Iceberg Sticking Out of the Hull
Last week, the Houston Chronicle and Community Impact both ran stories about Perry Home’s potential sale of the Woodridge Village property. That property has been implicated in the flooding of Elm Grove twice last year. Sources who wish to remain anonymous have told me that Perry does NOT WANT to develop the property. They would prefer to sell it.
Those same sources also told me that Perry Homes started out asking for their purchase price of the land PLUS the money they spent partially developing it. However, as I reported last week, based on the newspaper articles, that appears to have changed at this point.
Full Text of Perry Homes’ Fact Sheet about Land Sale
Below is the full text of a “fact sheet” along with a link to the original PDF Perry Homes PR people allegedly sent out about the sale of their Woodridge Village Property in Montgomery County. I say allegedly because I have never known a public-relations person to put out information that is not on a letterhead and without contact information.
“FACT SHEET ON WOODRIDGE VILLAGE”
“For several months, we have been in discussions with Harris County to sell the +/- 268-acre Woodridge Village site in Montgomery County so that it can be used for regional detention. Our offer price is our original acquisition cost of $14,019,316.85. This sale would represent a loss of the development costs we have already spent, which are over $9 million to date. We would also be foregoing the future profits we would earn from building and selling homes.”
“The draft study performed by LJA Engineering advised this regional detention concept would remove more than 800 homes from the 500-year floodplain and provide additional flood mitigation for hundreds of other area homes. We are willing to absorb the losses referenced in the paragraph above because of the enormous benefit it will offer to downstream residents in Houston and Harris County.”
“If the property is not going to be used for regional detention, we plan to either develop it for Perry Homes or sell it. Work is ready to start on the remaining detention facilities. We have also listed it for sale to other developers at an initial asking price of $23 million, which will increase as additional funds are expended.”
“We first requested to meet with Harris County back in October 2019, and our first face to face meeting occurred on November 8th. At the request of Harris County officials, we even delayed the construction bid process so the commissioners could consider our proposal in executive session. After the executive session, we were informed that Harris County needed the City of Houston to partner with them to make the project occur. However, we have been informed the city is not looking to partner with the county on this project. In any event, we are concerned about delaying improvements any longer. If, by March 31st, we do not have reason to believe a definitive agreement for regional detention is likely, we will move forward with the remaining infrastructure and continue to entertain private market interest in the property.”
For a printable PDF of the fact sheet, click here.
Key Pieces of New News in Fact Sheet
In my opinion, there were four key pieces of new news in this when its was released.
Reaction to the News
I wish LJA had told Perry Homes the property needed to become regional detention BEFORE Perry Homes bought the property. Duh!
Good luck, Kathy Perry Britton, with trying to sell this property on the open market. With oil prices below $30, the stock market gyrating wildly, 401K’s losing value, and businesses laying off employees, not many people will rush out to buy homes in the immediate future. Lest we forget, in 1985 when oil prices dropped to $35, housing values in Houston collapsed 50%.
Definition of Chutzpah: Perry Homes
Threatening the one potential buyer with a deadline shows, in my opinion, an incredible amount of chutzpah, as my Jewish friends say. Chutzpah (ho͝otspə) in the original Yiddish sense has a strongly negative connotation. It means “insolence,” “cheek,” “incredible gall” or “audacity.” However, since entering English, the word has taken on a broader, more positive meaning. Today, in the business world it usually means the amount of courage that a person has.
For Perry Homes to put a deadline on this deal shows incredible chutzpah – especially when the world has become focused on the corona pandemic. It shows a similar and scary disconnectedness.
However, I must admit that everyone wants Perry Homes to do something with this property quickly. And it hardly seems fair to make them invest more money in it if Flood Control is going to buy it tomorrow.
An Offer to Perry Homes
So Kathy, I will make you a deal. I’ll buy Woodridge Village for a dollar. Then you can save face and say you dumped the property for 100 times what it was worth … before it flooded again in the spring rains. But the best part … you can take a $23 million tax deduction and make almost as much money as you would have if you had sold it in the first place. Boom! Done. You ditched that dog! You’re a hero again.
If they sell it to me, maybe I will get into the mud spa business.
Posted by Bob Rehak with Jeff Miller’s Titanic line
930 Days since Hurricane Harvey and 179 since Imelda
The thoughts expressed in this post represent opinions on matters of public concern and safety. They are protected by the First Amendment of the US Constitution and the Anti-SLAPP Statute of the Great State of Texas.
A Little Bit of Utah’s Bryce Canyon Comes to Conroe
Sand mining is turning parts of Conroe into areas that look a little bit (a very little bit) like Bryce Canyon in Utah.
Hoodoo Magic
On March 6, I flew over the Liberty Materials Moorehead Mine in Conroe and captured this image.
It struck me as similar to the hoodoos in Utah’s Bryce Canyon National Park.
Bryce Canyon Hoodoos
Hoodoos are tall, thin spires of rock that have usually eroded from the edge of a drainage basin. Hoodoos typically consist of relatively soft rock topped by harder, less easily eroded stone that protects each column from the elements. In the case of the Conroe hoodoos, the vegetation at the top of the pit helps provide that protection.
Of course, the hoodoos in Bryce Canyon formed over the last 40-60 million years, through the relentless forces of erosion. The Conroe hoodoos formed in the last two years. They’re not quite as spectacular or as tall. And they’re made out of sand, not sandstone.
Sandstone is formed when sand is cemented by such materials as silica and calcium carbonate. Most sandstones form through the accumulation of river sediments on seabeds. They are then compressed and uplifted to form new lands. Bryce Canyon was uplifted 8,000 feet, Conroe about two hundred.
Liberty Materials vs. Mother Nature
Here are some more pictures of the Liberty Materials mine in question.
And to give equal time to Mother Nature, here are some more pictures of Bryce Canyon.
Liberty looks a little sloppier than Mother Nature. But then, Mother Nature takes her time.
It may take a few more years before 2 million people a year start visiting the Liberty pit.
Posted by Bob Rehak
929 Days since Hurricane Harvey
Note: Unlike the other images on this site which are public domain, please refrain from copying or distributing my images of Bryce Canyon. To see more of my photography, visit BobRehak.com.
The thoughts expressed in this post represent opinions on matters of public concern and safety. They are protected by the First Amendment of the US Constitution and the Anti-SLAPP Statute of the Great State of Texas.
Clean Water Act, R.I.P.
If the Clean Water Act were still being enforced, we might see scenes like this less often. You’re looking at the confluence of Spring Creek and the San Jacinto West Fork. It has looked like this during random flyovers in four out of the last six months.
Clean Water Act Abuses
Only after the infamous and extreme white-water incident in November last year was West Fork pollution reduced briefly. The white-water episode was so egregious that it attracted network television attention and prompted a crackdown by the TCEQ. TCEQ cited Liberty Materials in Conroe for allegedly discharging 56 million gallons of white goop into the West Fork. The discharge had 25 times the normal level of suspended solids in it.
Liberty isn’t the only sand mine on the West Fork. You can find approximately 20 square miles of sand mines in the twenty mile stretch between I-69 and I-45. Spring Creek on the other hand has only one mine – almost 30 miles upstream at SH249.
Most West Fork mines have a tendency to leak waste water from time to time. That’s part of what you see in the photo above. Below are seven NEW breaches spotted this month upstream on the West Fork.
MoCo Tax Breaks for Polluters
Why such a high concentration of mines on the West Fork? It might have something to do with tax breaks by the Montgomery County Appraiser’s Office which passes out ag and timber exemptions for industrial cesspools. That’s contrary to how the State Controller says MoCo should appraise the mines. But nobody at the state level seems to put much pressure on MoCo.
Construction Practices Muddy Clean Water Act, Too
Another part of the West Fork turbidity problem is upstream construction in Montgomery County. Believe it or not, Montgomery County starts at the tip of that white sand bar at the confluence of Spring Creek and the West Fork.
Sediment control is not a high priority for MoCo developers. Nor is enforcement a high priority for MoCo. In fact, the East Montgomery County Improvement District actively advertises its LACK of rules as a way to lure developers.
That’s how you get construction practices like those in the new 2200 acre Artavia complex going in next to the West Fork sand mines, just south of SH242 by FM1314. Brand new culverts are already clogging. See below.
More on Artavia in a future post.
Decline of Clean Water Act
Then, of course, another part of the problem is the gutting of the Federal Clean Water Act. States, counties and municipalities used to have someone setting standards and looking over their shoulders. The rollback of key provisions, such as the redefinition of “waters of the U.S.”, has been heralded as a boon to developers and the death knell of wetlands.
Just last week, we saw the Army Corps rule that the wetlands on Perry Homes Woodridge Village property did NOT fall under their jurisdiction, so there was no violation of Section 404 of the Clean Water Act.
Of course, you don’t have to change regulations to kill them. You can just not enforce them. By turning a blind eye. Gutting enforcement staff. Overruling staff. Reinterpreting policy. Ignoring evidence. Or resetting priorities. To name just a few.
Don’t Know What You Got Till It’s Gone
Many of us who grew up before the Clean Water Act (formerly known as Federal Water Pollution Control Act, passed in 1972) remember how bad things were. Like the Cuyahoga River fire in 1969.
The San Jacinto West Fork has already been named one of the most endangered rivers in America. But my biggest fears are not for the river. They’re for the health of the millions of people who depend on water from the river. For the people who will flood when the river becomes clogged with sediment. For the poor and elderly who can’t afford sky high bills to cover the cost of water treatment. And for the long-term health of the economic hub of the region, Houston.
Posted by Bob Rehak on 3/14/2020
928 Days after Hurricane Harvey
The thoughts expressed in this post represent opinions on matters of public concern and safety. They are protected by the First Amendment of the US Constitution and the Anti-SLAPP Statute of the Great State of Texas.