Don't Widen Dunlavy – Share Your Voice!

Thank you all who were able to come to the public open house regarding Dunlavy Thursday evening! Winlow Place along with neighboring Mandell and Lancaster Place had an excellent turnout. For those who were unable to attend, please do still take the time to fill out the comment form, which can be downloaded at the link below.

Download the form by clicking at this link.

INSTRUCTIONS:

Winlow Place voted last year after community and resident input, and still supports the change that has been suggested by the planning staff. That is to say that we SUPPORT the RECLASSIFICATION from a four lane major collector to a two lane major collector with its current 60' right of way.

If you have not filled out a form already, please do so by downloading it at the link above, and then email a scanned and completed copy to Amar Mohite at amar.mohite@houstontx.gov as soon as possible. A mailing address is also at the bottom of the form.

Support of this staff recommendation means a greater likelihood of Dunlavy staying at its current width without being widened – at least for a while! The recommended change is from an old designation dating back 20+ years of Dunlavy as a four lane collector, meaning it can potentially serve up to four lanes of thru traffic. It is currently used more as two travel lanes which is far more appropriate for the character and quality of our residential neighborhood, and the staff has recommended that it be designated to something smaller, i.e., a two lane major collector. This is exactly what we want, so please do fill out this form to make sure the City hears loud and clear that this is what we want!

– by Caroline Garry

An Update on Houston's General Plan

We were fortunate to have a guest speaker from the City to walk us through the progress of Houston's first General Plan back in March – see the blog post recapping the speaking event here on our website. As an update for those following, the Plan Houston Steering Committee recently published twelve "policy directives" that are not finalized, but that are being put to the public for comment, thoughts, etc. These policy directives are intended to prioritize issues that the city should consider in achieving the proposed vision and goals (we saw a bit of this back in March). The Steering Committee arrived at these twelve topics after much community input over the past several months.

The City is looking for more community input on the policy directives this summer and will be taking input through late July 2015. There are many ways to provide input. You may either attend a public meeting, send them an email, or click on any policy directive (linked below) and then click on the "feedback" link at the bottom of any specific policy directive's page. If the web isn't your thing, you may also mail your comments to:

Planning and Development Department
611 Walker Street, 6th Floor
Houston, TX, 77002

Policy Directives

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Community Goals

In addition to these policy directives, we also learned about the "community goals" in March. After further development of the plan, there are 32 goals for the Houston community, which are categorized into nine over-arching topics. To see the list of all 32 goals together, click here.

  • People
  • Place
  • Culture
  • Economy
  • Environment
  • Public Services
  • Education
  • Housing
  • Transportation

– by Caroline Garry, with information cited from the Plan Houston website

Security Patrol Update

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At our last social, we were visited by constable Al Rosen and other members of his patrol. Plans proceed apace for the new system and the website is live and running – and has the ability to accept online payments. You may also can request further information at info@mwpatrol.org.

The Mandell Winlow Security Foundation is a separate entity from the Winlow Place Civic Club, and its operations/board are separate. Winlow Place is fortunate to have both Mike Hawash and Tony Carroll on the board, and Al Amado and Jake Mase represent Mandell Place. Having the security foundation as a separate organization is a net benefit for our neighborhood as it removes us from any financial liability – but we are still able to provide access to this service to our residents.

The system will be a "subscription" service with an estimated cost of ~400/year per household. Special arrangements may be made for seniors or those on fixed incomes. Subscribers will receive benefits such as vacation watch, a direct-to-dispatch line (with an extremely fast response time), a sign for their yard (similar to ones from ADT), a home security audit amongst other things. If a home does not choose to subscribe, they still generally benefit by having a dedicated patrol around the neighborhood. Patrol officers would, of course, stop any crime they see whether the home is a subscriber or not.

The more people who participate, the lower the annual fees may be. The ~$400 annual amount is a good estimate for our goal to get a security patrol in place by January of 2016.

Please note that as the Security Foundation is completely separate from the Civic Club, your Winlow Place Civic Club dues do not count as a contribution to the Security Foundation and vice versa. The Winlow Place Civic Club appreciates your continued support.

– by Caroline Garry

Update on 1920 West Alabama

Winlow Place has been keeping in contact with the developers of the property on 1920 West Alabama (the apartment will be called Dolce Living). We recently met with the Superintendent of this project and presented him with a Q&A which collected/compiled questions from our residents. We met for roughly 2 1/2 hours and nearly every question was cleared up or resolved. Please find the documented questions in the attachments below (there were two rounds of questions sent in). We will continue to monitor their progress/keep you informed.

Many thanks to Denise Hanks for her support in this process.

– by Caroline Garry

Guest Speaker and Houston's First General Plan

We were pleased to welcome guest speaker Brian Crimmons, the Chief of Staff of the Planning & Development Department, to our last General Meeting. His presentation, which he was willing to share with us (available by download below), outlined several key components of any good plan – the key function being to coordinate effort and increase collaboration across all City endeavors. The plan will address drainage, transportation, housing, community spaces, culture, growth, governance and more. The vision:

HOUSTON: Opportunity. Diversity. Community. Home.

Houston offers opportunity for all. We celebrate our diversity of people, ideas, economy, culture, and places. We promote healthy and resilient communities through smart civic investments, dynamic partnerships, education, and innovation. Houston is the place where anyone can prosper and feel at home.

We feel like that really sums up exactly what we love about living in Winlow Place and "in the loop" – it is the way our residents care about the neighborhood that makes this such a fantastic place to live. In addition to this powerful message, a few of the practical components of how to bring this plan to life were described (more detail available within the presentation).

  • Planning Coordination Tool
  • Performance Indicators
  • Neighborhood Enhancement Strategy
  • Growth and Development Strategy
  • Implementation Strategy
  • Leadership
  • Public Engagement/Community Events
  • Timeline/Milestones

Please download the plan by clicking here, and also be sure to sign up to receive email updates on the General Plan by going to the website, Plan Houston. To receive emails, click on the "Subscribe" button in the top right hand corner. They are also looking for opportunities for public input, so share your voice.

– by Caroline Garry