The Montrose Tax Increment Reinvestment Zone board voted Friday to proceed with the first phase of a reconstruction of Montrose Boulevard that scraps plans to reduce the width of automobile lanes and increase sidewalk space in favor of preserving more trees along the roadway.
The revised plan, pushed by the Whitmire administration, was approved in a 4-2 vote during a special meeting of the board where most speakers urged the panel to reject the mayor’s vision in favor of the original plan.
The vote came more than six months after Mayor John Whitmire halted the project amid complaints from some residents that the original plan would require the removal of at least 35 mature live oak trees along the two-block stretch of the neighborhood’s namesake boulevard from Allen Parkway to West Clay.
At the time of the pause, Whitmire questioned the need for the drainage aspect of the project, as well as the need to remove trees to make room for wider sidewalks.
The pause on Montrose Boulevard also followed a citywide suspension of mobility projects that would reduce lane widths for automobiles.
The controversial redesign approved Friday was constrained by a set of “guiding mobility principles” set forth by the city, according to engineer Muhammad Ali of Gauge Engineering, the contractor on the project.
Those principles include maintaining the number and width of the existing lanes, providing safe sidewalks and pedestrian crossings, and ensuring reliable service for emergency responders. Ali said those principles would be codified in an upcoming update of the city’s infrastructure design manual.
In practice, that means the Montrose Boulevard lanes will be kept at their existing 12-foot width. The focus on maintaining trees means that plans for sidewalks were reduced significantly, with one section of the project omitting sidewalks and other sections reducing sidewalk widths to leave space for existing trees.
Second vote
The original plan called for reducing lane widths to 10 and 11 feet. Those widths were pitched as a way to encourage lower speeds and produce fewer crashes and injuries. A majority of Montrose Boulevard, including from West Dallas to West Clay, is on the city’s high-injury network, the 9 percent of Houston streets that account for 58 percent of traffic deaths and serious injuries.
The redesign, first presented on October 21 at the regularly scheduled TIRZ board meeting, has been met with mixed reactions from community members. The vote to move ahead with the plan was deadlocked 3-3 at that meeting, with Whitmire appointee and board vice chair Robert Guthart voting against the measure.
There was no such surprise on Friday.
“I think what we have today is something that meets the needs that we have,” Guthart said of the proposal, which was unchanged from the October meeting. He said he had done his due diligence in talking to engineers and looking at national guidelines. “It’s not perfect.”
Board Chair Matthew Brollier called the proposal a “good compromise,” pointing out that the original genesis for improving the boulevard was drainage, which remains a significant part of the project.
The two dissenting voices on the board came from Abby Noebels and Jeffrey Watters. Both said the decision appeared to be rushed with the special meeting at a time that made it difficult for stakeholders to participate, and without the same level of public engagement that had come with the previous design.
The overwhelming majority of comments from residents who packed the meeting or watched online urged the board to reject the city-endorsed plan and return to the original plan that an earlier board appeared ready to move forward on prior to Whitmire’s intervention.
“It’s your job to represent the community, and not roll over for the mayor’s new car, tree plan,” said Kevin Strickland, one of dozens of residents who voiced opposition to the new plan.
Battle not over
While fewer in number, supporters of the revised plan thanked the board for finding compromise. Jonna Hitchcock, an organizer with the group Save Montrose Live Oaks, pointed out that major components of the project, including drainage, sidewalks, and safer street crossings still were in the plan.
“This is a true compromise plan, and I urge you to move forward,” Hitchcock said.
Beth Shook, a software engineer who became passionate about the project after learning about it through advocacy organization Friends of the Boulevard, said it was infuriating to see the words of so many concerned citizens be discounted in favor of Whitmire’s vision.
“We outnumbered supporters of the redesign six-to-one, and it didn’t matter because the TIRZ board is more beholden to the mayor than to the residents that it is supposed to represent,” Shook said.
Robin Holzer, deputy director of BikeHouston and a Montrose resident, said the battle over the boulevard is not over.
“What got approved this morning was permission for engineers to go off and make a second set of designs,” Holzer said. “No street project is set in stone until it’s literally set in stone.”
She pointed out the most important part of the project was reducing lane width, even if the other aspects of the project were omitted.
“When we put 12-foot highway lanes on city streets, we’re tying the hands of every property owner and future decision-maker for generations to come,” she said. “They had approval from Public Works and Houston Fire and everybody else to put out four 11-foot lanes.”
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