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Metro pursuing redevelopment of Addicks lot as first step in public-private strategy

Dug Begley,
Staff writer
June 27, 2023
Updated: June 27, 2023 6:39 p.m.

As Metropolitan Transit Authority officials weigh how to best use some agency-owned land in a more useful way, it is turning to developers, hoping pitches for homes and stores in and around transit stops can guide where Metro goes, when it comes to what gets built.

“We don’t know if we are going to be comparing apples and oranges and grapefruits,” said Metro board member Diann Lewter, chairwoman of Metro’s joint development and land use committee.

Officials will ask companies to submit broad development proposals for how to use 28 acres at the Addicks Park and Ride, a few hundred feet east of where Texas 6 crosses Interstate 10. Though the Energy Corridor area south of I-10 has been densely developed, and seen unprecedented growth in the past decade, the portion north of the freeway, sandwiched between the interstate and Addicks Resevoir, has been built less, but with increasing redevelopment.

Officials keep broad parameters for development

The site could include both commercial and residential uses, Metro chairman Sanjay Ramabhadran said. The aim, he stressed, focused on linking transit and people’s lifestyles.

“We want a destination where those who want to choose to, can live next to transit,” Ramabhadran said.

The only parameters from Metro will be maintaining either the existing level of service, or what they think they will need later, Metro CEO Tom Lambert said. How that is arranged, from bus bays and parking to where someone stands or sit to wait for a bus, will be part of the designs, but open to interpretation, he said.

The aim aligns with transit-oriented development, the terminology used across many city, county and state departments, as well as the development community. In major metro areas such as Houston, though it has been slow to develop here, transit-oriented development focuses on building more dense shops and homes while assuming transit use — as well as walking and bicycling — will reduce but not eliminate the need for automobiles.