Valley Ranch "Marketplace" District Update

brerich01 : I won't go to the Sam's club in Humble. I can see why people would not go there. I go to the Sam's in the Woodlands.

TEXASGIRLMAMMA :
I gave up my Sam's membership and just use Costco. Wish it was closer though.

pixon1 :
The land where your house sits was once filled with trees. Development doesn't stop after you build your home. That's just the sad truth. There wouldn't be enough housing to support the growing population.

brerich01 : I still have both. I like certain things from each store.

Big box retail? Didn't they have that with Sam's?

Doddlebug50 : Nothing is successful in Kingwood or lasts. KW tends to have unreliable power compared to other suburbs and parts of the city, it's part of Houston so taxes and utilities to the city are apt to be higher and things like permits take much longer to get approved. Whether in a designated flood zone or not, KW proper has a reputation of flooding as well as high construction/ traffic which retailers avoid. There are only two ways in and out. And if a business looks at the turnover rate of businesses & how so many places seem to close their doors just as fast as they open in KW, they're not going to want to risk that possibility for their own business. That's just how it is.🤷🏻‍♀️

Joe: the 12 acres on the right side of your picture is land locked. There is only one way out, which isn't really big enough for two lanes of traffic, on Rock Falls. The railroad has to give access to be able to cross over to loop 494 which they so far will not due because of all the traffic coming from Kingwood Drive and the Neighborhood traffic nearby. There is already signal lights at those two intersections.
Also if they build there it will become all concrete and end up flooding the neighborhood that is next to it. There is a lot of drainage that comes out of those woods when it rains especially during heavy rains.

Doddlebug50 :
Valley Ranch is only minutes north of Kingwood.

Hummingbird19 :
Good points...I forgot they would really need a path over the railroad to make traffic work. The entrance through Kings Manor area seems to be about 80 ft wide, so it would be wide enough for one lane in each direction in and out...but it would have to be relatively low volume traffic I'd think. Also...they're asking about $450k per acre x 12 acres for that property...seems a little steep, especially considering the land locked issue...
www.zillow.com/homed etails/0-Rock-Fls-Ki ngwood-TX-77339/2076 940996_zpid/

Joe :
I don't understand the issue with the RR. It is between the feeder and 494. You would just go to 59 to get to it. People outside Kingwood could get to it without having to enter Kingwood.

@Kaa054 : We're talking about this chunk of land, here: www.zillow.com/homed etails/0-Rock-Fls-Ki ngwood-TX-77339/2076 940996_zpid/There's only one entrance, which is from Rock Falls (a back entrance to Kings Manor neighborhood) on the East side of the property. Ideally there would be another entrance on the West side of the property to get there directly from 494, but getting approval from the railroads to create another rail crossing would probably be near impossible.

Joe : Okay, I thought it was the area right next to the Homewood Suites where you can turn on what is labeled Butterfly Ln on maps but the big stone sign says Kingwood Parc.

@Kaa054 : Ah, makes sense, I figured there was a location mix up somewhere!

ZMAN Joe :
Islam Grove didn't necessarily flood because of the development. From what I understand it flooded because the contractor didn't develop the land in the proper order in accordance to the engineering design. They were to establish their water retention area ASAP in the development but they chose to wipe the property flat as a board first and in doing so made Elm Grove their retention area. To add insult to injury after it happened the first time and litigation threats were made/started it froze the construction and the contractor took no further action and it channeled water into Elm Grove again shortly thereafter since they didn't rework the land any. If designed properly in order to obtain permitting and they followed their permit requirements then it would have been unlikely to have flooded Elm Grove like it did. Cities/Counties have minimum water retention standards that are conservative that are in place to mitigate stuff like that from happening. Could Elm Grove have flooded in a 500 year flood event reguardless even if that development was constructed properly and not made into a funnel into Elm Grove? 🤷‍♂️🤷‍♂️ Possibly because you can't design for double jeopardy and 0.2% chance events or the development of the space would be so expensive to do that no developer could ever financially justify a project that required substantial enough land modification to protect for beyond 500 year flood events or whatever the minimum threshold of design is within reason

Jt88888888 : Yep. I know several folks that grew up here when I moved to Houston and they don't live in KW for that exact reason. They settled in the woodland because they weren't afraid to develop with the times over there. Not saying I want to live there but they definitely have drawn a lot more variety in shops and entertainment than KW although I'm not sure they have as many car washes or Mexican restaurants as us per acre 😂🤦‍♂️