After all the mess and expense....

...it turns out the City was acting beyond their legal authority?



Mayor: Houston has no legal basis to stop 21-story Ashby high-rise, will settle suit, Michael Reed, West University Examiner

Mayor Annise Parker has sent a letter to residents of the Southampton area saying the city has no legal basis to stop developers from building the controversial Ashby high-rise as outlined in their 2009 plans.
“I am accepting the advice of city legal counsel and recommending the settlement of the lawsuit,” she said in the Feb. 29 letter.

In other words, all the City did, as the result of all of the time and expense created by their endless stonewalling, was increase the cost of building something that the developers were entirely in the right to build.

Just more of Bill White "running Houston like a business", something that we're having to pay for now that he's gone and the legal and budget issues can't be kicked down the road much further.


Good thing we're not currently looking at a White administration in Austin, and he's the best Texas Democrats have one their Statewide bench by far. This then, is exhibit A as to why Texas is currently a one-party State.

Kudos to the Parker administration for understanding when it comes time to cut bait. I know the residents of Southampton are going to be disappointed but, at least, they can remove all of those ugly signs from their neighborhood, which probably did more damage to their aesthetics than the Ashby high-rise ever will.