The Buffalo Bayou Partnership, a non-profit civic organization, in cooperation with the City of Houston and Harris County has created a set of development guidelines for Buffalo Bayou’s downtown sector (Shepherd Drive to McKee Street). At a meeting on Jan. 18 Partnership leaders stated goals to:

• Create a continuous pedestrian walkway/trail along Buffalo Bayou’s downtown waterfront.
• Transform Buffalo Bayou’s downtown waterfront into a high profile visitor destination and recreational amenity, thereby enhancing Houston’s image as a desirable place to live, work and visit.
• Establish the downtown waterfront as a prestigious development corridor that promotes quality urban design.

In creating the development guidelines, Buffalo Bayou Partnership staff spent the past year meeting with City and County leaders, bayou-area property owners, real estate brokers and other members of the downtown development community, as well as with representatives of Houston-area environmental groups.

Recommended development guidelines address such areas as bayou edge treatment, setbacks, access and visibility within the following development categories, pastoral park space, urban green park space, urban plaza park space and hard edge.

In highlighting downtown bayou redevelopment, Buffalo Bayou Partnership chairman Mike Garver noted a number of projects slated for the downtown waterfront.

“In a city such as Houston where we have no land use controls, development guidelines are an essential tool to help ensure that projects are constructed in a responsible manner,” said Garver. “We hope that some of the problems that we’ve encountered with past development along the bayou will be alleviated with these guidelines.”

Also announced at the meeting on January 18 was the planned redevelopment of Allen’s Landing, Houston’s birthplace. According to Jerry King, director, City of Houston Public Works and Engineering Department, the $1.4 million project includes:

• restoration of the decaying bulkhead and construction of a concrete wharf
• embarcadero promenade/walkway connecting to Sesquicentennial Park
• entry plaza at the east intersection of Main and Commerce
• placement of interpretive signage to highlight the historic Port of Houston and transportation history of Buffalo Bayou.

The Allen’s Landing project is being funded by the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department, City of Houston and Harris County Flood Control.

King also said that a $1.5 million federal transportation funding proposal for the continued redevelopment of Allen’s Landing is pending approval from the Texas Department of Transportation.

Other Buffalo Bayou redevelopment efforts described by King include two one-half-mile hike and bike trails, connecting Sesquicentennial Park to Allen’s Landing and Sesquicentennial Park to the University of Houston - Downtown.

For copies of the Buffalo Bayou development guidelines and additional information about redevelopment efforts along the downtown Houston waterfront, contact the Buffalo Bayou Partnership at 713-752-0314.