Embrey Partners Rules out IDZ for 7600 Broadway
Plans to develop 7600 Broadway no longer include a request to change zoning to IDZ, according to Embrey Partners. And while a zoning change will be sought, the firm says the change will support greater residential over commercial development at the site. But not IDZ.
While the Oak Park Northwood Neighborhood Association Board has not formally addressed development at 7600 Broadway, it was clear in neighborhood meetings there was little support for zoning it IDZ.
As Scoop reported in February, neighbors were waiting to see if the property on which San Antonio Flower Company and Slater-White Cleaners sit at 7538 Broadway will be sold to Embrey. The answer is yes, as confirmed by Embrey CEO Trey Embrey, at a recent public meeting to discuss the project.
As a result, assuming all goes as Embrey hopes, the company will own the entire parcel – a giant triangle between Broadway, Nottingham and Nacogdoches – totaling over 4 acres. For more on Embrey’s plans go to www.7600broadway.com.
After Twenty Plus Years, WellMed to Relocate Broadway Street Clinic
WellMed Medical Management and the Baptist Health System Physicians Network plan to take space in the new 60,000 sq. ft. office building now under construction at West Sunset Road and Treeline Park.
For WellMed, the move will end more than twenty years at its current location at 7407 Broadway. A company spokesperson told 78209 Magazine, the new space is much larger and will be much more efficient than the Broadway location. The clinic will be on the second floor.
Baptist Health physicians will be on the first floor of the building. The building is being developed by Casey Development Ltd.
Shots Fired on Flamingo
There is nothing like gunfire in the middle of the night to wake up a neighborhood about personal safety. And that’s exactly what’s happened when shots were fired along Flamingo St. at 2:30am on April 28.
“We’re fed up,” a woman, who asked to remain anonymous, said at a neighborhood meeting on May 10. The meeting brought together 20 residents from streets near Broadway and Flamingo, SAPD patrol and vice officers, TABC agents, and a representative from Council Clayton Perry’s office.
The woman told the group, “I’m tired of waking up at 2 or so in the morning to find drunks urinating in my front yard. Or to hear people having sex in their parked cars near my house. It’s the bars on Broadway between Flamingo and Ridgecrest,” she declared. “Something needs to be done.”
But there was no consensus on what that something could be. Some wanted the bars closed for good. But others realized that was not likely.
SAPD Captain Miles Earwood, North Substation commander, told the gathering he would order increased patrols in the neighborhood, especially at bar closing times. And the SAPD vice officer said they would increase undercover activities in the bars.
Several neighbors pointed their fingers at Rebar for the shooting. But SAPD officers explained there was no way to know who fired the shots or whether they’d been at one of the bars in the neighborhood.
Greg Bickerstaff, owner of Rebar and Betos on Broadway, told 78209 Magazine, “We have hired two security guards for Friday and Saturday nights. They are on duty from 9pm to 3am, primarily patrolling outside the bar.”
He added, “There are three bars across the street from Rebar. They do not have enough parking as it is and as they grow their patios they lose even more parking spaces.” He suggested some of their customers are parking along Flamingo.
“We’re certainly concerned as neighbors are about on any issue involving safety. That’s why we hired security guards. But who knows where the bad elements are coming from.”
Bickerstaff suggested the owner of the vacant property at 1841 Flamingo, where the shooting took place, either fence the parcel or contract with a local towing service to post no parking signs in front of the property with the threat of towing for violators. “If he does that, the parking would end as soon as a few cars are towed.”
Bickerstaff also offered to meet with any and all residents in the neighborhood to discuss their concerns.
By Ron Aaron Eisenberg
