Cottage Grove Houston

In Houston, Texas

Cottage Grove was originally an independent city located at Houston and Texas Central's first rail stop where Eureka Junction was the site of a prosperous and blue-ribbon product cotton mill. The nearby banks of White Oak Bayou and a tree-shaded neighborhood park with a little league field and outdoor basketball court are popular recreation spots for the residents. Robert Louis Stevenson Elementary School students and teachers earn the historic school an academically recognized status in the Houston Independent School District. Stevenson is also well known for its fine arts focus and highly-regarded choir, dance, girl scout and relatively new basketball program. METRO's route 48 crosses thru the neighborhood streets, and other routes stop along Shepherd and Washington Avenue. Cottages, new homes, townhomes, small multi-family complexes and small businesses are present in the neighborhood where the infrastructure includes narrow street pavement and green swales that support the crawdad fishing habits of yellow crowned herons after a heavy rain. Plans are being made to celebrate a centennial anniversary in 2010 on April 1, one hundred years after Cottage Grove Section One was recorded as a new subdivision in Harris County Texas.

Cottage Grove Civic Club meetings are held on the first or second Thursday of each month except August. Please see meeting date, time, and location details in the sidebar. The club also hosts special activities, including a National Night event in Cottage Grove Park, now scheduled for October 7. General meetings are often held in Robert Louis Stevenson’s Elementary School cafeteria. Club meetings are also hosted by Iglesia Hosanna. Off street parking is available at both locations. Green and white meeting notice signs are posted in yards and on the lawn at Fire Station 11 the week of each meeting. Agendas include presentations and may include resolutions and votes regarding items discussed at previous meetings. Guests are welcome at all the civic club meetings and special events. Civic club dues are $30 per member, with an optional 50% discount for seniors, students and Robert Louis Stevenson Elementary School PTO members. The civic club’s open membership enrollment ends in November this year. Contact CottageGroveCivicClub@yahoo.com for more information.

Eureka Bike Trail Developments

The Cottage Grove Civic Club continues to pursue the development of the off-road hike and bike trail at the northern boundary the neighborhood. The 1.5 mile long route between White Oak Bayou and Kansas street encompasses 17 linear acres in a corridor at least 100 ‘ wide. The trail connects with the TC Jester bike route under the rail yard bridge and has industrial and natural habitants along its east west path. Red-shouldered and red-tailed hawks soar above the rail yard and path in the hunt for food between 11^th Street and Memorial Park forests. Osprey spend some winter seasons at the east end of the trail near White Oak Bayou. The rail yard activity might include train cars carrying rolled metal, aggregate, or circus performers depending upon when you visit. In the western half of the acreage the trail has a southern boundary defined by a tree-covered and understoried ravine edged with wildflowers and native vines. A pedestrian gate provides access to the neighborhood streets in the 2800 block of Sherwin. Elderberry, deciduous holly, pecan, oak and dogwood trees, passion flower and mustang grape vines create a lush entrance to the trail. The natural assets provide food and shelter to nesting and migrating birds, filter and use rain water to recharge the earth, and provide a perpetual pollution break between the nearby industrial and residential habitants. Even in the very dry seasons of 2008, the habitat is healthy and green.

TxDOT started planning in 2007 to convert most of the 17 acres into a connected series of open channels that will convey storm water from nearby highway expansion projects into the new drainage channel. The roadway storm water facility was not planned to handle neighborhood redevelopment detention or neighborhood street runoff. The City Houston, as the landowner of the acreage and the entity that will maintain the facility, has some say in how TxDOT uses the City owned land. The civic club and other organizations, including Super Neighborhood 22, White Oak Bayou Association, and Greater Houston Off-road Bike Association, Citizens Transportation Coalition, and the Park People presented resolutions to City Council to call for modifications to the plan. As a result, Mayor White has committed to begin planning trail development in the acreage, the open segments have been revised into wet-bottom vegetated segments, and some trees have been been added to the plans. However, preserving the existing green assets remains an open item in the community plan. SN 22 and the civic club are working with City to try to change that outcome so that the exsiting habitat, ravine and some recreational areas will survive as public assets after the roadway expansion projects are completed. Please contact the civic club if you would like to work on the Eureka Trail project or attend the labor day late afternoon picnic on the M-K-T.

Good Green News

Each year, Super Neighborhoods have the right to submit requests for area projects to the City. The project scopes have specific limits and are paid for out of operating rather than capital improvement budgets. In 2008, SN 22 at the request of Cottage Grove Civic Club, submitted a request to the City regarding adding trees to the M-K-T corridor. The current status of the project shown at the City’s tracking system site is that the Parks Department has accepted the project to coordinate planning, planting, invasive removal and maintenance activities with the neighborhood. Please contact the civic club if you would like to be involved with this native plant project.

Quiet Zones at Train Crossings

The City of Houston public works department plans to make information regarding costs and priorities for potential quiet zones available soon.

Guest Parking

Parking on the narrow street surfaces in Cottage Grove is legal when you leave 10’ clearance for vehicles to pass in the other lane, except when otherwise noted by City installed signs, or when parking would block a driveway, or within 15' of intersections, bus stops or fire hydrants. Parking off the street surface in the city right-of-way, on swales, in ditches and on sidewalks is also illegal.

Curbside Recycling

Cottage Grove sections north and south of Interstate 10 that are not already served by recycling, are on the City of Houston’s waiting list.

IH 10 Frontage Lane Plans

The revised ramp plans show TxDOT no longer plans to construct continuous frontage lanes between TC Jester and Washington Avenue.

Living in a Coastal Watershed

The flood plain maps available at the Tropical Storm Allison Recovery Project (www.TSARP.org) went into effect during 2007. The maps show that many homes in Cottage Grove located north of Interstate 10 are located in White Oak Bayou’s 1% flood plain. A few properties on Roy Circle, Larkin and Darling near Durham are mapped into the bayou’s flood way. City of Houston’s Chapter 19 Flood Prone Construction imposes certain rules and regulations on flood plain and flood way remodeling and new construction. The City has also implemented changes to the Infrastructure Design Manual in Chapter 13 that show how to use rain barrels and vegetated swales to help meet storm water quality requirements.

Contact CottageGroveCivicClub@yahoo.com to be added to the distribution list.