No waiting
380 agreement passes 11 to 4; Walmart headed for the Heights
As expected, a 380 agreement between the City of Houston and Ainbinder to finance a Heights area Walmart store was voted on at Wednesday morning's city council meeting despite the protests of community leaders.
The agreement passed 11 to 4 during a roll call vote, with council members Ed Gonzalez, James Rodriguez, Melissa Noriega and Jolanda Jones opposing the passage.
The winners and losers in the 380 depend on who you ask. On the one hand, the agreement gives the city some oversight — the developer has to submit invoices to council and maintain regular contact throughout construction — and allows it to secure some improvements without taking them out of immediate budgets. It also procures some slight improvements, like wider sidewalks and more trees, than would be required if Ainbinder did the development on its own.
On the other hand, opponents argue that the 380 could have been tighter, pulled for more and made fewer concessions to the developer — like $6 million in reimbursements, including the developer's own legal fees.
Mayor Annise Parker said that the city is in separate negotiations with Walmart to try to establish an operating agreement that would address additional community concerns not covered by the 380.
"We are going to continue to negotiate with Walmart," Parker said in a post-Council Meeting press conference. "It's not the end of the process; it's the end of the 380 agreement."
Negotiations between the Walmart developers and the city will continue over lighting, access and security. Parker said it should take 60 days to conclude those negotiations.
"We want to set a standard with Walmart about what we expect," she said. Still, Parker admitted, "We don't have any leverage, we don't have an ordinance ... These are voluntary things we're negotiating with someone who wants to be a good corporate citizen."
Many Heights groups — including Stop the Heights Walmart — argued that those types of improvements should have been required under contract in this 380 agreement.
"We got the best deal I thought we could get," Parker said.
