Rice and the Community

Greg Marshall

Office of University Relations

UR and the V2C

“We must become an international university…”(Protocol)

“We must…increase our commitment to… research…”(Government)

“We must fully engage with the city of Houston…”(Community)

UR Responsibilities

• Community Relations– 4th largest community in the United States

• Government Relations– City Council– Harris County Commissioner’s Court– Texas Legislature– United States Congress

• Protocol– 3rd largest consular corps in the U.S. (86 countries)– A University that is aggressively internationalizing

UR Staff

University Relations

Greg MarshallSenior Director

Chris LopezAssistant Director

Juan DeLeónOffice Assistant

[TBD]Welcome Center Manager

Protocol

• Continue to support VIP visits and tours– Dalai Lama– China Rice

Leadership Forum– Rice Ambassadors

• Advisor to President for Int’l Collaboration shares responsibility– Consular Corps liaison

Government

• Rice’s first full-time government affairs director to be hired fall of 2007– Takes over Congressional and State Affairs

• Local government—linked with community relations—remains the responsibility of University Relations

Community

• Maintain our existing commitment to Rice’s “First Circle” of neighbors

• Increase engagement with the

broader Houston community

Houston in 1913

• City Limits =

Shaded Area

You are here

1913: Beyond the paved road…

Today: the heart of Houston

• Surrounded by:

– Texas Medical Center

– Hermann Park Houston Zoo

Golf Course Miller Outdoor

Theatre

– Museum District

– MetroRailDining & Night LifeTheatre & Arts

DistrictEvent & Sports

Venues

– The Village

– Houston’s Best Neighborhoods

University Place• Houston “Super Neighborhood”

(Active Super Neighborhood Council)

• Bounded by:– Main Street– Highway 59– Kirby Drive– Brays Bayou

• Composed of – Businesses

• Rice Village Alliance• Holcombe & Main St. Merchants

– Institutions • (Rice, TMC, Museums, Two

HISD Elementary Schools, Many Houses of Worship)

– Neighborhoods~ 6500 households, ~ 14,000 residents

University Place Priorities

• Parking & Traffic

• Sound

• Construction/Density

• Flooding

Parking & Traffic

• A brief history of Rice spillover parking and Houston’s Resident Parking Permit Ordinance

1992: University Relations office is establishedand begins receiving parking complaints.

2002: Rice begins charging for parking

2003: The City of Houston passes its first Resident Parking Permit Ordinance (“Decal Parking”). The University Place area surrounding the campus is the test area for the ordinance which is implemented city-wide shortly

thereafter.

Parking & Traffic

2007: Neighborhood concerns over the parking planned for proposed graduate apartments on Shakespeare cause permit delays and public criticism.

• Rice Response:

– Reminder of Rice Parking Regulations distributed:… available on-street parking in the residential neighborhoods near the Rice campus should be reserved for the primary use of the

residents of these neighborhoods and their visitors.  When visiting, residing or working at Rice-owned properties, Rice contractors and Rice students, staff, faculty and their guests are expected to park in university-provided parking facilities, not on neighborhood streets.

– Rice pledges to study area parking

Sound Spill

• “Remember the Alamo, Remember Decal Parking”

• Rice complies with all city codes, including sound code, but with political pressure, codes can change.

– Still receive sound complaints from neighbors

• NOT student parties or “Radio Free Sid,” but rather:

• Construction—sporadic

• Loudspeakers at Athletic Venues--ongoing

Sound Spill

• Rice Response:

– Quieter Campus Committee addressed three main sources of sound complaints:

• Reckling Park

• Track/Soccer Stadium

• Rice Stadium

Construction / Density

• Houston has no zoning

(Voted down 3 times in last 50 years)

• Growth continues—significant increase in density inside loop 610

• City has limited power over development:• Parking (Off-Street Parking Ordinance)• Set-Back (City ROW and Deed Rest.)• Landscaping (Tree and Shrub Ordinance)

Construction / Density

• At the macro (city-wide) level, has led to calls for urban planning initiatives– Blueprint Houston– Urban Corridor Planning

• City of Houston Planning Dept. Helping Lead• http://www.houstontx.gov/planning/urban_cor.html

• Rice Responses– Rice Design Alliance– Rice Building Institute– CORRUL Houston School of Urban Study

Construction / Density

• Of current/recent interest in University Place:

– Non-Rice Projects• Medical Clinic of Houston• Sonoma in the Village• Wood Partners 28-story Tower on Shakespeare

– Rice Projects• Collaborative Research Center• Shakespeare Graduate Apartments• Rice Child Care facility on Chaucer• New North Colleges

Construction / Density

• Medical Clinic of Houston (Sunset at Cherokee)

• Medical office building, privately owned by private physicians group.

• 6-8 stories tall. Adjacent parking garage on Rice Blvd.

• One floor leased to Methodist Hospital for physical therapy and cardiac rehabilitation.

• Opposed by Southampton Civic Club and others

Construction / Density

• Sonoma in the Village

• Mixed use retail and residential

• Randall Davis and Lamesa Properties

• 7 stories• Involved the sale of a

portion of Bolsover; approved by city but opposed by many neighbors.

Construction / Density

• Wood Partners

• 28 Story residential high rise

• Shakespeare St. near corner of Kirby

• Strongly opposed by Morningside Place Civic Association

• Plans withdrawn by developer due to opposition

Construction / Density

• Collaborative Research Center

• Rice Project• Main at

University• 10 stories• Pre-design

consultation with neighbors led to positive outcome

Construction / Density

Shakespeare Graduate Apartments• Same block as Wood Partners development• Pre-design consultation promising but design and

later parking concerns surfaced afterward• City approved 100 parking spaces for 238 bed project• Neighborhood still concerned about building material

Construction / Density

Rice Child Care Facility

• Chaucer Street between Rice and University• Day care for 80 children, infant – 6 years old• Neighbors receptive to concept, no design yet

presented• No parking concerns expressed by neighbors• Deconstruction of existing structures ongoing

Construction / Density

• New North Colleges

• Concerns for trees being relocated and replaced resulted in media coverage on television and in local newspaper.

Flooding

• Kirby Drive from Reliant to Highway 59 Flood Detention Project

• Army Corps of Engineers Brays Bayou Project

• Rice Responds– SSPEED Center, Professor Phil Bedient– Center for Civic Engagement (Willow Water Hole)

Beyond “First Circle”

The Challenge:

Rice University1912: 12 faculty, ~80 students2007: ~600 faculty, ~5,000 students

Houston Metro Area1912: ~20 sqr. miles, ~80,000 people2007: ~550 sqr. miles, ~5.5 million

people

Beyond “First Circle”

• Engaging Houston

• Open Invitations (rice.edu/neighbor)

– Calendar (events.rice.edu)

– Room Reservation (rooms.rice.edu)

The roses red upon my neighbor's vineAre owned by him, but they are also mine…They bloom for me and are for me as fairAs for the man who gives them all his care...I know from this that others plant for me,And what they own my joy may also be.

-- A.L. Gruber