GALVESTON — Galveston should revitalize the historic urban core between 61st Street and the University of Texas Medical Branch by creating more transit opportunities on the island, developing high-quality housing near downtown and the medical branch, and pursuing commuter rail, an Urban Land Institute analysis found.
The group of real estate and development experts released its report “Galveston, Texas: Building the Future” on Tuesday. The panel worked for free to provide the city leaders with suggestions on how to shape the island’s recovery from Hurricane Ike.
“The city of Galveston has a choice to continue to manage a declining community or to embrace the opportunity of recovery to move the community toward economic and ecological sustainability,” the report’s conclusion stated.
Among its recommendations, the group suggested that the community should:
• Focus its development efforts on its urban core, not undeveloped areas.
• Develop better physical connections between The Strand, the medical branch and the seawall for pedestrians, cyclists, transit passengers and cars.
• Support the medical branch and the Galveston National Laboratory to create new businesses and employment on the island. The lab is Galveston’s greatest growth opportunity because of its potential to attract biotech companies, the report stated.
• Respect the island’s fragile ecosystem.
The island is attractive to homebuyers because of the availability of amenities and the proximity of housing to jobs, but potential residents could be turned off by the quality of schools, the perception that Galveston is unsafe and the high costs of renovation and upkeep of the island’s historic houses, the report found.
The city has the building capacity to support a permanent population of 70,000. In the aftermath of Hurricane Ike, city leaders estimated the city has fewer than 50,000 people.
While the city should work to provide housing options for all residents displaced by the hurricane — including the 569 families that lived in the now-demolished public housing developments — the city should also focus its efforts on high-end quality housing on the island’s northeast end, particularly a biotech village around the medical branch.
The village would offer office and lab space for biotech companies, as well as a mix of housing for medical branch faculty, staff, students and existing residents in that area.
The panel recommended aggressively encouraging rehabilitation and infill development in the neighborhoods bounded by Broadway and Avenue O, and 26th to 45th streets.
In other areas of the city, Galveston officials should beautify Seawall Boulevard with landscaping, street furniture, lighting, signage and public art, the report stated.
The panel suggested starting on a small scale by renovating the blocks between 21st and 25th streets and creating connections between the beach and downtown with some sort of transit system.
The city has an “unprecedented opportunity to leverage a plethora of federal resources,” such as federal disaster dollars and stimulus package funding, to accomplish a large-scale redevelopment, the report stated.
The city has potential, but leaders need to “embrace a new mindset of accountability and responsibility” and seek public-private partnerships to recover, the report said.
The report reiterated the group’s September recommendations that the city form a revitalization authority that could buy and sell and broker deals with developers to create more housing for middle-income families, especially niche markets of retirees, empty-nesters, the gay and lesbian community, outdoor enthusiasts and vacation and second homeowners.
