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The Houston Outlaws are being forced to move their training facility from a 5900-square-foot home in Houston’s The Woodlands community that the Overwatch League organization recently leased due to concerns from members of the community.
The team’s GM, Matt “Flame” Rodriguez, tweeted about the situation saying the move is “unnecessary and stressful.”
Houston’s NBC affiliate KPRC-TV reported that neighbors in the community expressed concerns with “traffic, noise, and property values” that could arise because of the organization’s occupancy of a home.
There were numerous violations of covenant restrictions against the team disclosed at a public meeting for The Woodlands Residential Design Review Committee, according to KPRC’s report.
The major concern for the community was the team’s business-related plans for the home.
The Committee recommended that the Outlaws be denied variance from the rest of the community due to the “amount of the home used for the business operation,” the “number of employees” using the home, “characteristics of the business the committee did not feel were in keeping with the Neighborhood Character,” and potential parking issues.
Rodriguez expressed frustration with the issue on Twitter, saying that the township approved the initial lease and knew what was going on.
“We did the lease through the literal township, which has board members that approved our lease,” he said. “The players are all living on their own in apartments and houses. This wasn’t an HOA issue, it was the neighbors petitioning against us moving into a house with a lease we’d signed.”
But Rodriguez added that the situation wasn’t as dire as it could’ve been because no players or staff were depending on the home as a living arrangement.
“The silver lining of today is no players or staff were living in that house so nobody’s homeless,” he said. “We already worked with the town to find office spaces nearby to use for the year.”
