Don't blame Houston’s lack of zoning for Harvey flooding | TheHill - Scott Beyer:
September 3, 2017 - "Houston was recently victim to the largest rainfall in U.S. history, a 52” deluge from Hurricane Harvey that’s left many parts of the metro still underwater. Houston is also arguably the nation’s least-regulated metro area for land use, featuring a central city that doesn’t even have a zoning code.
"This correlation is, apparently, enough for the media to conclude that one has to do with the other.... Houston, wrote the Washington Post, 'is the largest U.S. city to have no zoning laws, part of a hands-off approach to urban planning that may have contributed to catastrophic flooding from Hurricane Harvey and left thousands of residents in harm’s way.'
"The oddest thing about this analysis is that it misses the actual details of Houston’s land-use policy. The city proper, while technically without zoning, still preserves many of the regulations found in other cities, which inhibit density.... Much of the sprawl development being criticized, meanwhile, wasn’t built in the city anyway. Since 2010, Houston has been America’s fastest-growing metro in net terms, adding 850,000. Only 200,000 of this has been in the city, while the rest has arisen in boomburbs like Katy and Sugar Land. And those municipalities have zoning codes that, again, discourage density.
“'This is not a zoning-related problem,' Jim Blackburn, a civil engineering professor at Rice University, said to me about the flooding....
"The idea that Houston’s land use decisions were the main cause for flooding is absurd on its face. No amount of regulation will properly absorb or confine a year’s-worth of rainwater falling in 5 days. New York City, which is basically the anti-Houston — a dense, regulated city — was devastated by Superstorm Sandy, when just a few inches of rain and strong winds caused flooding in all 5 boroughs.
"And the idea that Houston’s land-use decisions were even a minor factor in the flooding looks increasingly baseless.... The wetlands that have been lost to development since 1990 would have absorbed an estimated 4 billion gallons; the rainfall that Harvey dumped onto the Houston area was an estimated 20 trillion [20,000 billion - gd] gallons....
"Blackburn believes that there are still measures Houston can take to lessen future flooding.... Even if strong growth continues in Houston, it will need to be different — which he believes, counterintuitive to many commentators, should mean more market-oriented. Blackburn said that a FEMA flood insurance program has distorted settlement patterns, incentivizing many to locate near bayous or in flood plains. And he thinks that Houston’s future development will be denser, and built in more elevated areas.
"The irony is that Houston, because of its looser regulations, will likelier tolerate such dense development. This contrasts with, say, New Orleans, another flood-prone city where much of the housing remains in flood plains, but where zoning laws restrict construction in wealthier, higher-elevation areas.... Houston’s lack of zoning and minimal regulation, while not the cause of flooding, may in the future be the greatest control against it."
Read more: http://thehill.com/blogs/pundits-blog/state-local-politics/349021-opinion-dont-blame-houstons-lack-of-zoning-laws-for
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September 3, 2017 - "Houston was recently victim to the largest rainfall in U.S. history, a 52” deluge from Hurricane Harvey that’s left many parts of the metro still underwater. Houston is also arguably the nation’s least-regulated metro area for land use, featuring a central city that doesn’t even have a zoning code.
"This correlation is, apparently, enough for the media to conclude that one has to do with the other.... Houston, wrote the Washington Post, 'is the largest U.S. city to have no zoning laws, part of a hands-off approach to urban planning that may have contributed to catastrophic flooding from Hurricane Harvey and left thousands of residents in harm’s way.'
"The oddest thing about this analysis is that it misses the actual details of Houston’s land-use policy. The city proper, while technically without zoning, still preserves many of the regulations found in other cities, which inhibit density.... Much of the sprawl development being criticized, meanwhile, wasn’t built in the city anyway. Since 2010, Houston has been America’s fastest-growing metro in net terms, adding 850,000. Only 200,000 of this has been in the city, while the rest has arisen in boomburbs like Katy and Sugar Land. And those municipalities have zoning codes that, again, discourage density.
“'This is not a zoning-related problem,' Jim Blackburn, a civil engineering professor at Rice University, said to me about the flooding....
"The idea that Houston’s land use decisions were the main cause for flooding is absurd on its face. No amount of regulation will properly absorb or confine a year’s-worth of rainwater falling in 5 days. New York City, which is basically the anti-Houston — a dense, regulated city — was devastated by Superstorm Sandy, when just a few inches of rain and strong winds caused flooding in all 5 boroughs.
"And the idea that Houston’s land-use decisions were even a minor factor in the flooding looks increasingly baseless.... The wetlands that have been lost to development since 1990 would have absorbed an estimated 4 billion gallons; the rainfall that Harvey dumped onto the Houston area was an estimated 20 trillion [20,000 billion - gd] gallons....
"Blackburn believes that there are still measures Houston can take to lessen future flooding.... Even if strong growth continues in Houston, it will need to be different — which he believes, counterintuitive to many commentators, should mean more market-oriented. Blackburn said that a FEMA flood insurance program has distorted settlement patterns, incentivizing many to locate near bayous or in flood plains. And he thinks that Houston’s future development will be denser, and built in more elevated areas.
"The irony is that Houston, because of its looser regulations, will likelier tolerate such dense development. This contrasts with, say, New Orleans, another flood-prone city where much of the housing remains in flood plains, but where zoning laws restrict construction in wealthier, higher-elevation areas.... Houston’s lack of zoning and minimal regulation, while not the cause of flooding, may in the future be the greatest control against it."
Read more: http://thehill.com/blogs/pundits-blog/state-local-politics/349021-opinion-dont-blame-houstons-lack-of-zoning-laws-for
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