From the Houston Chronicle: Houston’s private developers won’t take the bait on incentives for green development. Here’s why

Tax abatements are often used to encourage private market forces to provide items deemed important to the general public.

But sometimes they don't work.

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After a Houston tax abatement program – aimed at encouraging more eco-friendly development – received only one application in three years, city officials are scrambling to determine how to get private developers to participate.

The Green Stormwater Infrastructure Incentive Program is designed to promote green stormwater projects, such as planting gardens and other vegetation near drainage pipes, so that the greenery can help collect excess water or slow its runoff.

They have the added benefit of being “amenitized” drainage projects, says Michael Bloom, a sustainable practice manager who works with Houston-based 5engineering, which means they look attractive too.

The goal of the city’s program is to improve the city’s overall drainage systems, while also providing a tool for flood mitigation – and to do this with help from private developers.
Despite the environmental benefits and aesthetic appeal of this kind of building, developers have yet to take advantage of the incentive since it launched in 2021.

The lack of applications for a widely recommended flood mitigation tool raises the question of why developers appear uninterested – and what the city might do to make the program more appealing, particularly at a moment when it has been contending with major storm damage and flooding.