From the Houston Chronicle: Don't blame Mother Nature for flooding. Blame City Council. The disasters are predictable. Why aren't we preventing them?

Rain doesn't necessarily lead to flooding, unless there is nowhere for water to go due to careless development. That seems to be the point of this opinion piece.

- Click here for it.

Man-made, preventable flooding has surged dirty, sewage-ridden water through Houston living rooms three times now in seven years, yet city government fails to prevent these recurring emergencies.

Really? If losing homes, livelihoods, retirement savings, health and sanity (and at least one life) aren't reasons enough to make emergency detention and drainage improvements, what in the world does it take?

Right now, too many real-estate developments do not detain storm water run-off from their new construction, and instead allow it to flow downstream into other neighborhoods, into people's homes. This new development is responsible for unnecessary flooding of neighborhoods that previously weren't flood plains, weren't prone to flooding. That new development is also responsible for flood insurance rising 100 to 200 percent (before the Tax Day flood) in these non-flood plains.

City government is allowing this to happen. Developers use loopholes and grandfathering to avoid doing what the city's laws require them to do. Is it ethical to allow a new office building to flood an entire neighborhood even if a loophole makes it legal?

And why on earth would a developer be allowed to use tax money (yours and mine) to build the stormwater detention required by law as part of a profit-making project? New development on the north side of I-10 and Gessner is using the already-stressed Conrad Sauer detention basin for a spiffy retail/residential complex under construction. The deal is an interesting card trick: They are making a few improvements to the basin, adding a little drainage near it and — especially important — are going to make the basin look pretty with trails and landscape for their future tenants/residents. They'll get paid back $23 million (taxpayer dollars) for doing this. So they really didn't pay for anything.

For seven years Houston homeowners have begged and pleaded with the mayor (previous and present) and City Council members to treat man-made flooding as urgent, as if it were a deadly fire to put out in a hurry. Yet despite hundreds of emails, calls, meetings, petitions from homeowners' associations (at least 18), Super Neighborhoods, civic associations, and person-after-exhausted-person speaking at City Hall, there is more talk about bike trails and recycling than critical, focused action to address our flooding.

From the Houston Press: HOW HOUSTON USES THE TIRZ SYSTEM TO BENEFIT HIGH-DOLLAR AREAS AND IGNORE POORER NEIGHBORHOODS

Early on in GOVT 2306 - in the discussion on local governments - the concept of a Tax Increment Reinvestment Zone is introduced. Simply put, its a funding mechanism - a political subdivision - that allows a defined area within a city to collect funds for projects that improve that area. These are mostly used to enhance the economic and viability of the area.

The Houston Press writes up recent controversies over the recent use of TIRZs.

- Click here for the article.

It also points out recent - unsuccessful - efforts to modify them in the 84th Legislature. The power to establish these zones dates back to the Legislative session that met in the spring of 1987 and the passage of the Tax Increment Financing Act - which is now found in the Texas Tax Code, Title 3, Subtitle B, Chapter 311.

For more on the concept of tax increment financing:

- Wikipedia: Tax increment financing.
- Wikipedia: Tax Increment Reinvestment Zone.

And more on the use of TIRz's in Houston:

- What is a TIRZ?
- Not-so-super-TIRZ.
- TIRZ funds create predicament for cash-hungry city.
- Houston's TIRZ Explosion.

Two local items from Houston

1 - Houston's mayor announced two related projects. One designed to reforest Memorial Park - which was hit hard by Hurricane Ike and the ongoing drought - and address traffic issues in the Galleria area by creating "Bus Rapid Transit Lanes" in the median on Post Oak.

Funding these projects will be augmented by expanding the Uptown Tax Increment Reinvestment Zone 16 by adding almost 1,800 acres to it.

- From yourhoustonnews.
- From the Chron.

Here's a map of the uptown TIRZ.




2 - HISD has announced the creation of two magnet schools "specializing in two key Houston industries: health care and energy. Both are set to open in the fall. The middle school will involve a collaboration with Baylor College of Medicine, and the high school will be a partnership with the Independent Petroleum Institute of America."

Cities are primarily economic entities, and these two efforts seem designed to enhance the area's economic focus on the energy and health sectors.

A New Soccer Stadium in Houston

Despite budget woes, the Dynamo find ways to finance a new stadium.

TIRZ No.7: The OST/Almeda Corridor

A Chron story on a TIRZ and the redevelopment of Almeda Road.

- description.
- early controversy.

Local Government and the Dynamo Stadium

The ongoing controversy over how the Houston Dynamo's proposed stadium will be financed provides a terrific example of the cumbersome nature of local government coordination and public-private partnerships.

Manvel Town Center

Despite the bad economy, long awaited development on the corner of highways 6 and 288 may be set to begin. From Mayor Martin's Blog:

Jerry Argovitz and his Manvel Town Center at the Northwest corner of SH288 and SH6 have received the City of Manvel’s consent for their MUD and are proceeding with drainage approval, development agreements and possibly a TIRZ or a 380 agreement. They want to have everything in place when the time is right to begin.

See Manvel Town Center.