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Fight over Houston floodplain rules taps into city’s resistance to regulation
Elderberry:
The Houston Chronicle By Mike Morris and Rebecca Elliott April 3, 2018
Hurricane Harvey was supposed to be a game-changer. Those who downplayed other recent deadly floods couldn’t say much last August after every single one of the county’s 22 bayous overflowed their banks and inundated hundreds of thousands of homes and businesses.
Still, that trauma has not ensured Mayor Sylvester Turner an easy path to restricting development in the flood plains that run alongside those bayous.
What seemed like a stunned consensus that change was needed, seven months later looks like every other City Hall fight over new regulations.
Turner described his proposal in broad terms at a late January council meeting but did not provide draft language or supporting data. He drew immediate opposition from council members when he said he expected to vote on the item within a month.
More: https://www.houstonchronicle.com/news/article/Fight-over-Houston-floodplain-rules-taps-into-12802536.php
thackney:
--- Quote ---...Turner is asking the city council to require all new construction in Houston’s flood plains to be built 2 feet above the projected water level in a 500-year storm, which is deemed to have a 0.2 percent chance of happening in any given year.
Current rules mandate that buildings be constructed 1 foot above the flood level in a less severe 100-year storm and apply only within the 100-year flood plain, where properties are considered to have a 1 percent annual chance of being inundated. Minimum home elevations would be imposed within the 500-year flood plain for the first time...
--- End quote ---
I understand the desire, but the cost is immense.
catfish1957:
--- Quote from: Elderberry on April 04, 2018, 01:06:03 am ---What seemed like a stunned consensus that change was needed, seven months later looks like every other City Hall fight over new regulations.
More: https://www.houstonchronicle.com/news/article/Fight-over-Houston-floodplain-rules-taps-into-12802536.php
--- End quote ---
I can state from experience that outside of California, Houston may be the most regulated 600 square miles in the United States. And that was 25 years ago.
Its a wonder anyone can operate there.
Weird Tolkienish Figure:
--- Quote ---Next, the city plans to take up the second half of Turner’s elevation proposal: requiring new homes to sit at least 2 feet off the ground citywide, including in areas with no established flood risk.
--- End quote ---
That's a tad ridiculous no?
catfish1957:
--- Quote from: Weird Tolkienish Figure on April 04, 2018, 12:32:29 pm ---That's a tad ridiculous no?
--- End quote ---
Not if own stock in concrete and fill companies. :silly:
Seriously, Houston politics makes a clown car seem sane.
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