Developers killed Houston’s first flood control plan. Don’t let them do it again.
HOUSTON has a long relationship with hurricanes. The first occurred in October 1837, when the town was in its infancy. Racer’s Storm, as it became known, formed off the Yucatan Peninsula, swept over Brownsville, then curved up the coast toward Galveston. Traveling more than 4,000 miles and lasting 16 days, the storm produced widespread flooding across the Houston area. Hurricanes would continue to strike the Texas coast for the next 180 years, with Harvey, our most recent visitor, dropping historic amounts of rainfall and causing massive flooding.
What can Houston do? Unfortunately, planning — for natural disasters or anything else — has never been our strong suit. Although the first map of Houston reveals an orderly grid of 62 blocks with designated land for schools, churches, and government buildings, the Allen brothers did not supply water or sewage systems, street paving, gas works, public schools, or garbage collection.
Within two years Houston had nevertheless grown to 270 blocks. Those blocks were filled with a jumble of tents, stables, a two-story Capitol building, warehouses, saloons, a hotel of questionable reputation and a smattering of frame houses. This helter-skelter pattern of development continued through the 19th century.
In the early 20th century, Houston began making its first tentative stabs at urban planning, in hopes of making the city slightly more livable. Studies were commissioned from outside experts and then largely ignored. In 1927, Mayor Oscar
Holcombe created a City Planning Commission chaired by businessman and philanthropist Will Hogg. After two years of study, the group presented a comprehensive plan for making improvements in a city then approaching a population of 300,000.
Since a disastrous flood had occurred just five months earlier, the 136page report recommended dredging the area’s 18 major bayous and replanting their banks with hardy vegetation. It called for the city to acquire land along the bayous to create green parkways similar to today’s Buffalo Bayou Park. It recommended the creation of new parks throughout the city and the preservation of native trees. The committee’s final recommendation was to create a zoning ordinance to reduce traffic congestion, improve air quality and prevent overcrowding.
When the report was made public, controversy quickly erupted. Although local newspapers strongly supported the plan, the zoning proposal provoked strong opposition. Small landholders argued that the government shouldn’t interfere with private property rights. Real estate developers, who favored the existing mix of residential and commercial properties — with no restrictive covenants — vehemently opposed zoning laws they believed would put them at the mercy of City Council. Business leaders protested against being told where they could conduct business. The Houston Property Owners League collected 10,000 signatures to protest “elitist” zoning regulations. Meanwhile, the general public seemed indifferent to the issues raised by the commission.
The City Council voted to approve all elements of the report except the zoning provisions, but the fierce outcry from developers and business leaders resulted in few of the report’s recommendations ever being implemented. The commission was disbanded and the City Planning Office was closed.
If Houston had taken the 1929 planning report seriously and followed its recommendations, would Harvey have been less devastating? Would more careful planning in the placement of new neighborhoods have reduced the loss of homes? Would more green space and less concrete have made a difference? Would the proposed treatment of the bayous have mitigated flooding?
Looking beyond 1929, would planning a mass transit system in the 1950s have improved mobility today?
We can only speculate on the answers to these questions. It is a given, however, that Houston will face future hurricanes. We know, too, that flooding has become a too-frequent problem in many areas. Can we step back and rethink our pattern of development? Planning must play an essential role in the life of our city if we are to continue to thrive.
In submitting the 1929 commission’s report, Chairman Hogg told city leaders that they must decide whether they were building a great city or merely a great population. That remains the choice before us today.