MUD trouble
City Hall must reject pre-Harvey status quo of paving over the flood plain.
Houston just faced our first major flooding test after Hurricane Harvey, and we nearly failed.
Buried in the City Council agenda on Wednesday was an ordinance to create a Municipal Utility District for a 151acre housing development smack in the middle of the floodplain.
It is the sort of item that never should have appeared on the agenda in the first place.
Thanks to Houston Chronicle reporter Mike Morris and local advocacy groups like Residents Against Flooding and Save Buffalo Bayou, the scandalous MUD proposal was brought to public attention and referred back to the mayor for the time being. Were it not for media scrutiny and civic activism, this MUD, which was originally supported by District A Council Member Brenda Stardig, and the underlying master-planned community would have proceeded like any number of the oft-ignored issues that come before City Council.
City Hall got lucky that someone else caught its mistake.
Mayor Sylvester Turner needs to reject the MUD and send a message that times have changed in Houston. Our city can no longer tolerate a civic philosophy that insists on construction at any cost. We can no longer allow developers to treat our city as their playground for profit. Flood prevention and ecologic resilience must be given a newfound priority.
So why is this housing project, located at Clay Road and Gessner Road in west Houston, so objectionable?
The project will build hundreds of single-family homes on the site of the recently closed Pine Crest Golf Club. Much of the tract sits within the 100year floodplain and is centered around the Brickhouse Gully floodway. And the whole thing only has to adhere to preHarvey detention requirements.
It reads like a list of recommendations for flood prevention written in reverse. Right now, Houston should be retrofitting old golf courses into flood detention areas, buying out homes in flood-prone neighborhoods and implementing stricter construction codes.
The developer, MetroNational, is supposedly installing drainage improvements that will ameliorate flooding concerns around the new homes. We’re not convinced. MetroNational is already drowning in another flood-related scandal in the Memorial City neighborhood. Residents there allege that the company, which owns the Memorial City Mall, leverages public dollars from the area’s tax increment reinvestment zone to improve its own properties while ignoring local flood prevention needs. That’s not exactly the story of a company that takes flood control seriously.
Beyond worrying about the sustainability of the new development, Houstonians also have to worry about how this construction will worsen runoff for surrounding neighborhoods. A natural sponge for floodwater would be transformed into a concrete pipeline that drains right into Buffalo Bayou. “It is mind-boggling to me that this was ever in consideration,” Cynthia Neely of Houston Residents Against Flooding, told the Houston Chronicle editorial board.
The whole city should be shocked.
Just last week, City Hall approved $10.7 million to buy out 60 flood-prone homes, several of which were downstream of the proposed project. The governor is asking for $800 million of federal dollars to fund another massive buy-out plan for the Houston area. Harris County Judge Ed Emmett has discussed an evacuation of the 100-year floodplain.
How long until taxpayers will be asked to bail out this new development after some future deluge?
Certain elements at City Hall appear tone deaf. Perhaps they don’t recognize the scale of change that Houston must undergo. Perhaps the post-Harvey black mold has caused an outbreak of amnesia. Whatever the reason, at a time when folks are complaining that the upcoming municipal bond plans don’t include flood prevention projects, Mayor Turner needs to send a sign of good faith that he’s taking recovery and resilience seriously.
This means rejecting the MUD, scolding the developers and starting work immediately on new post-Harvey construction codes.
Our city is being tested. And failure is not an option.
Right now, Houston should be retrofitting old golf courses into flood detention areas, buying out homes in flood-prone neighborhoods and implementing stricter construction codes.