‘A different conversation’: Builders’ group backs new flood rules
“We’ll just price it into the cost of the home.”
This quote from a local real estate industry leader jumped out at me as I read a Houston Chronicle article last week about a proposal to tighten regulations on flood plain development in Harris County.
Ed Taravella, who chairs the developers council of the Greater Houston Builders Association, told my colleague Mihir Zaveri that his group would support new rules that would compel builders to construct new homes 8 feet higher than previously required in some flood-prone areas.
The suggestion that builders would pass on increased regulatory costs to buyers might not seem surprising, given the alternative would be reduced profits. In the Houston area, though, support for any policy that might increase housing costs has long been seen as heretical.
Real estate industry leaders have argued that a local tradition of limited regulation has kept homes affordable, which in turn has fueled regional growth and prosperity.
Hurricane Harvey’s catastrophic and deadly floods have changed the conversation in profound ways, opening up consideration of ideas that were largely off the table.
Developers and builders often have embraced the same “slippery slope” strategy that the National Rifle Association has used in resisting new regulations on firearms: Oppose everything, even the minor stuff, to avoid setting a precedent.
This approach was on full display in December 2008, when several development policy initiatives were under discussion at Houston City Hall. A group of real estate executives and other prominent Houstonians — including ex-Mayor Bob Lanier, a former developer — signed a letter warning that the city was on a dangerous course.
“We are writing you because of our growing concern that the city is embarking, with the best of intentions, down a path of more extensive planning and regulations, many of which have ill-served cities across our nation,” the group wrote in a letter that was delivered to thenMayor Bill White and every City
Council member.
Lanier, who died in 2014, told me in 2008 that he agreed to sign the letter because he shared the concern that increasing regulations could add to the cost of new housing — pricing young families and first-time buyers out of the market.
When I spoke to White a few days ago, he said that he had encountered less industry resistance to new development policies during his six years as mayor than he expected.
“With the possible exception of some limited aspects of historical preservation, the large developers and home builders understood the need for rules and regulations that would maintain property values and improve the quality of life,” White said.
The letter signed by Lanier and others, White said, was largely a result of a misunderstanding of policies under discussion at the time.
‘Houston’s finest hour’
Whatever its origins, the episode had at least one clear outcome: It led to the creation of Houstonians for Responsible Growth. This group formed a political action committee that backed candidates who supported the traditional Houston development model.
Nine years later, the organization’s members recognize the need to reconsider ideas about growth and development policy, said Joshua Sanders, a lobbyist who works with the group.
“I think Hurricane Harvey and the past couple of floods that the area has dealt with have brought about an acknowledgement by all parties that things need to change,” said Sanders. He said Houstonians for Responsible Growth is participating in a task force, led by “flood czar” Stephen Costello, that is examining strategies to reduce flooding impacts.
This is not to say that area real estate industry leaders have abandoned their traditional views.
“Hurricane Harvey was not a catastrophe,” wrote construction company executive Leo Linbeck III, one of the signatories to the 2008 letter, in a Chronicle opinion piece published about a week after Harvey’s rains had ended. “It was Houston’s finest hour, evidence that our distinctive approach to self-governance works, even under the stress of a major storm.”
He urged Houstonians to ignore “narrative-spinners” using the storm “as a pretext for changing our formula for success.”
A signal for change
The durability of such views will be tested in coming months as area leaders consider a broad array of ideas to overhaul flood control policy. Not all of these ideas involve development regulations, of course, but movement in this area could demonstrate a level of commitment that’s been lacking after past floods.
“The optimistic view on that is that Harvey did have a lasting impact, and that it will signal at least a bit of a change in business as usual,” said environmental attorney Jim Blackburn, who has emerged as a leading voice on recovery from Harvey. “At least right now I’m encouraged that there is the opportunity for a different conversation.”