zoning is irrelevant. a building being a daycare or a house can share a required slab elevation. flood planning for areas will be improved but this will be a great time for people who love to **** on texas to move right in with their BS
Actually does matter. Certain uses will require more impervious surface than others and locating where those go can affect stormwater. Also in zoning codes can be written to address stormwater.
Flood control and parking lots isn't zoning. Those are ordinances and regulations. Houston can still have no zoning, but require commercial developments to have a certain size catch basin depending on new concrete, etc. Houston can still have no zoning and lessen parking requirements for new development in the Inner Loop/Inner West districts. But a lot of this (unfortunately) falls on Harris County upping it's regulations and ordinances but it's already stretched thin because the city annexed the commercial strips. Look at the difference in the unincorporated areas of Fort Bend and Montgomery Counties vs Harris County.
Haha, might be too late, even have strip clubs next to schools/churches in some spots (obviously that's not flooding issues we're discussing), and nothing against adult entertainment, but some of the zoning I've seen in Houston vs other cities is crazy.
This thread is silly, of course houston will be back, oil is required and the infrastructure is still there. 4th largest city, this isn't some 100 pop town, and it wasn't flattened or something. FFS, New Orleans recovered, obviously it took awhile and fema etc didn't do great at first but 80% are back. And w/ Houston's (and the Texas economy), it will be back faster. Houston is strong, just look at some of the sports teams we've put up with Also, definitely not comparing the storms kat/Harvey, but houston will be back for sure, if NO can do it, Hou will do it on work req and economy alone. The US will probably feel the hurt with gas prices soon, only speeding the process
Again? Happy to report Houston is a greater city today. The measure of a city is known by the strength, resiliency and generosity of its people.
I would say that it was good timing. If your new house was ever going to be subject to flooding in the short to mid-term (in years), then it would likely have flooded now. I've been thinking about Houston and it's future. This sort of disaster, one with a scope this broad that could have been worse, believe it or not, is enough to make one wonder what needs to be done to protect that future. There needs to be zoning directly tied to flood control. Not half-ass zoning, either, but zoning with teeth. It's time for the people of Houston and the surrounding area to realize that the city has finally become too big, too populated, and too covered with concrete to allow unrestricted building wherever a developer feels would turn him a profit. The city can't absorb these blows indefinitely before it will have a negative impact on how the city is viewed by businesses and people considering a move to Houston. There is a tendency to believe that "if my neighborhood made it OK, then the coverage of what happened is overblown, exaggerated." While sensational reporting has been a big part of "selling the news" since the invention of the printing press, the coverage has not strayed far from telling the truth, and in many cases, the news coverage has been excellent, in my opinion. There needs to be a consensus in Greater Houston that a major flood control effort must begin immediately after the crisis has been addressed. It will be expensive. With Houston's tremendous uncontrolled growth, it is also vital. I've spent a lot of time in the Netherlands (my significant other has numerous relatives there - her mother migrated to the US in the 1930's from Holland), and that country is the world leader in flood control technology. The column below is a good read, with a good title. Houston can get a handle on the flooding crisis, a crisis that isn't going away and will only become more likely, if she has the will to do so, and help from the state and federal level. It will take brilliant engineering and enormous construction projects. Those will also create high paying jobs, something to consider. Anyway, read the column below. It is worth your time. Holland has solved this problem; why can't the US? Amsterdam (CNN) A dozen years ago, when Hurricane Katrina struck New Orleans, I was out of the country, watching the wrenching images from Amsterdam, a city that sits almost seven feet below sea level, in a country that has endured more than its share of death and destruction from raging storms. Now, once again, the evening news in the Netherlands shows the suffering in the United States. The Dutch are watching stories narrated by drenched Dutch reporters in Texas, showing elderly Houstonians being evacuated and young families carrying their children and their pets to safety as all their worldly possessions sink in the epic flood brought by Harvey. But beyond having compassion, people here are wondering why it is that Americans seem so reluctant to apply the lessons the Netherlands already learned -- and at such high cost. Most reports about the disaster include a discussion about why the Netherlands, with much of the country lying below sea level, has managed to avoid a major flood in decades while the United States is suffering yet another catastrophe. The answer, beyond the precise technical details the experts here provide, is about culture, politics and psychology. The United States is in denial. America's denial comes in two categories. First, there is climate change denial. Prior to entering politics, Donald Trump tweeted that climate change was a conspiracy against America, claiming that "global warming was created by and for the Chinese in order to make US manufacturing non-competitive." And since taking office, President Trump has removed the United States from the Paris Agreement, disbanded his climate change council and seemingly rejected much of establishment science. And scientists -- specifically meteorologists -- predicted much of what Harvey would do, even if Trump claimed nobody knew how terrible it would be. The fact is that hurricanes have always occurred, but they have become more destructive with warmer waters and higher sea levels. Hurricane Sandy would not have flooded Manhattan 100 years ago, when sea level was a foot lower. And the trend is sure to worsen. The other form of denial is psychological; it's the one that says this will not happen to me, to us. Despite the certainty that more potentially devastating storms will strike, we have not seen a concerted effort to tackle the problem. In fact, the administration is rolling back flood-proof infrastructure regulations without facing much meaningful pushback. In addition to denial, the United States, particularly on the right of the political spectrum, has a generalized aversion to government. Ronald Reagan famously declared "the nine scariest words in the English language are 'I'm from the government, and I'm here to help.'" As it happens, there are some burdens only the government is strong enough to carry. The Dutch learned that battling the sea is one of them.The wake-up call came in 1953, when a massive storm killed more than 1,800 people, flooding much of the country, damaging farmlands, killing farm animals and destroying property. Immediately after, the Netherlands established a commission to decide how to deal with a threat of more storms. The commission devised a plan that was enshrined into law, specifying what level of risk is tolerable. The so-called Delta Law was passed in 1959 and updated into the Water Law in 2009. Under the law, the government launched a major engineering project at great cost, building the now-famous Delta Works, a system of locks and flood protection systems that was completed in 1997. Instead of waiting for so-called once-in-100-years rainstorms -- which now come more frequently -- the Dutch have lowered the flood risk to what they calculate is one in 4,000 years. The law even requires that authorities hold the risk in some parts of the country to one in 10,000 years. The systems now include walling off the water and, at the same time, letting it into canals and other bodies of water, where technicians can regulate levels. The original Delta Works price tag was steep, $5 billion, but a bargain relative to the cost of inaction. Compare it to one storm in the United States, Katrina, with a total cost estimated by FEMA at $108 billion, and immense human suffering. When discussing the situation in Houston, Dutch experts note that US infrastructure is poorly maintained, and tolerable risk levels are not defined by law. But they also acknowledge that there are no guarantees. They are looking at Houston's tragedy as further reason to upgrade Dutch infrastructure. After all, the sea level, already well above the city of Amsterdam, is projected to rise by as much as 4 feet by the end of this century. With a risk of that magnitude, there is no room for denial. Dutch voters and politicians know that playing politics with it is simply unacceptable. dition.cnn.com/2017/08/29/opinions/dutch-america-storms-opinion-ghitis/index.html
Wish I could be down there helping. I'm from Austin but my dad is from Baytown and left yesterday with his boat and guys from his fishing team to help rescues. Wanted to go but I have school this week. Besides Austin, Houston is the only other city I can remember visiting and go to the city with my cousins. Y'all stay safe out there
Houston never stopped being great - shame on you. You don't need to look any farther than all the volunteers who came to help. What an amazing response by amazing people. I love this city.
The city of Houston has one of the strongest economies in the world. It will shake this off and bounce back like nothing happened.
WTF? Really? There are few cities in the world that could bounce back as fast as Houston. Just watch.
What kind of business? Do you expect it to grow? How many cars park on your driveway? Do you have employees? Will you? Does your HOA know about your business being run out of your house?
