For years, there was little debate in Houston over regulating land use, and developers in the nation’s fourth-largest city mostly built what they wanted, where they wanted.
But as the Wall Street Journal reports, the city is wrestling with how to best oversee future real estate development after Hurricane Harvey killed at least 50 people and caused roughly $180 billion in damage.
“If Houston does not change, it will not survive from an economic standpoint,” said Jim Blackburn, a professor of environmental law and the co-founder of Rice University’s Severe Storm Prediction, Education and Evacuation from Disaster (SPEED) Center. “This absolutely should change our policies and our trajectory.”
The debate will pit those who have waved through developments in the name of economic growth against those who want to mitigate future flooding events with stricter rules. Baton Rouge is currently having a similar debate after the August floods last year.
