Considered opinion Houston’s anything-goes business model under siege after Harvey

By Christopher Flavelle and David Wethe

Last month, Harvey destroyed or damaged about 136,000 homes in Harris County. Now the city of Houston must determine whether to rebuild or repair, how to distribute billions of dollars in federal assistance, and whether or not the essence of America’s fourth-largest city will survive. The next storm could be even more destructive — but protection means rules, and rules go against the ethos of Houston.

As post-hurricane Houston dries out, cracks are appearing.

Harvey’s floods exposed the clash between two visions: Business leaders say the sprawling, economically vibrant metropolis shouldn’t change its hands-off approach to planning. Environmentalists and disaster experts warn that Houston is courting a repeat catastrophe.

In the middle are local officials, who have said in broad terms that they’re willing to consider rules and programs to protect Houston — but haven’t said what, or at whose expense.

“We really need a whole new scheme,” said Ed Emmett, the elected administrator of Harris County, which encompasses Houston. “Hopefully, this will be a wake-up call.”

….

“One of the reasons that Houston has grown the way it has is because of no zoning, and it’s easy to develop there,” said Tilman Fertitta, chief executive officer of the Houston-based restaurant chain Landry’s Inc. Fertitta, who this month agreed to buy the NBA’s Houston Rockets for $2.2 billion, said that common sense, rather than rules, will dictate how the city revives.

“Houston is a big swamp that sits on the bayous and all the creeks and all the oxbows off the bayou,” Fertitta said. “We just need to be smarter. You don’t need to build homes next to a reservoir.”

Read the full article: Christopher Flavelle and David Wethe, “Houston’s anything-goes business model under siege after Harvey,” Bloomberg (14 September 2017)