The Limits of Planning & Zoning

In a commentary published just over a week after the Houston deluge from Hurricane Harvey and the day after Florida was besieged by Hurricane Irma, Benjamin Powell and Phil Magness offered a timely and thought-provoking statement along the lines of the one by Steve Cohen in my earlier post.  Cohen described Houston perfectly, when he said “As the planet has gotten more crowded, more of us have settled in places that are vulnerable to natural disasters. I don’t think this trend is going to be reversed.”

Powell and Magness wrote:

"No amount of government zoning and urban planning could have prevented the flooding caused by Hurricane Harvey. But the damage might have been less widespread, in both the Texas Gulf and Florida, if the government didn't subsidize flood insurance, which encourages building in low-lying areas.”

"Houston's most fundamental flood problem is its extraordinarily flat topography. Most of its waterways are slow-moving creeks and bayous that wind their way through the city and eventually trickle into the shallow, marshy coastline of Galveston and Trinity Bays. During a deluge, drainage is slow, so these systems fill rapidly with water that effectively has nowhere to go.

"These factors created a flood-prone city long before Houston's growth spurt. In fact, downtown Houston has suffered a major flood on average about once a decade as far back as records extend....

"In effect, NFIP [National Flood Insurance Program] subsidizes the risk people assume by living on a flood plain or in an area prone to storm surge damage. According to a recent study some 15 percent to 20 percent of NFIP policy holders receive subsidies that reduce their premium costs by approximately 60 percent to 65 percent.

"Although rates of purchasing flood insurance outside of Special Flood Hazard Zones have been dropping nationally and in Houston, the subsidy within these zones leads developers to build more houses in the flood plain, just as it encourages building in hurricane-prone areas of the East Coast.

"Ironically, what this means is that it's not the lack of regulation that exposed many of Harvey's victims to catastrophic loss, it was government policy."

Natural Defenses

It's time to re-think both the locational and design decisions we make as Americans.  One author, for example, suggests restoring natural defenses against hurricane flooding, saying:

"Natural defense systems, such as properly functioning wetlands and river deltas, should be part of this conversation in addition to built structures like seawalls and levees.  Not only can such natural defense systems reduce vulnerability to and impacts from events like [Hurricane] Sandy, but they can often be done less expensively than built solutions while providing other important benefits at the same time."

There are no shortage of worthwhile ideas. What's missing is apparently the will to evaluate, fund and implement them.

----------------------------------------

UPDATE

A November 7, 2017 article outlines a "wide-ranging $61 billion proposal by Governor Greg Abbot and other Texas leaders for rebuilding in the wake of Hurricane Harvey.... Calling for enhanced infrastructure measures to prevent future coastal flooding, coupled with buyouts for homes in vulnerable areas, the governor’s request goes far beyond just rebuilding what had been destroyed. Future-proofing the Gulf Coast will mean building detention lakes, dredging canals, and maybe most ambitiously, the construction of the 'Ike Dike,' a $12 billion series of 'coastal spines.'"