By Morgan Peters, GHBA Communications Director
Amid Hurricane Harvey’s eight-year anniversary, the Houston Chronicle has published two pointed and largely misleading articles on new homes and floodplains without the full picture. Other media outlets are now recycling the story as well. Here’s what they are getting wrong and what we’re doing to address it.
Claiming that a small group of homebuilders build “flood-prone properties” and that they “cash in on risky land in FEMA floodplains,” the Houston Chronicle failed to look at the standards set by the City of Houston, Harris County and other entities. Flooding has always been common in our region, and because of that, developers and builders have long had to build to certain standards and development regulations set by local jurisdictions before and after Hurricane Harvey to improve resiliency. In fact, following the updated “Conforming Subdivision” definition set by the Harris County Commissioners Court in 2009, between August of that year and Hurricane Harvey (August 2017), 75,000 homes were built, and of those homes, only 467 flooded.
Advertisement
Since Harvey, detention and building requirements have only gotten more stringent. And, on top of that, developers are working hard and spending millions of dollars voluntarily to go above and beyond those requirements to create even more resiliency within the communities they build. The articles left out newly adopted building requirements and drainage criteria, such as the fact that new homes must be built two feet above the 500-year floodplain or the fact that parts of Harris County require 0.88 acres of detention for every acre of development. Montgomery County also just adopted new drainage criteria, requiring more detention. The Houston Chronicle failed to investigate this as well as other development realities in our region.
Lastly, because the Houston Chronicle relied only on FEMA floodplain maps, rather than county floodplain maps, their perspective on development was heavily skewed. Because of this limited data the Chronicle presented, the reader has no option but to believe that developers are being risky and irresponsible in their selection of sites for communities. Letters of Map Revision are a fact of life for developers in our region and ensure that no one is being permitted to actually build in a flood plain.
As the Greater Houston Builders Association, we are committed to defending our industry and the people who help build our communities. We are currently working with members of the media to better share how local builders and developers are contributing to the future of the Bayou City and our region. We know GHBA members deeply care for our community and want to continue to build our region’s resiliency.