The Chronicle‘s Mike Snyder checks in with the latest developments with regard to the city’s poorly considered floodway ordinance:
The Harris County Appraisal District has increased the taxable value on thousands of properties in floodways even as potential buyers cancel contracts because they are leery of new city restrictions on developing the land.
The increased values are based in part on an interpretation that the city’s 2006 floodway ordinance will allow new construction on vacant land if a building has ever stood on the property.
However, floodway property owners and Harris County Tax Assessor-Collector Paul Bettencourt said they had never heard of that interpretation. It is not mentioned in a “frequently asked questions” page about the floodway ordinance on the city’s Web site. And an owner whose building permit application was rejected this week because of the floodway restrictions said he was not asked about the property’s history.
The confusion over what the ordinance requires is adding to the frustrations of property owners who believe the law has eliminated most of their land’s value.“This is not a well-thought-out social-economic experiment,” said Bettencourt, adding that the full effects of the ordinance on land values have yet to be felt in the marketplace.
Bettencourt said this week that he had never heard that the city was allowing construction on vacant floodway land if buildings had stood on it in the past.
Complaints from property owners facing potentially higher tax bills are the latest development in a controversy that began after the City Council’s October 2006 vote to tighten regulations on development in floodways — areas near bayous and streams considered necessary to convey floodwaters.
When Mayor White and his Council ram through sweeping ordinances without proper vetting or consideration, this is the sort of confusion that can result. Unfortunately, fixing this latest example of Ready-Fire-Aim governance gone awry will almost certainly fall to the next mayor.
