The Chronicle‘s Mike Snyder reports that the City of Houston may soon enact legislation requiring developers either to set aside park space or pay the city significant fees:
A draft ordinance reviewed by a City Council committee Monday would require a developer who built 100 houses to provide 2.6 acres for park space or pay an $80,000 fee.
The ordinance, which city officials hope to have in place by Oct. 1, would be one of the most significant new regulatory requirements in years for Houston’s politically powerful development industry. Leaders of single-family home and apartment development organizations said they supported the measure in principle but were concerned about some details.
A sidebar provides more details:
LAW’S HIGHLIGHTS
• The requirement: Developers of single-family or multi-family residential developments would have to provide land for park space or pay a fee.
• Park formula: 10 acres times number of housing units times 2.6 average household size, divided by 1,000. That means a developer building a project with 100 units would have to set aside 2.6 acres of space.
• Fee formula: $800 per housing unit.
• Goal: 10 acres of parks per 1,000 new residents as Houston grows.
• Not affected: Commercial development projects; areas in Houston’s extraterritorial jurisdiction.
Lest anyone be concerned these requirements are unfair to developers, the architect of the ordinance says that’s not true:
Andy Icken, a deputy public works director assigned by Mayor Bill White to help develop the measure, said its formula for determining land or fees required is consistent with those in other Houston-area cities that have park set-aside laws.
Its intent, Icken said, is to ensure that as Houston’s population grows, it provides 10 acres of parks for each 1,000 additional residents, which is far short of the 25.5 acres per 1,000 residents recommended by the National Parks and Recreation Association.
In other words, the legislation is not as draconian (or green, depending on your perspective) as it might be.
The debate over this (rushed?) ordinance could prove to be interesting.
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