“I've tackled flooding and drainage issues my entire career and I know we can win this fight. We’ll need practical, pro-active measures designed to take on the root causes of flooding. When I’m Mayor, we’ll get this right.” - Peter Brown
Peter Brown has tackled flooding and drainage issues his entire career. Running a national architecture and urban planning firm, he learned to design projects prepared to meet nature’s challenges. As a City Councilmember, he successfully fought to implement the city's first Comprehensive Drainage Plan to bring together the many different elements of the city’s flood management efforts. As Mayor, he has a blueprint with real solutions to prevent flooding. It calls for focusing our investments on projects that work, using our resources more effectively and efficiently with a full-scale effort to maintain and improve our drainage system. And he’ll work to shape regional solutions, coordinating with others in the region to protect Houston neighborhoods from irresponsible upstream development. Finally, he’ll engage in proactive prevention, preparing for the future and protecting against further flood damage with better standards, and protection of natural watersheds. Peter Brown's proposals will help Houston will stay ahead of flooding.
After a catastrophe like Tropical Storm Allison, there should have been swift action and a coordinated effort to ensure we’re never caught unprepared again. Unfortunately, in the eight years since that terrible storm, flood control efforts in Houston have been insufficient, costly, and uncoordinated. Residents, whether in Clear Lake or Oak Forest, continue to fall victim to flash floods causing loss of business, loss of property, and even loss of life. We need to do a better job of keeping Houston prepared. More »
PROACTIVELY MAINTAIN DRAINAGE INFRASTRUCTURE
Instead of waiting for flooding to occur, we need a full-scale plan to proactively maintain our drainage system, including grading ditches and clearing clogged gutters and inlets. Refocusing our efforts on reducing rain accumulation and identifying our greatest areas of need is the only way to address the problem successfully.
INVEST FOR RESULTS
Flood damage costs Houstonians millions each year, but the $50 million the city spends annually on flood reduction is being put towards small, insufficient repairs. The funds should be spent strategically on the right projects, in order to yield better results. Additionally, we should look for cost savings and budgetary efficiencies to provide reliable sources of funding for priority projects, without raising taxes.
EXPAND FLOOD DETENTION
Building regional detention areas adjacent to expanded watersheds is essential. New technologies should be utilized, including underground “storm traps” for detention (under highways and parking lots), low-impact streets, and more multipurpose detention areas like parks and sports fields.
PRIORITIZE REPAIRS AND PROJECTS
Our current approach to correcting flooding problems is to hand out funds based on complaints. This Band-Aid approach has proven ineffective. In many cases, we're just pumping flood waters from one part of town to another. The city needs a plan to prioritize the most important, effective flooding projects that trap flood waters before they seep into our homes and businesses.
A regional problem requires a regional solution. Flood waters don't recognize political boundaries, which means any successful solution to the flooding problem will require coordination with other cities in the region. There are numerous entities responsible for regulating flood waters in the area, including the Harris County Flood Control District, the City of Houston and surrounding communities, but no effectively coordinated strategy for controlling storm waters. More »
REGULATE IRRESPONSIBLE UPSTREAM DEVELOPMENT
Unchecked development just outside the city limits is creating flooding inside Houston. We need to use the tools available to protect neighborhoods from unchecked development that isn’t bound by the standards and policies of the City of Houston. Everyone needs to play by the same set of rules if we’re going to stop flooding in every part of Houston.
ADOPT REGIONAL SOLUTIONS
The City of Houston, Harris County Flood Control District and other relevant partners need to create an intergovernmental agreement to coordinate their flood prevention efforts. All of these agencies and municipalities are responsible for where water moves in our area, and each has a role to play in solving the problem. But thus far, the lack of a coordinated standard and uniform policies has stalled our progress.
Each year, flooding costs Houston residents millions of dollars. Homes are flooded, businesses are damaged, and lives are lost. The immense loss of life and property caused by Tropical Storm Allison reminds us of just how devastating the consequences of our failure to prepare can be. To solve our flooding problems and ensure all Houston residents get their fair share of flood relief, our next Mayor must build upon the Comprehensive Drainage Plan which I developed with Mayor Bill White. We need to look to the future, stay ahead of flooding, and get this right. More »
EMPOWER HOUSTON TO HELP
Giving residents the tools to track flood control work will help hold city government accountable, keep neighborhoods prepared and protected, and ensure no neighborhood is ignored. By using interactive online maps to detail maintenance efforts, and employing the latest communications technologies to allow residents to alert the city of poorly maintained infrastructure (including clogged drainage gutters), we can work together to keep Houston ready.
PROTECT OUR WATERSHED
The city needs to carefully define areas which are off-limits to development because of severe flooding impacts, or where remedial construction is too costly or environmentally destructive. We can reduce the flooding threat by improving the natural watershed.
ENCOURAGE FLOOD-REDUCING DEVELOPMENT
It's not enough to set minimum requirements for drainage and retention. The city should encourage developers to create projects that actually decrease the flooding threat to neighborhoods, like parks or soccer fields adjacent to new developments.
IMPROVE DEVELOPMENT STANDARDS
The rapid growth of Houston is a positive that will quickly turn into a negative if we let it outpace our drainage capacity. We need to improve conveyance requirements in order to account for the real impact new construction has on our neighborhoods, and we need to make sure we’re building the drainage infrastucture necessary to prevent future flooding.
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