April 2, 2004
G U L F  C O A S T  G R O W T H  N E W S
A publication of the Gulf Coast Institute

NOTABLE QUOTES

≥Compared to some of the other ways we are spending money in this country, [public transportation] is something that creates jobs, improves quality of life, cuts dependence on foreign energy"
- Metro Chairman David Wolff in the Houston Chronicle, March 22, 2004, ≥Metro may need help cutting in funding line.≤

≥Our region's transportation problems - congestion, lack of choices, high costs, and environmental damage - are a direct result of our outdated and inflexible transportation funding system, a system that starves public transit.≤
-Barb Thoman, program director for Transit for Livable Communities http://www.startribune.com/stories/1519/4670412.html

LIVABLE HOUSTON / SMART GROWTH INITIATIVE

The Livable Houston meeting is Wednesday, April 28th, noon-1:30 pm, Houston-Galveston Area Council, 3555 Timmons, second floor. Subject to be announced. Bring your lunch. For more information call 713-523-5755. The Gulf Coast Institute and the Houston-Galveston Area Council host Livable Houston/Smart Growth bring-your-own-lunch meetings that are open to the public on the fourth Wednesday of every month. For more information, visit http://www.gulfcoastideas.org and click on the ≥Livable Houston Initiative.≤

REGIONAL NOTES

Regional Transportation Plan
* Transportation plan stupefies residents
Several residents spoke out about concerns regarding the new $77 billion, long-term transportation plan at a recent meeting of public officials who are going to vote on the plan in May. ≥How many business and residential properties will need to be taken for right-of-way for these roads and retention ponds?≤ questioned native Houstonian Tom McKittrick of the Regional Transportation Plan (RTP). The draft 2025 RTP aims to increase roadways by 60 percent, placing 12,900 new lane miles, or ≥120 Katy Freeway expansions≤ as another speaker Polly Ledvina described it, across the region. The recommended roadways come as an effort to reduce forecasted congestion. Speakers noted that the plan says nothing about right-of-way costs, flooding, or other impacts to neighboring businesses and residents. McKittrick said the planπs new roadways and the parking required to meet future drivers would cover an area almost as large as that inside Loop 610 and would require detention ponds covering the equivalent of five Memorial Parks. The plan also includes the Metro Solutions voter-approved transit plan that provides for a 72-mile expansion of rail and 50 percent increase in bus service. Harris County Judge Robert Eckels, Chair of the Transportation Policy Council that votes on the plan, noted that this might be the largest rail expansion ever in this RTP. However, judging the overall transit picture is difficult ≠ according to published numbers, yearly transit funding appears to have actually decreased from the last plan (the RTP is updated every three years). Houston resident Robin Holzer had a possible explanation: Due to ≥accounting changes,≤ the last RTP understated road expenses and overstated transit expenses. She asked for clarification in the next draft and for an outside financial review. For information about the plan and upcoming public meetings, visit http://www.2025plan.org <http://www.2025plan.org/>  

* Thirteen billion of road projects added to plan
Thirteen billion dollars of ≥added capacity road projects≤ have been added to this yearπs update of the long-term RTP. The Houston-Galveston Area Council, the group that administers the plan, proposed the $13 billion of additional road projects. That amount is approximately three times the capital expenditure amount approved last fall by voters in the Metro Solutions rail and bus plan. These road projects will not go to a public vote, but rather to a vote by 25 regional transportation and public officials in May.  Usually, the Texas Department of Transportation and Houston area agencies such as the City of Houston, Harris County, and others submit most of the transportation projects. This time, H-GACπs proposed road projects total more than all other agenciesπ combined projects. Some of H-GACπs projects involve converting streets into Express Streets that allow faster traveling speeds, but most of their projects involve road expansions. This concerns some staff at regional transportation agencies, some of whom were not aware of projects proposed  for their areas. One of the members who usually submits projects said he ≥would be fired≤ if one of the proposed projects went through. It was a road widening that would pave over several old oak trees.

* Vote on transportation plan delayed; public meetings broadened
Public officials will likely have until May to vote on the  massive regional transportation plan that would significantly affect the future of transportation in Houston, according to the Houston-Galveston Area Council. The earlier date originally set for the end of April was not enough time for an educated review and meaningful public participation of the $77 billion plan released in mid-March, according to concerned residents who spoke at the last H-GAC Transportation Policy Council Meeting on March 26th. H-GAC has also decided to expand the public meetings from one public meeting in their offices to six, in different counties across the region (there seem to be only five counties). Remaining meetings include April 6th  in Galveston County, April 8th in Montgomery County, April 13th in Harris County, April 14th in Fort Bend County, and April 20th in Brazoria County. For locations, visit http://www.2025plan.org/info/public_meetings.htm

Eckels cites freeways as problem for compliance with new air guidelines
Speaking to a US Senate subcommittee on compliance with new federal clean air guidelines, Harris County Judge Robert Eckels said some regions will continue to struggle because of reasons beyond their control, according to a report in the Houston Chronicle. Among other reasons, he said some cities will struggle because they contain a large number of freeways. Eckels is also chair of the Houston-Galveston Area Councilπs Transportation Policy Council, which will vote in May whether to expand the regionπs roadways by 60 percent over the next two decades. http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/front/2480997

Texas City as good as Bayport, local economist says
A new container port in Texas City would be just as good or better for the economy as the one in Bayport, says public finance analyst Dr. Barton Smith. Smith, who is a professor of economics at the University of Houston, said ≥New jobs will be created, personal and entrepreneurial incomes will rise, regional sales will increase, and fiscal dividends will be created to the same extent as would occur for the Bayport facility.≤ Smith also said that the positive impacts of a container port at Texas City would outstrip those that the Port of Houston Authority claims for Bayport because of its troubled southern sector of the regional economy. The Bayport container port as proposed by the Port of Houston Authority has been fervently contested by local residents, cities, and environmental groups, including the Galveston Bay Conservation and preservation Association that has filed suit to stop the new port. http://www.gbcpa.net <http://www.gbcpa.net/>  

Nuts and Bolts of Community Development Workshop
Houston Council Member Ronald C. Green is hosting "The Nuts and Bolts of Community Development Workshop" at the George R. Brown Convention Center (Section E, Room 306) on April 24th from 10 am to 2 pm.  Presenters from The City of Houston Housing and Community Development Department, METRO, The Housing Authority, LARA, Community Development Corps., The FAST Program, TIRZ #7, Midtown Management District, LISC, and Scott Street Corridor will be there.  Complimentary continental breakfast and box lunch will be provided.  For more information or to RSVP call 713-247-2012.  

TEXAS NOTES

Poor renters have biggest burden
Texas renters make up the vast majority of households within the state that have a ≥severe housing cost burden,≤ according to recently released data from the US Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). HUD found that 69 percent of Texas households that pay more than 50 percent of their income for housing are renters. Among Texas renters with a severe housing cost burden, 64 percent are households in the lowest income bracket (below 30 percent of area median family income).  Source: Texas Low Income Housing Information Service, Spring 2004 newsletter.

Texas households pinched with hunger
Almost fifteen percent of Texas households are uncertain of having, or unable to acquire, enough food because of insufficient money or other resources, according to data from the US Department of Agriculture. Only Utah beats Texas in terms of a higher percentage of households with hunger at 15.2 percent. Mississippi tied Texas for second place with exactly 14.8 percent of its households uncertain or unable to purchase enough food. Source: Governing Magazine, February 2004.

A third of Texas residents reported poor mental health
Approximately one-third of Texas residents reported poor mental health in a survey by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention during 2001. Utah and Wisconsin reported the highest percentage of residents with poor mental health at 40 percent or more. Montana and Nebraska appeared the healthiest, with under 25 percent reporting poor mental health. Source: Governing Magazine, February 2004. http://governing.com/gpp/2004/mental.htm

NOTES FROM OTHER PLACES

PLANNING
Reality Check about regional planning
Washington DC leaders are getting real about regional planning by playing something like a board game, according to the Washington Business Journal.  The Urban Land Institute plans to engage leaders in the DC area in a ≥Reality Check≤ conference during which politicians, developers, environmentalists, and others will come together to answer a simple question: "How do we accommodate [another 1 million people by 2020] while at the same time protecting our environment, not overwhelming ourselves in traffic, and not overwhelming ourselves with fiscal obligations to build new infrastructure?" They are attempting to answer that question by fitting tokens representing population growth into a map of the region. http://washington.bizjournals.com/washington/stories/2004/03/15/focus2.html?page=1

URBANISM
Smart growth great, when done smartly
Washington DC needs transit-oriented development ≠ but the good kind that comes with character and not the ≥cold, impersonal, soulless, characterless, often deserted≤ type that is in some parts of town, according to Washington Post reporter Steven Pearlstein. ≥With traffic congestion a major problem and $9 billion already invested in a world-class Metro system, surely everyone can agree that the next wave of growth should be concentrated in high-density projects around Metro stops. As is often the case, however, there is good transit-oriented development and there is bad.≤ http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn?pagename=article&node=&contentId=A32078-2004Mar4&notFound=true

MOBILITY
Bus Rapid Transit grows in China
Chinese cities are expanding bus rapid transit (BRT) projects, according to the Bus Rapid Transit newsLane. Cities with significant projects on the street or in planning include Shanghai, Beijing, Kunming, and elsewhere. The Chinese capital of Beijing is launching a BRT network development plan with 187.5 miles of roadway. The article said, ≥With the rapid growth of vehicle ownership and a trend toward decentralization, the rapid expansion of public transit is an urgent necessity for the same reasons as it is elsewhere in Asia: dependence on foreign petroleum imports, commercially disabling congestion, and serious health impacts.≤ Sources: http://www.calstart.org/programs/brt/brt_newslane.php. Material for the article cited above come from the World Resources Institute, http://www.embarq.org/en/events.newvisionschina.htm

HOUSING
Amenities, rather than size, climbing in importance
≥New houses today are almost twice as big as they were in the 1960s. But America's love affair with large houses may have reached its zenith,≤ said an article in the Dallas Morning News that examined how amenities are climbing in importance to homeowners while size is stabilizing. The average square-footage of homes built in America has decreased from 2,330 in 2001 to 2,320 last year, according to the National Association of Home Builders. "We are finding that people are more and more concerned with the features in the house," not just size, said a representative of the research organization. http://www.builderonline.com/article-builder.asp?channelID=55&sectionID=26&articleID=47208 <http://www.builderonline.com/article-builder.asp?channelID=55&amp;sectionID=26&amp;articleID=47208>

HEALTH
More highways, more pollution
≥Building new highways will do little to alleviate traffic congestion in the long run and likely will exacerbate already severe air pollution problems in metropolitan areas across the country,≤ said a recent study by the US Public Interest Research Group. The study, ≥More Highways, More Pollution,≤ concludes, ≥Despite tougher limits on tailpipe emissions and federal rules requiring that air quality play a role in transportation decision-making, cars and trucks remain a leading source of air pollution, particularly in urban areas, because of the dramatic rise in vehicle-miles traveled (VMT).≤ The study shows that Houstonians drive more VMT per capita per day than any other Urbanized Area in the nation. The major Regional Transportation Plan currently under review has Houston increasing roadways by 60 percent and increasing VMT by 75 percent over the next two decades.

EVENTS

REGIONAL
Backyard, Bayou, and Beyond, April 7th, Houston. Conference about how to reduce flooding and improve water quality in Houston neighborhoods. University of Saint Thomas, from 8am to 5pm.  http://www.urban-nature.org/wshed_symp/sponsors.htm

Turning Green into Gold, April 21, Houston. Urban Land Institute luncheon about how ≥green building≤ and ≥sustainable development≤ are providing a new competitive advantage for real estate projects. For more information, visit http://www.Houston.uli.org or call 713-935-0440.

Our Town: Houston Past Present Future, Mar 6- April 10, Houston. An exhibition at the Joan Wich Gallery, 914 Preston at Main. Gallery hours 11 am ≠ 5 pm Wed-Sat.   713-227-2480. http://www.joanwichgallery.com

Annual Texas Transit Conference, May 15-18, El Paso. The annual Texas Transit Conference will highlight the new public transit provisions at the state level. http://www.texastransit.org/

Density by Design ≠ Building a Great City, Preserving a Great Environment, May 19 at the Rice Hotel. Convened by Gulf Coast Institute, Houston-Galveston Area Council, and Texas Sea Grant/Texas Cooperative Extension. Register at http://www.densitybydesign.com

Nature field trips, Houston. The Houston Audubon Society is hosting field trips through May to Waller, Anahuac, Bolivar Flats, High Island and Brazos Bend State Park. http://www.houstonaudubon.org/

Note to readers: If you have news to share, have reports from events, or would like to add subscriber names, please let us know at issues@gulfcoastideas.org.

Prepared by Catherine Rentz Pernot

Gulf Coast Growth News is a publication of the Gulf Coast Institute. The Gulf Coast Institute is a nonprofit organization dedicated to improving the quality of life in Houston. To support the Institute, go to http://www.gulfcoastideas.org. To join the Instituteπs 1000 Friends of Houston, go to http://www.1000friendsofhouston.org