Nearly a thousand Houston neighbors turned out at the George R. Brown Convention Center on a recent Tuesday night to hear different points of view on Houston's growth.
As Houston Grows
Nearly a thousand Houston neighbors turned out at the George R. Brown Convention Center on a recent Tuesday night to hear different points of view on Houston's growth.
A "Forum on Land Use" was sponsored by Houstonians for Responsible Growth (HRG), the Gulf Coast Institute, Blueprint Houston and the Greater Houston Partnership. Wendell Cox of the Heritage Foundation and Dr. Arthur Nelson of the Metropolitan Institute at Virginia offered the audience different viewpoints on the record and need for land-use restrictions. David Crossley of the Gulf Coast Institute and former Mayor Bob Lanier discussed the local perspective.
Former Mayor Bob Lanier and Wendell Cox
The Forum focused on the challenges of balancing greater population density inside the city with neighborhood concerns about the quality of life. "Instead of a confrontation, we had a productive and healthy talk about how property owners, builders, developers, neighborhood groups and planners must work together to preserve the affordable real estate values that have helped drive our economy," said Kendall Miller, President of HRG.
“Unlike many other cities, Houston continues to grow within the city limits,” said Miller. “It helps our tax base, creates jobs and makes us one of the most affordable and competitive major cities in America. But higher-density development in Houston has now also caused concerns in some neighborhoods that some believe should lead to greater land-use restrictions. At this forum, we all heard how such restrictions have dramatically and unintentionally increased the cost of living in city after city over the past 40 years.
Arthur C. Nelson and David Crossley
"Houston's market driven growth is now widely hailed as a model by national experts and we must take care to carefully balance all points of view as we continue to grow in the future," said Miller. "Fortunately, there seems to be a healthy perspective that we are all neighbors and can strike the right balance if we just work together," he said.
