Houston’s infrastructure and a rare good idea in California

California is slowly moving along with a bill intended to link land use and transportation statewide. The plan basically gives significant incentives to developers for building in planned areas where infrastructure is planned to go, rather than out in the fringe wherever they can find the cheapest land.

The package cuts down the regulatory process for developers significantly if they build in a growth zone.

While I’m extremely skeptical about the ability of the government in California to pass anything less cumbersome than what they’ve already got, it’s a step in the right direction, conceptually. It’s also a step that Texas should be strongly considering.

Houston has a great advantage in its smooth operating approvals process for development, and that’s the biggest thing that has allowed housing supply to keep up with demand and kept the city pretty affordable.

However, as infrastructure goes, we’re losing big by not promoting contiguous development with seamless infrastructure. That’s generally the biggest advantage that Downtown has over Uptown, a much stronger core fabric. Despite having much higher density than Uptown, Downtown has significantly less traffic, and isn’t a bad place to live. For the record, I live on the edge of Downtown, so I’m not just posturing here.

Uptown, on the other hand, is miserably congested, and while the shopping is great, living there is not.

Houston needs to start creating a comprehensive street network plan for all undeveloped areas, including more than just major thoroughfares. In lieu of designing a local street plan, the city could adopt continuity standards and require developers to stick to them. They should also provide incentives to encourage developers to keep building contiguously to what exists whenever possible, and work to streamline the process of plat approvals to be even faster than it is now.

Lastly in areas where development pressure is intense and the existing street network is weak, the city needs to invest in acquisitions to make street connections possible. Through a combination of market purchasing, relocation incentives, and eminent domain as a last resort, the city urgently needs to repair the street grids in places like Upper Kirby and Uptown where traffic will never be otherwise mitigated. They need to get ahead of the game in places like the Energy Corridor, Westchase, and Greenspoint to put in the key connecting local streets before the opportunity to do so without demolitions is lost. And lastly, they need to find targeted areas where major infrastructure is present but development is lacking and create new hubs to draw development and redevelopment activity to the places best suited to handle it, rather than letting it drift aimlessly northwest until it hits College Station.