Today I had the chance to attend the ULI-Houston Mayoral Candidate Forum. Since this was a members-only event for ULI, most of Houston didn’t get to be there (which is a shame, really, because it was a great event!). So, knowing my readers would probably have appreciated knowing what was discussed, I took the best notes I could.

Present at the forum were the four ‘leading’ mayoral candidates for 2009. I’ve listed them below, in alphabetical order, with brief bios condensed from the ULI report.

Peter Brown: Currently an at-large councilman, Peter Brown is a Fellow of the American Institute of Architects, a US Army Veteran, and has been an advocate for proactive planning and Smart Growth. He is on the board of Trees for Houston, the Main Street Coalition, and Blueprint Houston among others.

Gene Locke: Gene Locke is a Texas Super Lawyer, practicing with Andrews Kurth LLP in Houston. He was a key figure in the development of Minute Maid Park, Reliant Stadium, and the Toyota Center, and is also a special council to METRO and the Port of Houston. Locke served as city attorney for Bob Lanier.

Roy Morales: Lt. Colonel Roy Morales, US Air Force Retired, is a 23 year veteran. He worked with NASA as director of operations for the space shuttle operations division in California. Morales is a Harris County School Trustee, responsible for setting school tax rates.

Annise Parker: Anise Parker has been the City Controller for the last 5 years, and was on the City Council before that. She was born and raised in Houston, attended Rice University, and worked in the oil and gas industry for 20 years.

The forum was moderated by Rod Rice from KUHF, and was divided into these six segments:

• Opening Statements
• Question 1, regarding light-rail and TOD
• Question 2, regarding economic development incentives
• Question 3, regarding housing, sustainability, and infrastructure
• Question 4, regarding development regulation
• Closing Statements

I’ve written a summary of what each candidate had to say. For the sake of comparing their ideas I’ve listed them in alphabetical order throughout, though in the forum they cycled through the candidates in a different order for each question.

I’ve tried to reproduce the gist of what they said as faithfully as I can. Each candidate was allowed two minutes, but they used their time very differently. For instance, Peter Brown tended to speak a bit quicker and list off more points, where Gene Locke and Roy Morales tended to take a bit more time to emphasize a smaller number of points, and Annise Parker was somewhere in between. If the notes look different, it’s because it’s easier to jot down bullet list than to capture every nuance of a longer argument. Please don’t take the length of what I wrote about each candidate as an endorsement of their point of view on that topic.

Opening Statements

Peter Brown:

• I’m proud to be a member of ULI, Houston is my hometown, and I love this city. We have a dynamic, growing population, a strong economic base, and an exciting future.
• We need strong, visionary, purposeful vision from our next Mayor in order to find long-term, proactive solutions to old problems like flooding, mobility and infrastructure; and also new issues like over-development in some areas and under-development in others.
• We’re not capturing our share of the region’s growth.
• We need to re-attract the middle class to our city, not just watch as they leave for the suburbs.
• We need a planning and design approach that protects our neighborhoods and businesses and can provide a predictable process for developers.
• Good urban design can make a positive difference.
• My main issues are economic development, safeguarding the environment, and adopting smart policing.
• Growth should improve, not diminish our quality of life, our future depends on it.

Gene Locke:

• I have a vision for Houston as a city that is first class in every way.
• We need to be focused on city management, ethics, customer service, and non-partisan government.
• The focus issues for my campaign are public safety; improving neighborhoods; and improving quality of life, particularly in the built environment.
• We are an un-zoned city in a transitional period, this makes it difficult to move forward, but with good leadership we can tackle the issues in front of us.

Roy Morales:
*please note, Mr. Morales was the first to speak, and he started before I had my laptop fully set up, so I frantically typed his opening as best as I could

• I’m running on one thing, and that’s to improve the quality of life.
• There are four main issues for my campaign…
• I want to provide the best city services possible.
• I want to limit the growth of the city government.
• I want to freeze the tax rate, no new taxes.
• I want to improve education.

Annise Parker:

• Houston needs a mayor who can navigate this city through tough economic times for the next year to 18 months, and who can balance this with progress in bringing a more businesslike approach to city government.
• I have a track record of balancing neighborhood issues with city issues. (I wasn’t quite sure what she meant by this, I may have misunderstood what she said.)
• I hope that Houstonians will support me because of their experience with my leadership.
• I understand that I need to articulate my vision, and I am going to do so.
• You’ll have many chances to meet me, to talk to me, to understand my vision for Houston, and I hope that you’ll take advantage of that.

Question #1:
This summer, METRO broke ground on the east end line. The first line, the Main Street line, was expected to spark more redevelopment than it has so far. What do you think of the light-rail expansion and transit-oriented development, and what would you do differently to encourage TOD?

Peter Brown:

• Main Street hasn’t developed as fast as we would have liked, I think that has a lot to do with the fragmented ownership along the line.
• I’m proud to be one of the leaders who got the Red Line going, and I think the design of Main St. is fine.
• We need better leadership to foster development.
• We’re behind Dallas and Denver in this, Dallas has about 30 TOD projects going on.
• We need to expand our rail system beyond the core.
• We need financial incentives to promote good development.
• We need flexible standards for TOD.
• We need public improvements beyond just a two block area surrounding the stations.
• We need a parking authority to build shared parking, with all the tiny lots meeting the parking requirements we have on each lot separately is almost impossible.
• We need legal provisions for joint development between METRO, the City, and the private sector.
• We need to partner with METRO and create an Urban Development Authority to assemble land without using eminent domain.
• We are starting 28 miles of new LRT, and that’s a great start.
• Houston is poised to become a really competitive modern city.

Follow up question: Is there something we can do to improve Main Street?

• The fragmented ownership is the problem, the parking requirements on a lot by lot basis are killer. We need the city to be a facilitator to help create shared parking.

Gene Locke:

• The most important thing is that we’re building LRT at all.
• LRT is a positive for Houston.
• There are a lot of lessons we can learn from Main Street.
• We need to build rail in a way that protects neighborhoods and existing businesses.
• We must minimize the hardship on businesses.
• There is an opportunity to do TOD, METRO can do it, the question is how far do we want to take that.
• I think TOD (*in context, I think he meant that level of density and standards to allow it) is appropriate at the rail station, but not all the way down the line.
• I think we can find a happy balance between the needs of the station areas and the other areas.

Roy Morales:

• First we need to listen to citizens.
• In the East End, citizens want an underpass, but METRO is building an overpass.
• We’re forcing a maintenance facility on the East End that they don’t want.
• If we want to sell light rail we must package it with other investments so it improves the quality of life for people around it.
• Also, there are other technologies we need to take another look at.
• LRT isn’t the only technology.
• Let’s look at Monorail, there are applications that are faster and more cost effective than LRT.

Follow up question: What about when people are at odds with the development around these stations?

• First off, we listen to the people.
• If we’re good managers we listen and we try to make a compromise.
• This race is about compromise.
• We need to work with the communities, all the communities.

Annise Parker:

• With TOD, we haven’t seen all we expected on Main…
• I would suggest, though, that we need to be more patient.
• It’s only been 4-5 years since it opened, and the economics have been slow the last year and a half.
• We did some things wrong.
• We allowed METRO to close big chunks of main for a long time, and some local businesses couldn’t make it.
• We must do shorter segments and do them more quickly so existing businesses survive.
• We must make sure that auto access is maintained.
• Until you have a certain capacity on rail to bring in people, auto access must remain.
• Nobody drives on Main St. now.
• We can and should do a better job of TOD around the stations.
• The public sector must take control of that process, through a variety of means, to invest public dollars so private dollars can be attracted.
• We need to do whatever we can to preserve existing businesses.
• We’re still a car-based culture, so we have to have a balance.

Question #2:
Mayor White has not favored incentives to promote economic development. Sugar Land (and other communities in the region) have, through a variety of means. Do you support incentives for economic development?

Peter Brown:

• I care whether businesses come to Houston or go to Sugar Land. We’re not growing as fast as the region, we need new business and jobs and real estate.
• The region is outgrowing the center, we need to change that.
• We need strategic economic development effort to capture a larger share of regional growth.
• We need to create an office of economic development that is professionally staffed and works across the globe.
• Pearland has a bigger economic development program than Houston.
• We need to use the tools at hand, and the mayor is much more positive about these tools than he used to be.
• Infrastructure expansion is a powerful tool for economic development, though we don’t use it that way.
• We need planned development districts to attract better development that doesn’t fit our cumbersome requirements today.
• We got Minute Maid Park, but Sugar Land got the central headquarters of Minute Maid, thats sad.

Gene Locke:

• Tax abatements, rebates, etc. are among the tools we have. We have to be competitive and we have to use the tools we have available.
• We will attract new business to Houston with all the tools that are available.
• We would look at participation agreements with developers to see if that will work.
• This will bring in new jobs, and that makes the city healthy.
• I want a city that has the ability to provide housing and quality of life for people of all economic sectors, that means we need new business.
• We should use all the tools we have.

Follow up question: How do we keep these from being misused?

• You’ve got to scrutinize them, offer only when its the right deal.
• Don’t offer just because you can.
• Can it produce jobs? Can it create revenue? If you make these contracts and monitor them, you have agreements that work. If not, its a program that sounds good but is not effective.

Roy Morales:

• I think its a balance of a little bit of everything.
• If tax abatements used locally to grow the area… then ok.
• I’m the only candidate who is pledging to freeze your property tax.
• People want to know there’s education, that the trash is picked up in timely manner.
• They want to know that if there are weather problems we have it taken care of.
• We are an oil and gas city, we need new industry so if the price of oil goes down we don’t hurt as bad.
• We have NASA, the air force has a program in California that gets neglected, let’s bring it to Ellington field.
• Only in favor of tax abatements, not other incentives.

Annise Parker:

• We are not in competition with Sugar Land, etc.
• We are in competition with other cities in Texas and around the nation.
• I’d rather see business in Houston, but Sugar Land is better than Dallas. Boosting the region helps Houston.
• I’m for economic development incentives if they are linked to deliverables, especially job creation.
• We must hold companies accountable.

Follow up question: So you say incentives can be rescinded if they funk out?

• Yes.

Question #3:
ULI has three stated mega-priorities: workforce housing, infrastructure, and sustainability. If you could pick only one to be your priority, which would it be?

Peter Brown:

• Infrastructure.
• Workforce housing and sustainability are all interrelated to infrastructure.
• Infrastructure is the most effective tool for building an efficient city.
• LA has 2.6 times the density we do, that means you have to drive a garbage truck 2.6x further per pickup.
• We need to make our city more efficient and higher density in order to reduce the cost of services.
• We need to attract people from all over the world for quality of life.
• When funded right, streets, water, drainage and green space will attract the right development to the right places.
• Big missed opportunity: south 288 corridor.
• There’s 10 sq miles vacant land sitting there waiting to be developed. No plan, no knowledge of what we need. Great opportunity for Houston and we can’t afford to mess it up.
• We need infrastructure to encourage growth.
• We have to build it and they will come.

Gene Locke:
*This was one of the best exchanges of the forum:

Locke: “[Picking between workforce housing, sustainability, and infrastructure] is like asking me to choose between my three sons, which one do you want?”
Moderator: “We’ll ask that later.”
Locke: I’ll tell my wife you said that…

• The three all work together. You need them all.
• I favor all three.
• Let’s talk about housing: people living in affordable neighborhoods and spending creates sales tax and helps move the economy forward.
• Revitalizing the economy is the goal.
• The reality is you cannot divide the three items.

Roy Morales:

• Infrastructure. We have to get to work to get that fixed.
• We have to have the plans to fix these roads and bridges.
• There was an article a few weeks ago about a billion dollars to fix infrastructure creates jobs.
• When major companies are going under, we need a way to get infrastructure going to get people to work. This will make the city grow.
• Sustainability, green buildings, there’s so much technology that we can do a great job.
• We have skyscrapers, there are vertical axis turbines, we can get wind power from them. They can go on our buildings and put power in our grid.

Annise Parker:

• We are the most affordable city in America.
• We can improve on that at the neighborhood level, if we think of it systemically, rather than thinking it means public housing.
• Big issue is infrastructure, though.
• We will get some money from the stimulus bill, but it’s not enough.
• We have to change the way we think about infrastructure.
• We have 5 year CIP, that’s much too short. We need a 5, 10, 20 year plan with funding mechanisms.
• Lurching forward at 5 year pace is no good.
• There should be a split between horizontal and vertical CIP.
• Drainage and roads needs to be considered citywide based on needs, rather than on council district basis.

Follow up question: Some cities have sold infrastructure to private sector, do you favor that?

• No.
• We need an infrastructure fund, horizontal vs. vertical, new clinics etc… We need to identify long term funding sources.
• Overall, being able to control our infrastructure is a safety priority.
• We can sell it to the voters, even if it means higher taxes.

Question #4:
Recently the city has had a major issue with high-density development at the edge of existing neighborhoods (Ashby Hi-Rise). What does the city need to do? Do we need more control or less? Is it appropriate to use traffic impacts to regulate density?

Peter Brown:

• First, we cannot impose development controls retroactively.
• We need better standards to get better results in parts of the city, maybe not all of it.
• Chapter 42 needs to be simplified and overhauled, it’s a disincentive for developers.
• We need a consolidated code that attracts development instead of sending it to Sugar Land.
• The word control is the wrong word, that could be good or bad.
• We regulate a lot of things, density, setback, parking, lots of things, but they’re cobbled together the wrong way, not focused on results.
• We need to avoid one-size fits all.
• We can develop standards and incentives that protect neighborhoods, in several ways: buffering, perhaps, for extreme density differences; setbacks; parking; and traffic impacts on residential streets.

Follow up question: What do you do when plans spur citizen outcry?

• We do too much governance by citizen protest.
• We need clear, simple standards for how the city grows.
• We need a level playing field.
• We need predictability for neighborhoods and developers.
• We can satisfy both.

Gene Locke:

• This is a very very difficult issue. How do you handle edge conditions in relationships to residential neighborhoods? This happens everywhere, how do we handle it?
• No zoning, the people have spoken.
• We need fair, uniform, noticed regulations, where everyone knows the rules.
• I’m opposed to situational regulation after the fact.
• That’s unfair for everyone.
• People need notice before they put their money on the line.
• There are people in every part of the city who have all kinds of problems, we must craft policy that has all stakeholders at the table, not just to hear what the city is doing, but to get their input, give them the chance to influence things and develop the best city policy we can.
• We don’t need more regulation, we need a different kind of regulation.

Roy Morales:

• When Ashby hi-rise came up, I went to see developers. They were willing to compromise, but they still had problems.
• There has to be a discussion between the developers and the neighbors.
• People who live here without deed restrictions know that things can occur.
• At the same time that Ashby was happening, another similar thing went through, the citizens didn’t outcry.
• Lots of deed restrictions, but if they’re working with city and citizens we can bring in new development as long as it doesn’t impact local infrastructure, such as our roads.

Follow up question: What happens if out all you said, but out of left field there’s a huge uprising?

• That’s called the vocal minority.
• The first thing you need is transparency, bring them in early, give them information, hear their ideas, if it makes sense you include their feedback in your solution.

Annise Parker:

• Traffic impact should be considered.
• It’s a public safety issue if it limits the ability of first responders, an environmental issue if it creates congestion, and a quality of life if it pushes traffic to rest of neighborhood.
• We need a balance point between unfettered development and stifling regulations.
• Houston has done a pretty good job keeping things in balance.
• We need consistency, predictability.
• The driveway ordinance example is a bad way to do business, finding that after the project was underway.
• The law of unintended consequences plays a big role.
• The city must come to the table to deal with problems.

Closing Statements:

Peter Brown:

• Again, thanks for the discussion. We need more of these. I look forward to them.
• I’m a native Houstonian, watched the city grow, I see missed opportunities, and we’re at a threshold where we need in a global economy to do things differently.
• We don’t want to change our effective can-do spirit, we can get the job done.
• We have challenges. We can forge private sector partnerships and use their horsepower to shape the city and promote social progress.
• I hope people will recognize my experience as businessman and investor, architect urban planner.
• I’ve worked on over 40 Houston neighborhoods.
• This is the experience we need to a get a government that is more proactive. This is the experience we need in a mayor to lead this city.
• We need our first ever general development plan, we need a comprehensive plan.
• We need to finish what we’ve started, the plan needs to reflect a vision for the future of the city: what kind of city do we want in 15-20 years? and what do we need to do to achieve that vision?
• That’s my approach to city government.

Gene Locke:

• As a government outsider, its important for people to know who I am.
• I came here in 1965, and I’ve been working to make it a great city sense.
• I opened the discussion talking about opportunity.
• I want that quality of opportunity to be extended to all of you, to your children, and your children’s children.
• We need leadership, experience, and vision.
• I have been a leader throughout. I have the experience working with every government in the area, I’ve worked with almost every leader in this city.
• Vision is the most important thing. I envision a Houston where people come together and where diversity is an asset.
• We have the can-do attitude.
• I’m confident that if I can tell my story I’ll be given a fair shake, and I look forward to working as your mayor.

Roy Morales:

• Thank you for having me.
• My family has seen a lot of adversity in their time in Houston, but if they could see the last 150 years they would think ‘what a city!’
• We have problems, but we come together as a city and do what needs to be done, like we did after the various hurricanes.
• This isn’t about political parties. We can face whatever problem there is.
• I want to bring communities together, and to be your next mayor.

Annise Parker:

• Thank you for taking the time to be here.
• You’ll have a lot of chances to visit with us.
• We’ve chosen to live here because of the economic opportunity and the quality of life. Cities aren’t static.
• Cities and their governments have to do something, to produce every single day.
• We must provide services, or we can’t function.
• The best government is the one you can take for granted.
• First, the next mayor must have the skills to manage the city.
• Then the mayor must be able to manage or troubled economic times.
• Finally, the next mayor has to be able to articulate a vision and set a path to reaching it to move the city into the future.
• I have the skills experience and knowledge to move the city into the future and I’d like to do it with you.
• Lastly, there isn’t a right answer or wrong answer to the issues we’ve discussed today, there are a rang of options, and its our job to work with citizens to find the options they want.

So, in closing, the debate was very interesting, and I think all four candidates made strong appearances.

I was most surprised by Gene Locke, who I expected (as a lawyer) to be more focused on the day-to-day operations of the city and efficiently managing them than on urban form and the built environment. He made some strong statements about his understanding and value for the built environment in Houston.

Alright, on to the comments!

If you were there, what did you think of the forum? If not, did my summary help? Who do you support, and why? Sound off and let us know!