KHOU article
Fighting Houston's floodway ordinance
10:42 PM CDT on Thursday, June 26, 2008
By Jeremy Desel / 11 News
HOUSTON -- If you are going to save lives, you have to practice. That’s just why the McKee brothers have donated their land, time and cars to the city. “We’ve had a lot of good times back here,” Rick McKee said. “We have allowed the city of Houston to come in with their Jaws of Life program for about 15 years.” The city has shown its appreciation with plaque after plaque, but that’s not the only thank you they’ve gotten. “They said, ‘your property is in the floodway. Sorry you are denied,’” Dave McKee said.
This prime real estate was supposed to be a nest egg. Now the McKee’s say thanks to Chapter 19, the city’s floodway ordinance, it’s worthless. “We have had many people look at it — a lot of people look at it,” Dave said. “And they all come in and say, ‘whoa this is great.’ Then they say, ‘wait a minute — is this in the floodway?’ We say, ‘yes it is.’ They say, ‘see ya.’” Worthless practically, unless you listen to the Harris County Appraisal District. “They jacked up the price almost $500,000 dollars on one piece of property,” Dave said. He’s fighting that assessment.
“This is probably my 15th or 20th trip for these five parcels of property that I’ve got,” he said. Just last year he went to binding arbitration setting the value of his floodway property at $289,000. This year it was assessed at $617,567. “This has no value. This property is in the floodway,” Dave said. “I was denied a building permit last week. “I can’t build anything on it, I can’t do anything with it, but I can damn sure pay taxes on it,” he said.
The McKee’s are far from alone. The Appraisal District said there are 10,695 taxable properties in the city of Houston in the floodway. You’d think they would be treated the same way, but no: This year values increased on 4,052, did not change on 2,197 and went down for 4,446 land owners.
“We don’t have a position on it. We want to make sure that it is appraised at current market value,” Chief Appraiser Jim Robinson said. “We made some initial assumptions on it. They may or may not be correct. If they are not correct, we are going to correct them.”
He said his office met with the city to learn more about the floodway ordinance. “We were also told that if there had ever been a structure on the property that it could be buildable as long as it met the conditions that were set forth in the ordinance,” Robinson said. “We are not going to tell them how to appraise property, but we are going to tell them how the rules will be interpreted,” Assistant Director of Houston Public Works Andy Aiken said. But only if there was a building already there.
Don’t tell that to Dave McKee. “That’s what they have said, but that is not what they are doing,” he said. His application to build, denied by the city earlier this month, property that may be on the waters edge: “We got some flooding a little bit to the inside of this fence,” Rick McKee said. But never in the building.
The Mckee’s and several other landowners have sued the city over the floodway ordinance. Others have been loudly protesting anywhere they can.
The outcry from property owners seems to be getting heard at HCAD. “Because there are some unanswered questions. In fact we placed that hold on last week,” Robinson said. “And again as I told you at the outset, there are some that have already made it through the process. But we are going to look at those too.”
And more importantly at the city: “Accept the fact that if there was a building there before it is ok to put a building back there again,” Aiken said.
Now on the table before City Council is a complete rewrite of the floodway ordinance that would allow building in the floodway, but require pier and beam construction on currently vacant property.
“We are not going to get away from the fact that there is very little elevation change in the 625 miles of the city of Houston,” Aiken said. “Flooding is going to be a perennial problem no matter what we have done. It is going to come as little solace, but we have created community sensitivity to this subject.”
Sensitivity is one word for it.
Friday, June 27, 2008
June 6, 2008 New restrictions on floodway homes (article)
Houston & Texas News: Houston Chronicle article
Rick McKee and his brother Dave McKee, right, owners of ABC Auto Parts in Houston, are upset about their new property valuation of $222,698. Last year, the valuation was reduced to $25,779.
June 6, 2008, 11:18PM
New restrictions on floodway homes
Appraisal values increased as confusion mounts over ordinance
By MIKE SNYDER
The Harris County Appraisal District has increased the taxable value on thousands of properties in floodways even as potential buyers cancel contracts because they are leery of new city restrictions on developing the land.
The increased values are based in part on an interpretation that the city's 2006 floodway ordinance will allow new construction on vacant land if a building has ever stood on the property.
However, floodway property owners and Harris County Tax Assessor-Collector Paul Bettencourt said they had never heard of that interpretation. It is not mentioned in a "frequently asked questions" page about the floodway ordinance on the city's Web site. And an owner whose building permit application was rejected this week because of the floodway restrictions said he was not asked about the property's history.
The confusion over what the ordinance requires is adding to the frustrations of property owners who believe the law has eliminated most of their land's value.
"This is not a well-thought-out social-economic experiment," said Bettencourt, adding that the full effects of the ordinance on land values have yet to be felt in the marketplace.
Bettencourt said this week that he had never heard that the city was allowing construction on vacant floodway land if buildings had stood on it in the past.
Complaints from property owners facing potentially higher tax bills are the latest development in a controversy that began after the City Council's October 2006 vote to tighten regulations on development in floodways — areas near bayous and streams considered necessary to convey floodwaters.
The city generally had prohibited new construction on vacant land in floodways since the mid-1980s, but for years it allowed exceptions if owners produced an engineer's certificate showing that the structure would impede the flow of water by only a minimal amount.
The 2006 ordinance eliminated those exceptions. Guidelines developed by the city Public Works Department permit repair or reconstruction of buildings in floodways and allow expansion of a building's "footprint" if the owner takes certain steps to improve water flow, such as using a pier and beam rather than a slab foundation.
Jim Robinson, HCAD chief appraiser, said his staff has identified 10,696 taxable Houston properties completely or partially in floodways. For 2008, he said, the value of 4,052 of those tracts increased, 2,197 didn't change and 4,446 declined in value.
Last year, as the district prepared to take the ordinance into account for the first time in its 2008 appraisals, city officials advised that they would permit new construction on vacant floodway land if a building had stood on the property in the past.
Based on the city's guidance, Robinson said, the district reduced appraisals of floodway properties that always had been vacant by 75 percent from what they would have been if the city had not changed its floodway rules. Tracts with buildings or a history of buildings had their values reduced by 20 percent, he said.
Floodway property owners, however, said those standards do not reflect the devastating loss of value they have experienced.
Dave McKee, who owns five parcels of land on Shepherd in the White Oak Bayou floodway, said a potential buyer backed out of purchasing a portion of a tract after learning the property was in a floodway. McKee said the decision cost him $350,000.
McKee, 54, is appealing this year's appraised values on five tracts he owns in the floodway. One tract, which includes an auto salvage yard, was valued at $222,698 for 2008. Last year, the district originally assigned a value of $262,478 to the same property but reduced it to $96,300 on appeal.
McKee took the case to binding arbitration, where the value was reduced to $25,779, according to appraisal district records.
Robinson said the district does not consider appeals decisions for property appraisals binding for future years because market conditions can change.
McKee, one of five floodway property owners challenging the city ordinance in court, applied Friday for a building permit for vacant property he owns at 2118 Shepherd. The application was rejected with the notation, "No development in floodway allowed on vacant land."
No city official ever has advised him that development on vacant floodway land would be permitted if buildings were on the property previously, McKee said.
Bruce Norcini, another floodway property owner who is suing the city, said he had never heard of this interpretation either.
"The guidelines are irrelevant," Norcini said. "This is a devious attempt to placate some people now. Down the road, when we are dead or whatever, the city can change the guidelines."
Frank Lucco, a private Houston appraiser, said he had heard of the rebuilding rule from acquaintances in the real estate industry. He said he thought it would affect few properties and would be difficult to apply, since records of a property's history are not always readily available.
mike.snyder@chron.com
Rick McKee and his brother Dave McKee, right, owners of ABC Auto Parts in Houston, are upset about their new property valuation of $222,698. Last year, the valuation was reduced to $25,779.
June 6, 2008, 11:18PM
New restrictions on floodway homes
Appraisal values increased as confusion mounts over ordinance
By MIKE SNYDER
The Harris County Appraisal District has increased the taxable value on thousands of properties in floodways even as potential buyers cancel contracts because they are leery of new city restrictions on developing the land.
The increased values are based in part on an interpretation that the city's 2006 floodway ordinance will allow new construction on vacant land if a building has ever stood on the property.
However, floodway property owners and Harris County Tax Assessor-Collector Paul Bettencourt said they had never heard of that interpretation. It is not mentioned in a "frequently asked questions" page about the floodway ordinance on the city's Web site. And an owner whose building permit application was rejected this week because of the floodway restrictions said he was not asked about the property's history.
The confusion over what the ordinance requires is adding to the frustrations of property owners who believe the law has eliminated most of their land's value.
"This is not a well-thought-out social-economic experiment," said Bettencourt, adding that the full effects of the ordinance on land values have yet to be felt in the marketplace.
Bettencourt said this week that he had never heard that the city was allowing construction on vacant floodway land if buildings had stood on it in the past.
Complaints from property owners facing potentially higher tax bills are the latest development in a controversy that began after the City Council's October 2006 vote to tighten regulations on development in floodways — areas near bayous and streams considered necessary to convey floodwaters.
The city generally had prohibited new construction on vacant land in floodways since the mid-1980s, but for years it allowed exceptions if owners produced an engineer's certificate showing that the structure would impede the flow of water by only a minimal amount.
The 2006 ordinance eliminated those exceptions. Guidelines developed by the city Public Works Department permit repair or reconstruction of buildings in floodways and allow expansion of a building's "footprint" if the owner takes certain steps to improve water flow, such as using a pier and beam rather than a slab foundation.
Jim Robinson, HCAD chief appraiser, said his staff has identified 10,696 taxable Houston properties completely or partially in floodways. For 2008, he said, the value of 4,052 of those tracts increased, 2,197 didn't change and 4,446 declined in value.
Last year, as the district prepared to take the ordinance into account for the first time in its 2008 appraisals, city officials advised that they would permit new construction on vacant floodway land if a building had stood on the property in the past.
Based on the city's guidance, Robinson said, the district reduced appraisals of floodway properties that always had been vacant by 75 percent from what they would have been if the city had not changed its floodway rules. Tracts with buildings or a history of buildings had their values reduced by 20 percent, he said.
Floodway property owners, however, said those standards do not reflect the devastating loss of value they have experienced.
Dave McKee, who owns five parcels of land on Shepherd in the White Oak Bayou floodway, said a potential buyer backed out of purchasing a portion of a tract after learning the property was in a floodway. McKee said the decision cost him $350,000.
McKee, 54, is appealing this year's appraised values on five tracts he owns in the floodway. One tract, which includes an auto salvage yard, was valued at $222,698 for 2008. Last year, the district originally assigned a value of $262,478 to the same property but reduced it to $96,300 on appeal.
McKee took the case to binding arbitration, where the value was reduced to $25,779, according to appraisal district records.
Robinson said the district does not consider appeals decisions for property appraisals binding for future years because market conditions can change.
McKee, one of five floodway property owners challenging the city ordinance in court, applied Friday for a building permit for vacant property he owns at 2118 Shepherd. The application was rejected with the notation, "No development in floodway allowed on vacant land."
No city official ever has advised him that development on vacant floodway land would be permitted if buildings were on the property previously, McKee said.
Bruce Norcini, another floodway property owner who is suing the city, said he had never heard of this interpretation either.
"The guidelines are irrelevant," Norcini said. "This is a devious attempt to placate some people now. Down the road, when we are dead or whatever, the city can change the guidelines."
Frank Lucco, a private Houston appraiser, said he had heard of the rebuilding rule from acquaintances in the real estate industry. He said he thought it would affect few properties and would be difficult to apply, since records of a property's history are not always readily available.
mike.snyder@chron.com
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