<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN">
<HTML><HEAD>
<META http-equiv=Content-Type content="text/html; charset=us-ascii">
<META content="MSHTML 6.00.6000.17063" name=GENERATOR></HEAD>
<BODY id=role_body style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; COLOR: #000000; FONT-FAMILY: Arial"
bottomMargin=7 leftMargin=7 topMargin=7 rightMargin=7>
<DIV dir=ltr align=left><SPAN class=096132517-17102010>FYI. Important.
Lee</SPAN></DIV><BR>
<DIV class=OutlookMessageHeader lang=en-us dir=ltr align=left>
<HR tabIndex=-1>
<FONT face=Tahoma><B>From:</B> discuss-bounces@paa-tx.org
[mailto:discuss-bounces@paa-tx.org] <B>On Behalf Of
</B>Juli3@aol.com<BR><B>Sent:</B> Sunday, October 17, 2010 9:37 AM<BR><B>To:</B>
discuss@paa-tx.org<BR><B>Subject:</B> [PAA-Discuss] [codepinkhouston] Sierra
Club Houston opposes HoustonCharter Amendment ...<BR></FONT><BR></DIV>
<DIV></DIV><FONT id=role_document face=Arial size=2>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>
<BLOCKQUOTE
style="PADDING-LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px; BORDER-LEFT: blue 2px solid"><FONT
style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: transparent" face=Arial size=2>FYI. From the
Houston Sierra Club.<BR> Madeleine Crozat-W<BR>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 6pt"><SMALL><B><BIG><SPAN
style="COLOR: black; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">Press Release in opposition to
Houston Charter Amendment Proposition 1</SPAN></BIG></B></SMALL></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 6pt"><SPAN
style="COLOR: black; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">The Sierra Club Houston Region Group
leadership has voted to oppose the City Charter Amendment Proposition One,
which would create a program funded by Houston property owners to “improve
drainage” and avoid flooding through unidentified Houston drainage and street
projects.</SPAN><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial"></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 6pt"><SPAN
style="COLOR: black; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">Like Mayor Parker and previous Mayors
White and Brown, the Houston Sierra Club recognizes both drainage and flooding
during hard rain events as a serious problem requiring ongoing
attention.</SPAN><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial"><SPAN> </SPAN><SPAN
style="COLOR: black">We do not oppose the concept of a dedicated fund to
address drainage and flooding problems common in Houston, but Proposition 1’s
approach is ill-defined and of questionable value.</SPAN></SPAN></P><PRE style="MARGIN-BOTTOM: 6pt"><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">Proposition One does not address the relationship between the City of Houston (COH) and the Harris County Flood Control District (HCFCD).<SPAN> </SPAN>The proposition does not delineate a plan coordinating street and other drainage with the HCFCD’s regional detention system and bayou capacity.<SPAN> </SPAN>Houston property owners already pay property tax assessments each year to the HCFCD to provide drainage (which is already operated on a pay-as-you-go basis), and therefore this is a duplicate tax. We will be setting up a duplicate system in which property owners pay to two separate managers who have not coordinated their actions.</SPAN></PRE><PRE style="MARGIN-BOTTOM: 6pt"><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">The COH handles drainage permits for city streets and building in the city.<SPAN> </SPAN>The County, with review by HCFCD, issues permits for the county outside city limits.<SPAN> </SPAN>However, the HCFCD controls the connection to the bayous.<SPAN> </SPAN>The COH has no control over flood control with respect to the bayous.<SPAN> </SPAN>The HCFCD determines the amount of water that is allowed to flow into the bayou.<SPAN> </SPAN>That is because the HCFCD has responsibility for not moving the flood into a downstream area.<SPAN> </SPAN>It is also against state law to move storm water from one area and flood another neighborhood downstream.<SPAN> </SPAN>And even if the COH planned to build detention ponds, the location must be determined according to watershed modeling per HCFCD models,
since water releases from detention would eventually be fed into the bayous.<SPAN> </SPAN></SPAN></PRE><PRE style="MARGIN-BOTTOM: 6pt"><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">The Sierra Club of Houston believes that Houston City government has neglected its responsibility to its citizens by granting drainage provision waivers to developments<STRONG><SPAN style="COLOR: black; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">.<SPAN> </SPAN></SPAN></STRONG>Developers do not pay an adequate acreage assessment to HCFCD to build regional water detention.<SPAN> </SPAN>The COH must require developers to address drainage and storm water containment through environmentally sound and cost-effective low impact developments. Such development deficiencies should be addressed before city property owners are asked to pay for financing for remediation. Green approaches to storm water management include open space detention ponds and other green runoff technologies.<SPAN> </SPAN>These are preferable to traditional storm water techniques which would be use
d by the City's Public Works Department to remediate drainage and storm water problems.<SPAN> </SPAN>For instance, for the past several years, the COH has been turning city streets into retention ponds.<SPAN> </SPAN>And this causes the flooding (destruction) of automobiles.) </SPAN></PRE><PRE style="MARGIN-BOTTOM: 6pt"><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; COLOR: black; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">Therefore, the Sierra Club of Houston strongly recommends that</SPAN><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial"> the City must improve its contractual approaches with developers to include requirements for low impact drainage and storm water containment.<SPAN> </SPAN>In the case of the WalMart in the Heights area, hard earned tax monies are being paid to attract developers, rather than demanding from them more cost-effective green drainage solutions that would benefit the taxpayers.<SPAN> </SPAN></SPAN></PRE>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 6pt"><SPAN
style="COLOR: black; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">Finally, we oppose the approach taken
for securing funding via this City Charter Amendment Proposition One prior to
detailing the storm water containment strategies.<SPAN> </SPAN>Good
urban planning requires <I>first</I> the plan, with public input, <I>then</I>
the implementation program/timeline and <I>then, and only then</I>, the
funding methodology.<SPAN> </SPAN>The proponents are putting the cart
before the horse, and we urge our City government to go back and rework the
process before coming to Houstonians for essentially a blank
check.</SPAN><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial"> </SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 6pt"><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial">Jim Williams,
Chairperson of the Houston Group, said, “Proposition One is essentially a
blank check for huge, unnamed programs using untold tons of Portland cement
for street and drainage projects which will have unintended
consequences.”</SPAN></P><BR></FONT></BLOCKQUOTE></DIV></FONT></BODY></HTML>