Thursday, August 9, 2007
Land Owner Sues for Property Rights
A Houston land owner sued the City of Houston saying it has inversely condemned his land by not offering any form of compensation.
Bruce Norcini, who purchased a building lot in the Shady Acres subdivision, seeks unspecified damages from the City of Houston in the lawsuit filed today in Harris County Civil Court.
Norcini said that he is one of over 10,000 property owners in the City that have been negatively impacted by two events. The first event was the revision of a city ordinance made effective October 1, 2006 (Houston City Ordinance Chapter 19.43). This revision to city building code now prohibits any new private construction on land within the floodway zone and greatly restricts a current home owner's ability to make substantial changes or repairs to existing structures for any reason.
The second event was the remapping of the floodway zone by the Harris County Flood District whereby the number of properties now included in the floodway zone was greatly increased.
Norcini says there are additional potential lawsuits in the wings and that over 1,700 senior citizens are included in the group affected by the changes. He notes that many of the elderly have their entire life savings wrapped up in their property. The dramatic erosion of property value due to the City's actions now equates to an inability to purchase the necessary assisted living or nursing home services these individuals may need in the near future.
For more information on this topic, visit the Floodway Coalition of Houston's web site at www.houstonfloodway.org