Houston Places New Restrictions on Floodway Homes 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 month 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. 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.

Online Link:
http://www.appraisalinstitute.org/ano/current.aspx?volume=9&numbr=11/12#5032