Zoning and Less Sprawl's Potential for Disaster Prevention

[Matthew Dunn]

Hurricane Harvey was disastrous for the city of Houston. One reason for this being their no zoning policies. Zoning being a land use regulation tool that divides specific areas for a specialized purpose. This no-zoning policy has caused the city to develop completely disorganized and made Houston susceptible to more damage than was necessary. There is the simple fact that over the past 50 years Houston has had record breaking storms, nevertheless, more careful city planning would have saved homes.

http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2017/08/less-sprawl-would-have...

[Shavelly Then]

Hello Matthew,

Even though this hurricane happened a while back I think your article is very good. I had never thought about the negatives effect of no zoning. In fact, I had not thought how dividing specific areas for specialized purposes can backlash in a city so hard as it did with Houston and the hurricane that his in the beginning of this year.