Fort Worth Moving Ahead on Flooding Out Neighborhood

[selenite0]

The Corps of Engineers is about to release its environmental impact statements on the Trinity Uptown project. They're going to approve it, of course. The impact isn't on endangered critters, it's people getting whacked. Specifically the owners, employees, and customers of the eighty-plus businesses about to be turned into a floodplain.

Of course, that's just necessary for the fancy economic development plan, not flood control. The Corps figured out how to handle floods without ruining anyone's property, but Project backers rejected that alternative because they want to remove the earthen levees that have long obscured river views. And how much of the value of those improved views are going to go to the people getting foreclosed on? Not much, I'd expect. Big businesses with influence on the city and county governments are going to collect a lot of those benefits.

What I'd like to see in this sort of situation is a sort of auction process. Present several options--the default flood cure with no economic improvements, the TRV proposal above, and some other ones with different neighborhoods selected to be the new flood plains. Offer a compensation package for the first neighborhood to vote in favor of being bought out. If nobody goes for it, the city can offer more--if this project is so valuable--and other proponents can put more money in the pot. Either a fair portion of the project benefits will go to the people being displaced, or the backers will have to admit that it's not worth doing at a fair price. Right now it's only moving forward because land is cheap when the government confiscates it.

Comments

Let me see if I understand this...

[astroprisoner.livejournal.com]

The plan in Ft. Worth is to intentionally do what Katrina did to New Orleans?

WTF?

Re: Let me see if I understand this...

[selenite.livejournal.com]

Well, if the 9th Ward becomes a scenic lake surrounded by high-cost restaurants and hotels, yeah. Fancy explanations can be found here (http://www.trinityrivervision.org/index.asp).

[ndrosen.livejournal.com]

As I understand it from your post, (some) people want this for improved river views and consequent higher land values -- for them, while the land that gets flooded becomes much less valuable. If this is to be done at all, the people who lose their homes and businesses should certainly get fair compensation, and I think they should get it out of the increased land values elsewhere. If the people who get the improved river views aren't willing to pay that much more -- if they drop their support for the plan when they contemplate their inceased tax bills -- that's a signal that the project isn't worth doing.

[selenite.livejournal.com]

I've been digging through the web site for the project (http://www.trinityrivervision.org/) and I'm damned if I can figure who is going to get that benefit. The planning documents talk as if they're working with a complete blank slate. Best I can tell is that there's a random distribution of existing owners either getting condemned to make way for a canal or having their existing land multiply in value by proximity to the new prettiness. Of course, the latter may just be condemned to make way for the fancy new buildings in the plan. There's apparently no room in the plan for any existing building (other than a pair of smokestacks with landmark value).

The one certainty is that the city expects to have a lot more tax revenue out of it.