Mayoral candidates discuss land use, transportation

Vote Tue, Nov 3rd

Steve Hawley, Nov 02, 09.

UPDATE: (10/20/09, 12:30PM) Off the Kuff points to a quick survey on bikes to add to this discussion. Local bike activist Peter Wang asked the Mayoral candidates whether they would get METRO to allow bicycles on light rail and got responses from all four major candidates.

The next Houston mayor will have a large amount of influence on the city’s land use and transportation, particularly since METRO just started construction on 30 more miles of light rail that could significantly alter the urban form of the City of Houston. Several sources have recently detailed the candidates’ views on these issues. Houston Tomorrow does not endorse any candidate. Early voting begins today and lasts until Friday, October 30. Election Day is Tuesday, November 3. For more information on the election, including polling locations and hours, visit the Harris County Clerk’s website.

Annise Parker, Peter Brown, and Gene Locke all expressed support for METRO’s goals, but not necessarily its methods. Both Brown and Parker have criticized METRO for a lack of transparency and public trust. Brown told the Houston Chronicle that he would replace METRO chair David Wolff and president and CEO Frank Wilson. Parker said that Wolff was not interested in being reappointed, but that she would have replaced him anyways, and she said that she might replace Wilson. Parker also expressed concern that the agency did not have enough funding to build the entire light rail expansion.

Parker thinks that METRO should focus primarily on buses, while Brown thinks it should emphasize rail and use buses more as a feeder system. Locke, who worked as a METRO consultant as recently as January, said that the agency should expand its express bus service and create circulators downtown and in places like the Galleria. Locke also suggested that METRO should offer targeted discounts on certain days or routes. Roy Morales, a fourth candidate, voiced concerns over the light rail project, saying that it could hurt nearby property values. He suggested that METRO hold another referendum and perhaps build a monorail system. According to the article, METRO said that scrapping the current plans would cost millions and that an elevated system would cost three to five times as much as the light rail system. METRO signed a $1.46 billion contract in March for four of the five lines. The agency still needs to sign a separate contract for the University Corridor.

The article notes that the next mayor will also appoint two of the 24 Transportation Policy Council members. The Transportation Policy Council (TPC) is an eight-county body of elected officials, housed at the Houston-Galveston Area Council, who help direct federal and state transportation dollars. For instance, in February they approved a list of $435 million in stimulus projects in the region. According to the Chronicle, Locke, Brown, and Parker were familiar with TPC, while Morales was not. To learn more about the role of TPC and the views of some of its current members, please read the series of interviews that Houston Tomorrow conducted over the summer.

The local Citizens’ Transportation Coalition also sent out questionnaires to all candidates for citywide office seeking their views on transportation issues. Of the mayoral candidates, Peter Brown, Annise, Parker, and Gene Locke have provided responses, as well as another candidate, Luis Ullrich. Morales, Charles Cupp, and Amanda Ulman have not yet responded.

Parker, Locke, and Brown agreed that reducing traffic congestion should be one of the city’s top priorities. Brown added that citizens need more transportation options, and Locke pushed for a regionally coordinated transportation system. All three said that improving quality of life is crucial. All of the respondents agreed that Houston should expand its current transit system.

Brown proposed revising the recently-approved transit corridors ordinance to more effectively encourage transit-oriented development. Locke said that the city should be “as pedestrian-friendly as possible,” and Parker said that denser urban areas should be more pedestrian-friendly, but not necessarily outlying low-density areas. Ullrich said that all commercial areas should be more pedestrian-friendly. Parker, Locke, and Brown all said that market incentives are the best way to encourage dense development, with Parker saying she would work with neighborhoods to strengthen deed restrictions.

In 2003, one-quarter of the one-cent METRO sales tax was diverted into a General Mobility Program involving Harris County, the City of Houston, and other nearby cities. In an interview with Houston Tomorrow, METRO president & CEO Frank Wilson estimated that the diversion has cost METRO over $3 billion, and at the light rail groundbreaking, chairman Wolff argued that the diversion should be phased out over a multiple year period. In the CTC survey, Parker also said that the diversion should be phased out, as long as the other cities in the region agree. Locke and Brown were noncommittal, noting that the General Mobility Program and the accompanying diversion must be voted on no later than November 2013.

Locke said that he would create a Department of Mobility whose director would sit on TPC, and Brown said he would seek to increase Houston’s membership on TPC and the Technical Advisory Committee to TPC, both of which vastly under-represent residents of the city. According to the Chronicle, Brown also is promoting a new agency to oversee parking. Parker added that the next mayor must address parking issues all over the city, not just along light rail routes.

All the respondents said that the City of Houston should try to influence projects such as the Grand Parkway which are outside of the city’s jurisdiction but will have a large impact on the city itself. Brown said that the need for Segment E of the Grand Parkway has “not yet [been] demonstrated,” while Parker opposed the use of tax revenue to build toll roads.

Charles Kuffner has also provided links to videos of the various candidates.

The League of Women Voters - Houston has published their Voter’s guide for the November 3, 2009 election (pdf 2.1MB) which contains statements from candidates, arguments for and against the Texas constitutional amendments, and voting facts and information on schedules and locations.

The Houston Chronicle has published an overview of each of the four major Mayoral candidates (shown in chronological order):
Brown has global ideas, local focus
Mayoral candidate Locke is known as city’s dealmaker
Morales relishing role as underdog
For Parker, it’s all about the details