A looming debate is being held in the city of Galveston, Texas. An island that is running out of "dirt." How can a city expect to grow when we have no room to do so? The west end of Galveston island is becoming an extension of our main island. This has not always been the case. Gone are the days of the pastures and cows. Developers are planning new communities as the island expands. The new proposals by developers have show details of an island that plans to grow up to compensate for the lack of space. These plans have been meet with great opposition. Many islanders feel that growing up will take away from Galveston's beauty. The city of Galveston recently sent out a survey regarding this issue. Of the 28,000 mailed the response was very low. Only 3,328 responded. 77% of those polled want the city to regulate the height of buildings while 65% want a specific height in place for any development. One respondent listed 50 stories as the limit while other listed numbers less then 12. Many answered the cities request for feedback by stating that the East End and Seawall would benefit from these high rise developments. The least popular of locations listed was the West End and Seawall.
The Galveston Daily News recently featured this issue outlining the above details of the cities survey. They examined in detail the benefits of building up versus out. One benefit may be the structures ability to withstand damage during a hurricane. The Galveston Daily news featured an expert and high rise proponent from Miami. John Fullerton specializes in high rise construction and development in Florida. He stated that research has show that the taller a building is the more it can maintain a stable environment during a storm. I am not sure how much research exists on this subject. My thought would be that the material and building design would be the withstanding factor, not the height. Most large scale developments are still created using wood. My opinion would be that more specific research from sources like Mr. Fullerton would be beneficial. I would like to see our local paper feature more specific details. Mr. Fullerton also stated that opposition to high rise development has been common in Florida. I would love to see the city feature some experts who can give us more specific details on these benefits.
From a galveston real estate perspective I see building developments moving upward as a positive effect on Galveston. Our island is growing and we have limited space to do so. Moving upward could offer buyers an attractive option when looking at property in Galveston. We could feature more properties with scenic views of the bay and gulf therefore producing more tax revenue for the city of Galveston. More taxes mean more money for improvement. Issues such as beach parking could become non-issue since we would be producing more city revenue. Our city must be able to continue its development for our tourism economy to continue on a path of growth.
As a local I do not want to diminish the scenic attributes of Galveston. I do however think the planning of carefully orchestrated developments could and will benefit our cities beauty. I wish more residence in Galveston would comment on this issue. The lack of response by our community is of concern. I appreciate the time the city took to consider it's citizens feelings by sending out a poll on this matter.
We would love to hear all views regarding this issue.
Thanks for your time and thoughts.
Christina Stevens