Houston City Council members are split over whether $30 million meant for stormwater maintenance is acceptable to use for tearing down dilapidated buildings across the city.
The city has about $166.6 million in its enterprise fund which has historically helped maintain drainage infrastructure. In practice, rules on the books dictating where the cash can be spent are broad and allow it to go toward “planning, design, construction, regulation, improvement, repair, maintenance, and operation of facilities and programs related to the system.”
Houston currently has around 2,300 dangerous buildings in its system that have been reported, but there are likely many more that are creating problems. The cash the council is set to vote on would help demolish around 343 of them…