Government Affairs Issues

           Local Issues

• GHBA has been involved with the City of Houston Public Works Department to ensure that any changes to drainage requirements are reasonable including a delay in removing an exemption from Chapter 9, the Drainage Ordinance, to determine the most beneficial way to accomplish the goal.

• Continued work with the City of Houston Planning Commission regarding potential changes to Chapter 42, the COH Development Ordinance, including additional land use restrictions.

• GHBA has been heavily involved in communicating with counties to adopt the provisions of HB 2833 to ensure that everyone is meeting the same bar.  Harris County and Galveston County have both adopted the provisions of the bill.  For a detailed Fact Sheet of HB 2833, please click HERE.

State Issues

• During the 2009 Texas Legislative Session, the Texas Association of Builders (TAB) was able to secure several key pieces of legislation and prevent others.

• TAB amended a bill that prohibits a municipality from implementing a new fire sprinkler requirement if they did not have one in place on January 1, 2009.  This is saving homebuyers in several municipalities thousands of dollars. 

• With the Sunset of the TRCC, TAB was able to secure legislation in HB 2833 which allows a county to ensure that homes are being built to code by requiring the builders to get inspections and report the outcome to the county.

• GHBA provided testimony at several interim legislative hearings involving building codes and land use.

• GHBA Government Affairs staff helped in working hard to kill bills that were not beneficial to our industry.

Want the latest information on what's happening with the GHBA's Goverment Affairs?  Click HERE to view the Goverment Affairs podcast "Aschmann's Analysis".