Law gives protection against development

The old saying that “A rose by any other name would smell as sweet” is not true when referring to a development.

In his presentation at the Country Club on May 19, Galveston’s city manager, Steve LeBlanc, made many denials that he was an “advocate for the Marquette development,” yet continued in his verbal and written presentation to sell it!

He led us to believe that “development is inevitable” and implied that the city was without authority to stop Marquette’s proposal.

His outline explained that private property owners’ rights dominate our city’s best interests.

His only critical remark: “Traffic impact: Could be a problem…”

The U.S. Supreme Court, in the case of Lucas v. South Carolina Coastal Council 505 U.S. 1003 (1992), gave our city the right to protect Galveston’s best interests first, superior to private land ownership.

In that case, the court ruled that prevention of development under a state statute did not amount to a taking without compensation “when a regulation is designed to prevent ‘harmful or noxious uses’ of property akin to public nuisances, and where there is a finding that new construction in the coastal zone threatened a valuable public resource.”

That language compels our city to deny Marquette’s requested zoning changes and specific-use permits.

Why?

More than 40 percent of the Marquette land is wetlands. Wetlands belong to all Americans.

Wetlands are that critical piece of nature’s puzzle so vital to both humans and wildlife. The beaches and the bays belong to all citizens of our country.

LeBlanc made no mention of the full destruction of wetlands by Marquette, nor the acceleration of our beach erosion.

The risk of losing our Federal Emergency Management Agency flood insurance or our Texas Windstorm Insurance by adding another small city in the middle of our unprotected and fragile barrier island was not mentioned, nor the loss of emergency funding from FEMA because of our city’s failure to have a hurricane hazard mitigation plan.

Our city council could refrain from making any decisions about zoning changes and specific-use permits until the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has processed Marquette’s application to obtain a permit to destroy our wetlands, our beaches and West Bay by its development’s silt and urban runoff.

Marquette applied last year for a corps permit, but withdrew its application in May.

Residents should urge our city council to defer taking any action on zoning changes and specific-use permits for Marquette until the developer has first obtained all federal and state permits to allow the environmental destruction and to put our insurance coverages at risk.

Then we will know the truth about the risks we share and the loss of our rights before our city chooses its course for us.

We should have the right of full disclosure and an objective investigation of all the facts by our federal and state agencies before such a crucial decision is made by our city.

Robert Moore is a Galveston attorney.