What? NC Republicans' Lax Building Standards Meant More Homes Lost In Hurricane? Then This Is No Time For Politics!
What a shocking, foreseeable outcome!
In a story that could probably be written about a lot of states, the New York Times reports (gift link) that the damage from Hurricane Helene in North Carolina may have been made worse by Republican state legislators who for decades have refused to adopt robust building codes. The extreme amounts of rain in the western part of the state — from both Helene and an earlier weather system that had already drenched mountainous areas — made flooding and loss of lives and property inevitable, of course. But experts on building standards explained that some of the damage was almost certainly worse due to the Legislature’s decisions to avoid stricter regulations, mostly due to lobbying from the powerful home building industry.
After all, you can’t require every single vacation home to be built like Fort Knox, so any increased safety regulation is burdensome and will kill prosperity. That’s just logic, like how the mayor of the town of Amity needed the beaches to be open on the Fourth of July. (I found myself thinking of that guy a lot whenever the Times quoted various building-industry spokespeople, who no doubt wore sportscoats with a festive anchor pattern too.)
The Times helpfully summarizes its findings thusly:
Over the past 15 years, North Carolina lawmakers have rejected limits on construction on steep slopes, which might have reduced the number of homes lost to landslides; blocked a rule requiring homes to be elevated above the height of an expected flood; weakened protections for wetlands, increasing the risk of dangerous storm water runoff; and slowed the adoption of updated building codes, making it harder for the state to qualify for federal climate-resilience grants.
Kim Wooten, an engineer who serves on the state’s Building Code Council, explained that the “home builders association has fought every bill that has come before the General Assembly to try to improve life safety,” but she’s probably just an elitist who values credentials over getting out there and making housing available wherever you can cram it. She pointed out that many members of the Lege are builders themselves or get big campaign donations from the industry, which leads them to “vote for bills that line their pocketbooks and make home building cheaper.”
She’s probably just jealous of people who work for a living and can afford nice things, however they’re put together or located. Besides, the “director of regulatory affairs” — aka, top lobbyist guy — for the North Carolina Home Builders Association, Chris Millis, said that the industry doesn’t “pit affordability against regulations necessary for the protection of public safety.” And you can just rest assured that the only disagreement is over what exactly “necessary” means. Is there a roof and a door? You’re good!
Much of the story plays out in this format, with an example of the industry getting the Lege to adopt the lowest possible standard, followed by a “but actually it’s fine to do it that way” from Mr. Millis. Like so:
In 2009 and 2010, lawmakers from the state’s mountainous western region wanted statewide rules to restrict construction on slopes with a high or moderate risk of landslides. Their legislation failed in the face of pushback from the home building and real estate industries, according to Pricey Harrison, a state lawmaker who supported the restrictions.
Mr. Millis said statewide rules are unnecessary because local governments have rules about building on hillsides. Ms. Harrison said a statewide standard would be more effective.
See? Leave it to the local boards, who understand local conditions and are answerable to the local voters and big builders, who can remind the local officials how the local economy will collapse if they have to build houses that won’t. (Yes we are exaggerating for dramatic effect. We know no builders would ever think of cutting corners! Unless they could get away with it.)
The Times also reminds us of that time when the North Carolina Lege passed a law aimed at keeping local officials from considering future sea-level rise in planning, because climate change isn’t real. Stephen Colbert even made fun of it, saying “If your science gives you a result you don’t like, pass a law saying the result is illegal. Problem solved.” Ultimately, in a grudging win for science, the version that passed in 2012 did allow the state to include projected sea-level rise.
But a whole different law passed in 2013 had far more insidious results, although it avoided getting as much attention by not being as obviously batshit on its face. The Times explains:
Every three years, the International Code Council, a nonprofit organization based in Washington, D.C., issues new model building codes developed by engineers, architects, home builders and local officials.
Most states adopt a version of those model codes, which reflect the latest advances in safety and design. But in 2013, the North Carolina legislature decided that the state would update its codes every six years, instead of every three.
The change proved important. In 2015, the International Code Council added a requirement that new homes in flood zones be built at least one foot above the projected height of a major flood.
That meant that North Carolina put off adding the 2015 rule to its building code until 2019, and even then, the Lege made the elevation standard optional, if local boards wanted to include it.
And so it goes, just one example after another of the Lege siding with industry to help out the building industry, even to the point where last year Republicans used their gerrymandered supermajority to override Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper’s veto of legislation that weakened building codes. As we like to say, you have the gift link, so please do read the whole thing.
It reminded us of a moment in Tuesday’s vice presidential debate, which everyone will forget in a week, when JD Vance was insisting that the way to solve the housing shortage is to slash the regulations that drive up home prices, because she wants to “throw people in jail for not doing everything exactly as Kamala Harris says that they have to do.” (That line was overshadowed by Vance’s weird wrong claim that undocumented migrants are driving up home prices, a fact known to everyone who’s lost a bidding war on a four-bedroom, two-bath Colonial to poor Venezuelan asylum-seekers.)
Tim Walz’s reply, though a bit tangled in phrasing, was right on the money: “I think whenever we talk regulations, people think they can get rid of them,” he said, adding “I think you want to be able to get out of your house in a fire,” so it would be pretty stupid to cut costs by eliminating regulations on fire safety.
Or, you know, flood safety in places where flooding is likely.
[NYT (gift link) / CBS News VP debate transcript]
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Everybody having a good chuckle at NC Rep. Pricey Harrison's name, enjoy yourself.
I've known her for 25 years, and she is amazing. She is the most courageous progressive liberal in the NC General Assembly. She has weathered decades of Republican efforts to either pack her into
a safely Democratic seat, or crack her into a highly competitive Greensboro area district. Most politicians are duds. She's the real thing, an heroic figure, actually.
Her name, for those who have never been south of Binghamton, NY, tells everyone in NC that she's a member of the Price Family of Greensboro -- Old money.
Old families do that -- making surnames in one generation first names in another.
The family has a long history of marvelous philanthropy and public service. She's a retired attorney herself, who has spent the last several decades fighting the good fight in Raleigh.
If you'd like to know more about Pricey, why not start by clicking https://www.ncleg.gov/Members/Biography/H/504
Zillow has now decided to include climate change risk maps for their home buyers. About damned time.