The Citizens Planning Committee and its successor, the Citizens Planning Implementation Committee, have made some progress in identifying problems and moving towards solutions. Downtown still needs both an alternative code and a simplified process for development. There is no consensus vision and no strategy guiding government actions. Development in any Downtown is more difficult than development of raw land. However, there are ways to ease the problems.
Building codes can encourage redevelopment or hamstring it.
Code enforcers can facilitate or kill redevelopment. The choices are those of public policy and its implementation. For example, Houston has a Downtown expediter in the City government to facilitate Downtown projects. The goal is development as a partnership of the City, the developer, and the neighborhoods, all guided by a shared vision. The reality is deep distrust of developers by neighborhoods, a permitting process that most developers find antagonistic, and suburban sprawl booming while Downtown redevelopment lags.