Dive Brief:

• After any natural disaster like the Oso, Wash., mudslide, there are questions about why anyone would want to (or would even be allowed to) build in a dangerous area, but it's a big step to go from regulating how homes and other structures are built to saying they cannot be built.
• J. David Rogers, who is a professor of geological engineering at the Missouri University of Science and Technology and has worked as a consultant on slope stabilization, said developers and builders do not enjoy getting bad news and "go ballistic" over the cost of stabilization.
• A libertarian approach espoused by some, including George Mason University law professor Ilya Somin, is that people should be allowed to build where they like, but government has to "make sure they bear the risk themselves."

Dive Insight:

Builders would face a difficult business model if they had to erect homes designed to withstand known risks in an area where the costs of construction might be more than their potential customers could bear.