CITY & COUNTY
COMPILED BY ANDREWCHRISTMAN AND EVA VIGH
News fromMontgomery County and Shenandoah
Commissioners respond to allegations of neglecting flood prevention
Vote on I-45 office building tabled by council request SHENANDOAH On Sept. 25, Shenandoah City Council tabled a variance request for an incoming office building on I-45 North to get more information on the project. The proposed three-story building, owned by Validation Connections Inc., is anticipated to come into a commercial corridor where buildings are required to have 200 feet of frontage. The variance request was made because the 2.2-acre property only has 159 feet of frontage available, according to information presented at the meeting. Shenandoah City Administrator Kathie Reyer said the building and the worksite meet the requirements for setbacks, parking and canopy. However, Mayor Ritch Wheeler said developers in the recent past that were granted variances later changed their projects, rendering the origi- nal request unnecessary. “[At that point,] it’s no longer appealable to the city,” Wheeler said. “I am kind of tired of granting variances to people and then [having] things change.” The ordinance proposed to allow the variance was denied, and the motion was tabled in a 3-2 vote, with Council Members Charlie Bradt and Dean Gristy voting to allow the variance.
Precinct 4 Commissioner James Metts said it is impossible for the county to determine in advance which homes will flood. “I can show you places that were in the flood plain that did not flood [during Tropical Depression Imelda],” Metts said. “I can show you places that were nowhere near the flood plain … that did flood in the Imelda event and [no other time].” Montgomery County officials said the county has made several flood mitigation efforts, amid criticism that it should adopt standards similar to those in Harris County. Montgomery County efforts: • adopting updated rainfall data • participating in regional flood and watershed studies • revising its drainage criteria manual SOURCE:MONTGOMERYCOUNTYOFFICE OFHOMELANDSECURITYANDEMERGENCY MANAGEMENT/COMMUNITY IMPACTNEWSPAPER Countymitigation efforts
county’s efforts, which included adopting updates to its drainage criteria manual with new data and participating in regional water- shed studies. Noack said he believed it would be better for the county to buy out homes that repeatedly flood rather than to attempt to prevent flood- ing. According to Hess, the county has about 2,500-3,000 structures that repeatedly flood, and the county has secured $36 million in grant funds for home buyouts. Noack said he believes it is overly simplistic to require Montgomery County to follow the same drainage standards as Harris County, which requires new developments within the 500-year flood plain to be built 2 feet above the 500-year flood plain. “The further north you go, the greater the elevation changes are, and to require the developer to put something two foot above up there, it doesn’t make any sense at all,” he said.
MONTGOMERY COUNTY Mont- gomery County commissioners responded to resident concerns that the county is not doing enough to prevent flooding at an Oct. 22 meeting. A discussion was prompted by a Facebook post by The Woodlands Township Director Bruce Rieser stating the county has not updated its design standards for development following Hurricane Harvey. Rieser urged the county to require developers to build at higher elevations and to build more stormwater retention. Commissioner James Noack spearheaded the discussion and said the county sent a letter to Rieser outlinging the county’s drainage and flood prevention efforts. At the Oct. 22 meeting, Assistant County Director Dan Wilds and Darren Hess, director of Montgom- ery County’s Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Manage- ment, presented a summary of the
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The Woodlands edition • November 2019
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