CITY & COUNTY
Top city & county stories to watch in 2023
2023 ANNUAL COMMUNITY GUIDE
Multiple League City park projects set to nish in late January
Bond drainage projects under design, construction
FEMA ood map, MAAPnext release expected in 2023
LEAGUE CITY PARK PROJECTS
OTHER STORIES TO FOLLOW IN 2023 THE 2022 BOND PACKAGE All three propositions were approved Nov. 8.
FLOOD MAPS: FROM MODELING TO ADOPTION The Federal Emergency Management Agency and Harris County Flood Control District have been working on concurrent ood mapping projects for Harris County. MAAPNEXT PROJECT (completed) Work on HCFCD's Modeling, Assessment and Awareness Project begins. 2019 The HCFCD reports being 70% done with ood plain maps, projecting FEMA will release preliminary maps in spring or summer 2022. May 2021 Jan. 25, 2022 The HCFCD reports being 96% done with its work and shifts its projection for FEMA’s map release to summer or fall 2022. Feb. 22, 2022 The HCFCD says it has sent mapping data to FEMA. FEMA expects to release preliminary ood insurance rate maps, or FIRMs, in 2023, at which point the MAAPnext dashboard goes live. HCFCD and FEMA will hold open houses. 2023 RELEASE OF PRELIMINARY MAPS 18-24-month period after release: • Residents have 90 days to provide feedback on the FIRMs, which may be revised before being nalized. • Communities have six months to adopt or amend ood plain ordinances based on the new FIRMs. SOURCES: HARRIS COUNTY FLOOD CONTROL DISTRICT, FEDERAL EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT AGENCY COMMUNITY IMPACT
Design and construction progress continues on a variety of di erent League City park projects into 2023.
BY RACHEL CARLTON
BAY COLONY PARK
BY SAAB SAHI
HARRIS COUNTY The Federal Emergency Management Agency will release Harris County’s preliminary ood insurance rate maps sometime in 2023, according to Harris County Flood Control District o cials. The HCFCD projected in a May 2021 update that FEMA would release the maps in the spring or summer of 2022, but has continually pushed back its estimate. FEMA o cials could not con rm a speci c release date. Local ood control entities partner with FEMA to provide information for those maps, which show ood risk and mandate ood insurance in high-risk areas. HCFCD Planning Division Director Ataul Hannan said FEMA’s maps have not been updated countywide since 2007. Work on the countywide update began in 2019 with the advent of the Modeling, Assessment and Awareness Project, or MAAPnext, which uses updated rainfall and topographic data to create comprehensive maps and ood risk tools that residents will be able to access with an online dashboard. O cials said MAAPnext’s dashboard will complement the release of FEMA’s maps. A process will then begin to revise the maps before they become o cial in late 2024 or 2025. Early in that process, residents will have 90 days to comment on the maps, and communities will have to adopt or amend their ood plain management ordinances.
“Really, it’s a complete recon- struction of what was there [at Bayridge Park],” City Manager John Baumgartner said. The 1.8-acre neighborhood park will have a new playground, a 5-foot-wide concrete perimeter, a walking/jogging trail, a small picnic pavilion, baseball eld improve- ments, basketball court resurfacing and landscaping. The project, which cost about $500,000, was funded with park dedication fees. Meanwhile, design work will continue in 2023 for the city’s Bay Colony Park project. Bay Colony Park, which will be located west of Calder Road and south of Ervin Street, will feature ve baseball elds, four softball elds, soccer elds, pickleball courts, concession stands, a pavilion, playgrounds and other amenities, Community Impact previously reported.
Proposition A Proposition C
Proposition B
BY SAAB SAHI
LEAGUE CITY Multiple League City park projects will be completed or continue their progress in Jan- uary, said Sarah Greer Osborne, the city’s executive director of communications. East Side Dog Park, which is located in the Hometown Heroes Park, will open Jan. 28. It is the last part of several improvements at Hometown Heroes Park as a 5K loop encircling the park and a tness and obstacle course were completed last summer, Community Impact reported. Meanwhile, Bayridge Park improvements will nish in January, as the playground equipment was installed in the second week of January. Construction was delayed by a wait for the playground equip- ment, Executive Director of Project Management Ron Bavarian said.
LEAGUE CITY Progress continues on most of the 21 drainage projects included in League City’s $145 million bond from May 2019. About $73 million of the bond was dedicated to drainage projects, and the cost has been supplemented by grants, City Manager John Baumgartner said. “Our goal was to have all the projects completed within ve years,” he said. “I think we’ve made good progress.” Phase 3 of Bay Ridge has been completed, which improved drain- age and capacity in the neighbor- hood next to Gum Bayou. Phases 1 and 2 are under construction and are expected to nish in 2023. Oaks at Clear Creek is nearly done with construction and is expected to nish in 2023.
$100M for public safety facilities
N
$1.2B TOTAL
$200M for parks
HOMETOWN HEROES PARK
for roads, drainage and multimodal transportation $900M
96
SOURCE: HARRIS COUNTY OFFICE OF COUNTY ADMINISTRATION COMMUNITY IMPACT
N
Harris County to initiate work on projects for $1.2B bond package Carl Apple, director of communications for Harris County’s engineering department, said his department is working with the county’s O ce of County Administration to develop a strategy and process for bond projects from the $1.2 billion in bonds approved by voters Nov. 8. Some projects will be bid and assigned in 2023.
BAYRIDGE PARK
BAY RIDGE DR.
96
N
SOURCE: LEAGUE CITY COMMUNITY IMPACT
BAY AREA 1033 Bay Area Blvd (281) 486-9558 LEAGUE CITY
KEMAH 243 FM 2094 (281) 538-9095 SEABROOK 3126 Nasa Pkwy (281) 326-5127
196 Gulf Fwy S (281) 316-2140
14
15
COMMUNITYIMPACT.COM
BAY AREA EDITION • JANUARY 2023
Powered by FlippingBook