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2023 ANNUAL COMMUNITY GUIDE
The Cypress Creek Flooding Task Force has proposed the creation of a Cypress Creek drainage district to promote ood mitigation, but legislators must approve the district before it can be created. FROM IDEA TO IMPLEMENTATION
May 2022: The Cypress Creek Flooding Task Force announces its pursuit of creating a drainage district along the Cypress Creek watershed.
March 10, 2023: The deadline for legislators to le bills in the 88th session
May 29, 2023: The last day of the Texas Legislature’s 88th session
June 2023: If approved by the Legislature, the bill will go before Gov. Greg Abbott for consideration.
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November 2022: The task force announces it has pivoted its plan so Texas legislators will create a Cypress Creek drainage district with a temporary board of directors.
Jan. 10, 2023: The Texas Legislature’s 88th session convenes.
November 2023 or May 2024: A temporary board of directors will call an election to choose a permanent board of directors and uphold the district’s creation. It will be up to the permanent board to create a funding mechanism for the district.
SOURCES: LEGISLATIVE REFERENCE LIBRARY OF TEXAS, TEXAS LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL, THE CYPRESS CREEK FLOODING TASK FORCECOMMUNITY IMPACT
task force is proposing is to create a special district and a board,” Wilker- son said. “The special district created by the bill will have no taxation pow- ers nor powers of eminent domain.” If voters eventually approve the district in an election, the district’s permanent board of directors would discuss and establish a funding mech- anism for the district, he said. The district could pursue projects to mit- igate ooding along Cypress Creek, look into state and federal funding for ood projects, and develop partner- ships with local utility districts.
in the mix with versus outside.” Cypress Creek Association-Stop the Flooding also works on ood miti- gation eorts in the Cypress Creek area. The organization’s founder, Paul Eschenfelder, said he wished the task force would hold public meetings with the community about the dis- trict, and he worries the proposed dis- trict is not the right solution for local ooding problems. “A special-purpose district will be required, but a better version than the one currently proposed, which leaves the Cypress Creek Cultural Dis- trict exposed to repeated ooding,” Eschenfelder said. In the 88th legislative session, the Houston Northwest Chamber of Commerce supports Texas legislators generally addressing ood mitigation along Cypress Creek, President and CEO Bobby Lieb said. However, the chamber does not have a position on the proposed drainage district. “The chamber has taken o¡cial positions on working and advocat- ing towards ood mitigation in/along Cypress Creek and the Greater Hous- ton area,” Lieb said. When it comes to funding and attention, Meyers said he believes the Cypress Creek watershed has been “historically neglected” compared to other watersheds in Harris County. “Cypress Creek … just hasn’t gotten the funding and the support that other watersheds have gotten for a lot of dierent reasons,” Meyers said. “Now … Cypress Creek is the largest water- shed. It’s got a 10th of the population in Harris County, and it’s growing, and it still has a lot of area to grow.”
According to the task force’s esti- mates, $17.9 billion worth of damage to 16,000 structures located in the Cypress Creek Cultural District would be caused by a 100-year ooding event—or an intense ood that has a Since proposing the drainage district, the task force has met with other local organizations that ght ooding in the Cypress Creek area. Multiple mem- bers of the Cypress Creek Flood Con- trol Coalition—a nonprot founded in 1% chance of occurring yearly. Community group reactions
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there is no central government entity to assist with these funding eorts. The district would be led by a board of directors who would decide what ood mitigation eorts to pursue along the Cypress Creek watershed, Wilker- son said. Before the district can be cre- ated, however, it must be led in a bill proposed by a local legislator. The task force has been working with state Rep. Sam Harless, R¥Spring, to le the legis- lation to create the drainage district. “I certainly am interested in [the drainage district], but I want to make sure that there’s not a tax increase on my constituents or that there’s not a bond proposed,” Harless said Nov. 23. As of press time Jan. 11, Harless had not yet led the bill. March 10 is the deadline for legislation to be led for the ongoing legislative session, which began Jan. 10 and will end May 29. Moving toward change If the legislation to create the task force’s drainage district is led and passed by the Texas Legislature, the bill would go before Gov. Greg Abbott for approval in June. The bill would create a temporary board of directors for the district, Wilkerson said. The temporary board would then call a districtwide election as soon as November for the commu- nity to vote on a permanent board of directors and “conrm the creation of the special district,” he added. The task force’s initial plan was to have a local legislator le a bill directly giving the drainage district taxation powers if approved by voters in an election. However, this idea has since been scrapped, Wilkerson said. “The purpose of the legislation the
FLOODING PROBLEMS
The Cypress Creek watershed has a history of ooding, which puts homes, businesses and community centers at risk should another severe ood strike. 453,399 people lived in the Harris County portion of the Cypress Creek watershed in 2020. 9,450 homes in the watershed were ooded during Hurricane Harvey in 2017. 29.3 inches of rainfall was received in four days in the watershed during Hurricane Harvey. $17.9B worth of damage to 16,000 structures located in the Cypress Creek Cultural District would result from a 100-year ood event.
SOURCES: THE CYPRESS CREEK FLOODING TASK FORCE, HARRIS COUNTY FLOOD CONTROL DISTRICT COMMUNITY IMPACT
1999—joined a steering committee with the task force in late July to discuss the proposed drainage district, CCFCC President Joe Meyers said. Since then, the task force has presented drafts of legislation to the steering committee. “[CCFCC] did pass a resolution in support of eorts [of] like-minded eorts to solve ooding,” Meyers said. “That includes supporting, corrobo- rating, cooperating and coordinating with like-minded eorts in the cre- ation of a drainage improvement dis- trict for Cypress Creek. So we agreed that this was something worth being
The Cypress Creek Flooding Task Force—which formed in 2019, accord- ing to Wilkerson—initially announced the proposed Cypress Creek drainage district in May. The group set out to create the district to prevent cata- strophic ooding to homes and struc- tures in the watershed, including the Cypress Creek Cultural District, which is home to community ameni- ties, such as the Barbara Bush Branch Library, The Centrum, the Pearl Fincher Museum of Fine Arts and the future George H.W. Bush Community Center, which is under construction.
For more information, visit communityimpact.com .
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SPRING KLEIN EDITION • JANUARY 2023
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