ONGOING EFFORTS As of June, the Harris County Flood Control District had made progress on 21.8% of bond projects.
FOLLOW THE FUNDING The ood control district has spent more than $1 billion on bond projects as funds become available over time.
LITTLE CYPRESS CREEK ($10.96M in projects underway)
Major maintenance of Cypress Creek and tributaries Timeline: March 2019-August 2028 Estimated cost: $60 million Cypress Creek right of CYPRESS CREEK
($42.33M in projects underway)
Stormwater detention basins in large buyout areas Timeline: March 2021-February 2026 Estimated cost: $25 million Channel conveyance improvements to bene t Timberlake Estates and Saracen Park area Timeline: June 2020-December 2022 Estimated cost: $8.23 million
Detention basin near Schiel Road Timeline: September 2015-July 2028 Estimated cost: $16 million Detention basin near Mason Road Timeline: January 2015-March 2027 Estimated cost: $13.1 million Additional volume in Little Cypress Creek detention basins Timeline: March 2023-September 2026 Estimated cost: $16.75 million
Little Cypress Creek Frontier Program Timeline: April 2018-September 2028 Estimated cost: $51.38 million Detention basin near Kluge Road Timeline: October 2019-May 2030 Estimated cost: $11 million Detention basin east of Mueschke Road Timeline: August 2014-April 2031 Estimated cost: $15.9 million Detention basin west of Mueschke Road Timeline: October 2015-December 2027 Estimated cost: $10.6 million
Cypress Creek
Little Cypress Creek
$33.4M funds remaining $124.1M
$27.8M funds remaining $54.2M
$157.5M
$82M
funds spent
funds spent
way acquisition and ood plain preservation
ALL WATERSHEDS
White Oak Bayou
$46.3M funds remaining $55.5M
$513M funds remaining $1.05B
Timeline: December 2019-December 2029 Estimated cost: $100 million
$101.8M
$1.56B
funds spent
funds spent
Texas Legislature, which starts in January. The drainage district would use property taxes and government funding to build the 22 stormwa- ter detention basins included in the Jones & Carter report, task force Project Chair Calvin Cobb said. “About 10% of … [the] Harris County [population] is in the Cypress Creek watershed,” he said. “If you can get all of them involved in some kind of mod- est tax rate, then you can generate enough money to help with the build-out of these detention sites.” In June, task force President Glenn Wilkerson esti- mated the drainage district’s tax rate would be about $0.10 per $100 valuation. In Jersey Village, City Council approved the creation of a tax increment reinvestment zone in 2021 to help facilitate the purchase of homes that have repeatedly ooded to be torn down, allowing for new homes to be built. Bleess said this approach is not something he has seen elsewhere, but it will promote the redevelop- ment of a ood-prone portion of the city. “[Flood mitigation is] a problem that takes every level of government to try and solve, but as we all Jersey Village partnership on general drainage improvements along south fork Timeline: August 2020-February 2025 Estimated cost: $3 million Investigation of additional stormwater detention basins Timeline: November 2021-February 2024 Estimated cost: $250,000 WHITE OAK BAYOU ($40.9M in projects underway)
SOURCE: HARRIS COUNTY FLOOD CONTROL DISTRICT COMMUNITY IMPACT NEWSPAPER
Another way the district is bridging the gap is through the $834.2 million Flood Resilience Trust, which Commissioners Court approved in June 2021. Petersen said the trust is designed to ll proj- ect needs when partnership funding is not available. Funding for the trust comes from reimbursements from the state and federal government as well as money left over from completed bond projects and county mobility funds. The HCFCD reported in late June no 2018 bond projects had been delayed due to a lack of partner- ship funding but that funding from the trust would be needed to avoid future delays in certain projects. With $124.9 million in bond funds available from the trust, the bond program can run for the next year, according to county documents. Additional funding for the HCFCD was not part of the discussion in a potential county bond issue in November, but Petersen said the initial $2.5 billion in bond funding and e orts to secure $2.5 billion in partnership funding should be su cient to execute the 2018 bond projects despite rising costs. “One of the things that we have in the works is a process to make sure that the cost estimates that we have on paper are going to be accurate because we do know that costs are going up,” she said.
know, the weather pat- terns have changed and are changing. And as we see more intense rain- falls, that certainly is going to impact our area as a whole,” he said. Fighting for funding The HCFCD continues e orts to close the part- nership funding gap, Petersen said. As of June 28, the district had secured $1.275 billion in partnership funding, needing another $754.2 million. The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development approved a GLO amendment to allo- cate $750 million to Harris County in March follow- ing opposition to the decision not to award funds. According to David Berry, Harris County administra- tor and budget o cer, the county is in the negotia- tion and allocation process for the $750 million. “We believe that both Harris County and the city of Houston should receive at least $1 billion each for [ ood] mitigation,” Berry said in an email. “Although [$750 million] is short of our unmet need, we look forward to investing those funds in much-needed, shovel-ready projects as soon as possible.”
For more information, visit communityimpact.com .
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