CITY&COUNTY
Updates on important issues facing local entities
Harris County commissioners approve $35 million campus for youth transitioning out of foster care system OTHERCOUNTY STORIES TOFOLLOWIN2022 Harris County commissioners at a Dec. 14 meeting unanimously approved the construction of a roughly $35 million Houston Alumni and Youth Center campus that will include a 41,000-square-foot, 50- unit residential facility for youth transitioning out of the state’s foster care system. The approximately 3.3-acre campus, which will be located at 3131 Gulf Freeway near downtown Houston, will also include a 17,000-square- foot commercial facility that will house the HAY—Houston Alumni & Youth—Center, a program operated through the Harris County Resources for Children and Adults Department that provides resources and services for youth and young adults exiting the state foster care system. The aim of the project is to help provide more stability for the youth members transitioning from foster care to independent living, o cials said. County o cials said construction of the new campus is expected to begin in the rst quarter of 2022 and is slated to wrap up by the third quarter of 2023. O cials noted the project is primarily funded through Community Development Block Grant Disaster Recovery grants received by the county and the city of Houston.
TOP COUNTY STORIES TO WATCH IN 2022
Harris County Flood Control District nears biggest spending year yet
BY HANNAH ZEDAKER
MAKING PROGRESS
HARRIS COUNTY Three years after work began on projects outlined in the Harris County Flood Control District’s $2.5 billion bond program, Deputy Executive Director Matt Zeve said 2022 may be the district’s biggest spending year in its history. “We had a 10-year plan, and the way things are mapping out, …we should be done with pretty much everything by early 2029,” Zeve said. “But the vast majority of our spending is happening now.” A majority of that spending will come from completing three federal ood damage reduction projects next year along Brays, Hunting and White Oak bayous—each of which costs more than $100 million, Zeve said. In addition to those projects, HCFCD o cials will submit preliminary ood plain maps in late January to the Federal Emergency Management Agency, which will issue the preliminary ood insurance rate map in the summer. Brian Edmondson, project manager for HCFCD’s Modeling, Assessment and Awareness Project, or MAAPnext, said the new rates could take e ect in 2024. The nearly $30 million e ort, which began in January 2019, will be the rst time the entire county’s ood plain has been remapped since 2001. In mid-December, HCFCD o cials also completed the Phase 2 feasibility study of constructing an underground tunnel in Harris County to divert oodwaters, Zeve said. However, the results will not be released to the public until sometime in 2022.
Since Hurricane Harvey hit the Texas Gulf Coast in 2017 and Harris County voters passed a $2.5 billion ood bond referendum in 2018, the Harris County Flood Control District has: Initiated 181 of 181 projects, 19 of which are complete
Received $1.35 billion in partnership funding Completed 667 buyouts with 645 additional buyouts in process
Authorized $578 million in bond funds
In 2022, Harris County residents can look forward to the following accomplishments by the Harris County Flood Control District: LOOKINGAHEAD
Completion of Brays, Hunting and White Oak bayou federal ood damage reduction projects
Public release of Phase 2 ood tunnel feasibility study
Public release of preliminary ood insurance rate map
SOURCE: HARRIS COUNTY FLOOD CONTROL DISTRICT COMMUNITY IMPACT NEWSPAPER
“We briefed all of the members of Commissioners Court on the results of that study, and we got a wide variety of reactions,” Zeve said. “Because of that, we’re not in a place where we can release the results of the tunnel study just yet.” Future projects Outside of the 2018 bond program, the HCFCD received $250 million from FEMA in December to fund sediment removal across eight watersheds over the next ve years. In 2021, HCFCD o cials also com- pleted 10 watershed planning studies, which identi ed new projects. While Zeve said some elected county o - cials have mentioned the possibility of a second ood bond program, that will depend upon howmuch more
debt the county can take on. “Even if we had $100 billion instead of $2.5 billion, we can only go so fast at a time,” Zeve said. “We would love to have all that money because then we’d know we can do what we need to do. But all of our projects take a certain amount of time.” With or without another bond, Zeve said the HCFCD’s budget needs will continue to grow to pay o bond debt and maintain new infrastructure. “Every time we build a new project, we have to take care of it, and every time we have to take care of it, that costs more money,” he said. As of mid-December, the county administrator’s o ce was still searching for a new HCFCD executive director. Alan Black will continue to serve in this capacity in the interim.
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Candidates le for election in Harris County ahead of 2022 midterms Nearly 100 candidates have led for Harris County positions ahead of the March 2022 primaries, according to the Texas Secretary of State website, including for races that cover the Bellaire, Meyerland and West University areas. Eight Republicans and three Democrats led for Harris County Judge, including incumbent Lina Hidalgo. Six Democrats and Republican incumbent Jack Cagle led for Precinct 4 Commissioner, which will cover Bellaire under new boundary maps drawn in 2021. The winners for each party in the March primaries will determine which candidates will be on the ballot in the November general election.
Harris County commissioners adopt policy on data accessibility
BY EMILY LINCKE
looking to do is [take] information that already would otherwise be available through the Public Information Act and make it available to the general public without having to ask for it,” First Assistant County Attorney Jay Aiyer said. Berry did not specify how long this will take to complete, but said the plan is to prioritize requests they hear the most. As part of the new policy, an Open Data Teamwill be cre- ated. The teamwill bring their rst report to commissioners court 180 days after a team leader is found. Meanwhile, the county’s Data Governance Committee will continue to exist and work with the county attorney’s o ce and the county administrator’s o ce, Aiyer said.
HARRIS COUNTY Harris County commissioners said they will be making data more accessible to the public in an e ort to be more transparent with a new Open Data Policy adopted Dec. 14. Parts of the new policy are already in the works, County Administrator David Berry said, including e orts to collect public data sets and put them in one place online in a format that is easy for members of the public to access and download. This site will be dubbed the Open Data Portal and will cost about $43,000. “One of the things that the open data policy really is
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COMMUNITY IMPACT NEWSPAPER • COMMUNITYIMPACT.COM
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