The Woodlands | April 2023

LOCAL BUYOUTS Montgomery County has bought out 73 homes across the county as of April 5, including 10 in The Woodlands area.

DEFINING THE TERMS

YEARLING PL.

CLIMBING TREE ST.

The two types of home buyout require acquisition, but one also includes demolition.

242

Acquisition • Buy out and

Acquisition and demolition • Buy out and

demolish house • Site can be rebuilt as long as ood plain ordinance is followed

demolish house • Nothing can be rebuilt on the land

CHATEAU WOODS

CHATEAU WOODS PARKWAY DR.

SOURCE: MONTGOMERY COUNTY OFFICE OF HOMELAND SECURITY AND EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT COMMUNITY IMPACT

LAKEWOOD DR.

HUD’s grants. “Typically, once the funds are awarded, the funds are ‘earmarked’ on the county side,” Lumbley said in an April 5 email. “Funds are spent on the front end, and throughout the program the county seeks reimburse- ments from the state.” There is no cap for buying out homes through the FEMA program, and homes that have been bought have ranged from $60,000-$750,000 in price, Lumbley said. “A lot of the low-dollar ones came from the 2016 program because the majority of those that were named as part of the application were dam- aged in Harvey and not rebuilt,” she said. “So the value was current market value, so it was valued in a damaged state.” For HUD grants from the 2015-16 oods and Hurricane Harvey, the structure cap is $175,000 and $200,000, respectively. But home- owners eligible for buyouts through the program can receive up to a $100,000 relocation incentive if it was their primary home and the home- owners are considered low-to-mod- erate income, Lumbley said. The new home must be located within Montgomery County and outside a ood plain. HUD funds have also been used for ood mitigation. Precinct 3

According to data from Lumbley, 10 homes in The Woodlands area have successfully completed the buyout process since 2015. An additional ve buyouts through- out the county were approved April 11 by Montgomery County Commissioners Court. “I wish more people would take advantage of this program,” Precinct 2 Commissioner Charlie Riley said. “For so many years, we’ve been watching people get ooded and ooded and ooded, and we just go back and let them rebuild and rebuild. ... We’ve got to get these people out there some- where else where we don’t have to continually rebuild stu that we know is not going to last.” Breaking down buyouts Montgomery County has four buy- out programs through FEMA’s Flood Mitigation Assistance program and two through HUD’s disaster recovery grant program. For FEMA’s program, eligible appli- cants are identied before the county applies for the funding, while the HUD program works in the opposite way, with eligible applicants being identied after the county receives the funding, Lumbley said. The Texas Water Development Board provides oversight for FEMA’s grants while the Texas General Land Oce oversees

ROBINSON RD..

SOUTH PANTHER CREEK DR.

S. HILLSIDE DR.

TIMBER LAKES TIMBER RIDGE

WILLIE WAY

O A K

WILDERNESS RD.

OAKHURST DR.

GLEN HAVEN DR.

TURNBURY VILLAGE DR.

SPRING CREEK DR.

ELM CROSSING TRL.

SYCAMORE CAVE LN.

SOURCE: MONTGOMERY COUNTY OFFICE OF HOMELAND SECURITY AND EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT COMMUNITY IMPACT

Day and Tax Day oods in 2015 and 2016, respectively, Hurricane Har- vey in 2017, and Tropical Storm Imelda in 2019. Around 1,500 homes and 880 homes were damaged in Imelda and in the 2016 oods, respectively, Community Impact previously reported. In The Woodlands area, these ood- ing events have resulted in ooding in areas along Spring Creek including Timber Lakes Timber Ridge.

CONTINUED FROM 1

Lumbley said the county expects another $13.84 million from FEMA’s 2021 Flood Mitigation Assistance pro- gram to be received around May fol- lowed by contracts between the state and county. Buyouts are anticipated to begin in November, she said. Since 2015, Montgomery County has seen several major ooding events, including the Memorial

COMMUNITYIMPACT.COM