$2.5B bond feeds development ideas

Multipurpose infrastructure is a necessity in the wake of Houston’s growing land usage and flood troubles

With Saturday’s resounding passage of the $2.5 billion flood bond, Harris County residents showed everyone that they’re keen to invest in public infrastructure to mitigate the impact of the big storms that are an inevitable feature of our future.

Now the work begins to finalize a selection of the best projects, bring adjacent communities on board, and engineer and build this new series of public works.

Back in the day, as Houston sprawled out into the endless prairie to the west and the piney woods to the north, land was cheap and plentiful, and as a region, we could afford to build infrastructure with only a single use. Detention basins and drainage features were typically designed with a single purpose in mind, as witnessed by the huge detention areas on upper White Oak Bayou near Beltway 8.

In a densifying city, we can no longer be quite so profligate in our infrastructure projects, and we must wring every possible use from all publicly owned land. We have been working through this evolution in thinking for the last 30 years. For example, Bear Creek Park serves as an important regional park behind Addicks Reservoir. The reservoir is rarely full, and park land and playing fields behind the dam are a great amenity for Harris County residents — when they’re not underwater.

Sometimes we get this right by bringing different organizations together to come up with projects that not only help mitigate flooding but also create recreational opportunities. The Bayou Greenways program involves the cooperation of Houston’s Parks and Recreation Department, Harris County Flood Control District, the privately funded Houston Parks Board and Buffalo Bayou Partnership and many others. This initiative has created an entirely new use for the banks of the bayous that flow through Houston, all on land that was already in the public realm. Arthur Storey Park on Brays Bayou at the intersection of Beltway 8 and U.S. 59 is another great example of combining recreation with flood control.

In other cases, we have done a dismal job. Over the objections of local neighbors, a local member of City Council and many others, the Texas Department of Transportation built a multi-acre detention basin just west of Yale Street and adjacent to the immensely popular Heights Hike and Bike Trail. Instead of designing this detention basin to accommodate trails around it and public access, TxDOT dug a deep hole and put a fence around it — and this in a rapidly densifying part of the city with ever-increasing needs for recreational space.

Single-use land projects are much easier to execute by agencies that work in their own silos — multiple uses bring complexity and the need for intergovernmental and private sector cooperation. Now more than ever, to cut through the complexity and to get the greatest bang for our buck, government agencies need strong direction from our elected officials, and we as voters should demand nothing less of those leaders.

The mandate must be to deliver the most value for the dollar — and the greatest value will come from multiple uses from new infrastructure. This means trail-ready designs for the areas around detention basins, wet-bottom drainage to attract wildlife, and new parks and open spaces in underserved communities. These designs will enable pedestrian and cycling connections between detention basins, parks and neighborhoods. Strong direction from the top will guide the countless simple decisions that will set the stage for adapting new flood infrastructure combined with recreational opportunities.

The recently approved bonds will provide the funds for investments that will last 100 years and shape the future of Harris County. In 20 years, residents will look back at carefully engineered drainage and retention features that created recreational opportunities across the county. The engineers and accountants will point out that all this was accomplished at no incremental cost — just thoughtful decision-making — and we will thereby create the impetus for future investments.

Saturday’s vote shows we are ready to pull together as a region. The immediate response to Hurricane Harvey showed the great capacity of sometimes-galvanized government agencies and our elected leaders to work together. Let’s bring the same spirit of cooperation to this new generation of public works. If we work thoughtfully on these projects, we’ll end up with not just $2.5 billion of flood control improvements, but with additional billions of quality of life and recreational opportunities.