County nearing offer to buy land
Harris County is moving closer to making a $14 million offer to purchase the 93-lot subdivision Woodridge Village and convert it into drainage detention to prevent future flooding in the Kingwood community.
Commissioners Court last week unanimously approved an interlocal agreement letter to send to the city of Houston regarding the property. The Harris County Flood Control District can only make an offer if the county completes the land agreement with the city.
“Assuming they’re agreeable … — our guidance from the court said we have to have an interlocal agreement with the city of Houston and have all of that documented before we can write a check to purchase the property,” said Matt Zeve, the district’s deputy executive director.
County and city officials want to convert the subdivision, which straddles the border of Harris and Montgomery counties, into detention to prevent continued flooding in the Elm Grove neighborhood of Kingwood, which flooded twice last year because of development, residents say.
The interlocal agreement would require the city of Houston to offer $7 million in other land to the county that would be used for
regional drainage and flood control projects, said Russ Poppe, the executive director of the flood control district.
Kingwood lies within the Houston city limits.
“We wouldn’t try to acquire any property from the city that the flood control district wouldn’t turn around and make part of a project or projects that we’re planning to accomplish,” Zeve said.
The county is awaiting a decision from Houston leaders in writing, but some city officials are optimistic about the deal being completed. Councilman and Mayor Pro Tem Dave Martin said the city has already identified 11 pieces of land that would qualify for the agreement, six of which were presented in the executive session of the meeting.
“It’s one of these things, you look back a year ago when we first started bringing up ‘What do we do about this?’ If you would’ve told me we would have been successful in purchasing that land and stopping this project, I would
have told you, ‘You were crazy, you were nuts, you were everything bad I could say,’” Martin said. “And what happened last night was an example of the dedication of a number of folks …”
The flood control district does not have the estimated $30 million to construct the full detention basin immediately, Zeve said.
A smaller detention basin on the northern portion of the property will be finished in July, offering some mitigation for the coming hurricane season. However, the full project — for detention across the 268-acre lot — is a multistep process that will take at least a year or two to complete once the flood control district has full funding, Zeve said.
If the detention basin cannot be fully funded, another option for the county would be to phase in the project over several years and use funding from the yearly budget.
The project would begin with an excavation and removal program, which is being used across Harris County to connect contractors to the site to remove the selected material for free. Then the district would need to find either the federal or state funding to build out the full detention basin.
The overarching goal is to get cities within the county and in the extraterritorial jurisdiction to comply with the district’s and county’s drainage standards, said Joe Stinebaker, spokesman for Harris County Precinct 4 Commissioner Jack Cagle.
Precinct 1 Commissioner Rodney Ellis made a proposal during the lengthy April 28 Commissioners Court meeting on the matter to direct the flood control district and county engineer to come up with a strategy to get the jurisdictions within Harris County to comply with the two agencies’ drainage standards.
More than 200 people in the Kingwood subdivision of Elm Grove believe that the construction of Woodridge Village northwest of the community is the reason why their neighborhood flooded in May 2019 and from Tropical Storm Imelda last fall. After Imelda, several residents filed suit against the developer and Martin announced a cease-anddesist letter to Perry Homes, Figure Four Partners and Double Oak Construction for allegedly discharging debris from Woodridge Village into Elm Grove.
Figure Four Partners has been in negotiations with Harris County for months to sell the approximately 268 acres of land for regional detention. The property remains available for sale to the private market, according to an April 8 update provided by the media consultant for Figure Four Partners, Begala McGrath.
The Harris County Flood Control District was working with the city of Houston to find a resolution and looking for a partner to help complete the property acquisition as of early March, as previously reported.
Chris Begala, of Begala McGrath, sent a statement on behalf of Figure Four Partners, an affiliate of Perry Homes.
“Figure Four Partners is encouraged to hear that Harris County Flood Control will be making an offer to purchase the Woodridge Village tract so it can be used for regional detention,” Begala’s shared statement said. “It was Figure Four who first brought this idea forward to Harris County last fall, and we have worked diligently to make it a reality.”