Commissioners talk growth, flood mitigation concerns at West Houston Association meeting

By George Slaughter, News Editor
Posted 3/29/23

Commissioners from three counties said they wanted to work together, both across their respective counties, but with state and federal agencies, to improve flood mitigation and roads.

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Commissioners talk growth, flood mitigation concerns at West Houston Association meeting

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Commissioners from three counties said they wanted to work together, both across their respective counties, but with state and federal agencies, to improve flood mitigation and roads.

Harris County Pct. 4 Commissioner Leslie Briones, Waller County Pct. 4 Commissioner Justin Beckendorff, and Fort Bend County Pct. 1 Commissioner Vincent Morales shared their perspectives at the West Houston Association meeting, which was held March 23 at the Crowne Plaza Galleria, 7611 Katy Fwy. Alia Vinson, partner at the ABHR law firm, served as moderator.

Meeting organizers said this meeting was a first in that the county commissioners from the Katy/West Houston area, and not the County judges, were invited to speak.

Dealing with flooding and roads remain important issues as the area population continues to grow. Morales said at the last census, the Fort Bend County population was about 855,000 people.

“Fort Bend County will be 1.2 million in roughly 2025, and they are saying that by 2034 Fort Bend County will be over two million people,” Morales said. “Think about that a minute. Over two million people in 2034. So, you can see the growth is happening in Fort Bend County and that means these other neighboring counties are going to experience that same explosion of growth as well.”

Briones is the newest commissioner of the three, having been elected to her first term last November. She said her precinct has a larger population than nine states and she wanted to develop good working relationships with the various governmental entities in and serving her precinct.

“We’ve had wonderful meetings with the City of Katy, which is one of the cities in precinct 4,” Briones said. “Because at the end of the day, we need the different governmental entities that are serving the same constituents to work together to more effectively leverage your tax dollars, to have the outcomes that we all want and deserve.”

Beckendorff said his precinct is growing at the fastest rate overall.

“In my precinct I have the City of Katy,” he said. “I also have Fulshear, Simonton and Brookshire and the City of Houston, along with two school districts in there. We’ve got design plans on the books. Some of them are building lots now and some of them are in the very infant phase of over 30,000 lots coming to Waller County. Our population in the census, there’s about 60,000 people.”

Morales said Fort Bend County in 2018 commission to study for flood mitigation throughout the county. He said another study will be done in the next couple of months and would be shared with adjacent counties, both upstream and downstream from Fort Bend County.

“There’s already a collaboration of working, especially with the Harris County Flood Control,” Morales said. “There’s a collaboration therebetween Fort Bend County and the other counties to make sure that we could address that we address future flooding in the region.”

Beckendorff said new rules for builders was one measure taken to improve flood mitigation.

“All of our new developments, we require them to do some detention,” Beckendorff said, adding that flood mitigation planning requires looking at more than just the three counties represented at the meeting.

“If you go back and look when they built the two reservoirs (Addicks and Barker) there, there was actually a third reservoir (Cypress Creek) on that map that never got built,” Beckendorff said. “I wish we could go back there and asked that guy why, but something like that is going to need to happen to where we can make a big impact.”

Vinson said the association supported regional standardization of drainage criteria. Briones agreed.

“I’ll just say it’s an excellent idea and I’m sure the West Houston Association standardizing the criteria will benefit all of our residents and make sure there’s clarity and consistency,” Briones said.

Another factor to be considered is using green space for water detention areas. Morales said George Bush Park, which is in Harris County, and Freedom Park, which is in Fort Bend County, are cited as examples of this.

“That whole area there, we had connectivity as far as with trails,” Morales said. “That is really a shared county line park between Harris County and Fort Bend County. I will tell you that we have been very fortunate in Fort Bend County to have good quality development. A lot of our developers have set aside green space to have natural areas that could serve as detention or natural detention basins.”

Briones said green infrastructure was critical.

“It helps with her flood mitigation efforts,” Briones said. “It helps with making sure we’re preserving the environment for our children and grandchildren. And at the end of the day, if we want to recruit and retain the best talent and draw additional businesses to invest in this region, people want to be able to be outside with their kids and grandkids.”

Harris County, Fort Bend County, Waller County, West Houston Association