County Commissioners Add New Condition to Purchase of Perry Homes’ Woodridge Village
In Tuesday’s Harris County Commissioners Court meeting, while HCFCD Executive Director Russ Poppe was talking about buyouts, Precinct One Commissioner Rodney Ellis used the opportunity to go off on a rant about the County’s proposal to buy Woodridge Village from Perry Homes. The result: yet another condition added to the purchase.
City Must Now Cover Portion of Construction Cost, Too
The City of Houston now must come up with land or cash for part of the construction costs for any additional detention ponds built on Perry Homes’ property – not just the purchase price.
The actual amount would equal whatever the County contributes. For instance, if developing the property into a regional detention basin costs $20 million, and the county puts in $10 million, the City would need to put in $10 million also. But if either partner can find Federal or State funding to pay for part of the project, that amount would go down. For instance, if the the Feds or State put in 80% then the City and County would each pay 10%.
Other Conditions Remain the Same
The first two conditions remain the same:
- City must contribute land or cash worth half the purchase price.
- City must adopt County’s Atlas-14 provisions. Those would apply to the City’s Extra Territorial Jurisdiction (ETJ) as well as the City itself.
Raddick Predicts City Won’t Meet Conditions
Commissioner Raddick predicted there was no way the City would adopt the Atlas-14 requirements.
He also observed that the County would be forcing the City to commit to an expenditure of an unknown size. And that the City wouldn’t know the size for several months because the County has not yet drawn up plans for improvements.
For Elm Grove residents, this is especially worrisome. That’s because, by law, the City Council must approve every City expenditure over $50,000.
So basically, the County is asking for an unknown commitment. Meanwhile, the City cannot make such a commitment until it knows the exact amount. However, Commissioners did not discuss this dilemma in their debate.
Unanimous Vote to Add Extra Condition
The vote by commissioners on the three conditions was unanimous. The motion carried 5-0.
This hill becomes steeper to climb every week.
Perry Site Quiet for Last Two Days
Meanwhile, Jeff Miller reported today that no dump trucks were moving on the Perry Homes’ site. That may have been due to the rains last weekend that are still filling at least the one detention pond and likely filling the others too.
Video of the Commissioners Court meeting won’t be posted until tomorrow. I will link the relevant sections when video becomes available.
Posted by Bob Rehak on 5/20/2020
995 Days since Hurricane Harvey and 244 since Imelda
