Active Bond IDs

Harris County Commissioners Adopt Six Motions Affecting Future of 2018 Flood Bond

9/19/25 – On 9/18/25, Harris County Commissioners reviewed a presentation about the status of 2018 Flood Bond Projects. They also.adopted six motions that will affect the future of Harris County Flood Control District and the 2018 Flood Bond. In fact, they will result in an “updated bond package.” (See Motions below.)

Highlights of Presentation

The presentation identified 75 active bond IDs out of the original 181 that are moving forward into construction. They include projects that rank in the top quartile of the 2022 Equity Prioritization Framework as well as those in lower quartiles that already had partner funding committed.

  • An additional 26 projects will be paused and reactivated if additional funding materializes.
  • 15 Projects will be closed because they turned out not to be technically feasible or because partner funding never materialized.
  • 54 projects have been marked “completed” meaning their full scope as outlined in the original flood blond has already been realized.
  • In all, 75 bond IDs that include 248 discrete projects will move forward. They include stormwater detention basins, channel improvements and bridge replacements that theoretically remove 183,000 people from the floodplain.

According to Eric Heppen, Precinct 3’s director of engineering, the engineering teams from each precinct have met weekly with HCFCD since June to arrive at recommendations that all four precincts and Flood Control could agree on. In that respect, yesterday’s meeting represents a dramatic improvement over earlier meetings that rapidly devolved into brawls.

This set of recommendations means the County is only $400 million short, not the $1.3 billion that Dr. Tina Petersen, executive director of HCFCD, previously alluded to.

Substance of Six Motions Adopted by Court

Commissioners adopted the following six motions.

Funding Allocation: 

Motion to approve the allocation of 2018 Flood Bond funds for each Bond ID and all associated projects, as presented in the Updated Bond Package and as directed by Commissioners Court, funding current and future needs for all projects in Quartile 1 of the 2022 prioritization framework and projects with secured partnerships.

Dashboard: 

Motion to direct Flood Control to maintain the public 2018 Flood Bond dashboard – which includes but is not limited to project schedules, prioritization scores, budget, location, and lifecycle stage for all projects – and to update the dashboard quarterly in advance of Commissioners Court updates, including directing the Flood Control District to continue to work with court offices and the community to improve the dashboard’s user friendliness, including but not limited to:

  • Providing Bond ID previews
  • Improved language accessibility
  • Incorporating the ability to filter projects by features such as:
    • Partnership projects 
    • Quartile score
    • Project status, and 
    • Project precinct;
  • Opportunities for the community to be engaged on testing the dashboard and relevant applications
Court Updates: 

Motion to direct Flood Control to provide quarterly updates to Commissioners Court on the progress of all bond projects including spending and lifecycle stage.

Working Group: 

Motion to direct Flood Control to convene the 2018 Flood Bond Working Group – composed of staff from the Court offices – at least quarterly in advance of Court updates:

  1. The Working Group will be consulted on the following:
    1. Project progress, schedules, and spending
    2. New partnership opportunities that may arise
    3. Unneeded/excess funds that may be freed up for reallocation
  2. For projects completing a lifecycle stage where the estimated budget exceeds 15% of the allocated amount for that project or the proposed scope materially shifts from what was originally identified and agreed to, approval by Court will be required. The Working Group will work with Flood Control to define what constitutes a material shift and transmit the agreement to Court.
Prioritization Framework: 

Move to direct the Flood Control District to use the 2022 Prioritization Framework scores to allocate any 2018 Flood Bond funds that become available to Bond IDs that are paused and other bond projects where the scope and funds identified in the Updated Bond Package need to be increased. Funds shall be considered available when the bond reserve contingency exceeds 15% of the total remaining funds left to be spent. Any deviation from the Framework shall require prior approval by a majority vote of Commissioners Court.

Prioritization Scoring: 

Move to direct Flood Control District to add 2022 Prioritization Framework scores to every Bond ID and associated projects where feasible and with the exceptions of buyout projects and countywide projects as noted in the 2022 Prioritization Framework transmittal.

Additional Information about Project Rankings and Spending

Heppen also provided two spreadsheets shared with commissioners:

In future posts, I will discuss how these changes affect Bond IDs and projects in the Lake Houston Area and elsewhere that didn’t make the cut. So check back often.

Posted by Bob Rehak

2943 Days since Hurricane Harvey