Yet another “RV Resort” is coming to the Kingwood/Porter area. This one will be at the north end of Woodland Hills Drive about a block north of Kingwood Park High School. Plans show parking for 43 RVs on the 4.4 acre property.
The Porter Strong RV Resort, which contains a recreation building, dumpsters, and concrete driveways, will back up to homes along Birchwood Springs Avenue in Woodridge Forest.
The drainage calculations look impressive…until you consider the way they estimated impervious cover.
Location map from construction plans obtained via a FOIA Request to MoCo Engineering.Note: High School is mislabeled. Should say, “Kingwood Park High School.”
Access from Porter For Now
Access to the RV resort – at least for now – will be via Needham Road and Collette Lane in Porter. However, plans show a dotted line for an extension of Woodland Hills Drive, which currently stops approximately 300 feet short of the development. It’s not immediately clear whether Montgomery County or the developer plans to extend Woodland Hills north at this time.
Drainage in this area flows south to Bens Branch. Note in the layout above that two 7-foot-deep, dry-bottom, stormwater-detention basins flanked by drainage swales will help intercept stormwater flowing south before it reaches adjoining properties.
FEMA shows no floodplains in the area and USGS shows no wetlands on the site.
The detention basins for the 4.4 acre site will hold 4.4 acre feet of stormwater before they start to overflow. That exceeds Harris County Flood Control District’s minimum recommendation for areas flowing into Harris County.
Moreover, the engineer claims the site only requires 3.4 acre feet in a 100-year storm. That calculation is based on Atlas-14 requirements adopted by Montgomery County.
The engineer indicates that the maximum discharge rate for the ponds, which will be pumped, is about 8 cubic feet per second less than the natural runoff rate for the site. So for everything up to the 100-year storm, runoff going into Bens Branch from this area should be reduced.
All that is good news. Now for the bad news.
The engineer seems to have based all those calculations on 29% impervious cover.
That seems unlikely for this type of project. The number of parking spots per acre is roughly equivalent to the Laurel Springs RV resort which claimed to have 66% impervious cover, but likely has much higher.
Best practices require excluding detention basins from impervious cover calculations. A quick glance at the construction diagram above suggests that concrete will cover much more than a third of the remaining property.
Also, the engineer says it will take 48 hours to drain the ponds after a 100-year rain. The ponds do not appear to empty by gravity, however. They will require pumps, which could present problems in a power outage. Such outages frequently occur in storms strong enough to create floods.
Pictures Taken on 2/1/24 Show Extent of Construction
Currently, the site is being cleared. Construction has not yet started. I took the shots below on 2/1/24. They show the extent of clearing as of last week.
Looking SW at construction site. Woodland Hills and Kingwood Park HS on left. Northpark Rec Area top center. Homes are in Woodridge Forest.
Looking W toward Woodridge Middle School at top of frame. Reverse Angle. Looking E toward Woodridge Village. Surrounding areas already include a number of mobil homes and RVs.
Bens Branch Getting Crowded
I hope contractors build what the plans indicate. Bens Branch has enough flooding problems of its own. The Kingwood Area Drainage Analysis showed that parts of the stream could flood in a two-year rain.
Since that study, several high-density developments have been built nearby in the watershed. They include The Preserve at Woodridge, which apparently understated the amount of impervious cover, and Brooklyn Trails, which was grandfathered under pre-Atlas-14 requirements.
And then there’s the Northpark Drive Expansion Project, which is seeking more room for another detention basin to mitigate its own increases in impervious cover.
For now, the best thing to do is remain vigilant.
Posted by Bob Rehak on Feb. 7, 2024
2353 Days since Hurricane Harvey
The thoughts expressed in this post represent opinions on matters of public concern and safety. They are protected by the First Amendment of the US Constitution and the Anti-SLAPP Statute of the Great State of Texas.
https://i0.wp.com/reduceflooding.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/20240201-DJI_0545.jpg?fit=1100%2C733&ssl=17331100adminadmin2024-02-07 15:34:072024-02-08 10:12:00Another RV Resort Coming Near North End of Woodland Hills Drive
After January’s five-day hydro-fest, Houston area rivers, streams and ditches look like they woke up with a bad hangover. Some areas are hiding under broad blankets of sand. The root balls of uprooted trees jutted up from the San Jacinto riverbed like tank traps on a battlefield, a testament to how shallow the river has become once again. And sand, in at least one case, has totally blocked off a drainage ditch.
Photos at US59 Bridge over San Jacinto West Fork
Kingwood-area resident Robin Seydewitz took the three images and video at the US59 Bridge this morning (2/5/24).
Newly deposited sand.
y20-second YouTube video by Robin Seydewitz, panning west to east under bridge. Shows debris build-up.
Sediment Build Up Alarming
The January flood was not as bad as Harvey. This was a much smaller flood – the type that happens far more frequently – like every 2 to 5 years depending on where you live.
The danger is not so much what this flood deposited, but what similar floods can deposit over time and how they can reduce the conveyance of rivers, streams and ditches. All the accretions add up like hairballs in your shower drain.
Here’s how one minor storm totally blocked a ditch after one storm.
Northpark ditch blocked by sand/sediment after January flood. Pictures taken before the storm last November show it flowing freely.Taken 2/5/24.
Upstream of this blockage along the ditch, the Northpark South development, built on wetlands, is dumping its drainage into the abandoned sand mine on the right.
The 5-square mile Hallett sand mine is upstream on the left. Two residents/neighbors of the mine have witnessed the company pumping sludge from its settling pond on several occasions since the flood. The latest was tonight as I posted this article. They may have contributed to the build up also.
The Hallett operation is so large that the company actually mines sand on both sides of the river. You can see a small part of their operation below at the top of the frame.
Reverse angle. Taken 2/5/24.
Of course, some of the sediment shown in these photos comes from river bank erosion.
But some also comes from sand mines and new developments that have clearcut thousands of acres without taking precautions to control runoff. See examples below.
Northpark South developer clearcut wetlands and is draining through sand mine into West Fork where blockage appeared. Picture taken Jan. 24, 2024 during lull in rain.Evergreen Development at SH242and FM1314Colony Ridge drainage ditch in East Fork Watershed. Few if any of the ditches and detention ponds in the development have erosion protection measures installed per Liberty County regulations. Colony Ridge is now 50% larger than Manhattan.
Of course, we have many responsible developers and sand miners. But we also have some who are not.
Turning Natural Events into Unnatural Disasters
Robin Seydewitz is the river enthusiast, canoeist, kayaker, and flood activist who took many of the photos above. She said, “Sand mines that don’t operate safely are a big part of the problem. So are developers who clearcut land without barriers or natural vegetation to stop sediment from running off. The lack of enforcement for drainage regulations is another part of the problem. We need more protection for the public. This is my opinion. We are not protected; the mine owners, operators and developers are.”
The moral of this story?
We need better enforcement of drainage regulations. And we need another river survey, like the one we had after Harvey, to see how much conveyance has been reduced.
“It is foolish to keep dredging parts of the river downstream without addressing root causes upstream.”
Robin Seydewitz
Posted by Bob Rehak on 2/5/24
2351 Days since Hurricane Harvey
The thoughts expressed in this post represent opinions on matters of public concern and safety. They are protected by the First Amendment of the US Constitution and the Anti-SLAPP Statute of the Great State of Texas.
https://i0.wp.com/reduceflooding.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/20240205-DJI_0738.jpg?fit=1100%2C733&ssl=17331100adminadmin2024-02-05 18:15:122024-02-05 20:32:03River Wakes Up From Flood With Bad Hangover
Friendswood Development Company has started clearing 553 acres west of Huffman-Cleveland Road. It will eventually extend from Northwood County Estates on the north to Cypress Point on the south. Plat records show that Friendswood has named the development “Sila.”
Long, Narrow, Dense Homesites
The new residential community will contain an unspecified number of homesites, most long and narrow. This will certainly increase the percentage of impervious cover relative to the surrounding area.
Detail from Sila Section 3 plat approved by Houston Planning Commission in 2023.
Existing homes sit on larger, heavily wooded lots. So, this and other new, nearby developments will change the character of the area considerably. Along with that will come more traffic and congestion.
To put that in perspective, I talked to one homeowner in nearby Northwood Country Estates who owns a five-acre lot.
Forty-five of the lots indicated above could fit on his property.
Drainage Plans
Friendswood appears to be almost halfway done with clearing land for Sila. Consistent with best practices and construction plans, contractors appear to be clearing one section at a time, installing perimeter catchment ditches, erecting silt fence, and stabilizing land before moving on to the next area.
Detail from Sila drainage impact analysis.
The drainage analysis also claims that the development will provide more than the minimum amount of required detention-basin capacity. The minimum required is .65 acre feet per acre. But the engineering firm BGE says it will provide .67.
The minimum requirement was established by Harris County Flood Control District in 2019 after Hurricane Harvey. So, it should accommodate 100-year rainfalls projected under Atlas 14, NOAA’s current standard for rainfall estimates.
Approximately the northern half of this area has been cleared to date.
Approximately Half of Land Cleared So Far
The pictures below, all taken on 2/3/24, show the areas cleared so far.
Looking west over Huffman-Cleveland Road at extent of clearing. Curvature in road is caused by wide-angle-lens distortion.
The yellowish runoff in the foreground of the photo above is from Saint Tropez another new, but different development seen in the background of two pictures below.
Note the ditches that channel runoff away from homes in Northwood County Estates in upper right.
A 1.5 inch rain the night before I took these photos caused the ponding water you see.
Reverse angle. A series of three connected stormwater retention basins will flank the main entry road. Area to right (south) has not yet been cleared.Looking east toward Saint Tropez across Huffman-Cleveland Road.Friendswood appears to have planted grass in foreground to reduce erosion.Silt fence protects neighbors in other areas cleared earlier.
Proposed Lake Houston Mitigation Bank
The Sila property will drain into hundreds of acres that are part of the proposed Lake Houston Mitigation Bank.
Looking W at wetlands and floodplain between Sila and the East Fork San Jacinto.
East Fork San Jacinto River and Lake Houston Park beyond.
The preservation of so much land will help protect homebuyers from flooding. It will also provide wildlife habitat and an exceptional recreational amenity. Here’s the prospectus for the mitigation bank presented to the Army Corps. Corps approval still appears to be pending as of this writing.
Areas of Concern
Two areas of concern, however, exist near the land most recently cleared. Contractors have not yet erected silt fence or dug protective ditches behind some of the neighboring homes on Davidson Lane in Northwood County Estates.
Looking S. Neighboring homes in upper right were still unprotected from runoff when I took this picture on 2/3/24. Water flows from left to right toward East Fork San Jacinto out of frame on the right.Looking W. Note how runoff is draining across neighbor’s property. A larger rain could have caused damage.
Neighbors in Northwood County Estates are also concerned with how existing drainage will tie into Sila’s drainage. Elevations on county drawings and Sila’s drawings differ in places. So residents are asking for confirmation that existing ditches will continue to drain properly.
Ditch at end of Davidson Lane in Northwood Country Estates.
For the most part, with the exceptions noted above, Friendswood seems to be responsibly navigating the perilous early phase of development between clearing and the installation of drainage.
Posted by Bob Rehak on 2/4/24
2250 Days since Hurricane Harvey
The thoughts expressed in this post represent opinions on matters of public concern and safety. They are protected by the First Amendment of the US Constitution and the Anti-SLAPP Statute of the Great State of Texas.
https://i0.wp.com/reduceflooding.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/20240203-DJI_0671-Pano.jpg?fit=1100%2C462&ssl=14621100adminadmin2024-02-04 15:18:312024-02-04 18:57:12Friendswood Clearing 553 Acres in Huffman
Another RV Resort Coming Near North End of Woodland Hills Drive
Yet another “RV Resort” is coming to the Kingwood/Porter area. This one will be at the north end of Woodland Hills Drive about a block north of Kingwood Park High School. Plans show parking for 43 RVs on the 4.4 acre property.
The Porter Strong RV Resort, which contains a recreation building, dumpsters, and concrete driveways, will back up to homes along Birchwood Springs Avenue in Woodridge Forest.
The drainage calculations look impressive…until you consider the way they estimated impervious cover.
Access from Porter For Now
Access to the RV resort – at least for now – will be via Needham Road and Collette Lane in Porter. However, plans show a dotted line for an extension of Woodland Hills Drive, which currently stops approximately 300 feet short of the development. It’s not immediately clear whether Montgomery County or the developer plans to extend Woodland Hills north at this time.
Drainage and Detention Plans
Drainage in this area flows south to Bens Branch. Note in the layout above that two 7-foot-deep, dry-bottom, stormwater-detention basins flanked by drainage swales will help intercept stormwater flowing south before it reaches adjoining properties.
FEMA shows no floodplains in the area and USGS shows no wetlands on the site.
The detention basins for the 4.4 acre site will hold 4.4 acre feet of stormwater before they start to overflow. That exceeds Harris County Flood Control District’s minimum recommendation for areas flowing into Harris County.
Moreover, the engineer claims the site only requires 3.4 acre feet in a 100-year storm. That calculation is based on Atlas-14 requirements adopted by Montgomery County.
The engineer indicates that the maximum discharge rate for the ponds, which will be pumped, is about 8 cubic feet per second less than the natural runoff rate for the site. So for everything up to the 100-year storm, runoff going into Bens Branch from this area should be reduced.
All that is good news. Now for the bad news.
The engineer seems to have based all those calculations on 29% impervious cover.
That seems unlikely for this type of project. The number of parking spots per acre is roughly equivalent to the Laurel Springs RV resort which claimed to have 66% impervious cover, but likely has much higher.
Best practices require excluding detention basins from impervious cover calculations. A quick glance at the construction diagram above suggests that concrete will cover much more than a third of the remaining property.
Also, the engineer says it will take 48 hours to drain the ponds after a 100-year rain. The ponds do not appear to empty by gravity, however. They will require pumps, which could present problems in a power outage. Such outages frequently occur in storms strong enough to create floods.
Pictures Taken on 2/1/24 Show Extent of Construction
Currently, the site is being cleared. Construction has not yet started. I took the shots below on 2/1/24. They show the extent of clearing as of last week.
Looking SW at construction site. Woodland Hills and Kingwood Park HS on left. Northpark Rec Area top center. Homes are in Woodridge Forest.
Bens Branch Getting Crowded
I hope contractors build what the plans indicate. Bens Branch has enough flooding problems of its own. The Kingwood Area Drainage Analysis showed that parts of the stream could flood in a two-year rain.
Since that study, several high-density developments have been built nearby in the watershed. They include The Preserve at Woodridge, which apparently understated the amount of impervious cover, and Brooklyn Trails, which was grandfathered under pre-Atlas-14 requirements.
And then there’s the Northpark Drive Expansion Project, which is seeking more room for another detention basin to mitigate its own increases in impervious cover.
For now, the best thing to do is remain vigilant.
Posted by Bob Rehak on Feb. 7, 2024
2353 Days since Hurricane Harvey
The thoughts expressed in this post represent opinions on matters of public concern and safety. They are protected by the First Amendment of the US Constitution and the Anti-SLAPP Statute of the Great State of Texas.
River Wakes Up From Flood With Bad Hangover
After January’s five-day hydro-fest, Houston area rivers, streams and ditches look like they woke up with a bad hangover. Some areas are hiding under broad blankets of sand. The root balls of uprooted trees jutted up from the San Jacinto riverbed like tank traps on a battlefield, a testament to how shallow the river has become once again. And sand, in at least one case, has totally blocked off a drainage ditch.
Photos at US59 Bridge over San Jacinto West Fork
Kingwood-area resident Robin Seydewitz took the three images and video at the US59 Bridge this morning (2/5/24).
Sediment Build Up Alarming
The January flood was not as bad as Harvey. This was a much smaller flood – the type that happens far more frequently – like every 2 to 5 years depending on where you live.
The danger is not so much what this flood deposited, but what similar floods can deposit over time and how they can reduce the conveyance of rivers, streams and ditches. All the accretions add up like hairballs in your shower drain.
Here’s how one minor storm totally blocked a ditch after one storm.
Upstream of this blockage along the ditch, the Northpark South development, built on wetlands, is dumping its drainage into the abandoned sand mine on the right.
The 5-square mile Hallett sand mine is upstream on the left. Two residents/neighbors of the mine have witnessed the company pumping sludge from its settling pond on several occasions since the flood. The latest was tonight as I posted this article. They may have contributed to the build up also.
The Hallett operation is so large that the company actually mines sand on both sides of the river. You can see a small part of their operation below at the top of the frame.
Of course, some of the sediment shown in these photos comes from river bank erosion.
But some also comes from sand mines and new developments that have clearcut thousands of acres without taking precautions to control runoff. See examples below.
Of course, we have many responsible developers and sand miners. But we also have some who are not.
Turning Natural Events into Unnatural Disasters
Robin Seydewitz is the river enthusiast, canoeist, kayaker, and flood activist who took many of the photos above. She said, “Sand mines that don’t operate safely are a big part of the problem. So are developers who clearcut land without barriers or natural vegetation to stop sediment from running off. The lack of enforcement for drainage regulations is another part of the problem. We need more protection for the public. This is my opinion. We are not protected; the mine owners, operators and developers are.”
The moral of this story?
We need better enforcement of drainage regulations. And we need another river survey, like the one we had after Harvey, to see how much conveyance has been reduced.
Posted by Bob Rehak on 2/5/24
2351 Days since Hurricane Harvey
The thoughts expressed in this post represent opinions on matters of public concern and safety. They are protected by the First Amendment of the US Constitution and the Anti-SLAPP Statute of the Great State of Texas.
Friendswood Clearing 553 Acres in Huffman
Friendswood Development Company has started clearing 553 acres west of Huffman-Cleveland Road. It will eventually extend from Northwood County Estates on the north to Cypress Point on the south. Plat records show that Friendswood has named the development “Sila.”
Long, Narrow, Dense Homesites
The new residential community will contain an unspecified number of homesites, most long and narrow. This will certainly increase the percentage of impervious cover relative to the surrounding area.
Existing homes sit on larger, heavily wooded lots. So, this and other new, nearby developments will change the character of the area considerably. Along with that will come more traffic and congestion.
To put that in perspective, I talked to one homeowner in nearby Northwood Country Estates who owns a five-acre lot.
Drainage Plans
Friendswood appears to be almost halfway done with clearing land for Sila. Consistent with best practices and construction plans, contractors appear to be clearing one section at a time, installing perimeter catchment ditches, erecting silt fence, and stabilizing land before moving on to the next area.
The drainage analysis also claims that the development will provide more than the minimum amount of required detention-basin capacity. The minimum required is .65 acre feet per acre. But the engineering firm BGE says it will provide .67.
The minimum requirement was established by Harris County Flood Control District in 2019 after Hurricane Harvey. So, it should accommodate 100-year rainfalls projected under Atlas 14, NOAA’s current standard for rainfall estimates.
Approximately Half of Land Cleared So Far
The pictures below, all taken on 2/3/24, show the areas cleared so far.
The yellowish runoff in the foreground of the photo above is from Saint Tropez another new, but different development seen in the background of two pictures below.
A 1.5 inch rain the night before I took these photos caused the ponding water you see.
Proposed Lake Houston Mitigation Bank
The Sila property will drain into hundreds of acres that are part of the proposed Lake Houston Mitigation Bank.
LH Ranch has proposed creation of the wetlands mitigation bank here.
The preservation of so much land will help protect homebuyers from flooding. It will also provide wildlife habitat and an exceptional recreational amenity. Here’s the prospectus for the mitigation bank presented to the Army Corps. Corps approval still appears to be pending as of this writing.
Areas of Concern
Two areas of concern, however, exist near the land most recently cleared. Contractors have not yet erected silt fence or dug protective ditches behind some of the neighboring homes on Davidson Lane in Northwood County Estates.
Neighbors in Northwood County Estates are also concerned with how existing drainage will tie into Sila’s drainage. Elevations on county drawings and Sila’s drawings differ in places. So residents are asking for confirmation that existing ditches will continue to drain properly.
For the most part, with the exceptions noted above, Friendswood seems to be responsibly navigating the perilous early phase of development between clearing and the installation of drainage.
Posted by Bob Rehak on 2/4/24
2250 Days since Hurricane Harvey
The thoughts expressed in this post represent opinions on matters of public concern and safety. They are protected by the First Amendment of the US Constitution and the Anti-SLAPP Statute of the Great State of Texas.