Ever drive down a road, see someone clearing land, and wonder what was going in? Every wonder what the boundaries of your Tax Increment Reinvestment Zone (TIRZ) were? Do you know where the boundaries of your City, Council district, and the City’s Extra Territorial Jurisdiction (ETJ) are?
Plat Tracker is Gateway to Understanding Developments Around You
Here’s a quick and easy way to find the answers to all those questions and more. It’s the Houston Plat Tracker website.
The colored parcels represent land being developed.
Clicking on any one of the colored parcels in the mappulls up information about it.
Clicking on the parcel shows plat application number, name and when it is being reviewed.
Turn layers on and off to see the boundaries of City Council Districts, the City limits, the ETJ, TIRZ districts, management districts, historical districts and more.
Plat Tracker also contains powerful measuring and drawing tools.
Zooming into that big purple area north of Huffman in the maps above and then outlining it, showed that the two developments, called Timbers and Los Pinos, comprise more than 6,000 acres!
Plat Tracker has a gallery of 29 different base maps. They include road maps, satellite images, and more. The possibilities are almost endless.
https://i0.wp.com/reduceflooding.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/Screen-Shot-2021-06-20-at-7.58.15-AM.png?fit=2610%2C1342&ssl=113422610adminadmin2021-06-20 09:28:472021-06-20 09:31:13What’s Going On in Your Neighborhood?
Every once in a while you see something that distills the essence of a problem…and perhaps a solution. This map hit me between the eyes with the force of a 2×4. It shows the physical and political boundaries of every Harris County Watershed.
Flood Control Out of Bounds
Notice how three watersheds on the northern side of Harris county extend far outside it: Spring, San Jacinto and Luce. The vast majority of each watershed lies in upstream counties such as Montgomery and Liberty. I visually guesstimate about three quarters of each lies outside Harris County.
Watershed map of Harris County shows physical boundaries of Spring, San Jacinto and Luce extend far outside county lines. The same is true for other watersheds on the Harris County periphery.
These watersheds have physical problems that only political solutions will help.
Without the cooperation of county engineers, floodplain managers and commissioners in those upstream counties, there will be no permanent solutions to flooding problems downstream. New developments without enough detention pond capacity can send water downstream faster than we can expand ditches and streams here.
If every new development built enough detention capacity to hold back large rains, no one downstream would face increased flooding risk. The mantra of floodplain managers everywhere is “retain your rain.” It’s a good motto to live by. Those who live upstream today will fight these battles thirty years from now when development extends beyond them. Eventually, everyone is downstream from someone else. We all need to learn to live together.
Posted by Bob Rehak on 6/17/2021
1388 Days since Hurricane Harvey
https://i0.wp.com/reduceflooding.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/SanJacSpringLuce.jpg?fit=1200%2C1553&ssl=115531200adminadmin2021-06-17 10:04:352021-06-17 10:07:56Why Harris County’s Northern Watersheds Are Different
Two letters from Texas General Land Office (GLO) – one to the US Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and the other to US Representatives Al Green and Sylvia Garcia – explain the GLO’s awards in a recent competition for $1.1 billion in Harvey mitigation funding.
GLO Commissioner George P. Bush sent the first letter to HUD on May 27, shortly after the GLO “snubbed” (according to Mayor Sylvester Turner) Houston and Harris County. Outraged politicians at City Hall and the County Courthouse organized a protest campaign targeted at the HUD and the GLO. These two letters lay out a slightly different mitigation funding story than the one peddled to Houston media outlets by the City and County. Most media coverage trumpeted how Houston and Harris County got “zero” out of competition because of political warfare between Republicans in Austin and Democrats here.
The facts in these two letters got very little play in Houston media.
Bush Letter to HUD Requests $750 Million Direct Allocation for Harris County
Bush’s letter explains to HUD how the GLO organized and scored grant applications in the competition. The letter also explains how:
GLO received more than $6.5 billion in grant requests for $1.1 billion during floods in 2015, 2016, and 2017.
Money was awarded based on a numeric scoring system approved by HUD
Harris County was one of dozens of counties affected by the three storms
Harris County and Harris County communities were awarded $90.4 million and $26.7 million for a total of $117,213,863.96 in the first round of mitigation competition.
He (Bush) is submitting a “new action plan amendment” to that will direct $750 million to Harris County.
GLO recognizes the great need for mitigation funding in Harris County.
GLO supports a direct allocation to Harris County (non-competitive)
He (Bush) requests speedy approval of the action plan amendment/direct allocation.
Hmmmmm. $117 million is a little more than zero. However, the point to remember here is that Harris County Flood Control got zero. The $117 went to cities within Harris County to improve resilience.
Havens’ Letter Cites HUD Restrictions, Slow Rate of Drawdown for Previous Programs
HUD did not allow damage from Hurricane Harvey to be used as a metric for allocating CDBG-MIT (Community Development Block Grant Mitigation) funding!
Mark Havens, Deputy land commissioner
Deputy Commissioner Havens also points out that:
The previous HUD secretary was adamant that a direct allocation didn’t go to Houston and Harris County, and that all counties should be eligible for funds.
If you add the $117 million mentioned above to the $750 million direct allocation requested by Bush, Harris County would actually get $867 million which the County could then share with the City of Houston as it saw fit.
Harris County also set aside $120 million in infrastructure funding out of the original $2.5 billion allocated to the County and City in the first round of Hurricane Harvey funding.
The City also received a direct allocation of $61,884,000 in mitigation funding out of the original $2.5 billion.
Out of the $2.5 billion, only $91,225,206 – or 3.6% of the total has been drawn down to date.
If the City and County don’t dramatically speed up the distribution of these funds, the funds will be returned to HUD.
HUD not yet responded to the request for the $750 million direct allocation.
Flood mitigation should be non-partisan. This is about helping people whose lives were destroyed by flooding, not finger pointing. I’m not taking sides. I’m just trying to help give you the information you need about mitigation funding to intelligently question the officials you elected to serve you.
Posted by Bob Rehak on 6/15/2021
1386 Days since Hurricane Harvey
https://i0.wp.com/reduceflooding.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/TS-Harvey-8-30-17-209.jpg?fit=1024%2C768&ssl=17681024adminadmin2021-06-15 20:07:292021-06-15 20:10:31GLO Letters to HUD, Green, Garcia Tell Another Side of Mitigation Funding Story
What’s Going On in Your Neighborhood?
Ever drive down a road, see someone clearing land, and wonder what was going in? Every wonder what the boundaries of your Tax Increment Reinvestment Zone (TIRZ) were? Do you know where the boundaries of your City, Council district, and the City’s Extra Territorial Jurisdiction (ETJ) are?
Plat Tracker is Gateway to Understanding Developments Around You
Here’s a quick and easy way to find the answers to all those questions and more. It’s the Houston Plat Tracker website.
Clicking on any one of the colored parcels in the map pulls up information about it.
Plat Tracker also contains powerful measuring and drawing tools.
Plat Tracker has a gallery of 29 different base maps. They include road maps, satellite images, and more. The possibilities are almost endless.
Plat Tracker is one of the best ways I know of to see and understand the region’s relentless expansion. Check out all the features on the Plat Tracker website.
You can use what you find on Plat Tracker to get even more information on the City’s Planning Commission website as projects come up for review.
Other GIS Websites Offered By City of Houston
Also check this gateway to other GIS (geographic information systems) that the City offers. The City offers 26 GIS maps that show everything from pothole repair requests to flood hazards, parks, transportation, recreational facilities, land use, controlled airspace, and more.
Posted by Bob Rehak on 6/20/2021
1391 Days since Hurricane Harvey
Why Harris County’s Northern Watersheds Are Different
Every once in a while you see something that distills the essence of a problem…and perhaps a solution. This map hit me between the eyes with the force of a 2×4. It shows the physical and political boundaries of every Harris County Watershed.
Flood Control Out of Bounds
Notice how three watersheds on the northern side of Harris county extend far outside it: Spring, San Jacinto and Luce. The vast majority of each watershed lies in upstream counties such as Montgomery and Liberty. I visually guesstimate about three quarters of each lies outside Harris County.
Without the cooperation of county engineers, floodplain managers and commissioners in those upstream counties, there will be no permanent solutions to flooding problems downstream. New developments without enough detention pond capacity can send water downstream faster than we can expand ditches and streams here.
If every new development built enough detention capacity to hold back large rains, no one downstream would face increased flooding risk. The mantra of floodplain managers everywhere is “retain your rain.” It’s a good motto to live by. Those who live upstream today will fight these battles thirty years from now when development extends beyond them. Eventually, everyone is downstream from someone else. We all need to learn to live together.
Posted by Bob Rehak on 6/17/2021
1388 Days since Hurricane Harvey
GLO Letters to HUD, Green, Garcia Tell Another Side of Mitigation Funding Story
Two letters from Texas General Land Office (GLO) – one to the US Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and the other to US Representatives Al Green and Sylvia Garcia – explain the GLO’s awards in a recent competition for $1.1 billion in Harvey mitigation funding.
GLO Commissioner George P. Bush sent the first letter to HUD on May 27, shortly after the GLO “snubbed” (according to Mayor Sylvester Turner) Houston and Harris County. Outraged politicians at City Hall and the County Courthouse organized a protest campaign targeted at the HUD and the GLO. These two letters lay out a slightly different mitigation funding story than the one peddled to Houston media outlets by the City and County. Most media coverage trumpeted how Houston and Harris County got “zero” out of competition because of political warfare between Republicans in Austin and Democrats here.
The facts in these two letters got very little play in Houston media.
Bush Letter to HUD Requests $750 Million Direct Allocation for Harris County
Bush’s letter explains to HUD how the GLO organized and scored grant applications in the competition. The letter also explains how:
Hmmmmm. $117 million is a little more than zero. However, the point to remember here is that Harris County Flood Control got zero. The $117 went to cities within Harris County to improve resilience.
Havens’ Letter Cites HUD Restrictions, Slow Rate of Drawdown for Previous Programs
Deputy GLO Land Commissioner Mark Havens penned the second letter to Green and Garcia on June 10, 2021. It begins by making some of the same points about $6.5 billion in applications, HUD-approved rules, etc. But then, in regard to the rules he adds something new in the debate.
Deputy Commissioner Havens also points out that:
For More Information
For the full text of:
To see the full text of other documents relating to this issue, see the links this post.
Flood mitigation should be non-partisan. This is about helping people whose lives were destroyed by flooding, not finger pointing. I’m not taking sides. I’m just trying to help give you the information you need about mitigation funding to intelligently question the officials you elected to serve you.
Posted by Bob Rehak on 6/15/2021
1386 Days since Hurricane Harvey