Tag Archive for: drainage impact analysis

City to Consider Approval of Development in Swamp While Keeping Drainage Study Secret

1/19/26 – On Thursday, January 22, 2026, at 2:30 PM the Houston Planning Commission may consider approval of a proposed half-billion development in swampland. Specifically, Roman Arrow LLC (AKA Romerica), the developer, has requested plat approval with a variance for a new subdivision between Kingwood Lakes and the Barrington.

Draft Agenda Item 89 lists the project name as River Grove, but drawings within the variance request call it Kingwood Marina.

City Appeals FOIA Request to Attorney General

The Planning and Development Department appealed my Freedom of Information Act request for the developer’s drainage study to the Texas Attorney General. That means the public may not be able to review the drainage plans before the Planning Commission rules on plat approval. Worse, the public may never get to see the drainage study.

Marbet Alonzo of the City Planning and Development Department said, “The document you requested is a third-party document and cannot be released at this time. We have submitted a request to the Attorney General’s Office for a ruling. Once a determination is made and the document is eligible for release, we will provide it promptly.”

Approving plans before the public has had a chance to review all relevant documents highlights serious transparency and procedural issues.

Bob Rehak

You may submit public comments by sending an email to speakercomments.pc@houstontx.gov, at least 24 hours in advance of the meeting. Reference 2025-2266 River Grove GP in the title of your email.

Transparency and Procedural Issues

In my opinion, the only honorable thing to do in this case is to defer a decision until after the attorney general has ruled on release of the study, and the public has had time to review and prepare comments. If the attorney general allows the drainage plans to remain secret, then the City should deny permits.

Page 158 of the agenda shows that consideration may be deferred to a future date. However, the MLK holiday disrupted the Planning Commission’s normal publication schedule. So, I’m still looking at a DRAFT agenda. However, public comments must be submitted 24 hours before the meeting. Accordingly, I’m publishing this post today, so that people can email comments Tuesday before the deadline on Wednesday.

Rehak’s Concerns

To be fair, my concerns go beyond street layouts. I have been photographing this property for years. I started when Romerica first proposed building 50 story high-rises in the floodplain of the San Jacinto West Fork on another portion of their property south of the Barrington.

But I’ve also kept a close eye on the portion of the property north of Barrington. The photos below show some of the issues.

Roman Arrow land after two inches of rainfall in previous month.
Looking E. Barrington on R. Roman Arrow property upper left. Photo taken on 5/3/24.
One day later from opposite direction looking W. Roman Arrow property is right of upper center.
Romerica elevation profile
USGS National Map shows that Roman Arrow land (center) averages 7 feet lower than Barrington (Bottom).
Roman Arrow/Romerica Wetlands shown in green both north and south of Barrington (center)

Given that current floodplain maps show the entire Roman Arrow property in the 100-year floodplain, they will not be able to bring in fill to elevate the homes and hotel they plan to build there. They will have to excavate dirt from their property or elevate structures on stilts.

Romerica/Roman Arrow land in center; see above. Aqua=100-year floodplain. Brown=500 year. Cross-hatch=floodway of West Fork.

Note the date on the map above: 2007. When new flood maps are released, floodplains and floodways are expected to expand by 50-100%.

What Do They Plan to Build?

The developers have said they hope to build the development in two phases.

Phase One includes a 297,600-square-foot Fairmont Hotel with 400 rooms and 90 condominium residences.

Phase Two includes another 226,085-square-foot hotel with 37 8,611-square-foot villas, each on one third acre lots.

They plan to build the roads up to 60 feet – 13 feet above swamp level and 5 feet higher than the roads in Barrington.

Pedestrian pathways would be elevated to 71 feet – 11 feet above the roads.

The hotels would top out 65 feet above ground level. But the first residential floor of the condominiums would start at 65 feet and rise two stories.

They claim ground level will be 53 feet – 7 feet below the road level.

It’s all very confusing. That’s why we need to see the drainage plans. Where will the fill come from? Do they plan to build on stilts? Will structures and fill impede the flow of the floodway when new flood maps are released?

They can’t bring fill into the 100-year floodplain. And excavating it from land that’s already underwater won’t help mitigate increased flood potential.

Phase II Hotel
Phase II Condo

Third Time Around

This is the third concept that Romerica/Roman Arrow developers have pitched for this property.

  • The first was 25- to 50-story high-rises south of the Barrington with underground parking next to the floodway of the West Fork.
  • Then they pitched a series of homes on stilts under the name Orchard Seeded Ranches. That quietly fell off the radar.
  • Now this.

The land previously belonged to developer Ron Holley who fought the City for 20 years for the right to build on it.

Many have conjectured whether these developers are trying to raise money for the development via EB-5 visas. The developers are foreign nationals and are shielding their Texas operating companies through a series of approximately 30 shell companies at last count.

EB-5 visas give preferential consideration for green cards to foreigners and their families who invest $800,000 to a million dollars or more in American infrastructure projects that create jobs.

I have no evidence that that is their plan. Neither can I find any evidence that they have actually completed any developments in the U.S. under the names Romerica or Roman Arrow.

A web search for Roman Arrow LLC turns up lawsuits brought by City of Houston, Harris County and Lone Star College District for delinquent taxes. Humble ISD filed another separate tax lawsuit.

Neither Romerica nor Roman Arrow appears to have an active website – something that seems strange for a company claiming that this will be a half-billion project.

Posted by Bob Rehak on 1/19/2026

3065 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.

Royal Pines Construction Begins

Royal Pines, a new, 150-acre development in Porter at the north end of West Lake Houston Parkway (WLHP) is mobilizing for construction. The developer began clearing and grading the site in April 2022. By September 2022, they finished. And by October 2022, they were flooding neighbors.

For the past 18 months, they’ve been working on building two detention basins to help solve the flooding problems as they finalized their drainage and construction plans. They recently received Montgomery County permits and are now mobilizing for construction.

In response to a FOIA Request, Montgomery County supplied the drainage impact analysis and construction plans today. But they are far too large to post here. They include 314 pages of technical drawings. And they total almost 400 megabytes. So I will provide a brief summary now and provide more detail after I dig deeper.

Two Phases, Three Sections in First

According to the drainage impact analysis, construction will take place in two phases.

The developer, Starlight Homes Texas, LLC, owns land in the floodplain and floodway of White Oak Creek. Approximately 40 acres – almost a third of the site – will be used for recreation and green space, but not homes.

The first phase of construction will have three sections clustered near the current northern terminus of WLHP. WHLP will later be extended farther north. Plans for Phase II have not yet been completed or approved.

Purple Area will be developed in Phase I and have three sections. Red area will be Phase II.

Altogether, the development will have 448 homes. About two thirds will be on 40′ wide x 125′ long, 1/8th acre lots. The rest will be 10 feet longer.

Drainage Impact Analysis Claims No Adverse Impacts

The drainage impact analysis was based on 2018 Lidar data and NOAA’s Atlas-14 rainfall probability statistics. Both are current.

Part of the site used to drain toward WLHP. But the drainage was altered during grading. Now, all but 2.5 acres flows to the two detention basins and White Oak Creek.

Western stormwater detention basin. Property in background flooded several times before basin was built.
Eastern stormwater detention basin does not quite follow schematic layout. It sits where White Oak Creek cut across property during a 5-year rain.

The drainage impact analysis provides a summary for how the detention basins will perform in 25- and 100-year storms. In either event and in either direction (White Oak or WLHP), the claimed post-development runoff is less than the pre-development. See table below.

From Page 15 of Drainage Impact Study by DE Corp., 10/9/23.

The drainage impact analysis makes a great deal about how the total discharge beats requirements by such a large margin. However, keep in mind that the analysis does not yet include runoff from Phase II.

The engineer, Amy Dziuk, makes a point that the surplus capacity will be used later for Phase II. She claims that Phase I will “not cause adverse impacts to the receiving waterways or surrounding areas.”

Photos of Equipment and Materials Being Staged

I took these photos on 4/15/24. Concrete and HDPE pipe as well as heavy equipment are scattered throughout Phase I of the site. See below.

Looking south toward Country Colony at equipment and materials being pre-positioned.
Green pipe is usually used for sewage or drain lines. Blue carries water.
Section 3, Phase I west of Country Colony

I also saw men cleaning the entrance to the site and repairing silt fence.

Looking S at north end of WLHP from entrance to Royal Pines

Perhaps the attention to housekeeping in the photo above will be a good omen. Let’s hope they keep it up.

Posted by Bob Rehak on 4/16/2024

2422 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.

How to Find and Verify Flood-Related Information: Part II

This is Part II in a series about how to find and verify flood-related information. Yesterday’s post focused on finding good information about flood vulnerabilities. This second part will focus on reviewing developers’ plans. The second can compound the first.

The very first sentence of the Texas Water Code § 11.086 begins with a warning not to flood your neighbors. It says, “No person may divert or impound the natural flow of surface waters in this state, or permit a diversion or impounding by him to continue, in a manner that damages the property of another by the overflow of the water diverted or impounded.”

The second sentence declares that a person injured by diverted water may sue to recover damages. Of course, at that point the damage has already been done. Lawsuits are expensive and take years. And the defendant, usually a developer, will always point to plans prepared by a professional engineer and approved by a government body. Suing them will require expert witnesses. And the defendant will likely claim that you wouldn’t have flooded except for an Act of God.

Lawsuits are tall, expensive mountains to climb. So concerned residents near new developments are better off closely scrutinizing plans before they’re built and closely monitoring construction to ensure developers follow the plans.

You can’t stop development. But you can ensure developers play by the rules.

But how do you find and verify their plans?

Need to Find and Verify Info

If you notice a large piece of property for sale near you, monitor it closely. Check with the listing agent. Also check Houston’s Plat Tracker website. It’s updated before every meeting of the Planning Commission and shows items on their agenda. Houston also maintains a map-based website that shows projects in various stages of approval throughout the City and its extra-territorial jurisdiction.

Leap into action if you find a potential cause for concern near you. The next step is to obtain the development’s plans, the drainage impact analysis and soil tests. The developer must prove “no adverse impact” to people and properties downstream.

How you obtain those plans and studies depends on the development’s location. If inside a municipality, check with your city council representative. If you live outside a municipality, your best starting point will probably be your county engineer or precinct commissioner.

The plans are public information and must be provided in response to Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) Requests.

Signed, Stamped, Approved and So Obviously Wrong

In every case I reviewed during the last four years where someone flooded because of a new development, something jumped out of the plans that should have raised concerns for reviewers, but didn’t.

For instance, after Colony Ridge engineers apparently mischaracterized soil types, Plum Grove flooded repeatedly. The engineer said soils would let more water soak in than actually could. That meant the developer didn’t have to build as many detention ponds and could sell more lots. But it also contributed to flooding homes downstream.

Another example, the engineers for Woodridge Village claimed there were no floodplains on the property when there were. The property just hadn’t been surveyed yet.

In those cases, multiple other issues surfaced after close review. Wetlands that had been ignored. Substandard construction of detention ditches that led to severe erosion. Failure to implement stormwater quality controls. Failure to follow plans. Ignoring Atlas-14 requirements that led to undersizing detention ponds by 40%. And more.

In another development, I spotted safety issues related to river migration that had been ignored. Underground parking next to the floodway of the San Jacinto River. Failure to consider flood evacuation.

Concerned citizens must learn how to obtain and review such plans for potential problems or hire a consulting engineer.

Here are some things I’ve learned to look for.

Soil Tests

Are they accurate? Were the samples taken at representative points? Or did they conveniently ignore wetlands? Permeability of the soils will affect the amount of detention needed. The level of the water table could affect the amount of detention provided.

  • Highly permeable soils like sand have a high rate of infiltration and will let developers get away with less detention. Clay-based soils will require more. One engineer told me, “Soils like Colony Ridge reported don’t exist in the State of Texas.”
  • If plans call for a ten-foot deep detention pond, but the soil test encounters a shallower water table, that will compromise the pond’s capacity. Capacity should be calculated from the top of standing water, not the bottom of the pond. If the pond is already half full, that half shouldn’t count.

You can check the soils that a developer reports against the USDA national soil database.

Floodplain Issues

Floodplain maps in Harris County are currently being revised. That may not be the case in surrounding counties. The lack of updated flood maps endangers current residents, by letting developers build to old and ineffective standards.

Developers often try to beat the implementation of new requirements. This happened in the case of Woodridge Village. It’s also happening in the case of the Laurel Springs RV Park and Northpark South along Sorters-McClellan Road. The entrance to the Northpark development sits in a bowl. A quick check of the elevation profile on the USGS National Map confirmed that. During Harvey, local residents tell me that not even high-water rescue vehicles could get through that intersection. Put the Cajun Navy on standby now.

Wetland Issues

Filling wetlands requires an Army Corps permit for some, but not all wetlands. Whether they fall under the Corps’ jurisdiction depends on how far up in the branching structure of a watershed they are. Those near the main stem are jurisdictional. Three levels up may not be.

The US Fish and Wildlife service has thoroughly documented wetlands in this area. Check their National Wetlands Database and appeal to the Corps if you find a problem. At a minimum, the developer may be forced to buy mitigation credits somewhere nearby, which could help reduce flooding.

Drainage Issues

Is a new development’s detention pond capacity adequate? Is it based on the right percentage of impermeable cover? If the pond(s) fill up, where will the water go?

Calculating detention capacity requires math skills most people don’t have. But you can check the basis for the calculations. Are plans based on new Atlas-14 requirements? Are plans meeting current Houston and Harris County requirements?

Current City of Houston and Harris County Requirements for Detention Pond Capacity

In the case of the RV park, the developer will provide roughly half the current capacity requirement thanks to a grandfather clause in the regs. You can find construction guidelines for Houston, Harris County, MoCo and Liberty County on the Reports Page under the Construction tab.

Also see where they’re routing excess water in case of an overflow.

In the case of the Laurel Springs RV Park, the developer said they would route the water to a detention pond near Hamblen and Laurel Springs in anything greater than a two year rain. See below.

Screen Capture from Laurel Springs RV Resort Drainage Impact Report shows that in anything greater than a 2-year rain, overflow water will could threaten homes in Lakewood Cove.
RV Park Site Outlined in White. Overflow described above would presumably follow red path.
Laurel Springs RV Park as of 11/29/21. Detention pond will go in foreground, but overflow will go into pond at top of frame according to text above.

Missing Details from Drainage Impact Analysis

I have requested additional details three times from the City but still have not received them. I suspect they may not exist. All other plan requests have been filled.

So what happens when the Lakewood Cove detention pond fills up? Or gets covered up in a flood? Overflow from the RV park will contribute to flooding someone downstream.

The developer also said excess capacity would get to the Lakewood Cove pond by overland sheet flow. That could threaten homes on the southwest corner of Lakewood Cove – visible in the middle of shot above.

But a City engineer reviewing the plans said overflow would follow the railroad tracks on the western side of the RV park. Hmmmm. Two engineers – one who developed the plans and another who approved them – 180 degrees apart. What’s a concerned citizen to do?

If the engineers who develop and review such plans were always right, no one would ever flood. But we do. So always find and verify those plans.

To see the first part of this series, click here.

Posted by Bob Rehak on 11/29/2021

1553 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.