The city of San Marcos hosted a town hall meeting April 16 to discuss potential uses for the $25 million disaster recovery grant the city was awarded in February.
The funds, which come from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, could be used for raising homes out of the floodplain, home rehab projects, buyout programs, public housing, disaster preparedness solutions and other uses.
“We had a number of conversations with HUD staff at national and regional offices,” San Marcos City Manager Jared Miller said. “The one statement that was highlighted in every conversation was the requirement to use these funds for community resiliency projects—projects and programs that repair damaged and prevent repeated damage in the future.”
The city is waiting for the release of the federal register, a comprehensive document that will specify how the money is to be used. Once the register is released, the city will have 90 days to formulate an action plan spelling out in broad terms how the city will make areas throughout San Marcos more resilient to flooding. After HUD approves the action plan, the city can begin implementing the projects.
Of the few dozen attendees at the April 16 meeting, about half suffered property damage in the Memorial Day weekend and All Saints' Day floods in 2015, according to a poll taken at the meeting. About 32 percent of attendees said their home is still completely unlivable or only partially livable after last year’s two floods.
Miller and Ken Bell, San Marcos' emergency management coordinator, said the city is seeking out grant opportunities to help fund whatever action plan is ultimately approved.
“We can potentially leverage these funds with other funding opportunities to make $25 million function more like a bigger number,” Miller said.
Among the options on the table, the city will consider a bypass project that would take the Blanco River on a new course east of San Marcos. If that project were to be built it would involve a partnership with several entities, including the city, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the Guadalupe-Blanco River Authority, Miller said.
Miller said the city will also consider using the money to help residents elevate their homes out of the floodplain or for buyouts, but the money the city received would not be enough to fully address every individual home in the damaged areas.
Lucy Edgell, a San Marcos resident who was flooded out of her home in the Fairlawn area just north of Uhland Road, said she received 5 to 6 feet of water in her home. She has been unable to move back in, she said.
"That house is sitting there," she said. "It looks beautiful on the outside but there is nothing in it—nothing but studs. ... So my comment would be, please I want a buyout for that property. It’s there. The house is there. I want a buyout so we can recoup something."
Miller said the city may be able to do “some combination” of buyouts, home-elevation assistance and large-scale engineering projects such as the Blanco River bypass.
