January: New parks, recreation opportunities to join Bay Area
A 200-acre Clear Lake project that began as stormwater detention at a former golf course has since evolved into both flood-mitigation structures and a local recreation destination. The remaining two sections of the five-phase nonprofit project, known as Exploration Green, are set to be complete by the end of 2022.
Informal spot surveys conducted by Frank Weary, Exploration Green’s board of directors chair, in mid-2019 indicated the property saw 100 visitors or so a day. By mid-2020, shortly after Phase 2 opened, it increased to 300 per day. By the end of 2022, Weary expects the property will see 500 to 700 people per day.
February:
Bay Area leaders focus on local flood projects
Numerous flood protection projects will move forward in the Bay Area this year, including a multibillion-dollar regional coastal project as well as several projects in League City.
The Gulf Coast Protection District, an entity aimed to leverage funding for flood control projects, was created by the Texas Legislature last summer. Now, officials are considering how the district can help fund flood mitigation projects along the Texas coast.
Stakeholders use data to address Harris County’s criminal justice system challenges, case backlog
Local agencies are working together to improve Harris County’s criminal justice system—a system experts said is overwhelmed with a backlog of cases and discriminates against low-income residents and people of color.
Harris County Commissioners Court created the Justice Administration Department in 2019 to identify solutions and facilitate meaningful changes to the system.
March:
Helen Hall Library rebounds from COVID-19, looks to future
When Tommy Frankovich moved to League City in 1980, the first place he visited was Helen Hall Library in League City so his children could check out books.
“They like to read,” he said. “They grew up in that library, and my son’s a writer now.”
Now, more than 40 years later, Frankovich—former League City mayor and now the library’s board president—said Helen Hall Library at Hwy. 3 and Walker Street is still among the best libraries he has ever visited due to its various programs and welcoming atmosphere.Under librarian Teresa Potter, Helen Hall Library was given the 2021 Achievement of Excellence in Libraries Award—a first-time designation for the library. Additionally, the library in February celebrated a major milestone: its 50th anniversary.
Foster children without placement rise across Harris, Galveston counties
The number of children without placement in the Texas foster care system has skyrocketed over the last two years, increasing by more than 1,100% since October 2019, according to data provided by the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services.
According to DFPS officials, individuals in the state’s foster care system receive a “child without placement” designation, or CWOP, when the state cannot find a suitable and safe placement for that child, requiring the DFPS to provide temporary emergency care until a placement can be secured.
April:
Making a destination: League City, developer sign agreement to build Riverview
League City City Council last summer voted down a contract to create Riverbend, a 68.5-acre mixed-use development. At the time, certain city staff members said they felt disheveled.
Officials were hoping to turn Wesley Drive near I-45 into a destination for both residents and visitors alike, but City Council voted down the Riverbend plan in a 4-4 vote with opponents proclaiming the city should not incentivize developers to build multifamily housing, restaurants and retail.
Opioid overdose deaths continue rising due to pandemic, fentanyl
Opioid overdose deaths have risen in Texas since the pandemic began in 2020, but officials with Galveston and Harris counties said initiatives have been implemented during the pandemic to help prevent a dramatic increase in opioid-related deaths.
Information from the Texas attorney general’s office indicates drug overdose deaths had increased by around 32% in 2020 from the previous year, driven primarily by opioids. Additionally, provisional data from the National Center for Health Statistics showed opioid overdose deaths nearly doubled in Texas from January 2019 to October 2021, and there was an additional 30% increase in deaths from October 2020 to October 2021, the most recent data available.
May:
A fresh start: Development taking off in Seabrook as Hwy. 146 widening nears completion
It is three years into the Texas Department of Transportation’s five-year, $201 million project to widen Hwy. 146 from Seabrook to Kemah, and Seabrook City Manager Gayle Cook said the construction, while frustrating, will be a fresh start for Seabrook.
Upon completion in late 2023, the old Hwy. 146 bridge over Clear Creek will be widened from two to three lanes in both directions between Red Bluff Road and Hwy. 96. Additionally, two express bridges will be constructed—one with two northbound lanes and the other with two southbound lanes—so motorists can bypass Seabrook and Kemah, according to TxDOT.
Bay Area struggles with supply chain issues, employment gaps
It has been over two years since the COVID-19 pandemic started in the Houston area, and Bay Area business owners said they continue to feel the effects on supply chains, inflation and labor shortages.
April survey data from the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas revealed 76% of Texas business owners said there has been an impediment to hiring people due to a lack of available applicants. Scott Livingston, director of economic development for League City, said businesses in the Bay Area have struggled in their own ways during the pandemic.
June:
Incoming Medicaid expiration could put enrollees at risk
When the coronavirus pandemic emerged in March 2020, the U.S. government issued a requirement that states could no longer unenroll people from Medicaid during the public health emergency. The purpose was to prevent people on Medicaid—a government-run health care policy—from being left without insurance on short notice.
That requirement is still in place two years later, but health care advocates in Texas and Houston said they are worried about what could happen when it ends and millions of people have their safety nets put into jeopardy.
Local food banks see growing demand due to inflation
As prices for grocery store items, gasoline and other necessities rise and businesses struggle with supply chain issues, Bay Area food banks said they are seeing high demand and dealing with other challenges in how they provide meals to those who need food assistance.
According to the U.S. Census Bureau’s Household Pulse Survey, 10.9% of residents in the Houston-The Woodlands-Sugar Land metro area—which includes Clear Lake, League City and beyond—reported being food scarce at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic between April 23-May 5, 2020. Between Oct. 28-Nov. 9, 2020, local food scarcity peaked at 21.4% and has since fluctuated, dropping to 11.3% between March 30-April 11, 2022.
July:
Officials fight for reform as property values skyrocket
Homeowners across the Bay Area are seeing property values shoot up this year, and the problem has gained the attention of local officials who want to reform the home appraisal process.
Cheryl Johnson, the elected tax-assessor collector for Galveston County, said she is working alongside Galveston County Judge Mark Henry and state Rep. Greg Bonnen, R-Friendswood, among others, to convince lawmakers to provide property tax relief to Texans in the upcoming legislative session, which will begin in January. As tax-assessor collector, Johnson helps determine and collect taxes.
Lakefront communities face rising windstorm insurance rates
Residents in condominium and townhouse associations along Clear Lake are selling their properties and moving after windstorm insurance rates skyrocketed this year.
Natchez Landing, a 108-unit condo complex at 3535 NASA Parkway, Seabrook, and The Meridian, a group of 14 townhomes in Nassau Bay at 329 Lakeside Lane, each saw their buildings’ windstorm insurance rates double from 2021 to 2022, increasing by thousands of dollars.
August:
Clear Creek ISD focuses on safety in coming year
Over the summer, Clear Creek ISD focused on updating its school security infrastructure and protocols across the district after the Robb Elementary School shooting in Uvalde left 19 students and two teachers dead.
The efforts came into the spotlight after the May 24 shooting and the Texas Education Agency issuing in late June a series of mandates to be completed before the start of the 2022-23 school year.
League City making progress on neighborhood drainage projects
Five years since Hurricane Harvey flooded 25% of League City’s homes, construction is underway on projects aimed at alleviating neighborhood flooding.
The $145 million bond voters approved in May 2019 included 21 local drainage projects totaling $73 million to address Harvey-affected areas. City officials have spent the past three years designing, engineering and gathering necessary permits and land for the projects, but now residents can see work is underway.
September:
Drought, extreme heat ease, but effects could linger across counties
Clear Lake and League City are two of many communities across Texas that have been hit with an intense drought and record-breaking heat this summer.
Due to a lack of rain and persistently high temperatures, Harris and Galveston counties were in a severe or extreme drought in mid-June through August, according to standards set by the U.S. Drought Monitor. As of Sept. 15, area drought conditions were moderate at worst, but at its apex, the drought affected area cities, some of which had to enact drought contingency plans to conserve water.
New guidelines cause surge in rejected mail-in ballots
Mail-in ballot rejections greatly increased across the state after Senate Bill 1 went into effect Dec. 2, 2021, jumping from 0.08% mail-in ballots rejected in the 2020 presidential election to 12.4%, or 24,636 ballots, in the March 1 primary elections, according to Texas secretary of state data.
In Bay Area counties, Harris County rejected 19.2%, or 6,934 ballots, and Galveston County rejected 12.37%, or 435 ballots. In the following May elections, the percentage of rejected mail-in ballots dropped as voters and election officials adapted to new guidelines, and county officials plan to participate in outreach efforts to lower rejections further by November.
October:
Houston area’s first Great Wolf Lodge coming to Webster in 2024
National indoor waterpark company Great Wolf Resorts Inc. will open its second Texas resort in 2024 in the city of Webster, marking the first major construction for the city’s expansive destination development project, Flyway.
Once built, the development east of the Gulf Freeway and south of the NASA Bypass is expected to boost the tourism economy for the Houston Bay Area and bring 500 permanent full- and part-time jobs to the Webster community while also drawing in new businesses for the city’s ambitions to build a destination development.
Harris County voters to decide fate of $1.2B bond referendum
Harris County residents will vote on a $1.2 billion bond to fund public safety facilities, road maintenance and parks during the midterm elections Nov. 8.
Voters can approve or reject three separate propositions: $100 million for public safety facilities; $900 million for roads, drainage and multimodal transportation; and $200 million for parks. Historically, the county has proposed road and park bonds every six to eight years, most recently an $848 million bond in 2015.
November: Short-term relief paused for federal student loan borrowers as tuition costs keep rising
The cost of higher education continues to rise with more students relying on federal loans to pay for their degrees. Meanwhile, potential short-term relief for former college students struggling to get out of debt has been paused, and questions remain surrounding a long-term solution.
Adjusted for inflation, the average annual cost of attending a four-year college full time—including tuition, fees, room and board—in the U.S. has risen from $10,231 in 1980 to $28,775 in the 2019-20 school year, a roughly 180% increase, according to the National Center for Education Statistics.
December:
Local human trafficking education continues as response efforts evolve
Rhonda Kuykendall was 10 years old when she became a victim of human trafficking in the city of Houston.
Kuykendall shared her story at a Bay Area human trafficking awareness and prevention event hosted by the Houston Airport System Nov. 4, part of renewed efforts by activists and law enforcement agencies to amplify signs of the crime and methods for preventing it. Human trafficking is the exploitation of individuals for forced labor or sex by a third party for financial gain, according to the Texas Attorney General’s Office.
County adopts slimmer budgets after tax rate standoff
Headed into 2023, the new 4-1 Democratic majority on Harris County Commissioners Court will conduct county operations with a tighter budget than initially proposed after the two current Republican commissioners sat out tax rate votes, forcing the county to adopt four no-new-revenue tax rates.
For six consecutive meetings in September and October, Precinct 3 Commissioner Tom Ramsey and Precinct 4 Commissioner Jack Cagle refused to show. Their absences denied the court the four-member quorum necessary to hold a vote on a set of tax rates for the county’s general fund, the Harris County Flood Control District, the Port of Houston Authority and the hospital district—Harris Health System.
