At the Houston City Council meeting on Wednesday, Stephen Costello, city of Houston chief resilience officer, presented the council with a list of flood mitigation projects the city plans to request funding for through a federal grant program.

The projects Costello identified are ones the city will try to fund through the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s Hazard Mitigation Grant Program, which was recently allocated to the state of Texas.

The state received $1 billion from this program, which will be distributed in two different $500 million sections. The city of Houston must submit projects it hopes to have funded by the first $500 million by the end of June.

Costello said the city of Houston has to submit its projects to the state and then the state decides which projects to fund. The city will be competing with other areas of the state affected by Hurricane Harvey that are also requesting funding from this program.

There were 13 projects totaling $723 million identified in Costello’s report. Of these projects, the city plans to submit a request for voluntary home buyouts totaling $185 million. Many of the other projects identified involve creating additional detention basins throughout the city.

Costello said the projects he identified at the meeting were all identified before Hurricane Harvey hit the area last August.

Costello said this is a preliminary list and that projects could be added or removed. He also said this is not a full list of projects that the city needs but only the projects the city is going to try to fund through the Hazard Mitigation Grant Program.

Projects that are approved for this program will receive 75 percent of funding from the grant, but the city of Houston will have to cover the remaining 25 percent. Costello said the city could look for ways to cover its share, such as community development block grants or state aid.