Deputy Director of Engineering Samantha Haritos shared an update on the city’s flood mitigation projects during Friendswood City Council’s June 6 meeting.
Five Frenchman’s Creek townhomes that are prone to flooding along Clear Creek are set to be demolished to make way for a new green space. An offer on one of the homes has been made and accepted, and offers are in progress on another, Haritos said.
The three remaining buildings are the responsibility of Galveston County, and offers have been made on them as well. Finally, there is a sixth adjacent property in the area the city is working to close a sale on after City Council on June 6 approved the city purchasing it, she said.
“Everything looks good so far,” Haritos said of the project.
Friendswood is also in the process of acquiring potentially eight properties in the Deepwood area to terrace the location. That project is in the engineering phase, and design is in progress, Haritos said.
Forest Bend will soon have a 53-acre detention basin with concrete tails and solar lighting. City Council on June 6 unanimously approved a selected contractor for the project, meaning work is close, Haritos said.
The pond has been awarded a $3.4 million grant. Total construction costs are estimated to be $3.6 million, and the city has already spent $455,000 on engineering, so the city will use ready funds to supplement the project to afford it, Haritos said.
The city and Galveston County will split the $282,000 cost to acquire and terrace 212 E. Heritage Drive, which is 650 feet south of the FM 2351 bridge along Mary’s Creek, she said. City Council approved this measure June 6 as well.
“They are excited to work with us on this effort,” Haritos said.
Finally, the FM 1959 detention basin will be a 1,700-acre-foot pond at the northern part of Clear Creek on the Harris County side, near Pearland. The city is still coordinating with Harris County, which has about $14 million to contribute to the project, leaving the city about $5 million short, Haritos said.
City Manager Morad Kabiri said city staff has met with local representatives—including state Rep. Greg Bonnen, R-Friendswood, and U.S. Rep. Troy Nehls, R-Richmond—to discuss possibly combining this project with another, larger-scale project to get help from state and federal sources. The city hopes to have more information on this effort by late summer or early fall, Kabiri said.
Haritos also shared an update on the Lower Clear Creek and Dickinson Bayou Watershed Study, which officials from Friendswood, League City and others contributed to, to come up with regional solutions to flooding on both waterways.
The study has made it into Texas’ first statewide flood mitigation plan. The consultant who did the study, Freese & Nichols, has been working on modeling some flood mitigation projects from the study and will present them to Friendswood soon, Haritos said.
