Sacrificing Magnificent Pines. For Whom?

Aug. 31, 2020

So construction has begun in Houston’s Memorial Park on the $70 million “land bridges” that will cover Memorial Drive, placing the busy six-lane roadway under two arching concrete tunnels. The tunnels will be covered with 300,000 pounds of dirt and planted like a prairie. In addition, numerous mature loblolly pines and other trees have been/will be removed on the north and south sides of Memorial Drive to make room for construction and extend restored prairie.

The purpose of the dramatic land bridges, according to its proponents, is to connect the north and south sides of the park, create a scenic attraction, and provide a safe passage for people and wildlife. But the question on many people’s minds is: who or what is going to go from the woods, ravines, Buffalo Bayou banks, and wetland prairie of the south side to the new PGA Tour golf course, jogging trail, and sports facilities on the north side? Or vice versa?

Major funders of the park’s 2015 Master Plan admit to rarely if ever having been on the south side of the park and claim that it is “hardly used.” But on any given day, any time of the day, the magical woods and trails of the south side are filled with the voices and presence of families with small children, lone hikers, couples, trail bikers, joggers, bird watchers, and others who treasure the rare experience of wild wooded ravines in the center of the city.

We can only hope that going forward this experience of nature will be preserved for the people of Houston, as the park was intended. We would be happy to accompany Mr. and Mrs. Kinder and Mr. John Breeding on a tour of these south side woods so that they can become better acquainted with them. Breeding, representing private Galleria-area real estate interests, is overseeing the expenditure of some $108 million in public funds on this $200-300 million master plan.

Note that there is already a modest Living Bridge that connects the north and sides of the park, as well as several drainage culverts under Woodway and Memorial for any coyotes, rabbits, bobcats, or possums that desire to roam discreetly on the new golf course or tennis courts. The Living Bridge is the partial result of the excellent, nature-sensitive, and unrealized 2004 Master Plan for the park.

Trees Don’t Belong There?

This felling of 60-80 year-old pines, along with other large trees, is on top of the hundreds of mature trees that have been removed for the golf course renovation, creation of a two-level golf practice facility, and construction of the Eastern Glades. Trees in Memorial Park are not protected by city code. (p. 43)

Despite claims that pines are not native to Memorial Park, or that the pines, hackberry and other trees “don’t belong” in the landscape south and north of Memorial Drive, Harris County is part of the Pineywoods, which extends west through Memorial (see Piney Point) ending in an ancient remnant of loblollies in the Lost Pines Forest of Bastrop County. Early surveys of the bayou from 1831 through 1848 (p. 42) as well as letters from a soldier at Camp Logan in 1917 describe the pines of what is now Memorial Park.

Some Good Things

Here are some good things about the land bridges:

1. Possibly will reduce traffic noise in the park from the road, though trees and bushes do that too.

2. Creates some new greenspace above the roadway.

3. Part of a plan to re-naturalize the south side of the park used for team sports, cycling, and picnicking. Those activities are being moved to new facilities north of Memorial Drive.

Some Bad Things

1. Costs a huge amount of money ($70 million). Some people call it a “waste.”

2. Do not appear to serve any useful purpose.

3. Buries a scenic drive inside darkened tunnels.

4. Kills a lot of magnificent trees.

Plans Unknown. Federal Permit Application Withdrawn

We don’t know exactly what the plans are for creating new prairie or wetlands or what will happen to the existing wetlands and tributary streams, as well as a 100-year-old Camp Logan-era channel on the south side of the park. The former site of Camp Logan in Memorial Park is a state antiquities landmark, and any work there requires a permit from the state historical commission.

Save Buffalo Bayou has filed a public information request with the City of Houston for the current plans. The Memorial Park Conservancy, the private nonprofit corporation that manages the public park, apparently now under the direction of Galleria developers and the Kinder Foundation, is required to hold public meetings on any substantial changes to the master plan, according to the 2018 agreement between the City, the Conservancy, and the Uptown Development Authority. (p. 31) We are not aware of any public meetings about the master plan since it was approved by city council in 2015.

In 2019, in preparation for construction of the land bridges, the Galleria-area Uptown Houston District applied for a federal permit from the Corps of Engineers to fill wetlands and dredge and armor streams in the park. However, that permit application was withdrawn because the applicant decided that wetlands would be avoided, according to a representative from the Corps’ Galveston District.

Who’s in Charge: Developers and Donors

In 2013 the boundaries of the Uptown Houston District were expanded to include Memorial Park. (p. 22) The District works with the Uptown Development Authority and the Uptown Tax Increment Reinvestment Zone (TIRZ) #16 (pp. 32-33) to fund and oversee implementation of the 2015 Memorial Park Master Plan, among other projects. The Uptown Development Authority and the Uptown TIRZ have the same nine unelected board members, all property owners or agents or employees of property owners within the district.

The Uptown TIRZ intends to spend more than $108 million in public funds for construction projects in Memorial Park through 2023. Uptown is also required to pay some $600,000 annually to maintain the park’s running center and greenspace. (p. 52)

“The Memorial Park Conservancy was once dominated by environmentalists—as opposed to commercial and sporting interests,” laments one long-time advocate for the park.

The Standards Committee Is Responsible

The entire master plan project is overseen by a Standards Committee set up by the 2018 agreement between the City of Houston, the Memorial Park Conservancy, and the Uptown Development Authority. (p. 32) Two members of the Uptown Development Authority board sit on the Standards Committee, currently real estate investor Steve Lerner and retired developer Louis Sklar; two from the “major donor,” Guy Hagstette and Nancy Kinder of the Kinder Foundation, which donated $70 million to the master plan project;  the chief development officer for the City, Andy Icken, and the director of Houston Parks and Recreation, Steve Wright, along with two representatives of the board of the private Memorial Park Conservancy, Steve Jenkins and real estate developer John Garibaldi, managing partner for development at the Hanover Company, and a chairman, Murry Bowden, founder and executive chairman of the Hanover Company, which in Houston specializes in luxury high-rise residential projects.

Speculation About Spectators

Of course, rumors abound that the land bridges are being built to accommodate the thousands of spectators expected for future PGA Tour golf tournaments in the park.

However, as far as we know, the 2015 master plan was in the works before the development of the golf course project approved by city council in January 2019.

Save Buffalo Bayou has filed a Public Information request for the contract between the City and the PGA Tour and Astros Golf Foundation, including the plans for parking.

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What’s Happening to the Banks in Buffalo Bayou Park

Will It Last? Removing Invasives is a Good Thing

April 20, 2023

It looked terrible. Dead stalks sticking out of the ground, banks denuded and sprayed with blue-green herbicide.

People have been wondering what’s been happening in Houston’s beloved Buffalo Bayou Park between Sabine and Shepherd streets.

It’s the work of the Harris County Flood Control District and the Buffalo Bayou Partnership, the public nonprofit which manages the 160-acre city-owned park along with Flood Control. The good news is that a large part of what they have been doing is removing invasive species, like Johnson grass and other noxious, domineering stuff that floats down the river from yards and fields. They’ve been “stabilizing” the bank with biodegradable coir logs and in the last few weeks spraying native seed mix on the bare banks.

It’s all part of a $960,000 Harris County plan, in the works since 2019, called the “Buffalo Bayou Park Revegetation and Biostabilization Project.” The goal is to revegetate the banks of Buffalo Bayou from Shepherd Drive to Sabine Street and provide enhanced natural infrastructure to Buffalo Bayou Park, particularly in those areas scraped and bulldozed by Flood Control in 2019-20.

For that $10 million federally-funded “repair” project, Flood Control removed native vegetation and lined sections of the banks with concrete rubble, known as riprap, even though the design engineer, Jones Carter (now known as Quiddity), apparently rejected riprap, (p. 4). Even Flood Control in the past has rejected riprap, (p. 6) as well as the US Army Corps of Engineers (p. 4), and numerous other federal agencies. For more explanation of why riprap damages the stream, the environment, can even contribute to bank failure and increase flooding, see page 7.

Of course, the river has its own ancient and purposeful landscaping plan: first colonizing and stabilizing plants, working in succession, turning sand into soil, preparing the way for drifting willows and other native trees. But humans have other landscaping ideas. We’ll see how long those human plans last.

The Planting Project

We visited the project with Gabriela Sosa, since 2021 the conservation manager for the Buffalo Bayou Partnership. Dr. Sosa grew up in Brownsville, on the Texas coast, where she was inspired to pursue a career in ecology by the Sabal Palm Sanctuary. “I didn’t know ecology could be a career,” she said.

Her vision for the park is a “wildlife corridor” for birds and other creatures, including humans. A “greenspace in the middle of downtown.”

“Most people don’t get to see nature,” she said, as we toured the project in a golfcart, getting out to inspect elderberry bushes, Maximilian sunflowers, lantana, sorrel, late boneset, and more.

She was enthusiastic about keeping the elderberry, as we inspected the bush along the Greentree Nature Area on the north bank. “Previously we would have mowed the elderberry. But it’s great habitat for birds. We’re keeping it.”

In addition to killing off or removing invasive species like Johnson grass, elephant ear, castor bean, and Chinaberry trees, the project has removed swathes of native plants like ragweed, goldenrod, other types of sunflowers and more. Her objection was that those plants take over and dominate, shading out other plants. The goal is more diversity. And more deep-rooted plants, she said, pointing to the roots of an uprooted sunflower. Workers have been carefully picking out ragweed and sunflowers on the lush banks of the bayou. In other areas, however, the banks have been sprayed with an “aquatic-label” herbicide, meaning it’s been approved for use near streams. Technically, according to Flood Control, it’s Roundup Custom for Aquatic and Terrestrial Use, which is glyphosate, a controversial herbicide banned in some countries, cities and states.

Lots of Trees

The project has some fifteen replanting/monitoring areas on the north and south sides of the popular park. Sosa says the plan is to monitor the planting by taking photos every month. Flood Control’s contractor is planting hundreds of more than thirty different species of native trees, as well as shrubs and grasses, seeding the banks with a mix from Native American Seed company that includes cereal rye and Riparian Recovery Mix.

The cost of the project includes two years of maintenance and weeding out undesirable species, according to Flood Control.

The work is being done by Resource Environmental Solutions (RES), which in 2021 bought out Lecon, the firm that did the original scraping and bulldozing of the bayou in the park for Flood Control in 2013-2015.

Fields of Dreams and Sandy Banks

On a stroll through the park some weeks ago, we saw bright, lovely meadows of pepper weed and tasty wild garlic, dewberry vines, willows, hawthorn, Mexican plum, Eastern redbud (also tasty), magnolia, verbena and wild geranium, and much more.

We also saw drainpipes sticking straight out of the recently seeded bank, potentially dropping stormwater directly onto the nearly bare soil. As we have previously reported, stormwater outfalls at right angles to the bank cause turbulence and erosion, effectively damming the flow, and are a violation of federal and local regulations. Perhaps this issue was outside the scope of the fluvial geomorphic assessment of the bayou conducted for Flood Control by a Houston-based firm, HydroGeo Designs, in 2019-2020. Dated July 2021, the assessment, which focused on the river from Shepherd through downtown to Jensen, was intended to better understand the shape and movement of the bayou and nature’s very specialized riparian zones adjacent to it, “with the objective to improve the overall stability and resilience.” (p. 34)

Something else not generally understood: Buffalo Bayou, like many rivers, has always had sandy banks, as opposed to idyllic park-like grassy green banks. (See this 1912 photo of the banks near Memorial Park by landscape architect Arthur Comey.) See also this 1900 photo of boys swimming off the high sandy bank near what is now the Hogg Bird Sanctuary and the Bayou Bend Collection and Gardens. (Caution: no bathing suits, expensive then.)  

It is common for consultants, including engineers and landscape architects, to claim that the bayou’s sandy banks are the result of prolonged high-flow releases from the 1940s federal dams upstream drowning the vegetation. The 2021 geomorphic assessment concluded something similar. (p. 10) Interesting to note that HydroGeo Designs, the firm that conducted the assessment, is a specialist in “natural channel design” and the controversial Rosgen Method. The original $5 million scraping and rearranging of the park’s channel and banks by Flood Control in 2013-2015 was billed as a “natural stable channel design” project. It has failed repeatedly ever since. (See also here and here.)

But no doubt things are looking up.

Left image: Buffalo Bayou north bank below Shepherd Bridge on Sept. 9, 2020, before 2020 “repairs” by Harris County Flood Control District. Right image: the same bank on April 16, 2023, during recent restoration work by Flood Control.

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New Idea is to Strip and Widen Bayou Channel in Terry Hershey Park Above Beltway 8

New Problem: Increased Flooding Downstream

Oct. 20. 2019

A study commissioned by the Harris County Flood Control District has found negligible flood-reduction benefits to building bypass channels through meanders or raising bridges on Buffalo Bayou.

But the District is instead contemplating stripping the trees and vegetation and digging out the engineered banks of Terry Hershey Park to widen the channel by fifty feet on both sides for some six miles below the dams in west Houston. The District is still in the process of scraping out new overflow basins on the south bank in the park.

These findings were presented at a packed public meeting Thursday, Oct. 17, in the Memorial area of west Houston. The study, the result of public pressure from property owners who flooded in neighborhoods adjacent to Terry Hershey Park, was conducted by the engineering firm Huitt-Zollars and funded with $350,000 in Harris County flood bond funds.

Buffalo Bayou originates in the prairie near Katy, Texas, and flows for some fifty-three miles through the center of Houston, emptying into the San Jacinto River and Galveston Bay. It is the main river flowing through the city and a central part of the region’s natural drainage system. Below Beltway 8 to Shepherd Drive just east of downtown, Buffalo Bayou remains a mostly winding, wooded stream, and it was these many meanders that some residents upstream of the beltway blamed for flooding their homes when the floodgates on the dams were opened during Harvey.

Graphic courtesy of the Biomimicry Institute

The Meeting and The Findings: Is Nature a Better Engineer?

Alan Black, director of operations for the Flood Control District, opened the meeting by explaining what the district does and why the region floods (reasons which did not include the fact that so much of the city is covered in impervious surface). The first priority for the district is still “deepening and widening bayous,” said Black. Unfortunately that is a futile, never-ending pursuit, like building bigger freeways. It also leads to bank collapse, lifeless streams filling with silt and polluted water, a barren landscape, and continuous costly maintenance.

Modern flood management, rather than collecting and moving as much water as fast as possible, focuses on stopping stormwater before it floods a stream and on managing flooding in place. For instance, “lag time” is the amount of time it takes for rain to fall on the ground and enter a stream. The shorter (faster) the lag time, the higher the peak flow (flooding) in the stream. Trees, deep-rooted vegetation, detention basins, rain gardens and more can help increase the lag time and reduce flooding. There are many ways that neighborhoods and individuals can take responsibility for slowing, spreading out, and soaking in stormwater. (See also here.)

The district, which has limited legal tools dating from 1937 when it was founded, does focus also on building detention basins to temporarily hold stormwater, as well as on moving people out of harm’s way through buyouts.

Bridges

Michael Tehrani, vice-president of Huitt-Zollars, explained the study findings, which were “not that promising,” he told the large crowd, which included politicians and representatives of the Corps of Engineers. Buffalo Bayou is relatively flat, a “lower velocity channel” with a lot of trees; the channel itself “controlling the water and determining the Water Surface Elevation, not the bridges.”

Tehrani said that their hydraulic study looked at raising 32 bridges on Buffalo Bayou between Highway 6 below Barker Dam and downtown Houston. The minimal result would be to reduce the Water Surface Elevation by only a couple of inches during a rainfall of 19 inches in 24 hours (currently in Harris County known as a 500-year flood). And the reduction would only be just upstream of the bridge.

Meander Bypasses: Nature Already Created Them

Tehrani noted that meanders create a longer path for the river. (And therefore carries a greater volume of water, a good thing, though he didn’t say that.) The engineering firm analyzed 18 meanders between Beltway 8 and Shepherd Drive and found that “nature has already created a quasi-semi bypass” through them.

As a result, digging out artificial bypass channels would have minimal impact on the Water Surface Elevation during a “500-year flood” – less than an inch for 78 percent of the meanders, and that only for just upstream of the meanders.

Graphic of a bypass through a meander naturally created by the stream. Image courtesy of Harris County Flood Control District.

Combining Raising Some Bridges, Building Some Bypasses or Widening the Bayou

The engineering firm then considered raising some bridges, digging out some bypasses, and creating some detention somewhere. (p. 22)  Result: negligible, complicated, and expensive.

The firm then turned to the option of widening the channel in the previously straightened (and narrowed, reduced capacity) bayou in Terry Hershey Park above Beltway 8. The Flood Control District owns the land in this stretch of the bayou. The idea (not yet firm or funded) would be to dig out the lower banks, creating a wide flood shelf, on both sides of the bayou, eventually replacing the sidewalk and possibly restoring some trees.

Note how the blue 500-year floodplain in the district’s graphic of the proposed channel widening corresponds to the original meandering path of the bayou and Turkey and Rummel creeks.

Proposed widening of the engineered channel of Buffalo Bayou flowing through Terry Hershey Park above Beltway 8 and below the federal dams. Blue area shows the 500-year floodplain. Graphic courtesy of HCFCD

A comparison of the original meanders and the straightened channel of Buffalo Bayou flowing through Terry Hershey Park by geologist Tom Helm.

Reducing Flooding Upstream, Increasing Flooding Downstream

The channel-widening option would reduce the Water Surface Elevation above Beltway 8 by more than four feet and potentially remove 240 structures from the 100-year floodplain and 877 structures from the 500-year floodplain, according to the study.

The estimated cost would be $216 million, including $118 million to purchase the land to create the detention needed near Beltway 8 to keep the greater volume stormwater flowing through the park from flooding people downstream.

Black emphasized that the channel-widening plan was just an idea and that as yet there was no money to fund it.

Here is where you can watch the Facebook video of the presentation.

Here are the slides from the presentation.

The Flood Control District is accepting comments on the study through Oct. 31. Here is where you can comment.

For more information about Houston flooding and flood-reduction strategies, here is a link to the complete list of research and studies from the Greater Houston Flood Mitigation Consortium.

Date is Oct. 17 to Find Out Study Results

And More

Oct. 13, 2019

In the wake of disastrous flooding along Buffalo Bayou during and after Harvey in 2017, particularly on upper Buffalo Bayou after the opening of the floodgates on the federal dams, some west Houston residents urged the Harris County Flood Control District to look into whether meanders downstream and bridges across the bayou had blocked the flow, causing them to flood.

In response, using up to $350,000 in public funding from the 2018 Flood Bond election, the District in November of 2018 hired the engineering firm Huitt-Zollars to study the thirty-three bridges and four pipelines that cross the bayou between Highway 6 at Barker Dam and Congress Street some twenty-six miles downstream in downtown Houston.

More controversially, the study also examined the possibility of constructing bypass channels or culverts in thirteen locations, cutting through natural bends in the river. This would be below Beltway 8 where the bayou twists and turns, as rivers naturally do, for good reason. (p. 36) Meandering streams are longer and carry more water. Meanders also help dissipate the force of the stream during floods. Such is the power of the underlying geology that even if altered or straightened, rivers will seek to return to their natural channel, breaking through concrete if necessary. (See Tropical Storm Allison, Tranquility Garage, 2001.)

In the 1960s, environmentally-minded property owners on the bayou, including Terry Hershey and Save Buffalo Bayou’s founding president, Frank Smith, joined forces to stop the Corps of Engineers from stripping, straightening and covering in concrete this winding, wooded stretch of the bayou—as the Corps had done earlier, destroying White Oak and Brays bayous.

The Flood Control District is holding a public meeting to discuss the results of the meanders and bridges study on Thursday, Oct. 17, from 6 to 8 p.m. at the Memorial Drive Presbyterian Church, 11612 Memorial Drive, in Houston 77024.

Comparison of Buffalo Bayou at Beltway 8 in 1944 and during Harvey in 2017. Note the engineered channel bypassing the original meander and flooding along the oxbow remnant. Graphic by Diane Masterson

Maligning Meanders

In the early morning of Aug. 28, 2017, after the peak of the flooding from Harvey had passed downstream on Buffalo Bayou, the Corps of Engineers made the unprecedented decision to open the floodgates on Barker and Addicks dams in far west Houston. Rising water flowing from the rapidly developing north and west of the city threatened to overwhelm the earthen dams. When the gates were opened, residents living along the six-mile plus channelized stretch of the bayou just below the dams were badly flooded. This stretch of the river had been narrowed and straightened by the Corps in the Fifties, essentially reducing its capacity.

But a popular belief continues that the meanders below Beltway 8 caused the bayou to backup and flood homes upstream adjacent to what is now Terry Hershey Park, hence the push to construct channels to bypass or cut through meanders. (Another popular belief, which also persists, is that the “rich people downstream” did not flood. There was, of course, massive flooding along Buffalo Bayou all the way through downtown Houston during Harvey. But that flooding, fed by the rapid accumulation of rain runoff from the city and suburbs below the dams, occurred before the floodgates were opened.)

In October of 2018 Save Buffalo Bayou published a report in response to this widespread mistaken belief about meanders downstream. The report explained why people flooded upstream and how meanders are beneficial and actually reduce flooding. You can read the full report here.

A Relatively Natural Urban Bayou Below Beltway 8 to Buffalo Bayou Park. A History of Failed “Improvement” Projects

As urban rivers go, Buffalo Bayou is, remarkably, a relatively natural river below Beltway 8 to Shepherd Bridge, though many property owners have foolishly razed the trees, landscaped with sidewalks and irrigation, or hardened the bank with  concrete riprap or sheet pile, leading to predictable flooding, erosion, and bank failure problems. (See also River Oaks and Houston country clubs.) Below Shepherd, Buffalo Bayou Park between Memorial Drive and Allen Parkway was stripped, graded, and “realigned” by the Corps of Engineers between 1952 and 1959. (p. 592)

Buffalo Bayou Below Shepherd

Allowed to overgrow in the intervening years, since 2010 the banks of the bayou in Buffalo Bayou Park have been repeatedly stripped, graded, “improved” and “repaired” by the Flood Control District, with large trees and native vegetation removed for irrigated landscaping and “channel conveyance,” resulting in further erosion and bank failure (and tree loss).

In 2015 more large trees were removed and the bank bulldozed for installation of two massive City of Houston stormwater outfalls draining Shepherd Drive at the intersection of Allen Parkway. In the last year, a growing sinkhole in that area (in the vicinity of what was once a natural tributary to the bayou) has damaged both of the new 84-inch stormwater pipes and caused the sidewalk to collapse, threatening the parkway. Repairs are costing at least $1.2 million, according to Erin Jones, public information officer for the City of Houston Public Works Department.

This is not the “fault” of the bayou, which does what rivers naturally do. Engineers, well paid with public funds, should have anticipated these issues, which began before Harvey.

Removing trees and vegetation, bulldozing, grading, irrigating, breaking up and compacting the soil destabilizes the bank of a river and destroys its ability to cleanse and absorb water and nourish beneficial plants.

Repairing the collapsed bank and damaged stormwater pipes resulting from a large sinkhole below Allen Parkway at Shepherd Drive. Photo by SC on Aug. 19, 2019

More Funds to Repair Repairs

Currently, the District is spending $9.7 million in federal funds to repair the constantly eroding banks in the park. Save Buffalo Park has asked the District for information on how it plans to “repair” the banks and urged the District to consider the fact that the straightened bayou will continue to try to restore its meanders, eating away at the banks. So far the District has not responded. But a reliable source reports the planned repair methods include sheet pile walls, which are environmentally damaging and deflect flooding and the erosive force of the water downstream and towards the opposite bank, among other problems. Also they’re ugly.

Moving Upstream: Above Buffalo Bayou Park

In the long winding stretch between Shepherd Bridge near the center of the city and Beltway 8 out west, there are five locations where, sometime after the early 1950s, the bayou was channelized or bypass channels constructed around meanders (p. 46):

1. For about 250 feet downstream of the West Beltway 8 bridge
2. Immediately upstream or west of Gessner Drive
3. Around Mott Lane in Piney Point Village
4. Beneath San Felipe Road west of Voss Road
5. Beneath Farther Point Bridge just west of Chimney Rock Road

Above Beltway 8

Between Beltway 8 and the dams farther upstream, the bayou was stripped, channelized, and straightened in the 1950s. As mentioned above, this six-mile stretch of the river is now Terry Hershey Park, owned by the Flood Control District. Recently, after years of resistance from park users, neighborhood residents, and environmentalists, the district cut down the trees on the south bank, graded the slopes, and bulldozed shallow detention basins there. In the 1990s the District had done this on the north bank, which is now virtually shadeless, covered with mowed turf grass, which is useless for slowing, absorbing, and cleansing stormwater runoff.

The stated purpose of the three basins on the south bank is to briefly hold stormwater overflowing the bayou (in what would have been, prior to channelization, the bayou’s natural floodplain or even the channel itself). The small amount of temporary stormwater detention created is intended to mitigate increased flow into the bayou from future City of Houston drainage projects. This project, together with initial contracts to remove sediment in four channels flowing into Addicks Reservoir, is costing some $13.3 million in Harris County funds, according to Karen Hastings, communications manager for Flood Control. Lecon Inc. has the $13.3 million contract.

This area, razed and graded for a detention basin on the south bank of Terry Hershey Park, was once part of a rolling, wooded public area with paths along Buffalo Bayou. Photo by SC on Sept. 21, 2019

Dredge And Dredge Again

Addicks and Barker dams were built on the prairie in the late 1940s for flood control. Within the reservoirs, which are normally dry, the streams, including most of Buffalo Bayou, remain relatively natural, flowing freely through the floodgates, which stand open until there is a significant rain downstream. However, as noted in the District’s recent public meetings (see below), there is pressure from the District and other agencies to dredge the streams flowing through the reservoirs, which are large public parks.

Upstream of the reservoirs, where homes also flooded badly during Harvey, the bayou and the streams that ultimately flow into it were stripped and channelized decades ago during development of subdivisions. The Flood Control District recently held meetings about their multi-million dollar project to clear these altered channels of sediment and “restore them to their original design capacity.” Apparently that means a trapezoidal shape (basic ditch design), according to Travis Sellers, senior vice president of IDS Engineering, the company responsible for studying and designing the channel dredging project. (Modern ditch design, however, is a two-stage ditch allowing for native vegetation to slow and cleanse polluted urban or agricultural runoff.)

Buffalo Bayou at Mason Road in July 2018 after dredging to remove silt a couple of years earlier. Photo by Adam

Does Dredging Work?

Sellers, in answer to questions during the Oct. 3 public meeting about dredging streams flowing into Addicks Reservoir, insisted that the dredging would only increase the storage capacity of the stream “so that it doesn’t flood neighbors downstream.” Increasing the capacity of the streams would have no impact on the amount of water flowing into the overburdened Addicks Reservoir, Sellers claimed.

Part of a river’s natural function is to transport sediment, especially during storm events. Silt and sand carried by rivers, including Buffalo Bayou and its tributaries, ends up rebuilding banks and replenishing beaches on the coast.

Dredging, deepening and widening streams are controversial practices, largely because they increase flooding and erosion, destabilize streams, damage the ecosystem, and only lead to more maintenance, among other things. When the river channel is too wide, for example, the water slows and sediment falls out. As an alternative, some experts recommend focusing on the source of sediment. In the case of streams in west Houston, Sellers agreed that development and uncontrolled runoff from construction sites was a likely source

Here are links to the Facebook video of the Oct. 3 meeting and to the slide presentation about dredging streams flowing into Addicks Reservoir.

Here are links to the Facebook video of the Oct. 7 meeting about dredging streams flowing into Barker Reservoir and to the slide presentation.

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Harris County Flood Control work in June 2018 on South Mayde Creek, once a winding wooded stream, which flows into Addicks Reservoir. Photo by Diane Masterson

The Moral Hazard in a Golf Course

May 18, 2018

Mention “eminent domain” and ugly associations come to mind. The brutal power of the state. Taking homes and beloved ranch and farm land for development of oil pipelines, highways, powerlines, private for-profit rail lines. Destroying neighborhoods in the name of “urban renewal.” Condemnation.

But what if the government instead used its power of eminent domain to preserve undeveloped land urgently needed for stormwater detention and green space? It can do that. Other cities have done that. Why, the government can even use this power to preserve much needed affordable housing, say for people displaced by flooding. Local governments elsewhere are doing that. (See New York City and Richmond, California.)

Recently there has been controversy over the City of Houston’s role in allowing residential development on more than 100 acres of an unused golf course on Gessner Road in west Houston just east of Addicks Reservoir. Discussion has focused on the folly (and taxpayer burden) of constructing (federally-insured) homes in a floodplain.

But the more critical issue is that local golf courses, including this particular golf course, have been identified as one of the few remaining sources of undeveloped land vitally needed for detaining stormwater and reducing flooding in our highly developed city.

The golf course in question, Pine Crest, drains into Brickhouse Gully, which in turn drains into White Oak Bayou. Both streams are among the top ten fastest rising streams by flow in the state of Texas, according to a recent study by hydrologist Matthew Berg. Also in the top ten is Cole Creek, which flows into the same spot, pointed out Berg in a recent interview.

The decision to allow development of this open space, instead of using it for stormwater detention, is a prime example of creating a moral hazard: placing people in harm’s way knowing that others will pick up the tab for the damages.

No Dispute: This Green Space Is Urgently Needed to Hold Rain Runoff

The 150-acre site of the former Pine Crest golf course on Gessner and Clay roads in west Houston. Culvert in upper right drains into Brickhouse Gully, which has one of the fastest rising streamflows in Texas. Google Earth image Oct. 28, 2017

Neighborhoods along all of these streams have experienced repeated flooding, reported the Houston Flood Mitigation Consortium, a group of local scientific experts organized after Harvey. The consortium recommended creating detention, among other remedies, along these streams in its recently released report. (p. 44)

The city or the flood control district should have bought the golf course land for flood detention. “It’s much cheaper and easier than buying out houses,” said Berg, who noted that the area is “the most developed watershed in the Houston region.”

“If I had known that this piece of land was on the open market, I definitely would have at least tried to make an offer to acquire it for detention,” said Matt Zeve, as reported by the Houston Chronicle. Zeve has been director of operations for the Harris County Flood Control District since November of 2015.

The land has been for sale on the open market since 2015. To make it more saleable, the flood control district has been working with the property owner, MetroNational, since at least mid-2013 to reduce the land’s flood hazard designation.

The company, a major developer in west Houston, bought the land in 1985 and completed the golf course in 1992. It was having trouble selling the land, which sat some two feet underwater in the 100-year floodplain — an area that floods during a 100-year rain event. A 100-year event is defined locally as just over 13 inches in 24 hours or just under 11 inches in 12 hours, though these long outdated definitions are changing. (Our last three floods are defined as 500-year-floods or even greater: some describe Harvey as a 1000-5,000-20,000-year flood.) With the approval of the flood control district, a plan was drawn up to engineer the land out of the 100-year floodplain, according to documents obtained through a Public Information request by a member of  Residents Against Flooding.

By the beginning of 2017, the majority of the land was sold to Arizona-based Meritage Homes, which plans to build some 800-900 homes there. MetroNational plans to build a commercial development on the remaining 35 acres.

Forward Thinking? Politicians Choose the Moral Hazard

Meritage has begun some drainage work, including large concrete culverts to divert runoff into the already overburdened Brickhouse Gully. But the city or county could still buy the golf course. They could and should also buy other agricultural land already platted for development out west, where stormwater runoff is threatening to drown the city by overwhelming the federal dams on Buffalo Bayou, our main river flowing for some 50 miles from the Katy Prairie through the center of Houston, becoming the Houston Ship Channel and emptying into Galveston Bay. (White Oak Bayou, like most of our bayous and streams, is a tributary of Buffalo Bayou, joining it downtown.)

Increased development and unprecedented rain forced the emergency opening of the dams’ floodgates during Harvey in August 2017.  The disaster flooded thousands of homes along the bayou, destroying thousands of lives and killing three people. It was merely a foreshadowing of what could come.

The politicians have the power. What’s needed is the will.

“We’re not going to get any more of these,” said Berg. “The opportunities are extremely limited.”

It’s a classic moral hazard, of privatizing the profits and socializing the losses. Local authorities make planning decisions putting residents in harm’s way and leave it up to the federal taxpayers to pick up the tab for the damage.

“When … local governments do not share in the liabilities when a disaster occurs, they become incentivized by increased developments and tax revenue to continue making poor land-use decisions,” wrote the American Society of Civil Engineers in a 2014 report criticizing the National Flood Insurance Program, which will provide taxpayer-subsidized flood insurance for the houses built in the golf course/floodplain. “This is not sustainable.” (p. 24)

The engineers’ report, which called for a national flood risk management strategy, also criticized the “tendency, for both historical and psychological reasons, to place greater reliance on traditional structural measures [dams and reservoirs, digging up bayous, for example] even though in the long run nonstructural and nature-based measures tend to be more efficient and sustainable solutions.” (p. 27)

For the Public Use: If Not Now, When?

Eminent domain is intended to be used for the public good. It is the power of the state, granted to the county and city, the flood control district, along with numerous other agencies public and semi-private, to purchase property at a fair market price from an unwilling owner for a public use.

Eminent domain is NOT buying out homes deep in flood hazard areas that continually flood, though just recently use of eminent domain has been mentioned by officials frustrated by the slow pace of the buyout process. Local buyouts are generally funded partly with federal funds, largely Federal Emergency Management Agency funds, and the federal government does not allow the use of FEMA funds for eminent domain. FEMA does encourage the use of eminent domain, using local public and private funds, when necessary for flood protection and creation of public green space (p. 17), and even promotes the benefits of acquisition. (pp. 12-13) Buyouts, however, usually conducted by the Harris County Flood Control District, are voluntary. 

Forcing the Sale of Land for Open Space Even After Partial Development

In 2006 the New Jersey Supreme Court upheld the right of Mount Laurel Township to force a residential developer to sell the township 16.3 acres of land that was zoned for residential use.  The developer, MiPro Homes, received a permit for development of 23 single family homes on May 9, 2002. The heavily developed and congested township, with overburdened schools and desperately in need of breathing room, had attempted to negotiate a purchase of the property as part of its open space acquisition program. The developer refused to sell and immediately upon receipt of the permit began preparing the site for development. The township quickly filed a condemnation action against the developer, which continued preparing the site until the township filed a declaration of taking on May 31, 2002. Four years later the state supreme court held that “a municipality has statutory authority to condemn property for open space, and its selection of properties on which residential development is planned is a proper exercise of the eminent domain power.”

The Money

A frequent argument in favor of development at all cost is that the cash-strapped (and park-poor) city desperately needs the improved property tax base for revenue. (Property taxes account for nearly half of the city’s general fund revenues. p. 4) But a long-known fact is that parks and green space also improve the value of surrounding property – by as much as 15 percent, according to the City Parks Alliance.  There’s also the cost savings in stormwater management, air pollution reduction, and health benefits, as well as the significant reduction in property and personal losses from flooding. Perhaps we should consider reduced loss of reputation for the city as well. Houston, by the way, ranks 81 out of the top 100 U.S. cities in park space, spending, and accessibility, according to the Trust for Public Land. The city ranks number one in severe repetitive property losses to flooding.

Some even argue that suburban residential development is a net drain on the city budget over the long term due to the cost of maintaining and replacing basic services and infrastructure. Charles Marohn, an engineer and founder of Strong Towns, calls it “an illusion of wealth.” He also has written specifically about Houston and Harvey.

How Much Would It Cost?

In January 2017 the Harris County Appraisal District assigned a market value to the MetroNational Pine Crest golf course land at around $18,000 an acre. So purchasing the 150-acre property could cost about $2.7 million.

What about the prairie land out west already platted and continuously being platted for development along the Grand Parkway north and west of Addicks Reservoir? Much of this land is in what’s called the Cypress Creek overflow area, some 21,000 acres of mostly agricultural land that is difficult to develop because it is inundated by as much as several feet of runoff overflowing from Cypress Creek to the north during storms.

Most of this runoff, some 23,355 acre-feet or 2.7 billion gallons during your basic heavy (100-year) storm, (p. 14) within two to three days eventually ends up in Addicks Reservoir on Buffalo Bayou, which couldn’t handle the rain from Harvey, much less increased runoff from development of land currently providing some form of detention. Addicks, like Barker, a normally dry reservoir used for flood control, can hold 130,203 acre-feet of stormwater before it starts flooding the subdivisions developers built close behind it.

To solve the problem of extracting profit from land being inundated by the overflow (and the separate problem of serious flooding downstream on Cypress Creek) politicians and developers are proposing costly engineering projects like $400 million for a Third Reservoir or even maybe a Fourth somewhere out there on Cypress Creek. Such dam projects, however, would be a federal responsibility through the Corps of Engineers. There are also wild ideas for building underground tunnels, canals, and widening and straightening Buffalo Bayou to let more water drain faster out of the dams. Then there are more practical proposals for a levee along the back of the reservoirs to protect the homes built inside the flood pools and for dredging and deepening the reservoirs themselves. (The latter, however, is also a federal responsibility.)  These projects would cost billions to build, millions to repair and maintain. And in the case of new dams, like our old dams, they also hold the certainty of aging and of becoming inadequate, and the possibility of future failure.

The Harris County Appraisal District assigned a January 2018 market value of $7,679.50 an acre to agricultural land owned by Bridgeland Development Corp. west of the Grand Parkway between Cypress Creek and Addicks Reservoir. Bridgeland, which is managed by The Woodlands Development Company, is a division of the Howard Hughes Corp. Bridgeland, which has already developed residential subdivisions east of the parkway, owns a significant amount of the land in the Cypress Creek overflow area.

So buying all 21,000 acres in the overflow area could cost about $161 million. A lot cheaper than building reservoirs, canals, or tunnels or deepening and widening Buffalo Bayou, which experts agree doesn’t work to reduce flood risk anyway. And what a beautiful park we could have­— our native prairie once had grasses that stood eight-feet tall!

This park, which if restored (restoration cost estimate not included) to a mix of one-third wetland and two-thirds grassland prairie (pp. 872-873) could store naturally as much as 50,000 acre-feet of stormwater.

That’s almost double the amount of storage provided by a theoretical reservoir. (pp. 296-298)

Harris County is planning to hold a vote on August 25 for a bond issue to provide some $2.5 billion for flood reduction projects. County commissioners haven’t yet decided what to spend it on.

Perhaps we can help them.

Or How to Create Ill Will

March 3, 2023

For those who don’t get enough experience of concrete in the city of Houston, there is now plenty more concrete for you to enjoy in Memorial Park.

Normally one would go to a park to escape the hardness of the built city. We are fortunate in Houston to have a major urban park, almost 100 years old, dedicated to the experience of nature – a soft path underfoot, tall trees swaying gently in the breeze, a glimpse of a rabbit or raccoon, the call of a hawk, the smell of soil, mushrooms and pine; the rhythm of the bayou flowing past. Conservationists have worked for years to try to keep it natural.

But in recent years the private conservancy running Memorial Park on the banks of Buffalo Bayou has decided to turn our beautiful park into a constructed experience. This is a problem with park conservancies: in order to raise money they have to do projects, and in order to raise more money they have to do more projects. It’s never enough to let nature be.

And apparently they have decided that in order to raise money they have to throw donors names in big letters in front of it all. Most recently, in addition to the massive amount of concrete poured to construct not one but two sets of tunnels over Memorial Drive, the conservancy has erected hulking grey concrete walls on both sides of the tunnels announcing who is responsible: Kinder. It’s the Kinder Land Bridge.

Well, we’re not sure that everyone is going to be thanking the Kinders for this, although they have been very generous (see also here) with their pipeline fortune throughout the city.

One Land Bridge Wasn’t Enough

Land bridges for wildlife over (better under) major highways is a good idea. But the idea that a land bridge over Memorial Drive was for the animals (including humans) has always been a farce, as our founding president Frank Smith has long argued. Wildlife – coyotes, bobcat, possum — have always found safe passage through the large drainage culverts passing under Memorial and Woodway. And as we have previously pointed out, the Conservancy has thoughtfully included a drainage culvert designed for wildlife passage underneath the land bridges, which officially opened Feb. 11. Based on reports from neighborhood residents, more wildlife likely died fleeing destruction of their habitat than before construction of the land bridges and prairie.

In addition, for humans who can’t navigate the crosswalks and stoplights to walk across six-lane Memorial Drive and back, there is a lovely, modest pedestrian bridge, known as the Living Bridge, a remnant of an earlier, more enlightened master plan from 2004 connecting the north and south sides of the park near the Running Center. Not that most people often have reason to do that. Generally you are either jogging or walking the Seymour Lieberman trail around the expanded golf course on the north side or strolling, biking, or running (or getting lost) with your family and friends through the lovely bayou woods on the south side. (Yes, the Lieberman trail is much improved by routing it through woods and over streams instead of along Memorial Drive.)

But okay, so they really wanted a bridge over Memorial Drive: a high point over our low, flat prairie (and over the trees) from which Houstonians could view the sunset and sunrise and the surrounding vista. That’s cool. But wouldn’t one bridge, one set of tunnels have been enough? asks the amazing Mr. Smith, who at 101 years is still engaged, still concerned about the park that he promised Ima Hogg he would always protect. Did we really have to spend $70 million to build two massive bridges?

Top left: concrete walls surrounding the Kinder Land bridges. Top right: on top of one of the bridges. Bottom: Side view looking north of one set of tunnels. Photos Feb. 17, 2023

More Parks Needed

Do we not need other parks, many more green spaces? The Conservancy often touts the fact that many people drive a long way for the experience of Memorial Park. But we have long argued that maybe they do that because there are few other opportunities. (They certainly don’t do it to look at concrete walls.) Houston ranks 70^th out of the nation’s most populous 100 cities in terms of parkland, investment, and access to parks, according to the 2022 ranking from the Trust for Public Land. Although note once again that this calculation is skewed by the vast acreage of parkland included within Barker and Addicks reservoirs in far west Houston, including Cullen Park, at over 9,000 acres one of the largest parks in the country.

The original 1,503 acres that were sold at cost in 1923 by the Hogg Brothers and partners to the City of Houston were intended as “an ideal wooded park” for “the common good.” Though the park is frequently touted as nearly twice the size of New York City’s Central Park, the comparison skips over the fact that more than 600 acres of Houston’s park is devoted to a (recently expanded) golf course, driving range, and related buildings, for which numerous magnificent pines and oaks were cut down. Not to mention the significant amount of acreage used by maintenance, sheds and green houses, or just simply ignored and abused.

But Wait! There’s A Concrete Prairie Wall Too. And Stairs

But wait! There’s more. Wander on over to the new prairie on the south side of Memorial and you can gaze upon another massive grey concrete wall with the names of more donors inscribed in giant letters. We won’t embarrass these generous people by naming them. It’s not their fault that this ugly wall rudely interrupts your view of the new green prairie and wetlands they helped to fund.

And then there’s the concrete stairs. Recycled from the roadway that was pulled up to move Memorial Drive. More repulsive hardness but in the end it’s quicker to go up and down the land bridge using these slippery stairs rather than the more-accessible zig-zagging concrete sidewalk.

Pines Belong There. Next Phase

And yes, despite long-running claims that those tall pines (and other old trees) didn’t belong there, or were planted or dead or something, justifying their expensive and cruel removal, the answer is yes, they did belong and do. Early surveys of the bayou from 1831 through 1848 (p. 42) as well as letters from a soldier at Camp Logan in 1917 describe the pines of what is now Memorial Park.

However, the Conservancy now acknowledges that pines do belong in Memorial Park and they have been planting pines. In addition, the next phase of the Ten-Year Plan visualizes a monoculture of native pines to be planted in orderly rows on the west side of the park, “to recall both the pine-dominated landscape of Camp Logan, and individual soldiers in formation standing at attention.” It’s a terrible idea: nature (and people) need diversity. However, for now, the Memorial Groves “remains a conceptual design and as such has not undergone an evaluative site assessment or design process,” according to the Conservancy’s website.

Research has shown that humans want and need not just big urban parks, but wild ones.

The Irony. The Benefit.

The irony is that this master plan project was supposed to be a “triumph of ‘green’ over ‘gray’, healing the divide cut by Memorial Drive through the middle of this treasured urban wilderness park half a century ago,” according to the Conservancy.

But there are benefits. We note that moving the noisy, brightly-lit playing fields to the north side of the park, out of the woods, and uniting the south side as a nature area is a good idea, although we wish they had spared the trees. The boardwalk through the Eastern Glades, with its educational signage explaining the benefit of dead trees and snags and wetlands is truly wonderful. We hope the Conservancy uses such a light and enlightened approach for the rest of our precious woods on the west and south sides.

And of course, the nearby Uptown real estate developers get the benefit of lots of awe-filled publicity from the land bridges, which is a large part of the point.

Olmsted’s Vision

What would Frederick Law Olmsted think? The great urban park designer thought parks should be a respite from concrete. He had an influence on those who initially shaped Memorial Park long ago.

Through the involvement of planner Arthur Comey and the Hare & Hare partnership, [Memorial Park] was largely shaped by professionals who were trained in the tradition and philosophy of the Olmsted legacy. Olmsted … designed urban spaces where active and passive recreation “were to be enjoyed in enhanced parklands where ‘sequestered and limitless natural scenery’ could have a poetic and tranquilizing influence on an urban populace otherwise surrounded by brick and steel, cement and fumes.” — Memorial Park Cultural Landscape Review, 2015. p. 120 (See also pp. 29-31 for Olmsted’s description of his travel through Houston in the 1850s, included in his book, A Journey through Texas.)

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