Waterfall

There is a watershed-wide (Cypress Creek watershed) letter of map revision (LOMR) process going on right now. The hydrologic and hydraulic models for Cypress Creek that were developed for TSARP have been found to contain some errors that need to be addressed and have been addressed. Thus, the current floodplain boundaries may change dramatically in some areas.

If you really are concerned about flooding, I suggest that you do some common sense checks on the likelihood of the house flooding. Is the lot elevated compared to the streets? About how high is the lot compared to the closest flooding source? Is there a history of flooding in the neighborhood?

If you are in your mid-20's and want to rent, then I would strongly recommend an apartment in midtown. That is where it is at for the young professionals, there are a lot of places to go out, you can walk everywhere.

Memorial Park isn't that far away and Rice Stadium is close, too.

For the record, I am 31, but I act 21 and my house in is the Heights. I spend a lot of Friday and Saturday nights crashed on my friends' couches who live in midtown.

I saw this on TxDOT's letting schedule.

http://www.dot.state.tx.us/insdtdot/orgcha...s.htm#091271700

Hopefully, it means that construction really will start this summer.

Probably not. The cities do not get along so well, so that type of cooperation would be difficult.

I couldn't find the pictures that I thought I had, but I find a useful site.

Go here Efloodmap and you can see the before and after floodplain/floodway limits for all of Harris County. The site is best viewed with MS Internet Explorer.

I did find out that my firm is under contract to revise the floodway boundaries for White Oak Bayou. Others in my firm have already begun working on this project. If you have specific areas of concern, I can try, but will not promise, to give you updates on how the mapping is shaping up. Just let me know.

Waterfall, I appreciate your post. However, I also appreciate the complaints of people who own property in the floodway responding to irrational regulation, whether it was voluntary at the municipal level or forced from the federal level.

And make no mistake about it: this is irrational regulation. 1) If people want to take the risk, let them, but exclude them from NFIP coverage, or 2) at least allow people to build if they mitigate their exposure to flooding by modifying the structure.

Thanks for your response. The regulation of floodplain areas can be considered irrational, but the overall intent is to reduce flood hazards for the community as a whole. I would speculate that the newly enforced ordinances are being enforced with the broad brush point of view. There seems to be evidence that the City did not anticipate the recent landowner reactions.

To respond to your second comment, as a member community of the National Flood Insurance Program, the City of Houston (and Harris County) cannot legally allow people to do what they want in the floodway and/or floodplain. If they did do that, they could lose their member status in the NFIP and then no one in the City (or County) could buy federally subsidized flood insurance. So, legally, they cannot just allow people to take the risk. The City will allow people to build in the floodplain (not the floodway) as long as they show that they mitigate impacts to water surface elevations and peak runoff rates.

Waterfall, the floodway maps did change significantly for White Oak Bayou from the Loop to Shepherd. The floodway maps for the area were done poorly, and property that is 5 feet above base flood elevation was placed in the floodway on the north side of the bayou, while properties that were 1 foot above base flood elevation on the South side were not. The floodway as mapped makes absolutely no sense from 18th street to Shepherd. The map as drawn is physically impossible, as water will seek a level and not flow at an angle across the width of the channel. I've see the remap for the area from South of 11th to Shepherd, and the flodway is essentially insode the banks of the bayou except for one expansion on the East end of Hidden Lakes townhomes. I don't have an issue with the intent of the ordinance, but it was passed with no notice to the affected homeowners, and too late for homeowners to appeal the FEMA flod maps without spending a bunch of money on engineering studies. Kudos to teh Harris County Flood Control District for reopening the process and redoing the models.

I will try and post a comparison map of the before and after floodplain/floodways along White Oak for discussion purposes later today or tomorrow. We have them here at the office somewhere.

The ordinance has been on the books since the late 1970's, however, only recently has the City of Houston (as floodplain administrator for this area) decided to enforce it. And yes, the Harris County Flood Control District is already gearing up to re-map the White Oak Bayou floodway. There is a chance that I will be involved in this project, so I will keep the board posted.

The engineering studies (what I do) for re-mapping the floodway can be relatively expensive, but keep in mind that FEMA charges, at a minimum, $4,800 to review a submittal for re-mapping the floodway, so it is not all on the engineer.

I read this article yesterday with some interest. I have worked on mapping the floodplains and floodways for Harris County and other cities, counties, etc., all around Texas. This is the core of what I do for a living. I know how floodways are mapped and determined and while I will not mention which areas I have specifically mapped, I will say that I am very familiar with White Oak Bayou.

The floodway mapping for White Oak has not changed dramatically between the old effective maps and the new effective maps that were produced from the Tropical Storm Allison Recovery Project (TSARP). What has changed is that due to the fact that the federal government has poured millions of dollars to help Harris County and the City of Houston with flood control efforts, they expect that the various municipalities take flood control more seriously. By definition, communities involved in the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) are supposed to regulate development in the floodplain and not allow development in the floodway.

The floodway is the area of the floodplain that is supposed to be able to convey floodwaters downstream with a water surface elevation rise of 1.0 feet or less if the floodplain fringe is blocked. See this illustration: http://www.lawrenceutilities.org/wwrf/floodway_schematic.gif

As part of basic due diligence, a potential buyer of property should note the floodplain status of their property. This is especially true in a flood-prone community such as Harris County. I could speculate that many people have never checked the Flood Insurance Rate Map panel for their house or property. The man in this article clearly did not include a floodplain status check as part of his due diligence and wants to blame someone else. So basically, the he is blaming the City for following federal flood control mandates and does not want to accept responsibility for not checking the floodplain status of his property. I don't mean to come off as harsh, but sometimes it gets under my skin when it appears that people won't admit their mistakes and try to shove the blame onto others.

I realize that significant acerage within Harris County lies within floodway zones and by stricter enforcement of NFIP laws, development will be limited. However, I think that this enforcement will result in a greater good for the general public in terms of reduction of flood losses. I welcome everyone's questions and comments on this issue.

Thanks for the advice. The home is on 24th Street, between Couch and Bevis. According to the tsarp map (which I had checked before) and my realtor, it's in the 'AE' zone.

No problem. An AE flood zone simply means that the area in question is inside the limits of the 1% annual exceedance probability floodplain. Formerly, this was called the 100-year floodplain which mislead too many people into thinking that floods would occur only once in a hundred years. So the longer, harder to say name is more accurate in that areas within a AE zone have a 1% chance of being flooded in any given year.As for your case, your 1% AEP water surface elevation is approximately 57.5 feet. Harris County requires that the finished floor elevation (ground floor at your front door) be 18 inches above the 1% AEP water surface elevation. This means your slab should be around 59.0 feet or higher. And as I tell all of my friends and clients, if you live in Harris County, buy flood insurance. I live in a relatively high part of the Heights and I have it. You just never know...

In a nutshell LiDAR and improved GIS/modeling capabilities. If you aren't sure what LiDAR is check out http://www.tsarp.org/tsarp_over/lidar.html or just google it. It allows for far more accurate contours to be created and therefore they can create much more precise models. Whether or not they have is open for debate (mostly among those now affected). Hence the reason the flood plains have changed. I worked for a remote sensing company for a time flying LiDAR surveys, it's a pretty cool I must say.

I didn't want to get too technical concerning the model preparation, but I can if anyone would like me to. Harris County was the one of the first major, urban areas to have LIDAR flown for floodplain mapping. The dataset is immense and very accurate, thus leading to several floodplain re-alignments. A discussion about the accuracy of the models could take me days to type up.... Many were prepared by out of town firms and I suspect they did not have the some of the local, first hand knowledge of how our bayous and creeks react to storm events.

Then maybe you can explain to me how a house sitting for 30 years in an "X" plain, all of the sudden becomes an "AE" ? I'm in Bear Creek my house is literally next to the Addicks reservoir, and sits on high. I am not worried about flooding, but I do think this will definately take some buyers out the market for me in 20 years.

Thanks in advance.

Without more data, I cannot answer your question. However, several areas in Harris County had the flood hazard determination (the Zone X and Zone AE you are referring to) modified as part of the Tropical Storm Allison Recovery Project (TSARP).

Also, if you have been in your house for 30 years, then you surely have noticed the uptick in development to the west, or upstream of you. With more development comes more rainfall runoff. Without proper detention measures and/or channel capacity improvements, the floodplain could easily spread to areas where it never reached before.

That might help with a heavy rain, but if the bayou floods, I wouldn't think that drain is going to help....any civil engineers on here?

Howdy, I'm a civil engineer and I specialize in floodplain mapping and management.

To check exactly where your future home is located in relation to the White Oak Bayou floodplain, go to www.tsarp.org and use their interactive mapping tool. If you still need help, send me your address or just an intersection and I will check it myself.

You do need to have the homebuilder or a surveyor that you hire provide you with an elevation certificate. This document will come in handy not only for insurance purposes, but when you sell your house.

A small drain will not be effective during a major storm event. Most storm sewers in the City of Houston are designed for a rainstorm that has a 33% chance of occurring in any year.

Being on 24th Street, I wouldn't worry TOO much. Just keep in mind that if a really big storm does come (and it will one day!) your house may be an island for a few hours or possibly days...

Please let me know if you have any other questions. In my very biased opinion, my firm is the premier group of drainage and floodplain consultants in Harris County and I don't mind helping out HAIFers.

I used Ace Tree Specialist. They gave me a free estimate, showed up when they said they would, did what they said they would, and cleaned up after themselves.

I was in contact with Ray Strange and his number is 713-723-0417. They expect payment after the job is complete. I will use them again.

As far as the landscaping work... I have no recommendations.

Wow - nobody knows ANYBODY?

Or is everyone irritated with me and I just don't know it?

http://www.ci.sugar-land.tx.us/sugarland/I...lan_highres.pdf

Here is a preliminary site plan.

I am surprised no one mentioned looking at a place in Midtown. It is a straight shot to the Continental building and for a single guy, there is ALOT more activity around and chances to meet people (women). It is also pretty much the only place where you can walk to get groceries, eat dinner, get dry cleaning, and go to the bars/clubs. Just my thoughts.

I think this is the "Willow Waterhole", a large detention pond that was built shortly after Tropical Storm Allison. It is part of the massive project to help minimize flooding in the neighborhoods along Brays Bayou.

You are correct. It is a small part of the Willow Waterhole project. It is part of a joint Harris County Flood Control District and federally funded flood control project for the Brays Bayou watershed. Eventually, the almost the entire area south of Gasmer, west of Post Oak and north of main, and east of Chimney Rock will be excavated to provide flood control storage. In addition, there is discussion of putting an extreme event flow conveyance pipe from Brays Bayou under Chimney Rock to the ultimate Willow Waterhole detention site. This will serve to reduce peak flows in Brays Bayou before they reach the Medical Center.

I don't get it. They call them resevoirs but don't have 4 walls. Besides a resevoir is an artificial lake. These are more like flood control planes or flood protection. I wonder why did they just build them in that area of town. Does it flood there often? Kingwood always floods and they need it. They are built by an actual resevoir. My god, wouldn't it be a disaster if the Lake Houston Dam broke. New Orleans had poor planning. When the levees break it basically becomes one big resevoir.

Your user name is "Engineer," but I have to guess you aren't a civil engineer. Anyways, Addicks and Barker Reservoirs were built in the late 1940's by the Corps of Engineers primarily as a response to the 1935 flood. They were situated west along both sides of Buffalo Bayou due to the belief that development in the city would never reach that far west... Their purpose is strictly flood control. Reservoirs can have four primary uses: flood control, water supply, recreation, and hydropower.

No riverine based reservoir has four walls. Look at Lake Mead (behind Hoover Dam) as an example. Some smaller water supply reservoirs have four sides which I think is your impression of a reservoir.

Katy is actually upstream of the Addicks and Barker and thus does not benefit from the reservoirs.

I didn't know that Kingwood always floods. Lake Houston wasn't built for Kingwood, Kingwood was built because it was near Lake Houston and US 59. The primary purpose of Lake Houston is to supply drinking water for the city. Of course, many of us have used it recreational purposes as well such as boating and fishing. It does serve somewhat of a flood control function as well. The Lake Houston dam and spillway is well designed and imagine that it will remain solid. It was constructed in the 1950's, so it has been through a fair number of hurricanes. An interesting fact is that the largest recorded flowrate in the state was recorded over the Lake Houston spillway in 1994. I cannot recall the exact cubic feet per second, but it was impressive.

I have a copy of that plat because of a project we did in that area. You have the same 10' setback on the Herkimer side. There aren't any other restrictions noted on the plat. I doubt your lot was ever individually deed restricted. If it was, your setback requirement will be 15'.

At the end of the day the ordinance governs. I still think it's worth a shot to get a variance of some kind depending on the adjacent use. Can't hurt.

I don't know if I have the time and want to expend the effort to get a variance (plus I don't know how to start the process). I turned a public information request for the plat and they sent me the original plat from way back when. It didn't have any type of setback requirements, easements, or rights-of-way shown.

Currently, I am being surrounded by new construction and my house will be out of place, so I am going to wait and see before I do anything substantial to the land. Besides some builder might want to offer me big money for the lot... so who knows what might happen. I am going to stick with what I have.

Thanks for the code reference. I found the table that you called out. And yes, it does appear that I am stuck with the 17-foot setback.

I will have to go look up the plat. I have the property survey which calls out a 10-foot building line along the Nicholson side of the lot (the front of my house). However, I know that the plat will have more information.

Thanks to you two for responding! I will update this thread as things develop in case anyone is interested.

My lot is in between Nicholson and Herkimer Streets. My house faces Nicholson and I would like to build a garage that has access from Herkimer. I had plans drawn up, but when I went to get the permit, the City told me that I have to have a 17-foot setback from my property line.

This reduces the size of my backyard significantly and makes construction more expensive because of the increased paving area. Does this seem right? The guy at the City couldn't tell me an ordinance or code, but said he just "knew" and that is how things are done in the Heights.

Does anyone know if this is right or if I need to go down there and talk to someone else? Any advice/ideas would be appreciated.

Are we talking north of the tracks or south of the tracks but near Washington? I'm trying to get an idea of the area in my mind. I admit that after six or so years, I'm still not 100% certain of RM's borders.

The borders are Westcott to the west, Washington to the north, Memorial to the south, and Detering to the east.

And "flooding" has not been a problem in Rice Military. I consider flooding to occur when water from a ditch, bayou, etc. enters someone's home and causes water damage. I agree that there are isolated areas where "drainage" may be an issue, but most of the time the drainage issues are temporary due to messy construction sites or homeowners using the drainage ditches as flower gardens. The entire Rice Military area is relatively high in elevation and not located within the Buffalo Bayou floodplain.

I highly recommend the area. Like TexasCE, our garage was robbed once-no lock and locked now. Since we have installed an 8' fence on 2 sides and an electric gate on our drive. We like 90% of our neighbors [the alley neighbors are a problem] and have really experienced no crime except for what I posted above. It's a growing neighborhood-I can feel the 300K townhouses creeping up behind us. If you're really interested, it may be the time to take the plunge.

Thanks to you guys for the responses. I actually just had my offer accepted on a home over in the Heights closer to Shepherd. I do agree with you that there is plenty of new or re-development going on in the vicinity.

I believe you are referring to the ponds in Arthur Storey Park. Those are not retention ponds, but are off-line detention/floodplain storage ponds designed to "cut off" the top of very large flood hydrographs.

The Heights does not have the land available near White Oak to build such a facility unless homes are taken. In addition, riverine flooding is not as big a concern in the Heights due to the natural topography compared to Brays Bayou which is where the facility you mentioned is located.

We have a huge retention pond in Alief at Bellaire and Beltway 8, and I can't see why Houstonians would not want one within their district. Yea, it's better to have the roadways flood before homes, but if that water runs off someplace that could almost never flood over, neither would be in trouble, right?

Also, does the Heights have any area within it that could fit a retention/detention pond the size of the Bellaire site?

Looks like the Anti-Ramp Group has won with TxDOT.

As an aside, the ponds that are being planned are detention and not retention ponds. I analyze/design major drainage projects for a living and there is a pretty big difference.

I'm assuming you mean E. 25th east of N. Main? I live on N. Main-the west side. What is your price range? Check out Aurora and 26th and 27th on both sides of N. Main. New construction ranges from 200k to over 500k. Re-dos are cheaper if you are looking to go that route.

Oh-I forgot-welcome to HAIF.

Yes, I do mean East 25th and North Main Street. I looked a few houses in that vicinity that were very nicely re-done. I was really impressed with the workmanship, but not so impressed with the proximity to several beer joints, warehouse sites, etc. I just am curious about the general safety of the area and if the area seems to be experiencing re-growth similar to other parts of the Heights further to the west.

Hi, first time poster, long time lurker.

I was looking at a house on the east side of Main St. on 25th yesterday. The house was great and many of the surrounding homes appeared to be well kept. However, I was concerned about being on the "wrong side" of Main St.

Can anyone share their knowledge of the area? I drove around and noticed a few clubs/bar nearby as well as several wharehouse/industrial sites. Any info is appreciated.

Thanks.