AUSTIN — Today Texas Land Commissioner George P. Bush and Rosenberg Mayor Kevin Raines announced the Texas General Land Office (GLO) approved more than $47.5 million in flood mitigation projects to improve drainage and sewer infrastructure and construct a regional detention pond in Fort Bend County and the city of Rosenberg. These infrastructure projects will directly benefit thousands of residents in a majority low-to-moderate income (LMI) area that has faced repetitive storm damage in 2015, 2016 and in 2017 with Hurricane Harvey.

“The significant rain events over the last few years have greatly proven the need for drainage improvements in the City of Rosenberg,” said Rosenberg Mayor Kevin Raines. “This incredibly generous $47.5 million grant from Commissioner George P. Bush and the Texas GLO will enable us to make many of those critically needed improvements to our drainage channels, culvert crossings and storm sewers. These improvements will also help reduce our overall city-wide floodplain area to prevent flooding that puts our citizen’s lives and property at risk. On behalf of the City, I sincerely thank you for helping us work to be proactive against flooding in our future.” 

In May 2020, Commissioner George P. Bush announced the kick-off of the application process for the first round of more than $2.3 billion in Community Development Block Grant Mitigation (CDBG-MIT) funds from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) to protect Texas communities hit by Hurricane Harvey and severe flooding in 2015 and 2016. During the first round, the GLO conducted three competitive application programs from the CDBG-MIT Action Plan. Those programs include:

• 2015 Floods State Mitigation Competition – GLO awarded $31,426,781 to four grantees.
• 2016 Floods State Mitigation Competition – GLO awarded 21 grantees with $135,462,438.
• Hurricane Harvey State Mitigation Competition Round 1 ($1 billion of $2,144,776,720 total).

Applications closed for the first round of funding October 28, 2020, and the GLO evaluated all 290 submitted applications in accordance with the HUD approved scoring criteria. Eligible applications with the highest scores were awarded funds. The second round of the competition will award the remaining $1,144,776,720 in mitigation funding to Hurricane Harvey eligible entities.

HUD defines mitigation as activities that increase resilience to disasters and reduce or eliminate the long-term risk of loss of life, injury, damage to and loss of property, and suffering and hardship, by lessening the impact of future disasters. HUD requires that at least 50% of total funds must be used for activities benefiting low- to moderate-income (LMI) persons.

The State of Texas CDBG Mitigation Action Plan: Building Stronger for a Resilient Future outlines the use of funds, programs, eligible applicants, and eligibility criteria as required by HUD. The plan was sent to HUD on February 3, 2020, after an extraordinary public outreach effort including a 50-day public comment period and eight regional public hearings, far-surpassing HUD requirements. HUD approved the plan March 31, 2020. For more information, please visit recovery.texas.gov/mitigation.

City of Rosenberg: Channel Improvements and Flood Mitigation Project - $47,585,955

LMI Percentage: 56.66%

This project will benefit the city of Rosenberg by providing flood mitigation in the form of channel improvements and slope paving, culvert crossing improvements, storm sewer improvements, right-of-way acquisition, and regional detention. The overall benefits to the project area include:

• Reduction in water surface elevations along the flooding sources of Dry Creek, Theater Ditch, Rabbs Bayou, Graeber Road, and Theater Ditch North.
• Reduction in overall floodplain area within the project area.
• Improved access along major and minor roadways due to reduced water surface elevations.

Dry Creek

• Phase 1: Channel improvements between Louise Street and Airport Avenue.
• Phase 2: Concrete lining through Cambridge Village to Louise Street and an extra culvert at Louise Street.
• Phase 4: Trapezoidal channel improvements from Mockingbird Lane to FM 2218, including acquiring ROW for an ultimate 250’ easement.
• Phase 5: Flowline improvements upstream of 1st Street, concrete lining from 1st Street to Cambridge Village, extra culverts at 1st and 4th Streets, and concrete lining from Airport to Mockingbird Lane.

Theater Ditch

• Deepen and slope pave the entire length of the ditch, providing a maximum increase in depth of approximately 1.2 feet at the upstream end.
• Replace the bottom of the existing ditch with concrete-lined 16-foot bottom width and 4-foot tall vertical walls.
• Replace the existing culverts at Avenue N and Avenue P/Laurel Lane to improve conveyance through the road crossings and lower the upstream water surface elevations.
• Construct an additional culvert crossing at Avenue O/Leonard Avenue where a new road crossing is proposed.

Rabbs Bayou

• Trapezoidal channel improvements along the entire length of the main channel within Rosenberg.
• Replace culvert at Lane Drive, Wilson Drive, and Westwood Drive/Pecan Park Drive.
• Construction a 22-acre inline regional detention pond adjacent to the railroad track to lower peak flows to allow for improved drainage conveyance from the upstream drainage area within the city and to address the capacity issues resulting from the restrictions created by the existing culverts underneath the Railroad Tracks.

Graeber Road

• Construct a new storm sewer trunk system draining south to Dry Creek to alleviate the flooding issues near the intersection of Graeber Road and Avenue N.
• Right-of-way acquisition of the run of storm sewer from Airport Avenue to Dry Creek through the undeveloped tract of land south of Airport Avenue.

Theater Ditch North

• Concrete line the ditch from the upstream end near Avenue N down to US-90A to improve conveyance.
• Improve the existing culvert crossing under Avenue I/FM 1640.
• Improve the culvert crossing under Old Richmond Road and the railroad tracks located near the intersection of Old Richmond Road and Eighth Street to alleviate drainage issues in the area surrounding Theater Ditch North.