More than 100 homes in the crosshairs of a potential wrecking ball because they sit in what engineers say is a flood disaster waiting to happen have been spared.
A year ago, several plans proposed for the Concepción Creek drainage project revealed that as many as 158 households in and around Southside neighborhoods could be displaced in an attempt to move people out of a growing 100-year floodplain.
Dismayed residents protested and asked the city for alternatives.
In April, the city’s Public Works officials told a group of neighborhood residents and business owners that the plan has changed to consider other alternatives.
At a recent meeting that brought together eight residents from the area, Public Works staff said no structures will be razed for the project — a pivot from what could have led to one of the City’s largest use of eminent domain powers in recent history.
“We are not looking for any displacement of any property or building,” said Rozi Hosseini, director of Public Works. “We are looking strongly at a possible underground system under the roadway.”
The reason: Residents told the city they didn’t want to sell their homes, he said.
But with the Federal Emergency Management Agency updating its floodplain map and adding nearly 1,900 more structures in the area to the floodplain, at least 2,200 structures are considered to be in harm’s way.
Even without a flood, homes in such a floodplain are devalued and homeowners are required to carry flood insurance.
Hosseini said the flood mitigation project is on track with the cost and timeline expected to be spread across stages lasting many years, similar to other drainage system projects in the city.
Work on the Seeling Drainage project, a flood mitigation system in the Jefferson and Monticello Park neighborhoods that goes back to 2011, only recently entered its fourth and final phase, funded with $15 million through the city’s 2022 bond.
The first phase of design and construction for the Concepción Creek system kicked off in December with the city posting a request for qualifications to come up with a plan for a series of detention ponds and a cost estimate.
There were five bids for the project and one will be approved by City Council in June, said a city spokesman.
Recommendations that come out of that effort will be put in front of residents and stakeholders for input before moving forward, Hosseini said.
Collins Garden resident Robert Cuellar attended the April 30 meeting hosted by Public Works to assemble a group of residents for ongoing communication and updates with those who are affected by the project.
Cuellar was relieved to learn that the city has moved away from the idea of taking homes through eminent domain for the purpose of building detention pods.
At the meeting, the group also was told that the city wants to “start with a new approach that includes more access to information and more local neighborhood type input [and] interaction,” he said. Staff directed them to a website with updated information.
Like the Seeling project, the Concepción Creek project will be completed in phases so it’s impossible to know the total price tag, said Hosseini.
“The cost of the project will change because, of course, we haven’t done the design yet,” he said. “This is a very large drainage project,” and many of those are done in phases because the cost would exceed what the city can sustain through the bond process.
The longtime Public Works director announced plans to retire in September, after public backlash to the city’s handling of maintenance work surrounding the Final Four tournament and other ongoing bond projects.
Recently, several council members requested an audit of the 182 projects approved in the city’s $1.2 billion 2022 bond and a review of the city’s Infrastructure Management Program.
