The San Jacinto Regional Flood Planning Group has issued 36 draft recommendations for the next statewide flood plan, ReduceFlooding reported Thursday. The recommendations are grouped into three categories: 12 legislative, 16 administrative and regulatory, and eight on flood planning itself.
On the legislative side, the group is asking the state for dedicated drainage funding, recurring support for the Flood Infrastructure Fund, and updated building codes carrying higher flood standards. The administrative and regulatory recommendations lean toward turning existing flood data into usable regulation, including model ordinances that smaller cities could adopt, and more public education. The flood planning recommendations seek clearer definitions of what counts as a flood emergency and a simpler path to project approval.
ReduceFlooding noted that about 20 percent of the Texas population currently lives inside a mapped floodplain, and that figure could rise if flood maps were updated uniformly across the state.
These are draft recommendations intended for the next Texas State Flood Plan, not adopted policy or funded projects. They matter here because the San Jacinto basin is the watershed Lake Houston sits in, and the region takes in Harris, Montgomery and Liberty counties. The same group’s inventory of how ready regional counties are for a major flood was published earlier this week.
