ReduceFlooding.com published a post on Sunday, October 4, arguing that the 5,300-acre Scarborough tract upstream of Lake Houston should be bought and designated a state park rather than developed into roughly 7,000 homes. The site, written by Bob Rehak, bases the argument on the tract’s position at the confluence of the West Fork of the San Jacinto River, Spring Creek and Cypress Creek, and on Federal Emergency Management Agency mapping that places most of the property in floodway, 1 percent annual chance or 0.2 percent annual chance flood zones, with the lowest ground taking 25 to 30 feet of water in large events.
The post also points to research on park-adjacent property values as the economic case for the alternative. The positions in it are ReduceFlooding’s own.
The tract sits upstream of Lake Houston on the West Fork, so what is built on it bears on drainage and flood risk in Kingwood, Humble and Atascocita downstream. Lake Houston Today covered the same site on October 3, when ReduceFlooding tied 14 of the San Jacinto Regional Flood Planning Group’s 36 draft recommendations to the proposed development.
