Harris County commissioners approve Grand Parkway primacy

Deadline: September 25

Steve Hawley, Sep 11, 09.

UPDATE (9/16/09, 11:32 am): The Harris County Commissioners Court unanimously approved primacy on the Grand Parkway. One speaker showed up to express opposition.

—————
The Harris County Commissioners Court will vote on Tuesday to approve the local primacy option for the Grand Parkway, which would keep the project out of TxDOT’s hands - and commit Harris County to build it.

Under the agreement, the county, rather than TxDOT, would “develop, design, finance, construct, operate, and maintain the portion of the Grand Parkway within Harris County.” Fort Bend County agreed to similar terms earlier this week, and Galveston County will vote on the issue on Wednesday. The other four Grand Parkway counties - Brazoria, Chambers, Liberty, and Montgomery - must act by September 25, or TxDOT will have the ability to pursue the project for each section in which the local county does not opt to do it on their own.  Were the counties to forgo the local primacy option, TXDOT does not necessarily have to build the Grand Parkway although it is expected that they will pursue it.  The arrangement could also be altered when the legislature meets in Spring 2011 and is expected to craft a TXDOT Sunset Reauthorization Bill which they put off for two years this spring.

The Grand Parkway is a decades-old project designed to “open areas for development,” according to a TxDOT official, and to “get out in front of growth,” according to several local elected officials. It had been essentially stymied until stimulus money from the American Recovery and Investment Act became available. Segment E, the next section to be built, and the hoped-for development along it would destroy nearly half of the remaining Katy Prairie, a sensitive area that provides natural services and wildlife habitat. If the existing piece of the Parkway is any indication, the whole Parkway project and its ensuing development would displace some 1,100 square miles of Big Thicket, Piney Woods, Columbia Bottomlands, Prairie Systems, and Bayou Wilderness. There has been no public discussion about this policy of carving a large swath of land out of those ecosystems.

Once the counties assert their primacy, they must begin construction within two years of receiving federal environmental approval, or TxDOT will take over the project. Segments E and F-1 have already received Final Environmental Impact Statements and Records of Decision, and the counties must begin construction on those segments by September 25, 2011, notably after the next legislative session.  Segment D in Fort Bend County, which opened in 1994, would be converted to a toll road.

According to the Grand Parkway Program website, exercising local primacy will:

• Enable local decision-makers to ensure that the implementation of the Program is responsive to local and regional priorities and that decisions will be made locally rather than in Austin or Washington, D.C.
• Ensure that local decision makers will control the scope, schedule, and phasing of the Program, and will retain the ability to target segments for construction as they are needed. 
• Ensure that Grand Parkway user fees paid by residents are reinvested in the Grand Parkway instead of being sent to other regions of Texas.
• Provide assurances to local businesses such as contractors, engineers, and other professional service providers; materials providers; and others that they will have an opportunity to participate in Program implementation.
• Provides other local businesses with direct access to participate and support the Program by way of having the dollars spent on the Grand Parkway remain here within the Houston Region – dollars that would otherwise be spent outside of the local region, Texas and perhaps even the U.S.
• Afford greater opportunities for investment by local institutional investors.

The website emphasizes that by staying in local hands, the Grand Parkway is not part of a TxDOT Comprehensive Development Agreement (CDA). Last week, TxDOT executed a controversial CDA with Cintra, a Spanish toll road company, to finance and maintain 13 miles of the LBJ Freeway in Dallas County. 

TxDOT is expected to provide the seven local counties with $181 million in stimulus funds to begin construction on Segment E. Construction must begin by early 2010 to qualify for the stimulus money.

However, a Sierra Club lawsuit filed in March, alleging that the Federal Highway Administration failed to adequately assess the project’s environmental impacts, has the potential to sideline the project. In addition, the US Army Corps of Engineers has not yet approved a required wetlands mitigation permit for Segment E, and it is seeking comments through September 18.

More from Houston

Comments

Page 1 of 1 pages