Harris County hosting Grand Parkway informational forum July 21

Counties seek master developer

Steve Hawley, Jul 20, 09.

Harris County, acting on behalf of all seven Grand Parkway counties, is hosting a Grand Parkway informational forum on Tuesday, July 21 in the Galleria. The meeting will take place from 9 am - 5 pm at the JW Marriot Hotel, 5150 Westheimer (map). Participants are requested to register in advance for free at www.grandparkwayprogram.com.

According to the announcement:

All interested parties are invited to attend the Forum including Master Developers/Concessionaires; financial institutions, infrastructure investment funds and pension funds; contractors; engineering firms and other professional service providers involved in the design and operation of tolled highway facilities; organizations involved in operating and maintaining tolled highway facilities including their associated electronic toll collection systems; financial advisors; and legal advisors. The agenda for the forum will include descriptions of the Grand Parkway, the organization of the public sector partner, the envisioned [Public Private Partnership] Grand Parkway Program delivery structure, and the opportunities it will provide for interested parties, and the Program schedule. Ample opportunities will be provided for participants to both comment on and ask questions regarding the Program.

The agenda includes informational items regarding the project’s environmental clearance status, its preliminary financial feasibility analysis, the role of the master developer, and Request for Qualifications requirements. Confidential, one-on-one meeting with potential master developers will be held during the rest of the week, from July 22 to July 24.

The seven counties involved - Brazoria, Chambers, Fort Bend, Galveston, Harris, Liberty, and Montgomery - are seeking a master developer to develop the entire 180-mile Grand Parkway. According to the Grand Parkway Program website, the project will likely be developed through a public private partnership and administered by a Local Government Corporation formed by the counties.

Segment E of the Grand Parkway is slated to receive $181 million in stimulus funding, although the Sierra Club has filed a lawsuit to slow down the process.

The Grand Parkway, which will largely be built through uninhabited areas, has drawn extensive criticism at local and national levels from groups that claim the toll road will encourage sprawl, worsen air quality, create more traffic congestion, and pave over floodplains, leading to more frequent and severe flooding. Some argue that the Parkway is designed to open up land for development in valuable ecosystems including the Big Thicket, the Piney Woods, the Trinity Bottomlands, the Columbia Bottomlands, the Prairie Systems, the Post Oak Savannah, the Coastal Marshes, and Bayou Wilderness.

Proponents argue that the area will be developed one way or another, so the counties should get ahead of that growth and avoid detrimental impacts on residents and businesses by building the highway while land is still cheap and undeveloped. They also assert that the road will alleviate congestion and serve as a new hurricane evacuation route. John Barton, the assistant executive director of the Texas Department of Transportation, testified that Segment E would be “an opportunity to open up areas for development in the Greater Houston area,” while Peter Houghton, a developer, told the Harris County Commissioners Court, “We need this road [Segment E of the Grand Parkway] to continue the build-out of Bridgeland.”

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