Howdy WHA Members!
I hope all of you are enjoying your summer and coping with the heat. May 2022 was officially the second hottest ever and June is aiming for the record books. For those of you who enjoy data, Space City Weather has put together some comparisons to Texas’ drought summer of 2011.
What does this mean for West Houston? We need to be thinking about water! Thankfully we have been doing that. We held our Water Infrastructure Forum on June 14th with presentations by Michael Turco from Harris-Galveston Subsidence District, Don Ripley from Coastal Water Authority, and Bob Mitchell from Gulf Coast Protection District, and moderated by Alia Vinson (ABHR), Vice Chair of WHA’s Water Resources Committee. We also held our Rising Leaders session on water on June 17th which featured presentations by Tim Buscha (IDS Engineering), Melinda Salazar (BGE), Melinda Silva (DEC), and Charles Schumate (LAN) at the Grundfos US Headquarters in Brookshire, TX.
We’ve also been discussing electric vehicles, solar collection, and electric infrastructure with Lisa Lin, Director of Sustainability for Harris County at our last Sustainable Infrastructure committee meeting, and sustainability has been part of the conversation regarding Quality Planned Development. The QPD Committee is working to update the guidelines for Residential QPD recognition that consider increased sustainable infrastructure components. Meanwhile the Parks, Recreation and Open Spaces Committee continues work on the West Houston Master Parks Plan and is discussing changes seen in the Harris County permitting process surrounding green spaces.
We’ve also been talking a lot about regional mobility. The last Regional Mobility committee included a discussion on HGAC’s RTP planning as well as an update by Fort Bend Transit on the county’s commuter services and the developing Westpark Park-and-Ride. In the spirit of collaboration on regional mobility, Jim Webb (The Goodman Corporation), Chair of the WHA Regional Mobility Committee introduced METRO President/CEO Tom Lambert at the Katy EDC’s General Assembly Meeting on June 21st. Jim will also be serving as moderator for our upcoming Regional Mobility Form with METRO Board Chair Sanjay Ramabhadran entitled, “What is the Future of Mass Transit in West Houston?”
Despite the lack of rain this summer, we still need to be ready for anything here in Texas, including hurricane season and the potential for flooding it brings along with it. On August 4th recently appointed Director of Harris County Flood Control District Tina Petersen will be speaking at our 7th Annual Flood Control Forum, to address what the County has been doing since Harvey and the plans moving forward to increase the region’s flood resilience.
There are also several committee meetings this month: Government Affairs on July 11th, Sustainable Infrastructure on July 12th, and Water Resources on July 21st. If you would like to be added to the email list or calendar invites for any committees, please let us know.
Thank you for your support of the West Houston Association and working to improve quality of life for the 2,000,000+ people who live, work, and play across the Greater West Houston region!