A new Meritage Homes community about to break ground in Houston will be a test case for the city’s new flood plain standards.
Earlier this week, the Houston City Council approved a Municipal Utility District for the builder’s Spring Brook Village project in the Houston neighborhood of Spring Branch. Located on the site of a former golf course, all homes in the community will be built outside of the 500-year flood plain, satisfying the elevated standards recently passed by the city.
To meet the city’s requirements, Meritage is building a 26-acre drainage system to keep rainwater contained in the center of the community away from homes and neighbors. The drainage system will be capable of holding as much water as the previous golf course would have, as well as accommodating water run-off from the new homes and streets at a faster rate. The excavated dirt is being used to elevate the areas of the community where homes will be built so they are at least 2 feet above the specified 500-year flood plain. No fill material from outside the community has been added during development, which also meets new city requirements.
“Meritage Homes is developing responsibly so Spring Brook Village will have no negative impact to the surrounding community,” says Kyle Davison, division president for Meritage Homes in Houston. “The drainage system will be able to hold the same amount of water and convey it at the same or lesser rate as when the property was a golf course.”
And because the drainage system was partially constructed prior to August 2017, its capabilities have already been tested by one of the most devastating storms to hit the Houston area — Hurricane Harvey.
“We had only completed the first phase of the drainage system when Harvey dumped an unprecedented amount of rain on the region,” Davison says. “The drainage system performed exactly as expected, with no water exceeding its banks. Because we were able to contain the storm water, the drainage system was a big reason Brickhouse Gully did not flood adjacent neighborhoods during Hurricane Harvey.”
The water contained within the drainage system will also function as community amenity lakes and will be flanked with park space for residents to enjoy. Other Spring Brook Village amenities include an area for outdoor yoga, a duck pond with a picnic pavilion, a scenic boardwalk, a recreation center, a dog park and hike-and-bike trails.
The homesites will be much larger than similar new-home construction in the area, with a density of eight homes per acre–much less than the 27 units per acre allowed by the city, Davison says. In addition, all of the homes will be single-family detached and either one or two stories. Home sales in Spring Brook Village are expected to begin in July with models grand opening in August.
Approximately 900 homes are projected for the 115-acre Spring Brook Village, with the first phase comprising 41 townhomes, 46 patio homes and 28 executive homes of up to 2,870 square feet. As the developer and exclusive home builder in the community, Meritage will offer homes priced from the mid $200,000s to mid $400,000s. Construction will be starting soon on three townhome models, two patio homes models and one executive home model.
Lawrence Dean, regional director for Metrostudy, says that Spring Brook Village’s size helps it stand out in the local market.
“Most of the new residential areas in Spring Branch are very small — only 1 to 10 acres with very dense, attached housing,” he says. “And that’s a valuable distinction. A community of 1 or even 10 acres can’t offer the community feel Spring Brook Village will have.”
