Friendswood accepts $4.6M for storm mitigation from Houston-Galveston Area Council

FRIENDSWOOD, Texas -- Friendswood is a step closer to receiving over $4.6 million from the Houston-Galveston Area Council for storm mitigation.

The video above is from a previous report.

Friendswood City Council unanimously ratified the city manager's completion of the H-GAC's Regional Mitigation Program Method of Distribution Funding Form during its meeting on Aug. 1. This resolution makes the city available to receive $4,636,100 in federal funding allocated by the H-GAC to provide financial assistance for risk-mitigation projects related to flooding, hurricanes, and other natural disasters.

The H-GAC has released its conditionally approved plan for distributing $488 million in federal funds to the cities and counties it serves. The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development provides the funds through its Community Development Block Grant Mitigation-Regional Mitigation Program. The Texas General Land Office then administers the program at the state level and sets the guidelines for how regional governments can distribute funds.

H-GAC submitted its method of distribution form to the GLO in February and received conditional approval in June.

"We've developed this method of distribution to make sure that those funds are allocated to our local governments in a way that really meets our local needs (and) allows them some flexibility to propose projects that will meet their local needs but most importantly to increase the resilience of our communities for storm events in the future," H-GAC Principal Planner Justin Bower said at a July 17 virtual information session.

Surrounding cities will receive funding also, with Pearland estimated to get $14 million and League City estimated to receive $15.5 million. Galveston County is projected to receive $18.2 million, and Brazoria County is set to get $43.3 million.

The H-GAC's funding allocation notably excludes Harris County and cities wholly within it, such as Houston. Since the GLO allocated an additional $750 million exclusively to Harris County in March, the county will develop its own method of distribution, H-GAC officials said.

The H-GAC will submit its final method of distribution to the GLO during its board meeting on Aug. 16. H-GAC officials said the plan must first wait an unknown amount of time for final GLO approval before funds will be distributed to local jurisdictions. Funding amounts are subject to change until the GLO gives its final approval.

This article comes from our ABC13 partners at Community Impact Newspapers.