CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — A local group is looking into an issue caused by raising property elevations on Padre Island.
The Island Strategic Action Committee submitted a plan to Corpus Christi City Council that could help solve the problem.
A subcommittee determined that slope and water runoff between new and old houses was causing flooding on the property of old ones. Experts said that it is the result of changes in elevation of the floodplain and elevation that homes on the Island are built at.
That is making new houses higher than adjoining houses on each side.
"When it rains, the water runs off onto the neighbors and floods them," Island Strategic Action Committee member Marvin Jones said. "That's the problem."
Jones said that a subcommittee studied the problem thoroughly. They interviewed builders, homeowners and city officials. He said that a potential solution was submitted to Corpus Christi City Council.
"One, make the slope between the houses no more than 10% and two, require that the builders submit a drainage plan, which will drain the water away from the house toward the street or the canal out here," Jones said.
Jones explained that after that, inspectors would make sure that the drainage plan is being used.
District 4 Corpus Christi City Council member Dan Suckley said that the city is getting feedback from builders about the issue, including potential revisions to the subcommittee's recommendations.
He said that this could come up again in Corpus Christi City Council in January or February next year, providing builders with tools and methods for best practices addressing the height difference between adjacent homes.
"It would hopefully inevitably provide additional means by which homeowners can feel comfortable that their neighboring property that may come in at a higher base flood elevation is handling their water properly where it doesn't adversely affect them," Suckley said.
