WHAT:  The Trinity Regional Flood Planning Group (Trinity RFPG) will hold a hybrid public meeting to potentially authorize final revisions and the submission of the first-ever, final Amended Regional Flood Plan for Texas’ Trinity River Basin to the Texas Water Development Board (TWDB). After submission to the TWDB, which will conclude the first-ever cycle of regional flood planning in the state, the plan will eventually become part of the first-ever State Flood Plan by September 2024.

WHEN:  Thursday, June 29, 2023, at 10:30 a.m.

WHERE: In-person: John Bunker Sands Wetland Center, 655 Martin Ln, Combine, TX 75159

Virtually: Via WebEx videoconference at: https://bit.ly/3HR119z – or via phone at 1-408-418-9388, access code: 2499 424 5180

AGENDA: The official public meeting agenda was posted 14 days in advance of the meeting at www.trinityrfpg.org. Meeting materials were also posted to the site seven days in advance of the meeting.

Among the meeting agenda items will be the review and consideration of public comments and TWDB comments received to date on the Draft Amended Regional Flood Plan, discussion of Plan revisions and potential action items to establish term limits for the Planning Group’s voting members, discussion surrounding the selection of the Region 3 Trinity RFPG Sponsor for the next cycle of regional flood planning and most notably, the potential authorization to submit the final Amended Regional Flood Plan to the TWDB.

The public is welcome to attend the meeting and participate in the public comment session, either in person or virtually. Written public comments are also accepted at any time via this form or by email to info@trinityrfpg.org.

PUBLIC COMMENT PROCESS FOR HYBRID MEETING:

If you wish to provide oral public comments at the meeting, you are encouraged to register in advance by emailing Owen Ramsey at info@trinityrfpg.org no later than 9:00 a.m. on June 29, 2023, providing your name, phone number, email address and who are you representing, and indicating if you wish to comment on a specific agenda item or provide general comments.

During the meeting, those who have registered to speak, either in-person or virtually, will be called upon by the Chair during the appropriate comment period.

At the Chair’s discretion, unregistered attendees who wish to speak may also have the opportunity to provide oral comments during the public comment periods of the agenda.

  • Those participating by videoconference will be asked to use the “raise hand” function, visible by hovering the cursor over the attendee’s name onscreen, to indicate their interest in speaking during the appropriate public comment period.
  • Those participating by teleconference will be asked to enter *3 to indicate their interest in speaking and be placed into the queue to be called upon during the appropriate public comment period.

ABOUT: The Trinity RFPG is among 15 regional flood planning groups designated in April 2020 by the Texas Water Development Board (TWDB), as a result of Senate Bill 8, 86th Texas Legislature, which established a groundbreaking, new regional and state flood planning process. At the same time, the Texas Legislature also created a new flood financial assistance fund and charged the TWDB with administering the fund. The Flood Infrastructure Fund, approved by Texas voters in November 2019, will be used to finance flood-related projects.

The Trinity RFPG was responsible for creating its first Regional Flood Plan in early January 2023. The Amended Plan will be submitted to the TWDB by July 14, 2023, with the addition of Flood Mitigation Projects for which necessary data was not available prior to the previous plan adoption deadline. This plan will then become part of Texas’ first-ever State Flood Plan by Sept. 1, 2024. After this first round of flood planning, each of the regional flood planning groups will update their plans every five years.

The initial members of the Trinity RFPG were designated by the TWDB in 2020. The Planning Group’s membership includes at least one voting member from each of the following interest categories: the public, counties, municipalities, industry, agriculture, environment, small business, electric-generating utilities, river authorities, water districts, water utilities and flood districts. In April 2021, the Trinity RFPG engaged a technical consultant team led by Halff Associates to support its planning effort.

The Trinity RFPG’s planning region (Trinity River Basin or Region 3) has an estimated population of approximately 8 million and spans a nearly 18,000-square mile, 38-county region from Cooke County in the north to Chambers County on the Gulf Coast.

For more information, visit the Trinity RFPG website at www.trinityrfpg.org, follow the group on Twitter https://twitter.com/TrinityRFPG or email the group via info@trinityrfpg.org. For media queries, contact Owen Ramsey, 945-455-9903 or owen.ramsey@cookseypr.com.