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    $100 Million Park Plan

    A new bigger jewel of a park for Houston? $100 million plan aims to make Memorial Park seem even larger

    Barbara Kuntz
    Barbara Kuntz
    Mar 10, 2015 | 3:40 pm

    The long-range master plan for Memorial Park is taking final shape with a proposed recreation complex grouping all playing fields, a natatorium to replace the outdoor pool for year-round swimming, a Memorial Grove dedicated to the fallen soldiers of Camp Logan and designated bike and pedestrian trails to keep traffic safe. Those are all components of reuniting the park while restoring ecosystems and making nods to history.

     

    Team members behind the plan presented the latest updates Tuesday at the ninth and final public hearing for the park's future, just a few weeks before the long-range master strategy will go to the city's Quality of Life Committee. The proposition is set to be submitted to the Houston City Council in April.

     

    "We've looked at the history, at each of the stories this park has to tell," Thomas Woltz, principal with Nelson Byrd Woltz Landscape Architects, said, referring back to the area's original use by Native Americans, an era of logging, the days of Camp Logan and to the Hoggs' dedication of the property to the city. "Our goal is to rebuild that ecology so to carry that history into the future."

     

     A Bridge Together

     

    "We first need to restitch the park back together," Woltz said. "We want the park to feel bigger, to feel like you're in the middle of a continuous 1,500-acre park."

     

    The proposed grass- and tree-covered land bridge spanning about 600 feet over six lanes of Memorial Drive is a big step in reconnecting the park, which is now divided by roads into about 25 pieces. It's also about organizing the activities within Houston's largest green space.

     

     

      Funding for the project is estimated to cost upwards of $100 million and take as long as 20 years. 

     
     

    "We're bringing all the playing fields together to the north portion of the park, so that they can share the irrigation and maintenance they require," Woltz said, adding the fields will still include one rugby pitch, two volleyball courts, one soccer field, one baseball diamond, five softball diamonds and two croquet courts. No existing field will be removed prior to completion of the corresponding new facility.

     

     World War I History

     

    New pine trees have already been planted to establish Memorial Groves, Woltz said, which is located on the site of Camp Logan. The long-range master plan designates interpretative markers, access paths, small picnic areas and parking for the area — without damaging or disturbing any remnants at the former World War I-era army training location.

     
     

      "We want the park to feel bigger, to feel like you're in the middle of a continuous 1,500-acre park." 

     
     

    More components of the long-range master plan include dedicated-use trails, a children's play area, a new timing track at the running center, natatorium and 30 percent more parking achieved by redistribution.

     

    "You'll also see major ponds being dug throughout the park," Woltz said. "About 85 million gallons of drinking water are used to irrigate Memorial Park, and we know we can reduce that substantially."

     

    The Houston Arboretum and Nature Center, which is part of Memorial Park, has embarked on its own master plan in conjunction with the park's proposal, Woltz said. The planners recognize the importance of the golf course, as well, and have identified it in their analysis.

     

     Road Work

     

    None of the current roads accessing the park will be removed, and no additional entry points are included in the master plan, Woltz said. Within the park, some existing roadways will be realigned to create more useable park space. To the west, the plan calls for moving the segment of Memorial Drive between the railroad and Loop 610, and to the east, Memorial Loop Road will shift further east.

     

    The Department of Public Works has reviewed both proposed changes at a preliminary level.

     

     Hurricane Fighters

     

    Woltz is leading the effort to vivify the grounds that were ravaged by Hurricane Ike in 2008 and by the droughts that have plagued Texas in recent years. He has surrounded himself with a team of 70-plus local ecology, history, archaeology, plant biology and more experts to assist in the massive undertaking.

     

    The Houston Parks and Recreation Department began in 2011 to develop a long-term forestry management plan for the park, with then-ongoing drought serving as the driving force behind the initiative. In May 2013, the Uptown Tax Increment Reinvestment Zone boundary was expanded to include Memorial Park, and in September that same year, the privately funded Memorial Park Conservancy selected Nelson Byrd Woltz to oversee the major undertaking to restore this 1,500-acre escape that attracts four million visitors each year.

     

    Funding for the project, estimated to cost upwards of $100 million and take as long as 20 years, is coming from the three entities.

    All recreational fields at Memorial Park will be grouped into a complex to share parking, irrigation and maintenance.

    Memorial Park master plan March 2015 Rendering of Sports complex by Hartness for Nelson Byrd Woltz
      
    Rendering courtesy of Hartness for Nelson Byrd Woltz
    All recreational fields at Memorial Park will be grouped into a complex to share parking, irrigation and maintenance.
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    Flood News

    More rain brings further flood risk as Texas death toll tops 100

    Associated Press
    Jul 7, 2025 | 9:36 am
    Death Toll Rises After Flash Floods In Texas Hill Country
    Photo by Brandon Bell/Getty Images
    Death toll rises after flash floods In Texas Hill Country

    With more rain on the way, the risk of life-threatening flooding was still high in Central Texas on July 7 even as crews searched urgently for the missing following a holiday weekend deluge that killed at least 100 people, including children at summer camps. Officials said the death toll was sure to rise.

    Residents of Kerr County began clearing mud and salvaging what they could from their demolished properties as they recounted harrowing escapes from rapidly rising floodwaters late July 4.

    Reagan Brown said his parents, in their 80s, managed to escape uphill as water inundated their home in the town of Hunt. When the couple learned that their 92-year-old neighbor was trapped in her attic, they went back and rescued her.

    “Then they were able to reach their toolshed up higher ground, and neighbors throughout the early morning began to show up at their toolshed, and they all rode it out together,” Brown said.

    A few miles away, rescuers maneuvering through challenging terrain filled with snakes continued their search for the missing, including 10 girls and a counselor from Camp Mystic, an all-girls summer camp that sustained massive damage.

    Gov. Greg Abbott said 41 people were unaccounted for across the state and more could be missing.

    In the Hill Country area, home to several summer camps, searchers have found the bodies of 68 people, including 28 children, Kerr County Sheriff Larry Leitha said. Ten other deaths were reported in Travis, Burnet, Kendall, Tom Green and Williamson counties, according to local officials.

    The governor warned that additional rounds of heavy rains lasting into Tuesday could produce more dangerous flooding, especially in places already saturated.

    Families were allowed to look around the camp beginning Sunday morning. One girl walked out of a building carrying a large bell. A man whose daughter was rescued from a cabin on the highest point in the camp walked a riverbank, looking in clumps of trees and under big rocks.

    One family left with a blue footlocker. A teenage girl had tears running down her face as they slowly drove away and she gazed through the open window at the wreckage.

    Searching the disaster zone
    Nearby crews operating heavy equipment pulled tree trunks and tangled branches from the river. With each passing hour, the outlook of finding more survivors became even more bleak.

    Volunteers and some families of the missing came to the disaster zone and searched despite being asked not to do so.
    Authorities faced growing questions about whether enough warnings were issued in an area long vulnerable to flooding and whether enough preparations were made.

    President Donald Trump signed a major disaster declaration Sunday for Kerr County and said he would likely visit Friday: “I would have done it today, but we’d just be in their way.”

    “It’s a horrible thing that took place, absolutely horrible,” he told reporters.

    Prayers from the Vatican
    Gov. Greg Abbott vowed that authorities will work around the clock and said new areas were being searched as the water receded. He declared July 6 a day of prayer for the state.

    In Rome, Pope Leo XIV offered special prayers for those touched by the disaster. The first American pope spoke in English at the end of his Sunday noon blessing, saying, “I would like to express sincere condolences to all the families who have lost loved ones, in particular their daughters who were in summer camp, in the disaster caused by the flooding of the Guadalupe River in Texas in the United States. We pray for them.”

    Desperate refuge and trees and attics
    Survivors shared terrifying stories of being swept away and clinging to trees as rampaging floodwaters carried trees and cars past them. Others fled to attics, praying the water wouldn’t reach them.

    At Camp Mystic, a cabin full of girls held onto a rope strung by rescuers as they walked across a bridge with water whipping around their legs. Among those confirmed dead were an 8-year-old girl from Mountain Brook, Alabama, who was at Camp Mystic, and the director of another camp up the road.

    Two school-age sisters from Dallas were missing after their cabin was swept away. Their parents were staying in a different cabin and were safe, but the girls’ grandparents were unaccounted for.

    Warnings came before the disaster
    On Thursday the National Weather Service advised of potential flooding and then sent out a series of flash flood warnings in the early hours of Friday before issuing flash flood emergencies — a rare alert notifying of imminent danger.

    Authorities and elected officials have said they did not expect such an intense downpour, the equivalent of months’ worth of rain for the area.

    Kerrville City Manager Dalton Rice said authorities are committed to a full review of the emergency response.

    Trump, asked whether he was still planning to phase out the Federal Emergency Management Agency, said that was something “we can talk about later, but right now we are busy working.” He has said he wants to overhaul if not completely eliminate FEMA and sharply criticized its performance.

    Trump also was asked whether he planned to rehire any of the federal meteorologists who were fired this year as part of widespread government spending cuts.

    “I would think not. This was a thing that happened in seconds. Nobody expected it. Nobody saw it. Very talented people there, and they didn’t see it,” the president said.

    deathsfloodingtexasweatherhill countrycamp mysticdisastersjuly 4 flood
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