Houston-area officials who thought they would be handed nearly half of a historic $4.3 billion federal investment in Texas flood control projects after Hurricane Harvey will be lucky if they can fight for a quarter of the funds under a proposal from the Texas General Land Office.

The GLO’s 315-page plan outlining how the agency will distribute the long-awaited flood mitigation aid limits local governments seeking some of the $2.1 billion pot meant for Harvey-affected areas to three projects of up to $100 million each. Moreover, cities and counties will have to compete for the funds with thousands of municipal utility districts, state agencies, river authorities, tiny towns and other entities across 49 coastal Texas counties.

Also concerning for local officials is a stipulation in the plan that all applicants must have their first project funded before any entity can get a second project, so the aid could run out well before any entity gets three projects approved.

“The other two are going to sit there in a holding pattern, maybe it’s two months, maybe it’s two years,” said Alan Black, director of operations for the county Flood Control District. “The time is a huge thing.”

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Local leaders are expected to air their concerns at a Wednesday night public hearing at Texas Southern University on the GLO plan, part of the process of distributing disaster aid from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. The dollars can fund flood control projects such as wider bayous, detention basins and bigger underground drainage pipes, as well as buyouts of flood-prone homes, improvements to facilities such as sewer plants, and some housing investments.

City and county officials have tried to walk a tightrope, seeking to convey their alarm at the plan without railing against state officials, who can distribute the funds as they please as long as they follow HUD rules.

“Did they really mean to write the plan this way? I’d almost read it that it’s written in a way that’s meant to limit us accessing this money,” said Daphne Lemelle, director of Harris County’s Community Services Department. “But for the damage that happened here in Harris County, there wouldn’t be $4 billion coming to the state of Texas.”

GLO Deputy Director Heather Lagrone noted that 34 smaller cities and scores of special districts in Harris County can join the area’s larger governments in submitting project applications. She also clarified that the county and the county Flood Control District will be able to apply separately, a key concern of local leaders.

More Information In total, the Texas General Land Office proposes to spend $4.3 billion in federal flood control aid as follows: Earmark $2.3 billion for projects in areas flooded by 2015 or 2016 storms or by Harvey; Houston, Harris County and the county Flood Control District combined can compete for up to $1 billion of that. Divide $500 million among nine regional councils across the state; the Houston-Galveston Area Council will get $209 million. “We’d be lucky if we got one project out of that,” city recovery czar Steve Costello said. Add $500 million to Harvey housing repair programs; Houston and Harris County homeowners are ineligible because those governments received their own shares of the housing aid. Add $170 million to an existing Federal Emergency Management Agency mitigation program that has received more project applications than can be funded. The GLO plan prioritizes applicants that have not already gotten funding through the program, as Houston and the county Flood Control District have. Set aside $215 million for “regional and state planning,” and $30 million to update or create state and local hazard mitigation plans, awarding up to $100,000 per entity. Reserve $215 million for program administration, and $129 million to help local governments — typically small towns with limited expertise — put the mitigation aid they receive to use. Set aside $100 million to fund projects listed in the GLO’s Texas Coastal Resiliency Master Plan, which targets things like wetlands protection and shoreline stabilization. Earmark $100 million to help cities and counties update their building codes, floodplain ordinances and land use plans to better prepare for floods and other hazards, awarding up to $300,000 per applicant.

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“I’ve never heard of any region saying that they’re receiving enough money,” GLO spokeswoman Brittany Eck said. “We have 49 counties within which to allocate these funds, and we’re trying to do that in a process that’s transparent and fair and equitable to all.”

Houston and Harris County officials also spent months drawing up more than $3 billion worth of collaborative plans, aiming to pair the federal aid with local funds to improve six bayous across the region, and shared the plans with the GLO. Under the state plan, however, joint project applications will count against each participant’s three-application cap.

Lagrone said local officials still are encouraged to team up before submitting their proposals.

“We weren’t necessarily intending for collaboration at the application level so much as collaboration and partnerships as they’re deciding what projects to do,” Lagrone said.

The first funds Congress sent to Texas after Harvey went mostly for housing repairs, divided among disaster-stricken states using the same formula that was used to award roughly a quarter of Texas’ funds to both Houston and Harris County and the other half to the GLO for the rest of the state. In approving this round of mitigation aid, Congress directed HUD to split the funds among the states the same way it had distributed the housing dollars.

Though no federal rule dictated how Texas’ $4.3 billion share of the flood control funds would be spent within the state, Lemelle was among the county officials who said Land Commissioner George P. Bush and other state officials agreed the mitigation funding would be distributed in the same manner as the housing money — meaning the city and county would each get about $1 billion, with the GLO spreading the rest of the funds among other areas.

Eck, the GLO spokeswoman, denied any such commitment was made.

“At no point did we commit to $1 billion to each. When we were having many of these questions we didn’t know the HUD rules,” she said. “On top of that, it’s not totally our call — it’s up to the governor to determine who will be the state grantee for these funds … and it’s his decision to grant final approval on these things.”

Part of the reason the city and county did not gain more control over their share of mitigation funds was because Gov. Greg Abbott thought the local governments were too slow repairing Harvey-flooded homes with the first round of aid, which arrived roughly a year ago, his office has said.

Regardless of who controls the funds, local officials say, the state’s plan must be amended to ensure the Houston region gets a share of funding commensurate with the damage it incurred.

“When you look at the percentage overall of the financial impact from the disaster and compare our region to the rest of the state, and then you compare that to the percentage of funds that could come to the Harris County region as a result of these rules and constraints, it’s disproportionate,” said Black, of the Flood Control District.

mike.morris@chron.com