HCL Committee Meeting Summary - December 4, 2025
HCL Committee Meeting Summary - December 4, 2025
This informational meeting of the Houston City Council Quality of Life Committee, held on December 4, 2025, focused on three primary agenda items: an eighth amendment to a community development grant, an allocation of funds for office lease renewal at 2100 Travis Street, and a public hearing for a Municipal Setting Designation (MSD). Councilmember Julian Ramirez chaired the session. Since a quorum was not present, no votes were taken; the meeting served to inform committee members and staff of departmental requests and project statuses.
Consent Calendar
- N/A: No routine approvals or unanimous actions occurred as the meeting was informational only due to the absence of a quorum. No ordinances or resolutions were formally passed.
Public Comments & Testimony
- Dominic Mazak: Expressed strong concern regarding potential environmental hazards in Houston, referencing historical precedents like Love Canal and the Metro Green Line construction near underground petroleum tanks. He highlighted the disproportionate impact of contamination on communities with limited financial power and marginalized populations, citing the former Southern Pacific (Creso) plant as an example of long-term harm. He suggested that in some cases, the most equitable solution might be community buyouts and demolition to ensure safety.
Discussion Items
- Housing and Community Development (HCD) Grant Amendment: Deputy Director Kenisha London presented on the request to amend the Community Development Block Grant Disaster Recovery 2016 Floods Grant Award. The amendment seeks to extend the agreement term from December 31, 2025, to April 30, 2026, to finalize salary draws and align language with the Harvey buyout program. The grant covers the Clarewood and Chimney Rock projects, which are now demolished; the extension is for administrative closure. When asked about potential future extensions beyond April, staff noted that while the City originally requested an extension through June, the Texas General Land Office (GLO) only approved an extension to April. Staff clarified that all physical activities are complete, and the extension is solely for paperwork and final compliance.
- HCD Office Lease Allocation: Roxanne Lawson presented a recommendation to allocate $4,397,647 for the fourth quarter of 2025 through January 2029 for rent at 2100 Travis Street. The 2100 Travis lease expires on January 31, 2029. Lawson provided historical context on previous appropriations and amendments approved by Council between 2018 and 2022. She noted that while the building ownership changed due to foreclosure on September 2, 2025, the lease terms remain valid. When Councilmember Ramirez asked about future relocation plans, specifically regarding the previously approved purchase of 1600 Smith, Lawson stated she had no knowledge of plans to move Housing into that building. She clarified that because the Housing Department is fully federally funded, it cannot pay another city department (such as the one owning 1600 Smith) for space, as this would constitute "double dipping" or enriching the city with federal funds.
- Municipal Setting Designation (MSD): A presenter from Public Works and the GoForth property team represented the application for MSD 2023-166 GSP for properties at 6525 Goldforth Street, 6505 Foster Street, and Zero Foster Street. The presentation clarified that an MSD is a voluntary deed restriction prohibiting the use of shallow groundwater for drinking water to prevent exposure to contaminants. The site involves chlorinated solvents and petroleum compounds. The presenter emphasized that City of Houston public water supply is drawn 10 times deeper than the affected shallow groundwater, ensuring no contact between the public water supply and contaminants. The presenter acknowledged a previous notification error where bilingual (English/Spanish) notices were not issued as required, noting that a re-notify occurred on November 20, 2025, and a subsequent public hearing was held to ensure community input.
Key Outcomes
- No Votes Taken: As confirmed by Councilmember Ramirez at the outset, the committee did not take any votes due to the lack of a quorum. All items remain informational.
- Grant Extension Request: The Housing Department received acknowledgement of the request to extend the GLO grant agreement to April 30, 2026, pending formal Council review when a quorum is present.
- Lease Allocation Request: The HCD received acknowledgement of the $4,397,647 allocation request for the 2100 Travis lease extension through 2029.
- MSD Public Hearing: The Municipality Setting Designation presentation was completed with the confirmation that bilingual notification requirements were satisfied for the November re-notification.
- Public Sentiment: Council received feedback expressing concern over environmental justice risks and the concentration of contamination in vulnerable communities.
Meeting Transcript
Well, good afternoon, everyone. It is two o'clock. My name is Julian Ramirez. I am Houston City Councilmember at large position one and chair of the Quality of Life Committee meeting, and I will call this meeting to order. We are joined this afternoon by Vice Chair of this committee, Councilmember Vice Mayor Pro Tem Amy Peck, as well as staff from Councilmember Castillo's office, Councilmember Alcorn's office, Councilmember Castex Tatum's office, and Councilmember Martinez's office. We do not have a quorum, so this will be an informational meeting, if you will. We will not be taking any votes. We have a few items on the agenda. And we're going to jumble the order a little bit due to scheduling considerations, and we're going to allow Deputy Director Kenisha London to jump ahead and begin our presentations this afternoon. So you can start when you're ready. Yes, sir. Good afternoon, everyone. The City of Houston's Housing and Community Development Department recommends council's approval of an ordinance authorizing an eighth amendment to our community development block grant, disaster recovery 2016 Floods Grant Award that we have with the Texas General Land Office. The changes to this agreement will do three things. First, it will extend the term of our sub-recipient agreement from December 31st of 2025 to April 30th of 2026. In addition, it will align language with the Harvey buyout program closeout, and it will allow time for completion of final salary draws. Page 13. The next two slides, you will be able to see the history of the various amendments to this grant award, which brought us to amendment number eight, and that concludes my presentation. But let me actually make one other statement. This grant award, it covers uh two buyout projects. Um one would be the uh Clarewood project and also the Chimney Rock project. Um those projects are demolished. And right now we're at the time where we are trying to amend um certain contracts so that we can submit additional payments. Um and so that's where we are with the two track uh the two projects uh that are tied to this grant award. Okay, thank you for that uh presentation. I just have a question. I noticed we've had some extensions already. Yes, sir. And this one would extend um the term through April of next year. Do do we believe we will uh be able to complete uh the program by then or will we most likely need uh another extension? Um well to be transparent. We originally submitted a request to GLO to extend through the end of June. Um in our discussions with GLO, they were um comfortable with only extending to April at this time. And so um hopefully um all of the work is done. Um there will be um the various contracts that are tied to the uh buyout uh activities will be comfortable because they need to add money to them. So the activity itself um is complete. This is more of the paperwork, um, you know, updating the contracts, processing the extensions, excuse me, processing the um payment requests, and also uh uh processing the salary draws. And so if we do need an additional extension past April, it will the activity is done, is just to finalize the uh last compliance related items. I see, and so we need to get their approval first before we we come to council. That makes sense. Okay. And did you have anything else you wanted to present at this time? No, sir. Okay, all right. Well, thank you for that. I don't see any um anyone in the queue, so uh we'll let you go. Thank you. So if it's okay, well, do you want to go ahead, Roxanne? All right. If that's all right, Cassandra will okay.
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