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La Porte committee reviews stormwater-focused updates to public improvement criteria manual
Summary
City staff outlined minor but targeted edits to drainage-design requirements — clarifying required drainage calculation attachments, adopting Atlas 14 rainfall, a 200-acre rational-method threshold, and a simpler hydraulic grade/time-of-concentration approach to align with neighboring jurisdictions.
The City of La Porte Drainage and Flooding Committee on Sept. 8 heard a staff presentation on proposed edits to the public improvement criteria manual intended to simplify and align the city's stormwater design requirements with nearby jurisdictions.
Candace Ward, introduced by Ray Mayo, said the changes clarify which drainage calculations must accompany plan submittals and remove ambiguous references that forced engineers to interpolate unavailable data. "We just kinda added a little clarification that what detailed drainage calculations need to be included with the plans," Ward said. She also recommended starting hydraulic-grade-line calculations "at the top of the pipe," mirroring Harris County and TxDOT practice to avoid seeking external data sources.
Ward told the committee the manual will codify Atlas 14 rainfall values currently used by Harris County and the City of Houston, set a rational-method threshold at 200 acres (with larger basins requiring more complex methods), and replace a nomograph-based time-of-concentration approach with a straightforward formula. "It's a very accepted time of concentration methodology," she said, adding the changes should reduce resubmittals and mistakes.
The committee asked whether the changes apply to residential as well as commercial projects; Ward said they apply across project types and that floodplain-specific elevation and generator requirements remain in the city's ordinances, not the criteria manual. No formal vote was taken; staff presented the revisions for committee review and will proceed with next administrative steps.
