John Branch, president of Exploration Green’s board of directors and president of the Clear Lake City Water Authority, talks about how Exploration Green was carved out of a former golf course and will hold 500 million gallons of water when its final phase done next year. Mark Mulligan/Staff photographer Show More Show Less 3 of26 Mark Mulligan/Staff photographer Show More Show Less 2 of26 A bee grazes among native wildflowers at Exploration Green, in Clear Lake. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigateĪ hawk sits on a branch while looking for its next meal. When Vick and Branch took committee members to see Willow Waterhole, a similar project then just getting started in southwest Houston, the neighbors were sold: Flood control could look a whole lot better than they ever imagined.įROM DIANE COWEN: How a Houston flood control project bloomed into a greenspace with trails, fishing pier and dog park
The water authority hired SWA to assemble a master plan and initiate hydrology studies. Stormwater from 2,000 nearby houses flows into the 200-acre site and the water authority’s president, John Branch, recognized the opportunity. Quickly, though, the Clear Lake Water Authority stepped in, seeing the open land as an ideal option for flood control. To raise money, they hosted hot dog socials, charging $5 per person and netting $2,000 from their first event. With every news story about the golf course and its buyer, Johnston and her friends sprang into action, writing rebuttals from their kitchen tables.
The neighbors formed the Green Space Preservation Committee, and Johnston was its outreach person. They were built for Eagle Scout projects and one scout comes back regularly to maintain them they affectionately call him the "Bluebird Landlord." Mark Mulligan/Staff photographer Then, a new buyer eyed it as prime land for more houses, and Johnston, King and their neighbors rallied to block it.ĭavid Sharp, chairman of the Exploration Green Conservancy, points out a sign about the bluebird boxes at the park. So when the private golf club decreased in popularity as golfers gravitated to newer, nicer options, the Clear Lake Golf Club was bought by a firm that ran it as a public course.
As neighborhoods spread all around them, so did flooding events from tropical storms and hurricanes. Many were built in the 1960s, and longtime neighbors like Nina Johnston and Ellen King have watched each other’s children grow up and start families of their own. It was the first master-planned community in Texas, and homeowners paid a premium for homes on the then-private Clear Lake Golf Course.
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“If you’ve gone out like I have and seen kids and parents and grandparents go out and install trees and plant grasses - the scale of what has happened is striking.” Getting startedĭecades ago, as NASA and the petrochemical industry grew in Clear Lake, Exxon’s real estate arm, Friendswood Development, planned neighborhoods around the space industry headquarters. “What stands out to me about Exploration Green is the depth of commitment through the community from people of all ages, all professions, all backgrounds and income groups - a real appreciation of what the space could become and making it happen,” said James Vick, the SWA architect and urban planner in charge of the park's master plan. People enjoy Exploration Green, a park created on a former golf course and built in phases, Monday, July 11, 2022, in Clear Lake.Įxploration Green represents the hottest topic in two areas that otherwise might seem unrelated: Flood mitigation and parks.
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