Two pieces of local news matter right now if you are planning to build in our service area, one about the rules and one about the ground itself. Montgomery County rewrote three of its rulebooks over the past year and a half, and Harris County finally broke ground on the flood project Kingwood has been waiting on for years. Here is what actually changed, with the dates and the sources.
Montgomery County rewrote its rulebook
If your lot sits in unincorporated Montgomery County, which covers a lot of Porter, New Caney and Splendora, three things changed since last year.
Floodplain rules, effective October 1, 2025
The county's new Floodplain Management Regulations took effect October 1, 2025. The headline change: a permit is now required for development on a property whether or not that property sits in the mapped floodplain, unless the work falls under a specific exemption. Unincorporated areas, including The Woodlands and other flood-prone subdivisions, now need additional permitting materials up front. If you are building on land you have owned for years and assumed was simply "not in the floodplain, no problem," check the exemption list before you break ground, because the county is not taking that for granted anymore.
Development regulations, revised four times since March 2025
The county's Development Regulations were adopted March 4, 2025 and have already been amended three times, on May 27, 2025, October 14, 2025, and April 9, 2026. If a lot review or engineering report you got last year cited the old version, ask your builder to check it against the current one before you finalize a site plan.
A new drainage manual, the first since Harvey
Commissioners adopted a new Drainage Criteria Manual on August 26, 2025, the first full rewrite since Hurricane Harvey in 2017. For anyone building in or near a floodplain or floodway, the regulations also call for a Conditional Letter of Map Revision from FEMA before the county will approve a drainage plan that includes a detention pond or any change to a floodway. That step adds real weeks to a schedule, not just paperwork, so it belongs in your timeline from day one, not as a surprise mid-permit.
Kingwood: dirt is finally moving on Taylor Gully
On the Harris County side, the Taylor Gully Channel Conveyance Improvements and Woodridge Stormwater Detention Basin project broke ground July 20, 2026. It is the Harris County Flood Control District's first major capital flood-risk-reduction project in the Kingwood area, and after years of studies and delays, contractors are now on site.
The money moved in two steps. Harris County Commissioners Court awarded a roughly $29.39 million construction contract to Brice Construction & Design LLC on March 31, 2026. About a week later, on April 7, 2026, Houston City Council approved a $10 million appropriation and an interlocal agreement with the flood control district for the same project. Total project cost across both partners runs to about $56.9 million.
The work itself has two parts. About two miles of Taylor Gully will get channel conveyance improvements, running from the Harris-Montgomery county line downstream to Maple Bend Drive, through the Elm Grove, Mills Branch, North Kingwood Forest and Woodstream Village subdivisions. Alongside that, crews are building the southern portion of a 267-acre stormwater detention basin on the former Woodridge neighborhood site near Woodland Hills Drive and Northpark Drive, land jointly owned by the City of Houston and the flood control district. The finished basin will be a wet-bottom, two-compartment design holding about 1,127 acre-feet of stormwater. Combined, the district expects the channel and basin work to lower water surface elevations by as much as 5 feet in some spots during major storms.
If you already own or are looking at a lot in Elm Grove, Mills Branch, North Kingwood Forest or Woodstream Village, this is the project addressing the drainage on your street, and it is under construction now, not just on a planning map. It will take time to finish, so do not expect flood maps or insurance rates to move overnight. But it is worth asking about a lot's flood history and elevation certificate either way, on this side of the county line or the Montgomery County side.
What this means for your build
None of this should scare anyone off building here. It means doing the lot homework earlier and asking sharper questions: which version of the county rules applies to your permit, whether your site needs a CLOMR before drainage gets approved, and what the current flood control work near your lot is actually going to change. We track these updates because a rule change six months into a project is the kind of thing that blows up a schedule, and we would rather catch it before you close on the land.
Run the cost estimator for a range on your plan, or send us the address of a lot you are considering and we will tell you which rules actually apply to it.
Sources: Montgomery County Floodplain Management Regulations, effective 10/1/2025, and Development Regulations adopted 3/4/2025 with amendments 5/27/2025, 10/14/2025 and 4/9/2026 (mctx.org); Montgomery County Drainage Criteria Manual, adopted 8/26/2025 (mctx.org); Harris County Flood Control District, F-14 Taylor Gully Channel Conveyance Improvements and Woodridge Stormwater Detention Basin project (hcfcd.org); Community Impact, "Harris County, Houston officials green light $56.9M flood project in Kingwood," April 9, 2026, and "Construction set to begin on nearly $30M flood project in Kingwood," May 14, 2026 (communityimpact.com).