🌿 Strategic Plan Overview

Protecting Our Watershed & Green Space: A Community-Driven Approach

This multi-phase strategy empowers residents to advocate for responsible development, ecological resilience, and transparent governance across Texas Township.

As forests, fields, and wetlands give way to rapid expansion, the township faces rising risks: stormwater basins are overloaded, groundwater is compressed, wetlands are fragmented, and runoff intensifies. Natural buffers are being replaced by impervious surfaces and engineered systems that struggle to keep pace.

Meanwhile, traffic congestion grows alongside unchecked growth—straining infrastructure and compounding environmental stress. Without stronger protections and smarter planning, the watershed’s long-term stability is at risk.

🔍 Phase 1: Clarify the Technical Narrative

Goal: Build public understanding of how watershed-wide green space loss in Texas Township destabilizes stormwater systems, amplifies runoff, and threatens long-term hydrological resilience.

📊 Visuals: Time-lapse satellite imagery of watershed land cover change illustrating green space decline and impervious surface growth (1986 to present)

🕰️ Timeline: Green space reduction trends across sub-watersheds (W Fork Portage Creek) from 2000–2025

🧾 Memo: Groundwater compression from saturated soils and impervious cover, elevating lake margins and reducing infiltration

📢 Phase 2: Amplify Public Awareness

Goal: Raise visibility of ecological risks and invite informed participation.

🗣️ Summary: Accessible overview with simplified language and illustrations

🏡 Events: Neighborhood Q&As and informal info sessions

📰 Outreach: Local press, newsletters, and digital platforms

🤝 Phase 3: Present the Offer to Residents

Goal: Equip residents to advocate for watershed protection and green space preservation.

⛔ Moratorium on high-risk development until watershed concerns are resolved

🌲 Environmental reassessment tied to legal lake levels, groundwater behavior, and green space function

💰 Transparent fiscal disclosures on infrastructure, stormwater, and ecological offsets

🏛️ SAD Proposal: Establish a Special Assessment District (SAD) for all currently approved or future development contributing runoff toward Eagle Lake. Properties with stormwater basins or discharge infrastructure—regardless of shoreline adjacency—would participate, ensuring fair funding for lake health, flood mitigation, and long-term ecological oversight.

🔄 Phase 4: Sustain Momentum

Goal: Keep residents informed, engaged, and united in protecting our shared environment.

📈 Monthly updates: Rainfall, elevation, and board activity across the watershed

💡 Feedback loop: Crowdsourced ideas and community input

🎉 Recognition: Celebrate wins and spotlight individual contributions