CASE STUDY 2 — Nelson Rd. Office Condos 11.25-Acre Office Condo Business Park | Full Civil Engineering Design

PROJECT OVERVIEW

JRH Engineering delivered complete civil engineering design for a new 11.25-acre office condo business park in Katy, Texas, with direct I-10 frontage access via a new public road. The project required TxDOT coordination for interstate access, dual-agency storm sewer approval, and a drainage strategy that protected every square foot of developable land. By selecting regional detention over an on-site pond, JRH maximized the rentable acreage from day one and accelerated the permitting timeline.

AT A GLANCE

Site Civil Design

● Full site civil design including grading, paving, parking, and access road layout

● New public road designed with TxDOT-compliant access to I-10 — the primary connectivity requirement for the business park

● Floodplain fill mitigation handled entirely on-site, satisfying regulatory requirements without off-site coordination delays

● Regional detention selected over on-site pond — eliminating pond design, construction, and land consumption entirely, freeing the full 11.25 acres for development

Utility Infrastructure

● Water and sanitary sewer tied into City of Katy's existing municipal infrastructure

● Utility connections fast-tracked in parallel with drainage and TxDOT approvals to compress the overall permitting timeline

● No utility extension required — existing City of Katy infrastructure was accessible from the site

Stormwater & Drainage

● Regional detention credit purchased from BKDD — the single most impactful schedule decision on the project, eliminating an entire design and construction track

● Storm sewer designed and approved concurrently through both BKDD and the City of Katy — parallel review kept approvals moving without holdups

● Floodplain fill mitigation contained on-site, satisfying Harris County and city requirements without triggering additional agency reviews

Permitting & Agency Coordination

● TxDOT coordination for new public road and I-10 access — completed concurrently with city and drainage district review

● BKDD and City of Katy storm sewer approvals run in parallel — no sequential waiting between jurisdictions

● Floodplain mitigation resolved in design before submittal, preventing review comments that would have delayed approval

THE CHALLENGE

An office condo park with I-10 frontage is only as valuable as the rentable square footage it delivers. Designing an on-site detention pond on an 11.25-acre site would have consumed land that should be generating revenue — and would have added design time, construction cost, and a separate permitting track to the schedule. The project also required a new public road with TxDOT-controlled I-10 access, which is one of the more time-consuming approval processes in the Houston market.

JRH's Approach

JRH immediately identified regional detention as the right call — purchasing BKDD credits eliminated the pond entirely and put the full site to work. Floodplain fill mitigation was designed to be handled on-site, removing the need for off-site coordination. TxDOT, BKDD, and City of Katy reviews were run in parallel rather than sequentially, keeping the approval clock moving on all fronts simultaneously.

The Result

A fully permitted, maximum-density office condo park with I-10 frontage — 11.25 acres fully available for development from day one, with no pond eating into the rentable footprint.

RESULTS

● 11.25 acres fully available for development — on-site detention pond eliminated entirely through regional detention credits

● TxDOT, BKDD, and City of Katy approvals pursued simultaneously — no sequential review delays

● Floodplain mitigation resolved on-site — no off-site coordination, no additional agency review