Brad Nevels has watched water push through the French Creek area and into his home, and he is not alone. Neighbors in San Antonio's Dhaka View community, off Grissom Road on the Northwest Side, say they have flooded four times since 2020, and now they want to know why a $13.23 million drainage project meant to help them has been pushed back to 2027.
The Lower French Creek Drainage project was expected to begin construction in 2026, according to WOAI, but that timeline has now slipped a year, leaving residents frustrated as another rainy season looms. Doug Rager, who has lived near French Creek for 50 years, told the station he remembers attending a city public meeting on the project in 2024 and says communication from officials has broken down since then.
“I'm frustrated with the lack of communication from the city,” Rager said, according to the station's report. Nevels shares that frustration and said he fears the city might not like what residents have to say if given the chance to speak publicly again.
A Project Years in the Making, Still Not Built
City documents show the Lower French Creek project has been in the pipeline since San Antonio voters approved it as part of the city's 2022 General Obligation Bond program. The project is financed through $6.5 million from that bond, another $6.5 million from the Storm Water Regional Facilities Fund, and $234,693 from the San Antonio Water System, according to the City of San Antonio. It sits within a broader $165.3 million citywide allocation covering 21 drainage and flood control initiatives under the same bond program.
Official project boundaries stretch along French Creek from Low Bid Lane to Leon Creek, with plans calling for upgraded low-water crossings, driveway culverts, and channel modifications designed to increase stormwater capacity. City bond planning records indicate the improvements were designed to remove six residential properties directly from local flood risk while also improving emergency access to the surrounding neighborhood. The Public Works Department last formally briefed residents at a May 2024 presentation at the Great Northwest Library, where city materials estimated construction would run from late 2026 through 2027, a timeline that has now effectively become the delayed start date rather than the finish line.
Flooding Keeps Coming While the Clock Ticks
The stakes of the delay were on full display last month. Homeowners in Dhaka View endured severe street and home flooding in July, just 13 months after similar heavy downpours inundated the same street in June 2025, as reported by KSAT. Heavy rain has also caused flooding on Heath Road, and a Gama Auto Service business owner captured video of water pouring over Heliport Drive during one of the storms, per WOAI's reporting.
Jonathan Clemena said he has spent tens of thousands of dollars on flood repairs, and floodwaters have caused at least $50,000 in damage to homes in the area, the station reported. Residents say they simply want an opportunity to voice their concerns to the city and to find out when construction will actually begin.
City Officials Stay Quiet on Delay and Next Steps
WOAI reported that Public Works will hold another public meeting about the project but did not provide a date for when that meeting might happen. Both the office of District 6 Councilmember Ric Galvan and Public Works received requests for comment about the postponement, but neither had responded as of the station's report.
Galvan, who has represented District 6 since winning a runoff election in June 2025, took office after previously serving as a local neighborhood association president, according to Ballotpedia. His district includes French Creek and the surrounding Northwest Side neighborhoods now waiting on the delayed drainage work.
Part of a Larger, Flood-Prone Watershed
The Lower French Creek project carries an official Hazard Mitigation Action Plan designation under San Antonio's disaster risk-reduction guidelines, a status meant to help the city prioritize infrastructure in areas facing repeated natural hazards. French Creek itself is a tributary within the 238-square-mile Leon Creek Watershed, a flash-flood-prone drainage basin managed under the multi-jurisdictional Bexar Regional Watershed Management initiative, according to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.
Other government investment has already gone into the corridor. A $4.4 million Bexar County Flood Control Program project previously replaced a low-water crossing at Prue Road with a multi-lane span bridge designed to remain navigable during 100-year storm events, built wide enough to accommodate future lane expansions, according to Foster CM Group. For Dhaka View residents still cleaning up after this summer's storms, though, the relief promised specifically for their stretch of French Creek remains a year or more away.
