Harris Health is seeking to condemn (seize) an 8.9 acre section of Hermann Park for use as a site for future expansion. It intends to build an 100-bed facility on the property within the next few years, and then hopes to build a new Ben Taub Trauma 1 Hospital connected to that 100-bed facility in 20-30 years. 

The later expansion is estimated to cost $2.6 billion, in 2025 dollars. These funds must come from a new bond that has not even been introduced, let alone approved by taxpayers.  

In his December 1 meeting with the Hermann Park Conservancy board, Harris Health President & CEO Esmaeil Porsa estimated that the new Ben Taub would be completed in approximately thirty years (2055), assuming that voters approve another bond.

Harris Health’s priorities may well have changed by that time, and could include the possibility of more decentralized services. 

Ben Taub provides excellent and essential medical services for Harris County residents, especially the indigent and uninsured, and deserves full community support.

However, Houstonians voted for a bond that would renovate the current Ben Taub building and build a new 100-bed addition on the current site. They did not vote to use irreplaceable parkland for a new medical facility (to be completed in 30+ years).

Reasonable alternatives to seizing parkland appear to exist, and we as taxpayers and funders of this project are entitled to more information about these options.

We can both promote public health and protect valued parkland.

Yes. In 2023, taxpayers provided $1.6 billion for an entirely new LBJ Hospital, which is under construction and is scheduled to open in late 2028. This 1.2 million-square-foot Level 1 Trauma Center will include a 390-bed acute care emergency center, diagnostics, nuclear medicine, cardiology, labor and delivery, an inpatient tower, amd more. Two top floors of the tower will be built but left vacant for a future expansion to 450 beds.

In March 2023, Dr. Porsa stated that the new LBJ will result in “less need for transferring people from LBJ to Ben Taub, which is happening today, every day.”

After the new LBJ opens,Harris Health will use an additional $400 million of bond funds to renovate the existing LBJ building, providing even more capacity.

Harris County voters approved a bond measure that provided $2.5 billion to Harris Health, to “replace and renovate LBJ Hospital, extend the life of Ben Taub Hospital, and establish essential care services in high-need areas.” (bond book, p.2)

(Harris Health’s promotional bond book is here.)

The ballot language listed the projects it would fund, including “improving, renovating and developing…the Ben Taub Hospital Campus.” Harris Health’s bond stated that the proceeds from the bonds for Ben Taub would “address capacity management through renovation of existing space.” (bond book, p.10)

The bond information that voters received indicated that the funds would be used within the Ben Taub campus, not for condemning and acquiring more land.

Harris Health’s leaders changed their plans after the provision of taxpayer bond money. They have now declared that there is no viable alternative to building an entirely new facility on parkland, an option that was not placed before Harris County voters in the bond election. 

As noted above, Ben Taub’s initial proposal was to renovate and expand its facilities on its 11-acre site. After at least four years of study, Harris Health had concluded that renovation was a feasible and prudent option at the time of the bond issue.

An internal analysis had concluded that the Ben Taub Tower could accommodate four more floors (in fact, its original plans anticipated this), and that three additional floors could be added to the building housing the NeuroPsychiatric Center (NPC). Harris Health now contends that the NPC building is too old, and can’t be expanded.

If the NPC is too old, the 4 and 5 story complex could be removed and a large new building constructed on its 5.5 acre site, which also includes an inefficient surface parking lot. The site is directly across from Ben Taub’s emergency room.

The current Ben Taub building opened in 1990. Since then, renovations have included a $70 million bond-funded project to modernize and add more operating rooms, as well as extensive renovation of the old Ben Taub Tower to house speciality clinics, completed in November 2019, and a $48.5 million renovation of the Ben Taub Emergency Department, completed in September 2023. 

Other investments include the upgrading of Ben Taub’s central plant, adding Thermal Energy Corporation utility delivery to provide chilled water and steam via underground pipes, and major expenditures on modernizing interventional radiology and MRI services within Ben Taub’s radiology suite. 

Harris Health now claims it is more “fiscally responsible” to construct a new building on parkland rather than “throwing good money away on an old facility”, as a Harris Health representative described the option at the Precinct 1 public meeting. 

Dr. Porsa stated that Ben Taub is now proposing the parkland seizure because “investing 400 million dollars on a rapidly aging and failing infrastructure just does not sound like a wise use of taxpayer money.”

This is a decision that the taxpayers were entitled to make in 2023, but they lacked full information about the proposed project.

Changing bond funds’ purpose after voter approval is an abuse of the public trust. Our city and county will need many more bond issues in the future, but situations like this cause voters to be suspicious of bond proposals.

Voters must be confident that public bond funds will be used for the specific projects that the voters approved.

We must protect the integrity of bond elections. 

This is unclear. Parking is already a major problem at Ben Taub Hospital. Harris Health already spends $3 million a year for rental of off-site parking facilities for its staff.

In its Executive Summary and Proposed Budget for FY 2024, Harris Health’s Board stated that “Harris Health wishes to provide better parking resources for employees working at Ben Taub and Quentin Mease, where many employees are unable to park on-site due to limited capacity.

The objective in the near term is to obtain parking from Texas Medical Center to support as many as 800 employees and reassign shuttle routes to support the new location, thus minimizing the inconvenience and transit time for employees.

Long-term, the ideal would be to construct a dedicated garage for the workforce that further reduces overall commute times, which is expected to greatly increase employee satisfaction, recruitment and retention among the affected group.”

Has this issue been resolved?

Now Harris Health proposes to seize parkland to construct a new 100-bed facility, with no mention of an additional parking structure.

No. Investing hundreds of millions now (and billions later, with another potential bond) for new construction in the 100-year flood plain is an unwise use of taxpayer dollars. In fact, Texas law prohibits it: “Construction of a new hospital is prohibited in a designated 100-year flood plain.” 26 Tex. Admin. Code §505.162 (a)(2)(C)(i).

New construction would remove grandfathering and trigger new flood detention requirements for the entire campus, including expensive flood walls and detention infill.

No. The land will be very expensive.

Because the Warnecke family, which generously donated the parkland to the city, required that it be used exclusively for park purposes, the 8.9 acres will revert back to the donor family unless Harris Health buys the land from them.

The cost of the land is under discussion. Real estate professionals have suggested that the 8.9 acres could have a market value of as much as $100 million.

This means that Harris Health may use a quarter of the entire 2023 bond sum solely for acquiring the land.

Under Texas law, public parkland cannot be taken for a proposed use unless there is no other ‘feasible or prudent’ alternative to the taking.

The developer must show that the project “includes all reasonable planning to minimize harm to the land”, and a public hearing must be held before approval of the seizure. 

To date, Harris Health has not provided persuasive evidence that no other alternative exists. The legally required public hearing is tentatively scheduled for March 19, 2026.

When informing the Conservancy of this project in April 2024, Harris Health mentioned a potential “land swap”, possibly involving a portion of the current Ben Taub site. 

In June 2025 Harris Health announced that it would simply condemn the land. The donors’ heirs must receive payment equal to the fair market value of the land (an estimated $80-$100 million); the City of Houston is also likely to receive payment.

No compensation to the Conservancy has apparently been offered.

Hermann Park is a beloved oasis in our dense city, serving as a priceless refuge for six million visitors a year.

A Rice University study found that the ethnic breakdown of Hermann Park users reflects Houston’s diversity (39% White, 31% Hispanic, 14% Black, 13% Asian), and Houstonians’ love for the park is reflected in their financial support. In 2023, for example, the Conservancy received over more than 41,000 gifts of $100 or less, from 151 of Houston’s 178 zip codes.

Despite solid evidence that green space provides many physical and mental benefits, Houston lacks enough centrally located parks.

Each year, the national Trust for Public Land ranks the nation’s major cities based on the quality and accessibility of their parks. In its 2025 ranking, Houston ranks 66th in the country in quality of its parkland, and 8th in the state, trailing Dallas, Austin, San Antonio, El Paso, Plano, Frisco, and Arlington.

The Houston-Galveston Area Council predicts Houston will have 3.6 million more residents by 2050. Our city and county must maintain all parkland to accommodate this growth. Once parkland disappears, it is gone forever. 

Many Houstonians remember when the park’s lovely reflection pool was a ragged mud pit, or when large stretches of the hugely popular Commons were simply barren dirt. Investment in quality design, construction, and maintenance turned these areas into destinations that we treasure.

The Hermann Park Conservancy has similar plans (described in another section of this site) for Bayou Parkland West, the area that Harris Health is working to condemn. 

Simply as an expanse of grass, 100-year-old live oaks, and benches, these 8.9 acres currently provide valuable open space for walking, gathering, and reflecting, with the environmental benefits that trees and water-absorbing grassy areas provide.

(Given the lessons learned during 2001’s Tropical Storm Allison, it seems imprudent to remove this storm water buffer and build a new hospital on the banks of the bayou.)

Harris Health has said repeatedly that seizing part of Hermann Park through the process of eminent domain is the most economically viable alternative for its expansion. 

Under Harris Health’s reasoning, public operators of other health facilities, affordable housing complexes, public safety structures, and similar entities could argue that they should be able to condemn scarce parkland for their important purposes, as a cost-effective method of obtaining land. This is shortsighted and misguided public policy. 

There will always be worthy public needs that require construction, but parkland should not be seen as undeveloped land.

This principle is one of the most important issues that this attempted condemnation presents. If we simply accept this taking of parkland, we can expect more seizures of our public open space in the future.

Harris Health has not provided a thorough analysis of competing options, including building on porous areas of the 11-acre Ben Taub campus, as required by Texas statute. 

Beyond the renovation and expansion possibilities within the Ben Taub campus, the Medical Center contains other potential expansion sites. Baylor’s School of Medicine and School of Health Professions, now next to Ben Taub, will move this year the new Lillie and Roy Cullen Tower in the Medical Center’s Helix Park. The eventual 800,000 square foot Helix Park project will integrate education, research, and patient care. Has Harris Health studied the possibility of acquiring and adapting this beautiful 90,000+ square foot building for Ben Taub’s patients? Its historic designation allows development behind and above it.

A surface parking lot (an inefficient use of space) is directly across the street, as are low-rise structures such as Baylor College of Medicine’s loading dock area, potentially obsolete with the relocation of the College.

A six-acre property is located less than 350 feet from Ben Taub. At least part of this site is owned by the City of Houston and is for sale. The entire site is low-rise, with outdated buildings. Can this land help accommodate Ben Taub’s needs? 

(Directly contiguous parcels are apparently not required, as construction in Hermann Park (non-contiguous) would involve building an overpass over Lamar Fleming Street.)

In 1990, Harris Health had arranged to buy Memorial Hermann Southwest’s facility (formerly a Level 2 Trauma Center) for expansion within the southwest Houston health care desert. Negotiations stalled at the last minute, and Harris Health didn’t purchase the site. Can this idea be revisited?

The Medical Center has undergone robust expansion to the south and west, with valued partners such as Baylor moving to that area, in reasonable proximity to Ben Taub. What opportunities exist there? 

An option that has been raised repeatedly is the placement of high-quality services nearer patients, in areas that lack adequate primary and specialty care access. This approach benefits patients and reduces stress on the Medical Center. Ben Taub has already committed to “increasing access in areas that currently lack the necessary services and providing the primary care that is sorely lacking in some communities across our county.” (Harris Health bond book p.5)

Harris Health’s own Community Needs Study, the basis for the strategic plan underlying the 2023 bond, suggested that the entire hospital be moved in order to be closer to its patients:

“Ben Taub’s location could be reconsidered given that there is a high number of bed days among the Medicaid and uninsured population in the southwest part of Harris County. Moreover, Ben Taub’s proximity to Harris County’s only other adult Level I trauma center indicates a need to consider a location that would provide greater geographic distribution of the Level I trauma centers and promote more timely access to care in an emergency." (p.23)

An internal facilities study concluded that “Ben Taub is not in an optimal location due to proximity of Harris County’s only other Level 1 trauma facility and does not have growth capacity to meet current or projected demand of patient population.” It recommended that Harris Health continue to use the existing Ben Taub for the next 12-15 years, with strategic upgrades, while studying the possibility of a future move to the corridor between 59, Westpark, and Beltway 8.

Moving the entire hospital is not under consideration at this time, but this analysis by Harris Health suggests that “greater geographic distribution” of resources is a worthy of consideration.

Taxpayers deserve, and Harris Health is required to provide, a careful, unbiased analysis of competing sites and options.

Unfortunately, Harris Health’s interactions with Houstonians on this issue have been disappointing. 

For example, 

- Harris Health has thus far offered no opportunity for a full public discussion of the land seizure. In response to Harris County Commissioners Court’s requirement that it expand public input, Harris Health scheduled four public meetings (one in each of the four county precincts). 

The Precinct 1 meeting, announced only three days before the event, featured a presentation about Harris Health’s important work and remarks by Harris Health representatives.

Neither representatives of the Hermann Park Conservancy nor members of the public were allowed to speak, and could only submit written questions; Harris Health selected the questions to be answered. Commissioner Ramsey’s and Garcia’s events followed the same format; residents could not speak.

(The remaining event will take place on January 13th (Commissioner Briones).)

- Harris Health consistently shared and displayed an inaccurate map of Hermann Park, giving the false impression that the targeted parkland is separate from Hermann Park.

Their map, used for many months, is below, with the lime green section showing Bayou Parkland West. It suggests that the 8.9 acres are removed from, and incidental to, the park. 

The accurate map is to the right. Hermann Park actually borders the targeted land on two sides. Although many Houstonians pointed this out to Dr. Porsa and his staff, Harris Health continued to display the misleading map until December 2025

- Since initiating this project, Harris Health did not communicate effectively with the Hermann Park Conservancy, the parks’ stewards since 1992.

Recognizing this issue, in October 2025 the Harris County Commissioners Court directed Harris Health to meet with Hermann Park Conservancy Board at least twice before Jan. 20, 2026.

- Harris Health consistently denies that its bond book and other voter education materlals were misleading about the Ben Taub project.

However, the public materials referred to renovations on the Ben Taub campus and never mentioned expanding the campus or seizing public parkland.   

County residents deserve clear, timely, and accurate information about this important project.