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LEAD-IN BY HOST SHALINI TRIPATHI: The City of Houston and the Buffalo Bayou Partnership will soon reveal a master plan for the development of the Buffalo Bayou. David Stiles investigates the plan: STORY: The City of Houston and the Buffalo Bayou Partnership will soon reveal a master plan for the development of the Buffalo Bayou. The Buffalo Bayou Partnership's plan called, "The Bayou and Beyond" is the product of years of design work. According to a City Council resolution from January 2001, the City of Houston gave the Buffalo Bayou Partnership the responsibility for the development of the Buffalo Bayou from Shepherd [Drive] to Downtown. Carrol Robinson, a City Council member familiar with the resolution, explains the roles of the partnership and the City of Houston: "Essentially, we're the conduit agency paying the bill to implement the project and the Buffalo Bayou Partnership has taken on the responsibility to make sure the project gets done and exercising leadership..." According to the resolution, the City has given the Buffalo Bayou Partnership the responsibility to plan any development along the Bayou between Shepherd [drive] and downtown. The Buffalo Bayou Partnership declined to respond to requests from KPFT for details on the master plan for the Bayou. The Partnership has received funding for only one section of the bayou, a landscaping project between McKee and Lockwood [streets]. According to the Department of Transportation, The State of Texas gave the Partnership $2 million for this one landscaping project. Funding for the other parts of the Bayou comes from a cost-reimbursement program through the State Transportation Enhancement Program. The Department of Transportation makes a contract with the City for each project and reimburses the city for 80 percent of the total costs. The other 20 percent and any cost overruns must come from the City. The Department of Transportation does any of the actual work on the projects funded through this program. [First Name?] Patterson of the Texas Department of Transportation: Stiles: "Whoever's doing the work, the physical work, gets started on it, then you start reimbursing them?" Patterson: "Basically, for all of these projects, they're actually being constructed by TX-DOT [Texas Dept. of Transportation] so we'll get the money from the Buffalo Bayou Partners...really the City of Houston for the projects, then we'll build it." Since the 2001 City Council resolution, the Partnership receives any funds that the state gives to the city. As of today, the Partnership has requested reimbursement for only one project design. The design planning costs $1.6 million. The partnership stands to receive $1.3 million from the state. Patterson: "The city has to ask the Buffalo Bayou Partnership's guarantor sponsor. The city has an agreement with us. The city's agreement says that they'll provide all the funding. Stiles: "Which project has actually been reimbursed?" Patterson: "At this point none of them." David Stiles, KPFT News, Houston [Brackets denote post-broadcast clarifications.] E-mail David Stiles at Stiles138@yahoo.com . This story was broadcast on September 20, 2002.