Rick Guerrero, Chief Outreach & Government Affairs Officer, Houston-Galveston Area Council

Invest: sat down with Rick Guerrero, chief outreach and government affairs officer of the Houston-Galveston Area Council, to discuss how H-GAC is helping local communities across the 13-county Houston-Galveston region plan for growth. “H-GAC serves as a convener and a trusted ally for local governments and public and private partners to help ensure planning and coordination stay aligned with growth,” Guerrero said.

What were some of the biggest ways that H-GAC helped support growth and investment in the region over the past year?

One of the things that we were able to do over the last year was to help our local communities plan for future growth. Our role as a council of government is to support more than 150 local governments, cities, and school districts with planned growth and, just as importantly, with pivoting for unplanned growth. That ranges from sharing demographic data and supporting workforce needs to helping ensure good-quality water in communities.

We also try to leverage the power of regionalism so that communities can improve the outcome of grant requests and secure resources from the federal and state governments. Private industry benefits from that work because when local governments can manage growth effectively, businesses have a more stable environment for investment.

We have also pivoted to meet needs tied to senior citizens in the region, as well as the needs of new and expanding industries that require trained talent, housing, development, and transportation to operate successfully. In that sense, H-GAC can be a cornerstone in making sure communities have access to the resources they need.

How are larger shifts like inflation, global trade, or federal policy affecting the priorities of your member counties and the work H-GAC is doing to support them?

Inflation has had a clear impact. Growth requires construction, and the costs tied to developing communities, reinforcing infrastructure, and making our transportation network more resilient have increased.

As the metropolitan planning organization for eight counties, we do long-range transportation planning, and we are currently looking out to about 2050. We all know how long it can take for major projects to come to fruition. Even with planning happening now, a project might not be delivered for 10 years.

We make assumptions about project costs and build adjustments into our models, but when inflation continues to rise, it changes the methodology, and it can change the feasibility of what was planned when projects are finally ready for delivery. We are seeing that across housing and transportation in particular, and it is a big impact.

What progress has been made through the committees on broadband, housing, and healthcare, and how are those efforts helping communities attract business?

A lot of progress has been made, especially with broadband. This is not typically a space a regional planning commission has always been in, but our broadband and technology committee is now one of the most active committees we have.

We have a lot of rural areas within the 13-county region, and those communities often have aging infrastructure and limited staff capacity. They rely on federal and state resources, and they need help identifying practical steps they can take. We have focused on enhancing collaboration between the public and private sectors and identifying opportunities local governments can act on with confidence.

A key piece is helping communities navigate vendors and solutions. Through our cooperative purchasing work, we aggregate pricing and qualify vendors so governments can purchase in a vetted, trustworthy environment. We recently released a solicitation to list providers that can support local governments throughout the region, so communities can choose partners that will be there long term, not organizations that make promises and then disappear.

For housing, we are looking at vision plans that have worked for smaller communities, while also preserving culture and legacy where that matters. We are also exploring approaches that support walkability and a better mix of residential and business uses.

On healthcare, we have not made as much progress as in other areas, but the need is still there. We have focused on mental health and on bridging gaps between technology and access. As healthcare costs rise, more people can be left out, and that creates pressure on local governments because uninsured residents rely on government-supported hospitals and emergency rooms, which drives up costs that local governments ultimately have to bear.

How is H-GAC planning for growth in transportation, infrastructure, and water?

Transportation planning is one of our core responsibilities, and it includes a robust public involvement process. That input is captured in the regional transportation plan.

Any project that is not in that long-range plan is almost as if it does not exist. It will not get funded. It must be in the plan.

At the metropolitan planning organization level, about $1 billion worth of awards were made in 2025. Those decisions move through the regional transportation policy council, a board of 28 members made up of elected officials and transportation appointees from across the region. They meet monthly and make consequential decisions to delay projects when sponsors need time, advance projects when sponsors are ready, and adjust priorities as federal conditions change. The goal is to look at issues from a regional standpoint and keep politics as limited as possible.

We also have representation from the port and transit, including Port Houston and Bayport, so the voices shaping freight, transit, and mobility are at the same table. Top of mind is growth in commerce through the port and through downtown Houston, as well as regional resilience for natural disasters and security.

H-GAC also convenes a regional homeland security coordinating council. Emergency management and homeland security professionals meet regularly to prioritize projects and funding that improve readiness across the region.

With the World Cup coming in 2026, there is excitement, but there is also a clear reality that security planning is one of the biggest costs associated with hosting an event at that scale. Houston’s petrochemical footprint, commerce, and population make preparedness essential.

Across all of this, H-GAC serves as a convener and a trusted ally for local governments and public and private partners to help ensure planning and coordination stay aligned with growth.

If there’s anything we did not cover that you would like to highlight, what should readers know?

We are proud of the data and planning work that helps communities make better decisions. In 2025, we released a 2045 demographic forecast that is widely used across the region by experts in academia and business. It is not just census information. It reflects development patterns, master planned communities, public input, and ongoing adjustments as conditions change.

We also executed the first phase of the 2050 long-term regional transportation plan. In 2025, we went across the region, reached every county multiple times, and gathered input on how to prepare for transportation needs. That is a major lift, and it is essential work because the plan shapes what can be funded.

We also see our role as making sure information moves quickly and clearly, especially to rural communities that may not have staff dedicated to government relations. We track federal and state developments, understand the implications for programs and funding, and then help local governments respond. We are an impartial entity. We do not lobby. We educate, convene, and help leaders advocate for their communities.

Finally, we think a lot about what helps smaller businesses and rural communities break through barriers. Access to capital matters, but so does access to information, which leads to access to opportunity. We help connect communities to tools and resources, including cooperative purchasing and programs that support small-business financing. In rural areas, we also see the chicken-and-egg challenge of needing amenities to attract people and needing people to fund amenities. That is where regional coordination matters, and where planning and economic development partners can work together to help communities prepare, compete, and grow.