Ben Taub town hall meeting — A town hall meeting to discuss the potential Ben Taub Hospital eminent domain proceedings took place January 8, 2026 in Hermann Park.

In one of the final town hall meetings about a controversial plan to expand Ben Taub Hospital by acquiring part of a popular city park through eminent domain, Harris County residents urged the Hermann Park Conservancy to ramp up its efforts to protect the park land.

The meeting held Wednesday night in Hermann Park’s Cherie Flores Garden Pavilion drew a crowd of hundreds of Houston residents, county leaders and city council representatives. Following a presentation about the proposed plan that would take about 9 acres of land from Hermann Park’s southwest corner, about 20 residents took to the podium to reject the project. The informal meeting was one of many to be held about the plan, but the first to be hosted by both the county and Hermann Park Conservancy — a group that’s voiced opposition and encouraged the county’s health care leaders to look elsewhere for a hospital expansion.

“This is a choice that shouldn’t have to happen,” said Cara Lambright, the president of the conservancy. “At first glance, it looks like people are being asked to choose between health care and their park, and I don’t think that’s who we are as a city.”

While both groups presented different outlooks on the plan, they say there’s a solution to satisfy both sides — but offered little details about that may be remains short on details. An issue that must be addressed is parking, according to Lambright and Harris Health CEO Esmaeil Porsa.

The Wednesday crowd presented a stark difference from Harris Health’s first public hearing on the land seizure proposal in July last year, when members of the health system board of trustees saw few public speakers and heard no strong opposition to the plan. Lambright at the time said the conservancy supports the expansion — but remains mindful of what the community stands to lose.

Representatives of Harris County's health system have fought back on the notion that the plan is a hasty attempt to swipe park land. Instead, they said, it's an urgent public health necessity.

By 2030, Ben Taub Hospital is expected to need extra capacity for 18,000 more emergency room visits and an additional 3,200 hospital admissions every year, according to the health system’s presentation on the plan. That demand was estimated before a $1 billion cut to Medicaid services this year through the Trump administration's "One Big Beautiful Bill Act," and before $800 million in cuts to healthcare funding in Texas as of Oct. 1, Porsa said.

Opposers of the plan have urged the county’s health entity to expand emergency facility operations somewhere else, instead of taking park land to expand Ben Taub Hospital, one of Harris County’s only comprehensive trauma facilities. While representatives of the conservancy have iterated similar opinions, Porsa has said that wouldn’t be possible. He said building on top of Ben Taub also would not be feasible.

Public speakers, like Jonna Hitchcock, disagree.

“I just want to call BS,” Hitchcock said. “If all the engineering firms that you’re talking to say there’s absolutely no way to vertically expand, you need to talk to different and better engineering firms. There are multiple ways that other cities have intentionally built up from historic buildings and it’s easier to grab the 9 acres that are next to you … but park land never comes back. Conservancy, behave like a conservancy. Fight this.”

There have been discussions about the county returning some park land to the city in exchange for the land. It’s unclear where that land may be.

Al Lloyd, a civic club president at South McGregor who unsuccessfully ran for city council last year, said the project is about money. After Lloyd exceeded a 30-second time limit and the microphone was cut during the Thursday meeting, he encouraged residents to stand together in opposition of the plan.

“They’re doing this because it’s about land,” Lloyd said. “It is not about anything else. It’s about parking spaces that they will increase to keep making money.”

Residents during recent town hall meetings have raised questions about the descendants of August Warneke, a late Houston land owner who conditionally deeded the tract of land to the city in 1914 for park use only. A legal representative on Wednesday said the Warneke heirs will be paid out in exchange for their deed rights of the land.

Lambright said conservancy leaders believes that Harris Health is in violation of Texas Parks and Wildlife Code Chapter 26, which requires that an entity must demonstrate no feasible and prudent alternative to taking protected park land. That point was disputed, but when asked by residents which other areas the county reviewed to determine all other options were unfeasible, Porsa didn’t say.

A public hearing on the project will be held during a January commissioners court meeting, when county leaders will discuss the findings of the town hall meetings. A final vote on eminent domain proceedings is scheduled to take place in March.