Attorney David Earl and planner Harry Jewett are lobbying hard for a $190 million fix — a new road with an adjacent buffer zone, both financed with property tax revenue, that they say would stop development from crowding Camp Bullis' southern flank and undo some of the North Side's traffic snarls.
Working for an owner of 104 acres that would be purchased under the plan, they've looked to rally support in a slew of briefings before neighborhood associations, area stakeholders and, more recently, elected officials.
“Instead of going to the politicians and trying to convince them to do this, and just identifying the same set of problems again,” Earl said, “the idea was to take them a set of solutions.”
But some city and council officials are skeptical, though they say the plan warrants consideration.
They noted that the way Earl, a lobbyist, proposes paying for the massive project — by creating a 25-year tax increment reinvestment zone, or TIRZ — could run afoul of the Texas Constitution and would represent a major drain on local governments' general funds.
Under a TIRZ, the increase in property tax revenue due to improvements in the defined zone is spent to offset the cost of public infrastructure or as an incentive to entice developers into certain areas.
“There are a lot of concerns, and a big part of it is budgetary,” said County Commissioner Lyle Larson, whose North Bexar County precinct includes the Camp Bullis area. “Why would we forego the revenue in that area and give it to a developer to build a roadway when, if they've got the property secured, most likely they're going to build the roadway anyway?”
Part of the proposal calls for acquiring 1,750 acres of undeveloped land south and southwest of the Army range to create a buffer.
The four-lane divided road, which supporters call the East-West Parkway, would connect to La Cantera Parkway and stretch roughly 6 miles from Interstate 10 to U.S. 281. The project would also fill in gaps in the existing transportation grid at Hardy Oak Boulevard and Wilderness Oak between Blanco Road and U.S. 281.
The parkway would feature sound walls and a downward lighting system to reduce glare that could interfere with Camp Bullis' nighttime training exercises for medics.
Army officials warn that the development closing in on the 28,000-acre range threatens the viability of its training mission. Encroachment creates light pollution that interferes with night-vision equipment and forces more endangered species — namely the golden-cheeked warbler — onto the installation, rendering parts of it unusable.
The city and county are responding with a spate of initiatives, including looking to create a program to acquire warbler habitat elsewhere, in places such as Medina County, to offset habitat within Camp Bullis.
The parkway plan got the attention of Army officials, whom Earl said he met with early on.
“The whole impetus is to protect Camp Bullis,” Earl said.
On Monday, Army Maj. Gen. Russell Czerw, top commander of Fort Sam Houston, which oversees Camp Bullis, sent a letter in support of the concept to Mayor Phil Hardberger and County Judge Nelson Wolff.
“As long as the commitment to acquire these conservation easements remains firm in the proposal,” Czerw wrote, “this entire project appears to be a very positive initiative in terms of Camp Bullis.”
But Czerw offered up a caveat Friday in an e-mailed response to questions.
“We now realize that the project is just being vetted by the city and the county to determine its legal and fiscal viability for our community,” he said. “We understand that this is a complex issue and that it may be difficult to achieve.”
A PowerPoint presentation provided by Earl to the San Antonio Express-News laid out a proposed timeline that would see county commissioners creating the TIRZ on Dec. 9. Most, if not all, of the property along the proposed roadway's path is in the city limits, but Earl said he's urging the county to create the reinvestment zone because it likely would move faster than the city.
Larson dismissed the target date, saying, “That's not going to happen. You've got a lot of moving parts.”
Legal hurdle
Ed Schweninger, chief of the civil section in District Attorney Susan Reed's office, doubts that the county has the authority to create the TIRZ. State law gives cities and counties that power, but a constitutional amendment underlying the law addresses cities and towns — not counties.
Earl adamantly disagreed with that reading, arguing that state law clearly allows counties to create TIRZs and issue bonds or notes to be repaid with property tax revenue.
A spokesman for the state comptroller's office said no counties had created reinvestment zones through 2004, but he didn't know if any had been attempted since then.
Hardberger said that “if it's going to be done, it's going to come to us.” But there's yet another legal obstacle, he added.
The proposal calls for the city to participate in the TIRZ, but City Attorney Michael Bernard noted the law allows the reinvestment zones only in areas that are, as stated in the state Constitution, “unproductive, underdeveloped or blighted.”
Property in the area is in high demand and usually pricey.
“There is no way that I can see that that area is undeveloped, unproductive or blighted,” Bernard said.
“That is a very big hurdle for any governing body to overcome.”
Hardberger said such a TIRZ probably couldn't withstand a legal challenge. As far as another means of financing the project, he noted: “I wouldn't say there's no other way, though I don't know of another way.”
For his part, Earl contended rock quarries in the area and power-line towers — much of the parkway's proposed path would be within or adjacent to a CPS Energy easement — represent a kind of blight.
“What I'd hate to see happen is that we kill this thing because there might be arguments against it — kill it and take away the possibility that it would be considered as a solution,” Earl said.
Earl and Jewett crafted the plan — alongside the HNTB engineering firm and Yantis Co., a construction company — at the behest of a client: James McDonough.
McDonough owns the 104 acres, with no access, south of Old Camp Bullis Road near the Army range. He sought to rezone part of the property from residential to commercial. But chances of succeeding were slim as long as his holding is land-locked.
Earl said they've tabled the zoning case and that McDonough directed him and Jewett to draw up “a comprehensive plan to address these issues” — that is, encroachment on Camp Bullis and traffic congestion.
Under the proposal, one reach of the parkway would turn north, crossing over Old Camp Bullis Road to the new Camp Bullis Road. Earl said the aim was to alleviate flooding on Camp Bullis Road and improve access to the Texas Military Institute. But neighbors who opposed McDonough's proposed rezoning worried that the connector would open access to the property, according to Bonnie Pargas, president of the Forest Crest Neighborhood Association.
However, Earl said McDonough's property would be acquired for a conservation easement if the plan advances.
“Any time there's an open-space acquisition, whoever owns the property — unless they donate it — is going to have it bought,” Earl said. “And we're not talking about him donating the property. We don't ask anyone else to donate (property) under this plan. ... I don't think he's treated any differently from anybody else. It's a matter of how we solve a problem that's put before us.”
