Road controversy heats up at McAllen Botanical Gardens event

Source: The Monitor, McAllen, TexasOct.迷你倉 26--MCALLEN -- Opponents of city Proposition 1 politely crashed McAllen's Botanical Gardens open house on Saturday morning, urging visitors to reject plans for a nearby road.Saturday marked a small but significant milestone for the long-neglected city park, which McAllen will now open every Saturday morning from 8 a.m. to noon."We've had cleanups and we've had events, but we haven't had any kind of regular opening," said Parks and Recreation Director Sally Gavlik.Since May 2010, when voters rejected plans to sell adjacent WestsidePark and build a citywide sports complex -- transforming the Botanical Gardens into a tennis complex -- City Hall and local environmental advocates have gingerly worked together. Three years later, the public park will finally open four hours every weekSaturday, though, exposed lingering mistrust about the McAllen City Commission's intentions.Every car entering and exiting the Botanical Gardens passed University of Texas-Pan American student Jorge Trujillo, wearing bright pink clothes, a devil mask and a handwritten sign reading "McAllen City Commission."Laughing manically, he handed drivers a black-and-white flier opposing city Proposition 1. The $15 million road improvement plan would extend Erie Avenue from Ware Road to Bentsen Road, between the Botanical Gardens and WestsidePark, among other projects."Today for Halloween I'm dressing up as the City Commission to demonstrate how there's always special interests in our local politics," said Trujillo, 24, a graduate student studying biology. "Looking at the track record of the city, without a doubt someone is making money off this road."Trujillo designed and printed a thick stack of fliers, which advocate against the road between WestsidePark and the Botanical Gardens. Inside the park, several other people handed the same flier to visitors."When I'm talking to people, there's a lot of people that are already against all three propositions because they don't want their taxes going up," said Geoff Alger, 51, the former McAllenHeritageCenter curator. "Of all the people I've talked to, I haven't met one person yet that's for the street."By 10 a.m. Saturday, about 100 people had visited the Botanical Gardens. Many brought children for a nature scavenger hunt. Others returned to the Botanical Gardens to reminisce about the park, which once had sunken gardens and a thriving array of cacti.Few had heard about the controversy."I voted to improve the roads," said Roy A自存倉len, 86, adding that he didn't know Erie Avenue would divide Westside Park and the Botanical Gardens. He said the road doesn't seem like a good idea.Mayor Jim Darling and the City Commission held six informational meetings about McAllen's three local ballot propositions, but haven't aggressively pushed them. They've largely outsourced the effort to local political consultant Brian Godinez and members of a political action committee called Invest in McAllen.Even with Saturday's loosely organized opposition to Proposition 1, the election remains low-profile.Perhaps the most direct questions about McAllen's park plans came Thursday, when McAllen Citizens League President Chris Julian half-jokingly pressed several commissioners about WestsidePark during the organization's monthly meeting."The sports complex on 29th and 5 Mile," Julian said, referencing Proposition 3, which would allow McAllen to borrow $15 million for new baseball fields near North 29th Street and 5 Mile Line. "Is that a strategy to appease the community to then allow you to sell a very valuable city property that shouldn't be a city park anymore?"City Commissioner Scott Crane immediately said WestsidePark wasn't on the table."Absolutely not," Crane said. "You're talking about WestsidePark? Are we secretly planning on putting that up for sale at a later date? No. Absolutely not."City Commissioner Trey Pebley said he'd heard nothing about selling WestsidePark and City Commission John Ingram said he considered the matter settled."And from my vantage point, we've been through that discussion as a community," Ingram said. "I'm willing to honor the wishes of the voters."Julian, though, kept pushing. Having a park on valuable Interstate 2/Expressway 83 frontage simply doesn't make sense, Julian said, when the park could generate significant sales and property tax revenue."And, you know, there are a lot of economic reasons to do a project like that. And there are a lot of ecological reasons not to do a project like that," Ingram said, recalling the May 2010 election. "And I think when the voters came out and voted, they made it clear that they're concerned about the environment and the connection between the Botanic Gardens and WestsidePark. That's what was decided and I have a feeling that if that came to voters again, it would lose again."dhendricks@themonitor.comCopyright: ___ (c)2013 The Monitor (McAllen, Texas) Visit The Monitor (McAllen, Texas) at .themonitor.com Distributed by MCT Information Services迷你倉