New mayor of Helotes throwing wrench into establishment of town's first park

Expres-News columnist Jaime Castillo reports that the newly narrowly-elected mayor of Helotes, the one bankrolled by real estate developers, is now throwing a wrench into the process of establishing Helotes' first public park. 

Never mind that, up to now, the park proposal has been a shining example of a private-public partnership to save precious Hill Country green space and to honor a 33-year legislator.

Pulte Homes ponied up $225,000, while the nonprofit Helotes Parks Foundation raised $120,000 toward the purchase price of the 33-acre site. The rest of the $686,000 land deal was all set to come from $1.125 million in matching funds set aside by the Legislature.

Basically, all the city had to do to get the ball rolling was extend the option period on the land purchase, which was put under contract by the previous City Council headed by former Mayor Jon Allan.

But that's where the story gets sticky. To make a long story short, development interests that were chafing under Allan's administration bankrolled the candidacies of Schoolcraft and two other successful council candidates.

Allan and his like-minded colleagues had fought off the placement of a Wal-Mart store in the community and had toughened development rules before being voted out of office in May.

So, when two council members formerly aligned with Allan tried to put an item on a recent council agenda to discuss appointing someone to negotiate an extension of the expired land deal, Schoolcraft blocked them against the advice of the city attorney and common sense.

Schoolcraft said he did it because the two council members didn't provide enough necessary documentation.

When asked what documentation, Schoolcraft graciously told an Express-News reporter, "I don't need to explain it to you."

I see that Mr. Schoolcraft is off to an even worse start than I could have imagined.

Comments

[Helotian Green]

The new developer-backed Helotes City Administration has given almost no publicity to an important "community vision survey" that will define the Helotes Master Plan (for development)and the future of our community. If a poor citizen should happen to stumble upon the survey and attempt to provide a little citizen input, they will quickly find there is only 1 of about 80 photos options to select from that actually represent the natural Hill Country environment we prefer for our city. The other 79 (or so) are high-density scenes of urban sprawl and "quaint"ified commercial streets.

Alas, it seems new Helotes Mayor Tom is only going to let citizens choose between one 100% impervious future or another. This is a recipe to "Leon Valleyize" Helotes.

Concerned residents really do need to get to the online survey and state their preferences loud and clear.

Go to http://voicenewsonline.com for the story (below) and survey link.

Helotian Green

IMPORTANT CITY PLANNING SURVEY UNDERWAY
Citizen responses will shape the future of Helotes
August 6, 2007 - VoiceNewsOnline.co,

The City of Helotes Comprehensive Planning Committee is conducting a Community Vision Survey to help the City understand the views of the citizens. This survey is part of the process to gain community input to update the City’s Master Plan that will guide the future development of Helotes.

The Comprehensive Planning process will also gather information at stakeholder meetings, via web-based communications, and community outreach efforts, in an effort to make the City's new comprehensive master plan inclusive and citizen-driven. The City “hopes to build innovative partnerships between the public and private sectors in Helotes in an effort to forge long-term alliances between our citizens and their local government”.

What citizens put into in the survey will shape the final plan for the City’s future. While citizen input is vitally important to the process, the opportunity to complete a survey has only been minimally publicized by the City. Those concerned with preserving the character of Helotes are urging citizens to go to the City website and complete the Community Vision Survey at www.helotes-tx.gov. The deadline for participation is August 15, 2007.

Click here to complete the Helotes Community Vision Survey

http://www.helotes-tx.gov/index.asp?Type=B_BASIC&SEC={E0EF2C6F-AE63-4146-A2EB-9809EEBA8C1F}

Some who have already completed the survey express concern that it only offers a choice of highly commercial, urban visions of the future city. Those who want to plan for more natural landscapes, like what brought them to Helotes in the first place, are being advised to contact their elected City representatives about this flaw in the survey instrument.

The City advises those who do not have access to the internet to contact City Hall (695-8877) for a copy of the survey and instructions on how to fill it out.