B and B

Express-News exposes developer tricks to evade tree preservation law

From front page of the Sunday Express-News:

When the City Council approved San Antonio’s first tree-preservation ordinance in 1997, there was no question the rules applied to real estate developers.

But what happens when a property owner claims he’s not a developer, and hundreds of acres of trees are bulldozed on his land as part of a ranching operation?

In the case of Hugo Gutierrez Jr., the answer is: nothing. The tree ordinance didn’t apply to him — and it might not apply to developers who try the same thing.

The case highlights a potential loophole in the preservation standards that can be used by other real estate developers, many of whom criticize the city’s rules as excessive and expensive.

Environmentalists complain San Antonio’s tree canopy is rapidly disappearing. They said Gutierrez’s case illustrates a way around the city tree ordinance, which requires developers to save trees and pay mitigation costs.

As if the state legislature hasn't hobbled local communities enough with the vast loopholes that fit under "vested rights."  Read on for the gory details, and plenty of them.

The response today, from Mayor Phil Hardberger:

"My suggestion of what we'll do, and I intend to talk to our City Council about it, is that we create, by ordinance, a provision that when an agricultural property is cleared of trees, and then sold to a developer, then that becomes a taxable event. So that you have to pay the mitigation damages. Because it's no longer being used for agricultural land."

Hardberger acknowledged his proposal will be challenged in court by the real estate community.

"It's certainly possible it will be challenged," the mayor said. "I would anticipate it would be challenged because it's a pretty sweet deal now."

Hardberger said he will also ask Bexar County legislators to write a bill that would amend Texas law to help the city's cause.

"I doubt when the Legislature was trying to protect agricultural land, I doubt if they envisioned that (ranchers will) clear all the trees and sell it to a developer. That probably was not envisioned. I think there will be legislators who will be willing to close that loophole."

Hardberger said he will also direct lobbyists who represent the city to support such legislation.

"One thing I'm not going to do is just to sit here for the last year of office and watch trees be cleared on a grand scale and feel like there's nothing we can do but wring our hands," Hardberger said. "I'm not going to do that. I'm going to take action."

Will the Legislature block any attempts to rein in the bad practices of real estate developers yet again?

Developers' land-trashing behavior near San Antonio now threatens U.S. Army's Camp Bullis

The rate of land-trashing by real estate developers in northwest Bexar County has reached the stage where it threatens the continued existence of an amy training ground, Camp Bullis.  This threat has compelled both the City of San Antonio and the U.S. Army to act, which, finally, has brought some attention to the issue -- though, alas, not in a general sense.  Plenty of formerly beautiful Hill Country terrain and wildlife habitat has been scraped and blasted into nothingness in recent years without raising much alarm from anyone but those of us in the immediate area.

From the San Antonio Express-News over the weekend:

A federal judge Friday ordered a San Antonio-area developer to cease road-clearing operations for a new subdivision adjacent to Camp Bullis, giving wildlife experts time to evaluate the project's impact on golden-cheeked warbler habitat.

U.S. District Judge Xavier Rodriguez granted a temporary restraining order against INTCO-Dominion Partnership and set a hearing for 10 a.m. Wednesday on an environmental group's request for a permanent injunction that would halt development next to the range.

The lawsuit, filed Friday by Aquifer Guardians in Urban Areas, contends that INTCO is destroying dense trees and brush that are home to the endangered migratory bird that nests each spring and summer in the Hill Country. Destroying warbler habitat is a violation of the Endangered Species Act.

“This is an early victory. It's not the end,” Aquifer Guardians President Enrique Valdivia said. “But if we didn't get the restraining order, the bulldozers might work through the weekend and there wouldn't be anything left to litigate over.”

INTCO has been clearing trees and brush on the 340-acre site near Bullis as it prepares to build a road for a high-end subdivision. The company's Austin-based attorney, Allen Glen, said it was “a safe assumption” his client would follow the order and suspend work.

...

Critics of INTCO say the project, and others like it, are driving the warbler onto Camp Bullis, and that if the trend isn't stopped the Army will be unable to train on the 27,994-acre range. As growth has exploded in the area, the warbler population on Bullis has nearly doubled from 672 in 2001 to 1,086 in 2007.

Fort Sam and top city and county leaders say any reduction of training area raises the risk of the Army moving 37,250 military and civilian workers to be on the post by 2011.

“The issue is bigger, of course, than the fate of the warbler. It's concern about development around Camp Bullis and, of course, the impact on the aquifer recharge zone,” Aquifer Guardians' Valdivia said.

Federal law and Defense Department policy forbid the Army from taking legal action, forcing it to rely on groups such as the Aquifer Guardians and the Greater Edwards Aquifer Alliance, which had considered seeking the restraining order.

...

Post spokesman Phil Reidinger said court action is the only way to stop work on the site while biologists take a closer look, and added that Fort Sam “cannot shoulder the conservation burden alone” — a view shared by its advocates.

“The really big problem with this is Camp Bullis is really the only one in the area that is observing the law,” Greater Edwards Aquifer Alliance Executive Director Annalisa Peace said. “If everybody was observing the law, it probably wouldn't be a problem for Camp Bullis.”

Hill Country Planning Association, aka "Hill Country Militia," rises up against developers' land-trashing

For a little story on the animosity that real estate developers are engendering in our neck of the woods due to the way they manage to transform bucolic hill country vistas into moonscapes of destruction, see this recent article in the San Antonio Current by Greg Harmon of harmon on earth (emphasis added):

[In early 2007] Reports that the San Antonio Water System was seeking to expand its authority across the city’s entire 5-mile extraterritorial jurisdiction, and that a new high-density development straddling Medina and Bandera counties was seeking SAWS sewer and water service, had rattled a broader geography of turf warriors. Many of them were already members of the non-profit Greater Edwards Aquifer Alliance, whose mission is specifically focused on protecting the Edwards Aquifer.

In a galleon of a ranch house outside Helotes modeled on Yellowstone National Park’s guest quarters, they debated just what they could do to stop the quickening pace of sprawling development. While SAWS officials argued that extending their pipes would better protect area water supplies by limiting the creation of smaller, less-professional water-company operations or, worse, the explosion of septic-tank communities, the consensus in the meeting was that the lines would only ensure the continued rush of concrete, sheet rock, and tarpaper.

The mix of political persuasions was bridged by a collective, dawning environmental consciousness, perhaps best illustrated by the retired neurosurgeon from Quihi, busy battling plans for a quarry in his hamlet.

“I never considered myself an environmentalist. I really didn’t,” said Robert Fitzgerald. “But once you start looking at what people are doing down there, if you have any feeling at all, you become an environmentalist.”

A member of the Edwards Aquifer Authority publicly confessed the agency hadn’t been willing to act on many issues out of fear. “It’s fear of what the legislature will do. Really, it’s fear of what the developers will get the lege to do to us,” he said. “Some think it’s time we called their bluff.”

Then Bebe [Fenstermaker] shot off from the front of the room. “We’re losing Texas. I don’t know if you know that,” she said. “I can’t stand to drive anywhere anymore … We look like New Jersey.”

A woman at the opposite end of the stone and timber expanse shook her jaw. “New Jersey looks better.”

Some attendees compared the motivation behind the night’s meeting to the survival ethic of the early Texians. “We’re kind of like the pioneers 200 years ago,” said one. “When there was a fight, they all left their homes and came together.”

No surprise that in such a charged environment when prospective names for the group were floated the combativeness of the moment seeped out. “How about militia?” offered one. “Hill Country Militia?”

It took time, but eventually the more mundane Hill County Planning Association was adopted.

Early versions of the group’s Master Plan struck one prominent participant as a rewrite of the Communist Manifesto, though it read more like an early American Revolutionary screed. A trace of those rhetorical flourishes remains, particularly the opening “We the People.”

After lengthy defining of place and purpose, the group’s Master Plan comes to a solitary demand: “An immediate moratorium is called on all development in The Hill Country to assure compliance with all local, State, and Federal laws and until a comprehensive cumulative environmental impact study is completed.”

...

Group members were still working out the final language of the Master Plan when developers at Sonoma Verde were blasting and excavating their way to the perfect limestone tabula rasa, a blank slate devoid of any living thing, atop that cherished Edwards recharge zone.

...

Today the [Fenstermaker] sisters watch as Post Oak Development blasts a hill flat on the backside of Crownridge Canyon Natural Area off Kyle Seal Parkway. It’s like nothing they’ve ever seen before.

“This is like West Virginia coal mining,” Mary Fenstermaker says.

“We’ve seen land raped, but we’ve never seen that,” Bebe says. “I’ve never seen Texas treated like that.”

For much more, read the entire article.

It literally rained mud here last Tuesday

Literally, mud fell from the sky here in San Antonio last Tuesday. 

I have no experience with that kind of weather phenomenon before, so I didn't know what to make of it.  My first impression upon seeing my car, after emerging from my office late that afternoon, was "My car is spattered in mud from top to bottom!  How did this happen?  Did some huge truck drive though a deep puddle at high speed?"  With no such large puddle nearby and thus no evidence that such a thing could have happened, I then noted that I had parked underneath a large live oak tree and that it is spring and rationalized that trees are messy in the spring. Then I promptly put it out of my mind, while driving to the nearest gas station to clean off the windows that I could barely see through.  There, some puzzlement  returned as I noted that the line for the car wash was six deep.

Daily life being full of distractions, and the concept of a muddy rain non-existent in my head, I once again forgot all about this, until, after a few days of no internet access thanks to a bad phone line, I read this article in the Express-News, titled, "Just ash with rain? Not so fast":

The strange stuff that fell Tuesday, griming up windows and lining the pockets of carwash owners, has had the additional effect of setting up a sort of meteorological whodunit.

Just what, some scientific sleuths want to know, commingled with the rain as it fell onto vehicles from San Antonio to Corpus Christi, from Austin to Houston?

Some initial reports, including one from a National Weather Service meteorologist, had the primary cause of the deposits as ash from wildfires in Mexico.

Other indications, including satellite photos, showed a dust plume also emerging from central Mexico.    

Another additive to the mix washed from the sky by the rain of a fast-moving cold front may have been particles from bone-dry West Texas.

...

Forrest Mims III, a science consultant and a freelance columnist for the Express-News, took a sample of the stuff from his window and put it under the microscope, forwarding some of his findings to TCEQ.

"There's one black spore and there are three possible soot particles and everything else is dirt, dust, sand. I would say that it's probably less than 1 percent smoke, and that's being generous," he said.

Joe Baskin, the weather service meteorologist who initially thought that what blew over here was mostly smoke since that's what it looked like in photos, said another look indicated that it likely was dust. (The weather service isn't responsible for investigating the stuff once it leaves clouds.)

    

David Gay, acting director of the Illinois-based National Atmospheric Deposition Program, said his government-funded network of researchers had five sample sites in South Texas and would be able to review initial findings as early as next week.

To me and, I suspect, most others here, it is much more plausible that the stuff in the rain was dust and not ash, as was apparently first reported.  The brownish, rusty color of the residue just does not fit the concept of dull gray ash.

So what is going on in west Texas or northern Mexico that their dirt is falling on our city?

Photos from Luminaria festival Saturday night

Here are a few of my photos from the first Luminaria arts and music festival, downtown San Antonio, Saturday, March 15, 2008.   There was way too much going on to come close to seeing and doing all I wanted to.  If the city this again (and I sure hope they do), perhaps they could split it up into a couple weekend evenings, instead of just one.  It was a blast. 

Luminaria: new music and arts festival in San Antonio today and tonight

For those living in and near San Antonio, a new music and arts festival that is taking place today and tonight may be of interest.  It is called Luminaria.  Here is the description:

Luminaria is the first annual all day and evening celebration of San Antonio premiere artists and art organizations giving citizens of the community a chance to experience the city’s diverse cultures through observing and participating in our world-class artistic heritage. Through visual, performing, multi-media, theatre, dance, music and other artistic forms, audiences will be engaged throughout San Antonio in a free, world-class celebration of the arts.

Luminaria is intended to be a cohesive celebration of the arts through a creative atmosphere showcasing San Antonio’s diverse artistic community.

An artist-driven celebration of the arts, Luminaria is an unprecedented collaboration of over 40 non-profit organizations that will come together for 1 day to celebrate the dynamic vitality of San Antonio’s creative spirit.

Based on the success of other international celebrations such as Nuit Blanche in Paris and Noche Blanca in Madrid, no other city in Texas has attempted to coordinate continuous artistic, educational and innovative programming for a city-wide arts celebration. To further highlight the name of this event, the traditional role of the luminaria is a clever small light that conjures up creative ideas which inspires waves of innovation.

Here is a list of events taking place downtown from 6pm to midnight tonight.  It is an impressive list that includes six venues for performances.  I just found out about this festival, but hopefully will get a chance to catch part of this tonight.  It looks like great fun.

For more, here is an article in the Express-News about the festival.

"Where were you all last time?"

The line of the night, from the precinct chair at our Democratic precinct convention (aka "caucus") last night, addressing the (guessing) 200 or so attendees in an elementary school cafeteria:

Where were you all last time we had one of these things, when we had like four people!

Three photos from the Obama rally last night

These are not the greatest images, but they are the best I managed to acquire from my distance and in the available lighting.  Obama's "Stand for Change" rally, February 29 2008, San Antonio TX:

Obama and Clinton both in San Antonio last night

A few days ago, I noticed that Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton were planning rallies in San Antonio for the weekend.  I was hoping to attend both of them -- after all, it is pretty rare that my state is involved in such a heated primary race between two stellar candidates.  Sadly, they managed to schedule both rallies for exactly the same time last night, but twenty miles apart.  My plans were foiled -- I had to pick one and only one.

Being a supporter of Obama's, I picked his rally, even though it was far less convenient.  The venue for Obama was the Verizon Wireless Amphitheater, far out on the northeast side.  Driving all the way across town at rush hour was not appealing, but the rarity of the moment won out, and I put up with it.

I was amazed at the number of volunteers helping out -- hawking t-shirts and buttons, handing out "tickets" and pens (the price of admission was your contact information), and, mostly, seeking to sign up additional volunteers.

I tried to get some pictures, but was not quite close enough to get decent ones.  Darn those big crowds!  The Express-News quotes a crowd size of about 8,000 people, and that strikes me as roughly correct.  It was by far the largest political rally I've been to -- perhaps too large to be an ideal rally, as it is difficult to fully engage those who are far away physically from the speakers and the candidate.  And I had no prayer of getting up close enough at the end to shake the candidate's hand, as I had managed to do at the John Kerry rally in March 2004 and the Bill Clinton rally for Ciro Rodriguez in 2006.

Still, it appears a good time was had by all.  I am sorry I won't be able to attend a Hillary Clinton rally, though.  Any chance she'll be back before Tuesday seems quite slim.  And at this point, I have to admit that I am ready for this primary season to be over after that. 

Mayor Hardberger and SAWS take a stand against rampant development over the Edwards Aquifer

San Antonio Mayor Phil Hardberger and the board of the San Antonio Water System took a stand against the rampant development of the Hill Country landscape earlier this week.  This is a decision that deserves wider recognition.

From the Express-News, Dec 5:

Taking a rare stand against a developer to protect a pristine watershed that drains into the Edwards Aquifer, trustees of the San Antonio Water System unanimously rejected an agreement Tuesday to provide water to a planned subdivision in the remote hills northwest of the city.

Baruch Properties wanted water for the Hills of Castle Rock, a 1,766-acre property near Texas 16 and Park Road 37 in Medina County. The nearest SAWS water main is 7.5 miles away.

Environmentalists and neighbors argued that SAWS water service would allow high-density development that otherwise is not likely to occur because of a lack of available water supplies.

High-density development, they said, would bring polluted runoff and downstream flooding to San Geronimo Creek and an on-site wastewater treatment plant whose effluent would be added to the creek that drains into the aquifer a few miles downstream.

“Density development in a sensitive zone simply is not a good thing for the citizens of San Antonio, for our city, for our neighbors or for our water,” said Mayor Phil Hardberger in explaining his motion to deny the request.

...

Hardberger said he recognized that to get a SAWS water main to the site, the developer made concessions such as scaling back from 3,500 homes to 2,700, but he said the city's policy should not be to diminish the harm but to do good.

He said the city's “irreversible mistakes” in planning over the aquifer's sensitive areas are on display by driving out Loop 1604 North and U.S. 281.

Later in the article, the developer suggests they can simply go the state agency (TCEQ) and leave San Antonio and SAWS out of the process entirely.  Given how the state government works, they would be likely to get their way via that route, so I am unsure how this battle is going to work out.

But I am happy to see that the city government of San Antonio is in no mood to encourage  destructive development of the Hill Country and the Edwards Aquifer.