After three hours of impassioned public comment, San Antonio’s Historic and Design Review Commission ultimately approved the latest design for the first phase of the Brackenridge Park bond project Wednesday night, which includes removing up to 48 trees near Joske Pavilion.
More than three dozen residents filled the city’s downtown development and business service center to comment; the eight HDRC commissioners present also listened to 35 voicemail comments before discussing their concerns and then voting 4-4, forcing another round of discussion.
The second time around, commissioners voted unanimously to approve the design plan, albeit with several stipulations introduced by the River Road Neighborhood Association.
The discussion prior to voting centered on defining the project’s intentions and goals and understanding the extent of the city’s efforts to find alternatives to removing the trees.
The stipulations will require the city staff and project designers to share additional information with the public about why each tree was selected for removal, wait to remove any trees until the plan complies with the National Historic Preservation Act and include in the city’s contract the monitoring and maintenance of the area’s heritage trees — during construction and for five years following the project’s completion.
“I was here a year ago, and this updated plan proves the public process,” said Anne-Marie Grube, the commission’s District 7 representative, referencing the series of public meetings that resulted from the commission punting on the issue a year ago.
That process resulted in an updated project design that cut in half the number of trees originally slated for removal.
The HDRC’s decision was met with resolve to continue fighting by the roughly 20 community members who sat through five hours of presentation, public comments and HDRC discussion. Several clutched poster boards reading “Stop the Chop” and “Save Brackenridge!”
Commenters oppose the trees’ removal on several grounds, including indigenous religious beliefs that the area is sacred, and concerns about climate change. Resident Ida Ayala said 48 trees is too many to remove, adding that they hold cultural significance.
“It seems inappropriate that the walls now hold more value than the trees they were created to protect,” Ayala said. “The people of San Antonio want to maintain the cultural landscape of the park.”
The project, approved by voters as part of the 2017 municipal bond, seeks to restore several historic structures in the park around Lambert Beach, including an 1870s pump house and 1920s-era retaining walls. An additional 271 trees will be planted to fill in the tree canopy and create a healthy understory in an effort to restore what experts say is a severely degraded ecosystem in the area.
The HDRC’s approval does not mean bulldozers will be firing up at the park. The project still requires several more approvals before work can begin.
The city’s Parks and Recreation Department will now work with the Development Services Department to get the proper permits in place and select a developer. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers must approve certain parts of the plan. And finally, it must be approved by City Council.
The HDRC’s decision to approve the updated design comes more than a year after the commission was first asked to vote on the project’s design plan, which originally would have seen more than 100 trees removed for phase one of the project.
“The plan before the commission today is reflective of what we believe we can reasonably preserve,” said parks and recreation Director Homer Garcia, prior to the vote. “We’ve gone through that due diligence exercise.”
The 48 trees targeted for removal include eight dead or dying trees and six heritage trees — defined as a tree with a trunk of 24 inches in diameter or more. An additional 19 trees will be relocated within the park.
“We’ve all been looking for a silver bullet on this project that would allow us to keep the walls and all the trees,” said Kinder Baumgardner, managing principal with the SWA Group, the landscape architecture firm designing the project. “Like, ‘There’s got to be a magical structural system that will make this thing work.’ We have looked look for it. We have tried.”
