“Save the trees” and “Don’t wall us out” are some of the most common criticisms of the conceptual design of the Alamo Master Plan that emerged last month.
So far, designers seem to have scrapped the idea to remove and relocate the trees that exist today in historic Alamo Plaza, and they have added several entry points north of the plaza instead of directing all inbound traffic to enter through a south gate. City Council will vote on a few preliminary elements of the plan on Thursday, May 11.
Still, most people said those glass walls have got to go.
Those concerns were reiterated more than a dozen times Tuesday night by citizens and architects, historians, stakeholder organizations, representatives from Native American groups, and others during the third and likely final public meeting since the provocative renderings of the estimated $450 million plan were released.
“Our greatest reservation involves the [glass] enclosure and gating of Alamo Plaza, limiting access to a single entrance at the south gate,” said San Antonio Conservation Society President Janet Dietel. While the Society has been vocal on social media, this was one of the first times it delivered its criticisms so publicly. “We believe the plan should guarantee continued enjoyment and use of Alamo Plaza as a civic space with access from Houston Street while providing necessary security and protection of the Alamo.”
There were a few voices of support in the crowd of about 200 at the Henry B. Gonzalez Convention Center. Some were members of the Alamo Plaza Advisory Committee that developed the Vision and Guiding Principles for the plan in 2014.
Ramon Vasquez, executive director of American Indians in Texas At the Spanish Colonial Missions (AITASCM), was one such member who echoed what designers had reminded the crowd of during previous meetings: this is not the finished product.
“We haven’t even talked about programming and interpretation yet,” Vasquez said before the public comment period began. “[AITASCM] will be the first adversaries when it starts to go .”
The Conservation Society strongly supports the creation of a museum in the adjacent Crockett Block buildings and the proposed street closures.
“While the Society traditionally opposes street closings, traffic adjacent to the Alamo Plaza has contributed to the deterioration [of the Alamo], justifying the reroute of vehicles,” Dietel said.
These public meetings have solidified the notion that the Alamo means different things to different people. The layers and dimensions of the plaza’s 10,000-year-old history was one that designers struggled with, but the principles developed call for the 1836 Battle of the Alamo to be the gateway into that historic context.
Jose Sierra Jr. rejects the notion that the battle produced “heroes” defending the Alamo and said the mission was more like a “den of thieves.”
A man started to shout back, demanding that Sierra stop talking.
“Go to hell!” the man said and left the room.
Sierra went on to explain that, technically, this land belonged to Mexicans before Americans redrew their borders. The Texas Revolution was about Mexicans defending it, he said, “[America] stole the land from our forefathers.”
The meeting, which started at about 6 p.m., continued late into the night as citizens spoke about three minutes at a time until 9:30 p.m.
Other elements of the plan – such as closing South Alamo and East Crockett streets, moving the Cenotaph, installing interpretations of acequias, and establishing operating hours – have received mixed reviews.
The organization that promotes and protects the River Walk, the Paseo Del Rio Association, for instance, opposes the wall and street closures.
Members of the Alamo Management Committee, made up of City, State, and Alamo Endowment representatives, listened and took notes as citizens delivered passionate speeches.
Officials will present four plan elements to City Council for conceptual approval including the two street closures, the repairing and relocation of the Cenotaph to a place “within context,” view shed protection for the area behind the Alamo, and the conveyance of leasing management duties for the plaza to the General Land Office, said Councilman Roberto Treviño (D1).
One of the most important goals of the master plan is to to start taking better care of the Alamo, Treviño told the crowd. Street closures, better security, and, to some extent, the walls themselves are meant to do that.
He reminded the crowd again that the City is still in the “very early stages of this master plan process.”
Treviño is also a tri-chair of the Management Committee.
If approved by Council, these elements will then be reviewed by the Planning, Zoning, and Historic and Design Review commissions.
Council’s vote would come after the citizens’ vote in the May 6 general and bond elections, noted Annalisa Peace.
“I think it’s outrageous to have this vote on May 11,” said Peace, who is the executive director of the Greater Edwards Aquifer Alliance, but did not attend the meeting in that capacity. She said the new City Council should have a chance to vote once they are seated after likely runoff elections in June.
The 2017 Municipal Bond is also on the ballot and includes $21 million for streets and other elements related to implementing the Alamo Master Plan.
You may have missed it, Iris, but in closing comments, Sheryl Sculley basically announced that closing Alamo Street was a done deal. I have heard rumors of her arrogance before, but it was in full display in front of everyone this evening. She needs to go. Even more appalingly, Mr Treviño should have repudiated her remarks on the spot. But hey, he has never taken a meaningful stance on anything. And what is most disgusting of all. Yes, disgusting — I said that, is that a lame-duck council has the temerity to vote on this boondoggle. Shame on ALL of them!
This isn’t really correct. Sculley said closing Alamo Street would be the recommendation. Council has to vote on it.
Thank you Iris, excellent reporting! Folks, If you haven’t signed the petition and shared it with everyone on your Facebook page and email list, tweets and whatever else, NOW IS THE TIME. The petition says: Because of the public’s negative reaction over the design team’s solution for Alamo Plaza, and the projected cost that far exceeds HB 2968, I am requesting that the Governor requests the state auditor to audit the GLO/Alamo financial records including all 501c3’s, and that the budget conference committee require that monies appropriated to the GLO for the Alamo not be used for anything other than required maintenance and operations until the audit is complete and the legislature has vetted the recently released Alamo plan. Sent to:
Governor of Texas Greg Abbott
State Representative Joe Straus
Lt Governor Dan Patrick
State Representative Diego Bernal
Texas State Senate
Texas State House
Senator Ted Cruz
Senator John Cornyn
US House of Representatives – Texas
https://www.change.org/p/greg-abbott-remember-the-alamo-properly
The master plan is horrible and should be scraped. The the panel lied during closing comments should result in the firing of every outsider. The city had to bring in the outsiders because Texas firms know this is a stupid idea designed solely to facilitate revisionist history. There is nothing good about this plan.
Iris, it is the multitude of critical “Fatal Flaws” of this design and manipulated process that was left out of this report that catches my attention. A.I.T., seriosuly??, what a deplorable job they have done!
Any entity like A.I.T. receiving Hotel Occupancy Tax Dollars allocated by the City of San Antonio, respectfully, should have removed themselves from this festering process long ago. This same message, herein, is communicated to all the other “special interests” serving their master (many of them showed up last night!), as well.
If Sheryl Sculley said at the meeting that closing Alamo Street and supporting streets to traffic near the Alamo is definitely going to happen, I’m with her — including as it is a recommendation for helping to preserve the Alamo and improve pedestrian amenity and safety downtown that has been before the City since at least 2012 (as part of Project for Public Spaces – PPS – recommendations).
I’ve shared my views in other RR comments about the latest Alamo Plaza Plan (the ill-conceived ‘desert terrarium’ concept) and the need for long-term pedestrian counts and pedestrian planning to help shape possible site-specific interventions. The City should start light but definitely close Alamo Street and related streets to traffic including VIA near the Alamo this year — to help preserve and enhance the Alamo but also to collect a good deal of missing pedestrian data to inform more permanent work in this and other parts of downtown.
Engaging in long-term and district-wide pedestrian studies (embedding pedestrian count sensors, etc) could allow Centro Alliance to function like a true ‘information center’ for the City about the PID (one of their current charges), to help shape downtown planning. Various stand-alone and site-specific studies are now dated and not necessarily enough, including noting problems with PPS’s past Main Plaza concepts and recommendations. Site-specific plans and operations downtown – from St Paul Square to Hemisfair to La Villita to the Alamo to Alameda Theater to Market Square to Centro Plaza – need to be embedded in a downtown pedestrian strategy for residents and visitors.
But beyond the Alamo and downtown, I wish the City would take seriously the pedestrian planning for San Antonio that has been conducted by the Alamo Area MPO — noting key pedestrian safety recommendations made to the City (and VIA) in 2012 and early 2016 that should have informed the Unified Development Code (UDC) update as well as 2017-2022 Bond planning and downtown planning work generally.
The City should act on Alamo Area MPO recommendations to address problem sidewalk standards and spots where pedestrians are being injured if not killed by traffic in San Antonio — such as Vance Jackson north of Fredericksburg Rd in D1 where a pedestrian in a motorized wheelchair was recently hit (one recommendation to the City from January 2016 is to reduce the posted speed to 30mph on this stretch of Vance Jackson).
Since Mayor Taylor declared ‘VisionZero’ in San Antonio in September 2015, pedestrian fatalities locally have actually increased significantly to 65 in 2016 — a statistic totally disproportionate with rates in other urban areas including New York (pop. 8.4m – 231 fatalities) and greater Sydney / NSW, Australia (pop. 7.3m – 63 fatalities).
The current City Council has not only been inattentive to longstanding pedestrian improvement recommendations that could help save and enhance the Alamo, they are not following the recommendations for improving San Antonio problem spots for pedestrians that could save lives (or simply make conditions better for residents, visitors and first responders).
See:
https://webapps.sanantonio.gov/bidlistingsnew/uploads/RFQ_2534_201504151115460.pdf
http://www.alamoareampo.org/Studies/docs/RegionalBikePedPlanningStudy/Vol02%20City%20of%20San%20Antonio.pdf
http://www.alamoareampo.org/Bike-Ped/docs/PedestrianSafetyActionPlan.pdf
http://news4sanantonio.com/news/local/man-in-motorized-wheelchair-hit-by-pickup-truck-on-northwest-side
http://www.ksat.com/news/alarming-40-percent-increase-in-pedestrian-deaths-in-2016-in-san-antonio
http://www.nycvzv.info/#
http://www.eco-compteur.com/en/applications/downtown-management
Alamo Plaza is going to become Main Plaza 2.0. Lies and deceit will rule the master plan, just like the claims of supposedly dying trees in Main Plaza, which supposedly also couldn’t be replaced by mature trees. Yet mature oak trees are transplanted regularly across the country, just as several were near B-Cycles headquarters on Durango, err, Ceasar Chavez Boulevard.