A closed lawsuit seeking to stall a controversial restoration project in San Antonio’s Brackenridge Park will be back in court early next month after its plaintiffs filed a petition for a rehearing.
The Texas Supreme Court will hear oral arguments from both the plaintiffs — Gary Perez and Matilde Torres, two members of Native American Church — and the defendants, the City of San Antonio, on Dec. 4. to discuss a possible rehearing on a case centered on whether the city could proceed with construction in the park as part of a 2017 bond project.
In August 2023, Perez and Torres first filed a suit against the city, claiming that the bond project’s plan to remove trees and perform bird mitigation efforts near Joske Pavilion interfered with their ability to practice their religion.
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. However a specific bend in the river here holds religious significance to the plaintiffs, and they argue the trees slated for removal to prevent damage to the retaining walls would go against their beliefs.
While U.S. District Judge Fred Biery ruled that the city must grant the two access to this sacred spot at the river for prayer, he also denied Perez and Torres’s request for injunctions to delay the project including the removal of trees until the plaintiffs and city can agree on a plan “that preserves the Park’s spiritual ecology.”
Biery called the case a difficult one after hearing four days of testimony in September 2023 from the plaintiffs, religious experts, the city, arborists and engineers.
John Greil, an attorney representing the plaintiffs and a professor at the University of Texas Law and Religion Clinic, told the San Antonio Report in October 2023 that the plaintiffs planned to appeal Biery’s decisions.
And on Oct. 14 they made the formal request to the court to reconsider its decision or ruling.
This time around, the plaintiffs are utilizing and testing a new state constitutional amendment that was added post-COVID specifically to protect religious services from any laws or rules that could limit them. The constitutional amendment was approved by Texas voters in 2021 after certain service restrictions were implemented during the pandemic.
In their updated case, Perez and Torres argue they can’t perform their religious ceremonies without the trees slated for removal and cormorants that may otherwise be subjected to the city’s bird mitigation efforts.
In response to the filing, city lawyers argue that the state amendment shouldn’t be interpreted as meaning it applies to any and all circumstances.
“…a truly absolute bar on ‘any’ limitation whatsoever would imply a right of unprecedented scope, unrecognizable to history and tradition, with absurd unintended consequences,” the responding brief states.
While construction on the stalled bond project has yet to start, discussions of how to incorporate the park’s rich Native American history into future projects are at play, confirmed Chris Maitre, Brackenridge Park Conservancy’s new CEO.
Maitre told the San Antonio Report that design concepts for a new nature playscape at Brackenridge Park include features that celebrate different elements of native American history, including a prehistoric campsite area and possible loose artifacts in concrete simulating archeological digs.
Plans for the new playscape could also include reusing the trees that are slated for removal during the first phase of the park’s restoration.
