[sirkingwilliam]

Looks like this project is creating some seriously unnecessarily noise with the Government. This thing is nowhere near Bullis.

Another development near Bullis stuns Army

Web Posted: 07/12/2008 12:39 AM CDT

By Sig Christenson
Express-News

Fort Sam Houston officials, stunned to learn of a development project near Camp Bullis that would include hundreds of high-end homes and shops, told city officials Friday that an endangered species survey should be done before it is allowed to continue.

The project, Cresta Bella, would include single-family homes, apartments and businesses on a 410-acre tract west of Interstate 10 between Heuermann and Camp Bullis roads.

After getting word of the project Thursday, Fort Sam wrote a letter to a pair of city officials Friday expressing concerns on how it would affect the range, used to train Army medics and other troops deploying to war.

Cresta Bella is part of the “Camp Bullis Master Development Plan” approved in January by the Planning and Zoning Commission.

Final comments on it will be taken Monday, prompting Fort Sam spokesman Phil Reidinger to complain that the post too often has been out of the loop on matters affecting Camp Bullis.

“We're consistently frustrated that we are not provided adequate information to influence intelligent management of development around Camp Bullis,” he said. “We're not trying to stop development, but certainly there should be features in place to protect our mission in the face of intense development in our area.”

The post and area officials have launched an offensive in recent weeks to control development around the 27,994-acre Camp Bullis. Post commanders say they fear further destruction of nearby golden-cheeked warbler habitat will drive the birds onto the facility, limiting land use at Bullis and threatening the Army's medical training mission there.

A main focus of attention this summer has been a project just off the perimeter fence at the camp. INTCO-Dominion Partnership cleared 12 acres of land as part of its plans to develop a 340-acre site that Fort Sam says could have as many as 700 homes.

The post and environmental groups contend INTCO's tract contains habitat used by the warbler, which nests in the Hill Country each spring.

U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service officials last month told INTCO that the bird, as well as an endangered spider and two beetles, could be on the land. Destroying their habitat, the agency warned, could violate the 1973 Endangered Species Act.

Fish and Wildlife officials in Austin could not be reached, but Fort Sam's Reidinger said the agency had notified Cresta Bella that its property is home to cave-dwelling species like the endangered spider, Cicurina madla, and beetles — Rhadine exilis and Rhadine infernalis. He said he didn't know the details of the conversation or when it occurred.

A letter written Friday by Col. Wendy Martinson, Fort Sam garrison commander, told the city's Office of Military Affairs and the office of Development Services that Cresta Bella's master development plan raised the specter of more ruined warbler habitat.

The two-page letter said the project's 865 homes, 841,000 square feet of commercial businesses and 1,625 apartment units to be built 11/2 miles from the rocky range “could be detrimental” to Camp Bullis.

The project is a venture of Baruch Properties Ltd., a Dallas-Fort Worth firm; and San Antonio-based Post Oak Development. Baruch Properties' managing partner, Shaul Baruch, said he was not overseeing the project and couldn't comment.

Al Briseño, general counsel for Post Oak Development, said he didn't know if endangered birds or invertebrates were on the land, and was unaware of Fort Sam's letter and its objections. But he said he was ready to talk with the post, adding: “I'd be willing to discuss whatever the concerns are, obviously.”

City Councilwoman Diane Cibrian said she discussed the matter with Martinson, and that she had arranged a meeting with the developer and Fort Sam officials next week.

But it is not clear what the meeting might accomplish. Annalisa Peace, executive director of the Greater Edwards Aquifer Alliance, said the planning commission's approval of the master plan was the final step in the process. Cibrian said she wasn't sure, and would have to research the matter further.

Peace called on the city to immediately impose a moratorium on development around Camp Bullis and create a buffer zone similar to one for Toyota.

“I don't understand how all these things are raining down without being addressed. I mean, the Army has been pretty clear about what their needs are,” she said, calling the latest incident proof the city “is not taking it seriously” and “denotes a huge lack of respect for the Army.”

Fort Sam's Reidinger stopped short of that.

“I think it shows a disrespect for the community where developers continue to destroy habitat and to continue potentially destroying habitat and aquifer recharge zone,” he said.