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River dropped as new site for fed courthouse
Web Posted: 02/05/2008 02:26 AM CST
Scott Huddleston
Express-News
A 5-acre tract beside the San Antonio River has been eliminated as a potential site for a new federal courthouse.
That means a proposed new courthouse will either stay in the HemisFair area or replace San Antonio's 45-year-old police headquarters.
Monday's announcement by the U.S. General Services Administration ends a battle that neighborhood and historical preservationists had waged against plans for a new courthouse by the river, at the northwest corner of Dwyer Street and Durango Boulevard.
Besides an impact on an area where walkers and joggers like to exercise near a landscaped section of the river, opponents also were concerned about the future of two historic homes and hundreds of venerable trees.
"This is great news," said Marcia Ince, San Antonio Conservation Society president.
Of the three final sites in the running, the one federal officials dubbed the "river site" caused the most heartburn, Ince said.
"We definitely did not want it on the river because of the historic structures," she said.
Two sites remain under consideration: a 2-acre spot in HemisFair Park, just east of the existing U.S. courthouse, and the San Antonio Police Department's 7-acre headquarters at 214 W. Nueva St.
That in turn would create a need for a new modern police station, which some city officials would welcome.
Shala Geer-Smith, regional spokeswoman for the General Services Administration in Fort Worth, said the agency decided to drop the river site after a draft environmental assessment study raised significant problems.
"It was obvious that it was third on the list, way far down from the other sites," said Geer-Smith.
Concerns about historic preservation, neighborhood compatibility and cost, and a "community outcry" at a public hearing in November left the agency with a sense that the river site wouldn't work, she said. Although the services administration welcomes comments in response to the draft study through Feb. 29, it's asking people to focus on the HemisFair and police headquarters sites.
The agency hopes to make its final selection this spring.
Its 83-page draft study, now posted on the Internet, cites concerns about the river site, including two Queen Anne-style houses that would have to be razed, moved or preserved. One is occupied. The other, at 408 Dwyer St., is a law office. The site also is near other historic homes and structures, including the old U.S. Army arsenal that serves as H-E-B headquarters.
There also are possible "archeological deposits," particularly from the mid-1800s, and potential conflicts with the city's land-use plans for the area.
Federal officials have said the current circular courthouse, which served as the U.S. Pavilion during HemisFair '68, is too small for the courts in the western district of Texas and other agencies that work with them.
Carla Morrison, a lawyer who restored the former Sanchez House, a two-story house built on Dwyer in the early 1900s, led a "Save Our River" campaign against the river site. As of Monday, 170 anonymous and signed comments, most in opposition to the site, had been posted on a Web site the campaign created last spring.
What began as a fight to stop acquisition of her building through eminent domain became a crusade to protect a neighborhood sandwiched between downtown tourism and homes to the south, she said.
"It's really a neighborhood that's coming back," said Morrison, who handles child abuse and neglect cases.
"It's been a great community effort," she said. "We should all give ourselves a pat on the back for saving our river."
U.S. District Judge Xavier Rodriguez, the judicial liaison in the site selection, said his primary concerns about the river site were parking and potential flooding. Although it made a short list from an original list of 18 sites when the search began eight years ago, it didn't offer the strengths of the HemisFair and police headquarters sites, Rodriguez said.
"All along, the river site has been a distant third for consideration," he said.
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