Proposed courthouse site on river upsets some
Web Posted: 06/06/2007 10:45 PM CDT
http://www.mysanantonio.com/news/met...e.348918a.html
Scott Huddleston
Express-News
A scenic, park-like area of the San Antonio River is one of three final sites proposed for a new federal courthouse, a use some say would clash with the character of downtown and surrounding neighborhoods.
The U.S. General Services Administration also is looking at San Antonio's downtown police station and a federally owned site on Durango Boulevard between the federal building and the Institute of Texan Cultures.
It's the location on the river that's drawing fire.
"It just doesn't make sense," said Diana Treviño, who grew up in an early 1900s home by the river that could be razed if the spot is chosen.
Also at risk besides the two-story Victorian-style Sanchez House, also known as the Dwyer House, is the future of a peaceful section of the River Walk where ducks swim and people walk, jog and ride bicycles, Treviño said.
"I'm concerned that they're going to wipe all that out," she said. "When I think of a federal building, I think of lights, barricades and other things that are uninviting, that make you want to stay away. When the tourists come downtown, they want to see historic San Antonio. They don't want to see a building."
The search for a new federal courthouse site began seven years ago with 18 sites under consideration. Now it's down to three, including the site near the northwest corner where the river flows under Durango.
Lawyer Carla Morrison bought the Sanchez House at 408 Dwyer Ave. five years ago and invested $500,000 to restore it and use it as her office. She's hired a lawyer specializing in land use and public relations expert T.J. Connolly to help build a case against the river site.
Morrison is in Guatemala and couldn't comment on the case. Connolly said he created a Web site last week to allow people to read about the situation and post their opinions. On Tuesday, he posted 5,000 e-mails to area community leaders and media outlets statewide.
"Our goal is to make this choice the path of greatest resistance," he said.
Security requirements for a federal courthouse could impede barge and pedestrian traffic on that stretch of the river, about 1,500 feet downstream from the highly developed Horseshoe Bend area of the River Walk, Connolly said.
That could cripple the city's plans to make a 13-mile stretch of the river a draw for tourists and residents, with linear parks, hike-bike trails and new development, Connolly said.
"You can't allow barges or joggers by a federal courthouse," he said. "There's too great a risk of a bomb being on a barge or in a jogger's backpack."
Officials representing the city and the River Walk weren't as concerned about potential impacts on the river but felt the police station is the best site.
Mayor Phil Hardberger said security issues "would all have to be worked out down the road" if the river site were chosen.
Greg Gallaspy, executive director of the Paseo del Rio Association, said the police station, followed by the spot by the Federal Building, would be his two choices. Conflicts between use of that area of the river and courthouse security could increase over time as downtown hotel development increases, he said.
"I think the Police Department is the answer," he said.
The city suggested the police station as a site, knowing it was antiquated, at 45 years old, and needs to be replaced or upgraded. If it's chosen as the courthouse site, with construction starting as early as 2011, the city will have to find a new location for police headquarters, City Manager Sheryl Sculley said.
Shala Geer-Smith, regional spokeswoman for the General Services Administration, said a town hall meeting on the site selection is planned in the fall as part of a careful process under the National Environmental Protection Act.
Though the agency doesn't have to abide by local historic preservation laws, "we have our own historic preservation rules that we have to go through," she said.
There are options that would allow the Sanchez House to remain standing, by relocating it or building around it, Geer-Smith said.
The agency, which could take up to a year to select a site, is "very early in the process" of site selection and hasn't even designed the building, she said.
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Just what I was thinking...and even so, I would be glad to see the Police Station go, its so ugly!
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