Opening Mission Reach just a first step on river

Consider it a work in progress, even though the grand opening is Saturday.

The Mission Reach of the San Antonio River, under construction on the South Side since 2008 to fulfill a decades-old dream, already is delighting residents with its recreational opportunities. Yet, landscaping and other improvements aren't complete, economic development along the river has been slow and questions linger whether the finished upgrades helped or hurt those living at the project's end near Mission Espada.

There's no dispute the $271.4 million effort improved the ambiance of the 8-mile river segment by removing concrete channels installed from the 1950s to the '70s, replacing weed-covered banks with native plants and adding miles of trails and park amenities.

Hundreds of people have been enjoying the facilities every day since trail segments gradually began opening in 2010.

The Mission Reach Ecosystem Restoration and Recreation Project, a collaboration of the San Antonio River Authority, Bexar County, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and others, is the nation's largest renovation of an urban river.

Work was slated for completion in August but was delayed on the final few miles by extensive damage from flooding in May.

Now that repairs are completed, a daylong celebration is planned Saturday, with festivities at several points along the 2,400 acres of public parklands that straddle the river.

The ceremonies will emphasize the ongoing nature of the project. In addition to more planting — 16,000 more trees will be added in 2014 — a riverside education center is planned and efforts are underway to boost the slow-to-unfold economic development along the river.

Unlike the river's Museum Reach north of downtown, which is lined by private properties that are drawing new businesses and housing, the Mission Reach largely is parkland that keeps development at a distance.

Even so, proponents are hopeful that compatible development is coming, and someday the entire project will be viewed as a game-changer for the South Side.

Conceived in the '90s

“From a perspective of community investment, it's the most important public works project of our time,” said Bexar County Judge Nelson Wolff, a native South Sider who served as mayor in the early 1990s when talk of an ecosystem restoration project began.

Although the discussions led to improvements along the River Walk and north of downtown, the river's southern reach wasn't part of the plans until 2007. Skepticism abounded, he recalled.

“For decades, people had been promising to do the river south and it (improvement) just went north,” Wolff said.

Findings funds proved to be daunting, he said. In 2008, visitor tax funds and flood-control bonds were dedicated to the project, complemented by crucial federal stimulus funds.

“The one who did more for us than anybody was Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison,” Wolff said, referring to the now-retired Texas Republican. “Getting that (stimulus) funding gave us time for us to get our act together,” he said.

“The other big turning point was when we all worked with the Corps to allow SARA to contract it all as project manager,” Wolff said, noting the move required congressional approval. The change allowed local entities to move quickly on the project with a local contractor, H.B. Zachry Corp.

Wolff, who keeps a bicycle in his downtown office, frequently takes rides along the Mission Reach to check on progress and assess its potential. He's eager for more economic development to appear along the way, especially close to downtown near Blue Star and the former Lone Star Brewery.

“If you could ever get the Lone Star site kicked off, that would be a really big positive step,” Wolff said. “You're already seeing improvements, with people fixing up their homes,” Wolff said.

The project draws what Wolff described as “higher-income tourists that have some regard for the environment and culture. It has a big benefit for the missions themselves — it's already increased attendance,” the judge said.

Residents, too, are making good use of the recreational facilities, he added, “whether it's canoeing or fishing or walking or biking or going to the parks.

Needs years to mature

SARA General Manager Suzanne Scott views the recreational activity as a positive sign, but cautions that the project's development is ongoing.

“This project will continue to give back to the community for generations,” she said. “We're just starting the restoration process for the river and it will take many, many years for it to fully mature.”

For SARA, completion of construction means it soon will assume full responsibility for maintenance and operation of the Mission Reach, requiring several partners. Zachry will continue installing trees, grasses and wildflowers. Centro San Antonio will be responsible for trash pickup, and the San Antonio River Foundation is raising funds to construct an education center at Confluence Park, where San Pedro Creek flows into the near river.

To pay for maintenance, SARA last month slightly adjusted its tax rate, increasing the levy by $1.10 a year for the average homestead.

“The return on investment is already being seen in terms of the number of people that are participating and enjoying the project. Economic development is already being stimulated,” Scott said, although no big projects are underway.

“I think you're going to see development at some of the cross-street intersections,” she said.

“What I'd love to see are business headquarters that could have campus-type developments along the river. Something like that would be a wonderful asset for a company to have such a wonderful amenity for their employees,” she said. “It's going to take some time, but the project is causing a lot of conversation about what can happen,” Scott added.

Espada dispute lingers

Even so, for about 30 households at the southern end of the project near Mission Espada, the talk of recreational assets and economic benefits rings hollow. Scores of residents who live in the flood plain were flushed out of their homes on Memorial Day weekend, and many remain convinced that the river improvements were to blame.

Despite findings from the corps, SARA and Bexar County that the project didn't exacerbate their woes, some residents declare otherwise and reject the county's demands they relocate with compensation.

The residents were offered the right to retain title to their land if they grant the county a flood easement and stop living there. The residents also have the option to sell outright, or stay there after remodeling their homes to raise them above the flood plain.

Scott said all the affected homes have been appraised and compensation offers made, usually in personal visits, but few have expressed interest in relocating.

“We have heard back from back three or four to move forward with settlement,” she said.

“People have 30 days to respond. Probably in the next couple of weeks we're going to hear from a whole lot more of them,” Scott said. “The expense of rebuilding is significant. Some of them have to be pretty high up to get out of the flood plain,” she added.

Among those who haven't responded to the offers is resident Bill Garza, whose multigenerational homestead on the river's west bank overlooks the trail end of the Mission Reach. Oddly, homes farther than his from the river were inundated, but his was not.

“I'm not moving,” he said Monday. Pointing across a pasture to relatives' and neighbors' homes that were flooded, he said, “Everybody wants to stay where they're at.”

Garza, who's considering putting his house on stilts, was offended by the settlement offer he got — one-tenth of what he'd like — and at the handling of the Espada community's flood problem.

Since the May 25 disaster, many residents have blamed their flooding on the Mission Reach design — there's a bottleneck at its end — combined with flood debris that washed downstream.

“It created a big dam and they don't want to take responsibility for that,” Garza said. “They're just taking advantage of people right now. They need to face the facts. They did the damage.”

Scott has heard similar protests since May and tries of offer scientific explanations for her stance. Floodwaters reached record levels just upstream from Espada, and unprecedented flow joined the river from the city's West Side creeks.

“The level of flooding that occurred has just never been seen before,” she said.

And while construction debris was washed downstream, so was other debris like playscapes, mattresses and garbage cans that added to the blockage. This week, debris continued a mile downstream of the project.

“We definitely have a lot of empathy for the individuals whose homes were flood. It's terrible. It's a tragedy to go through that kind of property loss. That's why the county wanted to do something about it,” Scott said.

Among Espada residents, “emotions are very high. It's challenging” negotiating with them, Scott said. While insisting it's in residents' best interests to relocate, Scott is adamant that the Mission Reach design was not faulty.

“If that same flood happened again, they would flood again because we haven't done anything in the river to change the capacity. Even though the flooding was horrible in that neighborhood, it would have been worse if the Mission Reach project had not been constructed because the capacity of the river is greater than it was,” Scott said.