McALLEN — Talks on the old David Crockett Elementary property appear to have come full circle, with both the city and the school district planning to use the property as a park on the city side and an administrative annex on the district side.

The parcel of land, which hasn’t functioned as a school in over a decade, has simultaneously been described as a financial thorn in the side of McAllen ISD and a golden opportunity for a functional greenspace in the heart of McAllen.

The financial deficit the property is to the district and the financial asset it could be to the community has been the subject of often intense wrangling over the property’s future.

The district certainly had cause to sell it.

Crockett costs the district $120,000 a year in maintenance fees; costs associated with demolishing its infrastructure were estimated to exceed $2.5 million, and it would cost between $300,000 and $500,000 to demolish it.

The largely undeveloped property’s size —12.41 acres — and its location within walking distance of an increasingly burgeoning downtown are its real value.

An interlocal agreement from 2014 gave the city the opportunity to develop that land into a formal park, but barring relatively minor improvements it’s remained the way it was when the last students left in 2011: an abandoned school surrounded by large, mostly abandoned fields.

Swelling city coffers finally gave McAllen the ability to develop the land this year, City Commissioner Victory “Seby” Haddad said Tuesday.

“If you look at the city’s budget, it’s obviously been very healthy over the last few years,” he said. “We’ve seen an increase in sales tax, we’ve seen a strong reduction in operating expenses and when you have a healthy budget, some of the features that you start looking at are lifestyle and quality of life amenities for your citizens — and that has a lot to do with the parks.”

Crockett Park & Trial on Friday, Dec. 3, 2021, in McAllen. (Joel Martinez | [email protected])

That opportunity prompted Haddad to address the district’s board back in January after hearing it was considering selling the property. Haddad told the board the city was “shovel-ready” to proceed with improvements.

The board deliberated the property’s future periodically for half a year.

In May it voted to list and sell the property to a local entity, essentially the city, county or the Boys & Girls Club, the avowed hope being the entity use the property as some sort of recreational property for the public good.

Trustees balked at selling the land in a contentious July meeting, opting to keep the property’s financial deficit rather than risk the uncertainty attached to parting with it.

“I think that’s where we saw a lot of back and forth, different meetings,” Haddad said.

Since then, the city and the school district have taken steps both tout as a victory and ultimately leave them with a joint-use of the property.

Those steps prompted a ribbon cutting Tuesday for a skateboard park the city built on the land.

On Tuesday, the city and the school district celebrated a ribbon cutting for a skatepark on the property, the flagship addition of a $231,821.33 improvement project that also includes flood irrigation, a dog run, pavilion improvements, an exercise pad and two youth soccer fields.

The park, in short, is becoming a park, and Haddad says the community has noticed.

Its skatepark is the third in the city. Kids, Haddad said, were skating there before the finishing touches could be put on the project.

“From almost the minute they finished that thing, we’ve seen kids out there almost every single evening — afternoons, weekends,” he said.

Robert Rodriguez rides his skateboard at Crockett Park & Trail on Friday in McAllen. (Joel Martinez | [email protected])

Haddad says he understands McAllen ISD will continue using the property as an annex.

The Crockett project is one of many long planned greenspace improvement projects that seem to have finally found willing parties in the McAllen school district and the city in 2021.

In September, the district gave the final OK to a $4 million commitment for an improvement project at Quinta Mazatlán.

Earlier this fall, district and city representatives outlined long-awaited improvements to properties around Morris Elementary.

Haddad called the Crockett project a win for the city and a win for the school district.

“The benefit is that we’ve got stability with the property maintained as a public building, and from the city standpoint we’re happy because we feel that those parks are going to be now safe for decades to come for the surrounding community,” he said

Haddad highlighted the importance of urban, walkable parks in the middle of McAllen, like Crockett.

“We want to start improving those to not only show those neighborhoods that we care, but obviously to make the appeal of the center of McAllen more attractive for people to move to,” he said. “We see a lot of movement and home renovations and kind of a revival of the old downtown, main street.”

Community feedback was largely responsible for the shape of the park, said Haddad, who encouraged more feedback.

It is, after all he said, a golden green opportunity.

“You’re not going to be able to find 13 acres that you’re going to be able to purchase and convert to a park,” he said. “So once you get rid of it, it’s gone forever.”


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