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HARLINGEN — After about two weeks of debate, a group of homeowners has won its battle to keep a proposed $2 million development including rental homes out of the city’s fast-growing west side.
Earlier this week, a split city commission voted 3-2 to deny developer Armando Elizarde’s request to rezone an area from a residential single-family district to a planned or mixed-use development district, stopping him from going ahead with a proposed development including 42 homes and as many as 14 rental garden homes along 11.6 acres off Dixieland Road across from the city park.
While Commissioners Michael Mezmar, Rene Perez and Frank Morales voted to deny the request, Commissioners Daniel Lopez and Ford Kinsley supported the plan.
Two weeks before, a group of homeowners along Shofner Lane and Gomez Road carried a 25-signature petition into City Hall, calling on commissioners to stop the proposed project featuring homes starting at $250,000, arguing rental housing would lower their property values, taxing the area’s poor drainage system while flooding their septic tanks.
Earlier this month, Perez, who oversees District 5, and other commissioners met with homeowners to hear out their concerns.
“I heard you loud and clear,” Perez told about eight west-side residents in the audience during a July 19 meeting.
Fueling debate
During the meeting’s public comment period, homeowner Ruben De La Rosa, a former city commissioner, called on commissioners to stop the proposed project.
Meanwhile, former Commissioner Victor Leal, who lives in the District 5 area, warned commissioners their approval of the project would set a precedent.
But Elizarde argued the proposed development would help bring utilities to the rural residential area.
“In that area, nobody has invested zero in years,” he said. “If we go away, that’s the way it’s going to stay for years, because there is no infrastructure there.”
As part of a presentation, Xavier Cervantes, the city’s planning director, said the $2 million project would help spur business growth in the area.
“The economic benefits are tremendous from this project, and the businesses in Dixieland and Lincoln are going to benefit from the additional rooftops,” he told commissioners.
Low rental vacancy rates
During discussion, Mayor Norma Sepulveda told commissioners the project would open garden homes for rent in the city whose rental vacancy rate stands at 6.4 percent.
“There are not a lot of places to rent in our community,” she said. “The population is growing, and we want to grow. We need to have places for people to live.”
Along much of the rural west side, the area lacks available rental property, Sepulveda, who said she met with residents to hear their concerns, told commissioners.
“So if you want to live in that area and you don’t want to purchase a home … or you can’t build your own home, you can’t find a place to rent,” she said. “That means you can’t live there.”
Meanwhile, many younger residents are looking for rental property, Sepulveda said.
“Most millennials now don’t want to buy a home — they want to rent,” she said, pointing to the proposed projects’ 10 to 14 garden homes.
“These homes are very attractive,” she said. “They’re happening in San Antonio; they’re happening in areas all across the country because people want to have that flexibility. They want the no-maintenance type of life where they don’t have to worry about the a/c breaking down because they don’t have the money to make repairs. They don’t want to worry about insurance.”
After more than a year in office, Sepulveda described the commission’s decision on the proposed project as one of the hardest she’s faced.
“You all sit here representing the entire community but at the same time you also represent the one person, too,” she told commissioners. “This is probably the only time where I’m sitting here thinking, ‘I don’t want to vote on this one.’”
Upgrading utility services
Nearby, developers have been building rental properties for decades, including apartments south of Harlingen High School South and along Haverford Boulevard, Lopez told the audience.
“It’s fair to say this area of town has already developed the way Mr. Elizarde is already wanting to,” he said. “It seems this is an eventuality.”
In response to Lopez’s question, engineer Jack Brown told commissioners the project would help upgrade utility services in the area.
“Their water pressure will be greatly improved and their water quality will be greatly improved,” Brown said from the podium. “They’ll get the freshest water we’ve got because it’s coming straight from the plant.”
‘Listen to the people’
Amid discussion, Mezmar pointed to homeowners’ 25-signature petition before the audience, including eight west-side residents.
“My attitude has always been, listen to the people,” Mezmar told commissioners. “There is so much public opposition. I’ve gotten phone calls, I’ve gotten emails, people are contacting me — and they’re very passionate about this for whatever reasons they are. Listen to the number of people.”
