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It’s a beautiful area that will be completely demolished and decimated.
McALLEN — City leaders here have temporarily put a halt to plans that would see a beloved park converted into a commercial development.
During a McAllen City Commission meeting Tuesday, officials withdrew their request to rezone the McAllen Disc Golf Course — formerly known as Green Jay Park — from agricultural to light industrial use ahead of plans by an as-yet unnamed developer to build on a portion of the 90-acre park.
McAllen City Manager Roel “Roy” Rodriguez said public protest prompted the city to take a step back on the plans in order to provide better transparency — even though such transparency isn’t strictly required.
“If you want to rezone your property, you don’t have to tell me what you’re gonna build there,” Rodriguez said.
But the park isn’t privately owned, the city owns it, and, as such, it is the city that filed the rezoning application.
“The fact that, in this case, we own the property, we feel compelled to provide the public information and that’s why we withdrew it,” Rodriguez said.
McAllen is currently in the process of negotiating with a developer to change the face of the land at the park. Rodriguez said if the deal is successful, then the park will be “conveyed” to that developer.
But that isn’t sitting well with some residents, who fear the city wants to take away one of the few places in McAllen that still contains old growth forest.
“It’s a beautiful area that will be completely demolished and decimated,” McAllen resident Victoria Guerra said.
Guerra is one of several residents who have spoken out against the project since the issue first began gaining traction on social media in recent weeks.
She and another woman attended Tuesday’s meeting in the hopes of sharing their thoughts with the commission, but were told that since the proposal had been withdrawn, they could not speak on the matter.
The park is located in a flood zone designated as a FEMA “Special Flood Zone Hazard Area,” or SFHA, according to documents provided as part of the rezoning request.
It’s kind of an environmental justice type situation. This is an area where the residents are least likely to complain.
That designation means any developer would have to make certain concessions in order to build in compliance with the city’s flood plain ordinance.
And that’s precisely what has Guerra concerned.
Guerra worries that increasing the site’s elevation to reduce the flood risk at the park would have a negative impact on nearby neighborhoods that are lower on the socioeconomic scale by increasing their flood risk instead.
“It’s kind of an environmental justice type situation. This is an area where the residents are least likely to complain,” Guerra said.
The city itself admits in its rezoning request that no feasibility studies have thus far been conducted.
Previous city administrations decided the land’s flood risk made it useless for development. And for years, residents lobbied heavily to use the land as a park, Guerra said.
Since then, the park — one of the few full 18-hole courses in the Rio Grande Valley — has become host to disc golf competitions that have drawn players from across the country.
The woodsy terrain also makes it a perfect place for local wildlife, including the state endangered Texas Tortoise, Guerra said.
“It’s absolutely some of the most beautiful land I’ve ever seen in my life,” Guerra said.
She hopes city leaders will “turn their thinking upside down” and see the value the disc golf park has as an ecotourism destination.
It’s absolutely some of the most beautiful land I’ve ever seen in my life.
Meanwhile, city leaders are working in tandem with the potential developer’s architect to put together a presentation that will illustrate their plans for the site.
Rodriguez, the city manager, hopes the presentation will change some minds.
“Hopefully, we’ll get a different reaction from them. I don’t know. But we’re going to show them what’s going to go in there. And hopefully, that’ll help,” Rodriguez said.
For people like Guerra, that possibility remains remote.
“Nothing’s gonna change the fact that this area is subject to flooding. … Nothing can replace the original green space,” she said.
