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HARLINGEN — The project to build the Arroyo Colorado Hike and Bike Trail’s third stretch is on hold amid questions of whether the proposed route would encroach on homeowners’ properties.
At City Hall, Javier Mendez, the city’s parks director, is planning to meet Monday with Parkwood and Treasure Hills residents concerned part of the proposed stretch would cut into their backyards along the arroyo’s banks.
“The difference between this and other projects is some properties are at the arroyo’s edge,” Mendez said during an interview. “So we’re meeting with (property owners) so we can answer their questions and see what their concerns are.”
As part of the trail project’s third phase, officials are planning to build a 1.1-mile stretch from McKelvey Park, crossing part of the Parkwood and Treasure Hills areas on its way to Hugh Ramsey Nature Park.
Now, a grant-funded engineering study aims to determine the third phase’s route from McKelvey to Hugh Ramsey Nature Park, Mendez said.
“It’s like a feasibility study,” he said. “Can we build the trail in that section?”
Under the city’s master plan, city officials are designing the third phase as part of an overall project aimed at connecting the city’s parks with retail centers while linking Texas State Technical College to bicycle routes.
“If anybody gets on the trail at Dixieland (Park), they can traverse the entire trail without having to cross any traffic or any street, which makes it safer for either cyclists or runners,” Mendez told officials during a meeting last week.
Meanwhile, officials are planning to promote the city’s trail system as a cycling destination.
Parkwood, Treasure Hills concerns
Last week, Mendez proposed city commissioners award an engineering contract, funded through a $179,000 grant from the Rio Grande Valley Metropolitan Planning Organization along with the city’s $37,632 match, aimed at designing the proposed 1.1-mile stretch while securing environmental permitting.
But commissioners put the project on hold to determine whether part of the third phase would encroach on Parkwood and Treasure Hills homeowners’ properties.
During a meeting, Commissioner Michael Mezmar said some residents in the Parkwood and Treasure Hills areas are concerned the project would cut through their backyards.
“I’ve gotten a lot of complaints and concerns and fears from people living in Parkwood and people living in Treasure Hills that do not want this to go through. And I will vehemently oppose it right here, right now, and should it ever come back, I will vehemently oppose it then and there,” Mezmar told Mendez during the April 19 meeting.
“This would follow the arroyo eastward and this would cut through Parkwood and Treasure Hills and this would be people’s backyards which you would seize through eminent domain,” Mezmar said. “You’re interfering with people’s backyards where they can look into the arroyo, where they don’t have fences because their backyard abuts the arroyo, so I’m totally against all of this from the get-go.”
Questioning project’s encroachment
But Commissioner Daniel Lopez pointed to a Cameron County Appraisal District map showing the trail’s proposed route wouldn’t encroach on homeowners’ land but might cut into a real estate office’s property line.
“You can essentially draw this thing out where it only cuts across one person’s property line, and it’s some entity,” he told commissioners. “You can avoid everyone’s property line, Commissioner Mezmar, and all the houses are pretty high up — even from the pathway you wouldn’t be able to see into people’s backyards.”
As he called on commissioners to delay action on Mendez’s request to launch the engineering study, Lopez asked Mezmar to give commissioners information regarding residents’ concerns.
Responding to concerns
In response to Mezmar’s concerns, Mendez said the city’s preliminary plans show the trail’s proposed third stretch could impact about 20 properties on its way from McKelvey Park to Hugh Ramsey Nature Park.
“With the engineers, we’re going to figure out how the alignment of the trail is going to go,” he told commissioners. “There are some properties that, as Commissioner Mezmar mentioned, their properties go all the way out to the edge of the arroyo, or to the water’s edge. Some of the property already belongs to the state of Texas. We will have to approach property owners since we may be going through their property, so we would have to acquire their property through easement or purchase.”
Request for residents’ input
Amid discussion, Mayor Norma Sepulveda said she wanted residents to express their concerns surrounding the project.
“I’m glad that you’re bringing this up, commissioner,” she told Mezmar. “I haven’t received any responses or concerns or emails from anyone from the community, and had I received some, then I would have definitely wanted to address those issues. I’m just surprised because I get so many all the time. I’m really very supportive of the trails. I think that it is important that we have these green spaces and to be promoting health and wellness. But I also share the commissioner’s concerns on people’s properties. We definitely don’t want to be encroaching on individual rights and properties.”
