Local birding enthusiasts will have to wait a few more days to have their concerns heard by the South Padre Island City Council amid plans for the South Padre Island Convention Center expansion project.
The city council was set to meet Wednesday evening, but they were unable to establish a quorum due to the absence of Mayor Patrick McNulty, Council Member Kerry Schwartz and Council Member Ken Medders.
The agenda shows that the council had planned to discuss a budget amendment for up to $2 million to “allocate venue tax funds for architectural and other professional services associated with the Convention Center Expansion.”
Another item up for discussion is the authorization of City Manager Randy Smith to “enter into a contract with the highest qualified firm for the Construction Manager-At-Risk (CMR) services for the South Padre Island Convention Center Expansion Project.”
The project has been met with concern from locals who fear that the proposed plans could impact a portion of the property that has proven essential to migratory birds that flock to the area around springtime.
“There’s kind of a whole area that, quite a while ago, some residents and people from Harlingen and McAllen put in about $40,000 to plant some native species to kind of encourage the migratory birds,” Joni Montever, a concerned citizen, said.
She said that youth groups have also contributed to the habitat with the installation of a water feature as well as planting more native species of plants for the birds to utilize following a two-day flight over the Gulf of Mexico from the Yucatan.
“That, I think, is pretty much in jeopardy of being completely taken over by this — the expansion,” Montever said.
She, along with other concerned citizens who joined together in a Facebook group called “Save the South Padre Island Convention Center Bird Habitat,” are worried about the ecological as well as economic ramifications if the area is intruded upon.
Terrilyn Alaniz, publicity chair for the Arroyo Colorado Audubon Society, cited an official report from 2011 by Texas A&M University that estimated that ecotourism brings in approximately $344 million to Texas annually. She said that that number has likely doubled since the study was published, and that a significant portion can be attributed to the Rio Grande Valley.
“I’d say a large chunk of that goes into the RGV due to our position geographically,” Alaniz said. “The habitat at the SPI convention center is listed as one of the top 10 places in the world to visit. More than half of all the birds in North America can be found in the RGV, most on SPI.”
Alaniz said that she is concerned about the safety of not only migratory birds but butterflies as well that take advantage of the native plants and freshwater resources in the area.
“That spot is like — if that were to just be gone, we don’t really know what would happen because a lot of those things that show up over there, that’s the only place that they have,” Alaniz said. “You’ve got thousands of things. If you go there during migration, right before or after a storm, you’ll just see birds all over the ground.”
She explained that the habitat provides sanctuary for thousands of birds, serving as their first stop in an over 300-mile journey over the Gulf of Mexico.
“That’s the first piece of habitat they see where they’re safe,” she said. “And if that wasn’t there, they’re going to end up like they’re either going to drown or they’re going to end up on the sand dunes where something will come and pick them off.”
Montever said that the city council has proposed planting native plants in another part of the Island to compensate for those that could be lost to the convention center expansion project. However, she added that it could take at least 10 years for the new vegetation to develop.
“If you’re talking about replacing it, you’re talking about a minimum 10 years of re-establishing anything close to what you have now,” she said.
The Convention & Visitors Bureau Director Blake Henry previously said that the project does not pose a risk to the area in question.
“As far as the birding area, we have no intention of destroying that,” Henry said during a meeting on April 17. “We have full intention of complementing that area.”
Multiple attempts to reach Henry for comment were unsuccessful.
“What I have been pushing them to do is early in the process to bring in Audubon or somebody from — consultants that are recommended by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, people that do this for a living, so that they have not just the word of a landscape architect or some kind of an ecotourism consultant that they’ve talked to, but they actually have the advice from people that their whole purpose is working with bird migration and preserving habitat for birds,” Montever said.
A special meeting is scheduled for the city council at 5:30 p.m. Wednesday, Sep. 11. As of Friday afternoon, an agenda has not been posted.
