 If I can have everyone's attention, we're going to get ready to start. So this is the City of San Antonio's public meeting on the Breckenridge draft master plan, and so I'm going to ask for an announcement to be made. El agusio es para las personas que requieran interpretación al español si hay alguien aquí que levante la mano en el tribunal del sector. Okay, gracias. Thank you, good evening. My name is Xavier, I'm the director of the City of San Antonio's Parks and Recreation Department, and just to make sure everyone's in the right place, this is the public meeting on the draft Breckenridge Part Master Plan. Just a little bit of background, I want to thank the while looking for hosting us here. This is one of six additional meetings that we're having on the draft master plan. Back last year, actually in 2015, City Council approved funding for a master plan for Breckenridge Park. So the City went through the procurement process and we awarded a group of consultants that job of coming up with a master plan for Breckenridge Park. And before we get into a lot of details about that, we'll kind of give you some background and some history about it, but just like I mentioned, so that plan, they've been working on it over the last, a little bit less, probably less than a year, and talking to a lot of different groups, a lot of stakeholders, neighborhoods, but it's part of that process in reviewing the draft master plan. We've got some additional feedback, and I want to recognize a former councilman, but there's a lot of us here, who also brought to the attention of Councilman Terminio that really there needed to be a larger, more engaged public input process. That really was really city-wide. So we appreciate that feedback, and we took that challenge until we added six meetings across the city as a whole. And this is actually the third meeting of those six, and we're holding different venues across the city. So we will be going through, again like I mentioned, we'll kind of give you a background, and then we're going to give opportunity for people to speak, who wish to speak, but everyone has the opportunity to weigh in on how they feel about the different elements, and we'll get into some detail about that. But before I go any further, I really wanted to, we are in District 5, and we're being hosted by a little bit, but also Councilwoman Gonzales is here, and Councilman Terminio really engages other colleagues to say, hey, this is important. You know, Brackenridge Park is not just District 1, it's not just District 2. It's really a city-wide park, and it really is one of the parks that people think of when they think of parks in San Antonio. So he really worked with his other colleagues to get them to really be engaged as well, and get the community out. So we're really excited that there's the number of people that are here today, and I want to give Councilman Gonzales an opportunity to say a few words of thanks for being here. Good evening, everyone. And welcome to the historic Guadalupe Theater. So if you all have not been here in a long time, welcome back to the theater, or welcome back to the Guadalupe. We are, of course, proud as this beautiful theater that hosts us so very often, especially for public events and forums like this one. And I also want to thank Councilwoman for bringing this to our attention and allowing us the opportunity to weigh in on this very important park, Brackenridge. I have two very small children, a two-and-a-half-year-old son and a one-year-old son. And we take advantage of our parks very often. And so I go to Brackenridge Park fairly often, probably a couple of times a month. And I take advantage of the different amenities from the park. And lately, I've been parking at the Pearl and going for a coffee and then walking along the trail there to the playground. And then depending on how our day is going, I may enjoy the playground that's free or I may go into the zoo and spend a little time there, ride the train, and then enjoy the shade of the beautiful park and the trails inside the park. And so I feel like I'm just here to listen. I enjoy our park very much the way it is. And I know that there has been some feedback on wanting to maintain it just the way it is and perhaps do some existing sprucing up or perhaps adding amenities. But I know that I sure do enjoy the beautiful space that we have. And I hope that you all give your feedback and you give your opinions about it. And hopefully we have feedback from all members of the community. So as a mother with young children, I do appreciate being able to go in and out very quickly to somewhere because you never know when things might fall apart very quickly. And suddenly, in fact, I was there not too long ago at Brackenridge Park and there was a single dad who was there with his children and I had to borrow a diaper. Well, not borrow, but I had to ask him, do you have any diapers? Because I don't. I came from the pearl. I left a diaper bag and I need one. And so, of course, it was kind enough to give me a diaper and some wipes. But we also know that we have very senior people as well that may enjoy walking around the park because it's shaded. And so it's one of the things that's lacking in some of our urban parks is that there's not enough shade. So I do hope to hear from all of the members of our community whether you're a senior, and I know we have a group here from AARP. So thank you AARP for advocating on behalf of seniors. And I'm sure there's some other parents of young children in the room who also need the flexibility to just come in and out of the park without too much commitment of staying very long. And then, of course, people who just love the area because it's where we've grown up and where we've spent all of our time. Hopefully some old users, old-time users, long-time users, I suppose is a better word. And then some new people who are maybe experiencing it for the first time because of the revitalization of the area around the pearl and the Mission for the River North project. So thank you all very much for being here. I'll be here for most of the event. I will have to leave after a little while but I'm anxious to hear everybody's feedback. So thank you for organizing us and allowing us to be here in this beautiful theater. Thank you to the Guadalupe for having me. Thank you everyone. So real quick before we start, I want to, and I'm looking to see if I see the consultants in the back and I don't know if I... Oh, they're over here. Okay. So our consultants have two of them here today. They will be taking notes. We also have staff here. So they will be recording what is being said. Not recording, but I mean, writing notes about what's being said. Everyone also has the opportunity to, the boards in the back, give you the opportunity to place a dot on the different elements of the draft master plan that you either really like, kind of like or neutral about, not crazy about and really don't like. You're able to put that there. So we're trying to get a consensus of what are some of the elements that people really feel strongly about or elements that they really feel strongly against. And so everyone has that opportunity. We also have iPads in the back. So if you don't feel comfortable either speaking or you don't want to, we also have comment cards that you can put in the back. If you don't feel comfortable using comment cards, we have iPads that can walk you through a survey that asks certain questions about the different elements. But we have also people working the different boards in the back. So if there's specific questions that you have, you heard about this, you thought about this, they can help you answer some of those questions that you may have. So I just kind of wanted to give you a big picture. So when we look at a master plan, a master plan really is a plan. It's kind of a guiding principle for a plan. It's not an implementation schedule. It's not a construction project. It's really a vision. Where do we see Brackenridge Park going? And beyond that, in this particular case, there's no money or funding identified for anything in the master plan right now. So there's not any money to do any elements in the master plan. So I want to be very clear. Well, we have to have a lot of visions and dreams. And even if the public really wants to see some of those, today as we speak, there is no money identified for any improvements or any changes in Brackenridge Park. The second piece I want to share too is that the master plan does not address any programming of the park, meaning it doesn't say we're going to add this, add this program, that program. It doesn't talk about the fees. There's been some rumors about charging people to go to Brackenridge or being able to camp out during Easter time. There's no mention in the master plan about fees whatsoever and utilizing or increasing fees. And there's really not really anything in the master plan that talks about changing use. There is elements in the master plan that talk about changing some of the staging streets and parking, which ultimately could have an impact on use, but there's nothing that comes out. For example, you know, I heard some in another meeting people say you're taking barbecue pits out of Brackenridge Park. It doesn't talk about taking barbecue pits out. It doesn't take about taking pigment tables out. It doesn't talk about any of that. So it really is the vision in Brackenridge Park. The master plan really talks about three main things. It talks about restore, preserve, and protect. It talks about restoring a lot of the ecological features of the park. It talks about preserving a lot of the historic and cultural features of the park. And ultimately, protecting those features and protecting park users in the park. So in that big vision, the consultants came up with five strategy areas, and that's what we're asking for your input today on those strategy areas. So just to kind of give you a background, those fall into, and I'm going to read in verbatim because they're going to be on your board so we'll be able to see that. It talks about increasing visibility and pedestrian access to and within the park. So what that really talks about is how people view the park or get to the park. So Brackenridge, unfortunately, is encumbered by a lot of physical barriers when you think about it. You have Avenue V at the top of Pershing, which is the big drainage ditch that kind of separated to one section. You have Hildebrand and Stadium Drive and Palomate and they kind of block it from one other angle. Then you kind of come from the south, you may have the St. Mary's Mulberry, and five points at that section there, the expressway. So one of the three recommendations is to really look at how do we address neighborhood connectivity and really a presence of the park. So they have a front door or when you're driving down Broadway that you feel like there's Brackenridge Park, I've arrived, or it's a destination. So one of the other strategies is recapturing green space in blue impervious cover and parking. So what that talks about today, 20% of Brackenridge Park is covered with impervious cover. That could be a rooftop, it could be a parking lot, it could be a sidewalk, it could be a building. 20% of it is hard-scape. And so one of the things they looked at is how do we recapture some of the green space within that park? So there's strategies they looked at. Do we maybe narrow some roads? Do we take out some parking? Meaning that we need to replace it with parking in other places. So there's strategies to look at, does it make sense to maybe add garages at the outskirts of the park or the periphery of the park, and then take out parking inside the middle of the park. So that's one of the things, one of the strategies it's looked at to see is there a way to recapture green space, add back more grass, add more trees to the park. The third strategy is restoring, preserving, and articulating park cultural and historic features. So what that really talks about is Brackenridge has layers and layers of history to it. It has pre-Spanish colonial history, has Spanish colonial history, has history during the Confederate time in our history. It has a lot of history that's just layer on top of it. And so one of the strategies it's looking at how do we take some of those buildings, how do we take some of those features and interpret those and make sure that people understand the history of Brackenridge, which is ultimately the history of San Antonio. How do we look at telling our history as a community, as a people, as San Antonians, through Brackenridge Park? And part of it's looking at preserving those buildings, making sure they're not falling into disrepair. Are there other uses that we can find for those buildings? Meaning it may have been a waterworks building at one point in its history, but today maybe it's a conference room or maybe it's a coffee shop, but looking at ideas, how do we repurpose some of those structures within the park? The fourth one is restoring natural park features and improving the water quality. So you think about Brackenridge, sometimes a lot of people forget it's around the San Antonio River. Brackenridge is there because of the river. And so sometimes we forget about the river and the river ends up being almost like second thought and so one of the things we talked about there is how do we restore some of the natural balance? We have a lot of invasive species throughout the Brackenridge Park that really kill out some of the native plants and native trees, which can pair and cause erosion and then cause the water quality to diminish in Brackenridge Park, especially in the river through Brackenridge Park. We also look at Katapa Persian, which I mentioned earlier, which is this huge drainage ditch, which is concrete line. So one of the strategies they looked at is do we look at an eco restoration project? Do we look at taking that concrete ditch and making it more like the mission reach of the river, where you add that plant and you add that trees, you bring back the fauna and the flora, you bring back animals and nature, but also make it accessible for people to use as a trail, as a connector. So that's again one of the strategies you'll see on the board. And then the last one is reducing the acre traffic to improve pedestrian mobility. So this probably has gotten the most conversation from people, which is what we want to hear, which is what you're talking about not taking out the streets in Brackenridge, because ultimately, believe it or not, the streets are a historic feature of Brackenridge, but looking at possibilities of either closing off segments of the streets, pieces of the streets, or closing them off during certain times of the year. So there's a possibility that maybe they're closed, but during the holidays, like during the spring break, during Easter, that those streets be open so that people can have loading and unloading, but really looking at trying to make Brackenridge more pedestrian and bicycle friendly, as opposed to just having cars going through. And I think you'll see on some of the maps in the back, we have a big problem with cut through. There is an access point from Hildebrand that people enter in the park through Hildebrand and zoom down to get to Broadway, so they can just circumvent our University of Encarnate Word and the Broadway line. So that's one of the things they looked at is maybe closing one street or two streets might be a solution to see about trying to manage traffic within Brackenridge so that it is safe and friendly for families and kids who want to be walking around and running around and give them more opportunity to be able to do that. So those are the five strategy areas that were really looked at part of the draft master plan. So like I mentioned, there's no funding yet associated with anything. Nothing's been finalized. We're doing input meetings across the city. We ultimately will go to the council committee just to present recommendations and those recommendations, the way I'm envisioning, will look too full. One would be, of course, we have our consultants which are subject matter experts in the area. I mean, you really think about, you know, architects, these are some individuals from some well-known firms in San Antonio. I actually have a team from five, I think three different firms that are very well-known in San Antonio, maybe four. I'm trying to get it off my head. One in San Antonio. So they may have recommendations, but we will ultimately give council the full picture. My goal is to present council with peers with, you know, kind of, the consultants are kind of recommending us also working with Brackenridge Park Conservancy, with their kind of recommending what staff recommends and what the public is saying. And ultimately, hopefully, we'll have a great product that really addresses some of the visions that we want to see for Brackenridge, but also has the integrity and the desire of what the public is. Because at the end of the day, without the public will, to see anything happen, we just won't see any improvements. We won't see any improvements or even sustainability of the park. And we think ultimately that's what we want to see that Brackenridge continue to be one of the crown jewels in our park system. So, like I mentioned, boards are in the back. I know people may be on the schedule, so you're not required to say if you're all the speakers. We will be having speakers come up one at a time to get three minutes if you're here as an individual. You're representing a group meaning there's three or more of you and you want to be heard as a group. We'll give you actually nine, six to nine minutes for a group because we want to make sure everything we have to say. We have to say we have staff that are recording or taking notes, but if your schedule doesn't allow you to say, please go back to the board. We have staff already at the board. We have cards, we have the iPads, went to the survey, so we don't want you to have to feel like you have to stay before you have to stay the whole two hours to be able to get your input to be heard. We want everyone, whether you speak or not, we want to see where the consensus is for some of the features that people like and some of the things that they don't like. And then that helps us at the end of the day report back to council and give them an overall report of what we see, we're here in the community. And we're also, this is also available online at our website, at the San Antonio dot gov www.San Antonio dot gov if you go into Parks and Recreation. Even actually on the city's main page there is an access point about the Breckenridge draft master plan. You can sit in your comment via email if you'd like. The copy of the master plan is actually there electronically if you'd like to read it and review it. So again, there's lots of opportunity for you to give input tonight and into the next, probably into the next month. We're probably going to go into the month. I think our meeting is going into the early July. Before we start with the speakers though, I wanted to recognize and Lynn Bobbin, Executive Director of the Breckenridge Park Conservancy and see if she wanted to share a few words with you and then I'll come back and we'll start meeting with the speakers. Hello, I'm the Executive Director of the Breckenridge Park Conservancy and I thought it would be interesting for you to hear just about the conservancy and how it was born. I also want to let you know that I live in District 1 and I use the park on a regular basis, not just because I'm the Executive Director of the Breckenridge Conservancy. I'm a Sanitonian. I have lived here all my life. I had many birthday parties in the park. I even had an alligator from the alligator garden. It has been an important part of my family's life too. The Breckenridge Park Conservancy was formed in 2008 and it was to be the steward of an advocate for Breckenridge Park. It was to be a partner with the city of Sanitonio and we have a memorandum of understanding with the city of Sanitonio. It was adopted by the city council in 2009 and the Parks and Recreation Department administer the memorandum of understanding. That memorandum allows us to be an advisor to the city to talk about the protection of the park as the city envisions it as well as the community. We are not an organization to tell the city what to do. We are here to be an advocate for the park itself and to actually represent you, the community. We have a website too www.breckenridgepark.org and you may go to our website. It is free. You find all kinds of information and galleries and photographs as well about the history of the park. The park is on the National Register of Historic Places. It is something as Xavier referred to in that you can't walk in and change it without a lot of discussion. I too would like to say this is an opportunity for all of us to come together. Sanitonio is known as a collaborative city and we've shown ourselves proud in that regard. This is the time to speak up about what you want for your park. It is a park for the entire city not just one district or the other and I also wanted to say that the Breckenridge Conservancy was formed as a result of a partnership with the city as well as the conservation society the new executive director of the society is here with us tonight to hear about the park but it was thought that with the development that was going to occur and the explosive development that you see happening now, the city was very visionary and they saw the need for an organization. It is the only organization that is solely dedicated to looking after the needs of the park and when I talk about park I mean the whole Breckenridge park is about 345 acres but that includes the zoo that includes the witty, that includes the golf course that includes the first tee only a third of that or about 115 acres is open and non-feed based and free to the public we all need to look at and decide what we want for it so I welcome comment input and I'm here for the evening to answer questions I look forward to meeting you so we're going to start with our first speakers questions on your background will you entertain questions on the background will you do this for the park so at the different stations what are the specific details not on the master plan let me ask the question you mentioned that you had met that this thing started in 2015 and that you had met with community organizations and legal organizations to get their feedback is there a place where we can look for that feedback did you document their feedback yes the consultants have that yes you can see that the consultants can provide that to you so in the back is it on the website website I'm not sure if that detail is in the draft that's on the website but we can see sure can you put it on the website so the first speaker is can I get the name Gianna Rindon okay okay then Hunter so so sweet and then he will be followed by Mikey Moore okay so I'll keep my comments brief I just have a couple so I am a student at Trinity University I use Brackenridge all the time super close I really enjoy the park the way it is my classmates and I will sometimes go over to study we'll sit on the banks of the river right there in the park specifically on the limiting the use of vehicles in the park I see people use those facilities all the time not just certain parts of the year every time I'm at the park I see people park there picking up their stuff and I say the park and I think we should like respect and accommodate that like historic and really unique use of the park being able to be really accessible and really close to it and secondly for the people mover that's mentioned in the plan to me that it makes it seem reminiscent of like a theme park rather than a park park and I think it just completely defeats the purpose of the park being kind of an escape from everything and it makes it too much of a touristy destination take it just doesn't make sense for them to sit in the park thank you Ms. Moore and she will be followed by Jean Elder I might be more and I grew up in Brackenridge Park where I had a ride a horse there and I'm 70 when I go through there every day every day I walk two miles a day I think that it would be a good idea if you're worried about all the asphalt and the impervious cover to rip it up not limit any parking but rip up the asphalt and use pavers or use porous concrete or use grass covered streets where you mow the roads build a green grass roof at the train station instead of getting rid of that parking as far as access is concerned access to the neighborhoods getting to get into the park there's already plenty of access we talk of restricting access by making everyone have to go into the park at Talita at the Talita entrance but then you say you want the neighborhoods to have access and those are contradictory ideas I don't think you should restrict the access into the park anywhere at all nor vehicles being allowed to go into the park they should be allowed to continue to use it you can fix the asphalt problem other ways than letting any cars go in there as far as parking is concerned there's already a lot of parking and it's all free you have over a thousand spaces you have over a thousand spaces 300 of them in a shade under 281 on Talita Drive which by the way was named after my sister thank you very much and you have parking at the sunken gardens you have parking at the train station all of it's free already if you're worried about in pervious cover then tear it up and put pervious concrete or pavers or grass put a cover over it and let it be concrete roof and you plant it with grass there's all kinds of ways of taking care of that problem I'm curious how much does a garage cost I'm curious how much Pape Dawson is going to profit on yet another garage in our park I agree with this gentleman I'd like to know where the public can easily access the feedback that you guys are getting from everybody let's be transparent let the people see what other people are saying originally by the way you said 5 or 6 parking garages and now I'm reading in your thing like 3 or 4 parking garages I think that's uncomfortable I don't like it regarding the golf course, Belize comes up next year they have butchered trees they have polluted the river they have caused erosion up and down the river and if you go out there right now you'll see where they've had all the trees and all the brush along the waterways in the golf course and it's causing erosion along the river banks and that creek that runs from the Patalpa Pershing make them pay for it make them pay back for all the trees that they've butchered or better yet take back the golf course excuse me I timed this before I did it I'm going to finish instead of letting your rich businessmen play golf on the golf course let the town people who are paying their taxes use the golf course or take it back and use it back into a park so I guess what my last thing I would say is you already have a great lawn grand lawn you have the golf course you have the driving range you have plenty of grand lawns use the ones you already have and the last thing I would say is I'm meditating in that park and enjoying that park in my car for 71 years of my life or a car and if you take away my access to my city park are these people's access to their city park you're going to open a can of woobass thank you followed by Jess Mace yes hi I'm Jean Elder I live on River Road area since the 70's and I do observe the park many times in the years and I'm concerned about the talk of limiting the street access to the park I've been told that that's not going to happen but at the same time you've talked about that you are going to walk off the streets and I'd like to point out that on Mulberry between Broadway and St. Mary's Street there is no way to get off of Mulberry if there is a traffic jam which happens regularly when people come to the sunken garden or an event in the park or just during the week day if something happened not to be able to leave Mulberry Street maybe possibly use the park to as an exit is a problem also by blocking off the streets or thinking about you limit the ability for emergency vehicles to get into the park in case you have you know the police or an ambulance to get into there but actually the things that I would like to bring up at this time since I already brought this up in today's paper these people know very we have not gotten any figures on how much they cost and are these the pictures that you have here is this what's proposed to be bought and of course meaning that if you're buying these you're probably wanting to build your parking garages outside the outside the park and use these to move these into the park is what I'm thinking you're proposing but I would like to I think we should have some figures on how much the buses the people movers are costing and how much they are to maintain the quality of the drivers and insurance and stuff and it's cheaper actually than just enjoying the park the old fashioned way and just park the car thank you I have a question and then after I don't know what your name is giving you one it's Christopher Green after this hi I'm Jess Maze my family actually has been in the Vanky Park area which is about our house about three blocks from there I used to break horses in in the park so I grew up there my mom grew up there, grandparents everybody I'm kind of just going to go off the top I don't have a set speech or anything but I really think it's important that we take a look at who we're displacing in this because my whole neighborhood in Vanky Park has felt a squeeze I have watched primarily McDonald's families have to move out and have to force to move somewhere else because they can't afford their taxes I've watched skyscrapers go in I used to be and I wonder if this Frackenridge Park revitalization is just some architectural firm or a collaboration between architectural firms to make life because sometimes the people don't get heard in this I hear things like people dovers and it's just like what is this Disneyland this is a park for all of us to enjoy and there's examples all over the country and in other countries of parks where the people can enjoy them that's for the upper class, the rich class this park's for everyone and I think that everyone should be heard and really be heard and I think what he mentioned was important too where are these documents? I think we should be able to see what the public feedback is because it's important, thank you my main concern I think I'll limit it to simply the parking garages the greatest travesty that has ever been imposed upon Frackenridge Park was the construction of Frackenridge in the Woodlands that is just an eyesore and import that will need to be extracted at some point it's gotten to be taken out now I've heard rumors that certain entities wish to build up another two stories I've heard rumors that the old maintenance facility was promised when that garage was built that that maintenance facility property was then going to be wooded and restored to natural habitat it is not now I'm understanding it's going to be used for busts now I don't mind parking garages but not one square inch of the park should have a parking garage they should all be to the periphery outside and off the property so if the current word needs a garage or a building if the zoo needs one outside they own the property build one if the witty needs a parking garage go across broadway buy some property and build one not one square inch of the park should be for parking garages thank you I have a broader for the maintenance and then followed by Amy Hi I've been an educator here in Sonam Sonam for about 30 years have taken many many children to the Brackenridge Park and also enjoyed it myself when my family from Austin would come all the way from Austin to Brackenridge Park one of the main things that I like about Brackenridge Park is that it's a Bukalic setting it is wooded the children would always pretend it was when they would take the train and I as a child remember my father driving us through the streets that were gravel paths and just being in wonder that there were picnic tables there so I wouldn't want to see those roads closed to access because our children in the inner city don't have access to that type of setting a Bukalic setting another thing that I'd like to address is this idea of grand lawn grand lawns go back in history to about the 17th 16th century and Europe we keep trying to make this city in the image of a European country we're not Europe we're actually Mexican there's so many positive things about being Mexican that this city seems to want to erase why not the grand lawns or the grand patio you know why not make it more relevant to this community lastly it's not a neighborhood park it's a community park the entire community of San Antonio and beyond while having grown up in Austin we would leave Austin to come to Brighton Ridge Park so I hope you do some changes but minimize them to keep that Bukalic feeling thank you my name is Amy Castley I just have a few comments following up in part on the gentleman's comment about the squeeze on the neighborhood and we know and the city has not hidden the downtown plan but we know that the effect of that is and will be the gentrification of the downtown in other words the replacement of our traditional neighborhoods with more affluent more white more highly paid residents and and this issue with Brighton Ridge Park is another part of if we improve the south reach of the river and mission trails happened because now that property is so valuable because of the improvements of the money that the city and the county put into it it's just incredible it's incredible to believe that the city is proposing to make improvements to Brighton Ridge Park a large part of which will be to keep out anybody that can't walk to the park isn't that just incredible instead right instead what the city should be doing is making it more accessible to people who are coming from the west side or the east side or the south side because those people are going to have to live farther away and if we have a parking problem to say these parking facilities are available only to people who have more than one only to cars that have more than one person in them what about that what about parking for families what about parking for more than one person what about parking that isn't designed for the wealthy people who are moving into these neighborhoods I'm going to be a little bit selfish here my wife has to use a walker most of the time and this parking garage Fiasco and having to ride a tram to wherever we want to go to be dropped off into park just won't get it she has to really struggle with that thing and I have to help her of course she's 79, I'm 80 we're not going to be used that much longer but I have used it we have used it since 1958 and she used it before then but I came in from Alabama and I thought it was the greatest park I'd ever seen I hope it seems to me that there's something else afoot here and I just hope it's not true and that's this parking garage I don't know how much the land would cost to develop a parking garage on it I don't know how much it would cost to develop the parking garage but it seems to me that the only one who will benefit from this parking garage is the landowner and the contractor so I really hope you step back think about this and use the money that it would take to develop the parking garage and to buy the land to put it on and use that to get rid of the invasive plants people should have been doing that all along anyhow so it's a rather beautiful park just to drive it brings about a calming effect I played ball with one of my diamonds there back when I was a young man and I don't know where what you're going to do with those I don't know what you're going to do with the josh people the coal provisions what about the people on the west side and the south side and the east side they won't have a picnic and they can't pull in their park what about the people in those areas of town who are struggling to make it and want to have a day of the park and they get out there and they have to pay the park and you know they're going to have to pay more than likely that price but I just hope you rethink this thing and I'll leave you with one thought if it ain't broke don't fix it I want to address the process number one I don't know who these comments are going to be taken to usually there's a board there's a committee there's a city council and we come and we give our information to them and then it goes for something where is somebody taking you said notes is it being recorded and how is all this going to get to our city council members who eventually will be making a decision that's a very big question I have number two this process was started in the vacuum I believe on line 11 of the master plan that's on line it states that this master plan was developed after listening to stakeholders well the community the larger community did not even know about it so I don't know who the stakeholders are I understand that some of them are the neighbors Incarnate word who am I talking to am I talking to you? Yes ma'am Incarnate word San Antonio Independent School District I think the people that River Road are certainly neighbors people in other areas and I respect that they live very close but this has been said already this is a community park it belongs to everybody and since I found out that we were going to be having these hearings I've been going to the park myself I go on Sunday afternoons sometimes during the week there's always people there I made a copy of the tram of the road of the tram so I tell people that one of the things that's going to happen is that they're probably will be parking the riders and there's going to be at the parking to take them inside and right away they say well how are we supposed to have our picnics here you know we come on Easter we come during the week we come for our pinatas it's almost a tradition I saw this lady she says every child in their family for their first birthday they have a pinata parking park and to me the users all the users of the park should have been taken into consideration you mentioned the five strategies and they're fine but nowhere does it say who the users are usually you investigate who goes there who uses it and you want to keep them there because very frankly when I tell people what's happening summarize what I know to be the plan what they tell me many of them most of the time a child no señora they're kicking us out they don't want us to do this anymore and this is coming from people I've seen senior citizens they are on Sunday walking their their pets I've seen large families having their picnics on Sunday even after after work in the evening and I think that I'm worried that we schedule these public hearings and they're going to go for not that the plans will continue because it's not set in stone as I hear and when something is not set in stone it's it can be changed I hope that you go back to the drawing board and that you postpone the presentation to the city council because I don't know what process you're going to use to change things being that you've heard all these things at the hearing I'm very concerned that we came we're going to share information and that it's not going to go anywhere so I am asking you Mr. Obuya please take that message to the people well I'll restate what I stated earlier that we were grabbing all the information and what we would present to council would be everything that we heard so consensus from sort of for example when we go to report the council committee we would if the plan for the consultants for example that say the consultants feel strongly and they say they recommend this professionally then I as the parks director would come back and tell council this is what the consultants are saying but this is what the community is saying so it's not in a vacuum we would present that to the council committee and the council committee would then direct us we need you to go back and incorporate more or change this or not change that so all that would happen before anything ever even adopted and then much less ever funded or implemented because there's a whole other process for implementation people talk about which company, what color that's like a project so you know looking at our bond program we have community meetings what do you want to see, what color what do you want to feel like we're not even talking about that that's a whole another layer once something is actually funded so this is purely just a plan a vision statement a vision document and then that's what we would present to council is we're going to compile all the information for all the meetings and share that okay so my answer is listen to what the people said I cannot say that they have to I mean again I think what we're looking at is consultants are making their professional recommendations but again we have an opportunity staff will weigh in and then we will provide the information for the public as well yes ma'am we're sharing it with the consultants and we're taking it to council committee and then I think so I can so that would be available because when we present to council all the information available to the public so you'll be able to see that and we can interrupt everyone else at the time I can answer more detailed questions but we're nowhere close for anything being anywhere completed yes ma'am I've mentioned them right in the very beginning there's a name over here sure we have Jim Gray and then we have I'm sorry I'd like to say thank you Maria that we work together in 2002 I know a lot about Part 2 and very soon that we're on hearing and I want you all to know that we're listening we're the hallmarks of our firms throughout the vacation and we're going to be the right thinkers which firm is it my firm name the firm's name is Rialto Studio and my office my office is at 24 my office is at I'm sorry my office is at 2425 Broadway you recognize that address the mirror right in front of the Brackenridge call force my name is Jim Gray, G-R-A-Y telephone number 226 no I'm sorry we do a 1155 I'd like to just take you back very quickly to the process I attended the first meeting at the Botanical Gardens where we got the information when we received the information from Paid Dawson and Alamo Architects as well as our facilitator and it sounded to all of us that were there that it was a done deal so then after that Maria Antonieta de Yosaba put the editorial in the paper there was a special edition of La Voz that went out to the community giving information on all of this and the thing is you know first of all it just rankled me because it had all of the smacking of patronismo and again to remind people what patronismo is because we grew up with it is to have people say we know what's best for you you don't decide we know what's best for you and this is what the idea was at the time that I received now talk about the grand lawn you know it was explained at the meeting at the botanical gardens it would be open for venues and concerts and things we have that already at the Sungain Garden Theater it just needs to be reconfigured it needs to be done but we've got that already we're in south Texas we don't need grand lawns we need trees people who will go and gravitate towards trees under La Resolana or the shades of trees but that's what we need more trees in addition to the trees one of the things that we need in the park itself in the woodland areas are you aware of all of the trees that are dying we need to have a serious infill project of the trees in all of these wooded areas because they're all dying also you mentioned that presentations were made to neighborhood associations well I'm the current chair of the River Road Neighborhood Association we didn't have this presentation and this is our backyard we see Brock and Witch Park as our backyard we're in and out of there all the time as stated in the last meeting it's used as a shortcut we're in and out of the park all the time because we enjoy the park