Coliseum Story Starts New Chapter of Contention

City declared area a park in 1987, requiring a public vote for development.

Contrary to the legal opinion of John Bell, who was hired by the City for the Coliseum-Brass Realty Fund deal, (see John Bell Responds to WtP Articles on the WtP homepage), WtP has uncovered City documents that clearly define the Coliseum and area being negotiated for major development as a park. That would require a public vote for a long term lease or sale of the proposed development land. In the meantime, discussions with Brass Realty have been kept under tight wraps, with one City Hall insider saying that even without the park issue the outlook for achieving a contract is poor.

Sources inside City Hall familiar with the issue stick by their contention that Bell was brought in to counteract an opinion by the City Attorney’s office that the land might be park and would probably require a public vote. That decision seems to be based on a Texas Municipal League (TML) opinion requested by the City legal department (this was included in the council packet but not discussed in public session). The opinion, sent by TML’s Director of Legal Services Scott Houston on July 7, 2009, was a response to an inquiry by Jay Reining a City Legal Department Attorney.

“Sale of Park Land
1. Is land being used as a park?
No reported cases or attorney general opinions interpreting this question. Local Government Code § 253.001(b) states “[l]and owned, held, or claimed as a public…park.” Attorney general opinion LO-97-057 states that “[w]e are not aware of any case law addressing whether land must be formally dedicated as a park in order to fall within this provision.”
Conservative course of action would be to err on the side of caution and treat area that citizens think of as a park as such.
That seems pretty straightforward, so the next question is, was the land in question, the Coliseum and the property to the north of it ever, “owned, held or claimed as a public…park.”

Long History of Park Planning
At least several planning commissions, master plan development groups and previous councils have all declared their desire to make the whole area public parkland. On January 4, 1989 Development Services produced an appendix of plans regarding bay front development going back to 1945. The earliest mention in the bibliography of the area being identified as park is in the 1974 Corpus Christi Bayfront Study, completed by Sasaki, Walker, and Associates and accepted by the City Council. The appendix describes the part of the study stating, “ * Shoreline Phased out as a main arterial to provide a green park zone. (emphasis ours) Increase the amount of planting and create defined pedestrian walkways.

This view was later specified in the Bayfront Activities Committee Final Report, an ad hoc committee of the Park and Recreation Board. The report was accepted by the Council in 1985, and as revised in 1987. The bibliography reports, “The committee was established to analyze the bayfront activity situation and recommend which site or sites are best suited to hosting such activities as they exist or as may be expected to exist in the future. Two sites were selected based on accessibility, bayfront location, and acreage. The sites included Bayfront Arts and Science Park/Shoreline Medians and McCaughn Park/Coliseum/City Hall/Sherrill Park Area. The 1987 revision identifies the Bayfront Festival Park at McCaughn Park/Coliseum/City Hall/Sherrill Park Area.” (emphasis ours)

In the City of Corpus Christi Parks, Recreation & Open Space Master Plan Adopted November 19, 2002 by Ordinance #025102, and its Master Plan Recommendations continued this theme and on Pages 8 – 14 & 15 included this:

“A downtown bayfront park – a significant amount of new improvements are planned for the downtown waterfront over the next few years. These include improvements to the seawall and improvements to the sidewalks along the waterfront. As these improvements take place, the possibility of re-aligning Ocean Drive so as to combine the grassy median and the pedestrian walkways along the waterfront into a major new downtown linear bayfront park should be investigated.

The Parks Master Plan recommends that:
• A location for a special events area be maintained along the Bayfront. The bayfront is the city’s signature space, and events held in other locations could be dramatically less attractive to many visitors without the bay front view and exposure.
• The Coliseum site seems to be a large area. Temporary diversion of traffic during special events can create more space for large events, while not permanently changing traffic flow and the scenic drive along the bay front.
• A second festival location on city owned land could be established for secondary events that are not directly tied to the water. This site should be in the range of 100 acres in size to accommodate parking, traffic flow and the event itself.

8.8 Special Studies
The Parks Master Plan provides overall goals and implementation strategies at citywide level of detail. However, several additional studies are recommended that will provide a greater level of detail on specific areas of interest. These include:

1. A conceptual plan for a downtown bayfront park – the waterfront park mentioned above in Section 8.7 should be investigated by preparing detailed conceptual alternatives that look at alternatives for a major downtown waterfront park and festival area. This study should consider the costs of each alternative as well as potential impacts on tourism and traffic flow in the area. The Downtown Improvement District may be willing to spearhead such an effort in partnership with the City of Corpus Christi.”

Consistent with this plan, the Shoreline Boulevard Master Plan originally presented to City Council on June 29, 2004 and approved on July 27 as part of the South Central Area Development Plan of the same year asked that the “South Waterfront Memorial Park” be created in Development Zone C (see Coliseum under galleries on tool bar), these plans were made by a group of downtown stakeholders, citizens and designed by Gignac & Associates who were retained by the city to make recommendations regarding bay front planning. These agreed with, and reflected the recommendations of the Parks, Recreation and Open Space Master Plan quoted above, which was amended on: June 21, 2005 by Ordinance # 026310; and on August 29, 2006 by Ordinance #026962, to update and reaffirm the concept..

The professional and citizen group gave the highest recommendations for management of the section of the bayfront around the Coliseum and included the establishment of “South Bayshore park along water at the south,” insuring the “Usability of the Bayfront & Shoreline Drive for the public,” and maintaining “True pedestrian connections to the water at the North and South parks.”

Bayshore park is labeled by maps in the plan as stretching the full length of the seawall from the American Bank Center to Buford including the current northbound area of Shoreline drive and the median in between it and the South bound lanes. (see maps in coliseum under galleries on the menu bar)Labeled on the plans is North Bayshore Park, the area currently being renovated between I-37 and the American Bank Center.

That report also recommended moving Shoreline from I-37 north and from Kinney to Buford away from the water to create a contiguous open space. On the City’s future use plan the area is listed as public – semi-public. The plan stated the “…highest priority projects…include: South Central Area Development Plan projects to be recommended for inclusion in the next City Bond Program;” and “Final resolution of the “Bayfront Park” including funding for improvements and construction, if any is required.”

The report goes on to stress the importance and priority of the issue under part, “G. PLAN IMPLEMENTATION AND BAYFRONT MASTER PLAN, POLICY STATEMENT G.2 A Strategic Action Committee will be established by the City to implement this Plan. (bold emphasis theirs) This group should consist of entrepreneurs and property owners with businesses or property located within the South Central area, professional architects and engineers, commercial realtors, at-large citizens who have no financial interest in the Area, and representatives from governmental agencies which provide services to the Area, and representatives from the applicable City advisory committees, e.g. Watershore, Parks, etc. The primary charge to this ad hoc group is to aggressively pursue the implementation of this Plan. The committee shall develop specific strategies for implementation of the Plan with specific timelines to implement the respective strategies and a clear determination of which agency or individual is responsible to implement specific projects or programs. The highest priority projects for the Strategic Action Committee include:
• South Central Area Development Plan projects to be recommended for inclusion in the next City Bond Program;
• Implementation of sustainable new or additional funding sources for Central Business District improvements, i.e., Tax Increment Financing District, Public Improvement District, increase in marina slip rental rates to upper range of coastal marinas, or other mechanisms to fund projects. Identified funding sources should be in place within 12 months of adoption of the South Central
Area Plan;
• Final resolution of the “Bayfront Park” including funding for improvements
and construction, if any is required.
• Annual input into the City’s Capital Improvements”
It went on in “Policy Statement G.3: (bold emphasis theirs) The City, after conducting a community wide planning process, determined the most acceptable manner in which to create a Bayfront park is by realigning Shoreline Boulevard and the available public space as illustrated on Figures 7 thru 11, Bayfront Master Plans.”
In these figures (see galleries – coliseum) it is clearly illustrated as the area outlined in previous plans from Sherill park to McCaugn Parks as the “South Waterfront Memorial Park.” They also clearly include the Coliseum itself and all of the property north of it that Brass wants to develop on.
There was a recommendation regarding private development. It continues, “The Bayfront Master Plan, an amendment to the South Central Area Development Plan (SCADP), is consistent with the adopted plan policies which state that the highest priority are activities that benefit citizens and take advantage of the Bayfront’s unique natural amentities, including wind, water, and climate. The SCADP also recommends that the City promote economically viable incentives for development of new tourist oriented uses on private property fronting Shoreline Boulevard.” (emphasis ours)
What About the Bond Election?
This long planning process produced bond money in the 2004 bond election to move Shoreline Boulevard westward north of I-37 and develop North Bayfront Park presently under construction. It also produced Proposition #7 in the November 2008 Bond Election to approve $13,000,000 to do the following (language including that in parentheses is the City’s).

Bayfront Development Plan Phase 3
The Bayfront Implementation Plan provides for the relocation of the traffic lanes inland away from the water. The realignment will begin near Coopers Alley and continue south until they merge back to the current Shoreline alignment south of McGee Beach in the vicinity of Furman and Buford. The realignment will reduce the number of traffic lanes from the current three lanes in each directions to two lanes in each direction. This phase of work provides a large pedestrian area (Bayshore Park) strongly connected to the water, McGee Beach and the Coopers Alley L-Head. The realignment counld include: Improved access to water features such as the Seawall, steps, beach and marina without crossing multiple lanes of traffic; A large public space for community events, concerts, festivals and other special events; Public amenities and the necessary utility connections and lighting to support such events.
The ballot language itself read: “Shall the City Council of the City of Corpus Christi, Texas, be authorized to issue, in accordance with law at the time of issuance, the public securities of the City, in one or more series or issues, in the aggregate principal amount of $13,000,000.00 …for the acquisition of land and the construction of permanent public improvements for the Bayfront Development Plan, including, without limitation construction, reconstruction, restructuring and extending the streets, thoroughfares, sidewalks, streetscapes, collectors, and storm drains along Shoreline Drive, developing parks and recreational facilities along Shoreline Drive and related public improvements;
INCLUDING:
*BAYFRONT DEVELOPMENT PLAN PHASE 3,
*AND OTHER BAYFRONT IMPROVEMENTS”

This issue passed 57% for, to 43% against. It is difficult to believe that the Texas Municipal League’s cautions are not clearly in play here. All of the above information was obtained from the attachments to the Council Member’s Agenda Packets or information referred to in those attachments. They certainly differ with John Bell’s presentation to the Council on the status of the land. While the Council can shop for a legal opinion it likes, whatever it comes up with that doesn’t reflect the public opinion is likely to be challenged, either through the court system or initiative and referendum processes. Already money is being put forward; sides are organizing and courses of action being examined. Whatever happens, the next act in the play called, Memorial Coliseum is just beginning.