City to take another look at 67-acre tract along ship channel
BY PHIL REYNOLDS SOUTH JETTY REPORTER
PORTASOUTHJETTY.With five years or less until deadline, city council members have told City Manager Michael Kovacs to start working on plans for 67 acres of cityowned land at the end of Port Street.

The matter came up at the close of a city council harbor workshop on Thursday, Aug. 2. At that workshop, the council heard of plans to improve and upgrade Roberts Point Park (see separate story).

But the council also urged Kovacs to begin gathering data on what could happen to the property, which now holds an Army Corps of Engineers (CoE) permit for a marina.

That process has already started, Kovacs said.

"Now it's time to go into the public process and find out what people want in the new harbor," he told the council. "Do they want more docks? Do they want sailboats?"

Kovacs said he also needs to know whether the city wants any development in that area to be a totally public project.

"With public project comes public debt," he warned. "Or do we want to work with a developer?"

City Engineer Jim Urban reminded the council last year that the Corps of Engineers permit allowing a marina to be developed on the property was probably the last such permit the city would get. The acreage had the marina permit when the city bought it, and the permit has been renewed on a regular basis, but Urban said the Corps of Engineers had started reviewing permit applications more stringently.

Kovacs said the permit still has five years to run, and Urban added, "I think if you're under construction you can get the permit extended."

He also spoke of the need to work with a developer in deciding what to do with the property.

"The one thing we've never done is given any money to a professional to come up with ideas," Urban said. "That takes money, and you have to be prepared to spend money to do it. We've always started with the developer. What we need to do is spend the money to do it right, and give our ideas to the developer."

The property became a Port Aransas cause celébre in 2004 after the city asked for proposals for developing it.

Developer Ralph Durden met with the city council several times, scaling his proposed "Charlie's Harbor" development down from the original 120 acres to less than 70.

Residents who said they believed the project encroached on the city's Charlie's Pasture Nature Preserve and who accused council members of seizing citizens' property for the marina under the guise of nature preserve use signed a petition that would have limited what the city could spend money on.

That petition was declared improperly drawn and presented, and the matter never came to an election. However, Durden's proposals were rejected, and no other developer came forward with plans for the property.