City to seek road permit





Two boats pass each other at Dennis Dreyer Municipal Harbor on Saturday, Aug. 22. The harbor’s heavy use is part of the reason city officials are thinking about eventually building a new marina in Port Aransas. The 2015-16 city budget currently under consideration by the city council includes money for seeking a wetlands permit that would allow the city to build a road to the area where the marina would be.

Two boats pass each other at Dennis Dreyer Municipal Harbor on Saturday, Aug. 22. The harbor’s heavy use is part of the reason city officials are thinking about eventually building a new marina in Port Aransas. The 2015-16 city budget currently under consideration by the city council includes money for seeking a wetlands permit that would allow the city to build a road to the area where the marina would be.

Port Aransas leaders haven’t made a decision to build a new city marina, but they might soon devote $150,000 toward seeking a wetlands permit to build a road to the site where the marina would be.

Port Aransas leaders say Avenue I might need to be extended into 67 acres of city-owned land if the city ever decides to build a marina on the property.

Port Aransas leaders say Avenue I might need to be extended into 67 acres of city-owned land if the city ever decides to build a marina on the property.

The money has been included in the proposed 2015- 16 city budget that the city council is in the process of considering. Also in the budget is $48,000 for a hydrographic study to get a general idea of how jetties should be built for an entrance to a new marina and how much that might cost.

Getting a permit for the road and determining the cost of jetties will help city leaders decide the feasibility of building a new marina, said Mayor Keith McMullin.

No one knows exactly when that decision will come, but it’s expected to be years away.

The process of seeking a wetlands permit for the road alone is expected to take about two years.

If the budget is approved as proposed, the money for the hydrographic study and the wetlands permit will come from hotel-motel tax revenue, not property taxes.

The council is expected to hold a final vote on the budget and tax rate at 5 p.m. on Thursday, Sept. 10, at council chambers at city hall, 710 W. Ave A.

Port Aransas city officials have talked for years about the possibility of building a new marina within an area known as “the 67 acres,” a cityowned chunk of land along the Corpus Christi Ship Channel. The property isn’t part of the Port Aransas Nature Preserve at Charlie’s Pasture but lies adjacent to it.

The city plans to apply to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers for a permit to extend a road from Avenue I across wetlands, past the south side of Port Aransas Community Park, into 67 acres, for better access to the marina.

The road would be about 1,880 feet long, which is slightly more than one-third of a mile.

Port Street leads to the area where the marina would be built, but that road likely wouldn’t be enough to handle all of the traffic that would be heading in and out of the marina, McMullin said.

City leaders have said they’re not interested in extending Channel Vista Drive toward the marina site because they don’t want to introduce more traffic to the residential neighborhood that’s known for its family friendliness.

Some of the money budgeted to seek the permit would be spent on general design work and surveying, said City Manager Dave Parsons.

The city engineer would have to engage in many consultations with the Corps of Engineers during the process of seeking a permit, Parsons said. Other agencies, including the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the Texas Historical Commission, Environmental Protection Agency and the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department, would be involved, he said.

The mission of the corps’ regulatory program is to “protect the nation’s aquatic resources while allowing reasonable development through fair, flexible and balanced permit decisions,” according to a fact sheet provided by corps spokesman Isidro Reyna.

“ The corps balances the reasonably foreseeable benefits and detriments of proposed projects and makes permit decisions that recognize the essential values of the nation’s aquatic ecosystems to the general public, as well as the property rights of private citizens who want to use their land.”

Any city or private entity that seeks a wetlands permit must adequately explain the merit of the project and whether wetlands impacts can be avoided or minimized, said Kenny Jaynes, chief of the compliance branch in the Corps of Engineers Regulatory Division in Galveston. The Galveston branch has jurisdiction in Port Aransas.

If wetlands are damaged by a project, the applicant should make a proposal for how it could be mitigated to offset the impact, Jaynes said.

Parsons said he believes there’s a “good chance” the city eventually will get the permit, partly because most of the land under consideration already is platted city right of way.

But, even if the city gets the permit, it’s unknown when the road will be built, Parsons said .

The city possesses a Corps of Engineers permit to build a marina on the 67 acres, but not everyone in town has agreed that building one is a good idea.

An argument in favor of marina construction lies in the fact that Dennis Dreyer Municipal Harbor is a busy place. The boat ramps there are the most heavily used ones in the state, according to the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department.

And the general trend in recent history at the marina has been construction of new condominiums, not new headboat businesses or bait stands. If that trend continues, it will mean less and less access to the waterfront for ordinary citizens and fewer support operations for the boating community.

But some have said that Port Aransas already is experiencing so much growth and development that it threatens to hurt the town’s character. Building a new marina might just make it worse, the argument goes.

Some folks also have complained that construction of a new marina will eliminate habitat for wildlife. And some have argued that the city should find other uses for the 67 acres, such as construction of affordable housing.

The city bought the 67 acres from American Bank in the early 1990s and has held a permit to build a marina there since then.

The permit was renewed by the Corps of Engineers in 1997, 2003, 2008 and again in 2013. It’s good for five-and-ahalf years.

It has been getting more difficult in recent years for the city to renew its permit as the corps continues to impose increasingly more stringent standards for renewal, Parsons said. There’s no guarantee that the corps will renew the permit at all, but a city likely will improve its odds of maintaining its permit if it shows it is diligently working toward building a marina, he said.

McMullin has said he doesn’t want to plunge full-tilt into the idea of building a new marina, but he also said it’s important that the city plan for the future and avoid losing the marina permit.

McMullin said seeking a wetlands permit for the road and doing a hydrographic study “demonstrates our continued interest in that (marina) permit and will demonstrate we are taking additional steps when it comes time to renew that permit.”


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