A bulldozer’s cut 50 feet wide in places and a football field in length have left a defoliated sandy slash across the northern end of the City-owned 80.63-acre Shiloh Bike Trails, truncating in two, two sections of Manadas Creek.
The brushy tract of mesquite, cenizo, huisache, black brush, and numerous other species of indigenous flora, is well-used recreationally by Laredo cyclists, runners, and walkers of all ages. The parcel, a unique green space of typical ranch land foliage, features eight miles of trails that cross the braided fingers of Manadas Creek, a tributary to the Río Grande.
Riazul Mia, City Utilities Director
According to City of Laredo Utilities director Riazul Mia, City Council granted a 15-foot sewer line easement through the sensitive wooded ecosystem to connect Monaco Development Phase II — a 16.9-acre subdivision planned for 99 homes — to City sewer infrastructure. Contractor Soliz Paving, instead made a 40 to 50-foot cut, leaving heaps of dozed brush and trees to either side of the cut across the City’s property.
The damming of two sections of Manadas Creek with the silt and brush from the destructive clearing is one of the most egregious aspects of the wider cut, and so is the destruction of the trees, shrubs, and grasses that comprise the tract’s diverse wildlife ecosystem — home to deer, javelina, coyotes, raccoons, rabbits, and countless avian species.
Mia said the City purchased the tract in 2006 for $1.7 million with drainage bond money. It was intended for the construction of detention ponds and was not purchased as parkland. When the developers of nearby San Isidro built a detention pond, the City scrapped its own plans for ponds.
In 2007, Laredo cycling enthusiasts began to use the trails of the stunningly beautiful oasis that features small bridges over deep creek beds. Flotsam deposited on trees and the high banks of the creek evidence the force and volume of water that moves in a heavy rain through Manadas Creek to the Río Grande.
The owner and developer of Monaco Phase II and Monaco Development, LLC, is Andrew E. Brittingham.
UTILITIES DIRECTOR MIA: CUT WAS 43 TO 50 FEET, NOT 15
Director Mia said that had he himself been charged with making the cut, he wouldn’t have needed more than the 15 feet for the temporary construction easement. “They took 43 feet in some places and close to 50 feet in others. Neither the developer nor their engineer, Howland Engineering, asked for more than 15 feet. The Howland engineer maintains that he talked to the City’s One Stop Building Services Department and to the Environmental Services Department and got OKs, but there is nothing in writing to corroborate that,” he said.
“Only City Council can grant a wider easement, but it was neither requested nor given,” Mia stressed.
“The developer should be charged for all the trees he took out and be held to the provisions of the Green Space Ordinance. The City will figure out how many trees were destroyed. The replacement trees should be of a caliper that will survive and not mere seedlings or saplings. The work should have been stopped when it was noticed how wide an area they were clearing,” he said emphatically.
Mia said the Shiloh tract “is drainage and public land,” and that its creeks serve the valuable purpose of draining storm water to the river.
PORTER: ONLY CITATION WOULD BE FOR UNTIMELY COMPLIANCE OF MITIGATION PLAN
John Porter, City Environmental Services Director
“We take very seriously any impediment for the flow of water through the creeks,” said City Environmental Services Department director John Porter.
He stressed that the failure of the developer, engineer, and contractor to ask the City in advance for a wider easement, could have obviated many problems. “The cost to the developer could far exceed what it could have been had it been done right,” he said.
Of the bulldozed swath that measures about 18,000 square feet of public land,
Porter said that “after the fact temporary easements are uncommon,” adding that he will meet at the site with Howland engineer Rick Villarreal on March 6 to discuss a mitigation plan for tree replacement and re-vegetation.
Asked if Monarch Development would be cited for violations of the Green Space Ordinance or for violations of federal laws that protect creeks and tributaries to the Río Grande, Porter said, “A citation would be in order only if they don’t comply in a timely manner with the mitigation plan.”
COLLAZO: NO DOCUMENTS FOR WIDER EASEMENT
Deputy City Manager Cindy Collazo was clear that “there is no documentation for a 40 to 50-foot working easement for Monaco Subdivision Phase II — no written document and no written approval.”
STOP WORK ORDER 1/31/18; CITATION 2/2/18
Recent City documents relative to Monaco Development Phase II include a January 31, 2018 Stop Work order for “Construction Activities Started Without Authorization,” a February 2, 2018 City citation from Building Development Services (BDS) to Roy Soliz of Soliz Paving for “land clearing on Monaco Sub. Phase II without City Environmental/Eng. Authorization.” Both the Stop Work order and the citation were issued by City construction inspector Luis F. de Leon of BDS.
Email communication between the City of Laredo and Howland Engineering and Surveying Co. includes the February 5, 2018 email of Howland engineer Ernesto Dominguez Jr. to City engineers Oscar Reygoza and Rogelio Rivera and Victor J. Linares of BDS. Dominguez asks for an additional 40-foot easement and says that Linares “does not object to it.” There is, however, no City documentation granting the additional easement.
A February 9, 2018 email from inspector De Leon to Linares and Porter documents a February 8 site visit to Shiloh Trails and the news that the easement Soliz Paving made for the Monaco Phase II sewer lines is 50-feet wide, that two bike paths were “cancelled,” and that the two paths will be restored as soon as the sewer lines are underground.
Robert Martinez of Howland Engineering could not be reached for comment.
SHILOH TRAIL USERS CALL FOR ENFORCEMENT & FINES
Those who have great value for the 80.63 acres of Shiloh Trail are outspoken about the developer encroaching on as much as three times what the original 15-foot easement permit stipulated.
U.S. Customs Broker Arturo Dominguez said the eight-mile trail is an important recreational asset for families and cyclists of all ages. “It’s unique. What you see and experience there is different — the wildlife, the native brush. Walking or riding, you forget you are in town. This place lets you disconnect from the rest of the city.”
Of the dozer’s wide trajectory through the wooded area that essentially turned a piece of wild brush land into an ochre plane of scraped earth and ripped through creek beds and clogged the with debris and silt, Dominguez said, “It may not have been done intentionally, but it was a terrible thing to do to the trails and the creeks.”
Dominguez, a member of the Laredo Cycling Association, recalled the unified effort of the cycling community to establish the first trails in 2007. “Even my employees were part of it. They built bridges from the utility poles that AEP gave us,” he said.
“We know this is an important and well-used site. We are seeing a lot of new people on the trail,” he said.
“I would like to see the enforcement of City ordinances for this senseless environmental destruction,” he said.
Mario Romo, the owner of Twin City Cyclery, which is in close proximity of the Shiloh trail, said it was his customers who alerted him to the destruction.
“Pretty much the developer bulldozed a good part of the trail and took with him a lot of beauty. The workers may not have known they were working adjacent to a nature park, but the subdivision owners certainly did, because we had just met with them,” Romo said.
He called the Shiloh trail “a beautiful escape where you can ride or walk, and you are in nature seeing things you won’t see elsewhere. It is good for body and soul.”
Romo said the establishment of his business on near the trail head at Shiloh and Livingston “had everything to do with the park.”
CYCLING COACH: THERE ARE CONSEQUENCES TO IRRESPONSIBLE ACTIONS
“The Shiloh Trail is part of the training for competitive cyclists,” said Luis Dominguez who coaches nine middle school and eight high school members of the Texas Interscholastic Mountain Bike League, an official project of the National Interscholastic Cycling Association.
A lifetime cyclist, Dominguez is in his third year coaching Laredo youngsters who represent the City in statewide cycling competitions.
“Those who damaged the Shiloh Trail have shown great irresponsibility. They have the power behind the wheel of a bulldozer. They didn’t even clean up. You don’t have that kind of impact and not clean up your mess,” he said of the piles of brush left on what had once been trails.
Dominguez said there should be a greater consequence to the developer than replacing the trees and foliage. “That’s easy to do. There should be fines or a civil action to put all contractors and developers on notice that there are consequences. In the past they have gotten away with these kinds of actions, but we, all of us who enjoy the Shiloh Trail, need to speak up to tell the City that this cannot go unpunished or it will happen again and again,” he said.
Marian Bautista, a member of the Laredo team coached by Dominguez, took first place statewide honors last year as an eighth grader, along with J.T. Martinez, a United Middle School sixth grader.
“The Shiloh Trail is really important to our training,” said the 14-year old. “For some of us it is close to our homes and easy to get to. It has brought a lot of people to the sport. It’s also important to people who walk and who go there to be in nature,” the United ISD freshman said, adding, “I enjoy the wildlife there and the terrain that has prepared me mentally and physically so I can know my strengths well enough to compete.
RGISC: DEVELOPERS HAVE FREE REIN; HOLD THEM ACCOUNTABLE
Tricia Cortez, executive director of the Río Grande International Study Center commented, “It breaks my heart every time I witness such a blatant cut into ecologically sensitive public lands. These serene and indescribably beautiful green spaces are our treasures. We must ensure that they survive for the benefit of our children and their children.”
Cortez lamented the free rein developers seem to have over green spaces. “What were these people thinking when they decided to help themselves to three times the easement granted? At what point will the development community in Laredo begin to respect these magnificent green spaces? So few of these areas remain in Laredo, in part because of this way of closed thinking,” Cortez continued, adding that developers should be held accountable for their actions. “The City should fine them the maximum penalty possible. These actions must not ever be repeated, nor can our City leaders afford to ignore or excuse them.”
GREEN SPACE, STORM WATER ORDINANCES WRITTEN TO PROTECT BIOLOGICALLY DIVERSE AREAS LIKE SHILOH BIKE TRAILS
District VII City Council member George Altgelt, in whose district the Shiloh Bike Trails do not fall, is an environmentalist and a cyclist who enjoys the trails with his daughter Emily, a member of the Laredo team coached by Luis Dominguez.
“If you look at a Google over-flight map of Laredo, there are few green spaces left. The Shiloh tract is the most biologically diverse and well-used recreational hike and bike trails that we have. It’s an example of the types of spaces the City of Laredo’s Green Space and Storm Water ordinances were written to protect,” he said, adding,
“That the developer’s environmental assault on the Shiloh Bike Trails happened on our watch is a testament to how much more vigilance is still needed within the city as watchful citizens, elected officials, and responsible City administrators and staff members.”
Que no sean culeros and landscape, re-sod and plant back indigenous flora.