80 Years Ago, Laredo rejected H.B. Zachry’s ambitious plan to turn Zacate Creek into a revitalized riverwalk; city takes first steps to bring his dream back to life

When it comes to tales about the short-sightedness of Laredo politicians, none are more compelling than the story of Zachry’s Riverwalk. According to Laredo Legend, construction tycoon H.B. Zachry presented the City Council with a bold plan to revitalize the riverbanks with a modern riverwalk development. After initially supporting it publicly, the old jefes hatched a back-door plan to torpedo Zachry and his vision.

The disillusioned Zachry packed his bags for San Antonio, but got the last laugh when San Antonio adopted its own riverwalk that transformed the Alamo City.

With the passage of eight decades, the full story of the Zachry saga isn’t easy to come by, but the book Zachry: The Man and his Companies written by longtime Zachry employee Amado Felipe Cavazos, provides a good account.

By World War II, H.B. Zachry was a prominent Laredo-based engineer responsible for major construction projects across Texas, including the highway from Laredo to Corpus. In the early 1940s, he started brainstorming a plan that was influenced by his travels over Zacate Creek, the route that people living in the Heights would take to work downtown. At the time, the area was blighted, with makeshift shacks on the banks that were in constant threat of being carried away with the next flood.

In 1944, Zachry gathered a group of businesspersons, architects, and civic leaders to formulate the “Laredo Plan.” He envisioned a revitalized neighborhood with parks and playgrounds lining the creek for the neighborhood’s working-class residents. The flimsy homes would be replaced by sturdy concrete upgrades that were to be ingeniously financed in a way that would not cost them anything but leave them with durable, higher-value houses in their own name.

In a nutshell, he would replat the lots along Zacate Creek, shorten the lots to remove unused brush, and build sturdy concrete structures that would significantly improve the property values of each new lot. The value of the improvements on each lot would serve as the “down payments” on newly financed low-interest mortgages that the current residents would be able to afford.

He presented the plan to the Federal Housing Authority (“FHA”), which approved it and set aside $3 million in mortgage guarantees for the project. The overall revitalization of Zacate Creek would be financed by joint city/county bonds serviced with the increased property taxes collected from the higher property values in a special taxing district. A separate nonprofit organization to be created by the city would manage the project and its maintenance.

Laredo’s business and civic communities were overwhelmingly on board with the Laredo Plan, and the City Council passed a resolution “pledging cooperation of all departments in the city government in all proper ways in the promotion and construction of the project.”

The stars aligned…and then imploded. A “White Paper” signed by Mayor Hugh Cluck and County Judge Manuel Raymond made the rounds around town, blindsiding Zachry with scathing criticisms of the Laredo Plan, including personal attacks claiming that he was engaging in the scheme for personal profit. The publication went so far as to criticize the plan as “socialist” …never mind that just a couple of years earlier the city had supported Zachry’s successful Colonia Guadalupe Housing Project that instantly lifted countless low-income Laredoans out of dismal living conditions. Zachry was particularly outraged by the insinuation of greed. Up to this point, he had largely paid for the proposal and negotiations at his own expense and pledged to do the job “at cost” without profit…and only if his company was the lowest bidder chosen to construct it.

Amado Cavazos concludes the chapter by observing that “the project was too much for minds not used to thinking big as Zachry’s mind was. It was unfortunate that Laredo lost so much because of the lack of vision of its political jefes.” The jefes’ reward, of course, was an even bigger Jefe holding the city under his thumb for three decades while San Antonio flourished with many of Zachry’s visionary projects.

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With the benefit of hindsight, Zachry’s Laredo Plan was certainly feasible when considering the subsequent years of unprecedented prosperity for the country. Laredo was no exception as it entered the early stages of its modern port dominance when President Eisenhower spearheaded the interstate highway system in the 1950s.

Today, nearly a billion dollars of trade passes through Laredo each day, overtaking Los Angeles as the most important port in America. Of that immense volume, the city captures about $80 million in bridge tolls, which is projected to increase 10% annually according to the city’s recent proposed budget for 2023-2024. There has been a sense of next-era optimism at recent ribbon cutting events at which local leaders have met with the likes of Nuevo Leon Governor Samuel García, Senator Ted Cruz, and Congressman Henry Cuellar to discuss the importance of building even more bridges, both literally and figuratively.

With Laredo’s gravy train showing no sign of slowing, the city is clearly in an even better position than it was 80 years ago to realize a transformative plan like Zachry’s. Today, the transformative plan known as the Binational River Conservation Project waits at Laredo’s doorstep. This time, some of its key allies extend well beyond Laredo’s borders.

On July 17th, a group of distinguished figures gathered on the banks of the Rio Grande by Las Palmas nature trail to promote the Project. Ambassador Ken Salazar wore his signature cowboy hat that was rivaled by one worn by Nuevo Laredo Mayor Carmen Lilia Canturosas. Tamaulipas Governor Américo Villarreal and Mayor Victor Treviño sported white Guayaberas. Folksy diplomacy in full fashion.

In support of the Binatonal River Project, left to right, are Nuevo Laredo Mayor Carmen Lilia Canturosas, Tamaulipas Gov. Americo Villarreal, Ambassador Ken Salazar, and Laredo Mayor Victor Treviño. They are pictured at the July 17 press conference on the banks of the Río Grande near Las Palmas Park.

As the press waited for the entourage to arrive, someone mentioned the stench of sewage coming from the opposite side of the river that served as the backdrop to the podiums. Coincidentally, there was speculation that a key purpose of the Ambassador’s visit was to help iron out the final details to the $81 million loan from the North American Development Bank (NADB) to Nuevo Laredo to upgrade its wastewater treatment facilities, which was announced August 6, 2023.

The NADB loan complements the nearly $10,000,000  in funds that a Binational Working Group has already secured from city, county, and federal sources to rebuild and restore Zacate Creek and Las Palmas, the area at the heart of Zachry’s Laredo Plan. Though there is no hard groundbreaking scheduled, Martin Castro, Watershed Science Director of the Rio Grande International Study Center (RGISC), is optimistic that initial restoration work along the Zacate Creek area will begin later this year.

Before Ambassador Salazar’s entourage began the July 17th event, the press watched as the leaders pointed across the river to Nuevo Laredo. Its heavily vegetated banks stand in stark contrast to the bare muddy banks of the Laredo side, which is the case along large portions of the Río Grande. Both features negatively impact the water supply for the approximately 6 million people who depend on it, albeit for different reasons. The vegetation along the banks consists largely of invasive species like carrizo cane and salt cedar that consume vast quantities of water from the river. By some estimates, a mature salt cedar plant can consume over 100 gallons of water from the river a day. This is roughly equivalent to the daily water supply of one or two Laredo households.

On the U.S. side, the Border Patrol’s stripping of vegetation from the banks to assist with apprehensions has caused large scale erosion and silting, making the river more shallow and the water dirtier, which is exacerbated by the 15 million gallons of sewage per day that Nuevo Laredo continues to pour into the river, a number down from 26 million gallons per day in the mid 1990s. The eroded earth is no match for the river’s heavy current that gives a false impression of water security. To illustrate this problem, Castro mentioned the large barren island near Las Palmas. “The next major flood could completely erase that island because of a lack of native vegetation necessary to prevent erosion,” he said. “This would make the siltation problem even worse and be a huge loss for the watershed.”

Officials from Customs and Border Protection, who have been involved in discussions with the Binational Working Group since the beginning, seem to agree that these river restoration measures would improve their line-of-sight to deter illegal trafficking and be more cost-effective than a costly and environmentally destructive wall.

Contrary to public misconception that the Binational Project is a $500 million city “park” to benefit District 8, the primary goal has always been to restore the riverbanks to address the problems Castro mentions, in a way that also promotes border security. In the years before the Binational Project was even unveiled, the basic idea had been discussed in one form or another by members of the business community and RGISC. Dennis Nixon, CEO of the International Bank of Commerce, publishes a periodic white paper called Common Sense Border Management Solutions. The August 2021 issue proposed a binational park “re-populated with native prairie grasses that have limited growth potential and can be easily and economically maintained.”

The current concept of the Binational Project came to fruition shortly after Ambassador Salazar took office in September of 2021. His meetings with Laredo officials and RGISC discussed many of the issues raised in Nixon’s white paper. After Ambassador Salazar visited San Antonio, he challenged the coalition to develop a plan that would incorporate elements of that city’s riverwalk to the needs of the Río Grande. He would return in February 2022 to see what Laredo could come up with.

In early 2022, Laredo City Council authorized the creation of a Binational Working Group to advise the city on matters of “flood control, water conservation, and amenity improvements” along the river. Council later approved San Antonio architecture firm Overland Partners to spearhead the project, with the collaboration of Able City. The plan they devised was a 6.2-mile park on both sides of the river that would not only repair the banks but would include trails, pedestrian bridges, a binational amphitheater, and a monarch sanctuary.

OVERLAND/ABLE CITY RENDERING

Symbolically, Laredo is an ideal candidate for the Binational Project. Rick Archer, the principal of Overland Partners, said “It’s rare to look at a map and see the same street patterns extend across a river from one country to another. This didn’t begin as two cities, but as one nation that became divided because of political factors.”

Despite their strong economic and cultural bonds, “the two Laredos have turned their back on the river. Where it was once the lifeblood of the two cities, it is now the divider,” Archer said.

Overland’s conceptual renderings show a project that would be nothing less than transformative for the city. Though similar in layout to developments like Austin’s Lady Bird Lake trails and Houston’s Eleanor Tinsley Park, the project is remarkable because it would be the only one of its kind that would span two different countries. It would also show the world a new way to see the border, in contrast to the metal grates and barbed wires that define almost every other border community from Tijuana to Brownsville.

OVERLAND/ABLE CITY RENDERING

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In an echo of Zachry’s clash with Laredo’s government 80 years ago, the Binational Project hit some political speed bumps later in 2022 after an initial positive reception by Laredo leaders.

At a June 22, 2022 Council meeting, the Project was clumsily rushed onto an agenda item by former Mayor Pete Saenz to consider whether to kick it to a citizen referendum.

Melissa Cigarroa, who then led RGISC and now represents District 3 on the Council, approached the podium with a large group of supporters behind her and stressed that the vote was premature.

“There exists no plan as of yet to warrant a special election,” she said, explaining that the Binational Working Group was still working out the details of Phase 1 of the Project.

Though the Council ultimately agreed with her and tabled the discussion, a few members gave a preview of the political challenges the Project would face as it moved forward. A statement by former council member Dr. Marte Martinez summed up the pushback: “I have dozens and dozens of phone calls that I received from angry constituents about this, saying that it is an unrealistic expectation for us to be able to invest $300 million dollars in downtown in five or three years when we can’t even provide water. That’s what I keep hearing.”

“If we’re going to ask constituents to vote on a $200 or $300 million referendum, we’re not going to do it,” Martinez later added.

Dr. Martinez, as well as Mayor Saenz and Councilmember Ruben Gutierrez, expressed support for the concept in theory, with the condition the federal government should foot the bill.

“My expectation was that the federal government should pay for the majority, if not all of it,” Saenz said.

“I’m all for this project. If it’s 100% funded by the federal government, please bring it on,” Gutierrez later echoed.

“I think that would be an easy decision for any one of you to make, if somebody offered you something free and beautiful for the public,” Cigarroa said. “But I don’t want to present this as some fairy tale gift that will be bestowed upon the City of Laredo for good grace. It’s going to require some public investment,” she said.

“Fairy tale” is an apt description for a federally funded city project, as virtually no similar projects are funded in this manner. Of the developments across Texas that Laredoans love to visit and admire – including San Antonio’s Riverwalk, Houston’s Memorial and Hermann parks, Austin’s Zilker Park, Dallas’ Katy Skyline Trail – all are largely funded by a combination of local funds and private investment.

This author has found no instance of the buyer’s remorse by the cities that funded these projects. To the contrary, they tend to pay for themselves. Cigarroa gave an example of San Antonio’s three-mile expansion of the riverwalk to connect downtown to the Pearl multi-use development. In under 10 years, the $72 million investment saw a return of two billion dollars that continues to grow.

The people I have spoken with acknowledge that the cost of the Binational River Project would be spread over several years. Rather than funded in a huge, fixed sum, it would instead be completed incrementally through the collaboration of a newly created river authority and a privately funded foundation, which is the mechanism that San Antonio issues to manage the Riverwalk. Zachry’s Laredo Plan proposed a similar nonprofit created by the city to manage his Zacate plan, with a special taxing district paid for by increased taxes collected from the improved property values in the district.

Former Ambassador to Mexico Antonio Garza, a native of Brownsville, shared my enthusiasm about the Project but acknowledged that it will require a significant commitment with the local government taking the lead. “These sorts of big ambitious projects take years to see to fruition, and the key is a truly committed private sector and community willing to hold multiple administrations on both sides of the border to a shared vision,” he said. 

Garza gave the example of the successful San Diego/Tijuana binational airport terminal that took 25 years from concept to reality. This project faced significant regulatory and national security hurdles because it allows passengers to essentially park in one country and fly out of another country without leaving the shared airport. Today, it is a success story of binational cooperation.

“Amazing things are possible in the face of long odds where the private sector and the people living along the border stay focused, never faltering in the belief that future generations will be better for their efforts. So, si se puede!” he said.

Laredo certainly has plenty of road maps for how to fund the Binational Project in a way that does not have to unduly burden its working taxpayers.

Though Laredo may not have the massive tax base of Texas’ major cities, it is still in a unique position to benefit from at least some federal help because of its location on the border. In August 2022, U.S. Representative Henry Cuellar secured more than that amount with a $2,000,000 earmark for the Project. This was enough to prod City Council, which in early 2023 authorized a grant application to Texas Parks and Wildlife under the National Park Service for $2,000,000.00 with a required 1:1 match, for a total estimated project cost of $4,000,000. Webb County then committed to match the city’s $2 million investment. This of course only includes the U.S. side of the equation. Nuevo Laredo and Tamaulipas are essential partners in the Project, and the recent $81 million NADB loan to Nuevo Laredo is a big step towards helping our counterpart pull its weight on river restoration. 

Against tough odds and 80 years after Zachry’s plan fell apart, Laredo now has around $8,000,000 million to work with to begin Project Uno on Zacate Creek. The work on Zacate Creek is expected to begin later this year.

Project Uno is just a small piece of the pie, and City Council will have to eventually make the tough sell to a reluctant public that has many concerns, some warranted, some not. When I asked people around town about the Binational project, there was cautious support for it, with the condition that Laredo must first address more pressing problems like updating aging water infrastructure.

In 2021, Laredo’s 50-year master water plan estimated that the city’s population would outgrow its water supply by 2040. After Laredoans suffered through frequent boil water notices, water was the central issue in the 2022 general election.

But according to the Project’s many supporters, the Rio Grande is Laredo’s most important water pipe, and all the infrastructure improvements that the city can pay for will not matter if there is not enough clean water to pump out of the river.

“It starts at the river,” Rick Archer said of the sole source of water for six million people in South Texas. He explains that even Laredo’s improved wastewater technologies struggle to process the poor-quality river water. 

In our volatile nation that braces for a dystopian 2024 Election, this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity will not always be around. Currently, the Binational Project has widespread support by the business community with commitments from IBC and Kansas City Southern Railroad, the federal government under the guidance of Ambassador Salazar and U.S. Rep. Henry Cuellar, and environmentalists led by the Rio Grande International Study Center. In other words, the stars are again aligning like they did 80 years ago.

In a January 2022 City Council meeting that discussed the early stages of the Project, IBC Executive Vice President Gerardo Schwebel challenged the Council to “think great.” The #1 Port in America has gained the right to think great. It won’t be easy, and it may not be an apple the city is getting a second bite at. It’s more like an elephant. But Laredo’s leadership should remember that there’s only one way to eat an elephant: one bite at a time.