Great News! Stephenville
City Council voted Sept 6 to pursue an alternative to construction near the tree!
The Stephenville City Council plans to build a new Senior Center on the Bosque River Trail a few feet from the base of this huge historical heritage live oak tree. A certified arborist has estimated its age as around 250 to 400 years old. It was a mature shade tree standing near the epicenter of the early settlement when settlers arrived in the 1850s. Our forefathers let the tree stand even though it occupied prime real estate for buildings or cropland. That fact alone says they valued it for its shade and its beauty. Unfortunately, our generation may be the last to appreciate it. Click the Learn More button above for all the gory details.
The building, parking lot and soil compaction will cover much of the tree’s root system. In short order, these intrusions are highly likely to starve, dehydrate and smother the tree to death. In addition, the site is plagued by other problems that make it unsuitable as a Senior Center location. Our objectives are to save the tree, save the Senior Center and save the City of Stephenville from the consequences of a poor decision. Click the Take Action button below to learn how you can help.
If the project proceeds at the current location, the view from the Bosque River Trail will soon transition …
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From this ...
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... To something more like this
Why here?
The Stephenville City Council plans to build an asphalt parking lot, sidewalks and a 5700 square foot free-span metal building, like the one pictured here, directly over The Seniors’ Tree root system. There are other more suitable city-owned vacant lots nearby where the building could go. Please help us persuade the city council to construct the building at one of the other locations.
Other Problems at the Site
In addition to damaging the tree, the planned building site has many other problems:
It’s being built on fill dirt at the edge of the Bosque River floodplain. Long-time neighborhood residents have seen the site underwater many times in the past
Even if the foundation is built up above the floodplain, river currents may wash out the fill dirt underneath the foundation during floods
It’s on a slope with a large storm drain and a ravine on the downhill side. The site is likely to suffer from serious drainage problems during heavy rains
It’s on a narrow residential street. There’s barely enough room for 2 cars to pass head-on. Senior citizens are going to have difficulty navigating this street.
It reroutes the Bosque River Trail from what was pristine river bottom forest into a parking lot and behind a metal building with dumpsters and HVAC noise to contend with
Parking adjacent to the building is limited. The limited adjacent parking will be uphill from the building, requiring seniors to use stairs or ramps. Additional parking will be in a remote lot 100 to 300 feet from the building.
In short, it’s unlikely that the city’s own building inspectors would permit this building site for commercial or residential construction by a private developer. The city appears to be giving itself a pass on its own basic building guidelines.
City Council appears to have hidden the location
Why didn’t people complain about the danger to the tree until after construction crews had already torn up the park around it? Few people in Stephenville knew about the building’s location until the bulldozers showed up. A small group of insiders appear to have enforced a code of silence on the building’s location at the tree until after construction was underway. Now they’re saying it’s too late to relocate the site. Citizens surely would have objected if they had known the building would put the tree at risk. The Stephenville insiders may have assumed people would roll over if construction was already underway before we found out about it. They underestimated us.
<a href='https://www.freepik.com/photos/group-friends'>Group of friends photo created by freepik - www.freepik.com</a>
The Devil’s best trick was convincing us he doesn’t exist. City Hall’s best trick was convincing us “You can’t fight City Hall.”
By delaying the reveal of the location, the City Council may have thought we’d just accept the project as a done deal. We plan to fully exercise our civic, legal and political rights to ensure that the tree stays safe for now and for future generations.i.
Ready to take the next step?
Join our team of concerned citizens. Together we can do this.
