Did Stephenville’s Senior Citizens Sign Up for This?

My Comments to the 8/2/2022 City Council Meeting

Joe Carter

“The Stephenville City Attorney should have received today a letter from our attorney Mr. Frank Hill stating that we’ve retained him as legal counsel to assist us in exploring legal avenues to save the ancient tree on North Vine Street adjacent to your target location for the new Senior Center. We look forward to having our legal counsel working with the city to come up with a constructive solution that saves the tree. 

“We’ve found it necessary to retain legal counsel because we lack confidence in the City Council’s desire or ability to take care of the ancient live oak tree on North Vine Street as you pursue your single-minded intent to build a new Senior Center adjacent to the tree.

“For example, in your Monday July 18 meeting, you identified the need for a 64 foot protective zone over the tree’s root system with no more than 50% of that zone substantially disturbed or covered by structures and solid surfaces. We think that a larger protective zone and a lower percentage of cover is warranted for a tree this old, but at least your modifications from the original building plan was a step in the right direction. It might have given the tree a small chance of surviving. 

“Subsequently, you turned around on Tuesday, the very next night, and acknowledged our concerns about traffic congestion and seniors' ability to navigate the narrow length of Vine Street. Your stated solution is and I quote verbatim from the meeting transcript starting at the 43:45 point,

‘The pavement right now is 21 feet wide. … As far as ability to expand, Mr. Williams provided this morning some maps to me that show that the city actually owns an additional 17 feet - 17.5 feet of right-of-way on the west side. So there certainly is the capacity to be able to expand should that need arise…If there becomes traffic issues in the future and quite honestly let’s hope there is because that means that’s a very busy area  which is our goal is that it’s a busy Senior Center and a busy area and  revitalizing that area we do have the right of way there that would allow us to expand that roadway capacity on the west side of the street …’

“I hope you realize that, if the tree has any root system on the west side of Vine Street, expanding the street to the west will surely permanently kill off any root activity over there. That’s around 6000 square feet of root zone if you cut off everything starting at Vine Street and move west. From the diagram you presented on Monday night, this entire area of root activity will be killed off by expanding the street over there. 

“So according to your own calculations and your own diagram that you presented on Monday night, on Tuesday night you've turned around and proposed a solution that, if you achieve your clearly-stated goal and the center is as busy as you want it to be, those are your words, then you’re going to cover up well over 50% of the 64 foot protective root zone you had supported on Monday night. 

“If you were aware of the implications of what you were proposing and proposed it anyway, that’s a concern. If you weren’t aware of the implications, that’s a concern also and it doesn’t bode well for the future of the tree. If you stick with this site and the senior center is successful, by your own logic you can either have traffic congestion or a dead tree. Take your pick. Those aren’t good choices.

“It’s also a concern that you now seem to be proposing eminent domain and condemnation of private property to expand Vine Street along its length. It’s possible that you may have a legal claim to right-of -way in front of the 3 new construction townhomes on Vine Street, but you don’t have any such claim on the 2 old construction single family homes that bracket them. When did you plan to tell those property owners that you plan to condemn their front yards for street expansion via eminent domain?  Every time we turn a page on this project, some strange new unanticipated detail pops up.

“With all this talk of street widening, rights of way and eminent domain, it sounds like we’re talking about a much greater expense to make this site work than the $115,000 you’ve sunk into the project to date. 

“However, our immediate concern i the tree. Accordingly, we’ll be launching a nationwide crowdfunding campaign using the GiveSendGo online crowdfunding service to pay for legal expenses and, hopefully, to also fund a project to get the heavily compacted dirt off of the tree’s root zone ASAP.

“In spite of the Council’s assurances, the tree is definitely in declining health. You cited your cherry-picked radio host expert last week. Here’s a quote from my expert, Barbara Medford, plant specialist at Lady Bird Johnson Botanical Center for 20 years, “one of our frequently used answers to why a tree puts up suckers is that the tree has been damaged in some way, and the suckers are auxiliary locations for leaves, which manufacture food for the main plant.” 

“We don’t have to make this a tit-for-tat academic discussion.  All you have to do is go by and observe the dead and dying branches in the tree canopy for yourself. I encourage everyone listening to go over and take a look for themselves primarily on the southeast side of the tree where the construction activity is focused. 

“It just stands to reason that if you dump 120 truckloads of fill-dirt on the root zone of an ancient tree, then you run heavy equipment over the dirt for hours to pack it down tight and then a few days later you start to see survival shoots, and branches start dying in the canopy then something is amiss. Context matters.

“We think that, if the citizens of Stephenville are successful at marshaling our resources to save the tree, it could paint Stephenville in a very positive light on a national scale similar to the project Austin citizens launched to save their famous Treaty Oak after someone poisoned it. Austin’s successful bid to save the tree is a huge national success story. We can do the same here.

“Stay tuned. Details about the crowdfunding campaign will be posted soon on social media and the seniorstree.org website.”

*** End of My Comments to the 8/2/2022 City Council Meeting ***

De-Revitalization

Throughout the July 18, July 19 and August 2, 2022 City Council Meeting, Council Members extolled the merits of their “Revitalization” Program for Vine Street and the surrounding neighborhood.

The Vine Street neighborhood used to have the Bosque River Trail winding through a small park and under the shade canopy of an ancient live oak before descending into a natural green belt along the river. At present, the Bosque River Trail and the park are completely torn up, the ancient tree looks sick with dead and dying branches and the green belt has been bulldozed.

What does the future hold? If all goes according to the City Council’s plan, the park will be replaced by a parking lot. The ancient live oak tree will most likely be killed when they widen Vine Street to relieve traffic congestion, if not before. The natural green belt is gone forever. The trail will wind through a parking lot and behind a metal building, passing a smelly dumpster and noisy HVAC units on it’s way down a denuded path to the river.

Before the Council’s “Revitalization” got underway, we’ve had a beautiful new Orthodopedic Clinic and 13 high-end townhomes built in the neighborhood by 3 different private developers. No thanks to the City Government.

Before the Stephenville City Government got involved, five additional high-end townhomes were scheduled to be built at the corner of E. Tarleton and N. Vine Street. These 5 new townhomes would have been listed in the $300,000 range each. That’s $1,500,000 added to the city taxbase in place of the old ~$30,000 tax valuation single family house currently at that location. That $1.5 million townhome development has now been tabled by the developer. That’s because of the City’s announced plan of widening Vine Street to alleviate anticipated traffic congestion. No potential townhome buyer is going to pay $300,000 for a townhome whose front yard and driveway may be paved over at any moment by the City.

Bottom Line: If this is the Stephenville City Government’s idea of “Revitalization”, they can keep it.