Springfield Avenue : a crossroad to the future (an open letter)

Dear Mayor Flores and members of the Laredo City Council:

We appreciate the interest you have expressed in protecting green spaces by your support and unanimous passage of the Green Space Preservation Ordinance. Each of you had input in the development of this ordinance through the representatives you named to the Citizens Environmental Advisory Committee. This hard working committee, chaired by Mr. George Beckelhymer, worked for years to produce a fair and balanced ordinance. The Planning and Zoning Commission then recommended the ordinance to you, which you adopted on May 3, 2004.

Now we ask that you use the power of this ordinance -- for which you deserve much credit -- and your leadership to protect the invaluable natural park space with large trees that will be destroyed by the proposed Springfield Avenue alignment, a proposed alignment with a history extending back in time before the current council and administration.

The present city government, however, has an opportunity of showing the way toward a brighter future for the citizens of our community. You -- Mayor Flores and members of the Laredo City Council -- have the opportunity to let citizens know that they are important individually and collectively. You have the opportunity of letting them know that their representative city government will make the choices required to improve their lives and those of their children and grandchildren -- even though some of those choices may not be easy.

No doubt many of you have childhood memories of playing along one of our creeks during the formative years that helped make you the successful persons you have become. Such opportunities for play in natural areas have greatly diminished for many of our youth today. Although the Chacon Creek Linear Park and the river trail system -- wonderful additions to our city -- provide access to some of our citizens, many others do not have green spaces in which children can play after school, on weekends, and during the summer.

We as a community should work to provide opportunities for healthful recreational outdoor activities that direct the energies of our youth along constructive pathways and away from negative activities such as those that are currently afflicting our sister city and are beginning to spill across the border. A quality life is more than making short-term financial gains. It is much more about the long-term legacy we leave our children. “For what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?” - Matthew 16:26.

It is not an easy choice that you now face concerning the proposed Springfield extension between Del Mar and International Boulevards. This matter has a long history, but many citizens who have been recently made aware of the proposed street alignment and who are strongly impacted by it are concerned by what they now understand. They want the city to choose a better alternative, one that is more direct -- removing the extreme curves that are part of the current proposal. They are intensely concerned about sparing the nearby green spaces along Manadas Creek to enhance the quality of life for their families.

The choice you make concerning the Springfield extension will have vitally important implications for the future development of our entire city. What happens today with Springfield Avenue will influence the quality of life in Laredo far into the future. By following the tenets of the green space ordinance you have an excellent opportunity to demonstrate responsible stewardship of our city's very limited and very valuable green spaces -- showing how they can be protected and managed while accomplishing quality growth.

Mayor Flores and members of the Council, we ask that you join Councilman Belmares in resolving this issue, located in Mr. Belmares' district, but with crucially important implications for the future of our entire community.

Construction of the proposed Springfield alignment will remove large numbers of trees whose trunk diameters trigger protection by the green space ordinance. The Río Grande International Study Center will, at your convenience, present Council with a Power Point presentation-demonstrating problems associated with the currently proposed alignment.

The accompanying photographs compare the proposed alignment with an alternate alignment suggested by the Río Grande International Study Center . The alternate alignment causes minimum disruption of existing structures, provides a more direct route from behind the North Creek Shopping Center to International Boulevard , and bypasses the large trees located along the segment of Manadas Creek now marked for the proposed right-of-way. The area residents we have talked with support this alignment.

The only structures that must be relocated to accommodate this alignment are a few mobile homes. The owners of the land where these mobile homes are located -- Mr. and Mrs. Hugo García -- see the importance of having a straight thoroughfare and are willing to work with the City if this alignment is chosen. To the best of our knowledge there are three other landowners whose properties would be affected -- none of which presently contain buildings or other structures along this alignment. These include Mr. G. G. Salinas, Mr. and Mrs. Gilbert Leyendecker, and Mr. Leopoldo Garza. We are not sure where all of these landowners stand on the issue, but hope they have a similar concern for the welfare of the community as has been expressed by Mr. and Mrs. García.

We encourage you -- Mayor Flores and members of the Laredo City Council -- to work with these landowners in developing a straight, safe thoroughfare that will allow traffic to move with ease and that will show the community that the City of Laredo is serious about enforcing the Green Space Preservation Ordinance and in improving the quality of life in our city.

Yours for a secure and

bright future for our children,

Jim Earhart, Ph.D.,

Executive Director

Río Grande International Study Center