Highway extension bisects city park

by Erika McDonald

A supplemental environmental impact statement may be the only the only way to prevent the Texas Department of Transportation from extending a six-lane highway through the middle of Herman Brown Park.

According to Brandt Mannchen, chair of Houston Sierra ClubÕs forestry committee the supplement is needed to address impacts such as wetlands loss, air, water and noise pollution. The original environmental impact statement for Highway 90 was completed in 1977.

Twenty-five years later, homes and Furr High School stand within yards of the proposed expansion. According to Mannchen, extending the highway through the park would destroy green space, upland and bottomland forests, rare urban wildlife habitat and endanger the health of nearby residents, children and teachers.

He said expansion of Highway 90 will also increase the amount of water pollutants that flow into Greens and Hunting Bayous, destroy forest wetlands and channels and open up more land for residential and commercial development.

"I think weÕve made some progress in 25 years, but this is just dumb," Mannchen said. "TXDOT can get their highway without cutting through the parkÑwe can do better, we can do something else."

Conservationists won a small victory when TXDOT backed down from an effort to acquire a 5,800-square-foot parcel of land they intended to use for a right-turn lane from eastbound Wallisville Road onto the freeway.

The agencyÕs decision to rescind the right-of-way request came after Houston City Council postponed their vote on whether to sell TXDOT the land. Mannchen attended the meeting at which the vote was scheduled to present alternative routes that realign the freeway around the park instead of through it.

After the vote was postponed, Council Members Carol Alvarado, Annise Parker and Shelley Sekula-Gibbs met with transportation officials on Feb. 11 to address their concerns over environmental impacts.

Alvarado, whose district includes the park, said she was suprised at transporation officialsÕ ambivalence toward environmental impacts. "My main concern in meeting with them was that the environmental statement was too old and that we needed much more recent information to determine what the impacts would be today," she said. "But they were not as sensitive to environmental concerns as we would have liked them to be."

The day after the meeting, the city received a letter from TXDOT withdrawing their right-of-way request.

"This just isnÕt a fight that we want to have," Norm Wiggington, a TXDOT spokesman said. He said giving up on the land needed for the turn lane would not deter TXDOT from completing the U.S. 90 extension as designed.

TXDOT also plans to extend Mercury Drive and Woodforest Drive into the park. The new lanes would provide access to the 610 loop. The resulting effect of all the highwayÕs incursions into the area would be to isolate 30 to 40 acres of park land from the majority of the park.

According to Pat Henry, a project developer with TXDOT, the agency has no plans to consider the alternative alignments proposed by Sierra Club or produce a supplemental impact statement.

Previous public hearings occurring from 1998 to 2000 resulted in the transportation departmentÕs decision to eliminate feeder roads on both sides of the freeway that would have used more land inside the park.

Mannchen said that the only way to halt the project is by taking TXDOT to court to force them to complete a new assessment. While Sierra Club presently has no plans to persue litigation, Mannchen said he hoped other groups like the Park People or Houston Audubon Society will take up the cause. He also said he hoped the city would take action and request a new environmental impact statement.

"The city has an opportunity, if they choose to use it, to get TXDOT to either change the alignment or address the environmental impacts," he said. "TheyÕre going to put a six-lane highway through one of the cityÕs biggest parks. City Council should do something."

Alvarado said the the city has no plans to intervene in the highway construction, but said she would be open to considering any action that would preserve Herman Brown Park as one parcel. The more than 750 acres the park inhabits were originally purchased by Houston philanthropist George R. Brown while plans to extend highway 90 were already in the works. When the transportation department condemned the land, it paid more than $2 million for it. Brown used the money to buy park land in other areas around the city.

Herman Brown Park consists of mostly undeveloped wooded land, four tennis courts, a hike-and-bike trail, nature trails, two playgrounds, ball fields and a pavilion.If completed, the extension of Mercury Drive would isolate playgrounds and ball fields from the rest of the park.

"Once you cut the corner of the park off, there are a lot of negatives," Trent Rondot, a projects coordinator with the Houston Parks Department said.

Henry said the department plans to hold a public hearing on U.S. 90, but a date has not been set. For information on how to contact Council Members Parker, Alvarado and Sekula-Gibbs visit www.ci.houston.tx.us/citygovt/council/.