Town hall against development beside Hays Street Bridge. Feb 5, 2018

Описание: https://www.expressnews.com/real-esta...

Many East Side residents remain bitterly opposed to an apartment complex proposed next to the Hays Street Bridge, even after its developer unveiled a new design Monday night that he hoped would be viewed as a compromise.

In December, the city’s Historic and Design Review Commission voted down the project, proposed by local developer Mitch Meyer, after three hours of heated debate among East Side residents who say it would block views of the bridge and raise their property taxes.

The proposed complex, named The Bridge, has exposed deep divisions in Dignowity Hill, a historic neighborhood just east of downtown that is being transformed by an influx of new residents looking for an urban lifestyle.

Some residents say the complex would reduce crime on the bridge, a gathering place for vagrants; but others say it shouldn’t even be eligible for development. The property is the subject of an ongoing lawsuit between the city of San Antonio and the Hays Street Bridge Restoration Group, which says the city reneged on a promise to turn it into a park.

In February 2017, the city awarded Meyer an incentive package worth $1.2 million through its Center City Housing Incentive Policy, according to a document obtained through an open records request. Most of that would come from an $801,000 reimbursement of city property taxes.

The Hays Street Bridge Restoration Group, which raised money to revive the bridge, sued the city in 2012 to prevent it from selling the site of the proposed complex to Alamo Beer, saying the sale violated the terms of a 2002 memorandum of understanding that the group says required the land to be made into a park.

A Bexar County district court jury decided in 2014 that the city failed to comply with the terms of the memorandum by not turning the land into a park, but the 4th Court of Appeals sided with the city in March. The restoration group has appealed the ruling to the Texas Supreme Court.

The land was donated to the city by beer distributor BudCo. When the city sold the land to Alamo Beer in 2014 for $295,000, it gave the company a grant of about the same amount that was to be used for landscaping.