Thursday, June 26, 2008
Sunday, June 15, 2008
Thursday, June 12, 2008
Toll Lanes For Corpus Christi?
A recent story in our local daily said that "officials" are considering building toll lanes on South Padre Island Drive, which is our main thoroughfare.
What a lousy idea! I am against any toll roads, anywhere, that are now or have been built with public taxpayer money. As far as that goes, I am not sure there is any justification for toll roads.
Our elected officials seem to be continuously consumed with finding new ways to reach into our wallets. They are afraid to just come out say they want to raise taxes so they nickle and dime us to death with fees, charges, sur-charges, licensing and so forth. Then they start upping the ante on these things regularly.
It also is yet another way to further divide society between the haves and the have-nots. Those that can afford it will travel in unencumbered ease while the hoi polloi will just have to eat cake!
We have a lot of problems but toll roads are not the answer!
A recent story in our local daily said that "officials" are considering building toll lanes on South Padre Island Drive, which is our main thoroughfare.
What a lousy idea! I am against any toll roads, anywhere, that are now or have been built with public taxpayer money. As far as that goes, I am not sure there is any justification for toll roads.
Our elected officials seem to be continuously consumed with finding new ways to reach into our wallets. They are afraid to just come out say they want to raise taxes so they nickle and dime us to death with fees, charges, sur-charges, licensing and so forth. Then they start upping the ante on these things regularly.
It also is yet another way to further divide society between the haves and the have-nots. Those that can afford it will travel in unencumbered ease while the hoi polloi will just have to eat cake!
We have a lot of problems but toll roads are not the answer!
Tuesday, June 10, 2008
Monday, June 02, 2008
Goodbye Skip!
The hapless Skip Noe is nearing the end of the line as Corpus Christi City Manager.
Noe's resignation was accepted and he will be given a 90 day period to wrap up his stay in office. He will, of course, leave with a rather comfortable severance package as he leaves his $178,000 + ,with perks, a year job.
In accepting Noe's resgination, during a rare Sunday meeting, the City Council also announced that the mayor and the council will do the ground work in the next city manager search.
That's a good idea. In past years the city has spent tens of thousands of dollars of taxpayer money hiring search firms to seek and vet city manager candidates. These high priced firms have had a lousy track record.
Frankly, it might be time once again to start looking at the City Charter and reconsider our form of city government. The city manger-weak mayor form which we have had had for years isn't working well. It is time to go to a strong mayor type of governemnt in which the mayor is the chief executive of the city and is accountable to the voters.
The hapless Skip Noe is nearing the end of the line as Corpus Christi City Manager.
Noe's resignation was accepted and he will be given a 90 day period to wrap up his stay in office. He will, of course, leave with a rather comfortable severance package as he leaves his $178,000 + ,with perks, a year job.
In accepting Noe's resgination, during a rare Sunday meeting, the City Council also announced that the mayor and the council will do the ground work in the next city manager search.
That's a good idea. In past years the city has spent tens of thousands of dollars of taxpayer money hiring search firms to seek and vet city manager candidates. These high priced firms have had a lousy track record.
Frankly, it might be time once again to start looking at the City Charter and reconsider our form of city government. The city manger-weak mayor form which we have had had for years isn't working well. It is time to go to a strong mayor type of governemnt in which the mayor is the chief executive of the city and is accountable to the voters.
Wednesday, May 21, 2008
Saturday, April 26, 2008
Thursday, April 24, 2008
Tuesday, April 22, 2008
Texas International Boat Show
(click on pic for larger view)
The Texas International Boat Show is under way right now in and along the city marina. Huge, expensive yachts are among the craft on display along with other craft.
The event means that many boat stall renters have been displaced while the show is going on. Now this was no surprise, this was included in the contract the stall renters signed.
Also much of Shoreline drive and some sections of adjacent streets are closed during the show.
Basically the average citizen will be inconvenienced by this event for billionaire boat sellers and millionaire customers.
It's all done to attract dollars and to create an image.
The question is, does it benefit the city as a whole?
Thursday, April 17, 2008
Ghost Of Councils Past
The proposal by City Councilman Michael McCutchon to ban vehicular traffic from the 4,200 foot stretch of beach in front of the sea wall on Padre Island is reminiscent of the original proposal introduced in 2005 by then Councilman Mark Scott.
If Scott had been satisfied with the original proposal it likely would have passed the City Council then.
But, as locals know, Scott got greedy and tacked on an additional 3,600 feet and most of the local population was outraged. The measure was forced to a vote by a referendum and the proposal went down in flames.
In addition a requirement was voted in place which would require another referendum before any section of the beach within the city limits could be closed to vehicular access.
Now the proposal from Councilman McCutchon is likely to be met with a big dose of healthy skepticism. The best outcome would be for this measure to die in the City Council. There is no need for a repeat of the heated controversy engendered by the first attempt to, in effect, close large sections of the beach to public access.
The proposal by City Councilman Michael McCutchon to ban vehicular traffic from the 4,200 foot stretch of beach in front of the sea wall on Padre Island is reminiscent of the original proposal introduced in 2005 by then Councilman Mark Scott.
If Scott had been satisfied with the original proposal it likely would have passed the City Council then.
But, as locals know, Scott got greedy and tacked on an additional 3,600 feet and most of the local population was outraged. The measure was forced to a vote by a referendum and the proposal went down in flames.
In addition a requirement was voted in place which would require another referendum before any section of the beach within the city limits could be closed to vehicular access.
Now the proposal from Councilman McCutchon is likely to be met with a big dose of healthy skepticism. The best outcome would be for this measure to die in the City Council. There is no need for a repeat of the heated controversy engendered by the first attempt to, in effect, close large sections of the beach to public access.
Wednesday, April 09, 2008
Thursday, April 03, 2008
Saturday, March 15, 2008
Monday, March 03, 2008
Tuesday, February 26, 2008
Friday, February 22, 2008
Friday, February 15, 2008
Saturday, February 09, 2008
Tortuga Dunes Project; Bad For Turtles, Bad For Dunes!!
Tortuga Dunes Project Destroys Sand Dunes
A new development has begun on Padre Island and it is off to a bad start.
The project has actively destroyed many sand dunes on the development property. According to news reports they have permits to do so but this seems directly in contradiction to the Dunes Protection Act.
The project director Barrett Allison says they are not destroying the dunes but “restoring them.” A rather dubious claim. This is a poor practice to allow. If every developer in the future has the ability to destroy sand dunes and then “restore” them it will mean the destruction of the natural habitat and the sand dunes. This will lead to increased beach erosion and more rapid dune deplenishment.
The $200 million resort, Tortuga Dunes, is being created near Zahn Road on the island.
This is planned as a high end (which means no po’ folks wanted) resort and an exclusive gated community.
This is the kind of thing that makes mayors and other elected officials plumb giddy! They see money, money, money and they hope some of it will find its way into the city or county coffers. They often imply that property taxes will go down and local school boards will have all of their money problems taken care of because of the new taxable properties.
It doesn’t always work out that way though. Sometimes so many tax abatements and TIF designations and other breaks are showered on such a project that these benefits for local taxing entities may never materialize to the point projected.
The developer is a company by the name of Forestar Real Estate Group, which is part of Temple Inland Company.
Temple Inland is a Fortune 400 company which specializes in forestry, banks and investments, and real estate development.
According to the company’s profile, Forestar spun off from Temple-Inland in 2006 and became one of the largest publicly-traded development companies in the country. (source: Wikipedia)
Below: Wikipedia entry for Forestar and associated companies
Temple-Inland, Inc. NYSE: TIN is an American paper, building products and financial services company based in Austin, Texas. It has approximately 19,500 employees. Its paper group operates under the name Inland Paperboard and Packaging Group, its building products group under the name Temple-Inland Forest Products, and its financial services group under the name Guaranty Financial Services.
Researchers at the University of Massachusetts Amherst have identified Temple–Inland as the 24th-largest corporate producer of air pollution in the United States.[1] Major pollutants reported by the study included acrolein, manganese compounds, sulfuric acid, formaldehyde, and acetaldehyde.[2]
Here is a report from Bill Churchwell, aired on local Channel 3 KIII-TV News
$200-million development planned for The Island
Gated community along Zahn Road to be the first new beachfront construction on North Padre in two decades
February 8, 2008
There's been some new developments in the aftermath of a story you saw here earlier this week on Tortuga Dunes, a 200 million dollar resort project going up. Island residents are concerned about crews cutting into the vegetation and several dunes. We checked it out for ourselves and it's clear to see construction crews going right up to the vegetation line. County regulations are supposed to keep the project from building any homes or condos 350 feet from the line. So whats going on? Project manager Barrett Allison says what people are seeing is not the destruction of the dunes, but the restoration of them. The project manager says when they are done, the dunes will be 20-30 feet high and new vegetation will be added. Allison says, "I think once people see it and realize the extent we've gone to protect the environment and the beach setting, its probably going to become a standard in the regulatory for folks minds down there in Nueces County and the city of Corpus on how to do it right."
It will take crews three months to finish the restoration of the dunes. Construction on Tortuga Dunes is expected to begin this summer.
Below is info from a web site for Forestar.
http://www.tortugadunes.com/news_releases.php

A publicly-traded real estate development company has announced plans to build a 146-acre gated community on Zahn Road near the north Packery jetty with landscape work set to begin in early 2008, construction set to begin in the summer of 2008 and completion in the spring of 2009.
The project will be named Tortuga Dunes and will include 139 villa home sties and approximately 97 luxury townhomes and condos. It will also include a pool and clubhouse, 37,000 square feet of retail space, and a walkover to take residents from the development over the dunes to the beach.
The total acreage of the tract is 146 acres with development on only 30 acres. The remainder of the acreage will be preserved as a wetland area with conservation and education programs.
The development is being done by the Forestar Real Estate Group which is a Temple Inland Company. Temple Inland is a Fortune 400 company which specializes in forestry, banks and investments, and real estate development.
According to the company’s profile, Forestar spun off from Temple-Inland in 2006 and became one of the largest publicly-traded development companies in the country. It trades on the NYSE under the symbol FOR. According to the NYSE website the company’s stock has traded between $20-$25 for the past year.
Forestar currently has one-hundred development projects located in twelve markets spread across nine states. They currently have large holdings around Atlanta as well as projects in Austin and Houston.
Plans call for the architecture in the Tortuga Dunes project to feature a theme derived from Caribbean and West Indies designs. Roofs will be of hipped or gabled varieties with cantilevered balconies and enclosed side yards.
Streets will be designed to be pedestrian friendly with view corridors. There will also be parks embedded in the design. Lot sizes will vary between fifty and sixty feet in width.
The company estimates the development will bring more than $200 million in added tax base and infrastructure to the Island economy.
Once the development is complete and all the units are sold the estimated annual tax revenue to local entities is $4.5 million with the bulk of that, $10.6 million going to the Flour Bluff ISD, $5.6 to the city of Corpus Christi and $3.5 to Nueces County.
The development was done without tax incentives from any of the taxing entities involved and is not expected to effect vehicular passage along the beach.
According to documents supplied by Forestar the company picked North Padre for the development after looking at coastal property from Galveston to South Padre.
Other partners in the project include: Watermark Land from Houston, Environmental and Planning Associates of Austin, land planning by Bosse & Turner of Austin, engineering by Naismith Engineering of Corpus Christi, Landscaping by Keith Morrow at Wilson Miller of Naples, Florida, and sales by Kuper Sotheby’s of San Antonio.
The site is located across Zahn Road from the recently constructed boat ramp and the planned city park. A welcome center is currently located at the site.
###
A Sizzling Market on America's 'Third Coast'
The Wall Street Journal
By Julie Bennett
October 10th 2007
"We've designed a high-end coastal community surrounded by a lagoon system. You can walk out your back door, get into your boat, and zip straight into the Gulf of Mexico."
Second-home buyers priced out of the East and West Coast housing markets are discovering an affordable "Third Coast," the 367-mile Texas coastline on the Gulf of Mexico.
The area is so hot that buyers are snapping up condos and single-family lots on the state's barrier islands and near it's fishing villages long before the units are built or the lots are available.
Dr. James Gaines, research economist at the Real Estate Center of Texas A&M University in College Station, says the state's evolving popularity reminds him of the Georgia and South Carolina coastlines in the 1970s, "when buying there was still affordable." Today, he says, you have to pay over $1 million for a seaside cottage there and $2 million to $3 million for oceanfront property in Florida or California. In Texas, you can still buy a lot or a condo on the water for around $300,000. If you can find them, that is.
Tortuga Dunes Project Destroys Sand Dunes
A new development has begun on Padre Island and it is off to a bad start.
The project has actively destroyed many sand dunes on the development property. According to news reports they have permits to do so but this seems directly in contradiction to the Dunes Protection Act.
The project director Barrett Allison says they are not destroying the dunes but “restoring them.” A rather dubious claim. This is a poor practice to allow. If every developer in the future has the ability to destroy sand dunes and then “restore” them it will mean the destruction of the natural habitat and the sand dunes. This will lead to increased beach erosion and more rapid dune deplenishment.
The $200 million resort, Tortuga Dunes, is being created near Zahn Road on the island.
This is planned as a high end (which means no po’ folks wanted) resort and an exclusive gated community.
This is the kind of thing that makes mayors and other elected officials plumb giddy! They see money, money, money and they hope some of it will find its way into the city or county coffers. They often imply that property taxes will go down and local school boards will have all of their money problems taken care of because of the new taxable properties.
It doesn’t always work out that way though. Sometimes so many tax abatements and TIF designations and other breaks are showered on such a project that these benefits for local taxing entities may never materialize to the point projected.
The developer is a company by the name of Forestar Real Estate Group, which is part of Temple Inland Company.
Temple Inland is a Fortune 400 company which specializes in forestry, banks and investments, and real estate development.
According to the company’s profile, Forestar spun off from Temple-Inland in 2006 and became one of the largest publicly-traded development companies in the country. (source: Wikipedia)
Below: Wikipedia entry for Forestar and associated companies
Temple-Inland, Inc. NYSE: TIN is an American paper, building products and financial services company based in Austin, Texas. It has approximately 19,500 employees. Its paper group operates under the name Inland Paperboard and Packaging Group, its building products group under the name Temple-Inland Forest Products, and its financial services group under the name Guaranty Financial Services.
Researchers at the University of Massachusetts Amherst have identified Temple–Inland as the 24th-largest corporate producer of air pollution in the United States.[1] Major pollutants reported by the study included acrolein, manganese compounds, sulfuric acid, formaldehyde, and acetaldehyde.[2]
Here is a report from Bill Churchwell, aired on local Channel 3 KIII-TV News
$200-million development planned for The Island
Gated community along Zahn Road to be the first new beachfront construction on North Padre in two decades
February 8, 2008
There's been some new developments in the aftermath of a story you saw here earlier this week on Tortuga Dunes, a 200 million dollar resort project going up. Island residents are concerned about crews cutting into the vegetation and several dunes. We checked it out for ourselves and it's clear to see construction crews going right up to the vegetation line. County regulations are supposed to keep the project from building any homes or condos 350 feet from the line. So whats going on? Project manager Barrett Allison says what people are seeing is not the destruction of the dunes, but the restoration of them. The project manager says when they are done, the dunes will be 20-30 feet high and new vegetation will be added. Allison says, "I think once people see it and realize the extent we've gone to protect the environment and the beach setting, its probably going to become a standard in the regulatory for folks minds down there in Nueces County and the city of Corpus on how to do it right."
It will take crews three months to finish the restoration of the dunes. Construction on Tortuga Dunes is expected to begin this summer.
Below is info from a web site for Forestar.
http://www.tortugadunes.com/news_releases.php

A publicly-traded real estate development company has announced plans to build a 146-acre gated community on Zahn Road near the north Packery jetty with landscape work set to begin in early 2008, construction set to begin in the summer of 2008 and completion in the spring of 2009.
The project will be named Tortuga Dunes and will include 139 villa home sties and approximately 97 luxury townhomes and condos. It will also include a pool and clubhouse, 37,000 square feet of retail space, and a walkover to take residents from the development over the dunes to the beach.
The total acreage of the tract is 146 acres with development on only 30 acres. The remainder of the acreage will be preserved as a wetland area with conservation and education programs.
The development is being done by the Forestar Real Estate Group which is a Temple Inland Company. Temple Inland is a Fortune 400 company which specializes in forestry, banks and investments, and real estate development.
According to the company’s profile, Forestar spun off from Temple-Inland in 2006 and became one of the largest publicly-traded development companies in the country. It trades on the NYSE under the symbol FOR. According to the NYSE website the company’s stock has traded between $20-$25 for the past year.
Forestar currently has one-hundred development projects located in twelve markets spread across nine states. They currently have large holdings around Atlanta as well as projects in Austin and Houston.
Plans call for the architecture in the Tortuga Dunes project to feature a theme derived from Caribbean and West Indies designs. Roofs will be of hipped or gabled varieties with cantilevered balconies and enclosed side yards.
Streets will be designed to be pedestrian friendly with view corridors. There will also be parks embedded in the design. Lot sizes will vary between fifty and sixty feet in width.
The company estimates the development will bring more than $200 million in added tax base and infrastructure to the Island economy.
Once the development is complete and all the units are sold the estimated annual tax revenue to local entities is $4.5 million with the bulk of that, $10.6 million going to the Flour Bluff ISD, $5.6 to the city of Corpus Christi and $3.5 to Nueces County.
The development was done without tax incentives from any of the taxing entities involved and is not expected to effect vehicular passage along the beach.
According to documents supplied by Forestar the company picked North Padre for the development after looking at coastal property from Galveston to South Padre.
Other partners in the project include: Watermark Land from Houston, Environmental and Planning Associates of Austin, land planning by Bosse & Turner of Austin, engineering by Naismith Engineering of Corpus Christi, Landscaping by Keith Morrow at Wilson Miller of Naples, Florida, and sales by Kuper Sotheby’s of San Antonio.
The site is located across Zahn Road from the recently constructed boat ramp and the planned city park. A welcome center is currently located at the site.
###
A Sizzling Market on America's 'Third Coast'
The Wall Street Journal
By Julie Bennett
October 10th 2007
"We've designed a high-end coastal community surrounded by a lagoon system. You can walk out your back door, get into your boat, and zip straight into the Gulf of Mexico."
Second-home buyers priced out of the East and West Coast housing markets are discovering an affordable "Third Coast," the 367-mile Texas coastline on the Gulf of Mexico.
The area is so hot that buyers are snapping up condos and single-family lots on the state's barrier islands and near it's fishing villages long before the units are built or the lots are available.
Dr. James Gaines, research economist at the Real Estate Center of Texas A&M University in College Station, says the state's evolving popularity reminds him of the Georgia and South Carolina coastlines in the 1970s, "when buying there was still affordable." Today, he says, you have to pay over $1 million for a seaside cottage there and $2 million to $3 million for oceanfront property in Florida or California. In Texas, you can still buy a lot or a condo on the water for around $300,000. If you can find them, that is.
Tuesday, January 29, 2008
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