HACKED BY CYBER-ATTACK - ALPERENBTN

[Johnny French]

Surf Pier & Park, and vehicle access to 4200 feet of beach taken from public; is denial of access to more beach and to south side of Packery Channel next?

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Council to vote on beach today
Groups voice opposition to limiting vehicle traffic

By Nick Nelson Caller-Times
December 20, 2005

As the City Council faces a vote today whether to take back its traffic ban for one Padre Island beach, local organizations have weighed in on how the council should proceed.

The issue has shaped up as a choice between a $500 million resort development and the right to drive motor vehicles on the beach. The pedestrian-only beach concept has been touted as a safety issue and vilified as an erosion of rights. The proposed development has been heralded as an engine for creating jobs and prosperity and attacked as a burden on the environment.

The council voted in mid-October to restrict traffic from 4,200 feet of beach in front of Padre Island's seawall. Early this month, Austin developer Paul Schexnailder announced that a major resort development company intends to build a resort just north of the newly restricted beach. He says the project is feasible only if that area, in addition to the 4,200 feet, is vehicle-free.


Beach information

Today: City Council is scheduled to vote whether to rescind an October ordinance that banned vehicular traffic on 4,200 feet of beach along Padre Island’s seawall.

When/where? 10 a.m., City Hall, 1201 Leopard St.

Why now? Austin developer Paul Schexnailder says the $500 million resort is feasible only if additional beach is restricted. Councilman Mark Scott said the council erred in not accommodating the proposed resort.

If the ordinance is rescinded: Council could consider a new ordinance restricting more beach to traffic.
City would have time to make a more effective beach access plan, city officials say.
A petition that local residents have been circulating since October would be null. Petition organizers say if the council passes a new ordinance with new restrictions, they will start a new petition.


On Monday, the Corpus Christi Chamber of Commerce passed a resolution urging the council to rescind the October ordinance, so that the council can establish the larger pedestrian-only beach, extending to the south Packery Channel jetty.

"The chamber view is that our city needs a sound and proactive policy that encourages private-sector investment that will result in creating new employment opportunities and grow our economy," said chamber President Terry Carter.

The Corpus Christi Association of Realtors last week signed a similar resolution. The Padre Island Business Association board is pushing for a pedestrian-only beach between Packery Channel and Padre Balli County Park - a distance of about 7,400 feet. In a letter sent out Monday, Councilman Mark Scott urged members of the Padre Island Business Association to attend today's council meeting.

"The real issue is about who is in charge in this community," the letter stated. "It is about whose voice the council hears. I believe the citizens in our community want to grow. They expect us to make appropriate decisions to move our city forward. However, (today) is one of those days where the council needs to see the community. We need to see you. We need to see our friends and supporters out in the audience."

The Texas Coastal Bend chapter of the Surfrider Foundation has formally opposed vehicular bans of any kind on local beaches and has rallied behind a petition drive to undo the October ordinance. Pat Suter, chairman of the Coastal Bend chapter of the Sierra Club, said her group had not formally voted on a position, though she had little doubt what the vote would be: "The Sierra Club has opposed unwise development on the islands from the very beginning."

Suter said most of the thousands who have signed the petition are not affiliated with any group but are simply upset by the council's October decision. She said she expected the council to vote down that ordinance today to make way for a new ordinance that would restrict traffic on more beach.

"If they come back with another one, we'll just petition it again," she said.

Contact Nick Nelson at 886-3678 or HYPERLINK mailto:nelsonn@caller.com nelsonn@caller.com

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Michelle Christenson/Caller-Times

Nathan Floyd, 16, (left) and his father, Frank Floyd, look at one of the last pilings to be removed from the pier at what used to be J.P. Luby Surf Park on Padre Island.

J.P. Luby park is bisected by construction

Pilings that made surf break were removed

By MARI SAUGIER Caller-Times
December 20, 2005

More than 20 years after J.P. Luby Surf Park drew 50,000 people for Texas's first professional surf competition, the landmark is bisected by construction and shrouded in uncertainty.

Last week, the last of the pilings that once jutted 800 feet into the water and created a surf break for surfers were removed for construction on Packery Channel. The park once drew thousands of spring breakers annually, was a popular hangout for youth and created a surfing alternative to the Bob Hall Pier, where the county had banned surfing in the 1980s.

The Texas Surf Museum rescued one of the pilings, but it is not on display yet.

It is unknown if the onetime surfing Mecca of the South will draw large crowds once again, city and county officials said. Packery Channel divides the park in two, with the city and county each owning half.

"It's going to be interesting to see what people use the area for, because it will all depend on the what the conditions are right for," said Kristin Connor, Beach & Bayfront Superintendent for the City of Corpus Christi.

She said the jetties on Packery Channel might create the same waves as the pilings but didn't know how boats and fishermen using the channel would affect surfers.

"The county has no immediate plans, although we have talked about what can and what should we do going forward," said Chuck Cazalas, Pct. 4 county commissioner. "That has not been resolved."

Contact Mari Saugier at 886-3623 or HYPERLINK mailto:saugierm@caller saugierm@caller. com

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J.P. Luby Park highlights

December 20, 2005

Aug. 2, 1981: Nueces County Precinct 4 Commissioner J.P. Luby proposes a youth park, in a wash-over area on Padre Island, as a means to alleviate the overcrowding of certain beach areas on the island.

March 30, 1984: The Nueces County Young Adult Recreational Park and its surfing pier open officially. The 800-foot pier, built with pilings salvaged from Hurricane Allen in 1980, is the first such structure ever built in the United States strictly for surfing. The park features a dance pavilion, cabanas and restrooms.

Feb. 12, 1986: County commissioners name the park after J.P. Luby.

June 1989: Army Corps of Engineers grants a permit for the dredging and permanent reopening of Packery Channel and Packery Pass to the Re-Open Packery Channel Association. The permit allows for relocation of the surfing pier at J.P. Luby Surf Park.

April 2001: City voters approve the financing structure for the Packery Channel, which would cut through J.P. Luby Park

Nov. 2003: Dredging for Packery Channel begins.

Jan. 2005: Surf pier is dismantled near the jetties being built as part of the Packery Channel project.

Dec. 2005: Last pilings of the pier are uprooted.

Source: Caller-Times' archives

Compiled by Margaret Neu, Caller-Times Information Services

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Council's call on beach issue will be momentous

A decision to limit pedestrians-only area to 4,200 linear feet could be the undoing of a $500 million beach resort project.

December 20, 2005


The Corpus Christi City Council decides today whether it wants to continue its commitment to making this a first-class city. The council can do this by taking the first step to expand the stretch of beach on Padre Island set aside for pedestrians only, a relatively small portion of the miles of Gulf of Mexico beach where vehicles can travel.

Or the council members can dodge behind an ill-considered "promise" to limit the size of that pedestrian-only beach, a vow made without all the facts before them about a major resort development. Limiting that beach to the original 4,200 linear feet, instead of moving to enlarge that section to 7,400 linear feet, might doom a $500 million investment.

It's important to note that even 7,400 feet of pedestrian-only beach would come out of 79,000-plus linear feet of Gulf beach within the city where motorists will still be able to drive.

But limiting the pedestrian-only beach could stop hard-won momentum. That's the momentum that has come with a new arena, a baseball stadium, the go-ahead for the first stage for a new Ocean Drive, the near-completion of repair of the downtown seawall and Packery Channel, the link between the Gulf and Corpus Christi Bay.

The Packery Channel project is the main reason there is an opportunity for the $500 million resort announced by developer Paul Schexnailder, and for a new, exciting beach. The sand dredged from the channel has rebuilt the beach in front of the Padre Island seawall, a beach that at one time had nearly eroded away. And the channel has made possible the long-held dream of a major resort on the island that would enlarge the tax base. That's why voters supported the tax-increment finance zone that helped pay for the dredging.

That gives the council two reasons to enlarge the pedestrian-only beach area. One is simply giving beach-goers a different experience. The Gulf beach now offers areas where motorists can travel freely, areas where vehicle travel is limited to controlled lanes, and versions of both, but only for a fee. Setting aside a free, pedestrian-only beach would offer another alternative.

But the council made a mistake when it set aside just 4,200 feet of pedestrian-only beach in front of the seawall. And council members exacerbated that mistake by boxing themselves in; some pledged that no more beach would be set aside. Now they have learned that without enlarging the pedestrian-only beach to 7,400 feet, Schexnailder's resort plans will be at risk.

The pledge was a mistake, plain and simple. But why make the mistake worse by holding to an assertion made without the facts? The opponents of a pedestrian-only beach have pledged to take the matter to a vote, whether that beach is 4,200 feet, or 7,400 feet. Or one foot.

If the council (or the voters) are going to make a choice, let it be a clear one: 7,400 feet means the city has another opportunity to move toward a more vibrant community with a better quality of life.

[rabbit]

How do people learn to tell a different lie out of each side of their mouths at the same time

Lets see we have a conman trying to con the city council a councilman trying to give the conman a &*&&& and a&&&&&&& trying to get them both amazing. It could only happen in corpus christi.

I keep hearing that we live by the rule of law but personally I am getting a little tired of it and beginning to think that we should go back to the rule of colt.
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Fishing and Kayaking its a rough life but somebody has to do it.

[osolonghorn]

Calm down rabbit, Osostinky said if you come by the house she will make you some hot chocolate with marshmellows to help. The people of the great state of TEXAS will take care of business and vote for the freedoms that have always been a given in this state. People will realize that the only free land available in Texas is our great beaches, and will vote to keep them that way. Never has the people of Texas let some unheard of company from out of state take over what is granted to them by law, and God. Osolonghorn

[Guest]

Let's see, the city council wants to give our beaches away so Snex can build a 2 star resort. What, he is the only guy in the game for the last developable stretch of beach front in the Unitted States? Wait a couple of years and we can have a five star operation when Texas is the last state to authorize casino gaming. Maybe Mr. Scott should hold out for Donald Trump and get an inside track on the apprentice. It would be a better deal than what Snex is slipping him under the table and at least be above board.

[rabbit]

That sounds like a winner. Guess I got carried away and was edited
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Fishing and Kayaking its a rough life but somebody has to do it.

[Bluffer]

It will go thru vehicals on the beach or not, The demand & $$$ is there. Then theyll work on the traffic later.
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Fish hard, fish the Bluff. Surrounded by water!
-A quaint little drinking village with a fishing problem-