Recreation area receives more support

GALVESTON — One more step has been taken to establish the long-envisioned Lone Star Coastal National Recreation Area along the upper Texas Gulf Coast.

Jefferson County recently asked to be included in the proposed recreation area, expanding the number of coastal counties visualized by proponents to five.

The addition of Jefferson County to Galveston, Matagorda, Chambers and Brazoria counties will require a change in the language of a bill that proponents of the recreation area hope will be introduced in Congress by the end of summer, said John Nau, the Houston businessman who chairs a committee formed in 2012 to champion the recreation area.

Backers of the proposal, which include former Secretary of State James Baker III, believe it will boost the coastal economy by making the upper Texas Coast more attractive to tourists. A 2012 study found that it would attract 500,000 visitors the first year, create 1,200 jobs and bring $46 million in local sales. Those figures could quadruple within a decade after the creation of the recreation area, the report said.

Besides Jefferson, Matagorda and Brazoria counties have passed resolutions in support of creating the Lone Star Coastal National Recreation Area, and Nau believes Galveston County will do so in the coming months. He is negotiating with a fifth county that he declined to name. Nau did not say that Chambers County has passed a resolution in support, but the county’s economic director said in 2012 that the county supported the plan.

After Nau secures support from Galveston and the unnamed county, the way will be prepared for the introduction and passage of a bill in Congress to create the recreation area.

Nau has had to overcome resistance from officials and members of the public who mistakenly believe that creation of the recreation area would entail federal takeover of private land. Although Congress would designate the national recreation area, participation by private and public landowners is voluntary.

“The fear of a federal land grab is huge,” Nau said. “The biggest clarification I’ve had to do is make people understand this is not a national park type park.” The only federal land acquisition would possibly be for building a business center to administer the recreation area, Nau said.

Nau said he also has found it difficult to persuade officials that the creation of a national recreation area would have a “branding” effect that would make it easier to market the upper Gulf Coast as a recreation area. Putting the administration of the area under the National Parks Service “is the seal that provides a good feeling to the traveling public,” Nau said.