Council reopens the path to plaza’s makeover
Amended lease with state approved 10-1
The City Council gave the final approval necessary to get the $450 million overhaul of Alamo Plaza back on track Thursday, securing an amended lease with the state for managing part of the city-owned site.
The 10-1 vote enables work to continue on the third iteration of the Alamo Plaza renovation plan, which has been in development for seven years, and comes six weeks after Mayor Ron Nirenberg announced a “reset” of the controversial public-private undertaking that stalled last year.
Nirenberg said it sets the stage for better collaboration with the state on an endeavor that’s had stumbles and setbacks, using an updated plan that “puts all of that negativity and concern about this project not succeeding behind us.”
“I’m not cautious about my optimism anymore, because this is a significant step forward. The issues that we were able to address with this version of the lease are the focus of the controversy over the last six years,” the mayor said after the vote.
One major change to the 2018 lease between the Texas General Land Office and the city is adding a deadline to design and fund a
museum. Under the amended lease approved Thursday, the Land Office and nonprofit Alamo Trust must have a design in place and funding identified for the long-discussed museum and visitor center by Jan. 1, 2026, in order for the lease to include city right of way on what is now part of Alamo Street. The lease already is in effect in the central part of the plaza.
A section of Alamo Street between Houston and Crockett streets will permanently close to traffic by June 1. The updated plan also includes street closures in and around the plaza. Officials said those closures will be phased in, based on construction in the plaza and traffic studies that will help determine how vehicles can best be redirected.
During a three-hour discussion at Thursday’s meeting, Councilman Roberto Treviño asked for a delay and said he was worried the city would have to pay $50 million to break the lease if the museum component didn’t materialize. Officials have said the museum could be funded through private fundraising or an appropriation from the Legislature.
“This lease amendment is a bad deal for the city,” said Trevino, who cast the only dissenting vote. He also was concerned that the city was losing focus on a redesign of Losoya Street to increase traffic capacity once streets in the plaza are closed, and he was worried about the state “leaving the project without a world-class museum we were promised.”
City Attorney Andy Segovia said the city would not face a penalty if the museum isn’t built and the lease is unwound.
Councilwoman Rebecca Viagran, appointed by Nirenberg last month to replace Treviño on two key project committee posts, countered that all the issues in the lease have been thoroughly discussed and studied.
Viagran, whose Southeast Side district includes the four other Spanish-indigenous missions, is a direct descendant of Domingo Losoya, uncle of Alamo defender José Toribio Losoya. She also is a descendant of the Borrado Indians, who lived at the missions and spoke Coahuiltecan.
Viagran vowed to “keep access for the people, to include our tribal voices, to collaborate, to get comfortable in the uncomfortable, to work toward healing, to tell all our stories, to build and rebuild relationships.”
“It is time to get started on the next step of this process. It won’t be easy, but it won’t happen without our vote of support today,” Viagran said.
Before the vote, the council heard from eight residents who signed up to speak, offering a mix of support, opposition and concern.
Three speakers representing the Native American community urged the council to avoid disturbing burial sites in the plaza. City officials plan to perform an archival study to determine where cemeteries are located in the plaza for possible historic interpretation and to develop a human remains treatment protocol. But they’ve said they intend to avoid disturbing any potential grave sites.
For their part, Councilmembers Shirley Gonzales and Clayton Perry said they had reservations but were hopeful the project would be successful, and they decided to vote in favor of the amended lease.
Perry was particularly concerned about vehicle access but was pleased the plan will preserve pedestrian mobility and Fiesta parade routes, repair the Cenotaph but keep it in place, and incorporate the Woolworth and Crockett buildings into a museum design.
“I’m very happy that all of my concerns have been taken care of — except for the road access,” Perry said.
Gonzales, nearing the end of her final council term, said she wanted to vote for the project, without delay, because she believes the entire history of the site could be told truthfully and inclusively.
“I want to be a part of it, even though I don’t love every part of it,” she said.
George Cisneros, a local artist and Gonzales’ appointee to the diverse, 30-member Alamo Citizen Advisory Committee, said he viewed the Alamo Trust as the weakest link of a “three-legged stool” of entities supporting a project that is “almost too big to fail.”
He was relieved to see a deadline in the lease to have a design and funding secured for a museum — an integral part of the plan.
“We cannot be stuck with a black hole where they don’t come through with the money,” Cisneros said.
Former Mayor Phil Hardberger and Bexar County Judge Nelson Wolff applauded the city’s efforts, led by Nirenberg, Viagran, Segovia and Assistant City Manager Lori Houston, to ensure preservation of the 1921 Woolworth and 1882 Crockett buildings as part of a museum design and to defuse other controversies dogging the project.
“Preserving that Woolworth Building and doing that the right way is absolutely a great decision,” said Wolff, who has advocated preservation of the structure, which housed one of seven local lunch counters that peacefully desegregated in 1960.
Although a new timeline for the project’s completion has not been announced, Hardberger, now 86, hinted that he’d like to be alive to celebrate its opening in person, rather than as a “spectral presence.”
The biggest challenge with moving the project forward “is not that we don’t love the Alamo,” he added.
“The problem is we love the Alamo so much that every detail seems to be the most important thing in the world. But the most important thing in the world, as far as the Alamo is concerned, is to get on with this project and finish it,” Hardberger said.