The public will have to wait until early August before it sees the next draft of the Alamo interpretive plan.
Three weeks ago, the plan — which calls for closing Alamo Street and relocating the Cenotaph memorial, among other controversial ideas — was unveiled in a series of tense public meetings. Various groups turned out, including descendants of the Alamo defenders who continue to demand that the Cenotaph memorial remain in place in front of the Long Barrack.
On Tuesday night, members of these groups, and other interested parties, attended a meeting of the 28-member Alamo Citizen Advisory Committee, which heard presentations on an online visitors survey and a traffic study, as well as a brief history of archeological studies on the Alamo grounds.
Presenters had about 30 minutes each, and breezed through the complex topics. Toward the end of the meeting, even some of the committee members admitted they didn’t catch all of the finer points of the presentations, and asked for advance copies of the documents the next time they’re asked for feedback.
The public will get a chance to weigh in on the presentations at 6:30 p.m. Wednesday, July 18, at Thomas Jefferson High School, 723 Donaldson Ave.
If you want to do your homework in advance, because you’ll most certainly have to in order to keep up, you can start by downloading the traffic study, which was conducted by Pape-Dawson Engineers.
Alamo CEO Doug McDonald said the online survey will likely be made public on Wednesday. Read the San Antonio Express-News’ excellent recap of the survey, conducted by H2R Market Research.
The page to visit for all of these types of documents can be found here.
Meanwhile, the out-of-town planners of the Alamo proposal — Reed Hilderbrand (Cambridge, Mass.), PGAV Destinations (St. Louis) and Cultural Innovations (London) — continue to adjust the plan, which has received heavy criticism from groups such as This is Texas Freedom Force, the Alamo Defenders Descendants Association, the San Antonio Conservation Society, and the Battle of Flowers Association. Also, a small cadre of architects and urban planners have criticized how the plan hinders public access through railings that would trace the footprint of the 1836 compound.
Weeks ago, city officials said that the next draft would be release the week of July 15, but that timetable has since changed, District 1 City Councilman Roberto Treviño said Tuesday night.
He explained that there’s been some delay in scheduling a meeting with the six-member Alamo management committee, of which he is a member, and which must first see the revisions before they’re presented it to the citizens committee.
After that process, the plan will be presented to the public, again, likely in early August.
Featured photo by Ben Olivo | San Antonio Heron
[…] market survey and a history of archeology on the plaza. A week ago, the same presentations were made to the Alamo Citizen Advisory Committee, but the public was not permitted to comment during that meeting. While these presentations are not […]