Bills aimed to protect Camp Bullis
12/26/2008
By Greg Jefferson, Express-News
Two San Antonio lawmakers will push legislation to give Bexar County the power to zone property in unincorporated areas within five miles of Camp Bullis.
The legislation also would apply to land around the county's other military installations. Its primary target, however, is development pressing in on the training ground for combat medics.
And it could prove to be the most controversial of all recent measures to safeguard the Northwest Side installation from the effects of encroachment.
State Rep. Ruth Jones McClendon, D-San Antonio, already has filed her bill for the 2009 session, and Sen. Jeff Wentworth, R-San Antonio, said he would submit similar legislation in the Senate.
McClendon's bill would give Commissioners Court the option to “regulate the platting or clearing of a tract of land larger than two acres” in cases where more than 20 percent of its trees would be felled. As far as the 28,000-acre Camp Bullis, the measure would allow Comal and Kendall county commissioners to take up the same authority.
In Texas, counties don't have zoning powers, unlike cities.
The bill is tailored to Bexar County and its northern neighbors. It applies to counties with military installations and populations of at least 1 million people, with more than 80 percent living in a single municipality, as well as adjacent counties.
“I filed it because Fort Sam Houston is in my district, and it's like I always say — when Camp Bullis has a cold, Fort Sam has pneumonia,” McClendon said. “Fort Sam and Camp Bullis are so interrelated.”
Fort Sam officials oversee Camp Bullis, and they've warned that the encroachment of subdivisions and retail centers could jeopardize the post's future.
About 120,000 trainees pass through Camp Bullis annually. But that number will jump when Air Force and Navy medics begin training there, in addition to Army personnel.
Army staff says nearby developments have increased nighttime lighting, which interferes with training, and that the migration of more endangered species — namely the golden-cheeked warbler — reduces the amount of land available for exercises.
Bexar County Judge Nelson Wolff said recent city and county measures will go a long way in combating light pollution and eventually freeing up warbler habitat within Camp Bullis for training. But McClendon and Wentworth's legislation would allow the county to deal with development itself, not just its effects.
“What we're doing here deals more with the encroachment issue,” Wolff said. The military is backing the legislative effort. “We've seen the bill, and we're certainly very supportive of (McClendon's) efforts to help us control encroachment,” Army spokesman Phil Reidinger said.
But developer Norman Dugas sees little reason to grant zoning power to county commissioners.
He said most of the unincorporated land within five miles of Bullis falls within the city's extra-territorial jurisdiction and already is covered by its Unified Development Code — except for the section dealing with zoning.
“Whenever somebody talks about unregulated development near Camp Bullis, you can turn off the hearing aid — they don't know what they're talking about,” he said.
McClendon's bill also would require developers — before submitting a plat application — to “conduct a survey to determine whether species that are listed as threatened or endangered under federal law use the land as a habitat.”
Builders would have to submit the surveys to the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the military.
That provision rankles Dugas.
“A total of four (golden-cheeked warblers) were found on 1,000 acres of undeveloped land adjacent to Camp Bullis,” he said. “How much of a burden are you going to put on a landowner to do these studies in areas that clearly aren't potential habitat? A one-size-fits-all requirement is an extraordinary waste of money and effort for no benefit.”
Wolff, meanwhile, expects some resistance from developers and the real estate industry.
“This is not going to be easy — there will still be opposition,” he said.
Counties have routinely sought land-use authority from the Legislature, only to get shot down. Few other lawmakers know that better than Wentworth, a former county commissioner who's championed numerous bills to grant counties that power.
The difference this time, he said, is that the appeal is focused on protecting Camp Bullis.
“You're talking about restricting it to military installations, and you're talking about jobs for Texas and economic development,” said Wentworth, whose Senate district includes Camp Bullis. “It's not just a general, broad ‘give zoning to the counties' (bill). That's not what this legislation would do, neither Ruth's nor mine.”
Two other San Antonio lawmakers could play pivotal roles: Sen. Leticia Van de Putte, a Democrat, and Rep. Frank Corte Jr., a Republican. Both head up military installation committees, though Corte could lose his chairmanship if House Speaker Tom Craddick is swept from power at the start of the 2009 session next month.
Online: www.mysanantonio.com/military/Bills_would_give_Bexar_County_zoning_power_in_Camp_Bullis_area.html
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