During the Feb. 27 meeting, the Brownsville City Commission listened to a presentation about a lack of framework for temporary closure of streets and public spaces.
“Without a clear permitting framework for the temporary closure of streets and public spaces, downtown stakeholders have expressed concerns about the lack of predictable event management permitting,” reads a Feb. 27 memo to the commission from Rick Vasquez, Brownsville planning and redevelopment director.
As downtown Brownsville “grows” and becomes “revitalized,” the number of requests for road closures in the interest of private and public events increase, Allan Garces, downtown manager, told the commission during the meeting.
“We’re starting to see activation of the Market Square area more and more,” Garces said. “We’re starting to see event requests more and more in the downtown area.”
Although road closures currently require traffic control plans, there is no policy in place permitting event management and temporary street closure.
Garces said in the next 45 days, the Downtown Management Office staff plans to prepare a draft of policy recommendations for the commission to review and receive feedback from downtown businesses and the public.
Brownsville Mayor Trey Mendez added it is important to take into account traffic flow as well as parking availability when deciding which streets to close for events.
“And then, on street closures for private events, I think there should be a fee associated for that,” Mendez said. “I think there should be some sort of way to stop it from happening every day just ’cause, right.
“I think some of those are being taken advantage of. I’ve seen that. So, I think having a fee associated with that … I think individuals that are asking for it would be more conscious of that.”
District 3 City Commissioner Roy De los Santos added that instead of continuing to require event hosts to hire engineers to develop traffic control plans, the city should create those plans with in-house engineers.
De los Santos also urged the Downtown Management Office staff to involve the Brownsville Police Department in traffic control plans to ensure security during events.
The commission also heard a presentation by Juan Velez, historic preservation manager, on Brownsville’s 2023 Historic Preservation Plan, which consists of 113 properties organized into three schedules.
The Historic Preservation Commission and Planning and Zoning Commission recommended approval of schedule A, which has 103 properties, a taxable value of $18,059,893 and a general fund impact of $108,813, and schedule B, which has two properties, a taxable value of $1,187,046 and a general fund impact of $8,213.
Schedule C has eight properties, a taxable value of $1,620,049 and a general fund impact of $7,438.
Not all properties in the third schedule will “achieve conformance to City of Brownsville Municipal Code,” according to the presentation.
“[The Planning and Zoning Commission] and [the Historic Preservation Commission] did recommend approval of schedule C with the exception of [properties] five and six,” Vasquez said.
Asked by Mendez why the two properties did not conform to city code, Velez replied they “do not have any kind of preservation activity” and that the commission needs to “distinguish between maintenance and preservation, rehabilitation.”
Vasquez said when Velez reviews each property’s eligibility for inclusion in a preservation plan, he follows nine ordinance-adopted criteria, including whether a property holds significance historically or architecturally in the Rio Grande Valley or the City of Brownsville.
“[Velez will] go one by one and if they’re compliant, they’ll be in schedule A and if there’s a deficiency, they would fall into [schedule] C just to … be transparent with the commission,” Vasquez said. “And then, [the commission] can make a decision whether they’re included or not included.”
