CORPUS CHRISTI – The public comment period on the Harbor Bridge project may be over, but some Northside residents have a lot more to say, the NAACP said.
In a statement Monday, the organization’s local chapter accused the Texas Department of Transportation of not operating on good faith during a Thursday workshop related the project. It also alleged the workshop was intended to push through construction of a specific route for the new bridge.
Chapter president Terry Mills said local members are calling for the NAACP to bring in lawyers to attend the workshop Feb. 21, and perhaps map out a legal strategy.
“It was really a dog and pony show intended to ensure that the current proposal moves forward,” reads the statement, signed by Mills and state president Gary Bledsoe.
Transportation department spokesman Rickey Dailey said in an email the agency wants to respond directly to Mills and the NAACP. It has reached out to Mills but has not yet heard back, he said.
The transportation department was among the agencies that hosted a Livability Planning Workshop on Thursday. The event was aimed at preparing residents of Washington-Coles and Hillcrest, Corpus Christi’s only historically black neighborhoods, for life changes that likely will occur because of the $1 billion project.
Mills said Tuesday residents were advised they’d be able to speak during the workshop in a manner similar to more formal public hearings held in 2014. He declined to say who gave them that impression.
“A lot of people didn’t attend those (earlier) meetings. You’re going to have a lot of people who are going to be disenfranchised,” Mills said. “It doesn’t matter if they’re renters, homeowners, business owners or whatever, they deserve to be heard.”
The location of the new Harbor Bridge is proposed in an area closer to the Hillcrest and Washington-Coles neighborhoods than the existing span built in the late 1950s.
Officials have asked contractors to submit proposals for a six-lane cable-stayed bridge with a minimum 205-foot vertical clearance above the 400-foot-wide ship channel.
“That workshop shows TxDOT isn’t serious about mitigation for neighborhoods that would be most affected by this project,” said Erin L. Gaines, an attorney for Texas RioGrande Legal Aid.
Twitter: @Caller_ChrisRam
Information about the Harbor Bridge and the Northside Neighborhoods 