By Juan Montoya
With a front-page banner story and two full-color half-page ads that set the Community Development Corporation of Brownsville back a few $1,000s, it is unleashing its campaign to pressure the city commission to pass a rezoning ordinance that would allow it to build a 675 single-family homes and another 300 to 4000 "multi-family casitas" for rent right next door to the 300 acres Greater Brownsville Incentives Corporation's planned industrial corridor.
![]()
![]()
They also dusted off the image of Catholic priest Armand Mathew who is mentioned in both ads at the CDCB founder back in 1974. Mathew was a special counselor to former UTB President Julieta Garcia and is memorable for leading a march on his office and threatening Texas Southmost College trustee Trey Mendez with "professional and personal" destruction when the college was separating itself from the "partnership" with the UT System.
The planned project is located immediately down wind from the Union Pacific Railroad switching yards which has caused the railroad's representatives to express concern of the proximity of such a dense residential development and the potential liability of an industrial accident or a chemical or hazardous material spill.
This comes on the heels of the city's approval of a plat for the first phase of the residential project that includes 129 single-family units and 150 multi-family units.
CDCB Executive Director Nick Mitchell Bennett said that the project was "shovel ready" and that the organization had bought the property two years ago since "nothing seemed to be happening with the industrial park," an obvious dig at the new GBIC CEO Mario Lozoya who was just hired last month.
The GBIC purchased the land in 2010 and released its Brownsville Industrial Area Development Plan in 2011 calling for the development of an industrial park that would include the 200 acres purchased in 2017 by the CDCB.
Before Lozoya was at the helm, GBIC Interim Director Gilbert Salinas had known of the CDCB housing project,as well as some city planners and Mayor Tony Martinez. However, no one told the chair of the GBIC then (commissioner Jessica Tetreau) or new chair commissioner Cesar de Leon.
When Lozoya came on board, he did an asset evaluation and warned the GBIC board members that the project would "devalue" their plans fro the industrial corridor. Both Tereau and De Leon voted to table the rezoning request by the CDCB at an August 21 meeting.
Now Mitchell Bennett is urging the commission to grat the CDCB the rezoning request and said that if they don't the planned IDEA charter school that had planned to serve the area might not materialize. He made it seem like the school would not be built if the housing density it seeks is not granted by the city in the rezoning from Residentail "Z" to Residential "G."
Obviously, the plans of both groups will have to be somewhat modified, but judging by the media onslaught and media blitz being perpetrated by the CDCB, they want to have the last word on the issue. Incidentally, not even Mathew's browbeating and threats worked on Mendez and the separation of the UTB-TSC came about despite his efforts to derail that.
Will the dusting off the Mathew ghost work now?
With a front-page banner story and two full-color half-page ads that set the Community Development Corporation of Brownsville back a few $1,000s, it is unleashing its campaign to pressure the city commission to pass a rezoning ordinance that would allow it to build a 675 single-family homes and another 300 to 4000 "multi-family casitas" for rent right next door to the 300 acres Greater Brownsville Incentives Corporation's planned industrial corridor.
They also dusted off the image of Catholic priest Armand Mathew who is mentioned in both ads at the CDCB founder back in 1974. Mathew was a special counselor to former UTB President Julieta Garcia and is memorable for leading a march on his office and threatening Texas Southmost College trustee Trey Mendez with "professional and personal" destruction when the college was separating itself from the "partnership" with the UT System.The planned project is located immediately down wind from the Union Pacific Railroad switching yards which has caused the railroad's representatives to express concern of the proximity of such a dense residential development and the potential liability of an industrial accident or a chemical or hazardous material spill.
This comes on the heels of the city's approval of a plat for the first phase of the residential project that includes 129 single-family units and 150 multi-family units.
CDCB Executive Director Nick Mitchell Bennett said that the project was "shovel ready" and that the organization had bought the property two years ago since "nothing seemed to be happening with the industrial park," an obvious dig at the new GBIC CEO Mario Lozoya who was just hired last month.
The GBIC purchased the land in 2010 and released its Brownsville Industrial Area Development Plan in 2011 calling for the development of an industrial park that would include the 200 acres purchased in 2017 by the CDCB.
Before Lozoya was at the helm, GBIC Interim Director Gilbert Salinas had known of the CDCB housing project,as well as some city planners and Mayor Tony Martinez. However, no one told the chair of the GBIC then (commissioner Jessica Tetreau) or new chair commissioner Cesar de Leon.
When Lozoya came on board, he did an asset evaluation and warned the GBIC board members that the project would "devalue" their plans fro the industrial corridor. Both Tereau and De Leon voted to table the rezoning request by the CDCB at an August 21 meeting.
Now Mitchell Bennett is urging the commission to grat the CDCB the rezoning request and said that if they don't the planned IDEA charter school that had planned to serve the area might not materialize. He made it seem like the school would not be built if the housing density it seeks is not granted by the city in the rezoning from Residentail "Z" to Residential "G."
Obviously, the plans of both groups will have to be somewhat modified, but judging by the media onslaught and media blitz being perpetrated by the CDCB, they want to have the last word on the issue. Incidentally, not even Mathew's browbeating and threats worked on Mendez and the separation of the UTB-TSC came about despite his efforts to derail that.
Will the dusting off the Mathew ghost work now?