Friends of Bebe and Mary Fenstermaker, along with environmentalists and open space proponents who are sympathetic to the sisters’ plight, gathered for a news conference at the Fromme Farm on Feb. 11. Photos by Linda Byrne

By Linda Byrne
Editor

On a piece of Hill Country land undisturbed for more than a century, ranching sisters are taking a stand.

Circling the wagons with friends, environmental activists and an eminent domain lawyer they say has been on retainer for 20 years, Bebe and Mary Fenstermaker are telling area officials to go back to the drawing board in drafting a flood control plan for the region.

Flood prevention planners have identified the Fenstermaker property off Scenic Loop Road south of Boerne as a possible location for what is being called LC16A-site 5, a flood control dam that comes with a price tag of $16 million.

David K. Langford of the Texas Wildlife Association said what the sisters’ fight boils down to is this: “Is it fair for government to give developers variances to build in a flood plain, and then condemn someone else’s land in order to build a dam protecting those houses that were knowingly and purposefully built in that very same flood plain?”

Bebe Fenstermaker said their 900-acre Maverick Ranch-Fromme Farm has been targeted for eminent domain proceedings four times previously. “We have fought bad ideas for 20 years. We think that’s enough,” she said.

Thus far, the sisters say, they have received very little written or verbal communication from the city of San Antonio, the lead agency planning the dam. They and their attorney have attended one meeting with officials in the last two years.

Ron Green, president of the Helotes Heritage Association, a group working to preserve the area’s cultural and natural heritage, said the decision-making process at the official level “has not been transparent.”

The Bexar County Commissioners Court, San Antonio City Council, the San Antonio River Authority and 17 suburban cities collaborated in 2001 to form the Bexar Regional Watershed Management partnership in order to alleviate flooding in and around San Antonio.

Doug Wilkinson (inset) of Fox 29-TV interviews Bebe Fenstermaker.

From the San Antonio River Authority’s perspective, this is all very preliminary. Bexar County is in the process of developing a multi-million dollar capital improvement program to be spread over a 10-year period.

“They’re looking to spend anywhere from $400 to $500 million, $40 million to $50 million per year, building capital improvement projects throughout the Bexar County community, solely for flood mitigation purposes,” said Steven Schauer, SARA’s manager of external communications.

The county initiated the improvement program this fiscal year and has identified about 56 projects officials want to study.

Schauer says it’s not just a matter of looking at the Fenstermaker property to see if it’s feasible to build. The pros and cons of all the sites are being identified and taken into consideration.

“We’re taking all of these other aspects, such as the open space and wildlife habitat, as well as historical nature of the property, into consideration,” he said. “All of that is needing to be incorporated in the preliminary study.”

Bebe Fenstermaker is dubious. “They say it’s preliminary, but they’ve picked the site,” she said.

Indeed, Schauer confirmed that Phase I was completed in a 10-square-mile area that includes the Maverick Ranch in August 2006.

"Phase I looked at 20 potential sites,” he said. “Phase 2 recommendations that the city is pursuing pared those down to six or seven,” and the Maverick Ranch is in that group.

Schauer said Phase 2 includes ground surveys and geological testing, historical-archeological studies, environmental assessments and a “fatal flaw” analysis.

But the Fenstermakers have not consented to a right-of-entry agreement for Phase 2 studies, which would give officials access to their property to conduct studies.

They maintain their land, which has been a working cattle ranch for 150 years, is the wrong place for a dam because it is home to two endangered bird species, the golden-cheeked warbler and the black-capped vireo, and it also has historic sites that should be left alone.

“Three historic homesteads comprising an early settlement neighborhood …ensured the listing of the entire Maverick Ranch-Fromme Farm as a district on the National Register of Historic Places. There are prehistoric sites within the Ranch-Farm and the last Indian raid in Bexar County occurred on the Maverick Ranch-Fromme Farm in 1870,” the Fenstermakers said in a news release.

Annalisa Peace, executive director of the Greater Edwards Aquifer Alliance, an umbrella organization representing 41 member groups, said a public hearing is needed before any more plans are carried out.

“Northwest Bexar County contributes clean water to San Antonio. We think the highest and best use of this land is what they’re doing right here,” Peace said.

Writer Joni Simon contributed to this report.