Myfe Moore
Guest Columnist 

In a guest column in this paper, Ardith Garner, president of the Helotes Economic Development Corporation (EDC) board said, “in our current political climate, some blatantly avoid and distort the truth.” However, the Helotes EDC has consistently not told the truth.

They use cozy terms like “rural” and “rustic” and “mom and pop stores” and “boutique hotels” to promote the sale and use of our little town’s limited resources. There is nothing “rural,” “rustic,” or “mom and pop” in codes that allow the removal of 60 percent of the trees (does that bring “rural” or “rustic” to mind?) and allows 60 percent impervious cover and 3-story buildings with 42-foot eaves. Any architect will tell you that’s a 4-story building.

And while we are having a little fun with the “truth,” why don’t we examine the word “Village”?

Does a 40,000 square foot building (picture the huge Whole Foods store at the Quarry) sound like a “village” to you? The EDC will tell you that if, for instance, you build a 40,000 square foot building, you would have to put three different façades on it so it will look like three buildings. I’m sorry, but even if it looks like three different buildings jammed up next to each other, it’s still a very big building. Certainly “mom and pop” would never want a 40,000 square foot store. In the EDC’s own words, “the intent . . . is to provide a more intense urban village character.” “Intense?” Where did we lose “rural” and “rustic,” and where did “mom and pop” run off to?

Is this fair to all concerned? The EDC was created as the result of a little-publicized election, with 82 (of 116) voters agreeing to take a ?-cent sales tax away from our bus service for our elderly and handicapped residents and spend it on economic development.The trouble is, so far it has only benefited six landowners in Old Helotes, two reluctantly. There are approximately 6,000 residents in Helotes. Six landowners will benefit; 5,994 residents won’t.

What about spending all that money on giving bus service back to the handicapped or on our serious drainage problems, our dangerous traffic problems, or our new police and fire stations? And what corporate welfare awaits other shopping centers struggling to get going in areas of Helotes outside of Old Town or the proposed commercial village? How much is being spent on them? Not a dime. All is being spent on subsidizing only one area in Helotes.

Mrs. Garner also spoke of goodwill and better friendships. Whoops! Better move on.

Helotes is experiencing the most pronounced division between its citizens that it has ever seen, almost evenly divided between those wanting conservative, controlled development and those wanting rapid, uncontrolled development. It’s a complicated situation, but “goodwill” and “better friendships” went the way of “rural,” “rustic,” and “mom and pop.”

What’s to trust about the EDC’s Old Town Helotes project or its proposed Commercial Village? I’m sorry to say, not much.

Myfe Moore serves on the Helotes Architecture Review Board and Helotes Citizen’s Forestry Committee, and hold 2 properties in the historical Old Helotes district.