An architect’s rendering of what the new Harbor Bridge will look like as it crosses Corpus Christi channel. Courtesy Illustration
A tentative agreement to settle charges of civil rights violations involving placement of the new Harbor Bridge was reached at the end of 2015 with much more work on details to come in the new year. In the agreement, the Port of Corpus Christi will pay out as much as $20 million for voluntary land acquisition and relocation expenses for residents in the Hillcrest and Washington-Coles neighborhoods. Additional funds, if needed, will be paid by the Texas Department of Transportation.
According to documents posted online by the Federal Highway Administration, no one in the two neighborhoods, which will be split by the path of Interstate 37 as it heads over the Corpus Christi Channel, will be forced to move. Those who do agree to relocate, whether renters or property owners, will be compensated for moving expenses and comparable housing. They will receive help finding housing equivalent to the value of their current homes.
At a neighborhood meeting Dec. 18, representatives from the Texas RioGrande Legal Aid Society, which represents the residents, explained the process to the about 40 people in attendance.
A Neighborhood Community Advisory Board will be created to track progress of the relocation process and meet regularly with government officials. Port officials are expected to hire someone to manage the entire process. That person will be expected to work closely with individual residents.
Six months in the making, the agreement was approved by the port commissioners, the Corpus Christi City Council, the Corpus Christi Housing Authority and TxDOT in mid-December. It includes moving the D.N. Leathers Housing Authority apartment complex, which was built in the 1940s, to a new location. The complex includes 122 units.
The two Northside neighborhoods were platted in 1916 and developed in the 1930s and 1940s. As per the Jim Crow laws of the time, Washington-Coles was designated a black neighborhood. Hillcrest followed suit in 1944, when the Washington-Coles area filled up. Then a predominantly white neighborhood, within 20 years, Hillcrest became a predominantly black residential area.
The civil rights complaint points out that the history of the area has been shadowed by racism and industrial encroachment over its 100-year history. When Interstate 37 was built through the existing neighborhoods, it isolated residents from the larger community. The area was locked in between the highway and the industrial corridor created by the port. Other complaints included noise and air pollution from the growing industry along the channel.
In April 2015, after plans for moving Interstate 37 and the Harbor Bridge were approved by TxDOT, residents formed the Citizens Alliance for Fairness and Progress and filed the civil rights complaint.
“We stand together to prevent further injustices against the poor, minority, and disenfranchised individuals and families living in the Hillcrest and Washington-Coles neighborhoods,” the group’s charter reads. “We stand firmly against the continuing institutional discrimination exacted upon these neighborhoods for over 100 years.”
Representatives of the group described the battle as a historic and long, hard fight.
“This would not have happened if we hadn’t stood up for what’s right in our neighborhood,” said one member of the group at the meeting.
Members of the citizens alliance have been attending weekly city council meetings since filing the lawsuit. They have continually pressed the council to change the description of Hillcrest as a “transitional district” in a new planning document under consideration. Plan CC 2035 states that residents should, “over time,” leave the area so it can become light industrial or business use only.
Construction of the new Harbor Bridge, which was expected to begin in 2015, was delayed by the civil rights case. Expected to cost $1 billion, the new bridge will be higher and wider, allowing larger ships to use the Port of Corpus Christi. The new placement, farther along the channel, also will allow cruise ships into the port as it will be positioned beyond the Solomon P. Ortiz International Center, which was built to serve as a cruise ship docking area.
Currently, Hillcrest has about 400 residential housing units. Only 235 of them are occupied. Some of those residents have lived there 30 to 40 years; some their entire lives. The proposed agreement, still in the beginning stages of life, promises to give residents a viable choice on whether to move or stay; however, it does not change the route of the bridge.
