CORPUS CHRISTI, TX — Hillcrest residents have been waiting for over eight years.
On Tuesday, they finally saw the City of Corpus Christi's plans to upgrade Hillcrest parks when they were presented to city council.
“They were going to help rehab the area. And so, they’ve been leading us by the nose ring for years,” Daniel Pena said.
Pena is a life long resident of Corpus Christi with over 40 years in the Hillcrest neighborhood. He's the vice president of the Hillcrest Resident Association and has taken part in the Hillcrest Community Advisory Board (CAB), put on by the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT).
In 2015, the Hillcrest residents filed a lawsuit in regards to the new Harbor Bridge project and how it was going to disenfranches them from the rest of the city, discriminating against the community. The Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) agreed and Hillcrest won. A plan came together to mitigate the effects of the project, but it was slow moving.
The agreement includes the FHWA, TxDOT, City of Corpus Christi and Port of Corpus Christi.
With the city contributing the majority of over $21.5 million, the city manager said the design of four city parks are 60 percent complete.
Assistant City Manager Neiman yYoung said the plan was approved by the Hillcrest CAB.
At Washington Coles Park, the plan is to build a park entrance and the city’s second amphitheater.
“The new Harbor Bridge plans include a multi-modal path that will land in North Beach, come over the bay, into the city and the footprint lands right across the street from the Washington Coles Park,” Young said.
H.J. Williams Park will see resurfaced basketball courts with shade overhead, a new playground and entrance to the park.
Pena thinks these upgrades are nice, but still skeptical it will happen.
“It’s all positive when you have a neighborhood to enjoy it, but it’s like a day late a dollar short,” he said.
The plan for T.C. Ayers park is to install a splash pad with a softball field.
Some on city council questioned the addition of the softball field, but were told that's what the Hillcrest CAB wanted.
"The build out of a softball field which is basically homage to an old baseball field that existed in the Hillcrest community back in the 60's and 70's. So, we want to utilize this opportunity to bring this amenity back," Young said.
"Kids have to have somewhere to play, somewhere to go. I coached Little League for years and one of the most important things is we didn't have a practice field. We didn't have an assigned field," Pena said.
Pena believes the field will get good use not just as a baseball field, but a soccer field and more.
Hillcrest will also be getting a pool again with the Hillcrest Aquatic Center next to T.C. Ayers Park. TxDOT added in an extra $5.5 million from the original price tag to add the pool. The land will be donated by the State of Texas to the city.
Lastly, Ben Garza Park will see an upgrade to the playground.
The purposed plan includes a path connecting Washington Coles, T.C. Ayers and H.J. Williams Parks with a "Freedom Walk." It's a path that will have memorials and signage explaining he history of the Hillcrest Neighborhood. Parks will have similar signage memorializing leaders of the community.
Pena said it's hard to be excited for what may come when it's taken so long to get this far.
“i have to see, I have to see it. That’s all I can say,” he said.
Young said the project would likely be proken into two, completing the parks in one project and the aquatic center in the second project.
Young said, with city council approval, construction on the project can begin in September and be completed by the end of 2025. That's the same deadline the FHWA gave to the city, according to Young.
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