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New plans for the Alamo revealed

Some of the concepts of the plan included adding more than 60 trees to provide more shaded area, restoring and moving the cenotaph, and possibly shutting down Alamo, Houston and Crockett streets to minimize traffic on Alamo Plaza.

New controversy bubbled up on updated plans to revamp Alamo Plaza.

Thursday, the Alamo Citizens Advisory Committee revealed that new plans include possibly tearing down some buildings and closing off three streets to bring improvements to the historic site. The public meeting lasted just over two hours in the Witte Museum's Prassel Auditorium.

Some of the concepts of the plan included adding more than 60 trees to provide more shaded area, restoring and moving the cenotaph, and possibly shutting down Alamo, Houston and Crockett streets to minimize traffic on Alamo Plaza.

Although members of the community could not make public comment, some took the opportunity to boo at the ideas they did not like.

The project was originally estimated to cost $450 million, now the total projected cost is about $400 million, with most of the funds provided privately.

The Alamo Citizens Advisory Committee said transparency is their priority and released the below information Thursday night:

The interpretive plan is based on five main goals that are consistent with the vision and guiding principles adopted by the Alamo Citizens Advisory Committee. Approved by the Texas General Land Office, the City of San Antonio and the Alamo Endowment, the five goals are:
1. Restore and preserve the Church and Long Barrack
2. Delineate 1836 Mission and Alamo footprint
3. Create reverence and respect on the historic site by delineating the historic Mission Plaza
4. Repurpose the Crockett Block buildings into a world-class visitors center and museum that tells the story of the Alamo, the Texas Revolution and its more than 300 years of history
5. Create a sense of arrival to the site and enhance connectivity to other sites and public spaces in San Antonio


“The Alamo Citizens Advisory Committee first gathered in 2014 and worked tirelessly to develop the vision and guiding principles for this preservation effort,” said committee tri-chair and City Councilman Roberto Trevino. “Adherence to those guiding principles is paramount in ensuring this plan tells the entire 10,000-year story of the Alamo while creating a public space that can speak to the iconic site’s layered history while being embraced fully by the community.”

A team of experts selected through a rigorous RFP process, including St. Louis-based attraction design firm PGAV Destinations, museum and heritage consultants Cultural Innovations, and landscape architecture firm Reed Hilderbrand, devised the interpretive plan.

“Feedback from the San Antonio community, as well as all of Texas, has been instrumental in developing this interpretive plan,” Alamo CEO Douglass McDonald said. “The ideas reflected in the plan capture the input of our the public as we collectively work to preserve and restore the Alamo with the goal of giving all of Texas a site to be proud of and enjoy every day.”

Concepts of the plan include removing traffic and commercialization on Alamo Plaza by closing Alamo Street and relocating the existing entertainment attractions to space off of the mission footprint, enhancing the visitor experience and safety by creating a protected area without cars and commercial vehicles. Creating a larger Alamo Plaza will allow for more than 8 additional acres of public space and allow for the Paseo to create a sense of arrival to the historic site. Design concepts also include the addition of more than 60 additional trees to the Alamo Plaza area to create a more inviting public space.

The Cenotaph will be repaired and relocated to a site just off the mission footprint in front of the Menger Hotel, expanding visitor’s understanding of the courtyard and the Alamo story, while allowing for names of Defenders not known when it was commissioned in 1940 to be added. Relocated toward the southern end of an expanded Alamo Plaza, the Cenotaph and the Alamo will now be in one line-of-sight with the Cenotaph serving as the focal point of an open, civic space – a glowing tribute to the spirit of sacrifice exhibited on March 6, 1836 that sets the tone for visitors reverently entering the historic mission core.

The plan also includes the creation of a world-class museum to house the Phil Collins collection and properly tell the story of the Alamo from the mission period to the time when it became iconic, with the world’s largest exhibit on the Texas Revolution. Opening the Alamo’s historic core as a united space for the first time in a century will also create opportunity for living history re-enactments as well as community celebrations.

“This plan will allow locals and visitors alike to escape from downtown, to step into history in the heart of San Antonio,” Vice President of PGAV Destinations John Kasman said. “We’re protecting and restoring the Alamo, reuniting it with its historic land and reconnecting it to other nearby historic sites. The Alamo deserves honor, reverence and preservation and we believe that the community input that is encapsulated in this plan helps us to accomplish that.”

The Alamo Citizens Advisory Committee meeting will be open to the public to attend and listen.

A series of public meetings that will include opportunities for public comment are scheduled for June 18, 19, 20 and 21 from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. The meeting locations will be announced at a later date.

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