No Man Is An Island
November 30th, 2007 at 3:46 pm
Self-described Jesus Freak, Galveston lawyer, Cabeza de Vaca buff, and bleeding-heart nature-lover Bob Moore has a dream. He wants the Chicago developer trying to turn one of the last open stretches of Galveston Island into a resort community to pack up and leave. In place of Marquette Land Investment’s 1,000 acres of golf courses, resort condos and hotels, Moore envisions a beach-to-bay nature preserve, protecting the area’s ecologically-intact network of marshes and uplands.
“It’s not just a chunk of land,” Moore told me in September while I was working on a story about Galveston. “It’s an endangered species unto itself.”
He also sees on the property, amidst the freshwater ponds and salty wetlands, an ecumenical Cabeza de Vaca Spiritual Center, a place where people of all faiths can come together near where the Spanish explorer broke bread with the Karankawa in the 16th Century.
“The powerful spark of the divine is out there everywhere,” Moore says.
Photo by Daniel Carter
You may say he’s a dreamer but he’s not the only one. A growing number of folks in Galveston have been agitating against the Marquette development since it was announced last year. Most people have more pedestrian complaints - traffic, marred views, etc - but at the heart of the outcry is a sense that Galveston’s unique barrier island habitat is close to being lost.
The Galveston City Council is making Moore’s dream a lot harder to realize. On Thursday, despite an outpouring of opposition from citizens, the council voted unanimously to approve the project. The Galveston County Daily News reported that the audience of 200 sat in “stunned silence” as the decision was announced.
Members of the Beach to Bay Preserve, a group formed to spearhead opposition to the development, brought a stack of petitions containing 1,329 signatures asking the council to halt Marquette’s plans.
One woman described the property as Galveston’s irreplaceable treasure, likening it to the Mona Lisa.
“People come here because our landscape is beautiful,” said Karla Klay. “We have to consider that this is our masterpiece and take care of it. We don’t have to promote this type of development.”
Although Moore writes sentimental prose about waterfowl, he also is a hard-nosed lawyer and committed organizer. In 1984 Moore scored a major legal victory against uber-developer George Mitchell (of The Woodlands fame).
In that case, Moore successfully argued that Mitchell and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers were ignoring the cumulative effects of development on wetlands on Galveston Island and that a comprehensive environmental impact statement was required before Mitchell’s project, the Lafitte’s Cove subdivision, could be permitted. The legal precedent established by that suit, titled Fritiofson v. Alexander, has been used 57 times since, according to Moore. Now, Moore plans on building on Fritiofson in a new lawsuit challenging island development. His Mitchell lawsuit spent five years in court.
“I told [Marquette principal] Sloniger you better bring your sack lunch ’cause you don’t know what you’re fixin’ to get into,” he said.
December 1st, 2007 at 3:12 pm
Bob Moore is an extraordinarily caring person. I have been involved with him for 30 years in projects for the betterment of Galveston, ranging from conservation to preservation on the Island. You can hang your hat on his attorney abilities and his strong commitment to the environment, citizens, and the bird, marine and wildlife species, most of which now are on the brink of extinction on the West End of Galveston Island and the water quality of West Galveston Bay.
This Marquette Land Company development is a senseless taking of the last 1,058 acres of incredible original prairies, wetlands, swales, ridges, tributaries and protective floodplain on the West End, all in the name of big money for the Chicago based investors proposing 4,200 houses, 5 or 6 highrise condominiums, a 15 storey hotel, a devasting excavation for a marina and a full-blown golf course on this sensitive land on this barrier reef Island. Forever, such urbanization will destroy the natural and scenic natural and beloved ecological treasures on the Galveston coast between 8 and 11 miles roads to the bay and will be the final blow to the now confirmed ship-wreck landing site of Cabeza de Vaca in the 15th century, probably the most significant site in all of North America.