IS THE FIX IN FOR UTB TO GO TO TEXAS 100-FM 803?

By Juan MontoyaWith UTB President Juliet Garcia just about confirming that her new "downsized" university may be located between San Benito and Brownsville, it is just a matter of time for the other shoe to drop in March and the UT System Regents announcing that they will build the new dream campus near FM 803 and Highway 100.
Garcia's statements to the local daily came on the same day that the Regents authorized the issuance of $151.6 million in tuition revenue bonds to fund the construction of a new school. The UTB campus, the location still to be decided, would need to be finalized by September 2016.
“What we don’t know yet is whether we are going to expand in place as an urban campus or in another site,” she told the newspaper.
Those words had to have pierced the heart of Brownsville Mayor Tony Martinez as he goes about his one-man quest to anchor the UTB campus and pump new life into a moribund downtown.
But working on parallel lines, on the same day that Garcia was asking the Regents to let her issue the debt that the students will pay though their tuition, the Brownsville Metropolitan Planning Organization (MPO) was approving the widening of FM 803.
"As currently proposed, the project would involve re-aligning FM 803 from its current location further west extending from State Highway 100 (SH 100) to US 77/83 at the Rancho Viejo Overpass – a distance of  approximately 2.7 miles. The portion of existing FM 803, from approximately 0.93 miles south of SH 100 to the SH 550/FM 511 intersection would remain in place and become a local road with jurisdiction, control and maintenance transferred to Cameron County and to the City of Brownsville. To see the project site, click on link below.
http://www.cameroncountyrma.org/docs/FM_803_Re-Alignment_Notices.pdf
UTB Provost Alan Artibise said in a workshop last week that the university would need to acquire more than 300 acres for a projected population of 20,000 during the next few decades.
And even though, the daily reports that Garcia said talks with TSC over acquiring some TSC land for UTB campus expansion are “good and productive,” Garcia said, it is enlightening to know that ther eis a second option.
That has UTB – if talks with TSC do not succeed – using UTB property on the Fort Brown campus for some program studies and build a “large undergraduate institution north of Brownsville, somewhere between us and San Benito.”
The MPO, by approving the widening of the arteries and and moving on to public coments on teh fast track, shows that the powers that be upstate have pretty much chosen to move out of downtown Brownsville and leaving Martinez, who did not want the MPO to approve the widening of the roads, high and dry and with  ahandful of expensive properties he convinced the rest of the city commission to purchase on the ad valorem payment plan.
This has set off a barrage of commentary in the blogospher, most of it not at all flattering to the principals.
"Local taxpayers, most of whom are not even paying attention to this process, need to recognize that 'revenue bonds' means their tax dollars. TSC is a taxing district...will Juliet seek to create another local 'taxing district' to pay for her bungled job of the UTB-TSC partnership? UTB-TSC has always been the local "13th grade" for local students (most not qualify for a university course of study) and Juliet has depended on federal and state financial aid to keep things running....warm butts in seats means money....and is the reason Juliet continued to dumb down the academic requirements...to keep those warm butts in 'her'seats."
Another said: "We understand that Juliet will serve as 'pied piper' for a gaggle of folks from Brownsville going up for a 'show of force' to support Juliet's request. Of course, those going are the regular 'sheep' who follow Juliet around.
"No doubt 'Hissoner' Tony Martinez will be in that gaggle. This trip to beg for $151 million could backfire....when the Regents see that it is cheaper to reorganize in Hidalgo County and downsize in Brownsville. I don't think Juliet, the Lucios and Rene Oliviera have the political clout to do anything except give Juliet a "Lone Star Card" to continue UTB and force the local tax payers to pay for the rest. Queen Juliet has been making the rounds to promote herself and UTB, but.....she can't "show them the money", like Hidalgo County can. Looks like the return of UTPA to Brownsville.
"A city block in downtown is 78,000 square feet. Seven floors of that would equal the 546,000 square feet they need. Put a parking garage on a neighboring block and there you have it."
 "What is the existing outstanding bond debt of TSC?" another writer commented. " If I am not mistaken it is somewhere around the $151 million being sought. If so, why did the UT system refuse to assume the TSC debt with their attempt to take all of TSC's real estate?"
" I just find it interesting that the Kardenas Klan is 'willing' to sell property on the east side of the Expressway; across from Rancho Viejo, to re-locate UTB. The Kardenas Klan is part of the overall reason that the UTB-TSC "partnership" failed... they got too greedy.
"What concessions to the Kardenas Klan will have to be met (named streets after Mary Rose, named buildings or facilities) in order to relocate to the Kardenas property. We know the Kardenas Klan is harassing local planners to provide new exits and entrances from and to the expressway to connect with that property.
"Does that push for planning changes mean the Kardenas Klan believes a deal is done? We know Juliet Garcia is indebted to the Kardenas Klan for educating her in the philosophies of greed and autocracy. Will Juliet follow the Klan again?"