1930 Peek Inside A Comprehensive City Plan for Brownsville, Texas by E.A. Wood

Compiled by Jose Cazares

 I was going to write a description information here for the reader to see what Jose Cazares discovered through his continual research of Brownsville's downtown history but instead just cut and pasted what he wrote when he sent it to me to post for you: 

joe cazares <***@yahoo.com> 

Javier I went over to the SMU, ( Southern Methodist University) campus in Dallas a few days ago to visit the Fondren library there...

Javier

I went over to the SMU, ( Southern Methodist University) campus in Dallas a few days ago to visit the Fondren library there. I was researching a book that I have shown you before on facebook titled: " A Comprehensive City Plan For Brownsville Texas, " by E.A. Wood of Dallas Texas.

I m sending you some of the info that I collected.

On the 12th of September, 1930, the City of Brownsville adopted an ordinance creating a "City Planning and Zoning Commission" and providing for the adoption of a Master Plan for the physical development of the city. Any area outside of the corporate limits which might have a bearing upon the completed Plan was to be included.

On the 22nd of July, 1930 the City had engaged the services of E.A. Wood of Dallas, to prepare and make a city plan for Brownsville.

One of the first acts of the City after the creation of this Commission was to place control of all building permits outside of the downtown area in the hands of the City Planning and Zoning Commission by means of a Temporary Zoning Ordinance to prevent damage to the residential sections of the city while a comprehensive Zoning Ordinance was being prepared.

Another act was to hold a city election for the purpose of annexing additional territory and determining whether the city should control the platting of property for a distance of five miles beyond the corporate limits. The Master City Plan talks about the proposed Port and Intercoastal canal as well as a proposed Civic Center, located near the 1912 Cameron County courthouse, this Civic Center area would include a library a new city hall, a museum, a Civic Center plaza and a civic center.  The Master plan also talks about new parks, street projects and has maps, charts regarding population. The Master Plan book has some photographs of buildings and street scenes.

It was an interesting book to read about the creation of the City Planning and Zoning Commission and to see the maps and photographs, if you are ever in Dallas, visit the SMU Fondren library, the book has about 400 pages in it.

Growth of Brownsville as Shown by Various Statistics from Comprehensive City Plan for Brownsville, Texas by E.A. Wood

Proposed Civic Center, located near the 1912 Cameron County courthouse

Google aerial map of block area