Structure Along Highway 100 Sees Demolition

Council Reviews Options for Regulations on Food Trucks Within City Limits

by Tony Vindell/LFN

A dilapidated house along Texas Highway 100 is in the planning stages to be demolished and a public hearing to determine its fate has been set by Los Fresnos City Council.

The empty structure on the western side of the city is practically falling apart, deemed unsafe and the city has notified its owner of the plan to tear it down.

“We sent a letter back in October, stating it’s unsafe in condition,” City Manager Mark Milum said during a March 13 meeting of the city council. “The building is in such a bad shape it needs to be taken down.”

He said he wasn’t asking the council to take any action but to set a date for a public hearing and for it to be at the next council meeting on April 10.

Milum said it takes time, money and legal requirements for the city to demolish a private property but it’s something required in accordance to a city ordinance.

By contrast, an old structure about a block west of that house has been demolished without the city involvement and Milum cited that as an example of what some property owners can do on their own.

In other actions, the council approved a first reading on Ordinance 491 which calls for regulating mobile food vendors inside city limits.

The action was prompted as several vendors selling meals on the so-called food trucks have a tendency to park their vehicles here and there and, since the city has no regulations on such practice, it’s now planning to do so.

Milum said he has looked at other cities with food truck parks such as Brownsville and Harlingen and would like to have something similar here in Los Fresnos.

Under a plan in the works, a property owner could rent land to a minimum of three vendors, install a restroom and have three parking spaces for each food truck.

Proposed locations are either along both sides of Highway 100 but out of the city business district.

“We don’t want to prevent them from coming here,” the city manager said. “In fact, a food vendor started like that and it now has a restaurant.”

Milum was referring to Taqueria El Cien – one of the city’s busiest eateries today.

The city council also approved two changes of order for the first neighborhood park named Montes-Castro.

The order called for allocating a total of $5,170 in improvements and the city will provide the funds thanks to a healthy increase in property taxes and sales tax rebates of $50,000 and $10,000, respectively.