Farming charity says contractors broke fence, stole soil

HARLINGEN, Texas (ValleyCentral) — The owners of an organic farm in Harlingen came home one day to find excavators and trucks digging up the drainage ditch on their property.

The soil was hauled to a subdivision being built across the street.

Diana and Saul Padilla own H.O.P.E For Small Farm Sustainability on Morris Road in Harlingen. They say contractors broke down their fence to get at their land while they were out of town.

They have met with city officials, but can not get a straight answer about who was digging up their property. Or why.

“They were taking our soil and moving it to the opposite side of the street," Diana Padilla said. She said over 80 trucks took the soil she and her husband Saul own, and deposited it in the burgeoning Allison Subdivision.

According to Harlingen Planning and Zoning documents, the Allison Subdivision was approved by the City Commission in January of this year.

Padilla said she called the police to report a crime. “They cut our fence, and they cut the electric wire, because we have cattle here," She said. "Trespassing. Theft. About a week later, the detective  tells us they can’t do anything.”

Padilla said she met with city officials to figure out what was going on. Her and her husband sat down with the City Manager's office, the Planning and Zoning Commission and other stakeholders.

She said that during the meeting, she offered a compromise to the situation. "If they put a pipe through, the water would go through our property. They can cover it up, and we can use our land, and they can still have this water going through our land. That would benefit them, and it would also benefit us, and it wouldn't be reducing our land, and they said no."

The Padillas said all the parties agreed to meet again on Tuesday after they returned from a trip.

“So we scheduled an appointment for Tuesday at 4 o’clock," Diana Padilla said, 'Well, they already were on the property while we were gone. And I called him and said, you gave them permission to get back on the property? He said, yes, we did.”

Padilla said City Engineer Luis Vargas told her he authorized the trucks to come back and continue working. Mr. Vargas's office was contacted for comment about this story, but he did not reply.

As the Padillas were outside their property, Mapping and Engineering Supervisor Daniel Villafranco drove by.

According to him, digging on the Padilla's property was part of an irrigation District project to widen and deepen the drainage ditch.

We contacted the Irrigation District and were told General Manager Tom McLemore was out of town and would not return until next week.

However, he did reply to questions via email, saying, “The easement is owned by the city of Harlingen. The project is a subdivision and the widening of the ditch is a requirement of the city. The Irrigation District is not involved in the project. I do not know who the contractor is or why work has been started or if the land owner was notified prior to work beginning. The city or the developer should be able to answer those questions."

One official said it was an irrigation project, while another was saying the issue was with the subdivision developer.

According to Harlingen City Commission meeting minutes from January, 10 this year, Planning and Zoning Director Xavier Cervantes told Commissioners the ditch belonged to the Irrigation District. However, they were giving it to the city because they did not need it for irrigation purposes anymore. The minutes go on to say, "He said it went before City Commission last week and that they approved taking ownership of the ditch and that they are working on the deed to make it official."

Within those same minutes, Vargas described a widening back downstream on Louisiana Street. The minutes record Vargas as saying, "he thought these improvements were being done in exchange of doing an on-site detention pond."

The document states that Commissioner Sanchez asked if the current drainage ordinance allows for a developer to use on-site detention in a property not within the subdivision to address the drainage requirements. Records show Vargas began to answer that question before Sanchez added to his inquiry. The question still goes unanswered.

The Padillas said each subdivision must have its own detention pond and want to know how the developer can use their land, without their permission, to get around the requirement.

The transfer of the ditch to the city also leaves several unanswered questions.

Why were the Padillas not notified before the initial digging began? Even if the city owns the ditch and has the right to access it, why did the workers break their fence to access their property? If this was a city project, why didn't public works employees do the work, rather than contractors for the subdivision development? Why were the Padillas not given the option to keep their soil instead of it being trucked across the road?

The Padillas called the police again Wednesday morning when more trucks showed up at their property.

Diana said she thinks city officials are interfering by giving favorable treatment to the developers.

“When the project manager was told by the officer that they could not come in here, he said to him, the city attorney. Harlingen city attorney, which is your attorney, said they could come in," Diana Padilla said. "And I kind of found that weird. Because, I said, he just finished telling us this is a developer’s problem. And now he’s saying that the city attorney said that they could do it.”

We reached out multiple times to the City Manager and City Attorney's office for comment about this situation. We also contacted the city's Communications Department, as well. As of now, we have received no response from any of those departments.

Padilla and her husband said the only thing they can do now is to take legal action. They were able to get an attorney from Austin to take their case Wednesday afternoon. They said the first thing they will do is seek an injunction to stop anyone coming onto their property until they get some answers.