Who owns troubled ditch? Brownsville and BISD can't decide

BROWNSVILLE, Texas (ValleyCentral) — Residents in one Brownsville neighborhood are trying to get the drainage ditch behind their home cleared.

However, no one in the city can agree on who owns the land. The area in question runs behind Garza Elementary School, near Esparza Road.

Eduardo Martin, who grew up in the area and whose parents still live there, said neighbors have been trying to get the issue resolved for years. “As far as how many people I’ve talked to with the city, to be honest, I’ve lost count", Martin said.

Martin told us it's his understanding that residents' property lines run from their backyards to the middle of the ditch, where they meet land owned by the Brownsville Independent School District.

He said that residents have just taken care of ditch maintenance by mowing and clearing the entire area. But that became unsustainable when the city installed a hike and bike trail a few years ago.

“They put in a small fence, and it was for the protection of the people walking there", Martin said, "But what that did, was it also cut off the residents’ ability to take out any debris or trash.”

Homeowners in the area were able to bring the logs and branches from their trees up the ditch and haul them to the corner where they'd be picked up. Now that area is trapped between the backyard fences and hike and bike rail.

It's also made mowing the area impossible. Tall grass and standing water attract a variety of natural dangers. Arturo Gonzalez, longtime resident of the area, said he had to kill snakes that came up into his yard.

Gonzalez said that even more problematic than snakes are the people who've crossed the border and found their way into the area.

People jump the river and come looking for this area, Gonzalez said. "And then immigration is up and down this area looking for them during the night."

Over the years, Martinez said he's been told different things about who owns the land. He's even managed to arrange several meetings that city representatives have attended.

Unfortunately, he said, those meetings haven't helped clarify the issue. “In one of our meetings actually", Martin said, "at the Southmost Library, BISD said they had no claim on that land.”

When reached for comment about this story, a spokesperson for the school district said the property belonged to the city.

However, City Engineer Carlos Lastra said that, based on appraisal maps, the land belongs to BISD.

To make things even more confusing, an easement for the land was given to Drainage District #5, which no longer exists. In an email exchange between Martin and then City Commissioner Nurith Galonsky-Pizana dated June 8, 2022, Galonsky-Pizana wrote,

"As of right now, we are still in the process of figuring out who owns the easement you are referring to because the City cannot affect property that does not legally belong to the City.  Since your last email dated May 24, 2022, we learned that the drainage easement was granted to Drainage District #5, which no longer exists.  Assets from that drainage district were transferred to other drainage districts and to the City of Brownsville but we haven’t been able to determine which entity holds the easement rights for the ditch running behind your home."

Area residents said there's one easy fix to this ongoing issue.

“Since nobody’s taking care of the land, they wanted for the ditch to be filled in. And then that way, they could fence all the way to the back, and they would take over the maintenance of the property since it’s not being done anyway", Martin said.

"We would really like to solve this", Gonzalez added, "The question is, how much time will it take to solve this?"