Inside McAllen’s vision for a 26-acre central park — and the legal fight behind it

The city of McAllen has ambitious plans to build an urban central park, but the landowner is appealing the eminent domain action in court, records show.

If McAllen is successful in its acquisition using condemnation and park build-out, it would be transformational, city leaders said during a recent public meeting.

Hidalgo County has long ranked low on a Texas-wide and national scale in the percentage of park space near residential communities.

For the average county resident, it’s more likely that they live within a 30-minute drive of a public green space than half a mile or a 10-minute walk of a park.

And even if there is a park space within half a mile, the quality of that walk from their neighborhood to the green space is unlikely to have a safe sidewalk the entire trip or shade structures, and more likely to require walking along unpaved canals or on the side of a roadway in a drainage ditch.

McAllen already has more than 1,000 acres of green space across 101 open spaces, 44 miles of hiking and bicycle trails, three community recreation centers, 80 athletic fields, and four splash pads or interactive fountains, according to the park department’s website.

What the conceptual plans include

McAllen’s park plans, which would be within walking distance, including sidewalks and walking trails, of nearby neighborhoods. And there would be at least one public parking lot for those who will still drive for such entertainment, plus it’s along the McAllen bus route.

McAllen’s plans, while several years in the making and publicly presented during a late-June city commission workshop, are not finalized; the graphic renderings are neither to scale nor an accurate reflection of the current landscape, and there is no publicly available budget for such a project.

The city’s conceptual plans envision a large recreational complex featuring an aquatic center with an eight-lane, 50-meter Olympic-size competition pool, four 25-meter lap lanes, a lazy river and a splash pad.

The proposal also includes an adventure playground with a ninja warrior course and nature climbing area; an 18-hole miniature golf course designed for day and nighttime play; 12 championship-scale tennis courts with stadium seating; padel or pickleball courts; a dog park; a synthetic turf public plaza with a performance stage; in-ground trampolines; and a new 40,000-square-foot recreation center.

The recreation center would include a rock-climbing wall, four basketball courts, eight volleyball court overlays, eight baseball batting cages, a 10,000-square-foot indoor turf area, multipurpose space, public art sculptures and butterfly gardens. The conceptual plans also call for LED lighting on sports fields for nighttime play, while the proposed golf course would be constructed with synthetic turf.

Denny Meline, director of Parks and Recreation for the city of McAllen, shared the plans during the recent presentation, explaining that they’re aspirational.

“The drainage ditch is not that full; it’s not a river, it’s just a drainage ditch. This is just a concept of putting a bridge over that to connect both plats together,” Meline said during the June 22 meeting. “One of the concepts that the city commission wanted us to look at was having one single park where we can bring families together; instead of dividing it up throughout the city, we would have one central location where families can partake in the festivities at one park.”

It’s unlikely that padel and pickleball will be offered due to concerns from neighborhood residents, according to the city.

McAllen expects to purchase a total of 32.8 acres — 26.7 of which are dedicated to park space and 6 acres for potential retail stores. The land sits between 23rd and 29th Street along 4 Mile Line or Lark Avenue — that’s west of Bicentennial Boulevard where the hike and bike trail runs north to south.

“It doesn’t all have to be on this property; it could be to the south, then also enhancing the fields on the back side of the school district,” McAllen City Manager Isaac Tawil said about land the city owns just south of the proposed park.

Instead, it’s a master plan concept refined with input from McAllen’s city commissioners — some of whom are no longer in office since it took several years from inception.

Commissioners weigh accessibility and long-term costs

“Even if we do something that comes out 80% as nice as this looks, we definitely need the south [development] also to complement,” McAllen Mayor Javier Villalobos said during the meeting.

“To your point, if we get 80% of this, it’s going to be a huge win,” McAllen Commissioner Mike Fallek, who was recently elected and is a land developer by trade, said. “One point of concern is sometimes you try to fit too much in there, and then you really degrade the experience for the components that you do have in there. I would just caution you about maybe trying to fit too much in, and making sure you’re providing enough space.”

McAllen Commissioner Joaquin Javier “J.J.” Zamora echoed those sentiments and asked for a tie-in to the city’s bus system.

“We want people to have accessibility. I know we have bike lanes on 29th, but we can’t really have one on 23rd, but we certainly want to make it walkable, a sustainable kind of mobility thing that you don’t need a car. I don’t want this thing to have more than 15% of parking space because that’s not really the highest and best use for the vision that you’re proposing,” Zamora said.

Zamora said he’s concerned about future maintenance costs for the water features, especially the putt-putt course and the lazy river.

“I think that every facility that we use, [we] look at it from the perspective of the ultimate costs. Obviously, the initial capital outlay for the item will be much, much less compared to the cost of maintenance over the life of the use of the item,” Zamora said.

The eminent domain dispute

As of July 8, the city of McAllen does not have a recorded deed for the two-parcel plot, according to public records. Instead, the city asserts that it has site control over the land through its condemnation proceedings and has paid for it through the court process.

In 2025, the city filed a condemnation lawsuit seeking to acquire the property using eminent domain and to offer the property owner fair market value after a deal to purchase it collapsed, records show. It was not clear how much the city offered the property owner.

The Hidalgo County Appraisal District estimates the market value of the land in 2026 is $2.8 million.

As with single-family residential market pricing, the appraisal district market value is often not reflective of the potential sale price, which requires independent appraisal professionals in a transaction.

Local independent real estate professionals tapped in the case told the court that the property’s fair market value is $7.5 million as of September 2025, according to records. The total acreage is 35.3 acres, with a net appraised value of $11,460, which is what the taxes are based on, as it’s agricultural land with an exemption. That means the property owner pays several hundred dollars in taxes each year.

A hearing to review the case is scheduled for October. The current property owner is fighting the city in court over the move, claiming that the appraised value does not accurately reflect the land’s true value and wants a jury trial to determine the true price.

Established in 2018, Ederra LLC is listed as the current property owner and is led by Jon Ander Iruretagoyena Olalde, a Miami-based real estate developer who also runs Nouvelle B LLC. It was not immediately clear what the land’s prior plans were before the city’s plans. Iruretagoyena Olalde has been associated with the property deed since 1986, according to records.

Why the project matters

The McAllen-Edinburg-Mission metro area has long been ranked last in the nation for walkability, access to parks and exercise facilities, and first in the nation for obesity and other health complications.

The likelihood of homes having expansive backyards or sitting adjacent to agricultural fields is higher, though.

But the natural landscape, complete with cacti and other thorny vegetation, requires professional pathways carved out for the public, as bushwhacking through the underbrush is a recipe for a rattlesnake bite or worse.

The heat, which often indexes above 100 degrees during the summer months, can also be a deterrent to outdoor activities.

That’s one reason why local cities and counties across the Valley used the American Rescue Plan Act and other COVID-19-era federal funding to pay for miles of paved walking trails that connect cities and improve walkability and exercise options.

But the metric used for that nationwide ranking is at the county level, not the city level. So it’s unclear where the city of McAllen — or any other local city — stands in such a ranking.

McAllen leaders are pushing to increase the percentage of available park space, but it’s possible the city may not have control of the land if the property owner’s jury trial is successful in October 2026.

If the city of McAllen prevails with its plans, the land must be used as park space under Texas eminent domain law. Such cases can also be settled out of court.