Patrick Gallagher (Gallagher & Associates) updated the commission on planning for the San Jacinto Monument site and a new visitor center. He said the master planning and budgeting phases are complete and the team has moved into conceptual planning for a visitor center sited behind the monument, pushed partially below the water table to minimize visual impact.

Gallagher said one of the principal design goals is to reconnect the Texian camp to the Mexican camp across the battlefield by removing modern landscape features (including the reflecting pool) that obscure the troop movements. He said the reflecting pool was not original to the monument construction and that early indications are the basin will be drained and filled while preserving some memory of the pools basin; staff also raised public-safety and wildlife reasons for removal, citing alligator presence in the pond.

Plans also include significant rework of the site road network to allow vehicle pull-offs at interpretation points, a new amphitheater and new landscape plantings appropriate to the historical period. Gallagher told commissioners the new visitor center would house interpretation of the battle and would be integrated with the monument restoration (including elevators and restored interior lobbies) so interpretation of the battle itself will be the primary driver for visitor circulation.

Staff said the project will include further archaeological study and landscape research to accurately restore historic plantings, groundforms and routes. The commission and AAB discussed the reflecting pool removal and landscape implications; staff noted there will be ongoing design updates and further permitting as the project advances.