Negotiations to develop an aquarium and three hotel-condominiums in Isla Blanca Park are “up in the air,” Cameron County Judge Gilberto Hinojosa said Sunday.

The judge told a citizens group on South Padre Island that county commissioners are still considering the $50 million project proposed by private developers.

“The aquarium project is really something we’re interested in because we believe it would be good for our community — if it’s a world-class aquarium,” Hinojosa said, “ — if it’s a project that’s going to be able to be used for educational purposes for the kids.”

Hinojosa said commissioners do not want the hotel-condominiums without the Wyland aquarium.

And the aquarium clearly cannot on its own support its construction and operational costs, Hinojosa said.

“We all understand also that [the aquarium] is not a stand-alone project in its ability to make money,” Hinojosa said. “The question we have is: How are they going to pay for it? That answer has not been given to us yet.”

As of yet, the county is not entered into a concession contract with the developers for the project.

However, the commission has raised questions in executive session about the legality of building private condominiums inside a park intended for public use, Hinojosa said.

The citizens group, the Surfrider Foundation South Texas Chapter, had questions of their own about the impact of development within the park.

The local environmental group opposes private development within the park, members told the judge. Concerns included keeping public beach access and the Island trailer park.

Under the current proposal, developers have not pitched anything that would threaten either public beach access or the trailer park, Hinojosa said.

However, the county is still under contract that could eliminate the park if casino gambling on the Island is authorized by the State of Texas.

“We’ve always taken the position that beach access be allowed and that people who have always used Isla Blanca Park’s beach can continue to use it,” Hinojosa said. “The only thing that would change, in terms of access to the area, was the trailer park, and that trailer park was going to be moved to another part of the Island.”

The county entered into a contract with the developers — who were then using a different legal entity — to build a casino, condominiums, hotels, aquarium and possibly a marina at the site of the current trailer park.

The active contract, which is valid through 2009, relies upon the legalization of casino gambling.

Other phases of the proposal depend upon other factors. Hinojosa said a court would have to rule on whether the park could be used for the development of private condominiums,

“All of the trailer parks were going to be moved to the north on the Island to a site that was going to be purchased by the developer,” Hinojosa said. “We were going to create the same number of trailer park spots or more.”

The conversion of the trailer park into a marina who require authorization from the U.S. Coast Guard and other agencies, which was “doubtful,” the judge said.

“It was a maze to get to where they wanted and where we felt comfortable based on what we felt was eventually going to happen, which was casino gambling was going to come to South Padre Island,” Hinojosa said. “Naturally, if it was going to happen, we wanted it in our area because the revenues would be used toward park development all over the county.”

The casino project was expected to boost Cameron County Park’s $3.5 million annual budget by more than $5 million, minus the lost income from tolls at Isla Blanca Park, Hinojosa said.

The park system is funded only by concession fees and tolls, but not tax dollars.

“It was a complicated proposal that was put together,” Hinojosa said. “What happened is that casino gambling didn’t pass, and these developers came to us about three to four months ago and they said, ‘Well, we want to continue to look at the development of Isla Blanca Park but without the casino.’”

Yet Surfrider members stated they didn’t want to allow such development within the Island park, despite the possible revenues.

Hinojosa said he would share those concerns with county commissioners.

“Everything’s up in the air,” Hinojosa said. “There’s no agreement with respect to the condominiums, no agreement with respect to the aquarium. We’re still looking at their proposal.”