SAN ANTONIO-- Alamo visitors will begin seeing upgrades to the historic complex in about a month, starting with stonework on the shrine's famous facade, ushering in a new era of improvements at the site.

Local and state officials vowed at a news conference Wednesday to make dramatic changes to the Alamo area downtown, using the Legislature's recent budget appropriation of $31.5 million as a starting point for the Spanish Colonial mission and battle site.

State Sen. José Menéndez, who joined Texas Land Commissioner George P. Bush and more than a dozen other officials, said the area has long needed millions of dollars for structural repairs, preservation and upgrades, along with aesthetic enhancements to add a greater sense of reverence.

Under an agreement with rock music legend Phil Collins, who has donated more than 200 artifacts to the Alamo, the state has until October 2021 to have a permanent museum and visitor center leased, purchased or near completion. Menéndez said it also will include the story of the Mission San Antonio de Valero as an early settlement in what now is a major U.S. city.

"That museum needs to have, also, the very beginnings, and it needs to be inclusive of all of the different groups," he said.

A new law directing the Texas General Land Office to work with the city of San Antonio to develop a master plan for the state-owned Alamo complex and adjacent city plaza took effect Tuesday. The City Council is expected in October to consider an agreement with the Land Office and a contract with a team to develop the plan by next summer.

The state appropriation includes $1.5 million in the Alamo's general biennium budget, $5 million for high-priority upgrades and preservation at the complex, and $25 million for the master plan process and projects resulting from the plan.

The city also intends to issue $17 million in certificates of obligation in its capital improvements plan for work in and around the plaza. Those allocations are subject to change and will require City Council approval.

State Rep. Diego Bernal, D-San Antonio, said he believed that "from this day forward, this place will change."

"This place is part of our collective DNA. And we owe it to it, to people who fought here and died here, and who lived here, to show it the kind of respect it deserves," said Bernal, who led a panel as a city councilman that developed goals and vision statements for the master plan process.