The Beacon Hill neighborhood is once again facing an internal crisis.

Two years after a divisive zoning case involving the now-defunct French & Michigan Art Gallery, business owners in the historic neighborhood say they’re being harassed by a neighborhood activist who is employing every technicality in the City Code to intimidate them.

A series of calls to Code Enforcement have targeted new businesses such as Pickers Paradise, an antiques salvage shop on Fredericksburg Road at West Russell Place, and established neighborhood institutions such as Garcia’s Mexican Food, which has operated from the same spot for 54 years. Some residents have been targeted as well, according to sources.

While 311 calls to Code Enforcement are anonymous, and no one can say with 100 percent certainty who has been reporting Beacon Hill businesses and residents, sources say the leader of the effort is Jessica Fuentes, a social worker and neighborhood resident who led the campaign against French & Michigan in 2014.

Fuentes did not respond to an interview request for this column.

The situation has become so tense that Cynthia Spielman, president of the Beacon Hill Area Neighborhood Association, recently emailed the office of District 1 Councilman Roberto Treviño in the hope that the councilman could resolve the situation.

Two weeks ago, Treviño organized a meeting at his field office with representatives from Development Services — the department that oversees Code Enforcement — and neighborhood representatives.

“We’re committed,” Treviño said, “to educating the neighborhood on some of the rights they have; making sure that we don’t allow our departments to be used as tools for people to harass others and create a fearful environment.”

Based on the accounts of several Beacon Hill business owners and residents, a fearful environment already exists in the area.

“We have an elderly lady who’s been there for 50 years and was in tears because she felt that she’s been driven out of the neighborhood,” Spielman said.

Sources say Fuentes has been known to stand in front of residents’ property when they’re repairing a driveway and use a tape measure to make sure it perfectly conforms to the city code.

“Pretty much all of Fredericksburg Road commerce is under fire right now for whatever code violation applies,” said Max Woodward, the owner of a hostel in Beacon Hill.

“I’ve gotten called into question for parking in front of my building,” he added. “I’ve lived in the building as a tenant for three years and never had an issue, but as soon as I bought it a year and a half ago, there’s been the Fire Department, police, code enforcement, animal control. A slew of every public resource that could be abused.”

Five months ago, Kirt Haeberlein moved into a sprawling Fredericksburg Road building owned by the Catholic Archdiocese of San Antonio. The building had been vacant for 18 years, and Haeberlein quickly revitalized it by setting up Pickers Paradise there.

In an effort to attract customers, he started propping doors and windows outside his shop. Before long, he found himself targeted by Code Enforcement complaints.

“There have been anonymous calls,” Haeberlein said. “Code compliance says, ‘You can’t have this stuff out there.’ And I said, ‘Every business in San Antonio has stuff outside on the sidewalk.’”

In response to the complaints, Haeberlein stopped putting his merchandise outside the shop two weeks ago.

“I would say it’s affected my business by a third,” he said.

In the case of Garcia’s, the popular restaurant has encountered difficulties because it uses an empty lot (owned by the restaurant) for overflow parking.

“We didn’t have a problem until the lady next to us (Fuentes) started hassling us, calling code compliance, because it’s not regulated as a parking lot,” said John Garcia, co-owner of the restaurant. “And they told me we have to improve things.”

Maria Berriozábal, a former City Council member and a Beacon Hill resident for 40 years, took a broad view of the current conflict.

Berriozábal said she is “very concerned about what is happening to our older neighborhoods.” She added that the city has failed to protect the historic integrity of Beacon Hill, and compared it to a situation in which kids run amok because there is no parental guidance.

It might be time for everyone involved to retreat to their respective time-out chairs.

ggarcia@express-news.net

Twitter: @gilgamesh470