Mission San Juan, located in south San Antonio in Missions National Historic Park on Dec. 21st, 2014.

After years of wrangling, and the efforts of many elected officials, San Antonio Missions National Historical Park is expanding by 137 acres.

The U.S. Senate passed the Missions National Historical Park Boundary Expansion Act, sponsored by Rep. Lloyd Doggett, D-Austin, as part of the 2015 National Defense Authorization Bill on Dec. 12. President Barack Obama signed the bill into law Friday.

The bill, which will affect the city’s four Spanish colonial missions maintained by the National Park Service, had languished after it was originally passed in the House last year.

“It’s been a long, long, hard ride for a bill that should have been easy to pass but, unfortunately, it wasn’t,” said Bexar County Judge Nelson Wolff, who was among a group of officials, including former Rep. Ciro Rodriguez and outgoing Rep. Pete Gallego, who had pushed for the park’s expansion over the years.

Doggett said it was uncertain until the very last minute if he could secure a consensus to get the bill passed.

“It’s so challenging to get anything completed in Washington,” Doggett said, “and I believe we have done it here.”

Adding the acreage is “important for preserving cultural and historical resources,” Doggett said, adding that “it’s not just about the past, it’s about the future.”

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The newly annexed land, around Missions San José, San Juan and Espada, will include part of the San Juan Dam and the head gate to the San Juan Acequia, a Spanish colonial-era drainage structure.

It also will mean the inclusion of land between the San Antonio River and Mission San José, helping to protect the view from the mission to the river, said Mardi Arce, park superintendent.

Adding the land to the park “will allow for much easier management of the resources by the park service,” said Susan Chandoha, executive director of missions’ friends group Los Compadres.

The park service also plans to expand its demonstration farm around Mission San Juan, land that was part of the original Spanish farm fields, called labores. Farming has already begun; this fall, the park service planted wheat near the park for the first time, Chandoha said.

The park service already owns 30 of the additional acres; the rest is owned by the San Antonio River Authority, the city and the county. The river authority had planned to donate land to the park for the San Juan farm, but that wasn’t possible before the expansion, Arce said.

“The most exciting part of it is the idea that these labores will be protected, and that will help tell a more complete story for the entire park,” Arce said.

Adding acreage is considered another boon to efforts to secure World Heritage Site status for the four missions controlled by the park service; the Alamo is owned by the state.

Some worry that the missions’ nomination could be hindered by the United States’ ongoing refusal to pay dues to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, or UNESCO, since the organization admitted Palestinians as full members in 2011. UNESCO oversees the World Heritage process.

But Doggett pointed out that UNESCO did approve World Heritage status for Poverty Point in Louisiana this year.

A decision on the missions is expected next year.

“I believe we have a strong application,” Doggett said.

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