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Adopted: AUGUST 11, 2016
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CITY OF SAN ANTONIO
Comprehensive Plan
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Prepared by:
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In association with: Economic & Planning Systems, Inc. WSP | Parsons Brinkerhoff Ximenes & Associates, Inc.
OpenPublica
SAN ANTONIO, TEXAS · GENERAL PLAN
San Antonio, Texas — General Plan, in full
1 document · 330 pages
Assembled by OpenPublica from the documents it serves for this government. Each section below is a separate publication by the government, and its page numbers are that section's own. We have pinned 1 slot here, so an element absent from this file may simply not have been reviewed yet.
Complete Plan
SA Tomorrow Comprehensive Plan (Adopted August 11, 2016)
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SA
TOMORROW
Table of Contents
SECTION 1: BACKGROUND AND VISION
Chapter 1: Introduction ........................................................... 1.1
Why Plan Now?...................................................................................... 1.2 Planning Area ........................................................................................ 1.3 Plan Background.................................................................................... 1.5 Plan Process and Engagement............................................................ 1.10 Plan Organization ................................................................................ 1.14
Chapter 2: Assets, Issues and Opportunities ........................... 2.1
Assets and Opportunities ...................................................................... 2.1 Challenges ............................................................................................. 2.5
Chapter 3: Vision Framework..................................................... 3.1
Vision...................................................................................................... 3.1 Guiding Principles.................................................................................. 3.4 Cross Cutting Themes ........................................................................... 3.6
SECTION 2: PLAN FRAMEWORK
Chapter 4: Building Blocks ......................................................... 4.1
Complete Neighborhoods ..................................................................... 4.2 Corridors................................................................................................ 4.7 Urban Centers ..................................................................................... 4.10 Regional Centers ................................................................................. 4.13 Place Types ......................................................................................... 4.15
Chapter 5: Regional Centers....................................................... 5.1
Three Types of Regional Centers ........................................................... 5.2 Regional Center Profiles......................................................................... 5.4
Chapter 6: Place Types............................................................... 6.1
Multimodal, Mixed-Use Place Types ..................................................... 6.2 Trails, Parks and Open Space Place Types.......................................... 6.22 Adaptive Reuse Place Types ............................................................... 6.38 Place Types and Regional Centers....................................................... 6.50
SECTION 3: PLAN ELEMENTS
Chapter 7: Plan Element Framework....................................... 7.1
Organization ............................................................................................ 7.1
Chapter 8: Growth and City Form........................................... 8.1
Strategic Infill........................................................................................... 8.2 Strategic Expansion ............................................................................... 8.5 Housing Stock ........................................................................................ 8.7 Natural Resources................................................................................... 8.8 Education.............................................................................................. 8.10 Goals and Policies................................................................................. 8.11
Chapter 9: Transportation and Connectivity........................... 9.1
Multimodal Network .............................................................................. 9.2 Land Use and Transportation ................................................................ 9.6 Congestion.............................................................................................. 9.8 Effectiveness ........................................................................................ 9.10 Economic Competitiveness .................................................................. 9.11 Goals and Policies................................................................................. 9.12
Chapter 10: Housing ............................................................ 10.1
Affordable Housing .............................................................................. 10.2 Housing Choice .................................................................................... 10.4 Connected Neighborhood.................................................................... 10.5 Priority Areas........................................................................................ 10.6 Infill Neighborhoods ............................................................................ 10.8 Goals and Policies............................................................................... 10.10
Chapter 11: Jobs and Economic Competitiveness ................ 11.1
Economic Geography............................................................................ 11.2 Economic Diversity .............................................................................. 11.4 Workforce.............................................................................................. 11.8 Business Attraction and Retention...................................................... 11.10 Goals and Policies............................................................................... 11.12
Chapter 12: Community Health and Wellness....................... 12.1
Healthcare and Food ............................................................................ 12.2 Physical Activity .................................................................................. 12.4 Water..................................................................................................... 12.5 Transportation ...................................................................................... 12.6 Health Outcomes.................................................................................. 12.7 Air........................................................................................................ 12.10 Goals and Policies............................................................................... 12.11
Chapter 13: Public Facilities and Community Safety ........... 13.1
Infrastructure............................................................................................... 13.2 Emergency Response............................................................................... 13.4 Schools...................................................................................................... 13.5 Energy........................................................................................................ 13.6 Zero Waste ............................................................................................... 13.8 Parks.......................................................................................................... 13.9 Goals and Policies................................................................................... 13.11
Chapter 14: Natural Resources and Environmental Sustainability ......................................................... 14.1
Natural Resources..................................................................................... 14.2 Water......................................................................................................... 14.3 Energy........................................................................................................ 14.5 Stormwater................................................................................................ 14.6 Air.............................................................................................................. 14.8 Recycling.................................................................................................. 14.10 Goals and Policies................................................................................... 14.12
Chapter 15: Historic Preservation and Cultural Heritage ............................................................................. 15.1
Policies and Procedures........................................................................... 15.2 Cultural Heritage ...................................................................................... 15.4 Economic Development ........................................................................... 15.6 Technology and Innovation....................................................................... 15.7 Adaptive Reuse ......................................................................................... 15.8 The Missions ........................................................................................... 15.10 Goals and Policies................................................................................... 15.12
Chapter 16: Military ................................................................... 16.1
Land Use and Military Integration............................................................ 16.2 Encroachment............................................................................................ 16.5 Economic Impact and Employment ......................................................... 16.7 Care for Service Members, Families, and Veterans................................ 16.8 Goals and Policies................................................................................... 16.11
SECTION 4: IMPLEMENTATION
Chapter 17: Comprehensive Planning Program ................... 17.1
Plan Hierarchy .................................................................................... 17.2 Regional Planning............................................................................... 17.3 Sub-Area Plans ................................................................................ 17.10 Implementation Service Component................................................ 17.15
Chapter 18: Implementation Strategy..................................... 18.1
APPENDIX: GLOSSARY AND ACRONYMS
Glossary.............................................................................................. A.1 Acronyms............................................................................................. A.4
SA Tomorrow Acknowledgements
MAYOR
Ivy R. Taylor
CITY COUNCIL
Roberto C. Trevino, District 1 Alan E. Warrick, II, District 2[^ *] Rebecca J. Viagran, District 3[^ *] Rey Saldana, District 4 Shirley Gonzales, District 5 Ray Lopez, District 6 Cris Medina, District 7[^ *] Ron Nirenberg, District 8[^ *] Joe Krier, District 9 Mike Gallagher, District 10
* Comprehensive Planning Committee
CITY MANAGER'S OFFICE
Sheryl Sculley – City Manager Peter Zanoni – Deputy City Manager Michael Rodriguez – Executive Assistant
PLANNING COMMISSION
Marcello D. Martinez, Chair George Peck, Vice Chair Andrea Rodriguez, Chair Pro Tem Jody R. Sherrill Angela Rinehart Michael Garcia, Jr. Bradley Carson Jason Koehne George McNair
DEPARTMENT OF PLANNING & COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT
Bridgett White, AICP – Director Bobbye Hamilton – Assistant to the Director Rudy Nino, Jr., AICP – Interim Assistant Director & Project Manager Jacob Floyd, AICP – Planning Coordinator Micah Diaz – Senior Planner Brenda V. Martinez – Senior Planner Ian Benavidez, CNU-A – Planner John M. Dugan, AICP – Former Director
COMPREHENSIVE PLAN STEERING COMMITTEE
Ron Nirenberg, Tri-Chair Darryl Byrd, Tri-Chair Dr. Afamia Elnakat, Tri-Chair Hazem Rashed-Ali Stephen Allison Melissa Byler, P.E. Janie Canty-Mitchell, PhD, RN, FAAN James Cunningham Will Garrett Debra Guerrero Karen Guz George Peck Sue Ann Pemberton Angela Rinehart Jody R. Sherrill Susan Wright
SPECIAL THANKS
Leilah Powell, Mayor’s Office Walter Ague, District 8 Norbert J. Hart, Deputy City Attorney Susan Guinn, Assistant City Attorney Office of Sustainability Transportation & Capital Improvements Department VIA Metropolitan Transit San Antonio Water System CPS Energy San Antonio River Authority
[^ *]: Comprehensive Planning Committee
COMPREHENSIVE PLAN ADVISORY GROUP
Urban Land Institute
David Adelman
VIA Metropolitan Transit
Jeffrey Arndt
South San Antonio Chamber of Commerce
Al Arreola Jr.
San Antonio Chamber of Commerce
Roger Arriaga
San Antonio Tourism Council
Marco Barros
Bexar County School Boards Coalition
Bobby Blount
San Antonio Mobility Coalition
Victor Boyer
San Antonio Public Library Board of Trustees
Jean Brady
University of Texas Health Science Center
Janie Canty-Mitchell, PhD, RN, FAAN
University of Texas at San Antonio
Albert Carrisalez
San Antonio Hispanic Chamber of Commerce
Ramiro Cavazos
Alamo Regional Mobility Authority
John Clamp
San Antonio Water System
Steven Clouse
SA2020
Molly Cox
Edwards Aquifer Authority
Brock Curry
University Health System
Ted Day
CENTRO San Antonio
Pat DiGiovanni
San Antonio Mobility Coalition
Don Durden P.E., R.P.L.S.
San Antonio Housing Authority
Sara Eaves
Responsible Growth Alliance
Ashley Farrimond
Port San Antonio
Ramon Flores
American Institute of Architects
Angel R. Garcia, AIA
Brooks Development Authority
Leo Gomez
San Antonio Hispanic Chamber of Commerce
Jose Maria Gonzalez
San Antonio Board of Realtors
Gilbert Gonzalez
San Antonio River Authority
Steve Graham
Habitat for Humanity
Natalie Griffith
University Health System
George B. Hernandez, Jr. JD
North San Antonio Chamber of Commerce
Kent Hickingbottom
Union Pacific
Ivan Jaime
Joint Base San Antonio
Felipe Jimenez
Texas Department of Transportation
Mario Jorge, P.E.
San Antonio Parks and Recreation Board
Ray Knox
San Antonio Board of Realtors
Justin Landon
Greater San Antonio Builders Association
Jim Leonard
Bexar County Health Collaborative
Elizabeth Lutz
San Antonio Conservation Society
Bruce MacDougal
Alamo Area Metropolitan Planning Organization
Isidro Martinez
San Antonio Apartment Association
Allyson McKay
CPS Energy
Richard Medina
San Antonio Housing Authority
Richard Milk
City of San Antonio Aviation Department Frank Miller
San Antonio Apartment Association Hector Morales
Green Spaces Alliance Julia Murphy
San Antonio Area Foundation Dennis E. Noll
San Antonio Medical Foundation Jim Reed
Greater Bexar County Council of Cities Chris Riley
Bike Texas Jack Sanford Robin Stallings
Mayor's Fitness Council Jeff Skelton
CPS Energy George Tamez
San Antonio Youth Commission Adam Tutor
San Antonio Sports Mary Ullman Japhet
Texas A&M University-San Antonio Mario Vazquez
Real Estate Council of San Antonio Susan Wright
Citizens Environmental Advisory Committee Erin Zayko
COMMUNITY HEALTH AND WELLNESS PLAN ELEMENT WORKING GROUP
Janie Canty-Mitchell, PhD, RN, FAAN, Chair Elizabeth Lutz, Vice-Chair Noah Almanza Ruben Arciniega Hannah, Beck George Block Terry Burns Eric Cooper Matthew Driffill Laura Esparza Ashley Farrimond Trever Gilman Angela Hartsell Beth Keel Alan Montemayor Dora Peralta Leslie Provence Krystin Ramirez Sonia Rodriguez Steven Sano Hannah Santiago Jeff Skelton Susan Thompson
Supporting City Departments: Metropolitan Health District Solid Waste Management Department
GROWTH AND CITY FORM PLAN ELEMENT WORKING GROUP
Susan Wright, Chair Steve Patmon, AIA, Vice-Chair Andres Andujar Karen Bishop Stephen Colley, AIA, LEED AP Phil Crane Cris Eugster Gabriel Gonzales Rene Gonzalez Lori Hall Azza Kamal, PhD Amber Lamm Michael Lara Mark Larson Jaime Lawhn, AIA Pam Leissner Lina Luque Martha Mangum Debbie McNierney Richard Medina Sam Mills, P.E. Emil Moncivais FAICP,AIA, CNU Deborah Omolawe Howard Peak Brad Peel, AICP Kim Stoker Christine Vina, AIA
Stephen Whatley Stephanie Wiese Bob Wise, AIA Clint Wynn Erin Zayko
Supporting City Department: Development Services Department
HISTORIC PRESERVATION AND CULTURAL HERITAGE PLAN ELEMENT WORKING GROUP
Sue Ann Pemberton, Chair James Griffin, Vice-Chair John Baker Cherise Bell Paula Bondurant Tom Brereton Antonia Castaneda Dayna A. Cramer Cecilia Garcia Sarah Gould Michelle R. Krupa Frederica Kushner Bianca Maldonado Marilu Reyna J.R. "Corky" Rubio Norma Witherspoon Barbara Witte-Howell
Supporting City Departments: Office of Historic Preservation Office of the City Clerk
HOUSING PLAN ELEMENT WORKING GROUP
Debra Guerrero, Chair Natalie Griffith, Vice-Chair Cheri Bass Kitty L. Brietzke, J.D. Karina C. Cantu Christina Castano Adam Conner Sara Eaves J. Antonio Fernandez James Fischer Joni Foster Jose Gonzalez Xavier Gonzalez, AIA Mike Hogan Donna Jones Jeff Kuwamura Brad McMurray Richard Milk Dennis E. Noll Jennifer Ramos Marc Ross Desiree Serna
Supporting City Departments: Department of Human Services Metropolitan Health District
JOBS AND ECONOMIC COMPETITIVENESS PLAN ELEMENT WORKING GROUP
Will Garrett, Chair Karen Dickson, CEcD, Vice-Chair Heather Adkins Margaret Anaglia Marco Barros Mack Bennett Brian Buchanan Danny Chavez Adrian Collett Robert Colunga Serafina De Los Santos Brian C. Dillard Scott Farrimond Ernest Gerlach Lorenzo Gomez III Melissa Gray Christopher Herring David Holmes Trey Jacobson Marcel Johnson Rob Killen Tom Long Aiyana J. Longoria Adrian Lopez Rosemary Melody Jim Pershbach
Sha-Rone Caffie-Reyes David Shelledy, PhD Adam Tutor Renee Watson, BBA, MPA, MCCA Federico Zaragoza
Supporting City Departments:
Economic Development Department San Antonio Public Library
MILITARY PLAN ELEMENT WORKING GROUP
James Cunningham, Chair Byron C. Hepburn, M.D., Vice-Chair Joseph Hart Bill Hill Felipe Jimenez Sheryl Johnson Deborah Kendall-Gallagher, J.D., PhD Tracy Manning Michael Moore Hector Morales Sheli Lawson Dick Nevell Marcus Peoples David E. Petersen Meg Reyes Rob Rodriguez Mike Rust Gail Siller Susan Thompson
Supporting City Department:
Office of Military Affairs
NATURAL RESOURCES AND ENVIRONMENTAL SUSTAINABILITY PLAN ELEMENT WORKING GROUP
Karen Guz, Chair Sara Beesley, Vice-Chair Gavin Nichols Annalisa Peace Noah Almanza Rene Perez Philip Bedford Francine Romero Scott Bible Pauline A. Rubio Karen Bishop Thursten Simonsen, PE Steven Clouse Karen Weehler Trey Dawson Brenda Williams Brent Doty Scott Halty Greg Hammer Maggie Hernandez Bryan H. Hummel Nicholas Jones June Kachtik Hector Martinez Alan Montemayor
Supporting City Departments:
Office of Sustainability Metropolitan Health District Parks and Recreation Department
PUBLIC FACILITIES AND COMMUNITY SAFETY PLAN ELEMENT WORKING GROUP
Hazem Rashed-Ali, Ph.D, Chair Yvonne Rivera, Vice-Chair Don Adams Christina Aronhalt Tremell Brown Tanisha Fuller-Felix Santiago Jaramillo Alberto Jorge Gayle Knight Anita Ledbetter Mark Ledford Juanita Pineda, DDS Maggie Thompson
Supporting City Departments:
San Antonio Fire Department Department of Human Services Metropolitan Health District Pre-K 4 San Antonio
TRANSPORTATION AND CONNECTIVITY PLAN ELEMENT WORKING GROUP
Melissa Byler, P.E., Chair Laura Morales, Vice-Chair Jim Reed Jason Rodriguez Nolan Anderson Jack Sanford Jeffrey Arndt Darcie Schipull Roger Arriaga
Dave Wegman P.E., CFM Jonathan Bean James Williams Joseph Black Jeremy Wyndham, P.E. Victor Boyer Lester Bryant Moises Cruz Don Durden P.E., R.P.L.S. Angel R. Garcia, AIA Jesse Garcia, P.E. Jeanne Geiger Robert G. Hanley, AIA Mark Hurley Ivan Jaime John C. McCarthy Barbara McMillin Marques Mitchell William A. Myers
Supporting City Departments:
Transportation & Capital Improvements Department Aviation Department, Metropolitan Health District Office of Sustainability
CITIZEN’S PLANNING INSTITUTE
Bill Bailey Jennifer Ramos Hannah Beck Oscar Rosalez Ken Brown Klaus Schonfeld Andy Castillo Lauren Sides Dominick Dina Donalda Smith Lorenzo Gomez Mark Tirpak Xavier Gonzalez, AIA Kay Turner Amy Hardberger Felix Ziga David Komet Sylvia Mendez Paul Miller Gilbert Morales Brad Parscale
CONSULTANT PROJECT TEAM
MIG, Inc.
Mukul Malhotra, Principal Jay R. Renkens, Principal Chris Ryerson, Project Manager Nicole Hofert Chase Mullen Elly Brophy Joyce Vollmer Noe Noyola Mark Sillings Beth Martin JulieAnn Murphy Amalia Leighton Jose Rodriguez Diana Gonzalez Cole Gehler Mark De La Torre
Economic & Planning Systems, Inc.
Andrew Knudtsen, Principal Matt Prosser, Vice President
WSP | Parsons Brinkerhoff
Kerri M. Collins, Vice President Derek Mueller
Ximenes & Associates, Inc.
Linda Ximenes Sonia Jimenez
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SECTION 1
Background and Vision
Chapter 1: Introduction Chapter 2: Assets, Issues and Opportunities Chapter 3: Vision Framework
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Chapter 1: Introduction
San Antonio is planning boldly. We’re tackling the tough issues and making the hard choices because “business as usual” isn’t good enough. We’re planning now to ensure that the great City of San Antonio captures the type of growth and economic development that is compatible with our community’s vision of the future and provides benefits to all our current and future residents.
In 2014, our community embarked on the momentous effort of developing a modern Comprehensive Plan for our city. Comprehensive planning is a coordinated community-based process that will help us achieve the goals that are important to our residents. It promotes sound development, as well as public health, safety and welfare.
Chapter 213 of the Texas Local Government Code enables a municipality to adopt a comprehensive plan for the long-range development of a municipality. A comprehensive plan may include, but does not have to be limited to, provisions on land use, transportation and public facilities. Comprehensive plans often consist of a single plan or a coordinated set of plans and may be used to coordinate and guide the establishment of development regulations. In light of this, a municipality must develop standards for determining the consistency required between a plan and development regulations.
The city’s current comprehensive plan is the 1997 Master Plan Policies. It is important to review and update comprehensive plans periodically in order to meet the changing goals and needs of a community. Any future update will include resident and stakeholder input as the Comprehensive Plan is a community-based plan. The primary objective in undertaking the current Comprehensive Plan was to engage the community in the refinement and implementation of our vision for growth and development in San Antonio that was established by the SA2020 process.
The SA2020 vision originated with a series of public forums in 2010 to develop goals for improving San Antonio by the year 2020. Thousands of San Antonians participated in the visioning process, which culminated in a detailed report, released in 2011, that outlined a bold strategic vision for San Antonio’s future.
Our vision reflects the community’s desire to support economic development and new jobs while fostering community arts, education, health and culture. SA Tomorrow is the city’s innovative, three-pronged planning effort established to implement the SA2020 vision through 2020 and beyond, and includes three concurrent and complementary plans: the updated Comprehensive Plan, a Sustainability Plan, and a Multimodal Transportation Plan. These plans all work in concert to guide the city toward smart, sustainable growth.
Why Plan Now?
Projected growth for Bexar County is expected to add up to 1.1 million new residents, with 500,000 new jobs, and 500,000 new dwelling units by 2040. We need to update the city’s Comprehensive Plan to prepare our community for this anticipated population and employment growth, and to help us understand what that growth will look like and how it will affect our daily lives. With a relatively fixed area available for future development, the anticipated population and employment growth will certainly have an impact on our community’s overall quality of life and livability. We also have to ask ourselves if it’s now time to expand our boundaries or focus on development within the city’s existing footprint.
To be successful and truly address the long-term issues facing San Antonio, the Comprehensive Plan has to tackle those difficult questions that arise from an honest assessment of our community’s challenges and clearly state the hard choices we must make to achieve the community’s vision for the future. Many of these hard choices are rooted in the fact that a “business as usual” approach is beginning to result in systems and patterns that are unsustainable or that produce results counter to our community’s stated vision and goals. Reversing decades-old habits and changing entrenched systems is difficult. The uncertainty and complexity associated with planning for the next 25 years is daunting.
Perhaps the most important task tackled by our community in crafting this Comprehensive Plan was determining where growth should be directed and encouraged, and doing so in a way that protects vital historic, cultural, social and natural resources. By engaging an array of community stakeholders, jurisdictions and communities, the planning process has allowed us to articulate where growth should be encouraged and where it should be discouraged. With these areas identified, we can deploy policies and regulatory techniques that encourage development in the desired areas. Such efforts are predicated on a new way of thinking about growth that requires significant cooperation and coordination between different jurisdictions, utilities and other members of the community at a citywide and regional level.
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If San Antonio continues to develop along recent trends and using existing development patterns, our quality of life will decrease significantly over time leading to increases in cost of living, commute times and congestion levels.
If guided properly, the influx of new residents and jobs will enhance our city and all our residents. Planning now will allow us to direct growth consistent with the community’s vision and our goals for the future. The goals of the Comprehensive Plan effort are to:
- Update the 1997 Master Plan Policies;
- Re-affirm the community’s vision for the future;
- Implement and expand on the SA2020 vision for the built environment;
- Articulate the form of future physical growth;
- Accommodate and distribute projected population growth;
- Guide strategic decision making;
- Guide infrastructure investments and incentives;
- Reconcile existing plans, policies, and assumptions; and
- Update the city’s current comprehensive planning program.
Planning Area
The planning area for SA Tomorrow is the corporate limits of the City of San Antonio and its extraterritorial jurisdiction (ETJ) in unincorporated Bexar County. When implemented, the plan will also affect and inform planning with the Alamo Area Metropolitan Planning Organization (AAMPO) and other regional agencies. While the Comprehensive Plan is an umbrella policy and planning document with citywide implications, it does not alter or negate our existing neighborhood plans, community plans, sector plans or any other land use plans.
Rather, the Comprehensive Plan and the larger SA Tomorrow effort provide an overarching planning framework, big picture direction and the tools necessary for our residents to create, coordinate, update and implement plans and strategies for regional centers, corridors, and neighborhoods, along with many other existing and future places throughout the city.
What is a Comprehensive Plan?
A comprehensive plan is an official, long range planning document that provides strategic direction for decision making and community investment. San Antonio’s comprehensive planning effort was developed with support and collaboration from our city’s residents, local organizations, the Department of Planning & Community Development (DPCD) and other city entities. The purpose of this plan is to unify the visions, goals, and policies of San Antonio’s other plans and initiatives and identify specific issues, challenges and needs. It presents preliminary concepts, strategies, and recommendations for various elements of the community.
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Plan Area
Plan Background
A variety of previous and concurrent efforts were critical inputs to the Comprehensive Plan process. Several of those efforts are highlighted below.
1997 MASTER PLAN POLICIES
The previous umbrella document is the San Antonio Master Plan Policies, adopted May 29, 1997. These policies provided guidance in the evaluation of future decisions on land use, infrastructure improvements, transportation and other issues, setting broad, long-range goals for San Antonio. The 1997 Master Plan Policies have been largely implemented through more detailed levels of planning by means of other citywide functional plans, sector plans, neighborhood and community plans and community development plans.
SA2020
The SA2020 process was a community-wide visioning effort guided by a steering committee of community leaders and representatives. The Steering Committee consisted of three Tri-Chairs and 22 respected members of the community, representing the public, private and nonprofit sectors. The Steering Committee drew from the diversity of San Antonio, including a broad range of interests and areas of expertise. The process was supported by the City of San Antonio and the Office of the Mayor, whose staff was responsible for meeting logistics, publicity and coordination.
The SA2020 process began with a Vision Scan to honor and build upon past community visioning efforts, including both broad-based visions and targeted vision statements from various community sectors. The Vision Scan process identified common themes and values, and provided the foundation of a structural framework for the SA2020 process, which is organized into 11 areas:
- Arts & Culture;
- Community Safety;
- Downtown Development;
- Economic Competitiveness;
- Education;
- Family Well-Being;
- Government Accountability & Civic Engagement;
- Health & Fitness;
- Natural Resources & Environmental Sustainability;
- Neighborhoods & Growth Management; and
- Transportation.
SA2020 resulted in an overarching vision for our community, as well as more detailed visions, targets and strategies for each of the 11 areas. SA2020 provides a significant foundation for the Comprehensive Plan and the larger SA Tomorrow efforts.
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COMPREHENSIVE PLAN INITIAL STUDIES
The city completed several technical studies before initiating the more formal SA Tomorrow effort. These studies provided a baseline understanding of how San Antonio fares in terms of capacity, land buildout and costs associated with different growth scenarios and community goals. The three major components to the initial studies are summarized below.
Component 1: Land and Development Capacity Study
This study assessed the land and infrastructure capacity necessary to accommodate additional employment and housing development within the existing city limits and the city’s extraterritorial jurisdiction (ETJ). The study found a lack of residentially-zoned land to accommodate the forecasted demand for housing in several portions of the city. There isn’t enough land to capture housing development, particularly within the north part of the city—if development continues under the same density and development patterns. Increasing the density of neighborhoods and the average density of single-family development will help reduce some of the demand for land. Additionally, there is an oversupply of land in underutilized commercial- and industrial-zoned parcels. Areas with large concentrations of vacant and underutilized commercial and industrial-zoned parcels can be repositioned as residentially-focused, mixed-use neighborhoods that will increase the supply of residential land in these inner subareas.
The analysis of housing preferences and existing housing conditions indicated there is unmet demand for walkable neighborhoods, based on existing conditions and consumer preferences. San Antonio lacks walkable neighborhoods. Despite limited newly constructed single-family development projects that have a more walkable design, local demand exists for more walkable development. The recent inner city development and the strength of the city’s historic neighborhoods—which, on average, are more walkable than the rest of San Antonio—are indicative of this demand.
San Antonio has reached the limits of unconstrained outward growth due to land availability, high cost and difficulty of developing infrastructure and utility service. There is land capacity within the county to accommodate the growth forecasted by 2040; however, it will likely require investment in currently under performing parts of the city and development at slightly higher densities in targeted locations.
Component 2: Future Jobs, Economic Opportunity and Housing Study
This study analyzed the demand for jobs and housing over the next 25 years and the impact of forecasted demand on development patterns and geographic locations. Employment in San Antonio has a polycentric geographic pattern, with clusters of employment dispersed throughout the city. This reflects the dispersed nature of the major economic drivers of the city’s economy (military, healthcare, education and tourism). There are currently inadequate land use controls or incentives, and a lack of appropriate master plans to guide and attract employment growth. This has made it difficult for the city to leverage these assets to their full potential.
However, jobs within the city have somewhat organically concentrated into 13 centers or nodes, largely along major transportation routes. This configuration offers an opportunity to align economic development efforts with land use planning and infrastructure investment. Focusing economic development within these centers will help transform these areas from employment centers to true mixed-use activity centers.
Component 3: Fiscal Impact of Alternative Growth Scenarios
This fiscal analysis had two main findings regarding new development. First, infill development was found to have a lower cost (infrastructure, services, etc.) to the city relative to potential tax revenues than greenfield development (in vacant areas). Second, the density of a development is key. The potential costs and benefits of five existing development patterns were also assessed. The denser programs tested had the greatest revenue relative to costs for the city. Bexar County also recently analyzed the fiscal impact of development. The County found that it is not equipped to provide an adequate level of urban services due to limitations in its revenue generation and service provision tools provided by the State, which will ultimately create a burden for the city.
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Existing Land Uses
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The Multimodal Transportation Plan includes policies, strategies and projects intended to promote a more balanced transportation system.
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The Sustainability Plan includes recommendations in seven focus areas addressing environmental sustainability, economic resiliency and social equity.
SA TOMORROW PLANS
To achieve our community’s vision as expressed and tracked by SA2020, the city launched a robust, three-pronged planning effort: SA Tomorrow. SA Tomorrow encompasses this Comprehensive Plan, as well as a Multimodal Transportation Plan and a Sustainability Plan. All of these efforts focused on addressing the challenges and opportunities associated with adding over one million people to our region by 2040.
Multimodal Transportation Plan
The city worked with stakeholders, partner agencies and the larger community to develop a Multimodal Transportation Plan that builds upon and operationalizes Comprehensive Plan goals and policies, incorporates all modes of transportation and recommends a sustainable, safe and efficient transportation system that can support the new residents, housing and jobs anticipated for our community over the coming decades.
Its recommendations are consistent with the Comprehensive Plan's vision for the city's transportation system. It communicates the city's transportation strategy for the future, proposes improvements that address all modes and provides methods for prioritizing projects.
Sustainability Plan
The community and stakeholders described a sustainable San Antonio as an inclusive and fair community with a thriving economy and a healthy environment. The Sustainability Plan highlights seven focus areas and five cross-cutting themes. Each focus area has its own vision, outcomes, strategies and measures of success. The cross-cutting themes—identified by reviewing past surveys, current plans and policies and public input—identify and highlight key priorities. These priorities create the framework on which every identified strategy was evaluated to ensure that upon implementation, the state of these priority areas is improved or, at a minimum, not negatively impacted. Additionally, these cross-cutting themes have been considered and integrated into each of the major components and elements of the Comprehensive Plan and the Transportation Plan.
VIA’S VISION 2040
Vision 2040 is a community-driven process to update VIA Metropolitan Transit’s Long Range Comprehensive Transportation Plan through the year 2040. Through its planning process, VIA customers and stakeholders, along with residents in the larger San Antonio region, have helped develop our region’s vision for the future of public transportation. VIA’s Vision 2040 planning process occurred alongside SA Tomorrow and other significant planning efforts by the City of San Antonio, Lone Star Regional Rail and Alamo Area Metropolitan Planning Organization. Developing these multiple plans together ensures unprecedented synergies across all efforts for our city and region.
Vision 2040 identifies a range of transit solutions to serve our region’s busiest and most vibrant areas of activity, employment and housing. The plan will present various modes of transportation, and develop system alternatives to understand how transit could affect our region. By engaging the community, Vision 2040 will work to evaluate all alternatives and identify a preferred system plan that meets the transit needs of today and tomorrow. The preferred system plan could result in a mix of high-capacity transit, express bus, skip-stop, circulator and local bus services.
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Based upon community input, VIA’s Vision 2040 plans for the future of transit connectivity in San Antonio over the next 25 years includes a substantial expansion of the existing Primo bus service and enhanced premium and express service.
What's the Link Between Density and Transit?
Collaborative efforts between the city and VIA will align major land use and transportation initiatives in San Antonio for decades to come. Our Comprehensive Plan calls for projected growth to be captured primarily in regional centers, urban centers, and key multimodal corridors. These focused areas of greater residential and job concentration benefit from more dynamic and connected mobility opportunities. VIA’s Vision 2040 Long Range Plans seeks to enhance our transit network with high-capacity and high-frequency options that operate most effectively when connecting high-density stops and stations. Ongoing strategic coordination must ensure that VIA’s expanding network overlaps and connects with our existing and emerging mixed-use and activity hubs.
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Plan Process and Engagement
The planning process for the Comprehensive Plan began in Fall of 2014 and extended over a year and a half. A variety of opportunities were offered for key partners, stakeholders and the larger community to provide input and feedback. Four major phases of the planning effort were supported with stakeholder interviews, Plan Element Working Groups, neighborhood workshops, public meetings and other outreach efforts. The following provides an overview of the planning phases and timeline, as well as several key sources of the community input that informed and inspired the contents of this document.
PHASES AND TIMELINE
Building on the Comprehensive Plan Initial Studies, the first phase of the process focused on the development of the Existing Conditions Technical Background Report. That report presents data and summaries of document and plan reviews for each of the nine content-specific elements of the Comprehensive Plan.
With the Existing Conditions Technical Background Report complete, the process shifted toward policy analysis and the development of goals and policies. The existing conditions report, the subsequent policy analysis and several rounds of working group revisions informed a framework of goals and policies for each plan element.
In the third phase of the process, plan element goals and policies were further refined in conjunction with a concurrent process of identifying and developing place types that will help guide and shape growth, redevelopment, and preservation in neighborhoods, regional centers, and major corridors throughout the city. In the end, the goals and policies reflect and support our community’s vision and the key guiding principles that characterize the city’s ambitions for the next 25 years.
The final phase of the process was to draft a new Comprehensive Plan specific to San Antonio that will be adopted by the City Council. Throughout the process, there was ongoing community involvement and stakeholder input that is woven into the final plan.
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COMPREHENSIVE PLAN COMMITTEE
The SA Tomorrow Comprehensive Plan Committee (CPC) is a subcommittee of City Council that provided high level direction to staff and the larger planning efforts throughout the planning process.
COMPREHENSIVE PLAN ADVISORY GROUP
The Comprehensive Plan Advisory Group (CPAG) is a collection of leaders from over 65 community partner organizations and agencies. The CPAG met on several occasions during the planning process to review draft materials and identify creative ways for community organizations to engage in the planning process and partner in implementation of the Comprehensive Plan. The CPAG membership nominated members of their organizations to participate in the Plan Element Working Groups described below.
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STEERING COMMITTEE
The overall SA Tomorrow process was guided by a Steering Committee composed of three Tri-Chairs, the chair or co-chairs of each of the nine Plan Element Working Groups, three Planning Commissioners, and a representative from VIA. The Steering Committee provided guidance for the tone and direction of the plan, how best to respond to and incorporate community input and feedback, and the continued coordination of the Comprehensive Plan, Multimodal Transportation Plan and Sustainability Plan efforts. The Steering Committee also provided critical direction on the overall Implementation Strategy and specific aspects of the indicators, targets and actions associated with each plan element.
PLAN ELEMENT WORKING GROUPS
Each of the nine plan elements of the City of San Antonio’s Comprehensive Plan was guided by a Plan Element Working Group (PEWG) composed of community leaders and representatives of relevant city departments, partner organizations, utilities, colleges and universities, neighborhoods and advocacy groups. Each PEWG included between 15 and 30 members who met a minimum of eight times throughout the planning process. The issues, goals, policies and implementation strategies specific to each plan element were largely developed through the individual and collective work of the PEWGs.
NEIGHBORHOOD ENGAGEMENT
Our neighborhoods are the bedrock of the San Antonio community. A series of neighborhood outreach activities and workshops was a critical element of the overall community awareness and engagement strategy of the Comprehensive Plan. The city held a series of community workshops at various locations at several key milestones. Neighborhood workshops were instrumental in the development and refinement of place types, regional centers, corridors and neighborhood preservation and enhancement strategies.
COMMUNITY OUTREACH
Broader community outreach included a variety of activities ranging from stakeholder interviews and focus groups to large community events and from surveys to a variety of web-based activities and social media. A large SA Tomorrow kick-off event linked the Comprehensive Plan effort to concurrent planning for the Multimodal Transportation Plan, Sustainability Plan, SA2020 and VIA’s Vision 2040 Plan Update. Stakeholder interviews, focus groups and surveys were used to take a deeper dive into issues and opportunities related to housing, mixed-use development, regulatory hurdles and incentives, new policy direction and the future of existing and future regional centers. A website was developed for the larger SA Tomorrow effort with an interactive section devoted to the Comprehensive Plan. Twitter, Facebook and Instagram were used extensively throughout the planning process to promote events and drive participants to surveys and the website for more information and opportunities to get involved.
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Plan Organization
The Comprehensive Plan is organized into four major sections. Each section contains multiple chapters. The purpose of each major plan section is summarized below.
SECTION 1: BACKGROUND AND VISION
The first section provides an orientation to the purpose, structure and foundation of the Comprehensive Plan. This section includes a plan introduction, an overview of assets, challenges and opportunities, and the vision framework. The vision framework includes the updated vision for the San Antonio of 2040, a set of guiding principles and the cross-cutting themes that guide the entire SA Tomorrow effort.
SECTION 2: PLAN FRAMEWORK
The second section of the plan provides the overarching framework for the physical form of San Antonio. The Building Blocks chapter outlines how regional centers, corridors and neighborhoods work in concert to create the San Antonio we envision over the coming decades. The overview of 12 place types shows how they build upon and protect existing and future community assets by creating places that are livable, inclusive and sustainable. A final chapter in the section provides guidance on the application of place types throughout our community.
SECTION 3: PLAN ELEMENTS
Section 3 of the Comprehensive Plan dives into the individual plan element topic areas. After the presentation of an overarching plan element framework, the section devotes a chapter to each of the nine Plan elements shown on page 1.15. Each chapter includes an overview of major issues and challenges specific to each element with a set of goals and policies to set the direction for how our community will respond to or address the challenges before us.
SECTION 4: IMPLEMENTATION
The final section of the Comprehensive Plan focuses on implementation. It includes an overarching Implementation Strategy that is built on an updated approach to the Comprehensive Planning Program for the city. The section then provides detailed indicators, targets and actions that are overarching and specific to each plan element.
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Growth and City Form
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Jobs and Economic Competitiveness
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Natural Resources and Environmental Sustainability
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Transportation and Connectivity
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Community Health and Wellness
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Historic Preservation and Cultural Heritage
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Housing
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Public Facilities and Community Safety
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Military
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Chapter 2: Assets, Issues and Opportunities
The City of San Antonio has many assets that make it a desirable place to live and a place that is estimated to capture a significant number of new residents and employees over the coming decades. These assets serve as the basis for future opportunities.
However, changes in demographic trends, land supply, development patterns and other factors have generated challenges that the city must address to develop sustainably, to be economically competitive and to retain a high quality of life for our residents. The city's assets, challenges and opportunities are summarized throughout this chapter and supplemented with plan element specific strengths and weaknesses in Section 3.
Assets and Opportunities
The underlying assets, opportunities and challenges that this plan must address are driven by the forecast for new growth for the city and region. San Antonio, with a total population of 1.44 million (2014 US Census), is the seventh largest city in the nation. The City of San Antonio surpassed Dallas in the early 2000s to become the second largest city in Texas. Both San Antonio and Bexar County have experienced strong population and employment growth over the past decade. These trends are expected to continue as an additional 1.1 million people and over half a million jobs and households are forecast by the Alamo Area Council of Governments for Bexar County between 2010 and 2040. This amount of growth would represent a 65% increase in the population in Bexar County, much of which has the potential to be within San Antonio city limits.
The forecasted amount of growth represents significant opportunity for our community. The city will have a range of demand for housing types from a growing diversity of residents. This growth will generate a variety of new jobs needing varying sites and buildings in which to locate. Aligning the land use plan for San Antonio to match market demand and consumer and employer preferences will allow the city to provide more housing choice, generate additional economic opportunity, and help address issues such as affordable housing, income/economic segregation and health goals and objectives.
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The Eagle Ford Shale formation has stimulated the economy and generated new development of jobs, housing, goods and services.
EMPLOYMENT AND ECONOMY
San Antonio is home to primary employment centers and economic engines in the greater San Antonio-New Braunfels Metropolitan Statistical Area. Our core economic assets are the major drivers for our four traditional industries (tourism/hospitality, healthcare, education, and military). We also have other major economic assets, both long standing and emerging, that provide us with a diversity of opportunities for future economic growth.
San Antonio is also an attractive place to do business. The business-friendly and low-tax environment in Texas appeals to many companies considering locating here. Also adding to the appeal are the city's municipally-owned utilities (CPS Energy and San Antonio Water System), which provide affordable energy and water and the ability to innovate their approach to long-term service.
Over the past ten to fifteen years, San Antonio's economy has grown steadily and is predicted to continue this course. This economic growth will drive demand for housing and hopefully improve opportunities for existing residents. With a polycentric economic geography and multiple large concentrations of employment throughout the city, living near work is easier for many residents.
Yet this polycentric employment pattern can pose problems such as establishing a coordinated approach to job growth and connecting residents to jobs through multiple modes of transportation. Continued growth in these centers of employment and housing will help keep travel distances and commute times lower for residents and provide potential opportunities for better multimodal connectivity.
San Antonio's geographic location is also an asset to our economy and makes us an attractive place to live. Proximity to the Eagle Ford Shale formation and the fracking of natural gas is a major asset to our city. The primary active area for drilling is along I-37 between San Antonio and Corpus Christi has made San Antonio a major hub for business, services, goods and housing needed to support the drilling activities in the Eagle Ford. Additionally, our city's location near major sea ports in Houston and Corpus Christi and major interstates is also significant. Connectivity to those ports via roadway and rail makes San Antonio a competitive logistics location facilitating national and international trade. San Antonio's close proximity to Austin, also experiencing significant growth, provides an opportunity for a coordinated approach that may generate larger opportunities for growth in the Central Texas region.
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SeaWorld San Antonio and historic assets like the King William Historic Neighborhood are destinations for residents and visitors alike.
TOURISM
San Antonio is a major tourist destination in the U.S. and hosts more than 31 million visitors annually, 24.9 million of which come for leisure activities. Anchored by its unique history and culture, San Antonio is home to the Alamo, River Walk and other major attractions such as SeaWorld San Antonio, Six Flags Fiesta Texas, the Henry B. Gonzalez Convention Center, the Museum and Mission reaches on the River Walk, the Tobin Center for the Performing Arts and the Pearl Brewery development. Our San Antonio Missions are a National Historical Park and were recently named a World Heritage Site by the United Nations Education, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).
QUALITY OF LIFE
Another significant asset to our community is our high quality of life. Our below-national-average cost of living and home prices and our strong economic growth, relatively short average commute times make our city appealing to new residents. In addition, San Antonio's strong cultural heritage gives us a unique sense of place.
Our historic neighborhoods are another example of how our heritage impacts housing and neighborhoods. The demographic makeup of the San Antonio's 27 historic districts is largely reflective of the city as a whole. The historic districts are some of the most desirable neighborhoods in the city. A study commissioned by the city's Office of Historic Preservation in early 2015 found that the property values in the historic districts have increased over the past 15 years more than the city as a whole. The historic districts have many of the characteristics of neighborhood types that are in demand nationally, including walkability (all the historic districts have a higher Walk Score than the citywide average), a greater mixture of uses and even shorter commute times to work.
DEVELOPMENT OPPORTUNITIES
Our community has remarkable opportunities for infill development in the urban core. The Comprehensive Plan Initial Studies found that there are a large number of vacant and underutilized parcels within the inner core of the city (inside Loop 410) that are zoned commercial and industrial. Allowing for these commercial and industrial-zoned areas to redevelop with a wider mix of uses and introducing housing can help revitalize these areas and improve the surrounding existing neighborhoods.
GROWING MOMENTUM
Our city has a number of large, transformational development projects—important sites that have the potential to change the prevailing direction of growth within our city. Four of these transformational development sites include Hemisfair, Brooks City Base, Port San Antonio and the Texas A&M University-San Antonio campus and associated development. The future development, or redevelopment, of these sites has the potential to catalyze development in portions of the city where recent growth has been relatively limited. More significantly, these sites are located in areas where an ample supply of developable land exists. The large size, limited number of owners, and public and political backing for these sites allows for the opportunity to create model development projects that can serve as a guide for future growth.
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The recent economic upturn has resulted in significant investment in existing and new housing throughout San Antonio, as well as redevelopment or expansion of several transformational development sites.
Challenges
Despite our numerous assets, San Antonio does lack some key features and faces challenges that impact the future growth and health of our community.
UNCHECKED EXPANSION
Historically, San Antonio has had no major physical or political constraints to outward expansion. However, this is no longer the reality for the city. The boundary in the north and northeastern parts of the city have effectively reached the edge of Bexar County and the boundaries of multiple jurisdictions on the north including Boerne, Bulverde, Converse, Live Oak, Schertz, Universal City and others. The western edge of the city has begun to enter Medina County. This continued outward expansion has led to the perception of disinvestment in the urban core.
Changes to annexation law in 1999 made annexation more onerous for the city. As a result, San Antonio greatly curtailed its annexation efforts from 2000 to 2012. In the absence of annexation, a large amount of development occurred in the unincorporated portion of Bexar County, where the County has limited oversight. This has led to an inability to adopt zoning, perform residential building inspections, and raise any revenue to offset the new development costs to the County. Any development within the city’s extraterritorial jurisdiction (ETJ) is subject to some of the city’s development standards, but no mechanisms exist for enforcement once subdivision plats are approved.
DEVELOPMENT CAPACITY
San Antonio’s developable land capacity is constrained by physical and environmental barriers such as the 100-year floodplain, the Edwards Aquifer Recharge zone, steep slopes and environmentally critical habitats. It is estimated that these barriers create an estimated 27% reduction in development capacity. The northern portion of our city and Bexar County are particularly impacted by these barriers. For example, development potential in certain areas of San Antonio was met with concerns over potential impact of the Edwards Aquifer Recharge zone. In other areas, steep topography makes the provision of sewer service costly and challenging.
Moving forward, our community must work towards a more coordinated approach for identifying areas of development and coordinating the provision of utilities.
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Edwards Aquifer Recharge Zones
COMPETITION AND TRENDS
Over the past decade, San Antonio has been capturing a decreasing share of single-family home development within the Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA) and now captures less than half of such new development. Developers have begun working in unincorporated parts of Bexar County for reasons including favorable public financing structures provided by the County, leading to a large amount of development outside the city’s boundaries and control. Single-family home buyers over the past decade have transitioned to the suburbs where lower homes prices and new infrastructure have allowed for easy access in and out of the city’s periphery.
However, market trends and land capacity analysis indicate that these recent growth patterns are changing. The north and northwestern portions of the county that saw so much recent growth are nearing build-out due to the lack of available land, topographic constraints, traffic congestion and corresponding challenges for utility service. A shift to the west, and to some degree to the south, is expected to occur. The city’s ability to create policies and infrastructure (utilities, schools, services, etc.) may provide additional shifts either to locations within the city limits or expansion into other counties.
AUTO-ORIENTED CITY FORM
The prevalence of highways and single-family neighborhoods in San Antonio created an auto-centric city form. A car is needed for most daily trips and the existing highway system is a significant barrier for non-auto travel modes. While our topography is generally flat, and we have a strong street grid system in older neighborhoods, our outward growth has been precipitated by a highway development pattern. Given the road network and limited multimodal access, subdivision development of this nature is often more isolated than neighborhood-focused development types that incorporate multiple options for travel.
Older subdivisions often lack basic pedestrian amenities, but have more road connections between the interior system and the main arterials. Newer subdivisions have very poor internal connectivity, often with many cul-de-sacs and a limited number of intersections. External connectivity is also very poor due to numerous new subdivisions relying heavily on the same arterial and collector roadways for basic travel outside the subdivisions to downtown, activity centers and other subdivisions.
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The auto-oriented nature of existing development around the community increases dependency on the automobile and results in increased congestion and time on the road.
CONGESTION
Projected population growth and an increase in vehicle miles travelled (VMT) will lead to congestion throughout our city, especially on the far west side, downtown and the far north side. To manage this congestion many of the improvements included in regional infrastructure plans focus on the region's interstate highways. Yet as interstates become continually congested, stress will be placed on our streets, specifically major and minor arterials, as people look for alternate routes. For example, the north side of the city is expected to be heavily congested by 2040, with all major roads on the north and west sides of the city outside of Loop 410 over capacity with the exception of Wurzbach Parkway. The south side will experience significant congestion as well, with most major north-south roads operating at a failing level of service. The inner east and southwest sides are the only areas of the city that would still have available capacity (20% or greater) on their road network.
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2010 Congestion Levels
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2040 Congestion Levels
MOBILITY AND ACCESS
Equitable access to a well-developed multimodal network and a connected city are critical aspects of our future growth. While walkable neighborhoods have been a goal in urban areas across the U.S. for years, San Antonio did not fully take on this planning initiative until the SA Tomorrow effort began. The goal of a walkable neighborhood is to provide residents safe and convenient access by walking, bicycling, or transit increasing connectivity to many of the places and services they use daily. In short, it's a neighborhood where residents can have a high quality of life without needing to rely on a personal vehicle for all trips.
San Antonio’s low walk score of 34 (on a scale of 100) is a clear sign of our car-dependent community. Walk scores are based on measures of pedestrian friendliness including population density, block length and intersection density and points are awarded based on a location's proximity to a variety of amenities in different categories. A score of 90-100 would indicate a “Walker’s Paradise.” Our community’s relative low number of bike lanes and insufficient amount of public transportation options are additional barriers we must address when working towards walkable and accessible neighborhoods.
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Access to Existing Parks and Open Space
While walkability and connectivity of each neighborhood is important, our city also needs to address larger scale issues of green space integration. We need to support residential development within 1/2 mile of parks and other public recreation facilities, as well as find ways to better integrate and connect waterways, drainage ways and the buffer zones around military installations.
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Habitat for Humanity of San Antonio (HFHSA) works with hardworking, low-income families who would not otherwise be able to afford a home to help them build affordable houses for themselves and their families at no interest and no profit.
SOCIAL EQUITY AND AFFORDABLE HOUSING
Our city has among the highest levels of income segregation in the country. Often accompanied by clear geographic concentrations of poverty, economic segregation has numerous deleterious effects on the less fortunate members of our community. Lower-income individuals typically have reduced rates of economic mobility and often live in areas that struggle to attract jobs and residential amenities. In addition, these families tend to live in areas with lesser educational opportunities and their children often struggle in school.
Economically segregated groups in the San Antonio area may also face challenges achieving and maintaining healthy lifestyles. Generally speaking, racial and ethnic minorities and those with lower educational and income levels have the poorest health outcomes. This is attributed to difficulty in accessing healthcare, healthy food options and recreational opportunities. As of 2014, 28% of adults and 12% of children were uninsured in Bexar County and it is estimated that almost 20% delayed medical care due to unaffordable costs. In addition, healthcare resources are not equally accessible in all parts of our city-access by non-automobile modes is often difficult or impossible.
A higher proportion of San Antonio’s low-income residents (13%) live at least one mile from a grocery store, compared to 12% in Texas and 7% nationwide. Finally, several areas, particularly in the west and southwest, offer significantly fewer acres of parks facilities per 1,000 residents than other areas of our city. Our community must work to minimize economic segregation, provide equal opportunities and access to resources and foster programs that empower low-income residents.
Economic segregation is also a factor contributing to our city’s affordable housing gap. The city’s Comprehensive Needs Housing Assessment and Strategic Housing Plan (2013) concludes that San Antonio’s housing market is increasingly unaffordable; fewer than 50% of homes on the market are priced attainably for families with median incomes. Areas with higher concentrations of affordable housing are primarily located in the near-east and near-west side neighborhoods around downtown and in the southern part of the city. Housing affordability issues are further compounded for many of our residents when transportation costs are included. Less than 30% of households in the San Antonio-New Braunfels Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA) live in areas that are considered affordable when total housing plus transportation costs are considered.
DECLINING NEIGHBORHOODS
A cycle of disinvestment has perpetuated the problems witnessed in our community’s declining neighborhoods today and contributed to under-performing schools and depressed infrastructure. The southern and central portions of San Antonio are especially at risk for high income disparity. San Antonio’s rapid growth to the north has diverted much of the city’s capital investment and other resources away from core neighborhoods inside Loop 410. These areas generally have an auto-oriented urban form with low walkability and few destinations easily accessed without a vehicle. This creates an environment that limits many residents’ mobility and access to crucial important needs such as education, healthcare, recreation and job opportunities.
ENVIRONMENTAL SUSTAINABILITY
Population growth and business expansion will increasingly strain our city’s environmental health. Air quality, water supply, drainage and mitigating impacts from climate change and extreme weather are all challenges we face. Our air quality has been worsening for many years. San Antonio must lead the region in striving to maintain compliance with state and federal requirements that help ensure the safety and health of our residents, especially with an additional 500,000 cars on our roads by 2040.
Water supply, water quality and drainage are critical issues. The San Antonio Water System (SAWS) has made great strides ensuring a diversified water supply and helping our city lead the nation in water conservation and recycling programs. However, the city and all its residents and businesses must collaboratively continue and strengthen our efforts. Drainage and water quality are also ongoing challenges that may be intensified by increasing instances and severity of extreme weather events. Flooding is a historic problem in the area and, in addition to safety and property damage implications, it can have serious negative effects on the health of our rivers and streams.
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Chapter 3: Vision Framework
This chapter summarizes the vision, guiding principles and cross cutting themes that were developed throughout the SA Tomorrow planning process and comprise the Vision Framework of the Comprehensive Plan.
Collectively, the Vision Framework provides the direction for all subsequent chapters and sections of this document. The Plan Framework, the Plan Element goals and policies, as well as the specific implementation strategies are intended to position the City of San Antonio, its partners and the larger community to realize the future envisioned throughout this chapter.
Vision
The vision for San Antonio in 2040 is based upon the robust foundation provided by SA2020. The original SA2020 vision originated with a series of public forums conducted throughout 2010 to develop goals for improving San Antonio by the year 2020. Thousands of San Antonians participated in the visioning process, which culminated in a detailed report released in 2011 that outlined a bold vision for San Antonio's future.
The vision articulated in SA2020 has been augmented to reflect the community's vision that has been extended through 2040 and integrates many of the key themes that emerged throughout the Comprehensive Plan process and the larger SA Tomorrow effort. Key additions include the important components of regional centers and corridors, historic and cultural assets and inclusivity. The following summarizes our community's vision for San Antonio in 2040.
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SA Tomorrow is the story of a great American city.
San Antonio is a dynamic city with neighborhoods that are complete with unique places that define their character and celebrate our history. Our corridors unite our residents and our businesses, using cutting-edge multimodal options that connect our neighborhoods to vibrant regional destinations. Our infrastructure supports a healthy and safe lifestyle while making San Antonio an efficient, resilient city. Our economy is the envy of the country, with a thriving and ever expanding business sector. San Antonio maintains an elite status in the country, supporting the military missions that keep our country safe while supporting the vast number of military personnel that call San Antonio home. We nurture our future, with a thriving natural environment as well as quality education and opportunities for all children...they will inherit a truly great and sustainable city.
San Antonio is a diverse and thriving community, with a local government that's accountable, innovative and responsive.
This is the story of a great American city...SA Tomorrow.
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Guiding Principles
The following principles establish a higher-order decision-making framework to guide the growth and evolution of the City of San Antonio for the next 25 years. The guiding principles were developed throughout the Comprehensive Plan process to support the vision and set clear priorities for plan development. The guiding principles articulate the overarching direction for the plan recommendations while also framing a set of criteria for evaluating unanticipated opportunities and potential deviations from the specific direction set in this document. The nine guiding principles include:
1
Maintain the character and integrity of existing San Antonio neighborhoods, parks, open space and trails by focusing growth in mixed-use regional centers and along attractive multimodal corridors with high performing transit service.
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2
Ensure that all residents living in existing and new neighborhoods have safe and convenient access to jobs, housing, and a variety of amenities and basic services including great parks, strong schools, convenient shopping and nearby regional centers.
3
Connect safe and stable mixed-income neighborhoods with a system of walkable and bikeable streets, trails and pathways that celebrate and link natural greenways and drainage ways.
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4
Ensure an inclusive San Antonio by providing affordable housing and transportation choices throughout the city.
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Provide an ongoing planning framework for more detailed and timely planning and design of regional centers, corridors and neighborhoods with continued opportunities for participation and partnerships, prioritization, and performance measurement.
Provide the residents of San Antonio, including youth, seniors, and disabled populations, with enhanced levels of authentic engagement.
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Encourage and integrate innovative and sustainable ideas and development.
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Encourage a variety of amenity-rich places throughout the city with a balance of live, work and play opportunities.
Conserve, protect and manage San Antonio’s natural, cultural and historic resources and open space.
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Cross Cutting Themes
In order to ensure that the identified strategies of SA Tomorrow are specific to the needs of San Antonio, five cross cutting themes were identified through the Sustainability Plan process that address high priority issues for the community. The cross cutting themes are important to every aspect of the SA Tomorrow Planning efforts, including each of this Plan’s major components and elements.
These priorities create the lens through which potential recommendations in this document were evaluated to ensure that the themes are considered through prioritization, implementation and future re-evaluation.
Our Cross Cutting Themes for SA Tomorrow are:
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ECONOMIC VITALITY
A thriving economy is key to long-term sustainability. Strategies identified through the planning process will be assessed for their potential impact (positive, neutral, or negative) on the local economy.
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AIR QUALITY
Continuously finding opportunities to improve air quality is a priority for the City of San Antonio. Strategies identified through this planning process will be evaluated to ensure they create no negative impact or, ideally enhance the quality of San Antonio’s air.
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WATER RESOURCES
Water is essential to life. In San Antonio the availability and quality of this resource is expected to be a challenge for years to come. Strategies identified through this planning process will be evaluated based on their ability to protect, preserve, and improve the quality of San Antonio's water.
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EQUITY
A fair and just community ensures equal opportunities for all of its members. Strategies identified through this planning process should be able to demonstrate that it will bring value to all of San Antonio's people.
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RESILIENCE
Like all cities, San Antonio has a set of vulnerabilities that could weaken it. Measuring the value and identifying strategies towards reducing those vulnerabilities and enhancing resilience to all social, environmental and economic vulnerabilities is essential to ensure a sustainable future.
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SECTION 2
Plan Framework
Chapter 4: Building Blocks Chapter 5: Regional Centers Chapter 6: Place Types
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Chapter 4: Building Blocks
Our continued growth and development as a city can help us achieve our vision for 2040. It will require a shift in the way we are doing things now, and the public and private investments necessary to accommodate 1.1 million additional residents can be leveraged to improve livability, sustainability and inclusivity across the entire community.
The guiding principles presented in Chapter 3 set the stage for an approach to development that should benefit all San Antonians. This chapter describes a set of building blocks that will guide planning, design and investment moving forward. Each building block generally has a scale, shape and role within the larger San Antonio landscape. While often distinct from each other, in some cases these building blocks overlap and benefit from shared investments and amenities.
The major building blocks of the San Antonio of the future include:
- Neighborhoods;
- Corridors;
- Urban centers; and
- Regional centers.
SA Tomorrow recognizes the importance of our existing neighborhoods. These treasured assets are the foundation of our city and will continue to play a critical role in our future planning efforts. The growth strategies recommended in this plan protect and enhance these valuable parts of our city by focusing many of the new housing units and jobs into the other building blocks. By investing in our neighborhoods in conjunction with strategic planning in our corridors, urban centers, and regional centers, we ensure the ability to create and support complete communities across our city with access to a variety of amenities and daily needs and services.
San Antonio’s corridors link our neighborhoods to each other and to the urban and regional centers that contain some of our city’s major activities, attractions, and job opportunities. These corridors will be a focus of new residential and employment growth while providing safe and comfortable multimodal transportation options for a variety of users including pedestrians, bicyclists, transit users and automobiles.
Urban centers vary in size and serve as community destinations and employment nodes for multiple nearby neighborhoods. These walkable, mixed-use destinations are generally smaller in scale, but as San Antonio’s population increases, they have the potential to become future regional centers. Key to the development of these areas is increased multimodal connectivity, linking them to surrounding residential areas and other urban and regional centers.
Regional centers are the employment and activity nodes of our city and provide the best opportunity for absorbing our projected population and employment growth in a way that preserves and maintains the character of our valued
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Continued investment in our downtown and other regional and urban centers will help manage our growth and provide places for our residents to live, work and play.
neighborhoods. Each center currently employs at least 15,000 people. The influx of additional residents and employees over the next 25 years will attract enhanced amenities and connectivity that will benefit communities across San Antonio. While regional centers are briefly discussed in this chapter, more detail and specific examples are provided in Chapter 5.
The final section of the chapter introduces place types; a concept the city can use to help guide appropriate growth in the building blocks identified above and leverage and protect San Antonio's unique existing assets. These twelve concepts identify development options for parks, trails and open spaces, multimodal, mixed-use sites and adaptive reuse opportunities. Place types are explored in more detail in Chapter 6.
Complete Neighborhoods
The first building block is perhaps the most vital as it will continue to be home to the majority of San Antonio’s residents. Our neighborhoods are the backbone of the San Antonio community, an essential element of the city form and a source of pride for most residents. They occupy the areas between regional and urban centers and the corridors that connect them. In some cases, the edges of neighborhoods bleed into regional centers and corridors frequently serve as the boundary between two or more neighborhoods. The approach of focusing many of the new housing units and jobs into regional centers, urban centers and corridors is largely a way to maintain and protect existing neighborhoods and ensure the ability to continue providing neighborhood housing options during the coming decades.
A complete neighborhood provides residents safe and convenient access to the goods and services they need on a daily or regular basis. This includes a range of housing options, grocery stores and other neighborhood-serving commercial services, quality public schools, public open spaces, recreational facilities and access to frequent transit. A complete neighborhood also includes an interconnected network of streets, sidewalks and trails that makes walking and bicycling within and to these places safe and relatively easy for people of all ages and abilities.
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Registered Neighborhood Associations
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Both existing and new residential development benefit from the amenities and services associated with complete neighborhoods.
PRESERVATION AND ENHANCEMENTS
Throughout the SA Tomorrow community engagement process, residents expressed their concerns that the plan would threaten their existing neighborhood and potentially even their homes. To the contrary, the plan is a blueprint for focusing future growth and development away from existing neighborhoods and into regional centers, urban centers and along major transportation corridors. When coupled with the creation of new neighborhoods in currently undeveloped areas of the city, the result will be less development pressure on existing neighborhoods. The plan element focused on housing (Chapter 10) includes a comprehensive set of goals and policies related to housing and neighborhoods, many of which focus on protecting and enhancing existing areas. Enhancements may include, but are not limited to improvements to infrastructure, adding new shops and restaurants nearby, providing better facilities for walking and biking, increasing the tree canopy and adding new parks and trails.
AMENITIES AND SERVICES
Having safe, convenient and walkable access to schools, parks, grocery stores and transit can help our residents save money and stay healthy. Regardless of the mode of travel chosen, shorter distances between home and the places we need to go on a daily and weekly basis can help decrease overall costs for individuals and households. Lower transportation costs help reduce overall household expenditures and increase housing affordability. And incorporating daily exercise is a lot easier with a safe network of sidewalks outside your door. Complete neighborhoods may not contain all of the amenities and services someone would want on a daily basis, but they should provide access to many of these amenities and services and have at least one or two destinations that are easy for someone to access by walking or biking.
Amenities and services associated with a more complete neighborhood can be organized into three major categories: transportation and related infrastructure; civic amenities; and commercial destinations.
Transportation and Related Infrastructure: Improvements to infrastructure in and between neighborhoods helps to close gaps in the transportation network, improve safety and enhance comfort. Potential infrastructure improvements can include, but are not limited to:
- Sidewalks, crosswalks and curb ramps;
- Furnishings and lighting;
- Bike lanes, cycle tracks, and multi-use pathways;
- Pedestrian and bicycle bridges and underpasses;
- Enhanced transit stops and stations;
- Landscaping and community gardens;
- New or improved roadways and overall streetscapes;
- Signalization, signage and other intersection control/communication; and
- Gateway treatments, signage and wayfinding.
Civic Amenities: The integration of civic amenities in the larger neighborhood context can help to anchor residential and mixed-use areas, as well as provide social, recreational and cultural opportunities for residents close to home. Potential civic amenities can include, but are not limited to:
- Parks, open spaces and sport courts and fields;
- Community, recreation, youth and senior centers;
- Pools and water play areas; and
- Libraries.
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Connectivity between neighborhoods increases access to amenities and services.
Commercial Destinations: Many people equate a complete neighborhood with having shops and restaurants nearby that they can easily access. Commercial destinations that are local to one or more neighborhoods help to reduce the distance of many trips across the community, including the daily commute for people who are able to work close to home. Commercial destinations can include, but are not limited to:
- Grocery stores and markets;
- Farmers markets;
- Restaurants and bars;
- A variety of retail shops;
- Professional services; and
- Convenience services.
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Stacked flats in Seattle, Washington integrate four well-designed residences into a standard single-family parcel.
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Walkable and well connected neighborhoods help to keep our residents active and healthy.
NEIGHBORHOOD CONNECTIVITY
A neighborhood can be made more complete with improved connectivity to amenities and services nearby with safe and comfortable linkages. In many cases, amenities may be nearby, but are not accessible for one or more transportation modes. In addition, making active transportation and transit more viable options for a greater portion of the community requires larger network connectivity between neighborhoods and from neighborhoods to nearby centers. For these reasons it is critical that our community focus resources on improving neighborhood connectivity through a variety of infrastructure enhancements.
Existing and planned neighborhoods can be designed in a variety of ways resulting in varying levels of connectivity and accessibility. More traditional suburban development patterns include large arterials feeding into relatively disconnected subdivisions with a large number of cul-de-sacs. While this traditional development pattern does have impacts on traffic for motor vehicles, it does not necessarily preclude good pedestrian and bicycle connectivity. In fact, pathway and trail connections combined with on-street and sidewalk facilities can make these more traditional developments quite supportive of pedestrians and bicyclists accessing transit or other nearby amenities. The use of drainage ways and utility corridors can provide pathway opportunities that link disconnected portions of a neighborhood.
Similarly, more compact development can be difficult to traverse as a pedestrian or bicyclist if infrastructure is missing or inadequate. Major arterials often separate neighborhoods from commercial destinations, civic amenities and other neighborhoods. Well connected and maintained sidewalks, bike facilities and crossings are critical elements to making a neighborhood more complete.
HOUSING CHOICE AND DIVERSITY
Another key aspect of a complete neighborhood is ensuring housing choice and diversity within and across neighborhoods. The majority of housing in San Antonio is currently detached single-family homes. A complete neighborhood should have a range of housing types and sizes (single-family detached, single-family attached and multifamily housing) for rent and for sale. Additional variety should be provided with a range of home sizes in the form of overall square footage and number of bedrooms.
Corridors
Nearly all of San Antonio’s regional centers and urban centers are located along or at the intersection of major transportation corridors. Attractive, multimodal corridors will help connect regional and urban centers to each other. Many will include premium transit service to help manage congestion and bolster safe, convenient and affordable transportation options. But, the corridors must serve more than just a transportation function. Successfully implementing the SA Tomorrow vision means rethinking those corridors. We need our corridors to provide safe and comfortable access and mobility, serve as attractive gateways and frame compact, walkable mixed-use development. They will also be targeted for higher-density housing and more employment opportunities. A multi-objective and multi-layered approach to corridor improvements can help ensure they are safe, comfortable and attractive for future residents, employees and nearby existing residents.
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VIA's Vision 2040 comprehensive transit plan calls for five priority Primo bus corridors to expand on the existing Primo bus route on Fredericksburg Road; the existing Primo route on Fredericksburg Road is planned for Primo Plus or LRT service.
MULTIMODAL CORRIDORS AND COMPLETE STREETS
Many of the community’s major transportation connections are auto-oriented and difficult for pedestrians and cyclists to navigate. Our transportation corridors should serve multiple modes of transportation and better balance the needs of pedestrians, cyclists, transit patrons, motorists and freight vehicles. Allowing a certain mode of transportation or even providing a dedicated facility for pedestrians or cyclists may not be sufficient.
The quality and condition of pedestrian, bicycle and transit infrastructure contributes greatly to the attractiveness, safety and use of these facilities. For example, a narrow sidewalk with no buffer between pedestrians and speeding traffic, no landscaping and no furnishings will be less attractive, safe and used than a wider sidewalk with attractive lighting, benches and a wide planted buffer with large street trees.
VIA PREMIUM TRANSIT CORRIDORS
VIA’s Vision 2040 Plan identified several corridors for premium transit service. VIA selected the corridors based on existing and potential concentrations of transit users and for their ability to connect two or more regional centers. The premium transit corridors are organized into three types of premium transit service: Priority Primo Bus Corridors, Primo Plus and Light Rail Corridors, and Express Routes.
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A modern and diverse transit system includes a variety of modes, speeds, and frequencies and typically includes some combination of traditional bus, bus rapid transit, express bus, and light rail transit.
Priority Primo Bus Corridors
Priority Primo Bus Corridors provide high frequency transit service with a premium transit vehicle in a shared roadway configuration. The following corridors have been identified as priorities for Priority Primo bus service:
- Looper Premium – Connects the airport, Brooks City Base, South Park Mall and Lackland Air Force Base;
- Randolph – Connects the Central Business District, AT&T Center and Randolph Air Force Base;
- Huebner-Grissom – Connects the Medical Center, Leon Valley and Alamo Ranch;
- General McMullen – Connects South Park Mall and the Medical Center; and
- Bandera – Connects the Central Business District to Leon Valley.
Primo Plus and Light Rail Transit
Primo Plus and Light Rail Transit will provide high frequency transit service with a premium transit vehicle in a dedicated guideway configuration. Primo Plus service will be rubber tire bus service and light rail transit (LRT), utilizing a dedicated rail alignment. The following corridors have been identified as priorities for Primo Plus bus service and LRT service:
- Zarzamora – connects the Medical Center, Crossroads Mall, South Park Mall and Texas A&M University-San Antonio;
- Commerce/Houston – connects the AT&T Center, the Central Business District and Lackland Air Force Base;
- Fredericksburg – connects the Central Business District, Crossroads and UTSA;
- San Pedro – connects the Central Business District, the airport, Blanco and Stone Oak;
- Austin Highway/ Broadway/Perrin Beitel/ Nacogdoches – connects the Central Business District, Pearl, University of the Incarnate Word and Rolling Oaks;
- New Braunfels Avenue – connects the Central Business District, Pearl and Brooks City Base; and
- Rockport Sub – connects the Central Business District and Brooks City Base.
Express Routes
The Priority Primo, Primo Plus and LRT corridors will be supplemented by express bus routes utilizing freeways and connecting many of the regional centers. Eleven express routes will have limited stops, 15-30 minute headways between buses and function in mixed traffic.
Transportation Demand Management
Transportation demand management (TDM) should be deployed in urban centers and all regional centers. Robust TDM programs use an array of data collection and management tools to encourage the efficient use of the transportation system. TDM encompasses a broad variety of programs, policies and strategies that encourage alternatives to driving alone such as car sharing, employer and development-based programs that offer incentives to ride transit, and public education and marketing programs to promote transit and other alternatives to driving.
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Urban Centers
San Antonians need and deserve walkable, mixed-use destinations outside of the regional centers. Urban centers will provide these opportunities and in certain instances, can serve as the nucleus of a future regional center.
These urban centers are compact and walkable, and can help to fill the gaps between regional centers. The common elements of a successful urban center are a central node of activity, a mix of opportunities to live, work and play, good transit access and strong multimodal connections to surrounding neighborhoods. These areas will attract new residents and serve existing nearby neighborhoods.
MIXED-USE LAND USE PATTERNS AND TRANSITIONS
Existing and future urban centers should contain a mix of uses and provide a combination of daily goods and services, as well as restaurants and some element of destination retail. Housing and offices are desirable but not required components of an urban center—the neighborhoods surrounding the center can provide the necessary population to support the center from a market perspective. With that said, the most vibrant urban centers will include housing and a larger employment component to support increased development density, a larger critical mass of shopping and dining, shared parking opportunities and stronger potential for activating the center during multiple times of the day and days of the week. Regardless of the overall land use mix, an activating node of some sort is at the heart of every urban center. The activating node can vary, but will typically include a transit station, institutional anchor and/or a clustering of shops and restaurants.
While urban centers should be targeted for higher-intensity development, the height and massing of structures in the urban center should decrease as they approach existing single-family neighborhoods. Destination retail and uses generating a significant amount of traffic should be focused at least two to three blocks from single-family homes wherever possible. Attached single-family and multifamily development can create a desirable transition from higher-intensity urban center uses out to surrounding traditional neighborhoods.
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Primary Transit Corridors
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Proximity of housing to urban centers in Charlotte, North Carolina (top) and multiuse paths in Indianapolis (bottom) provide access for residents.
TRANSIT-SUPPORTIVE DEVELOPMENT
A strong transit system is a major pillar of the vision for San Antonio in the coming years. But, it isn't enough to say that we need more transit and better access to transit. We have to plan for it and make it happen. Transit systems function best when they are well integrated with and supported by local land use and community design decisions. Supporting transit requires looking at how streets and roads are built and the mix of land uses around them, making it easy for people to access transit and making sure people have reasons to ride transit.
Urban centers provide the greatest opportunity for transit-supportive development outside of regional centers. Compact, higher-density development patterns shorten the distance people must travel to reach their destinations and supply the ridership that can support more frequent transit service and a greater variety of routes. In turn, higher service levels in these areas attract more riders and support the local land use vision. This self-perpetuating nature of urban centers is a large reason for their vibrancy and why they tend to attract private development.
NEIGHBORHOOD CONNECTIVITY
While not all urban centers include a strong residential element, they must always provide safe and comfortable connections and transitions to the surrounding residential neighborhoods. Urban centers provide amenities or additional options for nearby residents. Safe on-street and off-street walking and biking connections link the core of urban centers to surrounding residential areas and decrease the impacts of traffic on surrounding neighborhoods.
Decreasing automobile use in urban centers is intimately related to the availability and cost of parking. Parking can have a significant impact on peoples’ decision to drive, walk, bike or use transit. The less land devoted to parking, the more space that is available for other uses. This puts more destinations within walking distance, creates a more comfortable pedestrian experience, and helps an area reach a development intensity that supports public transportation and spurs additional development. Additionally, reduced parking requirements can lower the cost of new development, making housing and commercial rent more affordable. The city should explore neighborhood parking permit programs as part of a larger management strategy for urban centers and adjacent neighborhoods.
Regional Centers
San Antonio has a tremendous opportunity to take advantage of a polycentric pattern of regional employment centers that has developed here during the past decade. Most cities have a downtown and a few additional mixed-use employment clusters. San Antonio has 13. About 50% of all jobs in San Antonio are within those 13 regional economic centers, which have captured over half of all non-residential development since 2000.
A major organizing element for the Comprehensive Plan is to focus growth in these regional centers, building on the existing pattern of development. They’re envisioned as new “places” where we live, work and play.
New development is already gravitating to these centers and we can guide additional growth in these areas. Each center is different and its development will be influenced by its existing uses (particularly those oriented to military, aviation or heavy industry). However, many of the centers are also well positioned to develop as vibrant mixed-use places. They offer a variety of housing options and price ranges, allow higher-density and incorporate carefully designed and located amenities that will benefit both residents and employees of the center, as well as people in adjacent neighborhoods. While these live-work-play environments attract development and businesses nationally, they are underrepresented in San Antonio.
Our community’s unique distribution of growth areas exacerbates the challenges of allocating resources and coordinating growth plans to encourage clustered businesses and spin-offs in similar industries. Each center’s character can attract and retain a distinctive mix of businesses and employees. Therefore, San Antonio must focus its investment and infrastructure strategies on supporting and leveraging the unique identity and assets of each center.
Regional centers operating in isolation do not benefit our city in the same way as a connected system. To function most effectively, they must be linked to each other, smaller urban centers and our neighborhoods. Our multimodal and transit corridors ensure connectivity to, between and within each center providing access to employment opportunities and daily activities for our residents.
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Regional Centers come in many shapes and sizes and include varying proportions of employment, housing and entertainment uses.
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Regional Centers
| 1 | Central Business District |
| 2 | Medical Center |
| 3 | Midtown |
| 4 | Greater Airport Area |
| 5 | Northeast I-35 and Loop 410 |
| 6 | Brooks |
| 7 | Rolling Oaks |
| 8 | Texas A&M - San Antonio |
| 9 | Fort Sam Houston |
| 10 | Lackland AFB/Port San Antonio |
| 11 | University of Texas - San Antonio |
| 12 | Stone Oak |
| 13 | Highway 151 and Loop 1604 |
Existing Regional Centers
Place Types
With the major building blocks of San Antonio identified, it is important to identify the types of places that we would like them to be. Chapter 6 provides greater detail regarding the rationale, form and function for twelve place types. The place types provide the design intent and key planning and design parameters related to the development of places with a desirable mix of uses, city form, public spaces, roads and trails and parking. The place types are organized into three categories: Multimodal, Mixed-use Place Types; Trails, Parks and Open Space Place Types; and Adaptive Reuse Place Types.
Multimodal, mixed-use place types constitute a range of transit supportive development with a transit station, institutional anchor or concentration of shops and restaurants at their core.
Trails, parks and open space place types are intended to leverage and/or protect a natural or man-made open space or recreational asset.
Adaptive reuse place types acknowledge that some commercial and industrial properties can benefit from contemporary enhancements or have served their useful life for their original purpose.
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Place types integrate the desirable mix of uses, city form, public spaces, roads and trails, and parking for new and infill development in well established and emerging areas of the city.
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Chapter 5: Regional Centers
Regional centers were introduced in the previous chapter as one of the major building blocks of San Antonio’s city form. Regional centers are a major component of the Comprehensive Plan and the overall SA Tomorrow effort.
While most cities have one or two larger employment centers, we have 13. This provides challenges and opportunities. Challenges for these regional centers include distribution of resources, sufficient differentiation and managing cooperative versus competitive dynamics. Opportunities include dispersed employment throughout the city, focused specialization to increase quality and competitive advantages for targeted centers, better distributed traffic and transit networks with improved access for all residents.
This chapter will lay out a framework for understanding regional centers found in San Antonio and their importance in our community’s future. First we investigate and describe the three types of regional centers that occur in San Antonio. We then build profiles for each regional center based on a thorough analysis of nine indicators that illustrate differences between them. These indicators are used to help identify each center’s existing conditions and help us start thinking about achieving aspirational goals of each. These profiles will inform future regional center plans.
Three Types of Regional Centers
The 13 regional centers are grouped in three categories based on analysis of their existing conditions, unique traits and potential growth capabilities. It is important to note that they are not homogenous places. Although they cover large areas, each one includes multiple place types, urban forms and land uses.
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ACTIVITY CENTERS
These areas have high concentrations of people and jobs in a mixed-use environment. They should be highly walkable and well connected by multiple types of transportation and transit. They should have an even mixture of jobs and housing and contain amenities that support residents, workers and employers within the centers and also throughout the city. Many are home to our educational, entertainment and cultural institutions.
LOGISTICS/SERVICES CENTERS
These areas have superior connectivity for the movement of goods and people including air, freight/rail and roadway transportation. This positions them as launching points for the city’s exports and imports. These centers have large, coordinated areas of single uses, and concentrated nodes of mixed-use, with more jobs than residents. They provide goods and service to support businesses and residents adjacent to the center.
SPECIAL PURPOSE CENTERS
These areas have large employers, institutions and/or concentrations of similar types of employment. These centers typically require or a barrier or buffer to separate their specialized activities from surrounding areas. They mostly contain primary employers and supportive services and amenities.
Regional Centers are one of the key building blocks of our city’s future. In order to leverage their potential to help absorb San Antonio’s projected growth we need a clear vision and strategic plan for each. These regional center plans need to refine each center’s boundaries, identify areas of change and stability, and develop a detailed land use plan that prioritizes infrastructure, policy and program improvements. While these centers should promote higher-density, mixed-use development, not all areas within a regional center are recommended for this type of growth. For example, existing historic districts and neighborhood conservation districts are not recommended for higher-density development and should receive enhanced protection to prevent this. Our historic and conservation districts are some of our city’s greatest assets and our development policies should protect them. Regional center plans must be respectful of these special areas when defining development opportunities. A more detailed framework for these regional center plans is provided in Chapter 17.
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Regional Center Types
Activity Centers
- Central Business District
- Medical Center
- Midtown
- Brooks
- Texas A&M - San Antonio
- University of Texas - San Antonio
- Stone Oak
- Highway 151 and Loop 1604
Logistics/Services Centers 9. Greater Airport Area 10. Northeast I-35 and Loop 410 11. Rolling Oaks
Special Purpose Centers 12. Fort Sam Houston 13. Lackland AFB/Port San Antonio
Primary Transit Corridors — Premium Corridors — Express Corridors
Regional Center Profiles
The following section provides the results of the regional center analysis and measures how a center performs relative to the future vision for its category. This study uses data from the Comprehensive Plan Initial Studies, the U.S. Bureau of Labor and Statistics (BLS), VIA Metropolitan Agency, WalkScore.com and the U.S. Census, including the Location Affordability Index (LAI). The analysis utilizes nine indicators of existing conditions that illustrate differences between the centers. The indicators are grouped by type:
- Social: Job diversity, Housing and Transportation (H&T) Index, Per Capita Income
- Connectivity: Transit Utilization, Walkability, Median Commute Distance
- Mix of Uses: Ratio of Workers to Residents, Residential Density, Employment Density
An analysis of potential for land development complements the regional center profiles. It includes indicators for population and employment per developed acre and the percent of acres developed in each center.
The city and stakeholders developed aspirational scores and ideal measures of success for each of the indicators, tailored to the three regional center types. Comparing the existing conditions scores in each center to the aspirational scores shows how each center is performing well and where it needs improvement to reach its potential.
Aspirational scores vary based on the urban form, land use mix and anticipated specialization of each of the three regional center types. For example, Activity Centers have high aspirational scores for transit use and residential density, while these criteria are less relevant for Logistics/Service Centers and Special Purpose Centers based on the descriptions of the regional center types on page 5.2.
How well a center is currently meeting its aspirational score is demonstrated by bar graphs.
The profiles on the following pages tell the story of each regional center’s analysis. Each one provides:
- Strengths (A)
- Introductory Text (B)
- Locator Map (C)
- Key Economic and Demographic Facts (D)
- Existing Conditions and Aspirational Scores (E)
- Tasks Ahead (F)
- Precedent Photo (G)
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Activity Centers: Central Business District (Downtown)
CENTRAL BUSINESS DISTRICT (DOWNTOWN) REGIONAL CENTER PROFILE
Existing & Aspirational Scores
| 100% | |
| Transit Utilization | |
| 90% | |
| Walkability | |
| 67% | 80% |
| Median Commute Distance | |
| 100% | |
| Employment Density of Developed Land | |
| 76% | 100% |
| Residential Density of Developed Land | |
| 50% | 89% |
| Ratio of Employees to Residents | |
| 38% | 60% |
| Per Capita Income | |
| 60% | 65% |
| Housing + Transportation Index | |
| 70% | 90% |
| Job Diversity Index |
Strengths: Downtown is the most walkable and transit-friendly regional center. It has a high concentration and diversity of jobs and is surrounded by a large workforce. Population (2015 estimate): 5,567 Households (2015 estimate): 2,920 Single-family to Multifamily Housing Units Ratio: 0.18 Employment (2013 estimate): 44,400 Largest Industries (by employment): Accommodations and Food Service, Healthcare and Public Administration Acres: 960 Developed Acres: 840
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Downtown is the historic and cultural center of the city and home to the world-renowned Riverwalk. It is the center of San Antonio’s traditional economy, anchored by our multi-billion-dollar tourism, education and healthcare industries. The urban core is revitalizing and experiencing a growth renaissance, supported by the “Decade of Downtown” movement. The City Center is evolving into a vibrant mixed-use area with a range of employment, services and housing, all centered around great historical and cultural destinations.
Tasks Ahead: Although it is close to meeting the aspirational scores, Downtown needs to continue adding housing to even the mix of employment and residents.
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The Cityway development in downtown Indianapolis includes a world-class business hotel, high-end apartments, restaurants, retails shops and other community amenities.
Activity Centers: Medical Center
MEDICAL CENTER REGIONAL CENTER PROFILE
Existing & Aspirational Scores
| 65% | 100% |
| Transit Utilization |
| 60% | 90% |
| Walkability |
| 65% | 80% |
| Median Commute Distance |
| 100% | |
| Employment Density of Developed Land |
| 100% | |
| Residential Density of Developed Land |
| 50% | 62% |
| Ratio of Employees to Residents |
| 40% | 60% |
| Per Capita Income |
| 60% | 65% |
| Housing + Transportation Index |
| 82% | 90% |
| Job Diversity Index |
Strengths: The Medical Center has great job diversity and a large concentration of housing.
Population (2015 estimate): 39,117 Households (2015 estimate): 19,318 Single-family to Multifamily Housing Units Ratio: 0.08 Employment (2013 estimate): 64,000 Largest Industries (by employment): Healthcare, Finance and Insurance, Education Acres: 3,670 Developed Acres: 3,330
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The South Texas Medical Center is a major cluster of 45 healthcare and medical-related facilities, including 12 hospitals and five specialty institutions. Healthcare employment reached 27,500 jobs in 2011 and accounts for nearly 30% of all healthcare employment in the city. The Medical Center is also home to USAA, one of the city’s largest employers. This area will continue to be the primary hub of medical-related activities in San Antonio with potential to evolve into a vibrant mixed-use center.
Tasks Ahead: Transit use to and within the medical center can be increased and the pedestrian environment can be improved to make it more walkable.
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Chestnut Hill Square in Boston is a lifestyle and retail destination with a mix of shops and restaurants anchored by medical office and clinical spaces.
Activity Centers: Midtown
MIDTOWN REGIONAL CENTER PROFILE
Existing & Aspirational Scores
| 96% | |
| Transit Utilization | 100% |
| 83% | |
| Walkability | 90% |
| 68% | 80% |
| Median Commute Distance | |
| 100% | |
| Employment Density of Developed Land | |
| 87% | |
| Residential Density of Developed Land | 100% |
| 50% | 62% |
| Ratio of Employees to Residents | |
| 34% | 60% |
| Per Capita Income | |
| 63% | 65% |
| Housing + Transportation Index | |
| 64% | 90% |
| Job Diversity Index |
Strengths: The Midtown area has a high concentration of jobs and housing in a walkable environment. Population (2015 estimate): 10,302 Households (2015 estimate): 4,380 Single-family to Multifamily Housing Units Ratio: 1.00 Employment (2013 estimate): 16,950 Largest Industries (by employment): Healthcare, Education, Transportation Services Acres: 1,190 Developed Acres: 1,110
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Located between Downtown and the historic neighborhoods to the north, Midtown is the nexus of live, work and play in central San Antonio. Anchored by Brackenridge Park, San Pedro Springs Park, San Antonio College and the Pearl Brewery redevelopment, Midtown increasingly attracts multifamily residential development and businesses in creative industries. Broadway, one of several major arterials connecting Downtown to Midtown and neighborhoods to the north, is slated to become a major cultural corridor in San Antonio.
Tasks Ahead: The Midtown area will benefit from additional job diversity, particularly those which help increase incomes of residents in the area.
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The renovated Fred Meyer in the Uptown neighborhood of Portland, Oregon added an active street edge with additional shops and restaurants on a former parking lot.
Activity Centers: Brooks
BROOKS REGIONAL CENTER PROFILE
Existing & Aspirational Scores
| 36% | 100% |
| Transit Utilization | |
| 47% | 90% |
| Walkability | |
| 42% | 80% |
| Median Commute Distance | |
| 11% | 100% |
| Employment Density of Developed Land | |
| 30% | 100% |
| Residential Density of Developed Land | |
| 26% | 50% |
| Ratio of Employees to Residents | |
| 33% | 60% |
| Per Capita Income | |
| 56% | 65% |
| Housing + Transportation Index | |
| 62% | 90% |
| Job Diversity Index |
Strengths: The Brooks regional center has successfully captured a significant number and diversity of jobs in a short period of time. Additionally, the area benefits from excellent highway and arterial connectivity to Downtown and other regional centers.
Population (2015 estimate): 20,149 Households (2015 estimate): 6,885 Single-family to Multifamily Housing Units Ratio: 1.91 Employment (2013 estimate): 7,200 Largest Industries (by employment): Healthcare, Public Administration, Retail Trade Acres: 7,540 Developed Acres: 4,800
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Anchored by the redeveloping Brooks City Base, this area is one of San Antonio’s emerging activity centers and a major catalyst for growth on the south side of the city. As the focus of redevelopment in the area, the 1,200 acre mixed-use Brooks City Base has attracted 3,000 jobs, comprising over 40% of the center’s employment. Brooks is located near several major highways including I-37, which connects to Downtown and the San Antonio International Airport.
Tasks Ahead: Future efforts led by the Brooks Development Authority should focus on attracting jobs and high-density housing to the Brooks City Base redevelopment. As this regional center develops, walkability and transit connectivity should be prioritized.
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The Fleet Street Condominiums and Aloft Hotel development in National Harbor, Maryland anchors a key intersection in the National Harbor mixed-use district.
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