Southwest Community Association

Nov Status of Zoning Change Proposal/Apartment Complex

Nov 27, 2002

On Tue, Oct 1st, the San Antonio Zoning Commission unanimously denied the request to change the zoning of approximately 15 acres of land from ?“commercial?” to ?“multi-family?” - for the purpose of building a176-unit government low-income apartment complex. SWCA requested this denial because of our concern that the project would be property tax-exempt, while putting many more children into the school district and because of the current overwhelming percentage of area rentals.
On Fr, Oct 4th, Councilman Martin held a meeting of neighborhood leaders and project developers. The purpose of this meeting was to get ?“the truth?” out; the developers having realized that much previous misinformation had gone out on their project, largely because of their previous representative. Councilman Martin asked that we reconsider this project, based on the ?“correct?” information and the developer?’s willingness now to consider written deed restrictions to quell neighborhood concerns. In accordance with procedures, the developers will take this zoning request to City Council on Nov 14th for a final decision.
SWCA had said all along that previous decisions at the county and state levels were based on much misinformation. If not for that misinformation, we don?’t know that the project would have made it as far as it did. We are following-up with documentation to the state and county. As requested by the Councilman, SWCA is reviewing additional information and examples of deed restrictions; however, we don?’t know how any restrictions we might ask for could/would be reconciled with current agreements made to obtain favorable state and county decisions.
Therefore, SWCA is taking two more actions:
- First (because of the continued requests of the developers that if we just visited their sites in the Dallas area, many of our concerns would be answered) we are working to schedule a site visit.
- Second, we have petitions against this project available for resident signatures. Call 623-5275 to find out where you can sign one, or how you can get some to collect more signatures. We must have all signed petitions returned by Nov 13th. Anyone who can, should plan to attend the Nov 14th City Council meeting.