Mayor proposes slowing down city’s annexation plans - San Antonio Express-News

Mayor proposes slowing down city’s annexation plans - San Antonio Express-News


Mayor Ivy Taylor has proposed dramatically slowing down the city’s annexation plans.

Taylor has suggested the city indefinitely scrap plans, announced late last month, to consider adding six new sections of unincorporated Bexar County to the city at least until after the city’s comprehensive plan SA Tomorrow is done.

These new areas were in addition to five the city had already proposed adding last year.

The mayor now suggests the city also reconsider annexing thousands of residential homes in some of these areas and instead focus on adding only commercial corridors. Specifically, Taylor suggested the city should study only adding commercial corridors along U.S. 281, between Marshall Road and the county line, and on Interstate 10 West, near Boerne and Camp Bullis, and leave the residential neighborhoods out of the plan.

Taylor said she’d be open to a similar idea for an area near Texas 151 and Loop 1604 that includes Alamo Ranch, a massive master planned communities.

Taylor said she believes the city should continue with its plans to annex both commercial and residential sites in an area in northeast Bexar County near I-10 East and Loop 1604, and another area around Lackland AFB, near U.S. 90 and Loop 1604.

The mayor’s proposal could alter the fates of thousands of Bexar County residents, who were bracing for — and, in some cases, fighting against — San Antonio’s plans to absorb them into the Alamo City. The city has been considering annexing more than 150 square miles of its extraterritorial jurisdiction, or ETJ, that are home to at least 170,000 people, based on 2010 U.S. Census numbers. The city can only annex areas that are in the ETJ, which extends five miles into the county, beyond the city limits.

City planning staff first proposed annexing five sections of unincorporated Bexar County last year, arguing the city is better equipped than the county to manage growth and provide services.

Residents’ reactions to the San Antonio’s annexation plans have been fierce and mostly negative, many calling the city’s strategy a land grab to generate more tax revenue.

The city of San Antonio is just under 500 square miles. If all 11 of the proposed areas were added, the city would grow to almost 650 square miles.

A required Zoning Commission hearing on the I-10 West annexation is scheduled for 10 a.m. Friday in City Council chambers. Officials have said they expect at least 200 people to attend that meeting.

Read more on this developing story at ExpressNews.com and in Friday’s Express-News.

vdavila@express-news.net