SAN ANTONIO – Bexar County Commissioners on Tuesday approved the purchase of nearly 160 acres of land for a new county park on the county’s northeast side.
The land located in the 6500 block of Woodlake Parkway near F.M. 78 was formerly the Woodlake Golf Course. That golf course first opened in the 1970s and closed in 2013. It’s been sold several times, according to county leaders.
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The county negotiated the sale for “many months” until the seller agreed to a $4.5 million purchase price.
The land has been appraised, has had an environmental study and had a remapping of its flood plain, county leaders told commissioners. It was determined that 92 acres of the park are in the flood plain and 70 acres are not.
Ken McGlamery, the county’s director of parks and recreation, said he expects the park to be useable to the public within about a week of closing. The county will create a small parking area, mow and trim the grass, and connect some trails that were disconnected after parts of the land were sold to other entities.
Precinct 4 Commissioner Tommy Calvert said the community will be able to weigh in about future improvements at the park and will also be able to help name the park.
“We’re going to have a social media contest and we want all the creative ideas that folks can muster,” Calvert said. “It could be an inanimate object like “Unity Park” or it could be a name of a historical person that someone thinks is worthy. Tell us why. Or it could be about the animals that run across the land. There are beautiful swans and ducks that are part of the Woodlake Park, so we’re open to suggestions for what it could be named.