SAN ANTONIO – The City of San Antonio is doing its best to sell a controversial, two-mile zoning buffer around the Toyota manufacturing plant to skeptical South Siders.
The city’s proposed “Industrial Compatibility Overlay District” (ICOD) would be the first of its kind in San Antonio and would heavily restrict commercial and residential development around one of the city’s largest manufacturers.
While people could remain in their existing homes, the construction of new houses would generally not be allowed — with some specific exceptions.
Instead, the area within a mile of the Toyota plant would be used for industrial purposes, and the area between one and two miles out would be used for commercial or industrial development.
The new zone would cover nearly 31 square miles and 2,843 individual properties, most currently zoned for residential use.
“The concern is we don’t think that residential is appropriate in a burgeoning industrial district. And so the point of the Industrial Compatibility Overlay District is to ensure that we don’t have those land use conflicts,” Assistant Planning Director Rudy Niño told KSAT in an interview Tuesday afternoon.
However, the proposal has created a conflict of its own, drawing a frustrated crowd to the May 21 meeting of the city zoning commission. Two dozen speakers voiced concerns over how the change might affect their property values, how they could continue to use their land, and what they saw as the city performing a favor for a big company.
“Toyota wants a buffer zone. Better get the checkbook out, and they can make it happen. They can build their own moat. Not use y’all to make that happen,” said Stanton Buckelew during the public comment.
Commissioners put off deciding on the new overlay district until their Jul. 16 meeting.
In the meantime, the city is trying to talk with neighbors in the zone and explain how it would work. The Planning Department has posted information online, including an FAQ section, and scheduled a community meeting at Texas A&M San Antonio Tuesday night from 6 pm - 8 pm, preceded by an opportunity to ask questions about individual properties.
The biggest concern city staff have heard, Niño said ahead of that meeting, is whether they can continue to use their homes.
“Folks who live on the South Side have been telling us about various letters that they’ve received that have stated that ‘you’re going to lose the right to use your property. You’re going to, you know, the city’s eminent domaining you and those sorts of things. Those are just simply not true,” Niño said.
Homeowners will be able to stay in their homes and even expand them. New homes generally wouldn’t be allowed, though there are exceptions for previously undeveloped properties. There were also limited exceptions for subdividing unplatted and undeveloped property to build one home per acre.
The overlay also wouldn’t affect Bexar County property owners outside the city limits - unless the city later annexes their land into the city.
Niño said the ICOD proposal had been born out of conversations in 2019 during the planning process for the Texas A&M - San Antonio Area Regional Center Plan. Despite the confusion and concern that was on display at May’s zoning commission meeting, he told KSAT the city had done a “substantial amount of outreach.”
“I think that the issue is, again, making sure that we are providing those avenues so that folks can get that information. And then number two, correcting the misinformation that they’ve actually been hearing about,” Niño said.
The assistant planning director said the city’s proposal could be updated based on Tuesday night’s meeting, though he did not know how much might change.
Even if the ICOD proposal receives the support of the zoning commissioners on Jul. 16, it would still need to be approved by the San Antonio City Council.