SAN ANTONIO – Planning efforts to address East Side and downtown connectivity could get a boost in funding support later this week, according to the agenda for Thursday’s San Antonio City Council meeting.
In March, the city welcomed a $2.96 million federal grant from the Transportation Department to support drafting a planning and design study to address connectivity around Interstate 37, which separates the East Side from downtown.
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The funding, sourced from the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Reconnecting Communities and Neighborhoods Program, aims to provide improvements to underserved communities affected by transportation infrastructure cutoffs, among other things.
City Council is expected to match the funds with $740,000, a 20% match, from the Hotel Occupancy Tax Redemption Fund to total the project’s budget at $3.7 million, according to Thursday’s council agenda.
Documents included in the agenda said the grant would fund a planning process and engineering and planning study to develop a project that minimizes the barrier of Interstate 37 and furthers the East Side’s connection to downtown.
Preliminary design, development, and community engagement efforts are planned after the grant’s acceptance, including soliciting consultants. According to agenda documents, work funded by the grant is expected to start in late 2024 and last approximately one year.
How did we get here?
Last September, Assistant City Manager Lori Houston briefed the city’s Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, outlining goals and expectations should the then-undispersed USDOT funding be awarded.
“We’ve identified that we want to develop alternatives to help reconnect downtown and the near East Side by minimizing, or retrofitting that barrier, which is I-37,” Houston said at the committee meeting.
After the funding was approved in March, an oversight committee consisting of neighborhood leadership, District 2′s city council office, community stakeholders, UTSA, TxDOT and Hemisfair was planned to form, according to Houston’s presentation.
During the meeting, District 2 Councilman Jalen McKee-Rodriguez urged caution regarding significant changes that could potentially impact communities, which he said are already experiencing vulnerability and gentrification.
However, McKee-Rodriguez did echo support.
“The community wants investment, and they want the city to use all avenues ... to secure funding and to show a clear intention to improve the lives of those who live on the East Side,” he said.