SAN ANTONIO – More than 100 property owners are in danger of losing their homes over a plan to build a drainage pond that could mitigate flooding in the Thompson neighborhood.
Eddie Medina and his fiancée, JoAnn Owens, moved back to Thompson to be closer to family.
Owens grew up on Barclay Street. Her dad lives across the street and her sister lives next door. She moved back to be able to help care for her parents.
“We thought we were going to be here for the rest of their lives, you know, but it’s not looking that way,” Medina said.
Their home is right on the edge of a proposed plan by the City of San Antonio to build the Concepción Creek Detention Pond. Approximately 100 to 150 homes would be removed to build the pond, which the city said is needed to mitigate flooding in District 5.
“They talk about the 1% chance. But I mean, you know, we have other neighbors here that have been here 60-plus years,” Medina said. “I’m 59 years old. I’ve never seen that happen. So, for them to say that it’s going to flood 1%, possibly, but 99% it may not and they’re going to displace for 1%, that’s not right.”
The plan was initiated in 2018 by then-council leader Shirley Gonzales, who asked for ways to reduce flooding for residents in District 5. Engineers provided three alternatives. Each had a different price point and varying impacts on residential homes.
Medina and Owens have been selling signs for $5 to raise funds and gain community support against the project. Currently, they have their sights set on Metro/COPS, a nonprofit advocacy group.
“It’s worth it. You know what I mean?” Medina said. “The money we spent to save our house is well worth it.”
Right in the heart of the project area are Michaeleen McInturff and Sarah Mauricio. The two were childhood neighbors and are now neighbors again in their golden years.
“I don’t have a mortgage payment. I’m able to pay my taxes, my bills and my medication. I paid off my car, so it’s wonderful. I’m living in a fantastic sanctuary,” McInturff said. “I guess you would call it my castle, and I love it. I love the people around here and everything. We look after each other. They look after me.”
Mauricio said she knows all of her neighbors. Some of them are like family to her.
“We’re family, even though we’re not blood family,” Mauricio said. “We’ve become family because we grew up together since we were young.”
Both women said moving could become a financial hardship. They feel for other older families who have it worse than them
“These are generational homes — from the grandparents to the parents to the children to the grandchildren — since the 1950s,” Mauricio said.
“And we don’t want to move,” McInturff added.
The public meetings will continue. City engineers have been tasked with receiving feedback and finding a different alternative to the flood mitigation plan.
Phase 1 of the entire mitigation project involves the Thompson neighborhood. Phase 2 and Phase 3 extend east into the Villas de Esperanza and Palm Heights neighborhoods.
How the flood mitigation project would impact residential homes in those neighborhoods has not been made public.
Medina told residents outside of the impacted areas that that’s a reason to get behind them.
“If it’s going to happen to us, it can happen to you,” Medina said.