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San Antonio, Texas: Historic Gardens

In the Shadow of the Alamodome: An Affordable Housing Community Takes Root

Nestled beside San Antonio’s colossal Alamodome sports and events facility, the Historic Gardens brownfield redevelopment project is helping to spark new life into a blighted and decaying neighborhood. The project boasts well-built, attractive affordable housing for first-time homebuyers and other low to moderate income residents who wish to live near San Antonio’s city center. A six-phase project, two of phases have been completed resulting in the demolition of substandard dwellings and the construction of 46 single family homes. The third phase is currently underway and will result in the construction of 22 additional new and rehabilitated homes. Subsequent phases will enrich the neighborhood with up to 52 more homes.

The City of San Antonio partnered with the San Antonio Development Agency (SADA) to tackle this ambitious scheme of bringing affordable housing to one of the area’s most dilapidated neighborhoods. The team hoped that the project would foster a mixed-income environment where moderate-income professionals, low-income neighboring residents, and first-time homeowners would all come together to create a thriving, safe community while providing an anchor of stability to a rough part of town. In 1994 the San Antonio City Council gave SADA the

green light to begin work on Historic Gardens by approving the Alamodome/Cherry St. Urban Renewal Plan. As the brownfield redeveloper, SADA set out to secure financing, engage in public outreach activities, and acquire properties for demolition. In addition to assisting with these tasks, the city helped facilitate environmental assessments on the site. These assessments identified lead contamination in the soil from lead-based paint, which complicated the already time-consuming and costly effort. Over time SADA assumed complete responsibility for the project while acquiring new responsibilities such as overseeing the nascent Historic Gardens Community Association. To this day the agency wrestles with the uncertainty of long-term funding, maintaining open lines of communication with residents, and continuing to strive toward their goal of including very low-income residents as new homeowners in the community.

The Alamodome/Cherry St. Neighborhood and Historic Gardens Site Historic Gardens is located just east of San Antonio’s downtown and only one street removed from the outer reaches of the Alamodome parking lot. The Historic Gardens community comprises a 27.3-acre Activity Area, encompassed within the 73.6-acre Alamodome/Cherry St. Project Area. The neighborhood is accessible to major thoroughfares and enjoys close proximity to many services and commercial districts.

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In the late 1980s and early 1990s, the neighborhood was in a state of utter decay. As the city pursued plans to build the Alamodome and generate public support for financing and construction, it recognized the importance of addressing the adjacent community’s needs. This recognition led to the Alamodome/Cherry St. Urban Renewal Plan. However, substantial challenges loomed. Socioeconomically disadvantaged and troubled, drug activity and other dangerous and illicit behaviors plagued the neighborhood. Poverty was rampant and highly concentrated. According to the 1990 census, over 80% of households had incomes within 150% of the poverty level. Additionally, 77% percent of all buildings in the Historic Gardens Activity Area were in substandard condition. San Antonio’s African American community, which has a large presence in the area, suffered most from the deplorable conditions. Teresa Garces, a current Historic Gardens homeowner, explains that the neighborhood had such a poor reputation that many people avoided it: “we knew not to come to this side of town because it was in such bad shape, you know…and dangerous.” The possibility of contamination on-site was another burden to an already complicated process. To address the issue, SADA partnered with the city and received funding from an EPA Brownfields Assessment Demonstration Pilot grant to perform the environmental assessments. In 1997 SADA entered into the Voluntary Cleanup Program (VCP) offered by the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) to address the lead contamination found within the boundaries of the project’s first phase. After removing twelve inches of soil from the entire city block, disposing of it properly, and adding new fill to the site, SADA received a VCP Certificate of Completion, which releases all future property owners from liability associated with the previous contamination. SADA entered into the VCP program again in 1999 to address contamination in the second phase of the project. In 2004, SADA entered into TCEQ’s Brownfields Site Assessment program to receive state assistance to assess the third phase’s contamination. Although dealt with appropriately, perception regarding the site’s contamination history compounded people’s concerns about the area. One homeowner describes her reaction to learning about the contamination at the project’s outset, “that was a big to-do all over San Antonio. You know, I mean that was well known…and I recall, you know, hearing that and saying, ‘I’ll never live there!’ and here I am, right in the middle of it!” Despite these obstacles, SADA succeeded in completing the first two phases of construction and attracting new homeowners to the neighborhood.

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Building a Vision and Following Through

“We cannot just create a plan and impose it on the community…there is a requirement that we have to at least have two or three public meetings… that in itself helps us because now you have…a report that is not just something that will surprise a community… [it’s] the result of an interaction between the community, knowing what they propose, getting input from people.”

Ernest Haffner, Planning/Special Projects Manager, SADA

The City of San Antonio uses a well-developed set of procedures to promote citizen involvement in community planning. Prior to breaking ground on the Historic Gardens redevelopment, SADA was required to hold public meetings in order to share its vision and goals for the site as well as to solicit community members’ priorities and concerns. SADA took the residents’ feedback very seriously and used it as a guide when crafting the Alamodome/Cherry St. Urban Renewal Plan. Urban Renewal Plans are used by the city to direct zoning decisions and serve as a blueprint for the type and character of future redevelopment in a target area. Adrian Lopez, Economic Development Manager for the city, believes that Urban Renewal Plans are an important tool for socioeconomically disadvantaged citizens. He explains that the plans “empower those types of communities to have that voice…there’s a document that’s been approved by city council as… something official.” Residents even make references to the plans during public meetings. In addition to more formal participation requirements, SADA also utilized informal and personalized outreach approaches. For example, SADA worked hard to reach out to potential low-income homeowners by going door-to-door educating citizens about homeownership opportunities in Historic Gardens as well as city-sponsored assistance programs that can help make owning a home possible. Through these interactions SADA hoped to help the many low-income citizens on adjacent streets, mostly African Americans, to directly join in the success of the redevelopment.

Although planning activities for Historic Gardens have long since been completed, SADA still works to keep open lines of communication with the community. To help facilitate interaction and to encourage residents to take ownership of their neighborhood, SADA required every new homeowner to join the Historic Gardens Community Association. The board members of the association serve as spokespeople and ensure that effective communication takes place between SADA and the neighbors until the neighborhood becomes completely autonomous. In addition, employees at SADA are routinely invited to

community meetings held at a local church. They have also built rapport with individual residents who don’t hesitate to call whenever there’s a problem or concern.

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Despite SADA’s commitment to communication, their approach was not flawless. One resident says that “the honeymoon is over” and explains that “you can talk a lot but that doesn’t mean that they’re going to listen.” It has been challenging for SADA to maintain a high level of interaction over the many years that the project has been underway. For example, neighbors were not informed that workers would be entering their neighborhood in full hazardous waste abatement suits to clean up contamination in the third phase. Additionally, one homeowner believes that SADA mistakenly assumes that new homeowners are proficient in caring for their homes and yards and believes that SADA should submit basic instructions to residents in writing. She offers the example that the city planted new oak trees along the sidewalks but many of them died because people didn’t care for them. Despite these shortcomings her relationship with the agency was essentially positive and she “felt that they were cooperative.”

Lessons Learned Over the past ten years a gradual transformation has been taking place as the Historic Gardens neighborhood evolves into a stable mixed income community. SADA’s commitment to include the public at all phases of the project from planning to post-construction was crucial to its success as were the informal relationships created along the way. The City of San Antonio’s strong procedural requirements and willingness to assist the agency were also beneficial. Additionally, the mandatory neighborhood association contributes to the long-term sustainability of the community by fostering interaction, providing local oversight, and facilitating communication between residents and the agency. SADA’s collaboration with the Texas Historical Commission helped to ensure that all homes preserve the historical character of the neighborhood. The Agency also recognized the aesthetic importance and utility of greenspace and provided playgrounds for children. SADA’s respect for the community’s wishes, high standards, and vision combined to create an affordable housing redevelopment that is enjoyed by its residents and celebrated by San Antonio. Despite the success and recognition Historic Gardens has enjoyed thus far, the agency and the neighborhood continue to face difficult challenges. SADA’s continued progress is contingent upon additional public funding, which is hard to come by. The process has been lengthy and residents are becoming antsy as they tolerate delays and the visual blight of half-finished construction. Perhaps the most difficult challenge continues to be finding a balance between attracting new moderate-income residents to the area while ensuring that disadvantaged neighbors from the severely blighted surrounding streets benefit from the redevelopment and are included in it. According to a resident’s account, only one Historic Gardens homeowner is African American despite the fact that the majority of residents in surrounding streets are. There is a tension between the two communities as resentful neighboring residents claim that they feel looked down upon. In order for this project to be considered a true success, SADA must continue to educate the surrounding community one-on-one, ensure that resources facilitating homeownership are utilized, and insist that the community association expand its reaches to create a partnership with the disadvantaged neighbors. Despite these challenges, SADA has planted a seed of promise through the Historic Gardens redevelopment. As the project matures, there will be even more opportunities for hope, stability and community to grow in an area desperately in need.