Vehicles maneuver through the intersection of South Zarzamora Street, Frio City Road and Kirl Place in South San Antonio in 2021.The new Chevy Caprice was holding the top spot in U.S. car sales and U.S. Highway 281 had just been expanded on the North Side between the airport and Loop 1604 when city leaders adopted San Antonio’s first major thoroughfare plan.
In just the last five years, city staffers have made 14 amendments to parts of the plan in order to accommodate new development or requirements, Monterville said. But a more comprehensive overhaul is needed. That’s inefficient and costly and doesn’t allow for a holistic look at planning across the city, Monterville said.
“So it was in the ‘70s and the ‘80s where you had expansions of freeways to address the density and the desired travel pattern and the land-use decisions of the period,” Monterville said. City planners needed a long-term plan to manage how regions grew in order to have the infrastructure that would be needed.
The major thoroughfare plan plays a significant role in attracting new business to San Antonio, said Brenda Hicks-Sorensen, director of the city’s Economic Development Department. A map of San Antonio thoroughfares includes a proposed parkway, highlighted pink, that would cut across the Southwest Side.Assistant City Manager Roderick Sanchez told committee members that if the plan is not updated, he worries the city will be faced with the prospect of a development that needs access across a quarry or flood plain, for example, and there are no resources to build the road.