A development was quietly approved by a city committee and permitted by staffers in a controversial sliver of San Antonio’s downtown. It’s a shocking turn of events, as a city councilwoman was working to have the property donated as parkland.
For months, signs adorned the front lawns of incensed Lavaca residents on the eastern edge of downtown, condemning plans for a gas station and Little Caesar’s at the entrance to their neighborhood. Eventually, amid fierce community pushback and District 1 Councilwoman Sukh Kaur’s intervention, the developer withdrew the request.
“There’s just a lot of competing interests and some conflicts of interest with things like quality of life and traffic management with that kind of development amidst homes like that,” Lavaca Neighborhood Association President Melissa Stendahl told MySA at the time.
More than a year later, a new development – a shopping center of sorts – has cleared the Historic Design and Review Commission with little fanfare, despite the councilwoman’s continued efforts to convert the former commercial refueling station into a park.
Kaur tells MySA she reached a preliminary agreement with one of the property owners to donate the land to the San Antonio Parks Department. However, there are multiple people in charge of GrayStreet Partners, which is intrinsically linked to the property owner (KEM Texas LTD). And there seem to have been conflicting plans for the slice of real estate.
“As part of that effort, I reached a preliminary agreement with one of the property’s partners to donate the land to the Parks Department,” Kaur told MySA, noting the pair completed environmental assessments and performed due diligence requirements to get the park off the ground. “During that process, another partner associated with the property sought approval from the Historic Design and Review Commission for a shopping center development, which has subsequently been approved.”
The councilwoman confirmed that permits have been submitted to city staff. There’s been no public opposition from the neighborhood for this project. MySA reached out to Stendahl, GrayStreet and KEM Texas for comment but did not hear back by publication time.