SAN ANTONIO \u2013 Long-awaited upgrades to a section of Brackenridge Park appear to be moving forward.<\/p>\n
The City of San Antonio is seeking approval from the Historic and Design Review Commission (HDRC) for a series of upgrades<\/a> to the Lambert Beach area of the urban core park. Project work includes stabilization and restoration of stone walls, the Grand Staircase and the 1877 Pump House. The city also wants to remove a number of trees in the area, which sparked legal challenges. The renovations were first approved in the 2017 bond election.<\/p>\n Brackenridge Park in April 2023. Several structures are due for upgrades. (Gabe Hernandez\/SABJ)<\/p>\n This is the second time the project has appeared before HDRC. The city received a certificate of appropriateness from the commission in April 2023, but a suit brought by the Lipan-Apache Native American Church, which alleged that changes to the site would infringe on its civil rights, put the project on hold. Certificates of appropriateness<\/a> are valid for 18 months. If a developer does not begin construction within that timeframe, they have to resubmit for approval.<\/p>\n The Texas Supreme Court ruled in the city\u2019s favor in June 2025, and an appeals court reached the same conclusion in December.<\/p>\n In a 2023 interview with the Business Journal, the city\u2019s project manager, Jamaal Moreno, said the city aims to protect the area\u2019s cultural heritage.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s essentially trying to stabilize all of the cultural resources that are within that Lambert Beach area,\u201d he said at the time. \u201cSome of that includes the river walls, some of that includes the Lambert Beach retaining walls. We\u2019re also looking to do some underpinning of the foundation of the Pump House. There\u2019s also the Grand Staircase, which we\u2019re going to be looking at renovating with a new foundation and then putting the stones back in their original place.\u201d<\/p>\n Nearby, the Brackenridge Park Conservancy is pursuing a $10 million project<\/a> that would see the rise of a new playground facility bordered by the San Antonio River, the Witte Museum and the Lambert Beach area.<\/p>\n HDRC is expected to take up the measure at its Jan. 21 meeting.<\/p>\n Read more of this story at the San Antonio Business Journal website<\/a>.<\/p>\n