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Drone image of the Tower of Americas overlooking downtown San Antonio in August 2025. Credit: Cooper Mock for the San Antonio Report<\/p>\nResearchers at University of Texas at San Antonio say they\u2019ve found space along some of the city\u2019s busiest streets to build housing for 600,000 new residents by 2050.<\/p>\n
Their project identified more than 7,000 acres of vacant land or underutilized parking spaces near proposed transit corridors that could be turned into new housing.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Ian Caine, the UT San Antonio architecture professor who led the work, said a combination of new development and projects filling in around existing buildings could bring new housing to VIA\u2019s proposed transit hubs while respecting local history.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you develop on underutilized, vacant land along some of these routes, you could meet San Antonio\u2019s entire housing shortage,\u201d Caine said.<\/p>\n
The project, called Vacancy to Vitality, identified vacant parcels and unused parking areas along transit corridors that are not restricted by factors like flood risk, ownership or size and proposed policies and designs to create development without displacing residents or historical businesses and buildings.<\/p>\n
Researchers looked at land a half-mile from seven of VIA\u2019s proposed rapid transit corridors and found more 2,700 acres of vacant land and 4,700 acres of underutilized parking spaces they say could be converted into housing.<\/p>\n
Some of those ideas \u2014 like turning motels into workforce housing, adding multifamily housing to strip malls or turning malls into large mixed-use communities \u2014 aren\u2019t new, Caine said. He wanted to add data and ideas to San Antonio\u2019s discussion about housing.<\/p>\n
The project, which combined research with renderings created by UT San Antonio architecture students, identified some of the places and ways to introduce them to San Antonio. Caine said it was not a definite proposal for city growth, but could introduce possibilities to developers.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is a thought experiment about how San Antonio will grow over the next 25 years,\u201d Caine said at a panel discussion on Tuesday.<\/p>\n
Drone image of the Tower of Americas overlooking downtown San Antonio in August 2025. Credit: Cooper Mock for the San Antonio Report<\/p>\n
The project focused on VIA\u2019s proposed advanced rapid transit corridors. Two of those are in development \u2014 the Green Line broke ground<\/a> earlier this year and the Silver Line<\/a> could start construction in 2027 \u2014 while five others included in the research are merely proposed.<\/p>\n Caine said the research still focused on alternative forms of transportation, like self-driving cars and public transit.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re imagining a future where private gas-powered cars and large parking lots are less common,\u201d he said. \u201cWe want to prioritize people over cars.\u201d<\/p>\n