The Next Domino, 17 Herff

For this discussion I am going to place the Herff Road Expansion as the first domino. This expansion, deemed necessary in the face of impending Esperanza traffic, opened up once-peaceful homesteads, to the noise and congestion of a busy thoroughfare.

As we already know, the congestion on Herff is forcing traffic down Oak Park and into surrounding neighborhoods and, as and illustrated in our previous blog post, Trails at Herff Ranch, Woods of Boerne, and Champion Heights, have not completed build out, and the massive 2480 units in Esperanza and 898 lots in the Ranches at Cibolo Creek are just getting started.

Hence, domino one is down.

Now for 17 Herff – it has been touched on in previous blog posts and emails, but I want to emphasize it again -

17 Herff, if permanently zoned at R-4 and MU-2,

WILL set a precedent for the remaining parcels along Herff and Old San Antonio.

Our City Planner, Laura Talley, has already stated -

“The same would apply across the street as it does at this location. So the MU-2/R-4 zoning is appropriate for this site.”

Now, you may be thinking – yes, we know the Weitzman Group has the Beene family’s 4+ acres up for grabs.

But Ms. Talley is actually referencing the 23 acres of vacant land directly across the street from 17 Herff when explaining the reasoning behind the proposed high density zoning. Ms. Talley obviously has insight beyond what we, the citizens, currently see.

As a recap - the anticipated development of the 23 acres (currently vacant and currently zoned R-1) directly across from 17 Herff is seen by City staff as:

• potentially commercial or high density AND

• the MU-2/R-4 zoning for 17 Herff would also be considered appropriate for those 23 acres

Thus making 17 Herff domino number two.

The map below reflects only what I know currently. Again, City staff has much more insight into plans for this area, but this may help visualize the change. Not sure which additional 19 acres beyond the Beene’s four Ms. Talley is referring to, but I think you can get an idea of what that intersection could become if this proposal passes.