San Antonio gets focused on growth

Unified Development Code sparks ‘hard conversations’

D’Ette Cole didn’t know much about development in San Antonio until she learned a site near her Government Hill home could become a 24-hour gas station.

Cole and her neighbors put up a yearlong fight against a QuikTrip moving in near the intersection of Interstate 35 and Walters. They ultimately got a compromise from City Council in the form of new zoning that allows for commercial development, but not a gas station.

The battle made Cole realize San Antonio doesn’t have many restrictions for how close a gas station can be to homes, apartments or schools. So she submitted an amendment to the city’s code that would change that.

San Antonio began accepting proposals like Cole’s in October, kicking off a process to update the city’s Unified Development Code that only happens once every five years or by City Council request. It’s meant to streamline development, reduce costs and comply with any new state laws. It also lets city staff and residents suggest bigger-picture changes that affect sensitive development concerns in a growing city.

“It just seems like such a simple thing to amend the UDC to give a little bit of buffer protection for these older communities,” Cole said. “They really are the roots of the city.”

The Unified Development Code is a chapter in the municipal code that governs the rules, policies and procedures for development in San Antonio.

It affects things like zoning, which determines how a property can be used by owners and developers. It also impacts trees, landscaping, streets, stormwater drainage and more.

The UDC amendment process was slated to take place in 2020, but the city delayed it during the coronavirus pandemic. The code was last updated in 2015.

The update process gives residents the chance to have a say in how the city progresses — but first, they must gain support from San Antonio’s Planning Commission, which decides what amendments can move forward for other boards and committees to hash out and eventually go before City Council.

Only amendments submitted