Dozens of San Antonio residents spoke out against the potential sale of San Antonio Independent School District (SAISD) land for the new San Antonio Missions ballpark during a district public meeting on Monday night.
Residents raised concerns about the displacement of potentially hundreds of Soap Factory Apartment residents, traffic across the street from Fox Tech High School, and how the project could negatively impact the area around the school.
SAISD leadership also provided information about where their negotiations with the Missions for the parcel of land on Camaron Street are.
SAISD leaders also appeared to pour cold water on a statement Bexar County Judge Peter Sakai made last month where he said SAISD would pull in around $12 million in annual tax revenue from the project. They said that revenue would actually be closer to $29,000 per year.
Jim Lefko, director of communications for Sakai, declined to comment on the discrepancy between Sakai's projections and those of the school district.
SAISD Associate Superintendent of Development and Construction Services Kamal ElHabr said the Missions made their first offer in April, offering a market rate price for the land plus opportunities for the district to use the ballpark for things like graduation, baseball playoff games, and student internships.
ElHabr said once SAISD told the Missions that they couldn't sell the land without replacing the parking spots, the ownership group offered to build a 250-space parking garage the district could use during business hours and an interim parking solution while that’s constructed.
Alejandra Lopez, the president of San Antonio Alliance, the union for educators and support staff at SAISD, pointed to declining SAISD enrollment as the leading reason behind the board of trustees’ decision earlier this year to close 15 schools. She said enabling the displacement of Soap Factory residents by giving the Missions the last piece they need for the project could make things even worse.
“We’ve seen the proliferation of luxury housing developments,” Lopez said. “Buildings that are full of studios and one-bedroom apartments. We all know that those buildings are not built for families. They’re not built for college students. They’re not built for working class people. And therefore they don’t bring students to our district.”
SAISD trustees said they didn’t know how many SAISD students live at the Soap Factory Apartments but will look into it.
SAISD Board President Christina Martinez said the district has also pushed city and county leadership to include affordable housing in its negotiations and property tax alleviation for residents who live near the proposed ballpark.
Several Soap Factory residents also spoke on Monday, including Brooklyn Ramos, who said she’s going to school at San Antonio College to become a teacher. “A stadium does not have to come at the expense of people’s futures,” Ramos said. “If Weston Urban really wants to build a stadium, they can make it happen without erasing housing that is affordable downtown.”
Weston Urban did not respond to TPR’s request for comment.
Amy, a teacher at Fox Tech who declined to give her last name, was one of the few residents who spoke in favor of the prospect of the new ballpark on Monday.
“Our teachers and students do not feel safe in the empty lots that are down the road and crossing the street of South Flores,” she said. “I feel like there is potential for great danger there, and it’s only a matter of time before an accident happens that we don’t wanna happen. The other thing is, my students are really excited about the potential of this happening.”
She said a parking garage instead of an open lot would likely be safer for students and teachers.
Amy Bowman, a parent of an Advanced Learning Academy Fox Tech student, agreed that the parking lot shouldn’t stay how it is, but that doesn’t mean the district should sell the land. “Instead of talking about selling that, we should be talking about making improvements to that lot,” she said. “We really should be talking about expanding rather than taking some things away.”
Bowman was one of several parents who voiced concerns about the traffic the ballpark is likely to bring to the area. She and others said the after school pick-up line is already a logistical nightmare. One mom said she would remove her child from Fox Tech if the traffic in the area got any worse.
Bruce Hill, the control person for the Missions and a member of the ownership group, spoke on Monday to try to assuage residents’ concerns. “I can tell you this — we don’t want a deal where we win,” Hill said. “We don’t want a deal that is just fair to us. We want a deal that is fair to every student and every teacher at SAISD. And we mean that. We’re not here to take advantage. We thought we were doing something helpful.”
Martinez said SAISD is “nowhere near” a deal with the Missions for the land, and that the district would hold at least one additional public meeting before any deal is brought forward for a vote.
Complicating the potential sale, ElHabr said state law requires any sale of school district land to an entity other than a municipality or county to be done through a sealed bid process, preventing a direct land sale from SAISD to the Missions.
The land, which is being used as a 250-space parking lot for the district, is the last property the Missions ownership group needs to build the $160 million ballpark and the planned economic development around it.
The San Antonio City Council approved a framework for the ballpark development project last month.
Bexar County commissioners on Tuesday approved the same memorandum of understanding as the city with the Missions ownership group and Weston Urban developers to provide public financing for the ballpark.
Countywide property taxes would not be affected. The public funding would come from the issuance of $126 million in bonds, funded in part by revenue from a Houston Street Tax Increment Finance Zone, which itself stands to benefit economically from a new ballpark. The team plans a $34 million initial contribution.
The ballpark would also be funded by a $1 million annual lease payment by the team and from $2 per ticket for all ticketed events.
The proposed stadium would be built in Precinct 2, represented by County Commissioner Justin Rodriguez, who pledged to take care of residents displaced by the project, like those in the Soap Factory Apartments. "I am going to hold certainly everybody accountable, including ourselves to make sure we are part of that solution, so I am supportive of this judge and look forward to a positive outcome."
Rodriguez said he believed Weston Urban will meet the needs of residents of the apartments who will be relocated. Building Brighter Communities offered $2,500 per unit for relocation upon exit by the tenants of each. It also offered to find the tenants other properties appropriate for their income and needs. and, if needed, bilingual services associated with relocation.
The county and city this year are expected to create the San Pedro Creek Development Authority, a local government corporation, which would own the ballpark. The authority's board will have three representatives from the city, three from the county, and three from the team and developer.
Commissioners were told on Tuesday by staffers that economic development around the proposed stadium would happen because its contractual. The county is still bitter that talk of economic booms around Wolff Stadium and what is now the Frost Bank Center never materialized.
Major League Baseball wants assurances a new home for the Missions will be ready by the 2028 season.
Brian Kirkpatrick contributed to this report.
