The horse-drawn carriage industry that was launched in San Antonio in 1865 is poised to end within the next three years.
The San Antonio City Council’s Transportation and Infrastructure Committee voted 5-0 on Monday for city staff to create a detailed one- to three-year plan to phase out horse drawn carriages in downtown San Antonio.
A public survey of residents, tourists, and businesses the city conducted found that just over half of the 50,746 respondents believed the business should be phased out.
San Antonio has five permitted horse-drawn carriage companies with a total of 25 horse-drawn carriages active in the city.
The policy proposal to phase out horse-drawn carriages downtown was written in 2022 by District 2 Councilmember Jalen McKee-Rodriguez and District 3 Councilmember Phyllis Viagran.
Stephanie Garcia is the owner of Yellow Rose & H.R.H Carriage Company. She spoke to the council committee before Monday’s vote urging them against banning the industry. “To phase us out or move us out of the downtown area will bankrupt my family,” Garcia said.
She added that the city’s survey was not statistically sound and that people who live outside of San Antonio could have participated in it.
Many council members expressed concern about the physical wellbeing of the horses, which, they said, have to inhale much more car exhaust downtown now than they used to.
But Garcia said her horses are perfectly healthy. “My gentle giants have just received their annual inspection from [Animal Care Services] and Dr. [Benjamin] Espy, and all passed with flying colors — just an example of the regulation set by the city ordinance,” she said.
The city was unable to find an independent veterinarian interested in conducting an independent review of the horses’ health.
The city presented several transition options for the carriage operators, but not the businesses.
Those options included training them to operate electric carriages, a new tour guide occupation, a new occupation through the city’s Ready to Work workforce development program, and a transition to entrepreneurial opportunities with support from Launch SA and LiftFund.
City staff said they would meet with the carriage drivers to get their feedback about what the transition process should look like.
Electrical horseless carriages are being used in Mt. Dora and Fernandina Beach, Florida, and are being tested in Philadelphia; the carriages are not authorized to work on city streets in any of the three cities, according to state regulations.
The city said these carriages cost approximately $20,000.
Transportation and Infrastructure Committee chair and District 9 Councilmember John Courage said the city’s transition plan needed to be extremely thorough to ensure as smooth of a transition as possible.
“We’d ask the city to go through not just the choices, for example, on helping people to get a job, but maybe setting up a mechanism that would help those people be prepared to move into another job,” he said.
City staff will present a transition plan to the full city council before Oct. 31.
