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The Scenic Loop-Helotes Creek Alliance continues to express concern about Florida-based builder Lennar over its developments in far Northwest Bexar County, where the Hill Country meets suburbia.
The nonprofit organization is now targeting a nearly six-acre proposed retail center with gas station, two fast food outlets, and a two-story storage facility at Scenic Loop and Babcock roads.
The alliance said Lennar and two other parties purchased the property for the proposed development. It added a memo to the county from Lennar's engineering firm—Pape-Dawson—would add nearly 5,000 daily vehicle trips through the area.
The alliance said that's additional vehicle traffic on top of the more than 25,000 daily vehicle trips Lennar's Guajolote Ranch residential development of 2,700 homes.
The critics said two-lane Scenic Loop Road has no existing right of way to add additional lanes and they ask who will pay for the needed road improvements.
The main target of the alliance remains the residential development due to environmental concerns. The alliance said it supports plans this month by the Greater Edwards Aquifer Alliance and the City of Grey Forest plan to appeal a decision by the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality that granted a wastewater permit for Guajolote Ranch.
The alliance said Lennar wants to discharge an average of 1 million gallons a day from the residential development into the Helotes Creek watershed, which recharges the water supply of the Trinity Glen Rose Aquifer in the area and up to 15% of the recharge of the Edwards Aquifer, a key water source for 2.5-million people in the region.
The alliance said the TCEQ with its wastewater permit approval rejected "the only accepted science" showing the development would "significantly degrade the watershed and the quality of the water recharge to the Edward Aquifer.
The San Antonio Planning Commission is expected to hold a public hearing for a MUD application related to the residential development on Jan. 16 followed by a city council vote on Feb. 5.
Texas Public Radio requested comment from Lennar on claims made by the alliance but had received no response by the time of publication.
