DEPARTMENT: Department of Planning & Community Development, Department of Transportation & Capital Improvements, and Office of Sustainability
DEPARTMENT HEAD: Bridgett White, AICP, DPCD Interim Director; Terry Bellamy, TCI Assistant Director; Doug Melnick, Chief Sustainability Officer
COUNCIL DISTRICTS IMPACTED: Citywide
SUBJECT:
A public hearing regarding the San Antonio Comprehensive Plan, Multimodal Transportation Plan, and Sustainability Plan as components of the SA Tomorrow initiative.
SUMMARY:
SA Tomorrow is an innovative planning initiative to guide the city toward smart, strategic growth. SA Tomorrow consists of a Comprehensive Plan, which will serve as the City’s policy and land use guide; a Multimodal Transportation Plan and a Sustainability Plan, which will serve as implementation components of the Comprehensive Plan.
BACKGROUND INFORMATION:
SA Tomorrow builds on the vision articulated by the community through the SA2020 process. SA Tomorrow provides an innovative approach aimed at accommodating the city’s projected growth of one million residents by the year 2040. This approach will provide the community with more choices for housing and transportation while preserving our resources and maintaining a high quality of life.
The Planning Commission held a public hearing to consider a resolution to adopt the SA Tomorrow Plans on Wednesday, July 27, 2016. City Council will hold a second public hearing to consider an ordinance to adopt the SA Tomorrow Plans on Thursday, August 11, 2016.
ISSUE:
The SA Tomorrow draft plans have been developed through a three-year process that included data collection and analysis, partnerships between City staff and expert consultant teams, technical expertise from stakeholders throughout the community and continuous public input. The plans address projected population growth by moving toward more strategic development patterns, increasing efficiency in transportation options and infrastructure, and improving equity and resiliency through measureable sustainability programs.
Draft plan documents were made available to the public in May 2016. Since this time, staff has received proposed edits from individuals, community and neighborhood groups, industry groups, plan stakeholders, other City staff, and the Planning Commission. Staff reviewed all proposed edits and worked with contributors to develop and incorporate appropriate revisions. All staff-supported revisions to the draft plans are outlined in attachments to this memo.
Full text of the public draft plan documents can be found at the following links (please allow ample loading time, due to the large file size).
• Comprehensive Plan Public Draft <http://www.sacompplan.com/files/managed/Document/430/Draft%20SA%20Tomorrow%20Comprehensive%20Plan%20with%20Appendices%20May%202%202016_lo-res.pdf>
• Sustainability Plan Public Draft <http://www.sasustainabilityplan.com/files/managed/Document/154/Complete%20Draft%20SA%20Tomorrow%20Sustainability%20Plan%20April%202016.pdf>
• Multimodal Transportation Plan Public Draft <http://www.satransportationplan.com/app_pages/view/347>
Highlights of each plan are presented below.
SA Tomorrow Comprehensive Plan
The major “building blocks” of the Comprehensive Plan include:
• Regional Centers
• Urban Centers
• Corridors
• Neighborhoods
Each building block has a role within the greater San Antonio landscape.
San Antonio will build upon its pattern of regional development, which has resulted in the formation of 13 regional centers that are home to roughly 50% of all existing jobs in San Antonio. These regional centers present our best chance for accommodating the projected population and employment growth while minimizing unchecked urban sprawl and its impact on city services and character. By using this approach, San Antonio can preserve and protect existing neighborhoods, parks, open space, and trails by concentrating a large portion of future growth and development (both housing and employment) in these regional centers, as well as in smaller scale urban centers, and along attractive multimodal Corridors with enhanced transit services. The City’s Land and Development Capacity Study suggests employing an infill development strategy using vacant and underdeveloped parcels throughout the City to build job and housing supply in the regional centers and along the city’s corridors. Occupying the space between the regional and urban centers, and the corridors that connect them, Neighborhoods form the backbone of the community. By focusing much of the new housing and jobs into regional centers, urban centers, and along corridors, we ensure the ability to create and support complete neighborhoods with access to a variety of amenities and daily needs and services, while continuing to protect existing neighborhoods and historic spaces.
SA Tomorrow Sustainability Plan
The Sustainability Plan will articulate the City’s sustainability strategy, serving as a roadmap to make our community and municipal operations more sustainable, improving quality of life for all residents, and building overall community resilience. With an additional one million people coming to Bexar County by the year 2040, the Sustainability Plan aims to balance the growth with our environmental, economic, and social resources. A greenhouse gas inventory, climate vulnerability study, and climate trends analysis guided development of the plan.
The Sustainability Plan highlights seven focus areas and five cross cutting themes. Each focus area has its own vision, outcomes and strategies, as well as indicators and targets that allow us to measure progress. The focus areas include:
• Green Buildings & Infrastructure
• Energy
• Food Systems
• Land Use & Transportation
• Natural Resources
• Public Health
• Solid Waste Resources
The cross cutting themes were identified as key priorities that intersect with all of the focus areas. They create the framework by which every identified focus area strategy can be evaluated to ensure that upon implementation, the state of these priority areas is improved or, at a minimum, not negatively impacted. The cross cutting themes include:
• Air Quality
• Resilience
• Economic Vitality
• Equity
• Water Resources
SA Tomorrow Multimodal Transportation Plan
The Multimodal Transportation Plan lays out a vision for the future that utilizes technology and innovation to transform our existing system into a dynamic, balanced, and forward thinking system. The plan will help us begin to prepare for the inevitability of connected and autonomous vehicles, as well as high speed rail and future transportation innovations. The plan includes 5 key components:
• Focus on moving people, not cars, by providing transportation mode choices. San Antonio’s street system is largely complete, and the opportunity to add new roadways or widen existing ones is limited. This means light rail, dedicated Bus Rapid Transit and HOV facilities must be considered in the future. Working closely with VIA, Amtrak, future commuter rail and high speed rail providers will be critical.
• Build a multimodal transportation system to serve the city, connect to the region, and support smart growth. Building projects that incorporate all modes and provide connections between those modes is a priority. The projects will use public roadways as well as public parks, trails, and linear creek ways to offer transportation choices and connect all modes. The pedestrian and bicycle networks are clearly defined and options to improve the facilities should be considered a priority.
• The City and our internal agencies must partner with TxDOT, MPO, and Bexar County to implement a dynamic “incident management program” to minimize the impact of roadway congestion. One of the major causes of congestion and delays during the peak travel time are incidents. In many cases, it involves a disabled vehicle, minor vehicle crash, or abandoned vehicles; and one of the successful programs to address these incidents is a Roadway Operations Patrol that can respond to and clear traffic incidents and emergencies.
• Continue to use “Smart Cities” technology to make innovative and emerging technology available for all mode users. Working with our transportation partners, TxDOT, VIA, San Antonio Airport, carshare companies and taxi services to provide real-time updates for all modes of transportation. Everything from real-time reports of the next bus arrival, congestion management information, alternative mode choices, detours due to a crash, walking guides, bicycle routes, and construction project updates, can all be made available through the use of mobile apps.
• Safety remains a priority. Preserving our infrastructure through regular maintenance promotes and increases roadway safety. Through Vision Zero and School Pedestrian Safety programs, we are designing our roadways for all users and all modes of travel while focusing on safety for our residents and visitors. Maintaining San Antonio’s roads, bridges, signals, and sidewalks allows us the best return on taxpayers’ transportation dollars by extending the life of our infrastructure and providing a more sustainable transportation system.
ALTERNATIVES:
The 1978 Transportation Plan, the1997 Master Plan Policies, the 2009 Comprehensive Planning Program, the 2010 Mission Verde Sustainability Strategy, and the 2013 Annexation Policy will continue to guide the City’s future growth and development patterns until new or updated documents are adopted as components of the City’s Master Plan.
FISCAL IMPACT:
None.
RECOMMENDATION:
Staff recommends adoption of the SA Tomorrow Comprehensive Plan, Sustainability Plan, and Multimodal Transportation Plan, incorporating the attached revised language where applicable, as components of the Master Plan of the City of San Antonio.