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Ecologically transformative project dogged by gentrification fears advances to final design phase on San Antonio’s Westside.
Greg Harman
Across the Westside of San Antonio, a collection of creeks—largely channelized concrete ditches recently graced with hike and bike trails—interrupt the asphalt streetscape above. This week the San Antonio River Authority is hosting a string of meetings to discuss designs being developed for restoring the ecological health of these creekways, with one night dedicated for each of the Westside’s four creeks: Martinez, Alazán, Apache, and San Pedro.
Plans to restore these creeks have been slowly advancing over more than a decade. Soon the creeks may have their channels widened and covered with native plants in hopes of restoring a healthy ecology that was responsible for drawing Native people’s to this area more than 10,000 years ago. Flood control efforts across San Antonio led to what the US Army Corps of Engineers and the San Antonio River Authority describe as “unconsidered consequences for the riverine ecosystem.”
These resulted in:
“a system where the sediment transport is out of balance, few to none of the aquatic structures necessary to support and sustain the life cycle of aquatic organisms native to the system remain, and the required shading and allochthonous inputs from the riparian corridor have been removed, severely altering the function of the historic riverine habitat.”
These design meetings represent the last phase of the Westside Creeks Restoration Project before Implementation.
Recent coverage of the project, granted $75M by the US Army Corps of Engineers last year, has included thoughts from community members ranging from the project’s ability to revitalize or possibly gentrify and displace residents in the surrounding neighborhoods.
Documents of Note:
Westside Creeks Restoration Project Conceptual Plan (2011)
San Antonio Channel Improvement Project, General Reevaluation Report and Environmental Assessment (2014)
Meeting Information
SAN PEDRO CREEK Monday, September 18, 2023; 6:00 PM – 7:30 PM; Location: San Antonio River Authority 100 E. Guenther St. San Antonio, TX 78204
APACHE CREEK Tuesday, September 19, 2023; 6:00 PM – 7:30; PM Location: Alazán Apache Courts 1011 S Brazos St, San Antonio, TX 78207
ALAZÁN CREEK Wednesday, September 20, 2023; 6:00 PM – 7:30 PM; Location: Alazán Apache Courts 1011 S Brazos St, San Antonio, TX 78207
MARTINEZ CREEK Thursday, September 21, 2023; 6:00 PM – 7:30 PM; Location: Huisache Avenue Baptist Church 1339 W Huisache Ave, San Antonio, TX 78201
