Plan Framework

Many residents of the Brooks Area have expressed a preference for increased levels of owner-occupied housing. However, the area currently has a homeownership rate of 55%, on par with the citywide average. While the City has some tools to ensure that future housing is owner-occupied, several other approaches exist that can help to achieve the overall goal of maintaining and creating stable neighborhoods with a healthy balance of owners and renters, including preservation and support of homeownership, providing desirable rental housing options, and increasing the diversity of housing choice throughout the area (see Recommendation #2).

Maintaining a balance of owner-occupied housing options to compleme the rental housing market will rely on supporting vulnerab homeowners and neighborhoods through strengthened homeowner assistan programs and citywide policies to address escalating property valu and taxes. In addition, we can also encourage economic stabilizati in established neighborhoods by increasing Accessory Dwelling Uni (ADUs). ADUs also help create “quiet density” that provides small and affordable units without altering the character of existing neighborhoods. Such units can help provide safe and healthy housing options for many San Antonians, and help mitigate our city’s growing housing shortage (as identified in the 2018 Mayor’s Housing Policy Task Force Housing Policy Framework).

While the Brooks Area Regional Center has been able to attract development of entry-level, single-family housing, recent development of new apartments has needed to utilize affordable housing financing tools or favorable land leases provided by the Brooks Development Authority in order to successfully develop. While this was necessary for early development, new apartment units in the area are beginning to achieve rents that could support additional market rate rental projects. As this market barrier is overcome, more market-rate apartment development, along with more of the entry-level single-family development already taking place, is likely.

The Brooks campus should also work with developers to provide market rate, for-sale housing units including medium- and high-density for-sale units such as townhomes and condominiums that are in demand in other regional centers close to Downtown. The demand for multifamily, for-sale housing options has not yet been proven in the area. However, the Brooks campus’ proximity to Downtown, improving transit service, natural amenities, and emerging critical mass of activities, housing, and employment options make it the most likely successful market in the area for this type of product, and can help prove market demand for other parts of the Regional Center.

The populations of the city and of the Brooks Area Regional Center are projected to increase significantly in the next 20 years. The Brooks Area community welcomes this growth on the south side and the increased shopping, hospitality, and transit amenities it can attract and support. However, area residents have also expressed a desire to respect and maintain the character of traditionally single-family, residential-focused neighborhoods. While all neighborhoods will change over time, this evolution can be managed by directing much of the anticipated growth to the Regional Center’s designated focus areas, mixed-use corridors, and VIA transit stations.

New development and infill projects in neighborhoods should be more incremental, and at a scale that does not conflict sharply with the existing character. Accessory Dwelling Units (see Recommendation #1), duplexes, and triplexes are examples of housing types that can add additional ownership or rental housing supply to neighborhoods at a scale that creates little or no disruption to neighborhood character, parking, or traffic.

Attracting and supporting new growth on the south side and in the Brooks Area also necessitates a greater variety of housing types attractive to people at all stages of life and all income levels. Addressing this challenge requires a forward-thinking land use plan and proper policies and incentives to facilitate the development of a variety of housing types (for example, townhomes, condos, more urban apartments, and compact single-family homes). Many of these will be concentrated in designated focus areas, along mixed-use corridors, and near VIA Primo and Rapid Transit stations.

Housing affordability has been recognized as an existing and increasing challenge for San Antonio for a number of years. Most recently, both the SA Tomorrow Comprehensive Plan and the Mayor’s Housing Policy Task Force Housing Policy Framework laid out goals and recommendations for addressing this challenge. Although traditionally regarded as one of the more affordable parts of the city, the Brooks Area is not immune to these challenges. With a median household income over 20% lower than the citywide average, increasing costs of new development and demand for housing in the Brooks Area are making rents and prices for new (and even existing) homes harder for lower-income residents to afford.

Increasing the availability of housing units affordable to households earning less than 80% of Area Median Income (AMI) will rely on strategies including the use of innovative housing finance tools and a community land trust, targeted incentives such as the City of San Antonio Fee Waiver Program and CCHIP, preservation of existing affordable housing units, and partnerships to incorporate mixed income units in focus areas and key corridors.

Many programs, incentives, and funding sources for creating and maintaining housing affordability should be established based on a citywide perspective. San Antonio’s Housing Policy Framework has identified actions, policy priorities, and implementation strategies to do this. As these recommendations are refined and adopted as policy, every regional center and community area in San Antonio will have a role to play in achieving a diverse and affordable housing future for the city.