Last fall San Antonio city leaders were scrambling to apply for a piece of roughly $4 billion the federal government plans to spend helping reconnect communities that have been divided by highways.
Though they didn’t have formal plans for how to use the money, Assistant City Manager Lori Houston told the City Council’s Transportation and Infrastructure Committee she hoped it could help solve a problem city leaders have talked about for years: How to better connect downtown to the East Side.
On Wednesday, San Antonio leaders learned the city had been awarded roughly $3 million to put together a strategic plan, public outreach campaign and conceptual design for achieving that goal.
“This study will be the first step to improving walkability, safety, and affordable transportation access for the Eastside community and the broader San Antonio region,” U.S. Rep. Henry Cuellar, who serves on the House Appropriations Committee, said in a statement announcing the grant.
East Side neighborhoods like Dignowity Hill and Denver Heights were first split from the rest of downtown when railroad tracks were put in at the turn of the century, and the addition of Interstate 37 in 1978 further separated the area from the rest of the city.
A presentation from city staff last fall included few details about how to address that, but said the project could “remedy historic harm,” while taking into account “environmental justice, socioeconomic disparities, equity, creative placemaking and greenspace, and community-centered design.”
Houston said Wednesday that city staff will bring the item to the City Council in April for approval of the required local match, which is $740,000.
Grant money for the project comes as San Antonio leaders have also recently raked in federal cash for transit routes, sustainability research and other projects, and have been encouraged by the Biden Administration to apply for more.
“Our federal advocacy is paying dividends and there’s certainly more to come,” Mayor Ron Nirenberg said in a statement.
This particular funding pool, known as the Reconnecting Communities and Neighborhoods grant program, comes from the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act and the 2023 Bipartisan Infrastructure Law. It’s being distributed by the U.S. Department of Transportation for projects that mitigate highways’ impact on underserved communities, including projects that bury highways underground.
After crafting its plan, the city would then apply for construction grants to complete the work.
“I want to stress that we are in the very early stages,” Houston said in September. “We felt that we better apply now, before we lose the opportunity for construction dollars in the future.”
