Author(s): Ian Caine, Wei Zhai, Huanchun Huang, Gabriel Diaz Montemayor, Esteban López Ochoa, Rudy Niño & Christine Quattro
Driven by rapid population growth and rising housing demand, San Antonio urgently needs to rethink where and how new housing can be accommodated. By 2050, Bexar County will add more than 600,000 residents, requiring approximately 238,000 additional housing units. This research addresses the city’s housing shortage by examining redevelopment opportunities along aging commercial corridors, mapping vacant and underutilized parcels, and evaluating their potential for multifamily infill housing and mixed-use development. Phase I identifies, classifies, and evaluates vacant and underutilized parcels along seven proposed rapid transit corridors in the SA Tomorrow and VIA 2040 Plan; Phase II, reported here, develops infill housing prototypes for these sites. Four converging trends make aging commercial corridors prime candidates for metropolitan-scale redevelopment. First, e-commerce and hybrid work have increased retail and office vacancies, weakening corridor economies. Second, federal investment in a 12-mile Advanced Rapid Transit (ART) line and six planned routes supports transit-oriented development. Third, recent zoning reforms have reduced parking requirements, rendering surface lots increasingly obsolete. Fourth, emerging transportation technologies—including shared mobility and automated vehicles—are expected to reduce reliance on private automobiles, easing traffic and parking demand over time. Together, these trends suggest underutilized commercial strips offer a strategic opportunity to absorb infill housing, leverage existing infrastructure, limit sprawl, and advance sustainable metropolitan growth.
Volume Editors
Reed Kroloff & Francisco J. RodrÃguez-Suárez
ISBN
978-1-944214-52-4