More than 100 Cibolo Canyons-area residents packed into a meeting last week to hear from a Florida-based developer that wants to swap 144 acres of land it has slated for development for 30 acres of federally protected land that’s home to an endangered bird species.
The protected land sought by the developer Starwood Land Advisors is part of the 768-acre Cibolo Canyons Conservation Easement, which was put in place in 2005 to help protect the golden-cheeked warbler, a songbird that breeds solely in Central Texas. The easement, which is protected from development, is located in North Bexar County and is overlooked by the JW Marriott San Antonio Hill Country Resort & Spa.
Most of the standing-room-only crowd Thursday was opposed to the land swap, arguing that no development is the best option for the endangered warblers. Members of the public have until Feb. 16 to weigh in on the proposal with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
The proposed swap is Starwood Land’s latest pitch to reclaim protected land and surfaced last month when the proposal was published in the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s federal register. Previously the developer tried to swap 63 protected acres for the same 144 unprotected acres.
Starwood Land inherited the Cibolo Canyons Conservation Easement in 2018 when it acquired Forestar Real Estate Group, formerly called Lumbermen’s Investment Corporation, and all of its assets, which included the planned community of Cibolo Canyons. The easement is a standing agreement that allows a specific number of acres in the area to be developed if the 768 acres remain under federal protection for the warblers.
During the meeting John Brian, Starwood Land’s East Region president, called the swap a “win-win” and said it’s “the best business decision and biological decision” for the two options available for his company’s development plans: develop the 144 acres or the 30 acres. Backed by biologists from Pape-Dawson Engineers, Brian said the development of the 144 acres would be more harmful to the tiny songbird than the development of the 30 acres.
“We’re trying to do less development,” Brian said. “At this point, I’ve got two scenarios. I’ve got to develop the 144 acres or develop the 30 acres.”
Surveying the warblers
Pape-Dawson Engineers Vice President Valerie Collins, an environmental biologist by training and a San Antonio resident, shared roughly 20 years of survey data on the golden-cheeked warblers in Cibolo Canyon. The area has been surveyed by U.S. Fish and Wildlife-approved biologists since the early 2000s, Collins explained, showing that prior to any development the area was rife with warbler sightings.
As development spread, the warblers moved further into the easement, away from the new homes — likely due to an increase in noise and predators such as house cats, and a decrease in their preferred habitat of Ashe juniper trees, she said.
Collins said the 30 acres proposed for the swap have been surveyed since the 1990s, with the area becoming less utilized by the warblers due to other nearby developments.
“Development pushed them out,” Collins said of the 30 acres Starwood would potentially receive. She added that leaving the 144 acres undeveloped would serve as a buffer “so the same thing doesn’t happen there.”
Surveys of warbler activity in the 144 acres are more recent. While the warbler doesn’t seem too taken with that land — which is mostly made up of sheer cliffs — they love the area around it, Collins noted, since water usually collects at the bottom of cliffs, leading to new plant growth and lots of insects — their preferred food.
Britt Coleman, president of the Bexar Audubon Society, said of the two options — develop the 30 acres or the 144 acres — there is a case to be made the swap will benefit the warbler. He added that he didn’t love either choice, though.
Coleman noted that this type of amendment to a conservation easement is unprecedented. The swap may cause future issues if developers see it as a way to start getting around federal conservation easement regulations, he said.
“It violates the concept of the conservation easement,” he said. “It sets a bad precedent, which is a really, really bad place to go.”
A third option
A possible third option remains, Brian said. Starwood Land could be swayed to sell the land to the Texas Parks and Wildlife department or to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service if enough funds can be raised, he explained.
At the end of the day, Starwood Land “has a business to run,” Brian said, adding the developer will try to give conservation groups time to try to raise funds for purchasing the land. Brian noted his company has talked with the Open Society Foundations and the Nature Conservancy about a possible land acquisition.
Asked why Starwood Land would be willing to trade 144 acres for 30 acres, Brian explained the larger area would be more expensive and more difficult to develop due to its terrain.
Some attendees expressed concerns that if Starwood got the 30 acres of land to develop it would ask for an additional swap in the near future that would allow it to develop the other 33 acres it sought last year.
“Last year, they were asking for 63 acres which was the area next to the 30,” one attendee yelled. “What prevents them from later on saying ‘Hey, that last [33] is out there floating on its own, can we develop that too?'”
Pape-Dawson Engineers is a financial supporter of the San Antonio Report. For a full list of business members, click here.
