The City of San Antonio is seeking public feedback on a proposed name for the Westside Creeks Restoration Project as the two-decades-in-the-making venture nears a significant design milestone.
The proposed name, the “Roberto Rodriguez Westside Creeks Ecosystem,” looks to honor the project’s historic Westside advocate Roberto Rodriguez, who long pushed for the creeks to be restored to a more naturalized state since joining the San Antonio River Authority’s Board of Directors in 2001.
The creeks in the predominantly Mexican American neighborhoods were essentially turned into drainage ditches in the ’70s solving the issue of catastrophic flooding, but also destroying much of the creeks’ natural habitats, a point Rodriguez noted when he sat down with the San Antonio Report earlier this year.
A public hearing on the proposed name will be held Thursday, Sept.5 at 6 p.m. at the Westside Family YMCA, located at 2900 Ruiz Street.
Robert Ramirez, one of the co-chairs of the River Authority’s oversight committee, said during a public meeting Tuesday that the committee had voted unanimously three years ago to acknowledge Rodriguez’s work on this project.
“… So we thought it would be fitting to designate the four Westside creeks as the ‘Roberto Rodriguez Westside Creeks Ecosystem,’ and that name would last into perpetuity,” he said.
A partnership between the river authority and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the project aims to restore 11 miles of creekways that were “channelized” and lined with concrete as part of a 1954 San Antonio Channel Improvement Project. By restoring the aquatic ecosystems with plantings of native grasses, wildflowers and trees, the creeks will return to being more natural channels.
While the ecosystem of creeks is proposed to be renamed, the San Pedro, Apache, Alazán and Martínez creeks will retain their individual names, the city noted in a press release about the public hearing.
The overall project’s design is nearing the 65% complete mark, with that expected to happen in September and public information sessions about the project being targeted for scheduling in early October, said River Authority Senior Project Manager Rebecca Krug. Krug added the design of Apache Creek is complete, and construction on that segment of the project could start as soon as next summer.
Residents can express support or opposition to the suggested name at the public hearing, via mail, via phone and online at SASpeakUp.com/WestsideCreeks.
Residents who require Spanish, ASL, or other language translation services are asked to notify the city’s Public Works department at Nicholas.Olivier@sanantonio.gov at least 72 hours before the meeting.
Rising costs
The price tag on the Westside Creeks Restoration Project has grown significantly since the original projections were given in 2014, San Antonio River Authority officials told members of a project oversight committee earlier this year.
The original cost estimates that year amounted to roughly $118 million. With $75 million in federal funding and an initial $40 million from the county, the project was considered fully funded as of 2022.
Since then, however, rising construction costs and inflation have driven the estimated cost up to $200 million, according to the Army Corps of Engineers’ latest estimates. The Army Corps’ Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act Work Plan, a bipartisan federal infrastructure act passed by Congress in 2021, allocates $77 million for the project, although that total is likely to go up in coming months, and Bexar County is contributing $65 million for the design and construction of the project.
Additional federal funds for the project may be allotted later this year within the 2024 Water Resources Development Act — biannual legislation that authorizes the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Civil Works Program for projects to improve the nation’s ports and harbors, inland waterway navigation, flood and storm protection and other aspects of the country’s water resources infrastructure, said Derek Boese, the river authority’s general manager Tuesday.
“We have support on both sides of the aisle, both sides of Congress, so we’re in good shape,” added Brian Mast, the river authority’s government affairs manager. “We’re looking for that bill to be finalized and signed probably early October-ish, so not too far away.”
River authority officials say they will advocate for additional federal funding for fiscal year 2026.
Design hiccups
The design phase has hit a couple snags along the way that have slowed the process by a couple of months, Krug said Tuesday. The Army Corps of Engineers has mandated that the river authority must own any property where “betterments” will occur, Krug explained. The river authority has identified all the potentially affected property owners, some of which are owned by public entities, and some of which are owned by private owners, she said.
“We’re required to certify before the end of the design phase of the project that we have acquired all the lands needed in order to construct the project,” Krug said. “We’ve been working with local entities on the required real estate lands that are needed in the creeks.” Those owners include Opportunity Homes, the city, its publicly owned utilities and San Antonio Independent School District, Krug said.
The river authority is also working with federal and state agencies, including the Union Pacific Railroad and TxDOT, she said. The river authority has successfully made project adjustments along the way where it can to try to exclude going through lengthy approval processes at higher levels of government, Krug added Tuesday.
“Everything else is moving on track according to schedule, so we’re looking at starting that construction next summer, 2025,” she said.
