Nagel’s Gun Shop postponed its application seeking memorial designation of El Mio Drive on Tuesday, leaving its request to designate the street as Nagel’s Crossing “in limbo,” the city said.
Last week, facing opposition from neighbors, the gun shop changed its original name change request to instead seek a memorial designation on El Mio Drive, which would leave the street name the same. Both processes are identical, so the item went on its way to the City of San Antonio’s Planning Commission.
But when the meeting began Wednesday, officials announced the item was postponed.
Clayton Wallace, planning coordinator for the city’s Development Services department, said the gun shop postponed its request on Tuesday.
“The applicant has postponed, so we won’t consider the item today,” said Logan Sparrow, development services administrator, outside of the commission’s board room on South Alamo Street. “We’ll have to send a notice out to the community at such time they do decide to bring the item back to consideration.”
Postponing the item doesn’t mean the application has been withdrawn, Sparrow said. But it can’t go to City Council without the planning commission’s recommendation.
“They haven’t withdrawn it. It’s just kind of in limbo until they decide to move forward with it or they could also decide to withdraw it later,” he said.
The item is tentatively scheduled for the Nov. 15 planning commission meeting. Between now and then, the gun shop could postpone or withdraw its memorial designation request, said Ximena Copa-Wiggins, public relations manager for the city’s development services department.
Nagel’s Gun Shop declined to comment on its action to postpone the request.
In July, the gun shop submitted a request to change the name of El Mio Drive, a small street located between San Pedro Avenue and Melliff Drive, to “Nagel’s Crossing,” according to the city.
The gun shop asked neighboring property owners to support the request, saying it would honor both the late Homer Nagel, an Air Force veteran who founded Nagel’s Gun Shop in the 1940s, and the gun shop’s longstanding presence in the community.
But business owners and neighbors opposed the original street name change request at a community meeting last week, saying the change would cause business interruptions due to the need to change their addresses from El Mio Drive to the new name. After being notified of the plan to change the request to a memorial designation, which would not require addresses to change, neighbors questioned why they should agree to honor the gun shop’s legacy.
Because the item was not discussed at the planning commission on Wednesday, there will be no recommendation and the item won’t move forward to City Council on Oct. 5 as originally planned.
