Planning commission OKs closing Main for H-E-B

SAN ANTONIO — In less than six weeks, H-E-B has managed to win the favor of two city commissions and the neutrality of two major organizations that initially balked at the grocer's request to close South Main Avenue, though opposition remains.

On Wednesday — the day before the matter goes to the City Council — Mayor Julián Castro finally entered the debate, ending his silence about his position on H-E-B's request, which is a key part of the company's proposed $100 million expansion downtown.

He supports the closure.

“H-E-B's expansion is an excellent project that will create hundreds of new jobs and finally bring a grocery store to downtown,” Castro said in a text message to the San Antonio Express-News. “We're living the Decade of Downtown."

The controversial proposal cleared the second to last hurdle Wednesday when the city's planning commission unanimously voted to support the closure of Main between César E. Chávez Boulevard and East Arsenal Street.

In exchange for closing Main, which currently bisects H-E-B's campus, the grocer has promised to spend millions expanding its Arsenal campus with construction of an inner-city market, culinary school and test kitchen, a parking garage and several multi-use buildings along South Flores Street.

H-E-B also will create 400 new jobs and transfer an additional 400 employees to its downtown headquarters over the next seven years.

In total, the company told city officials its current Arsenal workforce would double to 3,200 employees by 2030.

“We want to grow. This is our home,” said Todd Piland, H-E-B's executive vice president of real estate.

When H-E-B first publicly unveiled its master plan in late October, opponents focused their attention on the company's demand that the city close Main or it wouldn't build the long-awaited grocery store.

Later, critics took aim at the proposal to attach a gas station to the so-called Flores Market, citing concerns over environmental safety, public health and traffic flow.

Still, they failed to convince the King William Association and San Antonio Conservation Society — the boards of which initially voted against

H-E-B's plans — to stand up to the company. Both boards voted last week to withdraw their opposition to closing Main.

“We do not oppose, but we are not, like, pro-'for it' either,” said Cherise Bell, executive director of the KWA.

This week, the city's zoning and planning commissions also fell in line with the proposal, providing the last votes necessary before the council considers their recommendations.

At the planning commission meeting, corporate interests weighed in through groups like the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce and Centro Alliance, both of which backed H-E-B.

Don Frost, chairman of Centro Alliance, the nonprofit that aims to guide the revitalization of downtown, told the commission that the total plan will become an economic driver for the area.

However, he expressed concerns about the lack of “complete streets” — a concept that balances road use between vehicles, bicyclists and pedestrians — along Flores, Chávez and South St. Mary's Street.

“Drive-in or drive-thru facilities do not fit the model of complete streets due to the vehicular and pedestrian conflicts that arise,” Frost said.

The fiercest critics, made up mostly of King William residents, questioned how quickly the proposal moved through City Hall. Some even suggested city officials worked too hard representing a private corporation instead of taxpaying citizens.

“The whole process is suspect and undemocratic,” one resident wrote in a letter to the commission.

District 1 Councilman Diego Bernal, however, dismissed claims that city officials or H-E-B are rushing the plans through the process.

“The neighborhood,

H-E-B and certainly the city have worked very methodically and very deliberately, and continue to do so, to address those concerns in a very real way,” Bernal said. “And because that effort is so comprehensive ... that really made me feel like we're doing all we can to be as balanced about this as possible.”

Late Wednesday, the city posted a copy of the economic development agreement that it reached with H-E-B.

The agreement cites the appraised value of the portion of Main at $3.54 million. Instead of paying that amount,

H-E-B must compensate the city by funding $3.8 million in surrounding street upgrades, city officials said.

But some opponents hope to use the agreement to convince enough council members to postpone any action on H-E-B's proposal. They said the city should have posted the document for public viewing at least three days in advance of the council vote instead of the night before.

nmorton@express-news.net