VIA VILLA MASTER PLAN
This VIA Vision Plan is meant to inform future land use and neighborhood planning efforts as well as facility and infrastructure design in and around VIA Villa. This vision is meant to inspire the community and act as a tool for kick starting this area and to provide a template for future development. This vision is not a master plan that is set in stone but instead it is more of a prescriptive document that can be modified as necessary in the future. It follows a number of tried and true planning concepts and it attempts to fit in with the culture of this part of our city. It is meant to be flexible enough to allow for change but to still follow certain guidelines/concepts that our community has deemed important.
The big transit vision for this area will help to serve the transportation needs for San Antonio in the future. By burying the rail lines in this area, the Commerce Street bridge and the Buena Vista Street bridge can be removed thereby reconnecting the west side to downtown San Antonio. By restoring the Alazan Creek into a linear park to the west and by improving the access points underneath the highway to the east, this area will no longer be as isolated and underutilized part of downtown. The proposed infill developments with a mix of affordable housing, market rate housing and retail will help to create a series of new neighborhoods surrounding VIA Centro and the new small urban parks that are linked together. This vision also illustrates the future plans for the various institutions in this area. Emphasis is on the urban realm in terms of using “complete streets” and by providing development schemes that foster pedestrian, mass transit and bicycles over cars.
Team: Bender Wells Clark, Perkins Will, Sprinkle Co.