I’ve sat through a number of City of San Antonio master planning meetings and workshops, including some of the many, well-attended brainstorming events for the Mayor’s SA2020 initiative. These sessions are long, often tedious “labors of love” for me and thousand of other citizens, who are honored to serve our community and take the responsibility seriously.

Master plans are developed by cities, with input from its citizens – especially those in the affected neighborhoods – as guidelines for future development. City councils can address a variety of development issues, by adopting plans that range from a bike master plan, a neighborhood plan, community plan, historic preservation plan, or an entire city master plan. A city is obligated to not just follow the tenets of these adopted master plans, but to involve the stakeholders who provided input for the plans if deviations from the adopted plans are contemplated.

Above all, a city is obligated to make decisions that affect neighborhoods through an open, transparent process. Unfortunately, this has not been the case with the recent request by the City of San Antonio to permanently close a section of South Main Avenue for the exclusive benefit of the H-E-B Corporation.

read more via H-E-B's Street Closure Request: Is The Plan not a Plan? | The Rivard Report.