SAN ANTONIO – Thousands of landowners near the Texas Toyota plant are wondering if their land still belongs to them.
Tempers recently flared after Toyota’s expansion and its approval by city council and county commissioners. Many were caught off guard by a proposed re-zoning overlay by the city, which would prevent any new residential and commercial development within a 2-to-3-mile radius of the plant.
Landowner and President of Southside Affordable Development, Fermin Rajunov, says his proposed housing construction is approximately 2.7 miles away from the Toyota plant. He believes he’s well within reason to build 700 affordable housing units.
“We love Toyota! I think it’s a great investment in our city. We love Toyota, but Toyota has to love us too,” says Rajunov.
Rajunov is excited about all the development happening on the South Side. But he’s upset that it’s ruining his plans to finish out his master plan community.
“We want to do affordable homes around it. We need affordable homes. We have 600 homes in place and the idea and growth of the master plan community is to do affordable apartments,” says Rajunov.
Rajunov is one about 4,000 landowners who feel the city is allowing Toyota to determine their land use future. We went to the city to have them explain what the problem is.
“We are proposing the industrial compatibility overlay district in order to ensure that we limit the potential for future residents to live adjacent to a heavy industrial use,” says Rudy Nino, Jr. Asst. Dir. of the Planning Department for the City of San Antonio.
Nino says it’s for the health and safety of the community.
“There were problems when you allow industrial traffic to mix with local residential traffic. We know that already,” says Nino.
But Rajunov’s proposed housing complex is less than three miles from the Toyota plant and was rejected by the city last year. Now he’s suing the city and Toyota. So we asked Nino about the Rajunov’s rejected housing project.
“Because there is ongoing litigation, the city can’t really comment on that,” replied Nino.
For now, the proposed industrial compatibility overlay will continue to be discussed in a public meeting next week. City council members may not vote on this until August.
“The City strongly denies the allegations in Southside Affordable Development’s lawsuit against the City. As part of that, the City denies that SSAD has been denied any requested zoning or planning change as alleged in the lawsuit. Any requests remain pending and are proceeding through the standard processes. Therefore, SSAD’s lawsuit is premature and the City will continue to defend its position to the allegations in the lawsuit. The case remains on appeal,” the City Attorney’s Office said in a statement.
