Cynthia Vallejo has lived in the home her parents purchased more than 70 years ago her entire life. She, her husband and son are three of more than 100 residents in the Thompson neighborhood who may be forced to sell their homes to the city in several years.
“My mama passed away four years ago,” Vallejo said. “She asked that I never sell this house, to make sure that this was our forever home.”
Vallejo, 55, thought she had a heart attack when she first heard of a massive proposed drainage project on the Southwest Side that would destroy her home. After a five-day stay in a hospital, doctors told her the pain was caused by anxiety and stress.
“This [house] is something that my mom, my parents, worked for — and it hurts,” she said, holding back tears. “And that’s why it angers me.”
The Concepción Creek drainage project could displace as many as 158 households in and around Thompson in an attempt to get thousands of homes and other structures out of a growing 100-year floodplain.
The watershed has not yet experienced a 100-year flood event, which means each year there is a 1% chance that more than 11 inches of rain could be dumped within 24 hours — damaging property and putting lives at risk.
As currently proposed, the Concepción Creek project would be the City of San Antonio’s largest flex of eminent domain powers in recent history and one of the largest drainage projects since the San Antonio River flood diversion tunnel and outlet structures were constructed from 1993 to 1995.
Several residents at risk of displacement told the San Antonio Report last week that they were shocked to learn of the proposed project earlier this year.
If the project — one of the three options proposed — gets through a yearslong public input and approval process, the city could force residents to sell their homes to it while helping those residents find new homes, officials said. The land where those homes would be demolished would become a detention pond or ponds and possibly park and recreational space.
The flood-mitigating detention in Thompson also would benefit downstream neighborhoods including Palm Heights and Villas de Esperanza.
The project could take 20-30 years to complete and cost between $243 million and nearly $564 million, though city officials have said a final proposal would likely land toward the cheaper of three options. Even the half-billion dollar option would displace an estimated 125 households, and none of them would remove all 4,148 structures from the draft floodplain.
Like many “creeks” in San Antonio and other sprawling cities, Concepción has been channeled in concrete ditches and through underground tunnels. The city’s three options, or “alternatives,” all involve detention ponds, widening channels or tunnels, and displacing residents.
Engineering studies show that channel improvements alone will ultimately flood the San Antonio River, said Roberto Reyna, assistant director of Public Works, who oversees the stormwater division. “We can do something without causing these adverse impacts downstream, but it requires a detention pond.”
The city has posted details about the project on its website, where residents can sign up for updates and provide feedback.
“This is a tough conversation to have,” said Councilwoman Teri Castillo (D5), whose district includes nearly all corners of the watershed that stretches east from the northern tip of Kelly Field Annex to the San Antonio River near Concepción Park. “We understand the concern and the fear that comes with property acquisition, and also the concern and fear [from the] residents who would be potentially underwater if we fail to work towards a solution.”
On its surface, the project pits two of the city’s — and Castillo’s — priorities against one another: preserving affordable housing stock and protecting households from dangerous flooding. But Castillo said the project could help move the needle on both goals in the long run.
“There’s always an option to do nothing,” she said. “But, knowing that we are seeing more extreme weather conditions, we could potentially see the reduction of thousands of homes if we fail to invest in flood control.”
So far, the city’s Public Works Department and the City Council District 5 have hosted several public meetings about the project, which will continue through 2026. Because of the project’s scale and cost, it would need to be constructed in phases and likely funded in chunks through the municipal bond process, which occurs every five years. If a community bond committee gives the green light, the Concepción Creek drainage project would be part of a multimillion-dollar — likely billion-dollar — package voters will see on their 2027 ballots.
There are several opportunities for the project, as proposed, to fail.
“We understand something this massive … is something that needs to be discussed and brought early and often to the public,” Reyna said. “[Some people] think it’s a done deal and [it’s] moving forward, but it’s not.”
Several residents want the city to come up with different options that don’t involve displacing residents.
“Why this neighborhood? Why can’t [they] find a place that has less homes?” said Rudy Lopez, president of the Thompson Neighborhood Association.
The small association is seeking volunteer attorneys, engineers and other experts who could help find alternatives. There are vacant lots and commercial properties that could become a detention pond instead, he noted.
“We are still looking at other alternatives, too,” Reyna said. “Maybe at a smaller scale, maybe that won’t have as much benefit and won’t be as much cost, but maybe it’ll have less buyouts or no buyouts.”
Vallejo said she will continue to pray and fight for her home and those of her neighbors.
The people who live on Darby Boulevard are not just neighbors, she said, “we’re family.”
She also said she’d rather take her chances with flood insurance.
“I would rather lose my home to that 1% chance of rain than to the City of San Antonio,” she said.
Why here, why now?
The Concepción Creek watershed has been on the county’s, city’s and the San Antonio River Authority’s list as a high flood risk area for at least 10 years, officials said.
But in 2022, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) released a draft floodplain map of Bexar County that shows 1,900 more structures are at risk of experiencing a 100-year flood in the Concepción Creek watershed due to increased rainfall and storm intensity. That’s on top of the 2,283 already at risk.
“When we found out that about 2,000 homes are going to be added into the floodplain, that immediately triggered us to say: ‘… We’ve got to come up with an idea,’” Reyna said. “‘How are we going to help them?’”
The Concepción Creek watershed had the most new structures at risk in the new FEMA map compared to other areas of the city, Reyna said. “This is definitely the worst case in the entire city.”
The final floodplain map, after a comment and appeal process, is slated for completion in spring 2027, said Erin Cavazos, engineering manager for the San Antonio River Authority, which coordinates with FEMA to update the map.
It’s unlikely that there will be any major changes between the draft and the final version, Cavazos said.
Several residents who spoke to the San Antonio Report said the project continues historic inequities for the neighborhoods on the Southwest Side, which has older housing stock, lower incomes and less infrastructure.
“It’s actually the opposite,” Reyna said. “We have a list of projects that need to get done across the city. We’re talking about over 400 projects and a $3.2 billion need. Unfortunately, the need tends to be in the older neighborhoods … that were constructed before we had any kind of regulations and codes.”
One of the reasons that this kind of project hasn’t been done before is because the “benefit-cost ratio” — the cost of the benefit or properties divided by the cost of the project — is too low for most federal and state programs to fund, he said.
“Nobody wanted to fund a project that was going to cost more than the properties that you’re saving,” Reyna said. “With the city, we don’t like to look at it that way. We say these homes are … where they live. It shouldn’t matter the cost of their home.”
The most underserved communities are least able to prepare for, and recover from, extreme heat waves, poor air quality, flooding and other climate change-related events, according to a 2021 Environmental Protection Agency report.
“It is a challenge because we’re having to compete [for funding] and show that we do not have a very high benefit-cost ratio,” he said, “but if we can save 2,000 homes, we think it’s worth it.”
In the event the city uses eminent domain, Reyna said the city is confident it can find displaced residents new, comparable homes. It’s a claim Lopez and others “seriously doubt” due to rising housing costs across the city.
“I’m not saying it would be easy … but we are committed to finding them homes,” Reyna said. “There’s no one that’s going to be left without a home or on the streets. … We’re not going to abandon them.”
But for Vallejo, “My home is priceless.”
She, her parents and her five brothers have lived in what was once a small, two-bedroom home. After her father died, her mother used the inheritance to renovate and expand with another bedroom. Then Vallejo and her husband added another bathroom and expanded the kitchen, dining room and family room.
She routinely hosts large family gatherings — her mother had 13 siblings — in her backyard. Colorful pottery containing vibrant plants line the concrete porch and a young tree takes root in the front yard.
She will be retiring from her work in special education at nearby James Russell Lowell Middle School in the coming years — just when she might be forced to move.
“To be able to retire and then lose my home at the same time, that would be very heartfelt for me,” she said. “I don’t know what would happen.”