Urban sprawl encroaching on San Antonio’s untouched natural areas

Thomas Hille follows a simple rule when he jogs along the winding trails of Friedrich Wilderness Park, an oasis of untouched land near the busy Interstate 10 corridor on the far Northwest Side.

“If you always turn left, you never get lost,” Hille said with a laugh as he prepared for an early morning trail run at the park’s entrance. “Go with me!”

Hille, a criminal defense lawyer and fitness buff, set off at a brisk pace into the quiet Hill Country wilderness. But on the fourth mile of his 6-mile run, he pointed out an unwelcome change along his route — a row of houses sprouting up on the park’s boundary. On some days, the sounds of hammers and nail guns interrupt the morning stillness.

“It’s ugly,” Hille said bluntly. But there’s not much he can do about it. The park is nestled in the middle of an exploding real estate market, and urban sprawl has been creeping around the edges of Friedrich and other city-owned natural areas for years.

The problem only is going to get worse as San Antonio braces for a million new residents by 2040.

“I know walking out there that the houses might seem a little close,” said Jay Hanna, one of the developers of Stonewall Estates, the upscale subdivision that borders Friedrich Wilderness Park. But he emphasized that his project boasts acres of green space that never will be developed.

“I think at the end of the day, if you have conscientious development where you have a ratio of a lot of open space, I think there’s a way for everybody to co-exist,” Hanna said.

In a state where private property rights often are viewed as sacrosanct, San Antonio officials and park supporters have had mixed success in protecting natural areas, which are rustic versions of well-kept city parks, from encroaching development.

The city’s nine primary natural areas cover more than 2,600 acres — about 4 square miles. Several serve as a crucial habitat for the golden-cheeked warbler and other endangered species.

But advocates say they have few options to protect the islands of green space.

A nonprofit group, Friends of San Antonio Natural Areas, tries to win concessions from developers when they appear before the zoning commission to construct projects near natural areas, and the city occasionally buys tracts of land near Friedrich and other parks, which provides a buffer from new housing.

In one of the largest land purchases, the City Council approved $7 million in 2013 to buy a 461-acre tract of land that had been slated for development next to the state-owned Government Canyon State Natural Area, a pristine, 12,000-acre expanse of hills, trees and trails ringed by new housing.

But overall, San Antonio lacks anything resembling a coherent plan to protect its rustic parks, said Eric Lautzenheiser, who retired three years ago as San Antonio’s superintendent of natural areas.

“The city does not have a program policy directive to protect the natural areas from surrounding development,” Lautzenheiser said.

Less than a mile from Friedrich, a real estate developer had scraped and blasted a nearby hillside down to limestone for a new housing development near Crownridge Canyon Park, a 207-acre natural area with a main trail that loops around the park, and a rugged, difficult path that shoots off the main loop.

During construction, rocks and even a bulldozer accidentally rolled into Crownridge, smashing into trees, Lautzenheiser said. Drainage from the new development now flows into the park — along with any pollutants from oil and pesticides.

“It was a fiasco from our point of view,” Lautzenheiser said.

A sanctuary

Xavier Urrutia, director of San Antonio’s Parks and Recreation Department, said there still are vast stretches of Friedrich and other natural areas where few signs of civilization can be seen or heard.

“You have no clue where you are,” Urrutia said. “That’s the beauty of the city’s foresight in getting these properties and protecting these properties. Unfortunately, you’re going to have development around the edges. We do with all our parks.”

City Councilman Ron Nirenberg, whose council district includes Friedrich and Crownridge, said he’s been discussing a proposal with zoning commissioner Francine Romero that would call for new restrictions on developments near natural areas.

“Francine was the driving force behind this,” Nirenberg said.

They’re still hashing out the details and need to meet with developers and park supporters. But they envision an ordinance that would prohibit activities like planting invasive species of plants at properties that fall within a certain distance of a natural area, perhaps a quarter-mile, and limit the height of buildings.

“It would put in some restrictions on properties, with an eye toward protecting those natural areas,” said Romero, a former president of Friends of San Antonio Natural Areas.

Friedrich Wilderness Park, a 600-acre preserve at 21395 Milsa Drive, became San Antonio’s first natural area after landowner Norma Friedrich Ward died Sept. 11, 1971.

In her will, Ward bequeathed to the city or the county the initial 180 acres for use as a public park.

“I am particularly interested in seeing that insofar as possible, the natural vegetation and native trees and shrubs be protected, and that native birds and wildlife be protected and encouraged to use the park as a sanctuary,” she wrote in her will.

The park “was out in the boonies,” Lautzenheiser recalled. But over the years, development threatened to envelop it.

In the 1990s, a company represented by Corky Ingraham sought to build a luxury hotel, tennis courts and an 18-hole golf course at the park’s doorstep.

The City Council supported the project, despite pleas from park supporters to protect Friedrich and its habitat for endangered species. Then-Councilwoman Helen Dutmer said she believed “concerns should be directed to human needs instead of certain bird and fish species,” according to the minutes of a June 20, 1991, council meeting.

In May 1992, Dutmer no longer was on the council but members unanimously approved a $10 million property tax abatement package for the Woodland Hills Resort.

As land was cleared for golf fairways next to Friedrich park, Lautzenheiser complained to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service that the developers weren’t protecting golden-cheeked warbler habitat.

Financing for the resort ultimately collapsed. In 2003, the resort’s developer agreed to sell chunks of land west and north of the park to the city for $3.7 million.

The western portion was the area where the golf course was supposed to be built. To this day, the remnants of the fairways still can be seen in aerial photos. The property became part of Friedrich, and the main trail that now loops around that expanded section of the park is called Restoration Way.

The resort developer also owned prime Hill Country real estate to the north of Friedrich.

“What we couldn’t get was that area,” Lautzenheiser said.

Those tracts of land eventually were sold to the firm that developed Stonewall Estates, a 380-home subdivision that boasts stunning views of the Hill Country — and Friedrich park itself.

Hanna’s company partnered with Forestar USA Real Estate to develop Stonewall Estates. Plans filed with the city show the project is 381 acres, but 164 acres was set aside for green space.

Hanna said the development includes restrictive covenants for each lot in the property, such as a prohibition on tree clearing, that protect wildlife at Friedrich.

Asked if the housing developments popping up on the North Side are ruining the very thing that draws residents to the area, Hanna said the only real solution is responsible development that doesn’t run roughshod over the Hill Country.

“You can't expect the city to go out and buy every piece of property in the Hill Country,” he said. “It's just not practical.”

Crowded parks

Hanna said he even offered to sell some open space to the city to expand Friedrich park, but the deal fell through. Hanna said Lautzenheiser demanded access to the tract from Stonewall Estates, which he couldn’t agree to. Lautzenheiser questioned whether it was a good addition to the park and said Hanna kept changing the terms of the deal.

Even in areas of Friedrich where Stonewall Estates can’t be seen, the park’s popularity can make it difficult to leave the big city behind.

Some trails are packed on weekends with hikers blaring music from radios or smart phones. Parking overflows into the street.

“That kind of demand suggests we need a lot more places like that,” said Kelly Lyons, president of Friends of San Antonio Natural Areas.

But during Hille’s early morning jog at Friedrich, it was a weekday and he passed only a few other hikers and trail runners. One of them was Alice Ware, a retired lawyer from California.

“I actually recognize the pressures with the developers wanting to move in close and see this wilderness,” Ware said. “But the more they do that, the next one will move in front of them, and then the next one, and pretty soon we won't have a park.”

Ware said she’d love to see no traces of civilization during her hikes at Friedrich. But she also realizes it’s not a national park in the middle of nowhere.

“It keeps me in perspective,” she said. “I live in a city. They get to see this view. I wish everybody could see this view.”

Hille’s jog took him on a 6-mile loop around the park. He followed rugged trails that wound through old-growth cedar forests and zig-zagged up and down hills.

“Look at that,” Hille said at one point as he gazed across an overlook. “So pretty.”

At the end of his run, Hille’s workout wasn’t over. He walked to his car, opened the trunk and assembled a road bike.

He bid a reporter farewell as he rode to Crownridge Canyon Park.

jtedesco@express-news.net