Hemisfair

The redevelopment will maintain and revitalize the historic buildings, reconnect the area to the adjacent neighborhoods and provide new mixed use development, compatible with adjacent properties.

Guiding Principles

• Connectivity - Linkages within Hemisfair and to and from the adjacent areas are necessary to the Park’s viability. Connectivity will address pedestrian, cycle, wheelchair, vehicular and other modes of transportation. Also required for its viability will be sufficient parking.
• Development - Mixed use development to include mixed income housing, commercial, institutional and civic uses is planned.
• Green Space - Expand and preserve green space.
• Balance - The City Council-approved Master Plan offers a balance between green space and development.
• Preservation - Protection of historic buildings is mandatory. However, the strategic removal of non-historic or temporary buildings may be considered. Relating development to existing historic buildings is critical to the creation of a unique and urban environment.
• Sustainability - The redevelopment within Hemisfair and its surrounding area will consider environmental, social and economic impacts in order to ensure a better quality of life for everyone, now and for future generations.
• Leadership - The redevelopment of Hemisfair requires long term dedicated civic leadership to be successful and sustainable.

For further information on our vision, including the 2012 bond request, please download our presentation using this link

Summary

Hemisfair will continue to be an accessible neighborhood park that unifies the city, serves as a community gathering place, and provides an opportunity for citizens to work, live, and play. Hemisfair will offer many special places and uses; some active, some quiet.

Hemisfair will foster community-wide impact by recognizing the area as critical connecting tissue between previously disengaged sectors of the urban core. Capitalizing on the success of HemisFair ’68, the plan’s improvements will encourage economic vitality, pride and a sense of community for generations of San Antonians now and yet to come.

Downtown is the heart and soul of our City, and we desire to make it everybody’s neighborhood. Featuring iconic landmarks such as the Tower of Americas, the Alamo and the Riverwalk, San Antonio must protect its most vital and historical resources, and invest to create a more desirable place for locals.

The lack of a cohesive development plan for the park over the past 40 years is no longer acceptable. The community desires a central gathering place for activities; they demand public open space for recreation and relaxing; they thirst for more downtown living options in a mixed use environment, that is pedestrian and bike friendly.

SA2020, our community’s written expectations for our future, feature downtown and Hemisfair  specifically as key areas of concentration. However this sentiment was not made evident by the 2007 Bond distribution, which included $10 million for downtown of which $2 million (less than one-half percent of the total bond amount) was dedicated to Hemisfair. This underinvestment has created special challenges that should now be addressed to deliver our community’s vision for a transformative park which can serve as our City’s “front porch.”

Funding the 2012 Bond request will deliver action to the ink of the SA2020 paper in a way that will be noticed and embraced by the entire community, giving us the pride of an exceptional central park.

Hemisfair is the place that leads San Antonio on the path from good to great.

Background

In 2009, the City of San Antonio Council formed the Hemisfair Park Area Redevelopment Corporation (HPARC – a Local Government Corporation) to accomplish certain governmental purposes of the City such as assisting with acquiring property, planning, developing, constructing, managing, maintaining, and financing projects within Hemisfair and areas adjacent to or near the park.

As the once-vibrant setting for the 1968 World’s Fair and Exposition, the potential of Hemisfair currently lies dormant. Now undergoing a planning exercise of community-wide input, the resulting vision ignites enthusiasm for the park’s redevelopment and its future. Feedback from the planning sessions reflects the importance of recapturing this vitality. With dreams of parks and green space, civic and cultural amenities, residences and small businesses, the plan will mature our iconic center city asset into a collective space bursting with opportunity.

Incorporating diverse, pedestrian spaces and ‘Complete Streets,’ the new plan accommodates a range of user groups and increases overall mobility, access and safety for streets. Hemisfair’s redevelopment also spawns a powerful urban economic generator; an anticipated half billion dollars in direct private investment is expected, reenergizing new residential and business development opportunities. We desire for Hemisfair’s return as a magnet for people – both locals and visitors – and its ultimate transformation into an urban neighborhood bolstered by the power of collective living.