Revitalizing a cultural core: MidTown Brackenridge TIRZ Master Plan

Master Planning, Revitalization, Urban Design

MidTown Brackenridge is the cultural heart of San Antonio — not just because of its marquee destinations such as Brackenridge Park, the Pearl, and the Witte Museum — but because of its connections to some of the best urban neighborhoods in San Antonio. The MidTown Brackenridge TIRZ Master Plan represented a dynamic approach to planning.

The MidTown Brackenridge TIRZ Master Plan incorporates a strong design approach to the development of streets, public spaces, and a transit-friendly retail corridor while also providing a fresh economic and market-based framework for how TIRZ increment could be leveraged and invested to advance the vision of the master plan. The MidTown Brackenridge TIRZ Master Plan fundamentally provided a critical path for the reinvention of MidTown Brackenridge and has been critical to the successful revitalization of San Antonio’s core.

Surrounding San Antonio’s Brackenridge Park, the Midtown Tax Increment Reinvestment Zone (TIRZ) is a commercial district that serves five distinct neighborhoods, including the rapidly redeveloping Pearl District. The planning team generated a TIRZ plan that links catalytic public projects to increased tax revenue from private development, a survey of possible Low Impact Development strategies for storm water management, an analysis of infill development issues in San Antonio, and recommendations on the appropriate character of new developments.

A key element of the plan was the emphasis it placed on the central role of reinventing Broadway as a transit-friendly boulevard to link Brackenridge Park and the San Antonio River to the daily life of MidTown Brackenridge. The plan established a vision for other neighborhood corridors that incorporated smaller scaled retail, restaurant, and entertainment uses, thus ensuring redevelopment would enhance the quality of life of the immediately adjacent neighborhoods. The team also proposed an aggressive governance approach to doing business within the TIRZ so that walkable infill development would become the norm rather than the exception.

An extensive public outreach process proved invaluable, and the results were adopted without dissent as an amendment to each neighborhood’s master plan. Following adoption of the plan, the city initiated an infill development task force that revised the city’s development code and review process to streamline the infill development process.