SAN ANTONIO — In a room full of people excited about a new south San Antonio nature center, the broad smile on the face of Elaine Hernandez stood out.
Hernandez, with the local chapter of the national group Latino Outdoors, said “This is fantastic! I'm so excited!"
Being in a crowd of like-minded souls who want to build a better community, Hernandez said, is inspiring and the fact that planners want to know what the community wants is critical.
“You know our opinions do count!” Hernandez said, adding “Our opinions are going to matter for what our community wants and to engage and be happy that this huge project is being built on the south side of San Antonio!”
Reviewing some of her favorite features, Hernandez said “They will have a testing orchard, and that's one of the amazing things, the canopy zipline, the canopy walking across the different stations.”
Hernandez said the net effect of a well-thought out project is a joy.
"That's just going to be super amazing! And just to have the children attend and for us to engage and be part of this? I can't wait to bring our community out so they can enjoy this as well. I will!" Hernandez said.
Tuesday evening, Hernandez was one of many nature lovers who attended a meeting designed to gather input for the brand new Arboretum San Antonio project on Southeast Military Drive.
The 188-acre site, the former Republic Golf Club, is being reborn as a sanctuary for native trees and more.
Anna Cawrse is the planning team lead for the project.
“People are excited for opportunities to bring their kids, and multigenerational spaces. You can come with your family. You can come by yourself,” Cawrse said.
Cawrse said as a result of previous outreach efforts, planners presented three scenarios for review and now that people have had a chance to review the ideas and come up with more, they will go back to the drawing board to come up with a fourth and final plan that will move forward.
“The next step will be evaluating all the feedback we get and then we will have a final master plan in April. From there we will look at a phasing plan, a funding strategy, as well as the cost of that and then that will really tell us how we are going to move forward,” Cawrse said.
Cawrse, who said she works on projects across the country, said San Antonians are well-informed and highly motivated to help make the most of this project.
“The feedback so far has been really inciteful. People want to understand nature!” Cawrse said, adding “People are really excited about canopy walks! Tree houses! I think they want to be immersed in the Arboretum.”
Water quality has been an important part of the process as well.
“People are excited to improve water quality. Salado Creek has really great potential to tell the stories of riparian floodplains and how we can really embrace our water systems in San Antonio,” Cawrse said.
Suzanne Scott is on the organization’s board of directors.
Scott told the crowd “This whole area is being changed and transformed and is becoming a place that we all have loved for a very long time and now more people are coming and enjoying the natural and cultural resources that we have.”
More information on the proposed design concepts and a link to the survey can be found here.