Lyle Larson supports a three mile radius as shown in this map. Diane Cibrion has suggested a five-mile radius as an alternative. Courtesy illustration

San Antonio city officials on Monday temporarily halted the proposed Cresta Bella development west of Interstate 10 amid ongoing concerns about light pollution and endangered species at Camp Bullis, as a proposal is sought that would limit development within five miles of the sensitive Leon Springs Army post, a line which would reach as far away as Boerne and Grey Forest.

“The development that Camp Bullis has identified as major concerns to them will be asked to come to the table and asked to have cooperative working agreements similar to the agreement that The Rim currently has,” District 8 San Antonio City Councilwoman Diane Cibrian said. “If Camp Bullis is concerned about it, then we’re concerned about it.”

Cresta Bella is a 242-acre development that would run along Interstate 10 and Heuermann Road between the interstate and Babcock Road. It has been platted for 458 single family lots as well as 50 acres platted for “multi-family” development. It is being developed by Baruch Properties Ltd. of Dallas and Post Oak Development of Texas, a Leon Springs-based company.

The Master Development Plan for Cresta Bella was approved by the city of San Antonio Planning Commission in January, meaning regulators now have very little control over the direction of its growth.

But Fort Sam Houston Garrison Commander Col. Wendy Martinson said, like the proposed INTCO-Dominion development currently in the works, Cresta Bella has the potential “to create many light issues for military training operations” conducted on Camp Bullis.

“Night time lights from new developments are already interfering with night vision goggle training on Camp Bullis,” Martinson said in a letter to city of San Antonio Military Affairs Director Robert Murdock. 

“Lighting causes a halo effect and can greatly reduce the effective distance for night vision goggle training. Adding yet another huge development along Interstate 10 will also definitely worsen the traffic on Interstate 10 and on Camp Bullis Road, which is an alternate ingress to Camp Bullis.”

Cibrian praised the developers of Cresta Bella for agreeing to voluntarily discuss installing “dark sky lighting” and other measures to ease the concerns of the Army, but she conceded that with so many developments in various stages of completion along the Interstate 10 corridor, it will be difficult to convince all of them to come into compliance.

“There is a tremendous amount of development occurring along Interstate 10, and we are going to work with them to come up with a solution suitable to Camp Bullis,” she said. “Many individuals understand how important Camp Bullis is to the city of San Antonio. The city is going to move to defend Camp Bullis, and we will ask individuals in our community to help us as well.”

Cibrian said that the city has been dragging its feet in protecting the area around Camp Bullis by allowing numerous developments to be started in Leon Springs and on the far Northwest Side, which is one of the fastest growing areas in the entire state.  But she said the city, the Army, and the Joint Land Use Committee, which was formed last week, have no desire to stop all development. They plan to regulate it so it will not threaten the military missions, which will grow in size and importance with the combining of all military medical training at Fort Sam Houston by 2011.

She also pointed out that Texas law supports developers, especially in rural areas where no zoning exists, and state laws and the fact that many tracts have already been approved by the Planning Commission will leave the JLUC and the city with few alternatives if developers decline to cooperate.

“We know that this land is held as private property,” she said. “We know that telling these individuals that they cannot develop their property constitutes a taking. Camp Bullis is not asking us to stop development. Camp Bullis is asking us to have a cooperative working agreement between the development community and the military installation.”