Case Study: San Antonio, Texas: Kelly Parkway: The Importance of Community Involvement and Environmental Justice

The Kelly Parkway project was a corridor study that looked at constructing an approximately 8.8-mi limited-access highway in south San Antonio, Texas. With the closing of the Kelly Air Force Base, political and business leaders in the city viewed the project as a redevelopment opportunity for the base property and for the south San Antonio community. The highway would consist of two through lanes in each direction on a parkway-style road, connecting businesses, air, and rail facilities in south San Antonio to other major highways. The project area was 95% Hispanic and had a high rate of poverty, with 34% of reported incomes below the poverty line. By adapting preexisting roads and constructing some completely new alignment, the Kelly Parkway would provide needed highway access to local residents, relieve truck congestion, and bring economic opportunities to the south side of the city. The Kelly Parkway project is a good example of integrated transportation planning and the use of proactive community involvement. The distinctive innovations of the project were largely related to aggressive public involvement that reduced the likelihood of environmental justice claims by attaining project buy-in and active community participation. That same sense of active collaboration and participation was also applied to the project development process, which was a corridor-level National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) study that brought together planning, design, and impact assessments. This case study is discussed under the following headings: Executive Summary; Background; Major Project Issues; Institutional Framework for Decision Making; Transportation Decision-Making Process and Key Decisions; Lessons Learned; and Conclusions.

• Record URL:
  http://onlinepubs.trb.org/onlinepubs/shrp2/SHRP2_CS_C01_TX-Kelly-Pkwy.pdf
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• Supplemental Notes:
  • Distribution, posting, or copying of this PDF is strictly prohibited without written permission of the Transportation Research Board of the National Academy of Sciences. Unless otherwise indicated, all materials in this PDF are copyrighted by the National Academy of Sciences. Copyright © National Academy of Sciences. All rights reserved
• Corporate Authors:

  Transportation Research Board

  Strategic Highway Research Program 2, 500 Fifth Street, NW
  Washington, DC    20001
• Publication Date: 2011

Language

• English

Media Info

• Media Type: Web
• Features: Appendices; References;
• Pagination: 25p

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Case studies; Decision making; Environmental justice; Highway corridors; Hispanics; Lessons learned; Low income groups; Parkways; Public participation; Redevelopment
• Identifier Terms: Kelly Air Force Base (San Antonio, Texas); National Environmental Policy Act of 1969
• Uncontrolled Terms: Community involvement; Integrated planning; Project development process
• Geographic Terms: San Antonio (Texas)
• Subject Areas: Environment; Highways; Planning and Forecasting; I15: Environment; I21: Planning of Transport Infrastructure;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01339659
• Record Type: Publication
• Files: TRIS, TRB
• Created Date: May 11 2011 2:22PM