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TAMU-SA Development plans for Alamo City's Southside
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COLLEGE STATION, Texas – Development plans for the future Texas A&M University-San Antonio campus on the Alamo City’s Southside should be ready for review by August, with groundbreaking slated as early as mid-2009, according to a special update presented to The Texas A&M University System Board of Regents at its regular bimonthly meeting Thursday.
“Students from the Southside of San Antonio can look forward to the same local access to higher education as is found in other parts of our great city,” said Dr. Maria Hernandez Ferrier, executive director of Texas A&M University-Kingsville System Center-San Antonio. “With the rapid growth of the student population in the city, and the relatively limited four-year university options, Texas A&M-San Antonio will represent a significant expansion of academic opportunities. The people of San Antonio are so excited.”
Ferrier’s remarks came during a 45-minute briefing to the board reviewing the status of site development, academic planning, and student recruitment projections for the Texas A&M University-Kingsville System Center-San Antonio, which has been in operation since 2000. In 2003, the Legislature authorized the facility to eventually become Texas A&M University-San Antonio. For that to happen, the A&M System Center must increase its enrollment to the equivalent of 1,500 full-time students. A total of 1,021 students were enrolled for the spring 2008 semester, Ferrier said, including 626 attending full time.
Ferrier pointed out that the city’s 18-24-year-old population is expected to increase by almost 20,000 by 2015. San Antonio, the second largest city in Texas, currently has only one public institution of higher education, compared to four in other major metropolitan cities in the state, she said, noting that enrollment at the A&M System Center has increased more than 35 percent from last year.
Projections for the physical evolution of the 694-acre site were provided by Michael D. McKinney, M.D., chancellor of the Texas A&M System, and representatives of Verano Land Group, LP, developer of the area surrounding the future Texas A&M-San Antonio campus.
In addition to donating the land for the site, Verano has pledged a donation of $1 million and assistance in raising an additional $7 million for scholarships. Representatives from Verano outlined their concept for City South, an “integrated urban village” on about 2,700 acres along South Loop 410, west of Pleasanton Road and east of South Zarzamora Street. Texas A&M-San Antonio effectively would be surrounded by that mixed-use development, and serve as its anchor.
McKinney said that the A&M System has contracted with the San Antonio architectural firm of Marmon Mok to lead a professional team in preparing a campus development plan. Also part of the team is Sasaki Associates, a nationally known planning firm with strong experience in higher education.
The A&M System planning team began meetings in April and will continue to do so over the next two months. The planning team is coordinating with Verano, the City of San Antonio and utility providers on infrastructure extensions and related development issues.
The Marmon Mok team is scheduled to present its initial conceptual ideas on May 29 to A&M System and A&M System Center representatives. If approved, the proposal will be turned into a plan for phased campus development and presented to the regents at their September meeting in College Station.