SAN ANTONIO – Councilman Jalen McKee-Rodriguez said his attempt to mislead a truck dealer and cut off its plan for a new dealership at the knees was a one-time thing.
A land use attorney representing Doggett Freightliner, Ken Brown, said McKee-Rodriguez had told him Thursday’s scheduled vote on the planned dealership would be pushed to a later meeting.
Instead, McKee-Rodriguez pushed to annex the property near Interstate 10 East and Loop 1604 into the city limits without the zoning Doggett was seeking.
Had it worked, the District 2 councilman’s maneuver would have effectively killed both Doggett’s planned dealership and its backup plan to use the undeveloped land near the Paloma subdivision for semi-truck parking.
The council voted 6-4 to continue the issue to a Nov. 7 meeting, but it’s unlikely to be taken up.
Now that McKee-Rodriguez has tipped his hand, Brown said the company will likely pull its application and move the planned dealership to another, smaller property it owns on Weichold Road instead.
That would mean the Far East Side neighborhood McKee-Rodriguez was trying to protect would avoid the dealership its residents’ dread, but not the parking backup plan.
“It was a last resort for me, and I did it to protect my community, and I did it to ensure that they weren’t going to be walked all over,” McKee-Rodriguez told reporters after Thursday’s meeting.
‘Not what I want in my backyard’
Doggett Freightliner has been trying to get permission since at least Aug. 2023 to use a 35-acre property at the corner of Weichold Road and I-10, just outside Loop 1604, for a new dealership.
A layout in Thursday’s presentation included a 168,000-square-foot building with dozens of surrounding parking spots. The dealership would also be able to perform repairs.
The majority of the property along the access road is already within San Antonio city limits, but a 16-acre portion in the back corner remains in Bexar County. The property bumps up against the Paloma subdivision, where some residents weren’t eager to have a Freightliner dealership as a new neighbor.
Residents who spoke at Thursday’s meeting listed concerns with their home values, the potential to stunt the area’s growth as well as noise and air pollution.
“That’s not what I want in my backyard,” Paloma resident Monica Klemp told council members.
Thursday’s council vote was to annex the remaining portion of Doggett’s property into the city limits and to give the entire parcel the zoning permission necessary for a dealership.
The plan was supported by city staff and the Planning Commission, but the Zoning Commission recommended denial.
‘Shrewd’
McKee-Rodriguez appeared to acknowledge he had deceived Brown during his remarks from the dais.
“Had I let the applicant know we were going to be either denying it or doing this, it was going to be withdrawn, and it was going to continue to dangle over my constituency’s head,” the councilman said.
McKee-Rodriguez’s reasoning boiled down to avoiding the two-pronged threat Doggett Freightliner’s request posed to the neighborhood in his district.
If Doggett were to get the zoning change it wanted, the dealership the residents dreaded would be built. Even if its zoning change were denied, Doggett could pull its annexation request and use the land for semi-truck parking, which Paloma residents also don’t want.
Though developing the county-based property could trigger an opportunity for the city to annex the land anyway, it would be too late by that point to slap zoning restrictions on it. Whatever use the property has at that point would be grandfathered in.
But McKee-Rodriguez’s ruse offered him an opportunity to try and take both possibilities off the table.
Once Thursday’s public hearing started, it was too late for Doggett to pull its application for annexation into the city. It would be locked into whatever the city council decided, even if that meant getting a zoning designation that, as Brown said, “I never asked for. I never wanted.”
“It was shrewd,” Brown later told reporters. “It was an ability to take control of our property that wasn’t in the city limits without our request or authorization.”
Though his plan fell short, McKee-Rodriguez didn’t see anything to lose by trying it.
“What we got today is the same result, essentially,” he told reporters. “They either bring it back for the original intention or they do exactly what they would do if it was to be denied...We’re getting to that point a lot sooner.”
‘Miserable’
Doggett Freightliner owns another property on Weichold Road, though Brown said the relationship to the I-10 access road and Loop 1604 would “ultimately be a lot worse for traffic for the neighborhood.”
That 24-acre property already has the zoning Doggett needs to build a new dealership. Brown said they could drive down the road, past the Paloma subdivision, to use the original location for overflow parking.
“I think they’re going to be miserable,” Brown said of the neighborhood’s residents.
However, Paloma resident Claudia Ayer told KSAT she planned to make Doggett miserable, too, saying neighbors would call 311 by “writing them continuously and documenting everything,” waiting for the dealership to slip up in any way.
“I will absolutely make them miserable. I’m not above protesting in every little way. Civil disobedience — do it civilly,” Ayers said. “I will use every avenue that I have the ability. I’m a stay-at-home mom. I have the time.”
Paloma residents also aren’t convinced Doggett will be able to use the property for parking.
In either case, it’s not yet the end of the road for the issue.
More coverage of this story on KSAT: