SAN ANTONIO – Big yellow barriers now stretch across one street in west Bexar County.
Part of Autumn Mist Street, which cuts through the San Antonio city line, is permanently closed. After a vote among North San Antonio Hills residents, the city decided on its closure. However, not everyone nearby is happy.
“Traffic has become a huge issue in this area,” said Ryan Haskins, a resident of west Bexar County. “You have thousands upon thousands of residents that could utilize this road.”
This street is located near Highway 151 and Loop 1604. Haskins said people in Alamo Ranch used the road as a shortcut to get around heavily trafficked areas.
“There’s no equity in the decision,” Haskins said. “We should be looking for ways to create more avenues of free travel for residents, not limiting access points.”
Haskins started an online petition that has racked up more than 600 signatures opposing the closure.
So, why did the city settle on the closure?
“They were speeding and running the stop signs,” said Patricia Zweig-Franson, a longtime North San Antonio Hills resident. “It was bumper cars all the way to either of the exits.”
KSAT spoke to multiple neighbors in the North San Antonio Hills area, who said Autumn Mist Street caused widespread safety problems when it was open.
“We didn’t feel safe walking along the road or anything,” Ashley Maynard said. It was “a constant flow of traffic, and it was hard to know who was in our neighborhood and who wasn’t.”
Nearby neighbors in San Antonio said developers extended Autumn Mist Street about a decade ago for easier access into the Alamo Ranch subdivisions. They said developers promised to close that part of Autumn Mist Street when construction finished, but it never happened.
“That’s why we tolerated it for so long,” Zweig-Franson said.
The decision to close the road was made after a vote by North San Antonio Hills residents in September 2024. Councilwoman Melissa Cabello Havrda had temporarily closed the road last summer, but the decision wasn’t finalized until the vote.
