SAN ANTONIO – When people talk about Stone Oak, many generally think of anything north of Loop 1604 between Blanco Road and U.S. Highway 281. But that’s not completely true.
According to Stone Oak Property Manager Meg Lorente, the community has specific, drawn-out boundaries.
The boundaries stretch from Loop 1604 on Blanco Road to just north of Huebner Road, including all of Stone Oak Parkway to U.S. Highway 281, up towards North Canyon Springs Golf Club and Hardy Oak Boulevard, but not quite to Wilderness Oak, according to Lorente.
An area that does not include Stone Oak is the southern portion of land between Huebner Road and Sonterra Boulevard toward U.S. Highway 281.
Many people may think they live in Stone Oak because businesses have “Stone Oak” in their name, but that’s not always the case.
Village at Stone Oak, an area shopping mall, is just outside of Stone Oak. Stone Oak Methodist Hospital is also adjacent to the neighborhood but not in it.
Reagan High School students also tend to believe the school is part of the Stone Oak neighborhood, but again, it is not.
“In 1985, the developers that got together filed the master plan with their county, with the idea that they wanted to create a strong sense of community,” Lorente said. “To come up with a community that all encompassed all the needs that would be in a community — hospital, commercial, grocery stores, residential, everything sort of being in one area and easily accessible.”
Developers planned the specific zoning areas out for residential areas, churches, schools and hospitals before anything was built.
The master plan also included rules on sign and height restrictions as well as policies for businesses and communities.
“Basically, just that set of rules that helps maintain a certain standard within the entire community,” Lorente said. “It keeps the area looking nice.”
Any change requests that deviate from the master plan would require a majority vote by the Stone Oak Property Owners Association.
Lorente said, to date, that has never happened.
Stone Oak has 6,500 commercial and residential property owners in the neighborhood with 36 neighborhood associations.
The simplest way to know if anyone is entering or leaving Stone Oak, of course, is by looking for the signs located at the boundaries of the neighborhood.