SAN ANTONIO – On Tuesday, residents living on the far Northwest Side voiced their opposition to the city's plan to build a public works service center near the Bridgewood subdivision.
The facility would be located in the 6900 block of Leslie Road and would house Public Works and Solid Waste Management employees.
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It would also serve as a hub for sanitation trucks, which would come and go from the site each day and be cleaned there.
Residents believe the garbage trucks will trash their neighborhood.
"You can't tell us, ‘We're going to wash those trucks in a confined environment,'" said Bridgewood Homeowners Association President Joe Sullivan. "Trash is trash. You can't tell me, ‘We're not going to get rats, we're not going to get bees, we're not going to get roaches into our neighborhood.'"
Sullivan said he's disappointed that the city did not reach out to homeowners about the plan, but because many of the residents live in Bexar County, just beyond city limits, officials did not have to notify them.
"We need this area to house a service center because we are lacking in a good centralized location for this quadrant of the city," said Melissa Sparks, public relationship manager for San Antonio Capital Improvements and Management Services. "This is not a dump-site. This is not where you will see any type of contaminated trash or water out there. We'll have a fueling station, we'll have administrative offices, and we'll have essentially what's like car-wash, but it's not where people are going to be hosing out their dump-trucks."
There are several schools in the area and residents say the facility could create a public safety issue.
They're also concerned about their property value declining.
"What they're calling it is a 'service center.' A lot of the houses will look into that so neighbors, the HOA, and homeowners are concerned about what their values are going to be," said Nancy Hernandez, of the homeowners association. "They say that they're not going to affect (property values) but there's no way they can determine that factor."
The city's zoning commission was scheduled to discuss the plan during their Tuesday meeting but the item was postponed until October.
District 6 Zoning Commissioner Chris Martinez said he understands the homeowners' concerns, but he believes the planning process needs to play out before the city can decide whether the area is the right spot for the service center.
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