April 21, 2026 – As it stands, there would be only one way in and one way out of the proposed Guajolote Ranch development of Florida-based Lennar Corp., funneling an additional 30,000 vehicle trips a day onto two-lane Scenic Loop Road and creating a massive wildfire evacuation and emergency response hazard.
The only entrance to Guajolote Ranch shown on its master development plan would be provided by a 63-acre tract barely wide enough near its mouth with Scenic Loop for a single four-lane thoroughfare. And yet the developer has continued to falsely represent that there would be multiple access points, including in February before San Antonio City Council when it made an unsuccessful bid to create a municipal utility district (MUD).
Lennar’s engineering firm for Guajolote Ranch, Pape-Dawson Engineers, estimates the development of 2,900 homes west of Scenic Loop and Babcock roads in northwest Bexar County would generate an additional 25,488 daily vehicle trips, plus another 4,732 daily trips from a planned commercial project by Lennar and others to serve the development, according to documents filed with the county, here: https://www.scenicloop.org/wp-content/uploads/2025-10-03_Reroute_Babcock_Options_for_Amina_Trust.pdf
In contrast, Scenic Loop was engineered for 1,000-2,000 cars per day, and actual traffic through Grey Forest is approximately 4,800 cars per day according to the last Texas Department of Transportation report reviewed by that city’s council – and in a rural and residential area still designated in San Antonio’s official North Sector Plan as “country.”
Neighbors argue the development cannot be allowed without an emergency evacuation plan from the county fire marshal’s office, and suggest one can’t be approved with just a single access. There appears to be no planning in place for the inevitable traffic choke-hold not just for emergency vehicles, but for school buses and everyday users near Scenic Loop and Babcock.
“With what happened with wildfires in Hawaii and Los Angeles still fresh on our minds, plus our recent dry and windy weather that fanned a giant mulch fire in Southwest Bexar County, this is a catastrophe waiting to happen,” said Michael Schick, a member of the Scenic Loop-Helotes Creek Alliance steering committee whose home backs up to Guajolote Ranch.
Back in 2023, a city of San Antonio “engineering associate” signed off on a variance purporting multiple access points in and out of the development. The application by Pape-Dawson for the variance states “… access will be provided to the north at three locations. Additionally, streets are projected to the south and west to tie into future developments.”
See, https://www.scenicloop.org/wp-content/uploads/LAND-TIA-22-12800029-Guajolote_Ranch_Single_Access_Approved_MAC-7.pdf.
Essentially, that plan identified five or more access points that don’t – and very likely won’t – exist.
Three of those were to be through The Canyons at Scenic Loop development to the north. But that won’t be allowed, as flatly stated by that neighborhood homeowner’s association president Ken Kempf in comments before both the city’s planning commission and city council leading up to the MUD vote.
Access from the west would have to cross property owned by Bexar Ranch LP to Highway 16, but the owner there publicly hasn’t given consent – and isn’t expected to do so – and the uneven terrain would likely make such an option prohibitively expensive. No road construction is visible there.
And there is no access from the south, despite Guajolote Ranch’s master plan showing a “projecting public street” access from private land along its southern boundary. Likewise, no road land-clearing or construction is visible, either from the Chimney Creek Road area off Highway 16 or from Sams Ranch, whose residents are vocally against the development.
In fact, and despite land-clearing already started on Guajolote Ranch, no additional road construction is underway at any point around its perimeter.
That leaves just that one way in, and one way out, and a looming public safety nightmare in addition to Lennar’s plans to release up to 4 million gallons a day of treated sewage – 1 million gallons average, daily – from the development into the state’s most sensitive aquifer zones, which provide drinking water for 2.5 million people.
Meanwhile, a 90-day period is ending for the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality to provide evidentiary material in a lawsuit in state district court challenging a wastewater permit for the development. See details of the original filing here: https://www.scenicloop.org/post/1938/guajolote-ranch-opponents-sue-the-texas-commission-on-environmental-quality-to-reverse-permit-decision/
The Scenic Loop-Helotes Creek Alliance is a nonpartisan, nonprofit 501(c)(3) group representing the largest neighborhood by square mile recognized by the San Antonio Neighborhood & Housing Services Department, a wide corridor along Scenic Loop Road from Bandera Road to north of Babcock Road.
Scenic Loop-Helotes Creek Alliance contacts:
Randy Neumann, SL-HCA steering committee chair, 210-867-2826, uhit@aol.com
Steve Lee, 210-415-2402, text; media@scenicloop.org
