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December 5, 2007 – After a warm welcome to the San Antonio Metro area from officials and citizens, Andres Duany and his team of planners, architects, and engineers begin narrowing their planning focus today. Ahead are special topic meetings with staffs of the cities of Windcrest and San Antonio, retailers, builders, and civic groups. Then, the designers work on ideas they’ll show to the public during Friday night’s “pin-up” session.

[ STORY CONTINUES BELOW PHOTOS > ]

Tuesday was the official kick-off of the seven-day charrette, and Duany was welcomed by officials and citizen groups. “I’m a fan of Andres Duany and his compatriots. Big time,” said Henry Cisneros, the former four-term mayor of San Antonio and Secretary of Housing and Urban Development during President Bill Clinton’s administration. In his introduction of Duany during Tuesday night’s opening presentation, Cisneros told the crowd of 100 that the New Urbanism movement Duany helped found “is more than a movement. It’s a kind of rethinking not only of design but in ways people choose to live.”

Having Duany in the San Antonio Metro area adds to the sense that “we’re about to enter a new phase in our history,” said the former mayor. “What an opportunity this represents.”

Duany returned the compliment, lauding Cisneros for his leadership as HUD secretary for creating a form of affordable housing (HOPE VI) that has been admired internationally for its quality and for the sense of dignity it lends to homes for low-income families. “For a time there, people came from all over the world to see what the Secretary was doing for affordable housing,” said Duany.

All of Tuesday, in fact, was given over to the discussion of once-in-a-generation opportunities and challenges. Developer Gary Cain, principal in the Urban Real Estate Group, set the stage during an afternoon meeting by reminding attendees of the opportunities before Windcrest and the Northeast San Antonio region. “I don’t know of any time in history,” said Cain, “when you could predict that 20,000 new people would be moving into an area over such a short time period,”

The population surge, of course, is due to two already announced decisions. Rackspace Managed Hosting has agreed to a long-term lease of the former Windsor Park Mall for their new headquarters campus, bringing an estimated 6,000 employees into the area over the next half-dozen years. Meanwhile, as many as 16,000 people may be added to the expanded medical training facilities at Fort Sam Houston, a few miles south of the targeted redevelopment area in Windcrest.

There’s a challenge that comes with such an opportunity, Duany told Windcrest citizens and his own team. Because of the expected influx of new people to the area, “there’s going to be a lot of competition” among projects in the region to attract residents and customers. What will be planned at the charrette during the next seven days, “simply has to be the best project from the beginning,” said Duany.

The Tuesday meetings were filled not only with interested Windcrest and San Antonio residents but also with elected officials who can expedite implementation of innovative plans after the charrette. Three Windcrest City Council members, plus Windcrest Mayor Jack Leonhardt, were on hand for the afternoon session. And Mayor Leonhardt and two San Antonio City Council members were on the program preceding Cisneros Tuesday night at the opening presentation.

Duany told enthusiastic audiences at both sessions that he was excited about the potential of this charrette, not only because of its immediate effects on Cain’s property and nearby parcels, but also because of its role as a precedent-setter for ways to “retrofit” suburban sprawl. “All over the country,” said Duany, “there are areas such as this that need retrofitting. And this can be a model.”

The famous planner was also impressed, he said, that, despite the investment required to bring a team of elite planners to town, no one has been asking him to operate on the cheap. “No one,” said Duany, “has told me to do anything but my best. If this project is built the way it can be, the excitement won’t stop.”