05/08/2025
During every City of San Antonio - Municipal Government Transit-Oriented Development (TOD) public meeting regarding VIA’s Advanced Rapid Transit (ART) system (aka “The Greenline”), officials told citizens that the city would not use eminent domain for the project.
However, during a November 5, 2024 Zoning Commission Work Session Transit-Oriented Development (TOD) briefing, a VIA staffer clearly laid out a disturbing backroom deal:
VIA would eminent domain properties and donate these properties back to the city.
On August 1, 2025, VIA quietly published a notice in the Express News that the “Board of Trustees of VIA Metropolitan Transit will hold a public hearing to receive comments on proposed acquisition of easement and/or fee simple title to the properties identified below by eminent domain, located within VIA's service area, to expand the transit purposes and uses associated with VIA Metropolitan Transit System.”
This public notice identifies 280 properties targeted for a wild land grab.
Not shockingly, City Council District 1 Councilwoman Sukh Kaur failed to notify the affected neighborhoods and other businesses about this public hearing. Kaur previously sought to downplay a city memo released last year that stated residents would be displaced for Transit-Oriented Development but that it would be handled “humanely”.
The public hearing will be held Tuesday, August 19, 2025 at 5:30 p.m. at the VIA Metro Center located at 1021 San Pedro Ave.
We urge our followers to attend this meeting and push back on these incestuous backroom deals between the city and VIA.
Full list of properties targeted for eminent domain posted in comments.