{"id":116356,"date":"2025-08-03T19:32:29","date_gmt":"2025-08-03T19:32:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/116356\/"},"modified":"2025-08-03T19:32:29","modified_gmt":"2025-08-03T19:32:29","slug":"txdot-northside-isd-in-negotiations-over-land-for-freeway-project","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/116356\/","title":{"rendered":"TxDOT, Northside ISD in negotiations over land for freeway project"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Texas Department of Transportation has its sights set on a 0.64-acre tract of land that Northside Independent School District owns for a freeway construction project.<\/p>\n

Located <\/strong>on the Sam Rayburn Middle School campus, one of NISD\u2019s southernmost schools neighboring Joint Base San Antonio-Lackland, TxDOT plans to use the land for \u201cfreeway operational improvements\u201d off Loop 410 and Valley Hi Drive.\u00a0<\/p>\n

During a meeting in July, NISD\u2019s school board gave Superintendent John Craft the green light to negotiate with TxDOT on behalf of the district, and authorized board president Karla Duran to execute a deed transferring the parcel of land.<\/p>\n

TxDOT approached the district asking for the land sometime last year, Duran told the Report, with plans to place concrete barriers along the road and expand the frontage road.<\/p>\n

Laura Lopez, a TxDOT spokesperson for the San Antonio area, said the project includes building a turnaround, additional turn lanes and improved bicycle and pedestrian accommodations.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The project is expected to be less than half a mile in length, and TxDOT budgeted roughly $36.2 million for the expansion. TxDOT estimates the project will go out for bids in January of 2027.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"Sam Rayburn Middle School sits on 17 acres of land between IH-410 and Valley Hi Drive. TxDot wants a small tract of it for a freeway construction project. Credit: Bexar Central Appraisal District<\/p>\n

What NISD gets in the sale<\/p>\n

Sam Rayburn Middle School sits on 17 acres of land, currently valued at $711,740<\/a> according to the Bexar Central Appraisal District. The land tract neighbors a Valero gas station among other businesses and sits across the street from a shopping center with an H-E-B and several fast food chains.\u00a0<\/p>\n

While negotiations are still ongoing, Duran said the district hopes to at least receive market value for the land. But that may not be enough for some NISD school board members.\u00a0<\/p>\n

While land sale prices would usually be priced by dividing the total value by square footage, school districts have absolute exemptions, meaning they don\u2019t have to pay property taxes and the process for transferring and selling land looks different.\u00a0<\/p>\n

During the July 22 meeting, trustees Laura Zapata and Carol Harle expressed concerns that TxDot\u2019s construction project could affect the school\u2019s visibility from the road.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Zapata and Harle said they\u2019d like to add some sort of marquee that could be considered in negotiations with TxDOT, ensuring the school isn\u2019t hidden behind an active construction zone.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cRight now we\u2019re in a position where we need to continue to showcase our schools and to advertise,\u201d Zapata said.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Texas Department of Transportation has its sights set on a 0.64-acre tract of land that Northside Independent…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":116357,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5133],"tags":[5229,7287,21878,21879,72877,7202,7203,358,58252,3187,8320,7815,67,586,132,5230,68,2969,11887],"class_list":{"0":"post-116356","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-san-antonio","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-nisd","10":"tag-northside-independent-school-district","11":"tag-northside-isd","12":"tag-sam-rayburn-middle-school","13":"tag-san-antonio","14":"tag-sanantonio","15":"tag-texas","16":"tag-texas-department-of-transportation","17":"tag-tx","18":"tag-txdot","19":"tag-typedaily","20":"tag-united-states","21":"tag-united-states-of-america","22":"tag-unitedstates","23":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","24":"tag-us","25":"tag-usa","26":"tag-wc-less-than-500"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/114966504761583077","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/116356","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=116356"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/116356\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/116357"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=116356"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=116356"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=116356"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}