Now San Antonio and Austin, large metroplexes bookending one of the fastest growing regions in the nation, are following suit with the Central Texas Alliance<\/a>.<\/p>\n Formed only months ago, the Central Texas Alliance is a coalition of civic, business, economic development, academic and community leaders founded to support the Austin-San Antonio corridor and a 13-county mega region.\u00a0<\/p>\n The nonprofit also has a newly-appointed CEO, A.J. Rodriguez, who is currently transitioning from his role as executive vice president for the public policy and advocacy organization, Texas 2036.<\/p>\n Unlike other major cities in the state, Central Texas has not been served by one entity that works to develop consensus around priorities for the region, Rodriguez said.<\/p>\n The goal of the Alliance is to convene civic, business, economic development, academic and community leaders to form one voice on behalf of a region made up of 120 municipalities.<\/p>\n In other words, \u201cWhat can we do cohesively together that not one city or county could do alone?\u201d Rodriguez said.<\/p>\n Texas is considered the fastest growing economy and population in the nation. The Austin-San Antonio corridor, with a population of 5.3 million, is on target to add 3 million more residents by 2050, according to census data.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThose facts tell us that it\u2019s time for the Central Texas Alliance,\u201d stated Henry Cisneros, former Secretary of Housing and Urban Development and four-term San Antonio mayor (1981\u201389).<\/p>\n Cisneros co-authored with Robert Rivard and David Hendricks, \u201cThe Austin-San Antonio Megaregion: Opportunity and Challenges in the Lone Star State,\u201d published in September. The book outlines how projected growth will put demands on housing, energy and water resources, mobility infrastructure, and the region\u2019s workforce.<\/p>\n \u201cThe first thing to do when you see the numbers is then to look at the implications, and the implications are that growth demands to be addressed, and to pick the areas of significance,\u201d Cisneros said on a 2025 episode of the podcast, Big City Small Town<\/a>. \u201cObviously, traffic and congestion is one that\u2019s immediately obvious.\u201d<\/p>\n Addressing the impact of growth has been, to some degree, left untended. \u201cThere is really no entity where people are getting up every morning saying, \u2018It\u2019s my job to think about the implications of this unprecedented growth and the opportunities and challenges that it creates,\u2019\u201d Rivard added.<\/p>\n Cisneros is founder of the Alliance, which is modeled after the North Texas Commission<\/a> and the Greater Houston Partnership<\/a>. Both groups rely on member support for funding.<\/p>\n The Central Texas Alliance will focus on seven issue areas, Rodriguez said, including transportation, water resources, housing, workforce development, energy resilience, healthcare and land stewardship and planning.<\/p>\n Such collaboration on a regional scale has been discussed among Austin-San Antonio corridor leaders for more than two decades, Rodriguez said.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cBut each of the entities is doing their own thing, and they\u2019re busy \u2026 serving their own constituencies, which is what they\u2019re supposed to do,\u201d he said. \u201cI think what\u2019s changed in the urgency is really the scale, the pace of growth, that we\u2019re experiencing.\u201d<\/p>\n The Alliance is led by co-chairpersons Gary Farmer, president of Heritage Title Company of Austin and founder and former chairman of Opportunity Austin<\/a>, and Jenna Saucedo-Herrera, head of corporate impact at USAA and former president and CEO of the economic development nonprofit, Greater:SATX<\/a>.<\/p>\n While San Antonio and Austin have historically had competing interests when it comes to attracting business and economic development, the two cities also bring complementary strengths, Rodriguez said. <\/p>\n Additionally, the organization spans the broader region beyond those cities to other rapidly growing counties, from Williamson to Atascosa and Bandera to Bastrop.\u00a0<\/p>\n Saucedo-Herrera said unifying voices across the region positions it for successful growth. \u201cWe know that the seven regional priorities that we\u2019ve identified \u2026 are regional challenges that no single city or county can effectively address alone but that the region needs,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n The Alliance is not a chamber of commerce or an economic development entity, Rodriguez said, but will work with those organizations throughout the region.\u00a0He also expects the group to have a seat at the table with the state\u2019s other mega region advocacy groups like it, \u201cto think about how we promote Texas in an even larger way in the future.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n In the meantime, the organization will be collecting data and convening leaders to advocate for the region\u2019s needs at the state and federal level, he said.<\/p>\n The Alliance launches Sept. 18 at an event to be held at Texas State University-San Marcos, where more than 100 leaders from across the region are expected to discuss priorities for the 2027 legislative session. A board of directors will be formed following the event.<\/p>\n Disclosure: A.J. Rodriguez is immediate past chairman of the San Antonio Report board of directors.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Mega Texas cities like Dallas-Fort Worth and Houston are home to regional business coalitions formed years ago to…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":940971,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5133],"tags":[378916,5229,359,378917,378918,68238,378919,378920,378921,7202,7203,358,7453,3187,7815,67,586,132,5230,68,2969,7455],"class_list":["post-940970","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-antonio","tag-a-j-rodriguez","tag-america","tag-austin","tag-big-city-small-town","tag-central-texas-alliance","tag-henry-cisneros","tag-https-sanantonioreport-org-central-texas-alliance-san-antonio-austin-mega-region-greatersatx","tag-jenna-saucedo-herrera","tag-mega-region","tag-san-antonio","tag-sanantonio","tag-texas","tag-top-story","tag-tx","tag-typedaily","tag-united-states","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-unitedstates","tag-unitedstatesofamerica","tag-us","tag-usa","tag-wc-1500-2000"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116935083256879729","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/940970","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=940970"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/940970\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/940971"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=940970"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=940970"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=940970"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/HenryCisneros_StateOfTheWestside_ProsperWest_PanelEvent_09.09.2025_AmberEsparza.jpg\")
Former San Antonio mayor Henry Cisneros addresses the audience and fellow panelists during Prosper West\u2019s State of the Westside event at the Edgewood Performing Arts Center on Sept. 9, 2025. Credit: Amber Esparza \/ San Antonio Report<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/nickwagner-interstate-35-highway-groundbreaking-traffic-11MAY22-4.jpg\")
A woman uses a fan to shield herself from the sun during an I-35 expansion groundbreaking ceremony in 2022. Credit: Nick Wagner \/ San Antonio Report<\/p>\n