Special Purpose Centers
Fort Sam Houston
The following section provides the results of the regional center analysis and measures how a center performs relative to the future vision for its category.
This special purpose center includes JBSA-Fort Sam Houston and large portions of San Antonio’s older industrial sites along I-35. Fort Sam is a designated Historic Landmark and one of the Army’s oldest installations. As home to Brooks Army Medical Center, the only U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) Level I Trauma Center, this regional center supports an innovative employment sector. The area is home to over 62,000 jobs, of which 40,000 are military jobs.
Tasks Ahead: This regional center will benefit from improved connectivity and multimodal access, as most of the area’s employees commute a long distance. Support of innovative and advanced manufacturing job types will help increase average resident incomes.
New development in Boulder, Colorado has integrated bicycle facilities, landscaping and public space in close proximity to safe and reliable public transit.
How to use the Regional Center Profiles
This study uses data from the Comprehensive Plan Initial Studies, the U.S. Bureau of Labor and Statistics (BLS), VIA Metropolitan Agency, WalkScore.com and the U.S. Census, including the Location Affordability Index (LAI). The analysis utilizes nine indicators of existing conditions that illustrate differences between the centers. The indicators are grouped by type:
- Social: Job diversity, Housing and Transportation (H&T) Index, Per Capita Income
- Connectivity: Transit Utilization, Walkability, Median Commute Distance
- Mix of Uses Ratio of Workers to Residents, Residential Density, Employment Density
An analysis of potential for land development complements the regional center profiles. It includes indicators for population and employment per developed acre and the percent of acres developed in each center.
The city and stakeholders developed aspirational scores and ideal measures of success for each of the indicators, tailored to the three regional center types. Comparing the existing conditions scores in each center to the aspirational scores shows how each center is performing well and where it needs improvement to reach its potential.
Aspirational scores vary based on the urban form, land use mix and anticipated specialization of each of the three regional center types. For example, Activity Centers have high aspirational scores for transit use and residential density, while these criteria are less relevant for Logistics/Service Centers and Special Purpose Centers based on the descriptions of the regional center types on page 5.2
How well a center is currently meeting its aspirational score is demonstrated by bar graphs. The profiles on the following pages tell the story of each regional center’s analysis. Each one provides:
| Strengths | A |
|---|---|
| Introductory Text | B |
| Locator Map | C |
| Key Economic and Demographic Facts | D |
| Existing Conditions and Aspirational Scores | E |
| Tasks Ahead | F |
| Precedent Photo | G |
