An ordinance mandating how older homes and other structures in San Antonio are demolished just got a little stricter.
Starting Jan. 1, mechanical razing of any residential single-family home, multi-unit or accessory structure built before 1945 is not allowed, even if the structure is not in a historic zoning overlay.
Only careful deconstruction, also known as unbuilding or reverse engineering, and salvaging the building materials is permitted for properties approved for removal.
Through an ordinance passed in September 2022, and phased in since October of that year, the Office of Historic Preservation (OHP) has been administering a permitting process for demolition requests that mandates deconstruction over destruction.
The first phase applied the ordinance to structures built before 1920, and to all structures located within a historic zoning overlay, such as King William, or a neighborhood conservation district, like Beacon Hill.
Starting in 2023, the ordinance further limited demolitions on structures built before 1945.
But on Wednesday, phase three of the ordinance kicked in. Now, deconstruction is required on all residential structures and accessory buildings built in or before 1945 citywide, regardless of the zoning overlay. It also includes structures approved for removal in protected areas and built in or before 1960.
The ordinance makes San Antonio the largest U.S. city to ensure that valuable materials are salvaged for reuse instead of crushed and landfilled, according to OHP.
The new law is designed primarily to reduce waste and boost housing.
About 500 buildings are demolished annually in San Antonio, contributing to over 15,000 tons of waste. Every year since 2009, about $1.5 million worth of salvageable material has gone to a landfill.
But San Antonio is full of older housing stock. A quarter of all housing consists of homes built before 1965. Almost 70% of all demolition permits issued in the last decade were for residential structures.
OHP staff pushed the ordinance as a way to make better use of building products by using it to repair other houses at risk of demolition.
Since it went into effect in 2022, 112 houses have been deconstructed and “hundreds of tons of building material and waste” was diverted from area landfills for reuse and recycling, according to OHP.
Some of the building material has gone to the Material Innovation Center at Port San Antonio, a temporary lay-down space for building materials available to the community at no charge. The site also provides skills training and research in reused materials.
Two years ago, when the measure passed, all but the former District 10 Councilman Clayton Perry, voted to approve the city’s first deconstruction ordinance. Perry said he was concerned about the potential added cost of deconstruction passed along to homeowners.
The cost to deconstruct a house or other structure can vary depending on several factors, but OHP staff said the cost of an average residential deconstruction is often similar to an all-out demolition after salvage materials are sold.
A website providing additional resources, a certified contractor list and answers to frequently asked questions is available at sareuse.com.
