Toyota plans to add 411 new jobs in $531.7M San Antonio expansion

As Toyota Motor Manufacturing Texas Inc. considers a half-billion dollar expansion to add more than 400 jobs at its sprawling South Side plant, the city of San Antonio is working to clear up a long-running dispute over development around the plant.

Toyota plans to spend $531.7 million to construct a new building, add 411 jobs and potentially expand its existing facility, according to a presentation prepared for the Bexar County Commissioners Court. Commissioners are scheduled to discuss Tuesday whether to offer $14.9 million worth of tax breaks and grants to the company for the project.

The presentation does not specify what manufacturing capabilities would be added to the plant, which manufactures the full-size Tundra pickup and hybrid-only Sequoia SUV. Recently, Toyota has spent several billion dollars and the promise of thousands of jobs to expand in North Carolina to grow its production of batteries for EVs.

RELATED: Toyota racks up record profit, but earnings to decline this year as it invests in tech, suppliers 

When it issued its year-end financial results earlier this month, Toyota said it would invest millions this year in technology and on suppliers. 

The San Antonio expansion could encompass more than 500,000 square feet of new space and the base wage of the new jobs would be $20.54 an hour, with an average salary of about $68,000, according to the Commissioners Court presentation.

The county’s package includes a 10-year, 100% tax abatement worth $14.7 million and a $250,000 skills development grant based on 250 jobs paying at least $34.55 an hour or $71,864 annually. County staff is also asking commissioners for the green light to explore a public infrastructure grant for Toyota.

Word of the expansion comes as the city is working to rezone land around Toyota’s plant to limit residential and commercial development — essentially codifying part of its original pitch to persuade the automaker to build its plant.

Known as the Starbright agreement, the 2003 contract created a 3-mile buffer zone around the facility to discourage residential development and other uses Toyota considered incompatible with its plant. That angered surrounding landowners, who argued the city was infringing on their right to do what they wanted with their property, forcing them to pay the price for the city’s promises to Toyota.

Last year, Southside Affordable Development LLC tried to sell about 34 acres of a nearly 100-acre tract it owns within the buffer zone to a developer for construction of more than 700 affordable apartments. But the city denied the company’s request to rezone the property to allow for the project.

Southside sued the city and Toyota in December, alleging they entered into an “unconstitutional contract zoning” that gives Toyota “veto power” over proposed developments within the buffer zone, which is also known as the “Enhanced Zoning Area.” Efforts to have the case dismissed have failed. 

The city now is asking the Zoning Commission on Tuesday to approve an “industrial compatibility overlay district” that would be made up of two zones, according to a memo. “Zone A” would restrict new residential and commercial development within one mile of Toyota’s plant and “Zone B” would extend another mile outward from that and limit new residential development.

“This is the city’s attempt to try to kill our lawsuit,” said David Prichard, a San Antonio attorney representing Southside. “They won’t have the terrible language in the Starbright agreement that just exposes them for what’s going on. That’s what this is all about.”

The Zoning Commission makes recommendations to the City Council, which has the final say. Council members are scheduled to take up the rezoning request June 20. Prichard said he found out about the potential change in March and the city is trying to speed up what’s usually a lengthier process.

“They’re trying to rush this overlay through, make it look like they’re being reasonable,” he  said.

Ahead of the meeting, zoning Commissioner John Whitsett told Mayor Ron Nirenberg and council members he was concerned about the rezoning request, which he described as banning new single-family and multifamily projects around Toyota’s plant. Notices were mailed in mid-May to 13,346 property owners notifying them of the Tuesday hearing, Whitsett said.

“The public sector (city) is appearing to only be working with the private interests of Toyota with little to no consideration given to the thousands of other property owners/taxpayers/voters who will have this overlay imposed on their property restricting their rights,” Whitsett wrote in a letter to council members.

The overlay “comes across as a back door effort to comply with” the Starbright agreement, Whitsett said. “Someone at the city appears to have determined that if they could get the Zoning Commission to quickly approve the overlay without giving it any scrutiny and then getting City Council to rubber stamp it then the problem with the contract zoning and unconstitutional taking of property issues created by the Starbright Agreement would be solved forever and then they could blame it all on the Zoning Commission.”

It also flies in the face of the city’s goals of increasing the supply of affordable housing, Whitsett added. 

Toyota and the city of San Antonio did not immediately respond to requests for comment.