"All of a sudden, the developers just pounced upon us."
Sarah Reveley said that about the wave of demolitions that reshaped her corner of Alamo Heights. She lives in the neighborhood's cottage district, a cluster of roughly 40 Craftsman-style homes on Patterson Avenue and Cambridge Oval built between the 1920s and the 1940s, several attributed to noted architect O'Neil Ford. Reveley didn't just feel the trend. She mapped it herself using city records, and by her count more than 75 houses in Alamo Heights had been razed or approved for demolition within five years.
If you're weighing Alamo Heights against Olmos Park or Terrell Hills because of its tree canopy and its 1920s-through-1960s housing stock, that number should change how you read a listing. It reframes what you're actually buying, and what you're actually protected from.
The Board Sounds Like a Preservation Check. The Record Says Otherwise.
Every proposed demolition in Alamo Heights runs through a two-step process managed by the city's Architectural Review Board. First, the board decides whether the existing structure carries any architectural or historical significance. Then, in a separate review, it evaluates whether the replacement is compatible with the block. The process is designed to wrap in about 30 days, not counting plan review, with recommendations forwarded to the six-member City Council for a final vote.
That sounds like real scrutiny on paper. Between 2018 and 2023, the board approved 100 percent of the demolition requests it reviewed. Only one carried modifications. Design compatibility reviews, the step that governs what actually gets built once a house comes down, went only somewhat differently: roughly 70 percent were approved outright and another 32 percent approved with changes.
| Review type (2018–2023) | Outcome |
|---|---|
| Demolition requests | 100% approved (1 with modifications) |
| Design compatibility reviews | ~70% approved outright, ~32% approved with modifications |
Board chairman John Gaines has said most of these decisions follow existing building code and zoning criteria rather than any independent judgment about whether a house deserves to stay standing. That's not a gap in how the process works. It's exactly what the process was built to do.
Why the Board Has No Teeth: A 2019 State Law
The shift traces back to a specific change in Texas law. In 2019, the state Legislature passed a bill restricting a city's authority to regulate building materials or limit teardowns. Alamo Heights, like every other Texas municipality, lost much of its practical ability to say no on preservation grounds alone. The Architectural Review Board still meets, still reviews plans, still takes public comment. But the legal tools it once had to actually block a demolition were largely removed by the state before the board ever convenes.
That single change explains a pattern buyers keep noticing but rarely trace to its source. A home with real architectural pedigree can still come down, and a review process that sounds protective mostly offers a 30-day pause and a public hearing.
What That Looked Like on Encino Avenue
The case that made this concrete for a lot of residents involved a home at 231 Encino Avenue, a 1922 residence on a 1.4-acre lot a block from Broadway. The 7,000-square-foot house was designed by Adams & Adams, the same architecture firm behind Thomas Jefferson High School and the San Antonio Zoo. Four other Adams & Adams homes in Olmos Park and Monte Vista appear on the San Antonio House Registry.
In April 2023, builder Lisa Nichols of Nic Abbey Homes bought the property with plans to plat the lot into two parcels and build two houses. Neighbors organized. One resident compared the prospect to demolishing the Argyle, the 165-year-old ranch home turned private dinner club that anchors a good deal of the neighborhood's civic memory. The Architectural Review Board could require Nichols to bring compatibility plans through a separate hearing. It could not stop the demolition outright, because state law doesn't give it that authority.
That's the version of "review" a buyer or seller in Alamo Heights should actually plan around, not the version the board's name implies.
The Historic District Alamo Heights Doesn't Have
There's a useful comparison a few miles south. King William became the first residential historic district in Texas in 1968, and structures inside a designated historic district carry a real layer of protection against hasty demolition that Alamo Heights properties simply don't have. Alamo Heights currently has no historic districts anywhere within its two square miles.
Some residents are trying to change that. In November 2022, a group that had gathered at the Argyle for the neighborhood's centennial decided to form the Alamo Heights Historical Association to push for exactly this kind of designation. Michael Carroll serves as president and Reveley chairs a committee focused on the effort. For comparison, the City of San Antonio's own ordinance requires support from at least 51 percent of property owners in a proposed area to establish a historic district, the same threshold that helped create King William. Any framework Alamo Heights eventually adopts would set its own bar, but that comparison gives a sense of how much organizing a petition like this takes. As of the most recent reporting, no Alamo Heights historic district has been established.
Until one is, the numbers to plan around are the ones already on the books, not the ones advocates are working toward.
What This Means If You're Pricing a Lot, Not Just a House
If you're evaluating a pre-1960s Alamo Heights home as a buyer, the practical question isn't whether the review board will let a future owner tear it down. Based on the case history above, the honest answer is close to yes, almost regardless of the house's condition or architectural interest. The questions worth asking instead:
- What is this lot worth on its own, independent of the structure on it, given that a builder evaluating the same address is pricing the land and the plat, not the house?
- If the house has genuine design pedigree, does that add resale value with a preservation-minded buyer, or does it only add delay for a builder who plans to demolish anyway?
- What does the compatibility review process typically require for new construction on this specific block, and how does that shape a builder's timeline and offer?
If you're selling a legacy home, your buyer pool likely includes people who want the house exactly as it stands and builders evaluating the parcel for its next use. Pricing and marketing that don't account for both audiences tend to leave money on the table in one direction or the other.
A Few Direct Questions
Can I stop a neighbor's demolition by objecting to the Architectural Review Board? You can be heard. City staff document objections and the board considers them as part of its significance and compatibility findings. But the 2018-2023 record shows objections rarely change the outcome, since state law limits how much the board can weigh preservation concerns against an owner's right to redevelop.
Does buying an older Alamo Heights house guarantee I can tear it down and rebuild? Not automatically. You still go through the same two-step demolition and compatibility review, and once issued, a demolition permit is valid for six months. But the approval record above suggests the review functions as a procedural step more than a real obstacle.
Is the cottage district on Patterson Avenue or Cambridge Oval protected? Not legally, not yet. The homes there are notable for their architecture and their connection to O'Neil Ford, but without a designated historic district, that reputation doesn't carry the force of an ordinance.
Working the Numbers Before You Write an Offer
None of this makes Alamo Heights a bad place to buy a legacy home. It means the review process most buyers assume will protect a house's character isn't built to do that anymore, and pricing that ignores the difference between land value and structure value is pricing against the market rather than with it. A private valuation that separates what the lot is worth to a builder from what the house is worth to a preservation buyer gives you a real number to negotiate from, whichever side of the transaction you're on.
Cory Bakke has spent more than three decades pricing and marketing legacy homes across Alamo Heights, Olmos Park, and the rest of central San Antonio, with the valuation training and generational local knowledge to read a lot like this one correctly before an offer goes in or a list price goes up. Request a Private Home Valuation to get a clear number on what you're actually working with.
