Victoria Courts is an important 44-acre urban site, directly across Durango Boulevard from Hemisfair Park. SAHA has announced plans to demolish the existing Victoria Courts buildings and to redevelop the land in conjunction with a private developer to be chosen through a Request for Proposals process. Residents of Victoria Courts are moving out during the summer of 1999, and demolition will occur in the fall.

An important factor in the redevelopment of the Victoria Courts site is SAHA's application for a 35 million dollar Hope VI Grant from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. The purpose of the Hope VI Program is to provide "Revitalization Grants to enable public housing agencies to improve the living environment for public housing residents of severely distressed housing projects and Demolition Grants to expedite the demolition of obsolete and/or severely distressed public housing units." (FY 1999 HOPE VI Application Kit, U.S. Department of H.U.D.) A more informally stated goal of the Hope VI Program is to "turn…public housing projects into neighborhoods" (New Urban News, Vol.4, No. 1).

The Victoria Courts Concept Plan, along with unit character sketches were produced by members of the Urban Affairs Committee of AIA/San Antonio. These were the products of the workshops, and were included in SAHA's Hope VI Application.

The Concept Plan shows a traditional street-grid being re-established, interrupted on the eastern edge by open-space/park that helps buffer the new development from the traffic on Interstate 37. Labor Street on the western edge of the site would be redeveloped as a parkway, providing both vehicular and pedestrian access to the neighborhood. Surface parking would be restricted to streets, and the continued use of decals would continue to protect the neighborhood from overflow parking from special events at the nearby Alamodome. Streetscapes would be very important in the new development, and extra-wide sidewalks and plantings would encourage a neighborhood street life.

Mixed-use four-story buildings face Durango Boulevard, the busiest street, besides Interstate 37, that borders the site. Commercial spaces on the first floor facing Durango have apartments above. Multi-story parking garages are wrapped by these buildings. The middle section of the development features 2-1/2 story townhouses/rowhouses, with walk-down and walk-up flats. Visitor parking would be on the street in front, while resident's parking would be off alleyways between the these townhouse/rowhouse blocks or in garages off the alley with smaller apartments above. Finally, in the blocks next to the existing Lavaca Neighborhood, single family houses, with garage apartments off of alleyways, would match existing housing stock in character and scale.

An overall site density of 14-16 dwelling units per acre will be achieved in the new development. An important additional objective for the San Antonio Housing Authority will be to include a minimum of 100 public housing units (up to a maximum of 20% of the total units on site) to be mixed in with market rate units.

New Urbanist Principles for Inner City Neighborhood Design were utilized in deriving the Victoria Courts Concept Plan, and the redevelopment that occurs on this important urban-infill site can serve as a model for future projects.