De Zavala's Rebuild Gave Shavano Park's Municipal Tract a Front Door

What did a year of flaggers, detours and a 25 mph crawl on De Zavala Road actually buy? On July 30, 2026, the City of Shavano Park called the project "substantially complete." At noon that day the temporary construction limit came off, and the stretch between Lockhill-Selma and NW Military returned to 35 mph. The lane you drive in is about the same size it always was. Most of what changed is on the shoulders, under the pavement and along the city's own park land. That changes how you reach the Municipal Tract, and this December's Holiday Festival is the first holiday season with the rebuilt road in place.

A road project with a park on its north side

The Municipal Tract is about 23 acres at the northwest corner of De Zavala Road and NW Military Highway. It was deeded to the city in 2000 for municipal, recreational and community uses, according to the city's 2023 Town Plan. De Zavala runs right along its southern edge. Go down the city's list of what the rebuild delivered and you'll see how many of the items touch that edge:

1. A 54-inch culvert under De Zavala that carries runoff off the Municipal Tract and sends it under the road to the Olmos basin, near the De Zavala bridge.
2. Raised curbs and sidewalks, plus dedicated bike lanes with safety buffers between drivers and cyclists.
3. Street-side parking in the north shoulder along the Municipal Tract, which the city calls "safer and improved."
4. An overflow parking lot built from permeable pavers. The pavers filter stormwater and finish to a smooth, natural-looking surface.
5. A lowered hill just west of the Bikeway Lane intersection. Crews took 1.5 feet off the crest, which gives drivers at Bikeway and De Zavala an extra 62 feet of view to the west.

The first four are about the tract: its water, its parking and the walk to it. The fifth is a safety fix for the neighborhood just west. The city's De Zavala project page says $4 million in federal funding paid for the work. Congress awarded it as an earmark with support from U.S. Representative Tony Gonzales of TX-23, and J3 Company was the contractor.

The finished layout is simple. An updated striping plan gives De Zavala a 12-foot driving lane and a 5-foot bike lane, separated by a single white stripe. Before the rebuild, people on foot or on bikes going to the pavilion or the nature trail shared unmarked pavement with traffic. Now they have their own space.

The drainage work runs toward the neighbors

The culvert is the part nobody sees, and it's the one with the most at stake for nearby homes. The tract sits uphill of Ripple Creek Road and Painted Post Lane. The city expects the new pipe to "significantly reduce" stormwater runoff for homes on those two streets by catching water from the Municipal Tract and sending it under De Zavala to the Olmos basin. That is the city's projection. The road reopened in midsummer, so a real storm season will be the first true test. In its July 30 update the city also said a few minor grading and drainage fixes on nearby residential properties were still on the punch list, along with cleanup, watering and getting the grass established.

If you lived on Painted Post or Ripple Creek during construction, you remember the routing. When Community Impact reported the through-traffic closure that started August 27, 2025, residents of those two streets were told to reach NW Military through the Shavano Estates subdivision, and Bikeway Lane residents were sent out by way of Elm Spring. Those detours are over. The streets that dealt with the most construction traffic are the same ones the culvert was designed to protect.

What the tract already had

The park was already there, built up piece by piece over the years, and the rebuilt road now gives it a proper approach. Here is what the Town Plan lists on the tract and when each piece was built:

That's roughly one project a year since 2019. The Town Plan says the 2023 shade structure and trail work were partly funded by the Starr family. It also says the city plans to keep maintaining and gradually improving the tract, with resident feedback setting the priorities. The pavilion and playgrounds are near City Hall, so the tract's busiest corner is also where the city holds its public events.

Recreational fields, sports courts and a civic center appear in the Town Plan only as considerations for later phases of the 1999 master plan, not as facilities on the tract. The rebuilt road serves the trail, the pavilion, the playgrounds and the memorial that are there today.

December 5 puts the new road to work

Shavano Park Mayor Bob Werner set a target before the work began. Speaking to Community Impact in August 2025, he said:

"We're anticipating that it's going to be finished before the 2026 Independence Day celebration in Shavano Park, and that it will serve as a corridor for people going through and from San Antonio into Shavano Park."

That timeline slipped by a few weeks. The July 2 update still had striping, signage and work on the overflow parking ahead, with the speed limit coming back to 35 mph only after those were done. Since then, the city calendar has listed National Night Out on October 6 and Trunk-or-Treat on October 25 at the City Hall grounds. The Holiday Festival closes out the year, and it has the most going on of the three: sponsor trees, vendors and a cookie contest.

The city's events page lists the festival for Saturday, December 5, 2026, from 3 to 6 p.m. on the City Hall grounds at 900 Saddletree Court. It's the only city-sponsored event on the 2026 schedule for November and December. The Holiday Festival page lists three ways to take part: sponsor and decorate a tree, sign up as a vendor, or enter the cookie contest. The schedule actually starts before the festival and runs past it:

Tree sponsorship covers a 7-foot tree for $75, and the sponsor decorates it. Since the trees stay up from late November into January, they'll be on display for about five weeks, not just during the three-hour festival. The vendor form says booth space is limited, vendors bring their own tents, power isn't guaranteed and the city assigns booth locations.

The 2:30 p.m. vehicle cutoff ties the festival back to the road. Once vendors are parked and the grounds close to traffic, everyone else arrives on foot or by bike, or uses the shoulder parking and overflow lot. Before the rebuild, the walk from the neighborhoods to the pavilion meant stepping onto the travel lane. This year it has its own curb. As of this writing, the city still lists the festival map and timeline as "Coming soon." Parking and walking routes for the day will come from that map once it's posted.

Where the new lanes end

The rebuilt section runs from Lockhill-Selma Road to NW Military Highway, and the city's project page doesn't describe any bike route or sidewalk continuing past either end. Inside Shavano Park, it's a short, well-marked link between the western neighborhoods and the Municipal Tract. It doesn't connect to the regional trail network.

For longer rides or walks, San Antonio's Howard W. Peak Greenway system is still a short drive away. The city describes it as about 105 miles of accessible multi-use trail. The closest listed access point up NW Military is Eisenhower Park at 19399 NW Military Highway, a trailhead for the North Salado Creek Greenway. The city also lists the Voelcker Homestead Trailhead at 1021 Voelcker Lane and the Loop 1604 Trailhead at 3104 N. Loop 1604 W. on the same system. To the west, the Leon Creek Greenway can be reached at the Bamberger Park Trailhead, 12401 Babcock Road, and the O.P. Schnabel Park Trailhead, 9606 Bandera Road.

Within the city, the one-mile nature trail on the Municipal Tract is still the closest loop, and the rebuilt De Zavala is now the marked, curbed way to walk or bike to it. Our earlier weekend map for Shavano Park covers the restaurants and trails around the edges of town. For questions about the road itself, the city takes texts at 210.853.2003.

Public projects like De Zavala and the long run of improvements on the Municipal Tract shape how a street lives day to day, and they come up in conversations when you're deciding whether to stay, renovate or sell. If you'd like to talk about how changes like these affect your own home, Rutter Realty Group is glad to help. Schedule a Confidential Consultation, and we'll go over what the rebuilt corridor means for your street and your plans.