Three for Three
On October 20, the Zoning Commission approved the Historic Landmark overlay for 601 Delaware Street on consent, with no opposition. Case Z-2026-10700157-HL. Three advisory bodies have now reviewed this designation case. Three consent dispositions. Zero opposition across all three hearings. That is not a common result for a landmark case in San Antonio, and it means the process has arrived at its final step.
San Antonio’s landmark designation runs through four bodies, each with a distinct role. The Historic and Design Review Commission evaluates whether a building meets the significance criteria in the Unified Development Code. The Planning Commission handles any plan amendments the application requires. The Zoning Commission reviews the case and recommends the overlay to the City Council. And City Council adopts the designation. The first three are advisory; Council’s vote is the one that makes it permanent.
The HDRC approved the designation unanimously on the consent agenda on July 15. The city’s Office of Historic Preservation prepared a staff report recommending approval, finding the building significant under three UDC criteria: significant persons — the Menger family, who incorporated and expanded the Hoffmann-Hayman Coffee Company across five decades — a unique utilitarian example, and cultural and economic heritage.
The landmark application also triggered a required plan amendment. The SA Tomorrow comprehensive plan had labeled the property EFMU, a land use category that doesn’t include the building’s long-standing I-1 zoning. The correction to BIMU — the only mixed-use category that actually includes I-1 — went before the Planning Commission on September 23. They approved it unanimously on the consent agenda. No zoning changed. No new uses were added to the neighborhood. The map now matches the building’s long-standing zoning, which is all that was ever needed.
With the plan corrected and the landmark recommendation in hand, the Zoning Commission took up the overlay itself on October 20. Approved on consent, with no opposition — the same outcome this case has received at every hearing. The commission recommended the Historic Landmark overlay to Council for final action, completing the last advisory step in the designation chain.
That leaves one hearing. City Council is scheduled to consider final adoption of both cases — the landmark overlay and the plan amendment — on Thursday, November 5. An affirmative Council vote makes the Historic Landmark designation permanent — exterior design review and demolition protection, the only kind a building can get in San Antonio. Three advisory bodies have each cleared this case without opposition. One vote remains.
