Government Hill, San Antonio, TX: Historic Rules, Homes, Taxes, Gates

The short version. Government Hill is an older San Antonio neighborhood just south of JBSA-Fort Sam Houston, inside city limits and in San Antonio ISD. Part of it, about 86 acres along North New Braunfels Avenue, is a City of San Antonio local historic district. Inside that district, exterior work needs a Certificate of Appropriateness from the city before it starts. The district has 151 single-family homes on the appraisal roll. Their median year built is 1921, and 144 of the 150 with a recorded year were built before 1978. The North New Braunfels Avenue entrance to the post is about half a mile by road from the middle of the district. Each fact below carries its source and the date we read it, October 6, 2026. Where we could not confirm something, we say so and name the place to check.

This guide is for a buyer who doesn't know San Antonio and wants to know whether an older home this close to Fort Sam Houston deserves a closer look. It is also for an owner here weighing what the historic rules mean for a sale. For the wider city, see our San Antonio area guide. For the post itself, see our Fort Sam Houston housing guide.

Where Government Hill is, and which boundary you mean

"Government Hill" refers to three different areas, and they are not the same size. Check which one a listing or a rule refers to.

• The neighborhood plan area. This is the largest of the three, about 684 acres in the city's planning layer. The city's 2001 Government Hill Neighborhood Plan describes it as bounded by Fort Sam Houston on the north, the post along Hines Avenue on the east, the Union Pacific railroad yard on the south, and Broadway on the west. A plan area guides land-use decisions. It does not change what an owner may build, and it is not a historic district.
• The local historic district. This is a smaller area that the City of San Antonio has designated, 85.7 acres in the city's Historic_Districts map layer. Tracing that layer against street centerlines, it runs along East Grayson Street on the north and North New Braunfels Avenue on the east, sits just north of Interstate 35 on the south, and reaches Willow Street and North Pine Street on the west, with a jog at East Carson and Quitman streets. The historic design rules apply only inside this district.
• The National Register. On the Texas Historical Commission's Atlas, the nearby National Register listing is Fort Sam Houston itself (reference 75001950, listed May 15, 1975, also a National Historic Landmark). That listing is the post. We did not find a National Register district for the neighborhood when we searched on October 6, 2026. A National Register listing on its own does not create local design review. Local design review comes from the city designation.

How to check one address. Look it up on the City of San Antonio Office of Historic Preservation Explorer map, which shows local districts and landmarks. The city's historic districts page lists Government Hill among its designated districts. Individual landmarks can also sit outside a district, so check the specific property as well. The city's 2024 Eastside Community Area Plan says Government Hill has "over 30 historic landmarks."

What the local historic district means for an owner

Designation is about the outside of the building, not its use. The Office of Historic Preservation (OHP) says that in a historic district, "all proposed work must be approved through a Certificate of Appropriateness" (COA) before the work begins. The district also has to follow the city's Historic Design Guidelines, which the city describes as legally enforceable. Here is what OHP's own pages say, read October 6, 2026:

• Interior-only work. If the work is interior only, with no work on exterior windows or doors, no OHP approval is needed.
• Staff approval or a hearing. OHP says most items can be approved administratively by staff. New construction, additions and some alterations go to the Historic and Design Review Commission (HDRC) at a public hearing. OHP publishes a guide, "Which Commission Will Review My Project?", on its Before Getting Started page. We don't predict how a specific request will be decided. Ask OHP before you count on an outcome.
• Timing for a hearing. Applications are due 19 days before the HDRC meeting you want. After the meeting, OHP says certificates are usually issued within 10 days.
• Fees. Residential applications have no fee. Commercial properties and signs do.
• Work done without approval. OHP says work started without a COA may bring a stop-work order and a $500 post-work application fee, and in more serious cases a municipal court case.
• How to apply. Applications go through OHP's online portal, linked from its design review page. The procedure itself is in the city's Unified Development Code.

What owners have actually filed. The city publishes a Certificates of Appropriateness map layer. Inside the Government Hill district, it lists 388 separate completed requests from October 24, 2014 to November 5, 2025 (the layer was last updated January 28, 2026). The most common single work types were roofing (61 requests), foundation or skirting (48), fencing (39), painting (32) and repair and maintenance (30). Ordinary upkeep, in other words, goes through the city. The layer shows completed requests only, so it tells you nothing about requests that were denied or withdrawn.

Before you make an offer on a home in the district

• Ask the seller for every COA and building permit for exterior work done while they owned it: roof, windows, porch, fence, siding, additions, demolition of outbuildings.
• Compare that list with what you see, for example replaced windows or a new carport. If the paperwork is missing, ask OHP what a post-work application would involve before your option period ends.
• If you plan exterior changes, such as new windows, an addition or a second unit, talk to OHP about the review path first, and allow time for a hearing if it needs one.
• Read the Historic Design Guidelines sections for the work you have in mind.

The housing stock, by the records

These figures come from Bexar Appraisal District roll data, published in Bexar County's public parcel map layer and read October 6, 2026. We counted every parcel whose center falls inside the city's district outline. Year built and living area are the appraisal district's recorded values. They are not inspections, and an older house that was renovated may still show its original year.

Government Hill local historic district, single-family homes (appraisal state code A1). Bexar Appraisal District roll data via Bexar County GIS, read October 6, 2026.

Parcels in the district	249 in total: 151 single-family homes, 37 with multifamily codes, 37 commercial, 5 other, and 19 vacant lots
Year built (150 homes with a recorded year)	1885 to 2018, median 1921. 128 built before 1940, 137 before 1950, 144 before 1978
Biggest decades	1920s: 46 homes. 1930s: 39. 1900s: 19. 1910s: 17
Living area	Middle 80% from 966 to 2,645 sq ft, median 1,457 sq ft (smallest 568, largest 6,985)
Lot size	Middle 80% from 0.085 to 0.266 acres, median 0.161 acres (about 7,000 sq ft)
Stories	122 one-story, 9 one-and-a-half, 18 two-story, 1 two-and-a-half (1 not recorded)

Across the larger neighborhood plan area, the same roll lists 961 single-family homes with a median year built of 1935 and a median living area of 1,168 sq ft. It also has more newer homes: 67 single-family homes there were built in 2010 or later.

History that bears on a purchase. The city's 2024 Eastside Community Area Plan says Government Hill "was originally developed between the 1890s and 1930s, along with the establishment and growth of Fort Sam Houston." The 2001 neighborhood plan records a 1995 Historic Resources Survey of 1,130 buildings, which rated 27% of properties high priority for historic integrity. In the 2001 plan, a historic district was still a proposal. The district shown on the city map today was designated after that.

Plans and zoning: what controls a lot

Three planning documents cover Government Hill, and none of them is zoning:

• The Government Hill Neighborhood Plan, adopted September 20, 2001.
• The Government Hill Neighborhood Plan Update (October 2010). It was done in two phases alongside a city-initiated area-wide rezoning. Phase I was adopted in October 2008. The city's planning layer records ordinance 20080954, dated October 16, 2008. Phase II analysis began in fall 2009.
• The Eastside Community Area Plan, adopted June 20, 2024 as part of the SA Tomorrow Comprehensive Plan. Where it overlaps the Government Hill plan, it says it "will be the plan of reference for land use designations." It covers all 249 district parcels and 1,484 of the 1,572 parcels in the older plan area. A small northwest corner between Broadway and Austin Street falls in the Midtown Regional Center Plan instead.

The 2010 update says plainly that its land use plan "does not constitute zoning regulations or establish zoning district boundaries." Zoning is what sets the uses and density allowed on a lot. The Eastside plan summarizes the 2010 rezoning as limiting new construction in existing residential areas mainly to detached single-family homes. In the city's zoning layer, read October 6, 2026, 141 of the 151 single-family homes in the district are zoned R-6 or R-5, both single-family districts. To check one address, look up its zoning with the city's Development Services Department. If you are thinking about adding a unit or splitting a lot, confirm the zoning and the historic review before you buy.

Taxes, utilities, schools and flood maps

Jurisdiction. The whole district is inside San Antonio city limits, in Bexar County and City Council District 2. That comes from the city's council district layer and from the appraisal records: every one of the 249 district parcels carries the same set of taxing units.

Property tax rates. A tax bill adds up the rates of every unit that covers the property. These are the rates for a district address, per $100 of taxable value, before exemptions.

Taxing units on Government Hill historic district parcels, with 2026 rates. Sources and dates in each row.

Taxing unit	2026 rate	Status and source
City of San Antonio	$0.56288	Adopted September 17, 2026, up from $0.54159. City Council agenda memorandum, item 7; Texas Public Radio, September 28, 2026
Bexar County	$0.276331	Held at the 2025 rate. Combined with the road and flood fund, the county total stays $0.299999. Adopted September 15, 2026 (Bexar County news release; Texas Public Radio)
Bexar County Road and Flood Control Fund	$0.023668	Held, part of the county's $0.299999 total above
University Health (hospital district)	$0.276235	Held at the 2025 rate (Texas Public Radio, September 28, 2026)
Alamo Colleges District	$0.166650	Adopted for 2026, an increase (Alamo Colleges notice; San Antonio Report)
San Antonio River Authority	$0.019300	Adopted for fiscal 2027 (Texas Public Radio, September 28, 2026)
San Antonio ISD	Not final	The 2025 rate was $1.1552. On November 3, 2026, voters decide Proposition A, a 3.17-cent maintenance and operations increase, plus bond propositions. San Antonio Report says passing all three bonds would add 6 cents to the debt rate over three years

The six units with a 2026 rate add up to $1.325064 per $100 (our arithmetic). If San Antonio ISD stayed at its 2025 rate, the combined rate would be about $2.48. If Proposition A passes, add 3.17 cents. Homestead and other exemptions lower the taxable value and differ by unit. Our Texas property tax guide explains them, and the property tax calculator lets you try a price. The appraisal records also list a code, SA011, on every district parcel. The county's 2025 rate list has no separate rate for it. The Eastside plan mentions the city's Inner City Tax Increment Reinvestment Zone (#11) as active in the area. For a specific account, confirm the units on the Bexar County tax office property search.

Utilities. CPS Energy, owned by the City of San Antonio, provides electric and natural gas service in San Antonio. The San Antonio Water System (SAWS), also city-owned, provides water and wastewater service across most of Bexar County. Confirm service, and gas availability for a specific house, with each utility before closing.

Schools. Every district parcel lists San Antonio ISD as a taxing unit. Campus assignment depends on the address and can change. Confirm it with San Antonio ISD, and use the Texas Education Agency school district locator to check the district.

Flood maps. FEMA's National Flood Hazard Layer, queried October 6, 2026, shows the whole district outline in Zone X, area of minimal flood hazard. The map panels are 48029C0403H and 48029C0404H, effective June 19, 2020. A Zone X map doesn't mean no flood risk, and it doesn't settle the insurance question. Check the exact address on the FEMA Flood Map Service Center and ask the seller about past water entry.

Getting to Fort Sam Houston, downtown and the Pearl

The post's southern edge runs along the north side of the neighborhood. These are mapped road distances from the center of the historic district. We didn't time any drives, so the table shows distance only.

Road distances from the center of the Government Hill historic district. OSRM routing on OpenStreetMap data, with destinations from the U.S. Census Geocoder and OpenStreetMap checkpoint locations, calculated October 6, 2026.

Destination	Road distance
Post entrance on North New Braunfels Avenue	0.5 miles
Post entrance where North Walters Street becomes Winfield Scott Road	1.6 miles
Post entrance on Harry Wurzbach Road	2.5 miles
Pearl (303 Pearl Parkway)	1.2 miles
The Alamo (300 Alamo Plaza), downtown	2.2 miles

Gate hours. JBSA posts gate hours and closures on its official Gate Hours page. JBSA announced changes to hours at several Fort Sam Houston gates effective March 2, 2026, on its official Facebook page. The Gate Hours page refused our automated request on October 6, 2026, so we don't list hours here. Check that page, or ask your sponsor or unit, before you plan a commute around a particular gate. Our article on questions to ask before buying near a JBSA gate covers the rest.

Older homes: what to check before your option period ends

Most single-family homes in the district predate 1940. The Texas option period is the window for questions like these. We are not giving repair cost figures, because we couldn't source figures that fit a particular house.

• Foundation. Ask for any foundation repair records, warranties and engineer reports, and whether the repair work had a COA. Foundation or skirting was the second most common COA request in the district.
• Sewer line. Ask about the age and material of the line from the house to the street, and whether it has been scoped by camera. Ask SAWS where the owner's responsibility ends.
• Electrical. Ask the inspector to note the panel, wiring type and any ungrounded circuits. These affect insurability as well as safety.
• Insurance. Get an insurance quote during the option period, not after, and ask the insurer what it needs to see for a house this age.
• Lead-based paint. For homes built before 1978, federal rules require the seller to disclose known lead-based paint and hazards, give the buyer the EPA pamphlet, and give the buyer a 10-day opportunity to test, which the buyer may waive (EPA). In the district, 144 of the 150 single-family homes with a recorded year were built before 1978.

Our inspection checklist for San Antonio homes walks through the full inspection.

VA buyers and older or partly renovated homes

A VA appraisal checks value and also whether the home meets VA's Minimum Property Requirements (MPRs). An appraiser can make the loan conditional on repairs. In a house this age, that often means peeling paint on a pre-1978 home, a roof near the end of its life, or signs of foundation movement. A partly finished renovation can also draw conditions if a system is incomplete. Any repair a VA appraisal requires on a district home's exterior, such as paint, porch or roof work, still needs a COA, so build that time into the contract. Our guide to VA appraisals and MPRs in a San Antonio option period covers the timing, and our first-time VA homebuyer guide covers the rest of the process. For more on buying near the post, see our military relocation page.

Buyers may choose any lender, and real estate representation by Velvet Realty Group is not conditioned on using Jonathan Morris or REV Mortgage for lending. Mortgage information on this site is general guidance. It is not a loan approval, a loan commitment, or legal, tax, financial, or lending advice.

Market panel: ZIP 78208, September 2026

Government Hill addresses use ZIP 78208, which also covers areas outside the neighborhood, so these numbers describe more than Government Hill. They count active listings, meaning homes listed for sale, not homes that sold. A list price is not a sale price.

ZIP 78208, September 2026, all active residential listings. Realtor.com residential listings data, data through September 30, 2026, downloaded October 4, 2026.

Active listings	19 (21 including pending)
New listings in the month	6
Pending	1
Median list price	$273,750, up 19.1% from September 2025
Median list price per square foot	$199
Median listing size	1,326 sq ft
Median days on market	108
Listings with a price cut	4 (about 18%)

With 19 listings, a single sale can move the median noticeably. Prices for older homes here depend heavily on condition, and an unrenovated house and a fully restored one can be listed far apart. Closed sales: this guide doesn't include a closed-sale count, median or range for Government Hill, because we did not have an MLS closed-sales pull for the neighborhood when we wrote it. We can prepare one for a specific search, with the sample size and dates shown. For the wider market, see our San Antonio market update.

For owners selling in the district

• Gather the paper trail first. COAs, permits, repair invoices, foundation records and any OHP correspondence. Buyers and their agents will ask for them.
• Get approval before pre-listing work. Exterior work done just before listing, such as paint, fence, porch or roof, needs a COA like any other exterior work. Work done without one can bring a stop-work order and a $500 post-work fee, which can stall a closing. Interior-only work doesn't need OHP approval.
• Disclose what you know. Texas seller disclosures and, for pre-1978 homes, the federal lead-based paint disclosure apply. Our seller disclosure prep checklist covers the Texas side. For the rest of the sale, see our selling page.

What we have not documented yet

• Closed-sale count, median and price range for Government Hill (no MLS closed-sales pull for this guide).
• Current gate hours for the Fort Sam Houston entrances nearest the neighborhood (JBSA's page refused our automated request on October 6, 2026).
• Timed drives at rush hour to the gates, downtown or the Pearl. The distances above are mapped, not driven.
• The designation ordinance number and date for the Government Hill local historic district. The city's district page and map layer don't show them.
• Elementary, middle and high school assignments for specific addresses.
• Whether any individual property in the neighborhood is separately listed on the National Register.
• San Antonio ISD's final 2026 tax rate, which depends on the November 3, 2026 election.

If you are looking at a specific house, we can check these for that address.

Questions about Government Hill

Is all of Government Hill a historic district?

No. The City of San Antonio local historic district covers 85.7 acres along North New Braunfels Avenue, inside a neighborhood plan area of about 684 acres. The historic design rules apply only inside the district. Check a specific property on the OHP Explorer map.

Do I need city approval to repaint or reroof a house in the Government Hill historic district?

In a San Antonio historic district, OHP says all proposed exterior work needs a Certificate of Appropriateness before it starts, and most items are approved by staff. Roofing and painting are among the most common requests the city has recorded there. Interior-only work doesn't need OHP approval.

How close is Government Hill to Fort Sam Houston?

The neighborhood borders the post. From the center of the historic district, the North New Braunfels Avenue entrance is about 0.5 miles by road and the North Walters Street entrance about 1.6 miles. Check JBSA's gate hours page before you plan a commute, because hours change.

What school district serves Government Hill?

San Antonio ISD is the school district on every parcel in the historic district. Confirm the campus for a specific address with the district.

How old are the homes in Government Hill?

In the historic district, appraisal records show single-family homes built from 1885 to 2018, with a median year of 1921. Most were built in the 1920s and 1930s.

Sources

• City of San Antonio Office of Historic Preservation, historic districts, design review, before getting started, design guidelines and Explorer map. Read 2026-10-06.
• City of San Antonio GIS open data (ArcGIS Online): Historic_Districts, Certificates_of_Appropriateness, NeighborhoodComPerimPlans, SATomorrowSubAreaPlans, COSA_Zoning and RedistrictedCouncilDistricts2022 layers. Queried 2026-10-06.
• City of San Antonio Planning Department, Government Hill Neighborhood Plan (2001), Neighborhood Plan Update (October 2010) and Eastside Community Area Plan (adopted June 20, 2024). Read 2026-10-06.
• Texas Historical Commission, Atlas record for Fort Sam Houston (NRHP 75001950). Read 2026-10-06.
• Bexar Appraisal District roll data via the Bexar County GIS parcels layer (maps.bexar.org). Queried 2026-10-06. Bexar County Tax Assessor-Collector, 2025 tax rate jurisdiction report and tax rates page. Read 2026-10-06.
• City of San Antonio, City Council agenda memorandum on the tax year 2026 rate (agenda date September 17, 2026). Texas Public Radio, "Counting the costs: here's how the dust settled on local tax increases and fees," September 28, 2026. San Antonio Report, 2026 SAISD bond and VATRE voter guide. Read 2026-10-06.
• CPS Energy and San Antonio Water System service descriptions. Read 2026-10-06.
• FEMA National Flood Hazard Layer (flood zones and FIRM panels), queried 2026-10-06, and the Flood Map Service Center.
• U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, lead-based paint real estate disclosure. Read 2026-10-06.
• Realtor.com, residential listings data, ZIP inventory core metrics for September 2026. Downloaded 2026-10-04.
• OpenStreetMap data via Overpass (post checkpoints and street centerlines, data as of 2026-10-07 00:08 UTC), the U.S. Census Geocoder, and the OSRM routing service. Calculated 2026-10-06.

Where these figures come from

Data provenance and review schedule for this page.

Boundaries	City of San Antonio GIS layers. Areas are the layers' own acreage (district) or computed from the layer's area field (plan area). Boundary streets are traced from OpenStreetMap centerlines.
Housing stock	Bexar Appraisal District roll fields as published in the Bexar County parcel layer, for parcels whose center falls inside the district or plan outline. Counts, ranges and medians are our arithmetic.
COA requests	City of San Antonio Certificates of Appropriateness layer, deduplicated by request number, October 24, 2014 to November 5, 2025.
Tax rates	2026 rates as adopted and reported by each unit or the press on the dates shown. San Antonio ISD's 2026 rate is pending an election. Totals are our arithmetic.
Market	Realtor.com ZIP 78208, September 2026, active listings. No closed-sale data is used.
Distances	Mapped route distances from the district's center. No drive was timed.
Published	2026-10-07
Data through	2026-09-30 for market figures. All other sources read 2026-10-06.
Next review	After the November 3, 2026 San Antonio ISD election, or when new Realtor.com monthly data is published, whichever comes first.

This article is general information, not legal, tax, or financial advice. Historic review requirements, tax rates, zoning, district boundaries and gate hours change. Confirm them for a specific property with the Office of Historic Preservation, the taxing units, the school district, the utilities, JBSA and the appraisal district.

Velvet Realty Group is brokered by LPT Realty, LLC. Equal Housing Opportunity.