San Antonio, Texas, Makes Economic Development Plans for 2003.

Byline: David Hendricks

Dec. 29--San Antonio may not boom with most dynamic of cities in economic development, but it dreams with the best of them.

The city entered 2002 with big goals and exits the year with even higher hopes.

The city, after all, just about has its hands on a brass ring of economic development -- a Toyota Motor Corp. assembly plant.

In between the fireworks that started 2002 and the ones Tuesday night heralding 2003, it has been a tough year for San Antonio businesses.

Although weighed down by a slightly shrinking Texas economy and a sluggish national economy, San Antonio's business community managed a smidgen of short-term progress, better than most Texas cities.

More importantly, San Antonio performed heavy lifting to position the city better for the future.

The year began with a January report to Mayor Ed Garza from a commission he appointed in late 2001 on how San Antonio best could advance from the 2001 U.S. recession and the economic fallout of the September 2001 terrorism attacks.

Some of the commission's recommendations were technical improvements on how the city works with local businesses, but the top goals for the year that emerged were: Attracting the U.S. Army South, a division of the U.S. Southern Command, to San Antonio as it relocates from Puerto Rico.

Finishing a city deal to develop a proposed PGA Village in Northeast Bexar County.

Continuing to develop economic ties to Mexico primarily by preparing for the start of cross-border trucking.

Also, in January, the city Economic Development Department spread word the city was a leading contender for a possible $1 billion vaccine national laboratory, along with sites in Arkansas and Maryland.

The key to winning the national lab, which would make vaccines for both the U.S. military and the general population, would be for the city to make a partnership with the best…