A horse-drawn carriage parks outside San Antonio City Hall earlier this week. Credit: Michael Karlis

City Council voted Thursday to send downtown’s horse-drawn carriages riding into the sunset — albeit at a slow pace.

Council voted unanimously — although with one abstention — to phase out for-hire carriages in the city center over the next five years. Under the new plan, the vehicles will operate as usual, then face reduced hours until being fully prohibited by Jan. 1, 2030.

Effective immediately, the city will issue no new horse-drawn carriage permits or licenses.

With Thursday’s vote, San Antonio becomes the first Texas city to prohibit horse-drawn carriages. Council members argued the ban was needed to protect the wellbeing of the animals and for the safety of travelers in an increasingly congested downtown. Dallas is considering a similar proposal.

Under San Antonio’s plan, city officials will connect carriage owners and drivers with job training programs, including Ready to Work and Launch SA. The city also will help affected workers land interest-free loans if they wish to start new business ventures.

“The reality is, as long as our community continues to grow and we see increased activity downtown, horse-drawn carriages do not belong in the main arteries downtown,” Mayor Ron Nirenberg said at Thursday’s meeting.

Initially, council was expected to vote on a plan to phase out the carriages over the next three years. However, an amendment by District 10 Councilman Marc Whyte, which passed on a 6-5 vote, extended the sunset period by two more years.

“There’s a lot of jobs on the line,” Whyte said. “We should at least do what we can to make this transition as painless as possible.”

Nirenberg initially called Whyte’s amendment “disingenuous,” stating that the councilman planned to vote against the ban regardless. However, the mayor later apologized for the accusation.

Even so, Whyte’s amendment pissed off District 8 Councilman and 2025 mayoral candidate Manny Pelaez so much so that he abstained from voting on the measure entirely.

“I would have liked to see these horses off the streets two years ago,” Pelaez said.

Although the measure passed, San Antonio’s carriage operators aren’t done fighting, said attorney Art Martinez de Vera, who represents four of the five companies that operate the vehicles downtown.

“Obviously, we’re disappointed that the City Council voted to wind down the horse-carriage industry,” de Vera said. “We do think moving to the five-year plan gives us a little wiggle room. We’re going to continue working with the city and we’re going to consider all of our options, including possible litigation.”

Vera said he hopes to use a 2023 state law created to prevent Texas cities from over-regulating commerce. Although the law under challenge in the courts, he said it would likely work in favor of his clients.

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This article appears in Dec 11-17, 2024.

Michael Karlis is a multimedia journalist at the San Antonio Current, whose coverage in print and on social media focuses on local and state politics. He is a graduate of American University in Washington,...