“What I would like to see is development of retail businesses I had when I was a kid, like cleaners, a grocery store, a tailor and a cab service,” she said during the second of four Temple City Council district meetings addressing the city’s efforts to update its master plan. Tuesday’s meeting was held in East Temple at Wilson Park Recreation Center.
The meetings are a means for officials of Kendig Keast Collaborative of Sugar Land, consultants to the city on the comprehensive plan update process, to gather input from residents and people who work in the city on what should be in the plan.
Although the 20 or so residents who took part in the meeting Tuesday were about half the number of those who participated in Monday’s meeting at Lamar Middle School, the group was passionate and vocal about the larger issues, particularly when questioned about their views of their neighborhood in 20 years.
Ms. Freeman continued in that vein, saying that the infrastructure along Martin Luther King Drive would have to improve before the area can improve overall.
“Infrastructure on MLK has got to happen,” she said. “That’s an ideal area for development.”
She said the east side must change its perception of being a crime-ridden area in order to improve itself, and creating jobs is part of that equation.
“The east side is perceived as the ghetto of Temple,” she said. “We need to change that perception so our children will come back home and work. My son is in jail for doing drugs because he couldn’t get a job.”
Eldon L. Tietje told the group that in 20 years he would like to see the problem of homeless people solved.
“I would like to see 20 years from now, no homeless people on the streets,” he said, adding that the area would have to have programs or services in place by then to accomplish that goal.
He agreed with Ms. Freeman that crime is an issue that must be faced as the city plans for the future.
“This part of town really has a problem with that - it is an issue in Southeast Temple,” he said.
He said future efforts to curb crime would have to include jobs, education, code enforcement and good lighting.
Twila Coley said safety is an issue to her also.
“I’d like to see my grandson play outside without ‘meanness,’” she said about the perception of crime in the area and safety for the children.
Pat Patterson, a developer who builds houses on the east side of town, said retail development in the area could be successful if it were to come.
“There’s lots of people in Temple who would spend money here, but that’s not where the shopping is,” he said.
Sticking to the broader issues inherent to the process of updating a master plan, the residents also addressed issues such as parks, traffic problems, mass transit, housing and infrastructure.
Patterson said much work needs to be done building housing for an aging population.
“Anyone on a fixed income of $400 to $500 a month, and their house is crashing down around them - they don’t have the money to fix that kind of problem,” he said, adding that incentives for builders to construct affordable housing could help solve the problem.
Tietje said that with new housing going up, particularly apartments, he is concerned that there is a lack of park space.
“Some of the newer neighborhoods have no parks. That needs to be looked at,” he said, adding that that does not include putting parks in drainage areas, as builders have been doing.
“They need to set aside appropriate land,” he said.
The group agreed that larger parks and a trail system linking them would be a good addition to the city in the future.
Ms. Coley said traffic in the city is already bad, and that needs to be addressed in the future.
“You can expect traffic jams in Austin, but not in Temple,” she said, using the intersection of South Loop 363 and Interstate 35, and 31st Street as examples.
Ms. Freeman said the HOP transit system is making a difference for residents, although there needs to be more stops.
Tietje said the bus service is a step in the right direction, but he would like it to also serve people who have means of transportation as well.
With the recent rains, residents came prepared with locations that had drainage problems, but with Community Development Block Grant money being spent on the east-side infrastructure last year, drainage was not mentioned as an issue until later in the meeting.
The District 3 meeting, to be hosted by Council member Martha Tyroch, will be from 6 to 8 p.m. May 14 at Raye-Allen Elementary School. The District 4 meeting, to be hosted by council member Russell Schneider, will be from 6 to 8 p.m. May 15 at Lake Belton Middle School.
The comprehensive plan is expected to take about a year to complete. It began at the end of March.
For more information about the district meetings or the Comprehensive Plan update process, call the city of Temple Planning Department at (254) 298-5668 or e-mail . The online site includes a comment section.
rstinson@temple-telegram.com
