The meat of the plan includes chapters on urban design and future land use, growth plan, transportation, housing and economic development. There are also chapters on community overview and implementation of the plan.
According to Comprehensive Plan Advisory Committee members, the plan attempts to address everything from economic development to elements that affect the person on the street, such as transportation and housing.
The committee, formed about a year ago to work with a consultant to arrive at a working document, presented the plan during the workshop Thursday at the Temple Public Library.
City officials said the workshop was meant more as a first look at the document, and changes could be coming as the zoning commission and council run the plan through a possible approval process.
“This is a work in progress during the coming weeks,” David Blackburn, city manager, said to the group.
Jack Crews, Advisory Committee chairman, said the committee had numerous discussions on points of the plan during work on each of the chapters.
“We began in March of last year and went through each chapter one by one,” he said. “We reached a consensus on all chapters. There was a great deal of discussion, but it was not a rubber stamp process.”
The plan is the result of a $237,000 contract awarded in 2007 to Kendig Keast Collaborative of Sugar Land.
City officials hope the updated plan will provide guidance for the city’s growth through the year 2025.
The first public look at the plan will come during a planning and zoning public hearing tentatively scheduled for Monday. The original timeline of the plan called for the city council to get the plan June 5 and 19 for public readings and possible final action.
But the dates are tentative and Temple Mayor Bill Jones said the dates could be pushed back to give all of the organizations time to study the plan.
The community overview chapter found that the community is experiencing steady growth, has an aging population, has increased racial diversity, has affordable housing and has household incomes and property rates comparable to other areas.
The urban design and future land use chapter discusses protecting economic assets (such as the bioscience strengths and the proposed Temple Medical Education District), managing long-term patterns in growth areas, revitalization of the cities core neighborhoods and enhancing the community image and design.
The growth chapter includes encouraging development in areas identified as growth areas and minimizing the urban development in fringe areas the city cannot serve as well.
The city must also ascertain it has a sufficient water and wastewater capacity through 2030 and provide adequate public safety facilities and staffing.
Transportation includes elements such as community-wide transportation. That includes sidewalks, bike lanes, streets, public transit and freight movement. It also includes issues such as regional transportation, local transportation and neighborhood connectivity with hike and bike trails.
The chapter on housing said the market must provide housing for a wide range of income levels from subsidized to “high end” housing. Goals in housing include creating neighborhood environments and residential living that are pleasing for residents. That includes preserving older, established neighborhoods and using strategies to boost sustainability and appearance of new neighborhoods.
The chapter on economic development addressed conditions influenced by wider metropolitan and regional issues. An example of that would be the possible location of the Trans Texas Corridor in proximity to the city, which could influence decisions involving logistics and distribution centers in the city.
n The council received a report on the Reinvestment Zone Aviation Campus and Airport Planning Project during its regular meeting. The overall plan calls for multiyear improvements, possibly 25 years or more, totaling around $210 million in today’s dollars if built out fully. The document does not including provisions for funding. It addresses improvements to the southeast, northwest and general aviation areas of the Draughon-Miller Central Texas Regional Airport .
n The council set June 14 as the runoff election date for the District 2 Council seat. No one received at least 50 percent of the vote in the May 10 election, so the top two vote-getters, Mayor pro tem Patsy Luna and Mia McBride, will face off.
n The city received the proposed Community Development Block Grant annual action plan during the meeting. A total of $503,239 of Housing and Urban Development funding will be split between public service agencies, infrastructure improvements, parks improvements, demolition and administration costs. After a 30-day public comment period a final public hearing and action will be during the June 19 council meeting.
