Leander assesses city comprehensive plan

Leander assesses city comprehensive plan

Friday, 07 December 2007

A committee of Leander residents is writing an update to the city’s comprehensive plan, which it intends to present to the city council early in 2008.

“The city did a full-blown comprehensive plan in 2002 where they hired a firm [to do it], but much of it was never adopted because the city at the time couldn’t agree on much of anything,” said Pix Howell, urban design officer.

The state requires cities to update comprehensive plans every five years. This time, Leander city officials decided to let citizens take the reins.

“In order to take some of the politics out of it, I proposed we have the planning and zoning commission appoint the members of the update committee,” Howell said. “Council was amenable, so we sent out applications in the water/wastewater billings and advertised, and we got 30 to 40 applications.”

The committee is composed of 15 representatives from the city’s four quadrants and alternates who meet monthly and attend workshops.

“I think [they] are pretty representative of the different socio-economic sectors of Leander,” Howell said. “It ends up being some pretty lively conversation.”

The presentation the committee will make to the city council will include a vision addressing topics such as history, existing and future population trends, balancing economic development and quality of life, green space, diversity, sustainability and accessibility.

“We will have recommendations on everything from utilities to land use,” Howell said. “But [the comprehensive plan] is only a guide; it doesn’t set rules. If it’s adopted, the planning and zoning commission and council will take it as an opinion of a cross section of the community.”

Meetings of the comprehensive plan update committee are posted at www.ci.leander.tx.us and are open to the public.