Cities work together for economic development, transportation, water

Cities work together for economic development, transportation, water

By Amy Stansbury Friday, 03 October 2008

Central Texas cities are working together in ways that affect most area citizens’ day-to-day lives — for economic development, transportation and water. This cross-community collaboration is sometimes referred to as regionalism.

Regionalism is a concept that has not always been embraced. Greater Pflugerville Chamber of Commerce CEO Patricia Brown has been with the chamber for 15 years and said Central Texas cities have not always played together well. However, she saw a regional change in attitude when Mike Rollins became CEO of the Greater Austin Chamber of Commerce.

“With [Rollins’] entrance into our market, things changed dramatically and now it’s probably the best regional cooperation I’ve ever seen in my tenure,” Brown said. “He was the one who kind of changed the mindset in Austin because, realistically, Austin is the big dog. People will hear about Austin and Central Texas before they’ll hear about Pflugerville, Cedar Park or Round Rock.”

Economic development

Part of the effort to increase collaboration among cities in the region materialized in 2004 in the form of an economic development initiative by the Austin chamber called Opportunity Austin. It aimed to create 72,000 new jobs in Central Texas and increase the regional payroll $2.9 billion by 2009. With a year left to achieve its goals, Opportunity Austin has already shattered all expectations with 104,200 new jobs and a regional payroll increase of $4.5 billion. The next version of the initiative, Opportunity Austin 2.0, kicks off next year and aims to create 117,000 new jobs in Central Texas.

Dave Porter, senior vice president of economic development at the Austin chamber, said one of the Austin chamber’s efforts to market the region includes trips with regional partners to other parts of the country to visit corporate headquarters and educate executives about what Central Texas has to offer those businesses.

“We target areas of the country where we have a cost advantage of doing business,” he said. “For example, this year alone we’ve been to California 13 times. Since 2004, 140 businesses have relocated to Central Texas, and 32 of them have come from California.”

Porter said these trips are about marketing Central Texas as a whole.

"We're all about growing the regional economy through good-paying jobs," he said. "We market the five county market globally, and we do not care where in Central Texas a business lands, as long as it lands in Central Texas."

Strength in numbers

The Round Rock Chamber of Commerce and the Pflugerville Community Development Corporation are investors in Opportunity Austin, each contributing $10,000 a year for the past five years. Both plan to commit to the same amount for the next five years.

“If it weren’t for Opportunity Austin, Pflugerville and many of the other communities wouldn’t even have a role,” said Charles Simon, Pflugerville economic development director. “I mean, we’d be out in the dark. If we weren’t participating, we’d be the ones sitting here with all this available land right by the highways and the whole region wouldn’t be benefiting either.”

The Austin chamber organizes an annual trip to Washington, D.C., to discuss issues in Central Texas with legislators. Round Rock Chamber of Commerce Senior Vice President of Business Retention and Expansion Charley Ayres, Round Rock Councilwoman Kris Whitfield and Chief of Public Works Operations Tom Word went last year with 40 other representatives from Central Texas.

“As a region you get much more attention than each community trying to send a delegation themselves,” Ayres said. “We went to lobby for federal funding and support the region's legislative issues.”

Competitive nature

Despite the effort to collaborate, cities still compete fiercely to win businesses, and for good reason. New property tax revenue is generated by businesses as agricultural land that has virtually no tax benefit becomes commercial property. In addition, stores, restaurants and some businesses generate sales tax revenue for the city, which can help lower residents’ property taxes.

Pflugerville has very few primary employers, and more than 90 percent of residents work in other cities. As a result, Pflugerville has a higher property rate than most of the other cities in the region. With such a limited daytime population, Pflugerville Mayor Jeff Coleman said people tend to patronize stores and restaurants near where they work. The city and chamber are trying to attract businesses so people can live, work and shop in Pflugerville.

While Round Rock has primary employers such as Dell, Inc., and Sysco and large retail developments including La Frontera and the Round Rock Premium Outlets, it is working to recruit other industries such as biomedical to the area to diversify its economy and lessen its dependence on Dell, which contributed 24 percent of the city’s sales tax revenue last year.

“There are a number of things here that are attractive to businesses — low taxes, minimal regulation, an extremely high quality of life, a great education system and a highly educated workforce,” Round Rock Mayor Alan McGraw said.

Round Rock’s best-known economic development success is Dell. This affected nearby Pflugerville, too, as both cities’ populations grew substantially after the computer giant moved into town.

“Dell brought houses to Pflugerville but quite frankly, houses just kind of break even for us,” Coleman said. “They’re by no means a money maker of any sort. But if Dell had not occurred, we would not be where we are now. It has been beneficial to us, but it has not brought economic prosperity to the city of Pflugerville.”

Transportation

Perhaps the hottest topic among Central Texans is transportation. Roads often cross multiple jurisdictions, and McGraw said it is important that cities work collectively to the extent that they can, particularly in light of the Texas Department of Transportation’s budget recessions.

“For example, A.W. Grimes/[FM]1460 is a Pflugerville-to-Georgetown road, so it doesn’t do much good just running through Georgetown, just running through Round Rock or just running through Pflugerville,” McGraw said. “That’s something that needs a coordinated effort.”

Round Rock is working with Georgetown to expand FM 1460, which turns into A.W. Grimes in Round Rock, then into Grand Avenue Parkway in Pflugerville and the Austin extraterritorial jurisdiction near IH 35. Pflugerville completed a project to expand its portion of Grand Avenue Parkway to four lanes in September 2006.

Pflugerville Parkway is another major arterial that runs east-west through Pflugerville and will soon connect to Greenlawn Boulevard in Round Rock. It will be a four-lane road with a median and is the first project that the Capital Area Metropolitan Planning Organization has awarded to Pflugerville through the Surface Transportation Program Metropolitan Mobility fund, which is federal funding for regional roads. Construction on the road is expected to start in November and be complete by the fall of 2010.

“Pflugerville Parkway got funding for a regional transportation improvement project using CAMPO as the conduit to widen and extend it to Greenlawn [Boulevard] in Round Rock, tying the regional arterials together and improving mobility for so many of our citizens that work at Dell,” said Trey Fletcher, Pflugerville planning director.

Water

Round Rock and Leander partnered with the city of Cedar Park through the Brushy Creek Regional Utility Authority to secure easement and build a deep-water intake pipeline to Lake Travis. The new water plant is expected to open in 2011, even before Round Rock needs additional water. It ensures water for the 250,000 population expected at Round Rock’s full build-out.

Round Rock Communications Director Will Hampton said the primary reason the city partnered with other cities on the water project is to share cost, which is estimated to be $330 million.

“You reduce some of your hard and soft costs by as much as a third,” Hampton said. “It's a very significant regional project. Water is as fundamental as anything we do.”

In 2006, Pflugerville spent $51 million to build a 180-acre lake capable of providing the community water until at least 2040.

Pflugerville City Manager David Buesing said the city has enough water to sell it to other communities, which would benefit Pflugerville residents by spreading the cost of the debt acquired to build the lake over a larger number of water customers.

“We’re in a position where our water rates are going to be coming down and you’re going to be seeing other cities’ rates going up,” Buesing said.

Envision Central Texas

Envision Central Texas is a nonprofit organization that aims to address the substantial growth anticipated in Central Texas by concentrating development and preserving green space. ECT created a vision for the five-county region, which includes Travis, Williamson, Caldwell, Hays and Bastrop counties. Executive Director Sally Campbell said ECT wanted to create a concept and way of looking at development.

“We really do work on projects and educational topics that the region as a whole cares about,” Campbell said. “All of them pretty much relate to the growth of the region and how to do that in a way that is sustainable and best for the long-term health of all the counties.”

By embracing a regional vision for development, Campbell believes Central Texas can better compete in the global economy.

“We really are no longer competing city against city,” she said. “Cities are [competing] for businesses, but on a larger scale it’s the Central Texas region against some place in China, Europe or even Dallas/Forth Worth. People and businesses will go to wherever offers them the best situation. The assets of a region combined are certainly more powerful than any one city could be.”

Local leaders talk regionalism
Mayors	Economic Development
Alan McGraw, Round Rock Mayor "We're all kidding ourselves if we think the economy recognizes city limit lines. It does not. We, as elected officials, focus on city limit lines more than other businesses do. So from that standpoint, we very much are a regional economy."	Charles Simon, Pflugerville Community Development Corporation "Pflugerville's role in the region right now is that, with the Toll 130 and Toll 45 corridor opening up, we have all this newly accessible land in the area. It's a big contribution, but it's also a pretty big responsibility."
Jeff Coleman, Pflugerville Mayor "Pflugerville is very much in competition with Round Rock, Cedar Park and even Buda; however, we are also helped by the fact that they're there because the environment that is created by all of the suburbs helps bring new employers and employees to our region."	Charley Ayres, Round Rock Chamber of Commerce "An effective regional transportation system is important because talent does not see community boundaries, only career opportunities."