Search results matching tags 'transit' and 'growth'

General Plan 2020 Adopted

Kerstin Harding — Fri, 30 Jul 2010 18:37:00 GMT

The General Plan 2020: Places and Spaces has been approved by the Planning & Zoning Commission and was adopted by the City Council on the first reading! Big thanks to everyone who shared their concerns and priorities for the city in last summer’s workshops and focus groups (see earlier posts). Also our heartfelt thanks to the city staff who contributed their time and expertise to help us produce recommendations that will guide the City’s development strategy over the next decade.

Several chapters of the General Plan 2020 address issues that were not part of earlier general plans, such as community quality, sustainability, support for older neighborhoods, historic preservation, and redevelopment quality. These are issues that the City Council has identified in the Strategic Plan as critical to maintaining Round Rock as a city of choice, and which residents expressed concerns about in the General Plan Community Phone Survey and last summer’s workshops and focus groups (see previous posts).

Draft #4 of the General Plan 2020 is given in the previous post; the final document will be posted in mid-August. Copies can then be downloaded or ordered from local copy centers in the binding of your choice.

Recap of the General Plan open house

Kerstin Harding — Wed, 19 May 2010 21:49:00 GMT

We are pleased to present the first complete draft of the General Plan 2010-2020! We had a good turnout for the April 28 open house, and got many thoughtful comments.

List of draft policy recommendations from the Draft Plan
Issue posters from last summer's focus group meetings (meetings summarized in earlier posts)
Participants' comments on the Draft Plan from the April 28 open house

Please leave any additional thoughts or comments below. If you would like to see the current draft of the plan, contact Nat Strosberg at 512-671-2728 (the current draft is in 12 Word files).

The next draft will be reviewed in a future Planning & Zoning Commission work session.

General Plan Draft Open House April 27, 2010

Kerstin Harding — Fri, 02 Apr 2010 17:38:00 GMT

The Planning Department seeks your input on the major recommendations of the Draft 2010-2020 General Plan, including the latest version of the future land use map.

These recommendations were created with your input from the Focus Group meetings last summer (see previous blog posts for summaries). The open house is scheduled from noon to 8 p.m. Tuesday, April 27, in the McConico Building Community Room, 301 W. Bagdad Ave., ground floor. We hope to see you there!

General Plan 2020: wrap-up meeting and feedback results

Kerstin Harding — Fri, 31 Jul 2009 01:48:00 GMT

A big thank-you to everyone who participated in these four workshops for the time and thought you gave to this project!

Input from these meetings, along with the phone survey and Strategic Plan, will inform the goals and objectives of the General Plan 2020, which lays out the City’s growth and development strategies for the next decade. After the City Council retreat in mid-August, we will begin to create draft policies to achieve these goals.

This meeting
Over the three previous General Plan workshops we have collected your thoughts about issues that Round Rock will be facing over the next decade, and how the City might address them. We collected these comments and in this meeting asked you to rate your support for each. The list of comments is long because the General Plan covers a lot of subjects, and we got a lot of valuable suggestions from participants in the first three meetings. We have tried to condense them as much as we could without injecting bias.

Blank rating form, summary of rating results and participants' written comments

Highlights

By mean (average), the 3 highest-rated items were (all 2.5):

Provide incentives for developers to incorporate water conservation measures into new development
Build a diversified and efficient transportation system
Develop public transit options for point to point routes and to serve the college campuses

The items receiving the highest numbers of “3” ratings were:

Build a diversified and efficient transportation system (25 of 36)
Provide incentives for developers to incorporate water conservation measures into new development (23 of 36)
Preserve the City’s history/sense of place for future generations (23 of 36)
Implement a regional approach to transportation planning (23 of 36)

By subject area the results indicate:

Future Land Use & Subdivision Design

Strong support for more open space and recreational facilities and better subdivision design generally
Strong support for more variety in housing types for different life stages and incomes
Strong support for locating neighborhood commercial at major intersections between neighborhoods, but not within them.
Strong opinion that neighborhood commercial should be scaled to local needs – several mentioned the grocery on Sam Bass. Significant concern about over-commercialization of areas near neighborhoods
Strong support for more assertive standards “don’t let developers define our community for us”
Significant support for denser and more diverse housing, and for mixed-use areas, but ONLY if well planned
Significant concern that apartments and duplexes are too concentrated.
Significant agreement that commercial development should be directed to nodes rather than strips.
Ambivalence/disagreement on whether subdivisions should follow a traditional neighborhood pattern or a suburban one with cul-de-sacs.

Support for Older Neighborhoods

Very strong opinion that the city should assist neighborhoods in improving amenities, and also strong opinion that maintenance of city properties should be improved (sidewalks, lighting, trails, parks)
Very strong support for organizing neighborhoods, volunteers etc. for neighborhood cleanups, and strong opinion that the city should actively organize or facilitate these efforts.
Very strong support for adopting/enforcing maintenance standards for rental properties/landlords
Strong support for having the city and volunteer groups help property owners meet code/maintenance standards
Moderate support for stronger code enforcement standards and enforcement

Historic Preservation

Very strong support for preserving the City’s history (buildings and documents) and sense of place for future generations.
Very strong agreement that the City needs to clarify its preservation goals
Very strong support for giving more attention to the character of a district: creating standards for new construction to harmonize with older buildings in the area; also strong aversion to creating a false history (theme park)
Very strong support for flexible standards that allow modern, better-performing materials if they preserve the building’s look and character – although standards must be strict enough to be meaningful.
Strong support for various preservation activities, including improving public awareness of preservation, offering City grants, and establishing a non-profit preservation organization
Moderate support for more designations and stronger standards
Strong support for increasing the City’s support for preservation (its existing preservation programs)
Support for improving preservation through incentives and improvements in preservation management – streamlining review or waiving permit fees, and creating pattern books so that buildings are evaluated by their building type
Very strong rejection of reducing the City’s preservation efforts or standards, or that it’s too late for preservation/too much has been lost

Residential design (single-family)

Strong support for requiring more trees and less obtrusive utility placement
Strong support for encouraging design variety and better construction and materials
Strong-moderate support for both appropriate house/lot proportions and variety on these proportions.
Moderate support for variety of house types, price points.
Moderate support for better design standards and less obtrusive garages.

Environment

Very strong support for water conservation measures, especially for new development.
Strong support for improving the recycling program and adding curbside service

Parks & Open Space

Very strong support for conservation of natural areas
Very strong support for the development of a connected hike & bike trail system
Strong support for improving maintenance of older parks – significantly stronger than support for new parks

Connectivity and the Transportation Network

Very strong support for a more comprehensive and diversified transportation system (incl. transit) that is integrated with neighboring communities’ systems.
Very strong support for better street connectivity - more entrances to subdivisions, better connections between neighborhoods and small-scale commercial, etc.
Agreement that you should notice the city and not just pass through as fast as possible
Strong support for other transportation issues: synchronized signals, better street maintenance, fewer school zones, generally improving congestion etc.

Street/Corridor Design

Very strong support for more sidewalks/bike lanes, and generally improving pedestrian safety, access and connectivity.
Very strong support for improving street appearance (and walking experience) with trees, landscaping, medians, lighting, underground utilities, etc.
Very strong support for better signage for both public facilities and places/events of interest. In discussion several had mentioned that they like the builder sign kiosks. [unclear whether this was more an issue of more signs or more attractive signs, but mentioned that they appreciated that all streets had name signs]
Mixed opinions on speed bumps
Rejection of roundabouts at major intersections.

Transit

Very strong support for bus and rail connections, including bus service within the city. Strongest support for transit serving the university area.

Public Services

Strong support for strengthening neighborhoods’ sense of community
Strong support for ensuring that social services accommodate population increases.

Programs & Attractions

Strong support for attracting more businesses downtown, more family oriented entertainment, and a more diversified economic base.
Strong support for developing a stronger identity for Round Rock

General Plan 2020 meeting #2, part 1: Transportation

Kerstin Harding — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 22:59:00 GMT

Meeting #2 was a Q&A session about citywide transportation and environmental issues with representatives of the City’s Transportation and Utilities departments. Both departments are in the process of major policy initiatives and long-term projects, and there was a lot of discussion with participants, so I’m summarizing in separate entries.

Presentation materials and participants’ responses:

Participants’ written comments regarding transportation issues and additional comments
Transportation Master Plan & map
Peak Hour Commuter Express Bus Service (pilot program), including route maps
Draft commuter rail link map (project currently undergoing feasibility study)

Summary:

Chief of Public Works operations Tom Word gave a summary of the City’s long-term transportation plans, which for the first time include significant investments in public transportation. It will not be possible to serve the anticipated ultimate population of the city (225,000-200,000 people, about the current population of Corpus Christi) just by adding traffic lanes. Currently the only public transit in Round Rock is a dial-a-ride service provided by CARTS.

Roadway Network: Mr. Word summarized the City’s ultimate roadway plan. The plan indicates more north-south arterials (new Arterial A, and extensions of Wyoming Springs and Double Creek Drive), as well as bicycle and trail improvements (refer to Transportation Master Plan web page).

Peak Hour Commuter Express Bus Service: Beginning this fall, the City will begin a 3-year pilot project offering peak hour express bus service from downtown Round Rock and the IH-35 – SH-45 area to Cap Metro’s Howard Lane rail station and the Tech Ridge park-and-ride facility. The annual cost of service is $500,000 per year, half of which is covered by a Federal grant. The $1 fare will cover up to 90% of the remainder, depending on ridership. If the service proves popular, permanent park-and-ride facilities will be constructed (refer to project web page).

Proposed commuter rail link: There is a possible opportunity to tie in to Cap Metro’s MetroRail service. The first line, from Leander to Downtown Austin, is due to become operational this fall. This line comes very close to the intersection of IH-35 and SH-45, and it may be feasible to extend a track down the median of SH-45 to a stop by the Dell Campus. Right now there are more than 15,000 jobs clustered within a mile of the proposed station. From there it could divide into north and south lines extending to Pflugerville and/or north to the Dell Diamond, universtity area and ultimately Georgetown. Both Georgetown and Pflugerville are interested in the proposal. Round Rock would buy trains and contract with Cap Metro to operate them. The proposal is currently undergoing feasibility studies (refer to the draft route map).

Next: Meeting #2, part 2: Environment