City seeking citizen input that acts as guide for planning commission

The city of Austin is asking citizens to participate in a survey that will provide a planning committee with a guide to future development.

Planning and Zoning Administrator Holly Wallace urged citizens to take the survey on the Austin Comprehensive Plan, which will help guide discussions and decisions for land use, physical, social and economic development in the city’s future years.

“How we get the plan is by trying to connect with the community,” Wallace said. “We want to know what they think.”

The best way to do this, she said, is to find ways to connect with community members. They will use community workshops, meetings and events to study what people want. Focus groups will provide them with a “really good deep conversation” about issues, Wallace said.

Comprehensive plans are usually renewed every 10 to 15 years, with small updates at five year intervals between those years.

One of the committee’s aspirations is talking to area schools about a program where students can learn how a city works and students can contribute input about their hopes for their city.

“We want a lot of data and then ask the citizens of Austin, what do you like or don’t like? Where do you want to be in 10 to 15 years? What things do we want to keep or go away?” Wallace said.

Though committee members aren’t sure which specific projects will come out of the survey, the goal is to eventually implement the decided projects in a practical matter.

Once the data is collected, the projects could range from housing, transportation, parks, trails and mostly quality of life issues, she added.

Planning committee members would like as many people as possible to take the survey, but Wallace said even if one percent of Austin’s population took the survey, it would be a start. If they got 500 people to take the survey, “that would be awesome.”

“When they survey is done, we will break the data down, analyze it and see what we can do with it,” Wallace said. “It will give us some guidance with regard to what the community likes, doesn’t like, what it wants for the future.”

The main thing is to identify what the goals are and make the whole city conducive to that goal, such as how to connect the trail system, or getting more green space or water recreational facilities, Wallace said.

“It’s a recommendation to match land use with the plan,” Wallace said. “It gives guidance to say if it’s okay to put this in that area. There’s a million things you could look at implementing.”

Steering Committee member Steve Kime said the new plan will align with citizen’s ideas and thoughts to make it sit with the future of the city.

“The comprehensive plan pulls all the pieces of a city together and crosses so many aspects of it,” Kime said. “We’re hoping people will take a little time to complete the survey and give us valuable input to help us.”

The steering committee consists of nine people who will help different groups and a consulting firm to facilitate the advancement of the new plan.

“It is really broad and touches on everything,” Wallace said. “We’re planning the kids’ future.”

The last day to take the survey is Feb. 7. The survey is available at www.sehinc.com/online/austin-comprehensive-plan.