Item 01: Vision SMTX Comprehensive Plan

[COSM_Admin]

Consider approval of Ordinance 2023-79, on the second of two readings, adopting the “Vision SMTX Comprehensive Plan” as the Comprehensive Plan of the City of San Marcos, adopting the Preferred Scenario Map therein as the future land use map of the city; repealing prior ordinances which adopted and amended the previous comprehensive plan, “Vision San Marcos: A River Runs Through Us” and the associated preferred scenario map designations and providing new associated designations from the preferred scenario map; including procedural provisions; and providing an effective date.

 

[COSM_Admin]

Response provided by Amanda Hernandez, Director of Planning & Development Services:

Mayor Hughson:
What criteria determined which concepts would go in the plan, and which would note? Bottom line- what was the criteria by which the decision was made to include a comment in the plan?

There were not specific criteria for choosing comments. Planning is a discipline that incorporates education and best practices, knowledge of the community one is planning for, and input from the public. The Planner then writes a plan based on all of this information.

Staff attended as many community events as possible during the planning process in an attempt to hear from as many community members as possible during the planning process and also to inform the public about the plan. This amount of outreach has not been done in the past and staff is proud of all of the community participation. All comments received were transcribed and provided to the consultants for consideration.

No one comment would have been included verbatim, the Comprehensive Plan is a document filled with ideas about topics. If a single comment was received on a topic, it may have or may not have been included in the plan. For example, asking for all high rise and all multifamily everywhere would not have been included in the plan because it is not a best practice and doesn’t fit with what planners know about the community. However, the projected population growth will require more dense house types, including single family townhomes and multifamily apartments. The topic of multifamily and density must be discussed in the plan even if there were no comments received. Alternatively, if a topic was discussed / commented on multiple times, that topics would be in the plan. Environmental protection is an example of a topic that was discussed often in the process and is included in the plan. Finally, some topics, like economic development for example, are best written by a professional with experience in that field.


Comprehensive Plan Amendments provided by Mayor Hughson are attached.