SAN MARCOS CITY COUNCIL
The guiding plan for the growth and evolution of San Marcos over the next several decades is finally set in motion.The San Marcos City Council gave unanimous and final approval to the Vision SMTX Comprehensive Plan and Preferred Scenario Map, which would replace the previous Comprehensive Plan — Vision San Marcos: A River Runs Through Us and its associated Preferred Scenario Map.
“This is a multiyear project and there are so many people that have been involved. I just wanted to thank everyone — our staff, Ms. [Andrea] Villalobos, [San Marcos assistant planning director], took the lead on this one and, of course, Ms. [Amanda] Hernandez supporting, [San Marcos planning and development services director], and I’m sure there were others on the planning and development staff,” said San Marcos Mayor Jane Hughson. “We had others of city staff [working on the plan], but mostly it was the public. Thanks to you all and the consultants for all of the outreach that you did. It was great.”
The plan covers economic development, environment and resource protection, land use, neighborhoods and housing, parks, public spaces and facilities, transportation and core services. According to city documents, the plan is intended to “guide the growth and evolution of the city for the next 20 to 30 years.” The previous Comprehensive Plan was adopted in 2013. In 2020, council directed staff to rewrite the Comprehensive Plan, and on Oct. 17, 2023, council approved the Comprehensive Plan on the first of two readings. The council held its final public hearing on the plan at the council meeting on Oct. 2. The city stated that while developing the new Comprehensive Plan, there was “significant engagement from the public,” including 6,100 community comments and over 100 meetings and engagement events.
The introduction to the plan describes the current state of the city and its expected development.
“The eastern half of San Marcos currently includes major existing and new residential neighborhoods as well as schools and major employers. However, there are many large tracts of land in this area which are rapidly developing. The western half of San Marcos contains the original Downtown core of the city, [which is] the traditional activity and population center of the community,” the introduction stated. “Due to the location of San Marcos at the heart of the Texas Innovation Corridor and presence of Texas State University, the city is expected to continue growing at a relatively rapid rate. The eastern half of the city is less developed but is expected to experience significant growth in the near future.”
The introduction also addressed the importance of San Marcos’ downtown area.
“Despite the rapid growth in other parts of San Marcos, the Downtown area remains a major activity center relying on its many assets, including a walkable street and block pattern, small storefronts, adjacency to Texas State University — the fifth largest university in the state of Texas — proximity to six well-preserved historic districts, and proximity to the San Marcos Springs, the San Marcos River and a series of riverfront parks,” the introduction stated.
The plan also includes biographical information about the population of San Marcos intended to guide growth and development based on the needs of the residents. It stated that the 2017 to 2021 American Community Survey estimated that the median household income of San Marcos was $42,500 in 2021. The citywide unemployment rate in Aug. of 2020 was 6.9%, according to the American Community Surveys. This dropped to an estimated 3.6% as of Aug. 2022.
The plan is broken into five sections and an appendix. The Community Based Plan section “provides an overview of historical growth and factors driving that growth, especially in more recent years. It also provides an overview of the planning process, which was utilized in the creation of this document.”
The Vision for Equitable and Compatible Growth section “is accompanied by a set of Guiding Principles that were used throughout the planning process to guide decision making and weigh trade-offs. Section 2 also includes a set of goals, actions and objectives for each of the Planning Elements that support and help to achieve the Vision and Guiding Principles.”
The Preferred Growth Scenario Section “includes many of those key concepts with the introduction of overlays and Place Types. Place Types are a combination of high-level land use and land use intensity that help to communicate desired development qualities and patterns across San Marcos.”
The Area Plans section “provides an overview of the Area Planning approach and discusses the approach to developing and updating Regional Center plans, as well as Neighborhood Area Plans. The section concludes with a summary of the Fiscal Analysis and an overview of each of the areas included in this initial round of Area Planning. Further information regarding the Fiscal Analysis can be found in the Appendices.”
The Implementation section includes “an overview of the city’s overall planning approach. The section then goes on to identify suggested updates to other San Marcos plans to ensure they are aligned with the Comprehensive Plan. The section concludes with a discussion of organizational capacity and coordination, as well as a summary of the metrics for tracking success.”
The appendix includes a summary of community engagement, goals and objectives, key findings from the Fiscal Impact Analysis from Feb. 16, 2023, methodology for overlays and comparison of the Preferred Scenario to the Trends Scenario.
Find the entire plan at this link visionsmtx. com/comprehensive-plan. To read more about some of the changes that have been made to the Comprehensive Plan since its inception go to sanmarcosrecord. com/article/25928,daysleft-to-fill-out-survey-forcomp-plan.
