SAN MARCOS CITY COUNCIL
SHANNON WEST MANAGING EDITOR
The San Marcos City Council received a staff presentation on the Blanco Gardens Neighborhood Area Plan at the regularly scheduled meeting Tuesday. The plan covers several key topics and uses community input to make recommendations for improvements and growth. There will be an upcoming public hearing and a vote to occur at a later date.
Brittany Faulkner, San Marcos senior planning technician, said the city hosted five steering committee meetings. The steering committee was made up of residents from Blanco Gardens. There was a survey monkey provided to the steering committee at the completion of the meetings. Information about the meetings was sent to all residents of the area. The city hosted two community workshops. Staff attended two meetings that were focused specifically on public safety within Blanco Gardens. Post cards were sent out to residents to let them know about the adoption of the area plan. There was also a neighborhood characteristic study performed to ensure all changes were consistent with the current character of Blanco Gardens.
“Over 300 comments were received across the two community workshops and the draft plan comment period that had been opened,” Faulkner said. “Summary reports for each of these engagement events can be found in Appendix C of the plan. These reports summarize comments received at each event. It highlights overall trends and themes, and it includes photos from these events as well.”
Faulkner said the plan is divided into seven topics: getting around, history, art and culture, public spaces and amenities, streetscape enhancement, business and economy, housing and building form and development.
“We were strategic and intentional about tying what we heard as part of community engagement back to the plan in any of the recommendations that were incorporated within the plan,” she said. Our second community workshop was all about refining what we had heard in our initial meeting, and that refinement continued throughout the drafting process.”
In the getting around category, one of the desires of the community members was to feel safe while walking and biking in the neighborhood. The city is going to consider safety improvements at the areas where collisions are most likely between pedestrians, bikers and vehicles. The city is also considering the creation of a walking loop trail with signage and wayfinding measures to point those out. A priority route was identified by the community.
For the history, art and culture section, the plan states that neighborhood histories and stories of lived experiences from longtime residents should be elevated by incorporating public art, historical markers, preserving existing buildings and holding programmed events.
For public spaces and amenities, the plan states that the residents made it clear that the Dark Sky initiative was a top priority to restore the nighttime environment and protect the neighborhood from light pollution, specifically in parks. It also identifies improvements needed to public spaces and amenities.
For housing, the plan states that the primary goal is to ensure that quality, attainable homes remain available in the neighborhood for those wishing to move but stay in Blanco Gardens, and it aims to ensure that current residents may remain in their homes if they so wish.
The business section states that businesses currently operating in Blanco Gardens are one of its most important assets, and measures would be made to retain them. Most workers commute out of the neighborhood for work, and approximately 25% have a way to commute 30 minutes or more. For that reason, a goal of the plan is to bring more job opportunities to the neighborhood.
For the building form and development section, the plan states that the majority of the buildable land is already occupied by homes. The plan aims to avoid displacement of occupied homes and operating businesses.
The schedule of plan adoption is as follows: At 6 p.m. on Feb. 11, there will be a Planning & Zoning Commission Public Hearing.
At 6 p.m. on March 4, there will be a City Council Public Hearing with no action.
At 6 p.m. on March 18, there will be a second and final reading before the council.
Faulkner said the role of neighborhood area planning is to focus on the needs, opportunities, challenges and vision for a specific neighborhood, to identify its character and to hold conversations with community members on key topics related to the neighborhood and its development.
The virtual project story map with more information can be found at https://arcg.is/0ryPzW.
