By Marty Toohey
After two years of debates and committee meetings, Austin officials
have unveiled a broad vision for growth that condemns traditional
suburban development and is garnering both praise and skepticism.
The
proposed, 197-page "comprehensive plan" would be the city's official
philosophy for managing a booming population and the new housing,
businesses, shops and restaurants that will come with it. The plan,
dubbed Imagine Austin, envisions mixed-use development along corridors
serviced by transit and new centers of housing and commerce miles north
and south of downtown.
The plan is intended to guide every city
decision over the next three decades, from where to allow construction
to how much to collect in taxes to managing the economy.
It is
unusually blunt for a municipal document. It talks of rectifying past
mistakes. It plans around big-ticket initiatives such as urban rail or
significantly expanded bus service.
And it excoriates the city's
rapid suburban growth, stating that the pattern of the past 60 years
came "at a troubling price in terms of social segregation and isolation,
(diminished) public health, air and water quality, loss of natural open
space and agricultural lands, and climate change (while) driving up
the public costs for roads, water lines and other infrastructure that
must be continually extended to far-flung new development."
The
document assumes that 700,000 more people will move into the city over
the next 30 years, creating civic pressures the city should address. The
plan was compiled by the city planning staff, which distilled input
from the general public and a sometimes quarrelsome, 31-member citizen
committee appointed by the City Council.
 |
Facing West Lake Hills, As seen from the Spring condo, by rutlo |
more about Texas:
No comments:
Post a Comment