San Marcos Downtown Area Plan

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION

ABOUT DOWNTOWN SAN MARCOS

The Downtown Area Plan will be focused primarily on an area called the Downtown Core which includes 20 blocks (84 acres) in the heart of San Marcos. The Downtown Core is bounded by Comanche Street on the west, MLK Drive/Edward Gary Street/San Antonio Street to the south, CM Allen Parkway to the east, and University Drive/Pat Garrison to the north. The Historic County Courthouse is central to Downtown, immediately surrounded by a green space and connected to the rest of Downtown through a formal grid of streets. Immediately surrounding the Courthouse are commercial and mixed use buildings with active storefronts and historic, artistic, and creative facades. Radiating out from the Courthouse Square, historic character is mixed with new mid-rise residential, mixed-use buildings, and undeveloped lots. The southern portion of the Downtown Core includes two primary mixed use/commercial corridors which have historic character and local businesses, but noticeably less public investment in recent years. The Downtown Core is most active on nights and weekends during river tubing season and the Texas State University school year. Several vacant buildings, properties, and ground floors currently exist. Downtown block lengths are typically 375 feet, but north/south blocks are much longer south of San Antonio Street at 700 feet. Aspects of the plan regarding transitions, surrounding context, and connections will consider areas outside of the Downtown Core including the Riverfront Parks, Greater Downtown Area, and the area south of Downtown. The “Greater Downtown Area” includes areas adjacent to Downtown and comprises an additional 61 acres. To the west of Downtown are historic low-density residential neighborhoods. To the north of Downtown is the Texas State University (Texas State) campus, located on a hill above Downtown. East of Downtown slopes down toward the Riverfront Parks along the San Marcos River, a significant recreational, natural, and historic resource for residents and visitors. Multi-generational neighborhoods with rich culture and community lie south of two lines of Union Pacific railroad tracks and north of Interstate 35.

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SAN MARCOS DOWNTOWN AREA PLAN

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