Vision SMTX Comprehensive Plan Adopted 2024

AREA PLANNING

INTRODUCTION Area Plans are an important part of the Vision SMTX Comprehensive Plan process. The Comprehensive Plan articulates a vision, guiding principles, goals, and objectives for the entire City. The Preferred Growth Scenario assigns Place Types to smaller areas throughout the community. The citywide guidance provided by the Plan does not address more localized needs within neighborhoods and smaller areas nearby. Place Types and their description of land use, mobility, and amenities establish additional direction for the types of improvements and investments appropriate in existing and new areas of the community. However, more localized discussions and recommendations regarding the selected areas are needed. The Vision San Marcos: A River Runs Through Us Comprehensive Plan (Vision San Marcos) identified Neighborhood Character Studies as an important step to determine the types of projects that would be supported in existing neighborhoods (referred to as Areas of Stability in that document). According to Vision San Marcos, “neighborhood character studies will be conducted to ensure that each neighborhood maintains its existing character and follows development and redevelopment patterns desired by the residents. These studies will result in specific guidelines for each neighborhood, which are created by the public with technical and professional input from city staff. The DNA of the neighborhoods will be analyzed and recoded back into the regulations for each neighborhood.” Although a relatively robust effort to develop Neighborhood Character Studies was started in summer 2014 and continued into 2015, the six Neighborhood Character Plans proposed through that process were never completed. Seven Area Plans are included in the Vision SMTX Comprehensive Plan planning process. While two of those Area Plans focus on higher intensity mixed-use regional centers of Downtown and East Village, the remaining five focus on neighborhoods around San Marcos. The Neighborhood Character Studies promised in the Vision San Marcos are included as a major component of the five Area Plans focusing on neighborhoods. These Area Plans will guide future development. The process for four Area Plans began in 2022. The first five neighborhood-focused Area Plans establish a template for community engagement, the approach to analysis, types of recommendations, and documentation that will be utilized in developing additional Area Plans, including Neighborhood Character Studies, in the coming years.

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SAN MARCOS COMPREHENSIVE PLAN 2024