City council adopts comprehensive plan

The Waxahachie City Council adopted a new comprehensive plan by a 4-1 vote, with council member Travis Smith dissenting, during its March 6 meeting.

A comprehensive plan serves to help city staff with long-term goals and growth by providing a foundation and guidelines for future land uses, zoning codes and more.

“A comprehensive plan is a guiding document,” said consultant Marshall Hines, with Dallas-based firm Verdunity. “It’s not policy, but it sets up the ability to create new policy that can get a community closer to the goals it has. It serves as a starting point for those discussions regarding policy and infrastructure planning. It also aims to protect the things that people love about Waxahachie and provide guidance on improving parts of the city that need attention.”

Waxahachie last created a comprehensive plan in 2007 with additions and updates added in 2016. Typically, cities “completely redo” comprehensive plans every five years, city manager Michael Scott said.

The process for the newly adopted comprehensive plan began in February 2021. The Comprehensive Plan Advisory Committee, which included the city’s planning and zoning commission, the city council and several residents, oversaw the planning process for the next two years.

“Our goal as a company is to help communities become more fiscally sustainable, and we have endeavored in this plan to infuse elements which will help you achieve that goal,” Hines said.

Included in chapter five (implementation) of the plan are actions that city staff “believe are achievable,” Hines said.

Recommendations in the comprehensive plan include expanding the city’s park and trail system; redesigning U.S. Highway 77 to “improve traffic circulation, streetscaping and connectivity;” improving elements of downtown Waxahachie; creating “commercial nodes” throughout the city, including within neighborhoods; providing mobility routes for everyone; and more.

Hines said the comprehensive plan does not have the power to change zoning or the power to tear buildings down, but it provides a guide of suggestions for the city’s future. Each recommendation must later be adopted by city council.

Council member Travis Smith questioned why a new comprehensive plan (and not a revision) was needed when the city already seems to be doing some of the actions listed. He also felt defining place types within the comprehensive plan “opens up a can of worms.”

Scott said Waxahachie’s recent growth pushed the city to start from scratch with the comprehensive plan.

To read the comprehensive plan and the full list of recommendations, visit https://files4.1.revize.com/waxahachietx/Comprehensive%20Plan%20(Full%20Draft).pdf or the Bitly link https://bit.ly/3JncTzV.

Originally published March 16, 2023 - https://www.waxahachiesun.com/business/city-council-adopts-comprehensive-plan/article_fbf11216-c42c-11ed-8d94-734c6db4cc7b.html