Since 2001, the city of Buda has annexed 1,790 acres, more than doubling its land area. During the same period, the population grew from 2,621 to an estimated 6,720 as of January 2010. The city is undertaking an update of its Comprehensive Plan, which was last rewritten in 2002 (graphic by Halff and Associates)
by JENNIFER BIUNDO
If Buda is a town in search of a vision, city leaders found plenty of people willing to share their’s Tuesday night at a workshop to update the city’s most important planning document.
About 115 people filled the Kunkel Room at Buda Elementary to offer their input into revisions to the city’s Comprehensive Plan, the document that offers a blueprint for Buda’s future growth.
“Just about ten years ago this room was full of people doing this for the first time in the city of Buda’s history,” said Buda Mayor Bobby Lane. “A lot of good things came from it. Our ordinances and codes grew out of that document. It gave us purpose, it gave us direction.”
After two years of work, Buda councilmembers approved the city’s first comprehensive plan in 2002, but plenty has changed in the last decade. The city’s population has shot up from about 2,500 to nearly 7,000, and over the next three decades is projected to reach 35,000 – 45,000, said Jim Carrillo of Halff and Associates, which won the city contract to revise the comprehensive plan.
“It’s no surprise that the Austin to San Antonio corridor is growing tremendously,” Carrillo told the crowd. “That’s an inevitable fact. We can’t change that growth. But what we can do is we can help shape what impact that has on your city, and that’s what this plan is all about.”
Unlike the city’s list of ordinances and building codes, the comprehensive plan is less of a rule book and more of an over-arching vision for the city and its future growth, suggesting where different kinds of development should land and what priorities the city should focus on. That vision, Carrillo said, should come from the residents.
“First and foremost, this process is about us listening to you as the citizens of Buda,” Carrillo said. “This is your city, this plan is your plan.”
Participants grabbed handfuls of sticker dots and went to work on dozens of maps hanging about the room showing possible future growth patterns, marking up the scenarios they wanted to see. As the crowd circled the room, a pattern emerged: they wanted a mixed-use, pedestrian-friendly, revitalized downtown, plenty of small neighborhood retail shops throughout the community, big businesses clustered around the interstate corridor, and industrial development, well, not much of anywhere.
The crowd broke into groups of ten, and for an hour they worked to brainstorm what they perceived to be the city’s strengths, challenges and ultimate vision.
The crowd that gathered Tuesday night was full of many of the usual suspects, the familiar faces that routinely attend council meetings and serve on city commissions. But the fliers the city mailed out drew some new input at well.
One of those was Cara Lantrip, who moved from Arkansas to the Meadows at Buda subdivision a year ago after her husband found a new job in Austin.
“We didn’t want to move to the big city, so we came to Buda,” Lantrip said.
Lantrip, who said she came to the meeting to offer her input and bring information back to her neighbors, wanted to preserve Buda’s small town feel while supporting parks and festivals. Like many other residents, she was concerned about traffic.
A number of participants said they wanted to see more roadwork in the area, such as improvements to FM 1626 and construction of the long-delayed SH 45. But many residents also called for better pedestrian infrastructure and bike lanes throughout the city. Also on the wishlist was environmental protection, more local business development and public safety.
In addition to workshops, the city has put together a citizen commission and mailed out surveys to local households. The survey will also be placed on a website, budatxplan.wordpress.com.
Halff and Associates will take information from the workshop and survey feedback and use it to craft a first draft of recommendations, which they will present at another workshop in late January or early February, Carrillo said.
