ROUND ROCK, Texas — As the City of Round Rock continues to grow, city leaders are calling on the community for help figuring out the best ways to make room for growth.
The city is hosting its fourth and final meeting Tuesday night to get citizen input for their comprehensive plan "Round Rock 2030: Developing our Future."
The plan serves as the policy guide and framework for all land use decisions for the next 10 years. City leaders predict by the year 2030, approximately 45,000 more people will call Round Rock home. Bradley Dushkin, Assistant Director of Planning & Development Services, City of Round Rock, explained the meetings about the comprehensive plan are vital in gaining community input on how to better and effectively grow the city.
"We don't have a plan which is why we're seeking so much input, creating a comprehensive plan to guide growth and development in Round Rock over the next 10 years," explained Dushkin. "This is our opportunity to get the feedback from residents: is that how they want to continue growth in Round Rock, or would they want to see different changes, more mixed use? Maybe like the Mueller development in Austin or the Domain or do they just wanna stay single family? Do they want taller buildings or more dense apartments, garden homes, patio homes, do they have the proper - the right amount of housing choices to be able to stay in Round Rock for their entire life?"
City officials said the meetings have been getting pretty packed, and it's not just residents who are showing up and making their voices heard.
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"We need all the input from our citizens, from business owners, from property owners and from developers," said Bradley Dushkin. "We need input from as many stakeholders as possible so that we know to guide the growth in the right places so that Round Rock can remain a great place to live and to work and to play."
Dushkin said the meetings also give community members to be interactive through a couple of different exercises.
The meetings start with a brief presentation by city staff going over what the comprehensive plan is and what it wants to accomplish. From there, residents write down on stickers they then place on a board over what they think Round Rock is today, and how they envision it becoming in 2030. Attendees have the freedom to write down whatever they want, completing the sentence: "Today, Round Rock is ___."
"A lot of people have focused on the small town feel, or their love of downtown," Dushkin said. "The traffic is always going to be a concern, so people would talk about the congestion, they would refer to their loves of the parks, trails and trees that we have here so, those are some of the things that Round Rock residents currently love. We as staff would look at those and say how can we maintain these positive characteristics throughout the next 10 years as this growth continues to come."
There is also live polling during the meetings to get instant answers from the community as presentations and discussions take place.
Tuesday's meeting will be geared more towards people in the northwest part of town, but even if you don't live in the area and didn't have a chance to make it out to any of the others, Dushkin said to come out to the meeting.
The meeting will be held at the Allen R. Baca Senior Community Center in southwest downtown Round Rock at 301 W. Bagdad Ave.
To learn more and receive updates about the Round Rock 2030 Comprehensive Plan, click here.
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