Travis County Commissioners Court
November 3, 2009,
Item 11
11.
consider and take appropriate action regarding the scope, process and schedule for the development of a comprehensive plan for the unincorporated areas of Travis County.
>> we've had this item on the agenda several sessions, I think today we are trying to move it another step forward.
what I would like to do is get a general sense of direction from the court that this is something that you want to do and you are willing to commit the resources to do it.
key in my mind are making sure that -- that you have a -- that you have a very viable staff team that heads this effort up.
it could take over a year to do it, I certainly have planners on my staff who can be committed to do this.
it has become a substantial part of their work program.
i have a vacant program manager that I would like to reclassify.
to be the leader of that team.
i actually may also pull out of my freeze category one other planner position that in the past has served as a communications director for planning efforts.
i think for something as big as this, you would want that person also.
but I've also recommended that -- that we have available up to a quarter of a million dollars to spend on consulting services and I see the role of the consultant in special studies in particular.
in this.
although the staff can do the bulk of the work, I do think there are areas that would require outside expertise that I would appreciate having someone on the outside work alongside of staff in doing that.
the scope is really not quite like what you see going on at the city of Austin.
their process is very complex.
it's sophisticated.
it's not their first comprehensive plan.
for this reason, I don't use the city of Austin as my model for the comprehensive plan.
it is the first time Travis County has ever tempted this.
it's not uncommon for municipalities throughout the country in Texas to be included to have comprehensive plans.
over half of the small cities in Travis County, we have 22, have comprehensive plans that guide them in the development of their corporate areas as well as their extra territorial jurisdiction.
these are long-range plans that basically set out where they want to grow in a 20 year period of time.
so -- so we would actually coordinate with all of those cities, because their e.t.j.
is our unincorporated area.
so we would want to make sure that our policy for future development have been coordinated with those cities, including the city of Austin.
it more driven by the Commissioners court.
the duly elected voter representatives from the unincorporated area, you are their voice, this is really a plan for the unincorporated area.
since the corporate areas are -- are governed by municipalities.
the counties have very little say in what type of infrastructure goes on inside cities, what type of zoning or land use or anything else.
purely governed by municipalities.
once you get outside the city boundary, then the county has jurisdiction.
we provide the services, we provide the infrastructure, a lot of the development issues come to you on a weekly basis.
so this plan will help kind of gather up our policies with regard to what we would expect to see happen in the unincorporated area of Travis County over the next 20 years.
it would be a signal to not only the citizenry but also the development community in terms of where we would put our capital dollars to incent development, what type of development and how we would treat all of the consequences of development, so it's not as -- it's more driven by the Commissioners court and the policies you would have in place for this area.
high coordination with government entities in the area.
the court would be able to use this document not only in its own guide for decisions that you do on a regular basis, whether it's a subdivision plat that comes in or maybe a five year capital improvement program.
it is also a document that signals your policy with regard to regional efforts.
campo, council of government, other surrounding counties, txdot, all of those entities are having some influence on what happens in this county.
this would be basically a way to say if you are doing this, this is what you should expect from Travis County.
we have many of those partners in the area entire.
the plan itself would have fairly traditional county elements, transportation, storm water management, drainage issues, water quality, parks and open spaces.
natural resources and environmental quality.
we have become one of the leaders in air quality over the last decade.
i think that is certainly sing something we want to continue in this plan.
we also look at implementation strategies, be they financial, policy driven, regulatory, maybe even new initiatives with regard to the legal authority of the counties to implement a comprehensive plan.
it is really a cornerstone document.
because of that I think that it's advisable that the county have such a document as part of its tool kit.
other than that, that kind of maps out that kind of maps out the process.
the way I see this going between now and the first of the year we would organize ourselves to conduct this process.
staff up.
if we need to hire a consultant, prepare a scope of services and have other outside professionals on board.
we begin to coordinate with other jurisdictions, and then launch some basic data gathering and -- and the preparation of what it is that's happening.
look at trends, look at what's going on in the unincorporated area.
by may, we are really sitting down to start talking about goals and objectives with the Commissioners court.
what do you want for this community over the next 20 years.
from that then we would start to -- to -- delving into policies, policy development, toward the end -- toward the end of the year, October, November, somewhere in there, we would probably be pulling together the first draft of the comprehensive plan and go through an extensive discussion here and with the public about what that plan is and probably subsequent to that have it adopted as your policy.
>> questions, comments?
>> well, I would just like to say one thing about this.
this could not be more timely for us because not only do we have a need for it internally, but with campo working on the 2035 plan and the city of Austin working on the revisions of their plans and the other plans that are going on out there, it's really important that the county have this to augment and work with those other entities.
so I think it's timely that we do it and I'm 100% supportive of this and I think joe has laid it out very well here what we need to do to move forward with it.
>> uh-huh.
>> I agree.
i really, I see huge opportunity for us in collaboration and coordination at a regional level and county government particularly in major urban areas acting as a scaffolding through which a lot of collaboration can happen.
in lieu -- in a nice way, in lieu of regulatory might, we have to utilize instead a -- collaboration and coordinated effort both at the private sector and other regional actors.
so -- so I'm very much in favor of this.
i'm wondering, joe, if you could elucidate a little on the idea of an e cabinet.
one thing that struck me in the backup was the idea of picking individuals who could inform our process from the outside in.
>> yes.
you know, I'm very mindful, particularly this year of the limitation of our financial resources.
we have what we have in our budget.
and it's a tight year, so -- so I did not expect, I did not anticipate that the court would allocate a lot of money to do this process.
where the city is engaged in a multi-million dollar process, they have a very, very extensive citizen involvement process.
and I applaud that.
but we don't have the resources to do that.
not the staff resources, not the budget to do it.
so I rely primarily on the Commissioners court to be the representative of that group.
we also recognize that there are areas of special expertise that you will want to tap.
that was the idea of the cabinet.
that there are individuals in the community who have expertise.
that you will want to know about whether it's transportation or land use, park development and all sorts of things that especially in Austin very -- very knowledgeable, very well educated and participatory population.
so I think -- I think the idea would be that you would tap those individuals.
make them a cabinet.
the cabinet that both the Commissioners can be with periodically in a work session, the staff can meet with them, discuss these issues, get feedback from them and advise the court on whatever policy it is that we may be developing.
>> in addition to that, could you also talk a little bit, basics see how -- I could see how that model would be vulnerable to accusations that it was insular, but if you -- or clubby, any kind of e cabinetwork session would be open to the public so anyone could participate.
>> the idea here is that the unincorporated area is not very well organized.
certainly not as organized and sophisticated as the central city in the incorporated area.
we have a long tradition of neighborhood groups and networking and whatnot.
when you get to the unincorporated area you will get involvement on particular issues.
say, for instance, the -- a subdivision that comes in and you -- all of a sudden you will have a couple of weeks of very intense public involvement, but as soon as that issue is resolved, it's gone.
there's no ongoing effort that monitors what's going on in the unincorporated area, no organization.
so part of this effort would be to look at new ways to communicate with the unincorporated area.
who are these people?
how do you engage them in public policy that affects them?
how do you make them an effective voice when it comes to what others are doing in that area?
bring them into the process.
i think we all read the article in the american-statesman on Sunday about manor and a very, very innovative way to use the internet to capture some of that.
i think that's what I'm looking at.
may be very, very innovative ideas that jumps over and uses technology in a new and different way.
and organizes the unincorporated area, brings about a communications plan, that we can rely on this network to communicate back and forth the process.
we get the word out, back in, it's almost ongoing.
how you build that I don't know yet.
i think that's the unknown.
but I know that there are a lot of smart people in this town who can probably pull together ideas that are very, very innovative.
and so that is one area that's -- that's basically community organization.
if we can pull together the unincorporated area, make it a more effective voice, not only on the Commissioners court's policies but other areas that are affecting their day to day life.
>> I would like to comment a little bit further on that because I've actually been out in the community at some meetings this week and have just tossed around some ideas for discussion purposes on how to get people involved.
one of the things that we hear regularly over and over is that the same people show up for the same public hearings and we have like town hall meetings and some of the people who don't feel as adept at getting up in front of a microphone and speaking their thoughts and ideas still have a whole lot of things very profound to contribute.
and the idea of being able to have some sort much electronic or e cabinet or web based input is very, very appealing to the population out there.
and the constituents.
they feel -- also the fact that sometimes there's a tendency historically to lay out a whole program and it's overwhelms everyone.
but as we're working on this in pieces and can put ideas out to get feedback on specific ideas, people are excited about being a part of a process like that if we can indeed come up with one.
i'm hearing very strong support for the involvement through web based or internet solicitation of input.
>> we have utilized the survey in the past, haven't we?
where we also did that through the internet or not?
>> when we did our land use policy, we used not only opinion formers, basically experts in the field, we had focus groups and then we also had community surveys.
we approached it in three different projects.
it was new for -- prongs, it was new for us.
>> surprising information, it was not what I expected.
some of it was --
>> right.
i think we can still go back to that information so we can make sure that we're really broad based.
in our approach.
>> mr.
reeferseed.
>> thank you so much.
and, joe, you asked who are these people?
i hate to tell you, I'm one of them.
i live in the unincorporated areas and I try to participate and I really appreciate this incredibly wonderful idea to help channel my fellow citizens to be more active and slight disagreement with you, ms.
Huber.
i don't think it's anything to bemoan or ridicule people who bother to participate.
i'm sorry if it's the same old people, but it's not my fault if those other people don't bother to participate.
i'm really hostile and still angry with the city for their dictatorial, bizarre policies of limiting people who happen to bother to only come once every four meetings, I mean it's nightmarish like they never read the constitution.
i think it's -- I'm totally in favor of what you're talking about, I can't think of hardly anything more wonderful than to encourage my fellow citizens to speak about these things because as we all know, they all -- all these things really affect us and what you do really matters and we want to -- to -- more public input is for the improvement of all.
i think.
so thanks.
it's a great idea.
>> joe, as far as the next step, would you anticipate that the next step is appointing a subcommittee or looking more deeply at the scope as a full court?
>> actually, I could say certainly a subcommittee would be helpful to have two from among the Commissioners court, you know, following the process regularly.
allocating resources.
so we can get the thing organized and then take another deep look at the scope before we go launching.
>> would it be -- would it be your suggestion for -- for the subcommittee of the court and staff to look at scope and then bring it back to the Commissioners court as a whole?
or have the Commissioners court as a whole continue to look at the scope?
>> I think the subcommittee could probably work well.
i would like to get the staff involved.
at this point.
because until today I wasn't sure whether this would actually take off or not.
this is the first really court session where we can get some feedback on go or no go.
looks like it may go.
so I think at this point I would want to have my own staff start looking at it.
also I would like to fill the programming manager so you have a project manager on board from the very beginning and work with a subcommittee appointed by the court, detail the scope and then bring it back to court.
>> joe, so -- so you have planners on board already.
>> I do.
>> how many?
>> I've got three.
>> how many that could work on this?
>> well, I forecasted basically my entire program planning program, there's six f.t.e.'s in that program.
various -- various people who have geographic information system expertise, park, transportation planning, all of that entire team would be engaged in this process.
one f.t.e.
that's -- there are two f.t.e.'s that are vacant in that group.
one is the planning program director and the other is the planner ii I believe it is.
i would have both of those filled.
so it would really be a team of six or seven individuals.
i would say probably 80% of their time in this effort.
now, that doesn't mean I'm not going to be drawing on other professionals within the department.
i mean, they are -- they are available in natural resources and parks and road and bridge, public works, a lot of expertise in the department.
and at various points in time, I will be tapping into those individuals, also, in the development of -- of various elements.
as well as the rest of the county.
i mean, if -- I'm fortunate to have a lot of good people here at the county.
>> well, we have two of them sitting out in the audience, I would imagine, working with sherri in h.r.
to get out to the unincorporated residents perhaps through our community centers.
and dee is our governmental relations person coordinating with our 22 various municipalities and the other plans, for example the campo growth scenario for the 2035.
>> how closely will we have staff following the city's comprehensive planning process?
>> I would have at least one of those f.t.e.'s track that process.
and we would be in regular contact with our own -- your appointees to that process to make sure that they need information from us or they can give us feedback on what their participation has been like.
i -- I meet perhaps every other week with the director of planning.
and we have exchanged notes on what's going on in that process, so I myself have engaged in the city's planning process with the managers of that process.
>> the cabinet of advisors are volunteers?
>> they are your volunteers, yes.
they would be volunteers, yes.
>> okay.
but you have in mind a paid consultant.
>> pardon?
>> you have in mind a paid consultant or more than one.
>> actually probably a team of consultants.
i think the area of expertise that I look for are, one, in the communications plan.
some someone that is familiar with the new technology, new ways to communicate, so that would be one element.
the other is a -- is a -- basically a strategy analysis of what is -- what are the factors that are most likely to influence the urbanization of the unincorporated area.
and what are the thresholds.
when do things start to happen and why?
so we're aware of those things.
it begins to give us some boundaries.
here's what's possible and here's what Travis County can do about it.
with the authority that they have or they might have.
so it -- it tries to keep our feet on the ground in terms of real world forces.
but also give us a sense of opportunities where we can make a difference.
so that to me is also a very important piece of this.
implementation is also an area that -- that I believe you are going to need some very creative minds.
legal minds.
and we have some on staff.
i would hope that we have additional resources in that area.
>> I agree, your question, next to the landfill siting study.
>> I put that in there in part because of the conversation that we had earlier here.
i understood that could be a very real problem, not necessarily a problem, an issue.
we have been engaged in land use issues for over five years.
we have one of the landfill operators is committed to close out one landfill by 2015.
so it begs the question, where do they go?
what happens to the solid waste that comes out of the population of over a million?
and if that landfill is not in Travis County, where would it be?
how much can you expect to reduce from the waste stream through effective conservation and recycling efforts.
you ought to know those and the court outing to have a policy because others will be asking.
what is our contribution towards waste reduction, ultimately if another landfill is required, where might that landfill be sited?
and if it's in Travis County, we ought to say, okay, this is a compatible use here, but not there.
if it's not in Travis County, well then our policy is not in Travis County.
then we need to be looking for-- in cooperation with other surrounding areas about where to locate a landfill.
not an easy issue.
it is a physical development.
it's a byproduct of urbanization.
so it's like deal.
and it's a very difficult contentious issue, but it is in the realm of comprehensive planning.
>> it also brings in the regionalization.
the regional approach to that issue as well as transportation because we do have carts that we deal with and we -- they are here in Travis County, but they also, you know, move around to the different counties.
surrounding us.
so that's another issue that will be there.
>> yes, you are absolutely right.
the equity issue of public transportation.
i mean --
>> in the rural areas.
>> > some have said why should a county engage in this type of comprehensive planning because we have so little in the toolbox.
but my response to that would be we have a certain degree of predictability.
while we can't properly what --e can't control what happens, we are in a reactive mode much of the time, we can predict with a certain degree of accuracy what will happen.
for instance, solid waste.
it is a no brainer that with this population increase, we will certainly have solid waste that must be dealt with.
>> unless -- unless we --
>> as well as transportation, congestion.
transit issues.
while we may not be able to control them, we can predict them and therefore plan for them.
and I think this was -- this is what a comprehensive plan for our county would be about.
>> I think we also have some responsibility to address the-- the views of some people who want to live in the unincorporated area.
and some folks have made that pretty clear to me.
we do not want to live in any city.
we want to live in the unincorporated area.
so we have some responsibility to address these issues with that-- with that view in mind.
>> and toward that, the idea that there will be people who will want to live in the unincorporated area and that while we can't control it, we can predict it and plan.
i think that goes to joe's phase number 5 in the special studies.
we will need some expertise in coming up with credible predictions for the future so that we can plan appropriately and adjust if we see things are different than what we expected.
>> and with that view in mind, I would like to have joe, some suggestions of some folks to look for, to serve on this cabinet.
i don't know, do they necessarily need to be from precinct 4?
can they be from anywhere in the county?
who will also -- I mean, I think the unincorporated area, regardless of what precinct it is in, have kind of the same issues that have to be addressed.
so this is more of a -- more of a universal approach rather than a -- a district approach?
>> the starting point I would use some of the appointees that you made in the city of Austin process just so that you have interlocking advisors.
same people that you sent to the city to represent your interests should also be part of your cabinet.
just as kind of a core group so that they start feeding off each other.
you understand where the city is going and to some extent we can coordinate before issues become bigger issues.
>> urban planning, what is it that we're trying to --
>> I got you.
i will provide you a list of various --
>> thanks.
>> intentionally, jobs
>> [indiscernible]
>> you know, there's -- there's any number of elements here that I try to keep this fairly tight and look at this as a physical development plan.
there are a lot of other area that's you might consider.
the question is can you really pull off all of the policies, economic development, health and human services, you start widening up this scope, and I -- I was perhaps conservative in that regard, trying to stay with -- with more land use type of issues than general public policy.
not to say that it's not an element.
if you look at other comprehensive plans around the country, they certainly have an economic development component.
housing component.
other things.
it was just my interest in trying to stay within what -- what I thought we could accomplish with the resources available.
>> I think we got seven or eight action items.
in my view we really ought to bring them back to address them one at a time.
>> I will do that.
>> as well as -- so you have part of the budget for the upgraded planner, but not all of it.
>> no.
in terms of the -- I believe that I have got the resources, internal resources to -- reclassification and also the vacant planner I position.
i don't have any of the consulting money, although I did talk to p.b.o.
about that part of it.
so I think internally I can probably rearrange but still need court authorization for reclassification.
>> I would just like to make one comment on the 250,000 up to that you are talking about for outside consultants.
there is a category as joe enumerated of expertise that we need that we don't have the internal expertise for.
in a broader scope of looking at comprehensive plans, that's -- that's really a conservative number.
one of the things that I would like to point out that joe mentioned that I think is really important to emphasize is that we -- we need this plan to guide us for the future and -- and the accuracy and detail that this plan can provide us will pay us back in the future for the moneys invested now.
it's -- it's at more than -- more than pay us back.
so I think that we need to remember that when we are looking at the resource that's we need to allocate to this.
>> okay.
one week or two weeks?
>> two weeks.
>> [one moment please for change in captioners] the rest of this, there's seven or eight things we ought to address specifically so we know exactly what we're doing.
but if you can have it done in a week, next week is fine with me.
>> actually I think we need to bring some of these items back.
>> the court, I would really think about jobs and economic development.
the good thing about them is others have been working on them for years so I don't know that we have to go out and start from scratch.
it may be all we have to do is analyze their recommendations, adopt the ones that we think are appropriate, go.
>> and capcog has been doing some great work in that area.
>> and vision central Texas has been trying to, right?
we are a member of them and I -- we may ought to try to become a little more involved on some of the committees that we think will impact our planning process.
on the past we've kind of paid our dues and attended meetings here and there and gone to the annual luncheon.
with all the other planning processes underway, seems to me we would try to benefited from them as much as we could.
but at, you know, some of this stuff we have to do for ourselves, but we ought to be mindful of that they're doing.
>> absolutely.
>> mr.
reeferseed, now, we already have on record that you have volunteered to be part of the cabinet.
>> well, I appreciate that and I wanted to say that one reason that unincorporated -- like you were saying, people want to live in the unincorporated areas is because of fluoride.
many, many people understand it's poison and that people are being killed by it and we can't still seem to get the city of Austin to come to grips with that.
so where I live I don't have fluoride in my water and I'm proud and happy to be in the unincorporated area.
not to jump on it, but I think if you could help me, you could guide me how to apply for this opportunity to given put.
i'm eager to help in any way and this sounds like an ideal opportunity on some level, just a sideline or somebody calls in with ideas or something.
if you could tell me how to -- or who -- what form to fill out or what number to call or something.
>> my advice to become as close to mr.
geiselman as you can within the next 30 days.
that will be joe's call.
>> well, I'll just throw in my two cents then.
freepot at yahoo.com.
>> we'll have it back on the north on the 17th of November.
will you be in town then?
>> okay.
>> is that okay?
The Closed Caption log for this Commissioners Court agenda item is provided by Travis County Internet Services. Since this file is derived from the Closed Captions created during live cablecasts, there are occasional spelling and grammatical errors. This Closed Caption log is not an official record the Commissioners Court Meeting and cannot be relied on for official purposes. For official records please contact the County Clerk at (512) 854-4722.
Last Modified:
Tuesday, November 3, 2009 1:40 PM
