WORK ON CITY OF BRENHAM COMPREHENSIVE PLAN UPDATE CLOSE TO COMPLETION

  

Progress on a sweeping comprehensive plan update for the City of Brenham is nearing completion.

Meredith Dang (right) of Kendig Keast Collaborative speaks to Brenham officials on the current status of the city's comprehensive plan update.

Brenham City Councilmembers, Planning and Zoning Commissioners, and Board of Adjustment members met with representatives of Kendig Keast Collaborative (KKC), a planning consultant based out of Sugarland.

Gary Mitchell and Meredith Dang, President and Senior Associate of KKC, spoke to city officials on the current standing of the plan. Dang said the firm is at the “pivot point” of having the plan’s recommendations and talking about implementation as the plan is complete.

Dang said that, while this plan won’t serve as “a magic wand”, it will serve as a guidance document that can be used during all city functions such as budgeting, planning for facilities and capital projects, seeking grants, and day-to-day actions.

 

 

Brenham City Councilmember Adonna Saunders (left) and Planning and Zoning Commissioner Lynette Sheffield consider which city issues to place as priorities during an exercise at Thursday's comprehensive plan meeting.

Dang said the draft plan has close to 100 different recommendations, but with the help of the comprehensive plan advisory committee, the firm came up with a list of potential short-term, high priority items to city officials and the public to consider.

After the 14 items were presented to city representatives, they were then given the chance to vote on how to prioritize them moving forward. Based on the tallied votes, the top five priorities between councilmembers, commissioners and board members were:

 

  1. Update and streamline the city’s development regulations and standards (including zoning and subdivisions) to coordinate all aspects of local development review and approval processes.
  2. Recruit tenants to the two established industrial parks, focusing on the strengths of the existing infrastructure, manufacturing base, workforce training programs, and geographic location.
  3. Conduct active code compliance efforts with a focus on measurable results.
  4. Continue adequate funding support to maintain high-quality public safety services, including staff levels, facilities and equipment.
  5. Identify potential additional water supply sources beyond Lake Somerville.

The public will have the opportunity to provide feedback on these same topics via an online survey, which will go out at a later date.

Development Services Director Stephanie Doland said the draft is being finalized for Planning and Zoning Commissioners to consider at their meeting August 29th, with councilmembers taking up first and second reading in September.

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One Comment

  1. If the city of Brenham citizens already pays the salaries for a city manager, a city planner, a city engineer, city mayor, city commissioners ? Why do the citizens have to pay some agency to do their jobs ? When o go to work, I go to work to do my job. I don’t go to work to watch someone else do my work for me. If someone else is there to do my job then I would not be there too.

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