In May the Capital Area Metropolitan Planning Organization expects to get Texas Department of Transportation approval to begin a nine-month comprehensive study of the Williams Drive corridor with a focus on multimodal transportation, land use, economic development, housing and the environment.

The Williams Drive Corridor Study will be completed through a partnership between the city of Georgetown and CAMPO, which coordinates regional transportation planning and the distribution of federal transportation funding in Central Texas.

As commercial and housing developments continue to sprout up along Williams, city and CAMPO officials said it was important to determine how to improve traffic and economic development in the area.

“These types of studies … will allow us to have an idea of what’s going on in our local communities and develop plans that are going to meet [the community’s] needs but also be consistent so we have consistent standards around the region,” CAMPO Senior Multimodal Planner Kelly Porter said.

City Council approved an interlocal agreement with CAMPO in January, and Nelson\Nygaard Consulting Associates was selected as the project’s consultant in March.

“It’s obviously long overdue, and I’m glad to see us getting on with it,” Council Member Steve Fought said. “This is the gateway to a grand city, and I do not want it to look like … the main road leading into a military base with [undesirable businesses].”

Georgetown Transportation Analyst Nat Waggoner said the study will address the needs of the corridor.

“If we don’t improve traffic flow and safety, if we don’t create conditions for increased economic activity, if we don’t find ways to make it more pedestrian-friendly and accommodate different modes of transportation, then we have not met the [city’s] goals,” Waggoner said.

Georgetown Project Coordinator Andreina Davila said the city approached CAMPO to partner with the organization to get a broader and more comprehensive review of the corridor.

“[This project] it requires the partnership and coordination with a lot of different stakeholders even outside of the city,” she said. “This is a really great opportunity to look at the entire corridor in a comprehensive pattern. … We want to be able to have something that we can immediately apply and something we are going to be able to see and breathe and live.”

Platinum Planning Program

The study is the first for CAMPO’s newly created Platinum Planning Program, which is a bottoms-up approach to planning in the region.

“It’s more of a big-picture approach toward planning, which I think will yield better results and a better end product because in the end we are trying to develop a better long-range plan through all these smaller [studies],” CAMPO Assistant Director Phillip Tindall said.

The study will cost about $250,000, with the city paying $50,000 and CAMPO using $200,000 in federal funds.

“It’s going to be something that will hopefully be able to serve as a model for how we can do bottoms-up regional planning for the Austin area,” Porter said.

An estimated 29,000 vehicles use the four-lane roadway daily, and a variety of existing land uses along the roadway has led to inconsistent development patterns, Waggoner said.

Along with looking at the corridor from Austin Avenue to Jim Hogg Road, the study will also include a study and recommendations for the area surrounding the Williams Drive and I-35 intersection.

“The city wanted to better understand how to create more efficiencies and [better] land use, not only on the corridor as a whole, but really focused on how the area from Austin Avenue to Lakeway Drive could function as this key node where people could walk and bike to get around,” Porter said. “Also how that area could complement the downtown area … and looking at the appropriate scale for the appropriate level of density.”

Porter said the project will begin with an existing conditions analysis that will also include looking at previous studies completed by the city—including a 2003 corridor study and the 2006 Williams Drive Gateway Redevelopment Plan, which helped develop plans for the Rivery Boulevard extension and the Northwest Boulevard bridge as well as create the tax increment reinvestment zone to help fund projects in the area.

“Those studies that were done in the last decade will all be considered moving forward,” Porter said. “All the current [roadway] projects are also going to be considered as part of this. That helps [makes sure] the plan is realistic because we are building off of current plans already. We’ll be able to leverage those recommendations that came out of those studies.”

The existing conditions analysis will also consider traffic counts, signal timing, current and future land use as well as empty lots, and economic and financial conditions.

Waggoner said the corridor study will also look at how to incorporate transit options, such as the city’s proposed fixed-route bus system.

“How will we fit buses, bikes and sidewalks in the corridor?” he said. “You can study just that facet and you might make some positive gains, but looking at the whole corridor and all of these things—we think—is a better way to approach it.”

Public involvement

The city will host several public meetings throughout the study process.

“It will be very robust public outreach because we really want to ensure this is something that Georgetown is going to be very happy with,” Porter said.

City officials said they encourage local property and business owners to be a part of the public outreach process.

“This is their community; this is their corridor. … It’s part of where they live and where they work,” Davila said. “We want to make sure that we take their thoughts into account. We want them to participate so this can be our plan.”

The process will also include a week-long design meeting known as a charrette in late summer that will include opportunities for the public to give input.

“There will be experts there to take input and start drafting ways we can address issues in the corridor, whether they be traffic, lack of sidewalks or access to subdivisions off Williams Drive,” Waggoner said.

From that charrette, the consultant will begin drafting concept plans as well as recommended projects with set short-term and long-term goals and an implementation plan to enhance safety, mobility and connectivity along the roadway and create a premier gateway to Georgetown and the region, Porter said.

“It’s an important place in the region; it’s an important place when people think of the area,” Porter said. “That’s the place where you can start to establish an identity and a brand that’s local but that’s also going to be—since it’s on I-35—[a place where] people from around the state and the nation start thinking about this region as a whole.”