“We can’t create a great downtown plan without the input from the community,” said Chris Geddes, urban designer at Design Workshop.
The Design Workshop team broke down responses from council members and the public into four sections: community, environment, economics and art.
Top priorities for building and maintaining a sense of community downtown are ensuring it is a safe place for pedestrians and families, adding more parking and hosting more events, Geddes said.
“Mobiles are particularly drawn to downtown because they feel like they can bring their families and friends out and have a good social time in Georgetown, so protecting that as we move forward and trying to make sure this downtown doesn’t become a place just for tourists but that will meet the needs of the local community,” he said.
From an environmental standpoint, the community would like to see more connections to the city’s local trails and green spaces, such as the San Gabriel River. This also aligns with providing alternative ways to get downtown, allowing people to walk or ride their bike to the square instead of drive.
District 1 Council Member Amanda Parr said she would like to see more details on how the city can improve connections between Southwestern University and downtown, while District 6 Council Member Jake French said looking at the transition from surrounding neighborhoods to downtown will be critical to the success of the plan.
As DW continues engaging with and surveying the community, it will focus on the building the height and density of the downtown area; retail, food and beverage options; expanding professional services downtown; and providing diverse housing.
“We’ve been, in my opinion, saddled with a 40-foot maximum-height rule that we really don’t know where it came from,” District 2 Council Member Shawn Hood said. “So how do we manage increasing height, view corridor, density, and that goes into housing diversity. I don’t think we’ve tapped into all the alternate sources of housing that we might be able to utilize downtown.”
A project website will launch in early February. Shortly after, an online survey will be published to determine what the community wants out of downtown. Locals can also expect to see DW surveying people at the Williamson County 175th Anniversary Celebration on March 10-11 and during the Red Poppy Festival on April 28-30.
“We’ll be with you for about the next year and every three months or so; we’re going to have these windows where we invite the community, go to them as well and really ask them to be active participants in this process,” Geddes said.
