Suggestions for the comprehensive plan steering committee and committee Chair Larry Harlan during the Feb. 3 work session ranged from how businesses would grow with the city to development density to whether this version of the comprehensive plan should be open to adjustments every five years.
For about a year, committee members, city staff and officials have been overseeing the evolution of the plan, which seeks to put Lakeway on a comfortable track to meet perceived growth over the next 20 years.
Council kicked off the work session amending language regarding optimal parking for businesses, then moved on to discuss the inclusion of language regarding a wildlife-management program in more general terms, leaving flexibility for wildlife policy as the situation in Lakeway does or does not change.
Throughout the more than 2 1/2-hour work session, council also touched on clarifying the city's water quality regulations, explored city event programming and attendance, amended language pertaining to parks and explored the best way to encourage economic development.
"At some point in this document we need to say that we need to create a hotel tax strategy," Mayor Sandy Cox said, referring to the city's fund reserved explicitly for the encouragement and pursuit of more tourism to Lakeway.
Council tweaked the language in the most recent version of the document Feb. 3, but more changes and amendments are in store in the coming days.
City information states members of the Lakeway Zoning and Planning Commission will also provide feedback on the plan during a Feb. 5 meeting at 9:15 a.m., and residents are invited to do the same at an open house the same day from 6-8 p.m. at City Hall.
All comments must be received by Feb. 7 in order to incorporate them into the final draft scheduled for presentation during the zoning and planning and City Council meetings in March, a city document states and adds the complete draft will be submitted to zoning and planning March 4 and to City Council on March 16.
To conclude the work session, Cox made a point of thanking the comprehensive plan committee for all of the hours each member put in over the last year.
"I really want to applaud you all," she said. "This document is fantastic, and it's really going to do us well over the next 20 years."
