Residents and businesses in Cedar Park will have a final opportunity to provide feedback about the city's updated comprehensive plan during public presentations in July. The Cedar Park comprehensive plan outlines the city's long-term plans for growth and helps guide future decisions of City Council and the Planning and Zoning Commission. Previous comprehensive plans were completed in 1998 and 2006. The city will reveal a draft of the new plan during community unveilings from 6–8 p.m. on July 23 at the City Hall campus, July 29 at the Cedar Park Parks and Recreation Center, and July 30 at Henry Middle School. "The town hall meetings proposed for the end of July will unveil the draft comprehensive plan to the community," Planning Manager Amy Link said. "We want the community to tell us if this plan is indeed reflective of their vision for the future of Cedar Park." The process An advisory committee composed of community leaders has met with consultant firm Freese & Nichols Inc. since February 2013 to update the city's comprehensive plan. Matters within the comprehensive plan include a future land-use map, infrastructure, transportation, public facilities and economic development. During the past year the group has garnered ideas for the new comprehensive plan from various sources including an online survey—which city staff said had more than 5,000 views—and a bus tour of undeveloped land throughout Cedar Park. "We had some focus group meetings in November and December of last year with various stakeholders in the community," Freese & Nichols Group Manager Dan Sefko said. "We are wanting to revisit them and get feedback on the draft plan. From the overall perspective, we would like to present [the draft] to the community to solicit feedback and hopefully garner support for the plan." Much of the new comprehensive plan builds on the 2006 vision of Cedar Park as a family-oriented leader in business development, Link said. The city previously planned specific uses—such as an employment center or college campus—for vacant areas but has since introduced a more flexible option for property owners. "The most notable changes to the future land-use map include the reduction in number of land-use designations," she said. "For example, the employment center designation has been eliminated, and [we have created] six new planning areas. We hope that these planning areas will create destination-style places that contribute to our sense of community as a city." 'Missing places' The six planning areas, located primarily along the perimeter of the city, would ideally host activities and uses Cedar Park currently lacks, Sefko said. "We [use] 'missing places' as a collective term," he said. "As we look at existing land use in the community, we are not 100 percent developed. We tried to [find which] things were missing that we wanted to include [in the plan] to be able to round out and create the great community we are seeking." With feedback from residents, the advisory committee determined Cedar Park still needs entertainment destinations, a four-year and graduate-level higher education campus, a business park or employment center, and a walkable mixed-use development. Filling in the missing places in the planning areas will help the city effectively utilize the limited number of large vacant land parcels in the city, Sefko said. "As we looked at it, [predetermining specific uses] was less important to us than the quality and characteristics of uses we were trying to seek," Sefko said. "We want these developments in these different planning areas to relate to each other. We thought [land owners] ought to have the flexibility to choose." Big goals The draft of the comprehensive plan includes about 30 action items that provide a direction to the overall plan. In late June the advisory committee met to determine the most important action items meant to fulfill some of the city's most immediate goals, including attracting diverse, quality employers; adding frontage roads to Toll 183A; and developing the planning areas to create focal points in the community. Ed Trevis, a committee member and CEO and president of Corvalent, a technology manufacturer in Cedar Park, said the city should include some big goals—such as a walkable downtown or major tourism destination—in the updated plan. "We need some breakthrough goals, like having a downtown, a university, a beautification plan pie-in-the-sky type of ideas," Trevis said. Though no specific timeline has been set, Link said the city expects to present the comprehensive plan draft to P&Z and City Council later this year. Mayor Matt Powell said after the advisory committee disbands, he hopes some members will meet to discuss ongoing community pride initiatives. "We need someone, not on council ... or staff, to look at some community initiatives and to dive deeper and make suggestions. I think about this group because of its makeup: community leaders who are involved; who show up to do things; and come from a wide variety of backgrounds, contacts and skills," Powell said. "We've talked about, 'Do we look at a Rose Bowl parade entry? Is there something else we could be doing with the Heritage Oak, like light it up at another time, unannounced?' This could become a community pride initiative group that comes up with these out-of-left-field ideas and then investigates and prioritizes."