San Marcos City Council passed its new land development code Tuesday night, but the work isn't over yet. Now that Code SMTX is adopted, city staff has been tasked with creating small-area plans that focus on geographic areas susceptible to change and growth. Planning Manager Abby Gillfillan explained that in the first phase, City Council and staff will look at the entire city and identify areas that could benefit from applying the new tools found in Code SMTX, such as more housing types and zoning suites. The areas could include those that have opportunities for growth or that the community thinks are susceptible to change, such as areas located between the boundary of small neighborhoods and areas of high growth, as well as along corridors such as Hopkins Street and Old RR 12. The high-level planning portion will cost about $10,000 and take about six months, Gillfillan said. After the geographic areas are identified, City Council will prioritize which areas need to be addressed first, and small-area plans for each identified geographic area will be created through data analysis and public input. "We want to be strategic in where we focus these future planning efforts," she said. The first small-area plan process will take about 10 months and cost about $50,000. Then it's just a matter of repeating the process with the other identified areas, Gillfillan said. On Tuesday City Council members postponed voting on a resolution to create this action plan for two weeks. Following approval of the resolution, staff will get to work on the plan, and citizens should keep an eye out for public input opportunities, Gillfillan said. Code SMTX's approval comes after several residents called for neighborhood character studies to be completed before the land development code's adoption. But according to Gillfillan, the new code needed to be adopted in order to have new tools that would help create any changes the residents wanted to see in various parts of the city. In some cases—particularly in certain existing, predominantly single-family neighborhoods—Gillfillan said she did not expect any changes to occur. Also included in the resolution is an implementation of the city's workforce housing initiative, one of five initiatives council identified for the coming year. Some of council's goals include updating, consolidating and communicating housing policies and action plans; developing dedicated housing and revenue sources; and implementing land use and zoning regulations that support diverse, mixed income communities in all areas of the city. These updates, Gillfillan said, will run concurrent with the city's small-area plan process. The city is also looking to update its comprehensive plan, called Vision San Marcos, specifically in the pages that deal with engineering as it relates to flooding, as well as road infrastructure and affordable housing.