More grocery stores, restaurants and retail development were among ideas Argyle residents shared with town leaders and Freese & Nichols representatives about updating the comprehensive plan at an open house June 8 at Argyle Town Hall.

The meeting was preceded by the first gathering of the Argyle Comprehensive Plan Advisory Committee, which will have meetings in August and November. The Argyle Planning & Zoning Commission will give its recommendation in February, the same month that Town Council will adopt the update of the plan. Around 30 or so people attended the June 8 open house, where they could access handouts describing the project. Town leaders and staff will continue to seek public input during this process.

Zooming in

Attendees could leave notes with opinions on poster boards for different projects or areas, such as roadways. One poster board simply asked people what they wanted to see changed in Argyle, and some people mentioned more grocery stores. Attendees also could find poster boards with maps as well as those sought to educate the public about certain issues, such as future land use categories.

The details

Daniel Harrison, project manager from Freese & Nichols, which is an engineering, planning and consulting company, led a discussion to begin the meeting. Connor Roberts, assistant project manager from Freese & Nichols, followed with some of his own remarks. Attendees learned the comprehensive plan is a 10- to 20-year vision that is a decision-informing guide as well as a guide for future land uses. The plan stands as a basis for town policy, zoning and the capital improvement plan. This is the first update of the plan since 2018.

The plan is not the actual zoning ordinance, and it’s not going to govern the use of land, Harrison said, adding the plan “sets that vision” for where people want to be as a community. When regulations come forward governing zoning or subdivisions, they are designed to reflect the vision in the document.

What the experts say

“When we talk about developing a plan for the town, it’s not developed by anybody in Austin; it’s not developed by anybody in Washington, D.C.; it’s developed by the people who live here, and the input is reflective of the people that are providing that input into the process,” Harrison said.

Roberts gave an overview of the plan, which involves the town profile, visioning and guiding principles, land use, transportation, corridor design, economic development and master implementation.

“There will be an implementation plan,” Roberts said. “This basically is a portion of the document that will help your Town Council and your staff here in the town of Argyle to make informed decisions on the recommendations that we decipher through the plan. So, say there’s a recommendation that we adjust the alignment of a thoroughfare based on your feedback tonight. Well, how does that get done—is that a very high priority goal? These are things that we’ll tackle in the implementation matrix that will help your town make those decisions.”

Quote of note

“I think we had a great turnout,” Town Administrator Erika McComis said about the meeting. “We have a very involved and active community, and that is a blessing. The council wanted to address the plan as a whole and to look at form based code, which does not meet our community needs or wants.”

Argyle Mayor Rick Bradford said form-based code is a type of zoning ordinance that focuses on the physical form, design, and relationship between buildings and public spaces rather than specific land uses. The goal, he said, is to create cohesive, aesthetically pleasing, pedestrian-friendly and compatible development within an area. He added it prioritizes form and functionality over land use regulation.

Harrison explained form-based code’s primary objective is to “manage or regulate the placement and form of buildings with the lesser purpose of controlling how a property is used. This approach is different from how most traditional zoning regulations are written, which focus on the use of land and then, besides mostly building setbacks, do not regulate the placement and form of buildings.”