The city of Richardson has adopted an update to its comprehensive plan that will help guide the city’s future.

What happened

Following a 20-month process, Richardson City Council unanimously approved an updated comprehensive plan for the city during its Nov. 11 meeting. The process included data collection, drafting and several different promotion and public engagement efforts.

According to presentation from Mark Bowers, an urban design and practice planning builder at Kimley-Horn and Associates, the plan is meant to do the following:

• Provides general guidance on growth and development patterns in the city
• Consists of a single plan in coordination with other technical plans to address the community’s future
• Presents a long-range vision for the city
• Offers flexible guidance that can evolve as the city and market conditions change
• Informs land use, development standards and capital investment

One focus of the plan includes supporting an increase in middle housing options, such as townhomes or duplexes. Bowers said that the lack of middle housing in Richardson was a common concern during the community feedback portion of the process.

One more thing

Council adopted an amendment to the plan that will allow “minor editing” to the plan as long as edits don’t change the meaning of the content in the plan.

City Manager Don Magner said that the amendment will allow the comprehensive plan to be a “living document.”

Learn more

More information on the comprehensive plan can be found on the Envision Richardson website. The full presentation from the Nov. 11 council meeting can be found on the city’s website.