The City of Magnolia met with the planning commission Oct. 30 to review and workshop the progress made on the city's comprehensive plan. Drafts of the introduction, a chapter on land use and a chapter on growth management were the topics of discussion.

Among the ideas brought up during the workshop was a New Town Center tentatively planned for the 10 acres of open land behind Magnolia City Hall on Buddy Riley Road. The center would serve as a gathering place for community members, offering a number of small-scale businesses and housing options.

"Developers are knocking on our door and it's up to us how we want our undeveloped areas to look," said Deborah Rose Miller, Magnolia's economic development coordinator. "We're looking at how we can design a walkable city between Magnolia Ridge, the town center and municipal buildings like the library and depot."

A number of major road projects slated to start up over the next few years are going to create a completely different look for the city, Miller said. The Texas Department of Transportation is committing resources to FM 1488, with plans to build an overpass over FM 149 in 2014, followed by widening FM 1488 to five lanes with shoulders all the way to the county line. This project is meant to ease traffic at the FM 1774 and FM 1488 intersection, where 900,000 vehicles pass on a monthly basis.

"When all this road widening happens, the growth follows," Miller said.

Workshop participants also discussed the importance of setting standards for how the area should be developed in regards to building materials, signage and landscaping.

"The common phrase that we constantly use is that we don't want to look like [FM] 1960," Miller said. "Without this plan and the consensus to achieve it, development will be left solely to market sources, which are unlikely to preserve Magnolia's special qualities."

Planners looked at examples of other historic districts for inspiration, including the Historic Heights in Houston, the historic district in Bryan, Texas, and downtown Montgomery. The planning commission recommended building standards for new developments requiring 75 percent of exterior walls to be constructed from masonry materials—such as brick, stone or stucco—while other materials could be used for accents and trim.

"All of the examples that we liked had a common theme where they used some kind of brick and mortar materials," Miller said. "Without any guidelines we don't have any control. We have control of signs and lighting, but not what they build out of."

The remaining chapters still to be drafted include Community Mobility, Parks and Amenities and Neighborhoods and Housing, as well as a chapter on how the plan is to be implemented. City officials said there will be future public meetings as other chapters are drafted and an open house sometime in early 2013 before the final version of the plan is adopted.