A comprehensive plan is a long-term plan conveying the community’s vision and guiding public policy for future growth and redevelopment, according to the city of Tomball.
Tomball city officials began a year-long process in February to fully update the city’s plan, Community Development Director Craig Meyers said.
However, Magnolia’s update is more of a reprioritization of city priorities than a formal update, Planning Technician Tana Ross said.
“Anybody is welcome to look at the comprehensive plan online and send in information that they feel is pertinent, but at this time what we are focused on is getting a new list of priorities because in five years, situations change,” she said.
‘Magnolia on the Move’
Magnolia’s comprehensive plan, titled “Magnolia on the Move,” was adopted in April 2013 after an extensive resident-feedback process.
“What was important to the residents was identified then [in 2013], and then we go about creating the tools to make those things happen,” said Ross, who also serves as the city’s economic development coordinator.
Since the plan was adopted, the city has implemented zoning laws and its Unified Development Code, both tools for carrying out the vision of the comprehensive plan, Ross said.
With this spring’s update, Ross said city leadership is working to select a new list of priorities for the next few years. Some of the city’s top 12 action items listed in 2013 include thoroughfare planning, design standards, regional detention, annexation policies, and sidewalk and trail investments, according to city information.
“We’re looking at creating a new priority list. [We’re] not necessarily moving the ones that have been worked on and are in progress off the list, but certainly they have a different status now,” Ross said.
Ross said she believes the city will create its list of new priorities by June. As the reprioritization is not a formal update, no public hearings are necessary to adopt the new priorities.
“There is no economic development without community development. We are certainly focused on both community development and economic development,” she said. “It’s a community. We’re not just a city.”
Tomball’s ‘Vision 2030’
Since Tomball adopted its comprehensive plan in 2009, the city has seen major roadways, commercial developments and housing developments spring up.
“Tomball’s grown so much in the last 10 years, and things change, so it was time for an update,” Meyers said. “The new roadways that have come in here have really changed Tomball with the Grand Parkway and [Hwy.] 249.”
As major thoroughfares have been constructed—the tolled portion of Hwy. 249 opening in April 2015 and the Grand Parkway segments F-1 and F-2 opening in February 2016—Meyers said the city’s land use has also changed. Areas nearby the new roadways were once considered agricultural areas. Now, those corridors are ripe for business growth, he said.
As a result, the city’s future land-use plan and major thoroughfare plan will also be updated as a part of the update process, Meyers said. The city is working with consultant Halff Associates throughout the process, which launched in early February with focus group meetings and is expected to wrap up in early 2019.
Meyers said the comprehensive plan acts as a guide for the city’s daily decision-making, but the plan itself conveys the vision of Tomball residents and business owners.
“Our role as well as our consultant’s role is to do a lot of listening,” Meyers said. “This is the people’s vision. It’s not a city plan, it’s a citizen plan.”
In addition to an open house held March 22 to gather community input, the city has held meetings with various stakeholder groups—including developers, Realtors, business owners, Tomball ISD officials and homeowners associations. The city also created a survey and appointed a Comprehensive Plan Advisory Committee that meets monthly.
A draft of the plan will likely be given to council members for review later this year, Meyers said.
“We really want to look at our community again to see what the goals are of the community and to see if the visions have to be changed,” he said. “It’s time, too, for a change.”
Take a survey
The city of Tomball's survey to gather community input on the comprehensive plan update closes April 15. Weigh in here on the community's vision.
