New Braunfels City Council selects firm to update comprehensive plan

"We are approaching full build-out here in New Braunfels," Christopher Looney, director of planning and development services, said during a special City Council meeting Aug. 18.

Looney said another reason prompting an update was with changes by the state that all but eliminated the ability to annex territory.

The overview

A comprehensive plan is a policy document that guides community decision making through various forms of community engagement. The city’s charter requires frequent updates to the comprehensive plan.

This plan update will include public outreach to obtain the long-range vision and aspirations of residents, recording accomplishments and identifying new or updated goals and actions. The plan update would also use the city’s Land Use Fiscal Analysis and other completed plans since the adoption of Envision New Braunfels to inform data-driven updates to the Future Land Use map, according to agenda documents.

Some context

Envision New Braunfels was an update to the city’s 1999 Comprehensive Plan, according to agenda documents.

The plan—which was adopted in August 2018—was developed using two years worth of data collection, trend analysis and multi-jurisdiction cooperation. Over 700 residents, property owners, business owners and other stakeholders served on plan element advisory groups, agenda documents state.

The city received almost 1,500 written comments through 37 community input events and over 7,500 participants engaged online.

The plan has 46 goals and 8 strategies categorized into 287 actions.