During the week of Sept. 10–14, San Marcos planners and residents joined together in an effort to build the foundation for the city's 2035 Master Plan.

Dream San Marcos was implemented to combine fiscal, economic and sustainable city plans while acknowledging the opinions of residents by allowing them to voice what would be their dream San Marcos.

The Design Rodeo was the final step in choosing and tweaking the preferred scenario for the master plan.

Planning and Development Director Matt Lewis said the premise of Dream San Marcos, which began in August 2011, was community involvement.

"The entire process has been community-organized," Lewis said. "We worked together to set our goals and visions."

Ideas for the master plan were gathered from community focus groups on neighborhoods, economic development, natural resources, culture and the arts, utilities and transportation, education, small businesses, landowners, developers and Realtors.

Along with that community involvement, San Marcos high school students worked together to develop a Youth Master Plan that compared the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and challenges of the current and proposed city plans.

"The kids were totally invested in this project," Lewis said as he recalled one student voicing his hopes for the future generations of San Marcos residents. "They were really involved and imbedded."

Lewis said an estimated 33,000 people are expected to move to the San Marcos area by 2035. The flexible plans project a walkable, bike-ready city prepared to include all daily necessities within walking distance.

The polycentric urban cores spread throughout the city are projected to be tied together with green space and hike and bike trails.

Sean Compton, a principal with TBG Partners, a landscape architecture and planning company, said that this large-scale project has taken about three months to generate but that the real work came into play within the past week.

"This is like game week," Compton said. "Now that we have a plan that works, we will take all of the community input and perfect that plan. This has been a really interesting, interactive process. You have to be good at listening, but pressure makes diamonds."

Compton said what came out of this week was the "big idea." After taking into consideration the last of the citizen comments, Planning and Development will return to the Citizen Advisory Committee with the preferred scenario to develop the finalized master plan.