- As the year draws to a close, the Envision Central Texas staff and board of directors would like to thank all of its dedicated volunteers as well as its generous event sponsors and contributors for helping make this another productive year for ECT. Especially in uncertain times, it is reassuring to know that ECT and others in Central Texas are working hard to ensure that we efficiently plan for a sustainable future as well as preserve and enhance our region's quality of life for generations to come. To review ECT's key accomplishments in 2008, please click here.
Sally Campbell
Executive Director
Envision Central Texas
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2009 ECT officers elected
The Envision Central Texas Board of
Directors recently elected Jim Walker, AICP (pictured at right) to serve a second term as ECT
chairman in 2009. Walker is
the executive director of the Central Texas Sustainability Indicators Project
and has served on ECT's Executive Committee and Board of Directors since its
inception in 2001. Other ECT
officers elected for 2009 include Chair-Elect Travis Froehlich, Seton
Family
of Hospitals; Immediate Past Chair Frederick
"Fritz" Steiner, dean of the UT School of Architecture; Secretary John
Langmore, Transportation and Land Use Consultant; and, Treasurer
Valarie Bristol, retired. To read entire news release, click here.
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2009 ECT Legislative Forum highlighted transportation and land use challenges
The need for additional transportation funding, increased county land use authority and critical water supply challenges were just three of the topics discussed at the 2009 Envision Central Texas Legislative Forum and Luncheon held on November 10 at the Capitol. Legislative panelists included Senator Kirk Watson, Representative Robert Cook, Representative Dan Gattis, Representative Donna Howard,
Representative Eddie Rodriguez and Representative Patrick Rose. Sponsors of the event were Jackson Walker LLP, Samsung Austin Semiconductor
and Spansion. To read highlights of the discussion at the event, click here.
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Regional Infrastructure is focus of ECT's 2009 Program of Work
Central Texas has critical infrastructure needs and severely limited resources. In 2009, Envision Central Texas will lead a regional dialogue to help inform the hard choices that must be made by regional leaders about infrastructure in order to maintain the quality of life and competitiveness of Central Texas.
The results of fluctuating fuel and energy prices, fiscal deficits for funding new infrastructure and ongoing maintenance, and ever growing demands on limited natural resources will require growth patterns that maximize efficiency and produce multiple benefits rather than isolated advantages or detrimental unintended consequences. The purpose of the ECT initiative is to better inform citizens about the trade-offs inherent in developing infrastructure in a time of limited resources and to catalyze the collaboration necessary within the region to ensure efficient new and existing infrastructure. To read more about the entire 2009 ECT Program of Work, click here.
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Mixed Use Matters
Fostering safe,
walkable, livable communities is a key tenet of the regional Vision. ECT's Community Design Committee has recently put the finishing touches on a document entitled " Mixed Use Matters" with the aim of sparking a regional conversation about how we can better design mixed-use communities. The document covers a number of areas related to mixed use and
walkability, including potential benefits, opportunities, challenges, and Texas examples, as well as principles and standards that communities can use to inform their thinking. The goal
is to provide a living document that fosters deeper examination of these issues
and serves as a resource to cities and communities throughout Central Texas. Click here to download a PDF file of the paper.
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Shifting Gears
Mr. Peñalosa will describe his accomplishments in
transforming and revitalizing the city of Bogotá by implementing his vision of
a city energized with alternative transit, public spaces, sidewalks, bike
paths and pedestrian streets.
After the
luncheon, dress casually and meet at the BikeTexas office. From there, Mr. Peñalosa
and co-host Senators Jeff Wentworth and Rodney Ellis will lead a short New Urbanism bike tour at an easy pace
through Austin. Visit http://www.biketexas.org/shiftinggears/ for more details, tickets and sponsorship opportunities.
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Mark your calendars for May 8, 2009 for the ECT Community Stewardship Awards!
Call for Entries application available online January 9
 The 2009 Envision Central Texas Community Stewardship Awards Luncheon has been set for May 8 at the Hyatt Regency Austin. The
ECT Community Stewardship Awards program has been created to recognize and honor the innovative people, projects and processes that are addressing the
growth challenges facing our region in ways that will move us closer to a
vision for our future that preserves and enhances our natural resources, economic vitality, social
equity, and overall quality of living.
Local
non-profit and community organizations, businesses, cities, counties,
developers, builders, designers, media, neighborhood groups and others based in
the five-county Central
Texas region are invited to submit online applications for the awards. The Call for Entries application
for the 2009 ECT Community
Stewardship Awards will be available on January 9, 2009 at www.envisioncentraltexas.org. The deadline for submittal is noon on February 20, 2009. Submissions are eligible for awards in the following categories: New Development, Redevelopment, Pioneer, Public Planning and Policy, Raising Public Awareness and the W. Neal Kocurek Legacy Award. If you have questions, call Diane Miller at 512.916.6037.
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Greenprint for Growth Underway
 Three Central Texas Greenprint for Growth Goals and
Criteria Workshops have now been held in Bastrop,
Caldwell and Hays Counties.
The "Greenprint" is a tool for balancing sustainable conservation
goals with the infrastructure needs of our rapidly urbanizing region and
expands on the Travis County Greenprint for Growth completed during the fall of
2006. 
Over the past few months, more than 150 residents representing a diverse array
of interests came together to participate in the county-specific workshops.
Participants discussed their ideas about park and natural resource preservation
goals and identified critical land, water and public place priorities for their
counties.
To review a summary of each meeting or to learn more about the Greenprinting
effort, you may go to the website at http://centexgreenprint.webexone.com.
Once at the website, click on "enter as a guest" on the lower
left side of the screen. You can access a variety of documents in the
"public links" section, as well as by clicking on the
"documents" section on the left side. Over the next few months, the Central Texas Greenprint for
Growth Team will use the input from the County Stakeholder
groups to develop an interactive mapping model to define and prioritize the
parks and conservation needs in each county. County Stakeholder
groups will then be re-convened in March to review the model and discuss the
prioritization of the goals for each county. Greenprint is an initiative of the
Capital Area Council of Governments, Envision Central Texas, and The
Trust for Public Land.
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This is the third in a series of articles about the recipients of the 2008 ECT Community Stewardship Awards. This project was the winner of the 2008 award for Raising Public Awareness.
Downtow n Television ShowDOWNTOWN highlights the people, places, stories and situations that make downtown Austin unique and shows us that, as a community, we all connect
through our experiences. This
thought-provoking and educational series has quickly become one of the most
watched shows on Austin's Public Television Station - reaching more than 1.5
million viewers. The series introduces viewers to Austin, and encourages
those who visit, live, work and play in the city to really explore all the
opportunities that downtown Austin offers. The show entertains while shedding
light on topics such as dense urban cores, downtown living, transportation,
accessibility, arts and cultural vitality, retail development... zombie walks...
pillow fights... and more!
DOWNTOWN, produced by the Downtown Austin
Alliance, Action Figure, and KLRU-TV, began airing in 2005 as a
series of 30-minute programs. Since then, the show has won six Lone
Star EMMYs®, Austin
Chronicle's Reader's Choice Poll for the "Best Locally Produced TV Show," the 2007
Liveable City Vision Award, and 2008
Envision Central Texas "Raising Public Awareness" Community Stewardship
Award. Past episodes are
available online as individual segments or full programs at www.downtownaustintv.org. Season 4 of the series
can be viewed on KLRU-TV, Austin PBS, every Thursday at 8 p.m.
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Newest ECT Contributors
Other Recent Contributors:
City of Elgin
Environmental Stewardship
David Foster
Gilbert Martinez
Pflugerville Council of Neighborhood Associations
David Salazar
Walter Moreau
Legislative Forum Sponsors:
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