The March 15 deadline for entries for the ECT Community Stewardship Awards is fast approaching! Don't miss this opportunity to help us identify and recognize the innovative people, projects and processes that are best addressing the growth challenges facing our region. There are many innovative endeavors happening around Central Texas that are moving us closer to ECT's vision for the 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, regional planning authorities, developers, builders, designers, media, neighborhood groups and others based in the five-county Central Texas region are invited to submit online applications for the Envision Central Texas 2006 Community Stewardship Awards. The application is available on the Envision Central Texas website. (Painting by Mary Doerr)

Come see how the ECT Vision is becoming a reality! Don't miss this exciting luncheon featuring the winners of the first ever ECT Community Stewardship Awards! Be sure to reserve your tickets or tables for the Inaugural Envision Central Texas Community Stewardship Awards Luncheon on Wednesday, May 17 from 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. in the Texas Ballroom at the Hyatt Regency Austin! Sponsorship opportunities are available!

During the last four years ECT has engaged thousands of residents from the five-county Central Texas Region to envision their future. During this time Fregonese Calthorpe Associates was asked to develop a range of future growth scenarios and assess the public’s response to them. Some highlights of the scenario planning process included:

About fifty city, county and agency planners and other interested citizens met on February 23 in Pflugerville at the third SH 130 Corridor Planner Roundtable hosted by ECT. Attendees split up into three working groups (water/wastewater, transportation and land use) in order to research and seek solutions to the issues created by the rapid completion of SH 130. Much of the initial work of the three working groups will be to gather available information about the current and planned development along the roadway and create a web-based repository of information that all communities can share.

Envision Central Texas has established seven Implementation Committees as vehicles to study and form strategies around some of the most critical regional growth issues. To review the progress of each of the committees please read on.

We are pleased to announce that Rebecca Graham has joined the ECT staff as Adminstrative Coordinator. Rebecca has recently moved to Austin from San Francisco, California where she had administrative experience with the New College of California as well as with Hilary Bryan/The Body at Work and the San Francisco Jazz Organization. She earned her BA in Environmental Studies at the University of Oregon and a Masters of Creative Inquiry at the New College of California. Rebecca has also performed with several modern dance companies.

Capital Metro Gathers Public Input at All Systems Go! Workshop. On February 4, nearly 300 people from around the region gathered at the Austin Convention Center to participate in a Capital Metro All Systems Go! planning workshop. The group deliberated how and where a transit circulator system could best serve Central Austin and what should come next in an overall regional transit plan. Read more about the workshop.

Wimberley Valley Watershed Association (WVWA) has completed the purchase of land to protect over 50 acres and 100% of Jacob's Well. This enormous achievement has been many years in the making and is a model for what can be done to protect the Edwards Aquifer Region. Read a recent WVWA press release about the purchase.

Richard Harwood, founder of The Harwood Institute for Public Innovation, will speak at the LBJ Library Atrium at 7 p.m. on March 14 on his new book, Hope Unraveled: The People's Retreat and Our Way Back. Harwood will share his findings based on a decade of conversations with citizens across America about how people have retreated from politics and public life, what this means for our communities, and how we can begin to pursue an alternate path that is rooted in genuine possibility and hope. To register, go to www.texasforums.org. Read more about the event.

Entrepreneurship Conference Set For April 7th. The Capital Area Council of Governments is partnering with the U.S. Economic Development Administration, the City of Austin, the Austin – San Antonio Corridor Council, and the Institute for Economic Development at the University of Texas at San Antonio to host the Austin – San Antonio Conference on Entrepreneurship and Regional Competitiveness at the Omni Austin Hotel at Southpark at 4140 Governor's Row on Friday, April 7th, 2006. Registration is $50 for individuals; tables $500 For more information, contact: Brian Kelsey at 512-916-6183. Read more about the conference and how to register.