Greetings from The Central Texas Greenprint for Growth Team:
Trust for Public Land, Envision Central Texas, and the
Capital Area Council of Governments.
We are sending this message to update you on
the "Greenprint" process. The Central Texas
Greenprint for Growth (the "Greenprint") is a tool for balancing sustainable
conservation goals with the infrastructure needs of our rapidly urbanizing
region. The project includes counties in the Central Texas metropolitan area and expands on the Travis
County Greenprint for Growth completed during the fall of 2006.
|
Bastrop County Goals and Criteria Workshop
On October 22, 2008,
over thirty Bastrop County residents, representing
a diverse array of interests, came together to participate in the
Bastrop County Greenprint Stakeholder Group
Goals and Criteria Workshop. Attendees were asked to discuss their thoughts about park and natural resource preservation goals and identify critical land,
water and public place priorities for Bastrop County. During the facilitated small group discussions, participants were asked to provide specific and detailed criteria regarding these goals which could be tied to datasets and used in the mapping process. Each group reported out its goals and then the entire group reviewed the goals to ensure they were clear and that no important points were omitted. The following are the six goals identified during the workshop:
·
Protect water quality and quantity
·
Protect threatened and endangered
species and other habitats
·
Preservation of farms and ranchland
· Enhance recreation
· Protect cultural resources
·
Protect scenic corridors
You can click here to review a summary of the meeting and see the detailed criteria underlying each of the goals. You are also encouraged to go to the Greenprint website at http://centexgreenprint.webexone.com/ to view more information about the Stakeholder process and the overall Greenprint effort. Once at the website, simply 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.
|
Caldwell County Goals and Criteria Workshop
A meeting of Caldwell County Stakeholders was convened on the evening of October 23rd in Lockhart. Approximately 30 residents participated in the workshop, and similar to Bastrop County, they were asked to identify their park and natural resource preservation goals, along with detailed criteria related to those goals that could be tied to specific data and later used for mapping. To follow is the list of six goals identified during the Caldwell County Stakeholder Goals and Criteria Workshop:
· Preserve water quality and quality
· Preserve land for recreation
· Preserve farmland/ranchland
· Protect wildlife corridors/habitats
· Protect scenic viewsheds
· Protect cultural sites
The summary of the Caldwell Stakeholder input is available by clicking here. You can also review additional information on the Greenprint website at http://centexgreenprint/webexone.com/. Click on "enter as a guest" in the lower left corner of the screen to access the site. You can then view a variety of documents in the
"public links" section or by clicking on the "documents"
section on the left side.
|
Greenprint Technical Advisory Team
The Technical Advisory Team is composed of individuals representing all of the counties involved with the Greenprint effort. Individuals on this team have
expertise in natural resources, geographic information systems, transportation,
planning and other issues relevant to the Greenprinting effort. This group held its
first meeting on October 24th at CAPCOG to review the goals and criteria identified at the Hays, Bastrop and Caldwell Stakeholder workshops.  They will be working over the next few months to
ensure that the goals and criteria identified by the County Stakeholder groups are effectively
defined, the appropriate data is gathered, and the input into the Greenprint
model is accurate and current. They will also work with the Regional Steering
Committee to develop the overall regional Greenprint.
|
Next Steps
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 that is able to define and prioritize
the parks and conservation acquisition needs in each county.
 County Stakeholder groups will then be re-convened in March, 2009 to review the model and discuss the various "weighting" and prioritization of the goals for their county. The Technical Advisory Team and Regional Steering Committee will be engaged in the interim to provide input regarding the modeling and seaming together the various county goals into a regional Greenprint.
We will keep you updated about the modeling process and you will be notified well in advance of the next Stakeholder meeting in your county. However, if you do have any questions, please feel free to contact the Greenprint team at the number or email provided below, or you can leave a comment in the "comments" section of the Greenprint Website.
|
