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What is Envision Central Texas? |
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Envision Central Texas (ECT) is a nonprofit organization that led the public development of a regional vision to address the growth of Bastrop, Caldwell, Hays, Travis and Williamson counties. ECT currently assists regional planners and policy-makers with voluntary implementation strategies for working toward this common vision. We serve as a resource to the public and private sector on issues related to key growth trends, best practices and innovative planning tools that support quality growth. ECT also convenes public forums and hosts educational events which engage a wide variety of people to discuss the challenges of growth and the opportunities to shape our region's future. |
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How is this planning process different than others? |
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ECT is distinguished from other growth planning projects by its overall inclusiveness, broad geographic scope, level of diverse public involvement, application of visioning technologies and continued assistance to the region in implementing the preferred growth strategy. This is the first time in the history of this five-county region that individuals representing businesses, civic organizations, developers, local governments, environmental organizations, transportation organizations and neighborhoods have all come together to help spearhead the development of a vision to address growth. |
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How has the public been involved? |
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When developing the vision, ECT provided numerous opportunities for public input and direction. In May of 2002, we held focus group interviews to solicit opinions about future growth-related issues. We then conducted a telephone survey in all five counties to gather additional qualitative data about citizens' concerns about growth. We facilitated planning workshops in all five counties in September and October 2002 that asked participants to create their ideal growth strategy for the region's future. We then conducted a series of six Community Test Site Workshops in March and April 2003 to test ideas introduced at the regional workshops at the local level. We then conducted a survey during October 2003 to gather feedback on four alternative growth scenarios that were derived from the planning workshops. We also held a Leadership workshop in February 2004 to obtain guidance on the project's next steps. Throughout the ECT process, there has been a tremendous commitment to engage the public in this discussion of our shared future, and this commitment continues. ECT regularly hosts workshops, seminars and other educational events focused on raising the level of dialogue in Central Texas about our critical growth challenges. |
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Who oversaw the visioning process? |
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ECT oversaw the entire visioning process. Fregonese Calthorpe Associates (FCA), a regional planning consulting firm based on the west coast, provided consulting services and guidance to ECT in all phases of the visioning process, which included conducting research, facilitating workshops, developing growth scenarios and preparing a preferred growth vision incorporating public feedback. (For more information on FCA, visit www.frego.com.) |
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How was Envision Central Texas leadership selected? |
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When the decision was made to develop a common vision for the Central Texas region, organizers placed an invitation to community, business and government leaders from the five-county area to attend a meeting to discuss the visioning process. At this meeting, an eight-person committee was appointed to establish a non-profit corporation, a governing Board of Directors and an Executive Committee. This original committee appealed to all aspects of diversity in forming the Board of Directors and Executive Committee. They sought to include every county, constituency and vested interest group in the region. ECT continues to have a very diverse board (see our board listing) comprised of regional leaders from throughout Central Texas. |
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Why were these five counties (Bastrop, Caldwell, Hays, Travis and Williamson) selected for the visioning process? |
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The project area is small enough to be manageable, but large enough to influence the growth of Central Texas. Additionally, each of these five counties is currently facing growth challenges involving transportation, land use and the environment that will affect the entire region. ECT will revisit the process and the region's changing growth issues regularly and may include other counties in the future. |
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What happened at the planning workshops? |
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At the workshops, attendees working in small groups were provided a geographic map of the area with which to develop a growth scenario. During the workshop, group members worked together to formulate their ideal growth strategy using colored chips signifying various planning elements, including office buildings, shopping centers, housing developments, etc. This provided an opportunity to discuss and learn how certain types of growth might affect various parts of the region. At the end of the workshops, facilitators collected these data and maps and entered them into a computer that modeled the scenarios each group submitted. The modeled scenarios were then sorted into similar groups to create four possible growth scenarios for Central Texas. |
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How was the vision developed? |
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From the input gathered at the various public workshops, ECT created four potential growth scenarios for residents to consider. During the fall of 2003, the people of Central Texas provided feedback on how well the scenarios met a variety of growth challenges facing the region. Input was collected from surveys distributed throughout the five counties and online at www.envisioncentraltexas.org. ECT incorporated the public's feedback into a vision for the region.
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Has the visioning process worked in other places? |
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Fregonese Calthorpe Associates (FCA), the regional planning consulting firm hired for the ECT project, has had great success with this visioning process in several communities throughout the United States, including Portland, Denver, Chicago and Salt Lake City. For more information about these and other projects conducted by FCA, please see their Web site: www.frego.com. |
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Why should I care about regional planning? |
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The population of the five-county region of Bastrop, Caldwell, Hays, Travis and Williamson counties is expected to double in the next 20 to 40 years, but the region has yet to develop a long-term strategy to address effective growth. Some of the major concerns about growth include traffic congestion, lack of affordable housing close to jobs, loss of farmland and open space, and the availability and quality of our water supplies, just to name a few. Without a clear vision to guide us and sustained quality planning to shape our growth, we run the risk of jeopardizing our tremendous quality of life in the years ahead. ECT provides the community an opportunity to get involved in the process and indicate to local leaders their priorities for the region's growth. It is vitally important that your voice is heard and that the people who live in Central Texas today work together to ensure we achieve the future we desire for tomorrow. |
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How is Envision Central Texas funded? |
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To date, ECT has received financial support from organizations throughout the five-county region, in both the public and the private sector (see our list of contributors). |
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What happens now that the vision is developed? |
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Now that ECT has considered the public's feedback and developed a vision, the organization continues to work with regional planners, policy-makers and the public to provide assistance and recommendations for working toward the vision. ECT also continues to seek out opportunities for collaboration with other regional-scale planning efforts. ECT has launched seven Implementation Committees, which will develop tools, resources and projects in critical issue areas such as transportation, land usage and the environment. ECT will not replace or supercede local plans already in place such as municipal comprehensive plans or neighborhood plans. The ECT Vision will be revisited approximately every five years to address the region's changing growth patterns and priorities. See our current Program of Work for more information. |
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Envision Central Texas  6800 Burleson Road, Building 310, Suite 165 Austin, TX 78744 Mailing Address: P.O. Box 17848 Austin, TX 78760-7848 |
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