Bastrop holds joint workshop on updating Chapters 2 and 5 of comprehensive plan; focus on growth, maps and hazards

Consultants from Half Associates reviewed the 2016 comprehensive plan and led a joint workshop of the Bastrop City Council and Planning and Zoning Commission on Jan. 16 to update Chapters 2 and 5, the sections that govern growth and future land use.

The presentation, led by Ilda Capricioso of Half Associates with presenters Whitney Lindner and Melissa Boudre, summarized the 2016 growth scenarios used to shape the existing future land use map and asked council, commissioners and residents to “gut-check” those assumptions in light of roughly eight years of development since the plan was adopted. "We want to learn and share, affirm the vision and goals," Lindner told the group as the consultants described the current public-engagement program.

Why it matters: Chapters on growth and land use form the foundation for other plan elements and for how the city uses the comprehensive plan to inform zoning and infrastructure decisions. Council members and residents repeatedly raised that infrastructure capacity — especially water, wastewater, roads and drainage — has driven where growth actually occurs, not always where the 2016 map indicated it should.

Half Associates reminded the workshop that comprehensive planning in Texas rests on Section 213 of the Texas Local Government Code and that municipalities use the plan as a guiding (not…