Commerce council adopts comprehensive plan on first reading, schedules final adoption

The City of Commerce City Council voted on first reading to adopt an ordinance approving the City of Commerce Comprehensive Plan 2025–2045 after a presentation by the plan consultant and a unanimous recommendation from the city Planning and Zoning Commission.

The plan, presented at the council workshop/public hearing on Aug. 5, 2025, lays out a 20-year vision for land use, transportation, housing, parks and downtown development and includes an implementation chapter that breaks recommended actions into short-, medium- and long-term priorities. City staff said the council may choose between the original draft or a version that incorporated grammatical and cosmetic edits from the Planning and Zoning Commission; the council approved the version with the edits on first reading.

Wilson Curran, project manager for Friese & Nichols, told the council the work on the plan has spanned more than 12 months. “This has been a labor of love, in which we've been working for, well over 12 months, on this project,” Curran said, describing public outreach that included advisory committee meetings, two council/P&Z workshops and community open houses.

City Manager Lesby said the Planning and Zoning Commission held a public hearing on the draft and “did not feel a need to change any of the content or the intent of the plan,” recommending only grammar and cosmetic corrections that the consultant incorporated into the edited version.

The comprehensive plan contains chapters on a community snapshot and population projections; a future land use map with 12 categories (agricultural/low-density residential, mixed-density residential, university neighborhood, university, downtown, public/institutional, neighborhood commercial, regional commercial, general business, heavy industrial, parks and open space); a transportation and mobility chapter aligned with the Hunt County thoroughfare plan; a housing assessment identifying areas needing maintenance or redevelopment; and a parks master plan included as a standalone 10-year plan with five-year updates.

The annexation and growth chapter explicitly addresses changes in state law, including House Bill 347, which removed forced annexation and requires consent from residents in areas proposed for annexation; the plan includes strategies and growth-area scenarios that note future staffing, parks and infrastructure needs if residential development occurs in identified areas, such as around the airport. The implementation chapter lists actions and assigns responsible entities; staff highlighted updating the zoning code and subdivision regulations as a short-term priority to align local regulations with state law.

Council opened the required public hearing before the vote; no members of the public spoke. A councilmember moved to adopt the edited version on first reading; another councilmember seconded. The council approved the ordinance on a voice vote with all members saying “aye.” The approval on Aug. 5 is a first-reading adoption; staff said the plan will be posted on the city website for public review and will return to the council for final adoption in two weeks at a regular meeting.

No formal amendments to the plan were made at the meeting. The consultant noted the downtown master plan was incorporated from a previously adopted local plan and that the parks chapter used demand-, standards- and resource-based assessments to identify priorities, including trail mileage targets where the city lags peers or national averages.

Next steps listed by staff include posting the adopted draft online for a public review period and preparing a final ordinance and plan document for the council’s final reading and vote at the next regular meeting.