Drew Paxton, director of development services for the city of Kerrville, opened the first public engagement session for the city’s comprehensive plan update and introduced the consultant team from Friese and Nichols.

Caitlin, a planner with Friese and Nichols, told attendees the meeting was strictly listening-focused: the consultants will collect resident priorities, supplement quantitative analysis and then use that input to update the Kerrville 2050 plan adopted in 2018. She said the plan is advisory, not legally binding, and can be used to guide budgeting, capital improvement plans and strategic work.

The consultant team described outreach completed so far: two CPAC (Comprehensive Plan Advisory Committee) meetings, a downtown advisory committee (DAC) meeting, an online community survey and an interactive map. The online survey received 427 responses and the map had 45 contributions at the time of the presentation. The team aims to finalize the updated plan for approval in early summer 2025.

Friese and Nichols staff and partner consultants will lead topic stations around the room for residents to comment on small-area planning, transportation, resilience and other plan elements. Caitlin encouraged residents to review the draft vision statement boards and share feedback: "This is your plan," she said, and the consultants are facilitators who will write a document grounded in community input.

The presentation closed with staff available at stations addressing downtown and Nimitz Lake small-area planning, housing, transportation and resilience questions.

Next steps: the team will continue online engagement through the interactive map and website and incorporate community feedback into draft chapters ahead of the planned early-summer 2025 finalization.