Little Elm staff outline 2026 priorities, including AI pilot for code enforcement

Town staff on Tuesday walked the Little Elm Town Council through a broad 2026 work program tied to the councils newly adopted strategic plan, emphasizing economic development on the lakefront, infrastructure upkeep and a technology-forward approach to service delivery.

"Weve broken this up by the different strategic goal areas that you adopted," said Mr. Mueller (Speaker 2), who gave the overview. He said the town will continue recruiting lakefront dining and lodging, pursue retail anchors for the Hwy 380 corridor and explore mixed-use development sites with water frontage. He highlighted recent approvals and ongoing interest at properties including the 10 Man Social site and the parcel near Hardwick and El Dorado Parkway.

Mueller described cross-department work to strengthen community connections: an expanded engagement team led by Tiffany Thompson and Nathan Abato, neighborhood volunteer programs, translation audits for non-English materials, and a resident-pass idea to give local taxpayers prioritized access or discounts for town services. "We really want to tap into some of the social service providers, church and faith-based organizations to help us with a coordinated crisis response infrastructure," he said.

On infrastructure, staff emphasized trail and regional connectivity with neighboring cities, completion of trailhead wayfinding signage and planned investments in wastewater treatment and reuse to conserve potable water. Mueller told the council the town is implementing an asset-management program through Tyler Technologies to prioritize preventive maintenance across streets and utilities.

The presentation also outlined service-excellence goals: pursuing a higher bond rating, a clean audit, a five-year balanced budget framework, improved compliance and revenue collection for short-term rentals, and ERP/Tyler Munis improvements. Mueller said the administration plans to propose a small innovation fund and a budget amendment in coming weeks to pilot AI-assisted code enforcement. "The first pilot program is an AI-guided code enforcement process, to assist us with identifying code issues out in the field so code officers can spend more time on one-on-one communications with residents," he said.

Council members did not object to the overall direction and asked follow-up questions about parking impacts at specific development sites and timeline details for capital projects. The council will consider capital-priority setting and formal department-level strategic plans over the next several months.