Groves kicks off GLO-funded comprehensive plan to guide land use, resilience and growth

The Groves City Council received an informational kickoff for a citywide comprehensive plan funded through the Texas General Land Office Resilient Communities Program.

Ryan Lattery, the project's manager for the consulting team identified in the packet as Freeze and Naples, told the council the plan will produce a future land use map, policy recommendations, capital project priorities and an implementation strategy designed to be updated on a regular cadence. "We are going to effectively develop a roadmap for Groves to grow over the next 5, 10, 15 years," Lattery said.

Lattery described the project timeline as 12–18 months, with immediate work focused on an existing-conditions community snapshot and subsequent phases for visioning, goal-setting, and drafting policy levers and the implementation strategy. He said the consultant team will prioritize resilience and hazard mitigation as part of the GLO program, and will pursue community engagement at events such as National Night Out and the PCAN festival. The team plans a public project website and a community survey; Lattery said the site and a QR code should be available by the end of the month pending council review of survey questions.

Council members asked about redevelopment strategies for a landlocked city and how the plan can recommend policy levers short of the city owning property. Lattery said redevelopment strategies will focus on optimizing existing parcels, identifying partners, and tailoring policy and capital project recommendations to what is implementable within the city's constraints.

The presentation was informational; the council did not vote on the plan contract at the June 8 meeting. City staff said a grant payment to the consultant appears on the invoice list reviewed later in the meeting.