By mid August the Court expects to begin the process of selecting appointees to a Citizens Committee
Note: Big things are happening in Hays County and the commissioners court is at the center of a lot of them. An updated 10-year transportation plan certainly ranks near the top, along with water, parks and open space planning, redistricting, spending our taxes efficiently and wisely, and managing the public debt.
We have just three suggestions about planning for the county's future transportation needs. First, don't let the population increase scare you, go with the flow in meeting the different transportation needs in the county's distinct and different regions; second, watch for red dotted lines on any new transportation maps, they could mean a road right down the middle of your property; and third, make sure someone in your family or group of friends watches this process carefully and/or volunteers to be on the Citizens Committee. PS – citizen committees and studies such as these are typically a procedure in "going through the motions" to put the seal of approval on someone else's development agendas. Send your comments and questions to roundup.editor@gmail.com, to County Judge Bert Cobb's office, 512.393.2205, (Judge Cobb bert.cobb@co.hays.tx.us or his chief of staff Lon Shell, lon.shell@co.hays.tx.us), or click on the "comments" at the bottom of the story
News Release July 21, 2011
Contact: Laureen Chernow for more information
Hays County Communications Specialist
laureen.chernow@co.hays.tx.us
Office: 512.393.2296
Hays County Courthouse, San Marcos, TX – The Hays County Commissioners Court has authorized its transportation consulting company, Parsons Brinkerhoff, to move forward with developing a countywide transportation plan to update the County’s 10-year-old plan.
At its July 19 meeting the Court agreed that considerable input is needed from municipal government planners and the general public to ensure that the new plan takes recent population growth (some 60,000 people have moved to Hays County since the last plan was adopted) and future growth corridors into consideration.
By mid August the Court expects to begin the process of selecting appointees to a Citizens Committee that will work with County staff and Parsons Brinkerhoff to address planning needs. A series of public meetings and workshops will also be held to give the public an opportunity to voice transportation concerns and recommendations.
The Court also noted that while regional transportation plans exist that have had County input, it is critical for the County and municipalities to coordinate on transportation planning within Hays County to maximize available dollars and minimize the potential for bottlenecks that can occur when different road systems intersect.
The Court set a cap of $325,000 for the study, with instructions to Parsons Brinkerhoff to build on previous plans as much as possible to keep the cost under the maximum. All but $50,000 of that amount is available in the current 2011 budget.
Specific scope-of-work items to be addressed by the planning process include:
- Development of a transportation plan that is based on sound technical analysis,
- Accommodate growth while maintaining and improving access to destinations for the traveling public (e.g., work, school, shopping, residential)
- Maintenance and improvement of the transportation system and the mobility of its users,
- Provide Hays County with the information and tools needed to preserve the right-of-way needed for future transportation improvements,
- Development of a transportation plan through an open and transparent process that provides numerous and various ways for the public to stay involved and provide input into the process,
- Creation and adoption of a transportation plan that not only addresses specific project needs but ones that also sets an overall direction for the transportation future of Hays County.
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