Our Village, Our Vision Master Planning

The City held an Open House on Tuesday, November 15 to share revisions to the rough draft plans, specifically for the Opportunity Area Plans. The Opportunity Areas are the remaining vacant tracts of land in Highland Village. We appreciate the involvement and interest of everyone who attended. City Council will continue discussion and consider approval of the plan at future meetings. Sign up to receive meeting notifications at www.highlandvillage.org/StayNotified and select Public Meetings.

Why is the City looking at different options for the Opportunity Area Plans? How we develop these last tracts of land matter as we need to make sure every decision is considered in terms of economic viability and enhanced quality of life for our residents. As we look at the cost of service for new development, consider that for every $1 of revenue received for a residential development, it costs the City $1.40 in service and commercial development costs the City $.40. Additionally, residential development provides only property tax revenue while commercial development provides property tax, personal property tax and sales tax revenue which maximizes the fiscal value of the same tract of land. As we move toward buildout City revenue will flatten and, like any business, expenses will continue to increase. These plans help the City provide development options in line with community and fiscal value. View the information shared at the Open House here.

Presentations and Discussion of Rough Draft Plans:

The following is a recap and links for the City Council and Planning & Zoning meetings that have taken place. This plan is not yet complete and is a rough draft with the majority of the content included and formatting edits still underway. Submit comments or questions to Mayor Jaworski, Council members or City Staff. Council will continue discussion of the Comprehensive Plan at upcoming meetings. A public hearing will be held when the plan is on the agenda for approval consideration by Council.

The rough draft plan is available here.

• September 27 Joint City Council and Planning & Zoning Commission meeting:
  City Council and the Planning & Zoning Commission held a joint meeting on September 27, 2022 to receive and discuss the rough draft Comprehensive Plan. The video of that meeting is available here.
• October 11 City Council Early Work Session - McAdams Presentation of Revisions to OAP 1 & 5:
  City Council received a presentation from McAdams on changes to the draft Comprehensive Plan based on feedback from Council and Planning & Zoning, staff and residents. Specifically, McAdams presented modifications to Opportunity Areas 1 and 5 and received direction from City Council. The presentation can be viewed here. The video of that meeting is available here.

If you would like to receive notifications of upcoming meetings, sign up for Public Meeting notifications here.

One year ago, on September 28, 2021, City Council approved the contract with McAdams to begin the process of updating our comprehensive plan and other master planning documents. The project took place in phases:

• Explore - The first phase of the project was the community input phase where we held an all-day open house, an open house in conjunction with the HVBA Community Coffee, and a month-long online engagement opportunity. Between these three opportunities, we received comments from over 300 residents. Input from property owners, staff, and Council was also included. McAdams held two specific focus groups to gather input from users of our trail system and from the teens of Highland Village for needed park and recreation opportunities. A 300 sample statistically valid survey was also part of the project.
• Envision - The second phase was the envisioning phase where McAdams gathered all the information provided in the community engagement, meetings with property owners, the statistically valid survey, the focus groups, the economic market analysis, and input from staff, Council, and Planning & Zoning to develop the planning documents.
• Recommend - We are now in the final phase of this process with the review of the rough draft plans, Council and Planning & Zoning input, and sharing the plans with the public before Council considers approval by ordinance at an upcoming meeting.

Thank you to everyone who provided input on the Our Village, Our Vision surveys. Between the all day open house, the Community Coffee and the online engagement opportunities we received over 300 responses! McAdams has compiled all responses in the Community Input Summary of Findings document. Your input, along with the input from property owners, businesses, Council, and Board & Commission members, will be used to develop the long-term planning documents. You will have an opportunity to review those documents before they are finalized. You can view the Community Input Summary of Findings here.

We are entering an exciting time at the City of Highland Village. We are very close to buildout with only 78 acres of undeveloped land and we need to make sure every decision is considered in terms of economic viability and enhanced quality of life for our residents. Cities use many different types of planning documents to help guide those decisions. It is time to update Highland Village’s planning documents. The City has partnered with McAdams Company to carry out this project. It is important as we go through this project that you are involved, understand the process, and provide your input.

On February 22 the City held an open house to gather feedback from the community. We recorded a description of the requested input for each of the plans that were set up at different stations. The information provided at the open house has been replicated in the "Provide Input" section giving you the opportunity to provide your input online at a time that is convenient for you. The input period will remain open from March 9, 2022 until April 13, 2022.

The City of Highland Village contracted with McAdams to update the City’s planning documents. The City is approaching buildout, and with only 78 acres of undeveloped land, the plans will help make sure the City maximizes the economic benefit from their development and further enhances the quality of life of the residents. The process to update the plans will take approximately 12 months and will include multiple opportunities for public input from residents and the business community, both in-person and online.

We are working with McAdams on five different, and significant, plans.

1. The Parks, Recreation and Open Space Master Plan will include an assessment of existing parks, programs, operations, finance and level of service to identify gaps, create guiding principles and create on-going, short-term/long-term objectives based on local values.
2. The Trail System Master Plan will include an analysis of existing trails, on-street bicycle network, ADA compliance, cross section and intersection design guidance and wayfinding to develop a ten-year action plan to meet community goals.
3. The Village Connection: FM 407 Corridor Plan is a ten-year action plan designed to promote development or redevelopment, create a sense of place, implement multi-modal transportation options and connect to existing trails.
4. The Opportunity Areas Plan will include an analysis of the remaining undeveloped land to identify goals for development options based on market conditions and the fiscal impact to the City, land use and zoning amendments and updates to the comprehensive land use plan to develop implementation strategies.
5. The Thoroughfare Master Plan will include an analysis of traffic trends, a review of the City's ordinances and polices, traffic demand modeling and develop recommendations.