At the September 25, 2023, Richardson City Council meeting, the Council received an update on progress to update the City's 2009 Comprehensive Plan. I was disappointed to see that there was little progress, unless the progress has been to plan Community Summit 2. In October, the consultants on the Envision Richardson team will be conducting a Community Summit 2 to gather more public input. Open Houses will be held October 10 and 28. I was disappointed to see little engagement with the Council or by the Council in shaping the Comp Plan.
There's a survey available for the public to take, but be warned. I just spent a lot longer than I cared to filling out the online survey for EnvisionRichardson's Community Summit 2. At the end, when I clicked submit, I was presented with a 404 error page. Does that mean my submission didn't make it into their database? Dunno. But it's not a good omen.
Back to the meeting and the City Council's reactions.
Jennifer Justice: "I think that it's great that you take a facilitator approach. I think it's shifted over time, the way comprehensive plans were done. Usually you would have the experts come in and tell you what you need versus listening to the community. So I appreciate the facilitator approach very much." In short, Justice was long on feedback on process, short on feedback on substance.
Mayor Pro Tem Arefin: "It's great, great presentation and so far, really great work." In short, Arefin is all praise, no suggestions, no ideas.
Dan Barrios: "How should we as a council continue to engage as we move along from step to step?" The consultant encouraged Councilmembers to attend the community summits themselves, as well as give feedback in joint worksessions like this one on the direction the consultants are taking. What's unsatisfying is that this exchange occurred in one of those worksessions and I heard little substance presented on which to give feedback. The answer left a lot to be desired. Barrios himself just said, "OK. Thank you."
And that was that. No feedback from Curtis Dorian, Joe Corcoran, Ken Hutchenrider, or Mayor Bob Dubey.
What little of substance that was presented by the consultants included a preliminary vision statement. They defined a good vision statement as being "an inspiring image of the future" that is "succinct and memorable," ..., and "not a laundry list of individual topics." They then presented a vision statement that was, if not a laundry list, then at least a word cloud of feedback from the community. They even showed the word cloud on the slide. Let's call it a clouded vision.
Councilmember Justice said, "I'm going to hold back my thoughts on [the preliminary Vision Statement]. I want to hear what the community thinks." Don't wait. Now is the time to shape the Comp Plan. Before the consultants write it.
The consultants showed a slide titled "Guiding Principles" which was more a list of chapter titles from a generic comprehensive plan: Land Use; Mobility/Transportation; Community Facilities; Community Infrastructure; Neighborhoods and Housing; Parks, Trails, and Open Space; Natural Environment; Enhancement/Reinvestment Areas; and Economic Development. That was followed by a slide with four examples of principles from four of those future chapters. They even had a disclaimer: "For illustrative purposes only." The actual community survey (not shown to the Council) includes many more candidate Guiding Principles. I think I checked "Very Important" to almost all of them. It's not like the City can't, or shouldn't, live by all of the principles. I didn't want me checking "Somewhat Important" to imply that I was giving the City a pass to ignore one or more of them. It would be like asking God which of the Ten Commandments are only "Somewhat Important."
One thing I divine from the survey I took is that consultants want to tease out from the public their tolerance for mixed-use developments in different parts of the City. They defined many different "PlaceTypes" (Neighborhood Residential, Neighborhood Service, Community Commercial, etc.) and then asked which types of secondary uses people would be comfortable with allowing in each PlaceType (single-family detached homes, townhomes, multi-family, restaurants, entertainment, etc.).
I would have liked to hear the City Council's answers to that same survey. But we weren't treated to anything like that. This is timidity. The City Council needs to lead. They should share with us their vision of what the future Richardson should look like. They should inform and shape public opinion, not merely go along with it later.
"Richardson's future,
Council's dreams concealed in fog,
Vision yet to see."
—h/t ChatGPT
For another view of the meeting, read Justin Neth's excellent summary.
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