City of College Station

The Next 10 was a major effort to consider recent growth, trends, and best practices, as well as define updates to the city’s policies to guide the next 10 years. College Station's current Comprehensive Plan was adopted in 2009. It is meant to be a "living document" and recommends that the City undertake regular evaluations and updates, including a thorough review every five years. 

The 10-year, or half-way point, of this Comprehensive Plan occurred in 2019. City staff launched the 10-year evaluation process and branded it The Next 10. It was more rigorous in scope than the previous five-year evaluation and involved multiple rounds of community input engaging over 800 citizens during a 16-month period from July 2019 to October 2020. The evaluation provided a review of the basic conditions and assumptions related to the city’s growth, implementation progress related to the plan’s goals, strategies, and action items, and prepared the city for the major 10-year update to the plan by defining recommended modifications to the plan goals, policies, action items, and structure. These recommended updates are included within the 10-Year Evaluation & Appraisal Report. Throughout 2021, City staff worked to implement the recommended changes which included revising goals, policies, actions, narrative, and maps, along with associated maps from related master plans. The City Council adopted the updated Comprehensive Plan in October 2021.

The 10-year Comprehensive Plan Evaluation & Appraisal Report was accepted by City Council in October 2021. The report was the culmination of 16-months of review and analysis by city staff and the Comprehensive Plan Evaluation Committee, along with multiple rounds of community and stakeholder input. The report features a list of potential strategies and actions, contains a set of considerations for future map changes, and summarizes the community and stakeholder input. The report served to prepare the city for the 10-year plan update.

• 10-Year Comprehensive Plan Evaluation & Appraisal Report
• Appendix A – 2018 Existing Conditions Report
• Appendix B – Focus on the Future Workshops Summary (2019)
• Appendix C – Implementation Assessment Tool
• Appendix D – Best Practices Report
• Appendix E – Scenario Analysis
• Appendix F – Virtual Community Choices Workshop Summary (Summer 2020)

Thank you to the hundreds of citizens, civic organizations, student groups, outside agencies, regional partners and community leaders who participated in The Next 10 evaluation process and public input opportunities!

Two rounds of stakeholder and community input were conducted as part of The Next 10 evaluation. The first round, during the summer of 2019, began with a series of individual and small group interviews that engaged over 130 stakeholders including leaders from city departments, representatives of Brazos County, the City of Bryan, Texas A&M University, student government, economic development, business groups, neighborhood groups, realtors, builders, developers, and others. Next, the city conducted four community workshops with over 200 citizen participants who worked in small groups with trained facilitators to provide feedback on the existing Comprehensive Plan goals, issues and opportunities, and geographic locations for future planning efforts. Following these workshops, similar activities were offered online with another 200 participants, as well as a workshop convened in partnership with Texas A&M University’s student government association that engaged nearly 100 university students. In total, approximately 600 people participated in the first round of input.

The second round of public input, conducted in summer 2020, obtained feedback on potential updates to future land uses and conceptual scenarios for six geographic areas of the city. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, this round was conducted entirely online. A web page containing a series of maps, prompts, and videos explaining the material and expectations were used to collect data. The scenarios and their performance measures, along with the public feedback gathered were used to inform potential updates to the Comprehensive Plan and identify areas for future small area planning efforts. Approximately 200 people participated, providing over 1,900 data points.

• Focus on the Future Workshop Summary (Fall 2019) 
• Focus on the Future Workshop Presentation
• Focus on the Future Pictures
• Virtual Community Choices Workshop Summary (Summer 2020) 

Comprehensive Plan Evaluation Committee. The Comprehensive Plan Evaluation Committee was a diverse group of residents appointed to serve as community advocates for through the Evaluation & Appraisal process, to provide guidance and direction regarding the process and substance, and to serve as stewards of the evaluation plan once completed.

Stakeholders. Various stakeholder groups were convened to provide insight into the city's Comprehensive Plan. These groups included business leaders, neighborhood associations, real estate professionals and developers, education professionals, local nonprofit and service organization, seniors, students, and young professionals, among others.

Public. Widespread community participation was vital to The Next 10’s success. Various in-person workshops and online tools offered ways for the community to give input throughout the process. The first public events were held in-person during September 2019. A virtual Community Choice Workshop was held July-August  2020. Public review of the proposed Comprehensive Plan occurred from August-September 2021.

City Staff. City staff supported and helped coordinate the work of all other groups and their local knowledge and expertise. City staff worked to make updates to the Comprehensive Plan narrative and maps that were recommended in the 10-Year Evaluation & Appraisal Report.

Elected officials. The mayor and City Council monitored The Next 10 process and the resulting community vision, goals, and proposed plan recognizing that success should be independent of the city’s elected leadership.

Consultants. Planning NEXT facilitated the Evaluation & Appraisal process and shared their experience from working with other successful communities.

                                                                

The Comprehensive Plan Five-Year Evaluation & Appraisal Report was accepted by the Planning & Zoning Commission and City Council in September 2014.

EVALUATION & APPRAISAL REPORT (September 2014)
Appendix A: Existing Conditions Report
Appendix B: Implementation Progress
Appendix C: Survey Results
Appendix D: Public Meeting Response