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Arlington delays hiring consultant focused on ecology, walkability for city's comprehensive plan

A crane lowers concrete as construction workers stand and watch at the site of One Rangers Way on the Nolan Ryan Expressway in Arlington on Nov. 13, 2023.
Matthew Sgroi
/
Fort Worth Report
A crane lowers concrete as construction workers stand and watch at the site of One Rangers Way on the Nolan Ryan Expressway in Arlington on Nov. 13, 2023.

City leaders are considering the next steps for Arlington’s comprehensive plan after tabling a motion to spend $640,000 on consultants.

The comprehensive plan, which would modify the city’s current strategy formed in 2015, is expected to find solutions to problems of space and address the future of transportation, zoning and growth in specific industries.

The city council was expected to approve the hiring of Moore Iacofano Goltsman at its regular meeting Oct. 22 but voted unanimously to table it after a motion by Councilmember Raul Gonzalez, who represents district 2.

Gonzalez did not say during the meeting why he wanted to table the item. The decision will be brought back before the city council during its Nov. 12 meeting.

The city said in an Oct. 15 update on ArlingtonListens.com that updates to the comprehensive plan would look at five primary topics:

  • How to create a unified vision for Arlington’s future;
  • What to do about the city’s limited and fading space for development;
  • Increasing safety for residents and visitors and opportunities for the people who live there;
  • Simulating the local economy;
  • Protecting the city’s natural environments;
  • Cooperation with nearby cities;
  • And what policies are necessary to make the plan work.

Hiring consultants is a common step when cities are preparing tactics for the city’s future. According to its website, MIG consulting focuses heavily on inclusion, walkability and pedestrian street use, safety and integrating existing ecology into plans for a city’s future.

John Chapman, the long-range planning manager for the city, said public input is one of the most important aspects of creating the comprehensive plan.

He said education meetings with the public and presentations to the city council were the first steps in formulating the plan and determining what topics and issues are most important to focus on.

The consultants, whenever they are hired, will work to make sure city leaders have a clear vision of what Arlington needs and what residents want the future of their city to look like.

"We just want to focus on ensuring that this plan is going to create a future for Arlington that represents everyone," Chapman told KERA News. "The overarching goal is going to be transforming the awareness of this plan into concrete action. ... It's very important to hear not just the positives but the negatives."

And with something like a comprehensive plan, Chapman said it's especially important to have input from people all across the community, not just those who typically attend planning and zoning committee meetings or city council meetings. Reaching those folks can be difficult sometimes, which is another aspect consultants will assist on.

"We know and understand who we will hear from, but we need to hear from those who we don't normally hear from," Chapman said. "We'll be working with the consultants, whoever is selected, and really formulating a plan as to how to reach community members that are traditionally left out of the planning process and how to reach them and get their feedback."

City planners in June held two public education sessions about the comprehensive plan. Former long-range planning manager Patricia Sinel told KERA News in June that city leaders wanted strong community engagement from the start to ensure the plan meets the needs of Arlington residents.

“It impacts a lot of people,” she said in June. “It impacts work as well as home life, so we want to have a strong process from the get-go for public engagement, for people to have their voices heard, to present their ideas, their innovations, or even just to tell us a story about what they would like to see in Arlington or what they don’t want to see in Arlington.”

During those education sessions, attendees were told the comprehensive plan looks at any element that indicates the direction the Arlington community wants its city to move. It evaluates everything from demographics, existing conditions and historic preservation to future land use, transportation, public facilities and services and regional cooperation, according to a presentation given at the events.

The plan needs to be updated to reflect current conditions and changes to development, as well as to modernize the vision Arlington communities have for their home, according to the presentation.

Hiring the consultants in October was part of the original schedule for the comprehensive plan. The council is now expected to vote on it in November.

James Hartley is the Arlington Government Accountability reporter for KERA.