The Lewisville 2035 Vision Plan, a roadmap of potential municipal projects and improvements, is in its early stages of development.
City officials are seeking resident input on what the next decade should look like for their community amid a changing economic landscape.
The 2035 plan is a revamp of the previous 2025 version. Last week the city hosted the first of four workshops designed to put residents and officials in conversation with each other about their priorities.
This is what city officials are calling the “big ideas” phase of the project. From here, residents’ input will be sorted into themes and distilled into actionable items. Eventually those items will make their way before the planning and zoning commission and the city council.
Mayor TJ Gilmore said the city addressed most of the priorities laid out in the original 2025 plan. For the updated version, he’s keeping an eye on transit, childcare and education opportunities for Lewisville's workforce.
“We’re constantly looking at all those things to continue the ‘Texas Miracle’ because if I don't have a good workforce, I'm not going to attract good businesses and they're not going to stick,” Gilmore said.
The 2035 plan comes together in an era of change across the United States.
Although the World Health Organization declared the COVID-19 public health emergency over in 2023, Americans still feel ripple effects in the economy, like inflation and the rise of automation in the workforce.
Paris Rutherford is a principal at Catalyst Urban Development who spoke at the workshop. He said a new economy is on the way, and that it comes as the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex is on track to grow into a “megacity” like Mexico City or Mumbai. Lewisville has a place in that growing urban hub as a jobs center, Rutherford said.
“I believe that we're coming into a really exciting time, but it's going to be the most competitive time we've ever seen among cities to attract talent, to attract investment,” Rutherford said.
Over the last decade, the city used their original 2025 plan to guide projects like the redevelopment of Old Town Lewisville and park expansion.
Lewisville Planning Director Richard Luedke said one of the biggest completed projects to come out of the 2025 plan was Thrive, the city’s multigenerational recreation center.
Luedke said there’s not much room for Lewisville to expand even as the Metroplex grows. So, city officials are focusing on reimagining developments on the ground now.
“Old Town is a good example of how you can reinvent an area,” he said. “Keep its identity and its character and cherish those things that are special to the community that have been here a long time, but you can also add new elements.”
Resident Jacob San Antonio said, “Even without concerns about the nation's economy or even the global economy, it’s always a good question to ask: what does your town have planned for navigating just the next 10 years, next five years, or heck, even the next year?”
Three more workshops are slated through the summer of 2026.
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