Thursday, May 16, 2024
The city of Granbury recently held its first open house meeting regarding the city’s next Comprehensive Plan, with residents voicing their opinions on how to best shape the future of Granbury.
"The Comprehensive Plan is a policy document that guides the city,” Director of Community Development Kira Wauwie previously told the Hood County News. “It's a vision document that establishes what the future would look like. It was adopted in 2016, and it has a generalized lifespan of being long term, which for Granbury is about 10 years, so we would anticipate it being updated now. This is our first step.”
The Comprehensive Plan will serve as the city’s road map for the next 10 to 20 years. It will include recommendations for addressing issues related to transportation, land use, downtown and economic development. The Granbury City Council, planning and zoning commission, and city staff will use the plan to make important land use, budgeting and development decisions.
“This first meeting is geared to inform the community on the project itself, to let them know that there's about a one-year horizon to complete it,” Wauwie previously told the HCN. “They would gain information on the background of the comprehensive plan like, ‘What is a plan?’ and the project itself, the steps involved and how they can contribute to the effort.”
During the Comprehensive Plan open house meeting April 18, City Broadcast Specialist Chuck Licata showed a five-minute video to attendees detailing the importance of the plan, along with the city’s statistics and data.
“The plan is especially important when it comes to decisions regarding development, zoning, infrastructure and transportation,” Licata said in the video. “Your voice is needed to ensure that the community's input is reflected in the plan and to vet and inform planning phases. You can also help inform others about the planning process.”
Licata explained that the study will primarily look at the areas within the city limits, noting that the most prevalent land use in Granbury is single-family residential homes.
Census data shows that Granbury grew in population by almost 2,000 people over the last five years. If current growth trends continue, Licata said, Granbury could end up with a population of more than 23,000 people by 2045.
He also pointed out that Granbury is a community with two major age groups: 25 to 34, and 65 to 84, meaning the city is attractive to both young adults and retirees.
“Age is strongly tied to housing choice,” Licata said. “On average, Granbury has smaller household sizes and a larger percentage of households living in non-single-family housing compared to the surrounding area. In addition to a variety of housing types, Granbury's housing stock is on average much newer than it was a decade ago. Over 30% of existing homes in the city have been built since 2010. Overall, housing in Granbury is a mix of starter range and more expensive homes with the highest concentration being homes that are between $200,000 and $300,000. In terms of income, Granbury's median household income is lower than the state medium — possibly reflecting the presence of many residents on a fixed income.”
According to Licata’s video, Granbury’s residents have also become more educated over the last decade, with high school diploma attainment rising to over 93%, and two-thirds of residents possessing at least some college education.
Additional data also shows that the majority of residents leave the city for work each day. However, Granbury is not empty during working hours. Approximately 9,000 workers come into the city each day, at a net gain of about 5,400 people. The main forms of employment in Granbury are educational and healthcare services, professional services, manufacturing and financing insurance.
"In summary, what does the Granbury of 2024 look like?” Licata asked, in the video. “Granbury is concentrated in terms of older population and diverse in its housing stock. The factors impacting growth and development here are high daytime population, lower median income, a high amount of available vacant land in the city limits and continued projected population growth.”
Licata then asked attendees what factors contribute positively or negatively to Granbury’s future, and how they should be addressed in the city’s Comprehensive Plan.
“A plan should also have an overarching vision,” he said. “Each of the goals work best when they are connected to that vision, which centers and defines the plan. The vision should ask: What does Granbury want to be known for in 20 years?”
Attendees were then instructed to go upstairs to the council chambers, where a variety of interactive presentations were set up to gauge the community’s input on Granbury’s future.
At a few of the presentations, attendees were asked to weigh in on some of the city’s biggest issues. Using color coded stickers, residents put a dot next to the item they felt was the biggest problem for the city. With nine votes, residents agreed that traffic congestion was Granbury’s biggest issue, followed by industrial development with three votes.
According to attendees, the biggest priority for the future of Granbury is growing roadway infrastructure and increasing mobility with eight votes. Establishing a clear brand and community identity, preserving historic places, and maintaining existing roadway infrastructure all tied with four votes each.
As far as which retail and restaurant services residents would like to see more of, the top vote was for entertainment, followed by sit-down and full-service dining, brew pubs and doctor/dental/medical services/clinics.
In the question: What do you want Granbury to be known for in 2045, attendees voted for authentic/unique downtown as its priority, followed by small-town charm, waterfront community and historic places.
When asked what Granbury’s biggest asset is, residents were diverse in their answers, as they put down the city’s tourism, lake, wonderful people and school.
“I think this is a great idea,” Granbury resident Faye Landham said about the open house. “I love this (presentation) about what our biggest issue is and it’s interesting how most people put traffic congestion. I was surprised on this one though, about Granbury’s biggest asset. I put ‘school,’ and nobody has put that. I was really surprised no one put our school because I do think our school is the biggest asset for our children.”
Landham said she attended the open house out of curiosity, as she wanted to know what the city fathers thinks about the city versus what she, as a citizen, thinks about the city.
"My only concern is that some of these things are saying they’re not going to be enacted for 15 or 20 years, and I'm 83,” she said. “I don't think I'm going to be here in 15 or 20 years, so I would like to see some of this stuff enacted before I die.”
Dan Vanderburg, a local novelist and poet, said he attended the open house to try to stay current with what’s taking place around town.
“I think we have a good leadership in the community right now, with the city council members and the mayor,” he said. “I think they're interested and they're all doing a good job.”
Vanderburg said he wishes to maintain the historic charm in downtown and around the square because it’s the story of historic Granbury.
"I like the fact that most of the stores downtown, their boutiques are privately owned for the most part,” he said. “But I also think we need more sit-down restaurants around the town. We've got plenty of fast-food restaurants, but we need more quality places where you can sit down and get a reasonably priced meal. It's kind of hard to find these days.”
Julia Pannell, a community leader and a longtime resident of Granbury, said it’s wonderful that the city is being transparent with its residents.
"They've done this before, and we can see that they listened, because I can see some of the things that they've done; that helps,” she said.
Pannell said that she would like to see a more in-depth relationship between members of the Granbury City Council, planning and zoning commission and the parks and recreation department
"I think that if the Granbury City Council were to meet with the chair of each of those committees— and they may be doing that already — but I think if they met with them, with the head of each committee, and see where they were, rather than maybe an annual report, they can address things sooner.”
Pannell added that she thinks Granbury currently has one of the most aggressive and involved city councils than the city has ever had before.
"You can tell that they study, you can tell that they've been thorough, and they don't always agree with each other — and that's, to me, a very aggressive, open city council,” she said.
As a 30-year resident of the city, Pannell said if she didn’t come into the open house and voice her opinion, then she wouldn’t be allowed to gripe.
"I think if we want to have a say, we should show up,” she said. “Show up or shut up.”
Granbury’s Comprehensive Plan online survey is now available for residents who were unable to attend the open house meeting April 18.
Residents can take the online survey to help shape the future of Granbury, make their voices heard by decision makers, ensure the plan meets the community’s aspirations, and to contribute to the community vision and goals.
To fill out the survey, go online to surveymonkey.com/r/GranburyCompPlanUpdateSurvey. The survey will be open until May 10.
For more information about the city’s Comprehensive Plan, visit the city website at granbury.org.
