Day 2: Visioning in the Triangle
Sally Campbell, Karen Walz, Emily Braswell, and Patrick Howard discussed how to create a citizen vision for the future in the Texas Triangle. The speakers emphasized the need for implementation strategies, not just visioning.
Video will be posted soon.
Sally Campbell on a Regional Vision for Central Texas (.ppt, 35.7 MB):
Sally Campbell, executive director of Envision Central Texas, said that it is important to recognize obstacles in order to overcome them. For instance, she said that it is hardest to get private sector interest in many of the issues being discussed, so that should be a special area of emphasis. She cited several successful collaborations in the Austin area, including an online growth quality toolbox, the 5th Annual Community Stewardship Awards, and the Central Texas Greenprint for Growth.
Karen Walz on a Vision for North Texas (.ppt, 4.6 MB):
Karen Walz, project manager for Vision North Texas, said that successful efforts require action plans, not just visions. She noted that Vision North Texas and several other groups are forming a new group called North Texas 2050. The group will be created later this year and hold a summit in January 2010. She said that such organizations must (1) create public-private-academic partnerships, (2) focus on issues not addressed elsewhere and look at synergies, and (3) “keep it Texan” by avoiding top-down initiatives that could be criticized as communist or socialist. Finally, she said that to be successful, groups like that must accomplish a short-term project in order to build momentum for larger projects.
Emily Braswell on a Citizens’ Vision for Houston’s Future (.ppt, 5.4 MB)
Emily Braswell, executive director of Blueprint Houston, said that her organization has worked with the Houston-Galveston Area Council, the Urban Land Institute, the American Planning Association, and other groups. She also discussed the upcoming Citizens’ Congress in Houston. However, she said that it is easy to get stuck in the visioning process instead of creating an implementation plan, and stressed the need to engage local officials and the community.
Patrick Howard on Visioning in the Texas Triangle (.ppt, 244 KB)
Patrick Howard, the assistant director of comprehensive planning at the City of San Antonio, said the citizen groups need political support to realize their vision. The process needs to be inclusive and non-threatening, he said, including to groups that would not be impacted and those that do not like seeing resources spent. Two good opportunities for collaboration, he said, are transportation (such as commuter rail) and natural resources (such as drinking water).
Jeff Taebel of H-GAC summarized the presentations by saying that it is important to get the messages from this conference outside of the room and to people who are not ordinarily involved in these issues. In addition, groups must be very careful how they frame their initiatives in order to avoid scaring Texans. Furthermore, he said that groups need specific goals that people can understand, and he said that an economic argument helps greatly.