Liven up your comprehensive planning effort Texas style. Matthew Lewis, Development Director for the city of San Marcos, used everything from Legos to "design rodeos" (i.e. Texas charrettes) to get to common ground.
"I tend to take the road less traveled. For whatever reason, conventional approaches have never interested me. And the process I came up with for my city’s comp plan was no different. Why? Well, first off, conventionalism leads to….. 'BORING!' (Yell it out like no one can hear you!)"
"San Marcos, Texas, where I serve as development director, is a quaint, progressive community of 50,000 with a university of 32,000 and expectations for Texas-sized creativity. Though tarnished by previous unpopular land use and transportation decisions, we’re best likened to a great grandfather’s old pocket-watch: Potentially good as new when cleaned up well and geared in the right direction."
Lewis goes on to discuss some unusual approaches to comprehensive planning, along with some contemporary tools repackaged as a Texas planning party.
Read the full story: Comp Planning Off the Beaten Path
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City of Rosemead
Rutgers University, Edward J. Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy
One Hundred Miles
Hunter College, City University of New York (CUNY)
The Architects Foundation
University of Cincinnati Online
City of Cambridge
Montrose County
The Pocatello Development Authority