PRESENTER: Presenter
Garry Ford, Transportation and Capital Improvements Director
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SUBJECT: Title
Public Hearing and recommendation to City Council on proposed updates to the City of New Braunfels Thoroughfare Plan.
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DEPARTMENT: Transportation and Capital Improvements
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COUNCIL DISTRICTS IMPACTED: ALL
BACKGROUND INFORMATION:
The City of New Braunfels Thoroughfare Plan is a long-range transportation plan that identifies the location and type of roadway facilities that are needed to meet projected long-term growth within the area. The Thoroughfare Plan is not a list of construction projects but rather serves as a tool to enable the City to preserve future corridors and construct required improvements for transportation system development.
Under the provisions of Article XI, Section 5 of the Texas Constitution and Title 7, Chapter 212 of the Texas Local Government Code, the City of New Braunfels can require that development plans and subdivision plats conform to “… the general plan of the municipality and its current and future streets …” and ”… the general plan for extension of the municipality and its roads, streets, and public highways within the municipality and its extra-territorial jurisdiction.”
Requirements for right-of-way dedication and construction of street improvements apply to all subdivisions of land within the City’s incorporated area and its extra-territorial jurisdiction. The Thoroughfare Plan depicts proposed general right-of-way and alignments for new parkway, arterial, and collector roadways, and the widening and extensions of existing roadways. The actual alignments of these roadways may vary from this plan and will be determined through the subdivision development process and the preliminary engineering phase of design.
ISSUE:
The current Thoroughfare Plan was adopted on March 12, 2012. The purpose of this update is to:
• Amend thoroughfares that have been developed and established by City Council;
• Remove collector thoroughfares that are existing and do not serve long-range growth;
• Adjust thoroughfares to reflect existing and future development;
• Establish thoroughfare right-of-way in established and context-sensitive areas; and
• Update existing typical street cross sections.
These are considered mostly minor changes and will be compiled in a final report.
Staff will present the proposed changes for discussion, respond to community-requested modifications received during the previous comment periods, and have the information available for public comment. Staff will present its recommended plan update and request that the Planning Commission make a recommendation to the City Council.
COMPREHENSIVE PLAN REFERENCE:
This item is consistent with the following actions from Envision New Braunfels:
• Action 1.10: Update the Regional Transportation Plan (2012) to plan for future arterials and collectors that connect to regional centers.
• Action 7.53: Upgrade existing arterials and major collectors and identify new alignments to create a network of expressway or parkway functional classification roadways. Create a plan by 2020; complete construction by 2040.
• Action 7.54: Consider segments of a potential outer loop, parkway or beltway on the City’s thoroughfare plan as it pertains to relieving congestion.
• Action 7.55: Collaborate with regional partners (MPO, TxDOT, AACOG, other cities, etc.) on future corridors between New Braunfels and Seguin to relieve congestion on SH 46, FM 725, and FM 1044 including extension of FM 306 towards the Airport, an extension of Business 35, an extension Rueckle Road or Solms Road, and a connection to SH 130.
• Action 7.56: Identify missing linkages across town that create barriers to efficient mobility (e.g. the Town Creek neighborhood connections to Downtown and Landa Street, Guadalupe River crossings southwest of Cypress Bend Park and another on the east side of IH-35, parallel routes to Hwy 46 South, etc.); implement a plan to construct.
STRATEGIC PLAN REFERENCE:
☐Economic Mobility ☒Enhanced Connectivity ☐Community Identity
☐Organizational Excellence ☐Community Well-Being ☐N/A
FISCAL IMPACT:
N/A
Recommendation
RECOMMENDATION:
Staff recommends approval.