PRESENTER: Presenter
Christopher J. Looney, AICP, Planning Director
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SUBJECT: Title
Approval of a Professional Services Agreement with MIG, Inc. to update the City of New Braunfels’ Comprehensive Plan, Envision New Braunfels
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DEPARTMENT: Neighborhood & Community Planning
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COUNCIL DISTRICTS IMPACTED: Citywide
BACKGROUND INFORMATION:
On April 2, 2025, Statements of Qualifications (SOQ) were released to pre-qualified firms in the Comprehensive Planning category, utilizing the New Braunfels Indefinite Delivery Indefinite Quantity (IDIQ) for Professional Services. The purpose was to seek proposals from consultant teams interested in assisting New Braunfels in updating the current adopted Comprehensive Plan, Envision New Braunfels, pursuant to the City Charter.
On April 17, 2025, the City received six responses to the SOQ. City staff evaluated the responses received based on identified criteria requirements, completeness and clarity of proposal, understanding of the community, experience, knowledge and reputation of proposer, past performance on similar projects, and planned approach and timeline. Additionally, City staff interviewed the top two (2) scored proposers. Based on their evaluation and interview presentation, MIG, Inc. was selected as the top scored proposer for this project. MIG, Inc. presented to the City their developed and finalized scope of work (attached), agreed upon by the City, for a fee of $280,000. It is anticipated the plan update will take approximately 12 months to complete.
ISSUE:
A comprehensive plan is an over-arching, policy document that guides community decision making to reach long-range goals and aspirations of residents. Driven by community-wide citizen and stakeholder input, it informs all other plans communities engage in at different hierarchical levels. Time horizons for comprehensive plans range from 5 to 25 years depending on rate of community change.
New Braunfels’ Charter requires frequent updates to the comprehensive plan. Additionally, much has been accomplished since 2018, and our community has experienced much change. The City has begun to be impacted by buildout within the city limits reaching approximately 73%, unbuildable floodplain areas notwithstanding. A paradigm shift is required to adjust focus from traditional greenfield development and sprawl to infill, redevelopment, and adaptive reuse. Ascertaining how to accomplish this while bearing in mind both environmental and fiscal sustainability, and maintaining New Braunfels’ historic resources, culture, and exceptional quality of life will be one of the driving objectives of the plan update.
Phase I of the comprehensive plan update consisted of completing a Land Use Fiscal Assessment (LUFA) which was adopted by City Council in August of last year. Envision New Braunfels includes a future land use map with geographic sub-areas and future centers of anticipated activity. The LUFA projects municipal revenues and corresponding costs to deliver services based on existing development patterns and the Future Centers as identified in Envision New Braunfels. The data in the LUFA will be utilized to help define, clarify, and inform recommended updates to the future land use map and overall comprehensive plan; to implement land use and infrastructure policies that support an approach to development and redevelopment that is resilient, equitable, sustainable, and data-driven; and to build an informed public input process for the comprehensive plan update.
The second and final phase of the comprehensive plan update will be completed by MIG, Inc. per the attached Professional Services Agreement. To build upon the current plan and its successes, the update process will include the following :
• Public outreach to obtain the long-range vision and aspirations of our community residents
• Recording accomplishments and identifying new or updated goals and actions
• Using the Land Use Fiscal Assessment, other plans and studies completed since the comprehensive plan adoption, and a capacity and demand analysis to inform data-driven updates to the Future Land Use Map
• Scenario modeling and evaluation
• Creating a detailed, milestone-driven, community-wide implementation strategy
STRATEGIC PLAN REFERENCE:
☐Economic Mobility ☐Enhanced Connectivity ☒Community Identity
☐Organizational Excellence ☐Community Well-Being ☐N/A
• Community Identity: Initiate the update to Envision New Braunfels, the City’s comprehensive plan, and use the Land Use Fiscal Assessment to bring a data-driven element to the Future Land Use Map.
FISCAL IMPACT:
Funding for this expenditure described above has been incorporated into the Approved FY 2025 and Proposed FY 2026 Budgets. Therefore, sufficient funds are available.
Recommendation
RECOMMENDATION:
Staff recommends approval of a Professional Services Agreement with MIG, Inc. to assist in updating the City of New Braunfels Comprehensive Plan.
RESOURCE LINKS:
City of New Braunfels Comprehensive Plan, Envision New Braunfels, LUFA, etc:
• <https://www.newbraunfels.gov/3454/Comprehensive-Planning>
• newbraunfels.gov/DocumentCenter/View/16593/Envision-New-Braunfels-Final <https://newbraunfels.gov/DocumentCenter/View/16593/Envision-New-Braunfels-Final>