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Conflicts Arise While Planning McAllen's Future
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0 Comments ::  :: LOCAL |
Should McAllen be an idyllic oasis of free-flowing streets, green space and aesthetically pleasing buildings by 2025?
Or should it be a mess of retail developments, homes and office blocks with a long line of traffic in front?
 While there’s no disagreement on the answer to that question, how best to accomplish that goal is a different story all together.
For the last year, city staff, citizens and a Sugar Land consulting firm have been wrangling over the city’s comprehensive guide to managing future growth and its side effects, a project better known as Foresight McAllen.
Three months away from its scheduled completion date, the process is bogged down in disagreements over everything from how far apart cross streets should be on major roads, to whether the downtown area — already part of another comprehensive study — should even be mentioned.
“My understanding is that the (citizens) committee is very frustrated and concerned because they feel the consultant thinks the work is about finished, but they don’t feel they are,” said City Commissioner Jan Klink, who was just appointed as a liaison to help sort out the project and plans to continue as one when he retires from the commission in late May. “We felt everything was going well … until the meeting this week.”
Greg Townsend, a member of the Foresight McAllen committee and a contractor and real estate agent, declined to go into the details of the citizens’ rift with the consultant.
“I will say it’s a lot of work, and we needed some help because the city wants to make some big changes,” he said. “I’m happy they’ve appointed Jan Klink to work with us.”
Bret Keast, a partner in the consulting firm Kendig-Keast Collaborative, did not return phone calls for comment.
The August deadline for the completion of the project has been postponed, said Assistant City Manager Pilar Rodriguez.
At least part of the problem with the latest update of the Foresight McAllen document, originally created in the late 1970s and updated every five to 10 years, it its sheer immensity.
The partial draft of the document already fills a 4-inch wide binder and easily numbers 1,000 pages, almost 10 times the size of the 1998 update.
“The updates are usually much easier because you just evaluate the existing plan and make the necessary changes,” Klink said.
“Although it is an update, we told them we didn’t want any stone left unturned. The purpose of it is to have controlled, positive growth and to make sure the quality of the city doesn’t deteriorate.”
To do so will involve completing a couple major projects in and of themselves.
Most pressing is the creation of a comprehensive zoning map, which would lay down land use for the vast tracts of undeveloped land around the city, most of which is still designated agricultural.
And then there’s the mobility plan, basically designating which roads will turn into major arterials and what’s to be built around them to maximize traffic flow.
The list goes on.
“It’s a tough job. It’s a 20-year plan, and the bottom line is we’ve already been at it a year,” Townsend said.
“Truthfully, I think a lot of us are worn out.”
James Osborne - The Monitor
 | Attracting 3 million tourists a year, McAllen Texas is truly the hub of the Lower Rio Grande Valley. Bordering Mexico and with some of the most sought after natural areas and wildlife in the nation, McAllen is an ever-growing pupolous rich in diversity and culture. McAllen also boasts some of the finest real estate in the Valley located within a few minutes drive of state-of-the-art medical facilities--for which McAllen is famous--and endless shopping opportunities.
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