DEPARTMENT: Department of Planning & Community Development
DEPARTMENT HEAD: John Dugan, AICP
COUNCIL DISTRICTS IMPACTED: Citywide
SUBJECT:
Update on the progress of the SA Tomorrow Initiative
SUMMARY:
A briefing to provide an update on the progress of the SA Tomorrow Initiative
BACKGROUND INFORMATION:
The Comprehensive Planning Committee (CPC) has requested that a standing item be placed on the Infrastructure and Growth Committee agenda that will allow for monthly updates to the Infrastructure and Growth Committee as to the progress of the SA Tomorrow initiative. This item will allow for a staff briefing to Infrastructure and Growth Committee on the progress made to date on the three growth related plans.
ISSUE:
Comprehensive Plan
The SA Tomorrow public engagement process commenced with a Community Kick-Off Event on Saturday, April 11, 2015 at the Alamo Convocation Center. The purpose of the Community Kick-Off event was to begin the public engagement process of developing the SA Tomorrow plans. Approximately 400 people participated in the Kick-Off.
The Comprehensive Plan consultant team (MIG) has prepared an Existing Conditions Report to understand and document current conditions, issues, and opportunities, providing a "snapshot" of the City, that will serve as a baseline for analysis informing the updated Comprehensive Plan as well as measuring progress and change after the Plan's adoption.
The Existing Conditions Report summarizes background information and includes maps, graphics, photos, and narrative text describing the following:
· Housing, Growth, and Population: Summary of population, housing and growth trends in San Antonio. It also includes a summary of housing conditions based on the findings of the Comprehensive Housing Needs Assessment and Strategic Housing Plan.
· Economics: Summary of economic and employment conditions and trends including major employers, industries and occupations.
· Land Use: Summary of historical land use patterns, plans, and policies.
· Urban Form & Urban Design: Summary of existing policies related to urban design and a synopsis of the physical form of the urban area.
· Transportation: Summary of existing transportation and mobility conditions and policies.
· Community Health: Summary of public health topics including physical activity levels, land use patterns and transportation networks as they relate to active transportation, and access to nutritious foods, health care and health facilities.
· Sustainability: Summary of the existing conditions in the community related to sustainability, relative to both the built and natural environment, including water and energy use and efficiency, green buildings and climate change adaptation.
· Military: Summary of existing conditions related to the substantial military presence in San Antonio; description future growth plans for military bases; and, an identification of background data to be utilized for policy development as they relate to the vision for the city's military presence.
The Plan Element Working Groups (PEWGs) met for the first time on March 24, 2015 at the Pre-K 4 SA East Center with approximately 120 participants attending. This first meeting brought all of the Working Group participants together for an introduction and "big picture" discussion of the City's greatest assets and challenges.
The PEWG are as follows:
· Housing
· Growth & Urban Form
· Historic Preservation
· Transportation & Connectivity
· Green & Healthy Neighborhoods
· Public Facilities and Community Safety
· Military
· Jobs & Economic Competitiveness
· Natural Resources & the Environment
The individual working groups met to begin their policy discussions on May 26 through May 28. Of the invited working group members, approximately 75% attended the meetings. The meetings were very well received and the working groups were very engaged. City staff and MIG (Comprehensive Plan consultants) will collaborate on providing follow-up responses to the working groups' requested research and information. The next round of PEWG meetings is tentatively scheduled July 6 through July 8.
Multimodal Transportation Plan
Analysis is underway regarding the technical aspects of the Multimodal Transportation Plan. An analytical assessment of current and future demographics and the impact on the City's roadway network between now and 2040 is currently being developed. Pedestrian Priority Zone criteria is being drafted; the City's Bicycle Master Plan is being assessed for implementation priorities for public and private projects; and the Major Thoroughfare Plan is being evaluated for roadway alignments that have yet to be built, as well as existing roads that may need to be expanded and/or redesigned. Collaboration with VIA is on-going as they continue to update their 2040 Transit Plan. An underlying theme for the Multimodal Transportation Plan is safety.
The public engagement process allows San Antonio residents to provide feedback and input on the growth-related plans. To date, SA Tomorrow has approximately 1,000 "friends' on Facebook and 750 people "follow us" on Twitter. The goal throughout the planning process is to reach 20,000 plus people. Through Facebook posting and re-posting, we estimate that, approximately 27,000 people have viewed the SA Tomorrow information and had the opportunity to respond to the information. Staff and the respective consultant teams will continue community outreach to increase the number of face-to-face interactions as well as survey and mind mixer participation.
Sustainability Plan
The Office of Sustainability contract with consultant Neutral Forum, LLC was awarded by City Council on January 29, 2015. The selected prime consultant is Neutral Forum, LLC, dba Galen Driscol/Kim Lundgren Associates, Inc. and sub-consultants include Adaptation International, LLC, ATMOS Research & Consulting, and Erin L. Deady, PA.
The first of four phases was focused on completing a baseline assessment for the Sustainability Plan. This included a sustainability scan that reviewed existing plans, policies, and programs throughout the city and stakeholder organizations and data collection for STAR (Sustainable Tools for Assessing and Rating) communities and the greenhouse gas inventory. It also established the focus areas and cross-cutting themes in the Sustainability Plan. Public Engagement began with the development of the Public Engagement Plan, the SA Tomorrow April 11th Kick-off, and Mindmixer (online engagement tool).
The second and current phase is focused on identifying goals and strategies. This phase involves engaging key stakeholders and the public to identify goals for the focal areas and developing first draft of strategies to achieve these goals.
The Office of Sustainability hosted the first Sustainability Plan Steering Committee on May 20th. There was great participation and the meeting was focused on the orientation of the planning process, reviewing existing conditions, and confirming goals based on existing conditions and best practices. The information from the meeting is being reviewed and confirmed by the Steering Committee before release to the public for feedback through Mindmixer and other engagement activities. The second Steering Committee Meeting is scheduled for June 24th and will focus on reviewing best practices from around the country, identifying strategies for each goal, and building the cross cutting theme evaluation framework.
The Office of Sustainability will be hosting a municipal leadership meeting to work on the Municipal Sustainability Plan (Lead by Example). This meeting will help inform City Leadership on the purpose and value of a municipal sustainability plan, and discuss goals and priorities for the plan.
Additionally, the Sustainability Plan will host a vulnerability workshop on June 25th with the Resilience Advisory Committee as part of the Vulnerability Assessment component of the plan. This committee is made of first responders, City and County Departments and agencies, and local support agencies. The Committee will lend their expertise to the development of the vulnerability assessment, inform development of resilience strategies, and help the Sustainability Office ensure their representative agencies' goals and priorities are properly represented.
For the month of June, the Sustainability Planning Team will launch additional tools and events to engage the public including hosting a its first ever Sustainability Forum, on June 23rd, which will provide the public a platform to learn about and help refine what sustainability means to San Antonio. The ideas generated through this Forum and other stakeholder and public engagement activities will culminate into a robust, actionable Sustainability Plan. The City and its partners are designing this event to be innovative and fun with five distinct areas running concurrent activities and programs.
Sustainability in Action: A series of Tedx-style presentations and panel discussions that summarize existing activities and inspire further action Creative Brainstorming: Concurrent facilitated ideation sessions on how to meet the goals of the Sustainability Plan areas
Speed Planning: Quick idea blasts on topics relevant to sustainability in San Antonio. Participants rotate through a number of tables for 5-10 minutes each.
Sustainovation (Sustainability-Innovation) Tech Zone: This area will continuously stream previously recorded TedTalks, offer interactive polling, and host the launch of a hack-a-thon for a San Antonio specific sustainability tool or app (TBC)
Expo Hall: This area will house organizational partner and corporate sponsor information tables
This month, in partnership with VIA, the Office of Sustainability will be launching the Question Bus Campaign. This is part of engaging the community where they are. It will visit various locations around the City in a highly graphically wrapped bus to bring attention to the planning process and opportunities to engage.
ALTERNATIVES:
N/A
FISCAL IMPACT:
N/A
RECOMMENDATION:
This briefing is for informational purposes only.