The Arlington City Council unanimously voted to delay hiring a consulting firm to update the city’s Comprehensive Plan on issues related to ecology and walkability.
The Comprehensive Plan “serves as one of Arlington’s key policy documents and charts a course for the city’s future,” according to the city’s website.
“The plan is a blueprint for Arlington and focuses on the guidelines for developing attractive and prosperous neighborhoods; coordinating land use and transportation; ensuring responsible growth; stimulating economic development; and encouraging environmental sustainability,” continues the website’s description.
The City of Arlington has plans to initiate a significant overhaul of the Comprehensive Plan.
Elements such as community vision, city growth strategies, safety, community health, and environmental protection are all expected to be updated during the refresh.
“We know and understand who we will hear from, but we need to hear from those who we don’t normally hear from… We’ll be working with the consultants, whoever is selected, and really formulating a plan as to how to reach community members that are traditionally left out of the planning process and how to reach them and get their feedback,” the city’s long-range planning manager, John Chapman, told KERA News.
Arlington residents are encouraged to share feedback with the city council. As of October 28, at least 40 comments had been left on the city’s website.
“If an owner wants to rent their house out, please require a six month to one year lease minimum,” wrote contributor Bri, pointing to challenges living beside a house with active short-term rental guests frequently coming and going.
“Would be great to have a linear trail system that goes across a majority of the city where runners can be connected without worrying about traffic. Something similar to the Beltline Trail in Atlanta” posted another user.
The Arlington City Council was initially expected to approve a $640,000 spend hiring Moore Iacofano Goltsman, known as MIG, at its October 22 meeting. Instead, council members voted to table the hiring following a motion by District 2 Councilmember Raul Gonzalez.
Gonzalez did not indicate why he wanted to table the motion, which will be raised again at the November 12 session.