McAllen Vision

McAllen Vision 2000

5 Finding the Means to Make it Happen

The single strongest message emerging from the R/UDAT workshops and meetings was that the citizens of McAllen seek a revised and improved basis for guiding the future city. This will not happen unless everyone is prepared to work together within a context of strong public leadership, a shared focus, and inter-departmental cooperation under the direction of the city manager. The commitment as demonstrated by Futuro McAllen, the LRGV/AIA, Valley Interfaith, Keep McAllen Beautiful, Downtown McAllen, and many others, particularly many individuals who have worked tirelessly on these proposals, indicates the level of leadership required to truly build an all-American city for the 215t century.

Most, if not all of these recommendations can be undertaken, or at least initiated within the next ninety days.

Recommendations

It is recommended that the Planning Commission develop a leadership role in holding public meetings, forming public citizen groups, and taking recommendations to the City Commissioners, with the intent of discussing openly the recommendations in this report. With the advice of the AIA and other key interested parties, they should form a steering committee now. They should then make additions and adjustments to the report, prior to formally submitting it to the City Commission for adoption. This process should take place within the next 6 weeks.

The City of McAllen (including staff, planning commissioners and city commissioners) should facilitate the creation of neighborhood organizations and an overall neighborhoods council. These groups can take on an active advocacy for a particular area or district within the city. This intention behind this is to establish a grass roots watch over the quality of life in the city center, inner urban, and suburban areas, and to provide an accessible channel of communication between McAllen residents and appointed and elected officials.

The Planning Commission should set up, in close cooperation with the City Manager, a series of special task groups on topics of immediate concem, and which emerge from this report. These may include Ware Road corridor; the Ware Road Development Site; master planning for new suburban growth (including aflordable housing); airport/shopping mall/Highway 83 corridor improvements; the proposed city square; library/arts district master plan; etc.

The City Commissioners should hold a workshop where they can consider these proposals and at the same time take input and advice from outside consultants and city staff related to key aspects of the city's future planning and development. This should act as a preliminary to formally receiving recommendations on this report from the Planning Commission.

The City Manager should establish an interdepartmental work group (or groups), under his guidance, to establish a framework for changing the basis upon which planning and development decisions are made within the city and to revising the development code, to be in a position to undertake and commission forward thinking planning and development studies for the locations identified in this report.

The City Manager, working with the Director of Planning, should work towards making two new appointments. The first of these is for an urban planner to take key responsibility for the master planning of new suburban growth. This appointee should have the ability to work with landowners, developers, homebuilders, neighborhoods, and city staff. This professional should be well-versed in techniques of neighborhood planning, landscape preservation, open space provision, and balancing the needs of vehicles and pedestrians. He or she should also have the ability to develop physical plans for developing areas, utilizing state of the art technology.

The second appointment should be that of an urban designer with leadership responsibility for the central city. This person should be able to work with landowners, developers, banks, inner city neighborhoods, interest groups, and city staff, towards the planning and design of the central city and the central north/south development corridor. This person should be able to develop a master plan for the city center, as well as detailed briefs for particular areas and topics, and at the same time collaborate with outside consultants working on specific development projects.

The Convention Center Advisory Committee should make a site determination for the location of the future facilities. They should, working with the City Manager, appoint a professional advisor with knowledge and experience in the industry, and with particular knowledge of the industry in Texas. This advisor should determine the particular market niche and physical requirements for convention facilities that will best seNe McAllen and its surrounding region. The convention industry has changed dramatically over the last five years. This consultant should focus upon the unique geographic location of McAllen, and whether the emphasis should be upon exhibits, shows, conferences, or a mix of the above. This advisor should also have the ability to help construct the brief for requests for proposals; explain the relationship between the convention/civic center, car parking and hotels; and provide economic multipliers to help anticipate the economic benefit that can be expected from this large public project. This work should lead to the appointment of an architect to undertake the first phase of the design. The design team for the convention center should include an urban designer with responsibility for linking the convention center with other city center amenities, and a landscape architect with responsibility for designing significant outside spaces and high quality parking in association with the architecture.

A Ware Road Corridor task group should be formed, and should meet with representatives of the city engineer's department and TxDOT to redefine the terms upon which Ware Road is upgraded through residential areas.

The Parks Advisory Board should liase with its consultants to assess ways in which adjustments can be made to their work, to incorporate the proposals as stated herein. It would appear that many of the recommendations are compatible, but there are also a number of refinements between recommendations.

The city should apply to the Texas Historical Commission Main Street program for the several block area along Main Street. This would require the appointment of a Main Street manager, and investment of public funds in the continued development of this retail district. This program provides many benefits to such districts, including professional consultation related to shop front restoration, sidewalk reconstruction, parking, event programming, business recruiting, and general presentation of the downtown.

The City Manager should establish a task group to work on revisions to the Capital Improvements Plan that reflects the adopted recommendations that come out of this R/UDAT report. This task group should identify potential revenue streams that could be made available to implement special projects. Possible sources of funds would be special district taxes; the hotel bed tax; allocations from the ad valorem tax; bond elections; and increased property tax and sales tax revenue that may emerge from stimulating particular developments, such as the Ware Road Development Site, the Plaza mall, central area hotels, and other spin-offs from the convention/civic center economy. This forms an economic base from which alternatiw priorities can be determined as a basis to devising a systematic strategy of public investment in the future of the city.

A letter and copy of this report should be sent by the City Manager to the Superintendent of Schools. The School Board should be asked to establish a public liaison committee that can offer input and advice toward greater cooperation between the school district, inner city neighborhoods, and newly developing areas. This should particularly relate to the siting of future schools within the growth master planning process, but could also bring about revisions to some aspects of school design and amenities immediately adjacent to schools.

A letter and copy of this report should be sent by the City Manager to the president of the Community College. A request should be made that the Community College should commit to maintaining a strong presence in downtown McAllen, and consider future development of its facilities as a means to strengthening the downtown economy.

The Old Post Office should be the focus of a 90 day plan to begin to diversify the Main Street district, and broaden its appeal. Within that period, the building should be "spruced up", and re-opened with small market stalls and a cafe, selling craft products and produce from the region. This should become the basis to the development of a larger mercado in the center of downtown McAllen. A Saturday afternoon should be chosen for the introduction of the first street market and festival. The street in front of the old Post Office should be designated as a public space for special events, an outside market, and celebrations appealing to the people of McAllen. As this use of the street grows, the site to the west of Main Street, facing Sacred Heart Church, should be considered as the permanent home of a mercado All of this could be in place for Cinco de Mayo, which could also include a wider festival and parade in the downtown.

The City Manager's office should produce a flow chart that tracks each of the above projects that are adopted. It should show when an initiative should get underway; key milestone and reporting points in its development; when capital resources will be required; and when completion is expected. This form of pro-active planning means that the city is comprehensively driving its own destiny as opposed to responding to a more ad hoc pattern of initiatives from elsewhere. This becomes the master chart of the citys future.