Category: Planning (Page 2 of 2)

Thinking ahead to get to where we want to be

The New San Gabriel River Pedestrian/Bike Bridge…Let’s Get Creative with its Design!

August 23, 2020 /

The new pedestrian and bike bridge planned for the South & North San Gabriel Rivers gives Georgetown another opportunity to attract regional and national recognition with a new city landmark that overlooks our beautiful San Gabriel River.

The new bridge, which will be built alongside the Austin Ave Bridges, will connect to the San Gabriel park/trail system and link the Square & downtown to the Sheraton Hotel/Rivery development, the City’s west side, and ultimately to Lake Georgetown & Garey Park.  The pedestrian bridge also  gives us the opportunity to create a unique “gateway” for downtown Georgetown.

Instead of taking a traditional engineering approach to designing a basic utility bridge to accommodate pedestrian and bicycle traffic over the Rivers, hopefully the City will think outside the box and be creative in how they go about selecting the design for the new bridge.

Do we take the usual route and give the job to an engineering company without competition…or do we decide to be imaginative…and SMART?

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Making the Most Beautiful Square in Texas Better………with “al fresco” dining in the Streets?

August 9, 2020 /

I really enjoyed reading D.Ann Shiffler’s Guest Essay, “Going al fresco”, in last Sunday’s  Williamson County Sun. Her essay got me thinking about how we could increase outdoor eating around Downtown Georgetown and help our struggling restaurants around the Square.

Over the last few weeks, this idea has been discussed at City Council, in the papers and around the Square. Is there a way we could try it out and see if it could work…while still enforcing social distancing requirements?

Since I’m an architect, I decided to use my good Texas Tech education (Go Red Raiders) and look into the possibilities of experimenting with al fresco dining on some of the streets around the Square…but remember, we have to be Safe, Protected and Smart!

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City Begins Work on New 2021 Mobility Bond Package

July 19, 2020 /

With the appointment of a 16 member Citizen Advisory Committee on July 14th, City Council has started work on building a mobility bond package that voters will decide up or down in May 2021.

The City has kicked off their public engagement phase with an online survey. I strongly encourage you to complete the online survey (web link to survey).

Since we will be voting on the bond package next May, our opinions and priorities are critical to the process. Feel free to share the survey site with your friends and neighbors…the more the better.

With Georgetown being one of the fastest growing cities in the nation, we need to ensure we invest our tax dollars on projects that protect and enhance our community’s quality of life. We will have to live with the decisions we make next May for years to come. Typically, mobility bonds packages build bigger, wider roads, but does that always really help us? When we build wider roads through our neighborhoods, we are inviting more traffic to travel on those wider roads.

Instead of just building more concrete infrastructure, maybe we should also be investing in new ideas that can help solve our existing traffic congestion. Enter Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) that can help move more traffic faster through our existing roadways.

Let’s be a “Smart City” and think about how and where we invest our hundreds of millions of dollars to improve Georgetown’s future. Continue reading

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