City's 2021 Downtown Design Project earns 2 Texas Planning Achievement Awards

The City of San Marcos’s 2021 Downtown Design Project received two 2021 Planning Achievement Awards from the American Planning Association.

The city’s Downtown Design project earned a General Plan Award from the APA Central Texas Chapter and a Best Practice Award - Silver through the APA Texas Chapter. The city said these accolades are awarded to a specific planning tool, practice, program, project or process that emphasizes results and demonstrates how innovative and state-of-the-art planning methods and practices help to create communities of lasting value.

“Community planning provides an opportunity for all residents to be meaningfully involved in making choices that determine the future of San Marcos,” Planning Manager Andrea Villalobos said in a statement. “We are extremely proud to be recognized by the American Planning Association and commend our community members, boards, commissions, city council, and city staff members for their participation and dedication to the project to ensure its success.”

The city’s Downtown Design project was an initiative directed by the San Marcos City Council to update architectural design standards and guidelines for buildings within downtown and included community input, policy guidance, and stakeholder expertise. The project was adopted in March 2021 and was recognized for exemplary work and high-quality planning by creating a community-driven process to ensure the look and feel of downtown represent the unique needs and desires of the San Marcos community.

For more information about the Downtown Design Project, visit sanmarcostx.gov/downtowndesign.

Information provided by the City of San Marcos