San Marcos should embrace a holistic approach to plans for future growth

I am very grateful for the detailed story in the Daily Record on 6-2123 by Shannon West on the new Comp Plan under review by the Planning and Zoning Commission.

The timing on the workshop at the library was not something I could make, but I also appreciate the hard work the P&Z Commissioners and Planning staff put in for this plan.

As presented to us on the Comp Plan Steering Committee, the Preferred Land Use Scenario consumed the least amount of open land to accommodate the projected population growth.

It balanced different levels of density in growth (number of people per square foot of building) over San Marcos to fit the projected growth into the given acreage for that scenario.

By doing so, we are preserving open space for population enjoyment and wellbeing, and minimizing impervious cover to reduce the unintended outcome of flooding to ourselves and downstream neighbors.

I support the concepts in the original Draft Comp Plan and served on the Comp Plan Steering Committee, Land Use Subcommittee and three Area Plan Committees.

I wanted to share my long-learned belief that growth can be considered in a holistic way.

We are all interconnected to the soil, rain, grass, air, aquifer, river, creeks, and the addition of built structures to accommodate people needs to be sensitive to these natural elements.

If we put scabs of impervious cover over the land, we exclude water from soaking in and we have more runoff.

The water is not trying to harm us, it simply has no other place to go.

Using smart building techniques like light density in neighborhoods with utility infrastructure in place, re-purposing and revitalizing lots with abandoned, or underutilized structures, filling in areas with structures/ housing that reflects the surrounding character, will result in less open land being developed.

New development on open land could use smaller lots, narrower streets, landscape that functions as water quality, creeks with large buffer zones for walking and riparian zones, and common courtyard plazas and cottages rather than single family boxstyle homes.

Build up with density and not out to reduce disrupting the land and watersheds.

San Marcos is located in the Texas Blackland Prairie ecoregion, an endangered ecoregion that passes through Central Texas, up into North Texas.

We call it “east of town,' but it is very special soil, plants, creeks and animals.

Once fertile land with large native grasses, much of it has been changed by farming and is being targeted for development.

Conscious restoration of this Texas heritage is within our ability and many seeds of the prairie remain in the soil.

Sources of seed are available to restore the land from Native American Seed Company now located just down the road now in New Braunfels.

As we use modern development strategies to minimize land use, lets also return the land back to its Prairie character.

Other small communities in North Texas are embracing these efforts as part of their continued growth and Comp Plans because they value the prairie.

My message is clear and consistent: We have the responsibility to minimize our impact on the remaining open land in San Marcos.

Although individuals and corporations own title to the land, in reality, it does not belong to us to mark and conquer with asphalt, concrete and rooftops.

It is our home and home to grasses, animals, insects, water, and many other forms of life that we can see and that we cannot.

Nature will be kinder to us if we are kind to nature.

We are all beings on this earth and in this together.

My hope is that the people of power who can edit and change this Draft Comp Plan consider the thoughts and wisdoms of those who prepared the plan in a collaborative, inclusive method, and to not fall back on development concepts that are old and outdated.

Change is harder than staying the same, yet we know inside that we have to embrace change to move forward.

As Albert Einstein stated: “You cannot solve a problem at the same level it was created. You have to rise above it to the next level.'

Thank you.

Elizabeth Arceneaux P.E. CISEC