In a special workshop Monday geared towards planning for the city’s future, Bastrop City Council members concurred they need to review what the city already has “on the bookshelf,” as one council member put it, before proceeding much further on long-range planning.

The council is a few months into an ambitious undertaking to study seven specific subject areas in an effort to create a working map for both the growth of the city and future councils.

Some of those subjects that will be studied include growth within the city and its extra-territorial jurisdiction, city staffing, water needs and potential capital improvements projects.

Chris Holtkamp, an economic development planner with LCRA, who is assisting the council as they wade through the rather large task they have set for themselves, facilitated Monday’s meeting. He brought along suggestions about what other Texas cities are doing when it comes to setting strategic plans and long-range goals.

“You are going to hear from citizens that they want parks, cops and streets,” Holtkamp said about long-range needs. He said the council would benefit from a more in-depth list of where it wants the city to go in the future. He added it would be better for the council to tighten up its own ideas about the future of the city, with some specific goals, before seeking wider public input, a move that will likely entail town hall meetings.

He said the council “should start the conversation with the public with something” and not just say to the public, “Tell us what you think.”

Holtkamp also emphasized that the council should be fairly well versed in any strategic planning already accomplished by past councils and related groups, such the Bastrop Economic Development Corporation.

By the end of the meeting, Mayor Terry Orr had asked Holtkamp, City Manager Mike Talbott and council member Joe Beal to look at the city’s several existing long-range plans, including for the parks, ETJ and the BEDC and bring back a summary the council can study as it moves forward with new plans.

More structure

Council member Julie Hart said she wanted more background information going into the current planning meetings and found some of the meetings that have already occurred to be too generalized.

“I need more information to get started,” Hart said. “I need more structure. I don’t know what we’re doing sometimes when we come in here.”

She suggested that a more detailed outline of the evening’s long-range goals be presented to council members and other participants, such as Holtkamp, well before the meeting, so participants can be better prepared.

Hart also said public input should be sought before the council ventures much further in its long-range planning.

Council member Kay McAnally seemed to mirror Hart’s call for more focus during meetings.

“I feel like I’ve lost my page,” McAnally said at one point in the meeting.

Council member Ken Kesselus said, “If we’re on different pages, we’ve got to find a way to communicate.”

Council member Joe Beal acknowledged the conversations had occasionally “morphed” into different areas, but said that could be advantageous.

He agreed revisiting already existing city strategic plans should be accomplished while keeping in mind what the council wants to accomplish with these work sessions.

He elicited laughs from the group, including Hart, when he echoed her statements and said, “The engineer in me also loves structure.”