Video: Ellis discusses city’s plans to redevelop the area around Texas Avenue and University Drive

Grace Hallowell:

Good morning everyone. My name is Grace Hallowell with the City of College Station and I am here with Matthew Ellis, who is the project manager for the Texas Avenue and University Drive Redevelopment Plan. Good morning.

Matthew Ellis:

Good morning. How’s it going?

Grace Hallowell:

It’s going good. It’s a little chilly this morning, but we are pushing through, right?

Matthew Ellis:

That’s right, that’s right.

Grace Hallowell:

So tell me a little bit about this Redevelopment Plan. What is the plan?

Matthew Ellis:

Yeah. So, the city is launching a redevelopment effort for the area between Texas Avenue and University Drive, where we are hoping to welcome people better to the city while incorporating vertical and horizontal mixed uses, supporting the existing commercial uses there, giving more housing options to people who want to live, work, and play near Texas A&M University, kind of that big regional hub that we’ve got.

Grace Hallowell:

Perfect. Yeah, I know it’s a pretty developed area right there with Century Square being so close and all of the restaurants and shopping on University Drive. So, it’s a bustling area for sure.

Matthew Ellis:

Yeah, and we’ve seen redevelopment really starting in the Northgate district and moving east. So, this is kind of trying to look ahead and see, as that development keeps push pushing east, you identified the Century Square development, how can we plan for a similar type of development that can blend into the city and then blend into our University Drive corridor, which allows that full entrance into the city along University Drive. At the same along Texas Avenue, a lot of people coming in from Bryan or going out of the town towards Bryan, they are driving along Texas Avenue. You’ve got this big campus on your left and so, re-imagining what it can look like on our side and trying to incorporate that and really put our best foot forward in that main corner of Texas and University.

Grace Hallowell:

So, why is it so important to create a plan for the city and how can the citizens become involved in the planning process?

Matthew Ellis:

Yeah, two really good questions. I’ll take them kind of separately. So one, it’s important that we as the city are continuing to plan for the needs of the future because development happens continuously. We need to be prepared and make sure that we have all our ducks in a row to be prepared for that from a service perspective, whether that’s fire, police, utilities, or from a planning perspective and allowing for this greater diversity of uses. So, it’s important to make the plan so that we can identify the things that we need to change to be ready for that redevelopment to occur because the development pressure just continues to grow and grow and grow.

So, we’re trying to get ahead of that through this Redevelopment Plan and get it started, so that the development can come behind and fill in that need, kind of how we’ve seen in Northgate from the plan that was written in the 90s to the Northgate that we see now is that cyclical process of planning and development. So, we are anticipating the needs of the area over the next 20 years. The future land use map has already been decided and that was kind of put in place through the Comprehensive Plan Update in 2021. But we are looking forward and seeing what other changes we need to make in order to do that.

Grace Hallowell:

Right. Preparation is key here.

Matthew Ellis:

Exactly, exactly. Getting the city ready to receive that. The other half of your question, or the other question I guess was how can citizens get involved, and that’s also a really important question and one that we wanted to get on here and address with you is we have a working group that’ll be meeting throughout. This is a group that is made up of people who live in and around the district who want to participate in a more integrated way. They’ll be a part of answering questions throughout the process and helping staff really identify those key things that we’re hearing in the public engagement meetings and writing a plan that’s reflective of the community, kind of as a key stakeholder group. We’re still taking people on the Redevelopment Plan working group, people can still email me and get involved. We also have a schedule of our meetings posted, and so you can definitely go to the website at cstx.gov/TexasUniversity to see that full list of meetings.

The other way is by attending the meetings, so if you don’t have enough time or don’t feel like you can participate in the working group, we also have just general meetings. We have meetings specifically targeted towards business and property owners as stakeholders. We’re also hoping to get on campus after the first of the year, we’re working on scheduling those. Then, we just have the general public open meetings that we will hold in council chambers here in City Hall. The other thing is if you don’t feel like you can participate in person or need accommodations, we also will have a virtual option that’ll be opening the first part of next year as well. So, really this is just kind of the kickoff, looking forward, offering the opportunities, and then we will be back in the winter with more opportunities to participate.

Grace Hallowell:

Perfect. Yeah. Very important for everybody to be involved in the place that you live. It’s important to be in on the planning, not just the city themselves, but the citizens too.

Matthew Ellis:

Exactly, and we want a plan that’s representative of the community and how they feel.

Grace Hallowell:

Right. So, is there a timeline for this project as of right now?

Matthew Ellis:

Yeah. So, our first public meeting will be on December 7th at 6:30 in City Hall. That’s kind of the official project kickoff. We’re hosting some meetings ahead of that, but the official project kickoff is on December 7th. Then we’ll go through the planning process and it’s kind of an iterative process where we start with goals and then we move down to actions and start to write it all up. We’re hoping to have this ready by summer or fall of next year. So, that’s the kind of tentative timeline we have set with plenty of opportunities to get involved between now and then.

Grace Hallowell:

Perfect. So, what else can you tell us about this plan?

Matthew Ellis:

I’ll say just historically, this has been an area of high importance across multiple councils, between the development community, multiple city councils. We’ve had many items of interest throughout the planning area. So, definitely as we’re starting to think about ourselves in attracting people to the city, we need to offer areas where people want to live. I think that this Redevelopment Plan is kind of trying to target all of the ideas that we’ve gotten in to the department so far, as well as reflecting the current existing conditions and trying to understand this more holistically. So, I think we’re excited for the city to move forward on this plan and see the opportunities that come out of it.

Grace Hallowell:

Yes. Yes. And we are growing, so it’s good to anticipate before it gets too much and we don’t have enough things for people to do or places for them to live, right?

Matthew Ellis:

Right. Exactly.

Grace Hallowell:

All right, well if that’s everything, thank you so much for coming in today and that’s Stuff You Don’t Usually See.

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