CITY & COUNTY
Top city & county stories to watch in 2023
2023 ANNUAL COMMUNITY GUIDE
Design firm to gather feedback on downtown plan
OTHER STORIES TO FOLLOW IN 2023
BY GRANT CRAWFORD
a sense of community downtown are ensuring it is a safe place for pedestrians and families, adding more parking and hosting more events, Geddes said. From an environmental standpoint, the com- munity would like more connections to local trails and green spaces, such as the San Gabriel River. This also aligns with providing alternative ways to get downtown. As DW continues engag- ing with and surveying the community, it will focus on the building height and density of the downtown area; retail, food and beverage options; expand- ing professional services downtown; and providing
diverse housing.
COLLECTING COMMUNITY INPUT Georgetown residents will have the opportunity to provide input on the downtown master plan. SOURCE: CITY OF GEORGETOWN COMMUNITY IMPACT Market analysis begins; Dallas-Fort Worth trip to visit downtown areas Early February: Project website launches Late February: Online survey available March 10 11: Surveys gathered at Williamson County 175th anniversary celebration April 28 30: Surveys gathered at Red Poppy Festival January 2024:
GEORGETOWN Design Workshop, a rm helping the city develop its Down- town Master Plan, updated City Council on Jan. 10 on feedback it has received on what the Square and surrounding area should look like. “We can’t create a great downtown plan without the input from the community,” DW urban designer Chris Geddes said. The DW team broke down responses from council members and the public into four sections: community, environment, economics and art. Top priorities for building and maintaining
A project website will launch in early February. Shortly after, an online survey will be published to determine what the community wants out of downtown. Locals can expect to see DW surveying people at the Williamson County 175th Anniversary Celebration on March 10-11 and during the Red Poppy Festival on April 28-30. “We’ll be with you for about the next year, and every three months or so we’re going to have these windows where we invite the community, go to them as well and really ask them to be active par- ticipants in this process,” Geddes said.
The expansion will double the center's capacity for investigation services.
GRANT CRAWFORD COMMUNITY IMPACT
County child advocacy center expansion nears completion
The construction on the Williamson County Children’s Advocacy Center will wrap up around February, about a year after the project to expand the 15,000-square-foot facility in Georgetown broke ground. A nonpro t organization, the WCCAC provides services for children who have experienced physical or sexual abuse or witnessed domestic abuse or violent crime. WCCAC Director of Community Engagement Ti any Sturman said the expansion will double the organization’s capacity for investigation services. Once complete, the WCCAC—located at 1811 SE Inner Loop, Georgetown— will have two medical rooms, six family waiting rooms, six forensic interview rooms, extra o ce space, a community space and an outdoor space. “For our community, for the families and for the team working on this, we are able to provide beauty and dignity during some of the hardest hours and days of their lives,” she said. Once the new portion opens, renovations to the existing WCCAC will start. The full cost of the project is $15.15 million, of which 77% is funded.
Construction on downtown parking garage to occur in 2023 ahead of 2024 opening
City working on new public plaza near library
BY GRANT CRAWFORD
BY GRANT CRAWFORD
height, increasing the amount of brick, and adding streetscape and landscape. The $17.3 million garage will take an estimated 12-14 months to build.
GEORGETOWN The Georgetown City Council and Historical and Architectural Review Commission have gone back and forth with the design of the new downtown park- ing garage on Tamiro Plaza, but city o cials believe the project will still meet its original timeline. The latest redesign includes replacing the enclosed stairways on both sides of the structure with canopies, reducing the garage’s
GEORGETOWN The rst phase of the new City Center is expected to nish sometime between May and September, according to the city. The plan will create a public plaza and event space between the George- town Public Library and the Historic Light and Water Works building. Funded by capital investment proj- ect funds, the rst phase has a $1.6 million price tag. Three more phases will complete the area by 2025.
City Council saw the downtown parking garage’s latest design Jan. 10.
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GEORGETOWN EDITION • JANUARY 2023
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