Mesquite Revitalizes with Strategic Planning and Zoning

MESQUITE, TX (January 1, 2009) – Building a better city does not happen by chance. Strategic planning is essential. With its focus on improving Mesquite’s residential and commercial areas and transforming the visual image of the City, the Mesquite Planning and Zoning Division is revitalizing the City’s existing urban fabric and guiding future greenfield development using the most innovative planning models available today. The American Planning Association recently recognized the City of Mesquite with two planning excellence awards.

To implement the City’s vision of an attractive, livable community, the Planning Division and the Planning and Zoning Commission utilize the SmartCode® planning model. As one of only six cities in the state to incorporate this model, the planners are ensuring all future developments include a network of well-connected streets and blocks, civic spaces, civic buildings, and have amenities such as stores, schools, offices, and places of worship within walking distance of residences. The SmartCode® can be calibrated for numerous applications. Mesquite’s most recognized application of the SmartCode is the Comprehensive Plan Element for the Extraterritorial Jurisdiction (ETJ) and the K-20 Development Code.

Much of the city’s future growth will occur in a 2.2-square-mile area annexed by the city in 2006 and in a 19-square-mile extraterritorial jurisdiction. The area is centered on the Interstate 20 corridor. The SmartCode® was recently adopted for the entire area, 21.2 square miles, one of the largest applications of this code to date. Richard Gertson, Director of Community Development, and Arti Waghray, Planner, customized the K-20 Development Code pursuant to the ETJ Comprehensive Plan.

The SmartCode® creates a framework for assigning open space and growth sectors – based on geography and environmental considerations – with the main, overarching goal of sustainable urbanism. “This goal brings together the three disciplines that hold promise for producing sustainability in the built environment. Those are the community-based logic of the SmartCode®, the human scaled architecture of New Urbanism, and the resource efficient technologies of Green Building,” says Richard Gertson. “The other planning goals cover Communities, Environmental Stewardship, Place-Making, Housing Variety, Transportation Choice, Growth Management and Regionalism. These goals were translated into an assertive set of strategic policies to form the backbone of the ETJ Plan. They include offering incentives for green development, measuring proposals based on “neighborhood completeness,” the use of Light Imprint stormwater methodologies, minimum densities to support walk-to retail, the use of ITE’s Context Sensitive Solutions, and exploring transit options for Kaufman County.”

Mesquite’s ETJ Plan recently was recognized by the American Planning Association Texas Chapter with the 2008 Comprehensive Plan Award.

Mesquite has also approved calibrated versions of the SmartCode® for two infill revitalization areas: the Truman Heights Neighborhood District and the North Gus Thomasson Corridor District. Furthermore, the City of Mesquite has hired Clarion Associates of Denver and 180 Degrees Design Studio of Kansas City to create a unified form-based code for the entire city.

Neighborhood Revitalization

In 2005, the Mesquite City Council initiated a neighborhood program called Addressing Mesquite. Based on an analysis of several indicators, the City Council identified four priority neighborhoods as starting points for neighborhood revitalization: Truman Heights, Casa View Heights, Mesquite Park and Sherwood Forest. Over the next eighteen months, neighborhood residents created four neighborhood plans with strategies for improving walkability, reconnecting the residential core to nearby services, upgrading infrastructure and drainage, and preserving character through traditional neighborhood design standards. The four neighborhood plans were adopted in the early part of 2007.

Many City Departments have been working diligently to implement strategies within the neighborhood plans; here is a rough list of what has been completed/adopted:

• Adoption of the Truman Heights Neighborhood District and the Truman Heights Revitalization Code,


• Adoption of the Façade Improvement Program,


• Adoption of the North Gus Thomasson Corridor District and the Gus Thomasson Corridor Revitalization Code,


• Sidewalk and waterline improvements,


• Adoption of an updated alley-paving program,


• Expanded code enforcement,


• Adoption of Sherwood Forest Neighborhood Overlay District, and


• Incorporation of the target neighborhoods in the City of Mesquite Trails Master Plan.
  

Projects such as the ETJ Comprehensive Plan and Neighborhood Revitalization are the reason why Mesquite has received an honorable mention as Community of the Year by the American Planning Association’s Texas Chapter.

For more information on Mesquite's Planning and Zoning efforts, please visit www.mymesquitetexas.com.