August 29th, 2011
City wants master plan input through ‘crowdsourcing’ website

City of San Marcos crowdsourcing website

STAFF REPORT

The city of San Marcos has rolled out an interactive website to gain input from residents for the creation of a new master plan for the city.

The master plan is intended to harmonize city infrastructure, land use patterns, growth patterns, market demand and community desires. The plan serves as guidance to city staff on a day-to-day basis, said Matthew Lewis, City of San Marcos development services director.

The new website can be accessed here.

City staff identified five major stakeholder groups for outreach efforts related to the creation of a new master plan: citizens, business owners, residents, students, and civic groups.

“What we want to do is work with the community, the stakeholders, and find out what it is that San Marcos loves about San Marcos, what the locals love, what the people that live here love,” Lewis said. “And we need to replicate that, preserve it, and enhance it. We already know that San Marcos is cooler than Austin — you guys have seen the shirts in Coffee Pot. That’s one of the themes that we’re really taking and running with — what do we do to keep San Marcos cooler than Austin? What do we want to be as a community for the next 50 years?”

The effort to gather input for the creation of a new comprehensive plan for the city is called “Dream San Marcos: A Vision for Our Future.” The new website, powered by IdeaScale, asks residents to contribute their thoughts and rate others’ ideas.

Lewis said the website uses “crowdsourcing,” which he said is a technique intended to generate good ideas in a short time.

“What happens at the end of the day is that the good ideas will float to the top and the bad ideas will get voted down, so what we’re left with is a really great list of ideas that we can take and go back into the community and say, ‘Based off of the input we’ve received from y’all, these are the ideas you thought were most impressive, and now we want to go into how we make these a reality, and we need your help to do it,’” Lewis said.

In addition to the website, the city plans to use face to face meetings, public meetings, and media and other information gathering sessions to create the comprehensive plan.

City staff scheduled master planning meetings on the days below with the following groups:

• Aug. 17 with the San Marcos Greenbelt Alliance
• Aug. 19 with the Rotary and Lions Clubs
• Aug. 31-Sept. 1 with Business Expo attendees
• Sept. 1 with the Historic Preservation Committee

The city last updated its master plan in 1996. According to City of San Marcos Attorney Michael Cosentino, there is no legal requirement to update the city’s comprehensive plan. Cosentino said state law only requires that zoning regulations, if created, “must be adopted in accordance with a comprehensive plan,” in the words of the statute.