MW seeks 20-year growth plan; City manager stresses public input on city's future 'invaluable'

weatherforddemocrat.com

MINERAL WELLS — Residents here are about to have their say on what Mineral Wells looks like in 2042.

“It’s going to be invaluable for all 14,722 people in this town to give their input,” City Manager Dean Sullivan said Tuesday, shortly before the city council agreed to seek a firm to design a 20-year plan for the city.

A population that continues to spread west from the DFW Metroplex is driving at least part of the need to plan here.

“It’s coming at us,” David Hawes, managing partner of economic consulting firm Hawes Hill & Associates, told the council. “And we all know we don’t want to be Weatherford — we want to be Mineral Wells.”

Hawes & Hill wrote the request for proposals that will be sent out.

Sullivan stressed the necessity for public input, and two other points, in winning council approval authorizing Hawes to send out requests for proposals.

Hawes, a Mineral Wells native and resident, told the council he could send out the RFP by week’s end. And he again stressed an urgency to prepare for growth by noting a goal to produce the plan in one year.

“We squeeze this down to a 12-month process, because we don’t have two years,” Hawes said. “It’s coming at us, so we need to plan for it.”

Another thing Sullivan, Hawes and Finance Director Jason Breisch stressed was the plan won’t land where such documents often do.

“Many of these sit on shelves,” Sullivan said. “But the RFP is not just ‘dream’ or ‘vision.’ But this is how we are going to get there.”

The plan will corral city elements that have been developing separately:

• making the airport an economic development launching site;

• further exploration of using Tax Increment Reinvestment Zones to lure commerce;

•  drawing up a Capital Improvement Plan to map out large city expenditures;

• planning for parks, both improvements and future sites;

•  designing a Land Use Map to govern zoning decisions;

• storm water drainage and flooding mitigation;

• tourism enhancement;

• housing policy;

• infrastructure;

• downtown development;

• streets and city arteries.

“This will all fit together,” Hawes said.

There were two other items decided Tuesday that play into the plan.

The council approved a rezoning request that will allow a company to sell airplane parts and accessories at the airport.

“This is very important to the development of our airport, as well as some of the corridors that lead into and out of (that area),” Sullivan said.

Hawes indicated the company, which he did not name, is serious about a move to Mineral Wells.

“A company out of California is consolidating several companies and is absolutely moving all its operations to Mineral Wells,” Hawes said. “We’ve been working with them for four months, and it will be nice to get them here.”

The other growth-related measure was the council’s decision to create a Tax Increment Reinvestment Zone in a 113-acre plat along Garrett Morris Parkway where developers plan a 486-lot housing development.

The Wells is the city’s first planned housing development. Ceremonial groundbreaking was held last fall for the multi-phase construction plan, in which Phase 1 is projected to wrap up in early 2023.

The city has had success with such reinvestment zones in revitalizing downtown. The taxing format establishes a base tax for new developments and uses increased tax revenue from the resulting property value increase to feed further development.

Sullivan estimated the 20-year plan could cost $250,000 but stressed it will cover two decades and gather many separate plans under one umbrella. This year’s budget includes $100,000 for the master plan, with the remainder anticipated in the 2022-23 budget.

Sullivan also suggested using American Rescue Plan funds or other grant sources to fund the undertaking.

The third element Sullivan, Breisch and Hawes highlighted was that the request for proposals would demand specific steps the winning firm recommends the city take toward each goal.

Breisch called them, “deliverables.”

“They are going to be right out of the gate,” he said. “We were very specific with Hawes Hill that we want something we can put in motion immediately.”

Backup material for the agenda item said prospective firms should include a five-year “immediate to-do list” in the 20-year vision.

Anticipating a potential question from the public, Hawes indicated the project is too encompassing to do in-house with city staff.

“They are very good and qualified people,” he said. “But they have jobs to do. They have work to do, and that is serving the people of Mineral Wells. … And you also need fresh eyes. (The chosen firm) is going to see things we can’t see on a daily basis. … This is not a ‘shelf piece.’ This is a put-in-action plan.”