Port Lavaca drafts new downtown waterfront master plan

Project designer and architect Ernesto Alfaro gestures to the display, showing off prospective improvements to the bayfront area.
Photo by CJ Vetter

The Port Lavaca Wave
By CJ VETTER cvetter@plwave.com
April 6, 2023

On Monday, March 27, as part of ongoing planning, the City of Port Lavaca hosted a workshop to unveil its new Downtown Waterfront Master Plan draft.

Hosted by LJA Planning, Landscape and Architecture, the city council and the Port Lavaca Visioning Committee, the workshop was designed to engage citizens in the planning process and provide an opportunity for residents to give input on the proposed changes to the downtown area. The master plan aims to revitalize the city’s waterfront and restore the traditionally recreational character of the area.

“City council engaged with LJA engineers and planners last summer and project designer and architect Ernesto Alfaro and worked with the visioning committee that is made up of volunteers from the community,” City Manager Jody Weaver said. “We’ve also had a couple of workshops with both the planning board, port commission and parks board. We’ve taken all that information and all that back-and-forth dialogue and are ready to present the final report.”

The workshop, led by Alfaro, covered a proposed master plan that would encompass several areas of Port Lavaca’s downtown and bayfront area, including Main Street, Commerce Street, Bayfront Peninsula Park, Smith Harbor and more. The presentation itself began with a small section on the history and status of the bayfront area before launching into how each district would be improved and given its own distinct identity.

“We’re taking inspiration from the many colors of the Port Lavaca Chamber of Commerce’s logo and looking at each geographic site and going, ‘Ah, okay, each district has a color — it has an identity and it’s identifiable,’” Alfaro said. “The identity of Main Street is the artistic core of the project, the identity of Commerce Street because it’s called Commerce Street and the potential for restaurants and the transition between the downtown and Bayfront Park — the idea is that it could be a retail core.”

The long-term details of the plan would call for extensive landscaping as well as the creation of new murals, walkways, trails, paths, structures, beach and park areas and more. Examples provided would be the extension and further renovation of Faye Bauer Sterling Park, a linear park beginning at the train depot and extending along Railroad Street to Commerce Street, the construction of an amphitheater and pickleball courts in Bayfront Peninsula Park and boardwalks and trails to connect the Bayfront to the City Harbor area. 

One idea that could be acted on from the plan quickly is the placement of banners to signify the districts.

“It sounds really silly, but banners are really amazing at giving a sense of place. It’s also a way of advertising potential events and they are very cost-efficient,” Alfaro said. “For me, it was really easy to say that we could give these places a sense of that identity by looking at things like ground murals and banners. If you just do those two things, it’ll change how people perceive the area.”

While not yet adopted by the city, the plan would create an overarching goal for the city to work toward and provide a template for future development to be based on. It would also act as an important factor when it comes to obtaining grants or funding.

“The first step is adopting the plan and then using it. There are many resources or grants out there, but the first thing they want to see is the vision and with this, we have a much better chance of getting them,” Weaver said. “TxDot has grants, Parks and Wildlife has grants, I know there’s many foundations that have grants. We can leverage some of our money with the grants and get some of these things started.”

Weaver noted that the city hopes to have the plan adopted at the next city council meeting  held on April 10. Implementation of the plan will start with smaller items, such as banners, and will serve as a guide for future development. 

To view plans presented at the meeting, visit cleargov.com/texas/calhoun/city/port-lavaca/dashboards/935/community-development.