Downtown Master Plan nears completion

Special by Kyle Kramm, Main Street & CVB director

(Seguin) -- After a yearlong planning process, Seguin’s Downtown Master Plan is nearing completion and is being prepared for adoption by the Seguin City Council. As the public has been highly involved in the process, there will be one final open house on April 19 from 5:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. at the Seguin Public Library.

“This plan will guide the Main Street Program and City Council in making decisions about downtown for the next ten to twenty years, and we want to make sure that the projects, ideas, and concepts included in the plan are what the citizens of Seguin want and envision,” said Kyle Kramm, Seguin Main Street & CVB Director, “We have over 60 projects and tasks in the plan that will help guide us to creating the community’s vision into a reality.”

That vision that the community created is described in the plan as “Downtown Seguin is an exciting and welcoming destination for locals and visitors that celebrates our beauty, grit, and drive while remaining true to our local history and variety of cultures that shape our future.”

The plan includes five goals to create that vision:

• Become a regional destination.

• Strengthen the relationship between the local community and downtown.

• Effectively tell the story of downtown.

• Attract and sustain a variety of businesses.

• Conduct physical improvements to facilitate a vital place.

From those goals comes over 60 tasks and projects for the Main Street Program, the City of Seguin, downtown businesses and property owners, downtown partners, and the community to work on and accomplish. These include policy changes like the adoption of the International Existing Building Code, programming changes like creating a parklet program, and physical improvements like constructing downtown restrooms.

To learn about these 60 tasks and other elements included in the master plan, we encourage the public to join us on Wednesday, April 19 from 5:00 to 7:00 for a come and go open house. There will be no formal presentation, so the public can come anytime to walk through the meeting room and review the displays and provide feedback. Based on feedback, there may be some final edits to the plan before it goes for formal adoption.

To stay informed on the downtown master plan and continue to provide feedback, visit www.planseguindt. com. There you can find copies of the presentations about the plan, provide comments on items about downtown, and more.

Walnut, continued.

Reynolds says once the expansion work is complete, the trail will traverse across a large portion of the city. She says it will also make it easier for pedestrians to get to Starcke Park. The extension of the trail should be completed by early this summer.

“There were some historic areas of the trail, such as the heart-shaped well that we relocated and repaired as part of the project. It’s being showcased along an elevated segment of the trail as part of our new expansion project. It’s elevated in various sections. It includes numerous elevated components, including a long segment that is just suspended over the creek areas of elevated sidewalks and crossings. The area was part of an Army Corps reforestation, so we had to be cautious of the tree preservation during the project. It goes under the Ruby P. Vaughan Bridge. It also includes the first underpass under (Street). This section is about half a mile long. I believe that brings the full trail up to about three miles - from (FM) 78 all the way through town. So, that’s a big, big benefit to the city,” said Reynolds.

There’s also planning underway for improvements to the spillway in Walnut Springs Park.

Reynolds says they have been working to secure the proper permits for that work, and they hope to begin that work soon.

In addition to the spillway work, the city is also looking at making repairs along the streambank. Reynolds says there are several questions that need to be answered before any of that work can begin.

“We need to establish what the project scope is going to be, how far downstream we need to go, whether we fully engineer the channel or we maintain a more natural stream bank. So that is kind of where we sit. We have to establish a budget for that. Our intention from the engineering department is to engage a consultant to do a preliminary engineering study which would help us define what each of those processes would look like, how much they would cost, how far we can go, and what permitting would be required as we cross certain thresholds,” said Reynolds.

Councilman Paul Gaytan, lives near the trail. He says he’s seen the erosion problems along the creek, and he’s worried that it has become a safety hazard. He says the city needs to start planning now.

“The blocks that have fallen in, that’s right behind the library. There are children that play in that creek and there are children that play on those blocks. So, if we have a continuing erosion problem, that means that limestone blocks will continue to fall into the creek, and that is dangerous,” said Gaytan.

Several decisions will need to be made about the streambank improvements, including whether or not it should be a natural stream bank or engineered channel restoration project.

The scope and the costs of the project will be determined later once those studies and plans are completed.