Coryell County holds land use survey meeting

By BRITTANY FHOLER

Cove Leader-Press

Coryell County and the MRB Group held a Land Use Public Meeting at the Copperas Cove Public Library Wednesday evening.

The purpose of the meeting was to gain citizen input on a county land use plan, after the Coryell County Commissioners Court enlisted the services of MRB Group, which is an engineering, architecture and planning firm.

Wednesday’s meeting at the library was the third meeting in the county, following a similar meeting in Oglesby and Jonesboro.

“We are working on a county land use plan, and we want this to be a community driven plan, so we want input from the public, just to get an idea of: what are the things that are working well? What are things that need improvement? What are different things that people want to see, just to guide development to make sure there's a cohesive strategy going forward, that people are going to like what's going on with what they see in the county,” said Angelina White, a planner with MRB Group.

The meeting included survey packets as well as different interactive exercises involving maps of the county and different topics, focusing on economic development, housing, agricultural base, parks and recreation, infrastructure, hazards (such as flooding or drought or fires), and one board called One Big Idea, for residents to leave their input on something that has not been mentioned.

There will be more in-person events in the future, where MRB Group will report back on their findings.

Coryell County applied for a grant through the General Land Office, through the Resilient Communities Program, according to Brooke Thompson, a funding manager with MRB Group.

“Essentially, it just is a high level document, and it'll help the county develop policies, look at their development, look at redevelopment, just kind of analyze the area and see what's working for the county, what's not working for the county, but it also allows them to put some policies in place that maybe protect the county in some ways but also control the growth of development and people coming in because the last thing- no one wants to be taken advantage of,” Thompson said. “So, it allows the county to better protect themselves and just have a kind of grasp on things.”

“And guide decision making, so it’s meant to be an active tool that's used, not sit on a shelf,” White added. “We want this to be something that's referred to on a regular basis to help guide development.”

Thompson referred to the plan as a live document, adding that she anticipates the county officials will continue to use the plan that MRB comes back with as a guide.

“It'll be some things that we look at, like the existing conditions of Coryell County right now, but also what they want the county to look like, and that's the most important thing, to help them guide the growth and not the growth guide them,” Thompson said.

There will be three rounds of public meetings throughout the rest of the year, and MRB Group will also be set up at local events, like Gatesville’s Shivaree Celebration, with these interactive exercises for more community engagement.

MRB Group will then take what they have gathered and put the results of the survey into a presentation to bring back to the County Commissioners in an estimated three months or so.

Coryell County Commissioner Kyle Matthews, Precinct 1, was present at the meeting at the Copperas Cove Public Library.

Matthews explained that this grant program had been presented to the county, and that MRB won the bid for facilitating this plan. MRB is receiving a percentage of the funding, Matthews said.

MRB will “compile all the documentation of good, bad and different, ugly, I guess you could say, of our county to give you an idea of where we sit in strength or weakness,” Matthews said.

Matthews said that this will be beneficial to the county, especially in terms of helping obtain possible funding, such as from grants.

“It's kind of like the hazard mitigation plan,” he said. “You got to have it to get it.”

Matthews said that he felt the most important reason for the public to give their input is water in the county.

“We have to look at this drought that we just went through. You got to look at how Belton went down, Stillhouse went down, Proctor went down. The aquifers dropped, and we can’t sustain ourselves without water. We can go a little bit of time without food, but water, you got to have it. But then you also have to look at any infrastructure for any growth, because you're going to grow,” Matthews said. “The state of Texas continues to grow because people don’t want to live in California. So, with growth, I would rather do it the proper way than the improper way.”

The meeting for Gatesville was rescheduled to May 23 due to inclement weather. The next meeting in Copperas Cove is to be determined.

The survey can be filled out online by visiting https://bit.ly/4btosm1