• Why are we doing this?
• What do you mean by “gaining from growth”?
• Don’t growth regulations inhibit growth?
• What will come out of this process?
• What is the process?
• What’s a “charrette”?
• Why a charrette?
• Will the charrette be open to the public?
• How can the public get involved?
• Why hire consultants?
• Are these consultants experts on Hutto?
• How about green building and sustainable design?
• How can we be sure all this effort will be worth the hassle?

Question: Why are we doing this?

Answer: Hutto has grown so fast that we’ve barely had a chance to get out in front of development. We all want to channel growth in ways that make the most sense for everyone. Now’s our chance to set our goals and plan a regulatory framework that helps us achieve those goals. That’s why we named the website “gaining from growth.”

Q: What do you mean by “gaining from growth”?

A: Growth can take a community in two directions. Unplanned growth can sprawl into the countryside and make for more congested roads and infrastructure costs that force property tax increases and reduce quality of life. Good planning channels growth into settlement patterns that allows for density in the right places – in mixed-use town centers and neighborhoods, for instance, where people don’t have to use cars for every single daily errand. The more appealing you can make these compact, walkable, mixed-use neighborhoods, the more pressure you take off farmland and open spaces you want to preserve. And the greater the density in the right places, the more bang for the buck for water, sewer, and road costs, as well as the more consumer choices in where or how folks want to live. So the better the planning, the more efficient the public services and the higher the quality of life for everyone.

Q: Don’t growth regulations inhibit growth?

A: Just the opposite. Nothing retrains economic growth more than uncertainty about the future. So we’re out to create what businesses most want, a predictable environment in which to operate. Developers say: “You tell us what the rules are and apply them consistently, and we’ll figure out how to design and build profitably.”

Q: What will come out of this process?

A: First of all, we want to combine many of our existing regulations into a Unified Development Code that’s simpler to understand and apply and that clears up any inconsistencies. That alone should make life easier for both our city staff and for property owners and developers. Then we’re also looking at undeveloped sectors of Hutto with a mind to establishing a regulatory framework for guiding new development. Everybody, from the neighbors to real estate investors, will know what sort of development is likely in what areas, so they can plan confidently for the future.

Q: What is the process?

A: It’s a community collaboration guided by our PlaceMakers consulting team. As you can see from the main pages on this website, we’ve already had workshops and community meetings to hear citizens and business leaders talk about their priorities. We held a developers’ workshop so we could make sure we were addressing the concerns of developers and property owners. Those citizen issues and concerns shape the agenda for a four-day workshop, November 3-6, 2008, called a “charrette.” Out of those four days will come the first draft of our new regulatory framework.

Q: What’s a “charrette”?

A: A charrette is an intensely focused workshop, guided by expert planners, to help folks representing lots of different interests set goals, test ideas, and collaborate on a specific plan. The word is French for “little cart.” It comes from an era in French art and architecture school in which student projects were transported to professors’ studios via a little cart. Like most students, the architecture students worked right up until deadline, finishing off their drawings while running alongside the cart. Modern architecture schools adopted the term for collaborative work, done on a deadline, in the presence of those who judge the results.

Q: Why a charrette?

A: It’s the fastest way to move together towards an actionable plan. And because we get to results fast, it rewards active participation. We’re asking for lots of community involvement, and we want people to see how their ideas immediately influence what comes out on the other end. That’s not to say we can promise that everyone’s ideas will find a home in the final product. But we can promise that their ideas will be considered and tested against community goals.

Q: Will the charrette be open to the public?

A: Absolutely. To make this work, we need public involvement.

Q: How can the public get involved?

A: For those who just want to see presentations on work-in-progress, there are three evening events on November 3, 5, and 6. There are meetings during the day on November 4 focusing on specific topics such as real estate development and retail. And there are open-studio times in the afternoons on November 4 and 5 where folks can just drop by for one-on-one conversations. For the complete schedule, go here.

Q: Why hire consultants?

A: There are two big advantages to bringing in outside experts. First of all, we get the most bang for the buck if we subcontract the responsibilities of charrette management, code writing, and master planning to firms that do this all the time all over the country. It would cost us a fortune to train our own people in all those skills, and they’d only be able to use them once every 10 years or so. Secondly, because they’re from somewhere else, the consultants come with no baggage. No pre-conceived notions about Hutto and no potential conflicts of interest because of business relationships or past political associations in our city or county.

Q: Are these consultants experts on Hutto?

A: We – the community – provide the Hutto expertise. The consultants provide expertise on the charrette process and on ways to shape a code appropriate to our goals.

Q: How about green building and sustainable design?

A: We’re all committed to guiding future growth in environmentally responsible ways. We not only want greener buildings, we want greener neighborhoods and greener public spaces. During the charrette we’ll talk about ways we approach these challenges comprehensively through site design and coding and through better coordination with long-range regional transportation and transit planning.

Q: How can we be sure all this effort will be worth the hassle?

A: To get what we want at the other end, we have to invest our energy and our ideas up front. The plan we come up with has to be tested during the charrette against our goals. So we have to be diligent about setting those goals together. We also have to be diligent about following through. The charrette process is designed to achieve buy-in early on. Since the plan that emerges is a result of a collaboration, we shouldn’t have to sell it to anyone after the charrette. If we do this right, implementation of our plan should be on a fast track.