PROTO-ARCHITECTURE

Monday night we met in City Hall to review the progress the consultants had made in engineering the second phase of the Rowlett 2020 planning initiative.  Altogether, I think those who are looking to participate in the process are going to be impressed with the content they will have access to to help them make informed decisions to help shape the future of Rowlett.

To learn more about the second phase of this process, you can visit the City’s website here.

This last weekend  I headed out to the Water’s Edge property to get a little exercise and give my stir crazy dog a chance to run and run to his heart’s content.  If you’d like to read my earlier post from this summer where I did a similar walk of the property, you can do so here.  I decided to return this winter because it would be a much less daunting jungle of poison ivy than it had been last July, and I wanted to document some areas along the waterfront that I hadn’t before.  Read the rest of this entry →

I’ve been asked to participate as a member of the Rowlett 2020 Phase II Advisory Committee and last night we met to kick off phase 2 of the the Rowlett 2020 development initiative.  The goal of the committee is to vet the information that the consultant is composing to engage the citizenry in phase 2 of the process.  This will include public meetings and engagement sessions designed to illicit feedback from anyone in Rowlett who would like to help affect the future development of Rowlett.  You can review my posts on phase 1 of the process here.

As part of the Rowlett Comprehensive Planning Charrette, one of the items that came up in our group as we considered Area E (which includes the downtown, the Water’s Edge, the Waterfront Entertainment District, and several others) was an idea to move some or possibly a majority of city functions to a new City Hall building to be incorporated into the city owned land of the Water’s Edge Development.  My initial take was with some apprehension, because I rather think that any significant financial investment by the city in new construction should go for a new attraction or amenity for the citizens that might help in drawing people to Rowlett.  Thus, I’m not convinced that including a new City Hall in this development would act as the kind of magnet we are all hoping for.  Most of our group agreed, but not unanimously.

This then got me thinking about what civic and non-civic uses do act as attractors within the community.  I recently posted a poll on Surveymonkey.com to help.  Now, most of the 64 people that responded are Twitter users (which is how I got the word out – see a recent report on the demographics of Twitter users here) and so this probably isn’t a terribly accurate or appropriately broad scientific sampling.  Disclaimers aside, I still find it illuminating. Read the rest of this entry →

A couple weekends ago I took the dog for a walk through the Water’s Edge property to get a better feeling for the landscape.  As I’ve noted previously, the site is already home to the Rowlett Community Center and the Wet Zone water park, both of which are set against the magnificent backdrop of Pecan Grove Park.  The park is an amazing local amenity full of legacy pecan trees and with a great little paved walking trail.  The community center’s main gathering rooms have great walls of glass which look out upon this in dramatic fashion (as you can see in these images from the design charette here).  Nestled within are also benches, picnic tables and playgrounds that are often used on the weekends. Read the rest of this entry →

On June 27th I attended a meeting run by Lynda Humble, the Rowlett City Manager, concerning plans to develop the piece of city owned land known colloquially as the Water’s Edge.  The meeting was a preliminary affair, with the City attempting to provide citizens with as much information about the development process as possibly.  At the time, they were in the midst of negotiating a land lease deal between the City and a partnership between Stratford Land and LSC conveying upon them the rights to develop the site.   Joining Lynda were representatives for the developers including Steve Sanders, Director of Investments for Texas with Stratford, and Shayne Whitehead, Vice President & Chief Operating Officer for LSC. Read the rest of this entry →

The following is a excerpt from a Facebook invitation sent by Councilman Gallops inviting people to engage in the vision for the Water’s Edge development.  The meeting is tonight:

Time

Monday, June 27 · 7:00pm – 8:30pm

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Location

Rowlett City Hall

4000 Main Street

Rowlett, TX

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Created By

Michael Gallops

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More Info

The City of Rowlett is contemplating the execution of a land lease at the July 5 City Council Meeting for City-owned property located behind Pecan Grove Park. The City has had a letter of intent signed with the developer since November of 2008 and has now progressed to the point where a land lease is the next step. The City Council publicly discussed this lease during the work session portion of the June 21 Council meeting (see June 21 Work Session at http://rowlett.com/index.aspx?NID=397).

The developer is interested in creating a mixed-use development that could include residential, office space, restaurants, a government center and a marina. This is precisely the kind of development our citizens have expressed to us they would like to see happen in Rowlett and we are looking forward to exploring this opportunity!

If executed, this lease will give the developer control of the property and they will then engage the community through a planning Charette and other meetings designed to gather input on how Rowlett residents would like to see the property developed and then evaluate what the market will support.

At the conclusion of this public input/data gathering process, which is anticipated to take several months, the Council will have to determine whether the proposed project meets with the community’s vision and generates an appropriate return on investment for the City’s leased land. If so, the project will proceed as planned. If not, the lease will terminate.

The City would like to invite you to a meeting about the development so that you might become educated on the process and where we go from here. The goal is to keep you informed so that you might stay involved as we move forward with this exciting new opportunity.

After having participated in the Rowlett Comprehensive Planning Charrette, I’m very excited about the possibilities that our community has open to it.  I’d like to take this opportunity, therefore, to examine the area that is the most likely to experience development first, the Water’s Edge.  If you read my post summarizing the charrette, you’ll remember that the Water’s Edge had formerly been considered for development with a very ambitious master plan in 2009.

This will be the first in a series of posts I’ll make examining this area and what might want to be developed there based on the information I’ve seen and the thoughts I’ve heard from citizens.  First, however, before we consider all the fun stuff, dreaming up what fantastic things might occupy the land,  I’d like to establish a little perspective.

Understanding space is not an easy thing, it takes skill and training, but it is essential to the manage the scope of a successful project. During the charrette a plethora of ideas where thrown out by people for what uses might well be accommodated here.  Clearly not all could be fully realized, but having a grasp on how this land area compares to others nearby should help.  For those Rowlett stakeholders who have an interest in this area, I believe the following analysis will be illuminating. Read the rest of this entry →

Last night I attended the first of four local meetings detailing what happened in the charrette a couple weeks ago, and offering new data based on that event.  Unfortunately it wasn’t terribly well attended, as these things often are not, but I suspect it had something to do with the Mavericks playing in the NBA finals at the same time…just a guess. Read the rest of this entry →

As the country emerges from the great recession, my home town of Rowlett, TX is poised to make the most of the upturn and craft it’s future.  My wife and I have lived here since 2000, and this is frankly the first time we see any energy and optimism around the future development of our little burg.

For those who have never experienced it, this half day long charrette is organized by the city and the development team (comprising urban planners, architects, engineers, economist, etc.) to engage the citizenry and illicit feedback that will help shape the future of the plan going forward.  I engaged in the process for the first time as a citizen, and I hope that my professional experience in community and mixed-use/TOD development offered something unique. Read the rest of this entry →