Imagine Austin

Phase 1: Over an approximately four-week period, an initial exercise was conducted to scope and prepare the organizational design and public Participation Plan which addresses roles and responsibilities and venues for public outreach and involvement. Immediately after the plan process began, staff began public engagement, presenting and explaining the Plan to the people of Austin, by going out to public events and launching a Speakers Bureau. This will last throughout the life of the project, so that citizens can join in the discussion at any point.

Phase 2: The Vision and Plan Framework phase includes three of the plan's four Community Forum Series, built around the following three questions. What is the best in Austin that needs to be protected? Where are gaps that should be overcome? and What problems, old or new, need to be addressed to benefit everyone in Austin?

A second community forum series will be held to assess Austin's current conditions and anticipated growth. Participants will engage in a chip exercise, working in small groups to identify where growth should go across Austin and its Extra-Territorial Jurisdiction.

The public will be able to discuss where growth should go and what form it should take, if Austin is to achieve its Vision for the future. This task allows the public to see the sustainability and financial implications of the alternatives. The choices made in this task become the Plan Framework, which lays out in general terms what must change for Austin to move into a sustainable future.

Phase 3: The Draft Comprehensive Plan will define specific strategies and actions to implement the plan framework. While the Plan will address the elements required by Austin's City Charter, interrelationships between the different elements will be emphasized. A fourth and final community forum series will be held for the people of Austin to review the plan and identify priorities for implementation.