Corpus Christi Mayor Nelda Martinez (center) participates in a summer workshop to outline a 20-year plan for the city’s future. Members of the public were invited to attend eight open houses in November 2014 to go over a draft of Plan. Courtesy Photo
Plan CC 2035 rose from the dead at the most recent city council meeting. Corpus Christi council members voted to extend the deadline for written comments on proposed changes until Dec. 17. The city’s planning commission will incorporate suggestions into the plan before bringing it back to the council for a vote, sometime in the spring.
“I would like to read comments from my fellow council members and I would dare to say I challenge each of us to submit written comments,” said councilman Chad Magill, who made the motion to extend the comment period. “It is important for each of us as council members to go ahead and submit what we believe is the right path forward.”
A final vote was originally scheduled for the Dec. 15 council meeting. The plan, which was put together by a Boston-based planning firm after more than a year of public hearings and meetings, was to be an update of the city’s 1987 plan, which is still in effect. Conflict over whether the new plan focuses too much on high-density inner city development over suburban building has stalled passage so far.
The city council closed down its own planning department and hired Goody Clancy, the Boston firm, to develop the new plan in 2014. The contract with Goody Clancy is for $900,000. At the previous weekly council meeting, some suggested the new plan be chunked in favor of the old plan.
Mayor Nelda Martinez voted for the extension, stating that the new plan should be adjusted to meet a budget and timeline that the city can live with.
The council voted unanimously to extend discussion of Plan CC 2035. To view the plan as it now stands, visit the plan CC webpage at http://www.plancc2035.com/.
