Say something

You've got one more chance to get in on the ground floor of a plan that will guide the future of the city of Amarillo.

The final community meeting to gather public input for a comprehensive plan for the city will take place at 6:30 p.m., Wednesday, at Puckett Elementary School, 6700 Oakhurst Drive. Anyone can join in.

More than 30 residents turned out at Lawndale Elementary School tonight to talk about their vision for Amarillo for the next couple of decades.

Their number was more than matched by representatives of the city -- members of a city Comprehensive Plan Steering Committee, the city Planning and Zoning Commission, city staff and elected leaders.

Consultants who are working with the steering committee to draft the plan for led discussion groups. Here are some ideas that rose to the top:

"Amarillo is becoming known elsewhere as a speed trap."

"We have world-class arts and music. But there's a disconnect. People don't always feel like they could be or should be a part of that."

"The southeast part of town is growing. It might be time to look at another junior high, another high school."

"Maybe (add) a police substation in the southeast, northeast."

"It seems like everything used to be centrally located. But now everything is in the southwest. We're the forgotten stepchildren on this side of town."

"The behavior of the citizens governs a lot of where people are going to put things. Restaurants, they'll go anywhere there's money. But if people don't think they're safe or the area is pleasant, they're not going to come."

"The parks staff does an excellent job during the summer. They have all kinds of events and activities (for kids). And the director of Parks and Recreation (Department) is probably the best around -- Larry Offerdahl."

About Alamo Park: "I think they did a great job with it. I've never seen so many kids and families picnicking there."

About the senior park amenities being added to Ellwood Park: "I think we're going to have to do more of that, more projects in the parks where they (seniors) feel safe."

"Our alleys are very bad. ... It's overflowing with trash continually, people just throwing out their couches and tires."

"There are cars on properties, not tagged, no tires."

"With all the new development, the dirt's gone away. Asphalt and concrete has taken its place, and there is a drainage problem."

More about drainage issues: "Especially on the access roads of I-40, it will be from curb to curb most every time we have a rain."

Many entrance and exit ramps to Interstate 40 were designed in the 1960s. And they're short and dangerous.

"Can a lane be added to I-40 to improve traffic flow?"

"Here in the east part town, we have to drive to get to anything. We're the ones who are pretty much on I-40, so we know. Yes, lanes need to be added to I-40."

Newer thoroughfares such as Coulter and Soncy already are congested. Other streets mentioned included Bell and Western.

"While we do have to wait (through lights due to traffic), our son, who lives in Dallas, laughs at us when we talk about it. It's nothing at all to him," one woman said. And then, speaking directly to the consultant, she added, "You're talking to a spoiled people."

To the question, 'Is Amarillo a good place to walk or bike?' came this reply: "There are too many buildings that are terrible. Who wants to be around buildings where we don't know if there are transients."

"There are people parking on the sidewalks."

About the bus system, came a comment about the need for "different routes so people don't have to walk eight, 10 blocks to get to a bus stop."

Another bus system comment: "You have to go all over the place before you get to where you need to go."

The voices of your community

At least 50 residents attended a community meeting tonight at San Jacinto Elementary School to talk about their vision for the future of the city of Amarillo.

Their number was matched, collectively, by members of a city Comprehensive Plan Steering Committee, the city Planning and Zoning Commission, city staff and elected leaders.

If you weren't there, where were you?

You have a couple more chances to participate in the meetings, which will help those city representatives draft a comprehensive plan that will act as a guide for the kind of city we want Amarillo work toward becoming in the next couple of decades.

What are the challenges we face? The opportunities we shouldn't miss?

Try, try, try to attend either of the next two meetings, or both:
-- 6:30 p.m., Sept. 8, Lawndale Elementary School, 2215 S. Bivins St.
-- 6:30 p.m., Sept. 9, Puckett Elementary School, 6700 Oakhurst Drive

Add your voice to these comments:

On thinking like a city approaching 200,000 in population: "We spend a lot of time bragging about our low tax rate instead of building on big ideas -- and I'm not saying this is it -- but like a sports complex downtown. They say, 'We can't do that.'"

"If we do have increased growth, I’d like to encourage more people-scaled developments and less dependence on the automobile for just your everyday errands."

About a lack of follow-through on vision for some valuable or historical areas, such as Sixth Avenue, commonly known as the Sixth Street Historic District: "Yeah, we want to save the community, but we forgot why."

"In terms of development, we're in an area all around us where water is depleting. Amarillo has lots of water for the future, but we're taking it from other parts of the Panhandle. And, when agriculture goes, lots of communities are going to be hurt, including Amarillo."

"We need to think in terms of saving the playas (playa lakes), not plowing under the playas."

On placing water conservation requirements/regulations on property owners: "The sprinkler systems around here do a really good job of watering the sidewalks."

On the "embarrassing” lack of curbside recycling: “Austin does it. Are we just stupid up here? Over a 10-year period, they ought to be able to phase it in."

"One good thing is that downtown revitalization has gotten off high center."

Growth has been well-managed, “to a certain extent,” one man said. “But when you concentrate all your medical facilities in one part of town, it creates difficulties, as far as access."

"I have always wondered why Amarillo's hospitals and emergency systems are located in one area. If it ever got hit by a tornado, there would be a lot of problems."

"One thing the that comes with growth -- and the city's doing a real good job with it -- is health care. The city is building a new health department, and it will take care of a lot of the ... refugee population."

On the need for health department offices in all quadrants and for educational tools, such as "newsletters in water bills about how to manage the (H1N1) flu."

"We don’t have retirement facilities for people that are poor ... or average."

On good planning in newer neighborhoods: "But that's new. They haven't done anything for the old areas."

"We are in need of urban infill. We have all this new growth, and Paramount (Boulevard) is just a wasteland. We've got that empty (former) Michael's store. We have two empty Albertson's."

The city should design roadways "not just looking as bicycles as recreation, but as transportation."

"I'd like to see support for green building."

"The tremendous brain drain we have: It's been talked about, but it's just been talked about."

"Do we have enough transportation for parents who are disabled (and) trying to get their kids to school? ... A lot of kids are being raised by their grandparents."

"We're behind the times. There's no technological hub."

"Future stormwater containment areas ... should be usable public spaces. We should be using them as amenities, instead of building a big hole in the ground like we have at Western Plaza (now the Western Crossing shopping center). I don't think it would, but we need to make sure that can't happen again."

"Aside from the Big Texan and Cadillac Ranch, I'm not really sure what folks from 700 miles away would think of when you ask, 'What do you think of when you think about Amarillo?'"

Amarillo has an "I've been through it" image.

Building a skyscraper

Though Newcrest Hotels Ltd., an Irving developer, will turn the historic Fisk Building in downtown Amarillo into a high-rise Courtyard by Marriott, the feat isn't what a Newcrest representative referred to when he spoke of building a skyscraper in an interview Thursday.

Newcrest Real Estate Director Robert DeShay used the analogy of skyscraper building to talk about the work done before Newcrest arrived to the downtown revitlization scene in Amarillo: the formation of the Center City Tax Increment Reinvestment Zone, the support from taxing entities involved in the TIRZ, and the support of businesses and individuals who contribute through Downtown Amarillo Inc. and Center City of Amarillo.

That preliminary work is vital, but it isn't as visible and thus can encourage skeptics, DeShay said.

Here's his comment:

"When you're building a skyscraper, the first thing you have to do is go down deep and make sure the foundations are solid. But no one sees anything except a fence (around the property). And this work might go on for months, months, months. And then all of a sudden, a structure begins to rise. And the higher the structure, the more solid the foundation has to be."

Newcrest found the prep work "very impressive," DeShay said. "We said to ourselves, 'You know what? These people are going to make something happen in this downtown.'"

Newcrest's role now is to complete a $12.7 million renovation of the Fisk, on Polk Street at Southwest Eighth Avenue, in about a year's time. Upon completion, the developer will be eligible to begin receiving about $1.6 million in property tax rebates from the TIRZ over a 20-year period.

A barbecue and jazz event today at the Fisk's parking garage celebrated the kickoff of demolition and construction of the Courtyard by Marriott.