The Master Plan Set for Pilot Point, composed of the Master Thoroughfare Plan, the Parks and Trails Master Plan, and the Downtown Master Plan, gained a 6-1 approval during a special meeting of the Pilot Point City Council on April 15.
Mayor Elisa Beasley was the sole dissenting vote, not for the set as a whole, but specifically for the Downtown Master Plan, which she has opposed for its proposed use of land currently not owned by the city.
“It comes down to the heart, and the city manager said it,” Beasley said. “We aren’t making our plans considering what the owners are doing. If I had heard, ‘hey yeah it’s just a plan if whoever comes to the south side of the Square wants to build it out, we’re going to adjust,’ that’s why I was trying to drill down and make sure if they come in with a plan to build tomorrow, they’re not going to be hindered.”
Beasley pressed LJA representative Abra Nusser and City Manager Britt Lusk for that conformation during the meeting which they gave after some back and forth.
“The plan doesn’t change any existing entitlements in terms of zoning or platting status,” Nusser said. “If they came in and submitted a building permit today for something that is compliant with their existing zoning, and did their plat, they are allowed to do that. This is not a regulatory document.”
Though she pressed for the an- swer, Beasley earlier expressed that understanding when responding to Gretta Buchanan who has regularly expressed issue with the Downtown Master Plan, continuing to voice her discontent.
“Ninety-five percent of the people I’ve talked to want the Square footprint to stay the same as it is now,” Buchanan said. “I want to put a building there,” Buchanan said. “My cousin [Tom Kam] wants to put a building there. He has facade renderings of it, and you’re taking away parking. It would just ruin the whole town.”
Beasley spoke as Buchanan returned to her seat.
“Here’s the deal, you own the land, so if you throw a building up there, it’s not like the city can throw a park over your building,” Beasley said. “All of this is plans. We’re looking at it and saying we need to have something in place [for] when developers and businesses come. It’s not us, we don’t have that power. It’s the people that own the land working in conjunction.”
Each of the plans, like the Downtown Master Plan, relies on developer driven action as land is purchased from current owners or developed by them. Until such time, they are illustrations designed to create a vision for the future, which city staff and council can reference as development occurs.
Nusser opened discussion with some engagement statistics, which the council had previously requested.
“We hear a lot about the RUDAT, how successful it was and how people enjoyed that process and how over 200 people came to this community forum,” Nusser said. “We had a website called planpilotpoint.com, it’s still up today and we have had extensive engagement on this website. ... Keep in mind not only the population of Pilot Point, being still a small population, but also the number of people who actually vote in a general election.”
The website had 5,180 visits from 3,754 different IP addresses. The different available materials were downloaded thousands of times, and the interactive map had 753 visits from 408 different IP addresses represented by 122 comments on the map. Additionally, Nusser cited over 200 in-person visitors at the two in-person community forums as well as hundreds who either attended or later watched the third community forum on Zoom.
Finally, Nusser referenced the three surveys which saw 446 responses.
“All that to say, the engagement has been robust and has been higher than a typical community,” Nusser said. “I have really enjoyed the passion and knowledge that people have brought to the process.”
