Center for Urban and Regional Planning Research
Ian Caine Discusses Urban Growth Strategies for Unincorporated Communities at the ACSA National Conference
March 24, 2021
Ian Caine attended the Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture’s 109th Annual Meeting to discuss a recent urban planning effort in Comfort, Texas. Comfort, like 90% of its neighbors in the Texas Hill Country, does not have a municipal government. The Texas Hill Country region is home to three of the ten fastest growing large counties in the United States, yet the widespread lack of urban planning and environmental regulation today threatens the local quality of air, water, and land. Comfort Vision 2050 offers a plan tailored to the realities of life in an unincorporated community, providing a list of 75 Strategic Initiatives that are small-scale, diverse, and possible to achieve without the benefit of municipal government. The research highlights the need to develop regional planning strategies that can address the needs of unincorporated communities, which after all need urban planning for all the same reasons that cities do: to prevent the fragmentation of local ecologies, maintain critical infrastructures, ensure access to housing, preserve physical and cultural history, attract and keep good jobs, expand critical services, facilitate civic discourse, and ensure timely decision-making.
