The Royse City Plan aimed to create a roadmap for a rapidly growing city, ensuring that development maintained its neighborly, small-town identity while attracting and cultivating quality businesses and adding quality-of-life services without over-extending resources. To address this primary challenge, we adopted a data-driven approach, thoroughly assessing the city’s infrastructure assets, liabilities, and revenue streams. This included a land productivity analysis to identify areas where additional value could be captured around existing infrastructure.

Our approach also integrated perspectives from various sectors, constructing plans for the mobility network, land use, and open space/green infrastructure to reinforce each other. By utilizing flexible place types and mobility types, as well as context-driven housing and neighborhood types, the city guided the character and placement of growth effectively. Local participation was crucial; we sought and incorporated feedback from residents and local business owners through in-person interviews, online surveys, neighborhood meetings, and walking tours.

The outcomes of the project were significant. Citizens, staff, Council, and P&Z Commission members became more engaged and empowered, gaining a better understanding of the differences between suburban auto-oriented development and traditional, walkable mixed-use. This knowledge helped them develop the city in a fiscally productive and environmentally sustainable manner. By concentrating high-quality development around the city’s existing infrastructure and emphasizing infill opportunities around Main Street, the city was poised to generate sustainable returns as growth continued.

Furthermore, the plan’s neighborhood-centric approach to development and services enhanced the quality of life for residents. It encouraged a diverse mix of housing types for people in different stages of life, human-scale neighborhoods, a multi-modal transportation network, a healthy network of natural areas with recreational use, and a thriving local economy built on supporting local small businesses and attracting quality businesses from elsewhere.