The San Antonio-Bexar County Metropolitan Planning Organization is in the midst of its second round of public meetings to plan for the next 25 years of regional transportation needs.
With new census numbers bringing in large populations from surrounding areas, regional road planning is necessary to accommodate all the expected traffic growth from an additional 1.5 million residents by 2040.
The last census placed the New Braunfels area in the San Antonio-Bexar County MPO region. The towns of Seguin and Boerne have also elected to join the region.
The MPO is shooting for a result that will take in growth patterns in the entire region, which spokesman Scott Ericksen said could be based on a combination of three different potential growth scenarios, depending on how each of the communities wants to direct its growth.
“The first one is that things will continue to grow just as they had, which is sprawl. A second scenario might be that some of the growth could be attracted to say, the downtown areas. And then a third scenario might be that they would move to different activity centers,” Ericksen said.
The MPO is holding meetings across the region this week to get public input from each area on its preferred growth scenario.
There also will be a chance for the public to vote on $435 million worth of proposed transportation improvement projects suggested by different agencies for the next four years.
Wednesday night's meeting is scheduled for the New Braunfels Civic Center. Other meetings are scheduled for Boerne, Seguin, and several in San Antonio. A complete list of those projects and of this week’s meeting schedule is online at mobility2040.org.
