Vision North Texas

Last Friday a small delegation from Joshua including myself, Councilman Butch Isom, Councilman Tom Tallent, P&Z Board Chairman Joe Hollarn and City Manager Paulette Hartman attended a conference in Irving called Vision North Texas. It's a cooperative group attempting to put forth a plan for the 16 counties including and surrounding Tarrant and Dallas for interconnectedness and growth.

We broke out into round table discussions around four different scenarios with facilitators recording ideas and responses to be gathered, sorted, prioritized and distilled into a comprehensive plan to be unveiled in January 2010. The plan will be a goal for 2030 and 2050 for all local municipalities to work towards collectively to try to make the most out of our region. It was interesting and fun to be a part of and I'm glad we were able to interject the "small town" point of view since it's easy for the Joshua's of the area to get overlooked by big plans and planners.

There are a lot of "big picture" planning groups that your city staff and council members attend meetings with that most of you are probably unaware of. We'd love to hear from you regarding matters that affect Joshua residents long-term, but might not necessarily be our decisions to make solely. We need creative ideas to keep Joshua relevant in our area and make the most out of our largely border locked city space. Likewise, matters of law and policy at the county, state and federal level may gain more attention through your local officials. What's on your mind?

A.J.