Impressive turnout for first of four Comprehensive Plan Public Meetings

The City of Sanger held its first public involvement meeting to update the City of Sanger Comprehensive Plan. The meeting was facilitated by Rick Leisner, a consultant with Norris Design. The meeting included a presentation by the consultant and an opportunity for participants to express their vision for the future of Sanger.

The City of Sanger held the first of four public meetings last week, asking for citizen input for a city-wide community plan. The campaign is named “Sanger 2040 Plan”. The meeting was held at Butterfield Elementary School Cafeteria and there was an impressive turnout.

The City of Sanger has contracted with Norris Design. They help with planning, landscape architecture and branding for cities. Rick Leisner of Norris Design headed the meeting. “Our team’s local knowledge and experience in addition to our landscape architecture expertise nationwide presents a unique resource for the City of Sanger,” he stated.

The project role is Urban Planning, Placemaking, Ordinance Evaluations, Project Management & Leadership and Public Engagement. They’ve coordinated with Hickory Creek, Celina, Texarkana and Forney, to name a few.

Sanger is growing and the City is trying to get out in front of it. Mr. Leisner had a Power Point presentation, which is available online at the newly created website: Sanger2040plan.com. Everything through the process will be on the website. On the site is the presentation in PDF format for the public to view. It’s full of statistics, maps, etc... Sanger has an area of 11.8 square miles and 7,552 acres. See the Existing Land Use Plan Map with City Limit and ETJ boundaries on Page 10.

For instance the population is nearly 9,000 people in the Sanger 76266 zip code from 2019 statistics, 46.1% male and 53.9% female. The population change is 92.6% from the year 2000. The estimated median household income now is nearly $70,000, which is above the Texas average of $64,034. But, the median house or condo value is $172,537 below the Texas average of $200,400. The value in 2000 was $71,700.

The age of home from 2000 or newer (38.3%), 1970-1999 (46.6%), 1940-1969 (12.6%) and 1939 or older (2.5%).

The types of homes: single-family 84.6%, Apartment Complexes (8.3%), Mobile Homes (4.9%), Small Apartment Buildings (1.9%) and Town Homes (0.4%).

They show the breakdown of Sanger home prices. 48.6% are valued at $120,001 to $241,000. From $241,001 to $361,000 (17%), $361,001 to $481,000 (6.1%) and $481,001 to $602,000 (3.2%).

Each citizen received 48 dot stickers to mark their opinions on a 12 topics (Guiding Principles). There were four draft goals for each page of the Principles. A big printed out sheet of paper draped the tables all the way down the cafeteria. The Principles were: Land Use and Pattern Development, Community Character, Economic Development, Housing and Neighborhoods, Infrastructure, Parks & Environment, Transportation/Mobility, City Government, Downtown, Education, Resilient & Flexible and Community Health. Citizens placed stickers on the importance of the goal - IMPORTANT, NOT IMPORTANT or NEUTRAL.

There was also and Idea Board on the wall for everyone at the meeting to put their ideas on.

Even though there was a good turnout, Mr. Leisner encouraged more people to show up to the second meeting, which will take place in 2-3 months. He said it is the most important and exciting one. He will announce the statistics of when Sanger can have a new grocery store, when to have a Whataburger, etc... That caught everyone’s attention. He will present data for the public to understand fast food and sit down restaurants that could come to Sanger and present scenarios.

There is an Advisory Committee made up of 15 local members that are helping with this process, as well. See the list on page 5.

There will be third and fourth meetings and they will explain scenarios and finalization of the plan.

Rick Leisner of Norris Design, explains to citizens the Existing Land Use Plan Map. Please see this ETJ boundary map and much more information about the Sanger 2040 Plan at their website: sanger2040plan.com.

Attendees at the meeting were provided 48 dot stickers to place on the importance of the goal. The left box is very important, the middle is not important and the right box is neutral. This is one of a dozen topics layed out on tables in the Butterfield Elementary School Cafeteria. The top goal read - “Sanger will have infrastructure system that is efficient, well-maintained, and upgraded when needed. Decisions to expand infrastructure will be based on a cost-benefit analysis”. SECOND GOAL - “Prioritize and schedule infrastructure / utility based on the new comprehensive plan, and generated opportunities for revenue growth”. THIRD GOAL - Establish a program to replace old infrastructure in a scheduled cost effective manner for Sanger”. FOURTH GOAL - “Ensure that there is adequate water and wastewater available to serve existing and new development by maintaining systems, monitoring usage and capacity”.

Citizens write down ideas and place them on the Idea Board.