Longview City Council approves updated Comprehensive Plan

LONGVIEW, Texas ( KETK ) – On Thursday night, the Longview City Council approved an updated comprehensive plan that will help guide the city long term.

“Where refreshing it pretty early. Typically most municipality’s don’t usually refresh until about the 15-year mark,” said Michelle Gamboa, Longview City Council member for District 5. “We’ve accomplished so many of our goals and strategies.”

She said the city started the process for an update about three years ago and created a comprehensive plan advisory committee to find out exactly what people in Longview want.

“We are so grateful for community input,” said Gamboa. “Not only did we collect input though these public meetings, but we also had a survey go out.”

From this they said the living document is a combination of both city planning and community input.

“They have a really good pulse on what the community is looking for,” said Michael Shirley, Director of development services for the City of Longview. “So they were able to bring their experiences as well as what their hearing from the community to help guide the process.”

He said the committee found what people want hasn’t changed much since the 2015 version, so their vision statement stayed the same with specific goals changing.

“Housing and housing affordability,” said Shirley. “Maintain and encourage new types of entertainment options for our community”

Shirley added that it will also encourage local businesses to thrive in Longview.

“So they can make good decisions on what our constituents to see Longview go in the future,” said Gamboa.

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