Greater San Marcos Partnership (GSMP) and Watershed Partners, a program of WVWA, jointly launched the Texas Innovation Corridor (TxIC) Future Development project Nov. 15, celebrating funding approval in October from GSMP’s board matched equally by WVWA. The $43,000, five-month project will be executed by Siglo Group, led by Jonathan Ogren, to create a conservation and development decision support tool.

The process will be interactive among a committee of 39 stakeholders representing Caldwell and Hays counties, numerous cities, developers, engineers, architects, designers, contractors, and a contingent of conservation organizations and watershed protectors. WVWA’s team of David Baker, Robin Gary, and Ray Don Tilley leads the project jointly with co-chairs Meagan Jones, incoming CEO of McCoy’s Building Supply; Jeff Nydegger, attorney for Winstead PC; and Hays County Commissioner Lon Shell, Precinct 3. The project also is the launch of Watershed Partners as a planning and consulting program of WVWA.

The project committee is finalizing the data and analysis layers to be included in this Phase I “lite” version. Data such as conservation lands, impervious cover, waterways, recreation areas, floodplains, and city and county lands will yield such analysis as conservation lands and impervious cover per watershed, and projected population per census tract. The decision support tool will be an interactive map available first to GSMP members and Watershed Partners, and then freely available open source.

A proposed Phase II for the project will build out the initial framework with deeper analysis of conservation, development, and equity issues, with an online viewer, explanatory narrative, and interpretive exhibits. If successful the TxIC Future Development project will anchor conservation as a guiding force in development decisions, ensuring sustainability in the face of record growth.