On Wednesday, the Coppell Future Oriented Approach to Residential Development (FOARD) Task Force met at City Hall to discuss plans for gaining community insight through a survey on housing affordability, land redevelopment and community services.
Members shared ideas on how to increase housing in Coppell to accommodate its growing population, while making residency affordable and comfortable for citizens. One suggested idea is the construction of more accessory dwelling units, which they will expand on in their survey.
The FOARD Task Force also considered the effects of residential development, because investment in certain departments, facilities or housing forms means there is less money for the city to spend on other services and sectors. They plan to use their survey to determine how the city should budget their spending based on the residents’ needs.
“If you want the tax base and you want to keep the city services going, you have to make trade-offs,” member Ed Skoch said. “You cannot take all of the land and turn it into single-family homes, it won’t work.”
Apart from housing redevelopments, the FOARD Task Force discussed gaining citizens’ inputs on infrastructure, public transportation and amenities like parks. The members spoke about whether the city’s parks and infrastructure provide the necessary services and accessibility for people, focusing heavily on the community’s safety.
However, the task force’s discussions on increasing the city’s tax base led them to a conflict: investing in housing and infrastructure to increase mobility can limit spending for fine arts and entertainment. While they determined Coppell needs better affordable housing for its people, the city also needs to promote spending on arts and entertainment to increase revenue.
“In the housing option, we talked about affordability, and then some of the criteria of the types of amenities, the types of transportation,” chair Yvonne Silva said. “Even getting down to services that they want, just so that we’d understand the draw on community services and resources.”
The FOARD Task Force canceled its meetings in June, July and August. It will meet again in September to finalize plans for their residential housing survey and take it to city council.
“How do we ask the community what they want it to look like in the future?” vice chair Renee Galitis said. “We have a great opportunity with this plan to influence that.”
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