(ROCKWALL, TX – Feb. 17, 2016) Rockwall Mayor Jim Pruitt, City Manager Rick Crowley and Economic Development Corporation President Sheri Franza shed some positive light on the outlook of the city’s economic and business ventures during the Rockwall Area Chamber of Commerce’s State of the City Partnership Luncheon Feb. 17 at the Rockwall County Courthouse.
The event was sponsored by Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital Rockwall, and opened with hospital President Cindy Paris and Senior Director of Business Development Lance Holmes welcoming the crowd.
Attendees were treated to a tasty lunch as Mayor Pruitt addressed some of the successful plans and developments the city has in place to attract and keep more residents and businesses within Rockwall. Crowley provided an update on the city’s water budget and future roadway improvements, while Franza spoke on the recent fruitful endeavors of the EDC in attracting big time commercial developments into Rockwall.
State of the City
Underlining three important areas which the city has been focusing on in the past year, Pruitt stressed the importance of the city having its State Highway 205-John King deal with TxDOT become a reality in order to keep truck traffic out of the downtown area. The deal, which involves the city lobbying TxDOT in allowing it to give them John King in exchange for State Highway 205 through the city (Goliad St.), would avoid the potential widening of Goliad to a six-lane highway all the way north through downtown.
“There’s two options the state has if they don’t take that deal that we’re offering them,” Pruitt said. “One is to make it a six-lane highway right through the middle of town that will go up north and take out businesses on both sides of Goliad all the way up.”
The second option, Pruitt said, would widen Alamo and Goliad all the way north of downtown, taking out many properties located on both streets in the process.
The second priority for the city involves the John King ramp reversal, which will begin construction this year to allow traffic a way to access the John King bypass from the highway. Currently, access to John King for east-flowing I-30 traffic involves taking the 205 exit and sitting through the 205 traffic light, while traffic flowing westward has to exit FM 3549 to access the bypass.
Lastly, Pruitt said the city will continue to work towards partnering with the owners of The Harbor in an effort to revamp business and attract more people to the cornerstone development.
“We will be meeting with the owners of The Harbor – the Credit Union administration – starting tomorrow,” Pruitt said. “Hopefully we will be able to come to a conclusion that in fact we will be able to partner with them in The Harbor or sell The Harbor to someone we can partner with to make it successful, because that is the influence to our city. That’s what people see when they come in.”
An upcoming development which Pruitt hopes will bring more foot traffic to The Harbor is the proposed Summer Lee condominiums project.
“That’s the project that’s going to make The Harbor work,” he said. “That was what it was always envisioned, to have those condos down there so that people could walk to The Harbor, eat at the restaurants and go to the movie theater.”
As for other developments, the two parks at Stone Creek and Breezy Hill are expected to add more recreational opportunities for residents such as disc golf while falling in line with the city’s new Go Outside and Play campaign, which will bring residents a way to sign up for recreational programs online, view maps of all the trails and learn of all the parks locations within Rockwall, encouraging folks to get out and stay active.
The Park at Breezy Hill will consist of 28 acres of park land valued at $1,945,000 and include a 1,500 LF X 8’ wide concrete trail, a boardwalk, an open lawn/soccer field, a pavilion, picnic areas and a playground. The 12-acre Stone Creek Park will include a 9-hole disc golf course, a 1/3 mile-long, eight-foot-wide concrete trail, a picnic plaza and a playground, a one-acre pond and a fishing pier.
“The developers for the parks at Stone Creek and Breezy Hill each donated the land,” Pruitt said. “They also had to put money into the parks and rec fund to build the facilities with. Then, through Texas Parks and Wildlife, we were able to get on both of those parks two half-million-dollar grants that paid for everything. So both of those parks – which are under construction right now – will be built without a dime of taxpayer money going into it.”
The city will also celebrate the new-look downtown square on April 16 during a day-long festival. Historic Downtown Rockwall will partner with the City of Rockwall for a grand re-opening ceremony celebrating the city’s rich history and marking the official end of the multi-million-dollar Capital Improvement Project, which revitalized much of the downtown area.
Outlook on the water budget, water supply and roadway improvements for the city
City Manager Rick Crowley brought some more good news regarding Rockwall’s water supply and conservation.
During last year’s drought, which saw water levels in Lake Lavon drop 12 feet and 10 feet in Lake Ray Hubbard, the city asked residents to conserve water in order to help meet its conservation goal of 10 percent. Crowley proudly stated that residents and retailers went above and beyond in surpassing that goal, with a conservation rate of 41.6 percent.
“We congratulate and we thank everybody who participated in that,” Crowley said. “Many of you are retailers or understand retail sales, and you don’t have to get too far into it to realize what a hit it is in losing 41.6 percent of your sales in one year.”
Crowley also gave an update on the Lower Bois D’ Arc Creek Reservoir, a 16-acre lake in Fannin County which will help supply more treated water for North Texas. Owned and operated by the North Texas Municipal Water District, the 22- to 70-foot-deep lake is estimated to cost about $1 billion. Construction of the reservoir is expected to begin this year, with its water treated for delivery beginning in 2020.
“Water is so critically important to everything we do, to everything you do, to our growth and to maintaining where we are,” Crowley said. “It’s vitally important that we continue to meet the needs of the city, and that we continue to meet your needs as members of the business community, and I think we’re on target to do that.”
Crowley also praised the work of the Rockwall County Roadway Consortium, which consists of elected officials from every city within the county meeting once a month with TxDOT officials and the North Texas Central Council of Governments officials. According to Crowley, Rockwall County passed several bond elections for the purpose of being ready to submit road projects once funds are made available, and to ensure that the county gets its share of state funding when it becomes available. He said the strategies from the consortium are working very well in the county’s favor.
“From talking to friends of mine over the state of Texas, the idea that the county, TxDOT and each municipality gets together once a month and productively talks about what we’re going to do about traffic planning is phenomenal. That doesn’t happen anywhere else, and that’s why we’re going to be so successful and have been successful in the past of not only getting state money, but the money that is spent from the counties and cities is going to be matched in a very favorable way.”
Folks can receive status updates on the 14 total roadway projects currently underway in Rockwall by visiting the city website at rockwall.com.
Outlook on commercial development
The Rockwall EDC will celebrate its 20th this year, and with that have continued to achieve success in bringing quality commercial development to the area. The Channell Commercial Corporation, headquartered in Temecula, CA, relocated to Rockwall into a 175,000 square-foot, state-of-the-art facility located at the corner of John King Blvd. and Justin Rd.
Rockwall EDC President and CEO Sheri Franza said the company is looking to hire 250 employees for its manufacturing plant within the next 8-12 weeks. The EDC has also been in talks with a couple of other companies which could add an additional $60 million and $160 million to the tax base, respectively.
Franza said the key to the EDC’s recent success has to do with attracting businesses within sustaining industries, such as the medical field.
“You can see what all the medical professionals have done here in Rockwall, how the footprint of our medical facilities is continuing to grow, how the technology as far as pharmaceutical and orthopedic devices and everything is coming along, and that’s huge,” she said. “And that’s not going to go away. That’s only going to continue to expand and be sustainable.”
Franza added that the EDC will work to continue bringing in the types of developments that align with not only the city’s values but values of its homeowners as well.
“What we’ve got coming is going to shape what our city looks like, but you can trust that we’re going to shape it the way you all want it, in the city that you want to live in,” Franza said. “It looks a whole lot different than it did in the past, and will look a whole lot different when our grandkids graduate from high school.”
Story and photos by Austin Wells, Blue Ribbon News staff writer.
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