Strongest Town 2022, Round 1: Navasota, TX vs. Taylor, TX
Welcome to this first round match-up in the seventh annual Strongest Town Contest! In this round, 16 towns are facing off, and eight will advance to the next segment of the contest based on your votes. We invite you to read answers representatives from these two cities provided to our questions about economic resilience, citizen involvement, community response to the pandemic, and more. Then vote for the strongest at the bottom of this page.
Can’t decide? If you’re looking for inspiration, check out how we describe the Strong Towns approach.
You may vote once per match-up. Round 1 voting closes at noon CT on Thursday, March 3. For rules, and to follow along with the contest, visit the Strongest Town Contest page.
Note: All entries are lightly edited for clarity and readability.
NAVASOTA, TX
Entry submitted by: Bert Miller, Jason Weeks, Lupe Diosdado, Rayna Willenbrink, Johnny McNally, Jose Coronilla, Jennifer Reyna, Lance Hall, Shawn Myatt.
What is your favorite thing about your town?
Navasota is a charming small town that can be summed up using the city’s motto: “So Much, So Close.” Being a small town with a population of 8,000, our city gets its charm because of the people in the community that take pride in living in Navasota and working together to bring positive change. Navasota takes pride as a clean, relaxing, safe community and is a growing suburban area where commercial development and residential communities grow and prosper, with a lively historic downtown that draws residents and visitors out to our community. The City Hall Plaza hosts events all year long, bringing opportunities for the community to gather and celebrate together. The best thing about our town is the people and the sense of community. With neighbors smiling from across the yard, people eager to lend a hand, and friends always close by, Navasota is the Texas you’ve heard about.
What is the biggest challenge your town faces, and what are you doing to address it?
Navasota is located in the “Texas Triangle,” just 30 minutes south of the rapidly-growing Bryan/College Station (B/CS) metro area, and 45 minutes from Houston. The Texas Department of Transportation is undergoing a large extension project, the TX SH 249 Extension, aka the “Aggie Expressway,” which significantly lowers the commute from B/CS to Houston. The main exit and entry into the highway begin in Navasota, and once completed in 2023, is expected to bring a lot of growth to our community. As B/CS, Houston, and Texas as a whole grows, so does our small town. With this level of rapid growth, our community faces the challenges of how to maintain our unique identity as a charming small town, and how to keep up with the increased demands for new infrastructure.
The community is taking several approaches to addressing and embracing the growth and concerns. This year, the city partnered with the Texas A&M Coastal Bend Innovation Center to facilitate a workshop series, Communities as a Start UP (CASU). Through the CASU model, community leaders from the city, economic development corporation, school district, workforce development center, and chamber of commerce gather to identify our community’s identity, and throughout the year we’ll strategize ways to work together to prepare for the growth and how to maintain our small-town feel. The city also begun to plan by completing transportation studies, pedestrian and bicycle plans, and comprehensive planning, as well as updating infrastructure needs (roads, drainage, and utilities) through our $10 million capital improvement project.
What transportation options exist in your town for people of varying ages, abilities, and means? How easy is it to live in your town without regular access to a car? What transportation investments has your town recently made or is it in the process of making?
Transportation is one area of continued focus for our community. The city has a strong relationship with the Brazos Valley Council of Governments and has worked together to identify the scope of transportation services available for Navasota residents, published in the recent Brazos Valley Transportation Inventory Report. The Brazos Transit District is an on-demand transportation service available to individuals with disabilities, individuals ages 65+, and people with low incomes. They provide services for medical (non-emergency), paratransit, and social/recreational needs. The Grimes Health Resource Center also provides transit to individuals with disabilities, individual 65+, people with low incomes, veterans, and other public members to provide transit for medical (non-emergency) and shopping needs. Lastly, the Brazos Valley center for Independent Living (BVCIL) provides transportation to individuals with disabilities and transportation options include to and from BVCIL for classes appointments, and events, along with medical (non-emergency), paratransit, shopping, and social/recreational needs. This transit system operates weekdays and weekends, during any time of the day or night, including holidays.
The community also recognizes the importance of providing safe and reliable routes via sidewalks, trails, and bicycle paths to enhance walkability and the ease of getting around town without a vehicle. In 2021 the city partnered with a consulting firm to invest in, and adopt, a comprehensive Pedestrian and Bicycle Plan. The City has applied and received several rounds of funding for sidewalk construction and improvements to enhance walkability, and many of these funds have required that the community make a matching investment.
Tell us about your community's local economy. Who are the key players, big and small, and how do they help your town to be financially strong and resilient? What local businesses are you most proud of?
Navasota has a diversified and robust local economy, with a diverse range of shopping, employment, educational, and entertainment opportunities for our residents. The seven most common industries in Navasota by number of employees are retail trade (15.7%), manufacturing (13.3%); health care and social assistance (13.1%); educational services (12.4%); accommodation and food services (6.9%); professional, scientific, and technical services (6.22%); and mining, quarrying, and oil and gas extraction (4.66%). The distribution of employment levels across many different sectors contributes to our community’s strong and diversified economy, and contributes to our overall economic resiliency.
The Navasota Industrial Foundation is home to several large industrial and manufacturing facilities, and provides employment opportunities for many of our local residents. There are also many health care, educational, and professional facilities, like the Navasota Independent School District and CHI St. Joseph Hospital that employ many local residents. The Navasota Grimes County Chamber of Commerce is very active in our community and works with a large number of our local businesses—from sole proprietors and small brick-and-mortar stores, to larger companies with many employees—to help provide the support they need to not only thrive and grow in our community, but to be able to stay afloat and prosper even during hard economic downturns like the COVID-19 pandemic.
If we took a walking tour through your town, what would we see? How does your community use its land productively to promote long-term financial resilience?
In 2014, the City underwent a 12-month process to update its Comprehensive Plan. The process involved meetings with City Council, staff, Boards and Commissions, local community groups, and several town hall meetings with the general public to provide feedback on the priorities, direction, and planned growth of Navasota over the next 10 years. The Navasota 2015 Comprehensive Plan discussed land use goals and policies, which guided staff on how to utilize our unique geographic centers and corridors to sustain livability, while embracing responsible growth.
The City has already met many of the goals outlined in the plan. The Town Center (Downtown) section addressed the challenges and opportunities to improve drainage, address parking limitations, and increase walkability. Since 2015, over $3.5 million in investment has gone into major drainage improvements, rehabilitating and adding new sidewalks, and adding 32 paved parking spaces in an undevelopable lot. Other progresses include improving stormwater drainage infrastructure and repaving deteriorating roads in the Southwest/Camp Neighborhood Center, receiving grants to add sidewalk connecting two major roads to a local elementary school and Navasota Community Center in the North Central Neighborhood Center, adopting an overlay district to preserve the historic nature of the Old Town Neighborhood Center, and completing a yearlong workshop discussion series with the Planning and Zoning Commission relating to future ETJ land use planning.
Navasota today looks much different than it did 10 years ago due to proper planning, the implementation of many goals in the plan, and an overall increased sense of community pride.
How easy is it to become an entrepreneur or a small-scale developer in your town? What kinds of support are available for a resident who wants to open a business or build on a small vacant lot?
Navasota takes pride in being business friendly, and the City promotes entrepreneurialism and development in a variety of ways.
The Navasota Economic Development Corporation (NEDC), funded by a portion of the City’s sales tax, offers financial assistance via business improvement grants, and special grants that community members or investors looking to relocate to Navasota can utilize to help with startup costs. There are other financial incentives that can be offered, like sales tax rebates and property tax abatement programs through the county.
The City and NEDC partners with the Small Business Development Center (SBDC) to provide free business assistance to small businesses and startups. The City and local SBDC office have a strong relationship, and the City frequently sends referrals to the SBDC so entrepreneurs can receive free business advising, assistance with financial and business planning, information on government contracting, market research, and marketing/advertising.
The Development Services team also provides exceptional service to developers through the permitting and pre-development process. They work with developers along the way and understand that not all projects are the same and there are unique situations. This helps speed up the process to make sure the application is ready to go before it gets brought to the Planning and Zoning Commission and City Council. This eliminates a lot of time that could be spent having to go back and forth for revisions.
Navasota also has relatively low tax rates compared to surrounding communities, contributing to the lower cost of doing business in our community.
At Strong Towns we believe financial solvency is a prerequisite for long-term prosperity. What do you consider your most potent (existing) tax producing property? Where does your revenue come from? What do you spend it on?
The majority of City of Navasota’s revenue is made up from property taxes, sales tax, utility and franchise fees, utility transfers, and grants. Overall, around $2.4 million of the city’s tax allocation is made up of commercial property taxes. The City also receives a large amount of property taxes from the industrial properties, with the Navasota Industrial Park’s Industrial Agreements bringing in over $400,000 in annual revenue, and collections from other light industrial companies throughout the city limits.
The majority of the funds the City of Navasota receives each year are spent on providing essential and basic services for the residents in the community. This section in the general fund includes the services of police and fire protection, and street, utility, and drainage infrastructure improvements and maintenance. Within this category also includes services of finance administration to ensure the city is fiscally solvent, management of the municipal court, and other miscellaneous general services and administration.
At Strong Towns, we believe that local government is a platform for strong citizens to collaboratively build a prosperous place. How are residents in your town involved in shaping its future? How do residents’ experiences, struggles, and concerns directly inform the projects undertaken by local government? Provide one or more examples.
Residents in Navasota are strongly encouraged to become involved in decision-making processes. Aside from semi-monthly City Council meetings, the City manages a Facebook account to post frequent updates and partners with the local newspaper and radio station to inform of upcoming events/projects, encouraging residents to voice their concerns, support, or opposition. City Council members and staff are also involved in the community from taking leadership roles in community groups like the Kiwanis Club, serving as board members on the Navasota/Grimes County Chamber of Commerce, to attending monthly meetings at the Two Rivers Heritage Foundation, etc. Serving in these capacities builds trust with community members and allows alternative routes of communication for residents to voice their opinions to city leaders, who can then bring it back to the rest of the team.
Last year, Navasota applied for a sidewalk grant via TxDOT. There were three original projects drafted for the application and the City held multiple town hall meetings for feedback. They were advertised on Facebook, automated phone calls were sent to residents, press releases were sent to the media, and information was shared with the school board, Kiwanis Club, Two Rivers Heritage Foundation, Navasota Lions Clubs, and downtown merchant’s Facebook. There was great participation due to the array of communication methods, and we received significant feedback that ended up changing all proposed projects. Ultimately, the resident engagement and feedback shaped the final applications to what the community felt was best, and in late 2021 we were awarded funding for a project.
TAYLOR, TX
Entry submitted by: Brandt Rydell, Brian LaBorde, Jeff Jenkins, Tom Yantis, Colin Harrison.
What is your favorite thing about your town?
The City of Taylor is picturesque, charming, and progressive, with ample space for residents to live, work, and play in harmony. But Taylor’s biggest asset is the community itself. The residents of Taylor care deeply about the city’s future development, and they are passionate about ensuring that the essence of Taylor doesn’t get lost in large industrial or retail development projects that can easily take over a city’s character and hide all of the things that make it unique. They show up to City Council meetings and provide input. They participate in opportunities to be a part of the solution, like the public input meetings for the recent Comprehensive Plan revision and the LEAD Taylor civic engagement program.
In addition, the Taylor community is fiercely loyal and supportive, celebrating Taylor natives who go on to make a difference in the world, like Dan Moody, who famously won a key legal battle against the Ku Klux Klan, and cheering on hometown heroes like Olympic athlete Fred Kerley. The community also comes together in a time of crisis. During the winter storm of February 2021, there were so many people and local businesses stepping up to help with donations of food, water, shelter, and in-kind services that we as a city had a hard time recognizing all of them when the storm had passed. Those who are in leadership positions in the city take their cue from the community, and the most successful are those who put the community first when making decisions about the City’s future.
What is the biggest challenge your town faces, and what are you doing to address it?
Our biggest challenge right now is growth. We are fortunate to be located near the City of Austin, the Texas state capital that is currently experiencing unprecedented growth and development, with numerous headquarters and large companies relocating to be a part of the action. Because we are close to the center of the activity, we understand that we are on the cusp of tremendous growth in our city. We have worked hard over the last several years to prepare for that growth by improving our infrastructure and the quality of life in our city. We have made significant investments in drainage, roads, and utilities, and we have made it a priority to improve our parks and green spaces and to create strong relationships with our downtown business merchants and small business owners.
We are now reaping the benefits of our hard work with the recent announcement that Samsung Semiconductors LLC will make Taylor the location for its new $17 billion manufacturing plant, the single biggest economic development project in the history of the state. While we are excited about the opportunity that comes with that project, we also find ourselves in a position where we must stay on our toes to manage the growth that will come with it so that we maintain the wonderful character that makes our town unique, and we intend to focus on our newly revised Comprehensive Plan to guide us as we grow.
What transportation options exist in your town for people of varying ages, abilities, and means? How easy is it to live in your town without regular access to a car? What transportation investments has your town recently made or is it in the process of making?
One of the great things about Taylor is that our neighborhoods are all connected to each other through our street network and trail system. So far, we have avoided the worst of the dendritic street system that plagues so many fast-growing communities. The City’s open space and parks system follows a natural drainage way, Bull Branch, that includes a hike and bike trail that runs all the way through the town from northwest to southeast connecting the whole town. In addition to being able to get on the trail system on foot or bicycle, the City also recently implemented a new on-demand transit system called CARTS Now that is operated by our transit provider Capital Area Rural Transportation System. This system is fantastic in that anyone in the community can hail a ride using a smart-phone app or phone call and the service arrives at your location within 15 minutes and will take you anywhere in the city. The cost is only $2 and is half price for seniors and youth. Rides for veterans and medical purposes are free. In addition to CARTS, the City also has an Amtrak station downtown. This is an amazing asset for people in the community to be able to travel without the need for an automobile. The City is also working with Amtrak to make major upgrades to the station to provide ADA accessibility improvements and other passenger amenities.
Tell us about your community's local economy. Who are the key players, big and small, and how do they help your town to be financially strong and resilient? What local businesses are you most proud of?
Clearly, the big news and soon-to-be biggest fish is Samsung. While the community is excited about the prospect of adding a lot of high-paying, high-tech jobs that will help more residents not have to commute outside of Taylor, the real hope is that the benefits that Samsung brings will help sustain and expand our unique local businesses.
One of our local success stories has been the redevelopment of the old Taylor High School campus. A few years ago the campus was purchased by a local, small developer who had the vision of turning it into a mixed-use campus with housing, retail, restaurants and offices. Amazingly, the property is almost 100% leased and has become one of the primary community gathering places. Most of the businesses that have opened in the Old Taylor High are new businesses started by local residents. The key to this project’s success is that they didn’t try to do too much too fast. This means that the bathrooms still look like they did when school was in session and the lockers still line the hallways. But this lower-cost, lower-risk approach has made lease spaces affordable for businesses that may not have been able to afford anything else. Old Taylor High is a great example of how to repurpose existing community assets, increase value per acre, and create an ecosystem for locally-grown businesses.
If we took a walking tour through your town, what would we see? How does your community use its land productively to promote long-term financial resilience?
Hopefully, you would start your walk in our national register historic district downtown. This gives you a good understanding of how Taylor got its start at the intersection of two railroads that led to the City’s booming population growth in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. As wealth was generated in the community by the railroad and cotton trade, the community slowly built upward and outward following the original gridiron street pattern.
As you walk outward from downtown, you will find yourself in our oldest residential neighborhoods that include a wide variety of historic houses and the occasional new infill construction. As mentioned previously, the City has grown in an incremental way using the expansion of our grid street network as the framework. This has led to a fairly efficient land use pattern and an efficient use of infrastructure.
However, more recent growth pressures have created some inefficiencies in this system. For instance, the school district built a new high school on the edge of town that led to the first new neighborhoods that are disconnected from the core of the City. Recognizing the sprawling effects of that decision, the City’s new comprehensive plan established growth sectors to try to direct growth back to the core where we still have a lot of infrastructure capacity. We believe that this renewed focus on using the infrastructure and assets that have already been built before expanding outward will help us become more financially resilient as we grow.
How easy is it to become an entrepreneur or a small-scale developer in your town? What kinds of support are available for a resident who wants to open a business or build on a small vacant lot?
One of the “big ideas” in our new comprehensive plan is economic resiliency. We described that concept as “supporting and promoting unique, local businesses.” This was probably one of the most discussed topics during our public outreach efforts. The community wants to prioritize local entrepreneurship over luring large, national businesses and developers to town. While we still have a lot of work to do to make this a reality, some of the tools that we have implemented to assist local businesses and developers include: the Main Street Program, neighborhood empowerment zones in our older neighborhoods, tax increment financing for downtown infrastructure improvements, grants for façade improvements and other building system upgrades in our downtown district.
These tools have allowed us to assist local businesses and small-scale developers primarily in our downtown and surrounding neighborhoods. The City just began a process of rewriting our zoning and subdivision ordinances to prioritize infill development and the ability to take properties to the next increment of intensity. We will be focusing on making it easier to thicken up our existing neighborhoods with the creation of additional housing units on existing lots, removing barriers to density such as minimum lot sizes and parking requirements. We anticipate our code revisions to be completed by the end of this year.
At Strong Towns we believe financial solvency is a prerequisite for long-term prosperity. What do you consider your most potent (existing) tax producing property? Where does your revenue come from? What do you spend it on?
As part of our recent comprehensive planning effort we worked with the Texas firm Verdunity to help us understand our fiscal priorities. Through their analysis, we realized our most productive properties are all in historic downtown Taylor and the surrounding older neighborhoods. When we shared this analysis with the community during the comprehensive planning process, it was a game changer. We used it to lead our discussions about land use policy and the value of creating right-sized properties for residents and business owners and helping them build long-term wealth by owning their real estate.
As a result, fiscal sustainability has now been incorporated into everything we do, as you can see on page 25 of our Fiscal Year 2022 budget.
About 78% of our general fund revenue is made up of various taxes, with the remainder made up of charges and fees and other miscellaneous sources. Our tax revenues are a healthy mix of property (61%) and sales taxes (32%) that offers some resiliency when the local economy fluctuates. However, our dependency on property tax revenue means that we must place a strong emphasis on creating high return properties, which has led to revisions of development policies to significantly increase value per acre.
We spend the bulk of our general fund (43%) on public safety, while allocating about 15% to maintenance functions for streets, grounds and buildings. We are focused on increasing our budget in this area so we can address the backlog of deferred maintenance in the community.
At Strong Towns, we believe that local government is a platform for strong citizens to collaboratively build a prosperous place. How are residents in your town involved in shaping its future? How do residents’ experiences, struggles, and concerns directly inform the projects undertaken by local government? Provide one or more examples.
We have spent a lot of time this past year discussing how development patterns inform fiscal sustainability. The Taylor community has embraced the concept of creating and sustaining a resilient town, and as a result we have had to re-think a lot of our long-held beliefs about city management. For instance, we recently had a robust community discussion about rebuilding
four city streets. When we explained that the total project cost would be over $1.5 million with a payback time frame of nearly 200 years, the affected residents realized that building and rebuilding Cadillac streets is not financially viable. So we suggested alternatives that include “level-up” maintenance, a much more affordable way to both improve the driving surface and protect the sub-grade. The discussion helped us demonstrate the financial reality of our current situation and manage community expectations.
Another example is a recent streetscape improvement project in downtown Taylor. A business owner with a building on the busiest downtown corner was concerned that cars and large trucks turning the corner at high speeds were posing a danger to pedestrians and patrons. The property owner suggested a “road diet” and streetscape improvement that extended the curb line with temporary rubber curbs. The new streetscape added attractive large metal planters and eliminated one lane of traffic while adding more on-street parking. The project, which was affordable and easily implemented, was approved by City Council and started an important dialogue about our values. We all agreed that it was more important that people be able to walk safely in downtown Taylor than for vehicles to travel quickly.