Community Impact by Andrea Leptinsky

GEORGETOWN — While many are still ironing out their resolutions for 2010, the Georgetown Chamber of Commerce is looking ahead and making plans for 2015, when the city population is expected to hit 100,000—twice the number it is now.

To prepare for the increase, the chamber began work on an unofficial growth plan—the Georgetown 100,000 initiative—in 2002 to bring information, progress and concerns to light for the public.

“Clearly we’re not that large yet, but we are growing and we’re growing rapidly,” said Mel Pendland, chamber president. “And it’s getting larger—the projection is that as many as 330,000 people will live in Georgetown in 40 years.”

The initiative came out of thoughts voiced by residents, said Bob Brent, then president of the Georgetown Chamber of Commerce.

“It was more of a way to catch the community’s attention, that we have a strong quality of life,” he said. “It’s the realistic approach of ‘we’re going to grow,’ and there’s not anything that’s going to stop that. Let’s create the quality of growth the community wants.”

At the same time, the initiative is not on a schedule, nor is it moving toward a specific goal line, Brent said. “It’s an attitude of each one of us, and collectively as a community. A city of excellence isn’t just a future event and obtainment, it is a state of mind each and every day.”

Four steps to success

As the initiative gathered momentum, Brent and the chamber leadership named four cornerstones they knew were going to be key to a successfully planned growth for Georgetown: education, health care, public safety and economic development.

“These four cornerstones were built on a foundation of trust and respect,” Brent said. “We can have different opinions in Georgetown, but we all trust that most people come from a point of view of wanting to make Georgetown an even greater community.”

As the population of Georgetown continues grow, 2015 inches closer and momentum gains on the city’s drive to an even better “city of excellence,” the four cornerstones are being watched and continually improved.

Education cornerstone

The Georgetown Independent School District is being proactive when it comes to preparing for the city’s growth, said Bradley Smith, GISD school board president.

Within the last few years just about every facility has gone through some type of capital improvement, Smith said, and the first phase of the new high school has been completed.

“We’re dealing with the changing population, just as the state of Texas is,” Smith said. “I think we’ve done a very good job with make sure that the quality of education is ensured for every student as we continue to grow and prepare each campus for more growth.”

The quality of education is increasing as well, according to state test results for the district. Over the past six years the district has increasingly seen more of its students pass Texas’ Academic Excellence Indicator System tests. Approximately 84 percent of students in the district earned a passing score or better, compared to only 61 percent in 2003.

“If the growth continues there will probably be another bond election next year, and we’re working on that now,” Smith said. “With that we’ll satisfy the second phase of the high school and we’ll probably have room for another middle school and elementary school.”

Health care cornerstone

As more businesses come into Georgetown, the city is also attracting more doctors, nurses and medical professionals through its strong drive to grow its health care sector, Pendland said.

“We’re going to be a center of excellence for health care and we’re seeing that fruition all around us,” he said. “We’re seeing a proliferation of health care activity that is really fueling our local economy.”

Pendland credited several medical institutions and establishments for the city’s growth in this area, including the recent expansion at St. David’s Georgetown Hospital and the creation of the Austin Avenue Medical Plaza.

“Education and health care feed economic development, and economic development pays for the expansion of health care and education, so it really is an important paradigm that we’re working on,” he said.

Public safety cornerstone

It’s hard to drive through the city on any given day and not see at least one of Georgetown’s 70 police officers nearby, Pendland said. That fact alone has him proud of how well the city’s safety services are doing.

“I think we’ve had some stumbles, but Georgetown is fortunate to be one of those places to have a very low crime rate,” Pendland said.

The police department, along with the city’s fire department, has been doing excellent work in terms of response times, and is a positive improvement for the public safety cornerstone, Pendland said.

Economic Development cornerstone

Georgetown has become a hub for new business, a fact that runs concurrently with an escalation in population. The city has been progressing so well in this area that national attention has focused on Georgetown, enough so that it was named No. 2 in Fortune Small Business’ 100 Best Places to Live and Launch list.

Recent additions to the city’s economic landscape include AirBorn’s new 58,000 square-foot facility at 3500 Snead Drive, the creation of the Texas Life-Sciences Collaboration Center and the multiple biotech companies that have since moved in, and among several other new businesses and organizations.

Georgetown’s effort to revitalize its downtown area and bring in more visitors has also paid off remarkably well, so much so that the city has become an exemplary community in terms of developed downtown districts, according to Jon Roberts, managing director of TIP Strategies, an economic consulting firm in Austin.

“They’re definitely way ahead of any other community in the metro area,” Roberts said.

Status check

While many feel Georgetown is well on its way to becoming a city of quality with 100,000 people, there are some that might be reluctant to join the “big population” bandwagon and wish to keep Georgetown a smaller suburban community. That is something that’s expected, Brent said, and those too are opinions that must be considered.

“You have to appreciate and value that point of view,” he said. “That’s actually the balance we need. The people with those points of view wish we could stay the same—that is blended and coupled with the reality that we are growing and will continue to grow.”

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