Growing pains

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Gonzales expects big changes in next several years

Many people in the Gonzales community think the city needs to upgrade in terms of code enforcement.

Students from the Texas A&M Department of Landscape Architecture and Urban Planning told Gonzales City Council members during their recent monthly meeting that the community may want to think of ways to turn some of the older buildings in downtown Gonzales into loft-style apartments to help address an apparent housing shortage.

The housing shortage in question is expected to come as a result of the continuing development of the oilfield workforce.

Faculty member Dr. Elise Bright said that 26 students, most graduate students, have taken part so far in a study that will contribute to a new design of the city’s master plan.

Student Mark Lopez projected that the nearby Eagle Ford Shale oilfield activity will double the city’s population over the next 10-20 years.

Student Walter Peacock augmented Lopez’s prediction in saying the population boom will reverse the current trend of the labor pool in Gonzales. Many younger workers who have grown up in Gonzales move elsewhere looking for work, but that trend should reverse as a multitude of jobs — some 6,000 over the next few years — become available.

The students added that the city has a number of strengths, such as natural landscape features conducive to parks and recreational facilities and the state’s only certified historical district which includes more than 100 historic sites, a lower unemployment rate (5.9 percent) than the statewide average, and a higher per-capita income growth over the last decade (134 percent compared to 118 percent statewide).

The students also said the city’s demographics are also favorable for a positive economic climate, while taxable sales are increasing at a rate greater than state average.

The student group’s initial studies found that Gonzales has several areas for potential opportunity, including a number of vacant buildings that could be converted to housing, a growth in total wealth as more oil workers and management move in to the area, a continued growth of tourism because of the historical district and the Roger M. Dreyer Airport could serve as a focal point for potential new businesses.

The students’ survey indicates the retail industry has the potential for considerable growth. Additionally, findings addressed what the students found to be the city’s weaknesses – among those being a dependence on sales taxes rather than property taxes, relatively low property values, a lack of public art or unique streetscapes, vacant land and buildings downtown and overall slow native population growth.

The survey also said dilapidated and low-income housing tends to be concentrated in the city. Gonzales’ most persistent threat, the students said, lies in the fact that many key points in the city, as well as some sites where potentially hazardous materials are stored, lies in the flood plain.

The students’ program stresses environmental issues, and the students’ initial report also conveyed that while the oilfields may provide jobs and increased land values, underground hydraulic fracturing is considered a hindrance to the city.

That perspective offers a diametrically opposed viewpoint to last year’s findings in a study by the Dr. Charles Groat of the University of Texas Energy Institute that the hydraulic fracturing process itself presents no environmental threat.

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