The City of Houston has an opportunity to fundamentally enhance its approach to planning and foster a healthier, happier and more prosperous Houston community.
Plan
H O U S T O N
Our plan for Houston's future.
The City of Houston embarked on creating its first general plan to create a common platform with coordinated implementation strategies to guide future development and City investments.
The City of Houston is now working towards achieving the community goals laid out in Plan Houston. To access a printable version of Plan Houston, please click the button below.
About This Project
Houston is a great city. From its winding greenways, to its thriving arts and cultural scene, to its bold entrepreneurialism, Houston is a city of tremendous opportunity.
Even so, Houston faces many challenges, including managing growth, maintaining infrastructure, enhancing neighborhoods and overcoming fiscal hurdles. Addressing these challenges requires strong and effective local government – a City that confidently charts its course and works with its partners to achieve success.
Realizing this potential is the ambition of Plan Houston. Plan Houston describes a vision for Houston’s future and identifies the policies, plans, and programs that represent the City’s long-term priorities for achieving the vision. This plan was developed by looking at prior planning efforts, then listening to residents and community leaders who described their image of a successful Houston.
It’s important to note that Plan Houston is not about establishing land use controls. Instead, this plan supports Houston’s continued success by providing consensus on goals and policies, thus enabling more effective government: one that is better coordinated, more proactive, and more strategic. Plan Houston ensures a healthy, prosperous future for Houston.
Core Strategies
The core strategies represent the priorities that the City should pursue in order to achieve the community’s vision and goals. The strategies are the result of significant input from stakeholders throughout the community.
- Spend money wisely
- Grow responsibly
- Sustain quality infrastructure
- Nurture safe and healthy neighborhoods
- Connect people and places
- Support our global economy
- Champion learning
- Foster an affordable city
- Protect and conserve our resources
- Communicate clearly and with transparency
- Partner with others, public and private
- Celebrate what’s uniquely Houston
Vision Statement
Houston offers opportunity for all and celebrates its diversity of people, economy, culture, and places. Houston promotes healthy and resilient communities through smart civic investments, dynamic partnerships, education, and innovation. Houston is the place where anyone can prosper and feel at home.
Houston: Opportunity. Diversity. Community. Home.
Community Goals
This page lists Plan Houston's 32 goals for the Houston community, broken down into 9 topics. To see the list of all 32 goals together, click here.
People
People includes topics such as access to health care, equal opportunity, social services, and celebrating the cultural diversity of Houston.
Place
Place includes topics such as vibrant neighborhoods, parks and open spaces, quality built environments, safety and security.
Culture
Culture includes topics such cultural heritage and diversity, historic preservation, and celebrating Houston’s unique history and character.
Economy
Economy includes topics such as access to jobs, local business support services, entrepreneurism, innovation, economic development and revitalization.
Environment
Environment includes topics such as natural resource protection and conservation, water quality, disaster preparedness and resiliency.
Public Services
Public Services includes topics such infrastructure, growth and redevelopment planning, civic investments, fiscal sustainability and regional cooperation and collaboration.
Education
Education includes topics such as early childhood education, job skills development, high quality educational facilities, libraries and related support services.
Housing
Housing includes topics such as equitable access to prosperity, housing and community facilities that provide for the diverse needs of residents.
Transportation
Transportation includes topics such as mobility, safety and access to modes of transportation including bicycling, walking and transit.
Planning Coordination Tool
The Planning Coordination Tool is an interactive web-based application that identifies the plans of various local,regional and state entities in map form. These plans can be queried via a search engine and are displayed in a simple, easy-to-use map for your use. Plans may be layered with other City data to provide basic analysis.
Performance Indicators
The performance indicators measure the progress the city has made in achieving the vision and goals as identified by the community. Each indicator links back to one or more of Plan Houston’s goals and provides a regular assessment of progress and trends. You may also track Plan Houston’s progress by accessing the indicator from each individual goal page or visit the Indicators page.
Implementation
Plan Houston is a starting point for better governance for the City of Houston. The Plan’s findings must be actively used and integrated into the City organization to fully realize the plan’s benefits. Plan Houston includes three components to enable implementation:
- Performance indicators that track the progress towards achieving the community’s vision and goals and inform policymaking; and
- A planning coordination tool that displays local plans, helping neighborhoods, developers, and officials leverage planning efforts; and
- An annual work plan that identifies the City’s major planning and policy priorities for the coming budget year. The annual work plan will identify the scope, lead and supporting departments, and the anticipated schedule of each initiative. It will include input from the Mayor, City Council, City departments and the public.
The City adopts its first ever general plan, Plan Houston.
City Council will consider adopting Plan Houston at their regularly scheduled meeting:
Wednesday, September 30, 2015
9:00 a.m.
City Council Chambers, 2nd Floor
901 Bagby Street
Houston, TX 77002
