East Texas town’s residents shape their city’s future with urban planning students
Residents of Jefferson, a small town in East Texas with a rich past that includes
almost 100 historic commercial and residential landmarks, are creating a vision for their
community’s future with graduate urban planning students and faculty associated with
Texas Target Communities.
For almost 30 years, Texas Target Communities has improved communities by working
alongside local governments and community residents across Texas through engaged
research and high-impact service learning opportunities.
In Jefferson, students, led by Justin Golbabai, associate professor of the practice,
gathered thoughts from a wide range of community members about their town’s needs,
priorities, and their concerns and ideas about its future.
The students met with Jefferson residents in 10 focus group discussions, pop-up
events in key locations — downtown, Jefferson High School, a grocery store — as well
as in an online portal.
The findings of this engagement with the community will be presented to Jefferson’s
leadership next month. With this input, students will develop strategies and ideas to be
considered for a new comprehensive plan for the town.
A comprehensive plan is a crucial part of city planning, as it provides a firm direction for
a community’s future and documentation for grant applications for community gathering
places, infrastructure, and more.
Texas Target Communities is a Texas A&M community engagement initiative
established to support the improvement of Texas communities. This initiative is made
possible by the School of Architecture, the Department of Landscape Architecture and
Urban Planning and the Department of Economic Development and Community
Impact in the Texas A&M Division of Academic & Strategic Collaborations.
