Travis County is mulling its very own “Marshall Plan” – an all-encompassing system for revamping social programs in East Travis County, modeled after the post-World War II plan to rebuild Europe’s economy and infrastructure.
On Thursday, Economic Development & Strategic Investments Director Christy Moffett and Commissioner Jeffrey Travillion briefed the Commissioners Court and the public on the idea during a work session.
“We started talking about this idea of a Marshall Plan to develop an underdeveloped area by looking at the group of resources that are needed, rather than just talking about housing, health or about infrastructure,” Travillion said. “We started having this conversation around the whole affordable housing issue, expo center, etc. What tools do we have to look at the entire needs of a community rather than just one thing?”
Moffett described the aims of the plan as identifying public investment and funding opportunities that could support East Travis County, which has historically faced displacement and gentrification.
Travillion mentioned that there were 23 post-Civil War Black settlements in Austin, including Clarksville and Wheatsville, which were once denied city resources and services. The Travis County Marshall Plan would be a reversal of those provisions.
“Any city service that could be provided would not be provided unless you left,” Travillion said, describing the historical coerced displacement of minority groups in the county.
Moffett said that the county has requested $250,000 for consultants who would partner with local universities to conduct research on best practices for the project.
“I imagine in this process we might want to entertain looking at different kinds of consultant groups, maybe to extend our community engagement capacity and also for financial modeling,” Moffett said.
Commissioner Ann Howard wondered whether it might make sense to look at what local organizations working on East Travis County issues are already doing before hiring a consultant to do (potentially redundant) work.
Howard asked, “Before we would just sort of go off and get a consultant to do this big thing, would it make sense to look at sort of what is known and what the community wishes Travis County would plug into instead of re-create it?”
She added, “My understanding is some of the groups have the asset mapping right now and so it doesn’t make sense for us to start at the ground level of asset mapping.”
Howard was assured that the Marshall Plan work would build on existing work being done in the community.
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Travis County: Travis County is the urban county that includes, notably, Austin.
Travis County Commissioners Court: The legislative body for Travis County. It includes representatives from the four Travis County Precincts, as well as the County Judge. The County Judge serves as the chair of the Court.
