MANOR, Texas — In the downtown stretch of Manor, most buildings have stood for nearly a century, if not more. The buildings have remained the same, but more cars have driven down that road in the last several years than ever.
“Manor kind of needs a facelift, and it’s a welcome change to me,” said lifelong Manor resident Clifton Duett.
With all the anticipated growth, the City of Manor has been preparing its Master Development Plan to revamp downtown.
“It’s a definite need for the city,” said Scott Jones, Manor’s Economic Development Director. “We’re at 22,000 right now … we were less than half that five years ago, so we’ve seen phenomenal growth, we’re not slowing down anytime soon.”
Jones said key parts of the plan include revamping the older buildings and their outdated pipes, adding more parking and better sidewalks downtown, and hopefully attracting new businesses to the area.
“Manor’s downtown is not the best it could be, and we’re going to try to make it the best it can be,” Jones said.
With some buildings dating back to 1910, and some even earlier, Jones said the downtown infrastructure is old and subpar for new development. The city plans on updating many of its water pipes, some of which are clay, from half a century ago. They also want to install a new storm drainage system.
According to Jones, these changes are especially important with the massive influx of residents moving into Manor soon. The city estimates, with all of the new apartment units planned near downtown, they could see another 40,000 residents in the next five to seven years.
“With all these new residents coming downtown, they’re going to need places to shop, places to eat, places to spend money,” Jones said. “We need to provide those opportunities within walking distance.”
The city has been working on their master plan for about a year and a half already, but this November they hired a contractor to produce an updated plan. Then in December, the Manor City Council approved a measure that would allow the city to set aside tax revenue specifically for this project.
It’s called a Tax Increment Reinvestment Zone (TIRZ), and the council voted to put away 50% of any increase in tax values from their base year, 2024, for the project for the next 20 years. They estimate it will generate about $40 million for the project.
Jones said the city also can sell bonds based on the projected income from taxes.
“I would imagine they will probably sell some bonds based on the projected income that’s going to be coming in because the taxes here haven’t gone down, they’ve increasingly gone up,” Jones said.
The city may purchase some of the buildings downtown to redevelop, but they are more interested in attracting new businesses to develop them instead. They plan on offering incentives for new and existing businesses.
“We want to try to attract the developers,” Jones said. “Our doors are wide open, so you know, bring us your business.”
Boomtown is KVUE’s series covering the explosive growth in Central Texas. For more Boomtown stories, head to KVUE.com/Boomtown.