Each October, the City joins the American Planning Association and planners across the country to celebrate National Community Planning Month and highlight the lasting value planning has on our city. The City of Round Rock’s Planning and Development Services Department (PDS) follows the guidance of the City Council and works to ensure that Round Rock is a safe, desirable, family-oriented community that balances progress and prosperity with its history, by prioritizing quality of life, mobility, economic development and thoughtful land use planning.
Planners are responsible for administering the City’s Historic Preservation Program and supporting the Historic Preservation Commission (HPC) to educate the public on the history of Round Rock. The Mayor, with the HPC, will proclaim Indigenous Peoples’ Day and Native American Heritage Month at the City Council meeting on October 9, 2025.
Throughout the year, Planners engage with the public, including Round Rock’s youth, to educate young people about the planning process. Come and meet some of our planners on October 18, 2025, at 11:00am for Family Storytime at the Round Rock Public Library. Senior Planner Lily Park and Planner Pramistha Joshi will read “Ava Planner the City Planner” by Corrin Wendell, a story of a girl who rallies her neighbors to turn a neglected, muddy edge of her city into a community park.
Over the past year, planners have been reevaluating the City’s downtown mixed-use zoning districts by engaging with residents, businesses, and developers through surveys, meetings, office hours, an open house, and one-on-one conversations. Community input has helped shape proposed zoning amendments expand the downtown boundary, allow for strategic density along corridors, encourage pedestrian-friendly design, and create more flexible standards for housing, retail, dining, and gathering spaces downtown. The amendments strengthen design and landscaping requirements to prioritize shade, greenery, and active street life, ensuring that private development complements the City’s long-term vision and investments in a vibrant, walkable downtown. City Council will consider the proposed amendments at their meeting on October 23, 2025.
These planning initiatives and more are guided by Round Rock 2030, the City’s comprehensive plan. Adopted in June 2020, Round Rock 2030 continues to guide growth and infrastructure investment in Round Rock through a vision statement, 12 guiding policies and specific implementation strategies that the City follows to implement the plan’s 10-year vision.
Community Planning Month provides opportunities to get to know Round Rock’s planners, explore how planning has shaped our community, and learn about the city’s comprehensive plan Round Rock 2030 and its vision for the future.
Want to learn about planning in Round Rock? Visit https://www.roundrocktexas.gov/planning or download the brochure What is City Planning? to learn more and check out this video for Community Planning Month!
