Denton is playing host to another neighborhood empowerment summit Saturday, the fourth year city planners have reached out to residents, churches and businesses to help them build stronger communities.
The event runs from 8:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the Denton Civic Center, 321 E. McKinney St.
Katia Boykin, a city planning supervisor who is organizing the event, said workshops during the summit help people learn leadership skills and how to assess what their neighborhood needs.
The summit is organized into two tracks with one that focuses on board governance.
The day ends with lunch and a keynote talk.
Other topics include creating curb appeal on a budget and a toolkit for people to organize.
The session on community transformation should again yield helpful information on what neighborhoods may want or need, Boykin said. Several times, for example, neighborhoods have expressed an interest in having a community garden nearby.
City leaders are working on the development code to make establishing such a garden easier.
Those residents whose neighborhoods are in good shape can learn from activities at the summit, too, she said.
“They become closer to each other and know how to meet each other’s needs,” she said.
Registration is not required, although Boykin said it does give her a better idea of how much food to order. Both a continental breakfast and a catered lunch are planned.
During lunch, attendees will hear a keynote talk on the update of the city’s comprehensive plan.
Denton has grown by 40 percent in population and by 3,000 acres in area since the first plan was drafted in 1999. The updated plan will need to take into consideration the likely influx of 100,000 more people over the next 20 years, planning consultants have told city leaders.
In addition, the new plan will consider factors not in play back in 1999: the rising enrollment at area colleges, the downtown transit center and the Barnett Shale natural gas boom.
PEGGY HEINKEL-WOLFE can be reached at 940-566-6881. Her e-mail address is pheinkel-wolfe@dentonrc.com .
