SANGER — Highlights of a new city plan include two elements that planners hope will ease congestion as Sanger grows: three traffic loops around the city’s east side and commercial “nodes” that encourage retail and services at major intersections.

City leaders formally adopted a new, comprehensive plan for Sanger during their regular meeting Monday night, capping a process that began last spring and finished a month sooner than the planning consultants predicted.

Planning consultant Dan Boutwell, of Municipal Planning Resources Group, made a short presentation to the council before the plan’s formal adoption. The final step followed several months of community outreach, including an online Web survey and public meetings.

Boutwell described the proposed system of loops, which would handle traffic on the east side of town, with each connecting to Interstate 35. Fifth Street will be the innermost loop, an extension of Belz Road to Rector Road would provide a middle loop, and an extension of Lois Road would make the outermost loop, he said.

Resident Larry Hess, the only member of the general public who attended the meeting, expressed concerns about the outermost loop.

“I live right where the road goes,” Hess said. “I’ve been living out there for 20 years, and every so often I have recurring nightmares over things I have no control over.”

Hess is one of several residents of Rainbow Valley, a 220-acre agricultural cooperative and wildlife preserve, who has been concerned about the city’s thoroughfare plan since it was first announced.

The community is a three-decade-old experiment in sustainable living with distinctive homes of cement domes built partially into the hillside.

Boutwell said the thoroughfare map doesn’t represent the exact location of any proposed roads, but provides a starting point for negotiations, especially if someone wants to develop a large tract of land.

“Developers are expected to donate right of way in their plans,” Boutwell said.

As part of its contracted services to the city, which cost about $50,000, the planning group will provide the city both a full and an abbreviated version of the plan. The shorter version can be used as a tool for economic development, Boutwell said.

In addition to the three loops, the new land-use plan identifies nearly two dozen intersections suitable for commercial “nodes.”

Commercial nodes differ from commercial corridors in that they limit the development to 300 feet around the intersection, according to the city’s economic development director, Cecile Carson.

“It might not be on all four corners,” Carson said. “But it will primarily be a convenience to the neighborhood.”

Carson characterized the types of businesses likely to be found in the nodes as “right-turn home” businesses such as grocery stores, dry cleaners, gas stations and other conveniences.

Boutwell cautioned that the plan does not equal zoning or change any existing zoning, but state law says cities must have a comprehensive plan in order to adopt zoning ordinances.

“If someone has a store in an area you’ve now indicated is for single-family residential, they don’t have to pick up and move their store,” Boutwell said.

In anticipation of the plan’s adoption, City Manager Mike Brice circulated a list of capital-improvement projects for the council to consider during a workshop session just prior to the meeting.

He asked the council to add any projects it knows of that might be missing from the list, rank the projects and bring the rankings to the next meeting so the city can begin addressing its 10-year capital-improvement plan.

“For now, don’t look at the prices,” Brice said. “Just rate them in the order of importance.”

PEGGY HEINKEL-WOLFE can be reached at 940-566-6881. Her e-mail address is pheinkel-wolfe@dentonrc.com.