The City of Boerne was recognized for two achievements during the Texas Municipal League annual conference in early October, including becoming a Certified Scenic City by Scenic Texas and placing as a finalist for a Municipal Excellence Award in Public Safety.
Scenic City Certification
The City of Boerne was certified as a Scenic City by the Scenic Texas, a nonprofit organization dedicated to the preservation and enhancement of the state’s visual environment.
The vision of Scenic Texas is to provide tools and support that encourage exemplary visual standards along roadways and enhanced streetscapes that provide better quality of life for citizens and visitors.
“The Scenic City certification reflects the diligent work of City staff across departments to develop and implement environmentally conscious development processes, such as our Unified Development Code,” Planning and Community Development Director Laura Haning said. “We look forward to working with Scenic Texas as we continue to prioritize our environment and the natural beauty of the Hill Country.”
The Scenic City program has four qualifying categories from Bronze to Platinum. The City of Boerne earned the Gold designation by providing comprehensive regulations that implement the four key components of the program, including:
- Create a Sense of Place – Instill and maintain a sense of belonging in the community by maintaining the City’s unique charm, preserving the environment and historic character by providing ordinances that support those initiatives.
- Economic Growth and Growth Management – Find a healthy balance between economic growth and growth management through ordinances that support responsible, environmentally friendly growth.
- Environmental Conservation – Environmental conservation is maintained and supported through prioritizing environment in ordinances and providing programs that support those regulations.
- Strong Scenic Standards – A strong framework for environmental conversation, economic growth, and growth management while establishing a sense of place by implementing carefully written ordinances that serve the public and the environment.
Benefits of Certification
Becoming a Certified Scenic City is beneficial to a city and its residents in many ways. The Scenic City Certification Program can be used as a tool for Texas cities that intend to create high quality and thoughtful ordinances, plans, and programs through local municipalities. Certified Scenic Cities are recognized by the program for establishing strong infrastructural standards related to public roadways and public spaces.
A primary goal of the Scenic City Certification Program is to help establish a foundation of cohesive scenic standards across Texas that promote sustainability through environmental conservation, economic management, and sense of place.
Boerne joins Blanco, DeSoto, Fulshear, Grand Prairie, and Kyle as the newly qualifying cities for 2022. Together, there are 91 Certified Scenic Cities across the state. Learn more about Scenic Texas.
Municipal Excellence Award
During the TML Conference in San Antonio, the City of Boerne was one of three finalists for a 2022 Municipal Excellence Award in Public Safety for cities under 25,000 in population. The City was recognized for its mobile security trailer.
The Streets, Parks and Recreation, and Information Technology departments worked collaboratively to create a mobile video security unit for the Boerne police department by retrofitting a retired radar trailer to improve security for large public events and in high traffic areas. The project saved taxpayers upwards of $50,000.
TML is a voluntary association of 1,174 Texas cities of which the City of Boerne is a member. TML’s Municipal Excellence Awards recognize and encourage the achievements of Texas cities in meeting the challenge of municipal governance.
This is the second award the City has received this year for it mobile security trailer project. In May, the Texas Association of Government Information Technology Managers (TAGITM) gave the project its Excellence Award. Read more about the project.