{"id":718952,"date":"2025-01-30T05:09:41","date_gmt":"2025-01-30T13:09:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/about\/newsroom\/?post_type=blog&#038;p=718952"},"modified":"2025-12-19T16:23:55","modified_gmt":"2025-12-20T00:23:55","slug":"dickinson-smart-planning-visualization","status":"publish","type":"blog","link":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/about\/newsroom\/blog\/dickinson-smart-planning-visualization","title":{"rendered":"How a Texas Town Is Building the City of the Future by Going Vertical"},"author":671,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"sync_status":"","episode_type":"","audio_file":"","castos_file_data":"","podmotor_file_id":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","filesize_raw":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","itunes_episode_number":"","itunes_title":"","itunes_season_number":"","itunes_episode_type":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[21622,491692,1511,283212,237681],"industry":[],"esri-blog-category":[492452,478452],"esri_blog_department":[492402],"class_list":["post-718952","blog","type-blog","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-esri-insider","tag-digital-twin","tag-housing-density","tag-revitalization","tag-texas","tag-urban-planning","esri-blog-category-economic-development","esri-blog-category-smart-planning","esri_blog_department-urban-planning"],"acf":{"video_source":"","video_start":"","video_stop":"","short_description":"Dickinson, Texas, is transforming its downtown into a high-density, mixed-use area with a focus on vertical growth.","pdf":{"host_remotely":false,"file":"","file_url":""},"flexible_content":[{"acf_fc_layout":"sidebar","layout":"standard","image_reference":null,"image_reference_figure":"","spotlight_image":null,"section_title":"","spotlight_name":"","position":"Right","content":"Dickinson, Texas is embracing vertical growth and mixed-use development to revitalize its downtown, using GIS technology for strategic urban planning.\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\n<strong>Key Takeaways<\/strong>\r\n<ul>\r\n \t<li>Planners use a GIS 3D model and an immersive experience to communicate an urban ideal not typical in Texas.<\/li>\r\n \t<li>The model for growing without sprawl is flexible, allowing officials and developers to experiment.<\/li>\r\n \t<li>GIS tools enable stakeholders to analyze the economic impact of the project.<\/li>\r\n<\/ul>","snippet":""},{"acf_fc_layout":"content","content":"Dickinson, Texas, has nowhere to go but up.\r\n\r\nThe city, 30 miles south of Houston, covers a mere 10 square miles. Surrounded by other cities, it has no room to expand. \u201cI always say we\u2019re \u2018landlocked,\u2019\u201d said Theo Melancon, Dickinson\u2019s city manager.\r\n\r\nGreater Houston is exploding. Only one other US metro area\u2014Dallas-Fort Worth, Houston\u2019s neighbor to the north\u2014is adding more new residents. Much of that growth has <a href=\"https:\/\/www.galvnews.com\/news\/houstons-fast-growth-pushes-farther-into-galveston-county\/article_eb34d232-8690-57a8-910b-d9ea7eb43ec5.html\">rippled south<\/a>, to cities like Dickinson along the I-45 freeway.\r\n\r\nWhen Houston grows, it sprawls. Over a recent 19-year period, the metro area added enough concrete and asphalt to fill <a href=\"https:\/\/kinder.rice.edu\/urbanedge\/rapid-urbanization-houston-how-it-happened-and-why-it-matters\">187,000 football fields<\/a>.\r\n\r\nSprawl is not an option for landlocked Dickinson. While the populations of the surrounding cities expand at a rate of around 17 percent, Dickinson holds steady at 22,000 people.\r\n\r\n\u201cWe can\u2019t have the suburban sprawl growth,\u201d Melancon said. \u201cBut we can have something with much more impact per square foot on the property that we do have.\u201d\r\n\r\nWith the help of a geographic information system (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/en-us\/what-is-gis\/overview\">GIS<\/a>), Dickinson is about to grow up\u2014literally.\r\n<h3><strong>\u2018Going Vertical, Not Horizontal\u2019<\/strong><\/h3>\r\nWhen Melancon and his team of urban planners pondered the situation, they saw only one option.\r\n\r\n\u201cWe needed to look at going vertical, not horizontal,\u201d he said. \u201cEspecially if we want a viable city center, we had to talk about increasing density.\u201d\r\n\r\nOther landlocked cities around the world have reached the same conclusion. Vienna, which regularly tops lists of Europe\u2019s most livable cities, is surrounded by Austria\u2019s federated states. With no room to grow, Austria\u2019s capital is managing population pressures by <a href=\"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/about\/newsroom\/blog\/vienna-seestadt-smart-city-prototyping\/\">transforming a disused airfield<\/a> into one of the continent\u2019s most ambitious planned communities."},{"acf_fc_layout":"gallery","gallery_images":[719192,719212,719222,719182]},{"acf_fc_layout":"content","content":"However, in a place like the Lone Star State, where single-family homes on the range are highly prized, it can be a tough sell.\r\n\r\nThe team developed a tentative plan to transform 12 square blocks of Dickinson\u2019s downtown into a new kind of neighborhood\u2014with mixed-use buildings that are home to both residents and retail.\r\n\r\nPlanners anticipated a skeptical city council and dubious developers. So they decided to build the city first, in the form of a 3D geospatial model.\r\n<h3><strong>An Urban Identity Crisis<\/strong><\/h3>\r\nHistorically, Dickinson has been seen more as a pit stop than a destination, with travelers bound for Houston or Galveston pausing briefly to refuel along I-45.\r\n\r\nDickinson\u2019s rep as a waystation precedes the freeway. In the early 20th century, the city was the midway stop on the Houston\/Galveston interurban rail. The main attraction was a picnic grounds that hosted harrowing horse-and-buggy races on a figure-8 track.\r\n\r\n\u201cYou\u2019d get off the train with your packed lunch, watch the races, maybe bet on them, and then you get back on and continue to Galveston or Houston,\u201d Melancon said.\r\n\r\nReinventing Dickinson meant overcoming this deeply engrained idea that the city is neither here nor there.\r\n\r\n\u201cHow do we differentiate ourselves from our sister cities?\u201d Melancon said, summarizing the problem. \u201cWhy would someone go to Dickinson, rather than League City, Texas City, or Webster?\u201d\r\n<h3><strong>Reinvention and History<\/strong><\/h3>\r\nFor a Texas city, Dickinson is attempting a radically different approach to urban growth.\r\n\r\nLeague City, where the amount of <a href=\"https:\/\/communityimpact.com\/houston\/bay-area\/development\/2023\/02\/28\/league-citys-west-side-to-bring-thousands-of-homes-as-residential-developments-unfold\/\">undeveloped land<\/a> could fit two Dickinsons, may soon build 4,000 acres of new homes on the edge of town, west of I-45.\r\n\r\nMeanwhile, Dickinson\u2019s plan to go vertical involves building structures that have retail at the base, topped by a few stories of apartments. Overall, the new downtown will hold between 200 and 400 new apartments, along with some semi-detached single-family townhomes.\r\n\r\nThe neighborhood will de-emphasize car use, with one parking space per 2,000 square-feet of built space. (For single-family rentals in Texas cities, the typical allotment is two spaces per dwelling unit.)\r\n\r\nWith so many amenities available in the neighborhood, the Dickinson planners expect cars to be less of a necessity. In place of spaces that might otherwise be dedicated to driving, downtown will feature more pedestrian and cycling paths. The team hopes the convenience of downtown will also give those who live in the old neighborhoods near the city center more car-free options.\r\n\r\nThe team envisions the new downtown as not merely a place to live, but also a place to <em>be<\/em>, knit together by public spaces. So far, two anchor spaces have emerged.\r\n\r\nELS Construction has purchased a long-vacant former First Baptist church, which it hopes to turn into a brewpub, along with outdoor pickleball courts.\r\n\r\nA few blocks away, the city is developing a park near the old interurban tracks, now used by freight trains to haul chemicals to and from the Texas Gulf Coast. Winking at Dickinson\u2019s way station past, the park will be called the Picnic Grounds. An on-site figure-eight path will pay homage to the old racetrack.\r\n<h3><strong>Show, Don\u2019t Tell<\/strong><\/h3>\r\nThis is <em>a lot<\/em> to convey in writing.\r\n\r\n\u201cHistorically, planners and city councils have had ideas that they communicate with words,\u201d Melancon said. \u201cBut it\u2019s hard to explain what we\u2019re going for with these high-density figures. Everybody knows how Texas cities develop. They\u2019re horizontal and they sprawl.\u201d\r\n\r\nUsing GIS, the planners first built a 3D model of the new downtown. Working with ViewPro, an urban planning consulting agency, they used the planning software ArcGIS Urban and the design solution <a href=\"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/en-us\/arcgis\/products\/arcgis-cityengine\/overview\">ArcGIS CityEngine<\/a>. Then they moved the model into the Twinmotion game engine to create a 3D immersive experience.\r\n\r\nNow, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=P8Ekp0ZCiGM\">a five-minute video<\/a> takes the viewer on a tour of the proposed downtown."},{"acf_fc_layout":"youtube","youtube_video_url":"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=P8Ekp0ZCiGM"},{"acf_fc_layout":"content","content":"When explaining the model, the planners emphasized that it was <em>a<\/em> vision of the city, but not <em>the<\/em> vision. As with many new urban projects, the zoning applies a system called <a href=\"https:\/\/mediaspace.esri.com\/media\/t\/1_gcbvp4ek\">form-based coding<\/a>. (The church development came about after ELS Construction saw the video, then understood the total context of the project.)\r\n\r\nInstead of designating zones based on use, such as residential or commercial, a form-based code establishes some physical parameters to provide a unified look. For Dickinson\u2019s downtown, if developers follow those rules and adhere to density-related requirements, they have a large leeway for their projects.\r\n\r\nThe planners fed these rules into the GIS model. People can explore different ways to structure the downtown by dragging and dropping to create streetscapes. What if we added a floor to this building? Or put more parking there? If a change violates the rules, it turns red on the model.\r\n\r\nIn this way, the model provides contextual knowledge and shows how every building is part of a larger unified project."},{"acf_fc_layout":"gallery","gallery_images":[719252,719242,719232,719292]},{"acf_fc_layout":"content","content":"<h3 class=\"ai-optimize-6\"><strong>The Whole Picture<\/strong><\/h3>\r\n<p class=\"ai-optimize-7\">Along with physical context, the model provides economic context. A city manager can plug in figures to determine, for example, how much tax revenue a space is likely to generate, now and in the future.<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"ai-optimize-8\">This will help downtown projects obtain financing. Potential investors in Texas \u201chave no experience with this kind of development,\u201d Melancon said. \u201cBut when you can show a broader picture of what downtown could be, what we\u2019re committed to doing over several city blocks, they realize every parcel is part of a bigger picture.\u201d<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"ai-optimize-9\">So far, the plan is working. Dickinson\u2019s city council and the city\u2019s Economic Development Corporation (EDC) have become enthusiastic converts. ELS Construction has demonstrated its long-term commitment in a major way. The company is transforming the gym in the renovated church downtown into its new corporate headquarters.<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"ai-optimize-10\">The difficult conversation about a Texas town going vertical has gotten easier. \u201cIt\u2019s changed the mindset of the council and the EDC,\u201d Melancon said. \u201cInstead of seeing Dickinson as landlocked, now it\u2019s \u2018we have very limited space, but we\u2019re exclusive.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\r\n\r\n<h3 class=\"ai-optimize-11\"><strong>Reborn on the Bayou<\/strong><\/h3>\r\n<p class=\"ai-optimize-12\">With its downtown development project, the city of Dickinson hopes to attract residents who value a new approach to urban living in a location that offers non-urban recreational possibilities. One possible demographic is remote workers who won\u2019t mind the distance from Houston and may value the proximity to the outdoor attractions of the Texas Gulf Coast.<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"ai-optimize-13\">Dickinson planners are emphasizing the city\u2019s connection with the outdoors. The region lies underneath one of North America\u2019s largest bird migration routes. Bird-watchers seek out Dickinson Bayou, which winds through town on its way to Galveston Bay. Statues depicting the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dickinsontexas.gov\/952\/Great-Blue-Heron-Statues\">great blue heron<\/a> are displayed in front of several local businesses.<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"ai-optimize-14\">Near the bayou on the far east side of Dickinson, the city is redeveloping a 34-acre piece of property. It will become a mixed-use district and a 20-acre bayou-front park. To prepare for environmental reviews, planners use GIS to map pipelines that cross the property.<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"ai-optimize-15\">\u201cWe have an opportunity to bring in people who only have to commute to Houston once or twice a week, not five,\u201d Melancon said. \u201cThey might like being so close to the bayou, and love being closer to Galveston than Houston.\u201d<\/p>\r\n&nbsp;\r\n<p class=\"ai-optimize-16\">Learn more about <a href=\"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/en-us\/arcgis\/products\/arcgis-urban\/overview\">ArcGIS Urban for collaborative, data-driven urban<\/a> planning. Visit <a href=\"https:\/\/www.viewprogis.com\/\">ViewPro, an Esri-certified partner<\/a> offering advanced GIS solutions for urban planning and zoning to local governments.<\/p>"}],"references":null},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v25.9 (Yoast SEO v25.9) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>From Waystation to Destination: A Texas City\u2019s Bold Transformation<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Dickinson, Texas is embracing vertical growth and mixed-use development to revitalize its downtown, using GIS for strategic urban planning.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/about\/newsroom\/blog\/dickinson-smart-planning-visualization\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" 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