CORPUS CHRISTI, Tx — The City of Corpus Christi Development Service Department has created the Best Practice Program to prioritize education construction projects. They entered into an Interlocal Agreement with 7 local school districts to give those projects priority over other builds.
Al Raymond, Director of Development Services, said his job is to facilitate growth within the city and that's what he and his team are trying to do with this new program.
He added that the agreement is designed to improve the city's performance on local projects within 10 days and monitor how fast the project goes from bond issuance to being built within the community.
"While their schools or their projects are being developed at 30%, at 60%, 90%, we usually didn't take those and look at them," Raymond said. "We've waited until we got to 100% of the design plan. They submit the application, submit 100% documents, then we will start to review."
Now, Development Services will analyze the projects at any rate. Whether it's at 30% or 90% of the beginning or end. Then, when design plans and permits are submitted, the process to receive city approval will be completed quickly since it's being monitored by Raymond's department. He added that since the city has most likely already looked at the good, the bad, and the ugly within a certain project, they'll then make comments to the design plan, and allow the districts to make adjustments for an easier completion.
The 7 school districts within the Interlocal Agreement include:
- Del Mar Community College District
- Calallen Independent School District
- Corpus Christi Independent School District
- Flour Bluff Independent School District
- London Independent School District
- Tuloso-Midway Independent School District
- West Oso Independent School District
"The benefit of the Interlocal Agreement is that it sets the table for how everyone should respond, how everyone should act, what each should deliver to the table so that we can provide the product or the end result that they want," Raymond said.
John Dibala with CCISD, the city's largest school district, said this is something their team and the city have been discussing for at least 5 years. He also mentioned that not only is this program going to help the district stay on track, but it will also save taxpayers money.
"You know, we're using public tax dollars to complete these projects so it's really important that we get these projects up and running as quickly as possible because time is money, right," Dibala said.
The city will also provide fee reductions to the districts, which will keep money in everyone's pockets.
"If the project is under $5 million, the district will get a 25% discount in fees. If it's over $5 million, then they get a 50% discount."
Development Services said they're still waiting for London Independent School District and Del Mar Community College to sign the agreement, but once they do, the city will begin monitoring the projects that are presented to them through the participating school districts.
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