Cedar Park city staff presented a draft Transportation Criteria Manual to the City Council on Oct. 20 and said the document will be posted for public comment beginning Oct. 21 for roughly 30–32 days.

The manual, intended as a technical design guide for engineers and contractors, updates the city’s reliance on the City of Austin manual (used since 2001) and converts policies in the Mobility Master Plan into engineering criteria specific to Cedar Park, staff said. "The transportation criteria manual is not a policy document ... it serves as a guiding technical document that we'll be using to carry out the goals and the policies of the MMP," said Randy Skinner of the Engineering and Capital Projects Department.

Jake Goodkence of the Goodman Corporation, the consultant assisting the city, told council the manual modernizes standards, consolidates dispersed rules, and adds guidance for retrofit projects — a frequent need in Cedar Park’s largely built-out network. "A lot of the future projects are going to be retrofits of existing streets," Goodkence said. He cited recent national updates to roundabout design and new federal bicycle guidance the draft incorporates.

Staff said the draft includes Cedar Park–specific provisions on mid-block pedestrian crossings, shared-use paths, access management and curb/back-of-curb retrofit guidance. Goodkence and staff described the manual as technical and aimed primarily at engineers and designers rather than a general public audience.

The city plans a public comment process tied to an online form that asks commenters to identify the section they are addressing so staff can aggregate and respond to remarks. "Our intent is to come back and talk to y'all when we bring the final draft of things we heard and what we did about it and what changes we made because of it," Goodkence said. Staff also plans concurrent testing by applying the draft criteria to recent or in-pipeline projects to identify gaps before finalizing the manual.

Several council members and residents spoke in favor of a Cedar Park–specific manual while stressing the need to preserve safety priorities from the Mobility Master Plan. Public commenter Darren (last name not specified) encouraged robust public review: "This is a very exciting" project and said local transportation advocates plan to submit detailed feedback.

No council vote was taken at the meeting. Staff announced the public comment period would begin the day after the meeting and run about a month; staff will review comments, perform the concurrent design testing, and then return to council with a final draft and an ordinance package for adoption.

The city will host the draft and a structured comment form on the city website; staff said the comment form and document would go live the day after the meeting.