Doors open today at new Guadalupe County Development Center

Seguin, TX, USA / Seguin Today
Cindy Aguirre

One stop permitting now available at newest facility
(Seguin) – Guadalupe County’s newest facility is officially open for business. The county today opens the doors to its new Development Center located just south of the Guadalupe County Jail at 310 IH 10 West in Seguin.

The Guadalupe County Development Center will provide residents and commercial businesses with specialized services in permitting, developmental regulations, subdivision plats, geographic reference maps, 911 addressing, as well as the managing and enforcement of public violations according to federal, state, and local regulations. Plus, elements of the fire marshal’s office can also be found in this multi-faceted facility.

The much talked about vision of integrating these services all under the same roof has always been important for the county who according to Commissioner Pct. 2 Drew Engelke has been working steadily to see the project through.

“This has been a project that’s been discussed and talked about and put on the budget and put off the budget for years and we were able to finally come up with a good design, a good plan, a great team that we had working on this but it was a process and for me working on this project, it was something that from day one was a (vision) for the future of the county in relation to what it’s going to serve for the public but in also in essence of an ability to move forward as we are growing so fast as we are all well aware of. The original design was a smaller facility. It was actually in a different location on the side of road and bridge and so again going through that process together as a commissioners court making decisions with the budget and them moving forward to what we have today, it’s really been an exhilarating feeling for me being involved since day one and the process going back and forth. It was on the table. It was off the table. But when we finally had a plan in motion, everybody working together, it all came out to the facility that you see today,” said Engelke.

Engelke adds that the new development center is centrally located in Guadalupe County and is well suited to support professional services in terms of growth and safety. He says the 17,000 sq. ft building is the ideal framework that will go to support future services ensuring positive and well-planned growth within the county.

“This new Development Center facility and the jail facility and the county property now that we own across Guadalupe Street there, we are planning for the long-term future and I’m really all about that. I’ve always been a person who likes to plan long term so actually this facility centralized in the center of the county is actually a good thing but it’s part of the road and bridge’s current site that we were able to construct this facility for the public so being centralized in the county also helps with that aspect of accessibility but then leading this facility as we’ve designed it to go into our future facilities on North Guadalupe Street, it’s going to create a great environment for the public to be served,” said Engelke.

Among those now housed at the new Guadalupe County Development Center is County Engineer Clay Forister. He says being based in one location strengthens their capacity to work together internally and more efficiently.

“A lot of counties talk about trying to make it easier for the public to come in and get permits and everything else and in other areas where I’ve been, I’ve always had kind of the analogy of like, my parents ought to be able to walk in – they want to build a barn or they want to build a house – have them come in and have a one stop shop where they can come in and have all of their questions answered. Don’t make them drive around to four places around town – have them just come on in and have all of their questions answered and this building does that and we are unique in that because so many places don’t attain this goal of having a one stop shop where the public can come in and have all their needs addressed so to me this is a huge deal. Obviously, it helps from the prospective that our different units, we are all back under one roof again. It’s easier for us to communicate and work together with each other when we are not all over the place but the big goal here is to make it easier on the public and this facility is going to do that,” said Forister.

The end results, according to Forister, will be to deliver significant county projects while at the same time enhancing customer service.

“The big goal from my advantage point is have all the permitting departments here. If someone comes in and there is something wrong with the road, they can come here and they can get a service request entered or they can just call. Historically, road and bridge and environment health had separate phone numbers. Residents can still call whatever number they are comfortable with but they all funnel through the front desk so it will really be a unified effort and as far as the public is concerned, they’ll see one county,” said Forister.

Throughout its construction, employees had been using offices at the old hospital ambulatory. Some even had departments working in two separate buildings.  Engelke says it’s been a team effort from start to finish.

“I’m extremely proud of all the of employees who had to move other places for a year while this new facility was being constructed and still serve the public. I applaud them and I do that in court quite often when we talk about this project. Again, it was a team effort and, working together, we came up with a great product for the citizens and then also for the employees to work in. It is something we also plan for future growth because we designed it for open offices for future personnel as we continue to grow in the county,” said Engelke.

While most of the building is designed as efficient office space, it’s the lobby area and the front lawn that take the lead in helping to welcome residents to their new space. Not only does the lobby area welcome the public with a large engraved county seal on the floor and pecan infused front desk but passerby’s will not be able to overlook the antique maintainer parked outside alongside the IH 10 frontage road. Engelke says the piece of equipment was transferred from the old road and bridge department that once sat at the same location.

“It was designed back in the day where you had to get a machine to actually pull it. It sat in front of the old road and bridge facility. It’s just a reminder of where we were and so when we did the original site plan on this new facility, I wanted to incorporate that again somewhere within the front of the facility. The original design site plan called for it to be elsewhere on site and then working with the team, decided that it would fit best centered in between the flags right in front of the facility and the historical significance of it, to me, the way it looks in front of the old and then you see the new behind moving forward in the future with our services to the county,” said Engelke.

The opening of the Development Center comes at the heels of the new Veteran Services Office which also just opened last month in August at 205 E. Weinert St.  The new facility also brings together a variety of services for area veterans. County officials say these buildings are just the start of planning for the county’s growth – a growth that they say is well underway.

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