Capital Improvements are all around you. You may not think about it every day, but it’s the sidewalk you walk on, the park or library at which you meet your friends, even the pipes that carry water that comes out of your faucet. Assets such as these are operated and managed by the City of Austin, and they are part of a larger system of infrastructure that affects each and every person’s quality of life. 

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A Capital Improvement Program (CIP) plan is a short-range plan, usually spanning four to ten years, that identifies capital projects, provides a planning schedule, and identifies options for financing the plan. The typical CIP planning process is a recurring cycle that begins with identification of needs and funding, then proceeds through development of a five-year CIP plan and annual capital budget before implementing projects.

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A comprehensive plan, like the Imagine Austin Comprehensive Plan, is a long-range plan, usually with a 20- to 50-year horizon, that provides an overarching vision and policies for a community and is intended to guide future City decisions in order to ensure orderly development and improve quality of life. Actual implementation of the comprehensive plan relies heavily on public and private investments in development and infrastructure. Major investments in public infrastructure are typically sequenced and prioritized within a jurisdiction’s CIP.

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With careful coordination Austin can ensure that CIP planning provides for capital investments that implement Imagine Austin and appropriately leverage land use and development decisions. This is the role of Long-Range Capital Improvement Program Planning. 

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