Nice news story about rapidly growing Hutto! (Austin, Round Rock: insurance, day care)

[centralaustinite]

News 8 Austin | 24 Hour Local News | TOP STORIES

Thought I'd spread some love to Hutto.

I am fascinated by the rapid development of the towns around Austin (when I moved here the population of Round Rock was about 5000 people!).

In the 2000 census Hutto had 1,250 people! Now the unofficial count is about 17,000. Wow. Rapid growth can bring problems but overall I believe that it is easier to manage the problems of growth than it is to manage the problems of population loss and economic decline.

I wonder what the town will be like in 2020?

[love roses]

Hopefully we'll have lots of new businesses, and also that many of them are locally owned. A lot of people around here like shopping local as opposed to chains even though we do have chain stores.

[centralaustinite]

Does Hutto have a downtown or town square? Locally-owned businesses tend to do well in those smaller spaces (compared to huge and soul-less strip developments) and it creates a great walkable space.

I would think that there were be a tremendous demand for services -- lawn care, plumbers, electricians, as well as coffee shops, cafes, copy shops. Are there many "old-time" services around? In my part of south austin there are still many locksmiths, shoe repair places, tailors, and cleaners that have been in the same location for 30 plus years and who survived all the rapid development (usually because they owned the land under their shop or had a landlord who wasn't interested in selling).

[love roses]

Yes, it does. It's on the small side but has a locally owned cafe called The Texan, which was recently written up in Texas Monthly as one of the top 40 small town Texas Cafes using fresh ingredients and also got first place in pies. There is also a locally owned flower shop, Dragonfly Floral and Gifts. There is also a gift shop, dentist office, a private residence (downtown in one of the old buildings), the local newspaper office, law and insurance offices and a small museum. There is also another little Mexican restaurant. Many of the old houses immediately surrounding the downtown have been rezoned for residential/commercial and some of the new residents of those are a car audio shop, antique store/gift shop (sells garden and wrought iron items), Chiropractor, eye doctor, a bed and breakfast, Hill Country Bible Church Central Offices, a locally owned dry cleaners (Guthrie's), The library, a day care, a 2nd Mexican restaurant, and a tax office. Across from 1660 are several other businesses and restaurants and even across 79. I think the only chains we have are Sonic, McDonald's, Chili's, Taco Bell, Home Depot, Lowes, Papa Johns,Holiday Inn, Gold'n Chick, Dollar General, Subway and Quiznos and Auto Zone. Everything else around here is locally owned.