With ambitious plans for downtown underway the City of Amarillo isn't sitting still.  Amarillo is considering over $900 million in improvements across the city.

It's called the Capital Improvement Plan.  All city department heads and managers were tasked with foreseeing the needs of their area of responsibility with the city over the next five years.  If successful the plan would virtually involve all major components of the city.

Here's where the nearly one billion dollars will be allocated:

Streets/Drainage - $276 million

Utilities - $169 million

Civic Center Expansion - $166 million

Parks and Recreation - $124 million

Facilities - $27 million

Public Safety - $23 million

Airport - $21 million

Information Technologies - $20 million

Solid Waste - $16 million

Traffic - $4 million

The city manager has been tasked to prioritize what improvements are needed immediately, what can wait, and what the city can do without.  Before the priorities are finalized the city will host public meetings and reach out to citizens online to determine what the voters perceive to be the top needs

The city is expected to release a schedule of public events related to the Capital Improvement Plan over the next couple of weeks.

Anyone can come up with a plan costing anything but if the money isn't there it's simply a dream.  The city will look at every source of funding available including utility fees, airport grant money, and possibly a bond election.  If there is to be a vote on full or partial funding for the plan the city will have until August 22nd to get on the November ballot.

More From NewsTalk 940 AM