A New Look at North Texas’ Future
- On October 11, 2025
Vision North Texas (VNT) was an innovative public-private-academic partnership, created in 2004 as a forum for discussion about the future growth of the North Texas region. Its first major event, a Regional Visioning Exercise in 2005, brought together stakeholders from the entire region and ended with the conclusion that the people of North Texas want a future that is “better than Business as Usual”.
Karen Walz served as Project Manager for VNT from its inception through 2011. During that time, this initiative engaged hundreds of regional leaders and created an award-winning regional ‘gamebook’ for growth called North Texas 2050. This gamebook and the Vision North Texas process brought new ideas and techniques to communities throughout the region.
The three original VNT partners – the University of Texas at Arlington, the North Central Texas Council of Governments and the Urban Land Institute – have now been joined by a fourth partner, the North Texas Commission. These partners came together at UTA’s 10CAPPA celebration on October 10, 2025 to kick off a new regional dialogue. Known for now as VNT + Beyond, its structure and focus will be determined in the coming months.
Karen, and many of the other leaders of the original VNT initiative participated in this event. It will be fascinating to see what direction this new initiative takes!
