South Padre Island is a community situated on the southern tip of the barrier island that lies between mainland Texas and the Gulf of Mexico. Founded as a resort town in 1973, the history of the area now known as South Padre Island stretches back to the 19th century, when Padre Nicolás Ballí established the first known settlement nearby. South Padre Island developed rapidly after World War II, and soon became a popular destination for ranching, oil and gas, and tourism. Today, the City of South Padre Island is a modern City that retains many of the characteristics that originally drew pioneering settlers to its shores two centuries ago. As the City looks forward from its storied past, community members have expressed a desire to plan for the challenges and opportunities that lie ahead for South Padre Island. This plan, The Island Way: The South Padre Island Comprehensive Plan, outlines a path for achieving the shared vision for the City described by community members through the visioning and goal-setting process. It succeeds, updates, and replaces the Town of South Padre Island, Texas Comprehensive Plan 2008, which was drafted more then a decade earlier. The Island Way synthesizes a series of component master plans into one, seamless document that will guide the growth and evolution of the City between the writing of this plan and its horizon of 2050. Because three decades will pass between the adoption and achievement of this plan, it should be visited and updated regularly at five-to ten-year intervals.