Arlington City Council Special Meeting - October 14, 2025
Arlington City Council Special Meeting - October 14, 2025
The Arlington City Council held a special meeting on October 14, 2025, convening at 1:33 p.m. for executive session and reconvening in open session at 4:20 p.m. The meeting focused on work session discussions regarding Tarrant Appraisal District board appointments, the downtown farmers market update, the council priority to enhance mobility, and the Arlington Housing Finance Corporation. No formal votes were taken during the work session.
Discussion Items
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Tarrant Appraisal District Board Appointments – Ethan Klos, City Treasurer, informed Council of five current nominees (including Michael Alfred) and that Gary Lasada's nomination may have been rescinded. Council was not voting that afternoon; nominations would be finalized at the evening agenda with voting scheduled for December. A resolution for nominations was on the evening agenda.
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2025 Downtown Farmers Market Update – John Chapman, Planning Manager, reported approximately 19,000 visitors to the market area between March 29 and September 28, 2025, a nearly 200% increase year-over-year. The market averages 44 weekly vendors, with 55–60% being food vendors and 32–38% of vendors being Arlington residents. Proposed license agreement amendments include year-round operation, administrative approval for expanded footprint, and four designated expanded spaces requiring a special event permit. A UTA architectural studio is studying the site as a community space. Councilmember Odom-Wesley requested vendor feedback; market operator Abby noted high vendor satisfaction and a waitlist. The license agreement update will return on November 4, 2025.
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Council Priority – Enhance Mobility – Keith Brooks, Public Works Director, reviewed progress on the enhanced mobility priority. Street condition index lane miles below 50 decreased from 574 to 594 (20 additional lane miles), with 27 lane miles improved via maintenance projects. The Southeast Connector project remains on track for 2028 completion. The Safe Streets Arlington plan has 43% of action items being worked on (13 ongoing, 6 in progress). A multimodal delivery demonstration with over 300 grocery boxes delivered concluded. The Arlington Pilot Express averages 65 rides per week. A sidewalk condition survey using LIDAR technology will begin. Councilmember Boxall suggested exploring a joint venture with UTA's MAV bus service. Councilmember Odom-Wesley asked about FIFA World Cup transportation coordination; Director of Transportation Alicia Winkelblech and Deputy City Manager Jennifer Wichmann responded that the city is working with the Council of Governments and will feed information into the FIFA app.
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Arlington Housing Finance Corporation (AHFC) – Councilmember Piel reported on two items discussed by the AHFC board. (1) The Reserve at Mayfield, a senior affordable housing development that was fully occupied, requires refinancing from construction to permanent mortgage bonds. The public hearing and resolution were on the evening agenda. (2) April Housing proposed acquiring and rehabilitating Mayfield Park Apartments (affordability expires 2030), requesting a resolution to apply for private activity bonds up to $55 million. The AHFC board approved the initial step to allow the bond application. Board members emphasized any agreement must include a payment in lieu of taxes (PILOT) with a ratchet increasing payments consistent with property valuation.
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External Committee and Training Reports – Multiple council members reported on recent meetings:
- Mayor Ross on the Tarrant Regional Transportation Coalition (meeting Sept 24, discussed dues increase and study for state funding), Tarrant County Mayors Council (Oct 6, legislative update, public health presentation, Arlington noted as one of the two safest big cities in Texas – #7 in the U.S.), and U.S. Conference of Mayors Leadership Meeting (Sept 26-27 in Oklahoma City, discussed political violence resolution, climate rollback, tariffs impact on Brazilian cities, data center growth, and legislative priorities).
- Councilmember Hogg on the North Central Texas Council of Governments Executive Board (approved $404 million budget, 77% federal funding; discussed procurement for AI contracting and potential government shutdown impacts).
- Councilmember Gonzalez on the Regional Transportation Council (approved $311,000 for Arlington's Handitran service over three years, TRE double tracking project, heavy-duty zero-emission vehicle replacement call, and FIFA 2026 transportation plan update; also attended Transit Vision Subcommittee).
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Evening Agenda Items – City Secretary Alex Busken reminded Council of an updated certificate for item 13.1 and noted that the resolution for TAD board nominations (item 13.2) had blanks; no names were added during the work session. The deadline for submission was midnight October 14.
Key Outcomes
- No votes or formal decisions were made during the work session. The evening regular session was to include a public hearing and resolution for the Reserve at Mayfield refinancing and the TAD board nomination resolution.
- The farmers market license agreement amendments will be brought back for Council action on November 4, 2025.
- The AHFC board approved the initial step for April Housing to apply for private activity bonds for Mayfield Park Apartments, with further approvals required.
- Council directed staff to explore joint transportation ventures with UTA and to continue coordination for FIFA World Cup preparations.
Meeting Transcript
Okay. We're gonna go ahead and call the afternoon session of the Arlington City Council meeting to order. We're gonna move on down to three point one. Ethan, how are you doing? Good. City Treasurer. Hold on one second. Council was go. I know I need to be brief, um, so we'll just run through this fairly quickly. Um let me go back. So we have currently there are actually this has been uh needs to be updated. There are five current nominees out there. Uh the fifth one that's been added is Michael Alfred, who is also a current board member. Um I've just learned that Gary Lasada may actually have been rescinded, may not want to be a nominee, but so there's four people at least that have already been nominated. Um is a resolution in front of you. Uh if you wish to nominate anyone, you can do that tonight. Again, if if uh they've already been nominated, if you're nominating the same person, it it's neither good nor bad. It doesn't do anything specific. Um it just shows your general interest potentially, but this is not voting tonight. This is just nominating people tonight. Um the next steps will actually be voting in December. We will get the final ballots as of October thirtieth tonight on your agenda, as I said is a resolution titling about uh if you want to nominate anyone else. Um there are requirements for these people, but we will have to get it to the TAD board. Uh sorry, to TAD administration this evening. And with that, I'm here to take any questions. Any questions or comments for Ethan? Okay. Thank you, sir. We're gonna move on down to three point two downtown farmers market update. John Chapman. Afternoon, John. Good afternoon. John Chapman, long-range planning manager. Oh sorry about that. Give an update on the farmers market, uh coming up on the close of the twenty twenty-five season. Uh it's been a very successful year. Um so I'll go over the year and review as well as an update on transportation and public safety, update on our markets and events, uh, license agreement amendments, as well as next steps. So before I begin, uh last week, uh the short horn at the UTA campus uh published a great article about the farmers market, just celebrating uh six months of uh community uh through produce and crafts. Um so if anyone has a copy of the short horn, I definitely encourage y'all to read about it. Some great uh comments in there from students as well as visitors from abroad, not abroad, but um from adjacent cities. So we're looking forward to to more headlines such as this. Some notes as from this is from Placer AI as well as the market operator. We had about 19,000 visitors to the market area itself between March 29th and September 28th of this year. That's about a two almost a 200% increase in attendance uh to this general area year over year, uh, which is great for downtown Arlington. Meaning of the residents or those who are coming to uh the farmers market reside south of the Trinity River and then north of I-20 within the city of Arlington. They generally um have about 44 weekly vendors at the market itself and lots of interest for more vendors to come on board. Uh vendors usually food vendors usually make up about 55 to 60 percent of each weekly market and Arlington residents or the vendors themselves make up about 32 to 38 percent of the weekly vendors. Most people spend about 15 to 44 minutes at markets each week, and there's been 27 to date. Late in the season, the downtown Arlington Management Corporation actually did a ground survey of people that were there on September 6th. They found that the market was very valuable in supporting local and small businesses and fostering a sense of community, which was one of the key highlights that we brought to y'all when first discussing the farmers market.
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