Okay.

Oh Lord of Mercy.

Actually, Andy did come in and she said 1215.

I thought she meant it's 1215.

And uh pursuant to VTCA Government Code Chapter 551.071072 and 087.

Noon session back to order.

We're gonna start with three point one.

Good afternoon, Mayor and Council, John Chapman, Long Range Planning Manager here to talk about form-based code.

We do have two uh big plans going on.

The Innovate Arlington comprehensive plan that is not a zoning change, it is just a uh visionary document.

However, what we're going to be discussing uh right now is our form-based code zoning project.

This is a possible zoning change uh that could impact uh properties.

Uh we're gonna be discussing the uh boundary and what the existing zoning is within that area, as well as our proposed regulating plan, which includes all of our subdistricts and frontage types, our proposed street frontage, uh as well as the subdistricts, and then we will talk about the code structure and how form-based code will nest within the unified development code, as well as the specific details or some of them related to our downtown form-based code, and then the project timeline as we're uh nearing completion of this project.

Our December open house was a big uh big success.

Uh we had our consultants there as well as a variety of uh Arlington city staff from public works, transportation, housing, um planning.

Um a lot of great feedback, it was very positive.

Uh we even had a great station there.

You can see Thodony David Palmer there, the uh project manager assisting residents with n understanding what their existing zoning is, as well as understanding based off of the form-based code what their proposed zoning uh could be.

And that helped residents who received the flyers that you see on both sides of the slide there, understand better what development standards if form-based code is adopted by council, uh, how that would impact their properties.

So it was a very uh uh engaging and great meeting with uh stakeholders around the downtown uh form based code area.

So with that, I'm going to uh welcome Jay Narina, the consultant for Form Based Code to provide more details and updates on the project.

Um good afternoon, uh City Council members.

Uh my name is Jay Narina, principal with livable plants and codes, uh the lead on the form based code.

I really do appreciate the opportunity to come and speak in front of you.

Um so this map really shows the existing zoning.

Um a lot of the zoning districts uh are not just exclusive to downtown.

You have commercial districts elsewhere in the city that the same standards apply here, so you can kind of see a lot of it is downtown business right in the middle there, but on the edges you do along the rail rail line, you have industrial, uh you have some corridor commercial, and you have your neighborhoods as well.

So this would be the new regulating plan, which is just a fancy name for the actual new zoning map for downtown.

And the reason we're calling it a regulating plan is it goes beyond just assigning zoning districts for properties, but it also designates certain street frontages because again it's about relating what happens on the street with private development.

It's really relating the public and the private realm.

And so the important thing of the form based code is going to be this critical element of not just writing standards for what happens on private property, but it also how does the development relate to the street in front of it.

So that's really a critical element.

So when you talk about frontage types, uh we have three different frontage opportunities that have been established through the code.

The code would identify three different types of frontages.

Type A frontage would be the highest quality frontage for the sidewalk.

So if you think about a main street, right, where you have continuous buildings, continuous storefronts, possibly cafes, sidewalk cafes, that makes it the most interesting to walk on.

That would be your A Street.

You'd have wide sidewalks, you'd have shade, you'd have activated frontages, etc.

Your B streets may be one of those hybrid locations where it's still still evolving, it's still redeveloping.

You may have some small parking lots, you may have driveways, you may have you know drive-through uh issues, but the idea is that this is an area that accommodates both pedestrians, but it also accommodates some uh some kind of um uh parking and and automobile orientation as well.

And the type C furnage is the least high quality furniture.

Um it would be your alley furniture, you know, the back of house functions, uh utilitarian functions, possibly access to parking lots, etc.

And the reason to do this is to kind of provide the development standards that's that actually addresses these frontages differently because we know that all four sites may not be your A frontages.

We want to recognize that you want to treat different street frontages differently.

Um so now we get into the actual sub-districts, which would be the zoning districts within this downtown uh form-based code.

Uh one is the traditional neighborhood, which is a lot of the neighborhood that is to the north of uh uh downtown, and you can see those areas are highlighted here in red.

So those are the yellow areas.

And then the next is the urban neighborhood, and you can see the intensity and scale of development is also a little bit higher.

It does allow for more mix of uses, offices, corner retail, etc.

So you can kind of see those areas uh uh highlighted in uh this um orange ish brown.

And this actually comes in two different uh categories.

One is a three-story category that's to the north.

So we want to recognize that maybe the height needs to also be calibrated to the specific context.

So to the north of downtown, uh, as you get closer to the neighborhoods, it's a three-story limit.

And then um next to the UTA campus, you have a five-story limit, recognizing that maybe the residential there is going to be a little bit more intense next to the university compared to the neighborhood.

And then the corridor mixed use.

This is the area that is generally um on the along Cooper and Division West of Cooper, and then uh East Abram.

We recognize that these are you know wider roadways, wider corridors that have had a lot of auto-oriented uses, possibly some industrial uses as well, and those will transition as the market evolves.

This is not gonna happen overnight, and we want to recognize that the standards there may need to be a little more flexible, a little looser than the standards uh for the rest of downtown.

So the downtown core would be the most intense area in downtown, which is very close in terms of boundary to your downtown business district.

Uh it would allow uh the highest mix of uses as well.

And then you do have uh the downtown gateway, which is really the connecting uh connective tissue between downtown and the entertainment district uh to the north.

This is along Collins Street.

Uh, Collins Street is seen as is envisioned as a promenade that really can uh be enhanced from a pedestrian standpoint and really become the main connect connector between uh the entertainment district and downtown.

So this is uh the regulating plan itself uh with the the uh uh gateway, downtown gateway highlighted there.

And some of the uh additional items in the um actually I want to go back to this a bit, is there are uh future streets also identified.

And the idea is that these streets are recommended and they're more mainly to provide guidance to developers who may be looking at redeveloping these properties.

The city is not going to go and build them.

It's really to kind of uh give um property owners and developers some continuity and idea of what the intended uh block structure needs to be.

This is to promote walkability and uh mixed use as the primary goal.

In terms of the actual form-based code structure, we're talking about downtown as the first area the city is looking to implement this, but in the form in the unified development code, we are adding this as Article 13 form-based districts.

This will be the foundation for all future farm-based districts in the city.

So 13.1 would be the general standards that would be uh that would be applicable to all FPCDs in the city, um, including downtown, and then 13.2 would um write the would be the standards specifically for downtown.

So, for example, if you end up creating a new form-based district in a different area, you would apply the general standards 13.1 and the specific standards in 13.3, for example.

So it's similar to a PDE.

So you would take the base zoning districts and you tweak them based on which area you apply them because you your downtown is unique and different, a different location in the city, maybe may have different needs, you may have different subdistrict needs.

So the idea is that you would calibrate those as you create those plans uh for redevelopment in those areas.

Are there any questions about the actual structure of the uh of the uh form-based districts?

Question council.

Okay.

So as you can see, the section 13.1 and 13.2 are similar, but the idea is that 13.1 would establish the base standards and 13.2 would really specify additional standards as they apply to downtown.

And in uh the uh form-based code uses some new terms because this is different from your conventional zoning that you have in place, and a couple of terms that are different and important are this idea of this lot frontage build-out.

So, for example, when you're walking along us along a street and you have buildings continuously, you find that it's nicer to walk along such a street frontage.

And the regulation has to address this, right?

So you don't end up with parking lots that would be interspersed between the buildings that make it less interesting to walk.

And so, this concept of of lot builded uh lot frontage build-out is to make sure that you have at least a certain amount of your lot width along the sidewalk with a building on it.

For example, if it's a 70% requirement, so if you have a hundred foot wide lot, you have to have a building along 70 feet of width of the lot.

So the idea is that you'd want to bring the building a little bit closer to the street.

And this also works with the minimum and maximum building setbacks.

You want to minimize uh especially parking lots and utility functions along the front.

You want to um allow uh flexibility for things like courtyards and sidewalk cafes and other interesting building elements, but not necessarily parking lots.

So I think one of the comments was to make sure that we allow that flexibility in uh development so you have more interesting uh facades and building frontages.

And then we do have uh parking setbacks, especially on those A frontage uh streets.

You want to make sure that parking lots are uh located behind the building, and so you do have uh additional standards for park parking configuration because that is a very important element in terms of creating walkability in most of your downtown streets.

Um then we are looking at some height transitions because there are some locations that would allow taller buildings, so you'd want to make sure, especially when you're next to neighborhoods that you would have some transitions uh in height as well.

And we are aware that the city just recently approved some of these transitions for uh through Senate Bill 840, and we're gonna go back and uh review these and make sure they're consistent.

So from an applicability standpoint, they're even across the board, so that is uh it's easier for staff to administer.

So we get into the subdistrict standards.

Each sub-district has one uh one table, one page where you have a lot of the uh main standards in terms of building setbacks, minimum setbacks, maximum setbacks, height standards, lot frontage um width requirements, etc.

So it's really uh trying to make it easier uh and user-friendly.

Same with the urban neighborhood.

Uh, we can kind of see the uh intent is for buildings to be a little more contiguous and closer to the uh to the street.

The corridor makes twos, you would uh see some side parking and maybe possibly one-story buildings.

Uh, this is along uh Cooper and West Division.

And your downtown core would have the highest intensity that would be allowed.

That's right now we're looking at 12 stories in downtown.

And uh downtown gateway.

I think we are looking at a transition uh between your uh entertainment district and downtown, it could possibly be 18 stories because there are some larger blocks that could accommodate uh more density in this area.

Uh then we do uh add some building design standards.

Uh some standards would be general to all buildings, things like entries.

You want to make sure you have uh doors and windows along the A streets, um, and then uh ground floor commercial ready.

And I know um there are some locations where you want to make sure that the ground floors can accommodate commercial users in the future, even though the market may not actually support commercial uses from day one, and so we want to be mindful of that as well.

Um, and then we have additional standards for shading, which is really an important element in Texas downtowns.

Then we have standards by building types.

So if you have residential buildings that are proposed, you have additional standards.

Uh, there are different standards for parking garages.

So you want to be uh we want to be mindful of the different needs of different building types as well.

So you can kind of see some of the neighborhood residential building types have very graphic standards where you kind of show the intent of what uh the development needs to be like, and really it's about making sure there is compatibility with what they're proposing with what's there in the neighborhood because a lot of the new infill development that has happened in the neighborhoods is not really uh respected, the character of the neighborhood.

So we listen to the neighborhoods quite closely in terms of what they were looking for in the building design standards.

So some of the key elements are compatible setbacks, uh, building heights.

This is something that the neighborhood was very um vehement about.

They wanted it to be 31 feet, architectural elements to really address the street, things like porches, tubes, and other elements, uh, and allowing a range of building types, but still compatible with the single family nature of the neighborhood.

Uh parking located at the side or the back of the primary building and height transitions with the adjacent uh sub-districts.

So, and and uh we are also recommending some standards to be added to the street design, and I and we know in in downtown you have existing streets, but they may be new streets that would be considered, especially in some of the blocks uh uh along Collins, etc., which are these uh big blocks, you may end up seeing some of these blocks kind of broken down into smaller blocks.

So we do have recommendations for how some of these new streets uh could be uh designed, uh especially uh being consistent with the walkable um character that we want to create.

And we do have recommendations, and I know this is hard to read, but this would be something that we are working through with the public works and and transportation as well to make sure it's consistent with uh what their goals are as well.

So, one of the ideas we should we um uh talked about earlier is this concept of the shared streets.

Some of these streets could be destination streets that would have no curbs, for example.

You could have uh pavers and you could have ballers kind of delineating the sidewalk areas from uh the automobile areas, but these could be closed for events and festivals.

I was we are thinking about West Front Street.

I know East Front is already designed and developed, uh, but West Front, uh West of Center could really take on this character where you have the farmers market on one side, but if you end up with um new infill development, you could have a street that can have sidewalk cafes spilling out to it, especially on weekends where the street could be closed and be made more active.

Mixed-use street that's similar to Abram Street between Cooper and Collins and Border Street could also be similar to that.

So you have other streets that are considered general streets that you still have a wide sidewalk.

You may have on-street parking, but given that the right-of-way may be limiting, you may end up having street trees more in the parking lane where you end up creating islands for uh for street trees there.

And then you have more of the residential streets that are the north-south streets that go north of downtown that could also have on-street parking and uh fairly deep sidewalks given it's a residential neighborhood there.

And Collins Street, we have identified that as a special street, and we are looking at uh creating this pedestrian promenade, which would require um additional setbacks uh from uh private uh development along Collins Street and dedication of possibly pedestrian access easements.

So as redevelopment happens along Collins, you could envision uh the kind of pedestrian area being um kind of a very wide uh maybe 20 feet that could really be a uh promenade that could connect the entertainment district to downtown and really also create this uh character that's unique and different from the other streets.

It is a it is a five-lane roadway, and we recognize there's still going to be a lot of traffic, it still has to move traffic, so there's limited right-of-ways.

So the idea is that as redevelopment happens, you get some of the private property to really kind of um participate in this creation of this pedestrian promenade, which actually adds value to a lot of the development and redevelopment on division and uh on Collins.

And we talked about this uh idea of the new streets and connectivity.

There is a section in the code that talks about how the city would implement this this new um street network as redevelopment happens.

There is flexibility for developers to come in with different ideas and different concepts uh based on the market at the time that they do come forward.

But you do have metrics in the code that would at least give staff some reviewer uh some ability to respond to applications.

So there's a maximum block perimeter of uh 1300 feet, but they can do larger blocks if they do certain things, such as project circulation plans.

So we have uh different uh metrics in the code that would help the city make those decisions in the future.

Uh in terms of parking, this is something that is a little different from what your current code recommends and has.

And we are recommending a strategy of creating a sh uh a parking ratio that is the same for all commercial uses.

For example, your current parking um standard uh, you know, it changes based on the use.

If you have uh a restaurant, it's a certain requirement.

If you have a retail store, it's a different requirement.

And if you have an office, it's generally a little bit lower.

So if you have a building that's today an office and tomorrow it's going to be a restaurant, and suddenly you have to provide five more parking spaces, especially in the context of downtown, which is already built out, it's going to be difficult.

So we recognize that as uses change based on the market, you want to make it easier for property owners to be able to allow new users to come in.

So we are recommending a strategy where all commercial uses will have the same parking requirement, regardless of uh what when that happens.

So then we are recommending a lot of those categories be collapsed so you have fewer you know, categories where as uses change, there's a lot more flexibility uh for property owners to be able to accommodate different uses.

Any questions about that parking strategy specifically because that is different from yeah.

I see that.

Oh, hold on, Ms.

Shotter.

Yeah, is there any way that we can check the online fee?

I'm being told that um viewers are not able to access it, it just went down.

Thank you.

So the last is the administration of the code.

Um, since we have a lot of detail in the code in terms of the requirements, um, all approval if it meets the standards in the in the uh farm-based districts, it will be approved administratively.

We also have some allowance for minor modifications because we don't know the actual conditions on the ground.

There may be easements, there may be trees, there may be other conditions that we're not aware of, and we need some flexibility that as uh property owners come forward with plans.

Um, there may be a need to modify a certain setback standard, um, and you don't want them to have to go through a expensive and long um drawn out variance process.

So the um idea is that within certain parameters we would allow some of these minor modifications uh to be um done administratively.

Um, and then uh if a project goes beyond that, then it would go back to city council if those are uh those are major modifications, those are not really envisioned in the code as such because we don't know what we don't know.

There may be future projects and future concepts that we are not aware of, so we want to always uh keep your door open for those.

Um and then based on a lot of the meetings we have had so far, that's internal meetings with uh other city departments, uh a lot of stakeholders, developers that we have met with and the public, uh, we are still working through a lot of uh modifications, changes to the code.

Uh and the code that you see in front of you is is still in very much in draft format.

So we're uh talking about the residential density program and how this would work because we know there is a citywide density of 36 dwelling units per acre, and we know in downtown you definitely want to allow more density because this is the location that could accommodate it, and this is where you want the density.

Um so we want to uh come up with a program that uh is fair and is uh predictable uh for developers, property owners, and the city staff as they administer it.

Um and then uh we're also looking at uh um relaxing some of the regulations that would apply to adaptive reuse because you want to make sure that the market is a driving factor um for redevelopment and it's not a city regulation that uh once the market is ripe, maybe they're the people the developers, property owners are willing to scrape and rebuild, but it shouldn't be premature.

You don't want to uh you don't want to um uh have a cash flowing business be driven out because of the regulation.

So we want to be mindful of that as well.

And then uh we we did hear about parking uh as being a concern, and that has been uh a big point of discussion, but again, this is the push and pull, right?

Which successful place have you all visited that doesn't have a parking problem?

I think um having a parking problem is a good thing because then the place is actually successful in my mind.

And if you go to a place that has all the ample parking, it's most probably not attracting people, right?

Not attracting commerce.

So that's really critical.

It's really about managing parking, and it's an evolving issue, and as you become more successful, this will be something that the city has to tackle.

But zoning is a little bit of a crude tool to try and accommodate and deal with the operational issues of parking, and that may be something that the city can consider further on down the road is creating a um parking management program that's independent of zoning.

Um so with that, uh, I think we are just talking about the timeline.

Um, is that something you want to cover, John?

Any questions though before kind of getting into next steps and timelines?

Ms.

Boxel.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Um I have a couple of questions and comments.

Um, one in your street sections.

I didn't see a street section that included a boulevard.

Is there any did you identify any streets that could have that street section in this uh on the map, or is that just something that is not available at this time?

I think we have the potential for a boulevard in this the downtown area.

I don't think we identified any, but we do have the potential for that urban arterial to be a boulevard in the table.

But we can add a cross-section.

Can you add a cross section for boulevard also?

Yeah.

Okay.

Um, and then um on your um on your maximum heights.

Um, I'd like to see some a little bit more flexibility there based on if the building has a higher floor-to-floor plate on the ground floor, especially for mixed use that you allow whatever that differential is, say from 10 feet to 15 feet or some differential that you add that to the height, because that would um promote that, which is something that we need uh higher plate heights on the ground floor.

Yeah, I think we can add that as a minor modification that if the the ground floor flare floor plot plate is greater than 20 feet or something.

Yeah, I think the 20 feet is at a minimum.

I think 20 would probably be the maximum because otherwise then the then you would have a mezzanine and we don't want to get into all that.

So okay.

And then my understanding of 840, SB 840 was that the 36 was a minimum, not a maximum.

Is that clear?

I let staff answer that question.

That was m the way I understood it, but I'm just clarifying that.

Good afternoon, Jin Copel, director for planning and development services.

So the way it says it it we have to have a minimum of 36.

Okay.

But when we did a minimum of 36, uh with the SB 840 changes that we did in the UDC, we put a max of 36 everywhere.

So you we put the max because under under um because right here on the first bullet point under SB 840, it says eight eight forty limits the density across the city to 36, but that's not entirely accurate.

Yes, so we put the max as to the max.

Yes.

Uh so I think we should be clear on that so that people understand that.

Really?

Um, okay.

And then the last thing is uh we talked about uh measures to discourage uh the Texas donut type development.

Did we add any of that in there in terms of uh continuous linear straight frontage or or any kind of other measures that we have to do?

There's some key building elements that uh we have in the draft that might address that.

Yeah, um I think we do have um the existing um recommendations that we have, the standards actually let me go to that.

So we have additional standards by building types.

So what we were thinking of was for um buildings that are wider than say 180 feet, that we have additional requirements, so you don't end up with the monotonous frontage.

Yeah, yeah.

So we may add uh you know that as another category here in terms of okay.

Just just it's not to it's not to dictate, but just to discourage that the monolithic type street frontage.

Yeah, um that was that's all my comments.

Thank you.

And I just I really like the parking part of this.

I think it's going to be very helpful downtown.

Okay.

Yes, Dr.

Odom Warsley.

Thank you very much for this overview.

Uh I had a question about SB 840 as well.

So once we implement the farm-based code, um all these building design elements in compliance with with SB 840.

Are we gonna get challenges?

There shouldn't be any uh differences because the SB 840 did not give building design standards, it was just setting some densities and some heights, which we will be in definitely in compliance with.

Okay.

And I had a question, I I know we're focusing on building design elements.

But do we have a recommendation for a commercial residential mix?

What's the ideal thing in downtown?

The percentage you're talking about.

Um, we don't.

That's a market dictates that as much, but what we're trying to do is have some of the street frontages that should be like the type A street frontage to have buildings that have the ground floor to be commercial ready.

So when market is for, you know, is g is there for commercial, they can easily adapt to a uh commercial use, but they can also be residential and still just have the commercial frontage look to it.

I was just wondering if we might have the opportunity to issue for lack of a better term, like a RFP, like based on our form design recommendations.

We would like to have commercial here and residential here and an issue like a RAFPP to invite developers to do that as opposed to waiting for developers to come to us with their ideas, which is the way it works now.

So the it it works, the RFP works if it was city-owned property and we were the ones who are setting that's our property, what we have very inviting people to come with the development.

But here what we have is everybody owns it's private property owners, and so we are just setting the standard for them so whenever they are ready to develop, they can come with uh using our standards, develop it that way.

Okay.

Okay.

And I think we have a lot of detail on design.

I was just wondering about color.

I didn't see that mentioned anywhere.

Do we have any ideas about colors for downtown vote?

We have not decided that yet.

That's a good discussion.

Is there a part of it?

Would that be a part of the form-based code?

We all never use that in any other cities.

It's typically difficult, especially that the state legislature has reduced the city's ability to even regulate materials in a lot of cases.

So I I would defer to uh legal counsel on that and and colors.

I mean, unless it's an established context for the regulation, you know, that that would we've usually kind of seen better results from like actually requiring certain articulation doors and windows, making sure that the building actually addresses the street, um, right, and the pedestrian context.

And uh not really, I mean, um there haven't been many instances where codes have been kind of um people have found loopholes to do.

I mean, they are also developers are going to most probably do the things that make sense from a market standpoint too, right?

So yeah, uh yeah, and that's their individual expression and freedom of speech in terms of the colors too.

So could we put in something regarding colors?

Not dictating the colors, but um something that that restricts or limits the amount of colors that can be really bright, like the bright yellow, like uh, you know, uh Gilberto's taco shop comes to mind, you know, where it's so bright, it like burns your retina, you know, so we could get some sort of limit to the amount of time, you know, the amount of percentage of the that could be that particular color or something like that.

If I could just save the uh consultant, uh no, we we we we shouldn't do that.

No, yeah.

Yeah, we we we really uh the legislature's all already getting after us for our design standards, so yeah, if we get into a color war on it, I'm I'm afraid that uh that'll that'll be the end of aesthetic uh controls for cities.

And miss box hall, the mayor and I love Gilberto's color and their shop.

So they're I love them, I love the mural.

All right, and and I'm sorry, just real quick.

It's uh I I know that the I know that staff is giving you uh a lot to chew on on all of these things, but it's very important to recognize that when we start getting on the calendar, staff is gonna bring this to you kind of fast and furious.

So definitely reach out if you have any questions about this process, because the whole goal, and I and John don't don't want to put words in your mouth, but I think the whole goal behind this is to make give give incentives to folks to redevelop downtown and not have to go through a lengthy redesign process.

So try to think of this as uh just a uh a glorified PD for the entire downtown area, but you're giving discretion to the developers to come in and put the pieces in on that.

So you're not looking at the individual street corners, you're looking at the whole big picture, and then once you set it in motion, the machine will run by itself, and as things get developed, hopefully you'll you'll never see it until it starts to get built.

So but but just keep in mind once that gets there, that however you built the machine, that's what it's gonna run.

So if you have concerns or questions, definitely make sure that you're comfortable with it before it you start the machine.

Yep.

Thank you, Galen.

And we will continue to provide draft updates uh to y'all as those are prepared by the consultant.

Um so as Galen mentioned, we do have uh pretty robust schedule ahead of us with a uh tentative adoption of uh April for the downtown form-based code zoning district.

Um so we are working on notifications right now.

We have about 900 uh properties, about 10 percent.

No, we would estimate no more than 10 percent may receive the 929 notices uh just for council's uh recollection on that.

Just for council's uh recollection on that, those are the notices by state law that are required as part of our public hearing process to notify any uh existing tenant uh with an active CO of a potentially legal non-conforming use if the uh form-based code zoning district is adopted as presented.

Um, so we will um continue to meet with those folks to help them understand what form-based code is and how it truly impacts them.

Uh, but we'll and we'll keep you updated on that.

Um, we'll continue to have meetings with external stakeholders, y'all, as well as planning and zoning commissioners, uh, but we have uh a lot of meetings coming up.

Um, so we have our work session with y'all today.

We will meet with the municipal uh policy committee uh three times, uh both in um one more in January and then twice in February.

We will return to planning and zoning uh between uh February and March, uh another work session with y'all on March 24th with uh formal public hearings with planning and zoning commission and uh city council in March and February.

Um so a lot of information will be coming y'all's way.

Uh our office doors, telephones, emails are always open to y'all.

We want to make sure everyone is comfortable and confident with the form-based code zoning district.

Um, and so if there's any other questions or directions that y'all really want us to work on with MPC with the three meetings we have scheduled, I'm certainly uh all ears.

Dr.

Oda Wisley.

This is a lot to chew on.

Just wondering going forward, uh, will there be some recommendations to provide some uniformity downtown uh in regards to like lighting, um signage, um planters.

I think we talked about that a little bit.

Yes, is that a part of the form-based code?

Is that something we do in addition to or I believe what and Gen Z you're welcome to correct me on this?

I believe what we're looking at is creating guidelines as part of development as part of the development standards for downtown to ensure that uh there is uh uniformity amongst all of the street furniture um uh and design components in the public realm.

Yes, yeah.

So there'd be some continuity.

Yes, there we go down in the way the furniture looks in front of every building, every built-in.

Yes.

Okay, okay, thank you.

Anyone else?

Thank you all.

All right, thank y'all.

We're gonna move on down to three point two Deputy City Manager Randall.

Thank you very much, Mayor and members of City Council.

Um, it's time for your enhanced mobility updates.

I wanted to give you overview.

Um, just if you recall, we've got nine business plan items um within this um area of focus for the city, and it was created in 2013 to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of Arlington's transportation net connections within and beyond our borders.

Um, and it talks about how critical that is within the region.

So give you a little um highlights in terms of a lot of the activity that's take that's uh taking place within this um business plan.

Um the updated street condition uh is referenced here.

And we have a companion report uh regarding our street maintenance sales tax uh work session item that will follow this.

It'll go into a little more detail about our OCI.

Um you will see though, noted there that our OCI is increasing a little bit.

Uh we do have a graph that shows that flattening out over time.

Um however, there is still a significant concern relative to uh just keeping up with the condition of our streets.

Um, but that's the the current metric on our um OCI.

The uh Southeast Connector project, um many of you are interested in, and that project is going well and on track with the uh frontage road work um being currently constructed.

We've got a couple of street rebuilt projects, Mitchell Street, um MLK and Debbie Lane.

Um so those are all moving well, and then the safe streets um Arlington implementation plan.

Uh that first report was received by you um last November.

A couple of highlights to to focus on, uh completion of uh residential rebuild projects, about 3.8 million dollars uh total, but this included uh East Arlington at Sunnyvale from Hensley to Dawn, and then North Arlington, Marcellus Court Slaughter from North Center to North Mesquite.

Um this is pretty comprehensive, including new concrete sidewalks uh pavement uh and sewer lines as well.

As if you recall, often what we attempt to do is to collaborate with uh water utilities and public works to ensure that we're not duplicating efforts.

And so we try to assess the condition of our water lines as well as our streets, so that if we have to repair one, we repair both without creating kind of unnecessary damage to our network.

And just some information on our scorecard measures, um, just a kind of end of year report.

Um you see everything is in green, which is good at a slight dip in Q1 for on time performance for Handy Tran, but that rebounded um by the end of the fiscal year.

And then uh as referenced here again, you'll note um in bright red there.

The OCI index uh headed up to about 613 miles for this year.

A couple of upcoming projects, the ADA transition plan uh kind of master plan is is underway.

Community engagement is the focus now.

We've got a survey out.

We'll also be conducting some meetings.

We're gonna be uh visiting with UTA as well as uh setting up some meetings at the active to really get engagement uh around this issue.

The mayor's uh committee on people with disabilities will be actively involved in this as well, and this um this plan will serve as kind of the the baseline for all of our ADA uh issues moving forward.

And so it was a short report, but uh certainly happy to entertain any questions you might have relative to enhancing mobility.

Councilmember Hunter.

Um I can go do you have an EDA on LK and that's the day and the traffic line.

Um completed on there.

Sure.

Let me further staff on that.

Go ahead.

Good afternoon, Keith Brooks, director of public works.

Um on MLK.

Right now, we're looking at uh wrapping everything up by next month in February.

So just trying to get the finishing touches on that.

So hopefully we'll be uh wrapping it up in February and have uh ribbon cutting on it.

Okay, thank you.

Councilmember Gonzalez.

Same question on the sublet.

Same question on sublet.

I mean Debbie Lane.

Oh, you know what I'm thinking.

Right.

Debbie Lane, uh, it's gonna be a little further out.

Uh right now we're looking at March, uh March of this year uh to wrap that up.

We're still wrapping up the pavement, uh, the paving right now, operations are going on sidewalks, things of that nature.

Uh so we're probably a couple of months out before we wrap that one up.

Thank you.

Mr.

Randolph, when you showed the pictures of the streets, slaughter and all that.

Are those the actual streets?

I mean, I assume they are.

I mean, like the one on the bottom, it looks pretty good.

So I didn't know if yeah, those are those are accurate and up to date.

So we're going to rebuild, or they've already been rebuilt.

No, those are completion.

Okay, good.

That's what I thought.

I was like kind of confused.

Like, holy mackerel, it's like I missed something.

Okay.

No, we would we would never replace a street that looks that good.

Thank you.

Sorry.

Any other questions?

All right, thank you.

Thank you.

3.3 Keith Brooks.

Good afternoon, Mayor and Council.

Uh Keith Brooks, director of public works.

Um, wanted to give you an update uh today on our street maintenance uh sales tax.

Um we'll walk you through our current strategy as far as street maintenance, uh street conditions and funding challenges we face, sustaining our street uh infrastructure and the importance of uh the reauthorization of the street maintenance sales tax in May of uh 2026 and our pavement management uh strategy.

Um also have with me today uh Sydney Kelly, he's our assistant director of uh operations uh here to answer any questions uh or assist answering any questions you may have.

So Arlington voters have consistently supported the quarter cent sales tax, uh quarter cent street maintenance sales tax since 2002.

It was pre previously uh renewed every four years, but since 2018, it is now on an eight-year cycle.

Our next renewal and street maintenance sales tax election uh would need to be approved uh by voters in May of 2026.

Uh and this funding is vital to preserving our street, our street network.

Okay.

So sidewalk provisions were added back in 2015.

And so the SB SB 1277 didn't pass in the House.

So street maintenance sales tax can still only be used to maintain city streets and sidewalks.

So that did not pass.

City of Arlington, let's see.

So the city maintains uh 3,010 lane miles.

Uh the majority of those uh are eight 1,846 lane miles are residential.

Uh we have 1,177 lane miles categorized as uh collector and arterial.

Uh additionally, 165 miles are yet to be built uh to be complete with our therapy development plan.

Here you have a graphic of the typical uh typical maintenance techniques used uh when it when we talk about the life cycle of a street.

Uh the red line shows the projected lifespan of a street uh if no maintenance is done at all.

Uh the blue line shows the various maintenance uh techniques used to extend the life of a street.

Of course, uh crack ceiling prevents moisture from penetrating the pavement and reduces potholes.

Uh asphalt reclamation rebuilds the full pavement structure.

Concrete panel replacements address isolated pavement failures, and asphalt mill and overlay restores uh uh surface condition.

This allows us to extend the life and and of the street and prioritize based on condition and funding.

So this chart shows uh how street maintenance sales tax funding is programmed.

Our field operations crews prepare sites and uh handle smaller uh maintenance items, our larger street maintenance projects, uh, asphalt mill and overlay, uh, asphalt reclamation and concrete panel replacement work are contracted out, and our street streets uh street uh our sales tax revenue is 100% used for our maintenance and repair of our streets.

Our main funding sources are divided between the quarter cent sales tax and general obligation bonds below is a table showing our various maintenance techniques and the costs per lay mile.

Uh the sec the sales tax and general fund uh together provides 25 to 30 million annually, uh while our uh general obligation bonds continue contribute 27 to 38 million annually for street maintenance and reconstruction.

As we look at the uh essential funding, uh, you know, street maintenance sales tax essential funding for daily operations.

Our street uh street maintenance sales tax is the primary funding source for all of our day-to-day roadway maintenance and operations.

Uh sales tax uh typically counts for 90 percent of our annual street maintenance budget for roadway maintenance and repairs, only 10 percent uh uh of the street maintenance annual budget is supported by the general fund for roadway maintenance and repairs since 2018.

Approximately uh five million used uh to maintain and replace vite since 2018.

Uh five million five million was used to maintain and replace vital and essential equipment and fleet.

Uh 49 uh FTEs are full-time employees uh including field crews.

Our street maintenance uh sales tax primarily fund the day-to-day roadway maintenance operations since 2018 uh with in-house crews uh having completed over 60,000 uh in-house uh potholes have been filled.

Uh those potholes will fill within two days of receiving the request.

Over 30,000 in-house concrete repairs, including curb and gutter, sidewalk, pavement, and median uh nose, et cetera.

Uh over 24 million uh has been used to complete in-house street maintenance projects, including asphalt level ups, um, significant base failures and overlays.

An example of that would have been Arkansas Lane from Metland to Cooper.

Since 2018, voter uh since 2018 voter approved sales street maintenance sales tax has improved over 450 lane miles of asphalt streets, over 130 lane miles of concrete pavement repaired, and since two well, over 125 million used on projects that are complete are currently in progress, but since 2002, we've completed over 270 million on projects that are complete or currently in process.

So I just want to summarize some of our recent uh street maintenance sales tax uh projects, uh one being our 2025 millin overlay uh project.

As you can see, we did some work, uh some submilling overlays uh UTA Boulevard, Nathan Lode, Lowe, uh Martha's Vineyard neighborhood, and Briar Hill Estates neighborhood.

Over 11 lane miles uh were uh resurfaced.

Uh this is currently in in construction, it's currently in progress.

Uh 3.8 million used to restore yellow streets to green streets.

The 2024 uh reclamation program.

Uh three we had three lane miles of asphalt reclamation, including uh old Pleasant Ridge Road, Kirk Drive, Indian Summer Lane, Triss Val, and uh Pleasant View Drive, uh 2.7 million used to restore primarily red streets to green streets.

We completed that back in May of 2025.

This is uh another one that was uh one of our largest uh mill and overlay projects.

Uh nearly uh 32 lane miles uh were improved, and of course uh these were on some of our large thoroughfares uh with the mill and overlay.

Uh Lamar Boulevard, Arkansas Lane, Center Street, uh Mitchell Street, Road to Six Flags, 8.7 million was used to restore uh yellow streets to green streets.

Um was substantially completed last month.

With our 2023 uh concrete panel replacement project, it was completed back in March of 2024.

As you can see, we use our companion replacements, and this is a strategy that we've been using to really stretch out our maintenance dollars.

Uh so we were able to do a lot of repairs on Avenue E, Green Oaks Boulevard, Stadium Drive.

Our 2023 reclamation project, which was a big project that we did in Southeast Arlington off of Kaplan Drive.

We improved approximately three lane miles of asphalt roadway.

Uh we were repaired, did some miscellaneous uh concrete repairs, uh got everything ADA compliant, and uh 2.1 million to restore a red street to Green Street.

This was completed August of 2024.

And then our 2022 uh mill and overlay project.

Uh we have various locations across the city, uh, over 30 lane miles of asphalt streets, uh, curb and gutter, concrete curb and gutter, 6.5 million.

Uh, this was completed in October 2023.

So just just want to highlight some of the uh the joint uh the CIP projects that we did use utilizing our street maintenance funding.

It's been used on 15 uh projects that's listed here to improve roadway conditions, and as Lemuel mentioned, we had uh you know we have our CIP or RWD committee uh coordination that helps uh plan joint projects and minimize costly infrastructure damages and impact to residents.

So these are just uh just some of our upcoming projects uh that we have uh for the street maintenance sales tax in 2026.

Uh you see we have a 2026 reclamation program, pretty much uh doing a reclamation on Bernie and Russell Curry, uh 2026 panel replacements, Green Oaks, Eden, uh Sublit Road, and then we have a substantial uh mill and overlay program where we'll redo uh re uh surface uh Sanford Road, uh Brown Boulevard from Collins to Hidden Ridge, and then Mill Creek, the Mill Creek neighborhood, and uh that's down there by Center Street, uh off of Center Street parked between Park Row and uh Pioneer Parkway.

And then we'll do a joint project, which is the 2019 uh drainage ditch uh project.

It's a joint project uh where we'd be doing drainage improvements on our Rbrook, uh Beverly, and Garden.

So this is uh this is our street condition map.

This illustrates the street conditions of uh city maintained streets.

It excludes uh Text Dot and private streets, it helps us prioritize maintenance and capital projects based on real-time data.

Of course, this map shows all of our red streets that we have throughout the city.

Um it shows all of our streets that have an OCI of less than 50.

About 20 percent of our uh street infrastructure are red streets and have an OCI below 50.

The graphic shows how our street infrastructure has aged and we've been working to try and flatten that curve.

And we've been working to try and flatten that curve.

Significant increases in our red streets over the last eight years.

This is a major part of why reauthorization of street maintenance sales tax is needed.

This table shows a breakdown of our red street, red, yellow, and green streets, with green having OCI of 70 or above, yellow with an OCI between 50 and 70, and red streets, anything below an OCI of 50.

As you can see from the data, our residential streets have an average OCI considerably lower than our thoroughfare development plan streets, which are arterial and collector roads.

We're able to improve, we were able to improve 45 lane miles of streets in FY 2025.

And as you can see, we have 613 lane miles that are below 50.

Looking ahead, all of our all of our current green streets are projected to degrade to yellow uh by 2036.

And unless we increase funding, about 56 lane miles will drop from yellow to red each year, exceeding the 22 lane miles we currently treat with asphalt mill and overlay.

This table shows funding we currently have budgeted uh to specifically address red streets.

We rely on a mix of uh street street sales tax, street bonds, and then of course our uh CDBG, our community development block grants.

This is our current street funding uh strategy through uh through 2028, which is a combination of sales tax, um general fund, general obligation bonds, and impact fees.

Without exact extending increase in street maintenance, we will continue to fall behind.

Uh FY27 and 28 uh show the projected street investment if the street maintenance sales tax is reauthorized.

This graph shows the blue line.

It would take a budget of 135 million per year uh to flatten the the OCI curve and get us closer uh to our baseline.

The gray shows they would take 165 million to not only flatten the curve but start to take a downward trajectory uh to get us below uh 10 10 percent for red streets.

Some of our current challenges, of course, uh an additional 30 million is needed to annually to maintain the yellow streets that are projected to turn red.

Street reboot rebuild costs have doubled since 2015 and continue to end up on an upward trend, uh rising construction costs, uh reduce the number of lane miles maintained or rebuilt each year, coordinating street maintenance priority uh locations with water and sewer and of course stormwater infrastructure maintenance and re rehabilitation needs.

Um, and then to avoid major roadway failures, significant funding increases are needed to address roadway maintenance.

As we continue looking at our strategy, and I kind of mentioned this in uh the last uh presentation that I did on street maintenance.

Uh so we kind of want to start focusing, kind of switch our focus a little bit, start focusing a little more on the on the uh residential rebuilds, uh, primarily focus on them in some future bond elections, not completely eliminate uh the arterial street um projects, but maybe reduce some of them and have more residential rebuilds uh as a part of this.

Um percent of our red streets are residential streets, with of course 20% of our entire uh network being red streets.

Uh increase funding significantly for asphalt reclamation projects in the future, bond elections to address red streaks.

Um, and then of course, we want to look at continue to look at paid pavement preservation, more focus on preservation measures like crack sealing uh green streets, and then identify scenarios where lane miles could potentially be reduced or converted to private streets.

Um and then we want to continue.

We want to encourage uh citizens uh to we want to um ax our citizens to uh reauthorize uh the street maintenance sales tax in 2026, uh May of 2026, and then we also want to take a look at some other uh options uh that we could possibly look at to close the gap uh with our street maintenance sales tax.

Um at this time that's the end of my formal presentation, but at this time, if you have any questions.

Helps member Hutter.

Thank you.

Um Keith, thank you for this presentation.

Um I know we had a conversation this morning as well as I had a conversation with Trey yesterday.

Um I really do like the residential street rebuilds.

Um can you kind of reiterate um those bond elections?

I know we talked about how it's not every year, it's every three years.

Right.

So we just want kind of people that are listening that maybe don't understand that we can't do those bond elections to every three years on that.

Right.

So historically, you know, our bond elections have been anywhere between, you know, usually five years apart.

Uh prior to 2025, our last bond election was in May of 2025.

Prior to that, it was actually in 2023.

Uh so we kind of staggered it a little bit.

Um I think council wanted to kind of look at a different way to as far as to do the bond elections.

So now they're gonna be every three years.

So the next bond election wouldn't be until 2028, May of 2028.

Okay.

Um so in the meantime, so you know, as projects, and of course, we have our citizen bond committee that participate in those uh those uh selection of projects.

We provide them, you know, with a uh, you know, a long list of projects that we would like that for them to consider, and then we whittle that down and make sure that fits within our bonding capacity as far as what we can actually sell.

So those are prioritized, but obviously everything can't be on that bond election.

And so that's why the street maintenance sales tax is so vital and so important because the projects that are not done on the bond election, you know, we are able to do things like the mill and overlays, the concrete panel replacements and things of that nature to at least repair and and honestly, with a lot of our panel replacements and mill and overlays, uh we do a pretty good job of getting those uh roadways back in pretty good shape.

Um, but they're just like with any project, when you have red streets, there comes a point where there's not a whole lot of more maintenance you can do.

You need to do a full street overhaul, and that's where the bond election projects, the bond elections come in and help us with that.

I think you just answered the question, but um, just to kind of reiterate, how would those residential rebuilds be decided?

Would that be the red streets that are on those on there?

Okay, perfect.

Most definitely tech typically when we look at residential rebuilds, we are looking at the red streets.

Um we use our street maintenance dollars to right now.

The strategy is to kind of focus on the yellow streets to keep them from turning red.

And that's why that's where that money is going, is trying to keep them from turning red.

One of the things that we've done with this last bond election in 2025 is we added a uh a category for um asphalt reclamations because it is it is a little more robust than a real mill and overlay.

You're getting into the subgrade of the road and rebuilding that, and so that becomes more expensive, so we can do less of that with our street maintenance dollars.

So we wanted to kind of push that towards our bond elections to kind of help us where we can still stretch our dollars, still focus on the yellow streets as much as we can with our street maintenance funding, and then use our bond election projects, our bond election uh general obligation bonds to help us really attack some of our red streets.

There also are used for some of our capacity projects also where we need to do uh mobility projects and things of that nature to help with traffic.

Uh so it's a combination of those things.

Anyone else, Dr.

Odom Wesley?

Thank you, Keith, to you and your team for all the work that you do.

So um, according to your report, it costs like 135 million dollars a year to maintain our streets.

And from the sales tax dollars, you get 25 to 30.

So I guess my question is, is that enough?

How do we ever catch up?

Um so this is this is the kind of the kind of our funding strategy.

Uh so it's a combination.

We use a combination of our street maintenance sales tax that which that's one part of the of the whole funding puzzle is the quarter cent sales tax.

So that gives us brings us, you know, 25 to 30 million a year.

And then we use the general obligation bonds, like what I was just talking to council member Hunter about with the the the uh the bond projects.

That's bringing in so we have to have that funding coming in also every three years so we can tackle some of the bigger projects.

And then, of course, you know, we have general fund that uh that that's a part of that, and then impact fees is also part.

So we're combining a lot of these different funding sources to get there, but it would take a hundred and it would, you know, it would take 135 million to start really leveling things off.

Um, and if just to level things off where we're not the red streets are not increasing, we would need an additional 30 million to start going the other way, start trending down versus trending up.

So right now we're trying to flatten the curve to where right now we're at 20 percent.

We don't want it to keep going up the red streets to go up.

And then the additional 30 million would help for start helping it trend down to actually start reducing the red streets.

Realistically, you're always gonna have some level of red streets.

Just it's just a matter, you have three over three thousand lane miles.

There's gonna be something that's gonna need to be, you can't improve everything all at once.

And so there you're always gonna have a level of red streets.

The question is, what is an acceptable level?

And we want to start kind of leveling that off to where we don't have you know 30% or 40% red streets.

Um so that's so 20% is acceptable.

Because that's where we are now, right?

That's where we are now.

I I I would I would say that that's not the ideal place that we want to be.

Uh, we actually would like to reduce there.

Was a time that we had maybe 10, 9 or 10 percent.

And over over over the years, is that that number has started to go up.

And so when we see that trend, what we're trying to do is stop it from slow it down.

Um you're gonna always have some level of red streets, but we're trying to slow it down where it's not constantly every single year creeping up to a level that we find that at some point you go that now that is unacceptable, and that's what we're trying to prevent.

Is that because we have more cars on the road now, more people moving here?

Um no, ma'am.

I uh honestly, uh what it really boils down to a lot of our infrastructure was built back in the the 80s and the 90s.

So a lot of our infrastructure is 30, 40, some some older than that years old.

And a lot of our like our major roadways, and especially with our residential rebuilds, a lot of them were built by developers.

So they were they were built as subdivisions, they were built as developers, and then we took over the maintenance.

And so now, as you can imagine, all those roads are starting to age and starting to get older all at the same time, and you only have so as you see, you only have so much funding to to fix it every year.

And so that's the challenge that we're that we're trying to, that's kind of the puzzle that we're trying to solve.

Is we obviously we can't rebuild them as quickly.

It was the city can't rebuild them as quickly as they were originally built by various developers, but what is a strategy that we can do to start kind of slowing things down as far as the red streets and still maintain our roads to an acceptable level.

Is is Arlington unusual in where we are now?

And and are we unusual by designating a quarter cent sales tax for for roads?

I know when I talk to council members across the country, it sounds like we're unusual.

No, there are there are other cities that have a that have sales, uh street maintenance sales tax.

So we're not we're not unique in that in that aspect.

Okay, and and our aging problem.

We're not unusual with that either.

We've actually compared to some other cities like Fort Worth and Dallas, and they actually use a slightly different uh criteria, if you will.

And so it depends on, like I said, what do you consider acceptable?

In some cities, they might say um, you know, anything below 60, you know, anything below 40.

I I think the uh it was either Dallas or Fort Worth, I can't remember which one, but they consider anything below 40 failure.

We consider anything below 50 failure.

So, you know, you can adjust the numbers depending on, like I said, what is your comfort level as far as what you consider is acceptable.

Um but I I think we're right there with everybody else.

Uh we we you know, we have an you know, some of your new newer cities in north in in you know the the north of the metroplex, they they don't have the same issue because there's their streets are all fairly new.

Um so uh we're just we're just dealing with aging infrastructure.

Thank you.

Any other questions for Keith?

Councilmember Gonzalez.

Thank you, Mayor.

Thank you, Ms.

Brooks.

So you mentioned that we need 30 million to start catching up.

So did we so if we had what I think 130 million, is that what you said that we could start reducing is there any chance?

I mean, is there any idea how we could do that?

Well, we would we've been you know, we've been we've been looking at ways uh like to stretch our dollars that that's what we've been focusing on is how can we stretch our dollars?

And so that's why you see the focus on can we do more mill and overlays?

Can we do more concrete panel replacements?

And that's that's been fairly successful.

Um we're also looking at different grants.

Uh we've been looking at different grants.

We've also been working with Tarrant County, they've helped us uh quite frankly.

We we had some some work done in district three uh where we were able to get some Terran County funding to help us with some of our street maintenance.

So we're always looking at other ways to, you know, we we never have a problem asking for the money.

So we'll we'll ask for the money.

Uh but trying to make up that 30 million dollar gap, that's a challenge.

Um, I'm just gonna be honest with you, that's that's a big challenge.

And I know the answer, but we get so many complaints.

So what can citizens do?

I mean, can we vote for something to you know if you if you're complaining that much about the streets, this is what we'd have to do to to get our streets you know better and better, you know, less and less.

I mean, there's so a couple if I could respond, councilman, to your question.

Um, all of those revenue streams there to solve the problem, all need to grow.

Um, the ones that can grow the most are sales tax and the bond funded projects.

And they can grow through organic growth, meaning business is good and sales taxes up 10%, or property tax growth in the business community or whatever is doing really well.

And so you would you would get an upward trajectory based on a healthy economy.

That's kind of one scenario.

Um, you would also get um if you had a dedicated um increase in property tax, where you wanna say, I'm gonna do whatever, a penny, two pennies, whatever it might be, and it's gonna be dedicated to street maintenance, and that will give you X amount of dollars if you wanted to have a purposeful uh thing, just like street maintenance sales tax is a purposeful, designated guardrailed kind of thing.

You could do the same thing with property tax if you really wanted to get hyper focused on pulling that down.

Twenty percent is not ideal.

I feel I agree with Keith.

Uh 10 to 12, I think feels more comfortable.

But if you go to some of the other more mature cities around the region, you're gonna find 35, 40 percent.

So we're much better shape than most, not certainly better than brand new cities, because all cities face this with a street that's supposed to last 30, 40, 50 years, and then they've got to be renewed.

I'd I would love to build a street once and never have to touch it again, but the day you build it is the day you start needing to take care of it and replacing it 50 years from now.

And it requires sustained funding at a higher level.

And you can see generally here the trend is up, right?

We have been in this seven year window investing more in streets.

The dip there in 26 and 25, the active senior center.

So there's competitive needs when you look at libraries and police stations and rec centers and roads.

You have to fit all that in within a tax a tax rate that is um consistent with what we're trying to achieve.

So that was a big project.

Um, and I don't know that we have any other big projects geared that way.

So I would suspect as we look out in 29, 30, 31, you'll continue to see a nice steady upward trajectory as we free up older monies to be redeployed for newer.

But it's it's tax-based growth, sales tax growth, uh, ad valorum tax-based growth through economic development and business retention and growth, or a dedicated advalorum earmark the same way you have a sales tax dedicated earmark for roads.

I thought that's I just wanted to ask that question because we get so much from citizens.

Um, you know, I'm like you.

I don't like being like other cities.

I want to be a little better.

So I know we're saying no, we're not as bad as other cities, but that's just kind of hard to sell to anybody.

I mean, everybody's, you know, and the people that call and complain, they complain, you know, they're gonna be haters.

So but it, you know, I appreciate what you guys are doing.

You know, we're very efficient with the funds that we have that we use.

I'm very proud of being in Arlington, and I appreciate what you all do in uh with the guarding public works and all the departments in trade, but I just want the citizens to know that there are solutions.

I mean, we could take away the active center and then people go crazy and we could have saved the money, but that's too late.

I'm joking.

It's uh I am just joking.

It's a constant, it's a constant balancing of competitive priorities.

And we know in town, our citizens uh expect really high uh public service as it relates to public safety and to roads.

Awesome.

And really everything that we do as you look at a city because we're managed, you know, in a way efficiently and rewarded through investment to do more, but it's always a constant tension of what's enough and what's too much and what's you know, et cetera.

And I'm gonna tell you chronically across the organization, no matter what department you're in, 10% underfunded almost by definition, you know, kind of kind of figure it out, make it work.

Um, and you can see that that you know, study machine going from what 58 million a couple of years ago uh to almost 100 million in the near future, and we just have to have a focus on it and uh and an emphasis to invest in the right streets too, because candidly, not every red street needs to be addressed.

It's not a high priority.

No, um, there are priorities amongst priorities, and we need to just pick and choose as we look at our lists uh on how we can do it.

But I think our economic development um efforts to to grow tax base is the main, the main way.

Renewal and uh of the street maintenance sales tax will be significant uh because it's you know 25, 30 million dollars.

We'll definitely, if that's not renewed, we'll see uh we'll see an impact, right?

And have to convert it over to the tax rate side to make it work.

Um streets are important, we invest a ton of money.

Ms.

Hunter was talking to me yesterday.

Do we spend enough on streets?

Short answer is no, but do we spend a lot of money on street?

We spend a lot of money on streets.

It's just streets cost a lot, and we need a whole lot, we need more money to to go towards the streets.

And over time we'll we'll build to that sustaining that sustaining model, unless you want to take a bigger chunk, which we did with the sales tax years ago, and we didn't have it.

That chart used to look a whole lot different many, many years ago where we had literally two million dollars in street maintenance in the general fund.

And the council took the position, the street maintenance sales tax law was written for Arlington.

Arlington started that in the state.

And we're we're reaping the benefit of that, and we just have to continue.

But when that when that goes up at 20, 25, 30 million, that's a that's a notable injection into street maintenance in town, and we just gotta sustain, sustain, sustain, keep keep building on on it.

Thank you, Trey.

And Mr.

Brooks, thank you because so many emails come through us, and you helped me out.

I'm sure you have all of us answer those questions.

So thank you for your patience because you uh you have you spend a lot of time on that, so thank you.

Yes, sir.

Councilman Burgalante.

Keefe, thank you for uh for your hard work.

I know you guys do such a great job.

Yes, well, we already addressed the questions I had before.

Just gonna go straight to it.

A lot of a lot of citizens are help uh asking about um the paintings and the striping stripings on the on the roads.

And uh we go online open data, we can see the state of the roads, right?

Right.

Uh do you guys keep uh an inventory of the the needs for striping and what is this strategy that you use uh to stripe, even roles that you know you're not gonna be working right now, and you don't want to waste money on striping roles that you're gonna be working next year or six months from now.

But some of them are clearly you only gonna be able to work on them five, six years from now.

And in and several of them don't have striping in that causes not only safety issues.

Uh uh, can you uh elaborate a little bit?

What is this strategy?

All right.

And I I would agree with that concern because I I drive the streets myself, and sometimes I see where our our striping has faded.

You know, we use the thermoplastic uh striping and sometimes that faded and the Texas Sun is it's tough on striping, and so we have to we you know we have our a cycle where we go through and restripe all of our streets.

Um we we probably probab need to uh stay on that a little little tougher um as far as the the striping itself.

But we do have a cycle where we go through and restripe all of especially like our major boulevards and um uh collector streets and things of that nature.

Uh so we do have a striping program.

Um, but it's just there's at times it looks like the thermal plastic is worn out a little faster than we would like to it to wear out.

And uh so we're looking at that, and we're we're looking at other options as far as striping to see is that the best, is that the best option as far as striping?

Thermoplastic has always been the industry standard, but we're just we're just looking uh, you know, you know, Sydney's taking a look at just uh different different methods and techniques to how how can we better that and you know how can we make them last longer and things of that nature, and do we just need to increase our our cycles as far as the actual striping itself, but no, it's it's a valid concern.

Okay, go ahead.

Follow that up to be clear.

What is our typical cycle?

Is it three years, five years, seven years?

What's your typical cycle?

That was my question.

Thank you.

So our cycle is um that the city is in quadrants.

And so each year we do inspect uh uh pavement markings.

So each year we do do an amount.

But um in addition to what Keith mentioned, the sun is really we're taking a beaten on the pavement markings.

So one of the things that we did look at is also raise pavement markings.

And so you will begin to see that full implementation.

Of course, we won't go out and put them down all at one time, but as new streets are done, as well as when pavement markings are refreshed, we will actually install raised payment markings to assist.

And so I'm not sure if everyone is aware of those, but um they are uh small square uh devices that actually has uh reflectivity on both sides.

Uh you will see them down, they're yellow, some are are actually red if you go down the street on the wrong direction, and then for multiple lanes going in the same direction, they are white.

And so essentially what that's gonna help is well like when it rains.

A lot of times when it rains, even though runoff is running off of the pavement, uh that rain does distort the pavement markings where those raised pavement markets will actually uh when your vehicle headlights hit it, it'll actually reflect back to help.

So you will begin to see uh those raised pavement markings being implemented, and uh we really feel confident that that'll help tremendously for our citizens to be able to see.

Um follow up to that, Sydney.

Um, if someone has an area that is in their judgment, faded and they want to call or contact you all today to go out and check, you all have the ability to go out and inspect and based on your determination resources to go out and work on that, right?

Correct, 100% correct.

Yeah, by all means, if any residents have any uh locations or streets that they feel that they can't see, definitely email us, contact us.

We'll definitely schedule inspection and definitely get that uh on the list um in addition to the efforts that we're making.

Excellent.

Just a follow-up question here.

Uh we'll be for Keith.

Keith, when you talk about 30 million dollars in needs every year, constant funding.

Are you already accounting for the inflation that you're gonna have?

So example, uh, 10 years, uh seven years ago, we had 10% of the of the roads uh in the red, right?

Now we have 20 percent.

In seven years, we double the number of roads, right?

And the pricing from 10 in 10 years, double the price of construction from 2015, 2025, he double the price.

Are you embedding the inflation losses on those uh 30 million per year in the next 10 years?

So you know that uh you'll be 30 million first year, probably 31, 31 and a half, 30 and a half, and keep going until 34, 35 after 10 years.

That way you'll take you taking care of flattening the curve and going back to a goal like 12 percent, 10 percent of the roads.

Can you elaborate on that, please?

Yeah, we we did we did, you know, in with any of our projects, we always have to uh incorporate inflation, even with our bond election projects, we have to incorporate uh inflation uh and costs going up.

With with this exercise, we know that we're gonna, and we don't know exactly what that inflation is gonna be, but right now we know that right now as we stand, we need at least 30 million on top of what you're seeing uh in this chart uh just to flatten the curve.

Of course, as inflation, you know, if there's more inflation and it just continues to escalate, um, that's that's uh that's a whole nother project our problem.

But right now, we're just trying to figure out what is it gonna take take to flatten the curve.

We know we're gonna need uh a bigger investment in our in our street maintenance and uh and our and our paving, but uh right now we're just we know that 30 million is a is a big number and and that right now is a challenge just to meet that.

Yep.

Uh so we're we're taking it step by step.

Um yeah, we can take a look at inflationary numbers, but right now we're just trying to look at what mark we're trying to hit up hit the mark, and right now from what we can see in the foreseeable future, uh 30 million million is is gonna be pretty close to what we're what we're needing.

Yeah, there will always be inflation and you know, things are just gonna get more expensive.

But right now we're trying to focus on the here and now as far as we don't have 30 million.

How can we how can we get that just to start flattening the curve and you know try to get us at least to where we can start slowing slowing this thing down a little bit?

Okay, thank you so much.

We'll find a way.

Keith, maybe if you could talk a little bit, because it's you know, this roads aren't rocket science, but there is some innovation going on in the technology and construction area.

Talk a little bit about some of the research that's being done in the region that might actually at some point lead to uh uh a lower cost of either construction or maintenance that we're also monitoring and paying attention to.

Yeah.

We're always we're always taking a look at uh things like uh, of course, with paving, we're we're looking at different things like uh you you hear us talk about uh like recycled asphalt, uh things of that nature.

Um we do use and and honestly, uh with the reclamation projects, that that is also uh there is some savings in that compared to that's why we're trying to focus a lot more on the you see a lot of uh cities doing reclamations like we're doing, because you are saving some of the the asphalt that's already out there, you're you're putting that into the subgrade.

And so there is savings there.

Uh we're also looking at uh, you know, just different technology as far as uh, you know, we have our standard as far as our concrete paving and our our subgrade and things of that nature that we started implementing probably about uh 10 years ago.

Uh but we want to start looking at are there different uh different uh different ways that we can save money maybe on like the the type of concrete that we're using, the type of asphalt that we're using, are there different um uh applications that we can put on our surface uh to make them last longer?

We've done some things in the in the past that we didn't like as much.

And so we're we're looking into, we're always researching technology to see are there some different applications that we can use to help our existing pavement last longer versus just the traditional methods.

Uh so we're always kind of looking to see what UTA has got going on.

We're always looking at the studies that they're doing, uh things of that nature.

And obviously, those things have to be vetted out.

So we want to be careful to not just jump right on it.

We need to kind of let it marinate a little bit and make sure that this is the right uh thing that we want to put out, let's say citywide.

Uh but we're always looking, you know, with having a research center right here.

We're always looking at uh things.

They were actually the ones that uh helped us uh revitalize our actual payment section that we use now.

Uh with Dr.

Popal Paula back when he was here, he helped us uh uh with the research and uh as far as our new pavement section that we use today.

Uh so we're that's always a source.

Uh so we're always looking at things, smart city things that we can do uh to help uh you know try to reduce our costs and help our pavement last longer.

Any other questions for Keith at all?

Thanks, sir.

Thank you.

Appreciate you.

For council, the question is uh uh based on the need that's been identified.

Are you all comfortable with us teeing up the question for a sales tax renewal question for you all in February?

This will have to come at a at uh at a February agenda item for you all to do that for for May, but we want to not presume action, just want to make sure there's concurrence on that.

Yes.

Appreciate it.

All right, we're gonna move on down to our informal staff reports.

Uh any questions or comments, counsel.

You all already received uh uh 4.1 staff report on that.

Any questions or comments for Nora Coronado?

You lucked out nothing.

Thank you, Nora.

Uh let's go on down to the committee meetings.

Ms.

Boxell, uh 4.2, please.

Thank you, Mayor.

The Office of Uh Strategic Initiatives provided an overview of the 2026 neighborhood matching grant program this morning.

Uh we had five eligible applications that were received on that for a grant request total of 66,770.

The five grant applicants include Wildwood Estates, Waterway Park North, Enchanted Lake Estates, Eden Village, and Old Town, an internal review committee with the staff representing from six departments reviewed the applications and gave their recommendation at this morning's meeting.

C and D recommended to fully fund the Wildwood Estates, Waterway Park North, Enchanted Lake Estates, and Eden Village projects, and to partially fund the old town project using 2025 grant funds from the North Central Historic Neighborhoods Association, of which old pound old town is a part.

Um and that was for signed toppers.

The amended total grant request for 2026 is therefore 63,670 dollars.

And that concludes my report.

Thank you, Councilmember Boxel.

Any questions for Councilmember Boxel?

Perfect.

Thank you.

Mr.

Buskin, any appointments towards or commissions this evening?

No, sir, none this evening.

Thank you, sir.

External committee and training reports, Councilmember Hogg, Arlington Convention and Visitors Bureau.

Mayor, come back.

I've got to find that report.

I can't see it.

Okay, we'll sit here and wait.

No.

I'll move on to the uh Tarrant Regional Transportation Coalition.

Uh we met on the Tarrant County Regional Transportation uh Coalition.

The primary issue that was addressed was the um uh notification of Michael Morris's departure and what TRTC should do.

If anything, the decision was made that we're gonna sort of stay out of what's going on with RTC and with COG and keep our stuff going forward uh using Mr.

Morris as we need to, like we always have on that.

Um conjunction with that, and as a part of that, I also had an opportunity to uh have a pretty lengthy one-on-one meeting with Mr.

Todd Little with North Texas Council of Government to discuss the departure and replacement of Mr.

Morris.

Uh the conversation was candid, robust, but productive.

And uh I think uh RTC is gonna be significantly involved in the selection process for the new director of transportation.

Mr.

Hogg, do you find what you were looking for?

I haven't, but I'll just give you a quick update.

One of the major um as you can imagine, a lot of FIFA and uh IndyCop discussion um from some major events coming in for CVB.

Miss Boxall joined us as our uh other new CVB representative from the council.

Um we also had a major discussion as a kind of a new approach of marketing from the CVB portions from where they come.

Uh new firms come in, there's some new leadership within the marketing side of convention registers bureau, and and really they gave us some factual data about what people are looking for when they're coming in for convention and visitors um conference.

So I would say new things to come with CVB without seeing my official report on there.

Um they're also a couple of we started this probably a year ago, two years ago, longer than that, sorry about that, of you know, January through March or slow times in Arlington for hotel bookings, big conventions, and they really put a targeted focus, and you've seen an increase on that.

They keep increasing the number of hotel rooms occupied without with that.

Um, this is partially where uh the Indy Cup decided in March, and kind of we kind of pushed them as that's another time.

And then you just saw an event that happened this last weekend.

If y'all didn't see the I want to say a wonderful chaos of the passion conference that was in town, and and I went forgot it was going on, drove up to the north area, and you start seeing just people everywhere walking.

So then I walked in when we grabbed some food and I talked to the servers, and I said, This is the nicest group of young people that are coming in and spending money, and it was 18 to 23 year olds in essence from that perspective, and just one of those conferences that you bring in and it spreads.

We talk about spreading from just the stadiums, and those are the things, and I just have to commend the CVB for really targeting um some focus on you know, January, February, March, and they're hitting some of those.

That was January 2nd through like the fourth or something around there.

So a very odd time, not a lot of business travelers, but a great time for a lot of young young people and young college students to come in and visit that.

So I just have to commend key C V B and I think the new path going forward with some new marketing is a a good path for a little informal report right here.

Any questions for either myself or council member hog?

Bless you.

Uh evening agenda items.

Anybody have any issues on this evening's agenda item?

We'll start with Councilmember Gonzalez.

Uh yes, another one.

You need to speak into the mic, please.

Yeah, 11.1 fair restructuring handy train and demand services.

Uh there's a lot of uh a lot of confusion, I think, with a lot of people uh regarding the elimination of transit passes.

So can you talk about that?

Because you know, they're they're thinking they're gone, but is this supposed to be a better way for them?

Sure.

Alicia Winkleblack, Director of Transportation.

Um, so one of the proposed changes um that the public hearing is in place for this evening is to move from the past structure that we've had since we started the on-demand system with VIA back in 2017 to a bundled ride credit system.

So uh the pass structure typically works well for traditional transit system.

So if you think about a bus or a train that has a set number of seats that are out in the community, out on the road, whether those seats are filled or not, the city or the transit authority is paying for those seats to be out there.

So they want those seats to be filled.

Um our system, both handy tran and on-demand are more of a seat-based approach.

So every seat that we put out on the road is a seat that somebody has asked for and needs, and we're paying for that seat.

So the ride credit bundle works a little bit better for us because we really are a seat-based system as opposed to an entity that's putting a large bus or a large train out there where we're paying that cost regardless.

So you guys have heard us over the years talk about the opportunity to scale our on-demand system.

We can do the same thing for Handy Tran.

If the demand's not out there, we don't put the vehicle and the driver and the extra cost out there.

It saves the city money.

Um, you've also heard me reference many times back during COVID when a lot of transit authorities were were uh losing money.

We saved a million dollars because the demand wasn't there.

So we didn't put the vehicles on the road, didn't pay the drivers to be out there sitting in it with an empty vehicle, um, and save money.

So it's really an alignment of the type of approach that fits best with our system.

That being said, um, we are the proposal is to offer three different ride credit bundles.

So um, let me see here, so I get it right.

Um we've got a $30 ride credit bundle with um at a discounted price for $25, a $60 ride credit bundle at a discounted price of $45, and then our largest is a 90 credit, a 90 ride credit bundle for $65.

Um, and so that largest bundle, which is the best deal, the biggest discount is about a 28% discount.

That really equates to about what most of our regular pass riders are getting right now when they buy, at least on the handy trans side, um the $55, 30-day pass, they're getting around a 27, 28 dollar or 28% discount.

So if they move to a ride bundle, they're getting around that same discount.

And we've got a similar impact on the on-demand side.

So while it looks a little bit different and functions a little bit differently, for most of our users, they're gonna get the same discount, um, if not a better deal, depending on how long their trips are.

Well, there's been a lot of questions.

Uh, I mean, I I I know people are really worried about inflation, everything else, and they feel like they're not gonna be able to afford it.

So, you know, and that that's important for you know, our set many of our citizens do not have transportation, so I appreciate you taking the time to explain that.

Yes, sir.

Any other questions on evening agenda items?

Mayor, I just can I add one thing on that, Mr.

Gonzalez.

I'm met with this team and we talked through a lot.

You all know I've been hard on via data of what we collect and some of those things, and I just have to, as I've talked to people who are what we kind of call those super users, um, it's a small number that's the super users, right?

And I do think in the long run, change is difficult, change is very hard going from a monthly pass to a bundle.

But I do think that bundle pass will be better in the long run.

There may be a few that it's a little cost, but they may have to adjust how often they're using that, because if you have a super user pass, you're gonna use it as a superuser sometimes.

If you have a bundle, you may think, do I really need to go?

Can I double up on that doctor's appointment, those things that I'm going to from those perspectives?

So as we met this morning, talk through all this.

I just have to commend the team for what they're doing, and also as we get a little more aggressive on trend data and what we see on some of that data from VIA, so that we can be more efficient and utilize possibly more with UTA of the amount of students that we're providing transportation for and some of those things.

I I think there's a good future in our team runs it very cost effective.

Um we'll never get this full self-sufficiency.

I met it, I admitted this morning, but uh I do think we have the right path, and it's a it's a really strong system we're utilizing.

And I agree with you, Mr.

Hogg.

I I just wanted you to explain it for the people.

So I I fully understand that.

People don't like change, and that it's just the hardest thing to answer these emails to people.

So thank you.

To everyone involved.

Appreciate uh your comments, Mr.

Hogg.

Uh let me just add, if y'all haven't been out to Handy Tran or ridden in Handy Tran lately, I would encourage you to do so.

Lisa and I went out and rode in handy tran and picked up passengers and toured the facility.

There is nothing better than getting a true experience of what these customers are getting in Arlington and the tremendous service that's being provided for them.

So uh just reach out and and go check it out if you haven't been out there in a long time.

Dr.

Odin Wesley is just still something on handy tran or you got other issues.

Other item, other items.

There you go.

I was looking at 8.2, which is renewal of our two-year contract.

This is the second and final year for grounds maintenance of our downtown and municipal facilities.

Who do I need to talk to?

Will you coming up?

Thank you, Will.

Yes, man.

I was just wondering, is is this an automatic renewal?

Uh, what process do we use?

No, ma'am.

Did they have to meet certain goals or are they evaluated?

They have objectives.

What's a renewal process?

Yes, ma'am, Will Velasco, your procurement manager.

Yes, ma'am.

Every time we renew a contract, it's not automatic renewals.

It has to be a uh joint renewal with the city, so the city has to want to renew the contract, and the vendor has to want to renew the contract under the same terms and conditions.

We usually get with the contract administrators about 120 days out, meet with them and start going over hey, how's the service been?

Any issues with invoicing, delivery, is everything good?

Um, and then at that time we usually make a decision to move forward either with renewing it or with rebidding it.

But we usually handle that process well in advance.

Thank you.

Yes, ma'am.

I have one more.

Um 8.12, which is the contract for our sister cities.

Is this what we typically oh, who is this, Gus?

Or please not, I can uh I can I can try to help.

Go ahead, Barbara.

Okay, is this um what we typically have done in our relationship with sister cities?

Are there any changes?

The the agreement is uh I think almost verbatim to what it was last year.

This is only the second agreement that we've done with their sister cities organization.

Last year they got a pre-late start.

So I don't even think they've spent but a couple of three thousand dollars under last year's contract.

So this is essentially the same provisions of the contract rolling forward to this cycle.

Um and they do have some some effort going on right now.

They've in fact there'll be some visitors in town next week from Canada that um that the sister cities organization is navigating uh with from uh from Windsor.

So but yeah, very similar to last year's.

I was just wondering if it was adequate.

It's $50,000, and it doesn't include any travel, it didn't include any staff salaries, it doesn't yeah, I don't know if I can answer if it's adequate or not.

It's it's uh to a degree kind of a pilot, which we never really got going last year, so that's more truthful this year, but it was also very clear that the council uh on the provisions is related to no travel and no staff salaries, that those were clear expectations of what you all wanted in the agreement, so that's what's in the agreement.

I can I can tell you that part of the intent was to help them uh and assist them in their own fundraising efforts.

So uh some of this money may be used to help with other fundraising efforts that they will have going on with the sister city program to uh gather more monies uh that they could use in other ways, including travel and staffing issues and stuff eventually.

Okay, okay.

So just to reiterate, I'm sure then hear the the comments, but just to reiterate, there's only one question.

I think we've already answered everything.

No, I'm joking.

Gus Garcia, Office of Economic Development Services.

Thank you, Gus.

So just to just I'm sure I'm reiterating what's already been said, but just to clarify if you need any more color, is that there's only one change to the contract.

It's basically a renewal without being a renewal.

Discussed it with uh legal uh with Ms.

Shortfall, and basically her recommendation was the existing language is a bit ambiguous and didn't give them the ability to host events or have when delegations came, like we're having next week to be able to put on those events.

So there needs to be a vehicle avenue to be able to expend some of those expenditures that were authorized by council.

So we change the language and reflect that ability, and that's all it is.

Okay, thank you.

Yes, ma'am.

Thanks, Gus.

Any other questions on this evening's agenda items?

Any qua comments or anything?

Okay, issues relative to city or tech stop projects, future agenda items.

Councilmember Gonzalez.

Yeah, I would like to uh after uh talking with Trey, they've start looking at the possibility of adding a new zoning code of called SB 840 uh for all the things that we're seeing so citizens understand because I think that's the uh citizens don't understand our zoning and what's gonna happen.

So something comes in with SB 40 and they think we can make changes to it, I think it would it might help.

I think it was mentioned that Plan has done something like that.

So Trey, do you want to just explain what we're kicking around?

I know we've had a little discussion on that.

Can't I'm not sure what you mean.

As far as the permitting process, what why would we have a zoning code SBA 40 for SB 840?

Yeah, I just think the the thought is that much like you all see multifamily um uh requests come across uh routinely and you grant uh many, you sometimes say no.

Um, but now that on some of the times where you might say no, based on Senate Bill 840's passage last year, there are alternatives for uh property owner developer to pursue a multifamily building permit without going through any kind of council um process.

They don't, you know, they they might not have to go to PNZ or city council if the zoning that's underlying it already is a commercial district.

They're just able to go straight forward.

So um our our thought was we might end up doing some kind of uh what we'd call a Senate Bill 840 permit, because a lot of people when they do open records, they start asking, and you know, candidly in this case or in a case like this, it wouldn't have been the city that really issued the building permit, even though technically we did, it's being done under Senate Bill 840's requirements.

So we just thought it'd be clear and helpful to make sure that if people are asking you all why did you do this?

Well, let's let's point you to the requirements where we were mandated to do that.

And it just is a it's a better disclosure, I think.

Um, and and some of that in the future if y'all are interested in that.

Okay, good on there.

Anyone else, Council Marble Hall?

I'd call it pulling your mic towards.

I'd call it uh state legislature required zoning, not Senate Bill 840, or call your l state legislature and ask them instead of uh I'm just kind of joking, but it is reality.

Well, I'm throwing them under the bus, that's for sure when they're talking calling us like okay, call these guys.

So uh one more.

Um I know this is not gonna be popular with the mayor, but I've had a lot of people.

I mean, when I got on city council, I used to ask questions and pull things to get off the consent agendas to discuss it in the evening session because people think we don't discuss some of these things.

So if we can look at some possibility of not having 50 items on the consent agenda, uh I know that looks really weird when we don't even talk and we just vote.

Uh I've told people to call you know, go to the afternoon session, so maybe we can think of something, you know.

I know you're looking at me like what the hell are you talking about?

It just people are shocked that we have all this on here.

Well, it's just people think that we don't ask questions that they don't know that we call staff before.

They just, you know.

It's it's just perception, you know, transparency.

That's the word.

Yeah, I'm I'm I'm I'm happy to discuss anything that makes things more transparent with the city.

I don't know that limiting numbers of items on a consent agenda is going to necessarily do that because those are items that we deal with on a regular basis.

And uh uh every every time I have an agenda review, we speak to every single item on the consent agenda.

So um and I brought it up so people can hear that that know that there is questions and we do ask questions, so thank you.

Thank you.

Anyone else?

Okay, with that, it is 4 45, and we will adjourn the afternoon session of the city council meeting and see everybody downstairs at 6 30.

Hello, hot lemon pepper, they love the different combinations.

You know, veggies and and rice.

We try to have something so it's not just everything in that fries, and we've got a few extra things here that we don't do it the fact.

You get a little treat if you get to if you come in.

Even as the Harrisons look to expand their business to new locations, they're loving their community right here in the American Dream City.

Uh it's been honestly overwhelming.

Isn't it really good here?

Um we're seeing new faces every day.

It's not just within the community.

People are traveling.

Yeah, uh, the community, like she said, it's not just around in the area.

It's we get love here.

Well, um Arlington, but I mean they're coming from everywhere.

And uh it's it's it's been it's been good.

It's really been a good place, and we really uh like it on some.

So this exhibit is called the Brotherhood of the Sleeping Car Porters.

It is on the labor union that was formed in 1925 by predominantly African American people, and it was mostly porters that worked for the Pullman Palace car, which is like a sleeping car um train car.

This was actually a personal interest of mine because I had read um The Humanity Archive by Jermaine Fowler recently, and he had mentioned this labor union in his book.

I figured, you know, we have the Texas Labor Archives here in Special Collections, so I figured we would have something on the topic since it's labor related.

The highlights are we have um a charter of the local union from Fort Worth and it's dated 1929.

So this was fairly, you know, brand new to um the union's existence nationwide.

A.

Philip Randolph, who founded the union in New York City in 1925, they held a convention here in Arlington, and it was the first Texas convention of the A.

Philip Randolph Institute.

Um, and it was in 1974, and it was held at Six Flags here in Arlington.

This is really a really great representation of our labor archives material, and items like this were kind of hidden gems of special collections, knowing that these exist and their importance to our history as a country, you know, I just feel like people have to come see them.

The exhibit is on view until the end of February, and they can come to um UTA Special Collections, which is on the sixth floor of Central Library.

Making sure everything is just right for the collection trucks when they come by.

And they just make collection day run smoother.

First, make sure that all of your items are out on the curb at 7 a.m.

on collection day.