Some of us have already been sharing that information.

Okay, we'll go ahead and call the afternoon session back to order.

We'll move on down to the work session items three point one.

Today we are bringing you the access agreement proposal that we received at our Lake Arlington golf course.

This is a conversation that's been happening for quite a while.

In fact, in 2020, QT, the gas station group that has come to us, expressed interest in purchasing the southwest corner of Green Oaks and Pioneer Parkway in West Arlington to develop a gas station.

At the time, the access agreement requests came to Office of Strategic Initiatives as a real estate matter to get access to the site from the Lake Arlington Golf Course Drive.

At the time, council reviewed it in executive session and decided not to move forward with the access agreement at that time.

And so QT went back to the books, kind of worked on the design, had another opportunity come up in June of 2025, partially related to the development on the north side of the street, which was also a gas station being demolished and redeveloped.

Wanted to restart those conversations for the gas station here at this location.

So they resubmitted that proposal in June, and it was presented to council, and we were going to move forward with the conditions that there was a right turn out of the Lake Arlington golf course that would get traffic only going southbound.

QT came back and said they really need that left turn at Green Oaks in order to make the development feasible.

This is a little bit of a unique situation.

And so the discussion today really is about the access agreement and whether to allow QT access to the site as the adjacent property owner.

They're early on in their development process, and so they will still need to go through an administrative zoning, site planning, floodplain review, and all of their normal permitting processes once we grant an access agreement if the council chooses to do so.

The proposal that we received from QT, which was included in your packet, has a lot of investment uh commitment from QT at the golf course itself, including um reconstructing and maintaining the driveway with a new D cell lane into the golf course, relocating and replacing the golf course gate, which would need to move as a part of that configuration with a motorized version, which is our city standard, and replace any pieces of the wooden fence that were affected.

They would also construct an additional drive to the south with a new landscape bed and signage, and to install two trash enclosures, three sandbins, um, replace the eastern facing wall, repaint the eastern facing wall of the golf club house, and install conduit for future um irrigation electrical and security improvements.

The final piece of their proposal was to install a traffic signal at the shared drive, which would include an advanced warning system with flashing signal ahead sign and a radar speed limit sign.

Um their proposal also includes some of their projected phases of the project where their first phase would build that south driveway out of Lake Arlington golf course first, which would take four to six weeks, and then do the main drive reconfiguration, which is where the signal would go.

Um today we've got um two other presenters.

Uh QT is here to present uh how they kind of arrived at this and their need um for that specific configuration at the site, and then we've also got Keith Brooks, our director of public works, um, to discuss some of the impacts to our larger roadway network.

So I'm gonna turn it over to Craig.

Craig, we're gonna limit all y'all to five minutes each.

So if you have a tense to be long-winded, don't be surprised if I cut you off.

Okay.

We're good.

I appreciate the warning though.

Uh Craig Honeywell with Quick Trip, 1120 North Industrial Umless, Texas.

Um we have a lot of slides, a lot of it staff has covered very well, so I will make this move as quickly as possible and let the slides be a lot of QA if that works as well.

Um, so again, this is our existing intersection uh the intersection we're discussing.

Um wanted to give you a good aerial.

I know a lot of council members um have been great and shared times with us to be able to meet as well as you know, Mayor Mayor Ross.

And we had a lot of feedback back and forth and through conversations with everybody and wanted to go over some of that here.

Um the reason I wanted to show the intersection kind of zoomed out, is one of the things that kept coming up is can we fix the intersection with doing something different on 303 pioneer?

Um, we worked through a lot of issues with TextOt and Text Ot will not grant us a medium break in there.

Um, some of it has to do with the storm control and the I believe it's the outflow from Lake Arlington, but the creek going under 303, and some of it is to do with some of the other constraints Text dot has on that location.

Here's just a really quick site plan showing our proposed connection as staff pointed out.

Um, we are rebuilding the drive back into the golf course and making some upgrades there as well if this does get approved.

Landscape plan just for questions if later, as well as our new building elevations, because it is a unique building for us.

So we don't have any in DFW yet.

Um that's kind of a new prototype.

Uh so I've got slides in there for that as well if there's any questions later on.

Um getting started.

The bit the biggest thing is we're tying into a golf course.

It's a city, city building, city properties, you know, city service for that fact.

So we wanted to really limit any impacts to them the best we could.

When we met outside on site originally, right when this opportunity presented itself.

Uh, we met with the golf golf course management.

We met with Parks and Rack and had a lot of conversations.

Some of the conversations were around just traffic generation, over occupying just the one driveway.

Um we started where we had left off in 2020 with looking at ways to mitigate that impact and open it up to have for them to have a better traffic flow.

So we looked at adding a drive on the south end.

Uh, this is a location of kind of where that drive would tie in.

One of the concerns they had is well, you it's great if you can add us a drive, but we don't have a ton of extra parking spots.

So we looked around, we saw the dumpster enclosures, we saw where they're storing their sand, put the dumpster enclosures in or dumpsters in enclosures, put move the sand, build them little enclosures there.

It cleans up a lot of their existing parking, which allows us to add that drive without eliminating a single parking spot for them, which we thought was a huge win for both.

Um here's and then kind of a picture of where we're putting the sandbins as well as the dumpster enclosures and that connection to the drive to show how we mitigated impacts to the parking.

Uh the proposed improvements, I think staff did a really good job of going through those, so I'll I'll skip those for now unless there's any more detailed questions.

Um, but really we were just meeting with them and saying, hey, what can we do to make it work?

Add a sign by the other new drive so everybody knows it's yours, great.

Remove the gate.

What's it need to be?

Just make everything to minimize impact as best we can.

Uh that takes us to where we had the discussions on the drive specifically.

We initially kicked off the TIA back in July.

And as soon as we got it from our traffic engineer, we had noticed a couple things.

One, um, the level of service with our our combined uses dropped significantly.

One of the things we indicate there is a signal could be beneficial.

So we went back to doing the signal, kicked off our second TIA submission with the submission with the signal elevation back in October, got it back as well as some more feedback.

And at that time, um we decided to meet with as many issues as we could individually or together, um, and met with all of you from I think it was through November and December, and just talked about the signal, what what works, what doesn't work, what could make it better, how we could address any other concerns and and really help put the best thing forward.

Uh we brought Anker Donker, who's with me today as well.

If there's extra questions, our traffic engineer um to all of those to really kind of talk through solutions and and help mitigate everything the best we could.

Uh so we've had some engineering updates.

Some of you have seen some of these, some of you have not seen any of these.

It kind of depends on where we met you guys.

We tried to update everything in real time between meetings.

Um so all of this is kind of centric around this proposed intersection.

The I can skip that for now.

Uh update number one is the signal.

I think that was done before we met with any of you guys.

Um, and then from there we added the advanced warning signals.

Um, really just something letting people know that there's a signal coming ahead, put some flashers on it, increased visibility.

Um, from there it kind of kept enhancing.

Um we were looking at adding a speed radar enhancement because there is some speeding through there that we we noticed.

Um, so we looked at replacing the speed limit signs.

We even discussed um one of the council members even discussed lowering the speed limit potentially, um which we can't be in charge of, but um through that conversation, we came up with this where we have the speed limit uh posted as well as a flasher that says how fast you're going.

Um I have to wrap it up, my friend.

Your five minutes is expired.

And the last one would be just doing a conditional um stop ahead for the flasher on the advanced warning system.

The rest is just statistics that we can talk about for QA.

Keith.

You get five minutes too.

I appreciate that.

Uh off just as much as I cut him off.

Yes, sir.

Uh Keith Brooks, director of public works.

Um, so that's some of the okay.

So basically we did our our city our city review.

We reviewed their TIAs and uh and what we express was that the preferred traffic flow would be a right turn only um onto Green Oaks, uh, basically mimicking what we did across the street at the uh the subdivision, the Green Oaks Preserve.

Uh we felt because of the the location of the signal, the geometry is about 400 feet from a major intersection.

Um and the uh visibility issues that we were concerned about, uh, that a right uh turn only out of the uh Lake Arlington golf course slash QT driveway would be uh the best the best option.

This is just some some some photos just showing that how we're 400 feet away from this uh major intersection, of course, at uh uh West Pioneer and then West Green Oaks, and then just kind of showing the heel.

So we took a look at everything that QT and they you know we've met with them you know a couple of times regarding this, and uh QT has worked to address as they mentioned uh so the some of the concerns that uh for staff and council.

Uh some of the primary considerations for the final design, of course, the the main concern that we have on the city side is the northbound site distance on West Green Oaks uh to the traffic signal over the hill is shorter than the city standard for 45 miles an hour.

Um so advanced warning signal and radar signal with flashing lights will help mitigate uh short site distance, but driver attention may be reduced over time and vehicles queuing uh just beyond the crest of the hill is still a concern.

The shared driveway distance to the southern vertical crest on West Green Oaks Boulevard is approximately 100 and I mean 310 feet, which is considerably less than the required 360 foot of uh stopping site distance.

So our concern is that motors on West Green Oaks will not be able to see the traffic signal and most importantly the vehicles uh until they pass the crest of the hill.

Second point is the shared drive uh will experience increased daily traffic for the gas station and of course uh traffic across the street at the uh uh Green Oaks Preserve.

Uh their TIA showed about 6,900 vehicles uh coming in and out of the development per day, uh 626 in the peak hour.

Uh this access will be uh will be the most convenient access for north, south uh and west drivers.

So it will kind of function almost like a their main driveway in a sense.

Um and then it opens left turns maneuver.

We'll also have to, once we if we were to do this, we would have to open up the left turn for for the subdivision across the street uh to have a full intersection.

Um and then of course increased stacking uh during traffic signal cycles for north-south and westbound traffic at both intersections due to operational changes uh to accommodate signalizing the shared driveway.

Um and then we're concerned about longer waits, wait times at both signals, uh, especially during peak hour.

So those were in a in a nutshell our main concerns with uh their proposal um and some of their mitigation action that we're still looking at.

So we still on our side, we still have some concerns with it.

Um I think if council decided that they wanted to go ahead with this, um, we could work through some things, but we still on our city side, this is not something we as uh traffic engineering staff is necessarily recommending as far as the signal.

Um we are still proposing or recommending the right turn only, but um that is something that we could work through if that was council's decision.

Any questions for Keith?

Andrew, Mr.

Peel.

Yeah, I'd like to drill down on the representation that driver attention may be reduced over time.

Is there any study or authority you cite for the idea?

Because it does seem like the proposed investment of traffic control devices and warning devices, the radar speed thing, the uh flashing lights combined is a substantial investment.

Is there really anything that shows driver attention actually decreases when faced with such a combination of traffic safety warnings?

I don't know if there is a particularly a study out.

It's just just in my experience, I just we just we just know that when you have flashing beacons that are on every day, especially when people are used to driving that route every day and they kind of know what's going on.

Uh people tend to not look at the beacons as much.

Um we're concerned our main concern is making sure that they see what's going on on the actual road.

So if you're not let's say if you're not looking at the beacon, you know, do you have enough stopping site distance to actually stop and not have an accident on the road?

So those are those are things that we're looking at.

So yes, what they what they provided is a level of mitigation for the shortages that we're talking about.

But our concern is even with the mitigation, uh, we still have concerns about the actual driver experience as you're going over the hill.

So the beacon will come on during the yellow and green light, uh yellow and red light.

So if you're coming up the hill, it'll let you know that hey, the signal up ahead is is turning yellow, is turning turning red.

Uh, but my concern is you still can't see the cars that are queued on the other side of the hill.

So if you're driving the speed limit 45 miles an hour and you're coming up that hill, you still can't see those cars on the other side of that hill.

The beacons are not going to tell you where those cars are exactly as you're coming over that hill.

I just don't think there's enough stopping site distance uh realistically, even with the beacons to be able to properly stop.

So that's kind of our main concern.

And you kind of used a phrase that jumped out at me.

It was people who drive that way on a regular basis kind of know what's going on in the area, is what you said.

Isn't it true that if they were used to this intersection being there, that they would get they would incorporate that into their understanding and awareness of the environment because they drive it on a regular basis?

It actually would work to put them more on alert to the additional intersection, possibly, right?

If they knew what was going on.

It could.

So it at over time over time, you know the signals there, but you also have to assume that there are going to be multiple people that are driving that are not familiar with it.

And even if they're not looking at the beacons, if they see the beacon and or not necessarily registering what's really going on as they're driving, because keep in mind they're also driving 45 miles an hour as you're coming over that hill.

That is our concern is is driver in a you know inattention at times.

And so I'm just thinking about worst-case scenarios.

Understood.

I appreciate that.

And uh, but what about the idea of reducing the speed limit through there?

It's always been kind of fast anyway.

I drive it every day.

It's uh well, this is a major major arterial, and the you know, the the whole purpose of a major arterial, of course, is to get uh people across town in a in in a quick manner, but also in a safe manner.

Um we don't really believe in like lowering artificially in a sense, lowering the speed limit because that's what we'd be doing.

It's kind of artificially lowering the speed limit in this particular area where everywhere else is 45 miles an hour.

So I don't I don't think that lowering the speed limit is really the solution.

Um regard, especially when you're trying to move traffic through the intersection quickly, and we're also gonna be dealing with uh operational situations with with a new signal at an intersection that's already busy, um, and now you're lowering the speed limit right there, right before you get to the signal.

Uh just artificially lowering the speed limit doesn't seem like a great option there.

It would make things safer, right?

Lowering the speed limit.

Uh technically, I mean, but I mean that you could you could say that on every roadway in Arlington.

I mean, technically, if you if you lowered all the speed limits in Arlington, all of our major uh artilleries, technically you could say that that is safer.

Uh, but is that is that expedient, is that the best thing for a major arterial?

I'd also like to ask the quick trip.

You said there were some statistics that were in your presentation, and I'm curious if you could come up to the podium, please, sir, and kind of talk about the statistics and what they show and whether you've heard my questions for Keith.

And I'm kind of curious what you have that might address his concerns and mine regarding statistics and what happens in these types of situations with the traffic control improvements that Quick Trip proposes.

Yeah, Councilmember Peel, I'd like to say one thing, and then I'll have um our you know professional expert answer with the statistics because that's not my expertise.

Uh, just in general with the signal where we feel it's safer is right now, we already have customers leaving the golf course, turning left.

And with the visibility of the hill, there's a potential there.

With the signal and getting everybody familiar with the visibility and knowing that there's a stop there, it's the signal is helps.

Because a left turn out the left turn of the golf course right now is not prohibited.

Correct.

Um so the signal is is kind of how we helped address some of the safety things.

And Anker will go into the more detail on the engineering for that.

Sure, thank you.

Uh hi, everybody.

This is on Carl Kerbit Dishazu Group, uh license engineer profit.

Could you could you slow down a little bit and speak a little louder for us old people?

Sure.

And do you have a presentation that you were gonna put up?

Uh Mr.

Peel, they only got five minutes.

You can't turn around and give them another.

I guess it's great.

Yes, so we have we do have statistics about the flasher.

So this is a regular flasher which flashes uh amber light.

But this one flashes all the time throughout the day.

With this flasher, uh, there was actually a study conducted in Laredo, Texas.

So they observed that on average there is a 3.8 miles per hour feed speed reduction.

So we know that this is a high speed corridor for for uh uh even though there's a 45 miles per hour speed limit, but people do travel more than that.

Uh we observed that on average there is about 50 to 55 miles per hour speed uh that drivers are doing here.

So uh I believe that with this particular mitigation that we originally proposed, uh there would be definitely speed reduction.

Uh but actually we with our discussions that we actually come up with a conditional flasher.

So this flash is uh will be there, we'll be flashing only when there is a uh yellow light or a red light on a signal.

So basically we are going to tie this uh particular flasher with the signal so that the motorists are uh aware of that there is a signal uh turning yellow uh before approaching uh the intersection.

That will help them uh you know to make a decision before they arrive to the intersection.

And there are stats here.

Uh I will just go over the main ones.

I think the uh the red light running uh it's uh with this flasher actually, it helps to reduce the red light running, obviously, because it it's going to give you advanced warning.

So there was a study conducted and it found that it's about 40 to 45 percent uh reduction in red light running.

And if you go down there at the bottom, uh the uh the fatal crashes are actually uh reduced as well, and the right angle uh crashes uh as you can see as are reduced by 60%.

That is the major concern for this particular driveway.

Uh I think uh one of the um uh one of the point I would like to make here is the when you go with a stop control intersection and you want to restrict a particular movement.

In this case, we are trying to restrict a left turn movement, which is trying to enter into the intersection.

One of the uh key uh thing that I learned during my uh masters uh in traffic engineering is you can only effectively restrict a left and out movement by putting a median there.

We do not we do not have a median on this particular intersection, which means during the peak hour it makes sense, people will just get right in and write out, but but during the night time or during non-rush hours, there's no mechanism here that is going to restrict anybody from entering into the intersection in a wrong way manner, uh, because otherwise they would have to go all the way one fourth of a mile on a woodside drive to take a U-turn.

So, you know, so if there is no physical restriction here at nighttime, actually, or at different uh other than peak hours, people would do a wrong turn, and it's actually going to increase right angle crashes a lot at this particular intersection if you don't put a signal here.

Signal will allow for every movement to uh dedicate a right-of-way to enter into the intersection in a cycle manner.

So I think signal would be most effective solution here.

Any other questions or comments from council?

Yes, council member Odin Wesley.

Just to be clear, are we still talking about two traffic signals?

One at 303 in Green Oaks, and then one I forgot how many feet, 400 feet up the road on Green Oaks, is plus the warnings things that you were talking about.

There's only one Because I know when when we met, you know, you talked about two traffic signals.

Uh is that still what you're proposing?

Yeah, there's only one traffic signal.

The secondary is an advanced warning signal, we call it.

Sorry, I couldn't hear you.

The there's only one traffic signal here.

Uh the second one is the advanced warning signal we are calling it.

The second one is well, another traffic signal down at 303 in Green Oaks.

I I uh I think the confusion is we're we're presenting to build one new intersection with a signal.

The current intersection at 303 in Green Oaks would still have a signal.

Okay, we would coordinate the signal timing with those to be synced up.

Okay, so there's an additional traffic, you're gonna have these warnings before you get to that traffic light, right?

Yes.

So this is the signal that we're presenting, and then there's a signal right here.

And then the warning systems back here.

So that that existing signal would still be there, yes.

So the the the new one that you're proposing, the new traffic signal, is that triggered only when you have tr traffic coming out of the golf course or the QT?

So yes, to mitigate any impacts to um Green Oaks, we're using it to we're presenting it with a to detection system where it would only cue to stop in coordination with the current Green Oaks timing based on detecting people needing to make a left out.

Uh so the primary would be north-south traffic, and that would stay green light unless needed interruption and that needed interruption to allow the left out of the golf course in our driveway would slide in with the signal timing that's already present on Pioneer and 303 or the 303 and Green Oak signal, just to not have um stack up in between the two and congestion in between the two.

So this both signals would be coordinated together and only when at need.

Okay.

And if you're making a left out of QT or out of the golf course, is that a green arrow only turn left?

Or do you have that flashing yellow thing?

Yellow arrow.

Our intent would be to green arrow only.

Um, but we are very open to staff or city recommendations on that, and we'll continue to work with with staff post the any agreements.

Okay, thank you.

Councilmember Galante.

Quick question.

What happens if we only allow you guys to do a right turn only?

We we don't build anything, quite frankly.

Um just for the feasibility of the.

Yeah.

Um unfortunately, the feasibility of this one, we're you know, we are reliant on uh left out.

Um, and we believe the best way to attain that and the safest way to attain that in the best interest for the city of Arlington and the community is with a signal.

And um we're not coming asking for help with the signal, we're coming and asking to help let us build it and pay for it and and do it.

Do you have any other any other success case in a different location, different city that you you have to do the same thing, and you worked?

Um we we've had to build plenty of signals.

Uh the most recent one that I've done uh would be Hillsboro, Texas.

We rebuilt the signal, not even adjacent to our property.

Um it was you know, we we built our area in, and they're like, hey, we need you to redo this signal on the next street over um because you're gonna have some traffic go that way.

We we said okay, got everything done, and um that one there's some trucks involved as well, but this the trucks aren't hitting that signal very hard either.

Um so yeah, we we've had success in the past of whenever city comes and says, hey, add a signal of us working with them and for the right to make sure the proper design and any mitigation is done and is needed.

Um, and then us doing the design and us doing the building and the implementation.

I believe we also recently did uh signal work not on one of my stores but up in Hazlitt um re very recently.

We we've partnered with the city on that and and did the signal theirs as well.

Thank you.

I'm gonna be honest with y'all.

I I want I want QT there.

I do.

But I'm hard pressed to go beyond what the recommendation is from our public works when they say this could be potentially dangerous.

I'm a former cop.

So when you're talking about, I believe that says 775 feet from the warning signal to the light.

I'm just assuming if I'm driving 50 miles an hour, I'm going about 73 feet per second.

At going 73 feet per second, the reaction time is generally one and a half seconds before I know to stop.

And if you're calculating this distance, they're on top of the intersection at the time they realize we're in trouble, we got to stop.

And if there's any cars backed up from that intersection, they're gonna have a problem stopping to avoid them if they're going 50 miles an hour, which is five miles over the speed limit.

I want QT to be there.

Uh I love the store.

I love the complex.

I think we need it.

But I cannot support a project that potentially could endanger the citizens on the streets.

I I just I can't get beyond that.

So uh I'm not gonna be I appreciate everything y'all have done.

Y'all couldn't have done a better job, I don't think at promoting this project out there.

I just can't get beyond the potential dangers associated with the people traveling that roadway out there.

Mr.

Gonzalez.

Thank you, Mayor.

Um, you know, you met with the mayor and I I feel the same way, but I'm I'm starting to see a little different thing now.

Um, with regards and I I want to also I'm gonna I guess talk to both you and and Keith.

So just looking at it from outside, and I think first of all, I think the QTs there are gonna work, even if you can't make a left.

I think that's hogwash.

Everybody's gonna go there.

You're not gonna get as many people, but I think QT is one of the top gas stations.

I told you I will go all the way around just to go to you guys, but I know you guys know better.

So Keith, let me ask you.

I mean, that cutout is right there with Green Oaks.

So that subdivision opens up, and we know people make less when they're not supposed to, and now we're gonna have people on the subdivision gonna make lefts altogether.

And I'm thinking of uh turn our way in South Arlington, where we've had that issue where there's a stop sign and people try and beat it, and we've had so many accidents.

If we've never found a solution, nope, we haven't done any flashing lights, we can't put a and so I'm thinking, okay, we're gonna have that issue here anyway.

I mean, how are we gonna address that?

I mean, that turn away is just I mean, it's is that sort of the same way I'm thinking and if you're not familiar with turn away, it's going south on Arlington, and just before you get to the uh Turner Warnell, there's a street there that everybody tries to make a left and they're hauling butt and they try and beat cars and there's accidents.

And so I can see that happening uh even without the QT QT, because people from the Gulf or people when they live there, if that ever eventually gets finished out.

So I mean, what what do we do then?

Um so I don't know that that's the the same situation.

Uh in that situation, we are trying to work with, we've been trying to work with TechSot uh for a signal that the turn away situation.

Uh there's probably gonna be some realignment of of the road to to make that a uh a good intersection.

So that's something we've been trying to work with them on.

Uh this is a little different.

I mean, if we you know we have the island there, and we're basically saying you have to make a right turn.

If someone chooses to do what they're not supposed to do, we can't we can't control that.

I mean, that's on any road.

Uh if somebody's driving the wrong way on a route one way and they know they're doing that on purpose because they don't want to go around.

Uh we can't control all of that.

Uh that's that's more of an enforcement issue.

Uh, but but from from our point of view, setting it up properly based on the the geometry, based on how close it is to this hill, uh, based on uh the visibility issues, uh, we feel that this is this is the best way to go.

And and I respect you know your your your job better than any of us on here.

I just think of all the things that we have recently, uh especially on Bowen with um the leadership academy where people aren't supposed to turn and it's happening, and there's so many, and the same thing with uh any anyway when you come out of that crowground South Arlington, uh the exits here, but the exits over here, and in order to make a left, you've got to go opposite of the traffic and people do that.

So I'm just thinking outside the box trying to think because I was like the mayor, I'm again, you know, I don't want a light, I don't want that speed, like he says, but people are doing it.

And I'm starting to think differently about all this.

So I appreciate y'all working, uh QT working and and and uh Keith, I appreciate your whole department looking at it and giving us the information we need.

So thank y'all.

Yes, sir.

Just one question for Keith.

Um you guys entertain to put a full traffic stop there because of the the subdivision, uh the development on the right side in in Qt, so we can't accommodate two projects.

Do you guys entertain to put a a traffic stop there?

That way we'll be an exit for the subdivision for the the you know the the uh multifamily that is being built on the other side, and then we can accommodate two projects, QT and the multifamily and provide safety for everybody.

Why we cannot do it?

Right.

So that that's that's what was being proposed.

So they're they're proposing a signal there that would end it that would signalize the entire intersection.

So they would also enter uh there would be a uh signal for the people coming out of the subdivision.

Um and that's what we're saying.

We didn't allow them to do it because of the safety issues um and the the visibility, the visibility issue is still there.

So if you put a signal in, you still have a visibility issue.

Um what it the only thing it really does is you you have a protected left coming out of the the the QT or protected left coming out of the subdivision.

What it does not cure is the the issue that I'm talking about is you're coming over the hill 45, 50 miles an hour, and all of a sudden there's a vehicle right there that you don't see.

That that that is still there, that's still an issue.

Um is the geography of the if this was in any other place where it was flat and you have plenty of visibility, of course, we could work it through.

We could signalize the inter uh this you know, synchronize the signals that that is that is not an issue for us is the safety of coming over the hill and you and and drivers cannot see.

Thank you for reminding me that any other questions, comments from council.

Councilmember Hog.

I think I would probably guess Mr.

Peel and I probably drive this the most.

And for the last couple of weeks, every time I've had a friend in the car, I ask them the question what if there was a signal right there and we're coming over that hill, and I just can't get to it.

Um my wife wants it because that's a restroom.

They're will they're willing to stop at QT restrooms.

So that's uh one thing, which I learned having two daughters and a wife, you actually have to choose restrooms.

Um we like the mayor, I I agree.

I think I appreciate QT.

They've done everything, and I loved that this project.

I just can't get over the safety factor of people, and it's only truly the people heading north on Green Oaks there.

That is the one area it's that from the advanced warning to that stoplight.

Um that is it.

I I think we could sync the lights up good enough where it slows everything down, doesn't cause the backup.

I just think that area is too short.

Um, so I have a hard problem with this.

What?

You've talked so much already.

If I can say one thing to address kind of that that motion um and why it doesn't work for us if we don't get a signal, is Woodside Drive is where all the U-turns would go if we're right in, right out.

And if you drive that, I'm sure you do all the time because member hog, I know Andrew or Mr.

Peel does as well.

If you drive that and you imagine doing a U-turn on Woodside Drive to go back to the northbound, you have the same limited visibility.

And that's why we truly believe that the signal offers you do have the same limited visibility, but what you don't have, what you want to have is the traffic stop right there at the driveway or at the entrance from where the the residential development is.

That's my concern as you press that hill from the warning sign to there is 775 feet, according to what I'm reading on here at 50 miles an hour, it's gonna take you 7.34 seconds to stop.

And you're gonna be, if there's cars already backed up there, you're gonna be on top of those cars before you can stop.

And that's under normal circumstances if it's flat.

Here they're going downhill as they're going north.

And if it's rainy, if it's wet, if there's something else associated with it, I have if there's limited visibility and are they tuning out the flashing lights, and do they just see the tail lights of the people stepping on the brakes as they press the hill?

Those are too many what ifs for me to get comfortable with this.

I I hear what you're saying.

I get it.

I I don't know that there's anybody here that wouldn't love to have a QT out there.

I just can't get beyond the safety concerns associated with putting that signal up there.

That's the problem.

Where the U-turn is isn't the problem.

That's further enough up there.

The problem is putting a light right there.

That's where you're creating some issues.

Anyone else?

Thanks, guys.

Um Sarah.

So I just want to make it clear the dirt.

So typically an access agreement would come to the council as a part of your consent agenda for you to vote on.

Um, but with but we haven't gotten that far because we haven't gotten council consensus to do that.

So I'm just looking for some direct direction about either if we need to bring more information back, or if we can put this on an agenda for you to vote on, or um just it sounds like we're not gonna be doing this.

I I'm not gonna be comfortable getting that on the way it is, and I don't see anything else unless unless there's an agreement that there's gonna be a right turn only um council.

I if I'm only one of nine votes, so I'll defer to the rest of y'all.

Right turn only.

Right turn only.

Thank you.

Thank you.

All right, let's move on down to 3.2.

Deputy City Manager Jennifer Wickman.

Hello, Mary and Council, thank you very much.

Um, today I'm bringing you another update on the FIFA World Cup.

Um, we are now a little over 92 days away, so things are certainly picking up um in terms of the activity that we have going on.

So at our last um last meeting, we had some questions that came up, um, and so we're trying to address some of those issues here.

Um, today, really the theme is preparing Arlington.

Like, what are the Arlington residents and businesses doing to be ready for the World Cup.

So I would encourage everyone, members of the public and the council.

The city has a really comprehensive website.

Um, if you go to Arlington TX.gov slash World Cup, or if you look on the hot links, it says World Cup News.

That has information for residents, visitors, and also businesses.

So the first topic I'm going to address today is short-term rentals.

This came up, as I mentioned at a recent council meeting, Councilmember Galante asked about it on the 24th.

And we also sent you, we've actually been working on an article, and we sent that article out to you all a link to that on the second, so last Monday.

Um, and hopefully that was helpful to you.

This is largely drawn from that.

So if you have residents who have questions, constituents who have questions about short-term rentals, the information is all there, but we'll also talk through it today.

So the most important thing that it's that uh folks need to be aware of about short-term rentals is where they are allowed in Arlington.

It's not a throughout, it's not allowed throughout the city.

They can qualify newer existing residential structures if they're located within any of these three.

So either the established short-term rental zone, which is near the entertainment district, in RM12 or RM22, so medium density or multifamily uh zoning.

There's a there's a website that folks can there's a link to in the um in the article that folks could click on and take a look.

And so here is that map that um they can users are able to zoom in and see more clearly.

The blue area is the entertainment district, and I have a another map of that further on that's a little closer up, and you can see the other lighter blue areas.

This is where the zoning, either the RM12 or the RM22 would qualify.

All of the orange um color in there, those are issued short-term rental um permits.

So important to see there.

You can see this is the zoomed up ver uh view of the entertainment district, sure that that short-term rental zone that the council has established.

So just a little bit about the process.

There's a $500 non-refundable permit fee.

There's an annual renewal, it's not transferable.

So if one person sells a house, that that permit does not go with to the new, go does not go to the new owner.

Uh has to include a lot of important information, uh, the owner operator information, HOA details, and then the hotel occupancy tax registration.

Those are all things that are required as part of that permit, and it has to be posted inside the uh the residents.

Looking at the permanent inspection process before advertising or hosting any guests, property owners are responsible for obtaining the short-term rental permit.

They can apply for that at Arlington Permits.gov.

It's run through our planning and development services department.

Uh there's uh email also and a phone number here that they can take a look at.

Our processing takes about two weeks, but we do encourage uh potential operators to start that process early, probably two to three months in advance if they want to get permitted and then also advertise their their um their location on any of the platforms that are there.

So the time is really now.

If folks are interested in doing this, this is the time to take action on that.

This is a bit about our process of how we uh what we do when these applications come in.

So the application gets submitted.

Staff will check the zoning to ensure this particular location is allowed to have a short-term rental in it.

There's a life safety inspection with the important elements that have to be present in the in the property.

Um the hotel occupancy tax registration is also required.

Uh and then after that, the permit can be issued.

And these short-term rentals, they pay hotel occupancy taxes just like the Lowe's pays that hotel occupancy tax.

They're not a break or a way to get out from that if you're if you're doing a short-term rental.

The permit is issued, and then we have ongoing monitoring that happens.

Uh, I'll talk a little bit about that later, but it's the uh granicus platform, and it's a it's a tool called host compliance, which helps us proactively work on this.

So it's important to talk about enforcement and how the city enforces these rules.

So any resident who has concerns about an existing short-term rental, or about perhaps they think a short-term rental has started in an area and they do not think it's either permitted or allowed in that area.

There are several ways folks can report that.

One is by calling our action center, which is 817-459-6777, or by going to the Ask Arlington app.

It's under neighborhood concerns, or it can also be searched for uh pretty easily.

Host compliance website also has there's a link to that that folks can report that directly, or that there's a number 817 775 5626 that they can call them directly.

So both all four of these options are available, and we all we pay attention to all of them.

The permits can be revoked for a number of reasons.

We list some of them here.

If there's more than two citations when it within a 12-month period, if there's a failure to comply with the permit conditions after we've given a written notice, and if there's ever any false information provided, and if there's any other disqualifying uh issue that happens, that that permit can be revoked.

Wanted to talk a little bit more about host compliance.

This is the online, uh we don't only rely on residents to report these or uh you know folks to report to us when there's a problem out there.

We also have a proactive measure, and this is through Granicus, which we use for a lot of other things.

Um but host compliance is a proactive sort of crawls all the websites, it goes through 70 plus uh short-term rental platforms to find out where these are, and if they do detect one that is in Arlington and has not applied for and does not have a permit, then there's a process that goes into issuing, reminding them they have to be permitted, all of that.

Uh so there's this real-time sort of monitoring.

It's really a new tool that we've uh implemented is this automatic notice that goes out.

That's a new part of the platform that we're using now.

Because we have so much that's going to be happening during the World Cup, and so we're really starting to uh work on that, um, and make sure we know how to use the new tool so that can that can be in place and ready when we uh when the uh it really kicks into gear.

So it really helps us, it helps detect um any any um new ones that are listed out there, it notifies them of issues, it can helps us monitor, and then it escalates.

So there's an automated process to a point, and then it goes directly to a code compliance officer who's gonna go out and and start the enforcement process.

So that's short-term rentals.

I also wanted to mention our entrepreneurial parking program.

This is a long-standing program in the city.

Can I ask a question while you're doing that?

On the escalation part, how long of a period is there?

Because I'm thinking in my mind that the World Cup is generally going to be a 30-day period there.

Is this gonna be an escalation that happens over months if there's typically something going on?

Is it days?

Is it weeks?

What kind of escalation period is there?

It's it's gonna be days.

So all this new listings are flagged within 24 to 48 hours.

We're gonna continue to watch that uh from the code um compliance uh group, but our expectation is within days.

You're right.

This thing, it's happening quickly.

We need to get in there.

We certainly don't want people in these in an unpermitted short-term rental.

So we'll be moving quickly.

Uh sometimes we I've heard from the foot from the staff working on this is that one strategy is to put these properties on and off, on and off, on and off.

But this tool helps us identify when someone's doing that, so we can continue to say, okay, this is a new one, or it's a duplicate, so we can ensure that it's uh it's being caught.

But I take your point that we have to be able to react quickly during the World Cup, and we'll make sure that we we work with staff on that.

Thank you.

Yes, Dr.

Odom Wesley.

Have we seen an increase in requests for applications or requests for license to operate it?

STR.

I don't have that information, but we can certainly get that and get that back to you.

I expect if we haven't yet, we certainly will soon.

Go ahead.

Okay.

So this is a bit about our entrepreneurial parking program.

This has been a long-standing program, and it was put in place about the time that uh ATT Stadium came online to allow businesses in the area, active businesses that aren't just parking lots, but active businesses, if on game day they want to do something different with their location, they can charge for parking.

So there are a number of requirements that are uh make sure that they're well lit, it's clearly marked, uh, they have to have two attendants, the attendants stay through an hour after the event uh ends.

And the permitting happens by the planning and development services department, you can see it's the permit amount is based on the cost of the permit is based on the number of parking spaces that they have.

And I really want to emphasize it was uh the council that approved it at the time were very um careful in that just plain parking lots are not permitted.

It would not be okay to just tear down your business and just operate a parking lot.

It has to be an existing business that has a CO that is in operation because we didn't want uh the council did not want the stadium to be just be surrounded by a bunch of you know parking lots that only activated when when the stadium was happening.

We won't didn't want to kill the business around there.

So if a if a if a it's not allowed to just buy a piece of property, tear it down, paper the whole thing, and then park it.

It has to have an active business also on there.

Wanted to talk again about ambassadors row.

Um this continues to go very well.

With this is the complementary office space the city is offering to diplomats from the countries, some countries who know they will have a lot of fans here, but also the countries who will be playing their teams will be playing in matches here.

And it's first come, first served bases, these are uh quad offices.

Uh the commit convention and visitors bureau is helping us out with these with the costs.

And we have had a very good uh response.

We've got um a number of every every team that is playing, going to be playing here that we know about so far, has expressed an interest and has reserved their spot.

We have other sort of very you know, friends in the area, Mexico, Canada, they know they'll have some of their countrymen here because they have you know huge soccer uh fans, and they're gonna be uh interested as well.

France, very optimistic, I think, is believing that they will be in in some of the elimination rounds.

So we've talked to them as well, which is great.

Um great side effect of this is that some of these nations, because they want additional space or renting additional space at Spark, which is a really terrific benefit for them because they get more uh more usage in this in this time.

We're coming up, we're doing well, we have uh two shifts of seven volunteers each from uh the host committees effort, and so this will be well staffed, and we obviously have uh have been working with our public safety entities to ensure that it's also a protected space.

The other thing that we're able to do is this is bringing more attention to our entertainment district because these consuls and other ambassadorial staff are out there taking a look at what we have in our entertainment district.

And so some of them have been asking about other events that they could possibly book in the area.

We have to be careful about match day events on match day.

We're really focusing on the matches and making sure those can be safe and well staffed.

Uh, we don't want to attract a ton of additional people here.

But on non-match days and day before the match, day after all of that, we hope that some of these um entities, some of these venues are going to be booked as well.

So we've been sharing this information with all of the nations that come and and book space.

So this really we have four wins, four real benefits out of this.

We were showing certainly the hospitality to these to these um other nations.

We've got some additional spark booking, we've got um economic or the these additional entertainment district activations, and also we're gonna work with our economic development services and economic development corporation to try to make some connections with um with the entity with the the uh foreign staff that's in there to hopefully see if there's some benefit there.

I always like to show our calendars just to show how crowded um things are really in the entertainment district.

Not the only thing happening.

We also have uh the rangers playing as well.

One new element to this is that light up Arlington.

We've now firmed up is going to be on Sunday evening, July 5th.

So that'll be the time to celebrate.

It will be happening in the entertainment district.

We've been having these town hall meetings on an ongoing basis.

We've mentioned these before.

We've recently moved them to an online platform, which has allowed a lot more people to attend.

We had 300 participants at the Arlington Business Town Hall meeting uh in the middle of February and the end of February had 32 restaurants also participate in one focused on restaurants and caterers, and then we have a final one on March 26th with entertainment district businesses.

We wanted to let them get through the Grand Prix and have experience that event, and then we're gonna start talking to them more seriously about um the FIFA World Cup and how that scheduling is gonna work.

And then finally, uh Kay Brown Patrick from our economic development corporation has worked hard to create a small business playbook, and so this has been published, it's gonna be available online, and this is really the time for our businesses in Arlington if they have an interest in connecting with the World Cup that can really take a look at this.

They may have been educating themselves, understanding what's coming, but there are a lot of really practical tips in here about what when you should stock up, figuring out that some of your customers might have to exchange money.

There's a lot of really practical information in here, and we hope uh businesses will take advantage of it.

And that's the full um presentation I have for today.

I'm happy to take any questions that the council may have.

Any questions?

Dr.

Odin Wesley.

Thank you for this update and all the uh research information you provided.

Uh question about the parking.

Does that include the churches?

The entrepreneurial parking program.

I I I don't see why they couldn't.

Do we call them businesses?

Because you said businesses.

Oh, I I it's just a use.

It has to be a use and not a parking space space.

Yes, it's going to be clear.

They can just tune in with you know, check in with planning and development services, they'd be fine.

Thank you.

Thank you for clarifying that.

Any other questions?

Okay.

Thank you.

3.3 Deputy City Manager Randall.

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

Um, this is an annual opportunity to provide a good overview of our capital um projects and our proposed budget for this year.

So a couple of things we want to do in this presentation.

One is to brief you in the public regarding the upcoming list of proposed projects, as well as the corresponding budget and funding decisions on those.

We'll orient you to specific capital projects you'll be considering, as well as showing you the sequencing of those projects.

Then we'll also provide an overview of current planning for the public safety training center, as well as planning for economic development initiatives in the downtown area.

And then towards the end of the report, your city treasurer Ethan Close will provide you some details regarding some of the financing on these topics.

The CIP cycle, in essence, this is a five-year program.

Each year we update an additional year, so we're trying always trying to look at about five years regarding the need for capital projects.

That's weird.

Okay, here we go.

You've seen this cycle before, but it refers to the routine plan for investment in the city's capital assets.

And this is you know, includes streets, includes equipment, includes water and wastewater, and it could also include things like parking garages or or other uh facilities.

It's updated annually and typically approved in March.

Bonds from various funds are then sold so that the projects can begin development.

Um the geo bond piece of this is currently on a three-year schedule where uh we go out to the voters every three years for approval, specifically for geobond related projects.

Financing principles, historically, the city has endorsed very conservative principles that guide the city's capital investment strategy.

And so here we we show that maintenance investments extend the life of those assets, but we also ensure that the debt terms are established not to exceed the life of those assets.

Uh typically the bonds are structured with the level principal, and oftentimes we're uh able to retire those at half the the issuance life.

You've seen this slide as well.

Um, but in addition to those principles, uh, there's some um strict policies that city council has endorsed over the number of years.

Uh typically in your home environment, uh mortgage the mortgage lender is looking at a debt income ratio of about 30 percent.

Uh well, your policy here for the debt that we're gonna talk about is less than 20 percent.

In fact, um currently we sit at about 18.65 percent of of the city is is within the debt period, and that includes our pension obligation bond as well.

So we're very comfortable from that perspective.

Additionally, the total debt to add valoran policy is less than two percent.

We're currently at 1.55, including that pension obligation, and then that results in a per capita uh currently about 1631 per person.

And so, you know, these these policies are all bolstered by um pretty high uh credit scores, if you will, um by the three rating agencies.

Um we do show some concern though longer term on keeping that triple A just based on current activity, nothing that that we've done wrong, but just uh the way the market is is following with respect to some of the uh the state concerns that that we're seeing.

Um but with those um credit ratings the way they are, it allows us to get very favorable interest rates as we as we borrow.

So now let's talk about those projects.

Um this first list refers to the stormwater projects that you'll be considering for your next meeting.

Um all of these are through through PAGO, um so in essence cash, and you'll see a variety of funding sources as we kind of work through the list of projects here.

I'll just highlight a couple of these.

There are the 10 projects highlighted, but the localized localized drainage funds address localized flooding in areas with limited or undersized stormwater infrastructure.

Uh they're typically within neighborhoods or commercial areas and not uh long creeks or channels.

The bridge channel and infrastructure funding uh typically covers maintenance and repair of existing stormwater infrastructure.

Um typically those that exceed the capacity of our in-house um stormwater crews, and then the annual maintenance uh line item supports the street maintenance contracts that may require incidental uh stormwater infrastructure infrastructure work.

Um and then moving on to our our water projects.

A couple of projects of note here.

Uh, that seven million dollars for the Johnson County Special Utility District.

Uh that's in essence a pass through.

They will be reimbursing for us if you recall some time ago.

Um you passed an agreement that will allow us to serve Johnson County water, so they'll become one of our water customers, and we're requiring them to pay uh all the costs associated with that, and so that will be reimbursed.

Additionally, meter infrastructure, uh, very important light item because that allows us to replace the water meters for both commercial and residential customers.

Um those water meters uh really allow us to ensure accuracy in terms of billing for all of our customers, and so those require an ongoing update.

And then our the water administration building uh you'll probably remember that the water admin uh folks moved over to Chase Tower, and so that's on under about a four-year lease, which which will expire in 2029, and so we'll be looking to relocate those folks into a uh new structure, and so we've identified about seven million dollars to support design for uh for that site.

Uh very difficult to read and understand, but this is a comprehensive list of projects through 2018, excuse me, from 2018 geo bond specific projects.

Uh the last eight are projects that have uh we have yet to sell the the funds for those projects.

Uh they'll be sold between 2028 and 2033, but it just shows the the various levels of completion uh for all those projects since 2018.

And then here we show uh the start of our capital budget sequencing.

Um so those projects in green are currently under design, purple includes those that are under construction, and then the ones in yellow include uh fire apparatus and radio, so uh more equipment purchases designated there.

Uh moving on to the the second slide here, those areas in brown um show annual programs that either support other bond projects, uh think materials testing or surveying, or their investments that are spread out over several years to ensure that we can have a balanced annual bond sale as we go from year to year.

You also notice right-of-way acquisition, which is designated in gold, and that supports uh road construction projects where where those needs are exist.

Uh you're familiar with a similar slide, but here we show the total requests that uh you'll be considering uh this year at 209 million, and that's broken down into those following categories of capital at 50 million, stormwater at 10, water utilities at about 69, and then we'll talk more detail about the 80 million dollar request for downtown projects.

You also note here we have uh a couple items that were passed in November.

Um, so we we jumped ahead a little bit and we'll talk in another slide or so about those projects and why we we put those ahead.

Here is a list though of the geobond specific program or specific projects proposed for 26, so that totals that 50 million dollar figure.

And then here referenced a couple of slides ago.

Uh so in November you passed um funds for these projects.

The the water PFOS mitigation that came through uh proceeds from a civil settlement and is required to be spent on PFOS mitigation, so that's going towards design efforts related to the actual development of a PFOS mitigation system.

Um that be required, and and the feds are still working through that, but we are expecting that that for that to be a requirement, and so we needed funds to be able to start that work.

The public safety training facility, uh, that 1.2 million dollars refers to funds that were used to acquire and assemble land associated with that public safety training center, and then the fire vehicles uh that was uh front loaded as well.

We were able to achieve some savings based on timing relative to purchasing that equipment ahead of the the new year, and so we took advantage of that opportunity.

Moving on to parks, so these are the the park projects as part of the the geo bond in this request as well.

And these aren't the streets that we'll reference here aren't necessarily geo bond projects, but we wanted to highlight significant street work that's been done over the last year or so as we know you get a number of questions about street projects, particularly when they're not necessarily aligned with the Geo Bond program.

And so they're not as easy necessarily to discover their status.

So we've listed some here, including Slaughter, Marcellus Court, all the way down to Turner Warnell.

Um recently completed.

This next slide shows back one.

Um shows some that are currently under construction.

Um certainly aware of of some of the challenges that we've been having with with uh Debbie Lane.

We're working through those issues as well as Martin Luther King Drive is very close to compete to complete, but we're working hard to get our utility to cooperate with us so that we can get that completed, and that's going to be a significant change for that part of town, and we'll be planning some events associated with the ultimate uh opening of that section of MLK.

Moving forward on streets, um, so these are streets that are under our reclamation project list.

Um those figures at the bottom show the relative amounts that are designated within the bond program each year for uh street reclamation projects.

Here we're showing a list of future streets that are slated for implementation over the the next couple of years.

You'll see those as well.

And then I'll talk a little bit more about the public safety training facility.

And so these first two figures refer to uh recent land purchases, and so the acquisition of these parcels satisfied all of our needs for land associated with that development.

So we'll show uh a overview of some concepts that we've developed for that site, but suffice to say we are from a land perspective well positioned to establish that facility, and then you'll see a schedule for the purchase of fire vehicles.

Um have seven that we intend on purchasing over the next uh seven years, or excuse me, the next three years.

Um if you recall, um we traditionally have not included those as part of the bond, but we did in the 25 bond, and so that's why they're they're showing here.

So a little more detail on the public safety trading center.

Um had about 175,000 for a feasibility study, which was completed, um, and then those two land purchases that are referenced.

Um, and so we'll be looking forward to uh more of a comprehensive design relative to that project.

We've been working with uh both police and fire on the design concepts and scoping for that, and we would expect um it is a significant investment that's going to require uh a number of years to complete, but we do we would anticipate though the 28 bond to include at least for consideration a first phase of that project, and we'll um on this next slide show you a little more detail.

And so this provides you an overview of the initial concept that we're um referencing for the public safety center.

Um so this is pioneer here, and so what we have here is this is a administrative building.

Um this is called uh CPAP building.

Basically, it's a covered area for specific training and testing for fire, as well as can be used for a number of different um physically related activities, and this is a tactical building that would be used by both police and fire as well that would serve the purposes of uh physical and tactical training, potentially in a in a two-floor format as well.

Um gets too muddled here.

This area here uh kind of references the driving course as part of driver training for primarily for police, but fire would use it as well.

And then here we're showing an auxiliary station that's for training purposes only.

It would not be used for a permanent station, but certainly for uh recruit training for flyers specifically.

This area here, um, these are all individual pad sites, very flexible site.

Uh but in that area you'll uh have elements like the class uh A and B fire training facilities themselves.

Um think the fire tower that's uh currently off of Green Oaks, something similar to that would be located uh roughly here, and then other elements that would be available available for different training scenarios would take place on each of those pad sites.

Um then here is the gun range just to orient you.

Um this area here is the existing cemetery, so just to kind of give you a frame of reference for that.

So a couple of of thoughts relative to this facility.

Um is the the proposed costs or what we're currently estimating is about 120 million dollars to complete all elements of this facility.

So certainly a little rich for for one or one-time investment, but achievable over the course of a couple.

Additionally, um we believe there are significant sponsorship opportunities uh related to this um facility.

You know, there are a number of companies that that we deal with that would present well for different, you know, whether it's uh naming a room in the classroom building after a company, the driver training course itself could be named as a sponsor opportunity, the fire training facility could be named, and so uh we would anticipate similar to the efforts at the downtown library.

If you were here or recall then, um we would anticipate a significant percentage, uh certainly not not half, but a significant percentage of the facility uh could be paid for, and we would be leveraging the the resources of both um police and fire in particular to work their angles to uh to achieve that goal.

Well, we'll make them first on the list.

Uh you will note though the area that's that's um highlighted in red is what we have proposed um tentatively as the first phase, a couple of reasons for that.

Uh it includes the gun range, uh which which I noted on that the east side, as well as the um try excuse me, the fire training building.

And so the current facility um off of Green Oaks uh is in essence obsolete.

Um there's a tower there that you certainly drive by, um, but it's it's not functional and it cannot be repaired.

Um we've uh had an estimate of about seven million dollars to replace that, which is virtually the cost to build a new one.

And so it seems like I thought it was built better than that.

Uh I'm not sure.

It's an 80s 80s.

Yeah, yeah.

And so they don't even make the components to to fix the the gas chamber and all that.

So that's obsolete is and then the gun range as well uh is past its useful life.

And so the thought was uh obviously a lot of site work needs to be done, but the first phase being the gun range, and then those elements shown uh at the the bottom there, including those fire training buildings, would be a logical first phase.

And in that first phase, we're estimating about 50 million, so uh fairly costly, but it would make the most sense based on uh getting better functionality sooner than later.

Okay.

All right, let's talk a little bit about downtown.

So you referen uh a reference to 80 million dollars to support um downtown.

Um here, that is the 2018 um downtown master plan.

And typically uh projects come in one or two at a time, um, two at a time if if we're in a very very healthy year.

Um but the level of activity that we've uh received over the last number of months is pretty unprecedented for downtown.

A lot of interest, and so in essence, the uh the idea here is that with the pace of interest, our downtown master plan could be completed fairly quickly.

Um but we're gonna be we're gonna need to be in a position to support many of those elements.

And so this $80 million certainly would come back to you for specific approval and specific deal points.

But in essence, it would cover these types of items.

Um so all public person purpose related, um, whether it's land acquisition, um, design of street curb sidewalk, um, public parking is a you know a little unique, uh more of a shared utility there, but certainly not out of the realm of uh city funding, as well as uh park facilities, public facilities and and landscaping.

We're estimating a need for about 80 million dollars to support those efforts.

Um a lot of detail would be forthcoming, um, but the first step would at least be to uh make these funds available so that um as those projects uh come online, um, you're in a position to specifically uh reference those funds in order to uh to move those projects forward.

And so I'll I'll pause there uh if there are any questions.

Um otherwise we'll move on to the financing piece uh that that Ethan will we'll go over.

Go ahead, Councilmember Hog.

Thank you.

Lemuel and thank you for I know we've made changes on this in the recent with kind of timings and those.

I appreciate how you all handle this.

Um you'd mentioned on the water revenue bonds for the Johnson County SUP and the district it's the SUS SUD, sorry, SUD because I talked to the Johnson County judge, he was like, No, it's the SUD doing that.

Um they are paying us for all the infrastructure on that.

So that seven million that we're putting in, will that be paid back from them?

What what happens on that?

Yes and then where uh that's what I thought was the case.

Then does that water when it gets paid back?

Does that go directly back in?

Are we floating the money for them?

Is what we're doing this time, and then they're paying it back.

Correct.

Okay.

Okay.

Councilmember Boxell.

Thank you.

So this is interesting.

Um, so are you talking about uh uh stepping up the timeline for downtown improvement, public improvements because of the all the interest we're getting into in uh development downtown?

Uh are you asking for more money?

Uh what is the what is this?

Right.

So what we're doing is reflecting the current interests and you know there's there's a time basis to to that interest.

So we're simply trying to put the city in a position if you choose to support any or all of those developments.

This funding would be a mechanism to do that.

Okay, because I think that's pretty important because we are going to have to the money's gonna have to come somewhere for the infrastructure improvements.

It's kind of a chicken and egg thing.

Um, but I'd really love to see this uh step up the timeline so that we can at least keep pace, if not get a little bit ahead of some of the development that we anticipate downtown.

Yes, this is a little unique for us, but this does allow us to do that.

Okay, thank you.

Okay, Ethan.

All right.

Good afternoon, Ethan Close, treasurer for the city.

Um so I'll talk about some of the financing behind it.

So first we'll start with the GOs.

Wanted to show you exactly what um by election year was originally passed, um, what has previously been issued and what we're planning on issuing this year for different areas.

Uh as you can see, we've we passed in the last three elections almost six hundred and seventy million dollars worth of projects.

We've already sold bonds for 284 million.

This year will be another 57 million dollars.

So we'll still have 327 million dollars worth of projects that we will uh sell bonds for from 27 through 31.

Um, and this gives that kind of timeline of how and when those bonds are scheduled to be sold for these various projects.

So you can see we have a fairly systematic.

Um you will note that we were uh we have a ramp up here in 82 and I mean in 28 and 29.

Uh and that is to try and now somewhat match the reappraisal plan of uh the TAD board put us in, where we're anticipating lower A V values for the next few years, and then when they start appraising again, we'll see a significant increase as values then get back onto the rolls, or or I should say the the values there, but when more market value is on the roll.

Uh as Lemuel mentioned earlier, we have debt ratios.

The um reason for both the with pension bonds and excludes pension bonds is when we created these ratios uh 20 years ago or more, I believe 2008 was when these ratios were originally um passed by council.

We did not have pension obligation bonds.

So when we issued the pension obligation bonds, we said that we will continue those ratios excluding the pension bonds.

So you will see we're well within all of the different targets, excluding the pension obligation bonds.

You will see on March 24th, the increase.

The only ratio that we change on a regular basis is the debt per capita has an inflationary aspect to it.

So you will see that come up on March 24th, raising that up to uh 1,600 per capita.

So as we talked about the downtown, as y'all were looking at the projects, there are different ways of us funding these various projects as they come into being.

Um different tools that we're going to be looking at and and sources of funds.

Um we wanted to get kind of a straw pull on is some of the money would be coming from the downtown TURS.

Uh we're looking to potentially extend the life of the TURS another 20 years.

It currently goes through 2038.

This would take it out to 2058.

We would only extend it for the city portion.

Also, we're looking at increasing the city's participation for from 100% of M and O to 100% of the total tax rate.

The combination of those two would allow us the possibility of issuing TURS debt.

Um again, we're just wanting to know if this is an avenue y'all are interested in pursuing.

We're not asking for a vote on it.

These are just things that we would look at, then as we put together a new project finance plan would go in front of the TURS board and would come back to you as to if y'all were suitably acceptable to a new TURS.

Um, other possibilities of sources of funds are CO issuances.

Um, and so we could do any type of combination of debt from the TERS, debt from COs, some type of combination of the two.

Um, and then we also have uh water would part potentially participate in some of these projects.

The EDC could be participating in some of these projects.

Uh the general fund could be participating, whether that's cash or whether that's money in the IVCF, or that's Chapter 380 grants, that kind of stuff to assist with some of these projects.

The things that we wanted to keep in mind as we do this and keep y'all in mind is that any of these projects as we go through these sources of funds, they will not be impeding or superseding any of the actual geo bonds that we're planning on issuing.

Those projects that the citizens have voted on in 2018 and 2023 and in 2025, those will continue to happen.

These will not go in front of those.

Um, also we expect to maintain the current INS or debt service tax rate at point one eight five two.

We are not going to add new projects at a time that would then cause us to force y'all to raise the tax rate.

So we need to work within those parameters.

So we need the flexibility of how we do those things.

Um we want to, you know, some of the more immediate needs for the downtown is probably parking.

We already know that parking is already a deficit in the downtown area, but so those would be some of the first part of the projects that we would look be looking at doing, as well as we would stay within our defined debt policy ratios.

So if y'all have any questions about those are are y'all amenable to us looking at uh amending the TERS.

Okay.

Stormwater is fairly uh normal kind of CIP program.

You'll see it's a little bit light in 26 because they're ramping up for some large things in 27 and 28.

Thus, why we're only doing pay-go this year and not have a normal stormwater issuance, but we will have significant issuances in 27 and 28.

Uh water again continues its fairly vigorous program.

You see a very large ramp up in 2028.

Again, you are approving 26.

Anything beyond that is for informational, but you see the large amount in 28 is that 100 million, which that's a best guess right now from the water on the PFOS mitigation.

They are just putting it out there so that we have an idea of what all is going on.

But we have a debt issuance of 49.2 million for this year, and then large ramp ups for the next two years.

And with that, our next steps are we are planning on coming back to you at the next council member meeting to pass the capital budgets to pass reimbursement resolutions so that they can start these projects immediately, pass parameters ordinances, which then allow us you granting us authority within the next uh 365 days to actually issue the debt.

Um we will start working for uh updating the the TURS board so that they understand what type of amendments we're looking at.

Um we're looking at having rating agency meetings in May or June.

Uh I actually just talked to our um financial advisor, and this was put together right before we decided to not have any stormwater, so there won't be any stormwater issuance.

So we'll actually delay the water issuance to have everything go together in August.

Um, normally we would sell everything May, June, but because we don't know where values are coming in from TAD, we wanted to delay to make sure that we could structure everything appropriately such that we're keeping our tax rate flat or lower.

And with that, I'll take any questions.

Any questions for Ethan?

Good job.

Thank you.

All right.

Okay, 3.4.

Alex Whiteway.

Good afternoon, Mayor and Council.

Alex Whiteway, director of water utilities.

I'm here to present the water utilities 2025 year-end report.

So we're gonna start off.

You know, this is a this is a perfect picture.

I love it.

Um, it's got a lot of staff in there.

It's got the mayor, the council, management, all in this photo, and you know, this was a big part of us getting the outstanding public drinking water system award.

Again, as we presented at council, still got to brag a little bit more about it.

We were one of two out of over 7,000 water systems to receive that award.

So that's uh incredible, especially for a city of our size.

And we were the only one to receive the cross connection award again out of over 7,000 water systems.

That is huge.

That means we're doing the right thing.

The cross connection means we are protecting the water supply.

So all of our rules, procedures, everything that we do is critical for us to receive that award.

And like I said, again, that is huge bragging rights for us.

Um, so definitely real happy about that.

And you know, I want to thank y'all again for y'all's support.

Um, that y'all believe in us, and you know, it means a lot to us.

And again, this is uh y'all play a big role in us receiving this award.

So again, thank you again for that.

Um, this is by the numbers, just to kind of go over our miles of pipeline, doesn't increase.

Sewer went up about 12.

Uh, I mean, sewer went up about six, water about twelve miles.

So, you know, we're pretty much built out, but we're not increasing a lot in size, but we're doing a lot of rehab out there.

Our um overall budget's gonna be about 245 million dollars this year.

Uh we're still finalizing the I mean it was last year, my apologies, not this year, we're still prepping it.

Um, and as you can see the photo at the bottom uh right, that is we had a so basically we have a lot of vegetation on Lake Arlington, and you hire contractors, they go out there, they do a lot of work, you know, it's in the rocks right on the edge of the and it, you know, it could be expensive for us to pay a contractor to do that.

So we kind of thought outside the box, and I remember uh I believe I forgot what department I just remember before I was even here seeing goats running down the roads in Arlington.

So I was like, you know what, that's a really good idea.

Um, not running down the road, of course, but you know, just kind of taking them over there.

So we had them out there, and it was incredible.

You know, we were flying drones and uh just seeing them throughout the the process, just eat all that vegetation, and it saved us money doing it.

Um, and it was just uh really incredible to see.

So that was uh a good kudos for the water department.

The next one, so we do uh we're still shooting the goal to do roughly 30,000 feet of in-house design.

Again, that brings a lot of value to the citizens.

That is cost that we're saving from having to go outside of the city.

Um and then uh we're a hundred percent on high hazard backflow devices.

Basically, what that means is we make sure all the high hazard backflow devices are inspected, are repaired.

I mean that they're submitting those test reports because those are huge for us to protect our water system.

And if you look at the water licenses, if you see we have 26 class A water licenses, so in the water field, that is huge.

I mean, uh a water license, you have to have eight years uh worth of experience, and you have to have over 160 hours of training.

There's many cities out there that might only have two, might only have four.

We have 26 and counting.

I will tell you that.

So that is incredible for the utility, and then of course, all of our other licenses that we have.

And then if you look at the bottom left, so this is our pipe tapping team.

So we competed last year in Houston at Texas Water.

We're competing again this next this year in April, next month at um Texas Water in San Antonio.

So basically, that's a team that of course it's timed.

We go in there and try to tap that water pipe as fast as we can.

Uh we are called the Dream City Tappers.

So that is the that is the pipe tapping team name.

So we're gonna go out there and see if we can do some damage at Texas Water next month.

So our Pierce Birch water treatment plant is almost completion.

We're looking at about July that we should be fully complete with the uh first expansion that we had, the Clearwell project that was going on.

So this project was actually named one of the top uh projects for 2025 by Water World magazine.

Just from the complexity and everything that we had to do with that project, they uh nominated it as one of the top projects.

And as you can see from the photo, it's uh it's quite a quite a difference.

You know, it's a huge project, it's a hundred and twelve million dollar project.

And we should finish that in July, and then we started our filter project that y'all approved some time ago that that's gonna be another two-year project that's gonna be happening uh at Pierce Birch water treatment plant.

The good thing about this is our pump station.

If you notice, we had our have our pump station off of Green Oaks.

Well, with this project, it was moved to the Pierce Birch Water Treatment Plant, and that is in full operation.

Those huge pumps and motors are working.

Um, so we can uh get our uh Green Oaks pump station offline.

And then if you look at the top left, I hope all of y'all have downloaded the Arlington Water Utilities app.

That if you haven't, please download it.

You can um check your usage, you can monitor, you can set different parameters on there, you can add a lot of things, and you can build the app the way you want, whatever you want to uh notice.

So please, if you have not downloaded, please download it.

Uh, we're looking at over 5,000 residents have downloaded the app so far.

Um, we tried to make it user-friendly, so you know, the app you can add so much to it.

But I was like, well, let's not let's kind of make it simple and then let people add what they want.

So um, if y'all have downloaded it, if you are, please, you know, if you have um any recommendations or anything, please feel free to reach out to me and give me those.

Um, another thing that we launched this last year was Arlington Water Utilities University.

So that's uh, you know, we launched that because we want to build a partnership with the community.

You know, we want to show transparency and we want to show them what we're doing.

And it has been a great success.

Uh we uh actually just started our um first the third class, the first day of the third class last Wednesday.

You have a couple of alumni of the class in here, you know, Councilmember Galante and Gonzalez, and we have two current students uh currently in the audience right now, Councilmember Hogg and Council Member Pham.

So how many times is Councilmember Hogg dropped out and come back?

I have not dropped out, Mayor.

I just have not been able to make every class.

I think we will complete it uh this term.

So you'll make sure you make the grades publicly.

So it's we're not asking how long it took you in college, maybe that council member hogg had to go to water summer school.

Yes, sir.

We will we might do that, and that's the hottest time of the year, so he's really gonna work for it.

I'll tell you that much.

I am just stretching out my water knowledge, is what I'm doing.

But no, we're we're uh thankful uh the ones that you know have participated in.

If anyone else would love to do it, please feel free to reach out.

But you know, the residents are loving it, and you know, one thing that really stands out to me was the very first class, the first class we launched the first day.

Um, you know, we received an email that night about 11 o'clock at night, and you know, one of the residents was like, I was always taught, you know, tap water was unsafe to drink.

And she goes, after this first class, I went home and drank me a big glass of tap water.

And Arlington's tap water is phenomenal.

I understand why y'all get so many awards, and you know, that's awesome that we were able to change, you know, and just educate, you know, a resident that way, and to know that you know, we don't know what people know about the water system.

You know, you walk into different um retail places and they can publicize different filtration systems and all that.

And you know, what I like to educate residents when we go through this class is you know, those are good if you choose to have that, but understand we have about a billion dollar filtration system, so that outdoes your filtration system.

So just gotta just gotta point that out.

I gotta tell you when you first did this water utilities university.

I thought you were crazy.

I did not think people would be interested in this, and I cannot go anywhere without participants bragging about how incredible this program is.

Uh, I recently went to uh a fundraiser for Oak Ridge School, and one of the parents came up to me and said, Mayor, I am in the Water Utilities University, and it is a blast.

And they were just going on and on.

So kudos to you and your team for being so creative with this.

Uh it's blown my mind to see the excitement of people who've been into this program.

Well, thank you for that.

We definitely do appreciate it, and we appreciate you attending our graduations.

That definitely uh helps out too.

So we also added um a new employee to our staff uh this last year.

So as you can see on the right, this is Splash.

So Splash is a leak detection canine.

Um he was adopted from Arlington Animal Services.

Uh so as I like to say, he is an Arlington resident, um, born here in Arlington, and uh, you know, uh basically he's he's growing up here in Arlington, and what we do is we utilize a satellite leak detection that puts us within a 300-foot radius, and then Splash and his handler go out and they're able to detect the water leak and basically narrow it down because 300 feet is still large for us, so they're able to narrow that down.

And I will tell you, Splash is 14 for 14, so that's incredible.

So the leaks that he's identified, we've excavated, and the leaks are right there.

So that is um phenomenal.

Um questions?

Well, he he gets a raise, but before I move on to questions, I actually want to introduce y'all to him in person.

Splash, come on in.

Come right over here.

So this is Splash and his handler, Richard Everhart.

So Splash is about 18 months old, and he is uh he he is just phenomenal.

I mean, he is on the money finding these leaks.

You know, I was uh one of the I was interviewed by the news and they said, Well, what's his work hours?

I said, Well, man, you know, we're really taking advantage of Splash because we make him work all the time because not only does he come to work with Richard and he works, you know, all day long finding leaks, but when he goes home, uh Richard actually loses control, and his three-year-old daughter is Splash's boss.

And they are like best buddies, they go all over.

I mean, he he works all night and he's very tired when he uh when he's ready for bed.

So again, I just wanted y'all to meet um Splash, and uh, you know, he is a great asset to um the Arlington Water Utilities Department, and he's gonna continue doing great things him, him and his handler Richard Everhart.

How common are are these splat or are these leak detection canines?

So we are one of two municipalities that have one that I know of.

That's it.

So there is Arkansas Water Authority that have the very first one in the U.S., which is vessel, and then there's a couple leak detection uh companies, um, and there's a special utility district by the New Bromfells area.

But as far as municipalities, we are one of two in the country.

That I done the research, that's all I could find.

I cannot find um anyone else.

I actually saw this idea years ago in 2018, where they did it in Australia because our Australia has one of the largest pipelines in the world, you know, so many rural ones that they do it, and then they also do it in the UK.

But um, that I know of we are the one of two municipalities that have it.

Haven't had no one showing them off yet, and they normally do.

So Bessel was at Ace, which is the National Water Conference some years ago, and he was like the biggest hit at the at the conference.

So very cool.

Awesome.

Thank you, Routine.

So uh just wanted to let y'all know I left um our water utilities into your report at each of y'all's desk, and I also left a coin there, so we made coins to celebrate the outstanding public drinking water system and cross connection awards that we won.

So we made coins to celebrate the outstanding public drinking water system and cross connection awards that we won.

So that's all I have for you now.

Open it up to any questions.

Any questions?

Yes, Councilmember Hunter.

I just want to say thank you for adopting Splash.

He's so cute.

He's awesome.

I wonder if the handler ever gets he's cute or anything like that.

He doesn't get any attention at all, does he?

Uh Councilmember Gonzalez, and I'll come over.

Thank you, Mayor.

Thank you, Alex.

Um, for the citizens out there, you really need to be part of this program.

Uh when uh Mr.

Whiteway was talking about tapping lines when their water is in there, and I mean they're having to cut the line and do it.

Just seeing that is amazing.

And then you also get the little uh scope uh radar or whatever, the little cameras are going to the lines.

Uh it's just fascinating information knowing how how how how how much work are you guys doing?

And you know, when we think about first responders, we always think fire and police, but these guys are out there whether it's cold or hot, when the lines break or whatever, they're out there in the middle of the night, middle of a snowstorm, whatever it is there.

So uh if you have not been part of it, you need to be part of it, and thank you to your entire department.

Thank you.

Very proud of y'all.

Councilmember Hogg.

Yeah, thank you, Mayor.

Uh Alex, I I back up what all my colleagues said.

You've done an amazing job in our water apartments on the cream of the crop.

I think we were before, but now you've taken it to the next level from where it is.

So I appreciate uh I love going to your classes when I can go and do that.

Um bring splash next time you have budget requests.

That always is a huge help.

I do have a serious question though.

Um I know we've been working a long time on a project and requirement by law to replace lead pipes on there.

How are we going on that?

And I know Congress about a month ago, and when we work on federal legislation, we have a lot of discussions about that with our with our federal representatives.

Um, and then Congress cut a fair amount of funding towards that about a month ago.

Where are we on that project?

Have we completed it?

Where are we at on that?

Yes, sir.

So our lead and copper is completely done.

We have to have it inventoried and we have to have it on our website.

So we do have it on the website.

We have 176 out of the entire city that were uh identified as unknown.

Um, so we don't know if they have lead or not.

So as of right now, we have 10 years to replace those 176 um connections.

We're and it's just the outside basically from the connection up to the house.

So we're working with uh on trying to create a program to help those residents facilitate that.

Um but yes, we are in a hundred percent compliance uh on our lead and copper rule.

Now on the PFOS is the one that we're kind of waiting on.

So as you saw on the CIP plan, there's uh a large capital expense if we have to move forward with that.

So we are currently uh moving forward with preliminary design for our PFOS mitigation, and right now we have to be in compliance by 2029.

There is talk that they might push it back to 2031 or even further than that.

So hopefully we have to move forward with design to meet that timeline.

But the overall goal is if we can do design and shelve it, if they can push that requirement back, that would help us a lot.

We wouldn't have to take out that huge capital expense.

Thank you.

And I was I was led and then PFOS are two separate things on those hundred and seventy-six that led, you know, that's from the street to the house, correct?

Well, from behind the meter to the house.

So the city, we are good.

The city is good.

We are a hundred percent in compliance.

I know some of our older neighborhoods, many of the houses are having real issues with a lot of lead pipes and they're crumbling, and they're putting you know liners in to try and keep them, but that's that's not a cheap replacement for a house.

No, sir.

So what what will occur?

You know, how's the city helping or not assisting with that?

So I mean, currently we do have our plumbing repairs program, but that is um only up to $1,500.

Yeah.

So we um I will tell you it's a plan that we're still working on.

I don't have the exact answer yet, but the city is looking to see how we can help residents uh fund those replacements because at the end of the day we need to be in compliance in 10 years.

So we have to figure out a way.

So I will tell you the the city is working to partner with the residents to replace those 176.

Okay, thank you.

Any other questions, comments from council?

Yes, council member Pham.

Mr.

Mayor, uh I would recommend Mr.

Mayor attain one of your class.

So uh so he can set the example for all council members sitting in here today.

I would appreciate it.

And Mr.

Councilmember Bowie Hulk if he missing on a class this summer, you know, we can have him climb the water tower.

So Arlington.

Okay, yes, sir.

So I'll be there with him.

So yes, sir.

I thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thanks, Alex.

That was great.

All right, let's move on down to uh the informal.

Yes.

I'm sorry, Dr.

Odin Wesley, I'm sorry.

It's not about water.

Can I can I back up?

Yeah, whatever you want to do.

I have I have a question for on World Cup that I forgot to ask.

Jennifer's still here.

Yeah.

Uh I got this from several small business owners.

Will there be opportunities for street vendors, food trucks, that kind of thing, doing the World Cup?

So there will not be opportunities for food trucks on the match day or the day before or the day after.

That's that's when we have that restriction on special event permits and temporary outdoor permits, and in Arlington, in order to have with a couple of exceptions, you need to have one of those in order to bring a food truck out.

Um I think that if if someone is vending like hot food, there's a lot of there's a lot of permits that are required.

So we're recommending that that that small businesses not do that, that they find different ways to get involved, but that's that's not our preferred or recommended way, and and not a lot of it is gonna is going to be legal to is going to be legal to do out there.

But I'm happy to talk with folks if they want if you want to refer them to me, I would be happy to talk with people one-on-one.

Yeah, what about coal stuff, snow cones, and it's gonna be hot.

It's it's all prepared stuff, so like health um health permits are required, you know, prepared food.

If it's so I anyway, I think probably maybe one on one would be the best way to handle those, but um again, there's gonna be so much going on out there um that we're really trying to trying to keep keep keep it simple.

Okay, is that info on the website?

I can I can send them to the website.

Uh I let me I'll check the website in terms of the businesses in terms of what can't be done, but but again, happy to speak with them one-on-one.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Anyone else?

All right.

4.1 uh city attorney.

Actually, Galen's got this one if you've got any questions.

Any questions on 4.1.

You know, uh just on the report on the on the report, they suggest three approaches on uh on the court of ordinances, right?

Um options to consider create a process where we've revise the the court of ordinances.

The second is this sunset, create create a sunset uh procedure and uh continue review as as is needed, right?

Um intertained the option of of uh of uh uh every three years we we we uh every year we do one third of the ordinance reviewing, and then in that tenure of three years of uh of uh any city council, any member of the council, they'll have the opportunity to go over the is that create extra work, a necessary work or is something that we can.

Yeah, I think the suggestion alone is already got tired.

No, I know, I know.

I'm just hey uh Galen.

Galen Gadden, Assistant City Attorney.

Uh yes, uh that that is definitely one of the options.

I I think the uh the the staff report uh indicates that that that would be a very unusual thing for a municipality to do.

Uh it's the city of Arlington is much like many other cities in Texas in the sense that we are responding to constituent concerns.

So when a constituent uh reaches out to council, council reaches out to management, management gives direction, staff researches it, and then comes back to you as the policymakers to see whether or not there's a change that's needed.

The only other thing is where we're responding to, which quite frankly we've been doing a lot lately, uh, to the legislative changes.

And uh unfortunately, although we would love to have the resources to have a regular review of of all the ordinances, I think quite frankly, just trying to keep our head above water with with constituent concerns and legislative changes have kind of led us to uh recommending that we stick with just a dealing with it on a case-by-case basis.

On the report, so the options to consider one or two or three, you're recommending three, right?

Uh yes, sir.

And unless the council gives other direction, our current policy is those options to consider.

We we always give we always give you all the options.

Council member Boxell.

Thank you.

Um I understand that you know we have a lot of ordinances, and they were they're quite some of them go back many years.

So I my question is do we have a way to look at ordinances that have been put in place, let's say maybe decades ago, and whether or not they are obsolete or whether they are even still relevant to anything today.

Is there anybody that ever looks at that, or do they just stay on the books for a no absolutely?

And and uh I will tell you there there is a difference between uh ordinances that you all passed that are more policy-based and and ordinances that are completely uh uh enforceable, that type of thing.

So we always refer citizens and uh and policymakers and the departments to our code of ordinances, which is codified and is on our city website.

And you will see if you go through that are when uh when legislative changes have come through, city attorney's office goes through all of that to see if there's anything outstanding that may have been impacted.

I will tell you sometimes for whatever reason it it is good policy to leave things on the books, even though it may not necessarily be enforceable at the time because it may be that there was a a judicial decision that came down that question it, and then we may find out that that judicial decision gets reversed, and then we still have the the thing on the uh a good example of that I always refer people to is as alcohol.

Years and years ago, uh the city passed uh regulations that limited alcohol sales in certain jurisdictions, and because that that was on there, even though it at the time we didn't allow alcohol sales because there hadn't been a local uh option at that time, we were grandfathered in.

We also have a provision in our construction code that we're grandfathered in because relating to sprinklers uh in single family homes in certain conditions.

So there are some situations where it's good actually to just let it sit and then be grandfathered in.

But definitely our office routinely goes through it, and there are some provisions that honestly we could recommend that you revise.

We've got one involving coin-based uh machines that uh doesn't generate any income at this point, but then you have to weigh the pros and cons.

Do you want to have a meeting?

Do you want to have staff use a lot of time to maybe get rid of an ordinance that you're gonna do?

So, what is the procedure then?

Let's use that as an example.

Then they would you would come to us and ask us to just rescind the rescind that ordinance or what uh absolutely just like anything that uh you all regularly uh deal with on a regular basis.

If if uh if there was a provision, let's say for instance, uh there was a provision that was found in the code and they said, hey, this doesn't apply to anything and there's no legal reason to hold on to it, uh then the department would work with staff.

It's usually going to be directed by the department that's charged with enforcing it.

Uh and they would come to us.

So say for instance, uh like uh, well, for instance, the co the coin-based example, uh the city secretary's office is responsible for collecting that.

So they would they would bring a staff report, probably an informal to the the council.

The council would discover discuss the issue, and then it would go to probably municipal policy to discuss changing it, and then we would go to the full body to have a vote to uh to actually amend the code to take that provision out.

But you have to do that for each ordinance then so I can see how onerous that would be.

Um this is very timely because in the future agenda items I'm gonna ask for a review of one of our policies.

So I'm just trying to figure out the the procedure there.

So that'd be great.

Uh but I do I've never seen that happen since I've been here where we've rescinded one that was obsolete or out of date or uh it's pretty it's pretty rare to completely uh take out an entire chapter uh chapter.

Usually what you're seeing is you're amending uh a section of a chapter uh for a particular reason.

So and and I will tell you that uh this the the city we're in a very good position with uh with current uh rules.

There are a number of our neighbors that unfortunately never touch their codes and uh they get frustrated and their citizens get frustrated because they look at the code and they say, well, this doesn't really apply.

How does this apply?

And then they're told, well, we don't really do it that way.

We're very proud, especially with the UDC of being able to tell people, hey, when you want to develop in Arlington, this is the process in our code.

It's not a code from the 80s that's never been touched.

Okay, thank you.

So I I just want to make sure that we're we're not creating unnecessary work on stuff here.

Umrdances are not like our streets that get looked at every few years on something like that.

We we had an ordinance not long ago that restricted where murals could go.

We, when somebody else put a mural up, that we thought, well, okay, that's really isn't a bad idea.

We amended that ordinance to accommodate mural.

As issues come up, it gives us an opportunity to look at those individual ordinances, and it may be uh it may be something that comes up from the library or parks erect or something like that, but it also may come down from the federal government or from the state government that says you can no longer do this or you have to do that.

And I think when we start getting out there and trying to figure out what the public need is or demand on every one of these ordinances, the hundreds and hundreds of ordinances that are out there, we're we're gonna create all kinds of problems with that.

So I I think we're best off letting things ride, addressing individual ordinances as the need comes up and dealing with it that way.

And that's the way we've been doing it.

And from what I'm hearing you say, Galen, that's the way everybody really does it.

People aren't addressing ordinances and sunset provisions or things such as that where we're randomly going through everything to evaluate these stuff.

Absolutely.

And you can see why, because I mean it would be very frustrating if there was if there was some item that the council really wanted to address, and then you had to wait in a queue to address it because you're trying to catch up with your five-year plan or whatever.

I think if the need comes up and Ms.

Boxell identifies an issue that should be addressed, then by all means we can address those individual issues, and it may be the police department that does it or fire department, anybody can bring those matters to the case.

Even the form based code coming through.

So there's enough people needing changes or revisions or amendments in the ordinances that we don't need to create a process that creates more need to do all of that, I would think.

Council member hog.

You're probably gonna say the same thing I am Yeah, I don't think this is our need for a sunset commission, right?

A very formal, the state is big on sunset commissions and those.

And I I know I've started reading you know, as we've had some ordinances pop up and you start looking, I've started reading through more of the ordinances, which is not the most thrilling work to read through every ordinance just to be very transparent.

But at any time a council member can bring up and ask for it to be placed on the agenda.

Um and I do think that is a process.

Um, I I do think there should be some potential frequency.

You know, if you have something that's on there 20 years and it hasn't been reviewed at all, maybe there should be a look at something on there, but I I don't think we need a set in stone time frame of when they're reviewing um and the council, any one of us can review one at any time and bring it before this council and ask about it.

So I think that's the process.

Councilmember Gonzalez.

I totally agree that's you know, between governance and and uh you know getting into weeds and that's getting into the weeds, so we rely on them.

But when it comes up, we get involved.

So Mr.

I don't believe it's getting into the weeds.

I mean, that's a policy we're passing as an ordinance.

I mean, if you look at the whole thing every every year and look at all of them, I just meant then but the way we do it, the way you're saying, yeah, it's not you're just I agree with that.

I it didn't want the governance for this is not a this is we're we're governing, we're setting these policies, so it is fully within our rights to review any ordinance at any time as an entity.

I think you you both are saying the same thing just a little bit differently.

I think that's what we do is we see a need to adjust or look at things in greater depth.

We certainly need to be able to do that, but I don't think there needs to be a protocol by which we have to review every ordinance at a certain time frame.

Uh we'll address it as it needs because we're already reviewing a lot of stuff.

So uh council is that good enough for y'all?

Okay.

Sorry, Gay, to create more work for you, but uh I'll keep trying.

All right, any questions or comments, concerns on 4.2 for Lindsay Mitchell?

Council, any questions or comments?

All right.

Landmark preservation, yes.

You have you have a question for Jacob.

Okay.

Jacob, thank you so much for the great work you guys do, especially in the 150 years of uh Arlington.

Landmark preservation is a big part of what is going on this year.

Yes.

So you guys got four four new properties listed on the preservation.

Uh safe seek safety properties of being demolished, and then the history is gonna be will be a raised if it wasn't for you guys.

You guys did it, right?

Thank you.

Thank you guys.

Um about the historic home incentive approved uh that was approved, okay?

Can you elaborate a little bit more?

Um if that uh if that is uh is that working pretty good or what do you need it?

Uh how you uh giving notice to those properties that they have some sort of uh uh uh a home incentive to go ahead and uh fix those properties so they can last a little longer.

What kind of uh outreach you're doing it and what feedback you're getting from it?

That's a very good question.

Jacob Browning Historic Preservation Officer for the City of Arlington.

Um we passed the historic home incident uh program back in May.

This is a very restrictive program, so it really only applies to 12 properties or less than 12 properties in the city.

Um honestly we have not reached out to those properties to let them know that this program exists, but we can reach out to them and let them know.

So um it is it is out there, it's available.

Um, but it is a very restrictive program.

Um again, nine or ten properties.

Thank you.

Any other questions?

Thank you, Jacob.

Four point four point three, Councilmember Boxel.

Thank you.

The community and neighborhood development committee met this morning.

We took up two action items.

The first one was we looked at a review of the home funding request.

This is federal home funds for housing, and we determined the recommendations for the plan.

The grant management staff presented an overview of the estimated home allocation of approximately 1.45 million, compared with more than three million in total applicant requests.

These development proposals were submitted for home funding.

The development corporation of Care Town, Tarrant County, DCTC, an eight-unit affordable for sale townhome development, the housing channel, an eight-unit affordable for sale townhome project, and structured development and JCM Ventures, Autumn Park, and 82 unit affordable multifamily development.

Staff highlighted that the available funding was not sufficient to support all three of these proposals and emphasized the need to prioritize projects that were construction ready, feasible, and aligned with long-term affordable homeownership goals.

The committee discussed the two for sale homeown town home projects, DCTC and housing channel as strong candidates for funding this year.

The funding recommendation presented allocated funds to both projects, enabling the develop developers to begin projects in 2026 under a phased development schedule.

Discussion included project readiness, timeliness, zoning considerations, and leveraging available funds.

The multifamily autumn part proposal presented requests for one million dollars to fill the funding gap created by the requirement to add a point of secondary egress to the project.

The developer discussed their efforts to identify cost reduction strategies, uh indicating that required garage construction accounted for approximately half the shortfall, and that PNZ timelines made redesign costly and infeasible when considering TDAC deadlines.

So the committee members discussed the broader challenges of limited home resources, potential cost increases if projects are phased, and the importance of early communication with applicants regarding anticipated funding capacity.

Consensus was to recommend the funding for GCTC and housing channel for the two town home projects, for sale town home projects.

Staff confirmed that the public comment period will begin next with the final finalization of the annual action plan to follow after community input.

Staff presented a profile of all existing multifamily projects.

Staff also discussed the basis for ordinance amendments requiring developments built after November 2018 to provide recycling services to tenants.

How city other cities manage compliance, whether primarily through education, outreach, or enforcement, and if the city of Plano requires recycling for multifamily projects.

The members also ask about more data.

How to how developments that provide student housing are reflected in the number of properties that recycle and curbside recycling per single family household.

The next steps include addressing questions and providing additional data as well as bringing forward ideas how to implement the new grant.

That concludes my report.

Thank you.

Any questions for Councilmember Boxell?

Thank you, ma'am.

4.4.

Councilmember Peel, anything different?

All economic development committee matters were reported out today in executive session.

Thank you, sir.

4.5 Councilmember Hunter.

Thank you.

The board met this morning.

All members were present.

What a really quick meeting.

We had enough time to for the board to approve a resolution for the conversion documents related to the change in construction financing to permanent financing for Matlock Flats.

So no tax exemption will be requested.

This will also be on the evening agenda.

That's it.

Does anybody have anything to add or any questions?

Any questions?

Thank you.

Okay.

4.6, Mr.

Buskin.

Any appointments to boards or commissions this evening?

No, sir.

No appointments this evening.

Thank you, sir.

Evening agenda items.

Anyone have anything on tonight's evening agenda items?

Councilmember Odom Wesley.

Thank you, Mayor.

I have a couple items I had questions on.

Um let me give 7.2 for the nuisance abatement.

So what we're doing is hiring a company to take care of these code violations.

And I guess my question is how much warning do the property owners get before we go out and do the work and send them an invoice?

Good afternoon, Mayor City Council will let your procurement manager.

Excuse me.

Um, yeah, this contract is for our nuisance abatement.

I'm not fully aware of the details of it.

Um we give them warning, and whenever they've uh violated co-compliance, we go out there and we board up and protect the property.

Um somebody come from code possibly could answer the timeline.

Okay.

Give us a minute to get away.

We can get you some more in we'll we'll get somebody in here.

Yeah, the report did say that it was after they got some warnings.

I was just wondering how much time passes before we get it taken care of.

Yes, ma'am.

We'll get you back on that.

I we'll get more specific times, but I can tell you that some things are urgent and so the time is going to be pretty quickly based on whatever an inspection might uncover as far as a quick turnaround.

Some things are a longer lead where we have more time to work with the owner.

So it uh the answer will be it depends, but it depends on what they see when they go out for an inspection.

Okay.

We'll get more details when someone from code can come.

All right, thank you.

Um six.

The sidewalks in the entertainment district.

This is making me nervous.

Is this gonna be ready for World Cup?

Because I think the date I saw it was June.

It's gonna be done in June.

So Director Publi Works.

Yes, ma'am.

So all the entertainment district uh projects, yeah.

That's the goal to get everything done.

Uh and this project, it's not a it's not a huge project.

What we're doing is uh there's some gaps that's on like uh Division Street and some on uh South Um Collins Street near Division that we'll be filling in.

So it should it should go pretty quick.

Oh, okay.

It just looked like a lot of work with a little bit of time.

Yes, ma'am.

Thank you for that reassurance.

Um four.

So we're renaming what I'm I'm not clear on on what's happening.

Yeah, I've got this one.

So um, you know, when we started talking about uh other budget strategies for this upcoming year, this came up at our I think our last uh planning session last fall.

So when we started talking about uh other budget strategies for this upcoming year, this came up at our I think our last uh planning session last fall, we talked about a number of things like AI outsourcing and things, and one of the items that we talked about was broadening the capabilities of our local government corporation, which we have right now called the Arlington Convention Center Development Corporation.

It's uh it was created many years ago.

Um, and for large practical purposes, it's it's uh sufficed what it did because if you look at the convention center development activities that we've been able to do over there in the last 10 or 15 years, uh it helped us do that.

So kind of on the in a one way sunsetting that activity, but at the same time broadening the local government corporations' capabilities to helping us with um future budgetary needs.

There's there's pretty broad capabilities that we could explore, like I don't know, simple thing, license agreements for Mr.

Peel's um you know old timey merch stuff.

I mean, could run through the through the LGC and and uh have an agreement where then we pull the money back in to the city as a as a way to reduce the burden of government, right?

So I don't have a specific proposal one exactly um we would do tomorrow with it, but it exists today as the Arlington Convention Center Development Corporation.

We want to broaden it out, just simply call it Arlington Inc.

and then broaden the purpose to be consistent with state law.

Okay, thank you.

What if I have okay?

Yeah, Gus wants to talk.

Yeah, sure.

Yes, thank you for the question.

Um so yeah, it it varies really, uh depends on the severity of the offense.

Uh we can do it immediately if it's uh something that's severe or life safety or health hazard.

Uh typically we give them a notice that if there is a violation and there's something that needs to be addressed, we'll give them a little bit of time, typically 10 days.

But after 10 days, uh, if we feel that we need to abate, it's really uh code offers officers' judgment, but they'll typically refer it to us and let us know.

And then of course, our field office manager and our manager of code, and of course, with my input will make that decision.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Uh the last one I have is 7.15, the homeland security grant accepting funds.

Would you just clarify for our our listeners what it is we're agreeing to do with uh our law enforcement and uh cooperation with the federal government?

I'm sorry, Al Jones uh Chief of Police.

Hi, Mayor Council.

What was the question?

I'm sorry.

Thank you, Chief Jones.

Just wanted some clarification on what we're going to do here with the Department of Homeland Security.

Um it says 35% of the grant money is for law enforcement.

And this is uh what else did I read?

Cooperation with Homeland Security.

What are we agreeing to do?

Or not do.

So here it is.

If you look at the history where we are as an organization, we've always have partnerships with our federal partners.

Um we have officers that are part of task force with HSI, uh, FBI, DEA, and all those areas, right?

Um and you know, so there's nothing different we're going to be doing here in the city.

Um what we will be doing in just so that you already know, and so everybody knows.

Um, whenever we lock up anybody, it's just our procedure.

Whenever we lock up somebody, they go back to our jail.

We do uh uh data check, uh, we check all kinds of databases.

Uh if they're wanting, whether it's for Grand Prairie, Dallas, or FBI or anybody, we will notify them and say, hey, we have them in custody.

So we're not going to actively going out looking for anybody.

We're not going actively looking at uh looking for our IDs and all of that stuff.

Um we're just gonna do what we've normally have done in the past.

Uh we're not trying to get in the immigration process.

That's all civil.

We're not being a part of that.

Um, but again, if they're locked up and they're committing a crime in Arlington, we take them back to our jail, and we do run them through a database.

And if they are wanted, then we notify uh the agency.

Just to clarify, Chief, and either chief, and don't let me put words in your mouth, Dr.

N.

Wesley, but I I think the question is really more about the grant um uh uh investments.

What are we doing with the grant money?

Oh where where are we?

I mean, what is it in personnel?

Is it in hardening asset hardening?

Is it what's it in?

Yes, it is asset hardening for the entertainment district.

So that's where we're looking.

So part of it is the drone as a first responder program that we have.

Um so we are going to that's part of it.

Another part is the new fire, uh, the new police station fencing around there.

So just making sure that we harden the uh entertainment district areas.

And this is not new for Arlington, right?

We've received USC funds before.

Yeah, we've always been we always see UHC funds.

Okay.

Just wanted to make sure there weren't any strings attached.

Assure our constituents that we don't have any unseen invisible strings attached to this grant money.

No, we don't.

Thank you.

Sure.

Any other questions or concerns on the evening agenda items?

Okay, issues relative to city or tech stop projects, city council, external committee and training reports.

Uh A is Terrent Regional Transportation Coalition Board of Directors.

Uh that meeting was canceled.

It the next meeting's not going to be held until March 25th.

Uh RTC transit vision subcommittee.

Uh, Councilmember Gonzalez.

Yes, thank you, Mayor.

The RTC transit subcommittee convened virtually on Thursday, February 25th.

Uh Michael Morris provided a summary and facilitated a discussion regarding the February RTC workshop, uh, which took place earlier in the month.

Uh during this meeting, the legislative bylaws pertaining to DART were advanced by DART and local government representatives.

Uh after that, Carlo Windsor, who's a senior program manager at uh North Central Texas Council of Governments delivered a presentation on the implications of the February RTC meeting for the transit subcommittee's subsequent actions.

We examined seven several critical questions that the RTC must address.

Uh the meeting concluded with a presentation by Michael Morris, who discussed future actions for the RTC and the level of detail required in upcoming initiatives.

The next RTC transit vision cuts subcommittee is scheduled to be held in person uh this Thursday, March 12th, commencing at 1030 a.m.

Any questions or concerns or that is all I have, Mayor.

Thanks, sir.

Um Texas Council of Government's executive board, Councilmember Hogg.

Yeah, thank you, Mayor.

Uh we met February, uh Thursday, February 26th.

Uh, a couple of key items we addressed.

Uh we did get our audit results overview.

Uh we had federal expenditures of 178.9 million million, uh, state awards of 23.2 million on these.

The big thing on all these, uh, you know, in some of these health and human services, 102 million, department of labor, 22 million, department of transportation.

Um, the best thing, no findings, no question costs, or compliance issues on any of these.

So a clean opinion, unmodified clean opinion, which is uh we all we all strive for that and look for that.

Um we also uh went through the work of the strategic planning initiatives.

Um we do we did choose a consultant, a group called Civic Solutions Partnership.

Uh 30 consultants applied for this uh hopeful 25 year strategic plan um development.

The last one, uh last vision North Texas was completed in 2010.

Um it is over a five-year contract.

Uh primary engagement is 12 to 18 months to have this plan completed in September of 2027.

The biggest piece I think that Errol, this group will be interested in we were very stringent and very pushing on the rules of about how stakeholder engagement is going to be planned to discuss with all entities that are out there.

So they do have a plan for regional governmental entities to come and meet with them, public participation, um, and really addressing the population growth, what we expect over the next 25 years.

Um couple other things, one that's big, uh completing uh federal grant applications.

There's one that uh does address US 287 uh conversion from Arlington Mansfield and DeSoto of 25 million dollars, and then a couple of others, like at the Naval Air Station, Joshua.

Um they did roll out um a speed enforcement program in Fort Worth, so we should get you know a little money uh to help because uh when we all talk about it, I think this is the biggest thing is we all visit regional areas.

Um our safe streets initiatives is so much farther than I think some other departments, and I think it's something to be commended.

I talked about it at the council of governments um board meeting while we were there, but it shows you're advancing, but also shows we're all facing a lot of the same issues, right?

We're not the only one who has city who hears the complaints from residents that are running red lights constantly.

So uh the COG is trying to put together something to get a little more pilot going on that and find some of those pieces um from where we're going.

Um, those are the big pieces of what we had for the council of governments board meeting.

Any questions for council member hog?

Last thing I would say, and I I can't talk much about we did go into an executive session.

Um I know there's been lots of discussion over our our CEO, our executive director, um, and some change in the personnel, and we did spend about another two hours um as an executive board um in a closed session discussing some of these things.

So, of course, can't discuss what happened in closed session, but um I just assure you all there was a lot of discussion occurring in that back room.

So thank you.

Thanks, sir.

Um last item under the external reports was the North Texas Commission Board of Directors.

Uh I met with the North Texas Commission, Board of Directors on February 25th or 6th, I forget which one now.

Uh they started off with uh Texas 32 Republican primary candidate forum.

So they had three candidates that showed up to do a little forum QA in front of the board of directors.

Uh we then went into a legislative update.

Uh we addressed the stuff that happened in the 119th uh Congress.

We approve the current financial uh financials for fiscal year 2526 and discussed the agreement that was struck between Plano and DART and Plano partially pulling out a DART and some of the compensations that RTC will be paying towards uh helping fill the gap with DART uh with Trinity Metro and with Dangon County and the role that North Texas Commission played in all of that.

Any questions for me?

Future agenda items, Councilmember Boxel.

Thank you.

As we discussed earlier about the uh item 4.1, the periodic view of code ordinances there too that I think that we need to look at.

Um the first one is I think some of you have met with the representative from Clear Channel, who uh is has a billboard on uh Division Street just south of the stadiums, and it's an old-fashioned regular giant billboard.

Um it's grandfathered in, so they can leave it, uh, but they would like to modernize it and make it much smaller and more sleek and more modern.

However, uh their sign wouldn't meet our current signed ordinance.

So I would like to take a look at our sign ordinance so that um some of these older giant billboards that are grandfathered in could possibly modernize it uh and still be allowed to put their sign, but just make it smaller.

This one is considerably smaller.

Can I make a slight amendment to that if I can, because you took the words out of my mouth about looking at this issue.

I I would recommend that instead of just looking to the sign ordinance that we look at both the overlay of the entertainment district and what's going on in that area, because there may be different ways of addressing that issue uh without trying to modify a sign ordinance specifically for that, if you're okay with the Yeah, I'm fine with that.

I think the idea is to sort of sort of encourage phasing out of the large uh building.

I would agree completely, yes.

Okay, and the second one is um, you know, pre it's about gas wells.

Frequently when the gas well project comes before us, if you guys uh remember, I usually ask them to reduce the size of their drill zone to the absolute minimum that they can have.

And each time they come, I ask for that.

Um, and and they have been complying on a voluntary basis.

I think that uh I'd like to look at maybe codifying that and maybe coming up with uh let's say a standard maximum size that they could be per well rather than the way our Ray Our ordinance is written now, it's saying that the uh the drill zone has to be combined with the with the existing drill zones on the site, which basically creates one giant grill drill zone.

Um so I'd like for us to take take a look at that and see if we could uh craft that that ordinance a little better to be a little bit more explicit, um, since that's one area where we do have the authority, the size and shape of a drill zone is one area that the state has allowed us to have uh have a say.

So I'd like to take a look at that instead of asking each time that they come by.

Okay.

Very good.

Thank you.

Uh Councilmember Odin Wesley.

Thank you, Mayor.

Um I would like for the council to consider issuing a statement or a resolution in regards to the statue that has just recently been placed at Globe Life Field, honoring um uh controversial Texas Ranger.

I'm sure y'all heard about it on the news and what the controversy is, and just think the council should um take a look at it and decide if we want to issue a statement or a resolution.

Thank you.

Anyone else?

Mayor Vellante.

Thank you.

I've been receiving a lot of complaints about bandit signs.

Uh signs spread it all over, uh, offering buy your car junk or working or not.

So I've been reporting a lot of them on uh Oscarlington, and it seems like we are being overrun.

So they placing those signs every single day.

Um take a look of you know, one day I don't know.

We'll look at the situation, and uh, we have a clean Arlington team that's doing a great job.

We have uh court enforcement is doing a good job, but how many times we're gonna continue picking those signs every single day?

Every intersection north of Arlington has those signs.

Basically, uh if we look at it, they they give me the cell phone number.

We have we have a way to identify these people.

So I like just have to take a look at it and see what measures that we can do so we can mitigate this or get rid of it.

Oh, that's right, I can't talk about it.

Never mind.

It was that it's just no, I call those people and it it's it's helping big time.

Okay.

Anyone else?

Okay.

With that, we're gonna go ahead and adjourn the afternoon session.

We'll see everybody downstairs at six thirty, all and the relationships it is afforded is what keeps me going after all these years.

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