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We're going to go ahead and call the afternoon session of the Arlington City Council meeting to order.

And pursuant to BTCA Government Code chapter 551.071072074.

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Good afternoon, everybody.

We're gonna call the afternoon session of the Arlington City Council meeting back to order.

It is now 2 47 p.m.

We're gonna move on down to 3.1 and talk a little bit about the comprehensive plan.

Mr.

Chapman or no, C.

Come on up.

All right.

Thank you, Mayor.

Good afternoon, Mayor and Council members.

Jin C.

Topel, your director for planning and development services.

As I mentioned in my one-on-ones with you over the last few days, we are getting closer and closer on finalizing the draft for our comprehensive plan.

In await Arlington.

It is exciting, but I am nervous as well, just like you all are.

It is your plan, a plan that will be utilized to shape Arlington for the next 20 years.

Before we get into the presentation, I really wanted to thank everyone who participated in this tireless journey with us, and which is still ongoing.

The team leaders, the long range planning team here, our consultants, all the department directors and leaders, the city manager's office, and especially the 19 member comprehensive planning steering committee who spent several hours each month discussing this, providing us your valuable evenings.

I know we had our meetings scheduled for two hours.

It went every meeting went longer than that.

So thank you, thank you so much.

And special thanks to the ones who actually made it to this meeting, too.

So we have them a few of them over here.

They are your nominated people who joined this committee.

So thank you.

Thank you so much.

Because I I have had a few minutes with y'all prior to this, and so I know that you do understand that this is a lot, but I want to assure you that you have been briefed with most parts of it, because we have come to you on at least a quarterly basis, and if not, for every major step in the way that we were going to accomplish, we have made you aware of what's going on.

But I totally get it.

It's now getting very real, and now you want to get inside of that draft plan and review it in more detail.

So you are going to get that opportunity very soon.

Within the next week, we will be providing you a binder with a printout of the entire draft plan, and you will have a whole month to review it.

Only after your review is done, is where we will open it up for public review starting from August 10th.

During this time, we are still meeting with our uh public, so public engagement sessions are still ongoing.

So that's happening.

Together, we are going to make this work.

We are going to have special sessions for the uh new council members to get them up to speed with where we are.

So nobody is left behind.

We're all in the same boat.

Um, and so with that, I do want, oh, I do want to uh let you all know you have a few things on your table.

Um, one of the things is a tri-fold paper that you're seeing is a vision framework.

Um so these are all things for you all to look at later on.

Uh there is the whole presentation printout, too.

Uh, there is a summary of what's included in it as well.

Um, and some more, lots of pictures and diagrams to kind of uh make it easier for you to understand.

But with that, let me start with John.

All right.

Mayor, Council, great to be with y'all again to discuss Innovate Arlington and thank you, Gen C for the introduction and sincere thanks to the committee members that are here today and all the work that you all have put into this to date.

So I'm gonna go over the agenda and our engagement process to date before handing it over to MIG.

We're gonna discuss the process and engagement so far as well as the Innovate Arlington, our draft plan overview.

The conversation will be led by MIG, and then we'll come back with next steps in terms of what the public engagement and town halls that each council district will host in August will look like, as well as our September virtual open house, and then what the adoption process will look like.

We'll finalize uh today's conversation with some four uh four open-ended uh questions that we've posed uh for council just to uh be thinking about as we continue on this process.

So, as you all know, uh this is a three phased approach for the comprehensive plan.

We've completed phase one and phase two.

We're about a third the way through phase three, which is included preparing a lot of the materials for today's meeting as well as for our public engagement efforts that will begin in August uh through the adoption period.

We've spent a lot of time with community members in all five uh council districts in a variety of areas, including uh the international corridor, the entertainment district, downtown, UTA students.

We've been working with AISD to incorporate more of our engagement with their uh engagement opportunities, and we're planning more engagement opportunities with uh those external stakeholders as well as, as I mentioned, those five town halls and the online virtual uh workshop that we will have.

Uh so we'll continue to work with our important community members on this plan as we draft uh the vision for the next 20 years.

Um so um this is just a more complete um illustration of what each of those phases have looked like in phase one, uh learning about who Arlington is as an entity, phase two, really looking at that plan development with the crown jewel of that phase being our growing a better Arlington board game.

Uh and we're currently in phase three, uh working through the full plan itself and getting community feedback.

Um, so with that, um, I think I'll hand it back over to MIG to really start discussing what a lot of those engagement themes that we've been learning as well as the uh vision framework.

Thank you, John.

Uh hello, mayor, council, uh, city manager.

Uh really excited to be with you all today.

Uh, this is a pretty momentous um moment in the overall planning process.

Um and that is based on uh all the work that we've done has been based on community input in some fashion, um, whether it be the steering committee, and again, thank you all for attending today, those of you who were able to.

Um, I think council provided great input.

Um, we had other sessions with the broader community and a variety of different settings and sessions online and in person.

So uh some of those key themes that we've been hearing about uh throughout include walkability and active transportation.

So people really wanting to be able to walk somewhere.

They realize that you know every single one of their trips all over Arlington probably doesn't make sense, but can we have walkable places?

Can we have places that are walkable from home, uh maybe from work, from school?

Uh thinking about what role public transportation plays in that and continue to think innovatively about how do we approach public transportation and uh how we get around in general?

Uh, there's gonna be technological advances that we can can't anticipate right now over the next 20 years, uh, just like uh Uber and Lyft and I guess driverless cars, EV cars, all those different things are uh transpired over the last 20 years.

We can expect, I think, equal amount of change moving forward.

Uh so we want to think really thoughtfully about those connected corridors.

Uh, so what do how do we rethink the existing major corridors where people are starting to feel a little bit of that uh kind of stress and tension of congestion uh just with growth across the entire region?

Uh so how do we make sure that the transportation and land use and placemaking along those corridors really works?

And then that'll be one of the places, not the only for strategic density and neighborhood sensitivity.

So by focusing on corridors and key strategic locations, we'll talk about this when we get to the preferred scenario map, that reduces stress and strain development pressure on the existing neighborhoods.

So we want to make sure that we're investing in those neighborhoods in the right way, that we're sort of lifting them up and supporting them, but that we're not putting undue pressure there.

In doing so, you know, some gentle uh touches to the existing neighborhoods, but really focusing a lot of the development attention along corridors and new mixed-use centers and entertainment districts, so on and so forth.

Uh, we can increase the diversity and affordable housing, uh, increase existing assets and leverage those that do exist already, and then all of that with a kind of this um lens of green infrastructure, environmental stewardship, sustainability, and resiliency.

I'm Jay Rankins, principal with MIT.

Hello again.

Um, so the plan itself is it is voluminous.

Uh, in fact, there's two volumes of the plan, and there's a lot to it.

But if you think about the fact that this is going to be our blueprint for development, for investment, for decision making over the next 20 plus years, it's no surprise that we had to be thoughtful, that we had to include a lot of information in here.

Uh, we wanted to think about the past, the last 150 years of Arlington, and then think about how do we lean into uh the innovation, the innovative spirit, the creativity uh to push us forward over the next uh well, 20, 30 years, but you know, set us on the right foot for the next 150 years and beyond.

What Ellie and I are going to cover in the presentation right now, uh I'm gonna cover uh one of the chapters in volume one.

Uh, so what is innovate Arlington, and then Ellie's gonna come up and cover uh several of the sections in volume two, which is the blueprint for innovation.

So, really, we tried to set the framework more or less in volume one, uh set the structure, um, we'll talk about place types, a few other things, um, and get a lot of the ideas out there.

But the how-to uh rolling the sleeves up and getting it done is really covered in volume two.

So, chapter 1.3, what is innovate Arlington?

Um, I'll go over several of these, most of these bullets here as we step through this.

But uh, as I said, uh the idea of just the naming of the plan was a big deal.

Uh, thinking about innovating.

Are we, you know, trying to preserve only what we have been and what we are today, or are we trying to leverage the best assets or best aspects of that and the quality of life that people enjoy, and pushing that even further with the investment that we expect, both on the public and private side, and hopefully in partnership with each other.

Uh, one example of that is evolving mobility and transportation systems, um, and how do we really integrate that into the land use decisions, investment decisions that we make, where we place amenities and services.

Um, and then that in uh that informs excuse me, the vision framework, which includes vision elements, goals and aspirations, big moves and innovations.

You do have the, as Ginsi pointed out, a new trifold in front of you.

So when we get to that section in the next couple slides, you can look at that for more detail on the goals and aspirations and the big moves and innovations.

Uh, and then the guiding innovation section includes several different sort of tools and frameworks uh to help us think about how the city grows, evolves, uh reinvents itself in certain key strategic locations over the next 20 plus years.

So, starting with the vision, uh, we went down a path briefly uh trying to think about oh, can we articulate a vision in one sentence?

And uh without it being a paragraph or too long, uh we said no.

Uh, really, there's multiple aspects of what the community has been articulating as their vision.

So sustainable and healthy is really about uh sustainability and resiliency as well as health of the individuals of households, the community, and the built or excuse me, the built and natural environment.

Uh connected and walkable is about how do we get move around?

How do we get from place to place?

It's really how we experience a city, but how do we access this things that things that we need and desire and visit our friends and go to work, and then ensuring that that has this sort of walkability overlay to it where possible.

Welcoming and community culture is about arts, culture, entertainment, really ensuring that Arlington continue to continues to be a place where people feel like they can plug in easily, that they can have make a difference, and that they can get access to good quality housing, healthy foods, good jobs.

Thinking about vibrant and safe, that really has to do with our housing and amenities around housing choice, as well as parks and other amenities and all with this kind of overlay of safety.

And then innovative and thriving, it really has to do with the economy, but also pushing to be innovative in all aspects as much as we can.

Place types.

Comprehensive plans across the country and in across Texas, they include typically what is called a future land use map.

A future land use map tends to be parcel by parcel, and it uses some palette of 25 to 50 land use designations and tries to say what exactly what is going to happen or what is envisioned on every single parcel.

There's a couple different flaws in that.

One, it's very difficult to just or identify specifically what land use is appropriate on which parcel, particularly if that parcel is not gonna develop for another 20, 25 years.

Two, when you do that, you're indicating what use should happen on the parcel, not really providing direction for the built form, how that, you know, the structure should work, how the parking should work, how it relates to the next parcel over, really importantly, and how do those multiple parcels add up to a place, and what infrastructure in terms of transportation, utilities, uh, as well as what amenities are necessary to support that place.

So the approach that we've taken in Innovate Arlington is the place type approach.

Place types do integrate land use, but they encourage and allow for a mix of land uses within reason, within a place.

Um and we have a palette of 12 places.

So to varying degrees, different types of land uses would be ultimately envisioned and through regulation and zoning and design standards and guidelines and things like that would be allowed ultimately.

And within those place types, we have a dozen, and there's neighborhood place types that focus more on uh residences and housing and what is necessary to support that housing.

Uh, destination place types with downtown, entertainment, cultural destination, uh urban corridor, mixed-use center, and regional open space, and then employment place types, commerce hub, campus, employment district, innovation and creative district.

So, again, uh in the handout that you have in front of you that spells out in much more detail than I'll go into right now about each place type.

And the plan goes even further.

So once you receive that, it goes into job density, housing density, the types of transportation that's expected, uh, the types of usage of the transportation system that's expected, and importantly, as I said, land use and built form.

So we took those place types uh as and vetted those with the community with the steering committee, um, tweaked them, added some, took some away, um, landed on these 12, and then use those in the development of the game and the game play, as well as online mapping uh that we had for the steering committee and others, and ultimately use those that input to create multiple scenarios.

There was a business as usual scenario, and then two alternative scenarios with connected corridors and urban centers network, it was called.

Uh, ultimately, to kind of fast forward uh the preferred scenario was actually a combination of all three, but we had the greatest support for scenario two, which was connected corridors.

Uh so we used connected corridors as kind of the basis and then pulled those things that people liked most from the other scenarios into scenario two.

Uh, in particular, uh some portions around northeast and southwest Arlington.

So that preferred growth scenario, it directs future infill and redevelopment, really focusing on vacant underutilised part underutilized parcels.

As always, uh people can, you know, within the zoning regulations can do what they want with their property.

But we didn't want to assume that a property that was well utilized that seems to be kind of humming along now, was going to redevelop when we were thinking about how do we accommodate the jobs, the housing units, the population that we're expecting moving forward.

So we really focused on vacant and underutilized areas.

We also thought about with the distribution of the place types.

How are we creating uh walkable destinations that were closer to more residents and more employment areas, but really with a focus and priority for residents?

With that, access to goods, services, and leisure.

Uh, we emphasize large mixed-use centers and in key areas, which are the darker purple on the map.

Um, and then promoting these vibrant multimodal corridors, which some are called urban corridors, that's in and of itself a place type, but others uh you know included entertainment uh and cultural destinations.

Uh we also had some uh that were commerce hubs uh kind of speckled along there as well.

Um, and ultimately the goal by focusing on the corridors and in these key kind of center centers, excuse me, was to uh preserve or keep intact in large part uh the existing neighborhoods, the community character and the open space uh that we have and want to preserve moving forward.

With the preferred growth scenario, uh as I mentioned, there's a we worked with an assumption around growth.

Um ultimately that was translated to about 15,000 uh new homes that would be necessary and about 30,000 new jobs that we wanted to try to accommodate uh through the preferred scenario uh place type placement.

Um, and so we made sure that on those vacant and underuty parcels, we could accommodate that growth.

Uh we did ultimately as a really the community and the steering committee and we as sort of the technicians helping to put it all together, did overshoot that number a bit, and that was intentional.

So you can see in the upper right, uh, the capacity uh just based on vacant underutilized areas is about you know 47,000 homes, 49,000 jobs, obviously exceeding those projected numbers.

But that's because we can't assume that every property owner uh is going to develop just because it's a parking lot today, or just because it's a grassy area does not mean by 2050 that that's going to develop so or redevelop as the case may be.

So we want to make sure that we have buffer in there to accommodate the projected uh number of housing units and jobs.

The other benefit of that is it reduces pressure on any one area to be the one that kind of carries the uh expected growth.

Uh so it reduces that development pressure, helps with affordability, helps with opportunity and access.

Some of the place types, if you look at the big boxes kind of just uh halfway down the screen, that accommodate uh greater portion of jobs and housing that we would expect are in commerce hubs in entertainment cultural destinations, which is pretty unique to Arlington, but probably no surprise to you all, that that's what the community was sort of indicating through gameplay and through feedback on the alternative scenarios.

Uh mixed-use centers.

Importantly, uh so uh 14% of uh job capacity, 11% of uh or housing capacity, 11% of job capacity, and then urban corridors, another one.

So I and I'm thinking back to first time I ever spoke to council.

There was the discussion about priorities, and one of them was thinking, rethinking these aging corridors.

Uh, and so the urban corridor place type uh is a key piece of that in thinking about how do we sort of reinvent, breathe new life into some of these uh aging corridors that are becoming outmoded.

Yeah.

It sure is.

Make sure you turn your turn your mic on for me.

Councilmember Gonzalez, turn your mic on for me.

Sorry, uh that's a lot of information on that slide.

So it is.

Can you go a little slower on this one and just maybe I'm the only one, but I understand what commerce hub and explain.

All those other initials, yeah.

Sure.

What they are, but especially the ones got 24,000.

Yeah, yep.

So I think everyone knows the city's 99 square miles, right?

That translates to about 63,000 acres.

And so what that chart is showing you, the table there uh with the bar chart, uh, is basically how many of the acres in the preferred scenario are colored one of these place types.

Okay, and so uh 24,554 uh are colored a state or suburban neighborhood.

Uh meaning that uh and it kind of tracks with what I've been talking about, trying to preserve neighborhoods, uh protect the character of existing uh residential areas, and so the bulk of Arlington today, if you were to kind of use similar coloring, I guess, uh, is in fact single-family detached housing, and that's the case moving forward.

But in order to protect those areas and not have someone come in and scrape those areas and try to, you know, build really high density.

Uh we're looking at increasing other areas like um like entertainment district or yeah, employment district, um, looking at urban neighborhoods, looking at the downtown carrying some of that, and so that the number of acres are across all those.

If you just look at the 24,000, the high bar, and then the the green one that's 6,058, it's about it's almost a third of the city being in that kind of regional open space and um a state uh suburban neighborhood category.

Um, and then next up would be urban neighborhood and employment district, um, and then the others kind of living floating below that as far as the number of acres and of the allocation.

I hit the upper right already in terms of the estimated new jobs and housing units that would be necessary to support the population growth that's projected for Arlington.

Um hit the lower left there, but maybe just taking a little more slowly, the colored in bar is the uh housing number, uh percentage of housing that would be accommodated within that place type.

The open bar with the colored outline is the job capacity with the allocated to a particular place type, and then finally the lower right, uh has 2.5 million annual trips estimated.

So we for each place type we sort of did a calculation based on trip generation and then the allocation by mode of those trips, and so expecting an uptick obviously with an increase in population of overall trips, but we're also expecting that a good portion of those, well, a portion of those trips would shift from you know uh driving alone today to other modes, uh in particular walking and biking because you have more things close to you, uh, you have more walkable places.

Uh so I think it's about 94% of, I think it does say that 94% of current trips are by vehicle, and we'd expect that to decrease to about 87%.

And that's just with the place types and sort of the the location efficiency and choices, uh, with a further transportation investment that could come down even further if that was desirable.

Thanks for slowing me down.

So that distribution of acreage right here.

What you're saying is that is within the preferred growth scenario.

That is not current.

Correct.

How do you know what's current?

Uh well, we don't quite have those.

No, I mean, we we did an exercise where we looked at sort of a semblance of that.

But right now, you don't have place types basically.

Like that hasn't been applied yet.

So it's hard to color the existing map of Arlington with place types because some of these don't exist actually.

But sure.

I think I I'm just trying to figure out it, we we may not have those exact place types, but we have those style of neighborhoods.

Yeah.

So I'm just trying to figure out the what you're projecting and proposing versus what we currently have.

I guess that was where the question came from.

So but what you're saying is because we don't have these exact place types, we don't have the numbers on kind of what we have compared to what you're um suggesting.

Yeah, I don't have yeah, we don't have exact numbers.

I would say the innovative creative district, uh mixed use center, um to some extent the urban corridor, and to a lesser degree, but I'd still I think it's still noteworthy, the entertainment cultural destinations, those are increasing a lot in the future kind of vision uh compared to today, because you have right now a lot of commerce hub or commercial basically, uh, and so a lot of that has been in the preferred scenario, sort of redesignated as one of those others that I mentioned, um, mixed use center, employment district, so on and so forth.

Also, you have a lot of industrial today, which some of that would fit in employment district, but some of that the community, the committee uh really thought was better suited for innovation and creative district to support sort of newer innovative jobs and creative uh employment growth.

Was that helpful?

John or Jency, anything you guys would want to add on that?

Or Ellie?

I think we will have another set of okay.

Okay.

Am I the only one with that question?

Does everybody else knows exactly what all this is?

Okay.

Yeah.

Yeah.

This is this is meant to be a preview.

You're not meant to like this is a ton of information, we get that.

Um so that's why you're gonna have a month with the plan document and time with staff to talk about as well.

Maybe I'll try a different way.

So um so many of the residential areas that's already established, right?

So that's in that suburban estate type of uh place type that we see here.

So that's not increasing a whole lot or anything.

That's kind of the similar kind of percentages that you would see.

But what Jay's talking about is there are certain other new place types like mixed-use centers, even the entertainment cultural district, the innovative creative areas, those have now shown in the preferred growth scenario to be increasing, because that's what our community wanted to see more of.

So in all our um uh boat game uh that we had everybody started putting uh these place types, like this is what we want to see here.

This is what we want to see here, and so many of those commerce or the commercial corridors have now at certain nodes have become a mixed use center in the preferred growth scenario.

So this is kind of showing you what we would want to get to per the community's vision, and that's where those acreages have increased in certain place types, but today in the existing uh land use pattern, we never had these specific terms used.

So it's not completely apples to apples, but I think this is kind of just telling you the we where we had commercial corridors that could have now become some would be commerce hubs, but some would be mixed-use centers, some would be that creative uh innovative district, so they have transformed into something else, some different place type that the community thought was what our community should move forward in.

Does that help a little bit more?

Okay, all right.

So as if there wasn't enough to wrap your head around, um we do have an addition to the 12 place types.

Uh there was discussion about you know, is that enough nuance to really cover the entire community?

If you think about urban neighborhood, which is the example here, would that look the same in every square inch of Arlington, or would there be differences based on where that's located?

And in a if this was a if we were planning a brand new city from scratch, or maybe it was a smaller city and it's growing outward, and you know, you have three times the land that's occupied now, that's a different story.

You probably can say, yes, that's gonna be just like this.

But in Arlington, relatively built out or built out, let's say, uh, you have infrastructure already, you have existing buildings, you have uh block dimensions, you have um street patterns.

Uh, and so the context of the place becomes important, and the expectations around how the place type would actually develop over time uh through you know a host of public and private investments uh should be different as well.

And so we introduced the idea of context zones, and so when you think about sort of what would actually happen in an area, the idea would be to look at the place type map first to see which of the 12 place types uh the community envisions for that area, and then looking at the context zones to look at what sort of uh intensity for lack of a better word, but flavor of the place type, that particular place type would be appropriate given the surrounding context.

So on the screen here, uh there's the dash circles on the preferred scenario map.

Uh those are encircling three urban neighborhood areas.

Uh and they in fact all lie in three different context zones, which I'll show you on the next slide.

So using some inspiration from uh the transportation master plan, we looked at context zones, and we'll actually do a comparison on the next slide, but in essence, uh looked at a traditional zone, which would be uh kind of the lower lowest density, uh, it's neighborhood focused.

Uh the areas tend to have curvilinear streets.

Um they have kind of mixed walkability, get into amenities, uh connected areas, which would kind of be sandwiched in between the traditional and the central, which is kind of where we're located now, where we'd expect more of an urban product.

So those connected areas sandwiched in between represent just as you might think, medium densities, medium level of activity.

Uh the street patterns tend to be more mixed, but a little more regular uh than in the traditional areas.

Uh, and we have, you know, starting to have multimodal options, different ways to get around.

And then central being the most compact of element, uh, tends to be the densest, although it's not uh doesn't have to be in all cases, but a grid pattern, highly walkable, um, and the greatest uh number of transportation options.

So the idea, again, that same graphic from the previous slide is up at the top there, the urban neighborhood place type example that if it was in traditional, uh it would look one way, and you can see it's you know, maybe two stories, uh, you know, parked um with garages and things like that.

Uh connected, uh, you tend to see a little bit more density, three stories in the diagram that we're showing there, and in central, the urban neighborhood, you know, you may approach four to five, even six stories.

Um, so again, based on the context, based on what's around it.

Uh also based on the infrastructure, the street grid, the utilities uh that are there to support that.

So the map on the right maps those three different types of contexts.

Uh so the red is the central context zone, uh, really reflecting uh or capturing kind of downtown entertainment district.

Um the darker or the blue color, excuse me, is connected.

That's kind of that in between with kind of medium density and uh a mix of multimodal kind of connections.

And then the rest that's not colored red or blue is traditional.

Uh we did, as I said, take some inspiration from the thoroughfare, I called it the transportation master plan, I'm sorry.

The thoroughfare development plan, uh, which was originally adopted in 2011, updated in 2015.

They use slightly different names, uh, but you can see there's some similarities.

The pink zone uh there was called urban core, um, corresponds to the red zone on the right.

Uh we know we sort of strategically expanded that and adjusted it accordingly based on what's on the ground and what infrastructure exists and is expected.

The blue area was on the left-hand map, general urban, that becomes our connected.

And you can see more areas designated as connected, and then the rest was called suburban.

We are calling it traditional in the new updated context zones.

And as if I didn't throw enough or constructs at you, I'm gonna do one or two more here.

So if you think about someone who wants to develop or redevelop a property in the city, they would pick up the comprehensive plan, or if you all are getting a proposal for a property in the city, and you want to see okay, well, what did the community tell us when we worked on that comprehensive plan?

You would look at the place type map and see which of the 12 place types were designated.

Let's just for the sake of conversation, say it was the urban neighborhood that we just used in that last um example.

Then you would look at, so then you would know, okay, urban neighborhood that tends to be, you know, more compact, a little higher density residential, uh, has some institutional, a little bit of you know, neighborhood supporting commercial nearby, but you know, they're relying more on probably that urban corridor, maybe a mixed use center nearby.

And then you say, okay, well, what context zone is that in?

And again, for the sake of this example, let's say it is traditional.

So it's gonna be the lower kind of density flavor of the urban neighborhood.

Well, then there's still a lot of those around the community.

And so if the sit, if if the city is being asked, if you all as representatives of the city are being asked to invest to support a development, and maybe you have three or four different options and you have limited resources and you're trying to decide where to do that.

One of the things that we wanted to do is provide you with somewhat of a uh data-informed analysis to help you through that decision-making process.

It's not a hard and fast rule.

Um, it's meant to be data driven but informative, um, not determining the outcome.

And the idea is based around uh something that Jin C and I talked about, I think on the first day of the project, which was thinking about communities and how when they first are brand new, and you could think about this as a part of the community, the entire city, but when they're brand new, everything's great.

Brand new investment, brand new roads, brand new pipes, right?

Like not a lot happening or going wrong, excuse me.

Um you can think about it with the individual home even, right?

A home is brand new.

Well, then some homeowners, some city residents, some city councils, they invest in that home and they keep it up and they just maintain it to immaculate condition.

They may even add an addition to that home, but others maybe they don't have the means, maybe they're preoccupied, uh maybe they're the just maintenance of a home isn't their thing.

So it goes into decline.

And so parts of the city uh can function that way too.

And so what we're showing here is you know, early settlement, kind of small town, kind of being the early stage of a community, including Arlington, sort of rapid growth and expansion, so a lot of new investment, things are kind of new and shiny and great.

And then because of, you know, it's 99 square miles, what has happened is that both through private and public investment, um, not in lack of investment in certain cases.

Some areas are still, well, some are in fact brand new.

Uh, some still have that kind of new shine to them.

Um, and some have just been kind of humming along, they're stable because they've sort of received an appropriate level investment, whether that's public, private, or combination of the two.

And some have leave some opportunity for investment.

Uh they maybe have not seen recent investment, maybe even some population decline.

They haven't seen new development in a while.

And so those are uh investment opportunity areas.

So we basically named these advancing stable and investment opportunity, looking at the factors on the right here, age of structures, recent building permits, improvement to land value ratio, population change, job change, code compliance, and public investment.

Again, using data to inform this to provide a guide.

Sort of broke the city into 16 different sectors using roadways, kind of natural boundaries, other delineators, and scored each of the sectors based on those factors on the previous slide.

Just a reminder, right hand side here.

And then grouped them and said, okay, what's the top third, the middle third, the bottom third?

And so the investment opportunities, those areas that scored the lowest, are the dark blue on the map.

Again, meaning that there's opportunity to invest.

Again, for private property owners, for the city.

We can uplift these areas with strategic investments, strategic policy, and sort of incentivizing perhaps investment in these areas.

The other end of the spectrum, we have advancing, which means that they've seen recent investment, or they're maybe they're relatively new.

Those are kind of the turquoise color.

So one, three, five, eight, fifteen on the map.

And then in the middle, kind of that middle grouping would be our stable.

So those are gray on the map.

So two, seven, eleven, twelve, thirteen, and sixteen.

So just one more tool to think about, particularly as Ellie gets into the second kind of volume and thinking about the how to prioritize, where to invest, how to get things done.

This could be a helpful tool for you all to think about.

Please.

So that's another that's another reason why it's called investment opportunity, called private development as well to come in.

Great.

Thank you, Gin C.

And last piece for me, then I'll turn over to Ellie.

As I said, there's all these different kind of tools and frameworks, and you might be wondering well, how does it all kind of how do we bring it all together?

And that's really with the innovation principles.

So we've identified a set of principles, it's way more, well, not a way more, but you know, more than what's on the screen here.

This is just a quick kind of summary synopsis, but for development and for mobility.

If you think about sort of the built form of the city, transportation and land use, and you know, sort of make that uh what it is.

And so the development principles, uh thinking about those that apply citywide, thinking about the utilization of place types, uh really focusing on infill, uh redevelopment opportunities, creating more walkable places, uh, thinking about adaptive reuse.

That's one of the most sustainable things we can do, in fact, is thinking about existing buildings and how do we use those more effectively.

Uh, but how are we creating place?

Um, I won't read each one of these, but uh all really important components of the community, uh neighborhood stabilization, and then thinking about particularly as we have new development adjacent to older development, uh well-maintained or otherwise.

How are we transitioning from place to place is a really key aspect of what we're trying to outline in the plan as well.

Uh, for the neighborhoods, it's about maintaining character, increasing increasing housing choice and supply, uh, thinking about opportunities for gentle density and strategic locations, those that don't sort of detract from the existing character of the neighborhoods, and then making sure we have access to appropriate kind of neighborhoods serving retail and amenities, uh, corridors, thinking about redevelopment, pedestrian friendliness, um, thinking about the uses along those and making it more mixed use, less um auto-centric for the uses themselves, while still making sure that people can move through and around the city effectively, and then districts and centers, revitalization of historic commercial areas, uh introducing an additional uses so we get more bang for the buck from those places, more use, times of the day, times of the week, times of the year, um, thinking about making them unique, um, and thinking about how are we getting to them in a safe and efficient manner, which brings me to the transportation mobility principles, citywide, thinking about safety, thinking about accessibility, thinking about contiguous accessible sidewalks and trails, active transportation options, shared mobility services, and then continue to lean into innovative transportation technologies, and then contextually thinking about our traditional connected and central context that I outlined on my map a few slides ago.

Really, that's gonna be kind of differ based on the combination of place type and context, but it includes guidance for general access, safety, recreation mobility, connectivity.

Again, kind of where I led with.

It's not a one-size-fits-all solution for the city.

It's 99 square miles, a lot of different districts, a lot of different neighborhoods, a lot of different places.

And so we need to think strategically about the land use, the build form, the mobility.

They're gonna make each one of those places really special and attractive to the people who want to live and work here in the future.

With that, I'll turn it over to Ellie.

Good afternoon, Mayor and Council.

My name is Ellie Schaefer.

I'm a senior project manager with the Consulting Firm MIG.

So I'm going to cover a little bit from volume two and some highlights from what we're calling the blueprint for innovation.

So Jay covered a lot about the vision and the different tools and references that are in volume one.

Volume two is really about how to make it happen and what might be those next steps.

How do you fund it?

And also updating the plan.

So I'll go through three of those chapters, just a few highlights.

And this is something we'd love to hear from you from us about as well.

What do you think you know might be some priorities in terms of near-term actions coming out of the plan, knowing it is a 20-year plan.

We wanted to start, you know, next five or so years.

What might the city be able to make some moves on right away?

So chapter 2.3, near-term actions has an action action matrix for every vision element, all five of the vision elements that Jay showed.

So the columns in that matrix are shown here in this gray bar.

We relate each action back to the goal and the big move in innovation from earlier in the plan.

So you know where it's coming from.

We cover, we explain what that near-term action is.

We highlight who are the key partners and city departments that would work on that action.

Really, what's in these matrices is actions that the city can have be a partner in.

We know a lot of the plan's vision will be developed privately as well, but this piece is focused on the city's work.

And then we have a what we call planning level investment.

So one to four dollar signs with a little bit of a key there, but looking at how much investment it is, and then what is the potential for that to be a catalytic project?

So spurring another type of positive change or investment, sort of a ripple effect from that action item.

And then lastly, potential funding sources.

So I've pulled a few examples.

There's several more in the plan.

These are not fully prioritized yet, but they would be for use in city department work plans, business plans, budgets.

They'd be for council consideration when you do your priority your council priorities every budgeting season.

So some of the ones we've pulled out, I'll start with vibrant and safe, the top red icon there, would be looking at targeted redevelopment overlay districts.

So implementing a tool to help focus redevelopment and or incentivize that in certain parts of the city.

The second one is to pursue new opportunity zones or other similar designations.

I won't go through every column, but happy to dig in any more on any of these if desired.

The next vision element is innovative and thriving.

So a couple of example action items here would be to maintain an inventory of key sites for that are best suited for strategic business recruitment, and to develop and adopt a fiscal development plan.

Welcoming and community culture would be looking at strengthening the regulatory authority of the landmark commission to help them guide preservation decisions.

And then reviewing entry corridor gateway beautification standards for those key entrances into the city.

So that's a smattering from the first three vision elements, and then the other two.

So connected and walkable in gray.

A couple that I'm highlighting are to adopt a citywide street connectivity policy and multimodal design guidelines.

So really look at all modes of transportation in one plan.

And then to study the feasibility of grade separating the railroad in downtown Arlington and possible engineering innovations since that was last studied in the 70s.

Sure.

Turn your mic on, please.

I don't remember going back through this.

What the six goals where they were listed, what are the six goals?

Sure.

So there's five, their vision elements.

They are on slide 11 in your packet.

So it's sort of a star-shaped icon.

There's looks like this.

And it's also on this trifold packet in front of you.

So those are the five vision elements.

Each of those has nested goals and big moves within them in the plan.

And you can see in this trifold packet a little bit more about the detail written in each of those.

So I'm still confused.

I'm sorry.

That's okay.

We've got five vision elements.

Correct.

We've got six goals.

Are there goals listed under each element that's gonna number up to six?

Is what you're telling me?

There is more than six goals.

There's it varies.

Each vision element has, I think maybe five to three, four to eight goals.

It's it's not a set number.

So each vision element is shown at the top, and we call them goals and aspirations.

So these vary.

There's about six to eight within each vision element.

And then the big moves and innovations are in the bullet points at the bottom, and those there's five of those for each.

So it's sort of a layering effect where we're talking sort of big picture and then honing in on okay, what are the actual ways that we can achieve those goals?

Sorry.

And then if I may uh just point out real quick the vision elements, uh, the icons here on the left side, uh, those are tied back to those five vision elements.

So there's six goals on the slide, but these are from three vision elements.

The first two are vibrant and safe, the second two are innovative and thriving, and the last ones uh the last two are uh welcoming and community culture.

And then the next slide has the two remaining uh vision elements.

So yeah, so again, these are the near-term actions.

So trying to take that sort of big picture vision and goals and be like, okay, what what are actual steps that we can do to make progress towards these things and start to break down who's doing what, uh, how much is it gonna cost?

How are we gonna pay for it?

That sort of thing.

So it's sort of that next level of detail.

Let's see, and then the last vision element, the fifth one is this green one at the bottom, sustainable and healthy.

So a couple of example actions from that vision element would include uh sustainable development point system for development projects that use certain sustainability features in them or meet certain targets.

Um then also a small grant program for health care providers for mobile health clinics in areas that have less access to healthcare.

Um so that's in the sustainable and healthy category.

Again, this is in volume two, so we're looking a little bit more at how to how to um move forward, volume one with a little more detail.

Chapter 2.6 is about measuring progress.

So, you know, we don't want this plan to just sit on a shelf once it's done.

Um, so the plan includes a recommendation for an annual report um looking at measuring progress over time, and then also an implementation dashboard.

So I know that there's a dashboard the city currently uses for city council priorities.

This could be integrated with that.

And this is just an example of one on the slide here from another community, but you know, I think it's really important to come back to the public and say, here's the progress that the city has made towards these different goals.

Some of the ways we might measure that are listed on this slide.

Again, we're using the five vision elements.

So those might include things like measuring the amount of redevelopment that has occurred on vacant or underutilized properties, amount and type of safety investments by the city, actual job growth in key industries, household incomes and housing cost burdens and trends with that.

Miles of new sidewalks, trails, bicycle facilities, and crash and accident trends, numbers of new trees planted, stormwater water quality improvements, investments in public art and cultural programming, and historic preservation efforts.

So this is how we might actually be able to put some numbers to achievements over time and be able to look at implementation progress.

And then lastly, updating the plan.

So it's really meant to be a living plan.

It is a 20-year planning horizon, but much of it will be revisited sooner than that as well.

So, you know, we can't exactly predict how everything is going to change over time.

This table on the left shows the time right time frame down the left.

So annually two to three years, five years, 10 years, and 20 years.

In that annual update, we would suggest that the preferred scenario map is looked at every year for updates based on maybe new opportunities, changing economic conditions, changing developer interests, what have you.

Every two to three years, potentially revisiting those near-term actions that I was just giving some examples of.

So as you make progress on those near-term actions, coming up with all right, what's the next set for the next few years?

And funding sources if those change at all.

Every five years might be looking more at the big moves, the principles and the focus areas in the plan as development has occurred over time, as well as how the code helps regulate ideas in the plan.

And then at the 10-year mark, somewhere around 2035, you might look at the vision elements and goals.

We think those stand the test of time pretty well.

But the 10-year mark would be a great chance to go back and confirm that those still represent the community's vision, as well as the overlay mapping, the life cycle Jay talked about, life cycle may have changed at that point.

There may be areas that have seen more reinvestment or not.

And so that mapping process could be updated as well as the place types themselves.

It could be that there's a new type of place that the community would like to see, and that could be something to consider potentially around the 10-year mark.

And then again, at 20 years would be time for a full reassessment or update to the plan.

So the plan is really meant to give guidance for 20 years with updates as kind of broken down in this way.

And then this diagram on the right sort of shows the relationship of the comprehensive plan to other planning work in the community for the city.

So the comprehensive plan is really the big overarching planning document that guides decision making and investment for the city that the city council can use for reference, and is then regulated through the code.

But there is more detailed planning work that happens for citywide strategic plans.

So that might be something like the mobility plan that I mentioned that digs more specifically into okay, what routes should have bicycle improvements, let's say, or where do we want to implement some new innovative transit ideas?

Different things like that, or the parks and Rec Master Plan, for example, and then there's small area neighborhood plans and specific plans, and those just look at smaller areas.

So those might be areas of focus that have previously been studied and need an update.

There's a the city does have several neighborhood plans and whatnot now.

It may be that there's a good opportunity for a district plan or a update to the downtown plan, those would kind of fall into those buckets.

So those other levels of planning really add detail and zoom in a bit, I would say, or focus on a specific topic area.

And the comprehensive plan is meant to give that overarching guidance and kind of connect the dots between everything citywide.

So with that, our innovate Arlington Comprehensive Plan does identify several areas that might be considered for future planning at a more zoomed-in scale.

Last thing I have before we just talk about our next steps and open it up for you to ask us more questions, is updating the map in particular, the preferred scenario map.

I mentioned that you might do that every year.

You might do that more often, you might do it less often.

It might depend on what those changes to the map are and what's spurring them.

So you may have a developer come in with a proposal that doesn't align with the map, and city council might decide to move forward with that.

And so you may need to further examine what that process is to update the map, what did what determines like a major change to the map versus a minor change?

There might be different processes there.

We have an example from the city of Charlotte that we worked with on a similar effort.

This isn't going to be baked into the comprehensive plan necessarily, but it's something for the city to be thinking about.

In Charlotte they split into minor and major map amendments and had a different approval process according to that.

And it just is about, you know, is that change in alignment with the plan's vision and goals?

Is it resulting from another small area planning process?

Um, you know, how thinking about the community notice that might be required if it's a large area or small area and what have you.

So all this to say it's really not set in stone, but it is um intended to provide really good guidance for you moving forward, and um there can be a process there established that you can kind of get really familiar with and utilize now that place types are going to be part of your sort of more regular vocabulary instead of future land use.

With that, I think I have like one more slide, maybe two, and then we'll open it up.

There's me.

Um next steps.

So we've already completed the administration administrative draft plan.

Um so we've kind of written it all out in Word documents.

Um now we're moving into laying it out into a highly visible visual plan that's really easy to look at with a lot of graphics and photos to help illustrate the concepts, break it down in a way that's easy to read.

So we're working on that at the moment.

Um, City Council and our CPSC and staff are going to have sort of an early preview of that in early July, and you'll be able to kind of see everything we've been talking about.

What does it actually look like read in the plan?

Um, and so that's coming up in early July.

You'll get that preview, and then we do plan to move into a public review period in August, August 10th through September 6th.

So that's when we're gonna post the plan online, and as well do some more engagement.

So we'll have an online tool where members of the public can review and place comments anywhere on the page of the plan, see what each other is saying, um, and that'll be really easy accessible way to look at the document.

We're also gonna do some in-person pop-up events across the city.

Um, we'll be back with you in August to let you know what we've been hearing from the public during those efforts, and we also have a virtual public workshop September 1st.

And then we will make revisions to the plan, which we're going to discuss with our committee and with council and planning and zoning commission as we kind of get towards finalizing the plan.

And ultimately, uh, we'll be looking for our committee to provide a recommendation for adoption to city council, and then we'll be moving through an adoption process with you.

And that's anticipated to go through early 2027 with our current schedule.

So those are the next steps, and I will stop there.

We have a couple of questions to seed the conversation, but I imagine you already have a lot on your mind.

So feel free to answer these, or we'll just open it up and take any other questions or comments at this time.

Thank you.

Any questions from council?

Comments?

Councilmember Gonzalez.

Thank you, Mayor.

Jincy, I think this is along your line because you and I've discussed this, like for instance, you know, we have so many different things in the city, and Village on the Green is one of those.

And so most of those people don't want that to change.

You know, the rural access, I mean, so how does this all play?

Because I know when I saw some of these maps, they were talking about putting, you know, business hubs and all that.

It's like, okay, so, you know, when we get to city council, and one of the first things that you know I was told is to understand the conference of plan.

That was by you and Victoria for our Mar.

And that's been the hardest part because I feel like all these different things that we do here, people don't pay attention to that.

They see a product, like, oh, that's a great product, but does it belong there?

And even Trace does the same thing.

That's up to us to do the best use.

Just because we like the project, is that where it should go?

I mean, that's you know, so I'm asking a lot of questions, especially I want the new council members to understand that.

And you know, I think with Tom, he understands that because he was in P and Z.

So how do we go from there?

Especially, like I said, I've already gotten so many calls on you know, people in Southwest Argentine.

They're worried what's gonna happen.

Yeah, sure.

Um specifically because I have got questions about the Southwest sector a lot more than the other areas.

Definitely want to let everybody know that development trends change, market trends change.

So that's the whole reason.

Even this plan, we want to do a five-year update.

Annually, we'll report out how things are going.

We want to make some changes to even place types, evolving place type changes, right?

So that it will happen.

That is a natural process that needs to happen.

Uh, how did the whole village on the green thing uh start was with the tier of our day master plan that happened in 2006?

Very well organized plan, and with a lot of stakeholders from that area that came together for a whole one year, worked on that master plan.

The master plan kind of gave a vision to it.

Uh, implementation wise, the next step for it was creating the village on the green overlay district.

So we had the zoning districts, the base zoning districts as same, but we created an overlay district, trying to impose certain additional design standards, development standards for that area that the community had thought should be for that area.

After that was done, then came uh the thought about agricultural zoning district.

This is a zoning district that we had in the city previously, and an agricultural zoning district allowed for one unit in five acres of land.

That has changed since the development trends have changed.

Uh, one unit in five acres is very, very rare to happen now, especially in an urban community.

And so uh that change, so we changed accordingly.

Uh, the A zoning district was replaced with RE zoning district, which is the residential estate zoning district, which does one unit per acre.

But we also introduced other zoning districts called as RS 15 and R 20, which is a 15,000 and a 20,000 square foot lot sizes.

This was also a part of the Tier Awardee master plan that said uh we need to have zoning districts that are a little bit larger than what we currently offer.

And that was another reason that we did that.

Uh, and then came the unified development code in 2014, where we actually uh took those RE-zoned properties within the VG Overlay District and just changed that zoning district to VG zoning district.

So it's only the properties that were previously zoned agriculture, which became residential estate, which is now Ouija zoning district.

So there are other non-residential zoning districts that was previously non-residential, has stayed the same.

So that is some history that not a whole lot of people would probably know that we haven't taken out the non-residential zoning districts.

That's there as it is.

That is definitely a question to be asked, but that is what we asked with this comp plan also.

We did go back to the community, ask them what they wanted, and through that we came to know that some of the major corridors within this area, like a 287, there are certain nodes that they would want to have it as a mixed use center or some other place type.

And that's the reason it's given.

I think there are three centers along 287 that has a different place type than the rest of the area.

So the rest of the area should still kind of have the similar vision that was there previously.

I did hear from a few of you whether the uh estate suburban place type needs to have two flavors to it, more as a suburban, which is more of the established character, and then the estate, which is more of the rural character, is so we are thinking about it, and if that is a direction we are getting from council to further look into it, we'll definitely make sure that we do that for specifically the Southwest sector.

Because the key is a lot of the people that own that property have passed away and handed their property down to their families, and they're having to pay taxes, so they just want to get rid of it.

And the only people offering any money is multifamily, and so I'm getting calls all the time for all these things off of 287 for multifamily, Russell Curry, Eden, all that stuff.

So that's what, you know, that's what concerns me.

It's like, okay, what's gonna happen?

You know, for single-family, also, I mean, if you think of other cities, you know, um, where the higher end housing, single-family higher end housing, that lot itself has a value which is much more than what you would see other.

That's the way the uh sellers of the land could be thinking about increasing the cost of the land itself in an area that is envisioned to have that kind of housing.

So that's another way to think about it.

Um, but again, VG zoning district just for audience purposes, it it calls for a 7200 square foot lot sizes, however, it includes more common open space requirements and tree preservation.

That is the character that was envisioned for that area.

Thank you.

Any other questions?

That's hard.

Yes, Dr.

Odom Wesley.

Thank you for this presentation and for the comprehensive look at all these different aspects of planning, and it is quite a bit of information to digest.

Um my question is how confident are we that we got a good cross-section, a representative cross-section of our community to give us input on this plan?

I'm gonna ask John to speak to that.

He's been tracking a painstaking detail.

Absolutely great question, and we've been uh diligently working to ensure that uh we've been working not just with our own team but with actual external groups and organizations to help us uh reach more uh communities across Arlington, particularly over this uh past couple of months.

We've been working closer with the Arlington Independent School District uh to be more visible at their events, and they've really assisted us with putting us front and center, uh basically right at the front door as uh families are coming into those events.

Uh, we've had uh informational poster boards to express what we've learned in phase one and phase two and communicated with those families, and then uh had some sticker uh where they can say, you know, on a liker scale, meaning from I don't like this to I really like this, uh, 99% is either like or really like, mostly in the really like section for both the vision framework, our preferred growth scenario map, um, the strengths, weaknesses, improvements, and concerns that we've learned from community members.

Uh we've worked with the um uh UTA, one of their public engagement leadership courses over the course of two weekends, uh, earlier a couple months ago.

Uh uh six teams of students went across to a variety of uh culturally diverse grocery stores and interacted uh with the um residents that were shopping at those locations with those same boards that we took to AISD.

Uh, we learned a lot from that and reported out to the comprehensive plan steering committee what we learned from the students' experience there, uh, but it was the same response from those uh communities at those grocery stores that we learned with AISD families that a lot of the materials that we've learned from phase one and phase two are either within that like and really like uh section.

Uh moving forward, we're gonna be doing more town halls uh with all the council districts and working with your offices as well as providing more online opportunities for engagement and comment.

Thank you.

Um thank you, John.

I know we talked yesterday, and uh I understand that you've contacted quite a few of UTA students and AISD as you just described.

Uh what about TCC?

Yes, we've uh we've been the president's been part of several focus groups.

Uh we interacted with them through the board game.

One of the classes uh helped facilitate board game play, and we'll continue to interact with them over the course of this summer and engaging them with back to school.

I think as we go forward in this um community engagement section that we increase our outreach and try to make sure that everybody is aware of this opportunity to give us some input on this plan because we're gonna take this feedback from the community as you have repeatedly said, the community said do this, do this, don't do that.

We need to be able to define who's the community, who did we hear from?

Uh, I know I've attended several of the events as all the other council members have, and I think going forward next time y'all come, I won't be here, but maybe we can hear exactly how many people have had input into this plan.

And who are those people?

Not names, but do they represent every council district?

Do they are they representative of the demographics of our city?

Who had the input just to make sure we get good cross-sectional diverse representation?

Absolutely.

I think we must have that, and we need to be assured that that's the way we put this plan together because it's gonna represent a change, and human beings resist change, no matter where they're from or who they are.

Those are my thoughts.

Thank you.

Ellie, you want to say something.

I did.

I just wanted to say, happy to provide that information.

We can get that gathered for next time.

The one number I have off the top of my head is that between phases one and two.

Right now we're working on phase three, but in phases one and two, we had a hundred and thirteen engagement events.

Um, and so that's one number for a reference.

So, I'm sorry, Margaret, or you don't.

Do you know how many people attended those 113 events?

Not off the top of my head, but happy to get that information.

We can follow up a lot.

Yeah, I know we talked yesterday, and and um it sounds like everything we've done, we've expected the people to come to us.

I know we did the visioning boards and we had the game and you know, all the efforts you've done, and they've been good efforts.

I'm you know, I'm not complaining about that.

Um I'm not sure how well attended they have been, or how many people have actually been engaged, and perhaps we need to look at going where the people are already as expect as opposed to expecting them to come to us.

And one idea I threw out yesterday, I don't even know if it's a good idea, but we've got um elections coming up in November.

Lots of people are gonna go to the polls.

Maybe we could have a card table at each one of the early voting locations with some information about our comprehensive plan and reach out to all those people that are already gonna be there.

Just I don't know if it's a good idea, not, but I think we're gonna have to go where the people are and stop trying to wait for the people to come to us.

Yeah, absolutely agree.

I think the polls is a great idea.

Um, one way we have been going to people, um, John mentioned was the pop-ups at grocery stores.

So we are trying to get out in the community and show up where people are, reach people who may not you know take an online survey or come to an in-person event, but things like that, the grocery stores, especially a way we're trying to reach more diverse segments of the community.

So I appreciate that.

And when we interact with the community, I think we've got to use layman's terms.

Uh this is a very high level, you know, we've got questions from council.

This is pretty complex to digest.

We need to be able to use uh layman's terminology and simplify opportunities for input, and then make sure we get um cross section, cross-section represent representation.

I appreciate all your efforts.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

So, I don't often disagree with Dr.

Odom Wesley, but since this is her last day, I'm gonna take advantage of it.

Councilmember Hogg bought a fancy car, and he can get in his car and say, Drive to this place, and it goes, and it takes them there, and he just relaxes and has a good time and enjoys enjoys the very simple ride in this fancy car, and I look at this comprehensive plan like my fancy car, sometimes the complexities of putting that thing together is beyond my comprehension because y'all have so many incredibly deep layers of stuff that you work with.

This isn't just about housing or roadways or public safety or cultural aspects, or it's it's about all of those things, and the comprehensive plan has to be a living, breathing entity in itself, it provides guidelines for council to help navigate things.

Because I do believe y'all have made a conservative effort to get to the public and to engage with people of all demographics in this community, and it's difficult when you come in and we're sitting here going, Well, have y'all thought about this?

And I'm willing to bet that there's not a whole lot we bring up that y'all haven't thought about in these months and months and months that you've been struggling with this.

I need things dumbed down for me.

I'm the first person that says I like it in a very simplistic fashion.

And I thought your presentation was simplistic enough to accommodate my Detroit public school district education.

Um I so am excited about this because this is providing a fluid guidelines for the next 20 years.

And I would caution all of us that this isn't, this isn't a comprehensive plan that is restrictive in and of itself that says you're not allowed to do this or this or this, or you must do these things.

This is a breathing thing that as times change and as we see things change in our neighborhoods and our technologies and our um uh streets and our parks and our communities.

When we see those things change, we must adopt.

And I think this helps us to adopt.

Um I'm just blown away by y'all's commitment.

So for all of y'all that sat on this committee and worked through this.

The fact that y'all volunteered hours after hours after hours, I know daggone well that these two-hour meetings have expanded into four and five hours, and um, it has resulted in what's going to be a phenomenal program to really help guide.

I'm only here for three more years.

I'm sort of like Barbara, I'm on my last leg.

Um, but this is gonna help guide counsel for years to come, and it's gonna do so in a way that doesn't restrict it or mandate certain things.

It gives that gives counsel a little bit of breathing room and life to adjust accordingly.

I didn't mean to get on my soap botch and preach, but thank y'all for a phenomenal job.

Gen C you did okay too.

I don't want to ignore you.

All right.

Um you did good, and those of y'all on the committee uh, God bless y'all for volunteering.

Thank you so much.

Yes, Councilmember Hog.

Yeah, nice summary, Mayor, and I appreciate it.

Um, what you're saying.

Um, and I do love that my car drives me, it's amazing.

Um, but but it is the level of technology of what we have to be thinking about um coming in the future.

Look, the I think one of the best slides on there is slide 28.

And you don't it's the one with the comprehensive plan, and then we start going diving deeper down on that.

The question I had, because this is all about, you know, the mayor's saying it, it's a balance of we've got to get community input, feedback, our feedback, but then it's also what are the things we're not all thinking about, and that's the hardest part sometimes on this.

But I really, this slide helps really summarize because we are at a high level.

So I see kind of your timeline, but do we have to let citizens know that when we should be expecting citywide strategic plans and and diving deeper down a little more schedule coming out, like Trey, have we thought of like which when we roll this out, okay.

Where are the first couple of departments we're really gonna make sure we review strategic plans for those departments and start reviewing on some of those?

You see where where I'm asking where I'm trying to go, so that because the biggest fear everyone has when something like this is done.

Is this thing awesome.

Thank you for all your help, thank you for all your work.

Awesome.

We'll look at that when we need to look at it, right?

And that's the always the biggest fear when you get into these type of things.

So having those accountabilities, and I think y'all did a great job on reporting mechanisms and how we track progress, but making sure we we follow through on these other pieces is a critical factor for us as a governing body because that's really what we have to do on this.

Trey, what do you think?

I totally agree from an operational perspective as it relates city services.

The thing that people get worried about, though, I think here, something that we really have a very minor role in, and that is the land use map itself, right?

The concerns about what's something going to become is driven largely by the private market who then comes here and asks for permission.

And then we look around the community and we wonder, how come this became that and this became that and this became that?

It's because a willing buyer and a willing seller kind of came up with a with a plan and they came here and asked for building permit, and in some cases, uh zoning.

Zoning is where we have the ability to build a better community and to build a stronger balance sheet, if you will, more healthier uh financially resilient place, but without true alignment, which we've never done, and I don't think we will, without true alignment to the land use plan and to the land use map, that's where the issue where the rubber really meets the road and how we set a vision that motivates a willing seller and buyer to do what the vision calls for is the tough part.

Um but operationally from a from a perspective of uh, you know, water line, sewer line, storm drain, whatever we're doing, absolutely we can operationalize the pieces we can control, but there's a big variable in that formula that's out there that's in the marketplace.

I would think we've had a lot where they haven't met our plan from 20 years ago lately, right?

As a council, and I would expect that right when we roll this out, we're probably gonna achieve more that meet the plan, hopefully, and as the years go on, things change in a little different.

So I think as a council, we just have to hold ourselves accountable for what are we doing.

We're putting a plan in place.

Um, listen, everything should be evaluated, reviewed, but let's try and stick with what we're trying to do from a comprehensive plan and start the process for you know how we're getting down to specific neighborhood plans of what they're trying to do.

And that is, I always commend staff who we always talk about in July.

Try to meet with staff because there's a plan for almost everything.

It is truly amazing the amount of plans y'all have, and council really has to educate themselves on those things.

So I appreciate it.

I think it's uh it is this 30,000 foot.

As we start diving down a little deeper, that's the key of where we got to go.

Thank you.

I would just add one other point in this broader context as the questions come and have concerns about what this becomes, and I appreciate the comment that was made earlier.

Is it's not a one size fits all.

Arlington for 99 square miles won't look the same.

It shouldn't.

It's people aren't the same, it's developments aren't the same.

It should have creativity and differences throughout the community.

And that means you'll have a core and you'll have a traditional neighborhood and you'll have rural areas, you'll have a lot of varied complexities, and I think that's what we've given these guys the task to do is to make sure that whatever plan is there aligns to variation to what the housing market and and the commercial market might want.

And so people don't they get today, decide to live where they want to live.

And some people want urban upscale density, and some people want to live on the farm.

Uh and having options for people, housing diversity, neighborhood diversity, having choices is a huge thing, and I think that's what this plan is trying to do.

Any other questions, comments?

Thank y'all.

Oh, do you have your hand up?

Tom, you do?

It's not gonna be a question, it's gonna be a comment.

We'll go ahead, comment on that.

I'm sorry, maybe you maybe y'all all understood this, but simple stuff like goals and aspirations, and you've got you've got them numbered here, you got them bullet pointed.

So I have to go back and I have to number them, I guess, to get to get what you want.

The preferred growth scenario slides.

Maybe the most confusing thing I've ever seen in my life from a consultant.

Uh distribution by acreage.

What that's not this many per acre.

What is you know, what is it?

Uh comparing this number with the with uh percentages in the next one.

Uh maybe it's just me, but I love this stuff and I can't figure this out.

So I'm please in the future.

I'll uh row through.

I'm gonna come see you and you too, because we uh I I've got to f I've I want to figure this out of what it's saying, and I'm I'm I'll admit I'm not smart as guy in the room right here, but I'm confused.

You've done a lot of work.

Thank you.

Oh, um I know y'all have done the work.

I know I know these people back here, and they're some of the smartest people I know.

Uh so maybe they can one of them's a college professor, so maybe she can finish telling me uh uh what what some of this is about, so well apologies for the the slide.

Um as far as the all the content and fitting together.

Um you were getting unfortunately, uh it is a lot of content, and so it would have been a nine-hour meeting for us to go through every detail and connect all the dots.

But the plan does that, so when you when you get the draft plan, they are nested neatly, they are numbered.

Uh you'll see how different pieces kind of fit together versus this kind of disparate set of highlights we provided today.

Um but if you if it doesn't do that, tell us, tell the committee, tell staff, and we will continue work on it and make sure that it does make sense.

Okay, sounds good.

All right, thank y'all.

Oh, go ahead.

Do you have a question too?

Okay.

Yeah, Tom, you're not alone.

I I feel that way as well.

And you had mentioned at the beginning that you had five town halls.

Was this the information that you provided to the town halls?

No.

Um, no, it's been yeah, smaller bite-sized pieces in layman's terms.

You know, first we were um engaging about the vision, asking more broad questions of the community.

What would you like to see in Arlington in the future?

What would you like to see improved?

Uh, we had a board game that was deployed across the city, which was really fun, and a lot of people played it, really made it an accessible way to like look at the map and talk about development.

Um, and then now we're continuing to engage and we're um bringing sort of those key topics forward, but we're not uh bringing everything necessarily all at once or anything too super technical.

Yeah, yeah, it's a it is a lot.

Um, and my concern is when when it's so much and there's so many pieces.

From what I could kind of gather, it's he it's here's is it this place type, and then it's this performance indicator, and then it kind of goes down until you find out exactly where you are, like the area.

Um it's just it when it's like that, there's a lot of room for error um and interpretation, and so um I agree with Tom and that you know I really love this stuff, and I'm I'm it's a lot of information.

My next question.

So maybe send me what you sent the town halls.

Maybe send me the slides of what we're at the town halls.

Maybe that would be more helpful.

Um the next question that I had is you know, you had this really great committee.

Um they were allowed to give input on each of these things, right?

And and the committee feels like the committee has signed off on this as well.

Is that correct?

Have you guys all signed off on it?

Yeah, yes, for the most part.

I don't see all nods.

I think the hesitation is that they're um the policy development policies and actions um ended up being sort of we went to a lot of different went when the community, went to the committee, went to staff, looked at old policies, old plans, and when you add all that up, it's a lot, that's a lot of content in and of itself.

And so we've tried to think strategically about how do we carry forward the important components of that and have it still be uh digestible.

So what we've done is broken into multiple volumes to do that.

Um, but as far as the overall construct, the vision elements, the place type map, the place types themselves.

Um I I yeah, I mean they can tell you differently, but I think that there is support of the plan.

So when I went to the the CBOC through AISD, they had a similar committee, and they were able to tell us with this, you know, some of these different things that were part of the plan, what percentage of the committee said, you know, a supermajority really approved it or really liked it.

And that was really helpful um to see, because yes, we lean on the community like Dr.

Barbara Odin Wesley said, but then also this committee was put here for a reason, and I think we all in this room know them and really trust them.

And so if there's something that they are saying, if there if there's an issue, then that's concerning to me, because they have you know, they're very, very intelligent and their residents and they live here.

Um so that that was just my um next question.

And then uh Trey kind of touched on this about when the plan and the zoning do not match, you know.

I would have loved to see, I guess, how much of our zoning does not match this plan.

Like essentially how much of a fight are we gonna have here?

Um, and then also on that that page that Tom brought up, that I think you know, all of us said this was just, and I you know, with best intentions, but it was just very, very confusing.

Um this slide 15.

Um, even just to see in the preferred growth scenario, I understand that we do not have these exact place types right now, but we have a general idea of the way that that this that these lands are used, and so I mean very clearly the entertainment district is not going to be a you know single family residential, you know.

Like we have a general idea of how this is, and then knowing what we currently have versus what this is proposing would be very helpful again for us to see how much of a fight, how much of a um only Spanish words are coming to me.

How much of like of a task this is going to be to implement this?

Um, because it is a lot of implementation that council I know that Jim says he he's only got three years.

My plan is not to only be here three years, but so this is gonna be my entire time on council, and right now it looks like a lot to identify and mitigate and like a lot of details, and so um it it's just a lot, and maybe it is just me being new a lot at one time.

Um, and then add in, you know, some of the committee um doesn't super love certain parts of this, is it's a little worrisome.

I think it's great, and I'm excited, but it's it's a little I've I've paused, I guess.

Yeah, I think then not loving certain parts of them might be amazing to characterization, but um maybe we can do some surveying and as you suggested to yell into that daggum microfoam.

We got boom boom in our head back here.

Yeah, I don't know what's going on.

You guys having a party up there?

I I think we're getting ready to so make sure y'all speak loud enough for old people sitting over here can hear.

I'm just speaking for Trey and Molly.

Yeah, I no I was just saying that I think the to mischaracterization is that the committee doesn't love certain parts.

I think what I was alluding to is that I think everyone admit it's it's a lot, it's a lot there.

Um, but we can I just turn to John, he said yes, we can do some surveying of the committee.

We've done that other portions along the way, uh so we can do that with the draft plan as well.

This caution, this this is like drinking through a fire hose when you do a comprehensive plan.

I think you're expected to feel a little bit overwhelmed at this stage of the ground.

Y'all have done a lot more of these than I've been involved in, and tell me if I'm wrong, but that's to be expected.

Um you're not going to grasp all of it right now.

This isn't the plan in its entirety.

We're still fine-tuning and then will present this to us in July.

And you'll get an opportunity to then read the comprehensive comprehensive plan.

And I think in my experience, it will become much clearer as we progress further into this process.

Yeah.

Do you have anything else, Councilwoman Garcia Duma?

No, my only concern is I'm open to that, that this will get clearer.

And again, maybe it's me being new.

I'm willing to say that that's you know a viability.

But my concern is what if it doesn't?

And if if we are sending this to the people, and I'm confused, how on earth are we getting actual feedback from people?

And again, just the use of it.

It has to be relatively easily usable to where at least the people on this council know.

You've had you had such hard work, we need to know how to use it, you know.

And so my feedback is for when you do come back.

You've heard what our concerns are.

And so now you have the opportunity to, you know, maybe make it a little more digestible, or you, you know, you heard about how we are where we are versus where we want to go.

Um, because I hope it gets easier to understand.

Um, but if it doesn't, that's a little more worrisome.

That's all.

Okay.

Councilmember Glante, we got to speed this up.

I have a lot of ground to cover the next hour or so.

So Mr.

Mayor with the respect of the timing and to move on with the agenda, I'll eat my time and I'll study in July, the drafted plan, and I'll have my questions by email, you know, in August.

Thank you.

Okay, we're gonna move on down the thank you guys, appreciate y'all so much.

Move on down 3.2, Amy.

I haven't seen Amy in here.

Is she out in the hallway?

If council needs to take a break, please do it on your own.

Um, we're not gonna recess, we're gonna go ahead and push through.

Just make sure I have a quorum, so we don't all leave at once.

Well, uh I got one, two, okay.

No more.

One, two, three, four.

Tom's here.

I got five.

Stay.

Amy, please.

We ready?

Yeah.

All right.

I know you have quite a few slides and stuff, so I do only have an hour left, so just be conscious of that for me.

Understood, sir.

Um, Amy Cannon, I'm assistant director of the public works department, and I'm responsible for the stormwater management program.

I'm here today to kind of give you all a brief overview of the stormwater program, kind of the origins of it, and kind of open some discussions for um kind of the direction of the program.

So the the origin of our program really started in 2005 after a flood event that we had in 2004, where we had about 200 homes and businesses flood.

And at that time, residents asked us to really look into and and focus our stormwater program so that there was a uh strategic and comprehensive and effective, proactive approach to how we manage stormwater.

And so, what they looked at at the time was pretty much every issue that we still have today, which was stormwater pollution, erosion and sediment, flooding, debris and creeks, aging infrastructure, and then the funding levels.

And the recommendations that came out of that um committee of citizens basically has driven all of our policies that we have in place today.

And so we have dedicated staff now to help oversee the program that includes maintenance staff as well as environmental inspection staffs and then the engineering staff to manage projects, and we have a stormwater master plan as well as prioritization of our capital projects.

We updated our design criteria based on the feedback from the residents of what they wanted to see and dealing with erosion and making sure that velocities were managed, and then also dealing with downstream impacts.

One of the outcomes of that was that erosion and sediment kind of that are is happening on private property remains the responsibility of res of the property owners.

And so the city responsibilities at a high overview is that we are here to enforce regulations.

This is no adverse impact.

So whenever we do have construction or anything in the creek, that there are no impacts in a sense of increasing erosion, increasing flooding, or doing really anything that could harm another property.

And then we've got FEMA floodplain requirements that we enforce for our compliance with the National Flood Insurance Program, and then we've got stormwater pollution prevention that comes from the TCQ.

Our maintenance crews also remove debris, they maintain our public stormwater infrastructure.

We mitigate flooding from the public right-of-way, and then we do erosion projects to protect public infrastructure, as well as when we have a drainage project that could cause downstream impacts.

We'll take a look and see if we can do in-stream improvements to offset any type of increases of in velocity or erosion, and then at that time we'll do stream mitigation.

We also provide oversight of the private stormwater infrastructure where it's required by ordinance plat and maintenance agreements that are filed with the county.

Our property owners are responsible for maintaining their private property on it, whether it's in the creek, if they've got private stormwater infrastructure, really encourage everyone to make sure that before they begin work in any type of creek or natural area that they understand like what grading, filling or anything like that could have any impacts to themselves or to other properties.

We encourage everyone to get permits and build responsibly as well as purchase flood insurance and stay educated on what is going on in terms of like their stormwater impact to their property.

So when it comes to private infrastructure and public drainage, you know, many private developments are designed to receive flow from public right-of-way and convey it across their property or detain it in some cases.

You know, those have been those have been reviewed through the development process from a majority of the city, and these remain privately maintained infrastructure or natural creeks or channels or anything like that, unless the city has accepted it through the development process.

City oversight for that private infrastructure comes from our TCEQ requirements for our permit requirements for managing the municipal separate storm sewer system permit.

And so when we have by plat ordinance or maintenance agreement filed for different, you know, a private development where it says there, you know, the property owner or homeowners association or commercial property owners are responsible for maintaining this.

We will actually work with the property owners to have them inspect the infrastructure that they have and make sure that it is properly maintained.

We have been doing this since December 2021, and that was approved by ordinance from council for us to have the structural controls program.

And so we have had to go through and actually do a lot of document research in regards to what is out there because it wasn't tracked.

And we're talking about 70 years of development in Arlington.

And so we're systematically going through and looking at every neighborhood and every commercial property to see what is filed at the county in terms of what their maintenance responsibilities are, and then working with the city attorney's office to say, yes, this belongs to the program, or no, it doesn't.

And so this is a survey of really everything that we've identified so far in the first five years of our program.

And this is still actively being managed, and we have goals set internally of making sure of how many neighborhoods we review to see what's out there and make sure that we get it mapped and tracked and notify property owners.

And so this is a this is an overview of the public stormwater system.

We have 40 miles of concrete channels, 25, 26 miles of flumes, and then uh a system basically the storm drainage system kind of throughout the city that drains into these natural creeks or channels across the city.

The 43 miles of city owned natural creek are largely parks.

We do have some areas where we've bought out flood-prone properties that are along creeks, and so some of those are properties that Public Works has purchased, but majority of the 43 miles is are in the park system.

So to kind of bring all of these things together as part of the Citizens Committee goals is to make the stormwater master plan.

And so in 2010, we started to systematically study every watershed in Arlington to update to current modeling technology, review what was going on across creeks and watersheds, and really get an understanding of what was happening.

That took us 10 years to do, and in 2018, 19, we really started to bring everything that we knew about at the time and bring it together and focus it and prioritize it across everything that we're required to do, not only from the policy direction that we received from the committee, but also from what we were required by federal and state law to do.

And so through the comprehensive stormwater plan, we developed a procedure to identify future projects, kind of screen them and make sure that it's something that the city can participate in, and then really prioritize them and make sure that they keep basically the worst first.

And so this is a high-level overview of what our worst first approach is.

You know, we look at frequency of flooding and number of structures, the condition of the stormwater infrastructure in terms of like if it is likely to fail, what are the consequences?

How many how many buildings would flood?

If there's going to be major creek failures, those type of things that we look at.

And then we also look at other public infrastructure impacts in the sense of: is there a street project?

Can we go in and correct an issue?

Best example that we have right now, kind of underway, is one of our residential rebuilds.

We're partnering with our streets group through the Bond program to extend storm drain.

And so we we prioritize opportunities in a sense of make sure that the joint efforts are captured and that we use the city's funding in the best way possible.

And so just kind of some pictures to highlight the frequency of flooding is we if someone floods every time it rains, their home or their business, we that gets the highest priority.

All structural flooding is bad.

There's there's no debate about that.

But if someone floods every time it's rain, they're going to reach the top of the list a lot faster.

We also look at the number of structures impacted if it's like the entire neighborhood or just a few homes, and we also prioritize critical structures like nursing homes, hospitals, police stations, fire stations, you know, something where we have a vulnerable population that would be hard to evacuate, and if there are emergency services disrupted.

For erosion, we have actually gone through as part of the watershed study and had consultants walk the creeks and do assessments on like the severity of the erosion.

We have a few tributaries in Johnson Creek where we didn't get that, but a majority of our creeks have been walked and we have this information, and so we've got them rated from stable, moderately unstable, highly unstable, severely unstable, and then emergency repair is like this example to the right here, where the storm drain has basically suddenly collapsed and it's been a pretty catastrophic failure that was triggered by something else.

And so we need to kind of get in there and do the repair work to make sure the storm drain still keeps functioning.

In terms of maintenance, we we utilize our condition assessments that our field crews get, and so example here is I will say that this channel here was a serious failure.

We've already fixed this, but we are currently working on the storm drain system where the pipe has partially collapsed and really looking at the alignment.

And so if this gets into full collapse, then it's kind of one of those where a lot of people will flood, and that's kind of why we moved it up in our project list.

The additional waiting considerations, like I mentioned, is the kind of the joint projects that we can do with streets and water as well as like any type of regulatory issues that we have is critical infrastructure, and then if there's citizen reports.

So on this map right here, I've got a split in blue.

We've got the flooding concerns, and what we've done here just to kind of show kind of where they're coming in.

If we've had multiple reports come from the same area, the circles are a little bit bigger.

So flooding concerns are on the left and erosion concerns are on the right.

You can see that in on the erosion concerns, they're largely concentrated on the Rush Creek and Johnson Creek watersheds.

And so what we did with the stormwater, a comprehensive stormwater plan is we took all of the watershed information, the localized drainage analysis, and kind of worked it through the prioritization system that we set up and developed the 10-year capital improvement plan that we have been using for since 2021.

We're at the halfway point.

There's 220 million dollars worth of stormwater projects.

It's about 95 flood mitigation projects as well as many annual annual programs that we use capital funds to fund.

We've kind of we've done about a hundred million over a hundred million in capital projects and flood mitigation projects in five years.

And so, like I said, we're at the halfway point.

In response to flooding in 2015, we initiated an erosion pilot program at the request of council.

We had we didn't have a lot of flooding in 2021.

Well, we had a lot of flooding, but it was more of erosion concerns that happened in 2015.

And so council asked us to really look and see is it feasible for us to implement an erosion pilot program, and can we add it to our capital program in a way that we can mitigate the erosion concerns that we were receiving?

And so they asked us to focus on natural solutions, the minimized future maintenance, and provide a cost estimate of potential programmatic cost.

And so at that time we selected four locations based on the watershed study data that we had at the time.

We were about halfway through our watershed program, and so we had information for Russian Johnson Creek as well as a few of the watersheds in North Arlington.

And so we selected a project from Key Branch Tributary One, Key Branch Tributary Four, Village Creek One, and Washington Drive, which is in North Arlington.

And so they were meant to be representative samples of the average kind of erosion concern that we receive.

I will say like two of those projects had to be downsized because we found that there was no feasible alternative to correct the erosion without causing downstream impacts.

And so it resulted in Key Branch Tributary One.

We put in drop structures to help stop the head cutting and give the stream a hard point to stop down cutting, and then we and then the village creek one tributary, it ended up in a buyout because the house had been built prior to our erosion clear zone requirements, which is a setback that we have to make sure that houses and structures are far enough away from anticipated erosion.

And so there was no feasible solution that we could really get that house in and protect it with the wall, and so we had to buy that one out.

The two projects that we did proceed forward with with the reach-based solution was Washington Drive.

And so in these pictures, we have the pre-construction conditions showing how downgraded the creek was, where there's several retaining walls in various states of failure, and that there are this was classified in our erosion index as an emergency because of the number built of buildings that were threatened.

And so there were 11 structures on this 11 properties, 11 structures, including an apartment complex.

And so these are the post-construction of the improvements that we did.

We included retaining walls, rock riprap, the middle picture is where we did some stream improvements to offset the impacts that we were causing from the downstream impacts in terms of like we we were changing the characteristics of the creek in such a way that it was going to either move an erosion issue or cause some some flooding.

And so we were able to get into that middle section and really work the creek in such a way that the storage was still within the project and meet all of the core requirements.

This project also resulted in a buyout, and so that's what the picture on the right is: there used to be a townhome there, and we could not find a solution during the this project that did that didn't affect the structural conditions of the home.

And so the best solution for this case was just to go ahead and acquire it, remove it, and give us access to this creek because of how tight everything was.

This is the pre-construction conditions.

There were 76 properties, 76 homes.

This is single family residential entirely throughout.

From an erosion risk standpoint, only about three or four were at risk of homes at risk of being impacted by the creek.

A lot of the other homes were far enough away to where it was the backyards were experiencing erosion and they were having issues with their retaining walls.

And so this is pictures that were taken actually just a few weeks ago on this one on this particular location.

We have to report to the core every year on the conditions of the creek because of what the core permit requirements were with this.

And so we have to inspect this for seven years and report to the core.

And so we have a consultant that's helping us with this.

And so in this case, we widened, we had to widen the floodplain out and kind of allow some native vegetation to come back in.

And so the takeaways that we had from the erosion pilot program was that construction does require removal of vegetation.

And so this is the key branch four project where we had to come in and basically restore the floodplain and put in, you know, basically different structures to help the stream return to a more natural condition.

Neighborhood buy-in was extremely challenging.

We actually did have significant opposition to the amount of vegetation removal.

Um there were a lot of concerns about the number of things that people had built, whether it was their decks, their own retaining walls or sheds.

You know, it was their backyard, and so they had made a lot of significant investments, and we had to come in and take a lot of that out.

And so it was in several several residents had actually gone in and built retaining walls to protect their homes from erosion, and they had taken a second mortgage out, and they were still paying on that when we came to remove it.

And so it was a very challenging situation where we had to basically work with each property owner and show them what the impacts were to their property and explain to them kind of what we were doing because it was a sense of like when we had to adjust the creek to make these corrections.

Some felt like they were losing backyard, and some felt like it was going over to their neighbor the way that we had to make the creek adjustments.

And so we also had to address floodplain code issues that we wouldn't necessarily just walk out and do.

So on the left, we've got an 18-foot tall privacy fence that was constructed that was affected by erosion, and where we had to go in and do the improvements.

It wasn't permitted, and so we had to take that out, and then the shed that's here, it was actually in the FEMA floodway.

It had electrical going to it.

And so that also had to be removed.

And it was both of these removals were very concerning to the people who owned owned them.

And so we also kind of through this process.

If we the federal permitting and regulations were pretty extensive in the sense of the key branch one locate, tributary one location, the core let us know that we needed to do about $13 million in mitigation credit, which we only had 12 million dollars for the entire all four locations.

And so working through with them and understanding how we can make each location what we call a self-mitigating project was was pretty extensive and understanding what their expectations were for when we needed to purchase mitigation credits, when something could be self-mitigating, and kind of when it was just like this was not going to be something that they would approve, was pretty time consuming, but it was still the process that we have to go through.

No adverse impact can also be challenging.

And so we had several instances and alternatives that we looked at where they were correcting erosion on this reach that we were working on, but it was causing flooding in other locations, or it was speeding up the velocity of water, and we couldn't we couldn't have that at all.

We can't move a problem when we do stormwater projects, and so that was a big part of making sure that we found the right alternative.

And then in the long term, we also are responsible for the maintenance of the retaining walls that we build.

So we take on that maintenance responsibility in addition to the core report permitting reporting that we are required to do.

And so from what we learned in using the information that we had from our watershed studies, we're estimating that there's about 1.2 billion dollars of erosion repair needs across the city.

I will say that about 239 private properties fall into that highly unstable category.

There are several that are city properties also too in that highly unstable category.

And so that's kind of the considerations and kind of how we address this.

This is, you know, 534 million in erosion needs at that highly unstable level.

And so the current rate is $10 per equivalent residential unit.

So every residential property receives a flat rate of $10 a month, and then we build commercial properties for every 2,800 square foot of impervious area that we have.

That current rate level supports a 20 million dollar a year capital program through the FY 2030, 2031, and it is keyed specifically towards flood mitigation and public stormwater infrastructure projects.

If we add erosion and you know private infrastructure maintenance and kind of some of these things, we would have to look at either raising the fee or delaying drainage drainage projects that we have scheduled right now.

And so kind of the picture, the snapshot real quickly of major projects that we have.

We are expanding the flood monitoring system in three phases.

The first phase, we're expecting to have a contract on y'all's agenda in August, and it's going to be a total system expansion of 40 rain and stream gauges, 60 flashers, and four rain gauges, so that we have full coverage across the city and make sure that we have that coverage in a sense to be able to alert everyone of kind of flood risk and kind of what's going on and provide critical information to emergency responders.

We have the Bonneville Greenbrook drainage improvements project.

This is predominantly a storm drain project to reduce the flood risk for 14 homes.

This includes storm drain improvements to increase capacity, and we've gone through a significant vetting process and value engineering to determine that when we do improve the storm drain, we're not going to cause downstream impacts in terms of flooding or erosion in the creek that the storm drain outfalls to.

And so we're anticipating construction in 2027 for an estimated cost of 8 million.

The Stream JC9 drainage improvements, that's in a neighborhood that's just north of here.

Our design of phases one and two are currently underway.

We're expecting the total cost of the project to be 25 million, and we're expecting the construction of the first two phases to begin in spring of 28.

And then we have the Harvest Hills Drainage Improvements project, where there are 20 homes that are prone to flooding.

We're going to have to acquire about seven homes that are in the alignment of the storm drain that we need to put in.

We have received federal approval to basically improve this because we had to go through and deal with some downstream impacts.

And so we've received all the federal approvals at this point, and we are now kind of working with Encore to make sure that they are out of the way for us to come in and build the expand the channel.

And so since 2009, this is where we're at in terms of the CIP.

We've we've protected 695 structures for 208 million, and like I mentioned, it's about a hundred million that we've we've invested in the last five years of that.

Um 52 or 57% goes to flood mitigation, 10% goes to string bank stabilization, whereas 12 million of that is from the erosion pilot.

The rest has been maintenance on private infrastructure to protect those from erosion.

And then we have the other programs that are just general maintenance in terms of protecting outfalls, replacing uh damaged pipes, and then the miscellaneous and watershed studies are kind of bad.

So and this is the map of where we've made these improvements, where we've performed the buyouts kind of across the city.

So right now we're in the process of doing our first major update in a sense, so that we can expand the capital improvement plan out another five years to go from 2031 to 2036.

We're gonna incorporate new uh localized flooding issues that we've identified, stormwater maintenance needs that have come up, um, as well as update our project cost estimates, and then um we're gonna work on doing as much of this in-house as possible so that we can make sure that our our funding is still going towards the flood mitigation projects.

And so this will this will take a multi-year effort to go through and and do these like major watershed plan updates.

Um, and so we'll we'll we'll be kind of cranking this information out as we go along.

And so with that, I'll take any questions.

Yes, council member ware.

Um you said you're gonna uh working under a worse first uh plan is um I asking because that's what we used to do with the streets, and uh now we uh now we have a another way to do it that um gets that solves some problems, prevents some problems by fixing some of those streets uh at an earlier date when it's easier to do, cheaper to do, uh, and presents uh prevents problems developing.

Is is that a consideration uh to treat this the same way, or is it's or is the worst so desperate it's gotta be done or the houses are gonna wash away.

It's the worst in the terms of uh home flooding, business flooding, in the sense of they they have water entering their home and they're sustaining continual flood damages, and so um kind of to put it in perspective, one inch of water in an average home causes about 27,000 worth of damage.

And so we we prioritize making sure that we we get to the structural flooding first, and from a worst approach is like if they are flooding every time it rains, or maybe when the rain is just a little bit too intense, that's a pretty serious issue that we need to address.

And so that's the worst part of it.

Now, when we get into the maintenance of our storm drain system, we take more of what the streets do, where there's preventative maintenance so that we don't get to like the the red pipe, you know, in a sense of like, oh, this is about to collapse.

There are some things with the the storm drain pipe that I had in the picture on the slide where it's like that's that's gonna be about six to seven million dollars for us to replace, and so it got to the point of it had serious failures, but in terms of flooding, we want to address the worst flooding first so that they don't sustain continual flood damages.

Okay, so essentially you're doing you're do you're you're doing what the streets are doing just in a different manner.

Yeah, okay.

Any other questions?

Uh Councilmember Gonzalez.

Thank you, uh Mayor.

Thank you, Amy.

You know you and I have dealt with this for last six and a half years is the hardest thing I've I've done, and I I recommend to all the new city council members when you get a call from one of your uh constituents to come look at it, take a city staff member because it's the hardest thing you can do is uh you're gonna look at it and you're gonna say, Oh, we're gonna help you, and you just you feel really you helpless when you can't do anything, so uh definitely reach out to Keith or Amy and they'll have somebody.

So, Amy, I mean, you know, we've seen more and more of this, and and a lot of people are blaming the storm drains and the increase.

I mean, so are it certain thing that we're doing to, I mean, I I know you guys look at it, but um I'm hearing more and more of that.

Uh I think we all got an email from somebody today with regards to um, I think what was it, Mill Creek?

Was that what it was, and I mean, is there anything that we can do or anything that's that that we're thinking of doing that, you know, because I think we're getting more rain than we've ever gotten before, and it's coming down hard.

It's not like it used to be slow.

Now you're getting three, four inches in one day.

And so we're seeing things we've never seen before.

So, in terms of what we can do, and in um so what we do is when there is flooding, that's that's when we we step in and do the do the mitigation that's needed.

So it's it's got to be structural roadway flooding, those type of things.

We do have design criteria now that's implemented, and so when a property comes in and redevelops, they've got to meet our current criteria.

And so in many cases, that may that may require adding detention when there wasn't one there before, or doing stream bank improvements when they hadn't before because we have erosion clear zone requirements now where the buildings have to be set back and so away from the creek, and so when they do that, they typically have to go in and do stream bank improvements and things like that.

Um but when we have flood mitigation projects, we do evaluate, you know, if we need detention, kind of what's what's we have to as a fully developed uh community, we have to use multiple tools to kind of approach this problem.

And so um, yes, we we do look at things case by case and make sure that the appropriate measure is is put in place.

Well, it was really neat to see the key branch.

I remember uh when I first got on, Keith went with me to several houses because they did not want to use the vegetation, and you showed them the map of what trees they were going to lose, and they were not happy.

I mean, because they were gonna lose the you know, now they're gonna see their neighbors, but just a couple of years later, it's it's come back and even looking nicer.

So I I appreciate you being patient with these people because I know it's most those are the most difficult meetings you guys go to.

Um they don't like the answers, um, and they always you know uh throw out threats and everything else, and you know, sometimes they're really rude.

And so I appreciate your you working with our citizens and working to find solution for all these people.

So thank you, Amy.

Councilmember Galante.

I mean, thank you so much for the for the report.

Um in the update.

So I was the one that asked for this update, and it's very, very important.

Uh very uh informational.

I have a couple questions for you, okay.

Uh on the on the data-driven uh prioritization, you have the uh the little map with color coded, right?

I think it's the slide number 13.

And it shows that uh unstable, highly unstable, emergency repair, right?

Yes.

So basically, do we have this map for the entire city?

A majority of the city.

We have a few tributaries in Johnson Creek that we didn't we didn't get when we were going through, but we do we do have this.

You said uh for the erosion mitigation, uh, estimated half a million, half up, five hundred million dollars, half a billion dollars, right?

Will be estimated in uh how many uh properties uh that you estimate that are affected today?

Two three hundred, two ninety-six?

At the highly unstable, it was two hundred and thirty-nine.

239 properties, okay.

Yes, the for the time you've been doing this, um the priority is flood, right?

Yes, sir.

How much improvement you've seen uh on flood mitigation uh from past episodes, you know, uh in the 90s, the eighties, in the recent episodes that we have, you know, like council member Gonzalez uh said, we we've we have seen um uh the events will be more uh accentuated, right?

Because, you know, more rain, more heat.

So how much improvement you've seen yourself as a as a professional?

Since we've implemented the comprehensive stormwater plan, I will say that the number of calls that we receive after rain events has gone down significantly.

I don't want to say it's never.

There could be people who have stopped calling, but now when we get calls, it's it's in locations where we already have projects identified and are working on it.

Used to, whenever it rained, we would get two to three hundred calls, and we just don't we don't per year uh per event.

Per event, two, three hundred calls per event.

Yes, and how many?

How many now?

Very few.

Well, yeah, it's it's been it's a hundred million dollars that we've invested, and so we've been able to make a lot of progress in the neighborhoods where there were 40, 50 homes that were at risk of flooding.

Yes.

Excellent, and uh, you know, uh uh, for everybody that's watching this and uh following the report, which is very good, uh that $10 assessment fee on uh on the water bill, which is for storm water, earmarked for stormwater, we're looking at 20 million dollars per year.

Uh only 10% already, you know, 10% is earmarked for uh erosion mitigation, right?

So we see the flood, the flood program is working, but we have we have been receiving, I have been receiving, and I visit myself dozens of locations, a couple of them I went with Kief there to visit the locations where those residents are losing their backyards.

Some of them have their foundation at risk that is falling down to the creek.

Uh of course, only two million dollars per year is not gonna move the needle when we need half a billion dollars in order to attack all of them.

And it came to our attention, we have uh uh an email from residents that other cities implemented uh uh bank stabilization programs, uh, of course, having a different way of uh uh assessment, collecting different ways on fees.

Of course, we we we have already our money committed, the you know, the the 20 million dollars per year.

But um, since you already have everything mapped out, uh what does it take for us to uh, you know, to contemplate of creating a program for attacking only the urgent and at risk residences that I visit several of them uh that are about to follow the creeks.

What what does it take for us to do it?

So can you compare what other cities are doing?

Austin and you have Plano, we have uh Grand Prairie.

We would have to go and and come back and talk to you about that because it's been a while since we we did a benchmark survey when we did the erosion pilot program to see where everyone was at and what they were doing, and we had extensive conversations also with Plano too a few years ago before they started theirs.

And so we would need to check back in with those cities to see where are those programs actually at because there's there's what they have published and then how it's actually going and check in with them.

And so I'd have to come back and kind of report back on that on like where those programs are today and then really how they compare to us.

Okay, so what the what the residents are being asking, and I'm I am willing to uh give it a go on look at the assessment.

It's a stream bank erosion assessment in the city, and uh in order to help the the private properties.

I'm not saying the the taxpayer money will pay for those uh those uh fixings on their the creeks, uh but somehow have them pay back or somehow help them in any way because now the situation is I have dozens of dozens of residents only in North Arlington that uh their homes are valuable around 200,000 or 300,000, and they have a hundred thousand dollars uh repair, yeah uh uh you know, and they're gonna go bankrupt.

That's the reality.

A lot of people are living in uh in a fixed income, a lot of them are retired, uh retired.

I I walk those creeks myself, I have all the pictures.

I mean, I can tell they cannot do it.

The option is if we don't do nothing, they're gonna lose their homes.

If if we do something, we need to be very careful not to increase the cost of operational for the city, but I would like to ask my colleagues to contemplate have that assessment.

They wrote the steam bank erosion assessment uh done, and then we can look at formally what can we do to create a program like we see other cities like Plano that are doing very well taking care of their residents.

I appreciate to hear from you.

Amy.

Let's pretend I'm a resident and I'm telling you I have an erosion problem in the creek behind my house.

And my complaint is, listen, the city caused this erosion because when I bought my house, none of this other development was out here, and now you've allowed shopping centers and parking lots and apartment complexes and all this other development to come.

That is adding significant runoff into the creek system behind my house.

How valid is that argument if it's happened over the last 20 to 30 years and having the city be the responsible party for allowing that development?

Do you follow me?

I do.

So basically the response?

Yeah, I mean, because that's let's be candid.

That's the argument that we get.

I hear it often that the city's the responsible party.

You gotta pay for this.

The city back in the 80s, you allowed these apartments to come, you allowed the shopping center to come, you allowed the parking lot to come.

I bought my house in the 70s, and I didn't have these problems.

I had this beautiful creek that ran back through here.

And now, according to the resident, all of that development has created the runoff, and the city should fix it all.

And I guess what I'm looking for is what is our answer, and it may be something better suited for our city attorney on that, but what is the answer for why all of this runoff is or isn't causing that problem and why is it or is it not the city's responsibility?

That was loaded, wasn't it?

I just baited you with everything.

So typically when we get that question, um we look at what's going on at the property.

That's where we start.

What what else is in in the if there's a drainage easement?

Is there a drainage easement?

In some cases, we're we're we're looking at 70 years worth of development that has occurred, and um there's various levels of design criteria that that happened when Arlington built up.

And so depending on where they're at, is how we kind of change that that explanation.

So if we're saying like Key Branch tributary one, is probably kind of where this example fits in the best, because there was a large commercial, there's a large commercial uh area that was built up, there's concrete line channel, and then it went into this neighborhood.

Um where it was a natural creek that it outfalled to.

And we've gone, we had gone through over years and um like done done improvements to protect the public infrastructure, but it the question's always well, why don't you go further to kind of do the rest of the creek, right?

And so what we what we generally explain to people is that the drainage easement there is for conveyance of the the flow from from these off-site area areas that come so the commercial property, all of that.

And so the if there's not public infrastructure, say like a sewer line or what you know, something else in there, we you know, I explained the city's policy on that, that the drainage easement was meant for the conveyance of flow, and when at the time of development, it was they were making sure that like structures were staying out of the floodplain, that there was enough freeboard for the houses not to flood.

And so I kind of walk through based off of where they're at and when the the the neighborhood developed of kind of what was going on to explain the situation.

So in the example of Key Branch Tributary One, they've they built up this area, and the drainage easement was there to convey the flows through the properties and then get to Key Branch.

So then the property owner is responsible for management of the creek, management of the retaining walls kind of in in the creek area.

Yeah.

Go ahead, go ahead.

Sorry you hit me.

I didn't I didn't get the answer.

Yes or no.

Do the resident and I appreciate that may you're asking the question because this is what we're facing in and let's be clear in Canada about it.

Do they have a merit?

They, you know, a lot of residents out there feel like the development of the city creates a larger amount of storm water in the creeks, and that's the cause of the erosion.

Do they have a merit, yes or not?

I mean, yes, is there merit to that argument?

Do they have a merit to the argument?

Are they right or wrong on assuming that the build out in the city is creating more stormwater to the creek that is private?

Yeah, I'm I'm gonna move us along because city attorney's telling me that this would be an executive session discussion when you come to liability and stuff like that.

So we will we will, here's what we'll do.

We'll carry this conversation into an executive session on a future city council meeting and not get Amy bogged down with all of that stuff.

Mr.

Hogg, can we you keep us out of executive session?

I will not.

Well, I can bog us down faster than anyone, but I won't, or I will try not to.

Um, Mr.

Ware, you said earlier.

I think uh one of the hardest things when you're a council member, I tell any new council member when I came on, I said, Boy, the lack of water knowledge is quickly where you realize you're really weak from the water department to our stormwater department, because uh I'm the first to admit I knew absolutely nothing about all of this um when I came on to council and I'm I don't know how many years in, four years in, and I still feel like I don't know a whole lot.

Um, so I'll leave questions if we're gonna talk about this more.

But I did want to say, um, I had I've met with Mr.

Monis a couple of times over there as he's formed a uh, and mainly that my colleagues know, he's formed an Arlington Stormwater Alliance, so 14 or so of the HOAs within Arlington are meeting, um, to talk through all this.

Um, we had a nice meeting with Amy yesterday.

Um, boy, they quickly both of them outpaced my knowledge really fast on what we're doing.

Um, but the goal is truly to have these discussions more frequently um with residents, and really from an educational perspective, proactive perspective, um, because we've seen it, you know.

Amy Amy can sit there and tell you really quick and her team what you need to do on some maintenance and and things to help prevent problems from becoming bigger problems on what they're doing and maybe help some of that erosion.

So I just wanted to let my colleagues know.

This this group's just been meeting for the last month or two.

Um, they're, I think, tentatively scheduled to do a meeting with them on uh in September where Amy and our team will print some educational pieces over there, some detailed questions.

So we all talk, and Miss Miss Garcia Dumas said earlier like how we're engaging more with residents on really a proactive piece, and I think that's getting us to that step.

Um, I was I was very clear with Mitch.

I was like, let's not make it a gotcha meetings.

Let's make sure we're doing this from an educational standpoint, um, because we all know there's more to learn.

And every time I'm in a meeting with Amy, I'm like, oh, okay, that's how that actually works.

So I just want to thank that group.

I know multiple people over there have been in there.

Um, the more proactive we can all get, so I appreciate Mr.

Glante for bringing this up.

Because we do need to have these discussions about how we get there and how we do that.

So I just want to let my colleagues know that's coming in.

We won't have everyone there so that we're not meeting corn, but we'll get a few of us there to be able to listen and be a fly on the wall.

Here's what would make me feel a little bit more comfortable is if we could go a little bit further and look at the assessment of what other communities are doing and how they're addressing some of these issues compared to how we're doing it.

Are we on mark?

Are we missing the mark a little bit?

Let's let's look at that and come back and talk in more detail.

What you've done here is phenomenal.

You blow my mind, especially when they ask you a question, you say there's 239 homes and you know it off the top of your head, or 237 homes that are impacted by it.

You blow my mind with your knowledge of this, but what if what if we're missing the mark on how other communities are handling it?

Can we learn something from anything like that?

Here's here's what my very novice infantile understanding is.

This is a hugely costly proposition that there's no easy answer to it.

No matter what we do, we're never gonna be able to resolve all of this.

But uh I think we we owe it to take a little bit deeper dive into what others are doing, and is there something else that we might be able to do here in Arlington?

I get mixed signals from the community to be candid as well.

There are some people that say, listen, why would I have to pay extra?

I don't live on a creek.

Why am I paying the extra amount of money to mitigate stormwater runoff in someone else's creek?

That's not my issue.

They knew the creek was there when they bought the house.

And then I hear the people with the creek saying, but we didn't have those issues 20 or 30 years ago.

We now have the issues today, and so and they're all legitimate issues.

Uh so I'd just like to continue our assessment into what we're doing and let's see what everybody else is doing, and if everybody's comfortable with it, if can we go quick because we yeah, I just want to say, I mean, Mr.

Galante, don't think you're the only one.

My whole district's been like that for six years.

So that's exactly what we've done.

So don't think what they're saying, but this has been going on for many, many years.

So thank you, Amy.

Seriously, and and Keith for the entire staff that shows up to those meetings.

They're tough.

Thank you, Amy.

Good job.

Let's move on down to 3.3 strength in our communities.

Deputy City Manager Wickman, and by the way, Jennifer, thank you for taking care of that thump thump noise.

I saw you run out with phone in hand, so you weren't very good at your covert activities, but you were good at getting that noise stopped.

Espionage, not my strength, perhaps enforcement is, but no, there was there were several staff members who called over there, including Andy and Bridget to help out with that.

So we appreciate that.

And we appreciate Latetia for fixing that.

Okay, so um uh Jennifer Wickman, deputy city manager.

Um, thanks so much for having me here today.

Wanted to talk about the strength in our communities uh council priority.

This was established in 2025.

Um, it combined a few of the previous priorities that council had had the champion great neighborhoods, build unity, and support youth and family.

So I wanted to talk, highlight a few things in the business plan and in other areas that are happening right now.

First, as you just heard, the comprehensive plan is on track and moving forward, so we're we're very pleased about that.

That was the progress report that you heard.

Form best code has been adopted, which is a terrific move forward.

Um, the active continues to bring in many, many uh uh customers.

They had 72,000 total scans during the second quarter and revenue of that same quarter totaled over 350,000.

Um, there's work continuing to um generate revenue around that um uh that that venue and hoping to help with the cost recovery that that I know is important to council along with serving that population.

Um, and then wanted to make sure also mention that our um Office of Communication and our communication legislative affairs department has worked hard on an ADA requirement to um get all of our websites up to date uh and our departments have worked hard on that as well.

It's gonna be completed for us in the third quarter of FY26.

Although the federal government has actually had to extend that deadline into FY27.

But real kudos to our staff for getting that done earlier than it turns out it needed to be done.

Um, additionally, a lot of work going on with Arlington's 150th anniversary celebration.

Over 5,000 yard signs have been handed out and in some cases actually placed out by our team in communications.

They've done great work with that, and then the commemorative sculpture touched by time, uh, is in production with Justin Ginsburg Studio.

So we're very excited about that.

Um, also wanted to share a small but important um element.

This is our housing choice voucher program, life skills event.

This is run by our housing authority.

Uh they do a lot of great work, but in and did want to highlight this.

They collaborated with the workforce solutions of Tarrant County, and they deliver some sessions that to the to some residents focused on job readiness, workplace expectation, um, uh, and then also interview prep, which we think is really terrific.

Uh, additional highlights um include our Office of Strategic Initiatives, uh works really hard to make genuine and um important connections with our neighborhoods.

They are building uh a uh sort of a directory of neighborhoods.

They've got 54 total neighborhoods listed, and they've added, they added 14 new registrants just in the in the second quarter of FY26.

These are, it's not just a random list that we don't know who's on there and haven't verified that these folks are leaders in their neighborhood, but they not only put these folks on this list, but um also offer some training, so it's a really good way to strengthen strengthen our neighborhoods.

Also, want to mention that our um Tyler Heard and Nora Coronado's team and asset management, they've been working hard with education with our public and have managed to reduce, have a 5% reduction in contamination of curbside recycling.

5% may not sound a lot, but in the recycling world, that is very significant improvement, right?

And so the more they can keep that contamination out of that stream, the better, sort of on the end stream that when republic processes that and possibly we, as many of you know, we get paid for some of that materials that get recycled, it all improves that.

So we appreciate their work.

The police department continues to report crime reductions.

We've got 9% reduction in crimes against person and also a 9% reduction in crimes against property, a 9% increase in crimes against society.

And I want to tell you, this is a good thing.

Um, these are crimes that our police officers go out and find themselves.

Situations where the people who are engaged in this criminal activity are not going to call 911 and report us and sort of call us to let us know that that's happening.

Our officers have to go out and look for this crime.

So we really appreciate that increase.

Is very significant.

So a few items on our scorecard that we wanted to highlight.

I know the number of Arlington residents using the United Way 211 line.

Dr.

Odin Wesley has always been in interested in this particular stat, and you can see that they're they're working about 5,000 folks a quarter, are calling that to get information.

This is really like an information line for people needing human services help.

It's all answered down in Houston because of the economies of scale help that.

They have all the local information about Arlington so they can speak to people who call from here.

Um, couple highlights of code stats.

Um, so the voluntary compliance, our code compliance department works very hard to help people comply themselves without having to write a citation.

We don't want to write citations, we want to explain what the situation is and have people remedy it themselves.

And so our goal is 80%.

They do estimate that by the end of the year they will be at 80%.

So we're really pleased about that.

Uh, and then their tool sharing program.

This is another prevent something before it becomes an issue.

They have um uh lawn mowers, um, weed eaters, um, I think even sidewalk power washers, all sorts of things that folks, if they just call up, the staff will deliver it to their house, pick it up a few days later, and go.

It's completely free.

It's there's not income-based, it's a great program.

If you don't have a particular tool, but you really want to figure out, you know, you want to maybe power wash your sidewalk, but you don't want to buy a power washer, this is a great way to get that done.

So we appreciate them them doing that, and that helps all of our neighborhoods look better.

Um stat we're really keeping an eye on across this the city is our volunteer hours that really decreased after COVID.

We're working to get it back up.

You can see that we're down in that, frankly, in animal services hours, which is only 974 hours reported in the second quarter.

That's not enough to get us to that goal.

We do think we're gonna be at about 5,000 by the end of the year, which is better.

It's better than the previous year, but it's not where we want to be.

So we're gonna keep working on that.

And then our library tracks cards issued to our residents who are under 18, and you can see that they're doing great work there and estimate that they're gonna be sort of closer to that 2,000 mark by the end of the year, which is great.

So a few highlights on upcoming projects and initiatives.

You just heard a great presentation on stormwater, and uh Trey frequently talks to you all about how we pay the residents back and how we can save them money.

One kind of hidden way, it's not in a in a discount on your property tax or anything like that, but this um by having this national flood rating uh community rating system or CRS rating of five, it offers our residents a 25% discount on their insurance premiums.

That's really significant.

That can be a big bill for homeowners.

I think it couldn't, this is a significant thing to help out with that.

You can see that our court collections testing texting.

This is, they work with our collection agent Leinbarger to do this.

This past um past few months, the collections testing campaign, um, taxing campaign resulted in 292 payments and then 70 poor payment plans.

This really helps people remember and keep track of the money they may owe to the court due to ticket, and this helps them it from going into warrant status or anything like that or collecting additional fees.

It's a it's a great program.

We're doing a prescribed burn at the Blackland Prairie Park.

And I apologize, there's still a reference to the Lake Arlington golf course in there.

It will be at the Blackland Prairie Park, but this is a collaboration between our fire department and our parks department.

It's really a win-win situation here.

It is a chance for our firefighters to get more of an understanding as to how to fight those sort of prairie or grass fires, and uh it also restores natural land, so it's a real benefit for our parks department and can pre-burn things so they wouldn't maybe catch on fire later on.

So, really an innovative uh project there.

It's something Fort Worth has also tried recently.

You may have here seen some of those articles, so that's very exciting.

And then uh finally wanted to highlight the risk management.

They have a safe driving program.

This is through our human resources department, and they've worked with city employees to help them understand the importance of safe driving, improve those um those um those skills, and also sort of understand what really the cost of a single accident can be to help the city as much as we can reduce those costs.

And I'm happy to answer any questions that the council may have on this priority.

Anything good?

Thank you, Jennifer.

Appreciate you.

Okay, we're gonna move on down and talk about the staff reports for the sake of time.

Everybody's received the written reports.

Uh we'll have um quite you can ask questions about any individual report, and we'll have the people here to answer your questions if you have anyone.

First one is 4.1 election activities at municipal polling places.

Any questions for Jay?

Yes, Councilmember.

Jay, thank you for the um for the report on election.

So for I can see here, I'll be inclined to uh to review the election related activities of city on polling place locations, especially where they can put the signs on it.

You know, to avoid the cluster uh at uh LZ Odom uh place or election time, those signs, and I've been seeing lately, they're putting bigger signs, those that can block the entry and exit on Greenoaks and cause an accident.

There's all the locations also that can happen, especially um telling what the size should be, you know.

I mean, let me just add, I I like uniformity and consistency, and we do have restrictions at Bob Duncan where we don't have restrictions in other polling places out there.

I I wouldn't mind seeing some of those restrictions.

My understanding was we did have a little fender bender at active where there was some complaint that some of the campaigning signs obstructed the view.

Um maybe we should look at some consistency and uniformity with where we could place campaign signs amongst polling places.

I don't know how council feels about that.

It won't affect my campaign at all.

So we can bring that back.

I'm not too worried about it.

Love is excited.

Look at that.

Council Member Hogg, did you have something you want to add?

I I thought I interrupted you.

Yeah, can you all look at something like that?

So we can bring that back to you.

Thank you, sir.

Uh 4.2.

Any questions for Lemuel Randolph?

Yes, Dr.

Odom Wesley.

Get this in.

This is your last.

My last chance to talk about health services in our city.

Uh, thank you for the report.

Um, pretty comprehensive look.

And uh, I guess my question is, so what?

What's the next step?

What are you gonna do about it?

I'd like to see a map that shows where the location of all these health services are, so that we can identify where the gaps are, and then what difference can we make and how do we get it together?

And I don't know, maybe we need a group to work on this.

I know the mayor already has the wellness coalition, and maybe that's the group that needs this data, and let's look at what we can do to improve those statistics and social determinants of health.

Uh look at those zip code.

I just your zip code should not determine your life expectancy.

That shouldn't be a factor.

So, what can we do to make sure all of our citizens, no matter what part of town they live in, have access to adequate health care and an improved quality of life because our scores are low.

You want to tackle that.

So, what's next?

So that's a uh a big question.

Uh but part of the the purpose of the report was to really show the level of partnerships that exist in the community to address those determinants.

There was also significant focus on some grant opportunities that we're uh pursuing with our health care partners, and so that will help extend uh not only coverage but also specifically address some of those social determinants that are referenced in the report.

Uh but it, you know, the the city's posture really is a uh leverage partner.

Uh we don't directly provide uh health services, but we certainly partner with medical providers in the community, whether it's um the county, whether it's nonprofits, uh, whether it's our own foundations that uh support uh the work of a number of nonprofits, it takes all of that effort to uh start to address some of those concerns.

Uh we did see some areas where we had some improvement, uh, and I think that speaks to um some of the services that that have existed.

Um, but it is a uh it is a significant challenge, but one that we're gonna tackle through the partnerships that we're able to leverage.

Why don't why don't we do this?

Because Dr.

Odin Wesley, I think you have a good idea.

You know, our uh the mayor's wellness coalition is made up of a lot of the partners who are providing those services here in Arlington, whether it's JPS, Tarrant County, MHMR, a lot of the charitable groups on there.

Let's get this report to them.

Maybe Lem Lemuel, if you could come during our next meeting and help with the presentation and get a little discussion going about is there gaps in this type of stuff and how we can uh approach some of that.

That might that might be a good way to start.

How do you like that?

Can I ask you a question in front of everybody?

Are you gonna stay involved in the wellness coalition?

I knew that was coming.

Yes, we know.

Well, that way you can hold my feet to the fire and make sure that we can all keep a part of this.

I know you have a passion for this.

Actually, mayor, I'd like to be involved with the wellness coalition.

Thank you.

In my retirement.

I knew we could count on you.

Any other questions for Lemuel?

Quick question.

Not even a question.

Just to congratulate you for the this report.

This is not a staff report, it's a full booklet of all the resources we're having in Arlington.

And congratulations for you two for the idea and making it happen.

You know, you're leaving a legacy for sure.

This is incredible.

I took my time to read the whole thing.

Incredible.

Thank you.

Okay, thank you, Lemuel.

Uh 4.3 commercial motor vehicle parking update.

Any questions or comments for Chief Jones?

Yes, Councilmember Galante.

Always in here.

Chief, thanks for the report.

And uh I see we move on.

Just for the record, uh, earlier, Councilmember Galante had told me that he was gonna stay quiet this entire afternoon work session.

Um I just wanted that to be known that you weren't truthful.

Have you have you heard of reverse psychology?

Go ahead, Councilmember.

Thank you, Chief.

Uh, I see we moving the needle uh on you know, CM V, you know, enforcement and education, special education.

And I've seen several places you guys have been putting those signs, uh, no parking here, and you're working uh to get those uh signs with uh TX dot pretty soon gonna have them to the CD.

It makes the C City safer and fair for the residents, right?

Those 18 wheelers parking or residential uh areas.

Uh, you want to say something?

No, yes, sir.

We've actually uh heard your call, and we've actually uh put a lot of things into play.

Uh part of it is getting the signs up for text dot.

Um the other part of it is trying to figure out or going through our CAD system, um, identifying those locations, identifying locations, changing how we code some of the calls so that we know exactly if it's commercial vehicle-related, um, so that we can keep track of it, and we provide you a report uh now every month along with our traffic uh information.

So hopefully that will solve some of the issues and you can see what exactly what we're doing every month.

Oh, thank you.

By now you should have that hot map, right?

The the heat map where those guys are parking, right?

We got the heat map and we are out there giving citations and those habituents, we're actually telling them now.

So, my question real quick is if uh uh 18 wheeler has no place, no business to be in a residential area unless he's loading and unloading, it's it's an ordinance, right?

That's correct.

Why are we giving two hours for them to park if they're not loading and loading?

Um, so uh we we try to, and it's about sometimes about educating too um when we have those uh vehicles going into communities.

Uh we try to make sure they understand what the law is, um, and we try to educate them first.

Um, and if they don't get the message, then we actually do the progressive, um, such as warnings, tickets, and then tow.

Okay, what I like to suggest here maybe is that if uh 18-wheeler is in a residential area, if he's not loading or unloading, he shouldn't be giving two hours for them to stay in residential areas because he's not doing business, they not have no business to be there, they're not doing business, don't be there.

I mean, giving uh two hours for a uh 18-wheeler to park on a residential area, I disagree with that.

I think we could take a look at the ordinance and go to municipal policy and just do an amendment.

No 18-wheeler is allowed on residential areas unless he's loading and loading.

I don't know, yeah.

I I don't know if I'm real interested in getting into that lengthy discussion to shorten the time limit where they're there.

I I understand what the chief is saying that you education is a key part of any law enforcement activity out there.

And if you just you know, what if somebody lives there in the neighborhood is not fully understanding the ordinance on there, we're giving them an opportunity to be educated.

If you don't move your rig, then we write you a citation on it.

But you know, are we gonna have a situation where cops are sitting out there just waiting for someone to park a rig somewhere so they can get out of there and then write a ticket?

That's all I'm suggesting.

I'm suggesting that if you're living there and you know, I mean uh 18 wheelers are not permitted on residential areas.

Don't even park there unless you loading and loading.

If you're loading and loading, of course.

When you finish loading and loading, you leave, but parking there for two hours without doing business, I don't I don't I will like to hear from my colleagues.

You heard from this one.

Yeah, long.

Uh Chief on that uh citation, is that these uh that those uh let's say April at 23.

It that 23 citations, I mean the owner of the truck have previously had a warning before, or that the first time they they stop and and park there and get a site.

No, I I think it's about uh as I said before.

Um we want to make sure that we are educating them first, um, and that's what the warning is about.

Um, and then if they continue to park, um, and then we actually start taking or going up the progressive uh ladder uh from tickets um to towels.

Okay.

Well uh I'm not gonna drop name, but one time I have one patrol officer told me that uh well, this guy have family making money, we got to go easy on them.

And I say, how I like if I'm a owner 18-wheeler, I'm gonna park on your house.

You think you would like that?

And that officer stay quiet, didn't answer me.

I didn't tell the officer who I was, I just like correctly citizen.

So yeah, that kind of called me some concern.

You know, we need to uh have you know spread the message that hey you violate something, give them a warning.

I'm okay with that, you know, educate people.

So, you know, and then we have people that park there.

The truck not to enrich it, and got no lesson play.

I seen that happen.

Uh, yeah.

No, I can tell you we have been taking a series of the last couple of months where we've actually been documenting uh our efforts.

Um, and that's what that report is that you get every month.

We want you to see what we're doing, um, so that you know exactly um where the locations are because we identify those.

Uh and then you also get um where we're parking, what kind of tickets we're getting, and then what type of enforcement we're getting or what c what type of enforcement we're doing.

Um we haven't, you know, we haven't in the past really told a lot of vehicles, but we are starting to um take it serious in total's vehicles.

Um we want to um make sure we're driving the message home that we don't want you parking in Arlington, especially if you're not uh, you know, we don't want we don't want to park in our residential neighborhoods.

Go ahead.

Thank you, Chief.

Thanks, Chief.

Thank you.

All right, let's move on down to 4.4 citywide software rental housing locator map.

Any questions for Mindy Cochran?

I see you're peeking around the corner, hoping there's no questions too late, Mindy.

Come on in, Dr.

Oda Wesley has a question.

I was real excited when I read this report until I got to the very last sentence.

And the sentence says there's no financial impact to the city.

That's a good thing, and Citywise receives their fees from landlords and property owners who choose to participate.

That's correct.

So if nobody chooses to participate, then this whole program is worthless.

That would be true, but I th Mindy Cocker and Executive Director Housing, but I think that they'll have um good participation historically.

They have we're not we're not the city first city to participate in this.

We're the first city in Texas to participate, not the first city though, and they've had really good participation because the landlords want people to find their units, and this is really um they spent a lot of time targeting smaller properties that don't have the financial resources to um pay a big fee for advertising like some of the larger developments can.

So, as a matter of fact, some of the smaller developments they don't charge fees, so to encourage participation.

I'll tell you when when uh we first met with this this group that was coming in here, they were bragging about all their success in Cincinnati.

The mayor of Cincinnati is a good friend.

So I just picked up the phone and called them and he sung the praises of them.

He says tremendous participation in Cincinnati.

It's been a great help to the city in identifying some of the problems with their different multifamily units out there, uh, was very robust in his compliments about them.

So, I sure like the idea.

I'm glad we're gonna have it.

And of course, as we always do, innovating in Arlington, we're the first in Texas.

I like that idea.

And uh I also read this opportunity for these um apartment complexes, multifamily developments to post their inspection scores.

Yes, we can connect with them to post our code enforcement scores, we certainly can.

Um, and I think it's gonna be a great benefit for those that are looking for an apartment for a number of reasons.

If you need an apartment that has accessible units that takes dogs, take seven cats, whatever you're looking for.

There's a lot of filters that you can that you can use.

Does it take a Section A voucher?

A lot of things that you can filter for, but I think one of the biggest benefits is we've asked them to not include just the rent, but all of the fees because if you go rent an apartment and it's $1,500, what you don't realize is it's $75 tech fee, $30 trash fee, $10 parking fee, and you pay your application fee only to find out they actually don't qualify.

So I think it's sort of a truth in lending, if you will, for renters, and I think that's gonna be really beneficial.

Thank you, Mindy.

It's great program.

Yeah, Councilman Rock.

Thank you, thank you, Mayor.

Um I like the program overall as I look at it on software day.

Mindy, does it and I I like the piece of adding the code enforcement um scores, you know, we've talked about that in neighborhood development.

Let me ask, does it also give the data?

Because we shows we can kind of do a market housing analysis from this data.

Does it show occupancy rates of each facility?

So if apartment A is renting, does it show they're at 94?

It'd be interesting to real time data of what their occupancy rates are.

It's supposed to show vacancies, so we could get the occupancy rate from that, but it's supposed to show vacancy.

And I should add it should be live by the end of this week.

So and and live by then.

So this probably cramps my question.

Are they the only ones doing this or do we think there's anyone else?

The only ones that we've heard of.

There's a lot of apartment finder type um places, but this is the only one that's really working with municipalities to share information.

Um in the way that they are doing this.

So they started out doing a similar program for student housing that was very successful and have moved into this arena.

And when residents go on this, what kind of do we know what kind of I mean they're opting in, so they probably lose a lot of privacy and data, but they're submitting all their information.

So then you're as a somebody searching for an apartment, you don't have to put in any information.

You can go to the filters and say I have seven cats and I want to live in this neighborhood, and it will filter for whatever you'd like to filter for.

Okay, thank you.

And we can build it as time goes by.

Any other questions for Mindy?

Thank you, Mindy.

Uh don't run off too far because Councilmember Hunter is not here, and she said that you were gonna fill in for her.

Um 4.5 uh committee meetings, uh, community and neighborhood development, council member hog.

I just looked up and saw it's 5 42.

Mayor, I didn't know what time it was.

Um I know.

Wow, we've gone long.

Uh, yeah, I'll do a quick report on this.

Um C and D met this morning to continue discussions regarding our multifamily inspections um standards.

We are nearing a path, and we do believe this will come before council um in August, September.

We'll have uh some approvals.

We're doing a couple of more pieces, and then uh we're hoping to take this new process live by one-one.

So we are reaching that path.

Um, but a couple of the key at factors is um we wanna look at things of achieving passing multifamily inspection stores, um, allowing them and and putting some rules in place and making them make necessary corrections identified during inspections, and then uh we we're gonna we're asking property owners to have to post annual property inspection scores.

Um we really want to put some value on those property inspection stores.

So when someone's coming in to rent, kind of like we just said on the city wise, um, when they come into rent, they're gonna be able to see what that score is, and we believe that's gonna make uh property owners really push for what they're doing to be able to receive those scores.

Um and then also requiring property owners to provide an in-state contact.

As you know, we have a lot of owners that are um out of state, so we want them to have an in-state contact from what they're doing um from those perspectives.

We're also reviewing uh ways to share information with tenants of low scoring properties while allowing the management team uh time to be able to remedy those.

Because as we said, you know, we want to we want to be forceful, but the goal is to have a quality living place and have them fix um necessary functions what they're doing.

So uh we also looked at inspection fees, uh, what we're doing.

Uh they're evaluated annually.

As you know, we cannot make revenue on that, but we can do full cost recovery um on that.

So we review that annually annually, um, and then just a little on program.

We also covered real fast a piece of Knox development.

Um, if y'all remember Knox Development is Park Row and kind of 360 on the frontage road over there.

Um we had it as a two-phase multi-family, it's now looking at a two-phase multi-unit family unit.

We approved 82.

Um, and now we're looking at another 69 senior living developments.

Um, the address if you all know is 401 Watson Road.

Um, this was part of the nine percent um of phase one, and they are actually applying for the phase two.

Um both these applications received council support in the past, um, and we're working to help them close a funding gap.

And the reason there's a funding gap is they are having to add a second location coming in um from there.

And and I I believe this developers doing things correctly on what they're doing, and they're looking to acquire some land to get there and and just overall help the whole community as a whole.

But we we do have a funding gap we're looking to build out and go in, and we provided multiple strategies, whether it's uh uh improvement and zone, uh and then or partner with developer on HUD loans, um, and or going and venture capital fund or really pushing them on local banks um to get some of those.

We kind of went through and prioritized, and then Troy and team are going back to the developer to see what can be done to help those uh options from where we're going.

I'll stop with that.

Any questions for council member hog?

Perfect 4.6 in the come on back.

Hi, the Arlington Housing Finance Corporation had two really main activities today.

One was for the past three years, they have had a single family bond program.

They apply for private activity bonds and then allocate those to the Texas Department of Housing and Community Affairs to administer the program on Arlington's behalf.

That's been very successful, resulting in 94 homeowners in the past three years.

First time homebuyers, which is great.

Um, and so we're about out of money, which is also great.

So they passed a uh resolution authorizing uh applying for another allocation of bonds uh for that program, as well as another resolution to allocate those dollars to TDHCA to administer the program on um the Arlington Housing Finance Corporation's behalf.

This evening you'll see on your agenda item number 11.27 is a similar resolution because if we allocate our bond cap to another entity, it requires not only the board's approval, but city council's approval.

So it's sort of a mirror uh mirrored resolution that you'll see on your uh agenda this evening.

The second set of resolutions that that were all approved were related to Mayfield Park uh apartment complex.

This is a acquisition rehab of a 1999 multifamily housing development.

The housing finance corporation would be a partner through a general partner LLC.

Um it would be off the tax rolls, but it would make a payment in lieu of taxes to the housing finance corporation and the amount of the city taxes increasing annually, and the housing finance corporation would share in some of the revenues from that.

Um, would also be able to extend the affordability, which is going to expire in the near future on this project and give it a significant rehab.

So the resolutions related to issuing bonds in support of the financing of that project was approved, as well as some related um resolutions for um financing and partnership documents.

Happy to answer any questions.

Any questions from Mindy?

Okay, thank you, ma'am.

Uh Councilmember Glante, do you have anything to add other than what you said in the executive session?

No, I can't.

I cannot say anything.

Well, thank you.

Oh, just second, no, no, thank you.

Just to say, I just want to thank uh, Barbara or Don Wesley for her last meeting with the economic development committee.

Thank you for supporting uh you know the economic development this city.

It was our last meeting.

We in executive session, we discussed four uh subjects.

Thank you.

Okay, uh we're gonna move on.

Ms.

Garcia, any appointments to boards or commissions tonight.

Thanks, Mayor.

We have 47 appointments to boards and commissions.

Only 47.

Only 47.

Okay, thank you very much.

Try to pronounce everybody's names properly.

Would you please evening agenda items?

Anybody have anything on the evening agenda items?

I do.

Yes, Councilmember Gonzalez.

Uh yes, the item 11.24 and 11.25.

Yes, sir.

Is it quick trip?

Yes.

I guess.

Okay, we probably need to get Troy or uh Raven in here if they're out there.

Or Jennifer, you got it?

Okay.

Is this the first time we've gotten these grants from Quick Trip?

Um, you know, I would have to verify that, but I in my memory I don't recall us getting any grants from Quick Trip, but I think we haven't gotten these are applications.

We haven't received these applications.

Okay, so we haven't gotten them yet.

These are just applications.

Okay.

We bring all of them to you before we apply to make sure that the council has a chance to do it.

I misread it.

I thought they were no, we're hoping we're hopeful that we will get the grants.

Which led me to fourteen point three because in easement for that property for I thought, is that the cart before the horse?

I think it's just coincidentally timed.

Is it?

Yeah.

Okay.

Sorry.

That's all right.

Anything else on the evening agenda items?

Okay.

Um issues relative to City or TechStock projects.

Anything?

4.11.

Mr.

Gonzalez, RTC.

Yes.

RTC met on Thursday, June 11th.

The mayor and I both attended the RTC approved several items, including an agreement with text out establishing the RTC as the Metropolitan Planning Organization for the region.

Applications to the CRIS federal grant program for two regional projects were approved.

Also 40 million in funding for Trinity Metro to support extension of the text rail to the hospital district in Fort Worth.

And then also approved continuing the Plano Mexico.

The continuing the Plano McKinney Transit study.

RTC also received updates on the transit vision subcommittee's work and its proposal to seek legislative support for a pilot regional transport transit project connecting DART and DCTA in Carrollton.

And then finally, RTC recognized Chair Rick Bailey for his service over the previous year.

They elected a new slate of RTC officer for the next year.

RTC also appointed a bylaws revision committee to review the RTC bylaws and operating procedures.

The next um July RTC meeting.

Go ahead and address D, please.

Emergency Preparedness Planning Council.

We'll just go out of order.

Yes.

I attended this meeting on behalf of the mayor.

He cannot attend.

And then they approved statewide emergency infrastructure support for state and regional efforts.

And then the big thing is they presented the regional service excellent awards.

Our very own Eddie Saldivar with a Captain Saldivar with the Arlington Fire Department was recognized for his significant dedication to regional emergency preparedness and calibration across North Texas.

And then upon that, we heard about grants awaiting word uh and their timelines, and then we uh approved the 2026 EPP meeting date.

So the next meeting is scheduled for September the third.

That's all I have, Mayor.

Thank you, sir.

I'm gonna address B and C.

I'll do C first.

We had the General Assembly.

I don't even remember exact data, but it was a little over a week ago, I think, last Thursday.

Uh General Assembly up at the Hearst Convention Center.

Uh uh quite a few new uh executive board members were elected at the General Assembly.

It was a quite contentious um general assembly, one that I've never seen before and all of the general assemblies that uh I've participated in, but it was definitely interested with a lot of arguing and screaming and yelling.

I don't know who would do anything like that, but um there was some of that stuff going on.

Uh, I was out of time.

Um so um uh there is a board meeting that is scheduled on B.

I have not participated in the executive board meeting yet.

The first one that I'm scheduled to participate in is this coming Thursday.

All I can tell you is what is on the agenda, and that is a public record on the agenda is discussion regarding uh an investigation into Todd Little and the hostile work environment of the council of governments.

Um so it's gonna continue to be interesting on there.

Also at the General Assembly, there were some uh bylaw uh changes that were submitted, but every one of the bylaw changes failed uh at the general assembly, so no bylaw changes were made.

The decision was let's wait for the new board to take a look at everything and make some recommendations from there.

Any questions?

Uh future agenda items.

Very good.

Uh we are adjourned from the afternoon session.

We'll see everybody downstairs at 6 30.

Um events to make sure folks are safe and we think that Arlington's experience in that contributed to such a strong regional bid and uh really helped us bring nine of those World Cup matches to ATT Stadium and they're gonna be played right here in Arlington, Tex