Speaker numbers apply only to this recording.
The Arlington City Council convened in Regular Session on September 29, 2026, starting at 6:30 PM (local time, CT) at City Hall Council Chamber, 101 W. Abram Street. Mayor J. Ross presided. Councilmember B. Hogg was absent. The meeting featured a large consent agenda, two public hearings on zoning cases, a resolution on polling places in Tarrant County, and a contested resolution for a master agreement and lease with SiNaCa Studios. Note: The agenda and minutes consistently indicate a 6:30 PM start, conflicting with the prompt-supplied metadata timestamp of 12:30 UTC.
Item 7.19 – Tarrant County Polling Places: Councilmember B. Garcia-Dumas moved, and Councilmember T. Ware seconded a resolution requesting the Commissioners Court reconsider a reduction in polling places. Councilmember J. Shelton presented an analysis showing the share of locations in census tracts with median incomes under $40,000 dropped from 44% in 2022 to 38% in 2026. Councilmember R. Gonzalez expressed concern about the loss of a UTA polling location. Vote: 7-1 (Galante nay). Passed.
Item 10.1 – SUP26-02 (2401 Havenwood Drive): A Specific Use Permit for a secondary living unit to house the applicant's mother. The council discussed a staff recommendation to maintain a full master bathroom. Vote on First Reading: 6-2 (Galante and Ware nays). Passed.
Item 10.2 – PD26-08 (7204 Mitchell Parkway): Rezoning for a Planned Development for an electric utility substation. The ordinance was amended to limit equipment height to 70 feet. Vote on First Reading: 8-0. Passed.
Item 11.1 – SiNaCa Studios Master Agreement and Lease: The resolution authorized a master agreement and 10-year lease for a glass arts nonprofit to relocate to 300 W. Front Street. The deal included a $150k design grant and an $850k reimbursable construction grant.
Appointments: Approved appointments to the Convention & Visitors Bureau, Higher Education Finance Corporation, and Zoning Board of Adjustment.
Upcoming Events: Mayor Ross announced the first "Arlington Unfiltered" town hall for Oct 1st. Councilmember Gonzalez promoted the Hispanic Heritage Celebration on Oct 3rd.
Water department actually does a second round of testing these hydrants in the months between September and February. How much water do you have to have to flow it to let it clear itself out and what exactly is happening there? Sure, so we basically, as a rule of thumb, we like to flow the hydrants until we get clear water. Sometimes unfortunately that may take us flowing actively flowing these hydrants for a few minutes, which to the citizen may look wasteful that we're wasting water, but it but it absolutely has a purpose. The purpose is to make sure that we have everything out of those lines, that everything is operating properly and that we have sufficient amount of water where we need it. Now I'm out in the Arlington neighborhoods, and I'm here with one of our firefighters, uh Rowdy Vicara, who's gonna describe for us a little bit about how we go about the process of checking the hydrants. We're gonna open up one cap, typically our large steamer in the front. Then we're gonna tighten that back up and then we're gonna slowly open the hydrant. We'll close that back off. Okay. So at this point, we're gonna open it back up and we're gonna get water flow. This will be done for approximately three minutes. Now that I've watched you do this, I think it's my turn to go check maybe one right down the street. So let's go check out another one and see if I uh if I if I got got the task. Got what it takes. Yes, sir. You're gonna load this one into your system and I get credit for doing this one today. We'll put you down. Okay. Well, hey, we appreciate everything that you and your team do every day to protect us in simple ways and a more complex way. So we're just very thankful for all your service to our community. Yes, sir. We're happy to do it. We're proud to do it. Thanks, Trey, and thanks to you at home for watching. Tune in next time for another on the clock. If you wanted to make tour of Asia, all the flavors that you can have in Korea, Vietnam, Japan, Thailand, and we brought everything here with the Texas twist. Soy Cowboy is Burke Hospitality Group's largest and most exciting project. So Kiabo is a great place to celebrate certain milestones in life. It's a great place to stop by, enjoy amazing handcrafted cocktails, scratch made food in an awesome ambience that brings peace and happiness to the our guests. Alashuria Life, the regional culinary director, says Soy Cowboy has three separate kitchens, three separate dining rooms with different themes, and 12 different food stations guests can enjoy alongside its Pan Asian menu. Most popular dishes are the our wagyu skewers, crispy rice tuna, uh fresh cucumber salad with avocados and tomatoes. Umki soba noodles, that is very famous comfort food in Japan after the late night. We also have uh fresh selection of sashimi. You can choose variety of fish from and also coconut dessert is one of the most high-selling items. Ingredients are incredibly important. That includes A5 Kobe beef, fresh truffles, sometimes from France or Italy, sometimes from Australia. Those are the ingredients that uh not local, but we wanted to make sure we bring to Texas that our guests can enjoy. He says they were open seven days a week for dinner with a brunch option Saturdays and Sundays, all right in the heart of the entertainment district. Arlington is last 10 years it grew significantly, and we are right across from AT ⁇ T Stadium, Glove Light Field, and we are located in the Lows Arlington Hotel. Uh location could not be perfect for the city. At beginning, we focus on uh resource and development for military.