So again, good evening, ladies and gentlemen.

My name is Dr.

Ignacio Nunez, and I serve as chair of the Planning and Zoning Commission of the City of Arlington.

I hereby call this regularly noticed meeting of the City of Arlington's Planning and Zoning Commission regular session to order for November the 13th, 2024.

This time I will ask our administration to again read speaker guidelines and general decorum.

The City of Arlington fully embraces the values of diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility where people of all identities and experiences are understood, appreciated, and fully included in the community and where equitable treatment and outcomes prevail.

We ask that citizens and other visitors in attendance assist in preserving the order and decorum of this meeting and to provide for attendance at and participation in the meeting without fear of intimidation, threats, or hostility.

Any person making personal, profane, hostile, or slanderous or threatening remarks who uses vulgar or obscene language, who engages in any other actions that disturb or are calculated to disturb the meeting or who become disruptive while addressing the planning zoning commissioners or while attending the planning and zoning meeting may be removed from the council chambers.

All speakers shall address the commissioners and not the audience or city staff and shall not call out individually named members of city staff or the public.

For speakers tonight, when your name is called, please come to the microphone at the podium, state your name and city of residence for the record.

The applicant will be asked to speak first and will be given 10 minutes to make a presentation.

Speakers in support or opposition of the item will give uh be given five minutes each to make their statements.

If there are many speakers for an item, each speaker will be given three minutes to make their statements.

The applicants will then be given five minutes for any rebuttal.

If multiple speakers plan to provide the same or similar comments, those speakers may, if they so desire, designate one or more individuals to provide public comment on behalf of the group.

A bill will signal at the end of each speaker's time in consideration of other speakers.

Please conclude your comments promptly when you hear the bill.

We ask that you address your comments to the planning and zoning commissioners.

Thank you.

Our first item of business is to approve the minutes of October the 16th, 2024.

A copy of these minutes have been uh sent to all commissioners in advance.

Were there any changes or corrections needed to the minutes?

Hearing none, do I have a motion to approve the minutes?

I have a motion to approve by Commissioner Pay, and a motion to second by Commissioner Blake.

Please cast your votes.

Motion passes eight to nothing.

First case for a public hearing tonight is zoning case PD 24-21.

Excuse me.

Chair from Safe Street.

Oh, excuse me.

Dr.

Anne Foss is here.

Uh, thank you.

You're right.

They didn't tell me on the paper, but I remember seeing it.

So we have a presentation tonight by Dr.

Anne Foss regarding the Safe Streets Initiative for the City of Arlington.

Commissioner, I mean uh Dr.

Foss, please go ahead.

Thank you so much.

Good evening, Commissioners.

Anne Foss, Planning and Programming Manager for the Transportation Department.

I have a short presentation tonight on the City's Safety Action Plan, which is called Safe Streets Arlington for your consideration for a recommendation to City Council regarding adoption of this plan.

Since the beginning of the plan process at the end of 2023, we have completed an existing conditions analysis, visioning exercises, developed a safety toolkit of recommended actions and projects, and drafted a plan document.

Community engagement has occurred throughout the process.

These community engagement opportunities included a project website, a public-facing safety dashboard, three meetings of an external stakeholder committee, three general public meetings, two online surveys, as well as briefings to the planning and zoning commission and to the city council.

Overall, we've received a lot of detailed feedback from the public throughout the process, as well as a lot of support for improving roadway safety in Arlington.

With input from our key stakeholders and the general public, we've developed a vision statement for the plan, which reads that city leaders and staff, along with a diverse group of stakeholders are committed to a shared vision of zero deaths and serious injuries on Arlington streets.

The Safe Streets Arlington plan recommends policy, education, enforcement, engineering, engagement, and equitable solutions to achieve safe streets for all.

The plan is also required to have a measurable goal, which is to reduce reduce deaths and serious injuries on Arlington streets by 5% annually to achieve a shared goal of vision of zero deaths and serious injuries by 2050.

A high injury network was developed using weighted calculations to identify roadway segments that have a higher likelihood of fatal and serious injury crashes, so that we can target those locations and the types of projects that will more significantly improve safety.

The high injury network shown on the screen here was developed using crash data from 2018 through 2020, as well as traffic volume data and roadway classification information.

All city-owned roadways and text dot arterials are included on that network, and privately owned roadways and text dot controlled highways I-20, I-30, 360, and 287, along with their frontage roads, are excluded as the city has little control over improvements on these roadways.

The high injury network was also used to prioritize locations for safety improvements using a scoring system to identify locations with the highest safety concerns.

The scoring was based both on crash data as well as community input received throughout the process.

This yielded 20 corridor segments and 10 intersections that were identified as priority locations for safety improvements.

The plan contains seven broad strategies to improve safety and achieve the vision and goals set forth.

And then there are detailed actions that fall under each strategy.

Across the seven strategies, there are a total of 44 recommended actions with an emphasis on shorter term actions that should be conducted within the next two years.

Each action is also assigned a responsible party, which includes city departments as well as stakeholder groups.