Parks, Trails, and Environment Committee Meeting - September 1, 2026
Parks, Trails, and Environment Committee Meeting - September 1, 2026
The Parks, Trails, and Environment Committee met on September 1, 2026, at 9:13 AM in City Hall Council Chambers. The committee approved minutes, received briefings on the Fair Park Community Park quarterly update and a climate resilience heat intervention guidebook, discussed the proposed legislative agenda for the 90th Texas Legislature, and reviewed upcoming City Council agenda items. No public comments were heard.
Consent Calendar
- Approved the August 3, 2026, Special Called Parks, Trails, and the Environment Committee Meeting Minutes on a motion and second. (Unanimous)
Discussion Items
A. Community Park at Fair Park Quarterly Update
- Alyssa Sifferman (Executive Director, Fair Park First) and Heather Stevens (Philanthropy and Strategy Officer, Fair Park First) presented the first quarterly report covering April–June 2026. Key updates: design documents targeted for October, groundbreaking slated for December 2026, permit issuance expected January 2027. Total project budget: $40.6 million; capital raised to date: $36.1 million; design and construction budget: $31.5 million; expenditures to date: $6.9 million; remaining funding gap: $1.78 million. The CMAR (BEC Group) reported comparable costing to the 100% design set from December. Council Member Bazadoi expressed strong support and appreciation for the team's stewardship, noting no city bailout is needed. Council Members Blair and Deputy Mayor Pro Tem also commended the progress and collaboration. Chair Stewart noted the need for open communication if challenges arise.
B. Climate Resilience: Addressing Extreme Heat with Data Heat Intervention Guidebook
- Angela Hodges Gott (Director, OEQS) and Oppong Hemeng (Manager, OEQS) presented the Heat Intervention Guidebook, published April 2026. Key data: by 2050, Dallas may have 30–60 additional days over 100°F; July 2026 ERCOT peak demand reached 91,089 MW (37% increase from 2014). The guidebook is a non-regulatory toolbox of strategies (e.g., tree preservation, green infrastructure, bus stop shade, weatherization). Tree canopy goals: increase coverage to 33% by 2030, 40% by 2050. Council Member West raised concerns about proposed budget cuts to urban forestry and requested data on current tree canopy (estimated ~30%) and who tracks it (Parks, Brett Johnson). Council Member Blackman asked about DART shade structures; Director Gott confirmed no recent conversations. Council Member Blair urged rewriting Article 10 to protect mature trees and called for action. Chair Stewart suggested using the guidebook for public outreach and noted the need to improve website accessibility.
C. Proposed Legislative Agenda for the 90th Texas Legislature and 120th Congress
- Eric Dominguez (Director, Office of Government Affairs) briefed the committee on the city's legislative agenda. Seven items were listed for monitoring; the committee discussed adding a top-10 item representing PTE priorities. Council Member Blackman advised aligning with existing legislative traction (e.g., water resources). Chair Stewart will draft a PTE-specific item. The committee amended item 5 (water resources/storm drainage infrastructure) to explicitly include dredging of White Rock Lake and protection of creeks and rivers. Deadline for input is mid-September for the Legislative Ad Hoc Committee.
D. Committee Forecast
- Committee forecast reviewed; Council Member Blackman requested a memo on park security incidents (e.g., break-ins at White Rock Lake). Deputy Director Ryan O’Connor (Parks and Recreation) confirmed preparation.
E. Upcoming City Council Agenda Items
- Items E (re-adoption of Chapter 12 Youth Program Standards) and G–I (park equipment and construction contracts) were noted without discussion. Item F (State Fair Classic football game agreement with Grambling State University, Prairie View A&M University, and State Fair of Texas) was discussed. Brett Wilkie (General Manager, Fair Park) confirmed timely payments post-game. Total amount: up to $2,350,000 (Fair Park Fund). Council Member Blair sought assurance.
Key Outcomes
- Approved minutes of August 3, 2026.
- Received and filed the Fair Park Community Park quarterly report; acknowledged $1.78 million funding gap and December 2026 groundbreaking target.
- Received the Heat Intervention Guidebook; directed staff to provide tree canopy data and to explore DART partnership for shade structures.
- Directed Parks to prepare a memo on park security incidents.
- Amended legislative agenda item 5 to include specific references to White Rock Lake dredging and creek protection.
- Chair Stewart will draft a PTE-related item for the top-10 legislative priorities by mid-September.
- No formal votes were taken beyond the consent calendar approval.
Meeting Transcript
Good morning everyone. I'm gonna call to order this morning the Parks, Trails, and Environment Committee meeting. Um this is our September 1st meeting, and we are calling it to order at 9 13. Sorry, I know that was a bit of an abrupt start. Oh testing, testing. You want to use mine? Testing. Oh, much better. Okay. All right. So we have called the Parks, Trails, and Environment Committee to order as of 913. We'll start with um minutes. We need minutes and approval for the August 3rd minutes to have a motion. Second, all right, all in favor? Oh well, we're moving and graving, guys. Okay. Item one, our first briefing this morning is a quarterly update as required by that agreement between the city and Fair Park First. Um on the community park, we have Alyssa Sifferman and we have Heather Stevens here this morning to give us that update. And we are excited to hear the progress you guys are making. So I really do appreciate y'all being here. I um assuming maybe you initiated this or perhaps uh parks department, but it's just good to know that we're living through and um respecting the terms of our agreement, and you guys are coming in for a quarterly update. I just appreciate that so much. Sometimes the details of agreements get lost, and this one clearly has not. And um, so thank you so much for being here this morning. And uh Deputy Director O'Connor, would you like to kick us off? Yes, ma'am. Uh thank you. And you kind of said what I intended to say. So as we're all familiar, uh the development agreement that was approved by council did uh have a requirement that Fair Park First were was to come before this body for quarterly reports. This will be the first. Uh the the project is is well on its way as you will see here momentarily. So just with that quick introduction, I'd like to introduce Alyssa Arnold with Fairpart First and Heather Stevens, who is the funding campaign strategist, and they will go through the the um update and report, and we'll be happy to answer questions at the conclusion. Thank you. Okay. Um yeah, I'm Melissa Arnold Zifferman, whatever you want to call me as last name. Um I was Arnold for 38 years, so um yeah, it's hard to shed that last name. Um so I do want to just also thank the um the Parks and Rec uh team. Uh we've been working with Shola and Clyde as our rep. Um, so they have been a great conduit to to navigating and making sure that we have compliance. Um, and then also, of course, to to Ryan. Um so yeah, and thank you, Council members, for letting us uh be here and present um our first quarterly report. Um so we did provide a memo, which was our um quarterly summary of our activity from April, May, and June. I just want to make a note that this is actually um starting April 23rd when the development agreement was signed. Um so there may be some questions just because we did prorate it for compliance reasons and for simplicity in some ways. Um next slide. Uh I did just want to uh make sure we just do a brief overview of the team. Um Fair Park First is us, we're governed by our board and our chair Jason Brown, who is not with us today. Um, and then we have our consultant, our capital consultant and strategist here, um, Heather Stevens with RISE 360. Our owner's rep is Norman Alston Architects, and then we have um our design team and construction team, which is led by Studio Outside and the BEC group as our CMAR. Um, and then just another note of uh our architect on record is BC Workshop, who is a sub of Studio Outside.
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