The time is 2 p.m.

I'm Councilmember Fred Flickinger, presiding chair of the Economic Development Committee.

I call this meeting to order.

Um have in the Council.

I'm sorry.

Absolutely council chambers of Sally, Councilman Alcorn, Councilman Ramirez, and then we have staff from Abbey Cayman and also staff from Mario Castillo.

And I guess that's it.

Oh, and Castix Tatum.

Yes.

Thank you, Dee Dee.

This meeting is open to the public and is being held in person and virtually.

We are also broadcasting via Houston HTV.

Uh Council members and staff, please hold your questions until the end of presentation.

If you would like to ask a question and are present in the chamber, request to speak, or if you're joining virtually, type request to speak in the chat pod, and you will be recognized in order.

You will be advised when the two minutes have expired.

Council members attending virtually, please please use the chat pod if you experience any problems.

If there are any public speakers present here in the chamber who wish to sign up to speak, there is a sign-up sheet at the front table on your right.

Public speakers will have a chance to speak after the conclusion of the presentations.

Any questions can be emailed to District K at Houston TX.gov and will be forwarded to the respective departments for responses.

Our office is not required by city's financial policies to brief city council on these TURS-related items.

However, due to uniqueness of the greater Houston TURS, we thought it was valuable to provide this briefing.

Next slide, please.

Next slide, please.

Thank you.

To provide some history, City Council approved the creation of the Greater Houston TURS in 2012 to attract private investment to develop over 2,973 acres of vacant or underdeveloped land, old oil fields, and underutilized industrial property, and 4,136 acres that may present opportunities for future redevelopment.

On the slides in front of you, you can take you can see the northern section of the original annexation area on the left, and then the southern section of the original annexation area.

That southern section is the it covers the NRG area, including um the former Astrodome area.

Next slide, please.

A few years later, City Council approved an annexation of an industrial area for public infrastructure investment.

The area that's depicted there, if you're familiar with the area, that's just right across the freeway from the University of Houston campus.

If you remember where the old fingers warehouse area is, that's the area.

That's generally the same area.

A few years later, as you may be aware, the Greater Houston TURS was originally created to be a county-led TURS.

However, the city increased its participation formally in 2022 to finance infrastructure-related improvements that will be required as part of the North Houston Highway Improvement Project with the goal of developing green space and connectivity between downtown Houston and various neighborhoods, including second ward, east downtown, third ward, fourth ward, and midtown.

Next slide, please.

In 2023, City Council approved a third amended project plan, which increased the project costs for Harris County related projects and added affordable housing to the project plan.

The plan also contemplated a debt authorization, and in early 2024, City Council approved a debt authorization of 65 million in the first quarter of 2024.

Next slide, please.

Beginning in a couple of weeks, we are seeking council's approval on creating an LGC structure that allows for increment to go into the same fund for the purpose of issuing bonds and setting up debt instruments.

As you can see from the graphic, that tax increment will flow into the LGC, pay debt service, fill in any reserves required, reimburse developer payments, and pay any fund operating costs such as trustee fees and financial advisory fees.

Once these items are paid, the remaining funds will flow into the city and Harris County project funds.

So for City Council's July 30th agenda, we will submit a resolution to create the Houston Harris County LGC along with the bylaws to submit to the Secretary of State's office.

Once those items are approved, we will submit other agreements that will detail the cities and Harris County's relationship with the LGC.

That's the end of my briefing.

Does anyone have any questions?

Before we get to the questions, uh Councilmember Martinez has joined online, and also here in chambers, we have uh staff from Councilmember Tiffany Thomas.

And customer Councilman Alcorn.

Thank you, Chair, and thank you to you.

Um Jennifer, uh so I guess we created this to I mean I remember all this, but um refresh my memory.

It was basically because they were participating in the East Houston Tours.

We were doing this for the county, right?

That's correct.

Um because they participate, and so they can and what that means is they contribute um Harris County funds to the East Downtown Tours.

And because of that participation, and if you recall, that was for them to participate in the Dynamo Stadium Stadium.

So um Harris County is a partner with the city in the the um the construction of Dynamo Stadium, and we reimbursed that the public infrastructure.

And then we got more involved.

The city got more involved.

So we went from 5 percent to 75 percent of the process.

That's correct.

But originally, this tours, Greater Eastern TURS was created for to primarily focus on county-led projects.