18th, 2026, and the time is 2.05 p.m.

I'm Mayor ProTam Martha Castex Tatum, the chair of our economic development committee meeting, and I'd like to call this meeting to order.

I do want to welcome all of our council members and staff and guests in attendance.

Um, Vice Chair Flickinger, uh, Councilmember Alcorn is in the chamber, Councilmember Ramirez, uh, staff from Vice Mayor Pro Tim Peck's office, staff from Councilmember Thomas's office, and staff from Councilmember Cayman's office is also here.

This meeting is open to the public and held per in person and virtually, and we're also broadcasting live on HTV.

Council members and staff, if you'll hold your questions until the end, if there are any questions online, you can put that in the chat.

Um, there are no members of the public who signed up to speak today.

However, if you would like to speak, there is a sign-in sheet um to your right on the front table.

Um, public speakers will have a chance to speak after the conclusion of the presentations.

Any questions that you may have can also be mailed to District K at Houston TX.gov, and we will forward those to the respective departments.

Uh, first on our agenda today, we have Casey Heprick, the director of planning and economic development downtown Houston Plus will present on the Main Street Promenade Outdoor Dining Design Guidelines.

Hello, how are you?

Hello, good.

Thank you for having me.

We are ready for your presentation.

Excellent.

I will wait for it to be pulled up so that I can guide you all through it.

While the presentation is being pulled up, uh I'll introduce myself again.

I'm Cassie Hoprich, Director of Planning and Economic Development for Downtown Houston Plus.

We represent the alliance of organizations focused on our urban core.

So the Downtown Redevelopment Authority or Tourism Three, the Houston Downtown Management District, as well as Central Houston Inc., uh, the legacy uh 40-year-old 501c6 organization uh here in downtown.

So, with that, um, we've had the pleasure of being before you all in the past to provide an update on the Main Street Promenade.

Um, today I'll be focusing on the forthcoming ordinance and specific elements of that ordinance that our organization will work with the city to steward.

So, next slide, please.

Quickly, I'd like to just recap the progress that we've made on Main Street Promenade.

Um, as you all might recall, in 2021, in the wake of the pandemic, uh, the More Space Main Street program was launched by the city in partnership with us to create temporary space for businesses to have compliant outdoor dining.

What we learned is that small businesses and residents loved it, and we agreed to work with the city to realize a permanent version of this project.

From there, with community engagement and detailed design work, we've reached a point as of last year where construction began on the project.

And we're happy to say it's progressing wonderfully.

What you can see here on the right-hand side of the presentation is an overview of where construction has been completed so far and where we are still proceeding with the project, working back from a completion of the project in time for the World Cup.

Um, but of course, the project will live on for decades to come.

Next slide, please.

In uh summary, in a nutshell, the work that we're doing is widening the pedestrian realm, um, improving street crossings, and overall supporting local businesses.

Um, but especially in our downtown where we have the urban heat island effect, and so we're very proud to be bringing a significant increase in trees, shade structures, as well as plants.

Um, and this project was made possible by funding from the downtown redevelopment authority as well as a Houston Galveston area council grant.

And as mentioned, we intend to complete the project by the end of May.

Next slide, please.

These are three photos to show you um the sort of the before the idea, the rendering, the image of what we intended to realize and and where we are today.

Um it's really exciting to see if you haven't been able to make time to walk out to Main Street recently.

Uh, we would encourage you to do so.

It's um quite lovely to see this project come to life.

Next slide, please.

As part of uh this project, of course, we are redesigning the right-of-way.

Um that's really lifted up here by the four big shifts that we talked about for the project, number two and four.

Uh number two and four, uh, we are realizing accessibility improvements for the promenade as well as the creation of more shade experiences as mentioned.

Part of these big shifts that have come out of the design also require a new approach to maintenance and operations.

So the first is how are we going to enhance the way we maintain this section of Main Street?

And the second is how are we going to realize this goal of placemaking?

We've built more space, but how do we tend to intend to steward it?

Next slide, please.

And that's where the ordinance comes in.

The ordinance that we've been working on with the city will allow for us to increase our maintenance and security services, treating the promenade much like we do the parks that we care for in our downtown, additional care and coverage along the promenade.

And we also have created outdoor dining guidelines.

We're creating more space for Sciwalk Cafes.

And because we have such an expansive space that we are creating on Promenade on the promenade, and we need to maintain pedestrian circulation or path of travel.

We've had to create specific guidelines for what those spaces can look like, what their footprint can look like.

And lastly, the ordinance will allow us to realize more programming and events and oversee licenses for third party events, just as we do in parks in downtown.

Next slide, Steve.

Next slide, please.

In terms of the ordinances area of coverage, we're looking at what we refer to as the Main Street Promenade.