Fiscal Affairs Committee and welcome to the day two of the budget workshops.

And we're happy to have Director Tran come on up.

We are going to start with the Planning and Development Department.

And we also have Fan Z, I think joining you.

So we will go from this presentation, colleagues, to housing, then to airport.

So we're kind of all over the map today.

And I'd like to welcome my colleagues, Vice Mayor Pro Tem Amy Peck, Councilmember Joaquin Martinez, Councilmember Julian Ramirez, Councilmember Twila Carter, staff from Councilmember Abby Kamen, and Councilmember Tiffany Thomas, and okay.

I think that's it.

And Director Dabowski is here too.

So welcome all.

And with that, the floor is yours, Director Tran.

Thank you.

Good afternoon, Chair Alcorn and Council members.

My name is Von Tran, and I'm the director of the Planning and Development Department.

Thank you for this opportunity to present our FY27 proposed budget.

It remains a privilege to serve this council, our mayor, and the residents of Houston.

More so, we so dearly appreciate your continued and consistent support of the department's work.

With me today are several members of our leadership and support team sitting on the front rows, Deputy Director Robert Williamson, Larry, uh our assistant director Larry Nerth, and standing next to me, our finance Fan Z, as well as our other finance team members, Alex Garcia and Donella Gamilian.

Also, thank you to Chief of Staff and Council Liaison's Anna Sidio and also Assistant Council Liaison Angie Panetta for being here to support me.

Together, we represent the breadth of the services and programs that keep this department functioning every day.

Slide two.

Another example of our efficiency efforts is our move to an external mailing service for public notices.

By shifting this work out of the department, we reduce staff preparation time by 75% and lower production and mail out costs per piece by 31%.

Capacity, we reinvest in more timely reviews, better communication, and improved customer service.

Over the last 10 months, we reviewed more than 2,600 commercial projects, over 6,000 residential projects, nearly 2,000 subdivision plats, and more than 300 applications for historic preservation.

These numbers reflect the continued development momentum across the city of Houston and the dedication our team have to move projects forward reliably, even in a disciplined budget constrained environment.

Community engagement remain a core part of our work as well.

Staff reached approximately 1,700 residents across 57 in-person public meetings, covering neighborhood tools, planning priorities, and development regulations.

Through our neighborhood preservation programs, such as the minimum lot size, minimum building line, and prohibited yard parking.

We processed 66 applications that resulted in 618 lots being protected.

Our GIS division continued supporting nearly every part of city operations.

They completed 285 mapping and data requests for departments across the city.

Council offices, as well as external partners such as universities and private firms.

This quiet but essential service ensures accurate information for planning, permitting, emergency responses, and public communication.

Together, these accomplishments reflect a department that is modernizing, raising its standards, and delivering high quality services to residents, businesses, developers, neighborhoods, and council offices.

Now let's begin.

Slide three, please.

This slide shows how our programs align with the mayor's priorities.

Government that works, quality of life, and infrastructure.

Administrative services and GIS support government that works, focusing on operational efficiency, accountability, and customer service.

Community and regional planning, as well as historic preservation, support quality of life, ensuring neighborhoods have the tools they need to remain stable and resilient.

Development services design review support services and transportation planning support infrastructure, keeping our department and mobility systems aligned with Houston's growth patterns.

When we look at the budget by priority, about 16% aligns with government that works, about 12% aligns with quality of life, and the remaining 72% supports infrastructure.

That 72% reflects the high volume of development activity and the fact that Houston continues to grow and evolve even during periods of economic uncertainty.

Slide four, please.

As part of the citywide plans to eliminate the GAAP initiative, our department eliminated three vacant positions, resulting in approximately $379,000 in savings across the general fund and the EGIS fund.

Because these positions were vacant and not expected to be filled, we achieved these savings without reducing service delivery.

This was a responsible reduction that aligns with the city's broader fiscal challenges while allowing us to maintain essential operations.

Slide five.

Okay, oh sorry, that is in the general fund.

The special fund revenue supports our efforts to ensure orderly development of land within the city and the ETJ and compliance with individual projects with our department standards.

We propose an increase of 776,000 or 6%.

The Central Service Revolving Fund, also known as the EGIS fund, is funded by all city departments that invest in GIS services.

We propose a decrease of 97,000 or 6%.

The historic preservation fund was established with the sale of several historic fire stations some years ago for the purpose of supporting the city's historic preservation program.

It covers training and consulting services.

We propose a decrease of $15,000 or 10%.

Overall, our budget changes are steady, deliberate, and guided by operational needs and efficiency gains.

Slide six.

Non-personnel expenditure include restricted accounts not controlled by the department, interfund services such as legal and technology services, supplies, services, and training.

We propose $2.7 million in expenditure for the general fund.

We propose $12.8 million in expenditure for the special revenue fund.

61% is for personal costs, and 39% for other costs.

Program level changes reflects reflect the same trends seen at the fund level.

Administrative services remain nearly flat.

Community and regional planning decreased by 18%.

Development services, design review and support services increases by 8%.

GIS decreases by 6%.

Slide nine, please.

FY27 includes 3.5 FTEs and three FTEs in interfund chargebacks with a proposed budget of 1.34 million.

This program's performance measures aimed to ensure expenditures and revenue utilization remain at or below budgeted amounts.

We achieve this in FY25 and are on track to achieve it again in FY26.

Slide 10, please.

Community and regional planning supports long-term neighborhood stability through land use review, demographic analysis, and community engagement.

FY27 includes 8.2 FTEs with a proposed budget of 1.09 million.

Their work includes administering applications for special minimum lot size, minimum building line, and prohibited yard parking, supporting boundary changes, facilitating community engagement for departmental initiatives, and monitoring and reviewing land use regulations, legislations.

This program's performance measures aim to advance efficiency, streamline service delivery, and ensure our land use regulations remain responsive and protective of neighborhood quality.

Slide 11, please.

This is just a continuation of our performance measures.

Slide 12, please.

This is our largest program with 53.5 FTEs and a proposed FY27 budget of 12.08 million.

The team reviews subdivision plats, land plates, development plates, variances, and permit stage projects for compliance with Chapter 26, 28, 33, and 42.

This program's performance measures track application volume for resource planning and emphasize reducing review times and deferral rates to promote consistent and accountable processes.

This team is projected to review 450 applications for various types of compliance, 3,000 subdivision plats or replats, at least 15,000 residential and commercial site plans for permits, and 1,400 plat recognition in FY27.

Slide 13, please.

Please note the designation of the FY27 target that is shown NA was an oversight in one of the lines.

The department has taken necessary corrective action to ensure that it's properly reflected in our adopted budget.

It should read for the FY27 target.

We are aiming at 80% of commercial permit application review within seven days.

So apology for that.

Slide 14, please.

Slide 15.

GIS maintains the city geospatial data infrastructure, supports emergency services, assigns addresses, and produce produces maps, dashboards, and demographic data.

FY27 includes 7.5 FTEs with a proposed budget of 1.46 million.

They routinely achieve near perfect turnaround times for map requests and address assignments.

This program's performance measures track mapping and addressing activities to inform resource and staffing needs, and also focus on enhancing the quality and responsiveness of customer service.

Slide 16.

Slide 17.

Historic preservation administers landmark designations, district requests, and certificate of appropriateness for proposed alterations in historic districts.

FY27 includes 7.0 FTEs with a combined proposed budget of 952,000.

Slide 18.

This program's performance measures track application volume for resource planning and assesses both the effectiveness of staff's reports and efficiency of processing applications.

Slide 19, please.

Participates in regional mobility studies, and maintains the high-entry network database.

FY27 includes 2.7 FTEs with a proposed budget of 331,000.

Their work ensures Houston Mobility Framework keeps pace with growth.

With the high entry network database, they provide a map-based tool for transportation planners and agencies to analyze crash data for prioritizing road safety investments.

This program's performance measure track workload for resource planning and emphasize the timely completion of work.

Slide 20, please.

Slide 21.

There are no significant changes to the general fund or special revenue fund.

Slide 22.

We expect to collect 9.5 million in revenue in the next budget year.

The majority of this comes from development fees.

We also receive revenue from GIS services to city departments and a very small amount from the historic preservation fund.

Slide 23.

This chart shows the same information on the previous graphs.

Overall, we are proposing a revenue increase of 3% or 259,000 across all funds.

The special revenue fund is expected to increase by 106,000 or 1% from the FY26 estimate due to the plateauing plating activity.

The historic preservation fund is expected to have no change.

GIS program is expected to see a revenue increase of 153,000 or 12% due to continued demand for their services.

Chair, vice chair, council members, that concludes the planning and development department FY27 proposed budget.

Thank you for your time, your attention, and your continued support to our department's work and mission.

We're happy to answer any of your questions.

Thank you, Director.

Great presentation.

I want to be sure and welcome the vice mayor.

I mean the Mayor Pro Tem, Martha Castax Tatum has joined us as well as Councilmember Mary Nan Huffman, my vice chair, Councilmember Mario Castillo, Councilmember Willie Davis, and staff from Councilmember Alejandra Salinas is online.

And also staff from Councilmember Flickinger's office and Councilmember Cayman's office.

And Councilmember Jackson's office if I didn't say that.

Okay, we have a question from my vice chair, Councilmember Castillo.

Thank you, Chair and Director.

Thank you for the presentation.

On slide 15, um, when you're looking into the GIS services, um there's the one position that was vacant that's not being filled.

How is that impacting this particular service delivery for GIS?

We expect no impact in terms of service deliveries.

Our team has been doing an excellent job.

We do a lot of work out of this.

We've been able to continue to produce.

I think over the years we've had uh additional positions uh that um was not filled, but we were still able to continue to do the work and um deliver the services that are required.

So for this year, we uh decided that we will not fill it because we're meeting our goals.

And the revenue generated from the GIS services, what are the tasks that generate revenue?

Uh that revenue uh that fund does not generate revenues per se from fees, uh, but it is a shared uh contribution for all of the departments from the city of Houston.

City of Houston participate uh in uh funding this uh this fund.

So help me understand uh the increase you're anticipating for central service revolving fund, 153,000 and in this on slide 23.

How do how are you and what what is causing you to anticipate that increase?

Um sure, and and fan, you are more than welcome to jump into.

Uh remember we have hope increases of 3%.

So really it's it's it's balancing between that one position being removed and then the 3% of the hope increases.

That's why you're seeing only a 1% increase instead of the 3.5% because all of the fund is funding personnel.

What was that first part?

And the inquest of the restrictive accounts, the hating that that fund central service remote fund, the 27 restrictive accounts project uh like a proposed budget increase compared to FI26.

Yes, let's not forget that we also uh pay into or pay the restricted accounts, which departments don't have control over that.

Uh so all of that comes from services uh from every from IT, HR, all of the support services, in addition to I'm sure many more things.

So every year we just get handed here's what we're gonna charge each department, and that is an increase from last year.

Got it.

Thank you very much.

You're welcome.

Councilmember Ramirez.

Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Director, for the presentation.

There are a couple of slides I wanted to ask you about.

Number 12 being one, development services, design review, and support services.

Um at the FY27 target 450 uh number of extensions, extension of approvals, etc.

Just wondering um the FTE count, which is uh projected to be 53 and a half for FY27.

Has that fluctuated over the last few years?

And how does that affect the number of um applications that you're able to uh address?

So certainly um over the years we've actually have fluctuated downward.

Uh I've joined the department in July of 2024, so since my time here, uh we've been able to pretty much I think if I gotta go back and double check my math, but um we've not really uh fluctuated too extreme.

Uh you know, there's typically uh turnover as younger planners move in.

Uh we've been able to recruit uh uh graduates from college to fill those, so it's fairly stable.

What I can say it hasn't increased.

Um you are looking at the first line which is showing 450.

That's just one of the the items that they review earlier on.

I mentioned that this group uh for FY27, or at least in the last 10 months, uh we they review commercial projects over the last 10 months is 2,600 commercial projects, 6,000 residential projects, 2,000 subdivision plats, and um so this group does a lot more than this one line.

I think further down, uh we are also uh showing other activities such as plat recognition, plat and um subdivision plats, subdivision uh and replats, as well as development um variances for development um platts.

And and I noticed that uh some of the measures have been discontinued, but I guess what I'm wondering is in this particular line, um the target is lower than the estimate for FY26, and was wondering does that have to do with the number of of personnel decreasing or no?

Absolutely.

We do not control the number of applications that come into our department, especially in development services.

And so what we have done in terms of estimating what next year would be is that where we are today, uh we would project the next three months, uh which we can easily do better than 12 months, and then uh considering what's really uh the trending line, and that's how we arrived at 450.

Um, and this goes through all of the line items that we are measuring uh the volume of applicate applications.

So again, we do not control uh the amount of work that comes into our uh come into this development services division.

Um it's whatever the applications that come to us to the city.

Okay, thank you.

I'll go back in the queue.

Okay.

Last last slide I'll ask you about is 17.

So historic preservation.

The first line under performance measures the number of applications processed annually.

Um as opposed to maybe uh a percent of applications received that have been reviewed.

Um is there a particular reason you uh measure the number and not let's say the percent received that you've been able to review?

Uh certainly.

Um so the first line we measure the volume of work that comes into our department in particular in in this instance is historic preservation.

Again, just like development services, we do not control this.

Is whatever that comes in to us, the percentage is really measuring the effectiveness of our reviews.

And so what we're shooting at for that second line, um 80 percent of the COAs uh that um are overturned on the appeal by the historic preservation appeals board where the appeals uphold staff's original recommendation.

This is a new one.

This is intended uh to also track the effectiveness of our staff's review.

And so we're hoping uh that uh we are pretty on target with our reviews, and so if it gets if our if our recommendation is not taken in or get forwarded in the um in in during the commission hearing, it typically goes to the appeals board.

So we're just kind we're trying to uh to to track the effectiveness of the and the quality of our review.

Are we correct?

Are we on target or are we not on target?

And the standards for approving one of these applications, is there uh are the is it completely objective or is there uh some level of subjectivity involved in it?

There's there's grayness.

Um it's not all black or white.

Um there are standards, uh, but there are also areas of grayness that requires um some judgment and reviews, but uh typically the analysis of these applications also compares to the context, and so the context uh is typically individually reviewed and assessed.

Okay, thank you.

It the transportation planning.

And and and first of all, let me thank you and your staff.

You have already answered my questions that I submitted in writing, so I appreciate that very much.

I was just wondering, since I serve on the Transportation Policy Council, I know we work a lot with David Wardlow on on that and and Marlene Gaffrick.

Um they do great.

Does anybody from the 2.7 FTEs are they also coordinating with our efforts at at TPC?

Yes.

Who is it?

Who are the two point seven people?

Um so our 2.7 right now showing on here.

Uh we are we have planners right now.

We are in a process as I mentioned earlier in evolving our department, our team.

We do a lot of cross-collaboration and shared work.

Uh but to answer specifically who are attending those transportation meetings.

I ultimately um lead and review that.

So myself and my deputy director Robert Williamson.

Okay, we ensure and we sit in all of those meetings along with other planners of ours as they are looking to grow and expand their career and learning about transportation as well.

We do have some transportation positions that we're looking to hire, but ultimately we have junior planners as well as myself and deputy director Robert Williamson.

Okay, great.

And and because I know you work on the major thoroughfare plan and other things, but that all the with the other agencies and stuff, all the at work at TPC is I have a long list here of all of the meetings we sit.

Great.

Um I know I asked one question about the number of applications you get for the sidewalk fee in lieu of.

Is there a way to uh figure out how much we has been received in that science sidewalk in lieu of you said I think 138 applied for the fee in lieu or or had or that was yes?

I think my team prepared that in anticipation of that question.

So we went ahead and asked for FY26.

We've collected 693,979 as of April 30th, okay 2026.

Okay.

Um that do you is there how do I find that in the butt?

I mean, is it a it ultimately goes to public works, I'm assuming for how how does the money work on that?

And you can answer me later.

I I just all so that that's collected, they apply, they pay the fee in lieu of it's this amount, and then I'm assuming it gets to public works to build sidewalks.

Correct.

Okay, okay.

Um if I could just get somebody to follow up kind of on the specifics of how that that funding is, and and I'd like to track how that's being spent and and where.

So I'll I can ask public works about that as well.

But that is all I have, and I don't see any other council members in the queue.

Um Doug Smith, did you have a question on okay?

Come on up.

We have public comment now.

Really appreciate your work.

Um, both of your work and all of the team at planning.

You guys do a great job and really um grateful for all the hard work.

I'll see you tomorrow at the planning commission.

Thank you so much.

Thank you.

Come on up, Doug.

Good afternoon, everybody.

Um I thought I heard her say there were no significant increases in expenses in their budget.

And I know you don't have the budget book, that's what I'm working from, but on page 93 of section four, it shows uh the planning and development special revenue fund, which we've talked about here.

And the total expenses in that increase 42 percent uh from the estimate for this year and the proposed budget for next year, from $9 million to 12 million uh $800,000.

Uh and on that specifically, uh, as I was looking at some of these things, there's the block at the bottom there that says significant budget changes and highlights.

This applies to all uh departments as far as I'm concerned.

If there is a significant increase, excuse me, a significant increase in any particular line item in the budget, it would be nice to have an explanation of why that increased uh rather than having to have somebody like me come and ask why did this go up 42 percent.

So if in the future you could make that uh one of the items that is part of the budget book or part of the budget when they submit it, I think it would be helpful to everybody that is working on the budgets.

Right.

Okay, go ahead.

Right, and and we asked about some specific uh increases, you know, we go into the raw data and ask about um increases.

Some of some of them, like she said, in a lot of the departments, the most significant thing are the hope increases and the benefit increases and you know everything tied to personnel.

That's generally the answer we get.

The the the different increases I asked about were management consulting, went from like 750,000 to 1.24 million.

That's for um ongoing cost for plat tracker, historic preservation tracker, AI chat box, AI plat check-in, legal services.

So we do ask about specific um line items that are that are increased.

And but I think most of it, what I'm looking at your page in the budget book is is the is the salary and uh contractual.

They I just looked at this now.

They increase the number of full-time equivalents of 47 to 60.

So that's gonna add why is that increasing so significantly?

And again, these things I think could be addressed in the budget rather than having to come up here at these meetings.

So that's all you're referring to the special revenue fund, which is where we take in all the the uh the development.

Exactly.

And okay.

Exactly.

So that's my comment on that.

And then um since you're in the budget book, I'm sorry, the other people probably don't have this, but on page 99 of section four, uh they talk about uh including without limited to the various departments.

They are contacting Chapter 42 subdivision development planning, chapter 28, regulation of towers, et cetera, et cetera.

I would like to have them add to that list.

Notification of any super neighborhood that is in the area uh of the plan that's being changed.

Because we have a problem.

I know you can't do it by uh subdivision because you don't know what all of the subdivisions are where they have uh deed restrictions.

But that's where we run into a problem.

So if they could notify the super neighborhood, the super neighborhood people know what division what subdivisions have deed restrictions.

And I'd also like to see that be one of their uh goals to list how many super neighborhoods have they contacted uh in a given year.

Because I think that's true.

We've run into that problem a lot before.

And what happens is somebody starts building somebody because a building because they approve it, and then it's very difficult to get it stopped after that happens.

Yeah, that that comes up a lot, and and they're here and listening to that.

I think that's a reasonable request if there's an existing super neighborhood while where things are being shifted that I heard somebody make a comment uh at another meeting was that they said it's good to see how outcome-based budgeting working.

And I thought what are they talking about?

And I didn't realize that we have all of these uh short-term goals and long-term goals, and I'm really glad to see that because uh that's that's good work.

Doug, we've all been fighting for that for a long time.

And um, and yeah, I thought I made the comment um the other day that the performance measures have really improved and and they're a lot more meaningful in this budget book.

So um, and there and it's an ongoing process.

So thank you very much for your input, Doug.

Laura Gallagher.

Laura Gallier, come on down.

Nice to see you.

Good afternoon.

Uh my question is also about something in the budget book, but I might have written the page numbers down wrong.

Um page 262.

I think that's out of the whole 700 pages, but one of the performance measures was the number of state bills reviewed during the legislative session.

Obviously, there were none in 2026 because there was no legislative session.

But it says in A in 2027.

And so the question or comment I have is that not necessarily this department, but does the city routinely plan to review bills in the state legislature as to how they impact local control and other city issues.

I know our our the mayor's government relations department does that on the regular.

This means they're getting rid of the okay.

Well, just I'd just like to draw your attention where it says NA.

The NAID means that that specific goal is being not being monitored.

Not being monitored anymore from in this division.

Okay.

But Josh is done.

But Josh and Josh Sanders and his team, they're monitoring all the things that that uh impact cities.

Okay.

I just remember that last year, 2025, during something came up during the legislative session, and I don't remember what it was, but it caught city council off guard.

So I just wanted to be um proactive about reminding y'all that I mean I'll do that.

But I didn't I I knew about that issue that y'all didn't know about, but I figured you knew, so I didn't say anything.

Um but um you can always say something we might not know, but that but I know they track it.

I know a couple of us represent the city on the Texas Municipal League uh board.

They that we get um informed about what's coming up um in the legislative session, so we do the best we can with the thousands of bills that come, but but uh we really rely on the mayor's um intergovernmental relations team to keep us informed on the the matters that will impact city anything having to do with city.

Well, thank you for the invitation to continue notifying me about things.

Keep notifying us, Laura.

Okay, that brings us to the end of our planning and development.

Are y'all a planning department or the planning and development?

What's the official name?

Planning and development.

Okay, that's what it's always been, and I didn't know if anything had changed.

So thank you, planning and development department.

You do a great job, and we're happy to have you and class is over.

We'll take uh we'll take a you know, five minute break or so before we go on to the housing department.

That's me who's a good thing.