The meeting convened at 9:00 AM with a Committee of the Whole session, featuring presentations from the Department of Public Works (DPW) on flood mitigation progress and snow/pothole management, followed by consideration of multiple legislative items. The evening session (7:00 PM) included a public hearing on the proposed 2026 Downtown Overlay Zone (DOZ) amendments and a citizens-to-be-heard period. The public hearing remains open for written comments until April 24, 2026.
Public Hearing – 2026 Downtown Overlay Zone (DOZ) Amendments
Citizens to Be Heard
DPW Flood Mitigation Update (Gino & Alvaro)
DPW Snow Removal & Pothole Update
Other Discussion Items
Good afternoon and welcome to the April 2026 committee of the whole meeting. Madam Clerk, please call the roll. Mayor Ramos Herbert here. Councilmember Lopez. Councilmember Tarantino. Here. Councilmember Peters. Councilmember Assile. Councilmember K here and Council Minister. Here. Good afternoon again, and on this glorious day, welcome to our committee of the whole meeting. The first two items on our agenda are presentations by the Department of Public Works. We have a deck, and I believe we'll have a presentation. Yes. Copy. Good evening. Thank you. Before we start, I just wanted I just realized this is the first time have the opportunity to introduce you to our new, although not so new, city engineer. Gino, he joined us back in August last year. And he's he brought the excellent experience for exactly what we needed in our department. So thank you, Gene. Happy to be here. Thank you. Thank you. All right. All right, good. Excellent. So thank you to uh Mayor and City Council for me to present to you the flood mitigation uh update for 2026. Um during this presentation, I'm going to offer a brief overview of completed projects, um, those anticipated to begin construction during this fiscal year. Projects currently in the engineering design phase that are expected to be completed and ready for public bidding by late 2026 or early 2027. Uh I'll focus on providing project highlights and details on anticipated construction and design efforts for this fiscal year. I'll summarize the current status of flood mitigation program. Alvaro is going to discuss challenges we're facing and outline proposed adjustments to improve how we evaluate and prioritize future projects. I'll review our awarded grants, our anticipated grants for this fiscal year and upcoming funding opportunities for 2027 and future years. Summarize our next steps forward, and provide a question and answer opportunities for any questions at the end. So starting to date, we've successfully completed a total of six construction projects and two engineering studies between late 2024 and early 2026, targeting flood-prone areas throughout the city. These efforts focused on installing new and upgraded drainage infrastructure, improving system conveyance, and restoring critical stormwater capacity. And increased over 62,000 cubic feet of flood storage capacity within the upper Hutchison River system. Engineering studies in the Interlaken and Emerson area areas further advanced long-term strategies and locations surrounded by wetlands and FEMA floodplains. Again, it is located in a wetland area in a FEMA floodplain, but we were able to at least provide some small benefit in this area. For 2026, our targeted projects continue to advance our flood mitigation and drainage improvement projects with the intent of reducing flood risk, improving stormwater conveyance, and enhancing infrastructure resilience across the multiple priority areas. Nine of the 11 projects that you see in front of you listed projects, they span various stages, including conceptual planning, design permitting, bidding, and early construction. These projects reflect multi-year capital effort and the majority of the construction activities scheduled between 2026 and 2027. Permanent efforts are largely focused on engineering design, however, several projects, such as the Wiltshire Road, Sheldrake River culverts, and Pelham Road, Whitewood Avenue have progressed to bid phases and contract award and will be in construction this fiscal year. The City Park, Ashland Avenue, Sunhaven, Stevenson's Brook Projects are currently in engineering design with the anticipation of construction either late 2026 or early 2027. We continue to advance our efforts with the link drainage and Quaker Ridge Road projects. We anticipate our engineering design efforts to be finalized for the linked stormwater components upon completion of the phase 1A. Our eventual design will be localized drainage improvements to the Prince Street and Brook Street area. And we've also expanded the scope of our Quaker Ridge Road projects as the effective drainage area was much larger than originally anticipated. We have a limited right-of-way, high groundwater table, high bedrock elevation.