Good afternoon.

The time is now 202 p.m.

on Tuesday, August 26, 2025, and the City of San Antonio budget work session is called to order.

Madam Clerk, please call the roll.

Councilmember Corr.

Councilmember Castillo Angiano.

Councilmember Viegran.

Councilmember Mungia.

Present.

Councilmember Castillo.

Here.

Councilmember Galvan.

Here.

Councilmember Alderete Gavito.

Here.

Councilmember Meza Gonzalez.

Councilmember Spears.

Councilmember White.

Mayor Jones.

Mayor, we have quorum.

Okay.

Thank you, Madam Clerk.

So this meeting is to hear about budgets for the economic development, planning, and transportation departments.

Over to you, Eric.

Thank you, Mayor.

We'll start with Brenda and Economic Development transition to planning and wrap up with Transportation of South Africa.

Economic Development Director.

Today I'll review the proposal the proposed fiscal year 2026 budget for the economic development department, but before doing so, I'd like to take a moment to thank the resourceful and dedicated members of the economic development team.

I'm incredibly grateful for their efforts day in and day out.

Our efforts are guided by the Economic Development Strategic Framework, which was accepted by City Council in October 2022 with the guiding principles and goals displayed on this slide.

Joining me in leading those efforts, and here today are assistant directors Anna Bradshaw and Alfred Brewer, along with assistant to the director, Caitlin Crobat.

On this slide, you will see the department's historical budget as well as the proposed budget for fiscal year 2026.

Much of the general fund adjustments the last few years have been in response to various small business pilot programs, such as the noise mitigation grant, small business ecosystem enhancements, and construction mitigation grants, just to name a few.

Emphasis will continue on the small business outreach and business retention and growth visits, as well as our supplier engagement efforts anchored by the Sabeda program to support the participation of small businesses on city contracts.

This also includes investment in supply SA.

In fiscal year 2026, we will update the strategic framework, which will assess the investments that have been made the past four years, identify ongoing needs and future opportunities.

The proposed budget reflects the elimination of the 1.4 million dollars for the small business construction grant program, as well as the right sizing of the construction mitigation program from $500,000 to $350,000.

As greater SATX enhances their regional efforts, their funding model is shifting to a 35 cent per capita model, reducing the annual contribution from the city by $70,000.

The additional reductions are for such items such as overtime, translation services, travel, and other right sizing opportunities.

We are confident in our ability to continue to provide the necessary services to support our stakeholders, as much of that is through the relationships established by our team, as well as strategic investments.

One such investment is the popular 0% interest rate loan program at $500,000 as ongoing access to capital support for small businesses.

This program, offered in partnership with LIFFund, supports eligible small business owners and entrepreneurs with interest free funding to reach their business goals.

For the last two years, the program was augmented using ARPA funds and matching funds from a contribution to LIF Fund from Wells Fargo, which facilitated over $5 million in loans to $161 recipients.

380 businesses have benefited from the program since 2016 inception.

The proposed $500,000 allocation will support an additional 26 loans valued at $1 million.

In addition, small businesses in a city initiated construction zone will continue to be eligible for a six-month grace period.

The Revitalize SA Corridor Leadership Program, offered as an ARPA funded pilot program in partnership with Mean Street America the past two years, is proposed as a $250,000 investment.

The program focuses on revitalization and growth of commercial corridors by cultivating community leaders through a series of leadership and strategy courses that provide an opportunity to learn from subject matter experts and connect with key community and business leaders.

Participant leaders developed a project in the respective corridors to demonstrate their learning.

Going forward, we will look to leverage external resources to support project implementation.

To date, 32 participants representing corridors such as South Cross and Quintana in District 5, Roosevelt in Districts 3 and 5, North Maine in District 1, and East Commerce in District 2 have completed the program.

We are very proud of this program and look forward to continuing this grassroots type of placemaking throughout the city.

As previously noted, the budget reflects our commitment to supporting businesses of all sizes and stages.

While the budget does not include construction grants, our business outreach specialists will engage with impacted businesses and connect them to programs and resources.

The construction mitigation program will continue with the signage program, free memberships to visit San Antonio, activation funding, and the by-local savings pass.

We also look forward to coordinating with the newly formed capital delivery department as they work to ensure on-time completion of major infrastructure projects.

While our outreach efforts address immediate needs and concerns, our business retention and growth visits focus on addressing longer-term needs that support businesses in achieving their goals.

The strategy will focus on increasing the number, quality, and strategic impact of BRG visits by strengthening internal coordination, expanding targeted outreach, improving internal systems, and leveraging external partnerships like Biomed SA and Greater SATX.

The investment in Greater SATX addresses both today's current business needs as just referenced and lays the groundwork for future private investment.

Over the past few years, Greater SATX has adjusted their business attraction strategy, which has resulted in a more robust project pipeline.

Looking at that pipeline, there is the potential for new investment totaling nearly $9 billion and over 8,000 jobs.

While not all such projects require city incentives, such resources can certainly play a role in securing these types of investments.

To add some perspective regarding incentivized past incentivized projects for the 2024 year end reporting period, 32 agreements were monitored, representing over $7.2 billion invested in San Antonio, and nearly $20,000 jobs were created.

These projects have received nearly $63 million in incentives since 2009, representing a leverage ratio of $116 for every $1 of taxes abated, rebated, or grants dispersed.

In summary, the proposed budget reflects the ongoing implementation of the strategic framework, which we will update next year.

We will invest in commercial quarters through the revitalized essay quarter leadership program and in our small businesses through the 0% interest rate loan program and our outreach efforts.

And we will use the economic development incentive fund to support company growth and job creation, along with programs such as Growth Stage Grants, Supply SA, and Launch SA.

Building on the successful relaunch of Launch SA, offered in partnership with Geek Dum, we will continue offering programming across all council districts, providing technical assistance from industry experts, and connecting more small businesses to funding opportunities.

In closing, we are committed to our department's core services and growing relationships for the continued prosperity of the community.

Thank you for the opportunity to highlight the great work done by the Economic Development Department and outline the path for it.

I will now turn it over to Bridget White, Planning Director.

Thank you, Brenda.

Good afternoon, Mayor and Council.

Bridget White, Director of the Planning Department.

My presentation this afternoon will provide you with an overview of the planning department, our fiscal 26 pros budget, and several department work plan items such as SA Tomorrow.

Here with me this afternoon are the department management team, a Rudy Nino Assistant Director, Bobby Hamilton Assistant to the Director, and the managers who oversee the three divisions I'll highlight on the next slide.

Chris Ryerson, Planning Administrator, Priscilla Rosales Pinna, Planning Manager, and Channel Gould Planning Manager.

As the City of San Antonio has grown, the role of the planning department has changed.

Last year, the department updated its mission statement and identified three department goals to ensure continued alignment with the city's mission statement and core values.

As such, we aim to be a planning department of excellence, facilitate implementation of adopted plans, and continuously improve our community engagement practices.

The department's work across the three divisions of citywide planning, regional planning and rezoning, is focused on balancing the need for redevelopment as the city continues to grow with preserving the city's natural and cultural resources.

Since fiscal year 2019, the department's general fund budget has fluctuated between $3.9 million and $5.9 million.

These fluctuations are due to funds being added to the budget for various multi-year projects such as SA Tomorrow and several quarter planning projects such as Bandero Road.

The department's fiscal year 2026 budget is proposed at $4.4 million, and our position count remains unchanged from last fiscal year at 24.

The fiscal year 26 budget does include a reduction of about $134,000 related to right sizing of contracts and commodities.

There is, however, no impact to services with this reduction.

As shown on the fiscal year 26 proposed budget slide, 41% of the department's budget is for SA tomorrow sub-area planning.

As a matter of background, the city adopted three SA Tomorrow plans in 2016, consisting of the comprehensive plan, the multimodal transportation plan, and the sustainability plan, the SA tomorrow plans aim to proactively address the forecasted growth of people in Bear County by 2040.

In the past nine years, we have been one of the fastest growing cities in the country each year.

And since 2020, San Antonio has ranked number two nationally in numeric population increase behind only New York and ahead of Fort Worth.

The planning department is focused on implementation of the adopted comprehensive plan, which is the city's official long-range planning document that provides policy guidance for growth, development, land use and infrastructure.

We implement the plan through the development of sub-area corridor and revitalization plans, as well as by updating growth policies.

The sub-areas are 30 unique and specific geographies and include 13 regional centers identified during the comprehensive planning process as existing or emerging hubs of employment and activity, and 17 community areas that encompass every part of the city outside of those regional centers.

We recognized early on in the process the need to plan for different types of residents across the city.

Residents in registered neighborhoods that are within a previously adopted land use plan and who've had opportunities to talk about the future of the area through a planning process.

Residents in registered neighborhoods or that are not within any adoptive plan, but may have had some representation through their neighborhood association, and three residents in neighborhoods that are not part of any registered association or within any adopted plan area.

Basically, those who have been typically not represented or underrepresented in past planning processes.

The sub-area planning process, which began in 2017, has a multi year work plan.

Each phase includes six plan areas with approximately 24 months of public engagement and plan development.

And in 2018, an updated comprehensive land use categories were adopted for the use in the sub-area plans so that all plans are using the same land use categories and associated zoning.

Thus, 30 sub-area plans once completed will result in the first citywide future land use map, something that currently does not exist.

Eleven sub-area plans have been adopted by City Council to date, with COVID-19 impacting the timeline of the planning phases.

Five of the phase one plans have been adopted with the final plan, the West Side Community Area Plan nearing completion and anticipated for adoption next fiscal year.

All six phase two plans have been adopted, and all six phase three plans are forthcoming with the first anticipated for council adoption next month.

We're also currently working on phase four plans with community stakeholders.

As sub area plans are developed, they are done around a planning framework that addresses the topics of land use, focus areas, mobility amenities and public spaces, housing and economic development, and identify opportunities to leverage and challenges to address around these topics.

Framework recommendations are summarized into a plan framework map and expanded upon through existing conditions analyses, recommendations, and specific strategies.

The sub-area plans also include vision and goals, neighborhood profiles and priorities, and implementation sections.

Development of all sub area plans is done with input from community stakeholders, and this input is received through a range of public engagement activities, such as initial outreach, meetings with neighborhoods, community leaders, institutions, and elected officials, the planning teams that are made up of community representatives who have special knowledge of the plan area, community meetings where notices are mailed to every mailing address and property owner within the plan area, ongoing outreach with updates and interaction with all types of stakeholders, focus groups for in-depth exploration of issues, needs, potential solutions, and priorities related to a specific topic or audience, community intercept events to meet people where they are, media outline resources distribution lists, and of course, project websites that are unique for each plan area.

Once adopted, the sub-area plans become the plan of reference for land use designations and identified policy and priorities within the plan boundary become city policy.

As such, land use and zoning change requests that come before city council for consideration will include applicable sub-area plan goals and strategies.

In addition, needed and desired improvements identified by community stakeholders provide ways to align spending with growth in community needs.

One example of plan implementation is the Brooks Area Regional Center Plan.

Adopted in 2019, the plan framework is shown on this slide.

In addition to city-led rezoning efforts to address neighborhood stability in the area, significant development has occurred that further the recommendations and strategies adopted.

In the 2022 bond program, the Brooks Development Authority requested and received bond funds for improvements to Sydney Brooks Drive, one of the streets identified in the plan as a priority for pedestrian infrastructure.

Other adopted plans with projects funded in the last bond program include the UTSA Area Regional Center, the Medical Center Area Regional Center, and the Downtown Area Regional Center Plan.

As future Braun programs are developed, and other funding opportunities become available.

The sub-area plans can provide a listing of those community-identified needs and improvements already aligned with the community's vision.

A second component of implementation of the SAMR planning process is rezoning to align zoning on the ground with the adopted sub-area future land use plans.

This city-initiated zoning process identifies areas within the adopted plan areas to address issues such as neighborhood stabilization or to correct zoning issues that resulted as an area has changed over time.

On an upcoming council agenda, will be the Denman Neighborhood Plan Amendments and rezoning in the adopted medical center area regional center plan.

This work was done in collaboration with neighborhood stakeholders who wanted to ensure that possible redevelopment and new development would be compatible with and complementary to the existing densities and characters of the neighborhood.

The changes directly aligned with goals, recommendations, and strategies in the regional center plan and the neighborhood's profile and priorities.

While the City of San Antonio sits at over 510 square miles, the city's extraterritorial jurisdiction is over 600 square miles.

Regional planning focuses on implementing the city's annexation and growth management policy through various tools, whether it be annexation, special districts and agreements, and regional planning and coordination.

Work includes coordination with various city departments, such as Military and Veterans Affairs on proposed development close to military bases, governmental affairs on legislative issues, and external agencies such as Bear County on development projects in the county.

Earlier this year, City Council approved an 1,800-acre project in the adopted Southeast Community Area Plan that was a coordinated effort between our regional planning team and the neighborhood housing neighborhood housing services department working with the developer.

It was necessary to annex almost 800 acres into the city and align land use and zoning with the adopted future land use map for an impactful mixed-use development and amenities project, which will include affordable housing in a historically underutilized area of the city.

And the department is currently working on its first ETJ land use plan that will utilize the SA Tomorrow land use categories used in the sub-area plans and in two ETJ areas around Camp Bullis and Lackland that were designated for military protection.

The Northeast Corridor Revitalization Program is an initiative the department has been overseeing for several years.

Program goals are to encourage the renewal of the Parin Bidal Nacados Corridor and surrounding areas.

A key component of the program has been the enhancement grant program, which assists owners and tenants of commercial properties with facade, landscape, and signage improvements.

The tax increment reinvestment zone number 33, overseen by the neighborhood housing services department, allows the city to fund projects that help spur private investment in the area with infrastructure improvements as well as wayfinding and streetscape enhancements.

Northeast Quarter design standards are slated for council consideration next month and aim to enhance the forum function and visual appeal of public and private commercial properties along the corridor.

And staff is currently updating the 2013 market study and 2014 revitalization plan with an existing conditions analysis, review and analysis of the enhancement grant program, evaluation of streetscape conditions to include improvement recommendations and an implementation plan.

Additional projects I'd like to highlight include the Goliad Road Revitalization Plan, which looks at the Goliad Road Corridor in District 3, identified as a corridor of interest in the adopted Brooks Area Regional Center plan.

The revitalization plan the council will consider in a couple of months includes elements to improve walking, cycling, and transit options, creating better options or better connections to the surrounding neighborhoods and encouraging development that supports a wider range of community service serving businesses and services available to neighborhood residents.

Recommendations are centered on potential streetscape improvements and economic development concepts related to infill development and reinvestment in existing businesses.

The Bandera Road Corridor Phase 2 project builds on the phase one phase, phase one of the Bandera Road Corridor planning process and looks at the corridor from loop 410 to Calibra Road.

While the loop 1604 to loop 10 portion of the corridor address issues around significant traffic congestion and dominant retail uses along the corridor, the phase two portion has different challenges, with residential uses found directly along the corridor and development patterns more traditional.

The phase two project should conclude with a plan for council consideration by the end of the calendar year.

And finally, SEPTED or Crime Prevention through Environmental Design allows us the opportunity to work collaboratively with several other departments related to the built environment and how design can deter criminal activity.

We have been fortunate to work with police, code enforcement, other departments on the initiatives spearheaded by the Office of Integrated Community Safety that are briefed on last week.

We're also finalizing a SEPTED report for the Northeast Corridor area that provides an analysis of the corridor, identifying areas of crime concentration, and outlining recommendations that will feed into update of the revitalization plan.

And as we look forward to fiscal year 2026, we will remain focused on implementation of the SA tomorrow comprehensive plan with developing land use plans that incorporate adopted city policies while working to make community residents aware of and educated about decisions made related to growth and development in the city.

As the collecting and sharing of both qualitative and quantitative data is important to the planning process and allows for better consensus-driven decision making, we'll continue to look at best practices and coordinate with both internal and external partners.

And of course, good planning requires committee engagement.

So we will employ various public engagement activities to reach as many residents as possible so they can have a voice in the areas in which they live, work, and play.

That is the end of my presentation, Mayor, and I will now turn it over to Catherine Hernandez, Director of the Transportation Department.

Good afternoon, Mayor and City Council members.

My name is Kat Hernandez.

I'm the director for our city's transportation department.

With me are my team leads, Christy Flores, Marie Myers, and Joe Conger.

I will provide you with an overview of our department showing how our focus is regional and local transportation planning for vehicle, bike, transit riders, and pedestrians, as well as safety for all road users.

In today's presentation, I will cover our proposed fiscal year 2026 budget, as well as provide an overview of the different projects that we have completed or are currently underway, and provide updates on the four policies that we adopted this past year.

A quick overview of the functions of our department shows how we focus on delivering our services.

These services come from the city's multimodal transportation plan that you just heard about that was adopted as part of the SA Tomorrow planning process.

In our strategic planning section, our team works on corridor studies, policy development, and code changes that implement our initiatives.

Our project implementation team, led by Vanessa Garza, focuses on construction projects to make our streets safer for all users, as well as executing the Safe Streets for All grant on Zarzamora.

And our public relations team assists these two sections with engagement and outreach on our projects.

Over time, the budget has remained pretty consistent.

However, we have slowly built up our grant funding by seeking out opportunities and leveraging other resources in order to implement our plans and policies.

Our FY26 proposed budget is 9.6 million, including general restricted capital and grant funds.

Our total personnel complement is 14 positions.

We are a tiny but mighty team committed to delivering on plans and policies that we have worked on with our stakeholders and community members in the last year.

The next few slides will summarize and highlight these policies and our implementation efforts.

The Vision Zero Action Plan was updated by City Council in September of 2024.

The update included both high injury and high risk network reports that provide a ranking of corridors based on data of where crashes are occurring and where there are at risk for more crashes to occur.

This data-driven approach allows us to prioritize our work to make these corridors safer.

Eight of the 20 high impact corridors are currently being evaluated to identify safety countermeasures that will increase safety.

Three additional corridors will be evaluated over the next fiscal year.

The department also applied for safe streets and roads for all grant funding to evaluate an additional 12 corridors in future years, and hopefully we'll be notified this fall of funding will be awarded to continue these efforts.

We also apply for grant funding from TechStot to fund our outreach and education efforts, as well as to identify issues that prevent safe routes to schools for our children.

And we hope to also hear this fall if this is awarded as well.

The project implementation team has been working hard to complete projects that will make our corridors safer for our most vulnerable road users.

In the fall, one project, which is a partnership with TechSot's Hazard Safety Implementation Program Grant, will be wrapping up on Pleasanton.

This winter, we also have five projects completing in several council districts across the city.

Lastly, we have been moving on our Safe Streets for All road grant that was awarded in 2023.

This $5.5 million grant will fund eight mid-block crosswalks on Tsar Zamora, which is one of our high-end networks, and a safety campaign on 10 corridors, as you can see on this graphic.

And we are scheduled to select the consultant for the design work for the corridors for approval in the fall.

Council also adopted the complete streets policy in September 2024.

This was an update to our 2011 policy.

This policy provides a lens for us to design a street that serves all users and all modes of travel with a focus on making streets safer and more comfortable for all traveling on the streets.

Upon adoption of the policy, the city was awarded the gold medal by SETI Health, and in June, Smart Growth America ranked our policy number one in the nation.

Since the adoption of the policy, our department has begun work on the implementation plan.

This includes the update to our design guide that is the development of a framework to design safer, more accessible streets.

An open house will be held in September to get our first round of public input.

This update will lead into the next round of updates to our UDC in 2027.

We're also partnering with Smart Growth America this fall to host a workshop for the public and our city departments that will help with these efforts.

In May, Council approved the creation of the Multimodal Transportation Commission that will serve as a body of community members and stakeholders to provide input and recommendations on implementation efforts that are driven from from our policies, such as the Complete Streets Policy, Vision Zero, Transit Oriented Policy, and the Bike Network Plan.

Our department continues our work on executing corridor studies that were awarded by MPO and TechStot.

Four corridors were awarded to envision and plan a safer corridor with a conceptual plan.

Through this effort, the goal is to set these up for the next stages of design and construction with the hopes of also leveraging other funds such as grant funding.

We completed the Colebra corridor plan in 2022.

Marbok is next, and we are bringing the selection of the consultant for approval in the fall.

We're finalizing the agreement with TechSoup for Harry Warsbach, and as we finish out that work, we will begin the final corridor of West Avenue.

After an 11-month process that included task force work and stakeholder input and collaboration with VIA, City Council adopted last December the transit-oriented policy framework, along with an update to the UDC of the TOD zoning district.

This policy was adopted to align zoning, infrastructure, and community priorities to deliver equitable and resilient transit-driven growth.

It's about planning the right density and intensity along our advanced rapid transit corridors, starting with the Green Line along San Pedro from the airport down to Steve's, just south of downtown.

As you know, VIA is working on both the silver and green lines.

The green line is 100% designed and is moving into construction with utility work beginning this month.

It is anticipated that road interstruct intersection and sidewalk work along San Pedro near the stations will begin in the spring of 2026.

And the silver line is at 40% design with construction set to begin in the summer of 2027.

Part of our implementation efforts in conjunction with these efforts, and aligned with our transit-oriented policy, includes creating walkability and connectivity from our neighborhoods to the station areas along the green line.

There are a total of 26 stations along the green line, and the first four we are focusing on currently have the maximum potential for density and intensity.

Our team is conducting a walk zone analysis to recommend and prioritize improvements that will improve the walkability to these stations.

Additionally, we are working on the traffic calming study within the areas around Hildebrand that includes neighborhoods such as Monta Vista and Alta Vista.

Our teams are working with our economic development and neighborhood and housing services departments on market and retail needs and housing affordability studies to help bring the right density and intensity based on the needs of the station areas.

The bike network plan was adopted by council in January of 2025 to create a safer, accessible, and more connected network for all types of riders from commuters to families.

Our department is currently working to implement the plan by adding bicycle facilities in different areas around town and through collaboration with the Public Works Department on Bomb Projects and Street IMP where feasible.

We'll also be evaluating a citywide ordinance prohibiting vehicle parking on designated bike facilities to create a clear and predictable environment for cyclists.

This was highlighted by the public when evaluating barriers to safe riding, especially for children.

As a result of a safe Streets for All grant, we will be developing a quick build guide and deploying pilot projects.

To implement safer infrastructure, our plan identified and categorized projects in tiers in order to assess the level of difficulty and the time that it would take to deploy and complete.

We will be assessing and creating a spine of bike facilities identified in the plan as Tier 1 projects along our primary and neighborhood networks and coordinate with your offices as we start to deploy this infrastructure.

As you can see on this map, we showcase 53 of our departmental projects where we are planning, designing, or working on construction projects on corridors or intersections in your districts.

This highlights the work of the four policies we adopted last year and the implementation efforts that I just briefed you on.

Of the 53 shown, 17 are in pre-design or analysis phase, 22 are in design, nine are under construction, and five that will be completed this fiscal year.

The different types of projects shown on this map include multimodal improvement projects that include our bike pedestrian and motorist safety projects like mid-block crosswalks, traffic signal improvements, and bike lane installations.

Our outreach projects include our safety campaigns, where we target areas of greater concern and educate on safe mobility, and our quiet zone projects at rail crossings where we maintain the crossings so the trains don't need to sound their horns while passing certain designated residential areas.

Our focus moving forward in this next fiscal year will be to continue on our implementation efforts.

Implementation of our vision zero strategy and complete streets policy moves our city forward on creating safe streets for all road users through corridor planning and safe infrastructure projects.

Implementation of our transit-oriented policy framework ensures that we create that walkability and connectivity with the right amount of density and intensity.

And lastly, creating safe bike infrastructure for all cyclists moves forward our bike network plan.

Thank you, Mayor and Council.

And with that, we're here for any questions.

Great, thank you to the presenters.

Is there another level of analysis that could provide us a better understanding of what the ROI is on some of these programs?

The LIFT program, for example.

It'd just be really helpful to understand, hey, a recipient of this grant is now on their third or fourth year of in business, and you know, their annual budget now is you know, several million, something like that, I think would be very helpful for us as we want to support our small businesses, want to support this very important work.

Um, but giving us an understanding of how far one dollar goes of an investment from the city in that space would be would be very helpful.

Um so please provide that when when able uh miss white.

Um many of the departments have provided their updates on penalties as we look to um identify additional revenues.

I didn't see that in your presentation.

Uh do you have recommendations on additional zoning penalties?

Um the zoning and permitting process is actually through the development services department, uh mayor.

Um, and so they would administer any penalties um in violation of the UDC.

Have you informed you've provided all of your recommendations on what that level needs to be?

Um not from a planning standpoint.

Okay.

May I ask that you do that from a planning standpoint?

Okay, thank you.

May I also ask um when I look at your your land use, I I'd welcome your understanding.

We've got 14 um projects on the state's flood plan.

Um that it doesn't 14 projects, 411 million dollars worth all throughout our city.

Uh, we don't anticipate getting any funding from the state um in the near future.

I'd welcome understanding how um the the continued delay of those flood projects impacts your your planning process um and your ability to execute that.

You don't have to provide that now if you want to provide that in writing, you can you can do so.

Okay.

Um similarly on on slide 12, you talked about um crime prevention through um environmental uh design in many of our uh in many of the previous presentations, we have come back to the discussion of of public safety and how uh certainly some of my colleagues um would like to um increase the number of officers.

Um however, as you point out, even with this, there are additional ways in which we can think about public safety that decreases the SAPD's workload and thus again meets the the you know mutually agreed upon objective, which is a more safe area.

Can you elaborate on some of the statistics statistics that you have or the ROI as a result of some of these investments and infrastructure that in fact contribute to crime prevention?

Um so one of the projects that we actually worked on with the Office of Integrated Community Safety was the Rosemont Apartments.

So we put together a document that outlined um recommendations related to natural surveillance, such as lighting to reduce um uh incidents of crime or someone wanting to be in a particular area, um, access control so looking at points of entry.

Um, and so we actually outlined different recommendations for that particular um property.

Uh the second property that they worked on that we were involved in, we're putting together now recommendations based on number of site visits.

So we're finalizing that report right now.

Okay.

May I ask for you uh to to capture that and and frankly what the um the need for SAPD response was prior to those improvements and then after.

I think that'll be helpful again as we consider other ways in which we can keep our community safe.

Um, those infrastructure improvements are something that we should consider.

Okay.

As well as the the full list of um projects that are similar in in um in intent.

Uh Ms.

Hernandez.

Um similarly on the complete streets program.

Um you spoke about um, you know, this the ability, well, one it's safer, it helps with traffic calming, et cetera.

Can you also speak to how that has reduced the need for um SAT SAPD response, whether it be due to decreased um accidents or or what have you?

All of this to say, I mean, as we're having a discussion about public safety, clearly you all are identifying investments that we can make that also contribute to a safe environment.

Um so I want us to be able to balance that as we're thinking about um investments.

So if you do have some statistics that speak about, hey, before the project and then after the complete streets project that speak to uh a reduction in in the need for some kind of um first responder response would be would be very helpful.

Um and then I saw in your policy review no parking and in bike lanes.

Um throughout the uh I mean common in other cities are protected lanes um right where you have the the bike lane on the inside and the cars you know on the to that about um is that part of your policy review?

Yes, so there's different types, but yes, that'll be part of the policy review.

Okay, great.

Um and are you identifying how are you identifying areas in which that might be um make sense initially to implement?

Well, for one, you don't want to put it in areas where if residential uh houses were built with no driveways and they have no places to park, so you're gonna want to ideally look at at subdivisions that have um the appropriate places to park so it doesn't impact the residents.

Certainly.

Um I get lots of notes though, unfortunately, about some of the um uh you mentioned it, some of the uh challenges young children have with biking to school.

So I'd also want to make sure that we're prioritizing those areas where something like this would be um welcome and and most impactful.

So based on that, uh Chair Munghia.

Thank you, Mayor.

Um so we'll start off with the planning department.

So y'all, of course, are a regular fixture at PCDC and will continue to be.

Um and I this is something that kind of came up on your presentation.

I know my colleague had asked about this in district two, right?

But every time we do a zoning case in the notes it says if that requested zoning complies with the area plan, and sometimes we have to make amendments to the plan to accommodate that zoning.

I think it'd be worth us um starting to track that a little bit more with some reports uh because if our community is going through the trouble of going to these meetings and saying what they want uh and what they'd like to see, and we're slowly chipping away at that in zoning that doesn't accommodate that.

Um it's just helpful for us to know.

Obviously, that is a council decision ultimately, but it's important to know how much we're changing even after a plan has been completed.

Uh and if there's even like certain areas where that's happening, is it more inner city where we're just overriding all these plans, or is it more the suburban communities?

Um so I think that'll be helpful, you know, as we go along.

Um and the Southwest community plan, I think there was a delay in that one.

Do you know what the timeline looks like for for that plan?

So the Southwest Community Plan is a phase four plan.

So we're currently in the process of um working with the community and going through the different topics that I mentioned, mobility, land use.

Uh we actually uh Thursday we'll have uh land use workshops.

Um so right now we're we've set up a number of land use workshops, as I mentioned, focus groups to talk specifically about land use, and so we'll be meeting with the Southwest group.

Um, but that plan and the other phase four plans aren't anticipated until next fiscal year.

Okay.

Yeah, just keep you posted in.

If I can make it, I'd love for Raul and my team to be there just to cannot keep track of that.

Okay.

I um want to just give some support, and I know that it's kind of still being worked on the Northeast revitalization plan in D10.

Um I actually used to live in that area, and so I'm very familiar with that side of town.

Um and yeah, Nakadochis, thousand oaks in that particular area could definitely use a lot of help.

A lot of small businesses there, um, a lot of um Latino businesses that I would say in that area.

So um hopefully we can kind of keep going on that project uh with district 10's help.

And then when it comes to you know economic development and transportation, um I think this was kind of mentioned in well in transportation in Marboch.

But I'm curious for economic development, the construction mitigation grant.

Um in that slide you said there was gonna be a reduction, I believe.

Can you walk me through some of that?

Yes, sir.

So uh the proposal in fiscal year 25.

The there was added 1.4 million dollars in general funds for the grant program previously funded under ARPA.

Uh the the proposed fiscal year 26 budget does not include that 1.4 million dollars for construction grants in working with the public works department for projects that would be eligible.

So those are long-term construction corridors.

Uh we usually have a certain start date.

There were no eligible, no new eligible corridors for fiscal year 26, hence the recommendation to not implement the program.

That's interesting.

Um, I'd like to a little bit more information on that because I mean, driving downtown, obviously, there's there's so much construction.

Uh folks from Market Square have reached out to, I'm sure every council member uh there's construction on three sides of their building.

Uh we're about to start a major bond project on Marbok, um, which is gonna be very, very disruptive.

Which brings me to um uh your that program.

So hopefully we can identify some funds that that might be eligible for the Marbock project along with transportation because Councilman Galvan and I actually talked about this.

We want to both get out there and block walk some of those businesses because we did have a planning meeting for the bond project um last year or so.

There was maybe like six people that went.

Um, and so it's gonna be extremely disruptive to the environment.

A lot of businesses there that I don't think know what's gonna happen, that this is coming up, and that will definitely be affected by that construction.

So I'm sad to see that money go when we're about to do a huge project in my side of town.

Um so I'd like a little bit more information on that.

So and the key on that is eligible businesses as well, the eligibility, because it's really the timeline for those constructions.

So to be clear, like Marbach, as you mentioned, us start um later this fall, but then as the the criteria for the grant program and and showing the loss, it just the timeline for for that didn't play out.

Happy to provide more information.

Yeah, but we could change the criteria, right, to accommodate these businesses, including in district one, which hopefully you don't have any more IMP projects this upcoming fiscal year, Councilwoman.

But you know, there's a lot of businesses being affected by downtown construction that I'm sure is well overdue on the completion date.

So a little bit deeper dive, I think is needed on that.

Um and so thank you very much, Brenda.

I appreciate that.

Uh and so Kat, I had a couple questions for you.

So, you know, this is a very interesting thing that's if you spend a lot of time here, you'll kind of realize this transportation different than some of the transportation aspects and public works, right?

So uh street calming measures, all those types of things, even though we'd consider that transportation, that's very different from y'all.

And so what I understand is public works is is more focused on the here and now, and your area is a little bit more long-term planning and use, future use.

When we do bond projects, we don't necessarily plan for future use.

It's usually kind of rebuilding what's there and fixing a drainage issue or something, but it's not considering five tenure plans from that point.

So I have a couple streets I want to do bond projects on, one being Zarzamora, South Military, especially south of Fort 10.

I've got so many businesses, AM, JCB, Toyota, UHS.

They're all looking at me like, what are you gonna do about this street coming up?

And part of that is we know the future growth there will be substantial, especially as we talk about the east-west um corridor that'll be coming online in a few years.

So I think we need to do a better job of planning.

Uh and especially another street of my district, Gray Ellison from uh 410 to 90.

Um huge use there.

It's uh it's a one-lane each-way roadway.

Um this one of our landfills is along that road, uh, several subdivisions.

Um, so I would like for my office to do some long-term planning on those two streets and work with you all.

Would you be the department to work with on that?

If it's a bond project, we would coordinate with the new capital delivery department.

Okay, but as far as if I could get money now to do some sort of long-term planning initiative ahead of the bond project, we'd be working with you all.

We can we can help, yes.

Yeah, yeah.

I want you to be the lead instead of the public works on that one.

But I think that's something that you know we're gonna have to figure out the funding for that.

Yeah, but that is something that we have to do if we're gonna spend five, fifteen, thirty, forty million dollars on a street uh and fix it, and then in five years the capacity is just overdone, right?

That that's not gonna work on the south side of town.

Um so I really would appreciate that work on it as well.

Okay.

And there was something I was gonna mention for my district three colleague.

I forgot what was on there, but um, thank you very much.

So I'll take a second round.

Uh Chair Alder Think of you.

Thank you, Mayor.

Um, I am gonna start off with wishing my colleague, our colleague, Rick Galvana, a very happy birthday.

Happy birthday.

Thank you.

Just about um now I'm gonna start.

Thank you so much to all the presenters.

Um I'm gonna start off with economic development.

Uh I'm gonna echo um Councilman Mungia's concern about uh eliminating the construction mitigation grants.

I I know that um eligibility has changed, but we do hear from small businesses how much construction um impacts your lives and and their livelihood, and I know that Councilman White and Councilwoman Corps, right?

Y'all spearheaded that effort.

And and I think it was a it was a very well received effort citywide because we we hear about this so much.

So I definitely want us um or Eric to make note that you know if we can look at that again because uh that did provide much needed relief to our small businesses, and and I I'd hate to pull back on that.

Um, I did also have a question um on slide seven, aligned workforce development funds to ready to work.

What is that 247?

Um 200,000 of that is for the SA work program, and so uh ready workforce development used to be within economic development, and then with the transition to ready to work in a separate department.

So in fiscal year 25, three staff, for example, shifted over to ready to work, and this is really the remaining transition of those uh couple hundred thousand in general funds.

So 200 is SA works, and then um the rest is some marketing dollars and miscellaneous dollars.

Okay, uh, thank you for that.

On slide nine, can we um talk about some tangible outcomes for revitalized essay?

Um, so for example, on the number of the the projects.

So this is really a longer term play.

Uh it's really around grassroots efforts.

So um we've focused immediately on some of those projects, for example.

So there's been a lot of public art associated with uh the projects.

There's been a couple of um food markets, for example, and some of the food deserts, uh, in which so far we've while the project money has funded kind of that seed, a number of the cohort one members have been continuing their projects as ongoing efforts, but we can certainly provide some additional information, or if there's specifics.

Yeah, and that's actually what I'm looking for is is actual outcomes, like if they did continue their business, how much uh how that's been going, how that has been going.

I've heard great things, but I you know, I think right now we're really at a point where we need to see actual results.

Sure.

Okay.

So this is a longer term indirect program.

So again, it's more focused on the projects versus that direct assistance to the businesses, but we can certainly provide you some examples of those projects.

Okay, perfect.

And and also not necessarily the projects, but also how it's impacted their businesses after they went through their um classes.

After they went to the the stakeholders aren't necessarily business owners, we would love for business owners to participate.

A lot of these are uh neighborhood association presidents um or are now presidents, they through their leadership programming.

So it's really that longer term stakeholder engagement aspect leadership program of it.

So um the projects are kind of the immediate outcome, if you will, of those learnings, but we can again provide that.

Yeah, I understand that.

And sorry, I know because I I know Erica, um, she's a D7 resident, she's a business owner, but I do also know other of uh other um people in that cohort are neighborhood presidents.

So then what is the play there with them?

So again, this is a uh leadership program designed for uh grassroots revitalization efforts on commercial corridors.

So while in the end we want to support the businesses, that's the indirect.

The direct is really focused a lot of placemaking, um, you know, as businesses, it's getting activities, so like Erica, for example, her project was not specific to her restaurant, it was about the Quintana Corridor, so there was a painting initiative.

There was a um she she had a festival, if you will, that had a lot of folks come.

Um as a result, she opened the bodega next door and across the street with some of the painting.

There's a market happening there.

Um, a lot of that is the the indirect results of uh her stakeholder engagement and the work that she's done.

And then we have a cohort two member who is continuing that work uh with her and additional stakeholders for that particular area.

Yeah, and that all sounds wonderful, and that's what I'm just asking for just a list of those outcomes so that way we can make sure it's worth the investment.

On slide 11, um, I am glad to see the incentive investments overperforming.

I think that that is a good story to tell.

Um, you know, I I I it's it's very important as a city that we work to make San Antonio a place where businesses want to invest.

Uh moving on to planning.

Um slide 11.

Sorry.

How can we apply a similar plan to the Deco district that um is in between districts one and seven?

So what we have recommended is in the past is to go through the planning process.

Um that particular corridor is in the near north um community area plan.

So similar to Goliad Road, which is a recommendation in the Brooks Area Regional Center plan, which would then outline um items or recommendations that are similar to what's Northeast Quarter.

Northeast Quarter was actually created 10 years ago, so it came before the planning process, there was dedicated funding to it.

Um but what we found is that it's in through the planning process, we really want to hear from the community to identify what those corridors of interest are for them.

And then once we identify that, then you know, requesting from um council um funds for an additional study to then go more in depth in it and a deep dive for a study.

This one happens to be a little unique that it was done 10 years ago.

So we now have to update the study because the market studies is a bit old.

Okay, but so then when do we actually implement so this particular project?

We've actually been implementing it over the years.

Okay.

So once the area was established in 2014, a TERS was created.

The enhancement grant program has awarded about 1.8 million dollars to um grantees for facade improvements.

Uh as I mentioned, we'll have design standards coming before council next month.

And so we've been implementing um this particular revitalization program.

The others, once we once they're adopted by council, it's possible for bond and things like that to help implement those plans.

Okay, um thank you for that.

Um moving on to transportation.

Thank you, Kat, for for the presentation.

And again, you know, I love all the plans, but I am very um anxious for implementation and activation, and I know Kat, you know that well.

Uh so I do have some quick questions on slide number six.

The uh, you know, Culebra that borders District Five uh with Councilwoman Terry Castillo and I, and then Bandera Road and Zazamora.

I mean, those are all very dangerous streets in in District 7.

Can we talk through some of the planned implementations and timelines for from that for those areas in particular?

Actually, since there are several of them, we can put it together and give that to you.

Okay.

Yeah, and and I'm just gonna harp on timelines, timelines, timelines.

Uh, because um I know that you know, all of the ideas that you all have are wonderful, um, but we're neighbors are ready for activation.

Um also too, thank you for you and your team's efforts on uh and partnership on a finally a safe usable bike trail around Woodlawn Lake Park.

It's just crazy that we still don't have a complete bike trail around one of the most utilized parks in the city.

Um on the policy to review parking in bike lanes.

Uh I know that this was asked last um during my first term.

Um, and I'm glad that uh the mayor had asked about about that in particular because we do see older neighborhoods where they don't have parking options, so people are gonna park on the street.

I'd hate for all of our efforts to be maybe up north in newer neighborhoods because it is a very real problem in older neighborhoods too.

So really my question is again timeline.

What when are we planning to review the policy change of parking and bike lanes and when can we see actual timelines of or or proposed solutions on on streets like Cincinnati?

I know Cincinnati is really in district one, that leads to district seven, but again, you're seeing older houses, no parking options, people park on a street, but you're also seeing bike groups and kids having to use that um having to use bikes um to get from place to place.

So just curious about the timeline on that.

Sure, the plan um initially did uh some some a little bit of research and a little bit of input uh through those outreach efforts during the the phase of the bike network plan, and that's where we heard from people.

Um and so right now my team is uh doing a deeper dive on what other cities are doing and how they've done that successfully.

Um and then we're also getting feedback at some outreach events.

Uh there's one coming up, it's either the end of this week or next week.

Again, just to kind of gauge uh the public because it is an ordinance change, and we need to make sure that we have uh the public input and buy-in.

It's gonna be very contextual.

You can't just apply it all across the city uh and so we need to make sure that we're looking at that.

But again, the hope is to to go through that process uh over the next um nine to twelve months because again it it's it's an ordinance change that that could be applied in different areas differently, and we want to be sure that that is intentional.

Yeah, I definitely understand applying it uh to differently in different areas.

Uh that makes total sense, but nine to twelve months.

We just want to be sure that we have the right engagement.

But um, you know me, I will try to uh condense uh timelines and get things done as we see more input.

Yeah, and and again, it is a concern because you know uh even on the northern part of district seven where people are barking parking in bike lanes.

I mean, kids and and traffic are having to go around cars that are parked in their bike lanes, and so um you know, I I I'm just asking for urgency on this nine to twelve months seems way too long.

And I think that you would have um not gonna speak on behalf of my colleagues, but us willing to work um to expedite that timeline because this is a problem for all of our districts.

Um we have the ability to do that today by putting no parking signs.

So if there are specific areas that we can work on, we can work with your office and do that now.

Yeah, and and the the concern there is that we I know that there's the the no parking signs, but then it's the inconsistency, you know, that oh I can't park um on Cincinnati, but I can park by uh this Nani Falco and Park, you know, and so um I do think that we we need to look at it in different districts, but just would like us to speed up on that.

Sure.

We'll can coordinate with your office on that.

Sure.

Sorry, didn't Eric, were you gonna say something?

Oh, okay.

Um that was all I have.

Thank you, Q.

Chair Galvan.

Thank you, Mayor.

Um, first of all, just want to say thank you for the presentations today.

Uh I think we're gonna hear a lot of similar notes on collaboration on coordination and implementation for all these different pieces here.

And so I'm no different on those things.

Uh I got a couple different questions I wanted to ask as well as general kind of feedback and thoughts on how we can make sure that these pieces are being coordinated.

Um my first couple of questions are for economic development.

Um of the biggest things I think this kind of already bleeds into the coordination piece, but uh for the construction mitigation grants, I think they're extremely important, especially to what Councilor Mungia mentioned about Marbok Road.

Um but of course I think at the end of the day, the piece with that is we're supporting it because of construction issues.

Um I know public works, we're having that conversation a different day in capital delivery as well.

Um but I guess I wanted to think or ask about what does that collaboration look like with public works within their own outreach departments?

Um and do we expect it in some time frame, whether it's this budget, next budget, future budgets that that'll shift to them in a little bit just because it's kind of the implementation of their construction is the actual piece that we're looking at here, not necessarily uh the small business aspect of it.

It would be resolved without or with those pieces being done.

Yeah.

So the economic development piece, the small business outreach team is really focused on connecting with the businesses, and we work closely.

We have weekly meetings with the public works department, um, their project managers, uh, and we're we're definitely looking forward to the new department continuing.

I've already hit up Mike Shannon about when we can get on his calendar.

Um, and so it's really this is this very collaborative approach uh with us continuing to work um with those small businesses and with public works, and then uh a large part of ours with the community outreach is making sure that we get them connected to the resources.

So while public works is is excellent at understanding the timelines and being able to communicate that, a large part of our outreach is really making sure those small businesses are connected to the great programs like Launch SA, the zero per launch essay, the zero percent interest rate program, and so forth.

And then being able to take that back for additional policy decisions to support small businesses, so recommendations too, like program changes and and so forth.

So really kind of that collaborative approach.

Got it, and that's super helpful.

I mean, I just think I would hope one day in the future we can get the projects right to where it doesn't impact our small businesses.

Of course, that's wishful thinking.

Um I think is something that we should be striving for at some point.

That's again public works and capital delivery rather than on y'all's piece.

Because I do think that the conversations you all have there don't end necessarily, and I think it's a good thing uh with construction, right?

It's also about larger long-term goals for that small business itself, what things they can do to continue to grow, and especially with the live fund piece, right?

Uh or the zero uh interest loan, like that is one of the biggest, and I think one of the best tools we have in the toolbox here.

Um there's ways that hopefully one day we can shift some of this to public works uh in some form of fashion, I think still that collaboration that the the zero percent interest rate loan can get some of that extra funding into it.

I think that'd be great so that way when we have those conversations in the future beyond the construction timeline that we can still continue supporting the small businesses in their actual work, right?

Not just saying, okay, here's the shift how we can do our parking, but here's how we can actually grow as a business, not just hopefully survive through this.

But I know something y'all are working on all the time, and I hope that we can continue those conversations as a council as well about what is the kind of long-term goal for these pieces rather than trying to and this is again no shades of the other departments over there, but it is like I don't I would like it to not be that we are making up for for mistakes in another department rather than we are looking at ways that we can support each other in a better form.

Um Eric, do you want to add anything?

No, I'll call it okay.

Um I think those are it on my construction mitigation pieces.

I'm gonna move to uh EDIF a little bit, uh their kind of development fund or incentive fund.

What uh I know we asked this I asked these questions a little bit at uh previous council meeting um related to the sports district, and it's a little different than that at the moment, but I want to echo a little bit what the mayor mentioned about return investment, right?

And I think especially in the conversations right now we're having about um tax abatements and around uh our revenues and the impacts that we're having on our own general fund.

We want to kind of see do we what's the tracking mechanism we have, or what are some of the uh the studies we do uh on the particular I mean incentives that we give out?

Are we tracking you know the revenue that's bringing back to our city in some form?

Of course, maybe not property taxes, but other pieces.

Um what does that look like?

Yeah, absolutely.

So um for for all incentive projects, we do do a semi-annual monitoring.

So we we track the uh the investment levels, the jobs, the wages associated with said jobs, we post that publicly.

Um you should have recently received a memo from the 1231 24 performance period.

Um so we do that, and then every three or four years we uh uh contract with an outside uh organization to do an economic impact assessment of that overall uh portfolio.

Uh and so we're we're actually um heading into that where we'll probably be taking a look at that um either as part of the strategic framework update or as a separate piece.

And then we do report that to the economic and workforce development committee historically.

Yeah, and I'm sure we'll have more conversations on that in there, right?

Uh so that's really helpful.

Um I do think if we don't have the elements in there already, I think it's worth as we're looking at these kind of longer conversations about our budget and the revenue that we're facing or the shortfalls we're facing in some forms.

Um are there ways that we can track some of those pieces of what kind of revenue or other uh economic impact do we see or kind of activity we see from these incentive funds that helps support our general fund a bit better.

Um I don't know how easy that is.

Uh frankly, I don't know that.

So we'll figure that out as we go.

Uh and if it is possible and doable, but I think it's something that I would like to see us strive for a little bit too with some of these some of these uh incentive programs.

And we do have the information on like the taxes that they pay and and so we do do have a lot of that information.

That's great.

Perfect.

Um, I think those are all my questions for economic development.

So thank you.

Um I don't really have too many questions for planning transportation.

Uh although I will want to say uh I want to thank the folks in planning uh for prior to me being in council, uh being able to uh be a part of the West Northwest uh planning team with SA tomorrow uh for where I grew up.

Um it's really exciting stuff that's going on over there and happy to help wherever I can to continue getting more of our folks involved in that process.

Um I think generally, you know, for the essay tomorrow planning pieces that I want to echo a lot of you know, implementation is always the biggest focus, and so there's everything that comes out of those uh those plans when they're completed, if there are some of those maybe even targets or objectives that we can work on uh together, not just with the West Northwest plan, but I think with all council offices, not to speak for everybody here, but I think just as a recommendation of where have we seen that these these funds could or where funding could be helpful to meet these goals, right?

If we if some of our neighbors say we want to see uh some kind of traffic calming within this particular intersection in this neighborhood that maybe it's not always focused on because it's not a high injury network or impact the injury network.

Um that that's what that's a focus for us, right?

That we can figure out with IMP or somewhere else or with other kind of uh funding that we have.

I think that'd be helpful to kind of just make sure that the things that our residents are pushing for and asking for, we are able to implement as well and support.

And it's not just kind of on y'all's department to find implementation, uh, but it's also on us a little bit too.

Um this is something that I think would be helpful.

And in councilman, to that point, um, starting in with the phase three plans moving forward, we've actually redesigned the format of the plans a little bit to identify implementation priorities that's perfect and identified um various funding sources.

So hopefully that'll help address that issue as we move forward in implementation of the plans.

Yeah, that's great.

That's exactly what we're looking for, I think, when we're talking about timelines and these pieces of how to actually get these things done.

If it's either with those dollars or it's with finding ways in our bond pieces, like let's make sure we're doing that so we can see that pathway forward rather than saying hopefully it's a one-day we get there.

Um I think that's it for planning.

Um for transportation, I mean complete streets is something I'm really passionate about, really supportive of.

Um just I'm I'm sure y'all are already working with the new department, Mike Channel figuring out ways that we can continue working as a full group here.

Um of the things uh my team really wanted me to ask.

I got some really avid uh bike riders in my office, as well as some folks in my district.

Uh I always think about in Northwest Crossing one of the or Great Northwest too, these large neighborhoods we have that are kind of distant from Tesla Road or Calabor Road, the main corridors, they still have to get there to get to some of the parks in the area until they ride their bikes down and sort of looking at some of the places in there, and they see a lot of parking right along uh the bike lanes.

And so something that some folks have been asking me about is there a volunteer program that could be created similar to subpatrol, but not quite that that allows them to support the efforts of uh making sure there's not cars in the bike lanes, whether it is with ticketing or something of the sort.

I think there's we can figure those pieces out, but I know there's an appetite for residents in my community who are saying, you know, I want to be able to just get down to Colabra or the Tesla, and I can't without running into this piece.

And so that's just something to throw out there.

I don't know if you were thinking about that piece at all.

Sounds like the old citizens on patrol uh program when we were kids.

But yeah, no, that that's good to know as we're especially as we're moving forward with implementing tier one projects.

Uh so that advocacy is going to be very important as we move forward.

Yeah, thank you.

Um the last thing was just about coordination, right?

I think something I would have just mentioned in my last minute about all these pieces, right?

When it I think about small businesses and kind of the economic development pieces around key quarters, even the main street of America kind of Remension America kind of model.

Um a lot of it does come down to I think our street designs, our development code.

And so I think for all these departments, I think y'all do incredible work.

Understanding y'all's resources also very limited.

Um, and so I want to always say give you all kudos and shout outs for all the work y'all do.

Um, and hopefully also I think it's important for us as a council, but also the city overall to figure out ways that some of the larger departments that do the implementation, like DSD, like um public works and the new department as well to really coordinate with y'all as much as possible as we're looking at these long-term goals to deliver.

And so I think all those pieces have to come together, right?

They cannot ever be separate.

And so that's just my goal to hopefully help out wherever I can with y'all.

Thank you.

Thank you all.

Councilwoman Spears.

Well, thank you everyone for your your presentations.

This is a fun one for me.

It's one I was really looking forward to.

Um I think I want to start with transportation.

Just one or two questions here.

So in District 9, I hear often because it's not as walkable in District 9.

The highways get in the way a lot.

And I get that complaint.

So I don't know if there if there's anything that can be done there, because it's illegal, right, to be riding your bike along the sidewalks there.

That is correct.

That is a law.

You cannot ride your bike on the sidewalk, and that is one of the policies that was identified in the bike network plan.

Uh so um, we will be exploring that as well to determine what is that ordinance change look like.

Maybe it's not appropriate to remove it in the downtown area, but it would be good to look at that in this um in the outer suburbs.

Okay, yeah, because I want to make sure our investments there make sense from each district.

Yes.

Um then I wanted to know if you're working alongside TechStat and Public Works when they're doing their construction regarding traffic flow and accessibility during those times, or even when the utilities are at work.

Yes, um uh we do meet monthly with TechSoup, both public works, uh as well as ourselves and now the capital delivery uh department.

So we do meet monthly to kind of coordinate um and uh make sure that we're we're we're planning together.

Yes, great.

That's great, Kat.

You're off thoughts.

Thanks.

Yes.

Um, let's look at planning.

So I just I I wanted to ask the clarifying question because it's been talked about a whole lot is about TURS.

Um so just to clarify the Texas Tax Code allows TURS funds to be re- it does not allow the funds to be reallocated outside the reinvestment zone, correct?

So for the TERS that we've mentioned, it's specifically for the Northeast Corridor area.

So um the funds would go back into that particular and they must do so.

And I know you'll have a discussion, I believe, next week on tax increment reinvestment zones.

Okay.

Okay.

Um how often are we reevaluating the SA tomorrow comprehensive plan?

The plan itself, the comprehensive plan was adopted in 2016.

So right now we are implementing the plan with development of the sub-area plans.

So the plan itself did not have a land use component.

So by completing the sub-area plans, we're completing a citywide um land use plan.

So we do refer back to the comprehensive plan, but of course, as we're doing the sub-area plans, for example, looking at data, we make sure that each sub-area plan, the data that we're looking at is the most current that we have.

But we will have to go back and look at the comprehensive plan as a citywide document.

But right now, we would need to make sure that when we look at land use, when we look at we talk about mobility and um housing, economic development.

We're still folding in the citywide policies that are being developed and developed over time.

So, for example, affordable housing.

That the ship was done after the comprehensive plan, or even the TOD that was done after the conference of plan, but we're still folding those policies into the sub-area plan development.

I asked because that gets I get asked about the Stone Oak plan a lot.

It looks very different from what is on paper and how like where we would even be able to execute a lot of those pieces now.

And obviously there's turnover and people, community leaders, and community stakeholders, and they definitely want to have a say so.

Right.

And so they'll they want to be involved in that.

So the Stone Oak plan is actually a phase three plan, and we're finalizing that now.

Um once we have the public draft, and once the public draft is complete, we'll take that out to the community.

And so when we do the planning process, we do a public draft, we complete that, put the pieces together, take it out to the community, can we see how everything fits together, and then we have an administrative draft that comes through through the adoption process.

So the community will be able to see what has occurred over time before we even get to about planning commission and city council.

And so that's one of the things I wanted to ask is how we get people involved or even disseminate information.

That's that's a huge complaint I get a lot is that we're not communicating loudly effectively broadly enough to a people and neighborhoods and businesses that are affected by all the things that we're doing.

And so if there's any way we can expand that or be louder about that, I I'm open to those ideas.

Um one thing that has been helpful is uh by putting information in the council office newsletters that go out.

So if you have a newsletter on a particular schedule, let us know and we'll be happy to think about that.

We're happy to do that on a district nine for sure.

Thank you for that.

So I want to ask too about the interlocal agreements and the non I'm experiencing concerns where we have a bunch of interlocal agreements out in district nine with regard to public safety firefighters and specific specifically and coming up on non-annexation agreements which are about to expire, which then mean we're gonna be um annexing these other neighborhoods, but we're not increasing our services rapidly enough.

And and so they're actually getting like for instance.

My own house is it getting county services, even though I'm in the city.

Um are we addressing this issue, looking at this issue closely enough with our interlocal agreements that we enter into.

Um I do, but there's one interlocal agreement we have with the Bear Bull Verde uh ESD, I can't think of the number right now, two or three.

Um it's aligned.

I'm off the top of my head, I don't know when it ends, but that whole um JW Marriott area is under a non-annexation agreement with the city, and at some point we'll come into the city.

2035.

Okay.

And so there's a fire station right down the street, fire station 48.

Um, and and in advance of 2035, um, there will be um a look at the the population and um the assets and the application of street maintenance impacts or um police or fire impacts.

Okay, but um right now the the interlocal agreement with Bear Bull Verdi, and I'm happy to sit down with you and the and the chief um provides kind of overlapping coverage right now.

Um so it's it's overlapping coverage in the sense that depending on where the call comes in, everybody rolls to it.

Yeah, and and um you know it it was a it was a good uh midterm uh alternative force, long term when more of that property comes into the city, then um then those will be our responsibility directly from the ESD.

Okay, I'm happy to hear that.

I get that question almost every time I go out in public.

Um and to that point, I just want to bring this one thing up that we don't seem to look at enough.

The school districts are greatly affected by our annexation, and we need to be paying attention.

I know they're separate entities, but it strains the schools in ways that we can't possibly imagine, especially.

I mean, I've got we are in COMAL and NEISD in district nine, and we have no bearing on COMAL's schools and their bonds or anything, but yet we develop out there, and then they have to absorb all the kids, and it's really a strain on this on the schools.

Um I I'm just bringing it up.

I don't know how we're gonna address it, but it's a huge issue out at least in District 9.

Um, thank you very much.

So on economic development.

I wondered if uh the Sabata program, if we're leveraging any federal dollars there.

Submit it doesn't apply to any of the federal resources.

Um are we positioning, I want to make sure that we're positioning ourselves for and in implementing workforce strategies to prepare us for that like the AI related jobs, all of the big industries that we're kind of looking at, and and how our residents can move into those into those spaces as well.

Um I know we're trying to collaborate with Alamo Community Colleges districts, but um you know we talk a lot about um ready to work, but there's also the project quest.

They have really good metrics.

Like their return on investment is 19 to 1.

And and I just wonder are we implementing those same kind of measures when we're evaluating our deliverables with regard to how people are integrating into our economic development and growth?

Um so I can ask Alex Lopez to speak specifically to work for since that's a separate department, but I will just address from economic development workforce development.

Our offices are located next to each other for reasons, so we would connect very um weekly, uh almost daily actually.

Um, but with what kind of the pipeline we're seeing um for the types of jobs, the the types of needs, and then working with them and the resources that they have available.

So that again we are preparing for for those opportunities.

Councilmember, and just specifically on ready to work.

Um, as far as project quest, yes.

Um ready to work was actually modeled after Project Quest.

So a lot of the same data measures, a lot of the same um outcomes that we're tracking.

And AI specifically, that is something that um we are um looking not just with Alamo Colleges but with all of the training providers to see what industries it makes sense to have kind of like a basic introductory, you know, it used to be like computer technology or something, now it really needs to be something more AI specific.

So we are looking into that as well.

Okay.

Want me to come from around two?

Councilman, just um to your first question about the tours.

We actually have a work session next week where we'll you know everything you were afraid to ask about tours.

Um we're gonna do one special session on that.

And there are a handful of five or six city initiated tours, northeast is one of them.

The the proceeds from the tours um don't have to be spent in the area, but have to in contiguous areas and and in the furtherance of the TURS, and and generally that has to be a a tie back to economic development and and those sorts.

But we're gonna go through those uh those rules and the tours next week.

Good, good.

Do you want me to come back for round two, Mayor?

Okay, councilman White.

Thanks.

Umsportation, and thank everybody for for the great the great presentations.

Um a lot of grants uh I see, which is which is great, but we're gonna be okay if the federal funding goes away.

These are grants that are already secured.

Right, and but so there's no local, we're not having to do any matching or anything like that.

We have our matching funds tied to it, most of it is 8020, and we've already dedicated those um those funds towards it.

We've outlined that that's what's in the budget.

Okay, all right.

Um on slide six crash uh reduction stats for for vision zero projects in the city.

Can we get those?

Sure, we can get those to you.

Um slide seven, another ask, uh completion timelines for those projects.

Yes.

That would be great.

Um TOD, we obviously moved forward with that earlier this year.

Um I mean, we're we're still comfortable that I mean San Antonio is a very car-dependent city.

And and so we're not we're not worried that that anything we've done there is gonna interfere with people's ability to get around over there park, etc.

If you're talking about the construction for via, um again, there is different components to the line itself.

We also do have a representative from via here if uh if you wanted to ask a little bit more detailed questions, but um, for the areas that have a lot of right-of-way that it's use utilizing the median in order for the for the buses to go to go down, um utilizing like what's downtown where you have uh the the business access routes, the bat lanes, uh but cars can still go on it to to turn right.

There are some areas where it does condense down to uh one lane where there are four lanes uh today in order to allow for the bus to have that um that frequency that it needs.

questions but um for the areas that have a lot of right of way that it's use utilizing the median in order for the for the buses to go to go down um utilizing like what's downtown where you have uh the the business access routes the bat lanes uh but cars can still go on it to to turn right there are some areas where it does condense down to uh one lane where there are four lanes uh today in order to allow for the bus to to have that um that frequency that it needs but again it's a about providing options for people to utilize it where it doesn't exist today all right I might have some more follow-up okay um on that um slide 10 uh I I did not support uh the bike network plan I thought there were uh far too many um uh I guess assumptions that that were made when when when this was being uh put together uh I also note that it it also relies on a bunch of federal money uh coming in to support it and I think we're being presumptuous if we think that that that money will will flow in like it's anticipated uh but I I would like to see some ridership data uh and usage metrics uh for the investments that we're making there we'll do thank you thank you um planning uh first of all I appreciate my colleague um councilman munchia's uh support for some uh work through the Northeast corridor um look it's one thing to have a plan and we have had this Northeast corridor plan for for some years and uh I I gotta tell you that um there has not been as much improvement through that corridor I I mean I don't know that that anybody would say uh that we've accomplished there what what we want so I was wondering if we could get a detailed itemized breakdown um of how all dollars have been spent uh in the NEC from I guess 2014 to the present okay how much when who's received them and really the the purpose of of each expenditure um who within the planning department is specifically responsible uh for leading and coordinating the implementation of the SA tomorrow plan so our planning and administrator Chris Ryerson oversees the SA tomorrow planning process Chris Ryerson yes sir as the planning administrator over the citywide team the citywide team works on the plans all right and and how are we coordinating that effort with uh the economic development department well we actually coordinate with pretty much all departments because each sub-area plan has an economic development component and so uh we have um staff that we work with and talk with about the different uh areas so for example um with economic development if there's an area specific to um a particular area if they're doing something we'll coordinate with them in terms of um incentives projects and we list those out in the economic development section of the okay and so I I guess my question is what system of accountability do we have in place to make sure that both departments are are aligned and and delivering on on what the goals are so you mean implementation of the plan sir as opposed to just development of the plan?

Yes.

Oh okay.

So it depends upon the plan.

For example if there's a particular project in a particular area of the city that we're working on a sub area plan or if a plan has been adopted then we'll coordinate with EDD.

Are you talking about the Northeast plan or are you talking about all the plans?

Well I sort of transitioned to the to the SA tomorrow as a whole just want to make sure we answer the right question.

Okay.

Yeah yeah yeah so the Northeast corridor area that exists as that revitalization program it's in the Northeast I-35 loop 410 but it's also in two other community area plans so when we completed the sub-area plan we made reference to the the revitalization program area I'll call it for NEC and also identified completion of design standards and things like that to look at that particular area as a focus and a revitalization area.

So it's referenced in that particular sub area plan.

Okay.

And and again you know when I when I first got into office and and we took a look at it I I believe with respect to the NEC there was actually a project manager or or coordinator that that by ordinance was uh an individual that was going to be appointed that was going to have responsibility over the plan and then somewhere along the way this transitioned into just the EDD department looking at it.

Am I right?

No sir that's that's not correct.

When the NEC area was um created there was a and and also remember too the planning department was much bigger.

So at the time, we were planning and community development.

And so that was a combination of planning and what's neighborhood housing services.

So at the time when the NEC was created, it was actually funded through EDIF.

And so by ordinance, there was a corridor manager, but it was also supposed to do a number of other um responsibilities related to other corridors and revitalization plans that would have been developed.

When the department split in 2017, the responsibility of NEC came over to planning.

But what we also found was that as we were developing plans and having one individual on an area that's 1800 square miles wasn't really realistic in developing in doing our work.

And so that was changed from an EDIF to a general fund position.

So we do still have a dedicated person for NEC who oversees the project, works with the grantees and things like that.

Who is that?

That's Sidra Shimifiding.

Okay.

Okay.

Thank you for clarifying that.

Because again, it's it's it's great to set these things out on paper, but we we gotta make sure we're we're aligned and um and actually getting implementation there.

Um to economic development.

Uh I appreciate my colleagues bringing up support for the construction mitigation um fund.

I think I think that's important to continue because we have construction going on all over the city that's taking too long and it's affecting our small businesses.

So I would like to see that continue.

Uh I'll also mention that um I got a chance to ride around councilwoman Castillo's uh district the other week, and um we were talking on on that drive about uh support for for storefront um grants, and and I know it's it's needed over over there as as well as in portions of my district, so uh I would like to highlight that as well.

Um really my only question here is it looks like we've had um somewhat of a shift from uh geographically based BDOs towards the small business outreach team.

And my question is what metrics or out or outcomes are we gonna use to point to to validate uh this shift and and measure our success here.

Sure.

So we still partner with the the BDOs.

Um if you in 2025 we shifted funding um actually in 24 we used funding from ARPA to continue to support them.

Um and then we also through uh ARPO funding provided technical assistance dollars uh while no longer funding general fund support starting in 2025 for them.

However, they're still key partners.

Um in fact, uh Sage, for example, just received TURS funding for the storefront grant program that they're going to be running that we'll continue to collaborate with on with them.

Um and so we we continue to partner with the BDOs on a regular basis, and then our team for outreach again has been more so focused on like Northeast Corridor with in plan coordination with planning as well as um construction corridors and and other key priority areas.

Okay.

Councilman Castillo Angiano.

Thank you, Mayor.

Uh I'll just hop on that train as well for um the construction mitigations just because I'm thinking about the St.

Mary Strip and how a lot of those businesses kind of just plummeted.

Um and I don't know if there was construction mitigation for that project, but again, it's kind of similar.

Um that's pretty much all I wanted to say about economic development for planning.

Thank you to the planning development or sorry, department uh fair assistance with a large area rezoning is in district two, because I know we have a lot of industrial properties that are uh zoned incorrectly, and so getting these large areas uh rezoning can help us retain um housing and support for our residents.

So thank you for that.

And then transportation.

Um I saw I think it was slide 11 for outreach and safety campaigns.

I wanted to see what that would possibly consist of, like if you could just give me like a few ideas.

Sure.

So this is part of our uh grant that we received uh for the Safe Streets for All Grant in 2023.

It was 5.5 million dollar grant.

Uh 4.4, sorry, 1.2 million is for uh the marketing piece.

So um those areas in yellow that you see on this are the corridors that we will be doing outreach and education.

So in 2022, our first um uh safety campaign was on Calabra.

of our uh grant that we received uh for the safe streets for all grant in 2023 was 5.5 million dollar grant uh 4.4 um wait sorry 1.2 million is for uh the marketing piece so um those areas in yellow that you see on this are the corridors that we will be doing outreach and education so in 2022 our first um uh safety campaign was on calibra uh we had bit we used billboards uh we used surveys and the residents identified uh things that they wanted to see on their corridor to make it safer uh that included street lighting um improvement of the street lighting that was already there so we worked with cps to uh upgrade some of the street lights um there was there's bike facilities on the road they weren't cleaned as often we cleaned them uh and so that's the kind of outreach it was it's also about uh educating um and uh about rules of the road uh maintaining certain distances from cyclists it things that you you you think people know but they actually don't know and so that's a lot of the education and outreach and so when we submitted for the grant these were the corridors that were identified as high injury networks uh and so that's what was what what was awarded so we're already starting that process to to have that targeted to campaign.

Awesome um I wonder because going to the bike network and this is something I'm really excited for because I'm an avid biker myself I bike literally all around San Antonio it's basically my only means for transportation when I don't want to drive a car um and so going to UTSA when I was a student man I would bike all the way from the west side to UTSA just because you know and like biking that we can see there's a lot of issues um so I'm really really excited to see um you know a better streamlined process for you know us being able to bike right um and then I know that parking in bike lanes as well is one of my biggest pet peeves but I do want to just make sure that we're doing what we can to make sure that we're taking care of our cyclists but also making sure that our residents can have somewhere to park.

Yes.

And then I wanted to see if maybe so the bike rodeos that happen at elementary schools I kind of want to see if it would make sense to move this the transportation department rather than um our SAPD safe officers and I I kind of got to this conclusion because I see that the transportation department already handles the vision zero program the bike plan and the trails and I think it would just kind of make sense to consolidate it in this area and then especially if we're talking about being very adamant on the 6040 split and getting to that sooner then we should just prioritize patrolling this and then you know sometimes our safe officers just have too much on their plates and they're overscheduled with so many community initiatives and it actually happens uh at the Sunrise Neighborhood association pretty often and other neighborhood associations where safe officers kind of just say that they just have too much on their plate.

So I would just be really interested in looking at that.

Okay.

Interesting yeah I think those are all the points that I wanted to make thank you thank you councilwoman Mesa Gonzalez thank you thank you to city staff for presentations I'll start with economic development uh Alex Brendan your team thank you for all the work y'all are doing um just again want to echo the concerns my colleagues have shared on the construction mitigation grants um would like city staff to just I guess I think you did inform us on on why those grants are being eliminated but if there's an opportunity for us to expand um to make sure that we can still issue those I think that would be beneficial and also before we cut something like that just how impactful were they to our small businesses if there's some sort of one pager that you can provide on the benefits to those grants um name of employer like name of small business where they were located uh things like that how many employees they have um I think that would be helpful for us to just understand more about the impact of grants like that um want to support the 0% interest rate loan again just more PR on what those programs do it's important that we can share I'm a visual person and so just to show that uh the impact that we've had as a city on our small businesses um again with the corridor leadership program not sure if any of that takes place in district eight I think it's a great place because we've got those strong anchors like UTSA and USAA those large employers that small businesses can surround very easily and so what that corridor leadership program looks like um in district eight I'd like to learn more about that I think that was it for economic development so thank you thank you uh for planning I had a question on I think it was slide seven on the phase one uh I believe the phase one was amended in 2023 to include Denman Park oh the medical center area yeah regional center plan was amended to include that particular neighborhood okay we went through the process of completing that plan they were not involved in the the planning process and came back later and wanted to um create a neighborhood profiles and priorities so they did that and that was adopted in 2022.

They were not involved in the planning process and came back later and wanted to create a neighborhood profiles and priorities.

So they did that, and that was adopted in 2022.

Okay.

There's a property on that estate that would just, I think, impact this whole plan if we talk about the neighborhood priorities and profile of the neighborhood.

I think it was Denman.

Yeah, for Denman Park.

It's up for sale right now.

I don't know if it's our property or if we belong to another.

I've mentioned this to a couple of folks, but haven't heard anything back, so I'm just curious.

Well, we could look into it if it's within the Denman estate.

It's in the park.

Okay, we could the big house.

Big house.

I don't think we own it.

Okay, do you know who does?

No, I don't.

We'll find out.

Yeah.

Okay.

Because I I mean, just something like that.

I mean, if somebody, if we don't have a hold on who owns it, that it was even up for sale, that concerns me that if we have it in a in a in a plan like this, but don't really have that offhand, that just concerns me as far as what that neighborhood looks like.

I mean, that could change the neighborhood in a in a heartbeat.

So the neighborhood profiles and priorities is results from a discussion that we have with neighborhood representatives from that area.

Yeah.

Looking at if they've had a new if they've had a neighborhood plan, we like to acknowledge what has been done.

And so then moving forward, they let us know.

Well, for this particular area, like to keep maybe the historic character and things like that.

So the well, we don't go to specific like parcels in the neighborhood profiles and priorities.

And then for the land use, it's really looking at general trends in terms of land use.

But we look to see what that particular area looks like and what they did say, if anything, in the profiles.

Okay.

Priorities.

Thank you.

Um, where else it for transportation?

I think it's on slide six.

If you could just um where is it?

Slide six.

Is it six?

Oh he's coming back.

There you go.

Just a list of those 20 high impact corridors, I think.

Councilman White mentioned that as well.

So yeah, those everything that was identified on that slide.

If you can share that as it pertains to District 8.

Okay.

Um let's see.

And then on slide 11, there's a 53 projects citywide.

If we can get a list of those projects that are in district eight, yes, we can do.

Thank you.

That's all.

Councilwoman Castillo.

Thank you, Marin.

Thank you to all the folks for the presentations.

I'd like to begin with transportation.

Uh Kat, if your ears were ringing at the start of the district five budget town hall, uh, that's because I was getting a lot of things for the improvements with uh Samora, but I was sure to highlight uh your leadership and the work of your team for bringing the safe streets for all grant to San Antonio and of course across uh San Antonio hitting districts four, five, and seven with improving uh that main corridor.

So just thank you for your work.

The constituents really value it.

And I was just mentioning your name a lot yesterday before the meeting got started.

Um, but with that, right?

I want to ensure that we continue to invest in the quiet zones, uh, particularly around the traffic and safety around railroads.

Uh District 5 is very uniquely positioned in that we have the highest concentration of crossings of railroad tracks.

Uh, and we know with the rollbacks in rail regulations with the current administration, uh, trains are getting longer, heavier, and we're seeing more of them.

Uh, and that's something that we're continuing to see uh increase in calls and then also requests for quiet zones.

So I want to make sure that you're equipped with the resources to tackle those requests that we're going to be sending your way uh in terms of uh quiet zones.

So just uh thank you for the work on those pieces, and then of course, in terms of the density bonuses that's on the presentation.

Uh, please to see that that's included.

Uh, our state for essay council consideration requests that we submitted uh some time back.

Pleased to see that uh we're highlighting um the the density bonuses within the code.

Um so just thank you to you and your team cat.

Thank you.

I'd like to move on to planning.

Uh thank you, Bridget and your team for all the work that y'all do.

I always highlight the work of Chris Ryerson and your team as a whole in what community engagement should look like in terms of traffic calming development, whatever the case may be.

Um, because the West Side Plan, while we're very eager to take action uh next year to prove that, uh, it's meaningful engagement, and it's uh a process in which you all have gone back to the drawing board based off of community feedback.

And my expectation, right, is more just as we discuss larger projects like Project Marvel or these large bond projects that the planning team is included in those conversations.

One, again, because of the experience and commitment that your team has to public engagement, but also the expertise and weaving in the public safety pieces on how we could alleviate whether it's public safety in terms of just activities, right?

Of individuals committing specific crimes or traffic crimes, right?

You all have a great lens to lend to a lot of these projects, and I'm hopeful that different departments can lean on that expertise that y'all have.

And then, of course, I wanted to emphasize support for the North Seeks corridor.

Um District 10.

One of my thoughts was like, man, D10 is not walkable.

So I think reevaluating the land use plan can help address some of the potential future use within the Northeast side.

Um those are all my comments for planning.

Thank you, Bridget.

Moving on to economic development.

Um, pleased to see that there's going to continue to be the Main Street America pilot program.

Uh, grateful to see that, of course, many folks without district five have applied, uh, have been accepted to improve and revitalize their corridor.

Um, similar to what the councilman has brought up from district four about the Quintana area, it's what we share.

Uh, and you know, we're we're pleased to see that there's a continuation of that work on the Quintana corridor.

Uh, ultimately, right?

What we talk about, and I continue to say is when we talk about displacement and or divestment, it's not just our homeowners and renters at risk of displacement, it's also our small businesses, and that's why the facade grant program is so important.

Uh so I'm hopeful that we could continue to look at ways to support our small businesses with improving their facades because what we've seen, and I've highlighted year after year is oftentimes some of our small business owners get hit with cold compliance violations uh for outside um placement or the case may be.

So let's make sure that we could keep our small businesses up and running in district five and all throughout the city of San Antonio.

I had a couple of questions in terms of some of the staff reductions.

Do we know uh which the two roles that are uh going to be absorbed with a different uh team member?

What were those two roles?

Sure.

One was um the community uh economic development manager position, both positions were vacant.

Uh one was in economic development manager position, and then the other one was an uh economic development specialist position.

Um, and then again the work that we uh had for both of those positions are being shifted over and absorbed within primarily the small business team.

Okay, and then and then lastly, I've had a conversation uh with Ryan of Prosper West, and um we know that there were some issues, but with under his leadership, they've taken a lot of initiative to address some of the compliance issues, uh, and I'm hopeful that we could potentially explore how the Westside Tours potentially can supplement uh some of their requests because again, right under Ryan's leadership, they've uh not only addressed the compliance issues, um, but have really gone back to a community-based BDO, uh and I think that's something that we should be supporting.

Um, but if we could look at how potentially the Westside Tours can supplement the request, I'd uh look for y'all's assistance on what that can look like.

All right, thank you, Mayor.

Chair Corp.

Thank you, Mayor.

Thank you all for these presentations.

I'll just start off with economic development since we're already with you.

I had some of the same questions about the staffing, and I hear that it's been consolidated, and it's hard when we know that work is being consolidated because we want to make sure our metrics are still being reached.

But I understand you guys also had a charge.

So just wanting to make sure that we're not uh slipping work where it needs to for because of capacity purposes.

Um, I have uh several questions when we love Matthew, thank you so much.

Um from small business support uh from Supply SA, do you have any data that you could send us about how many businesses we've been able to get certified locally?

It can be a follow-up data if that's yeah, absolutely.

Okay, that's awesome.

If we can get that broken up by district, I think that would be helpful too.

Um, and then and have all of for the revitalized SA program.

I know Councilman Adatigovita was asking about it.

Have all of those 10,000 we actually got some good feedback from folks that uh participated, but I wanted to know if all of the $10,000 grants have been expended.

Uh no, so there's uh we're a couple of most of the cohort one projects have been completed.

There's just a couple of final things that we're working through with with cohort one, and then cohort two, we are in process of executing those agreements with them.

So they will be uh implementing those projects in pretty short order.

Okay, once those are all expanded, could you just let us know, send us a buzz and like a memo noting that so we can let folks know.

Yeah, absolutely.

Um, thank you.

And uh you mentioned in uh one of the responses or in the presentation earlier about the growth stage grants.

Can you say how are we getting funding for those?

Uh so that was a pilot program in the fiscal year 23, primarily to fiscal year 24 under the economic development incentive fund.

Uh that was something that came out of the ARPO conversations.

Um, how do we support those kind of teenage companies, if you will?

Uh, and so uh it was a pilot program.

We've been monitoring it, tracking it.

We do six six month, eighteen month, 36 month surveys for all businesses that receive uh resources through any of our programs.

Um, and so we are looking at a recommendation that we'll be taking forward to EWDC on a slightly revamped program uh for fiscal year 26.

Okay.

Focus on those.

Um so just on that outcomes uh component.

I think a lot of our uh colleagues have mentioned similar um ideas about how we're measuring outcome and success for some of these programs.

A lot of folks mentioned about different types, but I think it would be really good for us to have a better understanding of how we're measuring.

So, for example, if you look at the um the outcomes sheet on the budget, there's one thing that says like how much money has been expended, and it says fiscal year 25 instead of 1.13 billion.

I'm assuming that's aggregate, right?

Because that's all of the uh incentives that have been spent out.

That that one plus billion is actually capital investment made by private sector uh companies who are uh receive some kind of assistance through either us directly or through one of the programs, so like a greater usage.

But it's aggregate, right?

It's not they didn't spend 1.13 billion dollars this year.

That's their anticipated investment, so it's the private sector investment in fiscal year 25.

Uh it's announced in fiscal year 25.

So that's how that metric is.

Um so it's not our spending, it's the private sector investment.

So I guess like just having a more clear conversation about which of those metrics are uh our incentives that are being going out, which of them actually measure outcomes.

I'm surprised Councilmember White didn't mention zero-based budgeting today.

But um in the spring when we do have or this year, as we have these conversations, I think EDD would be a great department to look at really outcomes-based and making sure that we all as uh council understand what are the different outcomes for the different programs so we can better help support because I think sometimes when we don't clearly understand that it makes us hard, it's more difficult for us to be advocates for it.

Yeah, love to.

Thank you.

Okay, so speaking about the last thing on EDD are construction mitigation grants.

Thank you to all my colleagues who've mentioned it.

Honestly, I'm conflicted about this one, Councilmember White and all the colleagues that mentioned because so many of these businesses, I feel like we've got so many complaints about them, and there were so many challenges, and people feel like they've helped, but my South Alamo businesses, they're still upset that the construction isn't done.

So, like what would it look like?

And I think Councilmember Gulvan was kind of mentioning this, but what would it look like?

I know we don't have 1.4 million dollars, and Councilman Mia Gran is gonna sit there and say, Stop making requests, I want my COLA adjustment.

But um, I I really feel like we've got to figure out how to put this money into incentives and construction projects.

So maybe that's just baking in an additional 10 to 20 percent so that we can pay overtime, we can pay nights and weekends rather than doing these grants.

Obviously, I'm gonna support them if for the rest of my colleagues because to Councilmember Mungia's point, my my corridors did get them.

So I will obviously support them if there's a way to find funding for my colleagues.

But I just want you all to know there was a lot of pain that came with the application.

There was a lot of pain from businesses that weren't able to show the loss in the amount of time, so they felt like they were feeling the pain, but they didn't get the grant, and then it felt like a kind of a bigger slap in the face for them.

So I'm warning you about some of the challenges that we had with that over the last couple years.

But thank you all for to your team.

And I understand every time I'd come back to them and be like, can we um change the rules on this?

And they're like, we have to have some rule councilman, or else everybody's gonna be, you know, like you how are you gonna get $10,000 to every single business?

So anywho, it's a challenge.

Thank you for what you guys do.

Um, from planning really quickly, the only question that I had was we talked about this.

Thank you for the briefing last week.

But for and I know DSD might mention our changes in state law that allows any commercial industrial to be multi-family.

Are we gonna reflect that on our plans somehow?

Actually, we have been meeting not only with DSD but um other cities around the state of Texas to talk about that, and so um that will because it's specific to zoning districts, but we'll at least reflect how it may impact land use.

But we are having those discussions.

Great.

Um, Councilmember McGee, I don't know if you want to bring this up in a committee meeting, but it might be good for us as a uh team to come up with some language we want to share with our neighborhoods and residents because I know some folks know about it, but not all, so it might be good to talk about what that means because I know like the one that you all presented for the airport plan, there's like a whole section there that could all be multifamily.

There is like a whole section there that could all be multifamily.

Um John's gonna say something here.

Yeah, councilwoman, absolutely.

We can work on a communication piece that you could share with neighborhood leaders about those state law changes.

Um those state law changes will come to council for consideration on the fourth because state law changed on September 1st, so they're headed towards you so that we can be in line with state law.

But we'll absolutely work on the communication piece for you.

Okay, perfect.

Thank you.

Thank you, John.

And thank you.

That's it.

Um okay.

The last thing is transportation.

I love transportation.

Cause you're one of my favorite departments.

No offense, John.

Um I want to say thank you.

Echo what Councilman Casillo said.

The some of those grants that we got are super important, and we wouldn't be able to do this work without you and your team's leadership.

And um, I think you've been in your new role officially for uh over two years almost almost.

Almost two.

But you've been kicking butt.

I think you all of the work that you led with the transportation oriented development framework and the way you've been approaching those meetings and tough conversations.

I just wanted to give you a public shout out for that.

It has been amazing working with you.

Um, and now I'm gonna double down on my request.

So we got the grants for quick builds because of your uh team's work.

So I'm sure we're all gonna fight over whose districts get those projects.

But we're super excited to see that work.

Um, the quick build stuff I think could be revolutionary for our bike network for our bike network plan because I think it can really help with um getting those projects done more efficiently.

So I'm really excited to see how that progress uh that grant moves forward.

Um and we'll all give you recommendations for projects that we have.

I know we have them.

Um also wanted to echo what councilman said about the safe passage to school program that's super important.

And we have uh our office, I think I've shared this before, but our office has been working on a map that shows a quarter mile radius to schools, how kids can actually walk to school, and you'll be able to put your address in and map out your walk.

And I think it's gonna be great to be able to combine that with the effort that you're doing.

Um, and then the last thing I wanted to give you a shout-out for was on slide nine.

You mentioned the missing middle housing work, and that's something that we've been really trying to figure out is how do we do more of that?

Because unlike some of my Southside friends, I don't have as much land up for uh affordable housing development.

So I'm really excited that you're continuing to do that work.

So I'll stop there, but thank you so much for everything that you're doing.

Thank you, Mayor.

Chair Galvan.

Thank you, Mayor.

Just had a few last quick points.

Uh one is to just uh get some praise about the land use uh the annexation piece about land use and kind of the planning, preliminary planning of that.

Uh no district six, of course, along 1604.

We have a lot of places that are just outside of our our actual you know city.

Um, but we'll very soon I'm sure some point get annexed or those kind of start happening, or neighborhoods surrounded by places like that, like uh North San Antonio Hills, or even places within Alamo Ranch.

So I just want to say thank you for that.

There's no questions on it.

Just thank you for getting ready for those pieces because it's something like residents are always talking about, right?

How does a ranch fit into all these pieces?

How do all the other places around the growing 1604 area fits into these places?

So thank you for doing that work.

Um the last thing I was gonna say really quickly was just to uh or sorry, two quick things was uh shouting out what uh Council Berspears mentioned about the ISD coordination with the kind of development we're looking at.

Uh, I think something we can definitely look into with the education committee, uh, thinking about how our city can continue to partner with our ISDs, whether it's human service is leading on that or someone else, uh, to make sure that we are working together to make sure that some of those enrollment pieces are working well together, but also the bond work, right?

Some of the bond work that they do to improve their schools, uh sometimes doesn't come along with the kind of streets improvements and neighborhood improvements and housing improvements needed in the area too to help make sure that there are safe routes to schools that we're doing the kind of same work there with them hand in hand.

So just want to say thank you for bringing that up.

Um last thing on complete streets was uh this is also public works, so not everything has to happen here, but I I would like to see in some form uh some kind of analysis or studies um that we can do internally about what would uh our maintenance cost look like if we did implement complete streets in certain areas or didn't um because I think long term the biggest piece there with it is if we're looking at cost savings, a big piece of uh the work that we do, especially with our bond programs and even our IMP is maintenance, right?

And so if we can look at ways that our complete streets would help assist in reducing our maintenance costs um across our city, especially in our main corridors, I think something that we should definitely look into if we're looking for cost savings, especially within infrastructure.

But that's the last thing.

Thank you.

Councilwoman Spears.

Thank you.

I I too just had a couple of things.

Um the city's annexation and growth management policy.

I I just would like a copy of it.

When did we update that last?

Uh that was adopted in 2023.

The annexation growth policy.

Good.

I would like to somehow get a copy.

You would like a copy?

Yes, we can get that to you.

Um and then can you tell me?

And this is probably just an easy answer, why the flu what the fluctuations reflect in the contractual services in the budget.

Sure.

So yes.

Whenever we do a face uh new phase, we budget in one year as well, 1.4 million for the contract for the contractual and about 200 to 300,000 for community engagement.

Good.

Okay, thanks.

And then economic development.

I I wanted to applaud you for collaborating geeked and launch essay.

That's good.

That's really good.

And I I'm excited to see how that plays out together.

I think you'll bring a lot to the table with Geek Dem and unlikewise in reverse.

Have you already started that?

Uh we have 25.

We started it in 2024.

Uh, and so we'll be heading into our third year with that kind of expanded programming and much more progressive.

Okay.

Um, and then I did want to touch on what y'all were saying about the sister cities.

I I see that we're streamlining a lot of things with Greater SATX and eliminating some of the programs that don't make sense anymore, but I do want to make sure that we're still engaging with our sister cities and our friendship cities and making sure that we're able to um grow and advance in in the industries that we've talked about, bioscience and cyber security.

So I just wanted to touch on that.

Yeah, the the fiscal year 26 proposal does not uh show any changes for sister cities, uh, and nor does it show any for our uh foreign direct investment programming that we have in partnership with Greater Great.

That's it.

That's all I have.

Thank you, Mayor.

Uh Council uh Councilwoman Castillo.

Thank you.

Uh a couple of different things uh on the point of the grants, uh uh quick anecdote uh off of the commerce as a business core uh corridor, right?

And uh there's been a number of city departments that meet.

Shout out again to the planning team that's been very present and pivotal in those conversations and helping the small business owners re envision what that corridor can look like, um, but also highlighting that that was part of the zona cultural uh bond project, and you know what we heard from those business owners is that they don't necessarily want a grant, they just want a more accessible plan to access their their businesses, right?

So I think to the councilwoman's point about how we can incentivize uh in terms of the construction of the projects, but also again pulling in the planning team uh who's already done that robust community engagement with small businesses with neighbors to help draft what that plan can look like.

I think could help alleviate a lot of the concerns that we hear in the aftermath of a project, um, but also highlighting right that we do have good contractors like essay concepts, for example, um the projects that they've tackled in our district, we get calls from constituents and small business owners for like one their professionalism, but two, how they're buying from the small businesses near the construction site, right?

They're purchasing lunch um from an impacted business to help alleviate what can be a deterrent from people accessing their business, right?

And that's not something we're necessarily evaluating on them, uh, but right just also highlighting that there are those contractors going above and beyond uh to support our small businesses and also just being accessible to the residents, right?

Again with the essay concepts, Miss uh Pascion who was at the budget town hall yesterday shared, right?

The contractors were asking like some of the seniors, hey, can I take out your trash, right?

Can I bring your trash can in?

So again, right, there's contractors that are just uh doing great jobs, and I think we should be highlighting them and then also giving them uh more work as well.

Yeah, thank you, Mayor.

Has everyone um spoken that would like to speak for the second time?

Go ahead, Council.

I just wanted to also echo the point on our BDO work.

I know it's been um challenging over the last couple of years, but we've seen some really great leadership, and they've actually both at least Prosper West and Sage have presented to us at um the housing trust, and so figuring out creative ways to support them, I think is a great idea.

Thanks, Mayor.

And we see um council uh chair Viegadon, um but she said she will follow up individually with folks due to some of the audio challenges.

Ums uh Hicks Sorensen.

I know it's a relatively new program, but I think for the edification of my of my colleagues um and in line with our interest and understanding the ROI piece of some of the um economic development investments.

If you just help lay out the the ROI, what are the reporting requirements for those entities that are receiving the OJT and the incumbent worker funds?

Um it'd be helpful to to have that.

So that's what the the ready to work our workforce development.

So we can provide that information again, it's funded through the ready to work program.

But we can we can share that information, what we have available already.

Sure, and I think though we understand that as an economic workforce development aspect.

So understanding again the ROI on that is important.

I'm not sure if you've seen it.

There's a great recent McKinsey report that speaks to uh and I think maybe we shared it at our conversation.

Uh maybe we didn't.

You're smiling, he read.

Have you read it?

Yes.

You have okay.

I'm assuming it's I get lots of notices from McKinsey, but I assume it's in San Antonio.

Yeah, it came out probably within the last four weeks.

Um I I asked that because um, you know, one of the focus areas, small business support and ecosystem enhancements on your strategic plan is exactly what that report um indicates we need to be much more focused on.

Um we are not nearly as productive as our national counterparts.

When you talk about micro small and medium sized enterprises, we're only 34% as productive as large, uh, as productive as large entities when our peers are at 43% and the national average is 49%.

And so, and that's important because over 50% of our workforce are in those types of entities that are not nearly as productive and only then producing 27% of our GDP.

And so um I I'd welcome understanding uh, you know, as you have read that report, how some of the investments um in your proposed budget help us enhance the productivity of the micro, small and medium sized um enterprises.

And if there is any flexibility in um in the ready to work um um budget line to help with that, would appreciate understanding that one of the things um when we look at uh to the councilwoman uh rather to chair core's point about being able to advocate for some of these economic incentives.

A really simple one that I think all of us would really like to be able to explain is is uh is the Toyota example, right?

Help us understand, hey, from the time that they got here to now, um, you know, we've prevented we've um provided them with X number of incentives.

However, what we have seen in the general fund is X, Y, and Z, right?

I think that's a really easy story that we would like to be able to tell, especially as you know, just the as you know, this Thursday, we're hosting a Taiwanese delegation, which is all about advanced manufacturing.

And if we can point to examples um as to where these incentives have produced in our general fund, X, Y, and Z over this many years, um, it it helps not only when we again provide explain these to folks, but also when um CPS and when SAWs comes here for rate increases, and we have to explain to folks why those investments are necessary for us to keep up with the power generation needs of these entities that are looking at San Antonio um as a potential site for future business.

Um I know council uh one of the council members asked about the writership for the bike program.

I want to make sure that that reflects not only today, but is also what is anticipated, which obviously makes the most sense.

So we're not just thinking about is this too much for today?

No, we're actually thinking about what growth is going to look like.

Um Mr.

Nandez, how is your um or when was the last time we looked at transportation analysis um and the potential use of of traffic cameras to help with some of your objectives?

This was actually discussed, I want to say during the Vision Zero action plan update.

Um, but uh we we do have uh quarterly meetings with departments, and so that uh we do meet monthly actually with SAPD on some of the initiatives.

So each of the different departments that were involved in that action plan update have key pieces in which they are taking the lead on.

But um we we can circle back with SAPD and and see what uh where they're leading towards and and how we can again utilize that to to help with safety along corridors.

Certainly, I appreciate that.

Um for the safety piece, um, we have also seen in in other municipalities though, that is obviously a significant source of of revenue as well.

Um Eric, thanks for mentioning the uh the tours budget work session that we're gonna have.

I know that's going to include the city initiative, but I also wanted to confirm that includes the developer-initiated tours, correct?

It will, but we're gonna spend most of our time on the city initiated.

Okay, want to make sure though that we're all um understanding the uh the impacts of both.

Okay, great.

Um thank you again for the very helpful presentations.

Thanks.

Um let's see.

We were going to sing, but Councilwoman Aldete Gavito already wished you a happy birthday.

We can still sing though, right?

We can still sing.

Okay.

One, two, three.

Happy birthday to you.

Happy birthday.

Happy birthday, dear council member.

Happy birthday to you.

Okay, all right.

Yes.

So the time is now 4 11, and this meeting is adjourned.

Thank you.