Good morning, everybody.

The time is 10 04 a.m.

on September 23rd, 2025, and the meeting of the planning and community development committee is now called to order.

Madam Clerk, can you please call the roll?

Councilmember Corps.

Councilmember Castillo.

Councilmember Galvan.

Chair Mungia.

Present.

Sir, we have a quorum.

Excellent.

The first item on the agenda is the approval of the minutes.

Are there any corrections to the minutes and can I get a motion to approve?

We have a motion and a second.

Any discussion?

All in favor say aye.

Aye.

All opposed.

Excellent.

Absolutely.

Aye.

Okay, good.

Motion carries unanimously.

Okay, public comment.

Madam Clerk, are there any citizens signed up to speak?

Um item number two is creation of a task force to increase housing supply for the following special populations.

Veterans seeking to utilize housing vouchers within five miles of a veterans' affairs health care facility, disabled neighbors, notably the deaf and blind seniors in LGBT plus, LGBTQ plus uh unhoused youth.

Is there a presentation?

Veronica, I'm not sure your mic is working.

You might need to press the button.

Absolutely right.

Good morning.

Veronica Garcia, director of neighborhood housing services departments.

Uh today's item uh will look at a focus on strategies to increase the housing supply for four different special priority categories, including people with disabilities, particularly uh vision and hearing, uh, older adults, LGBTQ plus unhoused youth, veterans with housing vouchers, specifically those seeking housing within five miles of a veteran affairs facility.

This item uh was asked by the mayor in a committee memo outlining the planning community development committee and asked that a task force be assembled to look at these specific housing populations, and then the memo further outlined that the task force submit a report on the initial findings and recommendations to City Council by January 15th.

I'm joined this morning by Mark Carmona, our chief housing officer, and Pete Alanis with the San Antonio Housing Trust, who will both assist with this task force effort.

October 1st begins year five of the strategic housing implementation plan, and this year we will be updating our ship housing goals.

The ship includes several strategies aimed at preserving and increasing the housing supply for priority special populations.

Um but the key thing I want to highlight is that our ship is based on partnerships.

We have been able to make progress toward our housing goals by partnering with the San Antonio Housing Trust, Opportunity Home, Bear County, as well as our nonprofit and industry partners.

So now I'll go into some of our current work.

For housing for people with disabilities, we do have a federal requirement that mandates that 5% of new multifamily construction projects include mobility modifications, and 2% specifically must include units with modifications specifically for hearing and visually impaired individuals.

As of last quarter, when we look at our ship housing goals, we have over 550 housing units that specifically have met these mobility modifications.

And in 2024, the San Antonio Housing Trust adopted universal design standards for their new multifamily housing communities.

This includes uh standards such as wider doorways, um zero-step entries, as well as many other universal design, and these standards will be incorporated into their housing projects going forward.

Um, when the city issues a competitive solicitation for housing dollars for new housing communities, we also include universal design standards for projects that we award funds to for older adults.

The ship does have a goal of 1200 age-restricted homes created or preserved.

Um, as of last quarter, we have achieved that goal three times over with units completed under construction or in progress.

Um the housing trust is also working on master planning efforts in partnership with the city.

There are two projects, both of them are located in Council District 2, where we are working on master planning efforts to create new potential senior centers, and both centers will have housing for older adults co-located on site.

For LGBTQ plus unhoused youth, the Department for Human Services and the San Antonio Housing Trust have both hosted workshops on these issues.

The Alliance to House Everyone, which is our COC Continuum of Care Group, also has this as part of their annual action plan.

So we'll be sure to engage all of those stakeholders in this discussion.

For veterans with housing vouchers, the planning community development committee assembled a working group specifically to address this, so I'll have more updates on that.

In addition, I want to take this opportunity to congratulate the San Antonio Housing Trust, which just opened Valor Hill this past July.

Valor Hill is a former assistive living facility at the medical center, which is now affordable housing focused on supporting local veterans.

The housing community also includes 20 housing vouchers to provide housing to formerly homeless veterans.

In addition, the VA hospital is nearby, and there are services offered on site by the VA, Endeavors, and the American GI Forum.

So as mentioned, the housing, the PCDC directed and worked with the housing commission to create a task force specifically on this topic, the working closely with Close to Home.

They led this effort to create the rental assist engagement and assistance to connect with housing initiatives.

So the REACH Working Group.

This working group was designed to come up with new actions and implement those actions with the goal of increasing landlord and participation and accepting more housing vouchers.

This group included individuals such as our housing authorities, our industry partners, service providers, and other housing stakeholders.

Together, the group met over the past year and created nine recommendations for helping more landlords, encouraging them to accept housing vouchers.

Two of those recommendations are already complete.

The first was led by the San Antonio Board of Realtors and the National Association of Retail Property Managers, which both helped ensure that MLS systems identify which rental properties do in fact accept housing vouchers.

The second recommendation focused on working with our local housing authorities and coming up with a creative solution to address accounting challenges that landlords were experiencing with accepting vouchers for multiple properties.

The task force continues to meet quarterly to address the other recommendations, which focus on streamlining the provider onboarding process, increasing enhancements to the pre-inspection process, and exploring other financial incentives to encourage more landlords to accept vouchers.

Efforts from this working group will be incorporated into the final task force recommendation report.

For the proposed task force, we are recommending that this task force be staffed by myself, the neighborhood housing services department in partnership with Mark Carmona and the Homeless Services Department, as well as Pete Alanis with the San Antonio Housing Trust.

In order to meet this timeline and honor the ongoing work that we are doing, three of us will work with the housing commission to service the task force and we'll focus discussions on increasing the housing supply for these specific populations.

We will also invite stakeholders who work with these impacted groups and to be part of these discussions.

And then as mentioned, the REACH working group will continue to work on the housing for veterans with vouchers.

We also plan to utilize a digital survey so that we can ensure broad outreach across the task force.

And as mentioned, we are approaching year five of the strategic housing implementation plan.

So this year we are working with a consultant to update our housing goals as well as look as our five-year HUD consolidated plan.

So all of these efforts will be aligned and ensure that our work from this task force informs both of our other efforts.

This timeline also aligns with our annual housing in San Antonio event.

This year's event will be in District 3 on January 24th at Highlands High School.

And if the report is in fact done, we could have discussions at the event and really highlight some of the findings from the report.

As mentioned, we do plan to work very closely with the housing commission on this effort.

The housing commission advises our team on the implementation of the ship as well as multiple other affordable housing initiatives, and they have a strong focus on engaging the public as part of their work.

The housing commission is led by Chair Katie Wilson of Close to Home.

You can see Pete Alanis is also a commissioner, as is Michael Reyes with Opportunity Home.

We have many other experts in the housing industry that are on the commission as well.

In addition to the commissioners, they do have four subcommittees that address other housing specific topics.

The commission does meet quarterly or monthly, and we would work with the commission to have the discussions for this task force across all four initiatives.

So as mentioned, the REACH group, which was uh created by PCDC, will continue to work on the veterans with vouchers conversation, and their next meeting is this month, and they have a follow-up meeting in December.

For the month of October, again working with the housing commission, we will have a conversation on how to increase and preserve housing for people with disabilities.

We could engage other stakeholders such as Disability San Antonio, um diversity equity and inclusion office.

The um I'll clarify that SALSA, we're recommending successfully aging and living in San Antonio group, as well as Vibrant Works and any other stakeholders you may recommend.

For the month of November, we would focus our conversation on housing for older adults.

Again, engaging Salsa, AARP, meals on wheels, and any other stakeholders.

And then the December, we would have a conversation on LGBTQ plus youth who are unhoused, and we can engage groups such as Thrive, the Youth Advisory Board, Sam, Young Adult Stability and Support Center, and DHS's next level.

So that's a brief overview of our recommendations for the task force.

Loved your feedback on who else should be part of this conversation, um, whether or not you agree with the recommendations we provided, how else other ways that we can engage stakeholders in this work, and of course, um look forward to your feedback on what a successful deliverable from the task force looks at.

We could incorporate suggestions for our local, state, and federal legislative agendas.

We could also look at how we continue to update these recommendations into um this year's ship update.

So thank you again.

I'm joined by Pete and Mark, who are also here to answer any questions you may have.

Thank you, Veronica, and thank you to you, Mark and Pete, for uh being voluntole to be trichairs of this task force.

I think you three are the perfect uh trio to work on this, considering all the work each of you do in your respective areas.

So thank you for your time.

Um so we'll get some feedback from my colleagues.

Uh we're gonna try it off and start off with maybe six minutes uh each, and then we can do a second round.

Uh any of my colleagues like to give some feedback.

Councilman Government.

Thank you, Chair.

And thank you, Veronica, for the presentation.

Um first of all, I'm excited to see or grateful to see that COSA has been working closely with the alliance to house everyone and know that work's always very helpful to keep this kind of work going.

Um of the questions I have with it is I know that Endeavors is part of the alliance, but are they part of part of REACH as well?

Or are they engaged within the REACH conversations?

REACH is not a working group member, but they can be incorporated um into part of the discussions um as needed.

Okay, great.

And I think that's just something with the stakeholders overall.

I I feel fairly comfortable with the stakeholders listed, but I do think it'd be worthwhile to have this task force if possible be open to the public.

Uh just that way those folks who maybe don't have the full capacity to engage in terms of a stakeholder completely all the time, but still maybe have recommendations that within their work that they can still submit that kind of feedback or be part of the conversation in some form, uh, whether it's endeavors or other organizations relevant to LGBTQ advisory or the LGBTQ portion of it or the uh older adults part.

I think that'll just be helpful.

Um so I think that is something I would like to see is just kind of public accessibility for organizations to engage.

Um just the deliverables looking at uh oh, I'm sorry.

Also for the recommendations um from the task force itself.

What with some of the recommendations from the task force go to relevant COSA boards and commissions, thinking about Veterans Commission, uh other advisory board, others as well.

We can look at make uh seeing which other commissions can be briefed on the task force work, sure.

Okay, great.

I think you know we have some good advocates on each of those committees or boards and commissions, and I think it'd be worth engaging them in some form, um, either getting their feedback directly uh or having it go before them, which is be helpful to make sure that we're utilizing their expertise too uh on the while they're serving on these roles.

Um and then of course, could there be a special focus to um on UDC amendments in relation to, of course, housing development, making sure that we're looking at ways that this can work in tandem with some of the other efforts we're doing with the city, particularly UDC.

It was important to me.

Yes, absolutely.

Thank you.

Um I think we're the way three.

One of the last things that was well, two more things.

One of the last things I was looking at though was uh I I know I've looked a lot at the um LGBTQ health report uh that's typically done by Pride Center and the other partners with Trinity University.

Um and then there's other kind of community uh research being done here in our city, whether it's related to uh LGBTQ health or uh the status of uh poverty or even uh the military and veterans need assessment, I think it was more by C and AS, but not necessarily the community organization, but nonetheless, there's a lot of research out there related to the kind of status of the special populations in our city, whether it's with housing or other issues that are structural related to housing too.

Um I think it'd be worthwhile for the task force to look at some of these reports if they're not already gonna look at that.

Um just to kind of take in the full scope of it and not gonna be start from scratch, but start from a place of uh where we at, where we have been where it's gym changing, and seeing that maybe whether the task force continues on or when this committee uh reviewing the kind of work that we're doing, uh that we continue to look at some of these reports as well to show not just where we're meeting the goals of the task force being created and that we're hopefully meeting those pieces, but also that we're uh adjusting the larger uh scope of work that is a hand for these communities.

Um I think that would be helpful.

Last thing I was gonna say was on the um recommendations given by the task force, if we could also get, or I think it would be helpful if we got county, state, and federal policy needs.

Of course, things that are not in our purview, but maybe it would just help our work with our partners to say, okay, well, these are the things that we can do within our efforts, right?

But we need to address things within uh the justice system, we need to address things within uh federal or state funding.

This is where it would come from, right?

Or other kind of funding mechanisms.

This is where we would need to either work with our our partners or push a little bit more to to see that they can go along with us.

That way it's just a very clear delineation of work that needs to be done here uh for our community to understand, but also for us to understand too, or our best efforts can be focused on.

Yes, absolutely.

I think we do expect that some of the recommendations um that we would be able to do at a local level, but they may have to be incorporated into some of our other agendas.

Right.

I think that's it for now.

Thank you, Chair.

Thank you.

Thank you, Councilman.

Councilwoman Castillo.

Thank you, Chair, and thank you, Veronica, for the presentation.

In terms of trends that we're seeing in District 5, are individuals with criminal records having uh uh issues identifying safe quality and affordable housing, particularly felons.

I think there's opportunity with those uh to include in part of the conversation our justice involved individuals and a couple of stakeholders that come to mind are uh big homies as well as Big Mama Safe House to help identify and share what some of those trends and experiences are in accessing uh accessing uh safe and affordable housing.

Uh I think there's also opportunity in terms of how we can engage stakeholders.

I know John Guana, he's our district five veterans appointee, but he's also worked for Haven for Hope uh and is now with the Department of Human Services.

So he's just a wealth of knowledge in terms of uh the struggles that veterans and our unhoused community members face in terms of accessing housing.

Uh so there's value in meeting with the uh boards that overlap with this the goals of this task force, particularly uh the veterans committee.

In terms of deliverables, I I know that you all have identified disability SA as one of the stakeholders.

Uh I've had conversations with Jane about how we can update the UDC amendments to help reflect some of the expectations that the housing trust has uh set out, particularly with Kelsi standards.

Um, how can we ensure if a project goes through the city of San Antonio that it is uh ultra accessible, right?

Uh I understand that with the partnership of the housing trust, and I think that's where with deliverables, we could continue to partner with the housing trust to ensure that we're getting a better product.

Um, but how can we uh as a city update the UDC code to uh reflect what those expectations are?

Uh I think there's also opportunity for us to leverage the vacant building program, land banking, and the community land trust activities to help meet the goals uh laid out by the task force.

Um I think there's just uh a lot of opportunity there.

I uh really appreciate the stakeholders that have been laid out and identified.

Um, but just emphasizing that trend that we're seeing in D5 of just uh individuals with records just struggling to find uh quality housing.

And these are individuals with jobs, right?

Um, and I think what some of that um background can look like is how can we encourage uh landlords to do an individual case-by-case basis rather than just a rejection of anyone that checks the box.

Um so just a lot of opportunity.

Um really eager to see uh this task force go out, research and update to um the housing commission.

Um but I would like to see frequent updates to this committee in terms of you know what is being explored, what's being recommended, and what conversations are looking like.

Thank you, Chair.

Thank you, councilman.

Council McCork.

Thank you, Chair.

And thank you so much for this presentation.

Um I think a lot of us really care about this issue, so we're excited that the three of you all are going to be leading this task force.

You are definitely the leaders of housing in our community.

So I'm grateful to see what you are excited to see what you guys come up with.

Just a couple of things that are on my mind.

The first is just data.

I think one thing I've been struggling with for the last couple of years, and Pete Pete's probably gonna know everything.

We had some census kind of uh assumptions that were made and when we created our SHIP goals, but it's really hard for us to actually know how many LGBTQ plus IA youth do we actually have in our community that are struggling to find housing.

So if there's something around the data need that y'all could think about how we could do better, I'm not sure if there are other cities that we could look at that really have a good sense of how to demonstrate and defend the need because of course we know based on how many units that we have built, we need more 30% AMI units.

But how do we break that down into subgroups and and really see where are these subgroups falling and where are they missing the mark?

Um I also love the idea of the panels and what I think you mentioned focus groups in there too, but really trying to figure out what type of housing do these folks want.

Um, I know at the housing trust they led that great forum when they were talking with kids and able to really understand.

But I think if we can figure out do they want to have communities where they are living together or do they want to have, are they looking for more home ownership and community land trust is the strategy that needs to be used.

So I think one figuring out what is it that the gap, where is it that these that folks in these subgroups feel like the gap exists, and then how do we create solutions around those gaps?

Um, one thing that I think we I have seen, at least in my two years here on council and serving on the housing trust is I see real progress being made in the multifamily in multifamily housing, particularly at uh 50% AMI and above.

But the area that I haven't seen a lot of progress, and I know the community land trust policy was just passed thanks to Councilman Castillo's leadership, but I would love for us to start to brainstorm what does that look like?

How do we really figure out how to get more nonprofits engaged?

And I know we've done some technical assistance grants at the housing trust to help prepare nonprofits to build these homes, but trying to figure out ways to amplify the community land trust work, I think is really important because I think it's a great um it's a great policy to be able to really move the needle for families owning a home and and making sure that they have access to that next level of wealth.

So I think that's um one of the things I would like to echo councilwoman's points that if we can figure out a way to amplify those new policies that have been created and made sure they're incorporated.

As as far as stakeholders goes, we have an entire, I'm sure every council office does, but we have an entire list of stakeholders and in at least in some of these subgroups, definitely for the LGBTQ plus IA.

Um, I have to say uh sp folks with disabilities with um impaired vision and hearing, we have less of a base of, and I'm um I'm not sure if my colleagues feel differently, but um I think working with disability SA and our DEIA office will help us in that area.

But definitely for the other group, we have a lot of great stakeholders.

I and you know, Councilman Castellangliano, if you were here, he would definitely make us say thrive.

And um, and you know, the executive director of that organization, Justin Holly's a D1 resident, so and you guys know many of these leaders already, but making sure we're really thinking about all of the stakeholders and also maybe just doing some community meetings that aren't focused on uh grass top stakeholders, but maybe just community meetings, you know, on North Main on uh weekend, uh just check in with people and going out and having uh just qualitative conversations with folks and asking, hey, how's it how's how's housing for you?

What are you paying?

Do you have uh the ability to have stable housing?

Just uh qualitative conversations like that, I think could be a really good outreach solution.

And SEMA did a lot of that, so I know she'll um have a lot of guidance on what that looks like.

Um as far as timelines, I agree with coming back.

I'm curious to see what the task force comes up with.

I think a lot of the work that I've seen for the housing trust, it's dependent on the developer.

Like Valor Hill is super exciting, but they like you know, uh Tom would be really uh he played a big role in making sure he was so passionate about making sure we got that veteran housing space, but it's critical, but it's it's kind of like a matching game where you have to make sure you have the idea and the developer and the space and the funding.

And so um it's tricky to have to like how do we plan that out for all of these subgroups.

But I'm really excited for us to see how that goes.

I know they just started doing um like leasing there, and so they're working with some of the veteran organizations to help get those apartments leased, but maybe even going there and talking to folks uh in the next couple months as folks move in to see what their experience is like and how that something like that could be replicated in different areas.

Um so I know, and I I think I'm I might be mistaken, but we did there was a group that was focused on foster youth and housing for foster youth.

I know I know that wasn't specifically called out in this, but maybe there's something that we can learn from in that area as well.

Um the only other question that I have was just thinking about how do we really work at the state and federal level to address this issue as well.

We'll obviously have a session coming up here, but knowing that there's not a lot of funding that might be available or funding situations might change, but also knowing that at least the affordable housing uh market is something that generally gets bipartisan support.

So if there's not a lot of other things that we can lean on the state and federal government for, maybe it's this one.

And so thinking and working with our leaders that do government relations for this, how do we continue to uh ensure that the funding that we do get for our programming isn't cut, and maybe there is it it's uh unlikely that we might get specific subgroup funding from state and federal government.

But if there's another way to just continue to add that affordable housing funding, it'd be good to know.

Thanks, Chair.

Thank you, Councilwoman.

I just want to echo you know all the input my colleagues gave.

And to Councilman Corps's point, I met with um Peggy Amy here, so I would suggest you know also getting with them on that specific, definitely checking in with our Chootos who do this work also.

Um there is a the mayor told me there was a hearing impaired community, and I I forgot the name of them, but they apparently meet every month, and so we'll try to get that for you because that could be a good check-in with them at their breakfast meetings that they have.

I think you know, keeping the task force means public is great, but also maybe having at least one larger public input meeting where folks can kind of just come give their input, talk to folks and have that open dialogue would be very helpful.

And so we will we are planning to have a November check-in um ahead of January on this item to see what progress has been made.

And maybe their tri chairs can send us, you know, just an email at the end of every month, kind of seeing where things are going, who's been met with and what's been discussed.

That way we're keeping on task with that.

And I think in addition to some of the additional stakeholders could also should be at the county, so you know, making sure we talk to the county housing authority on their needs and issues, and I believe the county also has their own PFC, so kind of checking in with them because I think ultimately what I'd love to see is the division of labor between the San Antonio PFC and the county POC, where we kind of do work that uh each of us can do better.

Um that way we're not overlapping.

Uh, but that's more of a long-term thing.

I also agree we need to be very data informed on this issue so we know the community and the population, but uh to councilman course point, how do we quantify that on need, right?

We we know generally the need, but what are the numbers associated with that?

Uh and you know, as a apartment kit, I know firsthand that a lot of the ground level apartments are not actually accessible by wheelchairs, right?

Even though you're on the first floor, there's usually steps to get there.

If you uh usually your assigned parking spaces based on your you know unit number, doesn't mean that if you um have a disability that you're closer necessarily to the entrance of the door.

Um so I just want to those are some simple things to keep in mind when it comes to UDC is actually true accessibility.

Um I think I don't think the goal is to have a separate community for each of these different populations.

I think we should also conceptualize what it means for everybody to be able to be in one apartment complex.

So, what does that mean for you know, ground level just for seniors, um, you know, things for veterans, how do we adapt units to serve the deaf and blind community?

I think is very important.

So I don't think the goal is to just have only one population and one type of apartment complex, but how do we broaden it so that anybody could live there with any need that they have?

I think that's very important.

So the recommendations would certainly include UDC amendments, which this committee will be looking into at some point, which will be very helpful for us.

State and federal legislation changes um funding recommendations from COSA funding, whether that's CDBG or any type of funding that we give out, how do we tie these needs into that?

And also, I'll say, you know, funding recommendations um for the next housing bond that we do because that's a huge priority for the city.

We will be discussing the housing bond at this committee.

Uh, and so I think if there's gonna be a phase two, there should be this should be folded into those recommendations also.

Um, and so I think that's very important, and of course, definitely amending ship um to serve these needs.

So do you and my colleagues have any uh other additional comments?

No, councilman core?

There's one other quick thing.

One of my team members found an organization out Texas does that does housing um for LGBTQ plus IA youth in central Texas.

I'm not sure if um anyone has ever worked with them before, but it might be a good um contact to reach out to.

Thanks.

Thanks, Matt.

I think it'll be worth also having a meeting with somebody from the mayor's office just to check in with them about the plan.

Uh, but based on the discussion how the mayor she's seems very supportive of this process that we're embarking on.

So I appreciate that.

Um, do we need a motion on this item?

Yes, Chair, you are going to need a motion, and the motion needs to specify that the committee is recommending the creation of a task force as opposed to creating it yourself because we don't have that authority.

Not yet.

So uh I'll entertain a motion from one of my committee members.

The recommendation of this task.

There's a motion and a second.

All in favor say aye.

Aye.

All opposed.

Motion carries.

You have your orders.

Thank you.

Appreciate it.

Okay, item two is creation of a task for that's the last, sorry.

Item three is the Greater Airport Regional Plan.

Is there a staff presentation?

Yes.

Good morning, Bridget.

Thank you.

Good morning, Chair and Committee members.

Bridget White, director of the planning department.

So the Greater Airport Area Regional Center Plan is the first phase three and twelfth sub-area plan being brought forward for adoption is implementation of the SA tomorrow comprehensive plan.

So this slide should look very familiar to you.

It shows the map of the sub-area planning process consisting of the 13 regional centers and the 17 community center community areas.

The greater airport area is the regional center circled on the map, and it overlaps city council districts 10, 9, and 1.

Broadly speaking, all sub-area plans follow very similar format.

High level vision and goals, topic specific recommendations, and strategies that implement the recommendations.

I'll highlight the implementation implementing strategies that are identified in the plan as priorities.

First, the plan area boundaries.

So on this map, you'll see important landmarks in the sub area, which include the San Antonio International Airport.

The area has a high concentration of publicly owned land, the majority of which is used for airport operations.

Additionally, the sub-area includes several major public investments in transportation, like Loop 410, U.S.

Highway 281 North, Warsbach Parkway, and the North Star Transit Center.

There's also North Star Mall, Park North Shopping Center, and the Quarry Market, and those make the area an important retail center.

In addition, a number of public spaces like McAllister Park, Walker Ranch Park, Salado Creek Greenway, are particularly important and popular to sub-area residents, and they also contribute to the high percentage of publicly owned land in the area.

Community input was very crucial to the development of the plan.

Local stakeholders participated on planning teams.

We had 11 planning team meetings along with one design charrette.

There are also three online surveys, four community meetings, with a community meetings held at various locations around the plan area to help improve access to the public.

So to begin creating content for the plan, planning team members as well as open house and survey participants were asked to answer three questions.

What do you like about the area?

What is missing in the area?

And what would you change about the area?

Input gathered during this process was used to develop a draft of the vision statement and a set of goals that were then discussed with the planning team and posted as well as advertised for comment from open house and online survey participants.

The resulting vision and goals are shown here and set a broad direction for creating content for the rest of the plan.

The content for the five topical sections of the plan are land use, mobility, amenities in public spaces, housing and economic development, as well as for the plan's five focus areas were crafted in a similar way to how the vision and goals were created.

The five topic-based based sections of the plan provide policy guidance for decision makers and stakeholders.

So starting off with land use, there are four land use recommendations and 11 supporting strategies.

The one strategy identifies the priorities related to city initiated rezoning and support of property owned owner-initiated zoning or for the area around San Pedro and loop 410 to encourage redevelopment consistent with the identified land use designation.

An example of how this area could look was shared with community members and is shown on this slide.

On the left is the Park North Shopping Center as it exists today.

And on the right is an image that demonstrates the implementation of the plan, a mix of residential and retail spaces along with green space.

Mobility looks at how community stakeholders get stakeholders get to and through the plan area.

A noted implementation priorities related connections from neighborhoods to access of the city's trail network.

And amenities and public spaces builds on that and emphasizes ensuring new greenways and park space provide multiple benefits.

The example here is around the Blossom Park Athletic Center.

On the left is the current view, and on the right is it a rendering with the use of green infrastructure showing links to McAllister Park in Salado Creek Greenway.

Zoning changes and proposed development around the airport.

And for economic development, the priority is related to supporting small businesses in live work spaces and maker spaces in those areas identified, for example, as employment flex mixed use.

Implementation priorities are organized into a map shown here for site-specific improvements.

Identified improvements include addressing dangerous intersections, such as around mobility areas A and D, and improving access to creeks.

Additionally, there are five focus areas in the sub-area.

Focus areas do not include recommendations and strategies, but each has a very distinct vision with a unique set of challenges and opportunities, which really are help to meant imagine how the areas of the plan may be applied.

Ideas of the plan may be applied.

Of course, this is our implementation priorities matrix, which is listed along with the map with key stakeholders, potential funding sources, and a very rough estimate of potential timing for each improvement.

Planning commission was briefed and held their hearing in August where they recommended city council's approval.

This item was initially scheduled for consideration at December September 18th council, as the council committees weren't in place yet, but with it being rescheduled to the October 2nd City Council meeting and offered us the opportunity to come before the committee to brief you before council.

I'd also like to add that as the plan overlaps to three council districts, we did brief the all three council members, um, one, nine, and ten.

So with that, staff recommends that the committee forward the Greater Airport Area Regional Center plan to City Council for formal adoption is a component of the city's conference of master plan.

Um with that, I can answer any questions.

I also have the project manager Jacob Howard here with me this morning.

Thank you, Bridget and team, for being here today.

Um I'll open it up to my council colleagues if there's any discussion on the item.

Councilman Galvan.

Thank you, Chair.

Uh thank you, Bridget and the planning team for all the hard work, not only in the presentation, but also and of course creating any of the community and regional center plans.

Uh I know it's always extremely hard work, especially making sure that we're having community input, uh be front and center throughout all of this.

And so I just want to say thank you, the project manager especially uh for doing that hard work of uh engaging with the community and ensuring that their voices are heard throughout the entire process.

Um I really uh I really appreciate the work that was done within this plan.

I was reviewing uh a lot of it last night, looking just kind of at the giant plan itself, the draft plan.

I always appreciate going through these uh SA tomorrow plans.

I know I looked at a lot of them uh within uh the Chicago office when I was working with there with the Westside Plan, uh, even looking at the beginning early stage of the South Side or Southwest one, uh, but even myself prior to being on council looking at the West Northwest plan and engage with residents on that one as neighborhood leader.

Um and so uh I think you know with a conversation about the green line uh heading towards the airport.

I think other pieces about mobility and better connections between uh North Stormall, North Park Plaza, North Star Transit Center, as well as the airport.

I think are all just important things to be talking about with the green line that's not just a bus line going to it, but there's actual connections all the way through to some of the centers nearby as well as connections to larger transit options throughout the entire city.

Uh North Star Transit Center is one of my favorite transit centers.

That's just a personal thing.

Um I think it's just a very easy one to get to from all points of the city.

Um so I I think it's good for if we're looking at making sure that our airport is uh doing well, that our tourists are able to really maneuver through our city with ease, that making sure that the green line not only is a good connection, but that we have the also good urban planning throughout the next kind of section there to North South Transit Center to be as easy as possible for our residents and for non-residents alike to uh to maneuver within.

So I appreciate the those recommendations within this plan.

Uh also, of course, very appreciative of the sustainable infrastructure pieces, looking at detention ponds, um and other kinds of uh green infrastructure, stable infrastructure, along with the kind of proposals for um adjustments within North Star or North Park Plaza were really exciting for me to see that there's some recommendations there about how we can actually make this happen in real time with uh efforts to uh makes those places not only more walkable but also more sustainable for not only drainage but of general public use as well.

Um thing I was concerned about with this one, and this is not necessarily everything to solve uh by your team, but just thinking about of course the highways and the railroad being such important parts of this uh area uh or such noble parts of the area.

What was the engagement like with Text Dot and UP or any kind of conversations about how to make sure that this work that we're trying to do here is can effectively be done with state right-away and other right-of-way too.

Uh Jake Empowerment with the planning department.

Um so during the process, we did engage in with TechSOT and sort of one-on-one conversations with the planning department during the phase, and so they were aware of our process and of their projects as well.

Um definitely I think the community was interested in what's happening with a lot of the tech start infrastructure in the area, and so we did try to capture their ideas for those sites in this document.

Um so I think that was sort of the extent of um communications with Text Dot.

And then similarly, we had um communications with the railroad about projects that they might have in the area.

Okay, um, so yeah.

That's great.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Um similar question with the airport, of course, being such a significant part of this area.

Um, what were the conversations like with the airport uh to ensure that their long-term plans, whether it's for the terminal development or even looking at configurations of the runways, whether any kind of adjustments need to be made with the plan or any considerations to keep in mind with the with the airports development?

I will say with regards to the airport, we deliberately switched the phasing of our plan.

We were initially phase two, but we knew that the airport was gonna be working on their uh strategic plan.

Right.

So we uh changed our uh greater airport plan to phase three.

So I did sit on the stakeholder group, so I was involved in that particular process, and then we also had airport staff involved in this process.

So we continue to have engagement with airport staff, both in their plan, but then also in our planning process, which goes around the airport.

That's great.

Thank you.

Um last thing I was gonna ask about um about this plan was um I know I saw some of the recommendations for, of course, funding and ensuring that we were able to deliver on the recommendations made, whether it's through bond funding or uh IMP or any other kind of work.

Um, but is there also recommendations uh within policy or UDC recommendations for some of the main street recommendations as well, like to ensure that street design is well maintained there or fits the fits of the move that we're trying to go towards or parking regulations or even vending rec uh requirements, were there any kind of conversations there about that within this plan?

Not specifically related to those right now.

What we will be focusing on for the next UDC amendment will be the creation of the mixed use um districts because we have, as you notice, mixed-use land design land use designations, but not necessarily a lot of mixed-use districts.

Right.

Um so what we have found the best approach for us is as we go through the development of the plan to really identify what would be significant or important UDC amendments.

Um honestly, we're trying to stay away from what Austin did.

Okay, we did a plan, let's just jump into UDC amendments, but we really want to see and hear what the community is saying.

We do, of course, work very closely with DSD and other departments as it relates to what could impact um the planning process and also bringing forward to those departments what we're hearing from the community.

Got it.

Well, that's helpful.

And I think the same well, similar question, right?

With infrastructure too, or are there any kind of infrastructure policy changes as well that are being recommended within this uh to ensure that uh whether it's with street maintenance uh or within uh sidewalk implementation, or their conversations about making sure that the plans recommendations are included within that kind of regular maintenance work?

So, what we're doing also is we're a parent department is a part of um the the bond program task force.

So looking at how the recommendations and strategies can be incorporated in that particular um bond program process.

We really view the plans as an opportunity for council to see what the community um has said.

So it's a little bit easier because these have been vetted, they've been voted on by council, uh, and they identify those improvements in infrastructure um improvement opportunities that have actually come from the community.

Good so incorporating those as we move forward.

Yeah, thank you so much.

Thank you, Chair.

Councilman, I just wanted to offer that um we work hard on the UDC in a five-year cycle, right?

And so Bridget's team will be fully integrated and has been fully integrated in that process as we go through the next round.

So that there's close coordination that goes on, and as you're aware, we try to keep our cycle to five years to ensure that we're consistent for folks who are developing and bring that development you know, uh standard up to date every five years so that we can keep moving forward.

But Bridge's team is fully integrated.

As we move to the UDC process, I feel like there's been a lot of positive changes that this committee will champion.

Uh Councilman Castillo.

Thank you, Chair.

Just wanted to thank Bridget and Jacob for their work as always with the community engagement piece.

And I felt to mention during the last presentation, right?

That I think your team truly serves as a model what robust community engagement looks like.

Uh working with community members and ensuring that their input is integrated into the recommendations.

Uh so just uh really grateful uh for the work of your team, Bridget and Jacob.

Okay, thank you.

All right, thank you.

Thanks, Chair.

Councilwalker Core, would you like to add something?

Yes, thank you.

Yeah, I think the next when is the next UDC round?

2027.

27.

It's gonna be a busy 2026.

Um we all have so many ideas.

I feel like UDC comes out of all of our mouths so many times.

Um but yeah, we're excited about the work to do.

I want to just echo what Councilman Castillo said.

I know we've all been on some emails talking with some of our folks, not necessarily in this area, but these plans get very sometimes heated, and it's uh land use is a very uh passionate area for a lot of our residents, and so we want to make sure that we're doing a great job of really hearing folks, but also making sure that we're hearing the folks that we don't necessarily have the time to be able that aren't that don't have the time to be able to come to these meetings and working three jobs to try to just get housing.

So it's uh a fine balance that you all have to do, and um I appreciate that.

I just have a couple of questions or maybe just thoughts.

The image of Park North, I love, right?

This is uh the ideal, it's on San Pedro, it's five minutes from the airport, right on the green line.

Um, the slide on it was uh I can't remember slide nine.

Slide nine, yeah.

And I'm just like staring at this, and this is ideal, right?

It's such there's so much space there, there's so much parking, no one could ever complain that there's not enough parking in this area.

And right now it's basically all commercial, and this is privately owned, though.

This entire um complex is privately owned.

So, how do we actually incentivize the aspirational in this sense when it's a massive space that's owned by uh a single developer?

And that's why that particular um strategy is the priority for land use.

So it's not just city initiated zoning, but then also if the property owner wishes to do something, then property owner initiated zoning.

You'll also notice in the plan, we do talk about different um funding opportunities.

So looking at um grants that may be out there, public private partnerships, um, ex we even have a tours in there as different options for if the developer wishes to do something, these are um many of options in terms of opportunities that are available.

We can't really control what the property owner does, but we at least want to put out there this is something that if you want to move forward in the future that you could consider to really address the needs of what the community has said.

Yeah, it always comes down to money, right?

Yes.

Um, but I that makes me think it would be very interesting because now with the new state law, and I asked them about this in our briefing, where all of these commercials that are listed on the map could potentially also be C slash MF.

Um, and the other thing that uh one of my staff members actually found out was any potential future conversion to C then could go MF.

So if I was holding on to a property that the neighbors were like, okay, we'll let you do uh neighborhood commercial, they could then essentially go to multifamily.

So that might cause some different conversations in the future at zoning.

But I'm sorry, that was a roundabout way to say since all of these commercial spaces can automatically essentially go mixed use now, um, if not just multifamily, and we know that they're on the green line, and we already have our transit-oriented development framework.

I'd love for the next step for us, and I don't know if that's this committee or how do we figure out really to create an incentive program that's just dollars, maybe it's a in the next housing bond, just a line item for converting commercial to multifamily affordable and figuring out ways to incentivize the developer that may already be making a lot of money on something and not have any desire to basically you know they in order to do that, they'd have to keep a part of their land offline for a year or two as they're developing.

It's a it's a huge ask for something that's already built, they could sell and but if we put enough incentive on it, maybe we could actually create a really cool plaza like that.

And councilwoman, in fact, the departments have met planning well, um, with the lead of the city manager's office, uh planning, DSCD, neighborhood housing services, city attorney's office to really look at the impact of the state law.

Um, so I know that uh Veronica will be looking at that as she looks forward with the housing bond.

So that is that's a discussion we have had.

Awesome.

The only one other thing I'll quickly comment on is the public art component.

I had to look really deep, and I think I saw two pink stars.

Um right there on that um Jones Maltsberger interchange, and then one kind of in this area.

So just a continuous push to think about public art.

We've been actually doing a lot.

I know Councilmember McKee Rodriguez had that uh push once where he wanted to do a lot under underpasses.

I would love us to continue thinking about more on underpass.

There's also one in District 5 and Councilman Castillos who we're actually trying to use the same artists to do something at the Hildebrand intersection.

But I feel like underpasses is a great opportunity for us.

And since this area has a lot of heavy um highway and uh bridges and things like that, it might be a great way for us to incorporate because yes, I mean other types is wonderful as well, but uh I think that'll help brighten up those mobility areas.

And um just wanted to give a shout out.

The uh Price Waterhouse Cooper has just opened their new um headquarters at the Concord Plaza right here.

So we are bringing businesses back.

So and councilman, I think maybe figure 33 um in the plan is what you may be referring to.

There's a little bit of public art in there on the underpass.

That's it I was I it was by 13.

I was like screening.

I was like, I see some pink dots.

Yes.

Um but we also do have in the amenities in public spaces a specific section on public art, yeah, and how that can be incorporated throughout the area.

Yeah, and I love like and maybe there the other idea that I have as I was staring at this, sorry, a last thing is like we have that beautiful green space that's out in that aspirational plan, and maybe we incentivize like, hey, we'll create this park space if you help you know build some multi-family.

I don't know, just brainstorming.

But thanks, Chair.

Thank you, Councilman Corps.

Um, you know, on the public art piece, I would just say, because you know, some folks in my community, and I'm sure all of ours are always like, well, public art, you know, we don't want a statue.

But I've been telling folks, you know, public art can also be um usable, right?

It could be, you know, shade over a bench, or it can be different ways of uh using um light, right?

That can be public art.

So there's different water fountains could be nice.

Um so if you use you look at some of the old architecture from years past, you'll see these small little details and all these different pieces of uh architecture that I would say are public art pieces, but that's just back then that's what they would just do.

So I think that's a good option.

And I think especially under underpasses is really great because those are usually dark and dim.

Uh so I know textile can be a challenge to work with, but those really brighten up those spaces for sure.

Um and then you know, keeping on this slide right here.

This is a really cool concept of the plaza, I think.

That's definitely you know what people are now wanting more of, right?

Um, especially with some of our big box malls that just have these huge parking lots and it's just all indoor.

I think people are looking for something like that.

Um, and maybe I would even say less parking than what's on there now, but um I think when we go to the UDC stuff, that that is something we need to really explore because that is a high demand right now.

Um, and whether the developers appreciate that or not, people want plazas, people want outside spaces to congregate and walk through.

Um and if you go to slide six.

I appreciate the fact that anytime I look at these um you know, neighborhood plans and regional plans, so much of the goals and the vision across the entire city are the same.

People want connection, outdoor spaces, they want trails, they want shade, uh, you know, they want their roads fixed, they want uh bus routes, you know, bicycling, more lighting, um, you know, in field development, redevelopment within the commercial areas.

That is something that the entire city of San Antonio wants.

And so I just always want to refer that and say that because I think we have more in common in across the city than we think we do.

Sure.

Um, so that's very important.

So this being with the airport, um, d did you know the flight path and sound issues come up as some of uh uh neighborhood needs and issues?

Well, those did come up as part of the planning process, which is one reason why we did go into the phase three.

Um, but it was also important why we to have airport staff there because this is a greater airport area plan, a lot of times people would assume they were talking about the airport per se.

Um but we wanted to make sure that people understood that the airport and the issues that um they were addressing in terms of noise and what they may be doing was a bit separate than planning land use for the entire area, but we wanted to make sure that people had the opportunity to talk to airport staff if those issues came up.

Yeah, absolutely.

And you know, I've mentioned this before, I know councilman McKee Rodriguez has mentioned this before, but we should get some updates as far as how many times these plans are amended with the zoning changes.

Yes.

Uh, because council members, all of us amend the plan when we approve a zoning thing.

And I want us to keep track of how many times we're doing that because this is a neighborhood developed plan.

This is what people wanted, and a lot of times we go and amend it based on some things.

So I think it's important for us to keep tabs on that.

Uh you know, obviously not your fault, it's that's our decision that we make at council, but we should be reflective about those amendments that we make after a plan is set in motion and done.

So councilman, after it was mentioned at the budget work session, we did reach out to DSD, so we'll be working to they'll be keeping track of that information.

So I want to make sure that we can provide a report to you when I come back by the next year to talk about okay, these are the essay tomorrow, because we do have old plans too.

So these are the SA tomorrow adopted plans, and of those, these are the ones where council um made a particular vote that may have changed the plan.

Absolutely.

Yeah, maybe Amin can come next month and talk to us about that.

So thank you.

Uh John, did you council McCorp?

All right.

I your comment made me think of one question.

That in the past we used to have this uh sound barrier opportunity for folks that lived around the airport where they could um like uh create uh get new windows and we would help fund them.

Yeah, councilwoman uh Jeff Coyle has walked in to talk about sound in the airport, so perfect.

If you'd let them talk to you.

Yeah, so uh there absolutely is a program that exists for homeowners, uh, but there's also lots of stuff happening around noise, so Jeff, go ahead.

I was watching upstairs and heard the question.

Um it's a federal program, it's federal money that that um attenuates sound inside the home so it improves the windows and barrier inside the house.

Um you have to be within one of the flight contours to qualify.

And at this point, we've we have attenuated effectively every home in those contours that meaning we've mitigated it.

We've we've treated.

No, we have like contour.

Oh, they map the noise and it creates a contour line of where the noise impacts the home.

So a certain decibel level creates like a circular pattern, right?

So that's what Jeff's saying is by contour.

That's exactly right.

It's so you have to be within those contours, an affected home essentially to qualify for it.

The contours are narrowing as technology gets better now.

The they used to be wider, but the planes are a lot more precise in their takeoffs and landing.

So we don't anticipate barring large changes to flight patterns that there would be a number of new homes eligible for it.

Most have been treated at this point, but um, yeah, that's essentially the program.

Thank you very much.

Were there any additional comments from our colleagues?

Can I entertain a motion to forward to the October second day session meeting?

Second.

There's a motion and a second.

All in favor, please say aye.

Aye.

Any opposed?

Motion carries.

All right, guys.

Well, congratulations on our first PCDC meeting.

Yes, the time is now 1102, and the meeting is now adjourned.