Good morning, everyone.

The time is now 10.03 a.m.

on Wednesday, March 18th, 2026, and the meeting of the governance committee is now called to order.

Madam Clerk, please call the roll.

Councilmember Via Gran.

Here.

Councilmember Mungia.

Present.

Councilmember Spears.

Mayor Pro Tim McKee Rodriguez.

Present.

Mayor Pro Tem, we have quorum.

Thank you.

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

I'll entertain a motion for their approval.

I make a motion to approve.

We have a motion and a second.

All in favor.

Aye.

Passes unanimously.

We do not have any members of the public's time to speak, but we do have three CCRs on the agenda for today.

We'll take all the presentations at once, so then we'll have one discussion.

So first up we have Madam Court, can you read the caption?

Item number two is the council consideration request, CCR 2026 0002 by Councilmember McKee Rodriguez, District 2 on the creation of a real-time notification system for the trains approaching our stopped at railroad crossings.

Yes.

Yeah, if you can read all of them.

Then item number three is a council consideration request by Councilmember Gabon, District 6 on the designation of a memorial wave for Joseph Flores III.

And then item number four is a council consideration request by Councilmember Core District 1 for a resolution for large area rezoning of property along Blanco Road.

Floor is yours.

All right, thank you, Chair.

Good morning, Chair and Committee.

Art Reinhart, Public Works Director.

So I'll be here to talk briefly about the council consideration request that was filed to develop and implement a real-time notification system focusing on blocked rail crossings.

So just a brief background on the CCR.

It was filed just a little bit over a month ago by Council District 2.

And again, the focus here is trying to develop and implement some sort of program to identify and publish information on real trying real time train activity and block crossings.

When you boil the request down, there's kind of four key points to think through as we go through this process.

One is uh working with partners to develop strategic partnerships that could be with rail operators such as Union Pacific, also third party navigation applications such as Waze, Google, Apple Maps, and others.

Certainly in universities, uh we do a lot of work with UTSA already and technology firms and others to really help us develop uh a methodology to support data sharing and also foster innovation uh opportunities as we go through this.

Part of the CCR will also look at evaluating different technologies to identify trains and figure out how we can publish real-time information and alerts.

Um, the implementation would focus potentially on piloting on high impact corridors that could be from a traffic volume perspective or other needs, such as proximity to emergency uh service areas.

Um, and we'll measure that through or implement that based on funding that could be allocated and potential uh performance metrics that we develop.

And lastly, we want to make sure as we potentially implement this.

We do it in a manner that's focused on uh high impact areas and in what would promote serving the community best, and that will be through how we implement as well as our outreach process.

Just a little bit of background about our infrastructure.

So throughout the city of San Antonio, we have roughly 500 rail crossings that we call at grade.

That means they're at street surface level.

There's sever several other crossings that have some sort of separation, and certainly we have several projects funded to help remove uh grade crossings by separating them.

One thing we wanted to point out is less than about 10% of those are near a traffic signal and connected to our signal system.

So, you know, roughly 400 plus are our crossings that are not close to a signal.

And why that's important is that almost all of those locations near Signal, we have software called preemption, where we have detection through partnerships with the uh UP and others, uh, where we can detect train activity, and that will speak to our traffic signal system and modify how the signal system operates to potentially give extended green times to clear the the crossing uh to prevent people from being stuck on the crossing, or also prohibit certain uh movements to protect people from entering into the crossing.

So we already have that, and one thought on exploring is using that system to help bring awareness when it's active.

But that would only cover about 10% of the crossings, um, plus maybe one or two upstream and downstream where we can get kind of information from.

But we do have some some data out there.

Another thing to think through as we go through this process is obviously the budget component.

Uh what we've explored already in in the last couple weeks is most of the the cities that we've seen something out there use third-party soft uh software and devices.

So certainly that's something we'll look into.

Uh potentially, you know, that would lead to funding requirements both for developing the concept of what we would do and then obviously purchasing any equipment or or materials to make that happen.

Depending on some vendors, there could be ongoing maintenance requirements as well for software subscriptions, et cetera.

So that's one component we'll look through.

And then also the legal component.

So through just kind of what you know, our long-standing partnership with Union Pacific and others, uh, there is some security information concerns about providing real-time train activity, and that's understandable.

There's uh sensitive materials and other products that are carried on those lines.

So we're not sure that we'll get real-time train information, but that's not really what our goal is.

Our goal is to have real-time information on the crossing.

So that's something we'll explore uh through discussions with UP and others uh and figure out if that's an opportunity to just work with information they have, or if we need to do something sort of outside of the rail right away through uh what we've seen so far in other other communities.

One other thing we'll have to think through is any sort of liability concerns.

If we're providing information out there, should should that information not be accurate through uh failure in the system, uh, what would any sort of consequences be?

So that's some of the stuff we'll have to explore.

Moving forward, we'll have heavy uh coordination as we already do, not just with public works, but also with capital delivery and transportation departments.

We meet pretty much monthly with Union Pacific.

Uh, we also meet monthly with Text Dot, um, and we'll have coordination with them, uh the local district as well as the rail division.

Um, and one thing to point out for those that that serve on the MPO board is there is a funded study in the plan for the MPO, not really pertaining to rail notifications, but it they'll through uh the process will be looking at regional rail crossings, uh getting a better understanding of where blockages occur, potential opportunities to do some sort of physical improvements, etc.

Uh just a high-level study, but that could be another opportunity to help get information about what we're doing.

So moving forward, what you know this has been out for a couple weeks now.

We've gotten some information, but we'll need a little time to kind of go through uh to really inform decisions and recommendations, and we would bring that back to Transportation Committee in the future.

Thank you, Chair.

Thank you.

We'll move to the next item.

Good morning, Chair, Council members.

My name is Amin Tomaz, Director of Development Services Department.

Um I'm here with two items.

Uh the first one is we received the council consideration request last month uh from District 4 and 6 uh to seek to add the memorial designation to a portion of Marback Road titled Jose Flores III Memorial Way.

And this proposed street uh segment runs between Meadowway Drive and West Edge Drive.

Technically, uh staff recommendations is to move forward with the process, the review process, which entails uh to include technical review, public meetings, consideration by planning commission, and final consideration with city council.

That concludes my presentation for this one.

Uh that was swift.

Short and sweet.

The next one is Blancarood large area rezoning.

Again, we did receive uh council consideration request last month from District One, and mainly the proposal is to uh have a large area rezoning located within the North Central Neighborhood Association.

Generally, it's uh bounded by Fresno Street on the north end, Hildbrand Avenue on the south end, and it goes approximately 300 feet east and west of Blanco.

Again, this CCR uh seeks to rezone the properties and the land use as necessarily to align the zoning with the existing use.

Staff's recommendation is to conduct the analysis by bringing any properties or appropriate plan amendments and any zoning changes uh to be consistent with the future land use plan and bring any uh non-conforming current land uses into conformance with appropriate zoning.

Next step is a staff recommends referring this item to a session for consideration of a resolution to initiate the large area zoning.

That concludes my second presentation.

Easy peasy, thank you.

Thanks.

Um I know I see uh council member core here as councilmember Galvan here.

Oh, okay.

Uh I'll give uh council member core a few minutes to speak if you'd like to speak on your item.

Thanks, Chair.

Welcome back, Eric.

Oh my gosh, I didn't even hello.

Um thank you all for letting me present for a few minutes today.

This actually came to our desks because we had a an individual that wanted to do the major minor home rehab program.

And I actually didn't realize that you can't you are not eligible for any of our programs if you don't have the right zoning at your home.

You're not actually even eligible to get a permit to do anything on your home without the rights re right zoning.

And so if she was applying for the major minor home rehab program and obviously applying for that, she didn't have the funds or the access to do the rezoning.

And so we've just started looking into all of the things that all of the homes that were um not zoned correctly in the area and realize most of them were industrial.

Y'all are familiar with Blanco, it's about a quarter mile radius from the new green line that's coming, and so we want to make sure that we can right zone all of these areas to ensure that they have correct residential zoning and potentially even have some conversations with folks to see if they would be willing to upzone.

And some of them we want to allow folks to come to DSD and talk to them and see if they would take a higher level of zoning use in case they want to build an extra unit, etc.

on their home.

So our goal is to really help create more residential density in this area.

We think it's really right for it.

Obviously, we wouldn't impose that on folks, at least just right zone them and potentially upzone them.

So that was the goal here.

Hopefully, it doesn't take uh we learned a lot from Councilmember McKee Rodriguez is the large area of rezoning that just occurred.

And so um we look forward to hearing your advice also on how to move this forward.

But thank you all for your consideration.

Thank you.

Um thank you to uh my colleagues and staff for the thoughtful work on all of these items, uh, all three of them.

Uh I'll speak first on the real-time train notification system.

Uh, and I want to start by just grounding this in something really simple, and it's that time matters.

Uh time is one of the most valuable things people have.

It's how parents get their kids to school, how folks make it to work on time, how small business owners keep their uh their businesses open, and how emergency responders save lives.

Uh and right now across San Antonio, we have residents that uh are losing time every single day sitting at railroad crossings, not knowing if a train is about to pass, already passing or stopped indefinitely.

Uh it's a common experience in San Antonio.

You pull up to the tracks, the arms start going down, uh, and you're stuck.

And the hardest part is uh not even the delay, it's the uncertainty of knowing of uh you don't know if you should wait, if you should turn around or try to reroute.

Uh and that uncertainty leads to frustration, it leads to unsafe decisions, missed appointments, and in some cases, real danger.

Uh there are neighbor neighborhoods, especially uh historically underinvested communities uh where train blockages are frequent and they are prolonged.

Uh so this becomes not just a transportation issue, but a quality of life and a public safety issue.

It's about equity, safety, uh, and whether people can reliably move through their own community.

And so the good news is this is a solvable problem.

We live in a time where we can track about anything in real time.

We can see traffic, crashes, road closures, sometimes police, uh, all from our phone, uh our GPS system.

Uh but somehow we still can't tell people if a train is uh blocking the road ahead.

So this uh the goal here is to close that gap and ask a straightforward question can we create a system that tells residents and first responders in real time when a train is approaching, crossing, or stopped, uh, so that they can make better, safer decisions.

So I I recognize it's going to take coordination with some of our amazing partners like uh Union Pacific.

Uh it's going to take working with rail operators, technology partners, and within our own city systems.

Uh but the pet the but the potential payoff means that uh there will be less congestion, a faster emergency response, safer streets, and people will have back some of that time.

Uh so the root of this request is again respect for people's time and working to improve their uh day-to-day experience in San Antonio.

So I look forward to moving this item along today, uh, and I'll be supporting all other items today, which I understand are a little bit more council specific or district specific.

Uh so we'll move on to council discussion.

Councilmember Viacron.

Uh thank you for the first uh I'm glad it's going back to Councilman McKee Rodriguez's committee and not ED EWDC.

Uh but I know that there is a lot of opportunity at the federal level to get some funding regarding this, so make sure that we touch base with Sally and um Jeff and see what opportunities out there just came from NLC and this was one of the discussions.

Um I'm fine with the memorial way for Jose Flores, uh, and it gives me an idea to work on where we have these memorial ways.

And then um Laura Jerry rezoning, we did this in District Three.

I think my first year or my first within my first term, and um thank you.

And um, my concern is there are going to be people that ask for um to be exempted from this and making sure that you kind of have uh I think we had something that required them to do that.

Some of them wanted to be exempted because they were like, oh, we can get more money later if I sell it uh and it has this zoning.

That's not a reason for uh an exemption.

So unless that's there is real actionable someone wants to purchase that property to make a multifamily or to make a uh corner store.

You can't let them we gotta be really careful as we rezone, especially if we want to turn this back into residential, which I think is key.

So thank you, Councilman Corr for working on this, and uh let me know if there's anything I can do to help.

But um, thank you.

I I look forward to moving all these council considerations next to the next step.

Thank you, Councilmember.

Councilmember Mogue.

Thank you, Chair.

And um, yeah, when I saw item number three, I said, or excuse me, item number four with Councilman Corps said, Wow, she's serious about the missing middle, stamped all over Blanco.

Uh no, but that's you know, 100%.

I see there's a lot of industrial there, which is doesn't seem appropriate, so 100% behind that.

Um I was happy to uh co-sign uh item number three with Councilman Galvan, and we lost um uh a kid, really a high school kid on Mar Bach, and uh we're trying to improve pedestrian safety there as we speak.

Um and we also want to honor his life um uh right in front of the school he attended.

And um I so happy to have signed on to Councilman McKee Rodriguez's C CR.

Uh I used to actually live by Thousand Oaks and Wetmore and that train's horrible in District 10, and every day was a battle to try to beat the train a turn onto a road.

So um if you can track your pizza order and your food from the store, you should be able to track trains in the city.

And you know, even in my district, we had a quiet zone, uh, and some of you helped us with that.

And um it the the train was blurring the horn and waking up senior citizens at night at 3 a.m.

and they were very frustrated, and we couldn't it was very hard to get them information about what was happening.

We finally didn't resolve that issue, but uh we need to do a better job um tracking trains.

There's nothing more frustrating than sitting and catching a train, especially when you're on your way to something important.

So uh with that chair, I'd like to move to approve items two, three, and four as recommended by staff.

Thank you, Madam Clark.

Do we need to take them individually or can we no?

We can do them together.

Wonderful.

Um we have a motion.

Second.

Do we take the votes all together?

We can take them all.

Wonderful.

We have a motion, a second.

All in favor?

Aye.

Aye.

Motion carries.

It the time is now 10 20 a.m.

and I think this might have been one of the fastest governance committee meetings.

Uh adjourned.

Thank you.