Mar 04, 2021 Economic Development Partnership Board on 2021-03-04 8:30 AM (Downtown Economic Development Committee)
March 04, 2021 Economic Development Partnership Board
Full Transcript
Good morning, everyone. I'm not sure what our at-home audience is this morning, but
this is a meeting of the Downtown Economic Development Committee, a subcommittee of the
Economic Development Partnership of Denton. And our first item of business is to receive
nominations and elect a chair and vice chair for the Development Committee. One quick note
before I kind of hand it over to staff, if we have any questions for staff, or rather
before I open it up for nominations, our policy says that a city council member has to serve
as chair, and then our vice chair at the moment is Alex Payne. Alex is not here, so if somebody
wanted to throw him under the bus and re-nominate him, I'm not sure if he'd accept that or not.
So I'll now open the floor for the position of chair of the committee. Not everybody at
once. Do we know if Alex wants to continue in that capacity? I don't know. I haven't
spoken with Alex about that. But if you were going to lean one way or the other, I mean,
probably he does. Probably he does. We all know he's very active downtown. Well, I don't
want to throw him under the bus, but I think he's a good leader, so I'd like to nominate
him to continue in that capacity. Are you nominating him for the position of chair or
vice chair? Chair. So the chair has to be a ... Oh, I'm sorry. Vice chair. Yeah, vice
chair. Okay. Let's start out with chair, just as a formality, but we have to do it. Are
there any nominations for the position of chair of the committee? Is Marty eligible
to serve again? I'm sorry. Can you say that again? Is Marty eligible to serve again? Yeah.
So I'll put a little finer point on it. It's kind of an awkward position for me, but I'm
the only one on the committee who's eligible to serve as chair. I don't know. I tried to
say that in the most diplomatic way possible and not nominate myself, but under the policy,
that's the situation. I want to make a double move then. I'm going to nominate you for chair
and Alex Payne for vice chair, and I think it's a great ticket. Okay. I second that nomination.
Okay. We'll take that nomination as a motion in a second. We'll go ahead and vote on those
together unless anybody has any objection to that. And I'll kind of go around the horn,
seeing no objection to doing that. Hank, what's your vote? In favor. Georgina? Yes. In favor.
John? Yes. Bob? Yes. Nick? Yes. Michael? I see a thumbs up there. And Peggy? And I think
you're muted, but I think you said aye. I said aye. Very good. And Brock, are you still
on? Can you hear us? I think he's logged off. He's logged off. Okay. He had to switch up
devices I think. All right. Thank you all. Then those will be our officers going forward.
Our next item is 1B, consideration of the minutes of the September 3rd, 2020 meeting.
Are there any additions or deletions to the minutes as they've been distributed? Seeing
none, is there a motion for their adoption? I'll motion for their adoption. John with
the motion, is there a second? I second it. Georgina with the second. Any discussion?
The move votes, starting with John, how do you say? Aye. Georgina? Aye. Hank? Aye. Bob?
Aye. Nick? Aye. Michael? Aye. And Peggy? Aye. Thank you. And the chair is an aye. The minutes
of the September 3rd meeting are approved. That takes us to item 1C, receive a report,
hold a discussion, and give staff direction regarding the downtown capital projects update.
And I think that's Rachel. Is that right? Good to see you, Rachel. Good morning, everyone.
Great seeing you all too. So my name is Rachel Wood. I'm the deputy director of capital projects.
And this morning, we've got several of our project managers with us that are going to
provide updates on projects that are nearing completion, projects that are actively under
construction, and then projects that are in the initiation phase. Because we have four
different project managers that are going to be covering their projects, our thought processes
will have each project manager go through their list of projects that are in the downtown
area. Once they conclude going through their slides, then you can ask questions of those
projects and then they'll transition to the next set the next project manager and their
projects just so that we don't have to play musical chairs. We can of course answer questions
at the end of the presentation as well. But we're all going to be operating from this
one chair. So just kind of think about your questions as they're presenting just so we
don't have to kind of keep circling back and play musical chairs. So we've got first, Kyle
pedigo is going to go through his projects, then Seth Garcia, Trevor Crane, and then Robin
Davis. So with that, I'm going to pull up the PowerPoint presentation and then Kyle
will come go through his projects with you. There we go. It's not sharing. While you're
doing that, Rachel, I'll just kind of note for the record that Beth has joined us and
Brock is locked back back on. Perfect. Okay, Kyle. Here we go. Okay, good morning, everybody.
Thank you for having me. My name is Kyle pedigo. As Rachel said, I'm a project manager for
the city and I have four projects that I'm going to be reviewing in downtown area. So
first up, we have the downtown storm sewer phase one. The limits of this is between Bell
and the Union Pacific Railroad from McKinney to Hickory Street. And it also extends up
oak from the railroad up proximately to Oakland. The design firm on this one was DEH and quality
excavation is the contractor. This one's currently under construction. And we have been working
with some of the local businesses where whose parking lots and traffic patterns are directly
impacted. So the scope of this project is drainage improvements and pavement repair
with an estimated completion of approximately $1.76 million. This project began in December
2020. Currently, it's on schedule to be completed by quarter four of 2021. And then we've been
coordinating with franchise utilities area businesses and text out on this. Currently
they cross McKinney Street and they are in the parking lots. Right next to the UPR railroad.
That's their current work area. And they're set to begin work on Oak Street by about quarter
two of this year. The next project that I have is the downtown quiet zones. The limits
of this project are the railroad crossings at McKinney, Hickory, Sycamore and Prairie.
This one was designed in house. Real quick, the scope of this is the city is going to
be performing median improvements, sidewalk improvements and railroad crossing improvements.
And this is coordinated with Union Pacific railroad. The intention of this project is
to establish a quiet zone in the downtown quarter. Currently Union Pacific requires
their trains to sound their horn at every crossing. Every time they pass that doesn't
have a division in the crossing that prevents cars from going around the gates. So with
the median improvement, with establishing a median there, the city the city's portion
is the road work to establish the median and Union Pacific's portion is permitting and
any signalization upgrades. So we're working with them currently because the two of these
crossings intersect directly with the downtown storm sewer. We're attempting to minimize
the construction impact and perform those two crossings of McKinney and Hickory Street
with downtown storm sewer phase one. The estimate completion for this project is about 1.3 million
dollars. The design was finalized in January and there should be in construction by quarter
three this year. So by the end of the year, the city's portion should be under construction
coinciding with the finish up of phase one of downtown storm sewer. So this is a that's
the coordination note that this is being directly coordinated with that other project. Downtown
TIF sidewalk and lighting. This project is mostly completed. There's two intersections
outstanding so the limits of this are Elm Street, Oak Street, Hickory Street and a small
section on a locust. This one was designed by Tignall and Perkins and Floyd Smith Concrete
did the sidewalk work. DME did the lighting improvements and traffic operations is doing
the two signals that need to be completed. This project included pedestrian and lighting
improvements and sidewalk improvements. The estimate completion is roughly one million
dollars. Traffic signal design is nearing completion. The two outstanding intersections
are McKinney and Elm and McKinney and Locust. Once traffic performs their signal improvements,
we can complete this project with the sidewalk and crossing improvements at those two intersections.
Currently we're estimated to be complete at the end of quarter two in 2021. So traffic
should be performing their work in May and sidewalks would be nearing completion in June.
And this is being coordinated with franchise utilities, area businesses and TxDOT as well.
West Hickory Street. This one is currently under construction so the limits of this project
is West Hickory Street between Welch and Carroll. Again this was designed by Tignall and Perkins
and the contractor on the project is 2L Construction. So this includes drainage system upgrades,
roadway reconstruction, sidewalk installation and pedestrian lighting installation. The
estimated completion is roughly three million dollars and this one is scheduled to be completed
by quarter three of 2021. Currently they're complete with the base pavement on the first
half of the project between Welch and Bernard and they're set to move to the kind of the
third phase of the project on the north side of Hickory between Bernard and Carroll in
March by the end of March. We've been working with the Improving Denton website to deliver
all of our notifications on this. We've also worked with UNT to help with communication
on this project just because of the area it's in and then also communicating directly with
businesses and property owners with any questions or issues that arise. That is the last of
my four projects so before we hand it off we figured we could open it up to discussion
or questions if anybody has any. I have one question Kyle. Can you take the screen down
real quick so we can see everybody and see who's asking questions? On the downtown quiet
zones you said that they're going to be coordinated construction with the downtown storm sewer
phase one project. Am I correct to assume that that means though the city's portion
will be completed at the same time on all four intersections? There's two intersections
that will be directly coordinated with downtown storm sewer. It's McKinney and Hickory. Both
of those should be completed. The city's portion should be completed at the end of phase one
of the downtown storm sewer when we go through with final restoration. The whole idea of
that is it will limit contractors out there, limit impacts on those two corridors and allow
us to get these built relatively quickly compared to putting them out as individual projects.
Is there an estimation on completion of the other two intersections? Those two we put
out as a separate project and the goal is to have those completed roughly at the same
time by the end of the year. Okay. Thank you. This is Bob Moses. I have a question concerning
the lighting. It seems to me that over the past say 10 years when we've done these major
sidewalk and street lighting changes or additions down Hickory and other places that we haven't
taken enough concern of keeping the consistent looking lighting and the old fashioned lighting
and the consistent color of the lights into account. It seems like we're now making another
kind of big move on those major streets and I'm wondering if these different companies
that are designing these things are taking care to be consistent and if the type of lighting
is being approved by the city to maintain the look of our town.
I can't speak to the overall plan but I know for the two projects that I have with lighting,
the West Hickory Street project and downtown tip that the lighting has been coordinated
to be the historical, what do you call it, the historical look of modern light fixtures.
So there is coordination between the different engineers on those projects to attempt to
maintain that. I think it should really be a significant
attempt because lighting at nighttime sets the ambiance and sets the whole feeling of
our town. So I hope that's being done properly. Other questions for Kyle? I have kind of a
follow on to Bob's question. I'm assuming that those new street lights are LED. Can
we adjust the brightness and temperature on those like we can some of our other LED, the
big street lights that we've been installing through the city?
I believe so. I can look after this and double check the specs again but I believe they are
adjusted. That'd be helpful to know I think as to Bob's
point, you know, if you have 10 street lights down the same street or in the same area and
three of them are on one temperature, kind of a different color in the restaurant, another,
it does make a difference. If you could maybe just follow up with an email to the committee,
that'd be helpful. Letting us know more. Any more questions on Kyle's portion? Okay. Thank
you, Kyle. Thank you.
Alrighty. Good morning, Chair, board members, Seth Garcia, project manager with Capital
Projects. I will be going through PEC 4 phases 1 and 2 and then PEC 4 phases 3 and 4. So
the first one's PEC 4 phases 1 and 2. This is the current downtown drainage project that
we have in construction. The limits, as you can see, is Wainwright from Prairie. We also
did some pretty substantial utility replacements along Elm and Locust. So the drainage replacements
began here just at Wainwright and Highland, followed this path along Warren. We actually
acquired drainage easement and cut through these businesses behind here to where we get
to Prairie. And then the drainage box decommissioned just behind the Ravelin Bakery in between
Elm and Pierce on Prairie. The rest of the lines that you see here are the utility replacements.
There really wasn't a street that we didn't touch in this area, even in between Elm and
Locust. But good news, we are getting close to wrapping up that project. So the scope
was to install dual 11 by 8 box culverts for drainage. As I said, we also did pretty significant
water and wastewater installation and relocations. And then we do have portions of this that
were street reconstruction. Some of that was on bond project stuff. So I know in between
Elm and Locust, we did have a 2019 street bond segment that we're working towards completing
as well with this project. The estimate at completion for this was 15.1 million. This
project began in July of 2019. And as I said earlier, it is on schedule to be completed
by quarter three of 2021. We've been coordinating pretty heavily with franchise utilities, the
media businesses, and as well as for our text dot permitting, as well as the sidewalk ADA
projects that's coming down South Elm Street right now.
The next two phases of PEC 4 are phases 3 and 4. We're currently in 90% design on these.
These take the drainage boxes from where we decommissioned on Prairie in between Pierce
and Elm, all the way north crossing Sycamore and Stroud to Mulberry. And then we actually
get into the roadway at Mulberry, traveling west all the way across Carroll Boulevard
to what you see is Bernard here. This is where it will decommission with the full PEC 4 phases
1 through 4 project. So the scope of this is we install 16 by 8, 12 by 8, and 10 by
8 box culverts. We will have once again some pretty substantial water and wastewater installations
and relocations just to accommodate the size of the boxes that we'll be installing. We
will have significant street reconstruction on portions of Sycamore, Stroud, and Mulberry.
With the size of these boxes, we're essentially curb to curb with utility cuts, replacements
as well. So that kind of warrants for a full street reconstruction once we go through with
these drainage boxes. Our estimated completion for these two phases is 17.7 million. Our
schedule is kind of dependent upon the easement acquisition. We need to identify some funding.
Currently, we only have funding for the drainage design. We will need funding for approximately
53 easements and temporary construction easements. Once we have that, we can better set a construction
schedule to acquire those easements. We are coordinating with Denton County as we'll cross
their property, multiple franchise utilities, as well as the University of North Texas kind
of once we get west of Carroll Boulevard for impacts to student living and buses. And with
that, that is my two projects. All right, questions for Seth?
Yes, sir. This is John Cartwright. A couple of things. You talked about Q3 2021, that
kind of the Elm and Locust corridors are going to be completed with that project. As you
can imagine, we're all kind of looking forward to that. We're just now beginning the planning
phases of arts and autos. Hopefully, we can have it this September. Looking forward to
that. So typically in the mornings, of course, that's the main entrance into the downtown
square from the south. And that's where we kind of line up. And literally the lineup
goes from Hickory, I mean, all the way to almost to Locust Eagle Street as the cars
line up in the morning. So we're kind of looking forward for that completion to be done. Perhaps
by that, obviously, you know, you can't say yes, we're going to be done, but that's going
to be a concern. In our Main Street meetings, we've been asked to comment on by streets,
they did a presentation. And some of the discussion was the Elm and Locust streets and other avenues
to the square about how traffic maybe could be rerouted or changed. There was a motion
or an idea talked about when TxDOT actually turns over those two streets to the city,
that we one way we could change it was to make those two way both Elm and Locust and
just have that kind of traffic as it approaches the square. Is there any as we get towards
the end of this project and finally take ownership of those streets, has there been any discussion
about the traffic patterns in downtown? So I'm not familiar with that as a part of this
project. I know that TxDOT does have a paving plan that they're going to implement once
construction is complete, I believe towards the end of this year. But as far as making
any kind of change or anything like that with this project, I'm not aware of anything. I
think that would go through our city engineer or our traffic department. Is that something
that maybe this committee can be a part of in that discussion area? Seth, let me take
a stab at that one because the council talked about this quite a bit. We have to be careful
to stay on posting since our posting is for capital projects. But I can tell you, it would
be a significant capital project to undertake a change in the traffic pattern and signals.
So we can talk about that just a little bit. The last time the council talked about it
was really the last time we took a hard look at the mobility plan that we've been working
on in the downtown area. And the mobility plan kind of, it's not on the shelf, they're
still working on it. But they've changed the approach. We were looking at different kind
of sectors of the city. And when they presented the downtown, we had a pretty robust conversation
about traffic patterns downtown. I was on team two way. I don't like one way streets.
I think they're dangerous and people don't get confused and they're bad for business,
all sorts of things. Lots of folks were on team one way and there was no consensus for
making a change. The other consideration was, well, do you do two way on just Elm and Locust
and keep Oak and Hickory? The engineers came back with basically this mish mash of some
of it's going to be two way and some of it's going to be one way. And it made less sense
than just all one way. And then you take into consideration the east of the square, you've
got two way. It got, basically there's no consensus for changing traffic pattern. If
that's something this committee wants to talk about, then in concluding items, we ought
to add that as a, ask for that as a future agenda item. I think the only way that consensus
would be had on that issue, if there was a significant kind of a critical mass of local
business owners, probably with supportive residents on the residential portions of Oak
and Hickory, they weren't real interested in going two way either. So it's a bigger
conversation. The council had no, there's basically no consensus for making the change.
And if the committee wants to discuss it further, we should probably have an agenda item on it.
Thank you.
Or any more questions for Seth? Good deal. Thank you, Seth. We appreciate it. Real quick,
while they're resetting also, I'll let y'all know on the, he mentioned funding for PEC
for phase three and four. The phase three, if I don't get this wrong, Trevor, can you
pull the screen down for just a sec? We're still, we're still wrapping up the last item.
Sorry about that. Thanks. This will be real quick. So phase three is east of West Carroll
over kind of the Bernard street section. Phase four is the downtown portion. An idea was
presented. Some of y'all are familiar with the item, the downtown TURS took up recently
and they talked about potentially extending the TURS, the tax increment reinvestment zone
and using some of that money to pay for that PEC four project, the portion that's south
of the square. The council talked about that on February the ninth, let me double check
my date here, but on February the ninth. So if you're interested in that issue and if
you have an opinion on whether downtown TURS, yeah, February the ninth, downtown TURS money
ought to be invested in that drainage project and kind of pulling those properties up out
of the floodplain, then reach out to your council members and let them know how you feel about
it. That'll come back to us and we'll have to talk about, do we extend the TURS a little
bit to take in that project? And do we spend TURS money to get that project done? Because
like Seth said, there's not currently funding for it. Sorry, Trevor. Thank you. You're good
to go.
All right. Good morning. My name is Trevor Crane. I'm a project manager in the capital
improvements department. Before I get started, I did want to touch on an earlier question
there was about the street lighting and kind of the consistency as far as that. A lot of
that inconsistency that you've seen to date was kind of a result of the way our specs
were written and kind of what we were following up to this point. The capital improvements
department has led a charge to update those technical specifications. Now we have a new
set that went live on January 15th that will now kind of govern all capital improvement
projects and all really construction in the city. So you'll see specifically from that
point on, you'll see projects using all projects in the city using those same technical specifications.
So that'll lend itself to seeing consistency on everything, whether it's lighting or, you
know, anything throughout the city moving forward. So I just wanted to kind of bring
that up to let everybody know that.
So I'll be talking about two projects today. This first one will be the Elm and Locust
phase two project. The limits are Elm and Locust Street from US 380 to Hickory Street.
This project is currently under design with Haffin Associates. We were at 90% design a
couple of months ago. We're on hold due to COVID. We've recently in the past couple of
months had an amendment go through to bring that design up to 100%. We should be seeing
that 100% design here in the next month or so.
So go through the scope of this project. This is drainage system upgrades along those two
streets with wastewater and water upgrades along the streets as well. Estimate of completion
is a little over $20 million. The schedule, as I said, the design should be complete here
in the next month or two. So we're looking early quarter two, 2021. As far as moving
into construction, that schedule is dependent on funding, mainly drainage funding. We're
working to secure that to move forward. Water and wastewater is ready to move forward on
that project. So as soon as we identify that drainage funding will move forward with this
project. So coordination, project status updates will begin once funding has been acquired.
We've been in contact with a lot of businesses that will be directly affected by the drainage
upgrades mainly. There are some right of way requirements that are going to take place.
So we've been in contact with a lot of those businesses. And once we get that funding,
we'll be in touch with them again to let them know we're moving forward with that project.
Next project is a development service center parking lot improvements. So it's really just
what it says that you see there in the picture, the new development services of building.
We are reconstructing the parking lot. We did the design in house and the contractor
is MSB constructors. They are currently on site doing the construction now. The scope
is parking lot reconstruction with some drainage improvements. It also includes lighting, sidewalk,
landscaping, and pavement striping. The estimated completion is $1.2 million. Our construction
schedule is scheduled for completion in quarter two of 2021. We should see that. We'll be
liming that subgrade any day now. They might be doing it as we speak. And then we'll see
concrete getting forward here in the next probably the end of this month, beginning
of April. Yeah. So coordination, we have bi-weekly meetings with our contractor and development
services staff to provide updates just to keep everybody up to date of what's going
on. And that's really it. So I can pause here for questions. Let me un-share the screen.
Questions for Trevor? Trevor, I know the city staff is going to be very thankful for that
parking lot. I see them going back and forth across McKinney to the Cedar street lot and
they'll be happy to be able to park close to their office. Definitely. And just a point
on that, we gave them six months to do that project. It probably would have been done
already if we hadn't had the snow and things like that, some weather issue. But we're tracking
the new way ahead of schedule. So we're working to get that done to make sure everybody's
got kind of a great parking lot and a safe place to get into that building.
Very good. Thank you, Trevor. We appreciate it.
Good morning, members. I'm Robin Davis, project manager for Capital Projects. And I'll be
finishing up this presentation with you this morning. We'll begin with all-way crossing.
This is a pedestrian improvement project that will allow for crossing at all four intersections
at each one of these intersections around the Den Square. The design for this project
is scheduled for council on March 16th. Estimate completion is 662,000. And we have a construction
schedule estimated for quarter three, 2022. We'll be communicating and coordinating with
our area businesses and communities at key phases of the design and prior to construction
and during construction as well. Bell Avenue sidewalk connectivity. This is just that it
installs a gap that's missing on East Bell between Sycamore and Hickory Street. It was
designed by Adams Engineering. We have an estimate completion of 116,000. And construction
is scheduled to be complete by quarter one of 2022. We're working with real estate to
determine if there's any temporary construction easement or right of way needs prior to scheduling
this for construction. And the A train to UNT bike and pedestrian path. This provides
a 10 foot side path on Sycamore Street from the transit center train station down to Welch
Street. And then on Welch Street, we have a bike path that will be installed from Hickory
to Eagle. The design for this project is scheduled for council March 16th. We have an estimate
completion of 2.6 million. And we're hoping construction will be completed by quarter
four of 2023. We'll be coordinating with UPRR and DCTA in relation to the pedestrian railroad
crossing requirements. And we'll be communicating with the area businesses and residents at
key phases of the design of the project and prior to construction. And with that, does
anyone have any questions about those three projects?
>> This is Beth Lewis. Can you hear me? One, two, three. Can you hear me?
>> We can hear you. We can hear all of you. >> Now you're muted again, Beth.
>> Okay. I'm having a lot of problems. >> We can handle it. If you can plow through
the echo with a short, concise question, then I think we'll be fine.
>> You're muted, Beth. >> You're muted. We can't hear you.
>> Can you hear me now? Okay. On the A train to UNT bike and pedestrian path proposed project,
I'm curious about the Sycamore Street 10 foot side path for bicycles. Is that going to change
the street? >> No, the 10 foot side path is the 10 foot
sidewalk side path. The bike lane is on Well Street.
>> Okay. And the traffic signal, what is the proposed location for that?
>> We believe it's going to be some traffic signal improvements at Bell that will install
some bike radar. I believe there is the option. We're looking at providing an additional signal,
but we're not sure where that's going to be warranted at yet. That will be worked out
through design. >> Okay. Thank you.
>> Thanks, Beth. Other questions for Robin? >> I would just say Main Street would love
to be part of the discussion when you start holding community meetings regarding those
downtown traffic signals. >> Absolutely.
>> Thank you. >> Robin?
>> Yes, ma'am. >> Thank you, Caps. As one of those people
who was a proponent for putting that bike and pedestrian trail on Sycamore years ago,
does this mean that that railroad crossing is going to be rough as it is right now until
the end of 2023? >> Are you talking about the UPR crossing
that's on Sycamore? We had those crossings repaired. That was one of the first projects
that I had when I came to the city. I believe in 2020, it was either 2019 or 2020, we got
those improved. UPRR came out and improved their two crossings. So if it's rough since
then -- >> Well, maybe. It's still rough.
>> Okay. >> Other questions for Robin?
>> I have one, Robin. On the all-way crossing, I saw you had scheduled for completion, Q3
2022. When is that -- and I know we're voting on design, the design contract with Kimley
Horne on the 16th. When is that scheduled to begin if the council does approve that
design contract? I'm a little bit concerned about, you know, if we pick it up in 2021
and we're not done until 2022, that spans potentially holiday lighting and some other
events around the holidays, and I'd rather do that without orange cones, you know?
>> Sure. And we can definitely take that into consideration when we're planning the construction
schedule. >> John mentioned Main Street. That'd probably
be the best organization to liaise with on, you know, what -- if you're blocking out sections
of time that we're not doing construction or are not confusing drivers or whatever it
is, definitely include them. >> I sure will. Thank you.
>> Any other questions for Robin or on any of the other projects that we've heard about?
Robin, you're the last one, right? >> Yes.
>> Okay. I don't see any other questions. >> Thanks, everyone.
>> Thank you all very much. We appreciate it. That will take us to item D on our agenda,
receive staff activity reports. Are there staff comments on the reports that we have
listed in the agenda, Christina, or is it just -- is there anything to present or is
it just what we have listed in the agenda? >> I think that's up to you all what you'd
like to see. I can read through the list. There's really not a lot of additional information.
If you have questions on any of the openings or closings, I'm happy to address those.
>> Let's not read through the list, but if anybody has the agenda in front of them and
sees that list of openings and closings, coming soon, and then we also have a grant, a downtown
investment grant status update, if anybody has questions on those, now's the time. Okay.
I don't see any. One thing I will note, our next meeting for your calendar is April the
1st of 2021, and then that will bring us to concluding items, and this is the time to
ask for any future agenda items. I know John had mentioned traffic patterns downtown. Do
we want to kind of narrow that just to the one-way, two-way conversation? Do we want
to talk more broadly about traffic patterns? What's the committee's pleasure?
>> I would just echo what I said earlier. I would love to be -- I think this is a good
committee that some ideas won't be run upon. We've got some bright minds here, some people
that are really invested in downtown. People who live downtown will have to figure out
the best way to reach them. You know, I'd love to see the square become kind of a roundabout
where all streets lead to the square. You turn right to get on the square, and you exit
whatever street you want to and get to. And so we have a big -- well, squareabout, not
a roundabout, a squareabout. >> Squareabout.
>> A squareabout. >> The first in the country.
>> Why not? >> Okay. So that's a future agenda item.
Any others? Any other concluding items? Very good. Well, I appreciate y'all. I appreciate
your time this morning. And that will conclude our agenda. Have a good rest of your day.
>> Outstanding. Thank you, Jesse. Thanks, everybody.
>> Thank you. >> Thanks, y'all.