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 Alright, welcome everyone to the Sustainability Framework Advisory Committee.

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 We are meeting in the City Council Work Session Room at City Hall.

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 Today is February 25th and we are getting started at 1 of 2.

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 This is our first recording actually of our meeting and so we will need to speak up into

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 the mic to make sure that everyone can hear us.

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 We will go ahead, we do have a quorum, and we will go ahead and get started with items

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 for individual consideration.

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 A, consider approval of the December 17, 2021 minutes.

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 Did everyone get a chance to read over those, any changes?

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 Yes, Adam?

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 It says here, "Receive report, hold the discussion on the climate hazards and vulnerability assessment

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 tools."

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 We discussed it and it says, "Following discussion, there was no direction provided."

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 Maybe direction is a technical term, but I thought we did say something to the effect

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 of, "Well, let's keep pushing forward with the climate action plan," and that there was

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 in fact direction in that sense.

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 I'm just wondering, am I understanding this not in its technical sense?

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 It kind of makes it sound like we sat there and listened and just dropped it.

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 Right.

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 I feel like that's not what we did.

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 Okay.

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 Catherine, do you want to address that at all?

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 Is direction, is that an actual item for us to move forward on or does that mean there

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 wasn't any discussion or is there a better way to present that in the minutes?

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 I think that there's probably going to be a better way to present that in the minutes.

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 We can talk to Rosa about it, since it wasn't give feedback on climate hazards and not actual

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 direction.

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 I think that's why it's that term, but we can talk about how to better clarify that.

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 We'll just listen to it and say, "Okay."

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 There was a lot of discussion and it's still on the matrix.

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 Okay.

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 We know it's still moving forward.

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 Okay.

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 Should we make an amendment to these minutes to take out no direction and discussion to

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 keep moving forward?

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 I'm okay.

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 Is that a better term?

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 I feel like that's more accurate.

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 Okay.

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 In layman's terms, that's what happened, I feel like.

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 Okay.

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 Whoever wants to make a motion to approve, just approve without change?

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 I'll move to approve without change.

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 Okay.

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 Second.

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 All right.

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 Second.

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 All in favor?

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 Aye.

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 Aye.

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 All right.

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 Those minutes approve without one change.

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 We will move on to item B, stock report, update on SB 241 energy reporting.

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 JT couldn't be with us today, so if you have any questions, I will do my best.

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 What is this on?

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 This is the Senate Bill 241 local government energy reporting update.

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 We're required to report annually about our energy usage.

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 We saw a 3.6% reduction between 2019 and 2021 calendar year, with a 14% reduction in buildings.

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 Catherine, I did see that there was an agreement to reduce it by 5%.

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 The goal that the state sets is 5% annually for, it's usually a five-year term, to try

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 to get that 25%.

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 The reporting for the state is somewhat imperfect in that there's no weatherization normalization

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 included with it, and there's no accounting for new buildings coming online, buildings

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 going off, so 5% is the goal.

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 We've met the 5% some years, we don't some years.

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 Is there any repercussions for not meeting it, or is it just we just try harder next

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 time?

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 No.

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 No repercussions for not meeting it.

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 They did make a big push over the last few years to get everybody reporting, because

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 most people weren't even reporting.

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 We've been doing it since it started way back in the old days, but this is I think the fourth

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 iteration of the Senate bill to do that.

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 Adam, and then Brian.

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 Quick question, it's okay if you don't know it, it says this is a response to being a

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 non-attainment area.

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 I read that to mean air quality.

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 Correct.

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 It's only for jurisdictions that are located within non-attainment areas of the state.

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 Why?

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 It seems like a non sequitur to me to say you're in a non-attainment area and then target

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 the electricity sector when that's not driving our primary non-compliance with air quality,

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 I would say.

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 It would be better if they said you should have a 5% reduction in vehicle traffic, wouldn't

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 it?

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 Or am I misunderstanding the cause and effect of this?

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 That would make sense.

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 This is just how the state decided to tackle building energy usage.

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 It was noted that the 14% decrease in building electricity use, it was kind of noted that

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 that might have been due to COVID.

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 Can you account why the 70% increase in street and traffic lights might have occurred?

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 The street traffic is a very small portion, so the 70% doesn't account for a very many

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 kilowatt hours, but mostly that was new installations of lights and then re-identifying some from

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 the other sector as street or traffic lights.

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 Ed? Yeah, I was just curious as to whether or not the increased number of solar systems

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 in the city, photovoltaic systems, were taken into account in this reduction.

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 No, this is only for municipal consumption, so only municipal facilities are tracked with

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 this report.

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 Okay, well the only way I was making that connection was there seemed to be some sort

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 of relationship with this, with the electricity put back into the grid from residential and

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 commercial installations, and if, how, I don't see how that could have, how that could possibly

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 maybe influence the volume of electricity that's either being consumed or saved.

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 Does that make sense?

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 I understand where you're going with that, it does, this report doesn't take into account

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 that we are 100% renewable either, so it's strictly the usage for our facilities in trying

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 to reduce the usage.

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 So I would think that if the municipal buildings had solar on them, right, then it would account

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 for that if it was direct with the municipal buildings.

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 Right.

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 Yeah.

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 We would see the demand for the kilowatt hour reduction there.

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 So this is strictly municipal operations.

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 Yeah.

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 Yes, sir.

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 Mr. Stevens?

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 Yes.

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 Back to the streetlights.

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 Yes.

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 Is there any way to extrapolate out new lights in comparison to the base period of 2019?

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 Is there any way to determine if the initiatives that were put in place in 2019 to reduce the

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 kilowatt usage, was that effective at all, because looking at it like this with the 71%

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 increase, it could skew the overall bottom numbers if progress has been made.

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 So for example, the 3.6% that we're looking at as the achievement could possibly be higher

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 if we were able to separate the lights from the measured lights that established the 2019

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 data.

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 Does that make sense?

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 It does.

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 And we do have the total count of streetlights and traffic signals.

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 And as we change out to LED lights, we may be adding more lights, but they aren't using

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 as much energy.

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 So there's some trade-offs there, so we can look at the counts year over year and see

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 what that looks like.

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 We've been using primarily LED traffic signals for many years.

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 So I think a little bit of this could be some of those areas where Coast Guard and THU are

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 coming in with lighting, and we may not have as much direct control over what they're installing,

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 because we also have to account for those that are within our city limits.

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 But we can get the count of the streetlights, and we can look at that.

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 This seems like it'll improve what we're targeting to get to if we had relative data to look

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 at.

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 The usage on the lights, the streetlights and the traffic signals is still low.

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 Most of them are not metered, they're just assigned a value annually, because there's

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 not enough consumption to go out and have the meter and read it every month.

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 So we just get a count and an average.

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 A last question on the lights, because that's a good point, thank you for pointing that.

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 On the streetlights, is that also neighborhood residential or is it just main streets?

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 It's all.

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 All of them.

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 So some of that could account for a lot of the growth that we've seen all through the

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 city.

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 Okay.

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 All right.

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 Thank you.

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 Everybody okay on this item?

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 Good?

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 Okay.

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 All right.

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 So we will move on to, we're going to go ahead and talk about the Matrix.

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 We missed the Matrix last night, so we have a pretty full Matrix here.

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 Got some presentations put that we're going to plan on for March.

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 A couple that we'll take care of today.

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 Parks will be coming back probably in May after the growing season to talk about IPM

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 and then we'll probably bring the Urban Forester back at the same time.

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 I like that kind of view, park centric meeting.

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 Okay.

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 And since we have this here, if there's anything we want to add to the Matrix, we could go

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 ahead and talk about that today at this point.

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 Talk about it right now?

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 Okay.

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 Yeah, we can talk about it right now.

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 Okay.

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 Has everybody had a chance to review the Matrix and Adam?

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 This isn't an addition, but maybe just a contextual point on the update climate action plan I

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 see on here.

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 It would be, I think it would be really good if that could happen in the context of the

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 2040 plan.

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 I think it's really important to think about how all these plans are integrating, mobility

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 plan and all of this.

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 I don't know, that's not a new item.

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 It's just to say it'd be neat if that conversation could be self-consciously set in that context.

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 I think that might be the most useful for city council.

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 Okay.

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 Ed?

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 Pardon me.

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 Yeah, along the same lines, I would like to see more information about what the committee

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 is doing and what the city is doing in terms of net zero by 2050 on the Simply Sustainable

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 webpage.

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 There's really not much information there about what's going on with climate change.

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 I also think a simple tutorial on that website as to what climate change is and what can

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 be done about it would be advantageous.

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 Seeing as how we discussed earlier how important the educational aspect of this is so that

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 the public understands what the city is doing.

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 I think the debt and sustainable schools, it's either a Facebook page or webpage.

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 The schools should mention their solar installations.

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 They should mention their non-diesel propane fuel bus fleet, and they as well should have

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 an explanation of climate change.

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 I second Adam's idea of coordination and inter-departmental communications regarding

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 what we're doing and plugging that in with current plan drafts such as the 2040, which

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 makes absolutely no mention of net zero by 2050.

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 When the Parks Department was working on the IPM, we used Austin's plan as a template and

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 worked on putting the plan together for Denton.

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 Our philosophy being we're going to make it better than Austin's.

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 And I would suggest perhaps a similar approach with some of these educational initiatives

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 that I was just talking about.

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 Check out the Austin sustainability page, which I'm sure you have.

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 The public outreach is absolutely remarkable.

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 So I'd like to see discussion and action on that very near future.

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 Thank you.

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 So, Katherine, let me simple about what I think I just heard.

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 Maybe on the matrix of presentation on the sustainability and sustainable schools website

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 for us, and then that way we can have a meeting and all of us, we can all give you ideas on

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 public outreach, how we think it should change and maybe be better.

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 So website updates.

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 Website update and public outreach.

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 Is that good, Ed, for that item?

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 Yeah, I mean, I would think that it could probably be something done in a very timely

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 manner because there are certainly models out there that we can learn from.

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 In addition, I'd like to request a review of our current development code as it relates to

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 our parking minimums as well as on-street parking.

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 And then just a point of clarification.

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 I'm not sure how much it matters, but I believe that I had requested the item on here under

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 the tree code update, Ed, if you can remember correctly.

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 I'm not sure how much, so that's a stickler.

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 So the last item?

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 Yes, I believe so, if I'm remembering from December correctly.

225
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 Okay.

226
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 Yeah, so I thought at one time we were going to get a full kind of update brought about

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 the sustainability codes or how that can be intertwined.

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 So that would be a good place to put that and make sure we have the parking minimums.

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 I think there's a section here for blood covers and then tree codes.

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 So there's a lot of code discussions that we can have on how that integrates with sustainability.

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 I don't know if you want to do those individually or if we just want to have an overall development.

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 It might be best served if I have an overall discussion with someone from Scott's group.

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 Maybe even get Scott in over.

234
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 Okay.

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 Anyone else want to add to or see something you want to expand on?

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 Could we potentially add things at the end of our discussion today if other things come up?

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 Let's go ahead, since we have this item open now, we'll go ahead and add things to the matrix.

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 And we could table this and then bring it back if things come up?

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 Through the meeting?

240
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 Okay.

241
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 All right.

242
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 So we will do that.

243
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 We will table this.

244
00:18:11,240 --> 00:18:18,240
 And if something comes up through the meeting, we can reopen the item and add to the matrix at the end of the meeting.

245
00:18:18,240 --> 00:18:19,240
 Sounds good.

246
00:18:19,240 --> 00:18:21,240
 Thank you for that, Catherine.

247
00:18:21,240 --> 00:18:31,240
 We'll go ahead and move on to item C, receive an update, hold a discussion about the status of the landfill gas project.

248
00:18:31,240 --> 00:18:32,240
 Brian, welcome.

249
00:18:32,240 --> 00:18:34,240
 Thank you very much.

250
00:18:34,240 --> 00:18:38,240
 For those of you who do not know me or we haven't seen each other in a while, my name is Brian Berner.

251
00:18:38,240 --> 00:18:41,240
 I am the solid waste director for the city of Hennepin.

252
00:18:41,240 --> 00:18:48,240
 And I do appreciate the opportunity to come and talk a little bit about our landfill as well as our landfill gas collection system

253
00:18:48,240 --> 00:18:51,240
 and the exciting project that we're working on right now.

254
00:18:51,240 --> 00:18:58,240
 So just a little bit of education on the front end before we talk about the project on the back end here.

255
00:18:58,240 --> 00:19:07,240
 City of Denton has had a landfill at the 1527 South Mayhill site since about 1980.

256
00:19:07,240 --> 00:19:08,240
 Yes, ma'am?

257
00:19:08,240 --> 00:19:09,240
 Do you have a presentation?

258
00:19:09,240 --> 00:19:10,240
 I do not.

259
00:19:10,240 --> 00:19:11,240
 We're just going to talk a little bit.

260
00:19:11,240 --> 00:19:14,240
 And part of it has to do with the fact that we're still in negotiation with the company.

261
00:19:14,240 --> 00:19:15,240
 Okay.

262
00:19:15,240 --> 00:19:20,240
 And there's some things that we can talk about here, but I don't need to have, you know.

263
00:19:20,240 --> 00:19:28,240
 Can we click on the agenda sheet so that is online so that individuals who are watching this can see?

264
00:19:28,240 --> 00:19:35,240
 Just have that on their screen.

265
00:19:35,240 --> 00:19:36,240
 Thank you.

266
00:19:36,240 --> 00:19:37,240
 You're welcome.

267
00:19:37,240 --> 00:19:39,240
 So, okay.

268
00:19:39,240 --> 00:19:44,240
 As I stated earlier, the landfill that we currently have at 1527 South Mayhill,

269
00:19:44,240 --> 00:19:51,240
 we're collecting garbage for residents and commercial customers as well as outside waste in about 1980.

270
00:19:51,240 --> 00:19:57,240
 And we operate as a regional landfill, so we've never been for the exclusive use for the City of Denton.

271
00:19:57,240 --> 00:20:00,240
 We recognize that while we're there to serve the citizens of Denton,

272
00:20:00,240 --> 00:20:05,240
 the resident or the outside waste sort of acts as a little bit of a seed corn.

273
00:20:05,240 --> 00:20:11,240
 It provides us with some buffer and some rate reduction in helping us to operate the facility.

274
00:20:11,240 --> 00:20:15,240
 Originally, the original footprint was about 25 acres.

275
00:20:15,240 --> 00:20:18,240
 We've expanded the landfill twice.

276
00:20:18,240 --> 00:20:27,240
 The first time with permit 1590B, which took us from 25 acres to about 154 acres of actual fill space,

277
00:20:27,240 --> 00:20:29,240
 not including the aerial height.

278
00:20:29,240 --> 00:20:35,240
 And then here last August, we were awarded a permit through the TCEQ under 1590B,

279
00:20:35,240 --> 00:20:45,240
 so the second modification permit, for our total lateral space to be about 258 acres.

280
00:20:45,240 --> 00:20:55,240
 Again, this takes our life of the total disposal capacity right now at our current waste amount that we're taking in

281
00:20:55,240 --> 00:21:02,240
 about anywhere from about 50 to 60 years at our current volume and current recycling rates and things of that nature.

282
00:21:02,240 --> 00:21:07,240
 We are probably one of the top five growing areas in the region.

283
00:21:07,240 --> 00:21:14,240
 The DFW landfill waste management facility was in Louisville shut down fully about eight months ago,

284
00:21:14,240 --> 00:21:17,240
 and we are seeing a tremendous amount of waste coming into our facility.

285
00:21:17,240 --> 00:21:20,240
 So again, as part of our comprehensive solid waste management strategy,

286
00:21:20,240 --> 00:21:27,240
 we're going to be working to put into effect different programs that will help us increase diversion,

287
00:21:27,240 --> 00:21:30,240
 decrease the amount of material that's going in.

288
00:21:30,240 --> 00:21:35,240
 And while that's superfluous to what we're talking about, it's directly related to what we're talking about here too.

289
00:21:35,240 --> 00:21:42,240
 So again, we've got to recognize that we've got a lot of moving parts recognizing what we're doing here at the facility.

290
00:21:42,240 --> 00:21:47,240
 When we talk about landfill gas, it's not something that we put in the landfill,

291
00:21:47,240 --> 00:21:50,240
 but it results from the things that we put in the landfill.

292
00:21:50,240 --> 00:21:57,240
 Basically, the landfill, somebody described to me one time as a big compost pile, for lack of a better term.

293
00:21:57,240 --> 00:22:03,240
 We put organic materials in there, and through an anaerobic digestion process, we get methane,

294
00:22:03,240 --> 00:22:11,240
 we get a little bit of CO2, oxygen, nitrogen, what's called balanced gas, and then some other gases along with it.

295
00:22:11,240 --> 00:22:15,240
 So about 50% of what we get is methane, and 50% is this other stuff.

296
00:22:15,240 --> 00:22:21,240
 When we talk about the organic material, it's the residential trash that's in our carts at the curb side.

297
00:22:21,240 --> 00:22:26,240
 So anything that we get that can rot that goes in there, yard waste that may not be diverted,

298
00:22:26,240 --> 00:22:31,240
 construction demolition debris that may be able to decay.

299
00:22:31,240 --> 00:22:39,240
 So things like wood, paper backing on sheetrock, just any of that material that goes in there, that can decay,

300
00:22:39,240 --> 00:22:45,240
 and that is really what contributes to the management and the production of the landfill gas.

301
00:22:45,240 --> 00:22:51,240
 We are required by federal and state law to manage this gas. We can't just let it vent to the atmosphere.

302
00:22:51,240 --> 00:22:59,240
 First and foremost, it's not prudent, but secondarily, it actually has a benefit if you manage it correctly.

303
00:22:59,240 --> 00:23:06,240
 In our permit, volume four, it requires us to create what's called a landfill gas collection and control system.

304
00:23:06,240 --> 00:23:13,240
 So currently we have about 150 wells in the existing landfill, all connected by laterals.

305
00:23:13,240 --> 00:23:22,240
 The landfill gas is collected under vacuum, and then currently right now we are flaring the gas to the atmosphere.

306
00:23:22,240 --> 00:23:34,240
 By flaring the gas, it's the least emission intensive way to manage that gas for the complete destruction of the methane.

307
00:23:34,240 --> 00:23:39,240
 We're required to monitor. So right now we have 22 probes that surround the existing landfill.

308
00:23:39,240 --> 00:23:49,240
 As we go into the new permitted area, we're going to add approximately, let's see, 13, 14 more, so that we monitor these on a quarterly basis.

309
00:23:49,240 --> 00:23:54,240
 We're required to keep the methane levels down below five percent. Most of the time they read zero.

310
00:23:54,240 --> 00:24:00,240
 Sometimes they peak at one or two, but most of the time they're non-detectable in these areas.

311
00:24:00,240 --> 00:24:08,240
 Also, as we expand the landfill, some of the existing probes and wells that are in our growth area will be removed

312
00:24:08,240 --> 00:24:13,240
 and we'll put in additional wells to ensure that we completely encompass and surround the landfills,

313
00:24:13,240 --> 00:24:20,240
 so we know what's happening upstream, downstream. We know if there's problems and we can respond accordingly.

314
00:24:20,240 --> 00:24:33,240
 Brian, you just said we're going to add 13 to 14 more. Did you mean more wells or more flaring in your statement just a minute ago?

315
00:24:33,240 --> 00:24:39,240
 No probes to monitor. Currently we have one flare and it is sized to manage the existing landfill.

316
00:24:39,240 --> 00:24:48,240
 As we move into the new part that we've permitted, we may or may not be required to source an additional flare,

317
00:24:48,240 --> 00:24:56,240
 and that has to go back to the project. I hate to bait you that way, but give me just a minute to get to that point.

318
00:24:56,240 --> 00:25:07,240
 We are required to maintain this gas collection control system throughout the entire life of the site,

319
00:25:07,240 --> 00:25:13,240
 and actually our permit requires us to maintain it and monitor it 30 years beyond the point that we close it down.

320
00:25:13,240 --> 00:25:19,240
 Reason being is if you look at the growth curves and the way that natural gas or the landfill gas is produced,

321
00:25:19,240 --> 00:25:28,240
 it takes about 30 years for it to actually start producing significant amounts of gas due to the anaerobic digestion process.

322
00:25:28,240 --> 00:25:37,240
 It's without air, so it moves a whole lot slower, and basically we maximize the amount of material we put in at some point,

323
00:25:37,240 --> 00:25:45,240
 and then as we trail off, we still have to account for that gas that continues to be produced from the material we put in there after we close down.

324
00:25:45,240 --> 00:25:53,240
 So it may be 30 years, but again we have to have assurances from the state, from the TCEQ, that we've reached a level

325
00:25:53,240 --> 00:26:00,240
 that we're no longer producing gas so we can shut the system down. See, 30 years plus 50 years, that's at least 80 years.

326
00:26:00,240 --> 00:26:06,240
 I'm not going to be around at that time. If any of y'all are, y'all can check on the system. I'd appreciate that.

327
00:26:06,240 --> 00:26:10,240
 I'm not going to be anywhere, I'm not going to be walking face to face the earth in 80 years.

328
00:26:10,240 --> 00:26:18,240
 Anyway, there's a lot better things that we can do with this landfill gas than just burn it.

329
00:26:18,240 --> 00:26:29,240
 In 2008, we entered into a partnership with a company called DTE, where we actually set a generation unit out there.

330
00:26:29,240 --> 00:26:37,240
 A big 12-cylinder cat engine looked up to a gen set, spun it up, and was producing what was called renewable energy,

331
00:26:37,240 --> 00:26:42,240
 renewable electricity for about 1,500 homes in the city of Dent.

332
00:26:42,240 --> 00:26:48,240
 When that started, that's when natural gas, if y'all may remember, was about $10, $12 an MCF.

333
00:26:48,240 --> 00:26:51,240
 It was very expensive and it made a whole lot of sense.

334
00:26:51,240 --> 00:26:58,240
 As natural gas prices dropped, it actually became the highest price point of electricity in the city of Dent's portfolio.

335
00:26:58,240 --> 00:27:11,240
 As such, it was costing city of Denton ratepayers in excess of about a million dollars a year just to run that and produce energy from that plant.

336
00:27:11,240 --> 00:27:17,240
 As a result, in 2002, DNE actually bought the DTE plant and shut it down,

337
00:27:17,240 --> 00:27:21,240
 which is why we're required to burn all the gas now under a mitigation plan.

338
00:27:21,240 --> 00:27:26,240
 But recognizing that there are better ways to manage that material.

339
00:27:26,240 --> 00:27:32,240
 What we've decided to do, we actually had a consultant come in, look at our generation, look at our different options,

340
00:27:32,240 --> 00:27:41,240
 and we're currently in the process of negotiating with the company to come in and create what's called high BTU gas.

341
00:27:41,240 --> 00:27:45,240
 As I stated earlier, landfill gas is about 50% methane.

342
00:27:45,240 --> 00:27:52,240
 When you look at what Atmos has flowing in their line, it's about 99.98% methane.

343
00:27:52,240 --> 00:27:58,240
 So what we're proposing to do is actually take the landfill gas plus gases generated from our wastewater treatment plant,

344
00:27:58,240 --> 00:28:07,240
 the concrete facilities, anaerobic digesters, pull that gas off and actually treat it and concentrate it down to pipeline grade,

345
00:28:07,240 --> 00:28:13,240
 removing the balanced gas, removing the oxygen, removing other things that you don't want in the natural gas,

346
00:28:13,240 --> 00:28:25,240
 and feeding it to the local Atmos lines and basically providing additional sources of gas for people to use in their homes and businesses here in the City of Dent.

347
00:28:25,240 --> 00:28:32,240
 Once that molecule gets into the pipeline, it's really no different than any other molecule of gas that's flowing up and down that pipeline.

348
00:28:32,240 --> 00:28:36,240
 Benefit to the City of Dent, first and foremost, we're not flaring it.

349
00:28:36,240 --> 00:28:43,240
 Ideally, any time we've got the flare running, it means it's dollars out of our pocket, it's dollars out of our contractor's pocket.

350
00:28:43,240 --> 00:28:49,240
 So it shuts the flare down immediately, puts all that natural gas into the pipeline,

351
00:28:49,240 --> 00:28:56,240
 and it's used to create hot water, to cook, and then to do the other things that need to happen.

352
00:28:56,240 --> 00:29:10,240
 Additionally, there are green energy credits to what's called RINs and RECs that will actually pay us to manage this gas in such a way that it doesn't have to be produced at a natural gas wellhead.

353
00:29:10,240 --> 00:29:17,240
 So again, it becomes a cleaner and greener option to provide natural gas into the system.

354
00:29:17,240 --> 00:29:24,240
 As I said earlier, we are currently negotiating with a third-party contractor to come in and construct and operate this plant.

355
00:29:24,240 --> 00:29:32,240
 We've prepared the RFP, we've talked with the company, we actually had four respondents step up and want to do this for the City of Dent.

356
00:29:32,240 --> 00:29:40,240
 So we've selected the highest and best value consultant that we feel will bring benefit to the City of Dent.

357
00:29:40,240 --> 00:29:50,240
 What we're hoping to do is within the next 90 days actually come before the PEB and the Council with a contract to memorialize this contract and the pricing structure.

358
00:29:50,240 --> 00:30:04,240
 Following the acceptance of the contract, we'll spend the next 12 to 18 months permitting, designing, constructing, getting the pipeline to induct it into the Atmos facility, designing where the most appropriate place is.

359
00:30:04,240 --> 00:30:13,240
 And then in 18 months have that facility up and running and actually benefit in producing what's called renewable natural gas into the system.

360
00:30:13,240 --> 00:30:18,240
 So again, it's an exciting process, it's an exciting project that's on the ground.

361
00:30:18,240 --> 00:30:22,240
 There's considerable economic benefit to the City of Dent.

362
00:30:22,240 --> 00:30:39,240
 We're looking forward to helping not only support some rate relief for our customers, solid waste customers with it, but also help fund some of the exciting programs we're planning on implementing as a result of our comprehensive solid waste management strategy.

363
00:30:39,240 --> 00:30:47,240
 So with that, I'd be glad to answer any questions you might have about our natural gas system or the solid waste system in general.

364
00:30:47,240 --> 00:30:53,240
 Well, I have a few comments. Anybody else want to give up?

365
00:30:53,240 --> 00:30:57,240
 We'll just start. Do you have one? No. Okay. Adam?

366
00:30:57,240 --> 00:31:09,240
 Forgive me if I missed this. What percent would you say of material that goes in landfill is organic that decays and produces this gas?

367
00:31:09,240 --> 00:31:13,240
 That's a really good question.

368
00:31:13,240 --> 00:31:17,240
 We're currently trying to figure out exactly what that number is.

369
00:31:17,240 --> 00:31:23,240
 As part of the development of our style comprehensive solid waste management strategy, we did do a couple of waste characterization.

370
00:31:23,240 --> 00:31:28,240
 So we took basically your garbage bin off and we went through it and weighed things out.

371
00:31:28,240 --> 00:31:36,240
 Currently about 45% of what's thrown away is considered organic material.

372
00:31:36,240 --> 00:31:42,240
 So it's food waste, it's yard waste, it's wood, things of that nature.

373
00:31:42,240 --> 00:31:52,240
 So again, there's significant opportunities in not only the residential but in the commercial sector to divert additional organic material out of the landfill.

374
00:31:52,240 --> 00:31:59,240
 And it's probably one of our biggest and little hanging fruit from an impact standpoint and diversionary standpoint.

375
00:31:59,240 --> 00:32:02,240
 Can I follow up on that? That's where I was going with this.

376
00:32:02,240 --> 00:32:08,240
 Let's say we get operational with this and we're making renewable natural gas, which is a beneficial thing.

377
00:32:08,240 --> 00:32:14,240
 How do you weigh that benefit against the benefit of diverting this out of the landfill and doing something else with it?

378
00:32:14,240 --> 00:32:23,240
 In other words, you say to people in Denton, should you put your compostables in the brown bin or just chuck it in the green one because we're making gas out of it?

379
00:32:23,240 --> 00:32:26,240
 Well, and we win from both sides.

380
00:32:26,240 --> 00:32:32,240
 But at the end of the day, when you look at best practices that are across the nation, across the world,

381
00:32:32,240 --> 00:32:47,240
 regardless of what you're doing in the city of Denton, we would only be able to divert probably 73% of that 45% because the rest is things that are adhering or absorbed into other paper or other options.

382
00:32:47,240 --> 00:32:50,240
 So there will always be an organic sector going in.

383
00:32:50,240 --> 00:32:56,240
 So we may flatten that curve a little earlier than we thought we would, but we will always have organic material.

384
00:32:56,240 --> 00:33:09,240
 And again, we've had the landfill here since 1980. So we're really only realizing the gas from the material that we put in there in about 1990, 1995.

385
00:33:09,240 --> 00:33:15,240
 So we still have 20 years of stuff we've been putting in there before we realized that gas.

386
00:33:15,240 --> 00:33:21,240
 So we're kind of chasing our tail. We're lagging from the gas production standpoint.

387
00:33:21,240 --> 00:33:27,240
 So we're well within our contract defined terms, our ability to sell gas and to use this.

388
00:33:27,240 --> 00:33:37,240
 So by starting to divert that organic material now, it will have minimal impact on what this renewable energy plant, high BTU plant, will produce for the city of Denton.

389
00:33:37,240 --> 00:33:41,240
 Thank you.

390
00:33:41,240 --> 00:33:42,240
 Go ahead.

391
00:33:42,240 --> 00:33:47,240
 From a cost perspective, you mentioned that it has cost benefit to the city.

392
00:33:47,240 --> 00:33:48,240
 Correct.

393
00:33:48,240 --> 00:33:53,240
 Which could look like consumer reduction in their energy fields.

394
00:33:53,240 --> 00:33:55,240
 In their solid waste rates.

395
00:33:55,240 --> 00:33:56,240
 Solid waste rates.

396
00:33:56,240 --> 00:33:57,240
 Correct.

397
00:33:57,240 --> 00:33:59,240
 Okay.

398
00:33:59,240 --> 00:34:01,240
 That leads into my question even deeper.

399
00:34:01,240 --> 00:34:09,240
 The amount of the projected amount of gas that will be put into at most as an example.

400
00:34:09,240 --> 00:34:15,240
 Have you calculated out what that dollar benefit would look like coming back to us?

401
00:34:15,240 --> 00:34:30,240
 I know I'm probably stretching it somewhat, but with the annual cost of inflation, cost of operations, will there come a point where their net gain will be gone away and we end up with another million dollar cost to operate that system?

402
00:34:30,240 --> 00:34:31,240
 Does that make sense?

403
00:34:31,240 --> 00:34:35,240
 That is a very fair question and that was the first question we always asked going through this.

404
00:34:35,240 --> 00:34:39,240
 At what point in time is the city actually on the hook for paying something versus receiving it?

405
00:34:39,240 --> 00:34:40,240
 Correct.

406
00:34:40,240 --> 00:34:47,240
 And I can't share the prospectus with you right now because again we're still in contract negotiations and that's still going back and forth.

407
00:34:47,240 --> 00:34:59,240
 But based on our calculations, we're still net positive, including inflation and growth and everything else for at least the next 20 years.

408
00:34:59,240 --> 00:35:00,240
 Thank you.

409
00:35:00,240 --> 00:35:02,240
 Did you have any questions?

410
00:35:02,240 --> 00:35:21,240
 Yeah, I'm sort of conflicted about this from a long range point, I guess you could say, rather than short range.

411
00:35:21,240 --> 00:35:34,240
 Whether methane is fossil, methane, or whether it's renewable, it still has the global warming capacity, I assume.

412
00:35:34,240 --> 00:35:35,240
 Is that correct?

413
00:35:35,240 --> 00:35:36,240
 Yes.

414
00:35:36,240 --> 00:35:51,240
 Okay, so we know that methane leakage is a huge problem.

415
00:35:51,240 --> 00:36:15,240
 We're underestimated and new reports have come out, I'm sure you're aware of, that show massive methane leakage and how this is really reducing our chances to get climate change under control before it's too late.

416
00:36:15,240 --> 00:36:34,240
 Well, I don't understand in that respect, and just reading now about the health hazards of combustion of methane, ethanol, gas, whatever, in stoves.

417
00:36:34,240 --> 00:36:39,240
 And I'm sure you're aware of these reports that are coming out too.

418
00:36:39,240 --> 00:36:58,240
 And I assume that you're aware of the movement in many cities to revamp their building codes to keep natural gas connections out of new buildings.

419
00:36:58,240 --> 00:37:10,240
 And there are now grants available to retrofit existing gas heated buildings with electric heat pumps, et cetera, et cetera.

420
00:37:10,240 --> 00:37:35,240
 So I guess what I'm getting to is, does this really fit in with a net zero 2050 plan, and it just seems like a very limited investment, meaning the time that it's going to have to make money to the city.

421
00:37:35,240 --> 00:37:48,240
 In that we know that it's a system that needs to change for the benefit of the future.

422
00:37:48,240 --> 00:38:12,240
 And I have, like I say, conflicting feelings about this because in one way I can see it's a benefit to the city financially. We're not flaring anymore, yet we are prolonging a system that needs to change.

423
00:38:12,240 --> 00:38:24,240
 There's no question about that. We've got to do whatever we can to stop using methane except for essential purposes.

424
00:38:24,240 --> 00:38:42,240
 And in an area like this where we have so many options available to us, other things we can explore, which I don't know if you've explored yet, and that's one of my questions.

425
00:38:42,240 --> 00:38:50,240
 Instead of just jumping into this and making it sound like it's a done deal, I think we need to examine it more.

426
00:38:50,240 --> 00:38:57,240
 I think we need to look at it at a comprehensive waste management plan. Is that plan finished?

427
00:38:57,240 --> 00:39:05,240
 We're in the final stages. There is an actual presentation of PUB and Council on Monday and Tuesday regarding our final goals and metrics we'll be using.

428
00:39:05,240 --> 00:39:14,240
 And then we'll be buttoning it up and then starting the development of the administrative portion and then the implementation plan for the different projects.

429
00:39:14,240 --> 00:39:29,240
 I assume then that what you're talking about with this methane plan is something that is recommended in the waste management plan?

430
00:39:29,240 --> 00:39:38,240
 Regardless of whether it's recommended or not, it's required. If you have a type 1 landfill and state attaches, you are producing methane.

431
00:39:38,240 --> 00:39:48,240
 And your permit from a federal standpoint requires you to manage it. So we're going to have methane and we either burn it, run it in an engine, or we put it in a pipeline.

432
00:39:48,240 --> 00:39:59,240
 That's really our three options that then we have to manage it. So again, it's not an either/or or we can just turn a key and we're not going to produce methane anymore.

433
00:39:59,240 --> 00:40:09,240
 We have it and we have to manage it. Long term, I think that I understand and appreciate the fact that we're moving towards electrification.

434
00:40:09,240 --> 00:40:17,240
 But we still have a large amount of housing stock plus industrial sources in the city of Denton that will be using methane for quite a while.

435
00:40:17,240 --> 00:40:27,240
 If we can locally provide that methane, we're not looking at transporting at long distances. We're not looking at fresh fossil fuel sources.

436
00:40:27,240 --> 00:40:40,240
 It's a beneficial piece that helps us get to this point. Until we can get everybody converted over at some point in time that we're not needed anymore, then we can start flaring again.

437
00:40:40,240 --> 00:40:52,240
 Hopefully we're on the downside of the curve at that point. Through partnerships with local universities and other innovators, we can figure out other alternatives, things to do with methane.

438
00:40:52,240 --> 00:40:59,240
 But right now, heat and combustion is really the big thing that we can do with methane.

439
00:40:59,240 --> 00:41:22,240
 Have you thought about expanding the aerobic composting? Not the anaerobic, but the regular composting program?

440
00:41:22,240 --> 00:41:29,240
 We have. With food waste and methane producing materials.

441
00:41:29,240 --> 00:41:41,240
 We're looking at that also as part of the whole comprehensive management strategy. Part of our issue with doing just regular composting and windrowing is that we're space restricted.

442
00:41:41,240 --> 00:41:52,240
 So we're going to maximize that, looking at doing some anaerobic also to help make that process just a little bit quicker.

443
00:41:52,240 --> 00:41:56,240
 But again, with the anaerobic digesters, you still get methane on the back end.

444
00:41:56,240 --> 00:42:08,240
 There's also studies out there right now that if you're not maintaining your windrows correctly, you actually have significant methane emissions from a traditional aerobic type of composting facility.

445
00:42:08,240 --> 00:42:14,240
 There's a lot of moving variables, and we're looking at this from a holistic standpoint.

446
00:42:14,240 --> 00:42:24,240
 We're trying to keep an open mind and look at these things from a cost benefit standpoint, recognizing sustainability is an important part of that.

447
00:42:24,240 --> 00:42:41,240
 Okay, I know at some point, I was just looking at here, I had asked for a further report on a plan of composting for the city.

448
00:42:41,240 --> 00:42:48,240
 I think that's when you were sitting on the PUB that you had asked for something like that, and we were including that in the carbon subliminal strategy.

449
00:42:48,240 --> 00:43:02,240
 Okay, well those are my feelings about it, and I understand where you're coming from, and I just feel that it's a very short sighted decision.

450
00:43:02,240 --> 00:43:11,240
 And I have a problem with short term solutions for long term problems.

451
00:43:11,240 --> 00:43:17,240
 I really don't think that the long term is being looked at here.

452
00:43:17,240 --> 00:43:26,240
 I'm not saying that what you're doing is wrong or anything, I just feel like there needs to be more looking at this.

453
00:43:26,240 --> 00:43:28,240
 Thank you.

454
00:43:28,240 --> 00:43:35,240
 Hi, so I have been taking some notes, so bear with me while I try to go back through them.

455
00:43:35,240 --> 00:43:43,240
 One, you said there's the three options, and since this is the Sustainability Framework Committee, our concern is environment and emissions.

456
00:43:43,240 --> 00:44:00,240
 So have we looked at, I know one of the reasons we went from the electricity to flaring is because we were told that it would capture more methane and reduce those greenhouse emissions

457
00:44:00,240 --> 00:44:09,240
 because of the energy that we were using was that the machine was old and there was leakage and stuff, so we made that choice.

458
00:44:09,240 --> 00:44:15,240
 It wasn't the methane, we were still having complete methane destruction with the engine and the flare or the flare.

459
00:44:15,240 --> 00:44:18,240
 The issue is with the flare, we don't have any NOx emissions.

460
00:44:18,240 --> 00:44:30,240
 With the engine we were running, we were having significant NOx emissions, which again is the, I forget the exact term, but again it directly impacts our non-attainment.

461
00:44:30,240 --> 00:44:38,240
 So again, by removing the engine offline, we actually improved our air quality suit for lack of a better term.

462
00:44:38,240 --> 00:44:48,240
 Piggybacking on that, moving to this new gas capture, does it do the same thing as burning?

463
00:44:48,240 --> 00:45:03,240
 Because what I want to see is the data that this is going to not only be financial, but be better for our environment in a way that it helps our air quality, since we're in non-attainment.

464
00:45:03,240 --> 00:45:10,240
 Can you, I think that's what this committee would like to see, everything sounds good.

465
00:45:10,240 --> 00:45:24,240
 I know that I'd much rather not flare if we don't have to, but if moving to this new system is not going to be as good for our air quality or good for our city,

466
00:45:24,240 --> 00:45:33,240
 then that's the kind of, if it's going to have more leakage, those are the kind of things that I'm looking to see when you come back with this.

467
00:45:33,240 --> 00:45:43,240
 Well, and again, just quick, in talking molecule for molecule, right now we're burning everything that we're pulling out of the landfill.

468
00:45:43,240 --> 00:45:52,240
 So again, it destroys the methane, produces water, carbon dioxide, and some other trace chemicals.

469
00:45:52,240 --> 00:46:01,240
 When we have this plant up and running, the flare goes away, and that methane then goes to your house.

470
00:46:01,240 --> 00:46:06,240
 Currently you're cooking anyway. You've got a hot water heater running, if you've got natural gas, okay?

471
00:46:06,240 --> 00:46:10,240
 So what it's doing basically is, it's almost a net zero.

472
00:46:10,240 --> 00:46:20,240
 We're not increasing any emissions on the users end, but reducing the amount of burning and emissions that are happening at the landfill through the flare.

473
00:46:20,240 --> 00:46:27,240
 So we're seeing a reduction in what's at the flare because we're not using as much coming through the pipeline.

474
00:46:27,240 --> 00:46:36,240
 Okay. Well, just general overall, that would be good for us to see in a presentation, that data and those emissions.

475
00:46:36,240 --> 00:46:44,240
 For me, anyway, I'd like to see that in fracking versus this way,

476
00:46:44,240 --> 00:46:51,240
 because there's several different ways to get gas, and renewable natural gas is what we're calling this.

477
00:46:51,240 --> 00:46:53,240
 Correct.

478
00:46:53,240 --> 00:47:05,240
 Which is great if it works and it is better for our environment than the way that it's currently being received.

479
00:47:05,240 --> 00:47:10,240
 So are we going to sell it and use it?

480
00:47:10,240 --> 00:47:15,240
 I know that when we were producing our own electricity in our pie chart,

481
00:47:15,240 --> 00:47:23,240
 that I think it was 4% or 3% went directly to our residential usage.

482
00:47:23,240 --> 00:47:25,240
 We were able to capture that.

483
00:47:25,240 --> 00:47:38,240
 Is there a way when we move to this new utility that we'll be able to capture that direct benefit to the residents?

484
00:47:38,240 --> 00:47:43,240
 Or is it just going to all go in and we just won't know?

485
00:47:43,240 --> 00:47:52,240
 No, we'll be able to capture how much methane that we were actually putting in the pipeline,

486
00:47:52,240 --> 00:48:03,240
 and then we'll be able to, from an economic standpoint, show what the benefit is to the rate payers in the city of Denton at that point, if that makes sense.

487
00:48:03,240 --> 00:48:12,240
 It does, but for me, I'm an Atmos rate payer, and so I'm just confused about how that's going to translate to my electric bill.

488
00:48:12,240 --> 00:48:13,240
 It won't.

489
00:48:13,240 --> 00:48:14,240
 Okay.

490
00:48:14,240 --> 00:48:17,240
 But what it will transfer to is your solid waste bill.

491
00:48:17,240 --> 00:48:25,240
 You may pay the exact same, if you're at Atmos and you get your natural gas from Atmos, let's say your bill's $100.

492
00:48:25,240 --> 00:48:28,240
 $100 makes the math.

493
00:48:28,240 --> 00:48:33,240
 It's easy. It's $100.

494
00:48:33,240 --> 00:48:34,240
 I'm just going to throw this out.

495
00:48:34,240 --> 00:48:42,240
 A million dollars a year net from the sale of this natural gas to the city.

496
00:48:42,240 --> 00:48:54,240
 We could actually realize potentially a dollar or two rate reduction or cost avoidance to your solid waste bill as a result of this on a monthly basis.

497
00:48:54,240 --> 00:49:00,240
 So again, that's where you'll see the reduction is at your solid waste bill level, not at your natural gas level,

498
00:49:00,240 --> 00:49:07,240
 because you will always pay stock spot market price on what that natural gas is that's coming to your home,

499
00:49:07,240 --> 00:49:13,240
 regardless of whether it's renewable natural gas, regardless of where it comes from in the country.

500
00:49:13,240 --> 00:49:20,240
 As long as it gets into that pipeline, you're paying what the spot market price is on an average basis.

501
00:49:20,240 --> 00:49:23,240
 Now, to cure that just a little bit further,

502
00:49:23,240 --> 00:49:28,240
 we still have a few vehicles on our fleet that run off natural gas.

503
00:49:28,240 --> 00:49:35,240
 So we could use this gas in our fleet to power some of these natural gas vehicles,

504
00:49:35,240 --> 00:49:44,240
 but from a value standpoint, we can actually put it in the pipeline and then pull it out 100 foot down the pipeline

505
00:49:44,240 --> 00:49:53,240
 and buy it at a cheaper rate from a cost savings standpoint than it would be to buy it directly from before we put it into the pipeline.

506
00:49:53,240 --> 00:49:56,240
 And that goes back to the RINs and the RECs and the green energy credits.

507
00:49:56,240 --> 00:50:10,240
 We're getting almost 30, in today's market, close to $30 in MMBTU for every molecule that we put in or every amount that we put in.

508
00:50:10,240 --> 00:50:13,240
 We're losing that money if we take it directly from the plant.

509
00:50:13,240 --> 00:50:19,240
 But if we buy it in the pipeline, we're paying what the spot market price is, which is $2 or $3.

510
00:50:19,240 --> 00:50:25,240
 So again, we're making money even though we're pulling it out almost immediately when we put it back in.

511
00:50:25,240 --> 00:50:32,240
 So that's part of the valuation that we have to consider as we're going through the cost allocation on this.

512
00:50:32,240 --> 00:50:39,240
 But there will be a way, because I know for us, we go by the greenhouse gas emissions that it's reported.

513
00:50:39,240 --> 00:50:44,240
 We get that report, and solid waste is pretty high.

514
00:50:44,240 --> 00:50:46,240
 Yes, they are.

515
00:50:46,240 --> 00:50:57,240
 But again, as we continue to report back on this, that report is exclusive of any efforts we make to destroy those emissions.

516
00:50:57,240 --> 00:51:00,240
 So it's just what we've produced, not what we've controlled.

517
00:51:00,240 --> 00:51:05,240
 Again, if you put that control in there, it drops us way down to the bottom of the list.

518
00:51:05,240 --> 00:51:15,240
 So all of this is, I just bring that up because I'd like to see how all that translates into the data that we're going to see.

519
00:51:15,240 --> 00:51:22,240
 I think it would be very beneficial for us and the public, too, as we talk about it,

520
00:51:22,240 --> 00:51:29,240
 how these greenhouse gases and emissions and what they are, what they were, and what they will be.

521
00:51:29,240 --> 00:51:35,240
 It will be helpful for us to put that in a perspective.

522
00:51:35,240 --> 00:51:37,240
 I know you have a question, but just a quick follow-up.

523
00:51:37,240 --> 00:51:41,240
 So your statement that you just made, speaking of the statement that you just made,

524
00:51:41,240 --> 00:51:48,240
 that we examined our municipal and community emissions really early at the start of this committee's process.

525
00:51:48,240 --> 00:51:54,240
 Are you stating that the emission records that were in that were not reflective of what you controlled,

526
00:51:54,240 --> 00:51:56,240
 but as you said, what you were producing?

527
00:51:56,240 --> 00:52:04,240
 Yeah, the way that the model works is it looks at the amount of waste that it brings in.

528
00:52:04,240 --> 00:52:09,240
 And correct me if I'm wrong, but it applies a standard reduction.

529
00:52:09,240 --> 00:52:13,240
 You've got this much waste, this is how much methane it can or could produce.

530
00:52:13,240 --> 00:52:19,240
 It does not take into account the controls that we have once we collect it,

531
00:52:19,240 --> 00:52:24,240
 so the destruction that we do through the flare, through the engine, through this process.

532
00:52:24,240 --> 00:52:30,240
 So are you stating that we were looking at perhaps not entirely comprehensive data

533
00:52:30,240 --> 00:52:33,240
 than what you may be able to provide in a future presentation?

534
00:52:33,240 --> 00:52:36,240
 That is correct. Excuse me, in my opinion, that is correct.

535
00:52:36,240 --> 00:52:42,240
 Okay, so off of the question she's raised in perhaps a future presentation,

536
00:52:42,240 --> 00:52:47,240
 could you bring us that data that's a little more reflective of what you say is actually being emitted

537
00:52:47,240 --> 00:52:51,240
 outside of the production of what you're actually able to control?

538
00:52:51,240 --> 00:52:54,240
 I think we could probably do that.

539
00:52:54,240 --> 00:52:55,240
 Go ahead, Adam.

540
00:52:55,240 --> 00:52:58,240
 I think on Keely's first question, I really appreciated that,

541
00:52:58,240 --> 00:53:01,240
 and I thought I was going here, but we didn't get there.

542
00:53:01,240 --> 00:53:10,240
 One of the very first things you said was that about 50% of the gas is methane and 50% is other stuff.

543
00:53:10,240 --> 00:53:11,240
 Didn't you say that?

544
00:53:11,240 --> 00:53:15,240
 In landfill gas, correct.

545
00:53:15,240 --> 00:53:19,240
 Then you talked about pipeline gas being almost pure methane.

546
00:53:19,240 --> 00:53:20,240
 Correct.

547
00:53:20,240 --> 00:53:23,240
 What I thought we were driving at, and I think it would be good to see,

548
00:53:23,240 --> 00:53:26,240
 is what happens to the other 50% of this stuff?

549
00:53:26,240 --> 00:53:30,240
 Because you said the flare has gone entirely, but they don't want that in the pipeline.

550
00:53:30,240 --> 00:53:31,240
 Correct.

551
00:53:31,240 --> 00:53:33,240
 Where does it go?

552
00:53:33,240 --> 00:53:39,240
 Things like the oxygen, carbon dioxide, things that can be emitted under the permit,

553
00:53:39,240 --> 00:53:41,240
 because again, this is a permanent process.

554
00:53:41,240 --> 00:53:45,240
 It's not just somebody coming in and setting up by the state and be allowed to do this.

555
00:53:45,240 --> 00:53:52,240
 There will be some releases, there are potentials of carbon sequestration of some of the gas,

556
00:53:52,240 --> 00:53:59,240
 but a lot of what we're seeing, there will be what we call scrubbing media.

557
00:53:59,240 --> 00:54:05,240
 Again, the ballast gas or the rest of the gas will flow through.

558
00:54:05,240 --> 00:54:13,240
 It will be absorbed onto different types of beads, and that material will react, will be neutralized,

559
00:54:13,240 --> 00:54:18,240
 and then that will go for disposal or treatment in some way, shape, or form.

560
00:54:18,240 --> 00:54:22,240
 There are different ways that we manage that other half of the material.

561
00:54:22,240 --> 00:54:26,240
 That's a good point, I will say. That's a good question.

562
00:54:26,240 --> 00:54:27,240
 Can I?

563
00:54:27,240 --> 00:54:29,240
 Yes, please. Go ahead, Mr. President.

564
00:54:29,240 --> 00:54:36,240
 In agreement with the -- I need to see a total comprehensive plan to in essence put our blessing on it.

565
00:54:36,240 --> 00:54:41,240
 If we're going to advise on this, there's a lot more information that we need.

566
00:54:41,240 --> 00:54:49,240
 And then I really would like to come alongside what Ed is saying is that how does it impact the overall master plan,

567
00:54:49,240 --> 00:54:54,240
 greenhouse gas reduction and so forth, the 2050 plan.

568
00:54:54,240 --> 00:55:02,240
 I'd like to see how does it integrate into that, how does it help us achieve that goal, if we can ask that.

569
00:55:02,240 --> 00:55:09,240
 Yeah, and I think that's things that we tend to bring forward in future greenhouse gas reports to the city.

570
00:55:09,240 --> 00:55:14,240
 We can show what we're reducing, net result of the reductions here,

571
00:55:14,240 --> 00:55:21,240
 and just get a much bigger and more comprehensive evaluation on what the total production is.

572
00:55:21,240 --> 00:55:27,240
 But to clarify, you watched your material before the approval of the facility, right?

573
00:55:27,240 --> 00:55:28,240
 Yes.

574
00:55:28,240 --> 00:55:32,240
 Well, again, part of that -- and again, we're asked to advise.

575
00:55:32,240 --> 00:55:38,240
 The purpose of this committee is to advise the council and put our blessing on our yay or nay.

576
00:55:38,240 --> 00:55:47,240
 Yes, I have to see that before I can agree or vote or whatever to say yay or nay.

577
00:55:47,240 --> 00:55:56,240
 And awesome plan, it sounds like, but it sounds like I need to see it documented and presented accordingly.

578
00:55:56,240 --> 00:56:06,240
 And then just an overall renewable gas percentage, what that would look like for our community.

579
00:56:06,240 --> 00:56:11,240
 So like what we get now, and then you get this process started,

580
00:56:11,240 --> 00:56:17,240
 what percent of our community's usage would now be renewable usage versus non.

581
00:56:17,240 --> 00:56:20,240
 I think that might be something I'm interested in.

582
00:56:20,240 --> 00:56:35,240
 Yeah, so really how much of the current pipeline gas would be supplanted by the induction of all renewable natural gas into the system.

583
00:56:35,240 --> 00:56:44,240
 Yeah, and I think that -- are we going to -- do we need to bring this up at the end when we reopen the matrix maybe?

584
00:56:44,240 --> 00:56:48,240
 Or is this good for now as like a direction to you?

585
00:56:48,240 --> 00:56:49,240
 I think it's good for now.

586
00:56:49,240 --> 00:56:50,240
 Okay, it is.

587
00:56:50,240 --> 00:56:52,240
 I'm not even captured in the picture.

588
00:56:52,240 --> 00:56:53,240
 Okay.

589
00:56:53,240 --> 00:56:54,240
 Okay.

590
00:56:54,240 --> 00:56:55,240
 All right.

591
00:56:55,240 --> 00:56:56,240
 Thank you all very much for your time.

592
00:56:56,240 --> 00:57:01,240
 Thank you for your time.

593
00:57:01,240 --> 00:57:12,240
 We will move on to Item B, Receiver Report, call to discussion on the Department and Capital Project Sidewalk Work Plan with Nathan George,

594
00:57:12,240 --> 00:57:17,240
 the City Senior Planner, Bicycle, Pedestrian, and ADA Coordinator.

595
00:57:17,240 --> 00:57:18,240
 I don't believe we've met yet.

596
00:57:18,240 --> 00:57:19,240
 Welcome.

597
00:57:19,240 --> 00:57:20,240
 Thank you.

598
00:57:20,240 --> 00:57:21,240
 Nice to meet you.

599
00:57:21,240 --> 00:57:24,240
 No, I don't believe we've met yet.

600
00:57:24,240 --> 00:57:29,240
 So yeah, I'm Nathan George, the City's new Mike Ped and ADA Coordinator.

601
00:57:29,240 --> 00:57:31,240
 I sit in the Capital Projects Division.

602
00:57:31,240 --> 00:57:41,240
 I heard you guys wanted to hear a little bit more about where I am and what I do because you've seen several different iterations of the position that I hold over the years.

603
00:57:41,240 --> 00:57:45,240
 So I'll be happy to entertain any questions you have towards the end.

604
00:57:45,240 --> 00:57:48,240
 I guess I can give a brief introduction of myself.

605
00:57:48,240 --> 00:57:51,240
 So I joined the city in July of last year.

606
00:57:51,240 --> 00:57:56,240
 I come from the Washington, D.C. area, previously working in consulting roles.

607
00:57:56,240 --> 00:58:11,240
 So I had been doing similar work, bike ped and ADA type work, with a consulting firm based out of Baltimore and doing a lot of designing facilities and supporting communities like the City of Denton with implementing those facilities,

608
00:58:11,240 --> 00:58:19,240
 either through planning or design phases, helping them get funding for those outside funding opportunities to accelerate programs.

609
00:58:19,240 --> 00:58:22,240
 So I did a lot of the same kind of work that I'm doing here today.

610
00:58:22,240 --> 00:58:33,240
 I just happen to now be admitted as a staff member at the City of Denton and looking forward to continuing to do the work that I have been doing the last seven months and delivering projects.

611
00:58:33,240 --> 00:58:38,240
 And hopefully you'll start to see some of my work in the ground very soon.

612
00:58:38,240 --> 00:58:41,240
 Are you familiar with our sustainability plan?

613
00:58:41,240 --> 00:58:45,240
 At a high level. I'm not very familiar with it yet.

614
00:58:45,240 --> 00:58:49,240
 I have had a lot of other stuff on my plate, but I'm sure we'll take a look at it.

615
00:58:49,240 --> 00:58:53,240
 And today I'm here to talk with you about the sidewalk work plan.

616
00:58:53,240 --> 00:58:56,240
 So this is one of, I'll call it one of our capital programs.

617
00:58:56,240 --> 00:58:59,240
 It's effectively, we have a lot of different capital programs.

618
00:58:59,240 --> 00:59:03,240
 Some of you on this side of the room refer to the mobility plan.

619
00:59:03,240 --> 00:59:10,240
 And then once we have those plans, we put together work plans that help us deliver those capital programs, in this case sidewalks.

620
00:59:10,240 --> 00:59:13,240
 We have a separate program for bicycle lanes or bicycle facilities.

621
00:59:13,240 --> 00:59:19,240
 Sometimes there's a little overlap between those bike and ped components of facilities that we implement around the city.

622
00:59:19,240 --> 00:59:24,240
 And then of course we have a lot of other programs that you see like waterline projects down by the gray.

623
00:59:24,240 --> 00:59:27,240
 There's a lot of other work the capital projects does.

624
00:59:27,240 --> 00:59:29,240
 So I'm going to walk you through the sidewalk work plan.

625
00:59:29,240 --> 00:59:33,240
 This is basically, it's a presentation that I've given now.

626
00:59:33,240 --> 00:59:40,240
 I think this is the fifth time to different various bodies, council, mobility committee, and so forth.

627
00:59:40,240 --> 00:59:52,240
 So I'll give you the presentation. It'll be a little bit different because we were presenting this more as a guiding sort of framework to help reshape how we're going to deliver sidewalk projects under our work plan.

628
00:59:52,240 --> 00:59:58,240
 So you'll see a little bit of that background and a little bit of information about how we're going to deliver the projects moving forward.

629
00:59:58,240 --> 01:00:07,240
 And the next critical step is to take a lot of this information out to the public and start talking about specific projects because this information is helpful background information.

630
01:00:07,240 --> 01:00:12,240
 But we still have to put a lot of additional application in place to use the information.

631
01:00:12,240 --> 01:00:14,240
 So I'll walk you through the presentation.

632
01:00:14,240 --> 01:00:19,240
 Hyperlink was included in AIS or the agenda information sheet.

633
01:00:19,240 --> 01:00:22,240
 So anybody who wants to can go and take a look at this on.

634
01:00:22,240 --> 01:00:24,240
 It's actually hosted online.

635
01:00:24,240 --> 01:00:31,240
 So all the information that I'm presenting today is available for members of the committee or the public to take a look at their lecture.

636
01:00:31,240 --> 01:00:39,240
 So the sidewalk work plan is a plan that helps us guide where we're going to make sidewalk investments.

637
01:00:39,240 --> 01:00:45,240
 The most important acknowledgement here is that pedestrians really do enjoy walking on a sidewalk.

638
01:00:45,240 --> 01:00:48,240
 They tend to not like walking in the street with cars or with big trucks.

639
01:00:48,240 --> 01:00:52,240
 So it's just an important acknowledgement that people really enjoy walking.

640
01:00:52,240 --> 01:01:04,240
 It's something we saw a lot of emphasis on as COVID emerged, stay at home orders were in place, people walked out the front doors and found out they were living in unwalkable communities.

641
01:01:04,240 --> 01:01:13,240
 So it really is a facility that makes your neighborhood an enjoyable place to walk as opposed to, say, a street that doesn't have sidewalks.

642
01:01:13,240 --> 01:01:16,240
 And I'll get into some caveats on that in a minute.

643
01:01:16,240 --> 01:01:21,240
 Our future is guided by that mobility plan, or at least I would say it was.

644
01:01:21,240 --> 01:01:33,240
 Now, I would say this process is helping us get a little bit ahead of that grand vision and it provides more specific detail where we're going to provide complete streets.

645
01:01:33,240 --> 01:01:40,240
 But the mobility plan that we're putting forward for adoption in a few weeks is really a true multimodal vision for the city.

646
01:01:40,240 --> 01:01:46,240
 So instead of just looking at cars and the thoroughfare plan, we have a bike plan, we have a PED plan.

647
01:01:46,240 --> 01:01:49,240
 This sidewalk work plan actually tells us how we're going to implement the PED plan.

648
01:01:49,240 --> 01:01:55,240
 So that's why I say it's a little bit more advanced, but we do have a true multimodal vision for the city that we're working to deliver.

649
01:01:55,240 --> 01:01:59,240
 And this is one part of that.

650
01:01:59,240 --> 01:02:06,240
 One of the acknowledgments that we wanted to make sure everybody recognized is just that we don't own all the streets in the city.

651
01:02:06,240 --> 01:02:10,240
 There are textile roads or state roads that we have.

652
01:02:10,240 --> 01:02:14,240
 We don't have control over them. We can encourage the state to make changes.

653
01:02:14,240 --> 01:02:22,240
 We can go in and make changes with their blessing, but there are streets within the city that are not -- they're not city streets.

654
01:02:22,240 --> 01:02:30,240
 And so we made this map just to give folks an idea of where we have city streets, where we have county streets, and where the streets are textile.

655
01:02:30,240 --> 01:02:38,240
 So there are three maps in the present -- or in this story map. I think it's not a true presentation.

656
01:02:38,240 --> 01:02:44,240
 They're interactive maps. They allow you to turn things on and off and play with the visualization.

657
01:02:44,240 --> 01:02:52,240
 So just to give you an idea, you can go in and search any address using the little search button on the upper left-hand corner.

658
01:02:52,240 --> 01:02:58,240
 You can turn layers on and off if you wish to. There's a little interactive legend.

659
01:02:58,240 --> 01:03:06,240
 So you can actually see what's a city street, what's a textile street, or what is a county roadway.

660
01:03:06,240 --> 01:03:13,240
 It really gives anybody who's viewing this information the opportunity to look in their neighborhood, look at a specific area of interest in the city.

661
01:03:13,240 --> 01:03:19,240
 So that's why we're not doing a PowerPoint presentation today. We're facilitating using this medium.

662
01:03:19,240 --> 01:03:25,240
 So just to highlight a few of those features.

663
01:03:25,240 --> 01:03:31,240
 Yeah, this thing is a little glitchy sometimes. I gotta make sure it loads up correctly.

664
01:03:31,240 --> 01:03:43,240
 So to inform development of the sidewalk park plan, when I came on board, we really started with a lot of robust data information that came out of our ADA transition plan.

665
01:03:43,240 --> 01:03:51,240
 So the ADA transition plan, the core of that plan is really to look at our existing assets and their condition.

666
01:03:51,240 --> 01:03:56,240
 Fortunately, our consultant also collected data on where we were missing sidewalks.

667
01:03:56,240 --> 01:04:05,240
 So we were able to use the information from the ADA transition plan not only to see conditions of existing sidewalks, ramps, any conflicts that we had in those facilities,

668
01:04:05,240 --> 01:04:11,240
 but we can also see where they're missing and then start to analyze all of that information on a citywide basis.

669
01:04:11,240 --> 01:04:19,240
 A lot of communities I work with don't have that much information, so it's actually really helpful to have all that information.

670
01:04:19,240 --> 01:04:26,240
 I did all the analysis myself, so to have it all at my disposal to run that analysis was really great.

671
01:04:26,240 --> 01:04:29,240
 I'll walk you through kind of how all that came together.

672
01:04:29,240 --> 01:04:39,240
 So to help us identify where to make sidewalk investments, historically the city has used a process that is called a pedestrian potential index.

673
01:04:39,240 --> 01:04:45,240
 That pedestrian potential index is really looking at, you know, we need a lot of sidewalks.

674
01:04:45,240 --> 01:04:50,240
 When you look at a citywide basis, where are the sidewalks going to be used if we make those investments?

675
01:04:50,240 --> 01:04:56,240
 Sometimes it's pretty easy to go out and make an investment where it doesn't pair well with where the users are located.

676
01:04:56,240 --> 01:05:05,240
 So it's really important for us to leverage data to understand where those dollars are going to translate to payment under people's feet.

677
01:05:05,240 --> 01:05:15,240
 So this pedestrian potential index is a way that we can assess that potential to meet needs where they are located.

678
01:05:15,240 --> 01:05:21,240
 So historically that had been a bit more of a focused effort.

679
01:05:21,240 --> 01:05:27,240
 I see needs. I see a ghost path or a worn path on the side of the road.

680
01:05:27,240 --> 01:05:36,240
 And it was less data driven and more driven by just a process of visual identification, if you will.

681
01:05:36,240 --> 01:05:40,240
 The process I'm presenting to you today was more of a data analysis.

682
01:05:40,240 --> 01:05:43,240
 So it's driven by different metrics.

683
01:05:43,240 --> 01:05:47,240
 I'll walk you through the metrics that feed into the resulting paths.

684
01:05:47,240 --> 01:05:52,240
 There are some limitations to that and we'll get into that a little bit later.

685
01:05:52,240 --> 01:06:01,240
 So basically what we did at a citywide level is analyzed every sidewalk segment that's missing and gave it a point for each of these criteria.

686
01:06:01,240 --> 01:06:05,240
 To summarize all the points, you get a PPI score or a pedestrian potential index.

687
01:06:05,240 --> 01:06:10,240
 First is major streets. Major streets are the roads that connect most places most directly.

688
01:06:10,240 --> 01:06:18,240
 They tend to be the easiest way for a pedestrian to make their trip because local streets might discontinue at the end of a project.

689
01:06:18,240 --> 01:06:22,240
 They may not connect through. It's called a SACS or something like that.

690
01:06:22,240 --> 01:06:28,240
 So major streets tend to be a very direct way for a pedestrian to get from point A to point B.

691
01:06:28,240 --> 01:06:33,240
 So each of those were given a point. There are some ways that we could play with that data to further refine it.

692
01:06:33,240 --> 01:06:40,240
 But for this level of analysis, we just gave each of what we call our thoroughfare or collector and arterial streets a point.

693
01:06:40,240 --> 01:06:46,240
 Another category is schools. Schools represent an area where pedestrian activity tends to be very high.

694
01:06:46,240 --> 01:06:52,240
 Students can't drive themselves until they get to be a certain age. So they're a very good user type to try and support.

695
01:06:52,240 --> 01:06:59,240
 There are also a lot of funding programs that are driven around supporting that walkability around schools.

696
01:06:59,240 --> 01:07:02,240
 So that's an important acknowledgement as well.

697
01:07:02,240 --> 01:07:09,240
 Government facilities. We have a duty from an ADA perspective to make sure that our facilities are accessible.

698
01:07:09,240 --> 01:07:19,240
 There are also places that our customers as a city need to get to. So each one of those locations is a potential generator or tractor of pedestrian trips.

699
01:07:19,240 --> 01:07:21,240
 We need to make sure that they're accessible.

700
01:07:21,240 --> 01:07:25,240
 So we gave a point to each of those. That's like the building we're sitting in right now.

701
01:07:25,240 --> 01:07:30,240
 But it's also things like libraries and parks and other park trails, buildings like that.

702
01:07:30,240 --> 01:07:36,240
 So those are all considered government facilities for the sake of this exercise.

703
01:07:36,240 --> 01:07:39,240
 And then points of interest is all that other stuff that people might walk to.

704
01:07:39,240 --> 01:07:45,240
 So this is restaurants, shopping, maybe going to the doctor's office or the dentist.

705
01:07:45,240 --> 01:07:48,240
 So places that people might need to get to by foot.

706
01:07:48,240 --> 01:07:57,240
 Maybe it's a place that's more based on the need to get from a transit stop to that essential service.

707
01:07:57,240 --> 01:08:03,240
 So we have a lot of information about where all these sort of central business district areas are located.

708
01:08:03,240 --> 01:08:10,240
 And that helps us hone in on where there's a lot of activity that's going to drive those pedestrian trips.

709
01:08:10,240 --> 01:08:13,240
 And then the last point is just safety.

710
01:08:13,240 --> 01:08:19,240
 So when we see pedestrian crashes, it doesn't mean that there is a missing facility necessarily.

711
01:08:19,240 --> 01:08:25,240
 That's a good indication that in some proximity of where that crash occurred, something's not working right.

712
01:08:25,240 --> 01:08:31,240
 And so giving a point to some proximity helps us focus that we have pedestrian activity.

713
01:08:31,240 --> 01:08:35,240
 We need to take a look at what's not working in that area and try to correct it.

714
01:08:35,240 --> 01:08:38,240
 So those are the five characteristics that we looked at.

715
01:08:38,240 --> 01:08:42,240
 Somewhere around a quarter mile of spacing in general had to play with the numbers.

716
01:08:42,240 --> 01:08:47,240
 So like trails, if you do a quarter mile, it covers the whole city.

717
01:08:47,240 --> 01:08:50,240
 With very few exceptions, it covers the entire city.

718
01:08:50,240 --> 01:08:58,240
 So some of it was a little tighter, but the majority, that's a quarter mile spacing of each of those points.

719
01:08:58,240 --> 01:09:07,240
 And then apply from a geospatial analysis to identify all the segments, add up all the points, and we get a PPI score.

720
01:09:07,240 --> 01:09:09,240
 So I'm going to show you two maps.

721
01:09:09,240 --> 01:09:14,240
 The first map is going to be what our existing sidewalk projects are.

722
01:09:14,240 --> 01:09:21,240
 And these were identified with the old system of more of that manual look at where we need to invest in sidewalks.

723
01:09:21,240 --> 01:09:25,240
 The second map will display the results of that PPI evaluation.

724
01:09:25,240 --> 01:09:33,240
 So we wanted to make sure that nobody lost sight of the fact that we do have an existing sidewalk program in the city.

725
01:09:33,240 --> 01:09:38,240
 It has been informed by staff evaluation of where needs were located.

726
01:09:38,240 --> 01:09:42,240
 The sidewalks are under construction in a variety of places.

727
01:09:42,240 --> 01:09:46,240
 Some of the sidewalks that show up on this map have actually been completed.

728
01:09:46,240 --> 01:09:52,240
 And then we broke them out by year, which is the approximate year that each sidewalk segment would be completed.

729
01:09:52,240 --> 01:09:57,240
 Just to show, here's where you might see a sidewalk under construction in the city.

730
01:09:57,240 --> 01:10:04,240
 I can tell you right now that we have some medical parkway or medical center drive.

731
01:10:04,240 --> 01:10:07,240
 I forget the exact name here, but Med Park Drive.

732
01:10:07,240 --> 01:10:11,240
 These sidewalks were just completed a week or two ago.

733
01:10:11,240 --> 01:10:14,240
 So these are projects that are actively ongoing throughout the city.

734
01:10:14,240 --> 01:10:16,240
 You can take a look and see where they are.

735
01:10:16,240 --> 01:10:21,240
 There are also projects listed in here that will deliver sidewalks out of our other capital programs.

736
01:10:21,240 --> 01:10:29,240
 So that's road projects like rebuilding Hickory Street, the main L extension, the new bridge that will go over the DCETA line.

737
01:10:29,240 --> 01:10:34,240
 So sidewalk projects may be delivered standalone independent of other projects.

738
01:10:34,240 --> 01:10:38,240
 So they may be a component of a larger project as well.

739
01:10:38,240 --> 01:10:43,240
 That's an important acknowledgement.

740
01:10:43,240 --> 01:10:45,240
 So here's the PPI score map.

741
01:10:45,240 --> 01:10:47,240
 It might take a minute to load.

742
01:10:47,240 --> 01:10:52,240
 I'm trying to pre-seat it before we start talking.

743
01:10:52,240 --> 01:10:58,240
 The main point of going through a PPI analysis, from my perspective especially,

744
01:10:58,240 --> 01:11:02,240
 is that it's really important to see where those hot spots are.

745
01:11:02,240 --> 01:11:08,240
 And I'll show you in a minute how all the data parsed out.

746
01:11:08,240 --> 01:11:16,240
 But what's really helpful is when you can see the needs based on where we have the highest density of users

747
01:11:16,240 --> 01:11:21,240
 and where we have the greatest potential for users, it's also good to see some dispersion.

748
01:11:21,240 --> 01:11:27,240
 So we don't want to see all of our highest scores being just in downtown, just around a certain place.

749
01:11:27,240 --> 01:11:36,240
 We want to see it spread out because that helps us recognize that the evaluation didn't point us to a preconceived idea.

750
01:11:36,240 --> 01:11:39,240
 I want to make sure that downtown is the highest ranked.

751
01:11:39,240 --> 01:11:46,240
 So I made sure that all of my factors that I put into that evaluation favor downtown and that I get that result.

752
01:11:46,240 --> 01:11:52,240
 We saw a pretty good spread of where those highest ranks are because it's based on all those factors that I said,

753
01:11:52,240 --> 01:11:54,240
 like government facilities and things.

754
01:11:54,240 --> 01:12:01,240
 The parks and the schools and things like that really did spread the results around the city.

755
01:12:01,240 --> 01:12:04,240
 So that's really good from my perspective.

756
01:12:04,240 --> 01:12:07,240
 A few acknowledgments here.

757
01:12:07,240 --> 01:12:12,240
 The PPI of one is every missing sidewalk at one point.

758
01:12:12,240 --> 01:12:16,240
 So in addition to those factors that I said, we also apply the point.

759
01:12:16,240 --> 01:12:22,240
 So no sidewalk in our ranking receives a PPI of zero.

760
01:12:22,240 --> 01:12:24,240
 The zero is existing.

761
01:12:24,240 --> 01:12:27,240
 If it doesn't have a point, it's an existing sidewalk.

762
01:12:27,240 --> 01:12:31,240
 Otherwise, we have these reds and purples that are our higher scores.

763
01:12:31,240 --> 01:12:41,240
 And then you get into the yellows and oranges, and as you get down lower and lower, those scores start to look more like a radar map.

764
01:12:41,240 --> 01:12:43,240
 They're not as significant.

765
01:12:43,240 --> 01:12:47,240
 And then our existing sidewalk projects are shown in the green solid line.

766
01:12:47,240 --> 01:12:57,240
 So how this information will be used is we have to look at where those highest ranks are and start to identify potential projects,

767
01:12:57,240 --> 01:13:06,240
 take that information to the public, because it's really important as we, as cabinet projects, are delivering projects,

768
01:13:06,240 --> 01:13:13,240
 going through the planning, design, and then actual construction process that we're communicating at a tent.

769
01:13:13,240 --> 01:13:20,240
 That's a necessary step to make sure that we go, just like we have to go through and clear all our design,

770
01:13:20,240 --> 01:13:25,240
 we have to make sure that the public is aware that we're about to show up and do work.

771
01:13:25,240 --> 01:13:29,240
 So the next step with this information that you see is that we'll have to identify the next round of projects,

772
01:13:29,240 --> 01:13:35,240
 go through a public process to indicate where we intend to do that work, identify any constraints,

773
01:13:35,240 --> 01:13:42,240
 make sure that we have put together a fiscal plan that's responsible and that we can deliver within the available budget.

774
01:13:42,240 --> 01:13:46,240
 And that's how we use this information.

775
01:13:46,240 --> 01:13:54,240
 All right, so walk through what's next and then let you guys ask any questions that you might have.

776
01:13:54,240 --> 01:13:57,240
 So like I said, the first step is just project selection.

777
01:13:57,240 --> 01:14:04,240
 So we have to identify what makes the most sense, and we're looking at that from a network connectivity perspective.

778
01:14:04,240 --> 01:14:15,240
 We might see that our highest PPI scores are important, but we see a few 2s and 3s that would make a connection to an existing sidewalk.

779
01:14:15,240 --> 01:14:22,240
 So we have to look at that very practically to make appropriate recommendations at a network basis.

780
01:14:22,240 --> 01:14:26,240
 People want to walk, they don't want to find the sidewalk stops 100 feet from the intersection.

781
01:14:26,240 --> 01:14:31,240
 So we have to think about the recommendations that we're making from a project basis.

782
01:14:31,240 --> 01:14:37,240
 Once we've identified those segments that we want to build, we still have to go through that feasibility process.

783
01:14:37,240 --> 01:14:43,240
 We need to look at what are the opportunities and constraints along that proposed sidewalk section.

784
01:14:43,240 --> 01:14:47,240
 There might be utilities, could be trees. Trees is a very important conversation.

785
01:14:47,240 --> 01:14:55,240
 I've had several times this week actually about tree removals, so we're looking very carefully at when we put in a sidewalk,

786
01:14:55,240 --> 01:15:09,240
 what would the impacts be, what alternatives might we need to assume in that design to make sure that we limit impacts to adjacent property owners, utilities, trees, whatever the potential impacts may be.

787
01:15:09,240 --> 01:15:18,240
 This picture is on Carroll Boulevard. I can think of a few streets that are more important to have sidewalk projects on than Carroll, but none of them.

788
01:15:18,240 --> 01:15:25,240
 So that's just an important acknowledgement. Another part of that process is stakeholder engagement.

789
01:15:25,240 --> 01:15:31,240
 So like I said, we've taken this presentation to a handful of our committees. We're going to see you guys today.

790
01:15:31,240 --> 01:15:38,240
 Making sure that we're receiving that input, making sure that this approach is comprehensive and that it's informed by the majority of the city.

791
01:15:38,240 --> 01:15:47,240
 And a big part of that was making sure that we have spoken with the committee on persons with disabilities

792
01:15:47,240 --> 01:15:55,240
 because ensuring equal access and that these improvements are designed appropriately is an important part of that process.

793
01:15:55,240 --> 01:15:58,240
 So we're going to make that acknowledgement as well.

794
01:15:58,240 --> 01:16:05,240
 Once we've gone through all of that background to identify the projects and tee them up and make sure we understand a feasible design,

795
01:16:05,240 --> 01:16:09,240
 we still have to do the design before we get into construction.

796
01:16:09,240 --> 01:16:15,240
 So that was just a quick acknowledgement of what that would look like.

797
01:16:15,240 --> 01:16:23,240
 Quick summary. So like I said, so if I isolate that, the result of the PPI evaluation,

798
01:16:23,240 --> 01:16:33,240
 what I wanted to see in this data was that as you go from that highest rank to the lowest rank, you see some graduation in the results.

799
01:16:33,240 --> 01:16:39,240
 So you wouldn't want to see equal distribution where your PPI 1 and your PPI 6 are equal numbers.

800
01:16:39,240 --> 01:16:46,240
 You want to see that number gradually get bigger until you get to the lowest rank and that was the outcome of this evaluation.

801
01:16:46,240 --> 01:16:53,240
 So our PPI 6 is only a half mile of missing sidewalk and then PPI 5 goes to about five miles.

802
01:16:53,240 --> 01:17:02,240
 So as those numbers get bigger, the rank gets lower. That means we've got manageable amounts of high PPI to low PPI.

803
01:17:02,240 --> 01:17:09,240
 So as we start to make those improvements and then rerun this evaluation, hopefully those numbers will stay sort of distributed like this.

804
01:17:09,240 --> 01:17:13,240
 So it's manageable and we're making those investments where they're needed the most.

805
01:17:13,240 --> 01:17:23,240
 So that was a good outcome. I was afraid it wouldn't turn out that way, but it actually did. That was great.

806
01:17:23,240 --> 01:17:30,240
 And then the last step before I turn it over to you all for discussion and questions is just community engagement.

807
01:17:30,240 --> 01:17:40,240
 So it's not uncontentious to make recommendations where to put sidewalks and how we're going to build those sidewalks.

808
01:17:40,240 --> 01:17:50,240
 So it's really important that out of any process, sidewalks, bike lanes, building a new road, that we engage with the community, engage with our stakeholders.

809
01:17:50,240 --> 01:18:03,240
 And we have a discussed end page that's linked here. And on that discussed end page, folks can ask questions, they can make recommendations, they can seek any clarity that they need.

810
01:18:03,240 --> 01:18:12,240
 But like I mentioned, a part of this process is that we have to identify the next round of projects and then get them out front of the public so they can see where we plan to work next.

811
01:18:12,240 --> 01:18:21,240
 Our projects are outlined from 2021 to 2024, give or take. So we're talking the next round of projects will be 2025 and later.

812
01:18:21,240 --> 01:18:27,240
 So that'll be an upcoming process that we'll go through as we identify that next round of projects.

813
01:18:27,240 --> 01:18:36,240
 And anybody who wants more information, they can go to Discuss Denton and communicate with us there or they can see this presentation.

814
01:18:36,240 --> 01:18:42,240
 And with that, I will stop talking and let you guys ask questions.

815
01:18:42,240 --> 01:18:46,240
 Do you have questions? Go ahead.

816
01:18:46,240 --> 01:18:53,240
 Yeah, so I noticed my road is in there and we're at PP level one.

817
01:18:53,240 --> 01:19:00,240
 And I know that there's been a bunch of people in my neighborhood who have talked about issues on my road and the need for sidewalks.

818
01:19:00,240 --> 01:19:09,240
 And so I just wonder how you weigh if there's like a neighborhood that's asking for sidewalks versus your rankings and how you make those determinations.

819
01:19:09,240 --> 01:19:16,240
 Yeah, because there's some subjectivity in this point of interest is how you're defining a point of interest.

820
01:19:16,240 --> 01:19:20,240
 But neighbors might define something else as a point of interest that you're not capturing.

821
01:19:20,240 --> 01:19:31,240
 Right. Exactly. And I would say that this is one way of taking data, evaluating it, and making recommendations. It's not project recommendations.

822
01:19:31,240 --> 01:19:37,240
 So there's, like you said, subjectivity to how we would apply the results of that evaluation.

823
01:19:37,240 --> 01:19:45,240
 I'd say we were not preparing this evaluation with the intent of deprioritizing anywhere.

824
01:19:45,240 --> 01:19:50,240
 We prepared it with the intent of identifying where the highest priorities are, because, you know,

825
01:19:50,240 --> 01:19:59,240
 if I have a community requesting a sidewalk in an area with a low potential for pedestrian activity

826
01:19:59,240 --> 01:20:06,240
 and I've got people walking in a worn grass path on the side of a major roadway,

827
01:20:06,240 --> 01:20:15,240
 this data suggests that I need to make the investment where I've got a lot of people in a worn grass path on the side of a busy roadway

828
01:20:15,240 --> 01:20:18,240
 before I make the investment in a neighborhood.

829
01:20:18,240 --> 01:20:24,240
 The folks who would make the decision whether we need to invest in that neighborhood above somewhere else

830
01:20:24,240 --> 01:20:36,240
 are department heads or my bosses or politically elected or appointed folks who would identify a different priority.

831
01:20:36,240 --> 01:20:43,240
 So we're going to make decisions based on that data-driven process and working with the public.

832
01:20:43,240 --> 01:20:51,240
 But we may not say we're going to go and we're not going to necessarily recommend a sidewalk improvement in a neighborhood

833
01:20:51,240 --> 01:21:00,240
 where there's not a park or a school or some other asset that would drive that need, if that answers your question.

834
01:21:00,240 --> 01:21:05,240
 Sort of, but it's still, I mean, like, we live near a school, but it's a university.

835
01:21:05,240 --> 01:21:08,240
 We live near a park, but it's part of the university.

836
01:21:08,240 --> 01:21:15,240
 So to me, I could see where you're not capturing certain things based on the route that you might be using.

837
01:21:15,240 --> 01:21:24,240
 The thing in the school maybe has something else. We live in an street that doesn't have actually an area where you can walk on and tread a trail.

838
01:21:24,240 --> 01:21:27,240
 So you have to walk on the street. So you wouldn't be able to see that.

839
01:21:27,240 --> 01:21:34,240
 Yeah, that was a limitation. I expressed this to other staff as I was working on the evaluation,

840
01:21:34,240 --> 01:21:41,240
 that we can't evaluate worn paths because I'd have to run some kind of,

841
01:21:41,240 --> 01:21:47,240
 take the aerials and run a raster analysis to identify what a worn path is.

842
01:21:47,240 --> 01:21:53,240
 So that is a factor that was considered previously that we can't do from a data-driven perspective

843
01:21:53,240 --> 01:21:59,240
 to identify where there's that kind of demand or evidence of demand, if you will.

844
01:21:59,240 --> 01:22:02,240
 But yeah, there are other metrics that could be used.

845
01:22:02,240 --> 01:22:10,240
 I mentioned I would acknowledge one that I forgot to circle back to, but transit is one that is not included in this evaluation.

846
01:22:10,240 --> 01:22:18,240
 Key reason with that being DCTA last year was still in the process of making their recommendations of how they would address transit.

847
01:22:18,240 --> 01:22:23,240
 So we didn't have an understanding of what transit looked like in the city at that time.

848
01:22:23,240 --> 01:22:29,240
 We do now, but it's still unclear what DCTA's plan is.

849
01:22:29,240 --> 01:22:38,240
 So that's another limitation of this evaluation is we don't have a full understanding of what that's going to be.

850
01:22:38,240 --> 01:22:44,240
 To me it's a little dissatisfying to hear that we'll run this whole plan,

851
01:22:44,240 --> 01:22:50,240
 but if a neighborhood has an issue, they shouldn't come talk to us, they should go talk to their councilman.

852
01:22:50,240 --> 01:22:52,240
 Oh no, you can absolutely talk to us.

853
01:22:52,240 --> 01:23:01,240
 I can tell you the response from a staff perspective is going to be that we're going to first look at this data to see what it suggests.

854
01:23:01,240 --> 01:23:08,240
 We're not ignoring the universities because as the bike, pet, and ADA coordinator for the city,

855
01:23:08,240 --> 01:23:15,240
 my primary focus, and I've been very clear about this from taking time that I took the job,

856
01:23:15,240 --> 01:23:21,240
 my primary focus is UNT, TWAU, and Downtown, and it branches out from there.

857
01:23:21,240 --> 01:23:29,240
 There are other big destinations outside of that that could potentially drive a lot of bike and pet activity,

858
01:23:29,240 --> 01:23:31,240
 but those are the three biggest areas.

859
01:23:31,240 --> 01:23:39,240
 If I heat map, that's my three hottest spots in the city, so I won't ever ignore those three areas.

860
01:23:39,240 --> 01:23:49,240
 That's not to say that there aren't barriers around those three areas that might limit the opportunity for somebody to travel.

861
01:23:49,240 --> 01:23:56,240
 We have to fix the barrier, like a major street crossing or something like that, or I-35.

862
01:23:56,240 --> 01:24:04,240
 We might have to figure out how to cross a major barrier with a very costly project before we look on the other side of the barrier.

863
01:24:04,240 --> 01:24:07,240
 That's another way we have to look at things.

864
01:24:07,240 --> 01:24:15,240
 The purpose of this Discuss Denton page is to have those conversations, to understand where there is demand.

865
01:24:15,240 --> 01:24:18,240
 There's also our broader capital projects.

866
01:24:18,240 --> 01:24:22,240
 There are streets that are not what we would call complete streets.

867
01:24:22,240 --> 01:24:30,240
 They're missing sidewalks, or they're missing bike lanes, or they're not up to the functional classes called for in our mobility plan.

868
01:24:30,240 --> 01:24:36,240
 Then those become separate projects where we have a handful of them that are still planned.

869
01:24:36,240 --> 01:24:44,240
 I'll just refer to Ryan Road, because that's one that we have, a capital project that's going through at least some level of design.

870
01:24:44,240 --> 01:24:46,240
 That's not a sidewalk project.

871
01:24:46,240 --> 01:24:51,240
 We're going to rebuild the road, and then the sidewalk will be part of that.

872
01:24:51,240 --> 01:24:56,240
 Teasley's Tech Stots Road, so I can use that as an example.

873
01:24:56,240 --> 01:24:59,240
 They're putting sidewalks in, maybe not the facility we'd like.

874
01:24:59,240 --> 01:25:03,240
 It's not what we're going to call for in the new mobility plan.

875
01:25:03,240 --> 01:25:06,240
 That project, they would never have come in and built a sidewalk.

876
01:25:06,240 --> 01:25:10,240
 They widened the road to six lanes and put sidewalks in.

877
01:25:10,240 --> 01:25:13,240
 This is a discussion.

878
01:25:13,240 --> 01:25:18,240
 It's kind of like to stimulate discussions.

879
01:25:18,240 --> 01:25:26,240
 It's because the projects are in place, so there's going to be no new sidewalks until after 2024 in terms of what this plan might do.

880
01:25:26,240 --> 01:25:28,240
 For those projects, yes.

881
01:25:28,240 --> 01:25:38,240
 I'll say one of the other ways we found this information really useful is when we're looking at our projects that are still in a planning or early in design.

882
01:25:38,240 --> 01:25:43,240
 We've been able to check, especially with ADA data.

883
01:25:43,240 --> 01:25:54,240
 We've been able to look at our projects and see if there are high rated, high ranking sidewalks that need to be replaced or maybe poor condition sidewalks and ramps that need to be repaired.

884
01:25:54,240 --> 01:26:05,240
 The data's actually been really helpful on the capital project side of helping identify ... I'm going to go off on a tangent for just a second.

885
01:26:05,240 --> 01:26:12,240
 Federal government only requires us, when we do a roadway project, to repair the ramps or put in ramps that are missing.

886
01:26:12,240 --> 01:26:23,240
 This data has helped to justify closing sidewalk gaps that are not required in a project, unless we institute a policy and we will construct those sidewalks.

887
01:26:23,240 --> 01:26:31,240
 It's a self-imposed requirement, but we're not mandated that we have to put in the sidewalk when we widen the roadway.

888
01:26:31,240 --> 01:26:36,240
 We only have to, or I shouldn't say widen, when we repair a roadway, when we go in and repave it.

889
01:26:36,240 --> 01:26:46,240
 This data has helped us to close some sidewalk gaps or to make repairs based on the assessment and the conditions.

890
01:26:46,240 --> 01:26:53,240
 That's been another really useful way that we've been able to use the data as staff.

891
01:26:53,240 --> 01:26:59,240
 It doesn't address the concerns you're raising about where we need to install sidewalks that are missing in the neighborhood.

892
01:26:59,240 --> 01:27:06,240
 We have a lot of those neighborhoods that are built without sidewalks anywhere.

893
01:27:06,240 --> 01:27:10,240
 The approach there has to be looking at it from a network perspective.

894
01:27:10,240 --> 01:27:18,240
 Where can we make the A to B connection through the neighborhood along the street that's going to capture the most pedestrian traffic?

895
01:27:18,240 --> 01:27:22,240
 Maybe on one side of the street instead of both.

896
01:27:22,240 --> 01:27:32,240
 That becomes a very qualitative assessment to identify where to make that sidewalk investment if we're not coming in and doing another project like a road or utility.

897
01:27:32,240 --> 01:27:37,240
 We have a number of projects like that where it's moving.

898
01:27:37,240 --> 01:27:39,240
 Let's go up here to one of them.

899
01:27:46,240 --> 01:27:55,240
 One of our streets that we're putting in a sidewalk on one side of Renard Street which is down in the Demian neighborhood.

900
01:27:55,240 --> 01:28:11,240
 If I could, say, go out and put sidewalks on both sides of the street because that's our preference, that's what we would build.

901
01:28:11,240 --> 01:28:13,240
 Sorry, it's just taking a second to load.

902
01:28:13,240 --> 01:28:18,240
 It would be ideal if every time we did a sidewalk project we were going to that gold standard.

903
01:28:18,240 --> 01:28:23,240
 That was one of the issues that many old persons with disabilities were really focused on.

904
01:28:23,240 --> 01:28:31,240
 Why can't we eliminate all the barriers, get rid of telephone poles and mailboxes that are in the sidewalk?

905
01:28:31,240 --> 01:28:34,240
 We can't always deliver the ideal project.

906
01:28:34,240 --> 01:28:36,240
 It all depends on the scope of the project.

907
01:28:36,240 --> 01:28:42,240
 If it's a sidewalk only project and we can only build it on one side of the street, maybe that's the best facility we can get in.

908
01:28:42,240 --> 01:28:45,240
 But at least we've got something there.

909
01:28:45,240 --> 01:28:57,240
 That's not the ideal answer, and I wish it was, but at least we're making a connection, if this thing was, between two points where there is a sidewalk.

910
01:28:57,240 --> 01:29:02,240
 I can tell you right now the sidewalk along the north side of Parvin is a very poor condition sidewalk.

911
01:29:02,240 --> 01:29:04,240
 It's probably about two or three feet wide.

912
01:29:04,240 --> 01:29:12,240
 So we put in to trip fund construction of a sidewalk on the south side that would make a link.

913
01:29:12,240 --> 01:29:17,240
 There's an elementary school over here, I forget the name of the school.

914
01:29:17,240 --> 01:29:30,240
 But there's an opportunity there to make an improvement on the other side of the street that makes a true ADA compliant facility that are connected with the Bernard sidewalk that we're constructing.

915
01:29:30,240 --> 01:29:35,240
 So then we'll start having more network connectivity in that part of the neighborhood.

916
01:29:35,240 --> 01:29:38,240
 One more question.

917
01:29:38,240 --> 01:29:41,240
 We do have other questions about other topics.

918
01:29:41,240 --> 01:29:45,240
 So how often will you update these PPI rankings?

919
01:29:45,240 --> 01:29:58,240
 Because even looking at this map, it's outdated because in that gray area to the left, that's a huge new development that I'm expecting is not being taken into consideration about.

920
01:29:58,240 --> 01:30:03,240
 Traffic and major roadways running through this neighborhood.

921
01:30:03,240 --> 01:30:07,240
 So the data is 2020.

922
01:30:07,240 --> 01:30:10,240
 Early 2020 was when it was all collected.

923
01:30:10,240 --> 01:30:19,240
 And I've been going through to clean up some of the, you know, where a new sidewalk has been constructed, that sort of thing.

924
01:30:19,240 --> 01:30:31,240
 The goal of staff is to have this map, which is GIS based, tied to our asset management software, which is how our streets department uses the data.

925
01:30:31,240 --> 01:30:39,240
 So then this doesn't answer the PPI score question, but just so we have a real time understanding of where we have sidewalks.

926
01:30:39,240 --> 01:30:43,240
 That's a process that we're building out, I would call a protocol.

927
01:30:43,240 --> 01:30:50,240
 So as sidewalks are constructed and accepted by the city, they'll populate into this map and into that software.

928
01:30:50,240 --> 01:30:55,240
 So then we'll have a real understanding of where we have sidewalks and when they were constructed.

929
01:30:55,240 --> 01:31:02,240
 A little better understanding so we can make sure that repairs can be tracked over time and we can assess need.

930
01:31:02,240 --> 01:31:11,240
 And that helps us from a fiscal impact analysis perspective understanding of where we might need to make improvements based on the age of the infrastructure.

931
01:31:11,240 --> 01:31:19,240
 How often we'll reevaluate the PPI scores, I don't have an answer for right now.

932
01:31:19,240 --> 01:31:26,240
 I would expect we'd do it each time we're looking at that capital program to make a new assessment.

933
01:31:26,240 --> 01:31:32,240
 So it might be, it could be annually because it only takes a couple of minutes to run the evaluation.

934
01:31:32,240 --> 01:31:42,240
 But it could also be semi-annually every three years, just really depends on how often we see the need to update those rankings.

935
01:31:42,240 --> 01:31:47,240
 There's no qualitative observations that go into the PPI score at all.

936
01:31:47,240 --> 01:31:51,240
 I mean it's basically you're just, everything is within GIS.

937
01:31:51,240 --> 01:31:58,240
 Yes, it's not a qualitative evaluation. It's really to give us just a, it's going to be a one-to-one.

938
01:31:58,240 --> 01:32:03,240
 I put in data, I get an output, and we can then tweak the factors.

939
01:32:03,240 --> 01:32:10,240
 So like I mentioned earlier, there are ways that we could tweak for speed limits, for width of a roadway, for number of lanes.

940
01:32:10,240 --> 01:32:13,240
 There are a lot of different ways that we could play with the data.

941
01:32:13,240 --> 01:32:26,240
 The goal wasn't to get too into that approach, but more so to focus on what are the outputs, do they make sense, start identifying projects out of that.

942
01:32:26,240 --> 01:32:31,240
 Because I'm always of the opinion data is great, but I want to do something.

943
01:32:31,240 --> 01:32:35,240
 So I don't think we need to have the perfect data.

944
01:32:35,240 --> 01:32:40,240
 I think we need to have a good enough data source to make strong decisions from.

945
01:32:40,240 --> 01:32:47,240
 And we're making recommendations that are out of line with elected appointed bodies or the public.

946
01:32:47,240 --> 01:32:51,240
 We'll hear that through the process.

947
01:32:51,240 --> 01:32:57,240
 Adam? Yeah, thank you for this. It's a really cool tool.

948
01:32:57,240 --> 01:33:07,240
 We've spent 70 years building a city for cars, not people, and I see you trying your best to rectify where you can.

949
01:33:07,240 --> 01:33:13,240
 All of that, and that's zoning and design, and it's a built environment that's a mess.

950
01:33:13,240 --> 01:33:19,240
 I'm really interested in going forward, how do we do better, and are we doing better?

951
01:33:19,240 --> 01:33:22,240
 Are we really now thinking about complete streets?

952
01:33:22,240 --> 01:33:25,240
 Are we really thinking about genuine walkability?

953
01:33:25,240 --> 01:33:30,240
 You know, sidewalk is an interesting term. It means it's on the side of something that's at the center.

954
01:33:30,240 --> 01:33:35,240
 Can we, and if so how, can we think about center walks?

955
01:33:35,240 --> 01:33:43,240
 In other words, how do we think about walking as the best way, not just to enjoy yourself, for a stroll, which is super important.

956
01:33:43,240 --> 01:33:49,240
 Like to actually go shopping, to actually get to school, to actually displace car trips.

957
01:33:49,240 --> 01:33:55,240
 Are we able to do that in the new developments? Can we do better?

958
01:33:55,240 --> 01:33:59,240
 And if so, how does your position weigh in on that?

959
01:33:59,240 --> 01:34:04,240
 Yeah, unfortunately a lot of that is out of my control because I'm in capital projects, not planning.

960
01:34:04,240 --> 01:34:14,240
 And you're asking questions that are very, very great questions because that's how we need to look at it.

961
01:34:14,240 --> 01:34:25,240
 So let me answer first how we're making improvements in how the city is delivering transportation projects and that complete streets aspect of things.

962
01:34:25,240 --> 01:34:35,240
 So earlier this year we adopted new transportation standards and that was a process that was done semi-infrequently.

963
01:34:35,240 --> 01:34:40,240
 And the process has been put in place to make those updates on an annual basis.

964
01:34:40,240 --> 01:34:47,240
 Part of that was as we were working on the mobility plan update and having those sort of what I'll call guiding principles,

965
01:34:47,240 --> 01:34:53,240
 what our vision is for what streets look like, we were able to make changes in the transportation standards

966
01:34:53,240 --> 01:35:01,240
 that say when you build this type of road, collector or arterial, whatever the road type is, this is the facility that goes along with it.

967
01:35:01,240 --> 01:35:08,240
 So if you build a Teasley Road today, the road that's currently under construction with sidewalks,

968
01:35:08,240 --> 01:35:11,240
 instead of having sidewalks it would have a side path.

969
01:35:11,240 --> 01:35:18,240
 So our standards have been updated to provide more robust facilities, greater separation from traffic.

970
01:35:18,240 --> 01:35:23,240
 So that term sidewalk that you referred to and how we get it more to the center,

971
01:35:23,240 --> 01:35:27,240
 we're actually not focusing on how to get it more to the center but how to make it more comfortable,

972
01:35:27,240 --> 01:35:32,240
 how to provide a better quality environment for anybody who wants to take those kinds of trips,

973
01:35:32,240 --> 01:35:39,240
 walk or bike or whatever it may be, transit, transits of what is really important.

974
01:35:39,240 --> 01:35:41,240
 So that's part of it.

975
01:35:41,240 --> 01:35:49,240
 But then the other part is the land use aspect which is that falls under planning and other planning and zoning board,

976
01:35:49,240 --> 01:35:57,240
 other folks who have the oversight because we can make a really great environment for somebody to walk on

977
01:35:57,240 --> 01:36:03,240
 but if the trip is too long, if you're trying to make a trip from outside the loop to downtown,

978
01:36:03,240 --> 01:36:06,240
 you're not going to make that trip in one foot, not likely.

979
01:36:06,240 --> 01:36:13,240
 There are some folks I've heard that walk that far but in general we have to acknowledge that trips have a certain distance

980
01:36:13,240 --> 01:36:18,240
 and outside of that distance most users are going to go get their car.

981
01:36:18,240 --> 01:36:20,240
 There are certainly limitations to that.

982
01:36:20,240 --> 01:36:24,240
 Somebody who doesn't have a car may choose to ride their bike.

983
01:36:24,240 --> 01:36:29,240
 Somebody who doesn't have a car or bike might walk and those trip distances would be outside the norms

984
01:36:29,240 --> 01:36:32,240
 but in general people are going to walk a half mile or less.

985
01:36:32,240 --> 01:36:35,240
 People might ride their bike two miles.

986
01:36:35,240 --> 01:36:42,240
 So part of that is really us as a city working to make sure that we want to have this walking and biking activity,

987
01:36:42,240 --> 01:36:47,240
 we're pairing that land use with it to make sure that those trips are within a reasonable distance.

988
01:36:47,240 --> 01:36:55,240
 And I'm looking at it, I'll scroll out of this thing because it didn't load up,

989
01:36:55,240 --> 01:37:03,240
 I'm looking at that same sort of principle as we look around the city for do we have a neighborhood shopping center,

990
01:37:03,240 --> 01:37:06,240
 there's a certain distance away from a neighborhood shopping center,

991
01:37:06,240 --> 01:37:10,240
 we can create the opportunity to take those trips by foot or by bike.

992
01:37:10,240 --> 01:37:15,240
 So that's not something that I've really been able to, I've only been here seven months,

993
01:37:15,240 --> 01:37:19,240
 I haven't had time to get that far into my approach yet.

994
01:37:19,240 --> 01:37:23,240
 But that is something that we'll look at is what a reasonable trip distance is

995
01:37:23,240 --> 01:37:27,240
 and how to make those trips accessible, walking or biking.

996
01:37:27,240 --> 01:37:34,240
 So that's part of our approach for the bike and bed program, I would say, is to look at that attraction generation

997
01:37:34,240 --> 01:37:37,240
 and start making investments that way.

998
01:37:37,240 --> 01:37:41,240
 Adam, did you have another follow-up, or Brian?

999
01:37:41,240 --> 01:37:43,240
 I just want to echo one more time what Matt was saying.

1000
01:37:43,240 --> 01:37:45,240
 Make sure you do this every time.

1001
01:37:45,240 --> 01:37:46,240
 Sorry.

1002
01:37:46,240 --> 01:37:50,240
 What Matt was saying I feel like may be the most important component of this data.

1003
01:37:50,240 --> 01:37:54,240
 If we really are using this to inform future projects,

1004
01:37:54,240 --> 01:38:00,240
 I would sincerely hope we see a lot more community-driven and participatory functions down the line.

1005
01:38:00,240 --> 01:38:06,240
 I know this just lives right now in your office and the avenue for people to engage with it is a discussion platform.

1006
01:38:06,240 --> 01:38:09,240
 I just hope that if that's where this data is going,

1007
01:38:09,240 --> 01:38:16,240
 you really want to see a lot more open contribution where people can make real place-based inputs

1008
01:38:16,240 --> 01:38:21,240
 for what you're driving these capital investments to be.

1009
01:38:21,240 --> 01:38:29,240
 And then two, to my opinion, a sidewalk is pretty much useless if the road I need to cross is a big barrier for me.

1010
01:38:29,240 --> 01:38:36,240
 So we mentioned the loop, we mentioned 35, and I see on your data here that crosswalks really aren't a factor.

1011
01:38:36,240 --> 01:38:44,240
 So how does that build into the connectivity argument of incorporating all these different dislocated links?

1012
01:38:44,240 --> 01:38:54,240
 Okay. I would say crosswalks, the reason you don't see crosswalks as a factor here is because we're really looking at that node to node,

1013
01:38:54,240 --> 01:38:57,240
 like what's the piece that needs to be built.

1014
01:38:57,240 --> 01:39:02,240
 And to me the crosswalk is the natural outcrop of building that link.

1015
01:39:02,240 --> 01:39:10,240
 I'm also, I bring a lot of background from industry best practices and I'm like in the focus,

1016
01:39:10,240 --> 01:39:17,240
 so I'm typically fighting with the traffic engineers about what's the appropriate crossing treatment type,

1017
01:39:17,240 --> 01:39:24,240
 not just the crosswalk but what should be at the crosswalk to help people safely get across the street.

1018
01:39:24,240 --> 01:39:28,240
 I think that's more where we're going to make standards into, you know,

1019
01:39:28,240 --> 01:39:35,240
 we'll incorporate or refer or by inference provide guidance that points to industry best practices.

1020
01:39:35,240 --> 01:39:43,240
 And the transportation criteria manual is sort of our guiding document and our standard details, investigations.

1021
01:39:43,240 --> 01:39:49,240
 So all that stuff that we say, this is what we expect to be provided based on certain parameters.

1022
01:39:49,240 --> 01:39:53,240
 We couldn't get that into the documents this year.

1023
01:39:53,240 --> 01:39:57,240
 I got here late enough that we couldn't go through that process.

1024
01:39:57,240 --> 01:40:04,240
 So like I said, that's an annual update that we'll be doing and we've made notes of all of those things that I want to include.

1025
01:40:04,240 --> 01:40:10,240
 So it'll be references to MACTO, references to ITE, walkable urban thoroughfares,

1026
01:40:10,240 --> 01:40:18,240
 all these different standards and best practices that we can refer to will help us then have that resolution

1027
01:40:18,240 --> 01:40:25,240
 that this is what we expect and what we're going to not only expect of developers but of ourselves.

1028
01:40:25,240 --> 01:40:33,240
 We deliver projects and I'm informing our capital projects as we're going through those to say,

1029
01:40:33,240 --> 01:40:39,240
 here are the facilities that I expect to be included in the projects that I at least have influence on.

1030
01:40:39,240 --> 01:40:41,240
 So you'll see things that are being constructed right now.

1031
01:40:41,240 --> 01:40:49,240
 I have no influence on anything that I take a look at, the design, providing that input as of six months ago.

1032
01:40:49,240 --> 01:40:50,240
 Do you have a thought on that?

1033
01:40:50,240 --> 01:40:56,240
 Yeah, I mean, I respect the weight of your experience and that's why I'm so happy that you're in the room arguing

1034
01:40:56,240 --> 01:41:00,240
 for the pedestrian qualities that we are really lacking in the city.

1035
01:41:00,240 --> 01:41:05,240
 I suppose just a counterpoint, because it's not represented as a need and to your point,

1036
01:41:05,240 --> 01:41:10,240
 you were able to influence discussions about what could be built in the future,

1037
01:41:10,240 --> 01:41:15,240
 not necessarily looking at what gaps exist right now but what had been built.

1038
01:41:15,240 --> 01:41:22,240
 So I'm just curious if there's a way to incorporate similar data sets of what you've done with the PPI maps

1039
01:41:22,240 --> 01:41:27,240
 that also contributes to real areas of need where there might not be the same connectivity

1040
01:41:27,240 --> 01:41:30,240
 even within block to block.

1041
01:41:30,240 --> 01:41:37,240
 Yeah, that's a really important point because, like I said, this is really focused on how do we close gaps

1042
01:41:37,240 --> 01:41:43,240
 and we have a tandem process, our ADA transition plan, which is also adopted in January.

1043
01:41:43,240 --> 01:41:48,240
 So our ADA transition plan is all those existing assets and making improvements to those.

1044
01:41:48,240 --> 01:41:50,240
 We have to look at the two programs together.

1045
01:41:50,240 --> 01:42:00,240
 So it's not like we're saying one's a gap project and one's a repair project and we don't see any overlap between the two.

1046
01:42:00,240 --> 01:42:08,240
 But we have to go through a similar evaluation of our ADA needs and there's a ton more subjectivity

1047
01:42:08,240 --> 01:42:15,240
 in what do we do about our existing infrastructure because the federal government gets a lot of latitude

1048
01:42:15,240 --> 01:42:22,240
 how we are going to prioritize improvements. Do we prioritize missing ramps and non-compliant ramps?

1049
01:42:22,240 --> 01:42:26,240
 Do we prioritize removing point conflicts like utility goals?

1050
01:42:26,240 --> 01:42:29,240
 So we have a lot of flexibility, which is good.

1051
01:42:29,240 --> 01:42:34,240
 It just makes it a little bit of a challenge to say where we need to make the improvements.

1052
01:42:34,240 --> 01:42:38,240
 What's the timeline and prioritization of that?

1053
01:42:38,240 --> 01:42:46,240
 My at least initial focus had been to use PPI, the same sort of PPI ranking that gives us sort of our hot spots

1054
01:42:46,240 --> 01:42:50,240
 of pedestrian activity around the city and then look at some of the greatest needs.

1055
01:42:50,240 --> 01:42:55,240
 So like missing ramps is the biggest because people can't get across a curb.

1056
01:42:55,240 --> 01:42:57,240
 So putting those in is certainly one of our highest priorities.

1057
01:42:57,240 --> 01:43:04,240
 But there are other factors that we have to look at to identify what we're going to fix first.

1058
01:43:04,240 --> 01:43:11,240
 And I've done a lot of work on that ADA side of like what is a true barrier versus what is something

1059
01:43:11,240 --> 01:43:15,240
 that's a pretty tough barrier that most people can get through.

1060
01:43:15,240 --> 01:43:20,240
 So very few people can get their wheelchair over a curb.

1061
01:43:20,240 --> 01:43:25,240
 I've seen a few people do it, but that is one of the biggest barriers that there is out there.

1062
01:43:25,240 --> 01:43:30,240
 But as a non-compliant sidewalk that's got a cross slip of 2.5%, there are a lot of them too.

1063
01:43:30,240 --> 01:43:37,240
 Is that a true barrier and should you focus your attention on making it fully compliant?

1064
01:43:37,240 --> 01:43:42,240
 My answer is always going to be if it's passable, if it means all the general geometry

1065
01:43:42,240 --> 01:43:45,240
 and it's just slightly out of compliance, I'm not going to focus on it.

1066
01:43:45,240 --> 01:43:47,240
 I need to put that attention somewhere else.

1067
01:43:47,240 --> 01:43:50,240
 So hopefully that answers your question.

1068
01:43:50,240 --> 01:43:53,240
 We have to do more work to get to that point.

1069
01:43:53,240 --> 01:43:59,240
 Our streets department does most of those repairs, so we're working with them to make those improvements.

1070
01:43:59,240 --> 01:44:04,240
 Some of that has been very driven by citizen input.

1071
01:44:04,240 --> 01:44:10,240
 We've put in at least one crosswalk in the city since I got here that was missing.

1072
01:44:10,240 --> 01:44:13,240
 We're looking at another one right now that's right next to UNT.

1073
01:44:13,240 --> 01:44:20,240
 So some of those are just an outcome of hearing from the community of where we have some challenges

1074
01:44:20,240 --> 01:44:22,240
 in getting out and making the corrections.

1075
01:44:22,240 --> 01:44:27,240
 But hopefully we'll have a more data-driven process for that this spring.

1076
01:44:27,240 --> 01:44:31,240
 One final question, Ken.

1077
01:44:31,240 --> 01:44:37,240
 So I know obviously a PPI is one method to evaluate our sidewalk qualities.

1078
01:44:37,240 --> 01:44:39,240
 I just wonder, is this available somewhere?

1079
01:44:39,240 --> 01:44:41,240
 You said we've been using it for quite some time.

1080
01:44:41,240 --> 01:44:47,240
 Yeah, all the information that you see on the screen is on a web-based platform.

1081
01:44:47,240 --> 01:44:48,240
 So everything that you see here.

1082
01:44:48,240 --> 01:44:50,240
 Finding the protocols for what's your PPI.

1083
01:44:50,240 --> 01:44:52,240
 It was difficult to read in the fields.

1084
01:44:52,240 --> 01:44:56,240
 If you open it up within your embedded maps, what the field actually meant

1085
01:44:56,240 --> 01:44:59,240
 and how you collected that.

1086
01:44:59,240 --> 01:45:05,240
 I'm just interested if you had a protocol breakdown of what you did to give these scores.

1087
01:45:05,240 --> 01:45:10,240
 Yeah, it's basically this portion of the presentation if I go back here.

1088
01:45:10,240 --> 01:45:13,240
 So there are major streets.

1089
01:45:13,240 --> 01:45:17,240
 And you're saying you want to look at the attribute table and see what all the points are.

1090
01:45:17,240 --> 01:45:22,240
 So each of these has an attribute in a table that gets a point.

1091
01:45:22,240 --> 01:45:27,240
 The only one that's broken out separately, because I wasn't sure if I applied points differently

1092
01:45:27,240 --> 01:45:31,240
 to six-lane versus four-lane versus two-lane streets, is the major streets.

1093
01:45:31,240 --> 01:45:38,240
 So we ran a geospatial analysis that basically just says I can capture anything

1094
01:45:38,240 --> 01:45:41,240
 within a certain distance of whatever the factor is.

1095
01:45:41,240 --> 01:45:44,240
 So the factors were streets, schools.

1096
01:45:44,240 --> 01:45:50,240
 Schools, I think, were based on the center line, like a point at the school location.

1097
01:45:50,240 --> 01:45:53,240
 Same for government facilities.

1098
01:45:53,240 --> 01:45:57,240
 Points of interest was we have like 4,000 points of interest in the city.

1099
01:45:57,240 --> 01:46:02,240
 So that's everything from home-based businesses, which was a little bit of a challenge,

1100
01:46:02,240 --> 01:46:06,240
 home-based businesses to everything that's inside the mall.

1101
01:46:06,240 --> 01:46:10,240
 And then running that same sort of distance-based analysis.

1102
01:46:10,240 --> 01:46:14,240
 And then crashes, this was all of our pedestrian crashes around the city.

1103
01:46:14,240 --> 01:46:19,240
 And then each one of those, I ran the analysis and it picked up the line.

1104
01:46:19,240 --> 01:46:26,240
 It would then, once it selected at a point, accumulate all the points, gives you the PPI score.

1105
01:46:26,240 --> 01:46:30,240
 And each of them, the names are a little bit wonky

1106
01:46:30,240 --> 01:46:35,240
 because you can't have spaces in the attribute table or in GIS.

1107
01:46:35,240 --> 01:46:43,240
 So they might say something like MJR_RD_2_LN, something like that.

1108
01:46:43,240 --> 01:46:50,240
 So there's a little bit of, you kind of have to figure those fields out,

1109
01:46:50,240 --> 01:46:55,240
 but they sort of make sense if you pair the name with these fields right here.

1110
01:46:55,240 --> 01:46:57,240
 Thank you so much.

1111
01:46:57,240 --> 01:46:58,240
 Mr. Saban?

1112
01:46:58,240 --> 01:47:00,240
 Yeah, just a suggestion.

1113
01:47:00,240 --> 01:47:02,240
 Yes, sir.

1114
01:47:02,240 --> 01:47:08,240
 The quality of the information that's going into the PPI index,

1115
01:47:08,240 --> 01:47:16,240
 it is imperative that we hear and consider the needs of the taxpaying community.

1116
01:47:16,240 --> 01:47:25,240
 You know, being a taxpayer in the city and the projection of tax rates to continue to increase on our homes,

1117
01:47:25,240 --> 01:47:31,240
 we need a sidewalk and I'm paying towards sidewalks and I can't get a sidewalk.

1118
01:47:31,240 --> 01:47:39,240
 The PPI needs to include, it needs to factor in that consumer concern such as that.

1119
01:47:39,240 --> 01:47:44,240
 And then forward thinking, with the aging of the community,

1120
01:47:44,240 --> 01:47:48,240
 walking is a very important part of our future health.

1121
01:47:48,240 --> 01:47:53,240
 So I would just want to suggest that that become part of the factor, you know,

1122
01:47:53,240 --> 01:48:00,240
 the aging of the community and the accessibility to take a good walk

1123
01:48:00,240 --> 01:48:02,240
 in your immediate community.

1124
01:48:02,240 --> 01:48:06,240
 I like to talk to Parks about beautifying it and so forth,

1125
01:48:06,240 --> 01:48:08,240
 but the point I want to make here is, yeah,

1126
01:48:08,240 --> 01:48:17,240
 we want to make this information more qualitative in terms of what is the taxpayer desire and need.

1127
01:48:17,240 --> 01:48:21,240
 And I think it's been spoken to well so far.

1128
01:48:21,240 --> 01:48:27,240
 So my part is just I highly recommend, however we can fit that into the PPI index,

1129
01:48:27,240 --> 01:48:31,240
 the calculator would help us from a sustainability perspective.

1130
01:48:31,240 --> 01:48:35,240
 And I'll say thank you for the comment because it does remind me

1131
01:48:35,240 --> 01:48:39,240
 that there were another limitation of when we ran this evaluation

1132
01:48:39,240 --> 01:48:41,240
 and I think it's still true today.

1133
01:48:41,240 --> 01:48:44,240
 I don't think the data is going to come out until at least next month.

1134
01:48:44,240 --> 01:48:48,240
 But one of the ways that I did hope to look at this data was through the new census

1135
01:48:48,240 --> 01:48:53,240
 because that will provide some really good information about aging in place

1136
01:48:53,240 --> 01:48:58,240
 or, you know, there are a lot of metrics that get put into the census data

1137
01:48:58,240 --> 01:49:00,240
 and then we can run an evaluation against that.

1138
01:49:00,240 --> 01:49:06,240
 And if that data hasn't published yet, to my knowledge at least, it should be out soon.

1139
01:49:06,240 --> 01:49:09,240
 So as that data becomes available, I think that will be really helpful.

1140
01:49:09,240 --> 01:49:13,240
 We'll be able to start running an evaluation against some of those metrics

1141
01:49:13,240 --> 01:49:19,240
 that, you know, socioeconomic based evaluation will give us some really interesting ways

1142
01:49:19,240 --> 01:49:24,240
 to reevaluate PPI and make it a more robust evaluation.

1143
01:49:24,240 --> 01:49:26,240
 Like I said, this is a good starting point.

1144
01:49:26,240 --> 01:49:33,240
 But we by no means consider this PPI score to be the final result or the final evaluation approach.

1145
01:49:33,240 --> 01:49:38,240
 I appreciate your comments because I agree that those are very important variables.

1146
01:49:38,240 --> 01:49:39,240
 And just a follow-up.

1147
01:49:39,240 --> 01:49:40,240
 Go ahead.

1148
01:49:40,240 --> 01:49:50,240
 I heard you say TWU, UNT, and downtown drives your prioritizing repairs, replacements, and so forth.

1149
01:49:50,240 --> 01:49:57,240
 And yet I don't know how much those institutions were not downtown businessmen.

1150
01:49:57,240 --> 01:49:59,240
 I understand they pay taxes and so forth.

1151
01:49:59,240 --> 01:50:06,240
 But that community or the lifeline to the revenue stream to the city

1152
01:50:06,240 --> 01:50:10,240
 and the community needs to be factored in there.

1153
01:50:10,240 --> 01:50:18,240
 When I think about the UNTs and the TWUs, you're catering to a lot of people, absolutely necessary.

1154
01:50:18,240 --> 01:50:20,240
 You're catering to a lot of transient people.

1155
01:50:20,240 --> 01:50:21,240
 They come and go.

1156
01:50:21,240 --> 01:50:24,240
 They walk on great sidewalks while they were at the university.

1157
01:50:24,240 --> 01:50:28,240
 But the everyday citizen, kind of getting the short end of the stick.

1158
01:50:28,240 --> 01:50:29,240
 I'm done.

1159
01:50:29,240 --> 01:50:30,240
 That's my situation.

1160
01:50:30,240 --> 01:50:33,240
 Yeah, I by no means mean we're only focused in those areas.

1161
01:50:33,240 --> 01:50:34,240
 Perfect.

1162
01:50:34,240 --> 01:50:41,240
 But from where we have the highest potential to change trips from cars to other modes,

1163
01:50:41,240 --> 01:50:43,240
 those are the areas where we have the highest potential.

1164
01:50:43,240 --> 01:50:47,240
 And I'm looking at other, like I mentioned a little while ago at least,

1165
01:50:47,240 --> 01:50:53,240
 I'm trying to find ways to look at those other areas outside of those three places.

1166
01:50:53,240 --> 01:51:00,240
 The big challenge that I would suggest outside of those three key areas within the city

1167
01:51:00,240 --> 01:51:05,240
 is just the barriers that we've got, mostly 35, which is an area we've focused on a lot

1168
01:51:05,240 --> 01:51:11,240
 as part of our bike program work and working with Gary and Parks on trails connectivity

1169
01:51:11,240 --> 01:51:13,240
 because 35 is a major barrier.

1170
01:51:13,240 --> 01:51:16,240
 We've had a lot of conversations and texts out about that as well.

1171
01:51:16,240 --> 01:51:21,240
 But I don't want to misinterpret the work that we're doing.

1172
01:51:21,240 --> 01:51:23,240
 We're not just focused in those three areas.

1173
01:51:23,240 --> 01:51:29,240
 Those just happen to be the areas from a pedestrian perspective that are going to drive the most trips.

1174
01:51:29,240 --> 01:51:32,240
 Thank you.

1175
01:51:32,240 --> 01:51:35,240
 I have some questions and comments, but I think Ed?

1176
01:51:35,240 --> 01:51:37,240
 Yeah, just a very short observation.

1177
01:51:37,240 --> 01:51:42,240
 This sidewalk was put in on Nauticam Drive.

1178
01:51:42,240 --> 01:51:44,240
 That's an area where I live.

1179
01:51:44,240 --> 01:51:55,240
 And I was pleasantly amazed at how that one strip is unified in that neighborhood

1180
01:51:55,240 --> 01:52:03,240
 and increased socialization amongst people because we walk on that, people walk on their dogs, whatever.

1181
01:52:03,240 --> 01:52:07,240
 I mean, it's amazing how many people are coming out now and walking.

1182
01:52:07,240 --> 01:52:10,240
 And you meet new people, you meet neighbors you didn't know you had.

1183
01:52:10,240 --> 01:52:18,240
 So I mean, the social aspect of sidewalks is absolutely incredible in that respect.

1184
01:52:18,240 --> 01:52:24,240
 And I think that should be taken into consideration as well, if it isn't already.

1185
01:52:24,240 --> 01:52:29,240
 Yeah, I tried to refer to that a little bit in how the projects will have to be delivered.

1186
01:52:29,240 --> 01:52:34,240
 But basically, we can't just look at a project and say we're going to build all the BPI 6 and 5s.

1187
01:52:34,240 --> 01:52:38,240
 We have to look at every investment we make from a network perspective.

1188
01:52:38,240 --> 01:52:48,240
 So the project you're Nauticam sidewalk that you're referring to makes the connection that goes north of university, it goes up.

1189
01:52:48,240 --> 01:52:55,240
 So having those connections fill in gaps in the sidewalk network and not stop short

1190
01:52:55,240 --> 01:52:58,240
 so somebody can't get to where they want to go to.

1191
01:52:58,240 --> 01:53:02,240
 I mentioned a lot of people there using the trail once they get on the sidewalk.

1192
01:53:02,240 --> 01:53:12,240
 So it is important to acknowledge that these projects have to deliver a complete link from one sidewalk to the next.

1193
01:53:12,240 --> 01:53:22,240
 They can't just be we extended the sidewalk a few hundred feet because they're probably not going to drive that sort of engaging socialization.

1194
01:53:22,240 --> 01:53:26,240
 It won't have that benefit if we don't create those complete networks.

1195
01:53:26,240 --> 01:53:29,240
 So Paul, piggybacking on that, because that's my neighborhood too.

1196
01:53:29,240 --> 01:53:35,240
 And we worked on there was originally supposed to be two sidewalks on a north.

1197
01:53:35,240 --> 01:53:40,240
 And then we had a community member who lives there, Brian Beck, who's now a council member, suggest,

1198
01:53:40,240 --> 01:53:46,240
 well, why don't we divide those up, do one on Old North and one on Nottingham because we have the money for it.

1199
01:53:46,240 --> 01:53:49,240
 But Nottingham still didn't go all the way to Windsor.

1200
01:53:49,240 --> 01:53:52,240
 Although it was supposed to, it stopped a block short.

1201
01:53:52,240 --> 01:53:55,240
 So there's not that connectivity to the bike lane that's on Windsor.

1202
01:53:55,240 --> 01:54:01,240
 It just is another sidewalk we have in our community that just stops.

1203
01:54:01,240 --> 01:54:04,240
 But that's that's another topic.

1204
01:54:04,240 --> 01:54:07,240
 So I wanted to thank you for being here.

1205
01:54:07,240 --> 01:54:11,240
 We were given a budget, this sustainability.

1206
01:54:11,240 --> 01:54:17,240
 And part of that is since our transportation is the highest polluter,

1207
01:54:17,240 --> 01:54:26,240
 some of that funding we were looking to to go into marketing to get people off, you know, out of cars and into the community on bikes and walking.

1208
01:54:26,240 --> 01:54:32,240
 And we wanted to make sure that before we recommended that that we had a safe place to recommend that they go.

1209
01:54:32,240 --> 01:54:37,240
 And so we wanted to come here to see I wanted you to come here to present.

1210
01:54:37,240 --> 01:54:40,240
 So we know what's in store.

1211
01:54:40,240 --> 01:54:46,240
 I know this is just the sidewalk part of it and not necessarily the bike lane part of it.

1212
01:54:46,240 --> 01:54:52,240
 But that's all included and it's all important for us as we look to reduce those emissions and, you know,

1213
01:54:52,240 --> 01:55:00,240
 make sure that people are safe and healthy as they're getting out of cars and mobility.

1214
01:55:00,240 --> 01:55:05,240
 And part of that is, like you said, code and planning.

1215
01:55:05,240 --> 01:55:13,240
 And I know that we have a developmental code committee that is that is meeting and they make recommendations.

1216
01:55:13,240 --> 01:55:23,240
 Have you presented to them some of your ideas as far as what you have to to help to help with these going forward?

1217
01:55:23,240 --> 01:55:35,240
 Like for the built community? Yeah, I would say I haven't met with code. Now, the city's code refers to the transportation criteria manual and transportation standards in our specs.

1218
01:55:35,240 --> 01:55:46,240
 So Capital Projects has the we lead the charge on what are the standards and how how would they do the work.

1219
01:55:46,240 --> 01:55:56,240
 Development just refers over to what we say and then requires that of the developer or anybody who's doing some kind of improvement on the street.

1220
01:55:56,240 --> 01:56:01,240
 So like DCTA is an example, but not developers working on our streets or our utility companies.

1221
01:56:01,240 --> 01:56:10,240
 Well, there's a city council code, development code committee that needs to talk about ways to improve our code.

1222
01:56:10,240 --> 01:56:18,240
 And so maybe, you know, if you had some ideas for our built community. Yeah, I've not met with them. I was not even aware that was.

1223
01:56:18,240 --> 01:56:30,240
 Well, that's that might be something because for us, as we talk about existing codes and, you know, our goal is to get people out of cars and into the community safely.

1224
01:56:30,240 --> 01:56:41,240
 That might be just a suggestion, something that you to make me with. So is there on for the for the data?

1225
01:56:41,240 --> 01:56:51,240
 Is there data out there for every sidewalk or every section of sidewalk built that there's a reduced emission correlated to it?

1226
01:56:51,240 --> 01:57:06,240
 Is that possible? Probably the best data to look at in that regard is like mode share. So, you know, how many people are walking or biking and then cities or states look at that data over time.

1227
01:57:06,240 --> 01:57:23,240
 Brad advisor actually is one of the leading researchers in bike mode share and looking at that data over time. I can't point to anything that says you build a sidewalk and it will reduce carbon emissions or increase that mode share by a significant variable.

1228
01:57:23,240 --> 01:57:43,240
 That's usually I would say anecdotally the communities that invest in making biking and walking improvements that truly make safety enhancements. So the crosswalks example that say we're going to prioritize walking and biking and make it safe and comfortable.

1229
01:57:43,240 --> 01:57:58,240
 Tend to increase their mode shares the most because they're they're making those significant investments and they're changing behavior. Come from Washington, D.C. They had a huge investment in biking and they now have a huge bike mode share.

1230
01:57:58,240 --> 01:58:15,240
 It continues to increase every year and they make more investments every year. So I just see that as an outcome of the work, but it has to be sustained. It needs to be driven by all of those goals and making sure that we're not investing.

1231
01:58:15,240 --> 01:58:29,240
 The reason I was talking about the loop a little bit and you know some of this needing to look at demand is that if we're saying we're going to be a bike friendly community and we're going to focus on doing all these things that improve biking and walking,

1232
01:58:29,240 --> 01:58:39,240
 but we only look outside the loop in new developed areas and we're not looking inside our core is those places might be walkable, but they may not have a lot of demand to walk or bike.

1233
01:58:39,240 --> 01:58:52,240
 So we have to make very intentional change in the character of our city in the core or we're not going to really sort of it's not a genuine investment. It's not a genuine goal.

1234
01:58:52,240 --> 01:58:57,240
 So we have to be very intentional if we're going to make those changes.

1235
01:58:57,240 --> 01:59:11,240
 And on on those so I saw that in your PBI one of the main thing or the first thing that came up is major streets and one thing you probably notice of being new or not all of the streets here in Denton are Denton streets.

1236
01:59:11,240 --> 01:59:19,240
 We have a lot of textile streets and then there's some, you know, the universities who have streets, but they're still, they're not private streets.

1237
01:59:19,240 --> 01:59:36,240
 They're Denton streets. Have you when we talk about sidewalks on those, is that a like a special relationship where you have communication with textile or is it so like when I'm thinking right now thinking of University East.

1238
01:59:36,240 --> 01:59:52,240
 So as you're heading out, there's, you know, we talked about the people walking all the time on there. There's not sidewalks on either side. So going back in, if we were to build sidewalks there, that would be a text that issue, right?

1239
01:59:52,240 --> 02:00:06,240
 Not a, not a city, not a city build. Is that correct? Correct. Yeah. So we've had ongoing conversations with text. They've changed their standards. Like I mentioned today they would build a side path. 15 years ago they wouldn't even build a sidewalk.

1240
02:00:06,240 --> 02:00:20,240
 We're having those conversations with them on roads that they're turning over for city maintenance. So, yeah, there, there are a lot of mixed conditions of those facilities throughout the city and text.

1241
02:00:20,240 --> 02:00:34,240
 There's a lot on a lot of the roadways. Loop 288 is a big one that we're actually looking to make some sidewalk investments because of the junction relocating, relocating downtown the, our daily bread, I think it is.

1242
02:00:34,240 --> 02:00:42,240
 So, we are looking at some sidewalk investments like that, but the need is still a lot greater than, you know, what we're looking at right now.

1243
02:00:42,240 --> 02:00:55,240
 And there are people who are walking on those major roads. That's why I made that the first point in the presentation that, you know, somebody who needs to get along university, they're not going to find a connected network that parallels university.

1244
02:00:55,240 --> 02:01:05,240
 You can parallel portions of McKinney, but certainly those major roads are a way that people have to get around and we have to make them accessible.

1245
02:01:05,240 --> 02:01:16,240
 Would that be like a cost sharing situation, maybe? Right now, no. If we want to make those connectivity improvements, we can pay for them.

1246
02:01:16,240 --> 02:01:25,240
 If TxDOT has funding, then they will pay for them and we could look to do cost sharing, but I haven't seen any emphasis from TxDOT on those existing roads.

1247
02:01:25,240 --> 02:01:29,240
 When they would come back to do something else, they would make the investment.

1248
02:01:29,240 --> 02:01:43,240
 And then another one of your PPI calculations was safety. And I noticed that you had pedestrian crashes, but I didn't notice any bicycle crashes. Was that separate or is that still kind of included in that?

1249
02:01:43,240 --> 02:01:59,240
 It's not included because we were specifically looking at pedestrian. I would say we didn't have a lot of bicycle crashes as opposed to there's more pedestrian crash data than there is bicycle crash data. That's a trend that's typical.

1250
02:01:59,240 --> 02:02:13,240
 We look at bicycle crash data and I'll be looking at that as part of our bike program work. But even then, I would point out that outcome-based data, so where the crashes occurred, is just one indication of safety.

1251
02:02:13,240 --> 02:02:21,240
 There are a lot of other ways that we can look at safety and that gets somewhat to the questions about those crosswalks.

1252
02:02:21,240 --> 02:02:29,240
 Looking at the potential threat for somebody to have a crash or even, like I said, where the crash occurs may not be where the safety challenge is.

1253
02:02:29,240 --> 02:02:41,240
 So sometimes you have to acknowledge that somebody took a risk away from where they perceived a threat and they got hit. So there's a lot of different ways we have to look at safety, not just the crashes.

1254
02:02:41,240 --> 02:02:50,240
 And again, for this committee, if we're recommending people walk and bike, we want to make sure that those areas are addressed with the safety issues.

1255
02:02:50,240 --> 02:03:10,240
 I have just a couple more. So when we, the citizens voted in a bond, there was a section of sidewalks, like a list of sidewalks. Is that what you're going off of still or have you changed any of those with the new information that you have come up with?

1256
02:03:10,240 --> 02:03:23,240
 I can't speak robustly to the bond program and the sidewalk segments. I know a lot of the projects that you see in that project list or the map that's here has listed or discussed it.

1257
02:03:23,240 --> 02:03:32,240
 A fair amount of those were out of the bond program list. I don't know how many, so I'd be speculating to say anything beyond that.

1258
02:03:32,240 --> 02:03:41,240
 And on the, seeing the PPI calculation, when I saw it, it kind of reminds me of the OCI when you're talking about streets, but you're talking about sidewalks.

1259
02:03:41,240 --> 02:03:49,240
 And I know for us as a community, we invest a lot in our streets. We look at repair and maintenance and there's a budget for that.

1260
02:03:49,240 --> 02:04:03,240
 And I know at one time there wasn't a specific budget for sidewalks, but there needs to be one for repair and maintenance. Is that something that you have now or you're looking into?

1261
02:04:03,240 --> 02:04:19,240
 I would say the bonds previously, the theme that I heard entering capital projects is the bonds were street bonds that didn't consider bike or pedestrian connectivity. If those elements could be addressed, they might have been like a resurfacing project might have been a bike lane.

1262
02:04:19,240 --> 02:04:29,240
 But in general, those funds did not address other modes. That is something that needs to be reevaluated when future bonds are issued.

1263
02:04:29,240 --> 02:04:42,240
 I've also been sure to pass along that we have a requirement, a federal requirement that as we do road improvements, we at least address that missing or non-compliant ramp issue.

1264
02:04:42,240 --> 02:04:53,240
 So that's something that I was sure to pass along as well. We can't go in and fix the street and leave out the ramps. If we've got sidewalks, at least the ramps need to be compliant, even if what's behind it is not.

1265
02:04:53,240 --> 02:05:00,240
 That doesn't mean we build ramps to nowhere. It just means if there's a sidewalk and the ramp is missing or not compliant, it needs to be repaired.

1266
02:05:00,240 --> 02:05:27,240
 Last two, last two. So in there, I know that for the community and for me personally, equity is a big thing in the community and sometimes it doesn't seem like it's applied in every aspect. And so I heard you mention it just in the conversation, but I didn't see it addressed anywhere in here.

1267
02:05:27,240 --> 02:05:47,240
 So how do you make sure that when you look at these three main areas that you talked about, that we look at providing equal equality among the neighborhoods that need it rather than the university area?

1268
02:05:47,240 --> 02:06:04,240
 Where you may have heard me somewhat refer to equity was when I was talking about the census data, because that's where I think we'll probably see the best data to look from an equity perspective and also from a health perspective.

1269
02:06:04,240 --> 02:06:19,240
 And the data has just not been released yet. Census hasn't published. So some census data has been published, but like overall population and those other factors that will be really beneficial in those areas have not been put out yet.

1270
02:06:19,240 --> 02:06:34,240
 We've still been looking at equity in other aspects of our work, so you don't see it in the sidewalk plan, but it's certainly we're looking at it from other project bases, if you will.

1271
02:06:34,240 --> 02:06:41,240
 So it's not something that's being ignored. We did hear that in some of the earlier presentations as well. It's not a point that's lost.

1272
02:06:41,240 --> 02:06:51,240
 We're not going to make project selections based on the overall data, and there will be an equity aspect that's applied, especially as we get our hands on that data to take a look at it as well.

1273
02:06:51,240 --> 02:07:14,240
 And one of the challenges that I, when you mentioned the universities, one of the challenges I think we'll see in the data is that university students trigger some of the metrics like low income that could potentially skew the data as well and point us towards student housing areas where folks don't have higher incomes because they're students and they don't have a job.

1274
02:07:14,240 --> 02:07:32,240
 So I would be interested to see if the data has any of those correlations to make sure that we're not, by default, biasing our recommendations into those areas based on household incomes. We'll be looking at factors that help to avoid that sort of potential.

1275
02:07:32,240 --> 02:08:00,240
 I'm really glad to hear that. That's really important for us here on this committee, too. Last question. I heard you talk about ADA compliance and the federal, the regulations are kind of free, but I've also heard once you start work on, say you want to fix this ramp, then it triggers something and you have to completely upgrade that whole intersection to compliance.

1276
02:08:00,240 --> 02:08:28,240
 And so that is why, you know, you'll see more intersections not completed ADA wise. Is that a fair statement? Like, the funding has to be completely there to completely upgrade it if you're going to say, you know, if there's a hole in the ramp or something, you can't just go in and fill that hole without making everything else in compliance.

1277
02:08:28,240 --> 02:08:40,240
 Yeah, so the Justice Department defines compliance from an ADA perspective based on the ramps. So that's why the focus on intersections and not on anything around the intersections.

1278
02:08:40,240 --> 02:09:04,240
 So when we have a project that touches a ramp at an intersection, it triggers a requirement to make the intersection fully compliant. So like, we're working on a Sycamore Side Path project that goes from the A train station over to UNT, and that project goes through several intersections where because we touched one part of the intersection to put a trail through, we have to make the entire intersection compliant.

1279
02:09:04,240 --> 02:09:15,240
 That's just to make sure that we're not ignoring the needs of people passing through an intersection just because our project only touched one part and not the other.

1280
02:09:15,240 --> 02:09:36,240
 So that's where that criteria lies, and that's why we go in and resurface a road. Anything along the road at each intersection, the ramps have to be compliant. That's really the only criteria that the federal government has been very specific about. Then they give us the leeway of those other issues.

1281
02:09:36,240 --> 02:09:59,240
 If those crossroads or point conflict or things like that are in the sidewalk, we have more flexibility to determine what are our priorities and what we need to fix along a corridor first. So we have a lot more flexibility in that regard, but the intersection is sort of the main thing that needs to be fixed from a federal standard.

1282
02:09:59,240 --> 02:10:17,240
 And just last, I'd like your opinion because for us, this committee, as we go and we look at the funds, we want to make sure that we reduce pollution and we get cars off the road and we want to make sure that our community is safe and walkable and sustainable.

1283
02:10:17,240 --> 02:10:39,240
 Are we, how far away do you think we are? Are we at a good point right now where we can start spending those dollars to advertise to our community and market to our community to make those trips out of your vehicle and walking and biking when we're in regards to safety?

1284
02:10:39,240 --> 02:10:55,240
 Yeah, I'd say we have a lot of work to do in the sidewalk department. Especially, there were a lot of sidewalk deficiencies in downtown even, and that's one of our more walkable places outside of the campus, like on-campus areas.

1285
02:10:55,240 --> 02:11:13,240
 So, and I feel like we've heard a theme that a lot of our neighborhoods don't have sidewalks in them, or there are not a lot of sidewalks in the neighborhoods. There's still a lot of work to be done to make our city more walkable, more bikeable, and that's what our team and others around the city are working on every day.

1286
02:11:13,240 --> 02:11:30,240
 And I've heard it consistently as a priority of our current council and across the city, it's a big priority. Well, thank you, I think. Is everybody good? I have to add to the matrix, so not necessarily.

1287
02:11:30,240 --> 02:11:43,240
 Yeah, we're going to open that back up right after this. So I just want to thank you for coming to present to us, and I appreciate all the work you're doing. We know that there's a lot. There's a lot.

1288
02:11:43,240 --> 02:11:59,240
 Well, thank you for listening and sharing your comments. We'll go back and take a look at them and take them to heart. Rest assured, everything you said will be re-reviewed and we'll consider how we can improve this plan. We appreciate your comments. Thanks for having us here.

1289
02:11:59,240 --> 02:12:19,240
 You're welcome back anytime. Thank you. Alright, so we will go ahead and reopen our item for the matrix because of the things that we heard today. Go ahead. Yeah, so I was the one that asked for the transportation overview, and I really appreciate the overview of the sidewalks plan.

1290
02:12:19,240 --> 02:12:34,240
 The transportation is the kind of gorilla in the room for emissions and other things. So Nathan mentioned the new transportation standards. I'd love to hear about that. I'd love to hear about the broader mobility plan as well.

1291
02:12:34,240 --> 02:12:51,240
 I'd like to hear more about bike lanes and the bike program because we didn't hear about that today. I'd also like to hear more about vehicle idling standards because that's a low-hanging fruit that we could actually target for reducing emissions from the transportation sector.

1292
02:12:51,240 --> 02:13:07,240
 I'd also like to know what the plans are for slow streets. So fitting in with this presentation on sidewalks, those places where we can't put sidewalks, how do we enforce slower traffic where people have to walk on the road?

1293
02:13:07,240 --> 02:13:30,240
 And then I had a side thought that we know that there is this new infrastructure bill that's coming out. Does the city get some of that money? I mean, do we know what the plan is for that? So that's more just kind of a question about the infrastructure bill and what we might be in store for debt and what the plan is to do with that money.

1294
02:13:30,240 --> 02:13:47,240
 So I would like to hear more on transportation on a couple of those points because I think, as we all recognize in the climate, that is the biggest emitter and the biggest issue I think for a truly sustainable city. So I would like to hear a lot more.

1295
02:13:47,240 --> 02:14:02,240
 So we'll just add that to the matrix of presentation, more engineering probably, just transportation overall, biking streets. And then just I think on the transportation, the question on funding may be an update.

1296
02:14:02,240 --> 02:14:17,240
 We may want to pull somebody from development services in to talk about standards in new development. Okay. Anyone else? Matrix? We talked a little bit earlier, Ed?

1297
02:14:17,240 --> 02:14:46,240
 Yeah, I had a thing on the TUV matrix that's been on for over a year and I'd like to put it on our matrix in hopes of bringing it to fruition. And what that request was was to know the amount of electricity generated in both residential and commercial

1298
02:14:46,240 --> 02:15:00,240
 PV installations over a designated amount of time and the amount of that electricity that was returned to the grid.

1299
02:15:00,240 --> 02:15:17,240
 Thank you.

1300
02:15:17,240 --> 02:15:40,240
 I just want to reiterate, I think what I've heard different members say about all the different plans in the city. If we can have just an update on those and pull the sustainability parts out of each of those plans and make sure that they're

1301
02:15:40,240 --> 02:15:53,240
 all correlated or that they're working together and not against each other and that there is specific sustainability parts in each of the plans going forward.

1302
02:15:53,240 --> 02:16:10,240
 I think that was mentioned earlier, I just want to make sure that that's as an item.

1303
02:16:10,240 --> 02:16:28,240
 And I think we will move on to concluding items, but we pretty much did that I think under the matrix. If anybody has anything at this point that they want to say, if not, we will close the meeting.

1304
02:16:28,240 --> 02:16:32,240
 319. Thank you everyone.