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 We will get ready. I'll open the city council portion of the meeting and then lift the parks, PNZ and parks open air and then call our one-off work session item.

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 So today is Tuesday, December 5th, 2023, and it is 1102 a.m. and we do have a form for the council. So I'll call that meeting in order to turn it over to the chair of the PNZ.

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 Thank you mayor. With the quorum present, I will call this joint meeting of PNZ, city council, parks recreation board to order at 1102 a.m.

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 And with the quorum, I, George Fieri, the chair of the parks recreation and beautification board, will also call this joint meeting to order.

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 Great. So the first item is, and so welcome to everybody and thank you for being here. Our first item is item A, ID 231988, receive report and hold discussion, give staff direction regarding the community priorities for design downtown Denton plan.

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 Thank you mayor. So Tina Fergens, deputy director of development services. So thank you all for taking time out of your day and being here for this discussion. So we are excited to be able to share with you where we are with the design downtown Denton project for the city.

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 We're delighted to have you all together. We know this is a very important project for the city. We are doing this project per council's direction. So hence why it's even more important as we move forward.

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 Today we are going to be seeking your feedback on the community priorities. We will ask you to participate in some minty meter exercises. So it will require your cell phone at a certain point in time in the meeting.

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 So if you want to get your electronic devices handy, you can have that. But Zach will be very clear as to when we're seeking your feedback on those community priorities.

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 Those community priorities have been developed based upon all of the community engagement that has been done thus far with the project. And Zach will share some of that.

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 So what I would like to do is turn the podium over to Zach Lockram. He's with Men Collaborative and is our project manager. Also I'd like to note Cameron Robertson and Sean Jacobson on my team are also leading this effort.

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 Cameron is project manager and Sean is assistant. So if you ever have any questions related to the project, you're also more than welcome to reach out to them. So Zach.

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 I just want to also do a quick reminder that we are being live streamed. So if we are speaking from the table, just make sure you're speaking up so that we can make sure that we're getting that caught in the microphones as well.

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 Thank you, Tina. Very excited to be here with you all today, especially on such a beautiful day in Denton. We've been having a wonderful time interacting with the community over the last few days and have gotten to continue our public engagement, which we will share a little bit about a little bit later as well.

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 Just quickly, our agenda will go over quick introductions and the project overview. I'll talk a little bit about our case for action and some of our key findings. Talk about our public engagement results from this first phase. And as Tina said, the main portion of the meeting will be spent looking at our draft project vision and community priorities.

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 And the key piece of feedback that we want to make sure we're walking away with these meetings on is making sure that the priorities represent Council PZ and Park Board priorities and making sure that we have the right priorities, as that is what we are going to be building the actions that we will be taking on.

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 We'll do a little bit of next steps at the end. And I know all of you have a busy day with additional meetings as well. So we'll try and keep things moving along right on time.

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 My name is Zach Lockram. I am a partner at Mend Collaborative. We're an urban planning and landscape architecture firm based in Minneapolis, Minnesota and Austin, Texas. And we are the lead consultant on the Design Downtown Denton plan.

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 I'm joined by my partner Michelle Bright, who is the principal in charge and conducts our quality control. Todd Austin, who's our deputy project manager. And at other times when we're having some of the public meetings, you may also meet Sandy Molnar's Comstock, who will be leading our open space component.

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 We have a larger team as well. That's really excellent specialists in each of their fields. Host of Preservation is our historic preservation lead. Nelson Nygaard, who's represented by Jackson Archer, who's here, is our mobility lead.

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 And then we have two different groups working with us on the economic development strategy from a couple of different perspectives. So Bill Fulton group is an expert on really the city tools and all has a lot of expertise and has actually been both a mayor and a council member.

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 In the past as well, and is really an expert on utilizing city school city funding to achieve strategic outcomes. And the catalyst group brings additional expertise on the developer side and really understanding the ways that development works and the ways that that can partner with city to achieve a strategic vision as well.

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 For our project overview, we just want to start by telling you the area that we are primarily looking at. It is the area bounded by Carroll Avenue, Eagle, Bell and Mingo, Ruttle, and then University Drive.

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 So you can see it is a, you know, there are still times when we're talking to the public where we say downtown and people hear the square, but we're talking about an area that's bigger than the square as we're thinking about the interconnectedness of all of these, these sort of areas and neighborhoods in the central part of Denton as well.

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 In our project approach, we started off with a process of gathering public engagement and doing research. So looking at both the data that's available to us from the city, the county, the federal government, as well as looking at best practices and looking at similarly sized communities and some of the different things that they've done.

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 All of that research that we do has been combined into something that we call the case reaction, and it's what lays out our key findings and really helps point us towards what some of our key opportunities and challenges might be.

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 We also are doing public engagement and we've done and we'll go into a little bit more detail about that. We've done a really robust set of initial engagement that has helped us really develop key themes and priorities that have come directly from the community.

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 Those two things have really been put together into what we're calling the community priorities. And again, this is the main thing that we want to hear more from you about today.

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 The community priorities give us strategic direction of what it is that we are trying to achieve with this plan, which is really a 10 to 15 year vision. So they're giving us direction on the Denton that we want to be living in in 15 years, right?

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 Using those priorities, our next step will be to develop actions that are based on those priorities that will help us get towards the future that will include projects. It will include policies. It will include programs and using all of the strategic tools that the city can use to move towards one vision, which is ultimately the goal of the plan.

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 From that, we will also be developing catalyst projects. So these might be a little bit larger projects, but ones that will be especially transformative and will be key elements of moving forward. We'll also be looking at easy wins and pilot projects.

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 So thinking about the ways that the steps that we need to take to get towards that vision over this 10 to 15 years that this plan will really be looking at.

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 You all may have noticed our great graphic design. One of the things that we wanted to do was really celebrate the artists who are here in the community and we were able to work with a local artist named Jude Landry to help us develop this brand.

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 The D as you see it actually contains little elements that really highlight some of the key elements that will be working on the plan. Historic preservation, arts and culture, business and small development, sorry, small business and development, mobility and parks.

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 So the case for action document is a roughly 50 page presentation that I'm not going to make you all sit through. So you don't have to worry about that. That includes our research from data sources. It includes best practices and analysis.

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 And we will actually be releasing a video recording of the entire case for action so that everyone who wants to dive in and see all of the different data elements will have the opportunity to do that.

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 But I have just a little snippet that I wanted to pull out for you all specifically looking at some of the development analysis that we did.

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 We approached the development analysis by starting off by looking at our available land area and thinking about how we can analyze to find some of the best blocks for new improvements or new opportunities.

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 We combined land value, ownership complexity, tax based trends, infrastructure encumbrances into an aggregate that helped us look at the way that sort of land is laid out.

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 What we found from that is that right now as it stands with our current market, much of the downtown land will require some partnership to move projects forward.

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 This is mainly due to the ownership complexity and the infrastructure encumbrances that are on many of the blocks within this study area. We also were looking specifically at we wanted to see what impact has bringing land out of the floodplain that used to be in the floodplain had.

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 And largely what we found is essentially a big part of our analysis was in the tax based trends and land values and because that's come out so recently we actually don't know the impact yet.

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 So we'll be continuing to closely monitor that and look at the ways that that kind of changes our opportunities.

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 In addition to doing an analysis of the land, we also did an analysis of forecast and looking at what we might be able to bring in in terms of new development in 10 years in terms of the demand.

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 The forecast revealed that we have a market demand for more than 300,000 square feet of retail.

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 And despite the covert impacts that we were also showing ability to be able to accommodate about 50,000 square feet of office space as well.

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 We also did an analysis looking at the market demand and found that we have an ability to absorb over 900 units within the downtown area in a variety of different housing types, including ownership and rental opportunities and really actually across the board from a financial perspective.

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 Some of the biggest needs were really in some of the luxury and upmarket opportunities as well as for seniors and assistive living.

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 I'm going to talk for a minute about some of our public engagement results for our initial phase of public engagement.

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 We did a number of both pop up opportunities.

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 So going out to different events that the community was present at and having conversations with them as well as doing online engagement.

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 And we did three kind of main areas of opportunities for each of them.

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 You could do them either online or in person.

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 We had a social map, we had some visioning activities, and then we did a significant amount of surveys as well.

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 On the online component, we received over 900 comments on the online map.

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 I like to call out I was the project manager for the city of Houston's downtown plan.

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 You guys almost matched their number as a city of 140,000 compared to a city of three and a half million.

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 So very impressive results in terms of the number of people who actually participated.

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 We had over 3000 people actually visit the online portal.

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 People were also able to up vote and down vote other people's comments.

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 And we had a lot of interactions there as well.

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 More than 3000 total reactions looking at the other different types of comments that people were leaving.

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 And then in addition to that, our pop ups, there were 100 additional map comments that were left as a part of that.

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 There were some key themes that came out of the public engagement.

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 And the circles that you see here are actually sized based on the number of comments we received on each of these areas.

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 So you can see that the top four areas were in bicycle and pedestrian mobility, retail and development, parks and public spaces, and arts and entertainment.

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 And one of the things that I think is really interesting about that list is one of the things that we've been thinking about a lot is what are the irreplaceable economic drivers of downtown?

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 What are the competitive advantages that you don't have anywhere else in the city and that you probably wouldn't be able to replicate, at least not with a lot of work?

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 Some of those things that have come up are the walkability downtown.

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 So you see that bike pad was one of the key things that we received a lot of comments on.

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 The small business environment downtown, the open spaces downtown, and of course the arts and entertainment.

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 So in terms of alignment between things that the community cares about and things that are possible economic drivers for downtown, we see actually a lot of alignment between those areas.

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 And I think that's really exciting because that really helps us point towards some opportunities and ways forward.

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 We also did a visioning activity where we were asking sort of broader, more kind of emotional qualitative questions around why people love downtown and what they think downtown needs more of.

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 We received several hundred comments in each of these categories that have also helped us with understanding some of the sentiment and the where and why behind some of the other elements that we've got.

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 And then we also did a survey with our businesses, specifically looking for business owners and business managers to tell us a little bit more about what attracted them to downtown, how well the space is serving them today,

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 what they feel contributes to their businesses and what they feel they need more of, as well as what challenges that they've had within their businesses.

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 And that's another sort of very interesting set of detailed data that we've been able to have.

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 Last night we had a really wonderful vision workshop where we talked about some of these community priorities that we're going to be approaching today.

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 We had around 50 participants do a variety of different activities, really wonderful night and was really excited.

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 And I know at least a few of you in the room were able to attend last night as well.

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 So I'm going to get into the meat of our day today.

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 Just wanted to bring this back up again and just sort of remind you the case for action engagement have produced a set of community priorities and a vision statement that we've also worked on with our advisory group.

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 Those community priorities will then be translated into actions that we need to take in order to achieve the plan's vision.

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 And those actions will be further broken down in order for us to think about the phasing, the timing and the emphasis on different types of actions that could be taken.

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 So, again, our setting the community priorities correctly is extremely important for our ability to make sure that we are creating actions and recommendations that will move us in the direction that the community wants to go.

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 I'm going to start by just pulling up the vision statement that has been developed alongside our advisory committee.

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 All of you also have printouts of these just so that you have them in front of you if you want to be able to read them in a little more detail.

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 I'm not going to read everything on every slide, but I will read this one out because it's important.

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 Design downtown Denton to be a more walkable, beautiful, fun destination for shopping, working, learning and recreation that also serves as a hub of opportunity, welcoming all Dentonites.

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 Cultivate a vibrant and diverse residential community, preserve and expand the distinctive local businesses, foster a strong sense of community and safeguard the historic and artistic character while promoting growth and development.

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 So this is where we're trying to go in the next 15 years.

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 This is where we want to land.

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 The community priorities have been broken down into these eight categories, which again were the major themes that came up through our public engagement process as well as the research that we have done.

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 Right now I have them ordered by the number of comments that we received on them in the initial round of engagement.

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 Bike and pedestrian safety and mobility, retail and commercial development, parks and public space, arts, entertainment and events, traffic and transit, safety, housing development and culture.

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 This is the part where we're going to ask you to bring out your phones because we're going to have a little bit of interactive materials to be able to kind of look at this in the room while we're all together here.

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 I'll give you all a minute to get in there.

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 If you have trouble with the QR code, you can also join at menti.com and then the passcode here is 19671106.

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 We've got about seven people on so far. Let's give it another minute or two.

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 If anyone's having trouble, Michelle and Todd could come around and help as well.

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 So just raise your hand if you're if you're having trouble getting in there.

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 I've got 10 people on, 11, 14.

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 These guys will come around and help you out.

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 That's a good question.

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 Okay, so I'll give you some more instructions as we move forward as well.

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 So starting with bicycle and pedestrian safety and mobility.

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 Key priorities that came about out of this was a real focus on enhancing walkability, including sidewalks, lighting, landscaping, crosswalks, implementing safety measures at some of the dangerous intersections, connecting the university, the squares, the transit centers, both physically through public realm and in-field development as well as through a common downtown brand, promoting safer environment for cyclists by expanding protected bike lanes.

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 And regularly closing some side streets for public events and community gatherings.

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 So you have a printout of each of these in front of you so that you can kind of keep looking at them.

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 What we're going to do now on your phone, you're going to have two questions that pop up for you, and it's a little slider you can check from one to five.

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 First, how well do you feel these priorities capture downtown needs? So are we hitting on the right things in this category?

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 The second one is if you're thinking about today, this is for benchmarking a little bit. If you're thinking about today, how well do you think we're currently achieving those priorities?

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 So when you put those in and hit submit, we'll actually begin to see them on the screen.

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 And what you'll see, the 3.8 and 3.2 that we have right now are the averages. And then you can also see the distribution of the votes. So we can see most people are voting fours and fives in this section.

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 In this section, we're sitting kind of in the middle, around a three. We've had 10 people. I think they have a few more coming.

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 I think we've got 16. Okay, great. So the results in this one, as you can see, is that we have a fairly wide consensus that this is fairly important and that this is in the right direction.

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 And the sort of consensus is that we're doing okay in this area. We're kind of right in the middle in terms of how well we're currently serving this particular area.

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 Okay, we'll move on to the next one.

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 In retail and commercial development, invest in areas around the square to improve businesses and housing variety, public safety, overall aesthetics, improve public spaces to encourage foot traffic, and inspire building upkeep, emphasize the historical component and preservation,

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 protect and promote the local business community, especially -- well, it says including, but I think one of the things we've heard a lot about is continuing to really move beyond the square and really seeing that business community grow.

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 And then filling empty storefronts and vacant lots with unique local shops and food and beverage options.

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 So we have the same questions. How well do these priorities capture the needs? And how do you think downtown is currently doing in these priorities?

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 We're up to 14. I think we had 16 total. 17. Okay, perfect.

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 We have a couple more now, too. So you can see on this one, you know, we are at a point where, again, we have a pretty solid consensus that these are capturing downtown's needs pretty well.

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 And similarly, you can see that we are kind of doing right about in the middle in terms of how well we're doing currently.

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 Parks and public space, creating a network of green spaces and public parks with amenities such as community gardens, picnic areas, kids play areas, adding more trees and landscaping in public places, building outdoor amenities like public seating, restrooms, water fountains, and more.

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 Finding ways to activate underutilized areas such as alleys, vacant properties, and sidewalks, and preserving view corridors and viewsheds of downtown, including the courthouse and the Morrison-Milling silos.

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 Okay.

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 This is the highest one we've had in terms of capturing the priorities so far. And again, we're doing okay.

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 The interesting -- this one, the previous distribution was kind of -- most people actually did both three. This one we have some people who are lower down here at two and actually a larger group and then some folks who are a little bit higher as well.

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 for arts and entertainment, creating a marketing brand

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 for the downtown area and using the brand to tie downtown

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 to the surrounding community, encouraging and promoting

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 public art and musical initiatives and festivals,

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 building on current successes by adding new activities

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 and events, especially for children and families,

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 supporting the addition of interactive art, music,

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 sculptures, and lighting to create engaging spaces,

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 and then exploring the addition and improvement

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 of a variety of music and art venues, stages, and theaters.

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 So again, one of our potential economic development drivers

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 downtown as well.

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 Thank you, Greg.

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 So again, a fairly strong consensus

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 that we have captured some of the needs pretty well.

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 In this case, we're actually seeing

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 that people feel that we're actually

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 doing a little bit better in this area

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 than we are in some of the other ones as well.

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 In traffic and transit, improve roadway safety

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 for motorists, pedestrians, and cyclists

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 by implementing traffic closures

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 on certain streets during events,

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 as well as exploring road right sizing

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 and traffic calming initiatives.

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 Improving parking availability and management

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 by upgrading lots with trees landscaping,

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 adding wayfinding signage, considering construction

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 of public parking garage in downtown area,

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 enhancing accessibility and expanding

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 and improving bus routes to the transit center

163
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 and other key destinations.

164
00:25:17,160 --> 00:25:22,160
 So again, a good consensus a little bit higher

165
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 than some of the other ones, but this is another one

166
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 where it looks like folks feel

167
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 that we are not doing quite as well currently.

168
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 Safety, improving perception of safety

169
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 by partnering with service providers

170
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 to address homelessness concerns and needs,

171
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 designing streets with infrastructure

172
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 to enable street closures and support outdoor events,

173
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 define key pedestrian corridors,

174
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 improve streetscapes, shade canopy and lighting,

175
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 and improving maintenance and cleanliness on sidewalks.

176
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 So another one, we have, again, a fairly good consensus

177
00:26:19,800 --> 00:26:22,800
 that we're addressing the right areas,

178
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 and it looks like the, especially looking

179
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 at the distribution, this is one that a lot of people feel

180
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 that we need some sort of improvement

181
00:26:31,280 --> 00:26:33,040
 in the way that we are doing it.

182
00:26:33,040 --> 00:26:35,520
 So again, a little bit higher than some of the other ones,

183
00:26:35,520 --> 00:26:38,560
 but this is another one where it looks like folks feel

184
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 that we are not doing quite as well currently.

185
00:26:40,800 --> 00:26:43,600
 So again, a little bit higher than some of the other ones,

186
00:26:43,600 --> 00:26:45,520
 but this is one that a lot of folks feel

187
00:26:45,520 --> 00:26:48,000
 that we'd need some significant work in.

188
00:26:48,000 --> 00:26:53,560
 In housing development, address rising rents

189
00:26:53,560 --> 00:26:55,880
 and housing affordability through increased housing supply,

190
00:26:55,880 --> 00:26:58,200
 mixed-use development, and more residential options

191
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 to buy vibrant local communities.

192
00:27:00,560 --> 00:27:02,760
 Providing more housing options downtown,

193
00:27:02,760 --> 00:27:04,200
 establishing a variety of housing stock

194
00:27:04,200 --> 00:27:06,600
 that will appeal to many different residents.

195
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 [ Noise ]

196
00:27:32,880 --> 00:27:34,920
 So it looks like this one has, I think,

197
00:27:34,920 --> 00:27:36,920
 probably rated the lowest out of the priorities

198
00:27:36,920 --> 00:27:40,080
 that we have so far.

199
00:27:43,880 --> 00:27:46,800
 This is the final one, culture.

200
00:27:46,800 --> 00:27:48,800
 Foster increased diversity and inclusion

201
00:27:48,800 --> 00:27:50,120
 through the acknowledgement of history

202
00:27:50,120 --> 00:27:53,160
 and increased opportunities for all Dentonites.

203
00:27:53,160 --> 00:27:56,000
 Protect and continue to embody what people love most

204
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 about the feel of Denton, including the community pride,

205
00:27:58,280 --> 00:28:00,960
 welcoming atmosphere, and the historic scale.

206
00:28:00,960 --> 00:28:04,760
 Celebrate and connect downtown to Denton's colleges

207
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 and universities, and then highlight downtown culture

208
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 within the broader Denton community and county.

209
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 [ Noise ]

210
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 I think we've stopped moving.

211
00:28:48,720 --> 00:28:52,160
 So again, a fairly strong consensus, a little bit lower

212
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 than some of the other areas.

213
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 And then this, I think, is maybe the highest one we've seen

214
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 in terms of how we are currently doing

215
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 in terms of the culture area.

216
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 One of the other things that we want to do with you,

217
00:29:05,880 --> 00:29:08,440
 and this will be coming up on your screens now,

218
00:29:08,440 --> 00:29:10,720
 is just understanding what your priorities are

219
00:29:10,720 --> 00:29:12,280
 within these different categories.

220
00:29:12,280 --> 00:29:14,520
 If you were sort of organizing them.

221
00:29:14,520 --> 00:29:18,920
 So, as I said, our initial sort of, these are currently,

222
00:29:18,920 --> 00:29:21,040
 the order that I gave you, was the order of the number

223
00:29:21,040 --> 00:29:23,000
 of comments that we received from them.

224
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 And we really believe that all of these areas are important,

225
00:29:26,040 --> 00:29:28,000
 and these are all areas where when we're thinking

226
00:29:28,000 --> 00:29:31,120
 about improvements and catalyst projects especially,

227
00:29:31,120 --> 00:29:34,960
 we want projects that will address multiple of these areas.

228
00:29:34,960 --> 00:29:37,920
 We want things that are working in common with each other.

229
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 However, the benchmarking that we just did, as well as thinking

230
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 about how the community sort of prioritizes these as kind

231
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 of key needs and key opportunities,

232
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 is also an important component of the ways that we would work

233
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 to select some of those projects and put emphasis

234
00:29:55,120 --> 00:29:57,480
 on some projects over others.

235
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 So it looks like someone has kind of figured it out,

236
00:29:59,400 --> 00:30:02,640
 and all you do is you kind of drag them up and start

237
00:30:02,640 --> 00:30:06,520
 to put them in order, and we'll be seeing the averages pop

238
00:30:06,520 --> 00:30:10,920
 up here in terms of the way that you all organize them.

239
00:30:10,920 --> 00:30:12,840
 Once you've got them all in there in the order

240
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 that you want, you just hit submit,

241
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 and then we'll see it pop up on here, as well.

242
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 [ Background noise ]

243
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 [ Background noise ]

244
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 [ Background noise ]

245
00:31:30,480 --> 00:31:32,680
 >> Okay, we've got 17 folks in there.

246
00:31:32,680 --> 00:31:37,520
 We're maybe waiting for-- we had a couple more submitting earlier.

247
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 [ Background noise ]

248
00:32:06,080 --> 00:32:22,040
 [ Background noise ]

249
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 [ Background noise ]

250
00:32:40,680 --> 00:32:45,720
 >> Okay. Okay, okay, I think we're here then.

251
00:32:45,720 --> 00:32:48,360
 So the order that you all just gave us,

252
00:32:48,360 --> 00:32:52,080
 retail and commercial development, first.

253
00:32:52,080 --> 00:32:54,800
 Traffic and transit priorities, second.

254
00:32:54,800 --> 00:32:57,880
 Bike and pedestrian safety and mobility, third.

255
00:32:57,880 --> 00:33:00,640
 Safety is fourth.

256
00:33:00,640 --> 00:33:04,200
 Very close to a tie in fifth is arts and entertainment

257
00:33:04,200 --> 00:33:06,920
 and events and parks and public space.

258
00:33:06,920 --> 00:33:08,800
 And then housing development

259
00:33:08,800 --> 00:33:13,040
 and culture are the last areas here.

260
00:33:13,040 --> 00:33:15,800
 So definitely a very interesting organization.

261
00:33:15,800 --> 00:33:17,400
 You know, we continue to see retail

262
00:33:17,400 --> 00:33:19,920
 and commercial development being one of those key drivers

263
00:33:19,920 --> 00:33:22,120
 of what makes downtown, downtown.

264
00:33:22,120 --> 00:33:23,560
 That makes a lot of sense.

265
00:33:23,560 --> 00:33:25,440
 And part of the reason that we asked some

266
00:33:25,440 --> 00:33:27,720
 of these questions is you'll remember

267
00:33:27,720 --> 00:33:28,880
 in the mapping exercise

268
00:33:28,880 --> 00:33:31,120
 where we were getting the initial comments,

269
00:33:31,120 --> 00:33:33,920
 people were making specific comments about, you know,

270
00:33:33,920 --> 00:33:37,200
 specific opportunities for improvement.

271
00:33:37,200 --> 00:33:39,480
 So the top one that came

272
00:33:39,480 --> 00:33:42,360
 out of that was the pedestrian safety and bike safety.

273
00:33:42,360 --> 00:33:44,960
 And a lot of that we think is because people were putting,

274
00:33:44,960 --> 00:33:46,320
 like there were 20 pins looking

275
00:33:46,320 --> 00:33:49,040
 at specific different intersections whereas in some

276
00:33:49,040 --> 00:33:51,400
 of the other categories people might just make one comment

277
00:33:51,400 --> 00:33:53,680
 that was more general for a larger area.

278
00:33:53,680 --> 00:33:56,080
 So that's part of the reason that we're kind of asking

279
00:33:56,080 --> 00:33:58,960
 about priorities in multiple ways in order

280
00:33:58,960 --> 00:34:00,640
 to kind of think about that.

281
00:34:00,640 --> 00:34:02,920
 And as I said, I think one of the key things

282
00:34:02,920 --> 00:34:05,400
 that we'll be really looking at is what types

283
00:34:05,400 --> 00:34:08,320
 of catalyst projects could move forward retail

284
00:34:08,320 --> 00:34:12,160
 and commercial development, the transportation priorities,

285
00:34:12,160 --> 00:34:15,720
 parks and open space and the arts all at the same time.

286
00:34:15,720 --> 00:34:17,880
 You know, so these aren't mutually exclusive.

287
00:34:17,880 --> 00:34:19,040
 But it does help us in terms

288
00:34:19,040 --> 00:34:21,440
 of thinking a little bit about our emphasis.

289
00:34:21,440 --> 00:34:23,600
 We actually asked this question last night as well

290
00:34:23,600 --> 00:34:27,000
 and I will show you the order that they came in in terms

291
00:34:27,000 --> 00:34:29,880
 of the community that visited us last night.

292
00:34:29,880 --> 00:34:34,440
 So again, retail and commercial development at the top

293
00:34:34,440 --> 00:34:38,520
 in both times that we've done this, bike, pedestrian safety

294
00:34:38,520 --> 00:34:40,080
 and mobility came in second.

295
00:34:40,080 --> 00:34:42,160
 Safety, I think, and I'm going to switch back

296
00:34:42,160 --> 00:34:43,120
 and forth here real quick.

297
00:34:43,120 --> 00:34:47,920
 Safety came in fourth but came in third with the general public.

298
00:34:47,920 --> 00:34:51,760
 We saw the parts in public space, arts and housing,

299
00:34:51,760 --> 00:34:55,120
 all being fairly close together in that other one.

300
00:34:55,120 --> 00:34:58,080
 And then we had traffic and transit and culture coming

301
00:34:58,080 --> 00:35:02,080
 up as the last couple with the public group.

302
00:35:02,080 --> 00:35:04,640
 We're going to kind of continue asking these prioritization

303
00:35:04,640 --> 00:35:07,400
 questions so there will be some online activities as well

304
00:35:07,400 --> 00:35:09,600
 that will match up with this as we're kind of continuing

305
00:35:09,600 --> 00:35:13,880
 to broaden the feedback from a variety of different areas.

306
00:35:13,880 --> 00:35:16,440
 But the council member here actually brought

307
00:35:16,440 --> 00:35:17,680
 up a very interesting question

308
00:35:17,680 --> 00:35:19,600
 that I'm wondering if you would mind restating.

309
00:35:19,600 --> 00:35:25,080
 >> Yeah, I just asked why is number 8 separate from number 4

310
00:35:25,080 --> 00:35:27,880
 on the previous list, why is culture a separate item

311
00:35:27,880 --> 00:35:30,840
 than arts, entertainment and events?

312
00:35:30,840 --> 00:35:34,800
 >> Yeah, I mean I think that's a really, really good opportunity

313
00:35:34,800 --> 00:35:37,480
 and actually I think in looking at some

314
00:35:37,480 --> 00:35:40,360
 of these a little bit more deeply another potential

315
00:35:40,360 --> 00:35:43,600
 opportunity is the traffic and transit and the bike

316
00:35:43,600 --> 00:35:45,320
 and pedestrian safety and mobility,

317
00:35:45,320 --> 00:35:48,680
 a lot of those improvements are the same types of improvements.

318
00:35:48,680 --> 00:35:51,240
 They're just looked at from a couple of different perspectives.

319
00:35:51,240 --> 00:35:54,280
 So I do think that there might be some opportunities for us

320
00:35:54,280 --> 00:35:57,160
 to potentially combine some of these categories in order

321
00:35:57,160 --> 00:36:00,880
 to simplify things a little bit more that might again sort

322
00:36:00,880 --> 00:36:05,520
 of change some of the ways of people looking at it.

323
00:36:05,520 --> 00:36:07,280
 In the way that we had originally developed it,

324
00:36:07,280 --> 00:36:10,800
 that arts, entertainment and events was a little bit more

325
00:36:10,800 --> 00:36:15,360
 about like the Big Bang things if you will, the festivals

326
00:36:15,360 --> 00:36:17,440
 and those sorts of areas whereas culture is more

327
00:36:17,440 --> 00:36:20,520
 of an everyday lived experience.

328
00:36:20,520 --> 00:36:22,840
 But they really play into each other.

329
00:36:22,840 --> 00:36:26,360
 So I think your point is actually a very good one.

330
00:36:26,360 --> 00:36:28,960
 Yeah. I think at this point we want to open it

331
00:36:28,960 --> 00:36:31,360
 up to other questions or opportunities.

332
00:36:31,360 --> 00:36:34,760
 It seems like we have a fairly good consensus in the room

333
00:36:34,760 --> 00:36:37,000
 that we're pointing in a lot of the right directions

334
00:36:37,000 --> 00:36:40,400
 that there may be some things here and there

335
00:36:40,400 --> 00:36:44,840
 that could be added or expanded upon, challenges that we might want

336
00:36:44,840 --> 00:36:48,320
 to address as well but it seems like from this group

337
00:36:48,320 --> 00:36:53,080
 that we have here we actually have a fairly strong direction

338
00:36:53,080 --> 00:36:57,800
 that we have kind of a lot of the right things going on here.

339
00:36:57,800 --> 00:37:01,400
 So Mr. Mayor maybe I will allow you first

340
00:37:01,400 --> 00:37:04,360
 if you have any statements or questions you'd like to bring

341
00:37:04,360 --> 00:37:06,640
 up and then we can open it up to the room as well.

342
00:37:06,640 --> 00:37:09,440
 >> Yeah. So I thank you, great presentation.

343
00:37:09,440 --> 00:37:13,640
 And so what I'll just kind of shotgun my notes, right,

344
00:37:13,640 --> 00:37:18,120
 and you work them in as needed, right?

345
00:37:18,120 --> 00:37:21,840
 So you talk about an early in your presentation you talked

346
00:37:21,840 --> 00:37:24,040
 about bringing properties out of the floodplain

347
00:37:24,040 --> 00:37:27,720
 and that hadn't been studied enough or there's not enough time.

348
00:37:27,720 --> 00:37:30,800
 I'm curious about that because West Prairie Street was done I

349
00:37:30,800 --> 00:37:33,360
 think two, three years ago and so it seems

350
00:37:33,360 --> 00:37:35,240
 like we should have some data from that

351
00:37:35,240 --> 00:37:37,920
 but I'll take your direction from that.

352
00:37:37,920 --> 00:37:43,360
 Then you touched on luxury market if you will,

353
00:37:43,360 --> 00:37:46,120
 I think you said residences, maybe retail.

354
00:37:46,120 --> 00:37:49,400
 Maybe you said retail and then we had our own study on housing

355
00:37:49,400 --> 00:37:54,120
 that said from a housing stock we need higher end housing as well.

356
00:37:54,120 --> 00:37:58,120
 So I want to know more about that component

357
00:37:58,120 --> 00:38:00,840
 because I think that's important for us to capture

358
00:38:00,840 --> 00:38:03,840
 and understand what your analysis is showing there.

359
00:38:03,840 --> 00:38:07,160
 I want to hear about your process on accounting for voices

360
00:38:07,160 --> 00:38:08,480
 that you don't hear from.

361
00:38:08,480 --> 00:38:12,320
 Out of 151,000 people you heard from a percentage of those,

362
00:38:12,320 --> 00:38:15,320
 how do you then factor in those others in your analysis?

363
00:38:15,320 --> 00:38:17,440
 So I'd love to hear how the sausage is made.

364
00:38:17,440 --> 00:38:23,120
 And then definition of local, that's a big one for me

365
00:38:23,120 --> 00:38:26,520
 because you have like the shop local, all those things

366
00:38:26,520 --> 00:38:29,720
 but you could have a local person that owns a franchise, right?

367
00:38:29,720 --> 00:38:32,160
 Is that local or is that franchise?

368
00:38:32,160 --> 00:38:35,040
 You know, so just kind of how this document is going to guide

369
00:38:35,040 --> 00:38:38,400
 those decisions I think are what they're leveraging

370
00:38:38,400 --> 00:38:40,560
 as a definition for that is important to me.

371
00:38:40,560 --> 00:38:43,880
 From an art standpoint, I want to understand how you account

372
00:38:43,880 --> 00:38:50,280
 for the prohibition or the anxiety or the dissenting opinions

373
00:38:50,280 --> 00:38:53,200
 on using taxpayer dollars for payment, right?

374
00:38:53,200 --> 00:38:57,400
 So there is a hill to overcome.

375
00:38:57,400 --> 00:39:00,800
 We can debate on how big that hill is, but how do you account

376
00:39:00,800 --> 00:39:05,840
 for that in your analysis of suggestion for art and that need

377
00:39:05,840 --> 00:39:08,480
 and how do we overcome that and understanding those challenges

378
00:39:08,480 --> 00:39:10,280
 that would face anything we move there.

379
00:39:10,280 --> 00:39:13,320
 And then definition of affordable, you said affordable.

380
00:39:13,320 --> 00:39:17,800
 Obviously not trying to get you to, you know, co-op something

381
00:39:17,800 --> 00:39:20,040
 but just kind of what is your definition?

382
00:39:20,040 --> 00:39:23,440
 What is that range and what does that look like when you say

383
00:39:23,440 --> 00:39:25,640
 that in your study or in your report

384
00:39:25,640 --> 00:39:28,520
 or whatever we're having these conversations would be helpful.

385
00:39:28,520 --> 00:39:33,000
 And then lastly, we get into this a lot when you're talking

386
00:39:33,000 --> 00:39:35,200
 about downtown area, you talk about bringing stuff

387
00:39:35,200 --> 00:39:36,520
 out of the floodplain.

388
00:39:36,520 --> 00:39:38,640
 Well, how much of that land is developable?

389
00:39:38,640 --> 00:39:42,680
 Truly accessible, able to be developed versus, hey,

390
00:39:42,680 --> 00:39:45,160
 there's a piece of land here that we're never going

391
00:39:45,160 --> 00:39:48,960
 to do anything with or there's a traffic encumbrance or something.

392
00:39:48,960 --> 00:39:53,360
 But just that developable land analysis or kind

393
00:39:53,360 --> 00:40:00,400
 of specific areas where you see opportunities despite other areas

394
00:40:00,400 --> 00:40:02,160
 where there may be opportunity but you can't get to it

395
00:40:02,160 --> 00:40:05,640
 or it's too far off or make a left turn here is not doable

396
00:40:05,640 --> 00:40:06,960
 but it's an empty piece of land.

397
00:40:06,960 --> 00:40:10,960
 So Google Maps view versus reality analysis.

398
00:40:10,960 --> 00:40:13,480
 >> Yeah, and those are all great.

399
00:40:13,480 --> 00:40:15,880
 We're going to-- I'm going to take down notes

400
00:40:15,880 --> 00:40:17,120
 on everybody's comments here.

401
00:40:17,120 --> 00:40:18,920
 I might not be able to actually address them all

402
00:40:18,920 --> 00:40:21,560
 in the room today but they're all definitely elements

403
00:40:21,560 --> 00:40:23,400
 that we will follow up on.

404
00:40:23,400 --> 00:40:28,000
 I think I will just-- to that last point with regards

405
00:40:28,000 --> 00:40:31,440
 to the components that just came out of the floodplain most recently

406
00:40:31,440 --> 00:40:37,320
 with the most recent projects, a large portion of that is developable.

407
00:40:37,320 --> 00:40:39,720
 There are some challenges in terms of some

408
00:40:39,720 --> 00:40:42,240
 of the infrastructure encumbrances and other things like that

409
00:40:42,240 --> 00:40:46,840
 but that actually is an area that we would, I think, see a lot of.

410
00:40:46,840 --> 00:40:48,800
 The data that we were getting and you remember

411
00:40:48,800 --> 00:40:51,680
 that floodplain map was just updated this last June.

412
00:40:51,680 --> 00:40:55,080
 So the most recent assessment data that we have is a year old

413
00:40:55,080 --> 00:40:56,760
 and those assessments haven't been updated yet.

414
00:40:56,760 --> 00:40:59,480
 So as we're getting more information from that,

415
00:40:59,480 --> 00:41:01,920
 we'll be able to continue to update that.

416
00:41:01,920 --> 00:41:04,600
 And as we're getting into the development of some

417
00:41:04,600 --> 00:41:07,920
 of these catalyst projects, we really will be working to drill

418
00:41:07,920 --> 00:41:10,840
 down on what the real numbers look like in terms

419
00:41:10,840 --> 00:41:13,520
 of thinking about how we are.

420
00:41:13,520 --> 00:41:17,280
 I will just say flat out that one of my goals is to make sure

421
00:41:17,280 --> 00:41:19,800
 that the city doesn't spend a cent on something

422
00:41:19,800 --> 00:41:24,200
 that it wouldn't have to in order for a development to happen, right?

423
00:41:24,200 --> 00:41:27,640
 But we want to understand what is that math problem

424
00:41:27,640 --> 00:41:30,880
 that the developers are doing so that we can be smart about thinking

425
00:41:30,880 --> 00:41:33,040
 about where incentives are needed and when they're not

426
00:41:33,040 --> 00:41:35,560
 and when they're providing public benefit and when they're not.

427
00:41:35,560 --> 00:41:38,240
 So that will be a portion of our analysis that will kind

428
00:41:38,240 --> 00:41:40,480
 of continue to get deeper as well.

429
00:41:40,480 --> 00:41:46,120
 But these are all great comments and it may be the only, again,

430
00:41:46,120 --> 00:41:48,200
 I don't want to dive too deeply into everything.

431
00:41:48,200 --> 00:41:53,000
 But I do want to say we see a need for units

432
00:41:53,000 --> 00:41:55,200
 across the income spectrum.

433
00:41:55,200 --> 00:41:58,840
 Right now, the higher end part of the spectrum is an area

434
00:41:58,840 --> 00:42:02,280
 that has been missing from new development downtown.

435
00:42:02,280 --> 00:42:06,400
 But we also do see challenges in affordability for people

436
00:42:06,400 --> 00:42:09,160
 who have been in the community for a long time.

437
00:42:09,160 --> 00:42:14,280
 And when I say affordable, I mean homes that are affordable

438
00:42:14,280 --> 00:42:16,920
 to people based on their incomes, right?

439
00:42:16,920 --> 00:42:20,880
 So every single one of us needs an affordable home based

440
00:42:20,880 --> 00:42:23,760
 on our income and we all probably have different incomes.

441
00:42:23,760 --> 00:42:27,440
 So we're looking at the actual distribution of people

442
00:42:27,440 --> 00:42:31,680
 who are in the community now as well as the trend lines

443
00:42:31,680 --> 00:42:34,080
 in terms of what people we see are moving to the community

444
00:42:34,080 --> 00:42:36,280
 and want to be in the community and looking

445
00:42:36,280 --> 00:42:40,000
 at how we approach finding housing that is going

446
00:42:40,000 --> 00:42:43,000
 to match those needs in the long term.

447
00:42:45,000 --> 00:42:46,320
 - Thank you.

448
00:42:46,320 --> 00:42:47,680
 - Council Member?

449
00:42:47,680 --> 00:42:50,560
 - Yeah, I'll let you call on whomever,

450
00:42:50,560 --> 00:42:51,400
 it's easier that way.

451
00:42:51,400 --> 00:42:53,000
 - Okay, yeah, Council Member Byrd.

452
00:42:53,000 --> 00:42:58,120
 - From what I understand, the city of Denton is running

453
00:42:58,120 --> 00:43:03,120
 at about 50% somewhere there in rental units,

454
00:43:03,120 --> 00:43:09,980
 which personally, I think it's rather high.

455
00:43:09,980 --> 00:43:13,480
 I just had an opportunity to speak

456
00:43:13,480 --> 00:43:17,160
 with the President of University of North Texas

457
00:43:17,160 --> 00:43:20,520
 in our conversation related to housing.

458
00:43:20,520 --> 00:43:25,240
 He noted that they had to turn away 2,500 students

459
00:43:25,240 --> 00:43:28,520
 that were trying to find housing on campus.

460
00:43:28,520 --> 00:43:30,480
 So of course, that's pushing those students out

461
00:43:30,480 --> 00:43:33,860
 into the community, into our rental space,

462
00:43:33,860 --> 00:43:37,800
 which is quite concerning.

463
00:43:37,800 --> 00:43:39,160
 Of course, they can take care of that

464
00:43:39,160 --> 00:43:42,800
 with all the money that they have in purchasing.

465
00:43:43,640 --> 00:43:48,640
 But my thing is the traffic and transit.

466
00:43:48,640 --> 00:43:52,240
 I think our traffic and transit system here in Denton

467
00:43:52,240 --> 00:43:53,640
 needs a lot of work.

468
00:43:53,640 --> 00:43:57,400
 Everyone knows in the room that I'm not a fan

469
00:43:57,400 --> 00:44:00,420
 of our current transit situation.

470
00:44:00,420 --> 00:44:05,680
 But I'm also thinking about the folks that we do invite

471
00:44:05,680 --> 00:44:09,600
 into our community that stays at the embassy suites

472
00:44:09,600 --> 00:44:14,600
 in all of our hotels, tourism folks that are outliers

473
00:44:14,600 --> 00:44:17,360
 out there on 35.

474
00:44:17,360 --> 00:44:19,560
 And then we invite them into downtown

475
00:44:19,560 --> 00:44:25,720
 to go to our breweries and do adult stuff that adults do.

476
00:44:25,720 --> 00:44:28,840
 And then we expect them for them to come go back out

477
00:44:28,840 --> 00:44:32,680
 to wherever they came from in whatever manner

478
00:44:32,680 --> 00:44:33,600
 that they came from.

479
00:44:33,600 --> 00:44:37,280
 It could be driving in with a car, looking for parking,

480
00:44:37,280 --> 00:44:39,440
 which we got a parking problem.

481
00:44:39,440 --> 00:44:42,240
 And then they got to go home in that same car.

482
00:44:42,240 --> 00:44:44,960
 So we don't know what they're doing in between.

483
00:44:44,960 --> 00:44:48,400
 So I think the traffic and transit needs to be a little higher

484
00:44:48,400 --> 00:44:49,920
 on the list of concerns.

485
00:44:49,920 --> 00:44:53,460
 And of course, that goes along with safety for all of us.

486
00:44:53,460 --> 00:44:57,480
 I think our arts and entertainment area,

487
00:44:57,480 --> 00:44:59,440
 it seems like to me right now,

488
00:44:59,440 --> 00:45:01,560
 because we're at a crossroads,

489
00:45:01,560 --> 00:45:05,740
 it seems like we've got to start looking at districts.

490
00:45:05,740 --> 00:45:07,360
 We have an entertainment district.

491
00:45:07,360 --> 00:45:10,240
 If we have an arts district, if we have a building district,

492
00:45:10,240 --> 00:45:12,400
 I don't know what we're gonna call those districts.

493
00:45:12,400 --> 00:45:15,520
 But, and that means that we're growing

494
00:45:15,520 --> 00:45:18,480
 and people have different interests.

495
00:45:18,480 --> 00:45:22,900
 So I think that if we can get our traffic and transit,

496
00:45:22,900 --> 00:45:26,360
 if people don't wanna walk,

497
00:45:26,360 --> 00:45:29,200
 I'm talking about walkability and bikeability.

498
00:45:29,200 --> 00:45:33,780
 How does all of that translate to us getting them,

499
00:45:33,780 --> 00:45:38,780
 our visitors from 35E over into downtown

500
00:45:38,780 --> 00:45:41,920
 and back to 35E after they've done

501
00:45:41,920 --> 00:45:43,180
 whatever they're gonna do.

502
00:45:43,180 --> 00:45:45,760
 That's concerning to me.

503
00:45:45,760 --> 00:45:49,080
 That's a couple of my priorities there.

504
00:45:49,080 --> 00:45:53,780
 And so the arts and entertainment and events,

505
00:45:53,780 --> 00:45:56,440
 and then the traffic and transit,

506
00:45:56,440 --> 00:45:59,640
 and then the culture that we're sending out there

507
00:45:59,640 --> 00:46:02,120
 to the world is that if you wanna be inclusive,

508
00:46:02,120 --> 00:46:04,440
 if you're a creative person,

509
00:46:04,440 --> 00:46:06,720
 if you're an academic person,

510
00:46:06,720 --> 00:46:10,080
 you know, and if you're working and living and playing here,

511
00:46:10,080 --> 00:46:12,200
 that's part of our culture.

512
00:46:12,200 --> 00:46:15,480
 We wanna capture you into all of this.

513
00:46:15,480 --> 00:46:16,640
 You know, that's the other thing.

514
00:46:16,640 --> 00:46:18,720
 And of course, I'm safety.

515
00:46:18,720 --> 00:46:21,280
 Safety is a priority for me.

516
00:46:21,280 --> 00:46:25,040
 I'm glad that our city has taken on the opportunity

517
00:46:25,040 --> 00:46:27,080
 to have ambassadors downtown now.

518
00:46:27,080 --> 00:46:30,680
 I think that's coming up very soon.

519
00:46:30,680 --> 00:46:35,680
 That's important, but the whole traffic and transit thing

520
00:46:35,680 --> 00:46:38,480
 bothers me terribly.

521
00:46:38,480 --> 00:46:42,360
 So with that being said,

522
00:46:42,360 --> 00:46:50,160
 I believe that our downtown area also is exuding this era

523
00:46:50,160 --> 00:46:57,320
 and feeling of the 19, whatever, 30s and 40s.

524
00:46:57,320 --> 00:47:00,000
 We kinda like that, apparently.

525
00:47:00,000 --> 00:47:03,340
 We like the old-ness, but the new-ness of it all.

526
00:47:03,340 --> 00:47:09,320
 So we gotta bring these developers in

527
00:47:09,320 --> 00:47:11,720
 that has that same kinda mindset.

528
00:47:11,720 --> 00:47:14,000
 Where do we find these folks?

529
00:47:14,000 --> 00:47:15,360
 We'll leave it right there, thank you.

530
00:47:15,360 --> 00:47:17,200
 - Thank you, those are very astute observations.

531
00:47:17,200 --> 00:47:18,120
 I appreciate that.

532
00:47:18,120 --> 00:47:22,440
 Let's go to Metzler and then Council Member.

533
00:47:22,440 --> 00:47:26,880
 Right, yeah, I'm sorry.

534
00:47:26,880 --> 00:47:29,920
 I know your first name, and I was blanking, my bad.

535
00:47:29,920 --> 00:47:30,960
 Go to our back.

536
00:47:30,960 --> 00:47:32,880
 - People always just call me Meltzer.

537
00:47:32,880 --> 00:47:35,680
 (audience laughing)

538
00:47:35,680 --> 00:47:38,720
 First of all, I would just say I'm really heartened

539
00:47:38,720 --> 00:47:43,720
 by how well I feel this captures community sentiment.

540
00:47:43,720 --> 00:47:46,460
 I recognize Denton in this.

541
00:47:46,460 --> 00:47:51,680
 Secondly, just my main focus would be

542
00:47:51,680 --> 00:47:54,680
 that the whole out-of-the-flood-plane thing,

543
00:47:54,680 --> 00:47:59,680
 it's not an asterisk, it's not one more column.

544
00:48:00,040 --> 00:48:02,280
 It's a historic opportunity.

545
00:48:02,280 --> 00:48:04,280
 It's a very unique moment that the voters

546
00:48:04,280 --> 00:48:06,680
 have just approved the funding to make that happen.

547
00:48:06,680 --> 00:48:09,200
 If you look at the landmass, they were talking about it,

548
00:48:09,200 --> 00:48:11,960
 if we can really embrace the directions

549
00:48:11,960 --> 00:48:14,140
 that come out of the vision and look holistically

550
00:48:14,140 --> 00:48:17,480
 at what the greater downtown experience would be

551
00:48:17,480 --> 00:48:22,480
 and create an aspirational vision to enroll people in

552
00:48:22,480 --> 00:48:27,640
 that comes from the community.

553
00:48:29,200 --> 00:48:31,120
 This is a truly long-term--

554
00:48:31,120 --> 00:48:33,040
 - And if I may, I think that matches so well

555
00:48:33,040 --> 00:48:35,080
 with Council Member Byrd's conversation

556
00:48:35,080 --> 00:48:37,400
 about districts as well, yeah.

557
00:48:37,400 --> 00:48:39,840
 Thank you.

558
00:48:39,840 --> 00:48:47,720
 Just to speak to the community sentiment,

559
00:48:47,720 --> 00:48:49,920
 in addition to all of the engagement we've done,

560
00:48:49,920 --> 00:48:51,640
 we've also done a significant number

561
00:48:51,640 --> 00:48:53,840
 of stakeholder interviews as well with people

562
00:48:53,840 --> 00:48:56,280
 from a variety of different perspectives.

563
00:48:56,280 --> 00:49:01,240
 I will be frank that I think it's astonishing,

564
00:49:01,240 --> 00:49:05,120
 we've heard far more consensus than not

565
00:49:05,120 --> 00:49:08,720
 from a wide variety of very, very different people

566
00:49:08,720 --> 00:49:10,520
 with very, very different perspectives.

567
00:49:10,520 --> 00:49:12,400
 There's a lot of different perspectives

568
00:49:12,400 --> 00:49:16,440
 on how to get there, but there is a community

569
00:49:16,440 --> 00:49:21,440
 that is unified around a broad and I think good consensus

570
00:49:21,440 --> 00:49:25,840
 around what downtown can be for Denton.

571
00:49:25,840 --> 00:49:29,600
 So it's very exciting to work in that atmosphere.

572
00:49:29,600 --> 00:49:33,600
 - Yeah, I appreciate the comments of the mayor

573
00:49:33,600 --> 00:49:34,760
 and then you're following with him

574
00:49:34,760 --> 00:49:38,640
 because my comments relate sort of the reverse of that

575
00:49:38,640 --> 00:49:42,360
 and that is, so if we're trying to achieve these goals

576
00:49:42,360 --> 00:49:45,480
 and you two had a dialogue about,

577
00:49:45,480 --> 00:49:49,720
 yes, those are goals in alignment with Denton

578
00:49:49,720 --> 00:49:52,040
 and Council Member Metzler also mentioned

579
00:49:52,040 --> 00:49:53,520
 that this seems to be in alignment.

580
00:49:53,520 --> 00:49:58,160
 I think we've always been trying to meet our citizens goals.

581
00:49:58,160 --> 00:50:03,160
 So if we're agreeing with the goals of the goals,

582
00:50:03,160 --> 00:50:06,280
 we mostly were getting four pluses

583
00:50:06,280 --> 00:50:07,960
 on a lot of those categories,

584
00:50:07,960 --> 00:50:11,280
 but we were getting two to three at best

585
00:50:11,280 --> 00:50:14,160
 on how well we're attaining it.

586
00:50:14,160 --> 00:50:16,760
 We've been trying to attain it for a hundred years,

587
00:50:16,760 --> 00:50:21,880
 maybe since the downtown and Dent blew up in the 70s or so.

588
00:50:21,880 --> 00:50:26,360
 So what, I guess, what aren't we achieving

589
00:50:26,360 --> 00:50:30,320
 and why aren't we achieving would be the questions I have

590
00:50:30,320 --> 00:50:33,160
 because we've been trying to get to these things

591
00:50:33,160 --> 00:50:35,560
 for 50 years.

592
00:50:35,560 --> 00:50:37,760
 - And that's extremely astute

593
00:50:37,760 --> 00:50:42,760
 and I think that one of the real opportunities here

594
00:50:42,760 --> 00:50:46,120
 is this issue of the devil being in the details.

595
00:50:46,120 --> 00:50:49,000
 I don't know, while we've had this sort of consensus

596
00:50:49,000 --> 00:50:50,400
 and we have a strong idea,

597
00:50:50,400 --> 00:50:52,960
 I think of where downtown needs to be,

598
00:50:52,960 --> 00:50:55,120
 we haven't yet had a moment that I'm aware of,

599
00:50:55,120 --> 00:50:56,520
 at least in the research that we've done,

600
00:50:56,520 --> 00:51:00,800
 where all of the city's sort of tools and strategies

601
00:51:00,800 --> 00:51:04,000
 were all aligned towards a singular vision at the same time.

602
00:51:04,000 --> 00:51:07,520
 And I think that really working through the details

603
00:51:07,520 --> 00:51:10,240
 and how to think about the funding tools,

604
00:51:10,240 --> 00:51:12,840
 the different types of regulatory tools,

605
00:51:12,840 --> 00:51:14,440
 the different types of programmatic tools

606
00:51:14,440 --> 00:51:16,520
 and how important things like the ambassadors, for example,

607
00:51:16,520 --> 00:51:19,280
 can be as a component of that as well,

608
00:51:19,280 --> 00:51:22,840
 as well as working to align a public vision

609
00:51:22,840 --> 00:51:26,320
 and then the private and even nonprofit responses,

610
00:51:26,320 --> 00:51:28,440
 again, all moving towards the same thing

611
00:51:28,440 --> 00:51:31,760
 so that we really have a lockstep ability

612
00:51:31,760 --> 00:51:34,080
 to move those things forward

613
00:51:34,080 --> 00:51:36,800
 in a really cohesive and comprehensive way.

614
00:51:36,800 --> 00:51:40,440
 So as we are moving into the development of these catalysts

615
00:51:40,440 --> 00:51:42,440
 and the development of these recommendations,

616
00:51:42,440 --> 00:51:45,360
 we're gonna be looking deeply at the funding sources,

617
00:51:45,360 --> 00:51:47,040
 the different types of tools,

618
00:51:47,040 --> 00:51:48,840
 both that the city already has,

619
00:51:48,840 --> 00:51:51,360
 but also ones that are available to the folks

620
00:51:51,360 --> 00:51:53,200
 in the state of Texas that we haven't used yet

621
00:51:53,200 --> 00:51:56,920
 to see if they're appropriate for opportunities.

622
00:51:56,920 --> 00:51:58,680
 And so I think that's gonna be

623
00:51:58,680 --> 00:52:01,760
 a really important component of that.

624
00:52:01,760 --> 00:52:03,600
 - Let me have just a real brief follow-up,

625
00:52:03,600 --> 00:52:05,600
 and that is another comment

626
00:52:05,600 --> 00:52:07,320
 that came out of last night's workshop

627
00:52:07,320 --> 00:52:12,320
 was over-planning versus organic.

628
00:52:12,320 --> 00:52:15,720
 So while I 100% agree with what you just said,

629
00:52:15,720 --> 00:52:19,120
 I think we do need to be mindful

630
00:52:19,120 --> 00:52:23,440
 to let it form the way it needs to form on its own

631
00:52:23,440 --> 00:52:26,040
 as opposed to pushing a particular narrative.

632
00:52:26,040 --> 00:52:28,160
 - No, I totally agree with that as well,

633
00:52:28,160 --> 00:52:30,960
 and I think that it comes back to,

634
00:52:30,960 --> 00:52:33,560
 I started my career in Houston.

635
00:52:33,560 --> 00:52:36,040
 We didn't have zoning, we didn't have regulatory tools,

636
00:52:36,040 --> 00:52:38,040
 we didn't do any of that stuff.

637
00:52:38,040 --> 00:52:41,880
 We had to work with the public and the private landowners

638
00:52:41,880 --> 00:52:43,880
 to achieve strategic visions

639
00:52:43,880 --> 00:52:45,840
 and be sophisticated about the ways

640
00:52:45,840 --> 00:52:47,720
 that we're nudging in certain ways,

641
00:52:47,720 --> 00:52:49,840
 but there's other things that need to happen organically

642
00:52:49,840 --> 00:52:52,440
 and that we're facilitating in the right ways

643
00:52:52,440 --> 00:52:54,640
 to get some of the things that we need for the community,

644
00:52:54,640 --> 00:52:55,680
 especially if they're things

645
00:52:55,680 --> 00:52:58,120
 that ultimately the market won't produce,

646
00:52:58,120 --> 00:52:59,320
 but that in a lot of cases,

647
00:52:59,320 --> 00:53:01,080
 we're letting the market do its thing

648
00:53:01,080 --> 00:53:03,720
 and making sure that we can move in the right directions.

649
00:53:03,720 --> 00:53:05,480
 And that's gonna be an important part

650
00:53:05,480 --> 00:53:07,280
 of really thinking through the strategy

651
00:53:07,280 --> 00:53:10,600
 and thinking through how to bring partners to the table

652
00:53:10,600 --> 00:53:12,720
 in terms of the private sector or nonprofits

653
00:53:12,720 --> 00:53:14,840
 that are also going to be strategically aligned

654
00:53:14,840 --> 00:53:17,320
 with the city's goals in those pieces as well

655
00:53:17,320 --> 00:53:18,600
 in order to achieve that.

656
00:53:18,600 --> 00:53:21,000
 That's a great question.

657
00:53:21,000 --> 00:53:23,000
 Sir, I can't see your name plate, I'm sorry.

658
00:53:23,000 --> 00:53:23,920
 - Joe Holland.

659
00:53:23,920 --> 00:53:29,720
 - I think it goes without saying that safety

660
00:53:29,720 --> 00:53:33,800
 is or ought to be the first priority.

661
00:53:33,800 --> 00:53:38,800
 It doesn't make any difference how entertaining anything is.

662
00:53:39,720 --> 00:53:42,880
 If somebody isn't safe or doesn't perceive

663
00:53:42,880 --> 00:53:46,640
 that they're gonna be safe, that's gonna keep them away.

664
00:53:46,640 --> 00:53:50,600
 Now, and I wanna bounce off, the bird is the word,

665
00:53:50,600 --> 00:53:54,240
 so I'm gonna bounce off of that a little bit.

666
00:53:54,240 --> 00:53:56,560
 People who come to our community--

667
00:53:56,560 --> 00:53:58,840
 - They hear about the downtown square.

668
00:53:58,840 --> 00:54:00,520
 - I can actually talk better than this,

669
00:54:00,520 --> 00:54:01,920
 it's my microphone, I think.

670
00:54:01,920 --> 00:54:08,800
 They come downtown and they're slapped

671
00:54:08,800 --> 00:54:12,600
 with a feeling of not being safe.

672
00:54:12,600 --> 00:54:14,720
 Now, I don't think that there's crime

673
00:54:14,720 --> 00:54:18,880
 going on this downtown, but the perception,

674
00:54:18,880 --> 00:54:21,720
 the boogeyman coming out from the shadows,

675
00:54:21,720 --> 00:54:24,840
 boom, that kind of a thing frightens people,

676
00:54:24,840 --> 00:54:28,360
 and if they don't feel safe, they're gonna stay away.

677
00:54:28,360 --> 00:54:30,840
 I think that's hugely important.

678
00:54:30,840 --> 00:54:35,800
 I was walking on the square yesterday,

679
00:54:35,800 --> 00:54:40,120
 and I'm sure a very, very nice, very well-educated man

680
00:54:40,120 --> 00:54:42,840
 rolled down his window, and there wasn't anybody else

681
00:54:42,840 --> 00:54:44,960
 next to him, because I know he was talking to me.

682
00:54:44,960 --> 00:54:48,800
 He said, hey, when are you gonna fix the,

683
00:54:48,800 --> 00:54:51,800
 some word I don't know, streets?

684
00:54:51,800 --> 00:54:56,800
 And I told him it was coming, it was happening very soon,

685
00:54:56,800 --> 00:54:58,240
 but that's what I hear.

686
00:54:58,240 --> 00:55:00,360
 I hear the problem from downtown.

687
00:55:02,840 --> 00:55:07,560
 In my world, people are concerned about the streets

688
00:55:07,560 --> 00:55:12,000
 and about the perceived safety of the downtown area.

689
00:55:12,000 --> 00:55:13,400
 - You've hit on something I think

690
00:55:13,400 --> 00:55:15,240
 that's really important there as well,

691
00:55:15,240 --> 00:55:20,240
 is that a lot of the little things that we do

692
00:55:20,240 --> 00:55:22,600
 can help some with those perceptions.

693
00:55:22,600 --> 00:55:24,480
 Then there's other bigger things that we need to do

694
00:55:24,480 --> 00:55:28,160
 in order to more directly address some of the challenges

695
00:55:28,160 --> 00:55:31,280
 that we have with unhoused people, with drug abuse,

696
00:55:31,280 --> 00:55:32,760
 with some of those other issues,

697
00:55:32,760 --> 00:55:35,960
 and so I think that our strategy is likely

698
00:55:35,960 --> 00:55:39,080
 to kind of take both approaches in terms of

699
00:55:39,080 --> 00:55:44,080
 how do we help bring resources to downtown

700
00:55:44,080 --> 00:55:48,400
 that can help with some of the big needs that folks have,

701
00:55:48,400 --> 00:55:50,240
 things like the ambassadorship program,

702
00:55:50,240 --> 00:55:52,920
 which would actually allow there to be folks

703
00:55:52,920 --> 00:55:57,240
 that are present and able to assist with challenges,

704
00:55:57,240 --> 00:56:01,520
 while also working to build up more activity downtown.

705
00:56:01,520 --> 00:56:04,680
 I was there on Saturday, obviously, for the tree lighting,

706
00:56:04,680 --> 00:56:09,680
 and I didn't feel at any point in anything that I saw

707
00:56:09,680 --> 00:56:13,240
 that there were any safety concerns during that.

708
00:56:13,240 --> 00:56:15,080
 There were so many people.

709
00:56:15,080 --> 00:56:18,000
 There was so active, and so I think

710
00:56:18,000 --> 00:56:21,720
 it's one of the big things is we do need to deal with that.

711
00:56:21,720 --> 00:56:23,600
 We also need to do things that are gonna continue

712
00:56:23,600 --> 00:56:27,280
 to attract more people and have more people

713
00:56:27,280 --> 00:56:28,960
 in downtown, around downtown,

714
00:56:28,960 --> 00:56:31,040
 because that's also gonna improve that perception,

715
00:56:31,040 --> 00:56:33,440
 while also taking care of the little things,

716
00:56:33,440 --> 00:56:34,880
 like, and it's not a little thing,

717
00:56:34,880 --> 00:56:36,880
 but the streets and the sidewalks,

718
00:56:36,880 --> 00:56:40,760
 and making sure that it's safe, pleasant, beautiful,

719
00:56:40,760 --> 00:56:43,480
 and feels well-managed, I think,

720
00:56:43,480 --> 00:56:45,880
 as a key component of that as well.

721
00:56:45,880 --> 00:56:47,000
 So I think you've hit on some really,

722
00:56:47,000 --> 00:56:49,560
 really important components of how all of these things

723
00:56:49,560 --> 00:56:52,800
 ultimately tie together as well, I believe,

724
00:56:52,800 --> 00:56:54,480
 and I apologize, I can't see your name plate.

725
00:56:54,480 --> 00:56:56,120
 - You're good, my name is George Ferry, you're great.

726
00:56:56,120 --> 00:56:57,600
 - George, thank you.

727
00:56:57,600 --> 00:56:59,520
 - Hi, thank you.

728
00:56:59,520 --> 00:57:02,160
 Speaking of perceptions, I have a couple questions

729
00:57:02,160 --> 00:57:04,080
 regarding who created the bullet points

730
00:57:04,080 --> 00:57:06,080
 for each of your slides,

731
00:57:06,080 --> 00:57:09,360
 particularly the one that addresses housing.

732
00:57:09,360 --> 00:57:15,440
 I think it's important, no, I'm sorry, safety.

733
00:57:15,440 --> 00:57:16,280
 It's safety.

734
00:57:16,280 --> 00:57:20,560
 Speaking of perception in downtown,

735
00:57:20,560 --> 00:57:22,400
 because all of our perceptions are different,

736
00:57:22,400 --> 00:57:24,440
 I'd like to know who's crafting these,

737
00:57:24,440 --> 00:57:26,320
 because I think the first bullet point,

738
00:57:26,320 --> 00:57:28,280
 improve perception of safety by partnering

739
00:57:28,280 --> 00:57:29,520
 with service providers to address

740
00:57:29,520 --> 00:57:31,160
 homelessness concerns and needs.

741
00:57:31,160 --> 00:57:32,920
 What are those concerns and needs?

742
00:57:32,920 --> 00:57:34,080
 Who defined that?

743
00:57:34,080 --> 00:57:35,280
 Who assessed that?

744
00:57:35,280 --> 00:57:37,160
 And then who are the stakeholders that you said

745
00:57:37,160 --> 00:57:38,920
 that you worked with to create these slides,

746
00:57:38,920 --> 00:57:40,400
 specifically this one?

747
00:57:40,400 --> 00:57:45,000
 As someone who works as a social worker in communities,

748
00:57:45,000 --> 00:57:47,360
 I just would wonder how that came up,

749
00:57:47,360 --> 00:57:48,520
 how you're addressing that,

750
00:57:48,520 --> 00:57:50,560
 what that really means and entails.

751
00:57:50,560 --> 00:57:52,280
 'Cause when we talk about people's perceptions

752
00:57:52,280 --> 00:57:54,080
 of unhoused folk and people who experience

753
00:57:54,080 --> 00:57:55,880
 different levels of unhouseness,

754
00:57:55,880 --> 00:57:59,520
 and we talk about, as a city, we've multiple conversations

755
00:57:59,520 --> 00:58:01,800
 have happened about pushing people off of the square,

756
00:58:01,800 --> 00:58:05,240
 which is why Monsignor King is now all the way off 288

757
00:58:05,240 --> 00:58:07,240
 in the middle of nowhere.

758
00:58:07,240 --> 00:58:11,400
 In district one, district two, where I live,

759
00:58:11,400 --> 00:58:14,120
 I just wonder what that means,

760
00:58:14,120 --> 00:58:16,240
 and how you've come to that conclusion

761
00:58:16,240 --> 00:58:19,320
 in this four bullet point safety measure.

762
00:58:19,320 --> 00:58:21,880
 - Sure, so wherever it was possible,

763
00:58:21,880 --> 00:58:26,200
 we utilized and combined actual comments

764
00:58:26,200 --> 00:58:28,960
 that were coming directly from the public.

765
00:58:28,960 --> 00:58:30,960
 Again, wherever it was possible.

766
00:58:30,960 --> 00:58:35,960
 Sometimes trying to bring together thoughts

767
00:58:35,960 --> 00:58:38,240
 that were in the same track,

768
00:58:38,240 --> 00:58:39,880
 but had slightly different things,

769
00:58:39,880 --> 00:58:42,560
 these might be an overly broad statement.

770
00:58:42,560 --> 00:58:44,440
 One of the things that we will also be doing

771
00:58:44,440 --> 00:58:47,160
 is actually releasing all of the original comments,

772
00:58:47,160 --> 00:58:48,200
 so there will be a spreadsheet

773
00:58:48,200 --> 00:58:49,800
 that actually has all of them.

774
00:58:51,040 --> 00:58:53,000
 I will say that, unfortunately,

775
00:58:53,000 --> 00:58:55,680
 some of the comments in that area that we received

776
00:58:55,680 --> 00:58:58,800
 were, I would perceive, as derogatory,

777
00:58:58,800 --> 00:59:02,480
 so we've tried to write this statement

778
00:59:02,480 --> 00:59:05,760
 in a way that is sensitive,

779
00:59:05,760 --> 00:59:08,440
 but may not go far enough,

780
00:59:08,440 --> 00:59:12,000
 especially for someone who actually knows this area

781
00:59:12,000 --> 00:59:14,320
 really intimately, and so, I mean,

782
00:59:14,320 --> 00:59:17,160
 I believe that we are very open to thinking about ways

783
00:59:17,160 --> 00:59:19,760
 that we can kind of continue to tailor that message,

784
00:59:19,760 --> 00:59:21,880
 but even, I think, more importantly,

785
00:59:21,880 --> 00:59:25,760
 is working with folks that have that knowledge and expertise

786
00:59:25,760 --> 00:59:28,320
 as we are actually crafting what the strategies look like

787
00:59:28,320 --> 00:59:30,880
 and the actions that we would take will look like.

788
00:59:30,880 --> 00:59:32,440
 - So other than public comment,

789
00:59:32,440 --> 00:59:34,800
 have you reached out to stakeholders

790
00:59:34,800 --> 00:59:37,840
 for these initiatives already in the crafting of these?

791
00:59:37,840 --> 00:59:39,960
 - We have had some conversations

792
00:59:39,960 --> 00:59:43,080
 with some service providers regarding that,

793
00:59:43,080 --> 00:59:46,240
 so sort of in more of an interview format,

794
00:59:47,440 --> 00:59:51,920
 probably not extensively yet in any sort of specific area.

795
00:59:51,920 --> 00:59:56,280
 And the stakeholders, we've had conversations

796
00:59:56,280 --> 00:59:58,960
 with stakeholders who are service providers in this area.

797
00:59:58,960 --> 01:00:00,680
 We've also had conversations

798
01:00:00,680 --> 01:00:02,840
 with folks that represent musicians.

799
01:00:02,840 --> 01:00:05,440
 We've had conversations with folks that represent

800
01:00:05,440 --> 01:00:07,040
 a lot of different sectors

801
01:00:07,040 --> 01:00:10,120
 as we're starting that information gathering,

802
01:00:10,120 --> 01:00:13,080
 but I think we really welcome, and this is an area,

803
01:00:13,080 --> 01:00:15,040
 especially where I think the nonprofit sector

804
01:00:15,040 --> 01:00:17,640
 plays a really extremely important role.

805
01:00:17,640 --> 01:00:22,080
 So I think we're very open to really having discussions

806
01:00:22,080 --> 01:00:25,280
 and thinking about how we can craft recommendations

807
01:00:25,280 --> 01:00:29,960
 that are workable and move in the right directions.

808
01:00:29,960 --> 01:00:33,520
 - You mentioned you have a focus--

809
01:00:33,520 --> 01:00:36,280
 - Yes, yes, and that is, and I have a slide in a moment

810
01:00:36,280 --> 01:00:38,720
 that'll talk a little bit about some of our next steps,

811
01:00:38,720 --> 01:00:41,640
 but as we're identifying some of these areas

812
01:00:41,640 --> 01:00:44,760
 that have come up as being especially important to downtown,

813
01:00:44,760 --> 01:00:46,720
 we will be bringing together some focus groups

814
01:00:46,720 --> 01:00:50,640
 and being able to expand upon our research in those areas.

815
01:00:50,640 --> 01:00:54,480
 But as I said, I mean, I would love if you have

816
01:00:54,480 --> 01:00:57,480
 especially specific comments we can follow up after,

817
01:00:57,480 --> 01:01:00,800
 and we would be excited to continue to tailor that

818
01:01:00,800 --> 01:01:04,720
 in a way that really represents the goals

819
01:01:04,720 --> 01:01:06,080
 as well as possible.

820
01:01:06,080 --> 01:01:08,000
 So thank you for that comment.

821
01:01:08,000 --> 01:01:10,280
 - Is it possible to see today's vote?

822
01:01:10,280 --> 01:01:11,120
 - Yes.

823
01:01:11,120 --> 01:01:12,800
 - Thank you.

824
01:01:15,280 --> 01:01:17,560
 (papers rustling)

825
01:01:17,560 --> 01:01:18,400
 - Eric.

826
01:01:18,400 --> 01:01:21,320
 Oh.

827
01:01:21,320 --> 01:01:22,360
 (laughing)

828
01:01:22,360 --> 01:01:24,040
 - Sorry, I'm gonna wait or just go?

829
01:01:24,040 --> 01:01:24,880
 - Eric Hu.

830
01:01:24,880 --> 01:01:26,240
 - Eric Hu.

831
01:01:26,240 --> 01:01:27,560
 - Sorry, yes, Mr. Pruitt.

832
01:01:27,560 --> 01:01:29,880
 - I, it's quite all right.

833
01:01:29,880 --> 01:01:32,080
 I've been called many names in my life.

834
01:01:32,080 --> 01:01:35,280
 The one common thing I see here,

835
01:01:35,280 --> 01:01:37,720
 both from the community and from us this morning,

836
01:01:37,720 --> 01:01:41,600
 is that people know downtown as retail, small business.

837
01:01:41,600 --> 01:01:43,000
 Everybody loves it, right?

838
01:01:45,000 --> 01:01:46,680
 It may sound counterintuitive,

839
01:01:46,680 --> 01:01:48,560
 but I'm going to flip that on this head

840
01:01:48,560 --> 01:01:51,600
 and try to be the standard bearer for housing.

841
01:01:51,600 --> 01:01:54,320
 As I see the future of downtown,

842
01:01:54,320 --> 01:01:57,160
 I understand why people interpret

843
01:01:57,160 --> 01:01:58,760
 the existing downtown as that.

844
01:01:58,760 --> 01:02:04,920
 But when I see growth, I see that if we grow that

845
01:02:04,920 --> 01:02:08,600
 and depend on basically in commuting

846
01:02:08,600 --> 01:02:11,680
 for supporting all of the additional businesses,

847
01:02:11,680 --> 01:02:15,240
 we make almost every one of the challenge points

848
01:02:15,240 --> 01:02:17,320
 that we've heard about worse, right?

849
01:02:17,320 --> 01:02:20,000
 However, if we build a whole lot more housing,

850
01:02:20,000 --> 01:02:22,920
 then traffic in transit gets easier

851
01:02:22,920 --> 01:02:24,400
 because you have more density

852
01:02:24,400 --> 01:02:26,760
 that you can more effectively move people on transit

853
01:02:26,760 --> 01:02:29,320
 and you're not trying to in commute as many people.

854
01:02:29,320 --> 01:02:31,000
 Bike and pedestrian safety gets easier

855
01:02:31,000 --> 01:02:33,520
 'cause you have more people walking, more people biking,

856
01:02:33,520 --> 01:02:34,720
 it just makes sense.

857
01:02:34,720 --> 01:02:36,920
 Safety is better, you have eyes on the street.

858
01:02:36,920 --> 01:02:38,360
 Arts and entertainment and events,

859
01:02:38,360 --> 01:02:40,200
 you've got more people already there enjoying it,

860
01:02:40,200 --> 01:02:42,240
 so you're maximizing the bang for the buck.

861
01:02:42,240 --> 01:02:45,000
 Parks and public space, same thing, bang for the buck.

862
01:02:45,000 --> 01:02:49,280
 Culture, it goes without saying that I think,

863
01:02:49,280 --> 01:02:51,320
 as you pointed out before COVID,

864
01:02:51,320 --> 01:02:52,600
 there were many people around here,

865
01:02:52,600 --> 01:02:54,600
 not disparaging any thoughts,

866
01:02:54,600 --> 01:02:56,920
 but who were saying we need more Class A office,

867
01:02:56,920 --> 01:02:58,520
 we need more Class A office.

868
01:02:58,520 --> 01:03:00,360
 And now we're in this wonderful position

869
01:03:00,360 --> 01:03:04,120
 where we don't have 30% of our building stock

870
01:03:04,120 --> 01:03:05,720
 just sitting there.

871
01:03:05,720 --> 01:03:08,120
 So let's capitalize on that,

872
01:03:08,120 --> 01:03:11,200
 make sure we're not overcompensating,

873
01:03:11,200 --> 01:03:14,120
 but also make sure that we are planning

874
01:03:14,120 --> 01:03:17,680
 for allowing a place that the comp plan talks about,

875
01:03:17,680 --> 01:03:18,720
 live, work, and play.

876
01:03:18,720 --> 01:03:22,960
 Quite honestly, the 900 unit assessment there

877
01:03:22,960 --> 01:03:25,440
 is less than 5% of the growth in Denton

878
01:03:25,440 --> 01:03:27,560
 that the comp plan says we'll have in 10 years.

879
01:03:27,560 --> 01:03:29,720
 I'd like to see that 25%.

880
01:03:29,720 --> 01:03:34,040
 - No, you've just done a wonderful job for me

881
01:03:34,040 --> 01:03:36,160
 of really talking about the way

882
01:03:36,160 --> 01:03:37,960
 that these strategies are interlinked

883
01:03:37,960 --> 01:03:40,560
 and that the opportunities of them are interlinked,

884
01:03:40,560 --> 01:03:44,600
 that ultimately we can approach housing goals

885
01:03:44,600 --> 01:03:48,040
 in a way that supports local development,

886
01:03:48,040 --> 01:03:49,520
 that supports your comment about districts,

887
01:03:49,520 --> 01:03:52,640
 that supports your comment about the importance

888
01:03:52,640 --> 01:03:55,760
 of the floodplain and so on as well.

889
01:03:55,760 --> 01:03:58,560
 And I think you've really kind of hit the nail on the head

890
01:03:58,560 --> 01:04:00,000
 in terms of the way that we think about the way

891
01:04:00,000 --> 01:04:02,440
 that these things can actually interweave with each other

892
01:04:02,440 --> 01:04:05,760
 in order to move towards the same strategic goals.

893
01:04:05,760 --> 01:04:08,280
 Sir, and then we're gonna come to you next.

894
01:04:08,280 --> 01:04:11,160
 - This question, I'm not familiar with the square.

895
01:04:11,160 --> 01:04:16,840
 Some of the businesses, are they open till 2 a.m.

896
01:04:16,840 --> 01:04:18,760
 like some of the restaurants are?

897
01:04:18,760 --> 01:04:20,960
 'Cause I'm tying that in with the transit.

898
01:04:20,960 --> 01:04:22,840
 - There's at least one 24-hour restaurant.

899
01:04:22,840 --> 01:04:25,720
 - Okay, well, as far as transit goes,

900
01:04:25,720 --> 01:04:29,120
 what are the hours of the transit, I know the buses.

901
01:04:29,120 --> 01:04:33,040
 I would go on what Councilman Byrd said.

902
01:04:33,040 --> 01:04:35,600
 If you wanna pull someone in from 35

903
01:04:35,600 --> 01:04:40,160
 to come into downtown, and if I come

904
01:04:40,160 --> 01:04:42,360
 and I know the transit ends at 11 o'clock,

905
01:04:42,360 --> 01:04:44,360
 I'm more prone to drive a car.

906
01:04:44,360 --> 01:04:46,960
 So that would be a big safety concern

907
01:04:46,960 --> 01:04:48,280
 if I know I'm gonna be here

908
01:04:48,280 --> 01:04:51,280
 and I can only be here till 11 o'clock to get back home.

909
01:04:51,280 --> 01:04:55,560
 So traffic and transit, it's one of my biggest concerns.

910
01:04:55,560 --> 01:04:56,520
 - Yeah. - All right, thank you.

911
01:04:56,520 --> 01:04:58,320
 - Perfect, thank you so much, George.

912
01:04:58,320 --> 01:05:03,320
 - I wanted to piggyback off what Erica said, and I agree.

913
01:05:03,320 --> 01:05:06,160
 And I think it's important that for me,

914
01:05:06,160 --> 01:05:08,160
 when I saw the priorities being number one,

915
01:05:08,160 --> 01:05:10,040
 retail and commercial, I was surprised.

916
01:05:10,040 --> 01:05:11,400
 'Cause for me, I'm thinking of like

917
01:05:11,400 --> 01:05:13,400
 in the Terz district, downtown,

918
01:05:13,400 --> 01:05:15,840
 there's so much vacant office space.

919
01:05:15,840 --> 01:05:17,920
 Like a high percentage of office space

920
01:05:17,920 --> 01:05:20,680
 just remains vacant in our downtown district,

921
01:05:20,680 --> 01:05:24,200
 which is an opportunity missed to get more money

922
01:05:24,200 --> 01:05:26,940
 to then get back into the revitalization of downtown,

923
01:05:26,940 --> 01:05:29,880
 the square specific, that small like four block

924
01:05:29,880 --> 01:05:31,660
 or whatever area.

925
01:05:31,660 --> 01:05:35,320
 So I was just interested to see why retail and commercial

926
01:05:35,320 --> 01:05:37,120
 is like one of the biggest priorities

927
01:05:37,120 --> 01:05:39,080
 and another part close to that area

928
01:05:39,080 --> 01:05:40,800
 when we have so much vacant space

929
01:05:40,800 --> 01:05:43,280
 already waiting to be filled.

930
01:05:43,280 --> 01:05:45,420
 And I think it plays into my actual ask,

931
01:05:45,420 --> 01:05:47,680
 which is the educational piece, right?

932
01:05:47,680 --> 01:05:49,680
 So like from my own lens,

933
01:05:49,680 --> 01:05:53,260
 I think of when I'm gonna do a needs assessment

934
01:05:53,260 --> 01:05:55,140
 in my community, I wanna make sure

935
01:05:55,140 --> 01:05:57,120
 that I'm providing the education

936
01:05:57,120 --> 01:06:01,200
 to help them answer the questions I really want data on.

937
01:06:01,200 --> 01:06:02,760
 'Cause I wanna make sure that they understand

938
01:06:02,760 --> 01:06:04,520
 when they say residential and commercial,

939
01:06:04,520 --> 01:06:06,760
 we actually have quite a bit like right up the road

940
01:06:06,760 --> 01:06:09,160
 from this little area that is accessible

941
01:06:09,160 --> 01:06:11,320
 to these folk that wanna open businesses.

942
01:06:11,320 --> 01:06:13,760
 So I just wanted to make sure

943
01:06:13,760 --> 01:06:16,560
 that that's where we're coming from

944
01:06:16,560 --> 01:06:18,120
 when we're asking these questions.

945
01:06:18,120 --> 01:06:20,800
 Do they have this educational knowledge to tie into it?

946
01:06:20,800 --> 01:06:23,760
 We currently have this much open space four blocks north.

947
01:06:23,760 --> 01:06:26,000
 However, this is, you know what I'm saying?

948
01:06:26,000 --> 01:06:27,880
 - Yeah, I absolutely, absolutely agree.

949
01:06:27,880 --> 01:06:30,600
 And you know, I will say too to the comments

950
01:06:30,600 --> 01:06:33,120
 on some of the office space and vacancies,

951
01:06:33,120 --> 01:06:35,120
 one of the things that we're trying to dig into

952
01:06:35,120 --> 01:06:37,080
 is why aren't those renting?

953
01:06:37,080 --> 01:06:38,520
 What's been the barrier to that?

954
01:06:38,520 --> 01:06:39,600
 Is it about the spaces?

955
01:06:39,600 --> 01:06:43,620
 Is it about the affordability for small businesses?

956
01:06:43,620 --> 01:06:47,160
 I think one of the things,

957
01:06:47,160 --> 01:06:48,640
 and just to speak a minute

958
01:06:48,640 --> 01:06:51,520
 to the small business opportunity especially,

959
01:06:51,520 --> 01:06:56,520
 is that right now, looking from a market perspective,

960
01:06:56,520 --> 01:06:58,720
 it is very difficult to build new buildings

961
01:06:58,720 --> 01:07:02,940
 that are affordable for retail and restaurant spaces,

962
01:07:02,940 --> 01:07:06,320
 which means our historic building stock

963
01:07:06,320 --> 01:07:08,280
 is a very important asset

964
01:07:08,280 --> 01:07:09,880
 because we have places where we might be able

965
01:07:09,880 --> 01:07:11,200
 to accommodate that.

966
01:07:11,200 --> 01:07:15,000
 At the same time, we see opportunities and gaps

967
01:07:15,000 --> 01:07:17,020
 in terms of the spaces that are available,

968
01:07:17,020 --> 01:07:20,080
 especially for people who want to try out new business ideas,

969
01:07:20,080 --> 01:07:21,920
 who wanna integrate a new business idea,

970
01:07:21,920 --> 01:07:24,300
 and that that's also been a barrier for folks

971
01:07:24,300 --> 01:07:27,120
 who might not have the capital or the wealth base

972
01:07:27,120 --> 01:07:29,920
 to be able to move into that entrepreneurship space fully.

973
01:07:29,920 --> 01:07:33,280
 So expanding on the types of office spaces

974
01:07:33,280 --> 01:07:34,920
 that might be available,

975
01:07:34,920 --> 01:07:37,400
 sorry, not office, retail spaces that might be available,

976
01:07:37,400 --> 01:07:42,400
 thinking about the pathway from an idea to brick and mortar,

977
01:07:42,400 --> 01:07:45,080
 there's a lot of steps in between there

978
01:07:45,080 --> 01:07:47,440
 that we can use to kind of create more opportunities,

979
01:07:47,440 --> 01:07:49,080
 and that that may also be a place

980
01:07:49,080 --> 01:07:51,840
 where we can continue to diversify the businesses

981
01:07:51,840 --> 01:07:53,740
 and who they serve within downtown.

982
01:07:53,740 --> 01:07:56,320
 So there's a lot of little pieces and a lot of details

983
01:07:56,320 --> 01:07:57,920
 that I think we're excited to get into,

984
01:07:57,920 --> 01:08:01,800
 and I also just, I love your point about the messaging,

985
01:08:01,800 --> 01:08:04,360
 the education, and making sure that people feel

986
01:08:04,360 --> 01:08:07,240
 that they have the data in order to make good decisions

987
01:08:07,240 --> 01:08:09,200
 about these things, and that's definitely something

988
01:08:09,200 --> 01:08:11,700
 that we'll continue to work towards.

989
01:08:11,700 --> 01:08:12,540
 Thank you.

990
01:08:12,540 --> 01:08:14,480
 Mayor.

991
01:08:14,480 --> 01:08:16,040
 - You wanna touch on next steps?

992
01:08:16,040 --> 01:08:16,880
 - Sure.

993
01:08:16,880 --> 01:08:20,520
 So just to speak a little bit

994
01:08:20,520 --> 01:08:23,640
 to some of the most important next steps

995
01:08:23,640 --> 01:08:25,480
 that will be coming up.

996
01:08:25,480 --> 01:08:28,400
 We will be recording a video of the entire case for action

997
01:08:28,400 --> 01:08:31,440
 as well as releasing the data analysis that we have,

998
01:08:31,440 --> 01:08:35,800
 and we will have one video that's all 50 slides,

999
01:08:35,800 --> 01:08:38,840
 that's probably an hour of me and other people talking.

1000
01:08:38,840 --> 01:08:41,560
 We will also cut them up into smaller segments,

1001
01:08:41,560 --> 01:08:43,920
 so if you're really interested in the business data,

1002
01:08:43,920 --> 01:08:46,400
 you can just watch that piece and so on and so forth,

1003
01:08:46,400 --> 01:08:49,240
 so being able to actually be able to get into that,

1004
01:08:49,240 --> 01:08:52,080
 as well as releasing the sort of documentation

1005
01:08:52,080 --> 01:08:53,920
 and all of those kind of components.

1006
01:08:54,880 --> 01:08:56,320
 For this phase of engagement,

1007
01:08:56,320 --> 01:08:58,640
 we will also be doing additional online engagement,

1008
01:08:58,640 --> 01:09:00,800
 so these same sort of questions that we've been asking

1009
01:09:00,800 --> 01:09:04,320
 we'll continue to get feedback on on our online portal.

1010
01:09:04,320 --> 01:09:06,520
 We'll probably open that up in about a week

1011
01:09:06,520 --> 01:09:08,920
 and then have that open for probably around a month

1012
01:09:08,920 --> 01:09:11,680
 as we're continuing to get feedback.

1013
01:09:11,680 --> 01:09:14,240
 And then importantly, as you brought up, George,

1014
01:09:14,240 --> 01:09:17,720
 we will be looking at focus groups

1015
01:09:17,720 --> 01:09:19,840
 on some of these key topics where we know

1016
01:09:19,840 --> 01:09:23,480
 that we need to dive deeper in order to get the information

1017
01:09:23,480 --> 01:09:26,920
 and put strategies together in a way that really impacts

1018
01:09:26,920 --> 01:09:30,640
 and affects the changes that help us move towards

1019
01:09:30,640 --> 01:09:32,240
 this larger vision.

1020
01:09:32,240 --> 01:09:34,880
 Through all of that, we were going to begin working really

1021
01:09:34,880 --> 01:09:37,160
 on the development of what are the actions,

1022
01:09:37,160 --> 01:09:38,560
 so the what are we actually gonna do,

1023
01:09:38,560 --> 01:09:40,640
 which I know all of you are itching to find out

1024
01:09:40,640 --> 01:09:42,800
 and think about and contribute to.

1025
01:09:42,800 --> 01:09:45,200
 So the next time that we come back with you all in public,

1026
01:09:45,200 --> 01:09:47,440
 those will be the conversations that we'll be having,

1027
01:09:47,440 --> 01:09:48,840
 where we'll have some of these ideas

1028
01:09:48,840 --> 01:09:52,040
 that we can continue to drill down on and think about,

1029
01:09:52,040 --> 01:09:54,280
 again, what do we need to do for a second, third,

1030
01:09:54,280 --> 01:09:57,160
 how are we leveraging all of our different tools

1031
01:09:57,160 --> 01:09:58,880
 and opportunities and strategies

1032
01:09:58,880 --> 01:10:02,000
 towards those types of outcomes.

1033
01:10:02,000 --> 01:10:03,960
 So those will be some of our next steps.

1034
01:10:03,960 --> 01:10:07,320
 Sir.

1035
01:10:07,320 --> 01:10:08,520
 - And this is for the city manager.

1036
01:10:08,520 --> 01:10:11,280
 If I can get a feel for what the engagement is,

1037
01:10:11,280 --> 01:10:14,560
 how far this engagement will take us, right?

1038
01:10:14,560 --> 01:10:17,360
 'Cause if there's a supplement, kind of a next step

1039
01:10:17,360 --> 01:10:20,120
 that we're not contracted for,

1040
01:10:20,120 --> 01:10:22,200
 I wanna have that conversation maybe earlier,

1041
01:10:22,200 --> 01:10:24,960
 sooner than later, so that there's not a break.

1042
01:10:24,960 --> 01:10:26,000
 I don't know that there will be,

1043
01:10:26,000 --> 01:10:27,400
 but just wanna get a feel for that.

1044
01:10:27,400 --> 01:10:29,120
 And then my challenge for you though,

1045
01:10:29,120 --> 01:10:32,800
 is to make sure we're continuing.

1046
01:10:32,800 --> 01:10:36,640
 If I'm tracking with you right, if early on the onset,

1047
01:10:36,640 --> 01:10:39,920
 then maybe you can put it up there for everyone.

1048
01:10:39,920 --> 01:10:41,520
 So the map that we're talking about,

1049
01:10:41,520 --> 01:10:44,000
 the area that we're talking about, right?

1050
01:10:44,000 --> 01:10:47,760
 I would just challenge you to continue to push,

1051
01:10:47,760 --> 01:10:51,680
 to have that be top of mind, right?

1052
01:10:51,680 --> 01:10:54,280
 Because you're talking about a catalyst project

1053
01:10:54,280 --> 01:10:56,160
 for that entire area,

1054
01:10:56,160 --> 01:11:00,680
 and resist the battle of the square proper, right?

1055
01:11:00,680 --> 01:11:03,080
 So whenever we're talking about square proper,

1056
01:11:03,080 --> 01:11:05,040
 it's gonna be incumbent upon you to push back to say,

1057
01:11:05,040 --> 01:11:08,400
 no, we need a catalyst project that's beyond these four walls.

1058
01:11:08,400 --> 01:11:09,240
 - And I will clarify,

1059
01:11:09,240 --> 01:11:10,960
 it will be multiple catalyst projects.

1060
01:11:10,960 --> 01:11:13,800
 - Yeah, I agree, but still I just think

1061
01:11:13,800 --> 01:11:18,680
 there's this closing in between locus and L,

1062
01:11:18,680 --> 01:11:22,000
 versus the map that you've identified,

1063
01:11:22,000 --> 01:11:24,840
 and the need to push back regularly,

1064
01:11:24,840 --> 01:11:29,080
 so that we all are thinking of scope, size,

1065
01:11:29,080 --> 01:11:30,520
 those sort of things properly.

1066
01:11:30,520 --> 01:11:33,600
 - I will say, one of the best practices that we've seen,

1067
01:11:33,600 --> 01:11:35,600
 as I said, I was the project manager

1068
01:11:35,600 --> 01:11:37,640
 on Houston's downtown plan.

1069
01:11:37,640 --> 01:11:40,080
 And when we were going through the process

1070
01:11:40,080 --> 01:11:42,200
 of the award for that project,

1071
01:11:42,200 --> 01:11:43,880
 one of the things that they prompted us with

1072
01:11:43,880 --> 01:11:48,880
 is that they wanted us to read the downtown plans

1073
01:11:48,880 --> 01:11:53,200
 of all of the 50 biggest cities in the country,

1074
01:11:53,200 --> 01:11:54,240
 and give them a response about

1075
01:11:54,240 --> 01:11:55,720
 what were some of the best practices,

1076
01:11:55,720 --> 01:11:57,680
 ideas that we got out of that.

1077
01:11:57,680 --> 01:12:00,400
 And I think one of the things that we saw very clearly

1078
01:12:00,400 --> 01:12:03,480
 as a best practice that a lot of downtowns are pursuing

1079
01:12:03,480 --> 01:12:06,200
 is that a lot of downtowns in the early 2000s,

1080
01:12:06,200 --> 01:12:08,480
 they had a downtown plan

1081
01:12:08,480 --> 01:12:10,400
 that was about really strengthening the core,

1082
01:12:10,400 --> 01:12:12,160
 that they really needed to come back,

1083
01:12:12,160 --> 01:12:14,160
 and really make sure that the square,

1084
01:12:14,160 --> 01:12:16,960
 their equivalent of the square was doing well.

1085
01:12:16,960 --> 01:12:19,840
 The newer plans have been all about the edges,

1086
01:12:19,840 --> 01:12:22,280
 and making sure that there's a great relationship

1087
01:12:22,280 --> 01:12:24,960
 between downtown and its adjacent communities

1088
01:12:24,960 --> 01:12:27,200
 that makes sure that downtown

1089
01:12:27,200 --> 01:12:29,240
 is really an integral part of the city,

1090
01:12:29,240 --> 01:12:31,640
 not a sort of island in the middle of it.

1091
01:12:31,640 --> 01:12:32,680
 And I think that's something

1092
01:12:32,680 --> 01:12:34,160
 that we really take to heart as well.

1093
01:12:34,160 --> 01:12:37,120
 And we've heard a lot of feedback about the ways,

1094
01:12:37,120 --> 01:12:38,960
 even that some of the major streets

1095
01:12:38,960 --> 01:12:41,840
 that form our boundaries, Bell, University, Carroll,

1096
01:12:41,840 --> 01:12:43,920
 have been barriers between people

1097
01:12:43,920 --> 01:12:46,640
 really using downtown as well.

1098
01:12:46,640 --> 01:12:49,680
 And so I think there will absolutely be a focus

1099
01:12:49,680 --> 01:12:51,920
 on multiple areas in and around,

1100
01:12:51,920 --> 01:12:54,280
 a real desire to continue to expand

1101
01:12:54,280 --> 01:12:55,440
 on what's been good about the square,

1102
01:12:55,440 --> 01:12:57,360
 but make it go further,

1103
01:12:57,360 --> 01:13:00,080
 and to think about the way that those edges

1104
01:13:00,080 --> 01:13:03,880
 can be more inviting and create more opportunities

1105
01:13:03,880 --> 01:13:06,160
 for the detonites who live around downtown

1106
01:13:06,160 --> 01:13:09,480
 to be a part of what's going on in downtown as well.

1107
01:13:09,480 --> 01:13:10,760
 Thank you.

1108
01:13:10,760 --> 01:13:13,240
 - So anything else from your end before we...

1109
01:13:13,240 --> 01:13:15,440
 Okay, anything else from our end?

1110
01:13:15,440 --> 01:13:16,280
 Okay.

1111
01:13:16,280 --> 01:13:18,880
 - When scheduling the focus groups,

1112
01:13:18,880 --> 01:13:22,640
 would you please consider a variety of time options

1113
01:13:22,640 --> 01:13:25,320
 for people who really have to be involved

1114
01:13:25,320 --> 01:13:27,320
 and not take up work to attend?

1115
01:13:27,320 --> 01:13:28,720
 - Yes, absolutely.

1116
01:13:28,720 --> 01:13:32,560
 Council Member Byrd?

1117
01:13:32,560 --> 01:13:37,560
 - Also, I'm just looking at that map that you have there.

1118
01:13:37,560 --> 01:13:41,600
 I do understand that we are considering

1119
01:13:41,600 --> 01:13:43,720
 moving downtown eastward

1120
01:13:43,720 --> 01:13:49,840
 and capturing some areas where our new,

1121
01:13:49,840 --> 01:13:53,440
 I mean, where our updated police department is

1122
01:13:53,440 --> 01:13:58,440
 over on Anchorage Street and Industrial

1123
01:13:58,440 --> 01:14:02,320
 and Sycamore, pulling all of that in

1124
01:14:02,320 --> 01:14:06,760
 to the downtown area.

1125
01:14:06,760 --> 01:14:11,480
 I'm not sure where we need to be going with that or not.

1126
01:14:11,480 --> 01:14:14,160
 - We're just evaluating all of the area plans

1127
01:14:14,160 --> 01:14:16,640
 and how they work together.

1128
01:14:16,640 --> 01:14:19,080
 So it isn't necessarily that that's gonna be part

1129
01:14:19,080 --> 01:14:21,240
 of downtown or it's part of southeast

1130
01:14:21,240 --> 01:14:23,200
 or what's to the north,

1131
01:14:23,200 --> 01:14:24,160
 but we're gonna evaluate,

1132
01:14:24,160 --> 01:14:25,840
 and that's where you were speaking to the fringes,

1133
01:14:25,840 --> 01:14:27,840
 what's on the fringes of downtown.

1134
01:14:27,840 --> 01:14:30,960
 What we've taken is the previous documents

1135
01:14:30,960 --> 01:14:33,160
 that we've had that have been different plans

1136
01:14:33,160 --> 01:14:34,960
 for the downtown area,

1137
01:14:34,960 --> 01:14:37,960
 and then trying to just get the general area,

1138
01:14:37,960 --> 01:14:39,400
 and then where should that be?

1139
01:14:39,400 --> 01:14:41,520
 So that's all that feedback.

1140
01:14:41,520 --> 01:14:44,000
 They met yesterday with the consultants

1141
01:14:44,000 --> 01:14:45,720
 from the southeast plan,

1142
01:14:45,720 --> 01:14:49,840
 and then really looking at how those two are connected

1143
01:14:49,840 --> 01:14:52,680
 and what would work best.

1144
01:14:52,680 --> 01:14:54,960
 So nothing's been determined.

1145
01:14:54,960 --> 01:14:58,000
 - Okay, well, just put this out here on the table

1146
01:14:58,000 --> 01:14:59,360
 and lay it down there.

1147
01:15:00,440 --> 01:15:02,440
 That I know that those community members

1148
01:15:02,440 --> 01:15:04,800
 over in that area are very concerned.

1149
01:15:04,800 --> 01:15:08,920
 When you're speaking to the director of the funeral home,

1150
01:15:08,920 --> 01:15:11,720
 'cause he knows everybody and everything,

1151
01:15:11,720 --> 01:15:15,000
 that his perception is that parts of their community

1152
01:15:15,000 --> 01:15:17,760
 is gonna be pulled into downtown.

1153
01:15:17,760 --> 01:15:19,040
 That is very worrisome,

1154
01:15:19,040 --> 01:15:21,040
 so you all please keep that in mind.

1155
01:15:21,040 --> 01:15:22,720
 - Absolutely, thank you.

1156
01:15:22,720 --> 01:15:24,880
 And for us as staff, we look at this.

1157
01:15:24,880 --> 01:15:26,320
 This is Denton.

1158
01:15:26,320 --> 01:15:29,080
 So we're just managing really all of the interests

1159
01:15:29,080 --> 01:15:31,320
 and the interest of what different groups there may be

1160
01:15:31,320 --> 01:15:32,520
 and what makes the most sense.

1161
01:15:32,520 --> 01:15:36,040
 So we absolutely aren't saying this is downtown.

1162
01:15:36,040 --> 01:15:39,480
 This is southeast, this is northeast.

1163
01:15:39,480 --> 01:15:41,560
 It is just, we've got several area plans.

1164
01:15:41,560 --> 01:15:45,040
 How does this fit Denton and what's best for the long haul?

1165
01:15:45,040 --> 01:15:46,240
 - That's my job.

1166
01:15:46,240 --> 01:15:47,560
 - Yes, ma'am.

1167
01:15:47,560 --> 01:15:48,400
 Yes, ma'am.

1168
01:15:48,400 --> 01:15:49,760
 Thank you.

1169
01:15:49,760 --> 01:15:51,040
 Thank you.

1170
01:15:51,040 --> 01:15:51,880
 Ma'am.

1171
01:15:51,880 --> 01:15:52,720
 - Quick question.

1172
01:15:52,720 --> 01:15:53,560
 Just congrats.

1173
01:15:53,560 --> 01:15:56,160
 I know how hard it is to do public engagement,

1174
01:15:56,160 --> 01:16:00,520
 but I did have my thoughts on our action items for later.

1175
01:16:00,520 --> 01:16:03,200
 But as we finished the last bit of engagement,

1176
01:16:03,200 --> 01:16:04,400
 a couple of questions I had is,

1177
01:16:04,400 --> 01:16:07,160
 I saw you guys at Parking Day and I agree with sentiments,

1178
01:16:07,160 --> 01:16:10,880
 but instead of just the total bulk quantity

1179
01:16:10,880 --> 01:16:12,280
 of comments we got,

1180
01:16:12,280 --> 01:16:15,360
 I'm assuming we don't have any demographic info from people.

1181
01:16:15,360 --> 01:16:16,200
 - That's true.

1182
01:16:16,200 --> 01:16:18,160
 - Do we have any indication of how these comments

1183
01:16:18,160 --> 01:16:20,120
 were dispersed between the events?

1184
01:16:20,120 --> 01:16:21,480
 - Between the different events, we absolutely do.

1185
01:16:21,480 --> 01:16:22,320
 Yes.

1186
01:16:22,320 --> 01:16:23,440
 - It's a very specific group.

1187
01:16:23,440 --> 01:16:25,240
 - It's a very different, yes.

1188
01:16:25,240 --> 01:16:26,680
 - Yep, absolutely.

1189
01:16:26,680 --> 01:16:29,400
 - And then with that, kind of a follow-up is,

1190
01:16:29,400 --> 01:16:32,600
 did we offer any, even if you're at an event,

1191
01:16:32,600 --> 01:16:34,000
 you have leisure time, you're there,

1192
01:16:34,000 --> 01:16:35,040
 you already care about the square,

1193
01:16:35,040 --> 01:16:36,440
 you want to be at an event.

1194
01:16:36,440 --> 01:16:39,200
 Do we, to engage, to disengage, as you mentioned,

1195
01:16:39,200 --> 01:16:43,720
 did we offer any incentives to people to give feedback?

1196
01:16:43,720 --> 01:16:47,360
 - Not per se, no.

1197
01:16:47,360 --> 01:16:49,000
 - I don't know if that's something we could consider,

1198
01:16:49,000 --> 01:16:51,760
 but when you're--

1199
01:16:51,760 --> 01:16:54,120
 - I guess I will say it may be a possibility

1200
01:16:54,120 --> 01:16:56,240
 in some of the focus groups, especially,

1201
01:16:56,240 --> 01:16:59,360
 depending on what those topics end up being.

1202
01:16:59,360 --> 01:17:02,000
 - I don't know, I think that's something to consider.

1203
01:17:02,000 --> 01:17:02,840
 - We--

1204
01:17:02,840 --> 01:17:04,200
 - If you're away from person--

1205
01:17:04,200 --> 01:17:08,200
 - To the extent possible, we did also try to choose

1206
01:17:08,200 --> 01:17:10,080
 different events that, as you said,

1207
01:17:10,080 --> 01:17:11,840
 Parking Day is one that those folks

1208
01:17:11,840 --> 01:17:13,000
 around the square all the time,

1209
01:17:13,000 --> 01:17:15,040
 they're within a certain demographic,

1210
01:17:15,040 --> 01:17:17,840
 and they have a certain perspective.

1211
01:17:17,840 --> 01:17:20,880
 We also tried to go to some events

1212
01:17:20,880 --> 01:17:23,440
 that people who don't usually come downtown would be at,

1213
01:17:23,440 --> 01:17:25,920
 so that we would have an opportunity to talk with them,

1214
01:17:25,920 --> 01:17:28,440
 and I think we're gonna continue looking for opportunities

1215
01:17:28,440 --> 01:17:31,560
 to continue to find different types of events

1216
01:17:31,560 --> 01:17:33,440
 where different types of folks will be gathering,

1217
01:17:33,440 --> 01:17:35,240
 both downtown and probably also spreading out

1218
01:17:35,240 --> 01:17:36,600
 a little bit outside of downtown,

1219
01:17:36,600 --> 01:17:40,080
 in order to make sure that we're continuing to get feedback

1220
01:17:40,080 --> 01:17:41,760
 from a variety of different people

1221
01:17:41,760 --> 01:17:43,400
 about a variety of different needs.

1222
01:17:43,400 --> 01:17:45,680
 - And the last part on the feedback that I had is,

1223
01:17:45,680 --> 01:17:46,760
 I think it's totally understandable

1224
01:17:46,760 --> 01:17:48,080
 that people have safety concerns,

1225
01:17:48,080 --> 01:17:50,120
 and I think I have seen those comments as well,

1226
01:17:50,120 --> 01:17:53,280
 but with thinking of echoing George's point

1227
01:17:53,280 --> 01:17:55,240
 with our homeless members,

1228
01:17:55,240 --> 01:17:57,560
 if they're sharing downtown, they're in our community,

1229
01:17:57,560 --> 01:18:01,560
 did we get their feedback in any kind of counter,

1230
01:18:01,560 --> 01:18:03,200
 maybe to get both sides of the perspective?

1231
01:18:03,200 --> 01:18:05,960
 Did we have any feedback from also folks?

1232
01:18:05,960 --> 01:18:09,080
 - You know, we did definitely have some conversations

1233
01:18:09,080 --> 01:18:11,600
 with folks during some of those events,

1234
01:18:11,600 --> 01:18:13,040
 and then we've had conversations

1235
01:18:13,040 --> 01:18:14,240
 with some of the service providers,

1236
01:18:14,240 --> 01:18:16,720
 which I know don't necessarily represent

1237
01:18:16,720 --> 01:18:18,000
 everybody within that.

1238
01:18:18,000 --> 01:18:21,440
 So we've tried to get a variety of perspectives

1239
01:18:21,440 --> 01:18:24,440
 from folks that are working with unhoused individuals,

1240
01:18:24,440 --> 01:18:27,480
 as well as folks that were willing to talk to us

1241
01:18:27,480 --> 01:18:29,680
 during some of those events as well.

1242
01:18:29,680 --> 01:18:31,440
 I will also just, for your interest,

1243
01:18:31,440 --> 01:18:33,600
 we will be releasing all of the raw data,

1244
01:18:33,600 --> 01:18:36,280
 and it will be broken down by the different events

1245
01:18:36,280 --> 01:18:37,760
 and all of those sort of,

1246
01:18:37,760 --> 01:18:39,800
 so there's a lot of different ways that you can sort that

1247
01:18:39,800 --> 01:18:42,120
 and look at all of the different data that we got

1248
01:18:42,120 --> 01:18:43,480
 in those different methods.

1249
01:18:43,480 --> 01:18:46,600
 Mr. Mayor, I'm looking to you.

1250
01:18:46,600 --> 01:18:49,040
 - Yeah, if our hearts and minds are clear.

1251
01:18:49,040 --> 01:18:49,880
 - Let me just say a comment.

1252
01:18:49,880 --> 01:18:51,720
 - Okay, by all means.

1253
01:18:51,720 --> 01:18:52,560
 - Scott, can I have one?

1254
01:18:52,560 --> 01:18:53,400
 - Sorry.

1255
01:18:53,400 --> 01:18:54,240
 - I know, that's okay.

1256
01:18:54,240 --> 01:18:56,040
 - Is there anybody else in queue so that we know?

1257
01:18:56,040 --> 01:18:56,880
 - Thank you.

1258
01:18:56,880 --> 01:19:02,480
 - I just wanted to compliment you all actually,

1259
01:19:02,480 --> 01:19:04,440
 and Sean and Cameron,

1260
01:19:04,440 --> 01:19:07,640
 'cause I personally think you all have done an excellent job

1261
01:19:07,640 --> 01:19:12,640
 of engaging with various parts of the community

1262
01:19:12,640 --> 01:19:14,520
 at all kinds of events.

1263
01:19:14,520 --> 01:19:18,360
 Sean and Cameron have been extremely enthusiastic out there

1264
01:19:18,360 --> 01:19:20,440
 in trying to get people's opinions.

1265
01:19:20,440 --> 01:19:24,840
 And I think you can tell just from even this meeting,

1266
01:19:24,840 --> 01:19:29,840
 seeing the priorities that you've listed are a good list.

1267
01:19:29,840 --> 01:19:33,080
 This is a very diverse group here.

1268
01:19:33,080 --> 01:19:36,120
 There's a lot of us who are downtown all the time.

1269
01:19:36,120 --> 01:19:37,640
 There are people who don't go downtown

1270
01:19:37,640 --> 01:19:39,560
 or know anything about it at all.

1271
01:19:39,560 --> 01:19:44,560
 And yet we are still in a consensus with these priorities,

1272
01:19:44,560 --> 01:19:47,600
 maybe not in ordering them.

1273
01:19:47,600 --> 01:19:49,600
 And maybe that's not even where we should focus

1274
01:19:49,600 --> 01:19:51,400
 on ordering them per se,

1275
01:19:51,400 --> 01:19:54,920
 because as Eric presented so eloquently

1276
01:19:54,920 --> 01:19:58,040
 and Councilman Holland brought it up too,

1277
01:19:58,040 --> 01:19:59,240
 these things work together.

1278
01:19:59,240 --> 01:20:02,160
 So you fix certain things, the other things will come.

1279
01:20:02,160 --> 01:20:06,120
 And so all of this is a collective group of things.

1280
01:20:06,120 --> 01:20:09,320
 They're all priorities and you've done a great job

1281
01:20:09,320 --> 01:20:12,360
 of coming up with the priorities.

1282
01:20:12,360 --> 01:20:14,680
 Now the thing is the action.

1283
01:20:14,680 --> 01:20:18,160
 How do we make this plan happen?

1284
01:20:18,160 --> 01:20:19,680
 How do we get the housing done?

1285
01:20:19,680 --> 01:20:21,680
 How do we bring in more people?

1286
01:20:21,680 --> 01:20:23,000
 How do we fix the streets?

1287
01:20:23,000 --> 01:20:24,840
 All of that is part of the whole action plan

1288
01:20:24,840 --> 01:20:25,800
 which comes next.

1289
01:20:25,800 --> 01:20:27,920
 But I think this first round of data,

1290
01:20:27,920 --> 01:20:31,520
 I think you've done an excellent, excellent job.

1291
01:20:31,520 --> 01:20:32,840
 - Thank you, we really appreciate that.

1292
01:20:32,840 --> 01:20:35,200
 We especially appreciate, again, Sean and Cameron,

1293
01:20:35,200 --> 01:20:38,120
 you guys have a great team working with us here.

1294
01:20:38,120 --> 01:20:40,720
 (audience applauding)

1295
01:20:40,720 --> 01:20:45,200
 I will say that, yes, there's a storytelling aspect

1296
01:20:45,200 --> 01:20:47,720
 to what we do and being able to pull these things together

1297
01:20:47,720 --> 01:20:49,960
 and put them in a way that starts to make sense.

1298
01:20:49,960 --> 01:20:53,880
 But this is about the wisdom of the community

1299
01:20:53,880 --> 01:20:56,200
 to be able to bring these things forward.

1300
01:20:56,200 --> 01:20:58,840
 And again, in a way that we've seen much more consensus

1301
01:20:58,840 --> 01:21:01,120
 than we've seen areas that were divided on it.

1302
01:21:01,120 --> 01:21:04,600
 And I think that's extremely, extremely exciting.

1303
01:21:04,600 --> 01:21:07,560
 - Okay, another opportunity for community engagement

1304
01:21:07,560 --> 01:21:10,880
 coming up January 24th to 28th, that is,

1305
01:21:10,880 --> 01:21:12,200
 the Denton Black Film Festival.

1306
01:21:12,200 --> 01:21:13,760
 - Yes. - Would love to have you out.

1307
01:21:13,760 --> 01:21:15,240
 - We just had a conversation about that

1308
01:21:15,240 --> 01:21:17,040
 and I think we would love to do that.

1309
01:21:17,040 --> 01:21:20,360
 Thank you.

1310
01:21:20,360 --> 01:21:22,440
 - Great, well, anyone else?

1311
01:21:22,440 --> 01:21:24,320
 Great, well, I'll echo those sentiments.

1312
01:21:24,320 --> 01:21:26,360
 Thank you very much, appreciate your presentation today.

1313
01:21:26,360 --> 01:21:30,160
 A lot of information covered quickly, succinctly.

1314
01:21:30,160 --> 01:21:33,360
 Great feedback, so look forward to next steps,

1315
01:21:33,360 --> 01:21:34,360
 that sort of thing.

1316
01:21:38,000 --> 01:21:40,120
 - Oh, sorry, oh, okay.

1317
01:21:40,120 --> 01:21:45,120
 So with that, I'll let the other boards close

1318
01:21:45,120 --> 01:21:48,320
 and then I'll close, so, yeah.

1319
01:21:48,320 --> 01:21:52,760
 - Sure, it's interesting.

1320
01:21:52,760 --> 01:21:54,560
 So it's 12/24 and with that,

1321
01:21:54,560 --> 01:21:57,760
 I will end the parks portion of this meeting.

1322
01:21:57,760 --> 01:22:01,560
 - And I will adjourn the GNC at this joint meeting

1323
01:22:01,560 --> 01:22:02,880
 at 12/24 p.m.

1324
01:22:02,880 --> 01:22:04,720
 - Okay, and at that same time,

1325
01:22:04,720 --> 01:22:08,240
 we'll conclude the council's portion of the meeting

1326
01:22:08,240 --> 01:22:11,480
 and we will reconvene at three o'clock at city hall.

1327
01:22:11,480 --> 01:22:12,720
 Thanks. - I appreciate it.