[ Inaudible Remark ]
>> Yeah, so we have our first item.
>> Yes.
>> This is a report called "Concession to Get Feedback
Regarding Sovereign Projects,
Buying and Predestined Projects, and ADA Transition Plan."
[ Music ]
I am going to provide a brief update on the City's Sidewalk
Work Plan and ADA Transition Plan,
whatever effort the City is making, the transportation services and the other departments.
We will be able to provide a brief update on that.
The presentation would consist of three parts.
The first would talk about Sidewalk Work Plan.
We will talk about mission, goals, benefits,
segment completions for '21, '23, and then '24, '26 as well.
Then we can talk about bike lanes and micromobility
or transportation strategy that we are looking into right now.
Not only shared mobility, but at large other areas as well.
And then finally, I'll talk about ADA Transition Plan
and what implementation or strategic efforts we're making when it comes to ADA.
The mission is focused on developing this master sidewalk work plan that is efficient,
that is aggressive issues, and is founded by bond funding limitations
and also respecting all the needs that are there.
Some of the goals, important goals include providing improved sidewalks
and bike lanes as well, as well as they also bring ADA side of these elements.
Also ensuring that we are strictly following the PPI, the index that we have developed.
And also, as we speak, we are in the process of improving the interior
when it comes to sidewalks and bike lanes.
And in addition, we are also including some of these segments into the capital program
and capital street projects, making sure that when we implement those projects,
we are covering any sidewalk environment, any ADA compliance requirements as well.
We also coordinate with the development services department,
making sure that any new developments that are coming in,
we are following the missions and policy when it comes to development of the sidewalks,
compliance on ADA, and making sure that they are following those policies.
Some of the benefits, we have not listed all the benefits, it won't be possible to do that,
but some of the key benefits include equitable prioritization.
This is one of the most important aspects that the city is focused on,
where we are trying to ensure that any sidewalk or ADA-linked solutions
are implemented in cities during equitable, that is the focus.
Safe routes of school is another focus area that we are working on.
Right now, we have already, as part of the Safe Routes of School,
we have addressed three school zones recently,
and the fourth one we are working with the Alexandria Elementary.
We are going school by school, each school,
and we develop a school zone in those areas and develop these sidewalks
or implement any bike lanes or any other ADA requirements that need to be put in.
We use 2019 voter approved bond funds, that's another limitation that we have,
and we try to make sure that we have this, you know, compliant with that.
ADA transition plan is one of the key elements where we are continuously improving,
and later on I'll show you some slides where I'll show you how we are trying to address the ADA side of the equation.
It is heavy, it is, there are a lot of initiatives that we have recently launched,
and we'll talk about it in a few days.
And of course, the perimeter developments, perimeter street sidewalks are always there.
So these are the segment completion, completion using 2019 sidewalk bond funds.
Capital projects completed the following segments as a standalone or in many cases as part of larger capital projects.
And so this is, I won't go through the entire list, I'll just give you a moment to absorb it if you have any questions.
We have our team member from capital projects department who will address all those questions that you may have.
And if not, I'll move to the next one.
We have planned construction, just include the planned construction projects.
And again, you know, we have staff member from capital projects.
If there are any questions, we'll be happy to answer.
Is this available for printout?
The presentations? Yes.
There's a, there is a different, there's a corrected slide to this.
So I'll have to give you the correct slide before you print this out, if you don't mind.
Thank you.
So that will be given to maybe Carlotta and then?
Sure, yeah. Thank you.
So Discuss Dental is a website where it's a portal where anyone can log in and ask questions to project managers.
It also provides information about ongoing projects.
This potassium potential index PPI, that's what we call it, it has several elements, including downtown commercial, which decides between urban core area or suburban or what kind of core area it is, commercial, what kind of activities that gets one point.
For instance, transit, less than one-fourth of mile, you know, that gets one point to the criteria, and existing pathway, park or green belt, school, proximity to school, university, community shelter, and the list goes on.
And then we have ADA compliance as well, part of this criteria. And as I mentioned earlier, the Transportation Services Division is in the process of upgrading this criteria.
Right now we are adding more focus on crash pedestrians, crash data in terms of fatalities and serious incapacity injuries. We are trying to figure that information and perhaps use it in a better way when it comes to scoring or give more weightage or maybe respective weightage to that.
We are also trying to bring into consideration the relation between speed and possibility of grid block crossings or that kind of context into the criteria.
And last but not least, we are trying to include the hazardous walk zones to elementary schools and some of the public institutions where if the sidewalk is not present and walking conditions are hazardous, then instead of just prioritizing it into a score of one or two, they just give it 100% priority, not priority.
So all of those processes are at work and we will inform this committee and the final update is made and we will share that information.
For bike lanes, we have this slide, some projects, which are a train to UNP bike and pedestrian paths. Construction commission is 2025. It's listed for that. And then it includes Sycamore Street and then also West Street bike lane.
In addition to these projects, we have shared mobility study. Initially, we started with shared mobility study idea, but then we have expanded this idea to a transportation strategy study where we will include overall ideas, overall strategies for improving transportation system for all modes, including auto, bikes, bicycle users, pedestrians, and AD compliance.
And of course, public transportation part of it as well. So these studies are being made right now. We are in the process of developing the scope.
Also, you would notice that it says position fill. This position was, I think for a year or two, it was not filled. We were lucky to get Greg Scott in our team and Greg comes from Washington DOT.
He and I worked at Washington regional council in Salt Lake City for more than 16 years together in their planning section and were involved in a lot of public transportation initiatives and from scratch to full implementation.
If you have been in Salt Lake City, you know that they have extensive public transportation network and bike park network. And we were lucky to be part of those teams.
They were initiating it and they implemented those. He has over 30 years of experience in bike, bed, and ADA. And we are getting a lot of useful insights on how to upgrade our systems.
When it comes to ADA, and so we divided the ADA element into three phases. To begin with, when I started here last year at the city of London, I took it as a challenge where I need to understand the ADA equation first, what's going on and how I can resolve this, what is needed to happen.
So, first phase was challenges and assessment of those challenges. And that was from January to February, the early part of the year. And then phase two we completed, already completed, where we prioritized and developed the needs assessment process that was needed.
And then phase three was, which we are currently working on, is developing the work plans so that we could just, through the transition plan that we have, we choose projects and implement those. Next year we go to next list of projects and so that we have some implementation going on.
In case of phase one, of course we work with the, instead of having virtual meetings or email exchanges, we prefer to have in person meetings with the directors of tier one departments. Tier one departments are those where, departments that are directly linked with ADA implementation.
So we developed a system where we had several meetings with those directors and we directly asked them what are the challenges. That doesn't only include the technical side of the story, but also what are funding limitations, what are implementation limitations, and what are coordination limitations.
All of those were discussed with them, and we were able to develop these, well, identify these four departments, including fifth one is transportation services. So capital projects, facilities, streets and traffic operations, and parts of that.
So these are the four key departments where we have ADA transition plan tied to when it comes to infrastructure. And of course marketing and communication and a couple of other departments are out there where we are working with them to look at the system overall.
So in this case, we started with the 30 year transition plan for tier one departments, and it looks like it's current code of 45 million dollars, which is current dollars.
And when we look at this dollar amount in the future, it is a different value of course. We are working with these, and that's why we are translating this spreadsheet into an annual work plan, which is more manageable, and where we have availability of more realistic numbers, financial numbers, that the departments could provide us.
And so right now we are developing that plan, and every year, we will update the plan, we will implement the projects, we'll go to the next one. And in addition, we'll be also seeking external funding as well through federal sources, through state, and local as well.
In phase two, we are working with, closely working with departments where we are helping them, assisting them, developing their work plans, working closely to make sure that if any constructability issues are there, any financial issues are there, they are resolved.
And so this is a process in itself, and it will, of course, in the first attempt, it will take some time for us to start it down, but once it is in place, then every work plan, and five years and 10 years work plan will move in.
Another big step is this city of Denton departmental ADA liaison group.
That was a much needed step.
What it means is that we have, in each of city's departments, we have a contact point for ADA.
What it means, so we have monthly meetings with these staff members, we already have first meeting, where we were able to discuss that they will be the contact points, any ADA queries come, they will relay that information to ADA coordinator.
And then these queries will go with department with them. Typically we work with Carlotta as well, and it's a whole coordination thing, but establishing this group means that now no department in city is sitting, staff are not sitting there, oh I have ADA inquiry, now what do I do?
We have a group in the city that can collectively address any issue that is related to ADA. Also, the objective, one of the objectives of this group would be that we will start developing guidelines.
Standards, guidelines in coordination with U.S. Access Board, in coordination with TechStop, and make sure that we are creating good projects, so that any queries come, we are not just guessing, but we are providing guidance in line with the policies and guidelines of U.S. Access Board and TechStop.
And this assistance through different departments on a daily basis is ongoing and it's well coordinated effort, as I told you, it's just a group that matters.
We are also working on department specific trainings. The first training is scheduled for March, and that will be a generalized training, but then we will go to each department, for example Parks and Rec, and we will get their feedback on what questions we have.
And then we will draft the training around those questions and make sure that they are up to date. Greg Scott is also taking the lead on this and he's developing a training program.
This is just a flowchart of the ADA process. That's how best I can describe it. This is how complex it is, but we have worked it out. We understand where the funding stream is, where the challenges are, and as you can see, we are going to, we are starting with 10 years, then we are going to 5 years work plan, and then we have this transition, we are starting with 30 years.
We are starting with 30 years document, and so 30 years document is too big, too many projects, too much to handle. So we will have 10 years, 5 years, and annual work plan.
So annual work plan will be the most manageable document, very clear that what we are going to build, what we are going to do when it comes to 80 projects.
And then of course the funding stream will come in the middle, we will try to get more funds, and we will have pre-allocations. Since we would have previous knowledge of the annual ADA work plan, we will be able to allocate funding, or at least accommodate it in some way.
And then of course we will be in contact with EGLE and this department as well. This is the matrix that we will be using to prioritize projects, and of course it is a snapshot in time, as things go, we will improve this matrix, and we will work on that.
The federally funded sources are included here, we have already gotten SS4A grant for about, we have awarded that for about $720,000. We have applied for a couple of others.
We are working with HSIP, from Tex.org, awarded funding. Last few years we have brought several awards accepted, awarded in terms of HSIP projects which are safety related, but onwards we are giving consideration to EGLE.
And then we have TRIP projects recently approved.
So we are constantly working on this. We have established ADA grievance procedure, it's available on the website, and all citizens can access it, and there are many ways this could be accessed.
And the procedure is pretty standard, the complaint is come, it is reviewed, it is sent to the department, to the federal department, and then there is a clean process.
We have developed an ADA dashboard, which is a GIS application. This is offline right now. The application is offline because we are testing it right now, it's a test print project.
But what it does, it will show us not only annual work plan, but the projects implemented, and what was passed, and what departments they belong to, all of that information.
And this is a dramatic map that exists right now, this tool exists right now, but we are testing it. And onwards, once it is stable, it will be very helpful, because we will be able to directly see each year what's going on.
So we are continuously evolving, this tool is evolving, and business services and development, development services department is working on this.
So here in the milestone, when it comes to ADA, challenges, assessment, and ADA coordinator hiring, done, reach assessment and prioritization done,
annual work plan and initiate project delivery, we are 99% done. I'm just working with business services to make sure that we have that plan identified correctly so that the contracts are listed.
We are done with the dashboard where we are testing it right now offline. And then the next two steps will be that we will be developing a five plus five years program so that we have five years points in the list, and then five additional years so that any funding opportunities come, we can count on them.
And then grab them because we have projects ready in the plan. And then of course, we are proactively looking at funding strategy and implementation plans.
This year only we have applied for $100 million of that, and we are moving at regular pace.
Any questions, I'll be happy to answer.
I guess I will back to where we were talking about the costs and improvements in UNT sidewalks. Will that also, will there also be improvements made to the cost of the site?
As part of sidewalks?
Right.
Yes, that is, so in the capital program project, I understand that they do it as they implement the projects, that's given. But if not, even then, transportation services would review and then bring them in discussions.
Okay, I guess we would know what that means.
Unless we look at the project specifically.
So it's project specific.
But it is compliant to what is the industry standard.
Okay.
And then we were talking about the grievance procedure. I had two questions under that.
Robin, do you want to add something to this question?
So the, if you're talking about the Sycamore Side Path project, we do add crosswalks at the intersections. So they'll be, if they're existing, they'll be freshened up. If they're non-existent, then they'll be added.
But we won't add any mid-block crosswalks. We did have some requests from UNT down towards Welch to maybe add some mid-block, and that's just, that's a safety concern, and people are not prepared to slow down for a pedestrian in the middle of a street or a middle of a block.
So we wouldn't, we didn't entertain that idea. But we will add them at intersections.
We have signals at Carroll and two more places where we'll do, well, they're existing signals. We're upgrading the signals and we're adding pedestrian signals to those crossings.
The mid-block crossings, especially on short segments, become a hazard in some cases because the traffic signal is green on the other side.
There's a lot of cars parked on the street, and so that's a hindrance as well that people just can't, they don't have the vision, the site clearance for that.
We have a question here. As for the agreement procedure, what's the estimated response time?
Basically, the first response is quick, because we get the inquiry and then we deliver. And typically, if it comes to CMO, we are able to quickly identify which department it is going to, and they respond to them.
I would say within a day. Informing them that, it's not sooner actually, and then informing them that we have received your inquiry, we are working on it, and we'll get that.
And even on the solution side, if it is quickly implementable, I could talk about transportation services.
If it is quickly implementable, we try to do it within a week.
But in some cases, just today, we requested for two months of time because of the perfect sourcing and everything, but we try to do it as soon as possible.
And that's not only transportation services, I know parts of other departments, they address fairly quickly. What's the question to see? We have established system that quickly figures out very well what is going to be.
Part of it was green, part of it was red for non-compliant. Compliant, so is that just the downtown area, or that's not the whole system? This is just a sample. It's just what? It's just a sample slide. Oh, a sample.
Yeah, it's not representative. It's just to show you that they're playing with colors, and when it comes to dashboard, and the colors, so it could go to the intersections as well, it could go to the buildings, it could go to parks, and then also segments of sidewalks and facilities as well.
So this is not a complete menu. This is just a few items, but it has a lot more. And that's why it's taking, I mean, sometimes we don't want to make it online right now because we want to make sure that it is working stable.
The whole city, or just the downtown? The whole city. And it's due voting, but what it means is, the project will be on the correct address. I won't call it accurate, but it will be as good as it could be.
It's a big project. It is, but that's why I'm not promising anything. I'm just saying that we are working on it. That's our ambition. I'm hoping that this will work, that eventually it will work, and we'll be able to benefit from it. It's a tool. How accurate would it be? It's yet to be seen.
When you're putting in crossings and everything, how much do you have control over altering the street, like producing cutbacks on corners and daylighting?
It's the most complicated one. It's a situation that we get often. It's always tied to right of way. It's always tied to what other crossing street is, what is the function classification is, what the function classification is, and who owns it.
In the city, we have a lot of streets owned and redeemed by TextDot. That limits our functionality. It doesn't limit in a negative way. It means that it adds a process of going to TextDot and verifying it.
And for that, even for that, we have a very quick process where within two weeks, we are able to meet with TextDot. Now we are meeting with them by meeting with the city.
In other cases, which are simply city-owned streets and we have right of way, we don't have any right of way issues.
Another question I guess I have is this midpoint question of danger something, crossing midpoint. For people who are already crossing midpoint, is there an observation of where that's happening? For instance, people in college are just going to cut across the street, whether there's a crossing or not.
Is there an observation and ways to track that and point out, hey, we might as well put something in, move the parking back to increase the traffic points?
We could do some treatments, but at the same time, we have to be very careful because I give you an example of Hickory between Welch and Frye.
And so that's where a lot of jaywalking is by the students and other pedestrians. And so in that case, imagine so the signal on Frye, signal on Welch, they are very close.
I mean, I don't have, I had the measurement, exact measurement, but they are close. So drivers on Frye Street, when he sees Welch signal green, you know what their intention would be, get the screen.
So in doing that, this short circuit, if you have a mid-block crossing, then I mean, that's not all the factors, but that's one factor. We may, in our intention of doing some good to students, maybe put them into some kind of hazard.
So that's one. But then other considerations are that they are parking. There is on-street parking there. So even if we have a buffer area for students to come and cross, that's hidden behind the cars.
So that's another challenge. And at night time, how do we deal with that? The third one is that, I mean, these are just some, I mean, some factors that I can tell you without looking, without researching this.
The other factor could be that if you are using RFP blinkers and it has to be connected or maybe off signal, then it has to be connected to the signal heads on both sides.
So that becomes a challenge because we have enough cycle length to cover that short part where the traffic would stop and then become green again.
So all of these challenges are there. It looks very easy that we just go and, yes, it's a typical location where students are crossing and we can.
So it's very easy that we have to put the mid-block crossing. And there are other safety hazards that we have to do very often.
But at the longer segments, at the longer segments, I'll give you an example of Oaks, where we were doing, from Welch backwards, we were doing some auditing there.
That's a long stretch. It has some inclination, but we can do some things. So it all depends. It's context sensitive. It all depends on what the situation is, and it's definitely not simple.
I understand the sense. My point is that there's already doing. And that is hazardous to allow for knowing and keeping people at that point, specifically where you're talking about pedestrian traffic.
You're saying, well, we should let the car go as fast as they want and try to shoot that light. That's obviously not the right choice.
It is not. And you're saying, OK, we might put a pedestrian crossing midway, but now we're allowing students to cross and we might create an accident.
But I'm saying they're already crossing. So in this case, I am. Is it a liability concern? No, I think it's a safety concern.
So I'm not pointing. I'm not suggesting that we don't. What I'm suggesting is that if it is short, it's long, and we have signals on both sides, then maybe it's an education piece, a bit of education piece.
And we say that it's a crossing instead of only the other situation. So that's what we are recommending. So price for each intersection will be getting HSIB signal, full signal treatment.
So we are starting on that. Well, we are already glad we have already planned that.
So these signals, these intersections, fully activated pedestrian signals. And then to say that we have these two pedestrian signals, pickable signals there on each of these intersections.
And then saying that add another one in between, my hunch is that we could be putting them there. Because it's just very close. If it is a long stretch, just like I did with the number of Oak Street, then the possibility is there.
But when a stretch, when it is a short block, then it is more of a behavior issue than having it. And those cases would always be there.
So even if you put the pedestrian signal mid-block, I assure you that near Welch, you will see students cross.
And you will see on the other side, close to Fry Street, they will see, ah, you know, I'm going to this restaurant. See on both sides.
And the other part is that it's a one-way street, so they don't have to look both ways. They have to just look one way.
And so all of these complex issues are there. It's not easy. But we have given some thought on that.
And once this Fry Street and Welch Street connections are improved, with the pedestrian signals, voice activated, it will be right.
Does TWA present the same issues on their streets? We haven't heard. There was already an idea of making a pedestrian crossing and shutting down.
I don't know if that is fine. It is not fine. I think there is a study going on right now. That is more holistic improvement when it comes to mechanical.
Thank you so much.
Thank you so much. My name is Karen Robertson. I'm the project manager from the Tynetown Town Plan.
I do have my deputy project manager back in the morning. This is me this afternoon.
But thank you so much for inviting me here to speak with you all about this plan.
Before I begin, I just wanted to let you all know that it did pass at City Council public hearing on this past Tuesday evening.
So just to briefly go through the agenda for today, I'm going to just give you all a brief project overview, presenting some of the highlights of the downtown plan,
and then share with you all some of the planning recommendations, and then walk you all through a little bit of the implementation.
Is the document, I know it's 91 pages long, is it accessible to be printed so that we can have it for us to take notes or to write in it?
The actual plan or the presentation?
Well, both, but I mean the actual, is that this presentation in that 91 page development?
This presentation has pages from the plan, like Karen is going to cover different parts of it.
The actual plan itself is an attachment to the item that can be accessed from the website.
As you can print, I'm sure you can look at the library and print it, because it's something fake, isn't it?
Yes, it's accessible to print.
But it's not available, does it just go up to the desk and get it out and printed?
It is not printed.
Oh, I see.
I see.
Okay.
My apologies.
So just to run through the project schedule, it was a four-step phase process.
It did start back in June of 2023, but it really launched in July of 2023.
That first phase was really just trying to understand what are the current conditions?
What is going on currently and then what transportation issues are we dealing with?
What are our small businesses dealing with?
So looking at all of that and kind of compiling some goals in terms of understanding key issues and challenges.
That next phase, phase two, was envision phase.
That was a couple months running from fall 2023 through early 2024, and that was looking at a bunch of different strategies and approaches to our project goals.
Some of those project goals we ended up getting from the engagement over a series of months, and I'm going to touch a little bit more on those, but that was phase two.
Looking at phase three, ACT, which was from February to May of 2024, that's really just kind of compiling that clear path to implementation.
So really putting everything in a draft plan.
How are we going to actually meet those recommendations?
What are those action steps to meet those recommendations?
And so really trying to compile that and get that clear goal set in place.
And then finally, the adoption phase, which we just had.
Like I stated, it was adopted on this past Tuesday evening, but there are so many steps to come.
This is a 15 to 20 year plan.
So really kind of, which I'll talk a little bit more implementation, but I just wanted to share with you all, is that what you will see in this plan is that you might not see things right off the bat that are visible changes.
So there's really going to be those policy ordinances that are being put in place in those first couple years of the plan.
And then we start to see those physical and visible changes over time over the next five to 10 years.
Oh, also, sorry.
So this is the study area boundary.
This, when it comes to area plans, we have to give a boundary to an area plan.
This helps planning staff kind of figure out where we need to focus.
However, I want to preference that what is being shown as part of the plan is going to be, it's going to affect those neighboring communities in a good way, in a positive way.
Whether it's actual physical connections on Carroll Boulevard, those physical connections between Southeast Denton and downtown on Bell Avenue.
So it's not just all going to be within this one area.
These things that are being recommended as part of the plan are going to affect a larger area around it.
So public engagement, as shown on the phasing, we did a lot of the public engagement over multiple months.
We hosted pop-up events.
We hosted workshops over the months.
Over the last year, we had an online survey. I'm not sure if any of you all participated.
But we had a lot of great feedback from that, which regarded transportation, things that people loved about downtown, things that people felt that they needed downtown, including parks, crosswalks, sidewalks, all of those things.
And we also had a lot of great online engagement as well.
So this was, I believe, over a period this past year, we had 42 opportunities for public engagement.
This is our vision statement.
This vision statement was something that was reviewed and approved by our advisory group, as well as the Parks and Beautification Recreation Board, City Council, and the Planning and Social Commission.
They felt that this really supported and showed what our ultimate goals and what that ultimate future vision was for downtown.
These are the community priorities.
So these community priorities, which there are eight, these are really the main topics.
So basically from all that public engagement that we gathered throughout the fall, we ended up coming with these eight community priorities, which were kind of like the big ticket items.
So when I run through these next recommendations, know that different community priorities are being accomplished with each of these recommendations that I show.
So these are our recommendations.
They were split into four different categories.
We had better utilized downtown streetscapes.
Our two was build a network of improved public spaces, then we had target development to build on downtown's character and assets, and then lastly, promote downtown's nightlife, music, events, history, and art.
So we did have 23 recommendations in total, and under each of those recommendations are action steps.
So going to better utilize downtown dead room street space. One of the things that's really important to note is that that is where the city has the most control in terms of being able to assist with that public right.
So it's really looking how can we create a more a client walkable atmosphere, where can we get our pipelines, where should we be putting our vehicles, where should they flow, where they don't interact with pedestrians, where they don't.
I guess, everyone is being assigned kind of a certain area so that we can have multimodal transportation that can occur downtown.
So our first recommendation is right sizing for three conversion.
What the plan is focusing on specifically is looking at those streets that are controlled by the city.
We know we heard a lot about Alan locus during the engagement for this plan. However, the city does not currently own Alan locus so we really wanted to focus on those streets in those quarters that we have control over that we can really make a difference in the beginning.
So, looking at kind of here's an example of Carol Boulevard proposed section, we are working within the existing right away. So we're not looking to acquire any more land we're not looking to acquire anyone's properties or anything along these borders it's really working within
that existing right away. So as you can see from here we have two outer lanes, an inner lane and then a meeting with left turn.
We also have eight foot sidewalk level bikeway, and then we have a building frontage and pedestrian through zone, which is about eight and a half feet.
So it's really trying to make Carol Boulevard and our other streets walkable visually interesting ADA compliant, but allow still that vehicular movement throughout downtown, both moving east and west, west and north and south.
Another recommendation is our pedestrian priority routes or dental streets. These are just the main ones that are highlighted, but that doesn't mean that those are going to be the only streets where there are pedestrians are priority routes and dental streets.
This is just kind of giving us that laying that foundation for where we begin.
Denton Chill streets. One of the biggest things that we heard, and one of the things that our research showed is that there is a lot of concrete, a lot of concrete, there is not a lot of natural shading, and there's not a lot of built shade either.
So what these dental chill streets are really focusing on is built shade and also natural shade. So it's how can we create these pedestrian priority routes. How do we get people from point A to point B from the universities from TWA to DCTA train station or just to downtown in the entertainment area in a comfortable fashion, but also in a safe fashion.
And then, as you see, as I showed here, this is our kind of pedestrian priority district. That's where we are seeing sidewalks currently in place. But as I go through the rest of recommendations, you're going to see there is a large recommendation for south of the downtown square.
So this is just a rendering of those chill streets. Mind you, this is when it's in maturity. So this is not what it's going to look like right off the bat. I know we had a lot of questions, people saying that's what it's going to look like right when it's implemented.
I wish that would be amazing. But this is what we're hoping the look and feel of it is once it becomes more mature and those plants have some years to grow.
Where are some chill streets? I know they're probably not in Dayton, but in Dallas, are there some that they call that?
So this was something that our consultant actually came up with. And it's really just making sure that on those streets where we see a lot of concrete that we're prioritizing that natural and built shade.
So I guess it's a new coining of a term. But it really is just making sure that you add those shade elements so that it's just a cooler environment for people to walk in or commute in.
As well as just, I guess a little bit more visually interesting as well too.
So moving on to building a network of improved public spaces. The first one is Quaker Town Park Master Plan.
I know this has been a little controversial, but it is a conceptual plan. So I do want to practice that first and foremost.
This is from Community Engagement, but you can see that there's improvement of sidewalks and especially along McKinney Street actually bringing Quaker Town Park and extending that park space into downtown.
What we heard from a lot of people is that, wow, we didn't realize how close the park is actually to the square. It's a quarter of a mile, but a lot of people feel like it's huge walking distance because one, we don't have the shade.
Sometimes people feel like we're lacking sidewalks, we're lacking crosswalks, we're lacking all those different things that make it comfortable and make pedestrians feel safe to get from point A to point B.
So really focusing on McKinney Street, making sure there's a good connection. One of the discussions that you all will see in the plan is having that crosswalk be raised so that people understand that, hey, this is a pedestrian
crossway, you cannot be speeding, and that's also one of the things in terms of McKinney is that four and three or that conversion and making a little bit
more of a street that's more in the pedestrian scale versus a street for just vehicles.
Another recommendation is activating the vacant lots. This is showing the one that is on the square currently. One of the things that's being proposed, if this property were to be acquired, it's just an accessible ADA compliant ramp.
One of the things that we really heard from people was that moving from the square east down either Oak or Hickory is very dangerous, especially for someone who's in a wheelchair using a walker.
It can be a scary experience, and so having this ramp that kind of slopes down would be of huge help, but this is a conceptual plan that's being proposed. As you can see, there's some performance space as well.
There are larger sidewalks, so it would utilize the current right of way along Austin Street, but it would extend those or widen those sidewalks so that people can actually use, essentially use the sidewalks back there.
Another recommendation is activation of underutilized streets. One of the things is that we've really heard that those new streets that are right behind Oak and Hickory, so Pecan, Cedar, Walnut, and Austin.
They're heavily underutilized right now. It's mostly for loading, unloading, or parking, but they could be used for festivals. You could close them off.
They could be used for vendors. They could be used for art performances, whatever it may be, but making that space more usable and more accessible as well.
It's really activating those spaces. It's really focusing right now. It shows Denton Square District, but I think there's a lot of opportunity elsewhere in downtown where we could utilize this recommendation as well.
The next is target development to build on downtown's character analysis. This is what I briefly mentioned, developing south of the square.
With PEC 4, we brought out approximately 24 plus acres out of the floodplain south of the square. There is a lot of opportunity for redevelopment in that area.
As part of that recommendation, you see that there's some mixed use, a performing arts center. You see some residential and retail. We see a new park with an outdoor stage.
We're just seeing a mixture of uses that really activate the space and bring a little bit more of the different things that people are looking for.
We've heard a lot about an actual built outdoor stage that stays in place. People talked about performing arts center and how we have a lot of music. We have a lot of artists here.
We actually need, in addition to the campus theater, fine arts theater, all the current venues that exist, it'd be great just to add something else and really hone into our artistic side of Denton.
In addition, the plan encourages downtown living. This is the breakdown of anticipated housing need 10-year market forecasts in downtown, but the plan does recommend around 2,700 new residences in downtown to support this mixed use environment.
In addition, we know historic preservation is very important to Denton in regards to our square. That's what makes us unique in this historic infrastructure that's already in place.
So really looking at different opportunities to strengthen historic preservation as well.
This is very important. Public realm design guidelines and zoning recommendations. As I stated, where the city has the most control is really that public right of way.
One of the recommendations being put forth is public realm design guidelines and zoning recommendations. As you can see, this is something that is wanting to be placed throughout downtown.
Because of kind of the south of downtown, the square being underutilized currently, that will probably be where these kinds of implementations get launched.
But if we look at widening the pedestrian circulation pass, a bike trail, some plantings, we have a business amenity zone, drive lanes, so we're kind of condensing those drive lanes a little bit because we want people to slow down.
We want people driving fast through downtown or trying to get people to kind of understand the hierarchy of the streets and know that they're in an urban, walkable environment where you're going to see lots of pedestrians, you're going to see lots of bicyclists, and I guess just kind of enjoy the ride through downtown if you're going to be in a vehicle.
In addition, we're looking at exploring opportunities for specific programming. One of the things we did here was public and shared parking.
The plan is recommending some shared parking garages as well as just general parking garages.
There is a downtown parking study that occurred simultaneously with this plan. I know that that's nearing completion, so that will be kind of, they're going to kind of coincide and work together in terms of how do we move forward in terms of adding new parking, adding new structures, and also helping with wayfinding and how do we make sure that people know that there are accessible spaces throughout downtown.
And then the last section is promote nightlife, music events, history, and art.
Really looking at policy regulations to support music and nightlife. We know that Den is known for our music scene.
So it's really, what are those things that we can put in place from a policy ordinance side that really support our existing venues and future venues to come.
In addition, develop a performing arts center, as I stated, everyone that we had heard from in our public engagement really loved what we currently have, but they felt that there was additional need for more performance space in Den, with the amount of musicians and artists that we have here.
We know that Den's small businesses are key to our success, especially in downtown. And it's looking at what are those different policies and different grant programs or loan programs that we can implement that can support our small businesses.
So, you can see a couple different examples here, but really trying to support that existing community and character that we have in downtown.
We also have establishing a downtown brand. I'm sure in some of y'all's travels you have seen other downtowns that have a branding of sorts. So talking about a downtown brand and what that looks like, but also kind of telling stories with historic signage,
public art walks, really kind of feeding into what we think, you know, what the community feels that Den represents and is.
And then lastly, establishing a public improvement district. We currently do not have one. We do have the tax increment zone right now, which that as part of the plan is looking to expand.
But this is another district which would really be focused kind of on that public realm aspect with streetscape and infrastructure updates and funding, as well as helping to support that downtown ambassadors program.
But this is kind of that public realm assistance in terms of financing.
So then, next steps implementation.
So, this is kind of high level.
But in terms of our policy implementation priorities, as I stated, really to get this plan off the ground. Now that it's been adopted is really putting in that policy work.
And that really kind of takes place in years one or five. So, the public's not necessarily going to see a visible physical change right off the bat I wish I could say that would be the case.
But you have to get those policy and ordinances and everything in place first before you can really wrap up that.
So as you can see from here the policy recommendations are first to that expand that TURS district as well as establish a public improvement district. And then from there it's kind of making sure that we have the policies in place that can support the amount of
downtown living that we want and the different type of market use that we want to expect to see, as well as, you know, supporting music and nightlife, supporting small businesses, public realm guidelines, which would be very important, and then economic tools.
So, those are kind of those policy recommendations. And then the project recommendations, those, the ones that are up here really feed off those policies and then we can kind of run with it.
But in addition, some of these larger scale projects, such as developing a new park south of the square, rebuilding Carroll Boulevard, those are likely going to be, you know, state, federal, bond elections, all that kind of larger federal grant funding.
So, in the meantime, you know, we can put that new park on the square. If that's what comes, hopefully comes to fruition, pilot dent and chill streets with new plantings, new shade structures.
Those are a little bit easier that the city can do by ourselves.
Any questions.
So, a lot of the things that are being put forth in the plan, they are still things that we have to have ongoing conversations with the community. So, this gives us that groundwork and it gives us that foundation.
But maybe not all of these recommendations come to fruition because we found better alternatives to meet those kind of goals. So, that definitely something that we can have those discussions.
Oh, development services.
Any other questions.
Sorry, I know I went pretty fast. It's a lot to cover and I didn't cover all the recommendations. That is at Carlotta stated, it is online.
We are working through just some final grammatical edits that we caught, like misspellings and stuff, but we're hoping to have the whole plan packaged and finalized and we do, we are going to be putting copies of it in the each of the libraries.
Sure, I was going to say, Sean and I can grab our business cards. I apologize, I should have put that on the slide. Sean is going right now. So, we can give you our business cards and you can contact us via email or just give us a call.
Thank you.
Yeah, so we're going to nominate.
That but for now, we would like to nominate like the vice chair that will serve our committee over the next year or so.
Any other nominations.
Do you accept that nomination.
Thank you.
Okay, so our first item is acknowledging our leadership changes. So we want to welcome Chelsea Clark to our committee, and we want to thank Sally Austin and her for her service. We plan on doing a combination of future city council meeting with the mayor.
So currently right now.
Next, email.
Follow up the questions that y'all had.
I have my email listed here as your committee liaison, and then I've got our city secretary's email listed here as well. If you have any questions regarding serving or procedures or anything like that, myself, our city secretary.
Next, I want to talk about our areas of interest. So in 2023 during that direction on the priorities that we were going to discuss this year.
So, as of our last meeting, July 18, the topics involved here are what we covered so our foundation for the library.
And so the ones that are not folded, just in standard print, we hope to have them speak at our next. So we've still got ozone, our parks department, we plan to have them speak with us, signaling, we did hear from Farhan today, but we may have him come back and touch on some of those questions that you asked, especially about signaling.
And then, we talked about our transition plans today.
Any input that we will be required construction designs will be on the radar as well and then adaptive recreation will go along with that parts topic. And today we talked about sidewalks, pedestrian projects.
So our November meeting is when we will vote on or discuss and vote on our topics for the 2025 year.
So our next meeting, which is the final bullet point there.
Yes sir, November 21, we will talk about those here in the middle. Farhan kind of touched on our grievances, procedures and policy that we have.
From July through August, those two months we didn't have any requests for combination or grievances filed, so if we have any come through, then I will discuss, print those up.
We should do a ton of those during our next meeting.
How many more, like they can be, yes, we have one seat that's open right now. So we're waiting on the council to nominate and appoint someone for that.
[inaudible]
So really reaching out to the council member for that district that is in.
And then they let city secretary know if there's anyone interested in serving on board.
Two.
Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes.
In 360, the application has closed and the cohort is full for now, but there, I think there's a waiting list, where does it start?
[inaudible]
But to promote it, I believe it was posted on our website.
I got you, okay, now I'm dragging. I'll talk with him about that, and be sure to mention that our first meeting is next week, so I'll ask him to mention that to me.
[inaudible]
Okay, I want to show you all how to, typically I try to send you all the agendas, and those agendas have links for the items that are being presented, but I want to just pull up here.
[inaudible]
And for our committee, you can scroll down and see what came up first.
And you can select which year you want to look at it. We'll look at it from last year, then you can look at the email, and also look at the agenda.
These blue, you can actually see it back in the middle, that will tell you where you can see it, so that is one way that you can see those.
[inaudible]