Meeting Wednesday, November 20, 2024, 10 a.m. in our council work session room.
We, after determining that a quorum is present, the mobility committee, we're going to convene
for a regular meeting here.
So we're going to move on.
First item of business, citizens' comment on agenda items.
I do have a card for a request to speak.
We're going to ask the gentleman to come up, and right now, Mr. Charles Patrick Lee to
come up and make his statement.
Yes, how are you doing?
My name is Charles Patrick Lee, and the topic I want to speak on today on the agenda is
about the bike racks.
I don't really think they're a good waste of taxpayer money, because most people don't
ride bicycles.
Most people drive cars, and people aren't going to give up their cars to ride a bicycle.
And because of all the taxes going up, I don't believe it's a very good stewardship of taxpayer
funds and all this effort we're going into these electric vehicles.
I'm sorry, people are not giving up their cars for electric vehicles, because as far
as I'm concerned, they take too long to charge, and it's not inconvenient, because every time
I went to the gas station, it never took me more than 15 minutes to charge up.
Never more than 15 minutes.
And expect people to get an electric car.
As far as my opinion, it is nothing more than an electric golf cart, because once the battery
goes, then the car goes, and then you just have a cart, and I'm sorry, nobody's giving
up their car for an electric vehicle.
They can't even sell them, nobody likes them, and I don't know why you guys keep trying
to push this on people.
It's not a good stewardship, and it's not a good idea.
Thank you very much, and have a nice day.
Thank you.
Moving on to the second item for these items for individual consideration, AMC 24-038.
Consider approval of the minutes from October 30th.
You all added up, oh, good morning.
We have another member that has joined us.
Do you all have, can we get a motion for approval?
I'll motion to approve the minutes from the last meeting.
So it's been moved to second it.
Did anybody have any discussion or anything for the minutes?
All right, so let's vote, saying if you're approved, say aye.
Aye.
All right, so the ayes have it.
Move on to B, MC 24-039, receive a report, hold a discussion, and approve the 2025 Mobility
Committee meeting schedule.
Good morning.
I wanted to present the 2025 meeting schedule.
No major changes.
We did go ahead and move the meetings in November and December since they were scheduled for
holidays.
We moved them to the week earlier.
But still, last Wednesday of every month at 10 a.m.
Is there any discussion?
Is there anything that we, yes, yes, sir?
I don't generally have a problem with the schedule, but one thing that I found effective
last time we did the scheduling was to note which Tuesdays were going to be canceled.
Do we have a feel for which Tuesdays are canceled in 2025?
Because I just don't remember it off the top of my head.
I don't know it off the top of my head, but we can certainly provide that.
Only in the sense that it might, you know, it's better for us to meet before council
rather than after council.
Yeah.
I mean, but our date is going to stay the same, regardless.
Only in March.
We're meeting the day after a council meeting.
Okay, pretty much in March.
Okay.
Because sometimes those council meetings can run a little longer than we would like.
So I think that's one of the things that helped us when we made a decision to move it, you
know, back to 10 o'clock because it was pretty tough getting here, you know, at 8 o'clock.
That was pretty rough.
So thank you all, City of Denton, for allowing us to do that.
Anything else?
All right.
Are there any actions on this, Chair?
Just approval.
Do we need to vote on approval?
No.
Okay.
So we're going to take this to a vote.
Can we get a motion for approval?
I move approval.
Okay.
Discussion?
Any other additional discussion?
All right.
So raise your hand if you agree.
Are there any anyone in opposition?
All right.
So that is loop.
You said two things.
Okay.
So I don't know where my head went.
Sorry.
Can we get hands for agreement?
Okay.
All right.
So we're going to have approved it.
Thank you.
CMC 24-040, receive a report and hold a discussion regarding a pilot project for a golf cart
operations in the southern sector of razor wrench development off of US 380, requested
by the Embassy Suites Hotel utilizing private driveways.
Good morning, Chair and Commissioners.
My name is Sahar Svandiyari.
I am a senior transportation planner with Transportation Services Department.
This morning, I would like to talk to you about a pilot project for using golf carts
in razor wrench development requested by Embassy Suites.
So as you know, Embassy Suites is one of the biggest hotels in the area, and also the future
City of Denton Convention Center is going to be located in very close distance and adjacent
to this property.
So they are requesting to have a permit to use golf carts to provide a convenience shuttle
service for their guests and City of Denton visitors to go to the restaurants or shopping
centers in the southern section of razor wrench.
As you can see in this map, it is shaded in darker gray.
Under Texas Department of Transportation code, it is allowed that they use the golf carts
within the master plan communities such as razor wrench.
Also the same code in another section mentioned that the City Council or the local government
has the authority to regulate this use of the golf carts concerning about the safety
issues.
So staff from a technical perspective have proposed some conditions and restrictions.
First of all, this should be a pilot program for 24 months.
The reason that we are asking for 24 months is that we are in Texas and we have some off
seasons such as hot summers and cold winters, and through the 24 months we can gather enough
information and data, especially from the safety perspective and police feedback about
how these golf carts can safely operate in these roads.
So after that, we are going to make the decision if we want them to continue using that or
not.
Also there are some other restrictions that we are proposing.
First, the Texas transportation code, which are the basic rules that they have to follow.
Second, we are proposing some operational restrictions such as the minimum age of the
licensed drivers should be at least 18 years old.
Also the time of the operation should be only between 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. to address the concerns
about the safety of the late night driving these golf carts around the area.
Also we have some road use restrictions.
As you can see in this map, the roads that are shown as red lines, they are all city
or Texas-owned roads, and they are not allowed to operate golf carts on these roads.
They only can operate golf carts on the roads that are shown as green line, and these roads
are owned by Razor Ranch.
We also add another safety layer to this request.
We are going to request for issuing a permit.
All the golf carts and along with the approved list of operators should have a valid permit.
This permit is going to be valid only for 24 months, and they have to apply for renewal
after that.
And this permit can be revoked at any time if they cannot meet the conditions that we
are asking.
So this opportunity that has been brought up by the embassy suite has some benefits.
Especially they are going to improve access for their guests and the city of Denton visitors
to provide them the shuttle from point A to point B with the restriction that we are going
to ask to follow.
Also it's a very clean and emission zero modes of transportation that they are asking to
have, also it has the community appeal.
So staff recommends approval of this request.
We are also looking for the mobility committee support, and we are going to present this
to the city council for action later.
Thank you.
>> Okay.
Thank you very much.
Great presentation.
Yes, sir.
Dr. Beck.
>> Thank you.
Dr. Esfandari, the issue, not the issue, one of the concerns that was brought up in
previous councils is sort of the safety aspects, and you brought that up with all the additional
mirrors and licensing and breaking and all that.
But I wonder if the solution for a restricted area like we're talking about that's not going
to cross over highways and primary arterials isn't petty cabs?
Because those are already -- I believe they're already street legal in Denton, and you can
correct me on that.
I don't know if you need special chauffeur license like you do in Austin, but aren't
they already legal and they wouldn't require us to do anything and you would be able to
move over the same four or five streets that were in the proposal?
>> So as I mentioned, the Texas Department of -- the code of Texas transportation code,
they're allowed.
But we can regulate that.
>> The golf carts are allowed, but I'm talking about bike cabs.
>> Bike cabs.
Oh, that's different.
>> So I'm saying is it not a easier and already allowed alternative to just have bike cabs
for the same small thing and it makes us cute and quirky and I know not everyone wants to
have a bike cab, but at the same token, it's an open air cab.
Both of them are open air cabs.
>> I mean, we can definitely talk to embassy suites about this.
This was an idea that they brought to us about the golf carts specifically.
They would like to use golf carts, and so we were trying to -- Farhan and Sahar and
Chandra came up with this pilot program idea to see if it would even work.
But we can talk to them.
I think their kind of proposal is that their staff are going to be operating these, and
so I'm not sure how that would work as far as, you know, from their staff perspective,
but we can certainly talk to them.
>> I would love that because I would be -- if there were opportunities for non-emitted vehicles.
I know most of these golf carts are battery, but -- or at least I'm going to guess that
they're probably using battery-based golf carts.
>> There's a gas base.
>> There are -- look, there are lots of gas ones, but I think there's an opportunity here
to reduce VMT even further, and emissions even further, and enhance bike/pet infrastructure
even further in order to get, you know, sort of grease the skids a little bit for the actual
golf carts.
>> Okay.
>> That's my comments.
>> All right.
Thank you.
Suzie?
>> Thank you.
>> They could already do this, and we're just trying to alleviate safety concerns?
Is that correct?
Like, they could do this on their private streets already, or does it have to be approved
by the city before they can do that?
>> I think the police can stop them, and -- but with the regulations, we are going to frame
these operations.
>> Okay.
Okay, and so does Robeson Ranch have some approval from the city as well?
>> We're a master plan community, so I don't know.
>> He's going to have to go in.
>> Sure.
Officer Jared Ray is here to answer these questions.
>> How are you guys?
>> We're good.
>> All right.
Sorry I got brought into this, but --
[ Laughter ]
>> I'm Sergeant Ray with Denton Police Department.
I work in our day shift.
I'm our day shift traffic sergeant.
So the golf cart thing becomes kind of a big deal, right?
Whenever we had the conversation, I was completely against it, right?
But with -- I think with some different rules in place, I think we could work some different
angles, right?
Razor Ranch is a master plan community, right?
So by Texas transportation code, there's three times, right?
So in a master plan community, on a public or private beach, and then as well as five
miles to or from a golf course, with the intent, if you read it, by your golfing, right?
>> Right.
>> Not I'm just going to go drive around, it's to or from.
So we only have two golf courses that I'm aware of in Denton.
One is a nine hole, and then you have Robinson Ranch.
So saying all that, we can't enforce anything on private property if you don't know it,
right?
So if someone runs a SOPS on in front of me, I'll just wave.
Can't run them a ticket, right?
Can't do anything.
So now if we think they're drunk, and then we can stop them for reasonable suspicion of
being intoxicated.
So saying all that, you know, so to answer your question, if they want to do it, technically,
they could, right?
Once they go to the frontage road, we've got them.
Once they go to Panhandle, got them, right?
Because now they're on a public highway, right?
So but on private roads, we can't do anything.
So if you have some type of restrictions in place, then it kind of helps things, right?
If that answers the question.
>> I think so.
So the goal here is just to make it safer, is what I'm understanding.
>> 100% to make it safer, right?
So whenever I explained it to them, you know, so whenever I'm lucky and I get to ride on
our motorcycle, you know, for work, it's legal, right?
No matter where I drive, not because I'm a police, because I have a motorcycle license
and because I'm registered, because it's insured, right?
So it's a little bit different, right?
On a bicycle, you know, a lot of people aren't looking at golf carts.
And so it changes things, right?
You know, we've had issues with Robinson Ranch on making arrests for DWI on golf carts.
And they were really surprised whenever we worked their crash and then we're arresting
them, right?
Been there, done it.
So we want it to be safe, right?
So if you have an age, if you make sure that it has mirrors, turn signals, brake lights,
right?
Extra lighting, whatever, because the last thing we want is now we're working a bad crash,
right?
So if you put some other restrictions there, and that's what they're shooting for.
>> Okay.
>> Scott, did you have something?
>> Thank you.
>> Okay.
>> I don't have any comments, but I'll let Scott keep.
>> Well, I just, just to add into this kind of twofold, they absolutely want to be safe.
They want to maintain the staff that they have utilizing the carts that way they're,
you know, we'll have each of the licensed operators identified as to who that's going
to be.
An important piece for them is that their guests, if they get in, you know, first thing
they identify that, you know, they need some shampoo or something, they can run to the
new Target store, get some shampoo, take them back, or shuttle them to and from some of
the restaurants.
Just an antithetical piece of this is that that hotel, the Hotel and Convention Center
is a lead hotel.
They put a lot of time and energy to be energy efficient, sorry about that, double energy,
but they went through, I guess it was two years ago, and put all solar in there as well.
This year, they worked on putting in ZeroScape, so they're incredibly environmentally focused,
and so I can appreciate the option on a bike cart, which I'll ultimately suggest that
if they can offer that service as well.
They were just looking for a convenient means to get their guests from point A to point
B, and again, I think it's a benefit to those people that are visiting Denton that, you
know, some opportunity to go and see some of these things.
They don't really have the ability to do it today, and then through Sahara's collaboration
with Denton Police Department and some of the other parameters that we can put in there,
we can make a safe and responsible way to be able to try to accommodate this, and again,
a pilot program then just puts barriers on it to say, "Hey, we're going to give this
an opportunity if it becomes a problem, we won't renew."
Thank you.
I really like the idea of this.
It would certainly be overkill, I think, to get in a full-sized, full-powered gas vehicle
to drive, you know, two blocks away, so I like this from not just all the benefits that
were listed on the slide, but also the safety standpoint, so as somebody who's sometimes
in this area on a bicycle, golf carts are slower.
They're less noisy.
They're less danger to me or, you know, people that live in South Razor Ranch.
One nice thing about golf carts over something like a pedicab is that you can put these covers
on them, so if it is a little cold outside, it kind of can keep you drier, and if the
wind is really chilly, kind of like it is today, it keeps it a little warmer, so I mean,
I like this idea.
I appreciate it.
It's a pilot.
I appreciate all of the requirements that have been added in, so, I mean, I support
this.
Thank you.
Yeah.
Go ahead.
Yeah.
One thing that I would just maybe like to see out of this, I don't ... There's not like
a little pings of all of the destinations listed, but there are the Route 7 bus stops
right nearby, so if maybe they want to connect into that so that people staying there can
just take the bus downtown, I think that would be neat.
That's a great idea.
I like that.
Well, I appreciate it.
I just want to say what she said, so, you know, all of those things, but, you know,
so we're looking forward to some additional growth over in there between the big box stores
and the movie theater, you know, there's still that space, so, and they'll have to get around
that in some kind of way, so that'll be great from that perspective as well, so, yeah.
Go for it.
I think it's a great idea.
Do we need to do ... Provide direction.
Okay, so we're providing direction.
We just need direction, and we'll bring it to council for action.
I think we're all in it.
Thank you.
Okay, so we are, and also that question about who was going to be running it, you know,
that was one of my questions, and we found that out.
DMC 24-041, staff memorandums.
So, I don't know if you want to go through each individual item, or if you have specific
questions.
I know this was a pretty lengthy memo with all of the exhibit backups, but happy to take
it anyway.
Okay.
Well, what I'll do is I'll just ask if anyone ... I like to go through each one, and just
ask if anyone, to keep order, ask if anybody has any additional questions, comments, or
concerns about bike racks.
Yes, Dr. Beck.
There was some of the comments in the item, was it exhibit two?
They were asking for options, and to the extent that we have funding and can schedule it in,
all those options will promote the use of bike racks, so I'm supportive of all those
options to the extent that we can plan and schedule, and there's funding.
So, right now, the plan is to put a supplemental request in the FY26 budget for this pilot
program for council consideration, so that ... Because currently, transportation planning
does not have the funding available to do this, however, we're going to request that
supplemental in the next budget, and then we can ... If it's approved, we'll begin the
pilot.
Well, then just only because I still have the floor, then I would ask that we perhaps
bring a 2025 supplemental, at least for the bike racks themselves, without the options,
because that's your mission critical item, is the actual bike rack, and the options for
signage and everything else can be developed over time.
What was it, signage, shade, I can't remember, there's two others, solar lighting, all those
things are awesome, I like them, but they're not mission critical, the racks themselves
are the things that draw people to the square and promote transitional mobility.
So I would just say we're in the FY25 budget right now, so this would require a budget
amendment, which we would have to basically prove the emergency need for an amendment
of the existing budget, because traffic is in general fund.
So we'll look at budget options and see what we can do in the meantime, but the earliest
opportunity is 26.
Just normal opportunity, right, in our normal process.
I appreciate that, I understand that I'm only one voice on this committee, so I don't want
to dominate, so I'd love to hear other people's views on that.
Suzy, did you have a view on that?
Would you?
I'll second what Council Member Beck said about, the goal here right now is the bike
racks, not necessarily everything else, we can look at that at another time.
Yes, it makes it more usable, people are more likely to use them, but we have places in
town where there's zero bike racks, so if I want to bike there instead of drive there
and maybe free up a parking space for somebody else by biking instead of driving, it's hard
to bike there if I don't have anywhere to lock my bike, I don't want my bike to get
stolen.
So my primary interest continues to be especially existing businesses and strip mall type places,
so Kroger has a bike rack, but it's falling apart, I keep hearing of bikes getting stolen
from it, El Matador doesn't have a bike rack, like there's pizza places, donut places, I
can't lock my bike anywhere, so I either have to take it inside, which is really awkward,
or I have to risk my bike being stolen, or I have to drive and take up an entire parking
space.
So as long as this includes possibly the opportunity for a business to maybe get a discounted bike
rack that the city installs for them, which just takes out the complications of figuring
out how do I install this, what kind of rack do I do, to some sort of pilot program where
a business, especially a small business if we can sort of restrict that, can request
one and the city sort of navigates them through that, so that we're not just looking at places
that already have some bike parking.
So for I Street downtown already have some bike parking, yes there's places there that
need more, but my priority is primarily the places that have no bike parking, and I'm
okay with waiting until the next regular budget for that.
That gives staff more time also to piece stuff together, how they're going to do it.
Did you have a comment, you don't get?
I think that I would want to wait to allow the staff to pull everything together for
us and give us a bit more information, apparently we need more information, and that's just
my statement.
All right, let's move on to construction signage, block it, anybody have anything on construction
signage, block it, roll that one up, oh she's going to go and roll it up for us, blocking
signage, blocking pedestrians, I know that we were, had a few complaints about the signs
being on the sidewalks, how are we, you know, just generally speaking, how are we kind of
dealing with that?
Are we speaking to the supervisors of the people or how's that going to work?
Yeah, I think we're working with our contractors, because a lot of these are not our crews,
but they're contracted, so we've been specifically working with our contractors to make sure
that they're placing the signage in appropriate locations.
I did want to let the committee know we actually received an email about, I think it was Bell
Avenue where we had a contractor working and they did place the signage in the appropriate
location and someone noticed, so I think we're, it's working.
It works, it works, and so we're also going to encourage our community to use the Engaged
in NAP if they see something like that, that can just turn it in and that's a quick way
to, a quicker way to get something done about what you see, yes, Christine?
I'll just comment, I guess, too, that I've seen recently, the bridge on 380 over kind
of that mingo train yard, they have some signs on their sidewalk when you're headed east
and it's quite a skinny sidewalk, so they take up the entire sidewalk.
And then I'm not sure if this qualifies, but on the bridge south of McKinney on 288, there's
a bunch of barrels on one side of the sidewalk and it's, the barrels are not taking up the
entire sidewalk, but they're taking up the sidewalk away from the road, and so you're
forced to kind of walk directly next to the road rather than if they were on the other
side and you could, oh, what was that location again?
Yes, on, there's the bridge if you're going south, on 288 south from McKinney.
Okay.
Okay, I know where that is.
All right, anything else on that?
All right, yes, one more thing?
Okay.
But yeah, I do want to say again that I have noticed that it has improved since I asked
for a meeting a couple years ago.
On the note of 380, that made me think, so if it's a tex dot roadway, do we have people
going out inspecting those or is that all tex dot at that point?
So the sign on 380, which actually a woman was killed on her bicycle there about a year
ago at that exact location where the sidewalk is blocked, but that, 380 is a tex dot road.
Yeah, it would be tex dot projects, so they would be responsible.
Okay.
I'd have to be notified.
And then, thanks to everybody who answered my written questions by the way, but in one
of the answers, it says once construction is approved to be started, so like in my neighborhood,
there's signage out and it's been out for two, three weeks at this point and there's
not any active construction happening yet.
Was the signage placed after construction was approved to start?
Like kind of at what phase does all that stuff get placed is sort of what I'm asking.
This guy knows everything.
Yeah, so good morning committee members, Seth Garcia, Deputy Director of Capital Projects.
Can you be a little more specific on the neighborhood?
Yes, it's off of Malone, we'll say.
Off of Malone, okay.
Malone Street.
It's neighborhood 26 or whatever, if you want the bonds number.
That's perfect for what I need.
Yeah.
Typically, as we run through signs, traffic control plans, and especially the neighborhood
signs that talk about the name of the project are some of the first submittals that we get
in.
Again, those are typically quick turnarounds to where the contractor will receive those
back and go ahead and start implementing the traffic control.
Those should be followed up with the door hangers giving notice to residents that, hey,
construction's coming.
This is the first phase.
We're going to be impacting driveways or you're going to just have local access.
So again, we try to get those out as fast as possible to get the local traffic used
to seeing, hey, signage is out here, it's actually coming.
Again, until the contractor gets all submittals approved for materials, materials get ordered
and arrive on the job site, that's when you'll actually see it.
So it could vary from one week to hopefully not more than a month.
We don't want to get them out there too long in advance, but again, it is kind of a prior
warning to let folks know, hey, we're beginning to come and signage is going up.
So following up on that, if signage and traffic controls have been placed and there's not
active construction at that specific location yet, is that getting the daily inspections
for the traffic control signage?
Yes, absolutely.
And again, it's going to be done by two different parties.
So the contractor's responsible for doing kind of a daily drive through and they're
correcting issues.
We also have our public works inspection staff or our contracted consultants that are going
through and checking those items as well.
So typically contractor will check it in the morning, our personnel and staff will check
it as they're checking the various phases of the job.
So hopefully it should be getting hit twice a day.
If not, like Council Member Byrd said, engaged it and this is a great way to notify or there
is a phone number on all of those door hangers that will have direct contacts to the inspector
and the contractor if you see traffic control issues.
Thank you.
Yeah.
Thank you.
All right.
Where is Jeff?
Oh, you moved him up.
I didn't even look up.
And what about the crossing concerns between Ryan and Dollar General and six month follow
up?
Anybody have anything on that?
All right.
We'll move on.
DCTA trip funding project status.
Any?
Christine, do you have anything about that?
Susie, you have something and I asked for more information on this in the future and I'm
just going to confirm verbally that we will get more information in the future on these
items, especially the ones that haven't been completed yet.
Yes, we are going to add it to a future agenda for our work session presentation so we can
have more discussion.
But we did provide that I did verify with staff that there was only one project that
had maybe a little different scope because I know you had asked that question.
The Katie trail extension at May Hill in Colorado, that scope changed slightly from when we applied
to now proceeding with the project.
So the staff will come back with a presentation to provide you.
Thank you.
Dr. Bay.
Mine was the same.
I'll just add the commending for adding the status and everything else.
I appreciate the current and ongoing information, but otherwise my question was the same.
All right.
Thank you.
Increasing sensitivity for bicycle sensors, increasing sensitivity for bicycle.
Bike detection that can howling.
Yes.
Either I'm getting a placebo effect or I'm already noticing the effects.
Yesterday I was headed to the square.
I was crossing Crescent or crossing Carol at Crescent and typically that light has not
noticed me.
I've had to wait for a car to pull up and then ride with the car.
But it did work last night.
So maybe that's related to this.
If so, good job.
Well, James Andrews staff do a fantastic job.
He's over there in the corner trying to hide, but he takes care of those things very promptly.
So thank you.
Thank you so much.
I probably would not have ever experienced that because I'm not a typical bike rider.
So we certainly do appreciate that and giving that opportunity for bike riders.
Okay.
Quickly.
We got something.
Traffic signal at sundown in Teasley.
Is there any questions or concerns?
Yes.
It's exciting that that is happening in house and it's happening much faster.
That's really good to see.
Yes.
That area has just grown so tremendously, very quickly.
What about the wrapped equipment box locations?
Anybody have any additional questions about the wrapped?
Do you all do Christmas?
Do you all go with the seasons?
Are there any opportunities for us to look at seasonal?
Well, I mean, these seasonal ones don't have to be necessarily that permanent, do they?
Just asking for a friend.
Really.
Let me ask it as a question then if I might.
Yes.
Aren't they permanent?
Yeah, they're permanent.
Until they're damaged?
Yeah.
So I guess Halloween town might be good for permanence, but the rest I don't know.
Well, it was just a question.
Thank you for allowing me to ask it.
Okay.
Quarterly construction report.
Let's see.
Let's see what's going on in the quarterly construction report.
Is there any questions, Rosaline, I-35, Bonnie Bray?
We don't have any questions, comments or concerns?
This will work.
Is everybody okay?
What's this?
You do have one.
Yeah.
I appreciate the McKinney planning, but I noticed in the ETAs that we're really not
going to get started after design until Q3 of '25, so that's a fair bit of time between
now and then and we've already had one major incident in that stretch.
And so I guess my question is what's our transitional plan for that stretch so we avoid more catastrophic
events?
Yeah, absolutely.
So again, Seth Garcia, Deputy Director of Capital Projects.
So we're looking at some alternative items that we can do in the interim.
Again, we're expecting the revised 30% drawings in January.
We're trying to expedite as quick as possible.
Again, we were able to cut a lot of the timeframe in between designing construction due to not
having to potentially do utility relocations.
So again, that's something that we're currently evaluating, what we can do in the interim.
That Q3 seems like a long time's out there following our procurement process and having
to bid this project.
We're looking at that.
We may also leverage an internal City of Denton contract to be able to build pieces of the
sidewalk.
Again, where we're going to come into the biggest issue is the main creek crossing near
Mack Park where we're looking at either pedestrian bridge or culvert extensions.
We don't necessarily have in place a great contract to do that, like a city standby contract.
So again, that may add some time and again, that's one of the biggest bottlenecks areas
where we're looking for some not so great interim improvements.
There's not a lot of options, I should say.
Okay.
Well, I mean, I guess I will continue to put some emphasis and desire on even speculative
transitional approaches just because, I mean, you know, we've already had a catastrophic
event and we want to avoid having more catastrophic events.
Yeah.
No, completely understand.
And again, we're evaluating and anything innovative that we can come up with, we're going to try
and implement quickly.
Any additional thoughts?
Yes.
Thanks again for everybody who answered my written question.
So now that I understand why certain projects are included and others not, can we add the
Welch-Sycamore side path project to this?
Okay.
Because I've struggled to follow the updates on that.
They've just kind of been really far between, so that would be helpful.
Yep, absolutely.
Thank you.
Yes.
When you talk about the creek crossing segment, is that the portion that's like right near
the substation?
No, so there's already box culverts that allow for the sidewalk next to the road there.
It's actually just west of Mack Park or the west side of the Mack Park boundary.
On the north side, I think it's Dollar General.
On the south side, it's the apartment complex.
Right, right.
That little creek right there.
Correct.
Okay.
So that just, to me, that seems like an area where there's those really, really wide shoulders.
So for something transitional or temporary, there could be something done there.
Yeah.
No, completely agree.
And that is what we're evaluating.
Well, I want to speak on McKinney sidewalk.
I think that you all are doing a great job, first of all, in accommodating our need for
speed.
And I don't want to have you all to, this is just me speaking, not speaking for anybody
else.
I don't want you all to be in a state of mind that this is like the top number one priority.
We do have to give you all time.
Dr. Bick, respectfully speaking, it sounds like you're looking for an interim while they're
working on the interim because the main, the sidewalk is the interim.
And the main course is going to come when the funding comes where we can really do that
street properly.
Is that right?
Is that what I'm understanding right now?
Yes.
Is that the sidewalk is the interim.
And I think Dr. Beck is looking for an interim to the sidewalks.
So that's what I heard.
I'll let you speak to that in just a second.
But it just seems like there's, you know, that mindset there.
Yeah, and it's very much needed.
We should have done, we should have had McKinney Street done, especially if we had known several
years ahead that we were going to add some additional population to that street, like
five more apartment complexes and neighborhoods and all of that.
So you know, just do the work, like as you're doing, and I know it's going to work out,
but you know, it is what it is at this point, we've got to let you all work and do your
jobs.
Dr. Beck, did you want to speak to that?
No, I'm good.
All right.
Thank you very much.
Thank you.
Okay.
Anything else?
Is there anything else on this list?
All right.
So we're going to move on to EMC 24-042, receive a report, hold a discussion and give staff
direction regarding the future meeting topics.
Thank you all for adding this to the directions because I know the last couple of times I
was forgetting to add it.
So thank you for giving me that easy out.
Is there anything that anyone want to have any questions, comments or concerns about?
Yes, Dr. Beck.
If there's interest, I would be interested in two things.
And they're somewhat problematic as we only own parts of them.
One is with the Mayhill reconstruction and the realignment of Edwards, there's issues
about how our neighbors to the east of Mayhill get to the side paths and trails.
The pathing is no longer as intact as it was.
The crossings are no longer as safe as they were.
So I'd be interested in some sort of reporting about options for neighborhoods, able to move
in that direction if there's interest from the from the body and that.
The other one I'd be interested in is being educated about hawks, both best practice, hawk
crossings, both best practices and particularly we can put hawks on our streets under our
policies.
But most of the places we would want to hawk are not our streets.
And so that that gets that puts us in a conundrum where, you know, we we align our mobility
and our safety on our streets in ways that except for a few locations probably don't
need hawks.
So we mostly don't need them.
Where we need them is places where our friends in Austin aren't always aligned with our safety
protocols.
So I'd like to learn as part of that education, if again, if the body is amenable, I'd like
to learn a little bit more about the process for kind of going through text on on these
on demand crossings.
Okay.
Anybody else?
Chair, I wanted to note we have a yes on removing the TRIP funding, but I'm going to ask staff
to leave it on so we can bring back a presentation.
Yes.
Thank you.
Is that where you're going to?
Okay.
Glad it's still there.
Also, I want to just make a little correction for me in leading kind of that discussion
on the wrap equipment box.
I did not read through and it's actually talking about locations rather than the boxes themselves.
I don't think that we had gotten into what does that mean?
Can you all give us a little update on wrapped equipment box locations?
Why are we speaking on that?
Thank you, doctor.
Good morning, chair and members for hon, but deputy director, transportation services division.
So what question you specifically you have about locations are there are my question
is, are we adding additional locations?
Are we taking some away or we what is it about locations that we might want to update the
people on?
I spoke with the staff spoke with the parks department who's implementing this and we
found out that there's an incremental process where every year they add three or four locations
as mentioned in the memo.
And for but they have a dedicated budget for that.
And for if we would like to go to to to adopt it for citywide option, then we'll have to
allocate some funding to that.
But they are open to that discussion.
So this will be a great community discussion.
If they'd like to see me open it back up for community discussion.
I know the when we initially did this, it was a community wide thing.
Did ISD students could contribute to some of the art?
So maybe it's time for us to look at that again, you know, citywide again, improve it.
We haven't had a discussion as to how people, you know, if there's any been any kind of
complaints, damages, you know, an update like that.
I like to see that.
Have you all heard of anything positive?
Nothing but positive things.
But, you know, it's got to be something out there that can use some improvement.
We can all use some improvement.
Didn't want to turn on.
We can certainly add that to the list for discussion.
The funding discussion goes through the Community Partnership Committee because that program
is funded through hot funds currently.
So we can definitely have the discussion with this committee and the Community Partnership
Committee.
I just happen to be on that other committee, so that'll be work.
That'll work for me.
Might be helpful.
Yes.
Okay.
So it looks like we are done with that particular discussion.
Do we need to approve the yeses?
I'll ask.
Do we need to approve the yeses?
Okay.
So we can see which ones are the yes.
Number one, bike rack acquisition.
We've gone over that.
Updated.
We're going to add it all together.
Construction signage, blocking pedestrians.
Crossing concerns between Ryan Eye and Dollar General, Embassy Suites golf carts, increasing
sensitivity for bicycle sensors, traffic signals at Sundown and Teasley, trip, well, we could
say we're bringing yes, trip funding, and wrapped equipment box locations.
Can we get an approval for all of this, too?
Okay.
All excluding trip funding.
Oh, you wanted wrap boxes, right?
Yeah, and wrap boxes.
Oh, and adding wrap.
Keep wrap boxes.
Keeping trip funding and wrap boxes.
Okay.
Are we all in agreement?
Yes.
All right.
So the ayes have it.
Raise your hand.
Okay.
That was kind of out of order, but we agree.
Okay.
Well, if there's not anything else, we'll move on to concluding items.
Any concluding items?
Yes, we have a concluding item.
So this morning, Chandra, traffic engineer, wave your hand.
He joined the Newton Razor bike bus this morning on a ride along.
So I just wanted to say thank you to Chandra for being responsive to them and listening
to their concerns so that the kids can use active transportation to get to school.
So I really appreciate that, Chandra.
Thank you.
Anyone else?
Did he get bubbles in his face?
Yes.
He had to go through the bubble bath.
All right.
Well, if there's anything additional to that, we will conclude at 1048 this morning.
Thank you all.