>> Good morning everyone, we're here meeting Wednesday, October 22nd, 10 a.m. in our council
work session room.
First thing on the agenda is citizens' comments on agenda items.
Any citizens' comments?
No citizens' comments.
And so number two, items for individual consideration, MC25-049, consider approval of the minutes
for September 24th, 2025, going to get a motion for approval.
>> Madam Chair, they are.
As I recall, I'll make a motion to their approval.
>> Okay.
Do we have any discussion on that?
Okay.
No discussion.
All in favor?
>> Aye.
>> I'll put that in for notation.
BMC25-050, receive a report and hold a discussion regarding the City of Dittons transportation
mobility project status.
We have Mr. John Polster here.
>> Good morning, everybody.
>> Good morning.
>> John Polster, ITS, we'll go quick on this, I do have some new information as of about
two days ago.
>> Oh.
>> We'll skip the project summary.
On 35 north, the gray section 081 was let for construction last month.
And so I get this question, it goes yellow, purple, gray, green.
Why are they starting on the gray that far north?
The purple is part of the FM 455 project that goes from 2450 out in West Ditton County,
Illinois, east to the high school across the interstate.
So when they built 455, they included the interchange at 35 for that project.
So that was under construction.
You usually go south to north.
We came back and the southern section used to be one CSJ of about $650 million.
When we did the merge project a year or so ago, it came in $100 million over and we had two bidders.
So the state asked us to come back and break the yellow job into three smaller projects,
which means we had to go back and redo the plans, which pushed them out a little bit.
So that's why that's not started yet.
Purple's under construction.
The gray just started and then we're working on the two CSJs to the north are 116 and 084.
That's a really big cursor.
So I can see it, right?
>> I like it.
>> That's for me.
>> He likes it.
>> He'll do that for me.
I can't see.
So that's important.
That's about 240 million.
We'll talk about that here in a second when we get to another project.
But what we're working on on all these CSJs, which is like a social security number for
a project, on these projects in the south, though they've got let dates in the out years
because we're working on all of these utilities for each one of these sections and there's
a lot of utilities out there.
>> John, excuse me.
I'm just curious, did breaking that in the yellow into three sections, did that reduce
the net cost?
>> It doesn't change the cost.
What it does is it puts them under 200 million each and so we expect to get more bidders
because they can handle that size job better than they can a half a billion.
And with more bidders, you get better prices.
So it could reduce the cost.
And cost of construction has gone down recently.
It was going up pretty precipitously but now it leveled off and now it's coming back down
a little bit.
So this is that breakout job that I was showing you that's under construction that was let
in August and it'll be starting in February after the contractor gets all of their contracts
in and bonds and they do their mobilization.
So that's new to your report.
So the merge is what's under construction now.
There's a picture of it, that big hole in the ground that you see as you come around
coming north, that's for the, that is huge.
I cover up everything with it.
That's for that braided ramp right there.
So the hole is where you'll exit and go under to get to 380 off the interstate.
And then there'll be a bridge that comes over for the frontage road to get up and over to
get onto the freeway without having to fight each other for the lanes.
So that's what that big hole is.
And again, it's five years still before it's even done, so mark your calendars.
And that's just telling you what's going on.
You can read it.
All right, so the Mayhill job, it let in June and the construction start date is Thanksgiving,
which so you're going to come around the curve from the merge, you get a break for a minute
and you're going to hit Mayhill, which is larger than 288 interchange.
And then you're going to trundle along across the lake and you're going to hit 1171 and
then a half mile down the road, you're also going to hit the 121 corporate.
So 35 is about to be broken again for quite some time.
So the frontage roads, this is where I told you that $240 million in that northern part
of the north project.
We met with the commission, Howard commissioner, Steve Alice, we think he's going to be the
new chair.
And we talked to him about the frontage roads.
And one of the proposals we're going to propose is there are parts of this middle section
that the city and Hillwood still want included in the project.
It's that all red John Day project section, it's not included in this current $213 million
that we have.
So one of the things we're proposing is if we can't get additional funds to the project,
move some of those funds north of Sanger down to this job because this is more important
to us than getting to Windstar.
So we're working our magic on that.
So we're working a deal to fund the full aspect of this road is about 450 million and right
now we're doing like 213 of it, so we're leaving out some of the interchanges that initially
we didn't think were necessary.
Now we are thinking they're necessary.
So we're finding a way to get it funded and then also the southern part all the way down
to Del Arnhardt.
So there's activity moving, we supposed to get back with the commissioner next week with
a pitch on what our proposal is on this.
Okay so Luke 28 frontage roads basically we're in PS&E which is the design phase and that's
pretty much all we're doing is getting the project ready to be fully designed because
of this right here that the right away is still on hold for this segment.
We weren't able to get all the right away acquired before the state put a moratorium
on right away acquisition for projects that weren't funded and we brought that up to the
chairman as well, commissioner, and one of the things we're going to be able to look
at is on these projects that are critical to us we want to be able, they want us contributing
money anyway so if we're going to contribute they don't really necessarily need construction
dollars so we're going to try to provide right away funding and originally the process for
the finance division, if you gave them money for right away they just stuck it in a big
pot and it never came back to your project.
So we're working on the logistics to be able to donate money for right away acquisitions
that they would go acquire and donate it to a specific CSJ or a project so that the money
comes back to that project.
Okay, when we're in these weird, so on that exact point, when we're in these weird things
where this is a multi-year project and you're doing right away acquisitions and moving utilities
and things but then the budget gets curtailed, is there sufficient money in the pipeline
that those utilities keep moving and all that keeps happening or do we just hit a cliff?
We hit a cliff.
So Dallas District's different than the other districts in the state, they would get projects
ready, we call them ready to let, regardless of whether or not there's funding for it.
So I call that faith-based engineering.
You get the project ready to go and you assume that when it's ready the money will come which
it normally does.
But part of that is the right away and utility relocations.
The rest of the state historically wasn't very good at buying right away moving utilities.
So Houston, Austin and San Antonio would always have a backlog of projects that they couldn't
move forward because they couldn't get their right away spent.
And so Dallas was able, has a budget of $400 million a year but they would spend $800 million
a year on right away acquisition because we could get our stuff cleared and they would
just take the money from Houston, Austin and San Antonio because the right away division
wanted to spend the money, right?
If they can't spend it somewhere they want to spend it somewhere else.
Well about two years ago, a year and a half ago, Houston started getting their act together
and they started spending their money and then there was a budget issue where they took
money from right away and consultants and put it into construction to make it look like
there wasn't a reduction in the textile budget.
And so now instead of Dallas not only getting their $400 million plus others that don't
do their job, we don't get $400 million anymore, we only get $350 million.
And of that $350 million, it's a biennium so there's $350 million per two years.
We have to hold back 10% because next year we don't know what the budget's going to do,
what it did this year.
And so it's $320 million that they have and $320 million doesn't cover projects in the
four-year step that has actual funding for those projects that have let dates they're
trying to hit.
So projects that don't have funding, they're not even on the table for having a conversation
yet.
So you're having a crisis of faith.
Right.
So what I'm doing is projects that we care about, they want our money, we'll just put
our money in, we don't care where we spend it, right?
So if Radaway's the new critical path, then we'll put it into Radaway.
But up until we talked to the chairman, the commissioner, on day four years to day Monday,
he said he thinks he'll get to finance the folks to let us take our money for our projects.
So we think we're going to get back in the game here in the next few months or so.
Okay, thank you.
I have a question.
No questions.
I have an observation that may turn into a question.
Down here it says, "TexDOT requested revised traffic numbers."
Is that because they want you to, because of the lack of funding, it needs to look like
that there's not as much traffic, it's not necessary to fund?
What does that mean, requested revised traffic numbers?
So this project is, I've told you the joke about me not being married when I started
this project, and I've been married 32 years.
So every so often, if the project has been moving through the system and it hasn't moved
fast enough, what they do is they come back and recheck their assumptions.
So we do reavowals on the environmental, we rerun the traffic to make sure the traffic
still warrants for a freeway, so it's just a process, it doesn't mean anything.
It just sounds like a process that just puts you back, it's a legalized way of saying we're
not ready.
The right of way is a critical path, and this is one of the projects we're going to shoot
because 35W already has all the right of way acquired, so we don't have to mess with it.
This is the one that we need front and center, because if we can get the right of way acquired,
it's new location, so the utilities are nominal, so that's not a big issue.
Once we get the right of way acquired, then the county can come alongside Texan and say,
we'll pay you to build certain sections of the, because we're only going to build a northbound
frontage road first to set the corridor.
So all the development coming from the east will tie into the road where it's supposed
to tie into.
So we're going to, we take whatever comes, and we try to make lemonade with oranges.
I'm not sure if that works.
It doesn't.
Okay, so the new news on the 288/380 connector is we're done with the environmental, we're
moving into PS&E, but the PS&E for the entire, this is the plan specifications and estimates
of plans, is about 48 million bucks.
So we're going to eat this one, one bite at a time.
So we, the county has decided that we think the most critical portion is the connector
between 380 and 288, so we're going to get a PS&E set from Westwood to design that section
of a project, and this is the second one we're going to include in that list of projects
we want to buy the right way for.
The reason we're not doing the Bonnie Bray is because we've already got that approved
and funded through TechStat, and we're going to work with them to pick that up on their
dime for PS&E.
So we're going to start eating the northern part of the 288 one section at a time.
And when is all that going to start July 26th, no, July 26th is when the project is environmentally
cleared.
That's when we can start buying the right way.
Okay.
I don't see any other dates down there where it says utilities.
Yeah, because remember right away is in limbo, so that would be the next thing you do after
July 26th when it's cleared.
During that timeframe, you'd also be identifying your utilities, and you'd be working on your
PS&E, so we can't do the right way right now, so we're just skipping to the PS&E.
Okay.
I think the last time we talked, the final schematic hadn't quite, it was a little flexible
still.
Are we solid now?
We're solid, and I can send that to Cassie, and she can get that to you guys.
That would be lovely if we could do that.
I'd love that.
Yes, sir.
We'll do that.
And then just know that we're going into the next phase of the actual design for the bypass,
of the connector.
We already talked about body race segment seven.
It has its own independent utility, but it's part of the larger project, and we had TechStat
because they had a project manager who's no longer working there.
Ironically, he's now working for Westwood that's doing this project.
He was notorious for cutting short local government streets just past where he thought they needed
to be.
So we had TechStat go back in and let us, because we're paying for it, the county, extend
this road to, they cut it off on the schematic that we were approving about right here.
And once Chandra and Farhan pointed that out, we went back to TechStat, slapped them around
a little bit, and they said, "Okay, put it back in, we'll clear it."
So we fixed that.
1515, this project is ready to let in '27.
That's the mostly utilities, and those utilities aren't as impacting because utilities and
right-of-way are the same thing to TechStat.
So when there's a right-of-way moratorium, there's also a utility moratorium.
But all the utilities in this area are not reimbursable because they were in the right-of-way.
So if they're in the right-of-way, they have to move on their own dime.
So we're progressing these through the utility relocation, and once that's done, and it's
going to take a while, this project will be ready to let in March of '27, which means
all the utilities are done, all the right-of-ways are acquired, and then I've got to go find
$70 million.
Is that an extensive project because of all the commercial around it?
It's really not that expensive.
No?
No.
It's going from a two-lane to six lanes.
So the width of the road is what the cost is, and we're building it as an urban roadway,
which means all your storm drainage is under the ground and all that stuff.
So as roads go, that's not that much.
That's not very expensive.
And where will that stop?
Will it stop at the airport?
Yes.
I don't know what the technical term is, a hammerhead, because what happens is 18 wheelers
think they can get out that way.
They end up in the airport parking lot, and then they've got to do a 13-point turnaround
to get out.
But no, not a cul-de-sac, but a big turnaround place for lost trucks until it ends at the
airport.
Put up a toll road, too.
Well, the news is, what Texas is wanting to do, and one of the ways we're going to try
to get them to buy this thing quicker is previous administrations of the city were entertaining
taking 15-15 off system once it's fully constructed, because it'll be a brand new 30-year road.
And then you can put a toll road on it, I guess, I don't know.
So that's yet to be determined.
1173, we are still in conversation with CRUM.
They had asked us to find an alternate route around their town for 1173, and we pointed
out that if we do that, their Main Street goes away because the railroad will only let
us have one crossing.
So now we're back to the original alignment, and we're looking for a way to mitigate some
of the parking they're losing.
So we're in a do-loop with them right now, but we're on hold with the right-of-way acquisition
anyway, so we've got time to work it out.
You say we have time to work it out, and it's like another four or five years?
No, no.
But it's working out with CRUM on what they want us to do in their town, because that's
their heart.
Where we're coming in, that's their Main Street, that's that parking in the middle of the road.
It's a drastic change for them, and we're just trying to be culturally sensitive, which
is not my normal path on things.
Sorry.
Okay, Outer Loop, do y'all care about this?
Yeah.
Okay.
So we just had our public meetings, two of them, one in Denton, one in Pilot Point.
We had 171, 150, and the other 190, about 300.
The comments were moderate.
There are some people that don't want the road anywhere near them, because they think
they still live in the country, and when we show them the heat map, which is where all
the developments are, they realize that they're no longer in the city.
It just hasn't been built yet, I mean in the county, unincorporated pretty area.
And then the majority of them that were there, that are impacted, just wanted to know when
somebody's going to buy their right of way.
So after we get past September of 2026, it'll be environmentally clear, then the county will
come in and start land banking those areas that are critical.
Commercial's not really that difficult to deal with, because you can work with those
guys because once they know they're on a freeway, and they can have a higher and better use
for their property, they usually work with us.
It's the individual property owners that we're going to be looking towards that feel like
they've been inversely condemned, right?
They're there, but they can't do anything with their property because we protected it.
So we're going to come into those cases and just purchase the land, and just bank it for
when we need to build the sections of the road.
But we can't do any of that until after it's environmentally cleared next year.
Are you all going to have any more public?
Absolutely.
So that was the last set of public meetings for the feasibility phase of the environmental
impact statement.
We have to do what's called a notice of intent to the feds because they give you a certain
amount of time once you give them that NOI to have the project environmentally cleared.
So we'll have one more public meeting as a part of the actual environmental impact statement.
These were just -- we want to make sure everybody understands what we're doing.
But the next one will be the official public meeting, and it can be in more than one location.
And then right before six months before mid-summer next year, we'll have what's called a public
hearing.
And it's not what it sounds like.
I've told you all this.
A hearing isn't for them to go and hear what you're saying and work out your issues.
It's for you to tell them what your problems are, for them to say thank you very much,
and then they don't answer you.
And they respond to the feds, and then they clear it.
So there'll be two more -- the official public meeting and then the actual public hearing.
And those will both come in '26?
Yeah, the public hearing has to be probably in July, June, July, because there's a certain
number -- you have to hold a public hearing open for, I forget how many days.
And then there's a 60-day timeframe after that for the feds to give us what's called
a record of decision or a ride.
So yeah, if we don't hold a public hearing in the summer, we won't hit the September
26th date.
I just told you all that stuff.
And then we're going to have a test on all our acronyms that I use.
That's those two ladies.
Alphabet.
Alphabet suit.
So that's all I got.
Anybody have any questions?
Yes, ma'am?
Yeah.
I forgot to ask a question about Bonnie Brace 7.
I'm trying to find the page number for that.
I'll just roll to find it.
I think since last time you were here -- I can't remember if that was in the summertime,
but I don't know if you're aware, on the first day of school, there was a really bad accident
right there.
Several cars collided at 77 and Bonnie Brace.
We still have high school students, and now we have an elementary school in that area.
I know that we are still -- we're still a year out from starting the project of getting
an intersection -- or, I'm sorry, July, it'll be July.
July is when the project will be environmentally cleared.
Okay.
There is a whole lot of extra things that have to be done.
For one thing, this is the cog and text that I've committed to fund this project.
So we've still got to do the construction documents, which we're talking to Westwood
right now about getting started on that.
So by the time 26 rows are out, because it doesn't take that long to do design, we can
have a project that is ready.
Now, we may have to go by the right-of-way, this county, in this area, because we don't
have -- I don't think that's -- we hadn't bought the right-of-way for this section of
roads, so there's still a lot of steps we have to do.
All those asterisks have to be filled in for time.
So it's a wise-out.
So what I'm wondering is, what can be done in the meantime to make this a safer intersection?
I've noticed that the speed right there, right before you get to Bonnie Bray, is 50.
We've got high school kids trying to pull out of there, and that intersection is incredibly
wide.
So people are turning halfway through in the median.
Is there anything that can be done while we wait two years for this intersection to get
a light?
Yeah, absolutely.
So Seth Garcia, Director of Capital Projects, so that intersection is actually going to
be built with our Bonnie Bray 6 project.
So they're working on it.
They're going to put in the new median cut.
It's going to get a traffic signal.
So they're actually moving dirt and actively working on that section right now in the north.
So our goal is to get a lot of that work done before the end of next summer.
So hopefully we'll have a lot of that traffic signal paving in place to be able to help
that intersection.
But that will be done with ours.
We're providing the plans to Westwood or whoever TXDOT is going to use to build that section.
And then they'll use that to line up with what we're building.
So it will just be that northern piece of the intersection going towards Loop 288.
So that's now part of Bonnie Bray 6.
So it's moving a little faster.
Yes, it's always been a part of Bonnie Bray 6.
That's great.
So you think that'll be done by next school year?
Yeah, so we're aiming to have that intersection, the majority of it done by the end of next
summer.
Okay.
And so again, lining up that August timeframe, the entirety of the project is supposed to
be done like Q2 of 27, really that's like April, the beginning of April.
And the last pieces that we'll be working on are more towards 380.
So I would expect on that northern end, we're going to have a lot completed.
Okay.
That's great.
So John, if you're part of, you're not with TechStock, correct?
No, I just get exposed to them all the time.
I'm just curious.
But anything you need from TechStock, you just tell me and I go do it.
Well, so the speed limit, like I just mentioned.
So I understand.
I'm sure this is a category of a road.
It's been a highway for years and years, but now look, we've got neighborhoods right here.
Absolutely.
If you have an intersection rate, like just a hop and a skip away, putting a 50 mile an
hour speed limit sign, literally a few feet from that intersection seems extremely wrong
in my opinions.
Can we, is there any way we can slow it down?
Yeah, we'll go talk to TechStock about that.
But the way the state puts speed limits on a road isn't by their classification.
They go out and do what's called speed study, and they take the 85th percentile.
So they figure 50% of these people are driving crazy, and so they do this analysis and they
take the 85th percentile, and whatever that speed is, that's what they set it at, plus
or minus seven miles rounded to the nearest zero or five.
So unfortunately, what happens whenever TechStock asks you to do, you ask them to do a speed
study more times than not, the speed study comes back saying the speed limit ought to
be raised.
So it's a roll of the dice.
So there's ordinance things you can do where we talk to TechStock, we make a case similar
to what you're making, and then we can, the city can do an ordinance that sets it at a
lower level based on engineering, traffic engineering issues.
So that's where I would start is, let us go tell TechStock we're concerned about the speed
limit, and then let us try to do that analysis that gives us a justification for warranting
dropping the speed limit below the 85th percentile based on traffic engineering issues.
Okay.
I think that would be worthwhile pursuing.
Okay.
We'll talk to, Chris Rocha's your area engineer, and we'll talk to him, and then Amanda Miller
was your area engineer, and now she's your operations director at the district, and she
handles that stuff, so we'll, Amanda will be very familiar with this location.
Great.
Thank you very much.
Thank you for bringing that up.
Anything else?
Okay, well we are done.
Thank you so much for Mr. John.
You said no questions for John.
We look forward to seeing.
Thank you.
Look forward to seeing you next year sometime.
Okay.
Thank you.
All right, well we'll move on to CMC 25051, Receive a Report and Hold a Discussion Regarding
Mobility Plan Boot Camp, Part Two, to Introduce and Share Information on Different Elements
of the Mobility Plan.
Dr. Bhatt.
Good morning, Chair and committee members, Farhan Bhatt, Deputy Director, Transportation
Services Division.
I'm here to present the Mobility Plan Boot Camp, Part Two.
The previous part, Part One, covered introduction to the Mobility Plan, and this part was supposed
to cover goals and thoroughfare plan, but due to the time limitations, I would just
in this part I'd cover goals, and then Part Two B in the next meeting would cover the
thoroughfare plan.
When it comes to goals, and in particular for this boot camp, we have tied all the planning
efforts in sequence with the planning documents the city follows.
Those three documents or three references include comprehensive plan, a mobility plan,
and then our criteria manuals, which is on the -- as a last step for the implementation.
So it is essential that we -- before we go to the Mobility Plan goals and strategies,
we look at what are the mobility component goals for comprehensive plan.
Comprehensive plan has a mobility component, and it has four goals, and they go with M1,
M2, 3, and 4, and so first goal is related to safe and efficient mobility.
It is important to remember that this comprehensive plan is a large -- at large document, planning
document, and it is supposed to be providing a global picture versus on a micro or more
focused approaches.
So when comprehensive plan talks about goals, even if it is mobility, it takes care of land
use and many other elements into picture.
So when it comes to safe and efficient mobility, goal M1 talks about providing for the safe
efficient movement of motor vehicles, bicycles, and pedestrians in a sustainable way that
complements Denton's planned growth strategy.
And then goal M2, which talks about enhancing economy, where, you know, enhance -- it simply
states that enhance Denton's economy by supporting the city's freight network.
And when it comes to freight network, it also -- it means it includes the commercial land
uses, warehouses, and many other uses, including airports and where these freight movements
generate, and not to talk about thoroughfare plan, where these freeways would cover that.
Then goal M3 is nonmotorized mobility, which is -- in particular, it is focusing on pedestrian,
bicyclists, walkability of the city, and any nonmotorization -- motorized transportation
modes.
And then goal M4 emphasize on public transit, which means that it is emphasizing multimodal
improvements and public transit-related improvements.
So with these four goals in mind, any strategy that mobility plan will develop, they have
to encompass -- they have to be focused around these four goals.
And if we -- and later on, we'll see that mobility plan goals and themes, they are focused
around these.
So when we look at the mobility plan, mobility plan doesn't go to mobility component directly.
It talks in themes.
First, it talks about four potential themes when it comes to mobility.
And then within the themes, we have goals and objectives.
And then under those objectives, based on those objectives, then we strategize.
So this is the structure of mobility plan.
So the way we will work in this presentation is that we will have comprehensive plan goal
identified from this slide, and then we will go with mobility plan's themes and objectives
and strategy relating to that goal as an example, so that we can understand that how the planning
process has to tie not only to mobility plan objectives, but it has to -- in aggregate,
it has -- all the planning efforts must tie with comprehensive plan mobility component.
So to begin with, mobility plan goals are listed under the themes.
And you would notice that, for example, we have prioritized safe travel.
That's one theme, and then under that theme, these goals are not necessarily in order.
They are random, but they are aligned with the theme.
For example, prioritized safe travel is one of the theme, and under that theme, we have
established a vision zero plan.
That is goal one.
Then under that same theme, we have goal seven, which says utilize complete streets approach
when improving Denton streets.
And of course, then it's tying to another factor for these -- both the goals to acknowledging
the vulnerability of the users.
So this is theme one, and it has two goals, goals one and goal seven.
And this lens mark with the plus sign, that means that in this presentation, we will be
covering -- due to time limitation, we will be covering two themes as an example case.
And just to illustrate that how the process should work with the comprehensive plan and
mobility plan goals and then strategies.
And then if needed, we can expand it to other themes as well.
And for instance, the theme two, deliver an effective network for travel.
It identifies -- it links with goal five, four and three -- three, four and five, and
then even two and six are in there as well.
In this presentation, we will cover goal three, which is encourage development of regional
transportation network that addresses regional mobility needs for all modes of travel.
So imagine this could become very expanded process.
Imagine if we cover every goal and then every strategy.
The objective is not to cover that.
The objective is to understand the process, that how the planning process should be linked
to comprehensive plan and mobility plan strategies.
But staff will be happy to cover other themes as well.
So in the top left part of this slide, you see theme one, which is prioritized safe travel.
That is mobility plan themes.
And the goal one of this theme is establish a vision zero action plan.
So that is a mobility plan goal under the theme of prioritized safe travel.
Let's look at what comprehensive plan says about it.
So comprehensive plan's goal, M1, is about providing safe and efficient movement of motor,
vehicles, bicycle, and pedestrian.
It covers everything as it has to, I mean, as a aggregate planning document for the city.
It covers generally entire safety, comprehensively.
Then mobility plan, through this theme, asks about prioritizing safety.
And then it lays objectives and provides a goal one of establishing a vision zero plan.
And under the goal one, we have objectives.
We have objective 1A, 1B, and 1C.
Objective 1A says safety is the number one priority.
And then selected strategies go under, that how do we achieve that, we design, evaluate,
operate, and enforce speeds, and ensure that improve the ability of all users when it comes
to safe movement.
Objective 1B, for instance, covers implement education and enforcement initiatives.
And it is, in many of our community meetings we have had with the community members, staff
has emphasized this aspect as well, that there has to be some awareness and education and
awareness exercise because two parts of this equation, safety equation.
One is enforcement, regulations, and standards that we set, that okay, we'll have stop sign.
We'll have speed, posted speed limit.
That is one side of this safety equation that city is doing.
The other part of the equation is that are the community members following those?
Are they stopping?
Are they stopping on the stop sign or are there red light violations, for instance?
And how do we deal with that?
So no standards can ensure that those are followed unless community wants to follow
them.
So I think there has to be education and awareness campaign and mobility plan as part of objective
1B is emphasizing on that.
And so this is one example.
So it is covering that aspect which staff and perhaps council members and mobility community
members are also observing during the community engagement meetings.
More and more we are getting, staff is getting requests about the community member, well,
the drivers are not following the stop sign.
So add another stop sign.
But the idea is about awareness and education on how important it is to follow these signages.
And many other behavioral aspects could be covered through objective 1C talks about prioritizing
funding for the safety improvements.
And of course the selected strategies in that city must apply for these fundings and look
for these opportunities wherever they are.
Then look at, so again we are on the theme 1 of mobility plan which is about prioritizing
safety and the goal 7, there were two goals in the theme 1.
And the 7th goal is utilize the complete street approach when improving Denton streets.
So that is a goal, goal 7.
Again we look at comprehensive plan, the goal M3 is about, all about safety.
So it is emphasizing that provide, make, ensure that the travel experience for all road users,
all road users including auto, bicyclist, pedestrian and any other, now we can add micro
mobility users as well in our new update to the mobility plan and comprehensive plan mobility
component.
So again going to objective 7A, it talks about create a transportation network for mobility
needs of all residents.
So what it is suggesting is that when we are designing the facilities, we should have and
rightfully so our street sections, they cover that aspect where we have multi-use path that
could cover bicyclist and pedestrian as a standard for our street cross sections.
And then we have sufficient capacity that is level of based on defined on level of service.
And then we are also connecting multimodal aspects that okay if these users are pedestrian,
they are traveling to certain transit station or stop or certain use, land use, we ensure
that they are connected.
They are not, they don't have these sidewalks or multi-use paths that are not going anywhere.
So I think that is the aspect which objective 7A is highlighting.
Objective 7B is highlighting that preserve the character of our residential neighborhoods.
So that ties to existing and developed neighborhood and how we can, how the new developments may
not impact their character and how their character could be preserved.
And in many cases, community members have to be part of that process as well.
And staff has observed that as well in many cases when staff goes for any improvements
or present any improvements.
In many cases, community members provide the opinion that we do not want many changes in
the community.
So I think that is part of the process.
And then when it comes to outcomes, staff is planning to present in the next slide how
this whole process worked for us when it comes to fiscal year 2024.
And did we do enough effort to ensure that we are following comprehensive plan guidelines
and mobility plan, are we achieving the objectives set and goals set by mobility plan?
Some of the initiatives include citywide, some of the citywide initiatives include that
vision zero phase two implementation plan, which is in line with the goal one of mobility
plan.
And then it also is in line with goal M3 of comprehensive mobility plan component.
Several road safety AD implementations have been done and the details have been provided
in the last report provided by the staff.
And multiple mobility plan amendments were approved during the last year in fiscal year
2024.
Bicycle pedestrian project prioritization is in place, the process is in place, and staff
has developed the criteria and now we are developing the prioritized list.
And traffic operations, the staff implemented a lot of signal installation, retrofits and
operational improvements, signages, all of those details are provided in the report.
And these projects were used by city provided funds in many cases with grants.
And of course this city management's guidance was there as well in prioritizing these projects
and ensuring that we are implementing those.
And on the award side, one of the objectives stated that city should seek funds for transportation
or mobility projects.
And transportation services division has been proactively looking for funds.
And in fiscal year 2024, transportation services is applied for about $120 million worth of
federal, state and local grants funding for the transportation projects.
And 90%, I would say, with confidence that 90% of the projects had bike pad component
in all of them and safety components in all of the projects that we applied.
One reason is that the federal guidelines are asked to include these components to ensure
that we are covering all modes.
But another aspect is that as a city staff and then based on council's priority, city
staff is putting this as a priority.
I would not go through all these awards that we have received, but USDOT SS4A awards boils
down to around $4 million that we have applied and have been awarded as well.
And we are also looking at FEMA-based grant to apply for collaborative funding.
With that grant, we are preparing the grant right now.
We are looking at the methods and analyses.
But it will cover comprehensive plan update that is coming next year, will be kicked off.
And then transit 2.0, demographic synthesis for city of Denton.
And then last, it will also cover trails master plan.
This project will be a collaborative effort between planning division, transportation
services and parks and rec department.
So three departments are joining forces to spearhead this.
And many other fundings, these are listed here.
If any questions, staff would be happy to address those.
And I must say that out of $120 million that we applied, so far we have been awarded around
$45 million.
And for the mobility, when it comes to goal two, which is maintain a state of good repair
on Denton streets, the first, again, it aligns with comprehensive plan goal M3.
And then the objectives, there are two objectives, 2A and 2B, to implement policies that encourage
and accommodate all users while maintaining the efficiency of the circulation system.
And so it is covering the aspect of traffic congestion and trying to address that there
should be multiple choices to the road users, not only in terms of road choices or route
choices, but also more choices in terms of if a person wants to go to a certain destination
by walking, by bike, by bus or by auto trip, via auto trip.
So I think all those choices should be available and through efficient circulation, the traffic
congestion should be addressed.
And construct street improvement and apply congestion management tools to obtain efficient
performance of the transport system.
Again, it is emphasizing on congestion management system, which is pointing towards the game
theory of better route choice or travel time, which goes on for every driver on the road.
Everybody wants to get from their origin to destination in the shortest possible time,
but at the same time, there are traffic operations things, there are route options, which option
will be better.
So I think this staff is observing this in perspective of these objectives and aligning
it with the comprehensive plan, mobility plan objectives, and then further strategies on
how these can be implemented.
And then goal three, which is perhaps the last goal that will be covered, even though
the theme two covers goal two, three, four, five, six, and perhaps seven as well.
Let me go back and check very quickly.
Yeah, so it covers two, three, four, five, and six.
So it covers five goals, but due to time limitations, staff is covering only objectives three A
and three B, and then we can cover them later on if needed.
And so fiscal year 2024, 25 outcomes for goals two and three, staff has been engaged in stakeholder
coordination within Texas and also out of Texas as well.
On federal level, we have monthly meetings with Federal Highway Administration, FTA,
and NHTSA whenever there is a meeting scheduled with them.
And then we are also in touch with USDOJ for ADA, and also board of, I think it's board
for ADA that we are in touch with.
And then there is regular monthly meeting with Tech Start, DCTA, Denton Cowdy, and then
NCTCOG.
At NCTCOG, staff is representing at S-TECH, which is main source of all planning efforts
in the region, and staff is there to present city's interest.
And then also staff is also attending RTC with Councilmember Gilgestra.
And for the ADA, as I mentioned, USDOJ, US Access Board, and Tech Start,
we are continuously meeting with them and then also ensuring that city's complying to all the requirements set forth by them.
Recently, City of Denton got three years compliance on ADA with Tech Start and
USDOT, and we are also now in communication with Tech Start and USDOT to ensure that we
prepare for next three years compliance as well.
And so the transportation planning process can be defined in very connected approach,
in a connected approach where we rely on our standard planning documents or references,
including comprehensive plan, including mobility plan, and last but not least, our criteria
manuals.
And this will ensure that we are aligned with our plans, long term plans.
And then we have a collective vision for implementing things in city, and understandably there could
be some initiatives which could be need-based or urgent, based on urgent needs.
But in general, staff recommends that we generally align our major initiatives with mobility
plan and comprehensive plan, how they are prioritizing things, and then we align our
initiatives based on those.
And that is one way of achieving resilient future and a livable city for all.
I always feel just so much more highly educated when you speak.
That was some good information.
I had a couple of questions.
Advanced air mobility, $2 million, what does that do for us in terms of whatever advanced
air mobility is, and what can $2 million do for us?
Yes, so this advanced air mobility was an opportunity for city to lead this effort in
Dallas Fort Worth region.
There's an initiative by US federal government where the federal government is looking for
locations in the US where these projects could be test piloted.
And this advanced air mobility, they will be pilot projects, but those projects will
be decided based on the city's readiness, local jurisdictions readiness.
This $2 million project was timely for city of Denton.
We applied ahead of many other cities, and in partnership with NCTCOG and Tech Start.
And what it means is that city of Denton would be looking at developing comprehensive plan
for advanced air mobility initiative, how it will start, what the planning stages would
be, what kind of technologies would be tested, and how it has five components.
When staff drafted this proposal, economic development was a major piece into it because
via advanced air mobility, staff recognizes that most of the users, most of the end users
would be warehouses, and these companies such as Amazon or FedEx or DHL and many others.
So this presents a golden opportunity for city to plan ahead and ensure that when the
pilot project starts by the US federal government, we will be ready and we'll be one of the locations.
I just happened to be on a new member of the economic development team, and we were talking
about the advanced air drones, how we're going to be more centric in air transportation and
delivery.
Yes.
And what you're saying basically is that we're preparing to do all of that, being prepared
for drones or things like that.
Is that what that means?
Yes.
I'm talking about on a kindergarten level.
Yes, that's what it means.
And essentially it is not only warehouses, it is access to first response, medical side
of things, to taking access to hospitals and creating multiple modes that would be just
like we have mobility as a service, Uber, Lyft, there could be services that would bypass
congestion in future and provide fastest routes.
And all those possibilities would be there, but we cannot be there overnight.
We have to prepare for that, and this $2 million will help us understand.
That's great.
I love that.
And then my other question is going to our entity that's probably closest to us, DCTA.
You know what?
I'm going to be honest and say I've never been to a DCTA meeting, I haven't been on
the board or anything like that.
When we're sitting down with DCTA, how is our, I mean, explain a little bit more about
that multimodal improvement, just talk to us about what that looks like, funding and
all of that.
We have a very collaborative process with DCTA, and staff meets with DCTA every month
with their planning and operation staff, and also staff also attends the board meetings.
So there are multimodal efforts that both DCTA and City of Denton are doing in collaboration.
One example is TRIP.
So in case of TRIP, we receive at least $4 million to $5 million every year from DCTA,
and staff and DCTA staff work together to develop projects that are multimodal enhancements
based.
And those projects are purely for cities improvements to ensure that we are providing improvements
for multimodal access to transit, and they include walkability, pedestrian, bike path,
and overall other access as well.
As part of the TRIP project, we have also been able to get one of the signals installed.
It's that collaborative effort.
And on other fronts, we are also part of their strategic planning process as well.
We sit in meetings together to discuss future projects.
And lastly, we have been, based on last meeting, we are discussing some initiatives that City
of Denton and DCTA would launch together.
So there are a lot of collaborative avenues, and we have a very good partnership with DCTA.
Thank you.
Anyone else have any other questions?
Please.
Yes.
I had another question, but the advanced air mobility as it pertains to medical.
Tell me what that looks like, even in its infancy.
So typical air mobility would need a landing and takeoff pad that would require at least
a kilometer of runway.
In case of advanced air mobility, these are hovering aircraft, and they just take off.
It's called EVTOL, Electricity Based Vertical Takeoff.
So it just does not need a lot of landing or takeoff space.
It just takes off from where the equipment is and takes off vertically.
And so that's the edge.
So when it comes to, imagine there's an incident on a freeway.
And now the first response need would be either a chopper, which is relatively slower speed,
but that is an extreme case.
But in regular cases, it would be an ambulance trying to access the site through congested
freeway.
In this case, this EVTOL could be approaching to the scene, and as long as we can provide,
that could be created.
That EVTOL would rush and can land and pick up the victims and take them within minutes
to the first response and to hospital.
That's an extreme example.
In some cases, this could be provided if, let's say, a surgeon is needed within 30 minutes
for a patient who is in a critical condition.
And the surgeon is on the other part of the city, and that surgeon could be lifted from
another EVTOL location, which is typically called Bertie Port.
And if city of Denton and Dallas and some other cities have Bertie Ports, they could
be lifted and directly taken to the hospital.
That's one example.
But there are many other uses.
Organs could be transported, and the list goes on.
That in my mind was what I was thinking, but I didn't think that that was going to be a
real thing.
Having a human being on an Amazon thing and shipping them around, that's almost cadence.
We're not going to drop them on the cable, Joe.
No.
It will be EVTOL.
It will still be, I think, even though they could be autonomous.
But in the early stages, they will be human operated.
But yes, I totally see that.
As a matter of fact, right now at DFW Airport, we have autonomous loop that just keeps going
around on the airport terminals, and no drivers run it, right?
No engineers run it.
So I think the same way it could be achieved, autonomous EVTOLs are there in the future.
In near future, by the way, it's like 10, 15 years away.
But this is a golden opportunity for city to kickstart the process, the planning process,
understand one of the components of this proposal was understanding the technology piece.
And we have collaborated with UNT professors and SMU to get a better understanding of that.
Okay.
Now, my real question was, is the electric scooter thing enough of a category to be considered
yet?
Yes, it's a micro mobility option.
The thing that intrigues me about those is that they, speaking as the operator, they're
pedestrians until they want to get into the main street, and now they're vehicles.
Bicycles in Texas are considered motor vehicles, although that's an oxymoron, but I'm just
wondering, is there a category for electric scooters?
I see kids riding them, grownups, the whole thing.
These are micro mobility modes, but when it comes to regulating them in terms of registration
and citing any violations, that work is still undergoing.
And in many jurisdictions, in some jurisdictions, there are rules and regulations in place in
the US, but not a lot.
But this work is continuing, and in the near future, there will be some, there's a possibility
that there will be some regulations, in particular for street use.
Interesting.
Okay.
Thank you.
Thank you, Chair.
Dr. Bate?
Thank you.
Yeah.
I mean, with the EV, Greensense rebates, we've watched the number of EVs triple in Denton,
and they drive around like motorcycles rather than like bicycles.
Just as an anecdote to Councilor Holland's point, I want to start off with, I love that
while you've been doing a lot of analysis, you're not really getting into the analysis
paralysis per se, you're fairly action, I'm glad you're on the slide, you're fairly action
biased, which is great.
I really love that.
I encourage you to stay action biased as much as possible.
It gets really challenging to, you want to make 10 year plans and then not really get
anything done.
I appreciate that you're getting some things done, because that's a common complaint in
communication with the citizenry that, you know, what are we actually doing boots on
the ground?
And so, but I mean, again, that takes me to my direct question is, and a lot of our objectives,
we want to do a thing, you talked about education and enforcement, and I think that remains
and probably will always remain a perennial barrier.
So part of this first question is, what are we doing in terms of communication?
And especially, what are we doing in terms of communication during times of transition?
One of the biggest communication barriers that I'm seeing is, as we try to implement
vertical ports and more sidewalks and safe routes to school and road improvement, some
of that is creates unintended consequence problems because the citizens don't know what you're
up to, and then they bang into your changes.
Even though your changes are awesome, the citizens don't think of them as awesome, because
they don't understand what's going on.
So talk a little bit about that education component that you're up to, especially during
transitional moments.
So when it comes to, there are two components, as you highlighted, first, all of these awards,
they're highly competitive.
So it's not just us who are trying to do implementation-based work as staff, but if we don't do it, we will
not be selected.
So I think that is part of the requirement by federal government and state, that what
is the outcome?
Show us that, and not only in words, but by analysis and by methods that you are going
to use.
So they are highly criticized, and highly, we have at least three, four review sessions
with them before these gets approved.
So there's a lot of technical analysis work is behind them, which staff does.
In each of these cases, because imagine 50 states, jurisdiction from all 50 states are
applying for that.
So why they select us, because we have to stand on merit.
The second question about the processes, there are two parts to that.
One is planning side of things that we don't miss the opportunities, and that's where you
will see mobility plan update coming.
We will be making education awareness as one of the focus areas and re-strategize as part
of that, and see how practically we can improve things.
We will look at enforcement awareness campaigns, and campaigns from the city side, and many
other things.
So that is the planning side.
We are covering mobility plan update, we are covering comprehensive plan update, we are
covering ADA transition plan update, and we are covering active transportation plan update
through federal dollars.
All of this will be federal dollars, except minor local matches, and we are trying to
get funds for those as well.
So that is the planning side of things.
We have to look for these opportunities, we cannot just be focused on implementation,
but if we are not focusing on planning side of things, our implementation may be impacted.
So we have covered that as staff, and under the guidance of city management, we are putting
effort towards that.
Now comes the implementation side.
So there are opportunities from the funds available, from city's funds, where we can
do only so much.
And we have been putting, I would say we were negative in last year, so we put so much money.
So we had to implement things, and whatever came our way in prioritized format, we implemented
all of them.
So the funds allocated to transportation services were, at least in safety and ADA side, we
went, we were very close to be negative.
So we spent all that, and on top of that, we had funding from grants, which we are using.
As a second step, so that is city's provided funds that we have, and we are utilizing them,
and more and more now we are prioritizing them as well, and not reacting to requests,
but asking ourselves that, what is the strategy here?
Are we covering this as part of a larger expansion project two years down the road?
If we are covering, hold this budget, because this will be wasted then.
Otherwise, we'll be spending money again.
Then the second step is that we are reaching out to our external partners, and CityCog,
for example, Western Transportation Corridor, we have been awarded $5 million to implement
it.
That is an expansion that would look at bike pad component of it, and accessibility component
of it, ADA transition, sorry, ADA compliance component of it, and expansion of lane.
So that is, so we, as staff, we are not submitting projects for external opportunities for implementation,
which are just focused on one mode.
Whenever we are submitting projects, those projects have all these components.
They are prioritized as well.
We discussed with CIP, we sit with city management, city manager's office, and transportation
services, and we decide that, okay, Western Transportation Corridor, we don't have funds,
we need to prioritize this.
Another example is East Windsor Connector.
That was prioritized through multiple meetings with Tech Start, and then we, as part of SS4A
2024, which has been awarded $740,000, we again put money towards demonstration project,
and that is one of our demonstration projects.
And the list goes on.
Again, staff has submitted, set aside grant for $15.6 million to Tech Start, and that
is also part of, has comprehensive trails and walkability and multimodal components
into that.
So staff is covering all aspects as much as possible.
So just as a follow-up, and then I'm done, I'm going to encourage you to continue to
do all those things.
That was great.
To the extent that we possibly can, again, in front of the communication, so folks in
the community are aware, it's not specific to our transportation services, a human problem
of how do you make your citizens aware, so, but I think that would go a long way because
people absorb when they understand better, they complain a lot less, they facilitate
their own actions when they're aware of the changes a lot more.
So I'm going to be pushing a lot of proactive, outward-facing communication with our citizens.
But I wonder if there's not an opportunity for some passive communication, and by passive
communication I mean engineering approaches, when you put bumps in the roads or you put
signage or you otherwise put engineering, I think one of the later elements is sort
of engineering approaches, bollards and bump outs and things.
You're communicating with the citizens what you want them to do, but you're not requiring
a stakeholder engagement meeting, which takes a lot of time, you're putting that out there
to make it much more clear with signage, with engineering approaches, what the citizens
should do.
It is a lot about expectation management, so the more we can increase expectation management
in our community, the more you'll be even more successful.
Thank you so much for this report.
This is just so encouraging, and I just, to add on with what Dr. Beck said as well, one
of the things I was just, I have a similar, I see a similar opportunity, my background
is in marketing and web design and all that kind of stuff, and so looking at the hub right
now on the city website for the mobility plan, it's just kind of links to documents, and
I know we've got the Discover Denton site, or, is it the-
Discuss Denton.
That's what I have here.
I just think that there's potential for some really creative and even kind of fun ways
to, number one, toot our own horn, like look at what our city is doing for us.
This is incredible work.
I think there's got to be some cool creative ways for us to promote the incredible work
that our staff is doing, whether that's through social media or get them on a podcast or do
an interview, but then even as, in the meantime, in the report you did, the semi-annual report,
I think, Beck, that you did in September or August, there's like 20 pages of awesome small
little projects that you guys did with picture evidence that, you know, I'm taking screen
grabs and sharing that to my friends.
Those I think could be promoted.
I'm wondering, in the meantime, while we're doing these really big goals for Denton, which
I think also need to be explained and help people that are going to be here for a long
time feel excited about those big changes, I would encourage staff to maybe think about
having some way to have like a small projects tracker or kind of like a running, I don't
know, list of just kind of like look at all these cool things that we're doing.
I think that that builds that goodwill and who knows, you might get like thank you cards
from kids or residents if they're like, wow, you guys did that.
And the other thing I was wondering about too is, you know, as we see these kind of
smaller projects, I know we want to think big, but in the meantime, we've got, we do,
our residents do see need and they do want quick action.
When I think about like our parks department, how we've got volunteer days to come out and
do things at our parks where we've got the tree give Arbor Day or whatever.
We've got these big kind of collaborative opportunities for that department.
I'm wondering, is there any way we, as we're looking at this, can we create sort of a citizen
mobility bootcamp or citizen mobility volunteer group that if we see, hey, we'd like to paint
out, you know, an intersection near a school with some colorful bump outs and we've all
the city, maybe the city, you know, does the work to draw it up, buy the paint, but then
as far as the actual labor, we've got a team of volunteers.
I feel like this is, if any community could get volunteers to paint or to put something
in a road, I feel like Denton is that community.
Is that something that has been thought through as we're working on these really long term
goals?
And look for city manager's office for guidance, but from professional standpoint, it ties
to maintainability and resources and how many examples we can set.
But of course, when the paint weathers out, how we ensure that it is not a hazard.
So I think all of those questions come from professional standpoint.
We have to look for that when it comes to standards, they caution us on doing so.
I'll just add, but it, but it feels good.
Like even if it's something where, okay, maybe in two years we'll have an issue with the
paint, but from a marketing point of view, from just a goodwill point of view, great
photo op, great way to get our community involved, to feel like they're a part of the solution,
to feel like they're right now in the past four or five years, people are looking for
a connection.
They want to be a part of the solutions in our town.
They're ready to get down and dirty and paint stuff or install things.
I know we've got standards, obviously we'd want to surpass those standards, but just
throwing that out there that we've got lots of people that I think would love to help
in any way, even if it's just distributing information.
One avenue where staff request is community engagement process or community awareness.
As I said, two sides of equation.
If something could be done, that is the avenue where we can put a major dent into a big problem,
bigger problem.
And the problem is that we have infrastructure in place, we have stop signs, we have posted
speed signs.
And if the community members are not following that, it becomes a bigger problem.
So if we want to do some initiative like that, staff would recommend that we put some efforts
towards awareness and education and awareness campaigns through council members and mobility
committee members help and CMO can, of course, provide more guidance.
I think it's an interesting idea and we'll definitely take it back and brainstorm some
ideas.
I think we do have a citizen academy that we encourage folks to attend and it's not
just mobility focus, but it's all departments and so we can we've talked about maybe adding
some type of project component to to your point about getting people involved a little
bit more.
But we'll take your feedback and see what we can come up with.
So thank you.
Isn't that wonderful to see that your words can come to life?
That's pretty awesome.
Did you have anything else?
Hey, I wanted to add discuss didn't you were noting that I think that even as council members,
we can do a better job of reminding folks to go to discuss didn't and find those projects
that they were concerned about.
And I understand it discussed it and keeps up with that pretty well much.
So thank you for that.
And I'll make sure that I'm at the end of every meeting.
If I can remember, I need to write it down, then I can make note of discussed in the 311,
you know, and those are the things that we can get to quickly.
Okay, so we're going to move down to MC 25052 staff memorandum.
First one is Eva Street parking follow up.
Did anyone have any information or any any concerns about the Eva Street parking follow
up?
I'm just going to ask if staff could just stay aware of this, this this hasn't gone
away.
I take the point that was in there.
It remains a an itchy lack of satisfaction point in in the Evers area community.
I take steps point that it is in our with our priority of safety over other elements,
and I don't want to break that at all.
But just it to the extent that you could put some some background brain cells on that and
continue to monitor that a little bit.
If there's opportunities, you mentioned some possible opportunities.
Yes, please keep your eye on those possible opportunities because it remains a sore point
in the community.
Sure.
All right, bike funds project criteria.
Anybody have any concerns, questions, comments on the next one?
Yes.
Dr. Begg.
Yay, you have a coordinator to start next week.
Yes, October 27th.
Oh, I know many people in our in our bike pit community there.
They're super excited when they learned about this in the backup.
I think we keep picking good people and we start to make progress and we start to get
momentum and then for reasons that have very little to do with the city of Denton, they
go away.
And so hopefully not knock a little wood.
Dr. Maloney, or however you say her name is, is will be a long lasting opportunity and
someone that can provide some focus.
So I'm I'm really excited.
So my only comment is, yay, and let's see if we can hit the ground running.
Urban planning.
All right.
Several years.
Just a quick question on that.
And this might be something that could be added eventually to the agenda.
But I was wondering, as we're looking for the criteria for prioritizing sidewalk and
bike lane projects, what is there an element in there that that takes a look at how families
and children are utilizing those kinds of facilities?
Is there is there a category for that as you're looking through this criteria process?
>> Yes, as a standard element of these criteria, one of the requirement is that if the elementary
school kids have to have a crossing that is hazardous, that gets 100% score.
>> Okay, thank you.
>> Sidewalk heat insensitivity, anybody, did you have anything down on this end?
>> Yeah, sidewalk heat insensitivity, insensitivity, I wanted to say insensitivity, up a little
bit.
There you go, right there.
>> Yeah.
>> Intensity.
>> I know, I was saying insensitivity.
>> We're all sensitive to sidewalks.
>> Right, intensity.
Yes, sir, Dr. Begg?
>> So I'm going to gently push back on this entire paragraph.
I understand the implications of the cost of colored concrete as an additive, but that's
because that approach is a standard approach to increasing the albedo of the sidewalk is
to color them or paint them or something like that, and I get that we're looking to that,
but one of the things that I have been in many committees and on council pushing is
two factors.
One, other additives like things like titanium oxide, which also increase the albedo, but
also stabilize the concrete, increasing lifetime of concrete, not just for sidewalks, but also
for roads, particularly in asphalt areas, but concrete especially, and they also catalyze
the reduction of ozone back to 02 and reduce knocks out of the area, and that doesn't have
to be painted, doesn't have to be added, just poured into the concrete mix as an additive.
This is something that LA is doing, Raleigh is doing, Charleston is doing, Charlotte is
doing, and why, even though there will be some marginal cost, probably less than paint
or less than these colored additives, but I'm being pretty pushy here because it has
multiple impacts, but also the health impacts on the children and the health impacts of
the surrounding neighborhoods.
These are not factored into the cost of the additives, and when you're doing an apples
to apples comparison, I want to make sure that in the same way that there's, and I'm
going to go way out on a limb here, in the same way that there's more than just the power
component in a gas plant for producing electricity, and there's other impacts that say Michael
Gagne and sustainability looks at, there's more impacts than just the cost of the concrete
when we think about the impacts on our community.
I don't want us to be penny wise and pound foolish on this one.
I want us to do a comprehensive analysis of long-term what it would take to improve our
sidewalk and street plan.
Now this was particularly focused on sidewalk heat around schools, and I think that makes
it a great candidate to see if there's additional additives, like titanium oxide is not expensive.
So I would love to hear your comment on something like that.
So titanium oxide is an option, but it would be, staff would like to see how it impacts
the life cycle of the concrete versus not using it.
Typical standard is adding colors, Austin has been doing that, and many other cities
across the nation, they do that, if necessary.
As stated in the memo, it is an option, but staff has to work through the costs and see
if it is a priority.
If it is a priority for city, and staff will be happy to expand on this and see how this
can be, but of course this will impact CIPs projects and how the time align of these projects,
and we'll have to see many other factors from practical standpoint.
No, no, I appreciate you, we absolutely have to do that, you have to work through the budget
process.
When we get into the matrix here in a minute or two, I'm going to ask that we not take
this item off, and that we continue it back, and work on developing a pilot project, and
I'll pick a school, and do your planning, and pick a sidewalk, and look at the impacts,
and if the cost, the marginal cost of doing that pilot project shows that if we expand
it out through the city, it would be bad, okay, then that's the take home message.
It's too expensive.
But if we find that it is having the impacts that we think it did, not only did we help
that pilot project, but now we can expand it out, first to safe routes to school, and
then if it's really great, Seth can put it in the streets on Robinwood.
No, I'm kidding, because we want them torn back up again, right?
But that's my point is, yeah, anyway, I'll bring that back up at the matrix time.
Go ahead.
Madam Chair, I just want to ask, and we can, I can bring this up again when we get to the
agenda, and I don't know if this would be CMO or street.
If we determined yes, this is one way to mitigate, you mostly focused on what to do to the actual
concrete itself.
It's my understanding there's a lot of other ways we could mitigate heat.
One would be planting a lot of trees or having shade structures.
Who handles stuff like that, like putting shade trees in, would that, if the street
is going, if we decide, if transportation decides, here's a heat island, okay, what
department then goes to and adds those trees when we've determined we've got to, we want
to reduce the heat here, is that something that would be in a different department or
how could we collaborate with multiple departments to get that end goal?
During the development review process, typically the developers would add these details to the
land use surrounding their developments.
And then in planning department, there is a trees and landscaping section that looks
into that.
But on these elements as well, on existing infrastructure, the question comes about right
of way and then easements and utilities, what's under there?
And all of those things are, utilities are, if they are there, then there's a limitation.
So I think what happy to stop is we'll look into that if further information is needed
and circle back.
I think that that would be an interesting program.
I know we already have a tree rebate program that homeowners can do.
It'd be cool if there is a way, if the city has determined this is a heat island, we've
got some residents or businesses here, yes, we could let them know, here's our tree rebate
program, but maybe we do a more targeted approach or we say, we'd like to not only put in, we'd
like to help you dig the hole that way the city can determine we're not going to mess
anything up when we, and then maybe we even provide bigger trees and so if the homeowner
has to buy that tree, maybe there's, I don't know, just curious, like maybe building out
that program could be an element of it.
I know it's hard because it's private property sometimes.
Stop and circle back on that.
I did want to mention this is an element of our design downtown master plan.
So the downtown master plan called for this concept of cool streets.
So I think from a staff perspective, that's really where we would like to focus because
it's already called for in the master plan and been vetted through the community feedback
and things like that.
Obviously right now we're limited with funding of implementing that plan, but staff is moving
forward with as much implementation as possible.
So my recommendation would be to focus on continuing that implementing that plan and
then as Farhan said, we can have additional conversations about what other programs are
available and how staff can implement those and how we can expand those.
Okay.
All right, let's move on to TERS public private partnerships.
What does that look like, any question?
Yes sir, Dr. Baird.
I made sure to mention this in the TERS meeting just so that they're aware and hopefully staff,
you two different economic development and transportation had a good conversation.
It sounds like you did because this is very exciting to me.
I'm happy to find out from both of you that these kinds of upgrades are available.
I wonder in your conversations, did you have any conversations about potential candidate
locations from your standpoint and from economic development standpoint, businesses that like
in prior conversations we talked about delivery as a service, Uber eats kind of parking and
bollards and other things that would fall into this category.
Did y'all think about any potential candidates in any of our places that might be candidates
for at least contemplating the use of TERS funding, especially in the DDD.
I think it aligns great with the DDD, the Downtown Denton design, Design Downtown Denton.
Thank you.
I knew there was three Ds in there, but as we go forward and again, I know your transportation
and this is a cross department issue, but are there, have there been locations and or
candidates and I'm thinking sort of what Cassie mentioned, the cool streets, but on those
cool streets, are there businesses that we've talked that we think we can encourage to try
to go for TERS funding for these kinds of projects?
We'll work with economic development and team and then trickle back on this.
Anyone else?
I think that pretty interesting idea of possibly using the Downtown Denton plan to get started
with something like that, you know, pilot down there, that's where it may get some moves
that way.
Great.
Anything else?
All right.
Well, we're going to move on to E. Thank you, EMC 25-053.
Receive a report and hold a discussion and give staff direction regarding future meeting
topics.
There you go, future meeting topics.
Well, Seth, aren't you the one that usually stand up here and help us do this?
Seth is trying to take a nap on us.
Sorry, I was letting it be the Farhan show today.
Since I didn't have anything on here, but I will gladly stand.
So Dr. Beck, we heard leaving the sidewalk heat intensity on there, so we would request
to remove items five and items 11 that were covered today otherwise.
Are you okay with the EVA spark moving?
Yeah.
It is what it is.
Okay.
Well, we need a motion to remove five and 11.
I so move.
All right.
So second.
All right.
Any other discussions?
All right.
There's not any discussions.
Then we'll vote.
All in favor?
Aye.
I am too.
Thank you.
All right.
So we remove those.
Yep.
And then we can take any new items.
Do we have any new items that we want to put on there?
Any discussion today which would have caused the new item?
Did we hear anything?
Yes.
We had some, Madam Chair, but I think staff indicated that they were going to, you know,
kind of review that, and I'm not sure it rises to the level of matrix item thing that was
exactly a matrix, correct me if I'm wrong, other board members.
Okay.
I think if we could, specifically with the heat issue, I was going to maybe add something
about our shade equity plan or ways to expand this idea of the cool streets as just kind
of a proactive approach, because I don't want the rest of Den to get left behind.
I love the idea of the cool streets, and I'm like, my neighborhood needs that, you know?
And again, that could potentially have a huge economic impact for not just the downtown.
We need that in all of our places.
So if that's something that's going to be possibly sort of incorporated with what we've
already talked about, then we don't have to add that as a separate agenda item, but I'll
take suggestions from staff on that.
I think we can incorporate it into Row 6 when we bring it back.
Okay.
All right.
Well, if there is not anything else, then we will move to our concluding items.
Is there any kind of concluding items?
Anybody?
Yes, Dr. Bick.
Dr. Farhan, pronounce her name for me, so I say it properly.
Is there going to be an opportunity for mobility ... Let me put it this way.
I would love it if after she's hired and onboarded, if we could meet her, considering she will
have a direct role with the mobility committee.
That would be awesome.
She'll be here next mobility committee.
Next mobility committee, is it?
Perfect.
That sounds great.
Thank you.
We'll see you off at the poro room.
Is she over in this ... Yes, at DSA, in transportation services.
Yes.
All right.
Well, it sounds like we are ready to meet her.
So we've got to get her in here.
Okay.
If there's not anything else, then we will close meeting at 1136.
Thank you.
Perfect.