>> Good morning everyone. It's always good to be back in the space, in the city space. We are here for our mobility committee meeting, Wednesday, February 25th, 10 a.m. in our council work session room. We do have a quorum this morning. We are going to start with number one. Our citizens' comments. I have two citizens' cards.
I have two citizens' cards in front of me. We'll ask Mr. Key and Curran to come up and speak in regards to our agenda.
>> Sure. Where do you want me?
>> Right up front.
>> Hi, everybody. My name is Ken, and I'm here because someone asked me to come talk about your agenda, and I don't know what your agenda is, so I'm just going to kind of wing it for a minute.
I'm a local business person. I don't know if you all have been in Denton for a while. I've had a restaurant down the street for about 30 years, and if you want to talk about parking and you want to talk about parking issues, if you ask me a specific question, I have a lot to say about it.
When I first started that business, I had six or seven parking spots on the south side of my building that after we were under construction, the city told me I had to get rid of, and that's where I put my patio, so that worked out well for me.
But that idea of how many parking spots that I had to have before I opened was one of the most fraught and difficult things that we dealt with.
You know, how many -- what my total occupancy would be was determined by that, and I almost wish you would ask me questions about it, because I can answer your questions a lot better than I can make stuff up.
I just know that as a downtown business owner, I've always told people the best thing about my restaurant is not on my menu, it's my parking lot.
I have a big parking lot, and I've purposely put a breakfast place across the street from my nighttime place so we could share parking, you know, when we all sort of have to make arrangements to do that without parking.
Before I ever opened a restaurant, I had a longtime mentor told me there's two things you got to remember about the restaurant business. You measure success by the number of people between you and the dishwasher and how many parking spots you got.
And so I've been really lucky in that regard that I've been able to keep it going for a while. I know more people, more cars, fewer places to park.
I don't come down here in the evening very often because it's so stressful to try to find a place to park. I often park at my own restaurant and walk downtown because it's -- I don't have to do the circle, the square thing.
So it's the top of everyone's list when you talk about doing any kind of business, any kind of work downtown, is where you're going to park, where your employees are going to park, where your customers are going to park.
So the main thing that I would like to see is consistency. You know, the requirements have changed dramatically since I started. They changed before I even opened.
You know, like I said, I was under construction when they decided to get rid of back out parking onto a main street and then a year or two later changed it back.
And so consistency, I think any business, that's what we're looking for. So the more consistent you can be, I'm all for it.
So if anybody has any questions for me, throw it at me.
Okay. Dr. Beck?
Hey, Ken, it's good to see you. So as a business owner and in this idea of parking, do you see it more -- there's not enough, we need better navigational aids or it should be market driven or all of the above?
All of the above. You know, it's going to be different in different places. You know, opening a business on the square, you've got a whole different, you know, situation there.
You know, I'm off the square three or four blocks and several businesses are, but, you know, the object is to get as many people down here as we can, you know, to create commerce.
So where do we put them and how do they get here? You know, I'm all for a walkable city.
You know, I like, you know, the more people ride their bikes and walk is, you know, better. The more people can get down here, living down here, I think is better for businesses.
You know, my struggle has always been to get people to come from another part of town to come to this, you know, to come to downtown. And when they do, where are they going to park?
And so, again, I'll say consistency is the main thing. And if we know it's going to be the same year after year, it makes it easier to plan.
All right. Well, thank you, Mr. Kern. We certainly do appreciate your comments. We'll take everything in consideration, sir. Appreciate it.
Also, just understood that there's no Q&A for citizens comments. That's what I'm understanding. Thank you.
OK. Carrie Bungus, Bogus, B-A-U-G-U-S. Three minutes, please. Hi, I'm Carrie Bogus. I am the executive director of Denton Affordable Housing Corporation.
We're a nonprofit that manages and develops properties for affordable housing here in the city of Denton.
And so I'm here to speak to, you know, honestly, to in my opinion, I'd really like to see the parking mandates go away.
There's several instances that it has deeply affected our developments as far as the parking restrictions and what's required.
For example, I'm putting in a multifamily right now that is 84 units of permanent supportive housing for people experiencing chronically homelessness with disabilities.
There is a program right now that's ran by MHMR that runs 60 individuals and out of those 60 individuals, four of them have a vehicle.
But I'm being required to put in 80 parking spots for this development.
You know, we talk about we want to save the trees and we want to save the environment. Well, when I'm having to knock down trees to pour pavement for development that is not even going to use these parking spots.
I'm having to put in parking whenever I'm doing single family homes for homeowners that are affordable.
And most of them I have to put in four per single family house. And most of those individuals, if they have a car, have one.
And so, you know, it's just the requirements that we have. The only thing that those requirements are doing is they're hurting small developers, local developers, they're hurting small businesses that are coming in.
I mean, like Ken said, a business knows that if I need parking, if I want people to come to my property and be a patron of my business. And so they know that. So all we're doing is helping corporations that already have the money to put in those parking spots.
Businesses aren't going to build a business and not have parking for it because they know no one's going to come to their business.
So I feel like that the parking restrictions that we have right now are a detriment to our city and a detriment to the character of Denton.
And it is, you know, basically hurting our small businesses and hurting our affordable housing.
Thank you. Thank you very much. We certainly do hear you.
And we will take everything under consideration.
Right. Anyone else.
All right. Well, we're going to move on to item two. Items for individual consideration, AMC 26-001. Consider approval of the minutes from December the 17th, 2025.
We have a motion for approval.
I so move.
All right. Any second? Second.
All right. Any other discussion?
All right. All in favor? Aye.
All right. Unanimous. Thank you. BMC 26-002.
Receive a report and hold a discussion regarding the City of Dent Transportation Mobility Project Status Report.
30 minutes.
How many?
30.
That's a lot more than I usually get.
Okay.
If it takes 30 minutes, y'all are asking a lot of questions.
Okay.
But we might.
Okay.
I did not.
So as we go, always talk about, we are basically working on about $5 billion worth of roadway improvements throughout all of City Denton and its greater surrounding areas.
So why is it not moving?
Okay, that's me.
So as we do start with I-35 North, you see that there's multiple dates there because we've taken the yellow project and we broke it into three different projects for constructability.
We found out when we did the merge as a big project, it was, we thought it was $450 million.
We got two bidders, both of them bid 54 months and $100 million over the estimate because we only had two bidders.
So TechStalk said we're going to go back and cut these projects up into smaller pieces, which means we had to go back and change the plan sets to have distinct packets for individual projects.
So that pushed some of the let dates out.
The projects are still fully funded right around $800 and, well, $629 million right now, but they're saying it's $809.
But projects are coming down now.
In the last five months, TechStalk's monthly lettings, like in November, they thought they were going to be letting $550 million worth of projects.
Those projects came in at $440, and the next three months after that, they all came in $100 million less than what they were anticipating.
So we're seeing the cost increases level off and just start coming back down.
So by the time we get to these dates out here, we're pretty certain that the dollars we have will be matching the dollars we need.
Okay. Yes, sir.
John, with us splitting the yellow and it crossing over that lowland area, is that particularly problematic or not?
No, interstates, it'll just be bridge structure.
So we're not allowed to -- like if you drive 35W, when you're going from Denton to Northlake or that area down south,
you'll note that back in the day when they built 35, they just filled across the floodplains.
So there's a bunch of fill.
The structures we're having to build now to add frontage roads to that project,
the project is so expensive because now we have to be on structure for all --
so we're going to be building frontage roads through a lot of this floodplain area where they're just bridges.
And the environmental processes we have to follow now are far more stricter than they were like in the '60s when they first started building highways.
So we're very sensitive to the environmental habitats we cross through on these.
So our plan is to go south to north as we get them ready to let.
Before we leave that.
Yes, sir.
You may have said this and I just wasn't paying enough attention.
The yellow that we're talking about in 35 north, $54 million was too much divided by one.
Is 54 million divided by two cheaper?
No, no.
I don't know what -- I didn't say 51 million.
I hope I didn't.
It was 550 million is what it came in at.
And the reason we got a bid that was 100 million higher is because there were only two contractors that could do the work on a project that big.
So the state was kind of stuck with two bidders.
So we decided on the next project up, which was going to be another $700 million,
to break it into three smaller pieces because $250 million per construction opens your world to a whole lot more bidders than a half a billion-dollar job does.
I see.
So it's not exactly apples to apples.
We're talking about a bigger project now.
Well, it's three little projects that equal the one big project.
We're taking the yellow and breaking it into three pieces.
But it's the same north to south, same distance?
Yes.
I see.
Okay.
And the contractors can work all at the same time.
We're used to torturing people like that all the time.
But they'll just be smaller bid packets.
I see. Okay, got it.
Thank you.
What row does that yellow end on?
Yes, it goes from 77, where the merge project ends, all the way to just south of Sanger, where 455 is.
That purple is the interchange at 455 and 35 because when we did 455, we went east and west of 35.
We went ahead and decided to build the interchange with the 455 project.
That project is actually under construction and almost complete.
Oh, okay.
I think they get up there.
I hadn't been up there in a while.
It's a mess up there.
Okay.
That's good.
A mess is good.
Getting better.
My motto is all's well that ends.
That's right.
All's well that ends.
So that's what I was just telling you.
The 455 project, we're looking at being completed, you know, I say close, March of '29.
But it's under construction and it's the interchange at 455.
And then you merge the big kahuna.
So I think what we need to think about is that here we are in February of 2026, right?
Yes.
I think that's where we're at.
And we have a construction completion date of January 2030.
So we still got a long time on this job.
Wow.
The other night I got some questions about some folks being concerned about some of the
ramping and the temporary pavement out there.
And the reason the state -- they go to minimums on all of these ramps.
And it is a construction zone, so you should be more wary when you're driving through it.
But the state tries to keep all the movements that are currently available in that corridor
still available while they're building the project.
But what that means is they have to go to minimum standards.
So 10-foot lanes, ramps that have Mario Andretti S-curves on them.
But it's because the alternative is to make it safer but make it more or less useful because
you won't have all the access points.
So what the state's typical process is, go to minimums, keep as many movements as possible
open and use temporary pavement.
So like all that work being done on the braided ramps, that's off the existing corridor
because that's how big this corridor is going to be when we're done.
So they're able to build that whole structure without impacting traffic because it's so
far away from the existing lanes.
And then eventually as we get further into the process, they'll flip the traffic over
to the new pavement and then come back and reconstruct the main lanes and et cetera in
the inside.
So it's going to be painful for a long time.
And I would just encourage you to encourage your citizens to, when they drive through,
although it is an interstate, it's also a construction zone.
Madam Chair.
Oh, yes.
I should look up more.
No, you're good.
Me too.
Thank you.
John, is there a comment that I got after you left the other night was, is there some
place that we can go where the citizens can go to see, obviously not on a day to day.
That would be too much effort.
But is there some place that they can go to see what the current configuration is so they
can plan?
Yeah, let me -- I know there is something on that.
There should be a website for this project.
There typically is a website.
But the main place you can go is called keepitmovingdallas.com.
But we also do subcategories where we allow -- we put project specific information into
that.
But what you do is you go to that location and you go to interstates and you scroll down
the list until you find the 35EW merge and then all the information is there.
But we can go see what the website is on this because there is one somewhere.
Yeah, if you could get back to staff so that they could get it out to this committee and
the council, that would be awesome so that we could get it out.
So what happens with the state -- what they do normally is if they allow a project to
have dynamic lane closures, they require them to have a website that has daily information
-- what that means is that the contractor doesn't have to check with the city or the
state.
If they want to change the pattern in the corridor to construct it, they just go do
it.
And they have to inform people the day before.
On this project, on a design/build, there is a phasing plan that they approved before
they started the project and had to follow that phasing plan.
If they want to change the phasing plan, then they have to come back and get the city's
approval and the state's approval to do it.
So a lot of times what happens on these is their website is a little more static because
their traffic control plans are a little more static.
Thank you.
Just some background.
Joe, you're okay?
Yep.
Mayhill.
Oh, my favorite project.
You see what's going on, right?
Oh, yeah.
We're headed towards Loop 288.
Right now, we're basically getting the outside pavement for the outside frontage roads set
so that we can start widening the road from the inside out.
And we are just barely in the throes of it.
And again, we're talking middle of 2029 before this project's done.
So we're not really expecting any traffic changes right now.
Basically, all we're doing is doing all the northbound frontage roads because southbound
was built when we did the Brinker project.
So we're getting that set so we can put the traffic off of the existing frontage road
onto the new frontage road.
And then that's when we're going to start breaking everything in the middle.
Bad.
I live over there, so I'm your daily inspector on that project.
It's coming along.
Okay.
So we got the middle and -- oh, yeah, I don't care about the south.
Okay.
So we're making a pitch to the Highway Commission.
And we just met with one of the commissioners last Friday.
And we are -- we're rolling -- the county's got about $250 million in other projects in
the county that are lower priority than 35W.
We are rolling those dollars onto 35W, plus we're going to do something with utilities.
In return for that, we want the commission to put additional CAT 12 money in about -- on
about $50 million of CAT 12 on this project.
And the intent is to get -- we're going to skip 2449 because the loop 288 is in the out years.
We're going to do all red, ropes and wrench, old Denton, 407, Denton Creek, possibly
Cleveland Gibbs, and 1171, plus all the frontage roads.
And that's about 310, 320 million.
We've got about 265, so we're looking for about 40 to 50 million in commission discretionary
funds, which is a good deal for the commission.
And we think we're going to get it by May or June.
We should know in the UTP, Unified Transportation Plan.
It's the 10-year plan for the state.
We should know if we get into that UTP in May or June.
But what the commission asked us to do is the county was going to put $10 million of
its bond money in, plus another $6 million to do utilities, $10 million in construction,
$6 million into utilities.
Utilities in this corridor are estimated around $12 million.
What the commission asked us to do is to go ahead and take all our money and move it over
to all the utilities because the utility budget is short.
And if we can cover 100% of the cost of the utilities, it will expedite the timing on
this project.
So if you look, you'll see that we're saying the project is ready to let by 2027.
What that means is that's when all the utilities are relocated, all of these utilities, DME,
Atmos, CoServe, ZOZO, Lumen, I don't know why they come up with these names.
December 2027.
December 2027 is in the 28 Unified Transportation Plan because it starts September of 27 and
goes to August of 28.
We're trying to move some of this project into the 27 UTP, which starts September of
26 and ends August of 27.
In order to do that, we have to expedite the utility relocation.
And the way we're going to do that is we're going to pay, the county is going to pay and
then hire a utility coordinator to take this off the books of the district because they
got a whole lot of projects they're trying to clear utilities on and pay the state to
hire a firm to manage this corridor so we can move some of those sections into the 27
UTP.
There's a test after this.
It seemed like we could maybe we could squeeze some money out of HEB.
So that's where we're trying to go.
They never put any money in.
I'm just teasing.
But we are excited about that.
That's a very large project.
So we should know.
So June is the draft UTP.
We'll know for sure then.
But the internal document will be circulating at headquarters.
And they've told us they'd let us know what month and year we're in because we need to
let HEB know.
We need to let Tom Thumb know.
We need to let Hillwood know.
And so we should know by April or May.
How are we doing?
And then we'll go from there.
Any questions?
All right.
Do you have any questions?
Jane, you're OK?
Yeah, I'm good.
I've been over there many times.
Oh, yeah.
Yeah, we're already here.
Yeah, it's horrible.
OK.
I got some.
Does moving the money around, is that going to cause any pain for the projects that are
going to get slowed down at least?
Do you know where 35E and Dobbs Road is?
Dobbs.
I can't think of Dobbs.
Yeah, that's why it's not going to matter.
Oh, I see.
Got it.
I see what you did there.
OK.
So the outer loop, we're taking some money out of the outer loop green belt, but we're
only-- we're going to get cleared next year.
And we're talking 10 years, 12 years before we're going to be building anything because
we're going to build it from the east to the west because Collin County is already building
it.
The green belt is in the center of the county.
So we'll just refund that project when it's eligible-- when it comes more mature.
So all we did was take projects that we have money on that are in the out-out years and
then moved it to a project that we need right now.
I see.
OK.
Good.
Great answer.
So--
Oh, no.
Luke 288.
It's your favorite project, John.
Someday, before I die, we're going to do something on this job.
So that's part of the reason why we're not doing 2449 on 35 because 2449 is Luke 288
in the future with direct connects.
And we don't need to have direct connects to 2449 because there's not enough traffic.
So we thought it was silly to build that structure now in which they're not even starting on
the right way for quite some time.
So right now, this may be our next project that we end up taking on, the utility relocation
phase, because a lot of the right-of-ways are already acquired.
There's still right-of-way to be acquired.
But this may be the next one we-- the county rolls in to do in the utility side of the equation
instead of the construction side.
Because that's where textiles have the most shortfall is in their right-of-way and utility
relocations because they took money out of those budgets and moved it into construction
to minimize the impact on the fact that the construction dollars were going down.
So it's just put a real-- breaks on a lot of these projects we were moving forward through
the system.
So we'll figure out where to put our money to most expedite these projects.
Chair, question?
John, question?
Yes, yes.
On that one, I know in previous reports, we had been nearly finished the environmental
clearance.
I'm presuming, because it's not on here, the environmental clearance is cleared at this
point?
Yeah, it was cleared in September of 2020.
OK.
2020.
Wow.
And so what we're doing is we are trying to get enough money to build the northbound frontage
road, because this is a controlled access facility.
Right, yeah.
And the grade separation at 380 in the railroad track so that city of Denton can develop to
the loop and not have to worry about, in the future, changing that access point because
you're tying into the frontage road where you'll tie in always.
And then the frontage road will just operate as a two-way road until we get the money for
the other frontage road and then the main lanes.
But we'll buy all the right-of-way at one time.
Thank you.
Anything else?
Any other questions?
OK.
No, I'm cutting into my time.
All right, so to make it all work, we need to convert 288 on the north side to a freeway.
Right now, you've got main lanes that are operating as main lanes, but there's no frontage
roads.
You've got development that's pressing hard.
What we're going to do with TxDOT, our schematic is done.
We're submitting it to TxDOT for review.
They kicked it back and said, "Listen, we need you to talk about constructability because
we think we need to get the frontage roads in faster than some of these interchanges
because the frontage roads are where the developments are coming."
So we're coming back and looking at it from constructability, from essentially Bonnie
Bray on the west all the way over to King Row initially, which picks up most of the
loop, and if we can find discrete packets of constructability, then they're going to
go ahead and approve our schematic, and then the next phase after that is to start working
on those designs.
And we've still got Westwood, the county still has Westwood on contract, and we are
working on a design packet, but we're waiting to see what the city wants, where the development
is, and what TxDOT Dallas thinks is the best next thing.
The connection between 380 and 288 won't be needed until we know some better timeframe
on the freeway section of 380 because the direct connect is a connection from a freeway
to a freeway, and right now, 380 is not a freeway.
So our thinking is, Bonnie Bray to King's Row, get the frontage roads in, and then tie
in on the back ends when they're needed.
What's the definition of a freeway again?
It has main lanes, bridges, and frontage roads.
So we don't have frontage roads?
No, you don't.
You do not.
And that's been for like 30 years.
And y'all and the county and the TxDOT have done a good job protecting that corridor so
it doesn't look like that part by Golden Triangle.
And once we get the other part of 288 done, the northwestern quadrant, then you're going
to be able to get truck traffic out of your downtown, and you're going to reroute them
up over and around, and they won't be able to come through your town anymore if they're
just passing through.
This is part of the project I just talked about.
It's a standalone project for y'all, but it's included in the big project right here.
We picked it up.
That big project up there, that one right there?
Yep.
You know, from a late person's perspective, that's all I have.
It just seems like that's a wide space, but the housing is so close to it.
Are we going to lose any housing?
No.
We're at the intersections.
We're going to be taken right away, but we're pretty much staying in the existing footprint.
So we're going hard urban on this one.
Okay.
Hard urban.
That means all the drainage is under, and we're compressing it as best as we can.
Okay.
Now, when are we going to know something about 380, that corridor down there?
As we prepare for that.
You mean?
Going back, I'm sorry.
This part right there?
Yeah, you said we don't really know what's going to be going on with that.
I'm going to be declaring it right now as a freeway.
Yeah.
And so what we did, the county, this is our normal operational standards, is crossroads
and little lamb, all their commercial property is on 380 proper.
Right.
To convert it to a freeway, all that goes away.
So we're working on that for another 10, 12, 15 years before we get to that.
Oh.
So what we're doing is we're giving crossroads and little lamb bond money to build infrastructure,
roadway infrastructure off of 380 so they can get a new commercial business base going
so that they don't lose this and not have anything.
They get them going off the corridor, and then when we come and take it, they're whole again.
They're already ready.
So we basically bought them off.
Okay.
Airport Road.
Does anybody have any questions about Airport Road?
I just need to keep reminding you all that the previous cycle of council folks said that
they would be willing to take 1515 off the system once it was built.
So it'll be a 30-year road, six-lane divided urban, much better than what you'd have right now.
But the way we're going to entice TechSight to fund this project sooner than later,
since it's kind of a spur, is the turn back.
So if that's not something you all are interested in, we just need to talk.
Okay, we have a question here.
Is there a reason why we wouldn't be interested in doing that?
Well, you're going to have to maintain it forever.
But it's a brand new road.
And it's a state road.
So a state road is built significantly more durable than a typical city road.
Okay.
Miss, is there a reason we wouldn't want to do that?
It just comes down to funding.
But we can build in the funding if we take it over to the future budget.
Okay.
But I mean, a new 30-year road should be minimal in its maintenance needs.
Yeah.
Right, in the first 30 years.
Well, the first 30 years.
We got that.
I may or may not still be here.
Let's bring it on.
Joe, you're going to be here to take slings and arrows in 30 years?
Let me check my calendar.
Yeah.
So that's the plan.
I mean, we've got it ready.
It's going to be ready late March 27.
Okay.
And at that point between now and then, we're going to try to find the funding.
But it'll be contingent upon the turn back.
All right.
They've already made that clear to me at the state level.
Will that ever, ever, ever turn 15-15 turn into the 35W?
No.
It'll always have -- where it comes in, it ties in at Bonnie Bray.
You know, right there by where the -- what's the stadium?
Daku.
That stadium.
That's where it always will tie in.
University of North Texas made green.
Yeah.
That's where it'll always tie in.
I'm talking about the other end.
Oh, no.
It goes -- it ends into --
The airport.
Airport.
Actually, we have a hammerhead there because we were told that 18 wheelers accidentally
go that way thinking they can get out.
And then they have to do like a 13-point turnaround in your parking lot at the airport.
So we made a big hammerhead so they can -- when they make that mistake, they got a way to
turn around and get out.
It's a dead end.
That's why the state's not that interested in building the road unless they can give it
away.
It doesn't go anywhere but to the airport.
Okay.
I hear you.
All right.
How big a deal would it be to connect it to the brand-new service road there?
The service roads are on the east side of the project, not the west.
Okay.
I knew it'd be something.
And it's like Washington, you could like do something there.
Western Boulevard ties in.
If they know to turn north on Western, they can get out.
I mean, they don't have to end up in your parking lot but sometimes they do.
I got it.
Okay.
Thank you.
Okay.
This is the project to the north.
It's 1173.
And it'll be ready at the end of this year.
It's, you know, 125 million.
There's a lot of floodplain and it's a reroute up to Bartow Road.
We are accommodating the connection in our merge job because the merge goes all the way up to the 77 job.
It'll include the Bartow connection.
And so, yeah, we're going to get it ready and then chase money for it.
Madam Chair.
Question.
The last we talked about this, we were closing the railroad connection completely, right?
Like it's dead end on either side.
And that's still the case?
You see my mouse?
Yeah.
So this connection will be killed.
And we're going to move it to here.
So all of this traffic will be tied in to come up to the new alignment and go left or right.
And all this traffic will be cul-de-sac and have to come out to -- it'll no longer be 1173.
That's what I'm -- but that's still -- there's nothing new in that regard.
Cool.
Thank you.
Okay.
All right.
Good.
Well, sir, we cleared this thing in 2021.
So if we change anything, we've got to go back and reevaluate it.
So we're not doing that.
Does anybody care about the outer loop?
I do have one question, Madam Chair, on that one.
One question about the outer loop.
Can -- I know that we're down to sort of an alignment and a half.
Right.
You know, there's sort of one alignment mostly settled and kind of two and, you know -- why are --
John, why do we keep throwing the cloud up when you really do know the alignment?
So this is another -- one of those scenarios where the federal process makes you have to look stupid.
So in an environmental assessment, you take one alignment that is the technically and locally preferred alternative,
and you run it through the system.
On an environmental impact statement, which is a higher level of clearance,
you have to take two alignments through the entire process,
knowing that the one that you're bringing is a straw man, right, because you have to have two.
But you get to tell everybody right before the public hearings, which we're talking about in June and July,
which one is your technically preferred alternative.
So in spring, May timeframe, you're going to hear that there is an alignment that is technically preferred,
which will happen to follow your thoroughfare plan and tie in at Milo.
But we can't say that formally or officially until spring.
Can we not show the two?
We do show the two.
We're fixing to show the two.
And we actually have been showing the two.
And there is a website.
This one does have a website.
And all this is on that website, and it's that website right there, Denton County Outer Loop.
Now, if I was to touch that, if I'm connected, this is connected.
If I touch that, it would go to that website.
So all reports are linked.
No, I guess my question, John --
So it does show you the two alternatives.
One goes up to Rector, and one goes to Milo.
Yeah.
And you -- everybody in this room has been very good about providing alignments.
You have -- everybody has -- I'm sort of responding to the community when they see the mobility reports.
And they regularly ask me, why do we say that when -- why maybe drill down and find the alignments since we know them?
Yeah.
So we're following NEPA process.
But I will tell you this, the affected property owners for both alignments have been notified and sent information on a regular basis.
So we've had public meetings, and we've postcard, email, texted those affected property owners.
So the ones that are affected by the two alignments, they know where the two alignments are,
because we've gotten comments back from them saying, why are you killing my plant Zootopia place up on Rector?
We can't tell them.
We're not going that way, because we can't tell them yet.
So we'll tell them in spring.
We're not going that way.
All right.
No, I appreciate it.
Thank you, John.
Thank you.
Good question.
Anyone else?
Oh, you know what?
I'm done.
You are.
Thank you so much.
And we certainly do appreciate you.
Yeah, so however long it took was y'all's fault.
Yeah.
We got it.
You were just perfect timing.
We just ran out of time.
I don't know how to get out of this.
That's OK.
Thank you, John.
It's a hammerhead.
It's always good to have you here.
Appreciate you.
All right.
Thank you.
It's been a pleasure.
All right.
We're moving on to CMC 26-003, Receive a Report and Hold a Discussion Regarding the Elements of Regional Transit 2.0 Initiative from the North Texas Council of Governments.
Good morning, Chair.
Good morning.
Committee members.
Farhan Butt, Deputy Director of Transportation Services Division.
I'm here to present Regional Transit 2.0 Initiative.
This is the initiative of NCTCOG that looks into strategic planning for multimodal transportation planning initiatives in the DFW region in light of the demographic changes that are coming to the region by 2050.
This was initiated in April 2024 and focuses on transportation, public transportation improvements in the DFW region.
It also looks into aggressive legislative program to promote public transportation, looks into increasing public transit authority membership by jurisdictions and by other cities, enhance collaboration between transit authorities and their systems.
This includes federal, local, and state bodies, increase the prevalence and quality of transit-oriented development in the DFW region, and addresses the long-term transit needs of the Dallas-Fort Worth region, and also form the basis for effective future public mobility in the region.
This slide shows the structure of the draft final report of the Regional Transit 2.0 component that was drafted by the NCTCOG, and then there's further work going on by the subcommittee that has been assigned to look into this Transit 2.0 Initiative in depth,
and in light of many other elements that are linked to demographics and legal changes and what would be required when it comes to land use integration policies.
The chapters of these report cover background and overview of this initiative, and then the second chapter looks into Regional Transit 2.0 study process, sustainable funding, increased efficiency of transit services,
economic development and density and transit-oriented developments, and then also looks into transit, you know, how it could be made competitive in comparison to other modes, and in conclusion, it provides recommendations for the jurisdiction and stakeholders in the region.
Before we go deeper into this Transit 2.0 Initiative discussion, this slide covers an important aspect of the outcomes of growth, phenomenal growth that the region is seeing, and where we are standing right now.
So the slide that says US VMT versus public road mileage trend, that highlights the scenario where how much we are spending.
If you look at the bottom dotted line that is in black color, that shows how the public roads mileage is being added over the years, essentially from 1929 to 2013.
It reflects that how much capacity is being added nationally when it comes to roads.
Then the gray line demonstrates the population increase over the time, and then the two curves that we see in blue and red, they demonstrate GDP and VMT, the blue one reflects VMT.
What it is trying to demonstrate is that over time, over the course of this time duration, we see significant increase in VMT, vehicle miles traveled.
And then we see growth in GDP that essentially tells that vehicle-based trips are being added to the existing transportation system with the growth that we are seeing in dotted black line to the capacity.
Essentially, it is showing this light pink color or orange color triangle that I've shown here, it reflects that there is a potential gap because we are not adding roadway capacity.
And rightfully so, there is only so much budget to add that capacity.
We have that gap that is unserved, that is not served in terms of public transportation, in terms of other modes that could be utilized to add to this capacity and to bring this curve, blue-colored curve of VMT down instead of just becoming a steep curve.
And then I have on the right side, there is a trend that shows that how the multimodal trips or public transportation ridership is increasing over the time.
That is a national trend basically, it is not DFW and it just shows that over the time and it goes right in line with VMT curve showing that traffic is getting congested and then people are using other modes and multimodal options are getting popular.
Is there a question?
Do you have a question?
I noticed over the last 10 or 15 years the VMT has flattened out after an expansive growth while GDP and the population trends didn't show that flattening.
Let me ask you in the form of a question, what is that flattening telling us?
Is it telling us that we are using other modes or what is it telling us?
It is not enough data and I understand, I am aware of that flattening, but it is not enough data to reflect that we do not understand the reason for that.
So in order for us to understand that reason, we need at least a decade or two decades and then we will be able to figure out that if it is just temporary flattening due to some events or due to some modal shift or preferences or due to some other financial events that happen, maybe oil price changes, all of those could be factors.
So we don't have enough data to say confidently that it is actually modal shift.
And later on I will share with you the slides that would talk about how we could figure out in terms of DFW region.
For example, did I answer your question?
Yeah, no, I would have to nerd with you later, so I will just nerd with you later.
Okay, we do not have enough data on that.
So that is a simple answer to that.
So traffic congestion on DFW roadways, obviously based on previous slides, the natural question comes to mind is that, okay, what is going on on DFW level?
And in DFW, this shows average weekday speeds weighted by traffic volumes.
In a simple way, we could describe that this curve is weighted by traffic congestion and these speed curves are weighted by traffic condition.
So we see that during typical 7 a.m., 6 a.m. to 7 a.m. morning peak, we see a dip, and that shows that speeds are going down due to traffic congestion.
And then we see a further dip of around 30% speeds going down on DFW roadways, and that shows another 30% dip in speeds, which is reflective of traffic volumes, traffic congestion.
So essentially, during the peak periods, which is reflective of what in the previous slide, what we saw, the VMT is increasing, vehicle miles traveled are increasing, and we do not have enough road capacity.
But what needs to happen is reflected in this slide, which shows that we have rail, bus, and on-demand passenger decreases versus baseline.
So I'd like to bring your attention here on this slide, where we saw that the national trend shows that there's a growth in public ridership.
But then DFW trend is showing that compared to baseline of 2019 to March 2019 to February 2020, from that baseline, the transit ridership is going down.
And so essentially what it means is that we are not well integrated when it comes to public transit, and we need to do more.
And essentially, NCTCOG, through this initiative, is sending this message that the growth is coming, and we need to look at alternative modes, and only relying on auto-based economies would not be a solution to future.
And perhaps this slide reflects the idea on demographic shift. It's basically doubling, more than doubling.
So 43% of this pie chart that we see is the growth in DFW region, and to understand it better, by 2050, we would be adding 3.7 million people in DFW, and our demographics will be hitting 8.6 million, which is doubling within 25 years.
And that's a forecast that is officially adopted by NCTCOG for their forecast models that are used to make transportation investments.
And so this is the latest slide that was shown in the last RTC meeting, and staff has borrowed this slide from that meeting presentation.
So that's what we are looking at when it comes to demographic changes, and that's why there are some well-thought multimodal processes we need to think of so that we can strategize, we can plan strategically, and introduce them in phased approach,
and we are not thinking about them when the time comes and it's too late already for any investment.
So public transit changes in DFW region would, you know, some of the notes that staff gathered from that report that summarizes that report includes negative stereotypes that public transportation use in DFW region is declining.
And one of the potential reasons is negative stereotyping. The branding needs to happen. It needs to be looked at from a different perspective. Public transportation should be looked at as a commuting power, as a power to get from origin to a destination in an efficient way.
So that branding needs to happen. Poor public perception is another perspective that needs to be addressed, but that is tied to what service we are offering.
Not a suitable alternative mode is another perception that needs to be changed, but this also is tied to efficient service planning and offering multiple modes and tying them to land use planning as well.
Disatisfaction with transit. Overall, there are many surveys that are there that even Transit 2.0 looked at, and there is overall dissatisfaction with the transit service. Again, going back to what is being offered.
Is the light rail well integrated? Do we have feeder bus systems that picks up people from their residences or wherever their origin or points are to the light rail service? Are we covering the transportation equity areas where people with the zero-car households are living, and are we providing them some mobility as a service options?
If not, local bus, are we providing them go-zone locations? Lack of instruments to channelize regional growth. This includes financial instruments, budgeting, and legal instruments that need to be there to support these initiatives.
And so the reports stated that with the population increase inside these areas, the service could drop significantly.
When it comes to recommendation, one of the prime recommendations that the report talks about is density-based land use policy transformations. There is talk about we need to have density-based initiatives, but that needs to happen in the land use policy, and that is where it starts.
Because if the land use policies of these jurisdictions, and this is for all DFW, not only City of Denton, needs to happen, are we developing those policies in our planning processes, and are we encouraging those?
Then long-term diversified funding and regional return on investment. That has to be looked at from a regional perspective. Are we connecting the regions? Are we providing commuting power from Denton to DFW region to other cities?
Are we providing service from Denton to Frisco or other in different modes, and not only auto-based service? And that needs to be looked at from funding and regional return on investment perspective.
Transit competitiveness and recovered ridership is another aspect where we have to present options to users where they have, for instance, express bus service from major core areas to and from, which are direct, fewer stops, and doesn't take two hours from their region to their work point in the morning peak.
And that needs to happen. Regional institutional and governance enhancements is another aspect that was talked about in the report, and it says that it needs to be looked at on the leadership scale for the regional impact.
In the last RTC meeting, it has been discussed at NCTCOG, and the trend is going towards more regional approach towards multimodal options versus fragmented local approach.
Enhanced collaboration is given when it comes to multimodal transportation solutions in the region, and what it means is that cities and local jurisdictions need to talk to each other and provide services that are uniform.
There is a targeted legislative agenda, and one of the most important aspects from planning perspective is promoting transit-oriented development. And that itself entails a lot of elements that need to be addressed in the planning process from, and that starts from land use policy, and then taking it all the way to affordable housing and parking management, and many other aspects that need to be addressed.
And provision of public transportation service options on these developments when it comes to transit-oriented developments.
The transit 2.0 initiative is one of the aspects that NCTCOG is emphasizing all the cities to look at and make sure that they are on board with this, and they are planning for it, and they are not just reading it as another report, but it needs to be strategized in their planning studies or planning updates.
When it comes to Denton, city of Denton, staff is working on several initiatives that will tie in transit 2.0 process into our studies.
First one is transit 2.0, Denton-specific transit 2.0 study that staff is already planning to conduct as part of comprehensive and mobility plan update.
There is an economic development assistance grant that we are in process of applying to. This is a federal grant. This will be around $2 million to $2.5 million grant that we will be applying for.
And the key components of this grant would be Denton transit 2.0 synthesis, which will be focused on Denton, that based on NCTCOG's recommendation on multimodal initiatives, what needs to happen in Denton.
And that will not only look at transportation system, but will also look at land use policy integration.
Then is Denton comprehensive plan update. That is coming soon, and then city will be looking at that. If we are awarded, that will be another study that will do.
Denton mobility plan update is another key element, and this will include bike bed master plan component as well, and not only active transportation, but the significant addition.
And then Denton parks and rec master plan update. So these are the four studies we are applying, and transit 2.0 will be an essential component specific to Denton.
And as part of another effort, we are doing an ADA transition plan update as well, and this will go inside in parallel as well.
Thank you.
Dr. Beck. Thank you, Chair. Dr. Butt, what are the general, I mean, I know you have the slide 10, no, nine, that talked about the sort of the concepts of the barriers, but
didn't really suggest any paths forward. I'm 57, and we've had slides like this for 30 years, where we're like, we know we need to move this way, you know,
and everybody in transit says, oh, let's do this, and I'm 30 years older now. And there's incremental change.
So how, what are things, I know we can't solve the whole RTC region, that's way beyond our scope, but what are things that we can do to overcome the negative stereotypes, public perception?
Are there incentives that we're not applying, like free headway or free fares, increased headways, something to change the mode to people go, oh, it's very exciting.
It's like going to Chicago or New York and we, it's great. And I don't want my car anymore. Is there, is there something to help us get over?
And I asked that as a transition to the transit 2.0 idea is, you know, we're talking about a couple years study for two, two and a half million dollars.
But what are our early targets? So if you could like, start from how do we overcome the negatives and talk about early targets in the other questions.
Yes, we are in close, that's a very good question, and we are in close coordination with DCTA. We have bi-weekly meeting with DCTA, and we work together on many aspects of planning, short-term and long-term.
First is trip funding. So we have been getting in past two years, we have received around five million dollars each fiscal year.
But then now this year we have a little bit less money, but we are hoping that it will go back. It will be restored back to next year. It will be restored back.
So with that fund, we work together with DCTA to look at multimodal enhancements, improvements and short-term ones, which means not studies, but what we can do, implement on time and on short-term basis.
So that's one. The second is that there are equity-based, transportation equity-based discussions that we are having with DCTA to look at zero-call household neighborhoods in the city of Denton and transportation equity areas and see how we can enhance services there.
And the third, of course, is this initiative that I spoke about, the Denton Transit 2.0 Synthesis, it's not yet another study, because the staff's objective is to not have a reactive approach, but well-thought approach on how do we go about it.
Because one option is that we just go and add a bus stop or add a service somewhere. But then what we are trying to achieve here is to ensure that we are not reacting, but we are thoughtfully planning and making sure that our land use policies are integrated to that process.
So I think that is that part. And in addition, we are looking into multiple grants we have applied for, we have been awarded, so they will be used in many cases for multimodal enhancement.
So it's collective effort between DCTA and city of Denton, and we are hoping that we'll have good returns soon. It's not going to be 10 or 15 years.
No, I appreciate that. I appreciate that focus. That's really good. The only thing I caution is you and I are both researchers as analysis paralysis, where we don't actually take the steps, where we don't encourage the leadership to change the comp plans to actually make it possible to have transit to other locations.
And internally as well. I don't want to belabor that point too much, but to the extent that we can be a little more action biased, that would facilitate the community adopting and trusting and knowing that we are headed in the right direction.
It's budget tied. We are on it. We are. I assure you that stuff is has eight projects from last two trip trip funding, and we are working on it. We are focused on delivering short term, low hanging fruits, when it comes to public transportation improvements, and every single opportunity that we have, we avail it.
I can assure you that. I appreciate that. Thank you. Slide nine. Is safety a perceived challenge to public transit? Personal safety? And this may not be, you may be a more concrete and steel kind of situation, but is that a factor?
It is a factor, and it is tied to ADA aspects of public transportation. And so when it comes to public transit needs, ADA is a federal or USDA requirement that needs to be fulfilled for each public transit facility.
And so based on our discussions with DCTA, they are acting on it. They are taking it very seriously as well, and they'll be. This isn't planned. So safety is covered. When it comes to any transit planning, public transport planning, for instance, even in trip projects, when we design the trip projects for funding application, we put safety as one of the key features in that. So it's given.
Okay. And the ADA you're speaking of is Americans with Disabilities Act?
That is correct, sir.
That's very interesting to me.
So ADA, why it's linked to safety, is that your question? Well, yes, but moreover, just what I'm going to call an able-bodied person's perception of personal safety. I don't want to get mugged on the train. I don't want to get beat up on the train. I don't want to get my car broken into on the train.
That is DCTA safety question. So I think that's what I thought. That's what I thought. Thank you.
You know, I've ridden a train several times, DCTA trains, and I mean, they're on it. It feels very safe on the train as far as I'm concerned. Yes, ma'am. You had a question?
Thank you. Thank you, Dr. Butt. This is great. I wanted to piggyback off of what Dr. Buck asked about, you know, the big picture, and this is a really great direction, I think, that we're heading in.
One of the things I'm wondering in order to maybe get some more data is possibly piloting maybe a couple of smaller experimental things that to see, like, instead of waiting for everything to be master planned.
But maybe there's some ways to be creative about trying new things, whether that's at the bus stops or adding a bus stop or, you know, if there's a way to if you're going to consider doing a rebrand or adding any other.
I know there's some new trip funding available with DCTA. So that was just something I was thinking if, you know, if we want some data, sometimes it is helpful to run a few experiments to see what the response might be.
And I was also I was curious within the discussion for transit 2.0 if if it was discussed, maybe how cities can adjust their land use policies to maybe better support the adoption of their transit.
I know we kind of talked about that. So there's so many things happening in our trends right now. So I'm curious if those if those things came up in the discussion.
Yes. So first item here in the general recommendation is density based land use policy transformations.
And so transit 2.0 initiative is emphasizing that cities look into that and gradually transform because it's tied to developments. It's tied to future developments.
So those considerations will be made. Okay. And when it comes to sorry I forgot to address your other question was about adding stops or further amenities that is DCTA.
Okay. So for the for the trains at 2.0, that's a dentin or is this a is this a area wide regional. The initiative is DFW region wide but staff is looking into is developing a study that will be transit 2.0.
Got it. That's wonderful. So I'm very eager to hear about that. I think that would be great. And one of the things my background is in marketing. I just want to add this in.
But you know when when we've got people wondering about their safety or how am I going to use it or this is uncomfortable or what storytelling is so much a part of this.
And for over 50 years we have received a different story about who uses the bus and what is on the news.
And what I would love to see maybe in this synthesis plan even though we're part of a larger system dentin we have our own type of ridership and we have our own type of population.
And I do see a trend even for young young families like myself. My children and I can't use goes on because I have a toddler who needs a car seat.
So the bus is my only option. And so I'm very eager to see some of the updates that are coming. But I think we could get really creative with how we tell the story.
And I would advise any I know this may be a DCTA larger marketing strategy but even how you know dentin ridership we could kind of tell our own story that would inspire people to try it.
So I'd love to see something about that. I don't know if that's part of the dentin transit 2.0 but I would really love to see what our messaging and our kind of marketing plan because we could do it.
We could roll it out. But we may not nobody may know about it. And I think it could be a really exciting opportunity. So just the thought they're excited to see what comes next.
Thank you. Yeah, I just want to clarify that stuff is not even we are using every single penny that we have for implementation and we are we understand that it is not a long term planning.
We have no hanging fruit and we have been implementing those as we get funding availability. We are implementing we are in the implementing phase and maybe the question could be how can the city support maybe with the messaging that comes out.
I don't want to add more things obviously I can't but adding more things to the workload. But what are some ways maybe that that the word can come can get out when those when those exciting things are happening.
Thank you. Thank you.
All right, we'll move on to DMC to six days 004 receive a report and hold a discussion regards citywide parking study to introduce and share the information on different elements of the studies findings and recommendations.
Citywide parking study is finally here near and dear.
We've been waiting on this for five years.
Two and a half.
Yes, sir. Thank you.
Thank you, committee members for on but the director transportation services division.
Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
The key focus is included code of ordinance development code and transportation criteria manual updates and viability of parking minimal minimum removal, and it also looked at city policies practices and state of parking enforcement that we have right now.
And also complained and request to view how the process works and looked into that process as well. And then downtown planning coordination was another important element in this study travel and more shared conditions were also reviewed.
And last but not least, university community review was also an important aspect.
The approach included evaluating existing policies, programs, data and regulations. It also looked at conducting stakeholder outreach and when would be the possibility to implement public engagement process at what time and focused on group meeting with stuff as well that were conducted during the study.
And performance review indicators included assessing received complaints and request evaluate campus parking spillover problem and conduct is conducting a state of practice review of zoning code and analyze travel and mode share conditions.
It also identified parking improvements including reviewing the codes and ordinances standards and policies, incorporating best practice solutions, when it comes to us best practices identified action plan and implementation priorities, including
prioritizing high impact strategies, develop a phased implementation timeline.
Another key findings was about organizational fragmentation and management in current state, the parking system in the city is divided between multiple departments some of it is handled by parks and rec some by police department some by transportation and facilities,
and it's, it's not in a centralized system. There's a lack of central management, or a dedicated parking enterprise fund to streamline operations and improvements of parking, which essentially means that each department is running that system, whatever
they have, they carry and they inherit and then they do that based on their available funding is not centralized lack of enforcement is another aspect where results of of inconsistent and enforcement practices are adding to the problem.
The outdated system is another observation, when it comes to organizational fragmentation and management, where the system is relying on quite old and outdated system, which is based on personal and and manual processes, instead of automated database processes.
Another aspect was in key finding was state of parking enforcement and operations, reactive and under resource enforcement reactive in a way that we're if there's a significant issue then it is addressed.
Otherwise, due to lack of resources than enforcement is a problem, lack of technology and tracking, since we are doing the processes on on manual basis. That essentially means that we have records on paper, and it's difficult to process that are to
ensure that data from papers to electronic means, and hence we don't have any data to look at. It's complicated when it comes to looking at data mining for parking management community complaints, we had 900 over 900 complaints in 2030 2023, and most
abandoned vehicles or and spillover near university campuses has recurring challenges.
But then, at the same time we don't have any system of collection, because of the manual process we don't have any system of collection on these citations, and even with the code process it's slow and it's not very accessible system.
When we and TWU campuses experience student spillover parking is another major issue in the neighborhoods in that was one of the key findings.
When it comes to feedback from staff and students from these two universities, students seek, they seek more alternatives, such as park and ride and enhance signage or parking zones.
The 2017 parking garage is another observation where the parking garage is available but due to lack of incentives, innovative incentives for students to use it, it's underutilized and lack of subsidy is another factor, which other US best practices suggest
that there are subsidies added and then you can attract more users, but the subsidies are not there right now from the university side.
The patterns and behavior was another aspect, which the study talks about include trip distance, the distance data shows that most trips to high demand areas are under five miles, which essentially indicates that strong, there's a strong potential for non driving
solutions, for example shuttle based systems, if there is a circulating shuttle provided in key areas, at least near downtown, that could be very successful initiative.
Parking duration is another one, short, medium, 12 times, show that parking duration should be looked at, parking time limits are insufficient, could be better managed through permit programs and curbside management, in particular residential permit program is of importance.
Community parking, consolidated parking overnight essentially looks at centralized parking division and transportation services division and also suggest that there should be a dedicated staff parking manager and two FTE staff to coordinate all operations, planning, enforcement and community engagement.
We also talk about deploying technology driven solution instead of manual processes or staff intensive processes, the technology based solution could be license paid recognition and if that is a problem, due to privacy issues, we could go into radar based solutions.
The alternative solutions are available in real time space, and then modernizing citation enforcement program where we have outsourcing of ensuring that somebody is following up on those citations, and they are, the idea is not about revenue but the idea is to ensure that somebody is following up and ensuring that citations are handled properly.
Consider outsourcing citation recovery through a public private partnership and that many cities are benefiting from that idea in the US, and study suggests that as well.
Enforcement and management is another aspect where modernizing the transit, the parking enforcement process is essential, because imagine if we had a lot of resources in terms of staff, and ask them to enforce this parking process would become very challenging in future, so having an automated way in phased approach is a good idea.
Parking districts and permits is another aspect that the report talks about which means Taylor districts, parking districts, established parking districts in downtown, UNT, TWU, and residential protection areas where implementation of residential parking permits programs in spillover problems.
So some of the recommendations include plan for long term financial sustainability. That is something that is very important, and we have to ensure that whatever system we adopt is sustainable in terms of financial sustainability and then also, it is interactive, it provides us data to help assess the efficiency of the system.
Ensured reinvestment into district level mobility improvements, we could develop a sustainable system that is, I think revenue is not the right word, but I think it's whatever funds are collected from this system, they are reinvested into improvement of parking system or other modes that could be used by the users.
For instance, Columbia in Missouri operates a self-sustaining parking utility. I know Portland does have a very good program which they call transit wallet, what they do, the revenues or funds collected from parking enforcement, they reinvest that into transit program that provides subsidy to transit users.
It's called transit wallet and more information is available at Portland transportation's website.
Redesign cub space and improve information access is another aspect that the study talked about, which means developing a curbside management plan, which will essentially address the spillover problems not only in university areas, but in many neighborhoods.
Launch a city branded parking information portal, where we have app-based or computer-based or web-based application that could be utilized, Dallas is using that, and then Port Worth is using that kind of app, and many other cities in the US, they are benefiting from that app.
Even UNT has that app as well, where you can pay by phone.
Modernized development code and incentives is another recommendation where implementing parking regulation waiver program tied to transportation demand management strategies, which means that subsidizing other modes, bike, facilities, and DCDA passes are one option.
Start exploring planning strategies to gradually address transition to parking minimums in select districts, because parking minimum is essentially, has to be, the study suggests that it has to be in phased approach instead of blanket parking minimums, because it may fire back, because in terms of, if it is not phased approach, if the areas are not parking minimum ready, then it may not work.
Because we have to, we need to have areas with options of multimodal utility before we even start thinking about parking minimum, because that needs to happen, the areas need to be.
And so the staff is recommending that, and the study is recommending that we adopt a structured approach, we look at focused areas, and those areas which are parking minimum ready, we start with that, and gradually we keep adding on.
Encourage private sector participation through a future transportation management association, that is another recommendation.
Austin, Texas adopted a curbside policy using dynamics, signage, and digital tools is one example.
And that tied into their parking minimum program, because there was immediately after the parking minimum program was adopted, they had a spillover problem.
Because what was happening is that those developments which were not allowing parking anymore, all those users, they were still residing there, but they were moving parking on the curbside in the neighborhoods.
So I think that is something staff is recommending that we look at focused areas and start, gradually start phasing into that process.
This is the action plan where we have high priority within the things that we are looking at implementing, staff is looking at implementing within two years, including consolidating parking under transportation services, appointing a parking project manager,
upgrade enforcement and citation technology, implement residential parking permit, modernize curb space, and establish dedicated parking fund, and reinvest revenue into multimodal planning.
And for the medium priority, we have developing parking districts, introduce downtown EV shuttle, and launch bus rapid transit as an alternative mode for major areas, and then scale staffing as programming, as program grows, and then formalize mobility, committee oversight, and public engagement.
And the last low priority doesn't mean that we are not implementing that, but all it means is it's just three plus years rising, monitor development activity, parking reductions, waivers, and assess eliminating minimums, establish a regular reporting mechanism,
quarterly or semi-annual to CMO, and mobility committee and city council, launch and scale a transportation management association when it comes to shared mobility and demand management initiatives.
So next steps include the parking program manager. We are currently hiring two transportation planner to fulfill this role. One of them will be significant time will go there and then based on our pilot project, we may launch, we will assess the staff need and we may hire subsequently later on as the need comes.
Parking management technology is also final, we plan to finalize the technology when preferred vendor through an exclusive process in collaboration with, in coordination with procurement.
We will launch a scalable pilot project soon, which means that we'll have, we have a draft scope ready, but we are still looking into the process.
Paid parking and curbside management program will be also looked at, and we are trying to bring the scope into the pilot project for that.
Thank you.
Wow, that was a lot. Certainly do appreciate learning all of that. Does anyone have any questions? Yes.
I just, I just wanted to make a comment. All of those action items listed in the, in the parking study recommendations are really dependent on budget so staff can scale up or scale down depending on when the budget becomes available.
That's just the bottom line, the budget, everything. So, we as a community will have to be patient as we work through this. We know this is very important for all of us.
You know, just our mode of transportation just getting around in a local area versus our regional area.
So, we're looking forward to all of it.
Joe.
A couple of things, please.
And I was making notes as as you were speaking, park parks department is in charge of parking, some, some parking.
When the construct, well, so when the improvements are needed in some parking in their adjacent parkings to their facilities. In many cases they, they do those and facilities does that as well. That's what my understanding is, and then transportation is also looking into it in many areas.
Well, what does that look like I understand what when police enforce parking, I get that. What does it look like when the parks department enforces.
The park departments would resurface the parking lots.
Resurfacing of parking lots, marking, striping, so their budget is allocated, but, and then facilities does that as well. And so they are prioritizing according to their own separate systems, and the study suggests that it should be a centralized system, prioritizing these improvements or projects in a consolidated fashion.
In a coordinated way.
Council member Holland, it's not necessarily that they are enforcing any parking. That's what I misunderstood that that they're, they're managing their parking at their facilities. I see.
I see. Okay.
Subsidies at the underutilized North Texas parking garage, and I couldn't agree more, but subsidies like what, what would that look like. One of the options that staff has discussed with UND during the meetings is revisiting the fee structure.
Many universities have done that, and they are there are discussions, their recommendations by consultants by staff by other entities that revisit the structure and then see if some of those fees could be revisited.
And in terms of parking and many other amenities that city that, for example, bus service, a transit service that's that university may want to offer. So that's totally universities program and they are looking into it.
Okay.
Excuse me.
You had a picture of a sign on slide 111313. Thank you.
That's too much information.
And, and we have seen that same problem with the back end parking, and you know how I feel about back end parking, but, but there's so much information there for motorists to quickly assimilate.
They, they either don't read it, or they ignore it. And I think that I think that's the same situation I'm glad that you made the point, and that's the modernized development code and incentives is that we have to modernize the way we are sharing the information
about parking, and the old method of communicating the parking related messages we assigns is is quite old now it is, it works, but now the user has a cell phone.
When I enter the UNT parking lot, for instance, I was able to look at it detected which parking lot I am the app detected, and then add inform me that this will be the fee for the parking so I think there are many uses this was just one example.
And I wanted to see if I get a question on that. And there you go. So this is too much information agreed. And that's why we need to modernize the process.
And this brings me to my last point.
We live in an era where we hear about people who can't get an ID card.
They simply can't figure out how to get an ID card. How are we going to get those people to to use a credit card, or some kind of a debit card or something to pay for parking.
We have to come up with multiple options the payment is not and I get that's a rare, I get it I get it that's rare, but those, but the majority of people aren't going to cause a problem it's the it's the few people who can't figure it out like me.
These programs are accessible, as well as their multiple options, for example, to address this question, they could go to cities, they would come to cities office whoever is responsible to for issuing these parking passes or parking access.
They could register with city and then pay up in advance, and then use those funds, or pay whatever amount they want to do. So that's one option the other options are that sometimes there is there are any processes available if you have difficulty
accessing that system. Always multiple options are available. Okay, it's not only one app option.
Okay, very good. Thank you. Thank you.
Great. Yeah, I appreciate that shared and and I love that we've all been chomping at the bit to to get at the parking study and I'll start off the same place that Councilor Holland did the UNT garage.
We, I understand and I'm going to say this out loud on the video so it's fine. I understand we don't control that garage, and that the UNT is seeking cost recovery strategies rather than parking management strategies.
So, as a different government entity. What are our options going forward. I guess you know I don't I don't know if there's a strategy that we would we would want to implement on our city streets that and our arrangements and our coordination
with the university and state agencies that would shift their behavior from cost from from construction recovery costs to parking management.
Can you color that a little bit. Yes, so that process is totally UNT that's given. So, but on the coordination side stuff attends their master plan meeting is going on a process is going on right now.
The coordination staff and planning division staff they attend the meetings regularly, and we have been providing insights to improve the process, and all of those that I have mentioned here, they were discussed last week.
I was in the meeting. The last part where what city could do is the curbside management that that has been mentioned as one of the options that would be considered including permits residential discussion on residential permits all those options are on the table.
So, we are going in towards that, but we will carefully evaluate spillover zones in particular, and we'll have to minus those areas which are under contract or agreement, I live in the UNT.
Other than that, we will look at options where we can make changes. No, I love that you went right there because that was going to be one of my questions is there, if we're considering and let me back up a step.
Are there any other approaches for tracking. I mean, yes, 100% yes.
Save the staff saved and I understand that some folks have concerns about camera recognition and we can work on data problems and data security and that sort of thing but these sort of park mobile to use a brand name approaches are are absolutely the way to, to do the management.
Can you go back and talk about how, give me a little more detail and what you mean by the curb management plan, and then relate that to your your statements about UNT and swapping resources between the city resources and UNT resources.
Yeah, so good management essentially looks at the aspect that you know the curves, or especially alongside the road, they are cities, right away or cities property, and then one aspect of parking management is that if not addressed correctly or appropriately.
The spillover always always in many cases would come to the city's parking availability, and the spillover will be happening there for curbside management looks at many creative options where we just say, wherever in downtown for example where are our loading zones.
Are we by making these creative or innovative ideas or strategies. Are we putting a lot of burden or pressure on loading zones.
Then we also as part of the curbside management will also look at, for instance, go zone pickup locations. We don't want a car to be parked on a go zone location where people are essentially using it to access the go zone on mobility as a service options.
So that would be looked at. Then we would look at premium parking. City does not want to. I think this is more of a business question that businesses how businesses look at their parking, and what do they want.
So I think that question has to come to to be asked, and then we need their feedback on that. Do you want a premium parking in front of your store, or do you want a free parking all day free parking, how much of the volume.
How much would be occupied, all of those discussions come into play when it comes to curbside. Essentially we are saying that the right of way cities right of way could be utilized in a creative way, and not be wasted, just because there is a spillover impact, and we can't handle that.
Chair I have two more brief questions. One, when you talk about parking minimums are we talking about zero parking minimums or something else.
So, it's to be discussed, but when it comes to parking minimum, the staff, based on our study of US best practice and studies recommendation, staff is recommending that we go with a focused approach.
We have to ensure for example parking minimum what does it mean, does it mean just removing the lifting the parking mandate.
And that the site has to be, because we if we are planning to invite affordable housing there, it has for the developer this site has to be parking minimum ready.
Because if we are not providing a bus stop, we are not providing an alternative mode. If the sidewalk is not there.
And we are making, we are just calling that oh we are lifting the mandate, and what it means in terms of those choices that in the absence of parking, the residents would like to make.
If we are not providing those choices, and we are lifting the parking minimums, that means that we are trying to undersell that product that we are trying to attract in terms of affordable housing.
So I think staff is saying that focused approach. Let's see which sites are ready. Let's go with sites are ready. And if they are ready, if they have all these amenities.
Then we would go in that direction in phased approach instead of blanket. So I appreciate the clarity on that answer and we are going to agree to disagree on this one because it gets me into my last question and I'll lead right into it.
Market driven approaches for these kinds of things help steer that and they avoid the analysis paralysis of setting, setting, trying to master plan all this and make it all happen.
We are not master plan people. We are crazy and we were reactive. And so you can trend dynamic trends but you can't manage it and say it all has to be in place.
So I'm going to disagree and push back Dr. Butt that we have to wait until we get it all ready to go and then pull the trigger.
And I'm going to once again encourage you, I think you saw Commissioner Penn bringing this up. Pilot projects, pilot projects, pilot projects, pilot projects sooner rather than later.
And absolutely zero parking minimums. And I'm just going to telegraph that if we don't have clear indication, I'm going to be a little firmer right now.
If we don't have clear indication that we're doing this, then I'm going to pitch it at the council level and that is not what we want to do.
So we need to get into this sooner rather than later.
So I guess that was more of a statement than a question, but fair warning, fair warning.
Thank you, Dr. Butt.
>> Any other questions?
Yes?
Thank you very much for the presentation and for all this hard work.
This is definitely moving in, I think, a good direction.
As far as hearing from our small businesses, we heard from a few people this morning.
You've talked about, I think you were saying something about finding out how many parking spaces businesses want.
And those are good questions, but that's based on a behavior that those customers are driving.
And not necessarily about more people coming to their establishment.
I'm curious, number one, what surveys or what opportunities of hearing from our local businesses have we worked on so far?
>> So first, through this presentation, we are looking at the possible solution that staff would like to go towards.
For example, automated parking system, management system, centralized system.
And once the recommendation is there from this committee, and we will take it to the next level where we will go through the public engagement process with that solution in our presentations.
>> And I think that's good.
I'm curious, though, that, you know, removing our minimums, then the issue isn't how do we want to do the parking?
I think a good question to pose to our small businesses, of which I used to be one, is how do they want to prioritize getting people to their store or to their establishment?
Do they want as many people coming in as possible, or do they want something else?
Because sometimes having the parking requirements, it prevents our businesses really from thriving or from incorporating other ways to expand their business.
So I'm just kind of curious, besides just asking, like, how do you want to do parking, it could also be how do we -- I don't know, maybe your team could come up with some other questions.
I would like, when we're talking to our business owners, sharing that there are alternatives to even having these minimum parking spaces.
I'm also curious on slide, I don't know, 15.
I'm curious why the assess eliminating minimums and waiting another three years for that.
I know we've waited.
What is the incentive for waiting another three years to start that?
>> No, not to start that.
This will be within three years, we'll have some understanding, because comprehensive plan update is coming, mobility plan update is coming, land use policy review is coming as part of that.
And to your earlier comment, that is exactly what staff is also recommending.
When you suggested that, oh, other mode choice options are there, and staff wants to understand that, are they there?
That's the question.
For example, if we are saying that you want to attract more without parking, more visitors, the question is that, do we have provision of those modes?
What is the walkability index there?
How many stops, how many transit services are we offering?
And if the answer is none, then in that case, staff is recommending that let's work together to improve those services in the area before we go into the absolute parking mandates.
>> Yeah, it's one of these kind of the cart before the horse situation, because sometimes people are not willing to walk or willing to, you know, waiting to find out how many people are walking in this area.
Well, if they're not forced to walk to an establishment, they will continue to use their car and continue to drive.
And what we've seen is in places where we have removed the minimums, you know, specifically around campus, around Fry Street, places downtown, it's a bustling area.
And there's not very many cars there.
People are figuring out a way to get there.
Now, I know there are some bus stops in the area, but people are walking from all different areas, whether or not there's a sidewalk or whether or not there's a place to park your bike, people are doing that, and those businesses are thriving.
And I think putting, you know, waiting and waiting and waiting to remove these minimums, it's already such a struggle right now to launch a business or to maintain a business, and our local businesses are the heart of our community.
It costs so much money to pour the concrete to make the parking, that this is really putting such a strain on our small businesses. And so, again, I would really like us to prioritize hearing directly from them what it is that they want and asking them specifically, how is this a pain point as far as are these minimums a pain point for you and how?
And really, really listening, because we can't thrive without that.
So just thinking for our small businesses, it's a really tough decade right now.
I want to assure this committee that staff is on board with the idea of parking minimum.
But it's just that we want to understand it completely and make sure that we are not causing undue imbalance and without providing services that are essential to ensure that those businesses are not losing their clients, and then not only the businesses but also the residents have those services available that are essentially necessary if we are lifting those mandates.
So I think that's all, and we will continue providing feedback with this committee.
Well, thank you very much Dr. Betts. We appreciate it.
We've got to move on.
And we're going to move on to EMC 26-05, our staff memorandums, DCTA fair, and we want to do this as quickly as possible. We have just a little bit over 10 minutes.
Yes, so for that, where is that?
Yes, so staff provided the fair memo, and then this was taken from public website of the DCTA, and this covers in details what are the different fair levels for DCTA services.
And if there are any questions. So is the fair going up, going down, staying the same?
No, there are no change. No change. Yes. Okay. All right.
Yes, quickly. Thank you. I only had one question on the whole section.
Has in discussions, have we looked into
entry point level fairs? Right now there's local fairs and regional fairs as you go into other systems. Have we looked into entry point fairs for something like, if you on board at the Transit Center, if you on board at the City Hall or something like that.
There's a reduced or free fair. I mean, is there a way to increase the participation within our corporate limits
even if we have to subsidize in that some way and budget for it such that we can get enhanced participation and get more towards transit oriented design, especially in our master plan.
Has those discussions been held? Because it seems like we just constantly avoid the topic of free and reduced fairs other than for seniors and ADA people.
Yes. So free zone was not discussed while drafting the memo, but we can circle back.
All right. Thank you very much. And we certainly want the community to, if they have any questions in regards to DCTA, what they're doing, there is a direct link
to DCTA from DCTA. You can go on there. And I'm encouraging the city right now to add a link to our discussion.
You know, for us to add a link on there. Yes. Okay. Thank you very much. Thank you. Development code update.
What does development code update look like? Oh, it's still on the same page.
Yes. You inquired about something. I saw that. And I'm interpreting that as, yes, you're incorporating the mobility plan into the updates.
So I don't really have a I mean, you sort of said, yes, we're doing it for the most part. There's not much response I can make to that.
Okay. Well, thank you for bringing that to us. And then for the future items matrix, be reminded that we no longer need to vote on the matrix.
But we just need to have a discussion on it. And I'd like to add something to it. I'm sorry. It's my first time. So
this is a start. Yeah, it's all down there. Cassie. Can I ask Cassie a question? Thanks. Hold on just a minute, Dr. Butts. Can you remind us the process that we agreed to on that just for the public so that people understand again?
I believe we we agreed to discuss it. And then if if there were any requests to add, we would bring back if there were additional questions, we would leave it on. And then that way, the committee doesn't have to vote every time.
Perfect. Thank you. Thank you for doing that, Cassie. Yeah. Okay. Does anybody have any questions or any kind of comments on our matrix right now? Okay, two hands up. Let's start with Commissioner. Hi.
Okay, I wasn't here when sidewalk breakdown was added.
Do we have an idea of what the scope for that request was? I just see a line number 10.
I'm sorry. I think so. I'd have to check. I think we I think if it is specific location or is it just overall? Yeah, I didn't know what was overall. My recollection recollection is that it was total sidewalk inventory.
So lane miles, reconstruction, how much is developer versus city? And that was from our December meeting. We talked about needing more information.
Okay. One of the things I probably okay, so I read over the DCTA board presentation. I think that was in December and they talked about the trip funding for bus stops.
Is there any way we could find out what the staff is if the staff is considering applying for that, which bus stops and what any of those plans might be? Is that something that or is that something I don't know if we need to add that here? Is that something that we can just ask staff at some point to find out?
Can I clarify your question? So are you asking what projects were applying for for trip funding? Because trip funds are not for bus stops. It was for the development within a quarter mile of a bus stop. So it would be for funding additional like sidewalks, trees, landscaping and stuff like that.
So we have, we'll be bringing the proposed projects that we're applying for trip funds to the next mobility meeting. Oh, okay. Because the trip fund application is due in April. Okay, cool. Well, that's great. That's what I was kind of curious about. Thank you.
All right. Ms. Jane, you don't have anything? Well, I will say that I have been noticing in the area that I traverse most often, the sidewalks being upgraded and updated. This is one of the things that I was wanting to run on, you know, taking care of the core of our city.
It looks like you all are working on the inside and you're going to go out to the outside, just like all the utilities update starting on the beginning and going out. So thank you very much for that. It's clearly evident that some work is being done on our sidewalks.
Let me add something to our matrix. I'd like for you all to take a look at Audra and this space that's between Mockingbird and Mockingbird. Okay, there's like a little quick right turn.
And there is needs somebody needs to pay some attention to that area. It's been like that for the last 30 40 years that I've been going through there. But I think it's time now when we have this momentum of doing the right thing.
I think that this one should be added Mockingbird to Mockingbird on Audra. There's some complete lack of attention there. So I'd like to add that.
Yes, sir. Did I mentioned this to Cassie just yesterday. Did we we've done a traffic safety study in the Denia area in the last little bit. Have we or not.
We have done so. So then maybe in lieu of a matrix item, if someone could get me back that information because I was considering adding sort of the safety issues and requirements and speed levels and whether we're in the right Goldilocks zone of, you know, lane size and lane management in that area because there's been a lot of feedback that I've received from the community.
And then the other question I had is update when will be provided on the bollards. Do we have any estimates for when when that might be coming because it's just in the nebulous category.
You mean the line. Yes, correct.
We can provide update in the next meeting. Thank you.
Yes.
One of the things I know is coming and we in the I know the DCA will be thinking about and considering and voting soon about adding route for which is the route that used to be along University Drive.
I would like to hide. I'm trying to think of a couple things. We are missing some infrastructure, you know, if if we if any of those stops are going to be there.
I'd like to find out if we have a plan or to add that is if we're thinking forward thinking if those stops will be coming.
So we're having updating, you know, some of the areas along the core of University Drive.
Which I know we've I know you've I think you you did an HSI P application, I think last year so you may have already done some of the work for that.
We can discuss this with DCA because that's a DCA. So we can discuss that and circle back on that. Okay. Okay. So I I won't add anything to the matrix down.
We'll wait. Okay. Also, we do know that the city does have a liaison to DCA and we will connect with that person to get the information to the DCA.
They're the ones that that visit, you know, in routine, they go to the meetings for us. So they'll get that information to them.
Anything else? Anything else? Okay. Well, if there is not anything else, we don't have to look at our our we don't have to look at our calendar or anything like that.
That's it. So with that being said, that's a bus. Thank you so much. You're always just so full of information that that being said, our meeting is concluded at eleven fifty eight. Thank you all very much.