CITY COUNCIL WORK SESSION MINUTES Powlett T E XA - Our Vision: A well-planned lakeside community of quality neighborhoods, distinctive amenities, diverse employment, and cultural charm. Rowlett: THE place to live, work and play. Monday, February 17, 2025 6:00 P.M. Municipal Building = 4000 Main Present: Mayor Pro Tem Winget, Deputy Mayor Pro Tem Shinder, Councilmember Reaves, Councimemberbowe", Councilmember Britton and Councilmember Schupp 1. CALL TO ORDER Mayor Pro Tem Winget called the meeting to order at 6:00 p.m. 2. EXECUTIVE SESSION There were no Executive Session items. 3. CITIZENS INPUT No Online Input Forms were received. One individual spoke during Citizens' Input: 1. Mirtha Cardenas, Rowlett - She and her husband are the owners of a downtown business and have been in business for over 15 years. She appreciates the idea of having a Downtown Advisory Board to support the businesses and downtown area, she and her husband will not be participating with the Board. She has spoken with several other downtown business owners, and they will not be participating with the Board as well. Their fears are the Board will be used for personal agendas and grievances. 4. WORK SESSION 4A. Discuss streetlighting for Lakeview Parkway and other major arterials and the Oncor LED conversion program. The Government Community Achievement. Award (GCAA) grant forl Lakeview Parkway median enhancement will also be discussed. Kristoff Bauer, Deputy City Manager, gave presentation regarding direction needed from City Council, Oncor LED Conversion, Lakeview Parkway lighting, Lakeview Parkway Median Landscaping Grant, and other arterial roadways. The Rowlett community passed a $3.15 million bond issue in 2024 to support installing street lighting on Lakeview Parkway and other major arterials if funding was available. The City received a GCAA grant in 2022 for $270,000 to rehab and restore medians along the Lakeview Parkway corridor. The Lakeview Parkway corridor is very busy, physically constrained, and does not currently have the electric infrastructure to support the installation of standard Oncor street lighting. Staff has been researching alternative approaches to achieve this challenging initiative. City of Rowlett 10753 Oncor has initiated a LED conversion project throughout its service area. There are options available to the City for City Council to consider that will impact the pace, appearance, and costs of this effort. Rowlett has 3,570 streetlight fixtures that are providing electricity and maintained by Oncor. The process of replacing these fixtures with LED equivalents has already begun with 370 fixtures being converted. There are agreements and pre-authorizations requested by Oncor along with some specific feedback to clarify expectations for this process. There is also an opportunity to become more actively involved in the location and timing of this process. It is the preference of City Council to use the 3000K Dark Sky lighting. Councilmember Schupp prefers to use the 4000K Oncor Standard lighting on major thoroughfares that do not align with neighborhoods. t is the consensus of City Council to execute the Oncor Pre-Authorization Conversion Agreement. Staff has identified a solar streetlight option that has been successfully installed in similar cases elsewhere in the DFW region. Staff presented additional information, and a representative of the vendor, Fonroche, was present to answer questions. The solar lights take two hours of sunlight to charge and on diffuse it takes six to eight hours of sunlight. The company takes the worse year and month of cloud coverage and design the solar batteries accordingly. The batteries last ten years and the replacement costs are $400 for residential batteries and $800 for highway batteries, The cost estimate for 140 fixtures with 190 feet spacing with 3000K lighting is $1,185,223. The batteries have an eight-year warranty that includes labor. The consensus of City Council is to move forward with the solar lighting. Regarding the rehab and restoration of the medians along the Lakeview Parkway corridor; there is a consensus to focus on the West and East end and to have a gateway enhancement. Quotes were presented for streetlighting for Rowlett Road and Dalrock Road. For Rowlett Road, from border to border, the cost is $707,142 for 114 fixtures with 200' spacing. For Dalrock Road, from Chiesa to Liberty Grove, the cost is $806,490 for 130 fixtures with 200' spacing. City Council is interested in reviewing streetlights for Princeton as well. Staff will get quotes for Princeton only, Dalrock only, and both Princeton and Dalrock 4B. Review proposed ordinance establishing a Downtown Advisory Board. Mayor Pro Tem Winget stated at the February 3, 2025 Work Session, he expressed nesitation and had reservations about voting to move forward with establishing a Downtown Advisory Board. He ultimately agreed to move forward, He maintains those reservations. The existence of a board that was likely to contain a certain level of special interest and in which was likely to exist in a state of controversy was not appropriate for the function of a board. He visited with three downtown businesses regarding the creation of this board. The feedback he received was these ousinesses have significant concerns about the controversy that had already happened and expressed unwillingness to serve on the board should one be created. He applauded the work that has been done on this proposal. Councimember Reaves appreciates Deputy Mayor Pro Tem Shinder bringing forward this discussion regarding the Downtown Advisory Board. Sometimes boards and commission can spiral beyond the scope of the original intent. He gets that sense that this would happen with this board. He cannot support this board at this time. The challenge is that there was too much noise to create the board and feels it would do more harm than good. City of Rowlett 10754 Deputy Mayor Pro Tem Shinder stated that she respects everyone's opinions. She has spoken to some citizens about this board. They were excited about the board and wanted to be on the board. Just regular citizens can be used for this board. The noise out there was not the same noise as what was being proposed for this board. She was proposing to get citizens involved. If council wants to only have Rowlett citizens on the board, she is ok with that as well. Councilmember Britton stated he supports having the board. He respects everyone's concerns. He remembers the make-up of the board was to be four at large citizens and three downtown business owners. It is up to City Council to put up the proper guardrails sO that they can focus on what they should be focusing on. Can dissolve the board if need be. Councilmember Bowers stated she is in favor of the board. She would defer to people who are interested and want to get involved with that. She has been to some downtown training and conferences. It is the grassroots people that are excited for the downtown. The downtown is the hometown/small town feeling and wants to protect it. She is willing to compromise on membership. She wants downtown to be where families come. Deputy Mayor Pro Tem Shinder stated that a lot of other cities have downtown boards, and they do not have problems. It is no more special interest than the Senior Advisory Board or Parks & Recreation Board. You have citizens on the board that have interests in that subject matter. Councilmember Schupp doesn't have a problem with the downtown board. He also spoke to downtown merchants, and they will not serve on the board. Maybe taking it out of their hands and putting it into the citizens hands may be the answer. He prefers to have more robust citizens' input on a regular basis. Councilmember Reaves feels he made a mistake in supporting the downtown board. The City wants businesses to grow and come and invest here. We can listen to the people and do what they want. The best thing that City Council can do is pick a direction and stick to it. The Downtown Plan is amazing. It is not a five-year project; it is a decades long project. The City Council's job is to till the soil for business that want to plant their roots here. Councilmember Schupp this is the third iteration of the Downtown Plan. We have had some good plans, but no one has stepped up and said this is the plan that we are going to run with. This is a capital project. Mayor Pro Tem Winget stated now is not the right time. Give the plan time to ferment. It seems like there is a split decision in the absence of a majority. 4C. Provide an update and timeline for purchasing and implementing SPIDR Tech communication software services from Versaterm Public Safety US, Inc. (Versaterm). Chief Michael Denning, Chief of Police, and Lt. Domingo Gallardo, Police Lieutenant, presented this item. In October of 2024, a Master Software and Services Agreement and Service Schedule was approved and signed between the City of Rowlett and Versaterm Public Safety US, Inc. City Council approved the purchase ofVersaterm Community Connect, formerly known as SPIDR Tech, during FY 2025 budget process. The software will connect with the City's existing CAD and RMS City of Rowlett 10755 systems to update 911 callers, reporting parties, and crime victims. Citizens can also provide feedback surveys about their experience to the department. A team was created to work closely with Versaterm. Monthly meetings started in December 2024. There was a collaboration to address the technical aspects of integrating their system with the City's. They worked on message templates, surveys, providing employee information, and other resource information. They are currently in the testing phase. There are three modules, Patrol Module (CAD), Investigators Module (RMS Victim), and Insights Module (Surveys). There also three phases, Acknowledgement Phase, Update Phase, and Feedback Phase. The Community Connect Insights Module will allow the Command Staff to collect feedback through surveys. The feedback will allow the department to identify potential coaching or training opportunities, improve morale, and encourage good behaviors. The department will be able to commend positive community responses. This program is expected to "go live" March 2025. The Police Department will use social media platform to announce to the community. 4D. Project to revise Rowlett Zoning and Development Code Update. David Hall, City Manager, and Kristoff Bauer, Deputy City Manager, presented this item. The City initiated a process to review its zoning and development regulations in 2022 with the hiring of Clarion and the appointment of a Recode Rowlett steering committee. The goals of that effort were identified. The initial assessment development by Clarion was completed in March 2023. At that time, the City Council didn't believe that the assessment and recommendations were aligned with their policy direction. A contract with Sanchez & Associates was finalized in late October 2023 with a more focused scope of work. Staff is seeking direction regarding the process for finalizing the proposed zoning and development code amendment and clarification of the scope of the potential code amendment. Two options were discussed. Option A which is the current plan based on lot size based residential zoning and Option B which is density based residential zoning. It was the consensus of City Council to move forward with Option B. 5. DISCUSS CONSENT AGENDA ITEMS FOR FEBRUARY 18, 2025 CITY COUNCIL MEETING. No items were removed from the Consent Agenda to be considered individually. 6. ADJOURNMENT Mayor Pro Tem Winget adjourned the meeting at 8:09 pm. P Jeff Wingét, Mayor Pro Tem Deborah Sorensen, City Secretary Approved on: March 4, 2025 City of Rowlett 10756