LAREDO & WEBB COUNTY AREA METROPOLITAN PLANNING ORGANIZATION POLICY COMMITTEE MEETING MINUTES July 19, 2023 LIVE WEB Me/asmmastam.Ns PUBLIC ACCESS CHANNEL: Spectrum TV channel 1300 I. CHAIRPERSON TO CALL MEETING TO ORDER Judge, Tano E. Tijerina, called meetingto order at 1:30 PM. II. CHAIRPERSON TO CALL ROLL Juan Mendive, MPO Director, called roll and verified a quorum existed. Regular members present: Honorable Tano E. Tijerina, Webb County Judge and LWCAMPO Chairperson Honorable Dr. Victor D. Trevino, Mayor and LWCAMPO Vice-Chairperson Honorable Melissa R. Cigarroa, City Councilmember, District III Honorable Ruben Gutierrez Jr., City Councilmember, DistrictV Mr. Epigmenio "Epi" Gonzalez, P.E., TxDOT District Engineer Mr. Jed A. Brown, Member-at-large Regular members not present: Honorable Jesse Gonzalez, Webb County Commissioner, Pct. 1 Honorable John Galo, Webb County Commissioner, Pct. 3 Honorable Vanessa Perez, Mayor Pro Tempore, CM. District VII CM. Gutierrez, made a motion to excuse members not present. Second: Mr. Brown For: 6 Against: 0 Abstained: Motion carried unanimously. 1 Ex-Officio members not present: Honorable JudithZaffirini, State Senator, District 21 Honorable Richard Raymond, State Representative, District 42 Honorable Tracy O. King, State Representative, District 80 LWCAMPO Staff present: Juan S. Mendive, LWCAMPO Director Julio Nino, LWCAMPO Plannerlll Eduardo Bernal, LWCAMPO Planner III Adriana A. Vigil, LWCAMPO Administrative Assistant Others: Roberto Rodriguez, TxDOT Ana Duncan, TxDOT Luis M. Villarreal, TxDOT Fernando Martinez, TxDOT Ramon Chavez, COLI Engineering Orlando Navarro, COL Planning Dept. Eloisa Mascorro, COL Transit Adelaido "Lalo" Uribe, Webb County Judge'sOffice Luis Perez Garcia, Webb County Engineering Victoria Villarreal, Webb County Planning Melissa Montemayor, UA/WC-CL RMA Blasita Lopez, UA/WC-CL RMA III. CITIZEN COMMENTS Speakersare requiredto fill out witness cards, which must be submittedto MPO Staff no later than 1:45 P.M. the day of the meeting. Speakers shall identify themselves at the microphone. Comments are limited to three (3) minutes per speaker. No more than three (3) persons will be allowedto speak on any side of an issue. Should there be more than three (3) people who wish to speak on a specificissue, they should select not more than three (3) representatives to speak on theirbehalf. The presiding officermayf further limit public on the interest of order or time. Speakers may not transfer their minutes to any other speaker. Comments should be relevant to MPO business and delivered in a professional manner. No derogatory remarks shall be permitted. Judge Tijerina, ask if there were any comments. No comments were received from the public. IV. ITEMS REQUIRING POLICY COMMITTEE ACTION: A. Approval of the minutes fori the meeting held on June 21, 2023. 2 CM. Gutierrez, made a motion to approve the minutes of June 21, 2023. Second: Mayor Dr. Trevino For: 6 Against: J Abstained: J Motion carried unanimously. B. Receive public testimony and approve Resolution No. MPO 2023-08, adopting the proposed amendments to the 2023-2026 Transportation Improvement Program (TIP). Mr. Mendive, stated this item was presented last month and was brought back for final approval to adopt the Resolution. Judge Tijerina, asked the public if anyone was for or against adopting the proposed amendmentstothe 2023-2026 Transportationimprovement Program (TIP). No one spoke for or against the item. CM. Gutierrez, made a motion to approve Resolution No. MPO 2023-08, adopting the proposedamendmentsto the 2023-2026 Transportation Improvement Program (TIP). Second: Mayor Dr. Trevino For: 6 Against: 0 Abstained: 0 Motion carried unanimously. C. Receive public testimony and approve Resolution No. MPO 2023-09, adopting the following proposed revisions to the 2020-2045 Metropolitan Transportation Plan (MTP): 1. Revision of Appendix A - Short Range Projects Identified in the MTP and Listed in the TIP as necessarytoi incorporate and reflect the proposed revisions to the 2023- 2026 TIP. Mr. Mendive, stated this item is similar to the previous one. He further stated that any revisions made to the TIP needed to be done to the MTP. Mr. Mendive stated that this item was also presented at the last meeting. 3 Judge Tijerina, commentedfor clarification that the MTP is a 25-year plan and the TIP is a 4-year plan. CM. Gutierrez, made a motion to approve Resolution No. MPO 2023-09, adopting the proposedrevisions to the 2020-2045 Metropolitan Transportation Plan(MTP). Second: Mayor Dr. Trevino For: 6 Against: Abstained: U Motion carried unanimously. D. Receive public testimony and approve Resolution No. MPO 2023-10, adopting the FY2024 UnifiedPlanning Work Program (UPWP). Mr. Mendive, stated that thisitem was presented at thel lastmeeting, and briefly provided an overview of what the UPWP is. Mr. Mendive, further stated that this is basically the operating budget for the year which also describesthe work undertaken by the MPO. He also mentioned that in the Policy packet provided, there was a list that includes all the items such as, salaries and different studies that will be done in the total amount of $1,410,000 out of the total available of $2,429,997. He also stated this needed to be approved by the MPO Policy Committee and then would have to be submitted to TxDOT and FHWA before July 31st for final approval. Judge Tijerina, asked if there was any signiticant change to the FY2024 UPWP from last year. Mr. Mendive, stated that some of the changes includedwere the Director's salary and a few studies. CM. Gutierrez, made a motion to approve Resolution No. MPO 2023-10, adopting the FY2024 Unified Planning Work Program (UPWP). Second: Mayor Dr. Trevino For: 6 Against: 0 Abstained: 0 Motion carried unanimously. 4 E. Receive public testimony and initiate a 20-day public review and comment period for the FY2022 Annual Listing of Obligated Projects (APL). Judge Tijerina, asked the public if anybody was for or against initiating a 20-day public review and comment period fort the FY2022 Annual Listing of Obligated Projects (APL). No one from the public spoke for or against thisitem. Mr. Mendive, stated this was a list done every year and neededto be submittedfor the previous fiscal year of all the Federal funds that were obligated. He further stated that many of these projects were done by TxDOT or Transit and were not necessarilythe ones that theysee gothrough the MPO but thisy year TxDOT requested these reports submitted to them and to FHWA. Mr. Mendive, presented to the Committee the Transit projects that were added to the FY2022 APL. Mr. Mendive, stated that the projects listed would be published lonthe MPO websiteforthe publiccomment period, and a Resolution would be presentedforapprovat at nextr meeting. CM. Gutierrez, made a motion to initiate a 20-day publiccomment period for the FY 2022 Annual Listing of Obligated Projects (APL). Second: Mr. Brown For: 6 Against: 0 Abstained: J Motion carried unanimously. F. Motion to accept the sole proposal in response to the Request for Qualifications (RFQ) FY23-047 for the 2025-2050 Metropolitan Transportation Plan (MTP) Update and authorize staff to initiate contract fee negotiations. Mr. Mendive, stated that the MTP is a 25-year document that is now being prepared to be updated before 2025, theywilll be doing a 2025-2050 MTP, and the process would take about a year or a year and a half. Mr. Mendive, stated that the RFQ was issued, it was sent out to several firms and was openedon the City's E-Bid system which received one (1) proposal from WSP with LJA Engineering: as a subconsultant. He further stated that it went through a scoring exercise, with people from the County, City and TxDOT and it scored an average of 89.5. Mr. Mendive, also stated that it was discussed with the MPO Technical Committee, and they as well as staff were recommending to proceed with the sole proposal, and if authorized by the Policy Committee the next step is to initiate the contract fee negotiations. Judge Tijerina asked to briefly discuss what the MTP Update would do. He asked if the updated plan would reorganize projects for the next 25 years. 5 Mr. Mendive explained that this was a Federally required document for the MPO that among otherthings, included fiscally constrained listif projects for the next 25years.N MPO has to coordinate with stakeholders such as City of Laredo, Webb County, TxDOT, and RMA in creating a list and prioritizing these projects through spedficcriteria. CM. Gutierrez, made a motion to accept the sole proposal ini response to the Requestfor Qualifications (RFQ) FY23-047 forthe 2025-2050 Metropolitan Transportation Plan (MTP) Update and authorize staff to initiate contract fee negotiations. Second: Mayor Dr. Trevino For: 6 Against: 0 Abstained: 0 Motion carried unanimously. G. Discussion with possible action on the Hachar-Reuthinger Road project. Mr. Chavez, COL Engineering, presented an update onthe project. Mr. Chavez, statedi that they City of Laredo was responsible for the utility coordination and the right-of-way acquisition. He further stated that regarding the utility coordination, the COL consultant had completed 60% submittal and in regards to the property acquisition the COL Real Estate Division would continue to work on it. Mr. Chavez, stated that on the last report presentedtheyl had received all the appraisals for the eight( (8) differenttracks that were originally provided by TxDOT. He further stated that the next step was for the third-party appraiserto certifyt the appraisals, and that the final reviews wereexpectedtol be received soon. He continued by stating that the next step would be to send out the offer letters, after obtaining the Environmental Clearance from TxDOT. Mr. Rodriguez, TxDOT, stated that they were estimating early September of this year for the Environmental Clearance. Judge Tijerina asked if this would delay the process or it would change the timeline previously presented. Ana Duncan, TxDOT stated that the project remained on traçk. V. REPORT(S) AND PRESENTATIONS (No action required). A. Status report by the Regional Mobility Authority (RMA). Mr. Brown, presented the following RMA status report: 6 1. FM 1472 and Killam Industrial Blvd. Turn Lanes - The commencement of work at Killam Industrial Blvd. at FM 1472 occurred in early May 2022. The traffic signal is fully operational, and traffic is now utilizing the new turn lanes on FM 1472 and Killam Industrial Blvd. Project is pending final walk-through, TDLR inspection and final Close- out Construction Change Order. Project is 99+% complete. 2. Los Presidentes (Cuatro Vientos to Brownwood) - Project is complete and pendinglose out with the City and RMA. 3. Loop 20 South (Cuatro Vientos) Acceleration/ Deceleration Lane Project Project is complete. 4. Springfield Phase III - Final walk-through oft the project occurred on 12/9/22. The Shiloh Traffic Signal is complete. The lighting is scheduledfor completion by August. Projectis 99% Complete. 5. Webb County Fair Grounds TIA - The TIA report is complete. The WC-CL RMA stands ready to provide a presentationto the County at theirrequest. 6. River Road Corridor Study - The studyis complete. The study's S findings were presented to the MPO Policy Committee at the June meeting. 7. Safe Streets and Roads for All (SS4A) Grant - In partnership with the MPO and the City of Laredo, the RMA developed: la $2M grant applicationto develop an action to prevent roadway deaths and seriousi injuries. On the 30th of January, the RMA was informedby US Congressman Cuellar's Office that the grant was approved for $1.6M. A formal announcement by Congressman Cuellar was conducted at City Hall on 2/21/23. The RMA submitted to the FHWA the draft Grant Agreement between the RMA and the FHWA. Upon execution, the WC-CL RMA will work with the City of Laredo for the executionof: an Inter Local Agreementforthe sharing of the local funding match for the grant. The Study effortto commence in September 2023. 8. Vallecillo Road = The RMA received the draft AFA from TxDOT on 3/2/23. The RMA Board of Directors approvedthe AFA on April 4, 2023. Chairman Brown signedthe AFA on 4/11/23. AFA with TxDOT is fully executed. Schematic, Environmental and PS&E to commence in August 2023. 9. Concord Hills (Wormser Road/ Lomas Del Sur to Los Presidentes) - Similar to the Los Presidentesproject, the WC-CL RMA will sponsor and lead the design and construction ofar newlocation 1.3 mile, 2-lane minor: arterial roadway extension from Los Presidentes to Wormser Road/ Lomas Del Sur within: a nominal ROW width of 90' in partnership with the City ofl Laredo. The WC-CL RMA has committed$1 million to the development oft the project. The project will provide a parallel route to Cuatro Vientos and provide additional access to the new Laredo Sports Complex and the Municipal Water Park. The sponsorship and implementation are subject to the negotiation of an Inter Local Agreement betweenthe Cityoflaredo: and the WC-CL RMA. The WC-CL RMA is working with the City of Laredo to finalize the construction cost estimate for the project and complete the InterLocal Agreementfort the project. 7 10. Springfield Phase I, II, and IV - Similar to Springfield Phase III, the WC-CL RMA has committed up to $1 million to the City of Laredo to assist with the funding of the construction of the next Phase of the project. The sponsorship and implementation are subject to the negotiation of an Inter Local Agreement between the City of Laredo and the WC-CL RMA. The WC-CL RMA is working with the City of Laredo to finalize the construction cost estimate for the project and complete the Inter Local Agreementfor the project. 11. The WCCL RMA ish hosting a TRZ workshop on July 19, 2023. A review ofthe TRZ study and implantation process will be presented. 12. Other Items: WC-CL RMA will have theirnext board meeting on August 1, 2023. VI. DIRECTOR's COMMENTS Mr. Mendive, MPO Director provided the following comments/report: 1. Policy Committee members Mayor Pro Tempore Vanessa Perez and Councilmember Melissa R. Cigarroa, and the MPO Director attended the June 29th Texas Transportation Commission meetingin Austinto thank the Commissionfor their continued support and considerationfor our priority projects. Upcoming meetings and agendas can be found on the following link: htpsy/www.tdotgovouleaerholeastansperatoncon.sommision/meting: dates-agendas.html. 2. TXDOT will provide a presentation on the Ports to Plains (P2P) Corridor at the August 16th Policy Committee meeting. 3. The next TxDOT Border Trade Advisory Committee (BTAC) meeting willbe heldin McAllen on August 22, 2023. BTAC provides aforum fort the exchange of communications between the Texas Transportation Commission, TxDOT, the governor, and committee members representing bordertrade interests. 4. We are inviting our planning partners to a' VisionZeroSafe Systems training to be held on July 26th at the City of Laredo Health Department Auditorium. This training is being providedby Farm and City, a non-profit, and its' Vision. Zero Texas program. 5. Upcoming regularly: scheduled meetings: Technical Committee - August 8, 2023 Policy Committee - August 16, 2023 Active Transportation Committee - August 30, 2023 8 VIII. ADJOURNMENT CM. Gutierrez, made a motion to adjourn the meeting at 1:48 P.M. Second: Judge Tijerina For: 6 Against: Abstained: Motion carried unanimously. Juan S. Mendive,AICP Tano E. Tijerina, Webb Coynty. Judge and LWCAMPO Director LWCAMPO Chairperson 9