I'd now like to call the meeting, the afternoon meeting of the Arlington City Council to order. And the City Council will now go into close session at 1.38 p.m. on April 23rd, 2019. In accordance with the following sections of VTCA Government Code, chapter 551.071.551.087. And then 551.072, their deliberation regarding real property. 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I'm going to go to the next room. I'm going to go to the the . Now I'll call the work session of the Arlington City Council to order and our next order of business is Arlington permits dot com and e plan review and I'll call upon Ms. Jinsi Topal, Director of Planning and Development Services. Good afternoon Mayor and Council, Jinsi Topal Planning and Development Services Director. I am super excited to present this topic today before you all. As the business world continues to become more electronic based, we are at par with them by using new technology to be more efficient and customer friendly. Last year, you approved electronic plan review as a part of the budget, meeting the goals of city council priority of putting technology to work. So thank you for your support. I am very sure Arlington residents, businesses, contractors, and the development community at large will find this very beneficial. So before we dwell into the details, I want to let you know that staff from two different departments, the Information Technology IT, as well as planning and development services, have worked hand in hand and umpteen hours to implement this new tool. I would like to take a moment to commend our staff and staff. If you're present here, please stand up and I call your names. Jeremy Booker, Rick Ripley, Ariel's Charmer, Brian Schlovensky, Brandon Long, Brian Isom, Pam Smith, Jessica Youngblood, Steve Quark, Angels Toward, and Caroline Jones from the Planning and Development Services, as well as from IT Jeff Tate, Mary Clemens, Bill Pepper, Winds Hendrix, Deborah Moore, Jimmy Marks, and Dennis John himself from Information Technology Department. Big applause for them, please. Thank you all for your hard work. So before we reveal the E-Plan review, you have to know how we have enhanced the user experience on ArlingtonPermids.com, which is truly the face and the portal for our customers. So to present that, I would like to call upon our Development Operations Manager Steve Quirk. He's our resident expert and ArlingtonPermits.com has been his baby since the time you launched in 2006. So Steve Quirk. Thank you, Jamesi. After New Mayor Council, I am Steve Quirk, Development Services Supervisor for Planning Development Services. I want to tell you, the next couple slides, I'm going to describe to you some of our enhancements and redesign of ArlingtonPermits.com. As Jinsy noted 13 years ago, we launched ArlingtonPermits.com and our automated permitting system. That tremendously changed how we conducted business and how the development community conducted business with us. Our permanent website, ArlingtonPermits.com, was a portal to our permitting system, allowed our contracting public, developers, engineers, and our citizens to do permits 24-7. While our website was launched and in 2006, we knew it would need some updates along the way. It operated for 13 years, provided great customer service for us for our development community. Over the years we did hear feedback from our customers and they at times said, hey the layout's not very functional. I don't know where I'm at on the process. I can't find the search or help functions and sometimes I'm just not, I'm having trouble navigating the site. So last year we partnered with IT and we brought in a consultant who helped us redesign our interface and help provide for a more improved customer service experience for our public. So this is a slide of our previous homepage oriented impermanence.com. Let me point out a few features that one of our contracting public would say when they landed on the site. At first, you don't know that you're on rintinpermits.com. You just know that you're on an orange and website. When you come to our website, it's not pronounced or well known where you're going to log in and start conducting your business. Nor are you familiar with what some of these tools or buttons are at the top of the page. Many of our contractors said, well, where do I start? What is my services? And then we had individuals that wanted to do a public search on our website. They were unfamiliar with the public search tool where to begin and how to do that. So we redesigned our homepage to make it more user friendly and had a new look and feel. With all the new updates with other websites, we wanted to be more attractive. So with our new design here, we pronounced and we made it more clearly known that you were on ArlingtonPermits.com. You're also new where you were and also where to sign in and log in. If you are first time user to our website and wanted to begin that process, we did have a little button down here said first time user to our website and wanted to begin that process, we did have a little button down here that said first time user for registration. We also added some more pronounced how-to guides. What's new? We would put out news flashes, what's going on, what's happening, and then we also had FAQs. More importantly, we put on here your one-stop platform for permits, licenses, and registrations. your one-stop platform for permits, licenses, and registrations. So when a user logged into the webpage, they would come to my services screen. Previously, they would have to search around and look at find their registration, what permits they had active, how to schedule inspections. So we clapped several screens into one and made it much easier for our contracting public to know where they were and what they were doing. For example, as a contractor, if I had a registration, I would see my registration in this section here. If I needed to renew it, I could simply press on start renewal and begin renewing that. Also, we would know what permits I had outstanding, what were all active, that I owe any money or what the status was. Further on down this list or on down the screen, I can see the permits that I had available and what inspections I could call on those permits. Sometimes too, our customers would say, I don't know where I am in the process. Where do I begin? How many steps? So we added the steps right here, the six blocks or the bubbles. So when people were starting the permit process, they knew where they were in the steps. Also, we streamlined and added a little bit more feature of registrations and license broken out from building permits and other permits. This site is also used by our citizens who do burglar alarm permits and now garage sale permits So this site is fully functional with just about every permitting process that we do have in our department Again the feature was make it cleaner easier to find things we we we redesigned the permit web page here We listed out the different permits from commercial fence the permit webpage here. We listed out the different permits from commercial fence, all the mechanical, electrical, and plumbing, our swimming pool permits. The other permits section are those permits that are not typical associated with development, which are the garage sale and burglar alarm permits. So with a cleaner look and feel, we feel like we're gonna increase not only the volume of permits through that website. Last year alone we did 20,000 permits, total permits in the year, 16,000 of those were done online. So with this look and feel, we feel it will be much easier and pleasant for our customers without giving back to Genesee. Thank you, Steve. So now we'll get to the E-Plan review. So what is E-Plan review? It is another form of permitting process. We used to do it with hard copies. Now it will be all submitted electronically. So using E-Plan review plans are submitted in electronic format rather than on paper. The plans are electronically reviewed by staff so staff is not printing it out either. We have large monitors now to review those plans and then email to the applicant with markup comments on the plans as well as a letter that goes with it. And plans are also then resubmitted electronically. So what's in it for our customers? Big thing is it's a big money saver. So hard copy prints or plans are very expensive. Each single set of plans that comes for a building permit costs about 200 to 500 dollars on average building permit costs about 200 to 500 dollars on average. And they're not just required to have one set submitted. A minimum of two sets are required for every type of permit. And it may be, we may require more based on what type of project it is. And then the same thing happens once we send out the comments and they are resubmitting. It's again the same number of sets of copies that they would be submitting. So electronic plans can save our applicant thousands of dollars. Convenience, they don't have to lug in those large sets of plans to City Hall. Or wait and turn to get to our service desk or even pay the courier service. So multiple staff members review these plans. So it's also very efficient. Paper plans, what what what used to happen is you used to get those two sets. And then that's rotated between staff members for review. But with the electronic plan set, there's just one set. And everybody can simultaneously review it. So it allows for the public to be able to do that. between staff members for review, but with the electronic plan set there's just one set and everybody can simultaneously review it. So it allows for unlimited simultaneous review. Storage paper plans are bulky and it takes a lot of space in our offices and in the archives. So we do have a retention law to keep those permit approved plans and we have looked through state record retention laws and they do allow us to store it electronically. So we will be saving a lot of storage space in our department. So how does it work? The applications and plans are submitted from ArlingtonPermitts.com. There's an upload button for the plans and they are submitted to that. Once it's submitted and they hit the button submit, it's automatically coming to Amanda, which is our tracking software. And that's where we look at E-Plan review and Amanda. They are integrated. So this is the best thing about this software is that we have done here. So there are a few other cities in the North Texas region that have E-Plan review, but none of the cities have it integrated with the tracking software. So that's the super, super thing that we have done here. And that's making lives much easier for both staff, as well as the customer. So comments, markups, everything is available to the applicant through ap.com or our LinkedIn pormids.com. Again, anyone can use this. It's very simple to use. And we have a demonstration of that too, but first they have to register at ArlingtonPermits.com and everything is available online. So we did a soft launch on April 1st. And when we did a soft launch, we also had training sessions. We had five training sessions for our users in the month of April. The last one being this Thursday. So that's the last one. So users who are out there watching this work session, please sign up fast. Very few spots available for the last session. Sign up for that class. And once you have signed up, you can submit for electronic plans right then, because you've already learned about the system. The others get to start their submitter on May 1st. Before that, on the website, there will be tutorials and how to videos and how to go through step-by-step processes. And so it's going to be our public go live date, May 1st. So very excited about that. And with that, I have Jeremy Booker, who is our Assistant Building Official, who's going to give a product demonstration of this. Thank you, Jensi. Good afternoon, Mayor Council. My name is Jeremy Booker and I'm the Assistant Building Official. First of all, I'd just like to say thank you for this opportunity. This is something that I'm excited about. Staff is excited about and I know the development community is excited about it too. It is really going to make us so much more efficient and effective at what we do. So we are truly grateful for what you have done for us. And I think it's going to help us shine even brighter. So I'm going to cover just to do a quick product demonstration, the training that we had from the vendor for staff was three hours long. So I'll try not to go that long. I'll just hit some of the highlights in this. But the first step is what Steve and Jinsi covered. You go to AP.com and you submit your application, pay your fees, and upload your plans. Once you upload your plans, that immediately transfers it to us and that starts the clock. We get those plans immediately. There's no other delay in there. We have the plans and the clock starts. The step two is we get those plans and we get that application. First thing we do is make sure that what they're proposing, the use that they're proposing is allowed in that zoning district. If it's yes, then we move on to the next step, which is that application completeness check. We want to make sure that the plans that they submitted are complete. They submitted everything that they needed for that particular type of application. Once that's yes, then it moves it over to electronic plan review, and that's when we start our markups. So with the markups, with electronic plan review, at the end of the day, electronic plan review at the end of the day electronic plan review is just a markup a PDF markup tool similar to Adobe Acrobat but what sets it apart a couple things that sets it apart is that this is geared specifically for plan review so we can do markups we make comments directly on the plans we can stamp the plans and this Jensy mentioned we have integrated this with Amanda with our permitting software this is something that's never been done anywhere between electronic plan review and Amanda weatteled down the road that never been traveled down before. So it was challenging. Without a doubt it's been challenging, but we're getting there. So once the comments, and then another aspect of this is that the comments that we put on the plans are also compiled into a comment letter, and then both the markups and the comment letter are sent directly back to the applicant once the review is complete. So electronic plan review is web based meaning that none of the applicants, none of the city staff, half the dome, download software onto the computers in order to use this. We log into a website and this is the first screen that you'll see that an employee sees when they log on it's our dashboard. that an employee sees when they log on its dashboard. So from the dashboard, they can quickly view what all projects are open. So let's see what projects are there, what assignments they have, the due dates, and the status if projects being completed, if it's still under review or if it's brand new, so they can see everything directly from this screen. From here, they can go directly into the plan review. So this is what it looks like when they start the markup. This is the Levitt Pavilion was our first live project in an electronic plan review. So you can see from the screen, this is what it looks like, and then on the left hand side there is the thumbnails for all the different seats are within that plan set. So you can skip directly from the first seat, the last seat, to anything, when in the middle you don't have to go page by page. And then we have all the markup tools, which are going to a little bit of them as well. You see that on the left hand side also. So I talked about a little bit earlier that comments. That's one of the things that we can do. When we did paper reviews, we had a comment sheet. We just did it on a word document. Sometimes some of the applicants or architects will get a little confused. It on this, we mark up that we put the comment directly on the page and we could put it directly next to that item that we're addressing. So they open that up, they can see that comment. And then they also can look at that on the comment sheet as well. So on the comments, something that try to help them make it more efficient and more uniform is that we created, and I forget the exact number, about four or five hundred different standard comments, that are usually going there and they can search for these by the type of review, they can do a word search or by the type of plan. So if they're looking for something about a fire lane, they can type fire lane and they're bringing up all the standard comments, they can click on that and they'll put that comment right there on the sheet with their looking at. So again, try to help keep things uniform. We can also do distance measurements. So we had paper plans, we could get the architect and engineer scale out, we could figure out how big something was, we can't do that on a computer monitor. So we can take distances, we can also take area calculations, we can take new volume calculations, all from a 2D set of plans. We can also do red line comments. What we mean by red line is maybe those comments are more informational or something doesn't need to be corrected. It doesn't need to go back through a second round review. We can just put that information on comment right on the plans and we can release it for permit and then it'll be printed on the plans both the architect the engineer contractor and the specter will see those comments directly on the plans. Something I think is very handy is going to be very helpful is that When they submit a second. The second round of drawings, you know, that goes to the initial review and then they resubmit. the second round of drawings that goes to the initial review and then they resubmit, this software doesn't page by page comparison of each sheet and identifies every change that was made. So previously we had to go page by page sheet by sheet looking for any changes to see if something was changed for the first review on this. It doesn't automatically force it. This will be very helpful and very timely for a second review. And then we have a custom stamp. So once the plans are approved, we stamp them with our own stamp. And then we'll stamp every sheet and then release that back to the contractor to print those plans. So just some of the other features. We can highlight, we can draw shapes and circles, we can calculate angles, we can calculate radiuses of this software. And then step four is the review is completed and we give it back to the applicant. So they go back to ap.com, they can download the markups, they can download the comments of the planning or the plan is approved, they can download the approved plans and they can print it to the permit and pay the remaining fees. So we bought every staff member that's using electronic plan review, 230-inch monitors. We literally have five feet of monitors that we are working off of through review plans. So we put technology to work. So again, thank you. Thank you, Jeremy. Any questions at this time? We'll be happy to date. Yes, Ms. Myers. Thank you, Mayor. Densey, congratulations to everyone that you, I think this is fantastic. I know sitting in with the working group that we've had going for a number of years now, this is something they were waiting for. Just have one question for you. I think the answer is yes, but I just want to ask to clarify, because a couple of developers asked the question. One of the things happens in the current process is you get all your comments at the end, and you have to then go back. This process, the electronic process will allow them to have a conversation as the review goes through. So say, for example, you have five or six things you're pointing out. Can they be fixing those things as they go through the process thereby speeding up the end process? So we want them to wait till all comments come in because in the same sheet there might be three different reviewers having a different comment. So if they address one reviewers comment because that reviewer has finished off the work, they may not be addressing two other comments coming in. So we like them to wait till the project manager. So for every project, there is a project manager. So the project manager is a coordinator between the applicant and all the other reviewers. So we would like the project manager to send out that email to the applicant, letting them know that all comments are sent out. Please review it on the AP.com. So when they receive the email, that's when they should go ahead. That's where they should look at. Because I know in the early discussions, there was a lot of feedback from some of the developers about wanting to be able to get ahead of, or at least have a chance to get ahead of it. And actually today they do that but we have seen problems with that because they think they have addressed all comments and then later on find out oh there were a few others that's coming and so they today with the paper plans they were submitting paper plans before they got all comments and then again having to resubmit. Perfect thank you for streamlining that process and for that clarification. Mr. Glaspie. Thank you, Mayor. You mentioned that several departments involved. How much involvement did you have from potential users of this outside of the city? So prior to actually even taking the electronic plan review as a budget item last year, for the two years prior to that, we had been working with our development community trying to understand from them what they were looking for, as well as going to other cities that have some type of electronic plan review and finding out what issues or what plus points they have at that. So with all that information is where we came up with that whatever we have a solution that needs to be an integrated system with the tracking software and the review together. So yes, a lot of work happened in the background. I know that you can't give a specific answer on this, but just looking at how this is set up, it looks like that's tremendous productivity. Have you really reflected on how much more productive you think you might be able to be? Right. So we have not set our performance measures yet. We want to see how this goes. We are hoping that all permits transition totally into electronic submittal. However, we have not made that as a mandatory requirement yet. So we will see after six months down the line or a year down the line where we are and then we can come up with what's that timeline for transitioning completely into the electronics of middle. So we'll start off right now, we're doing all the training, we're hoping people start liking it, we, and, and use it. That's what we're looking for, yeah. Ms. Moeys. I want to really compliment you, Jensi, on the speed with which you've been able to complete this task, you and your staff in the IT department. One of the things that I know from being on planning and zoning and from working with your team is that you inherited a system that had flaws that was dated and that much of our development community both here or that tried to work here were very frustrated and felt that it took a very long time, perhaps longer than in other cities. So I've read through this last night and just the presentation today, I think y'all can be very, very proud of yourselves and I wanna compliment you because I think, instead of being the laggard, you're gonna set the new standard. So congratulations to all of you. Any other questions, comments? Ms. Topel, there, I appreciate it even listening to your presentation there how you talked about customers. And that is so important as people come in and both our citizens and whether the developer engineer, whatever they are, our customers, and I appreciate how y'all have worked so hard in the department to treat people well. And then hopefully to it, it has even created a better work environment, but this tool will be magnificent here and we can see. And Jeremy, I love to see your excitement and Steve there that's awesome to see that kind of excitement because it is it's going to be a new day for us and then I know too even inside staff you know when you're trying to make comments on on the same set of plans and somebody else is making other this will be much more coordinated review and then it is awfully nice to be able to calculate right eye and to be able to calculate areas and so forth right on the screen instead of manually doing. And it's just a lot of those things will be so much better there along the way. But we've got a whole lot of your staff here right now. And I can tell you that if Victoria and I have been attending, working group of small businesses, of developers, engineers, architects, and so forth now. And we have come so far there, and y'all have come so far as far as moving this ahead. I actually had one of our small contractors say that he believes that this department and all the improvements it's made is helped him do 20% more work this last year because of the processes and the ways that you have done it. And it is time is money. Well, that is also helping our city to be able to bring in more business and do more business to bring in revenue here to help us pay for all of our services and that's such a key thing. And so you guys are the ambassadors and you're on the front lines there in dealing with people and you also set the whole tone for how our city is viewed by people that come to do business and by many of our citizens because when they're wanting to add a room to their house or so forth, they're coming here, down here to see you. But thank you for this work. And then also, I know that y'all are continuing to work and try to improve. That's probably the last thing I'd like to say is that technology is changing so much. And then it also means that we've got more work to do to keep up with it, but also the opportunity for us to produce better plans and better opportunities here for better projects that will be cheaper and more efficient is just huge. And thank you for all the work here of the multiple departments. Ms. Waman, I've triggered a thought and you didn't. When you said the opportunity to the savings for the people that are doing this, the contractors and the business people, but it's also a savings for our citizens that are building these things that are going in there. And I think it will trickle down that there will be savings and there may be more people that will be able to afford some things that maybe they weren't before. So it really affects the whole city is I can see it. It's an awesome thing you've done. I mean I'm really impressed and I don't know a whole lot about IT but I know this is good. That's what I know. Thank you Miss Token. Thank you so much. Appreciate it greatly. And thank you to the whole department and the IT department too there is. Shall we move in now the IT and the development services. Okay next we'll move to our discussion of informal staff reports and boy this is a fun one aging well expo update what a great event. The narrow floor staffer Benara what a great job y'all did. Tell us about this aging well expo. Well, thank you. First I want to say good afternoon to mayor and members of City Council. Thank you so much for having us. I'm Bnara floor staffer, Assistant Director at Parks and Rec. And yes, I am going to tell you a little bit about the aging well. You actually have a detailed summary sheet in your packet, but this is our third year that we posted the aging well expo and it's that it was at the East Bort Stadium Arlington Expo Center on February 21st. We had over 1500 attendees. And I know it was awesome. You guys come out there and that's fantastic because they learned everything from nutrition to financial planning. They also got to see some fitness demonstrations and actually take part in those. So it's exciting to have that opportunity to have our active adults in there getting fit. One of the big things is our keynote speakers, where was former mayor Richard Green and his wife, Sylvia. They talked about how important it is to get involved in the community at every age, from when you're a little kid all the way until you're an active adult. And then also really what is exciting is that it's a self-sustaining expo. You know, we don't have to use any taxpayer money, we don't have to use our budget. We actually generate the funds to put this on. And so then we actually have rolled forward about $14,000 for next year as well. So make sure you mark your calendars. February 19th, 2020 is the save the date for our next expo. Any questions? Any questions or comments? Y'all it was so exciting out there. People were very grateful they found products that they could use, they found services that they could, they learned a lot about things that they need to be doing to help them age well. And then our companies, they really came through. There were so many different companies and nonprofit organizations that had the booths out there. And then it was just a great atmosphere. Convention Center was just really doing well there. And then, Benara, thank you to you in the Parks Department for taking a leadership role in that once again. And what, we had a few hundred the first year, and now it's grown here to 1500. It's grown. Yes. Wow, it just keeps, it keeps going. It just keeps getting bigger. Awesome. Well, thank you very much. Great job. Thank you. Thank you. What an interesting to hear say that, you know, through the participation of our companies and sponsors and so forth. It's not cost in the city anything, but yet a great service to our seniors. Like it also tells them that we care about them. And that's so important. Okay, next we'll move to the Via Rideshare Update, and Ms. Alicia Winklebeck, Senior Officer of Office of Strategic Initiatives. Good afternoon, Mayor and Council. I'm here today with an update on our VIA ride share program. And as a reminder, I want to do a mind council that VIA is kind of the first step in implementing our city's transportation strategic plan. Back in 2017, Mayor and Council had a Mayor ander and council appointed Citizens Transportation Advisory Committee that spent an entire year and a lot of time and hard work and effort to develop a transportation plan for and strategy for the city. They contained a variety of mobility options. And VIA is just kind of that first step in the way we are moving forward towards implementing that plan. just kind of that first step in the way we we are moving forward towards implementing that plan. So as you can see here, VIA continues to do extremely well. Ridership continues to trend in the upward direction. Through about mid April April 13th our average rides per day were at 646, 647 rides per day. That is an average number that includes both our higher weekday rides and our Saturday ridership numbers. So that's the overall average, but to date on April 4th, our highest ridership throughout the life of the service was, let's see, 756 rides per day. So we continue to see that ridership trend upwards and especially those weekday trips are just continuing to increase. We're at about 70% of our rides are repeat riders. Our customer satisfaction for the service is still continuing to cover around 96%. So we've got a lot of great feedback from the community. And just to give you a sense of monthly numbers and the month of March, we provided around 15,000 VIRRides. Our number of account sign-ups also continues to grow. So far, we have just under 15,000 accounts in place throughout the city. And these are individuals who have gone and set up an account including entering their credit card information. So at any point in time, when they need a a V-aride they're ready to just book that ride and get where they need to go. This image right here shows pickup locations and this next one shows drop off locations. As you can imagine the two maps kind of mimic each other because most people are doing a round trip. What's interesting about these maps is while you can begin to see some hotspots of activity, you're also seeing a really great spread across the current service area of usage. People are using and accessing locations throughout the existing service area with the, and that's some of that great feedback we're getting from people as Council has expanded the area, which now goes down to just south of I-20. We're offering our citizens and visitors the opportunity to get to many other, many additional hot destinations. They can get down to the park small, the shopping areas down there, the highlands, some of those areas that people have been asking for, and we're seeing that in our feedback and our numbers. And this is just a reminder of the current service area and some of those key locations I was mentioning that people can access. And then I also wanted to mention the last week we went live with the Alexa skill set. So people now can ask Alexa, ask the city of Arlington, how do I ride via and get a lot of information on how to do that. So another opportunity for us to put technology to work, not only through our rideshare system, but the technology that allows people to access the system and access information about it. And with that, I am happy to answer any questions. Just one quick question. Ms. Vales. Do you have a timeline for your next expansion? Probably at the end of this month we'll be doing a very small expansion going to the east of 360. There's some neighbourhood areas that we'll pick up there. Beyond that we would be looking for a council direction, I think through the budget process, to see if council had an interest in moving forward with any expansions. So after going just across 360 into some of those neighborhoods, where would you think it would benefit us to go next? Right now, we're looking southward towards the TCC campus and our existing park and ride at I-20 and park settings. We think that there's probably a lot of need there and would be a really great natural expansion. All right. Thank you. Mr. Glassby. Thank you, Mayor. Mr. City Manager, would you review with us, what you would anticipate costing to implement this across the city and kind of what are the triggers to give you guidelines on when we might move in that direction. Yeah, and so Alicia, you can crap me if I'm wrong, but the current program I think involves somewhere around 15 vehicles and approximately $2.5 million between federal funds and local funds. And if we go citywide, it's probably in the 45 to 50 vehicles and probably in the $7 to $8 million range to get total coverage. And as you can imagine, we'll be pursuing private partnerships, grant partnerships, and then incremental revenue opportunities that might present itself. So if you look at this map, we hear a lot of interest in it from North and West quite honestly, but operationally and kind of equitably, I think we need to get more South to kind of link the higher educational institutions. So we have a strategy, I think, over time. This is probably a multi, this is a multi-year approach, and the local health and the local health and the local health and the local health and the local health and the local health and the local health and the local health and the local health and the local health and the local health and the local health and the local health and the local health and the local health and the local health and the local health and the local health and the local health and the local health and the local health and the local health and the local health and the local health and the local health and the local health and the local health and the local health and and incremental other revenue opportunities that present itself publicly and privately. As you see the current service area, look at the landmarks you hit, but also we're covering one of the most economically disadvantaged areas of our city. And so it also is going to employment centers, to hospitals, to doctors, to shopping areas there and to our schools, there and of course the University of Texas at Arlington. So it does make sense to be able to go down to Terrent County Community College. Again, they're to help people to get education, get to jobs, and then covering another area that does have some economically disadvantaged citizens there. You know, this is a pilot program that has experienced huge success. So much success that other cities across America have adopted it. So much success that Miss Winklebeck is high in demand for the National Speaker Circuit here on transportation there. And then, but the thing I think that is so important. Many people are programmed to where all they think about is when they think of transportation is light rail and buses and y'all we have hit on something that is so much more convenient and so much better to help people get there but yet this isn't the only thing that we're gonna do. I love how Miss Winklebeck started out reminding us that our citizens transportation committee working with our staff and outside consultants had come up with other things that we'll do and we'll be looking at other options too, and then the other thing that happens, is the transportation planning staff is looking at new inventions that are coming up every day. And so we don't know what it might be that are other solutions to moving our people around. But what this does is this helps us to be more productive. It helps our economically disadvantaged to be more productive citizens, our elderly to be more productive. It helps our economically disadvantaged to be more productive citizens, our elderly to be more mobile, our physically challenged to have an opportunity. And of course this is freeing up more capacity on handy trend to help our severely physically challenged. And that's been a, and then even via is able to take care of some of our physically challenged as they go. But I think the thing that I would say here and into our citizens is that stay tuned. There are other things coming. And then also I've been so proud of our citizens for actually adapting to change and being willing to explore this. And we need to. But the opportunity and the great news is, is that with new transportation technology, we have a chance to find cheaper, safer solutions. Just like we just got through talking about with Ms. Topel on being able to work plan review and so forth and using technology to make that well here we're able to move our people here and when you heard the cost I hope you were extremely impressed because that is very economical compared to 50 million dollars a mile for light rail or 850 thousand dollars for a bus and then you still have to worry about getting to the train or bus station. And then when you arrive at the other end on the train and bus station to get you to where you're going, you still have the first and last mile. So stay tuned, there are other things coming here in the way of transportation. But then also thank you for the work too, Ms. W Winkleback and pass that on to our transportation department because we currently have been designated by the Texas Department of Transportation as the most innovative city in Texas. That's the Texas Department of Transportation, 11 innovative projects compared to the number two city with four and then our city just hosted the Texas Transportation Mobility Summit very successfully. In fact, I just spoke at a conference here in Dallas and people from all over were there and they were very complimentary of the job that was done here by staff and really appreciate that of the of the conference that we had. But as we say, let's stay tuned, more to come. And then it's awesome that we see how well these are being used. And then the last thing I'll say is that we have a phone in number, don't we, Ms. Winklebeck? If you don't have an app or on your smartphone. And then also, if you don't have a credit card, you can use cash to get a bank card to make everything work. So it is really good. And it's pretty awesome when I can sit here right now and say I need to go check on the Convention and Visitor Bureau, put it into my phone, and it'll tell me to meet them downstairs at 11 minutes at the Southeast corner of Abram and Center and then they'll take me over. I might pick some they might pick somebody else up and they'll get me right over to the Convention Investor Center or I want to go catch the light rail at center port it'll take me directly there and then also the other thing that's probably the toughest thing on all of us, our council members and myself is that we have people all over the well and the city manager and y'all here too, citizens can't wait, when is it going to come to my street there? And here we have covered 33 square miles, but we are 99 square miles and it's not the density, it's the sheer distance to get around is why it would take as many as it is there with it. And then for the ladies that live on Bowen Street, yes ma'am, I'm here in Oliol and they right now are walking over to Filder Road to catch it because that's our western boundary and they're wanting us to get a little to bow and then you heard of course obviously the biggest demand is to get to Tarant County Community College there and that is a priority but maybe somehow we can figure out how to take care of some of our aged women there on the seniors there but thank you very much with Miss Winkleback. Very important topic. Thank you. Next we'll move to city council priority. Imagine this. Put technology to work. Ms. Wigman, are we doing that? What else do we have going? Do we have any technology going in this town? Thank you, Mayor Jennifer, Work, Ministers and City Manager. I appreciate my colleagues very much helping me spread the word about putting technology to work in their presentations from strategic initiatives and planning. There's a new quarterly newsletter out about the put technology to work priority. And just a few of the items that are in there and wanted to highlight one is the website as you all saw last meeting that's launched and it's continues to go well. We have just a measure of people's interest in it. We put a video out about the new features and we've already had 35,000 views to that. So we feel pretty proud about that. We're glad that people are visiting the website and also finding out about it via the video. So one other item in there is it just a short blurb from our library. They are, they have, are sending, and I got it myself as a library card holder. The library now has a lot of newspapers that are available online. So our residents don't, if they have a card, don't need their own subscription. They can get all the major text newspapers are included, which is a really great benefit to having a library card. We're not the only ones putting technology work. UTA also has a robotic glove, which is an interesting mix of stroke recovery and also gaming elements that are being used in there. And so they are continuing to break ground over there with new grants and putting technology to very interesting uses in that area. And I wanted to highlight another thing that our planning department is doing. There, as you would know, we've had an ongoing partnership with the WallWork City's team, and as part of that, we're consulting with a group called GovX out of Johns Hopkins University, and there we had to pick one project. The project we picked is working with our planning department to clean and refine the data that's in our all of our building permits. And so this is going to have a couple of great benefits. One is going to be make it more searchable for city employees because often we need specific and unusual information about types of businesses where they are and how many of them that there are. But additionally, and Ms. Dopal was the one who pointed this out, our public could use this too. Perhaps an entrepreneur who wants to put a particular type of business in an area, they could do an easy search to find out what other businesses are close to that area. What are the proximity so they can understand what the draw is for their business and who they might also have in competition with them. So we think that that could be, have those applications and many more once we get that data really where we can use it and we both, we and the public can make the best use of it. And then finally to jump on the Alexa bandwagon, not only, or have we updated it for via a new skill set for VA, but we also have a new skill set for water. And so we can now ask Alexa if it's enabled for the Arlington skills about how to pay the bill when you can water, how you can lower the cost of your water, lower your bill. And so we're very pleased about that, but we appreciate your continued support of putting technology to work and appreciate how that's really spreading throughout the organization. I'm happy to answer any questions that you may have. Any questions? Well thank you Miss Wigman. Appreciate all the technology that is being implemented here in our community to make it a much better life for our citizens. Thank you. Thank you, Mayor. Okay, next we'll move to discussion of committee meetings and I'll move to Ms. Wolfe for community and neighborhood development. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. The community and neighborhood development committee concluded their efforts to review our neighborhood grants that have been, they were last submitted in November and then they went under view or overview from a seven member entered the top part and mental review committee that looked at the amount of funding and their projects and detail and then brought their recommendations to this committee. I will remind you and you know many of us are prepared to walk out the door here and realize how long we've been working on this but our neighborhood grants have been around since 2007. And they've just done just wonderful projects. The Neighborhood Matching Grant Program has provided financial support for Neighborhood Base Programs and activities that serve a public purpose and benefit. And you know we're all strong believers very much so that strong neighborhoods build great cities and we want to foster civic pride and community pride within that neighborhood enhance beautify our neighborhoods improve the neighborhood vitality and get to know your neighbors and enjoy that participation in a project that comes together. We encourage that collaboration between the neighbors, neighborhoods, and city government. And we are very pleased to tell you that we had 14 projects that were submitted last November. The neighborhoods come forward with 20% of the match of their neighborhood grant. The grantees receive training and have up to a year to complete their program. We current projects come from every district in the city of Arlington, widespread, a great variety of opportunity. The projects include the Ingrid Way, signs updated landscaping, playgrounds, park benches, and most of those typical there. The committee agreed to look at all of these of the 15 applications, the dollar value came up to $195,000. Our budget only allows for $150,000. So that's something we could address when we discuss budget in the near future, Mr. City Manager. And so what we did, we agreed to read as a committee, we agreed to reduce funding of five of the projects and to not fund one project because that one project can be carried over till this next fall. So that way we were able to expand and make a good use of that $150,000. All projects will have a really significant impact in the neighborhood. And I just want to say, you know, Sarah Stubbelfield is who organizes and runs this. And she made a comment to us a while back that they were so impressed with the quality of the applications and just the detail and how good they were. And I think that is just a result of a neighborhood can come to staff, get ideas. I always recommend that they can look at our urban design center downstairs. If they want to look at, get some different ideas and look at a hard spot, they don't know what to do. So once our neighborhoods really get engaged, they really put on the effort and the talent to really make their project worthwhile. We want all these projects to have a significant impact in their neighborhood. The resolution is on our consent agenda tonight. We will fund 14 neighborhood projects throughout Arlington. We will fund 14 neighborhood products projects throughout Arlington. We will encourage applicants to reapply in the fall. We're moving before we took a November application date. We're going to move that up to September. We're getting more and more requests that dealt with landscaping issues. And it just made more sense to get kind of in sinks so that when that neighborhood could, it doesn't make any sense to go out and plan anything in July or August, you know, I'm saying and try to cultivate it. So we agreed with the recommendation from staff to move that up to September. So the one project that we left off, it makes more, there's just primarily landscaping and made more sense to move them up, so they will re-submit and set timber for reconsideration. And we just want to let all the neighbors know this is the time to get together, build friends with your neighbors, and come up with what you can do and work together and be a team and We'll take any questions if you have any Any questions Well, it's been a great program and very excited you were able to fund five. That's awesome mr. Glassby Thank you, ma'am One other thing wanted that that we found fascinating is that of the 14 projects been funded seven of neighborhoods that have used it before, but seven of brand new. We're doing 14 projects, Mayor. 14, yeah. That's spectacular. Yeah, but you were able to do five instead of one. That was really good. I like that trade. That's five instead of one. That was really good. I like that trade. There you go. That's five neighborhoods for one neighborhood. That's an awesome. Awesome. That's a great, great opportunity. Anything else? All right. That was our agenda today, sir. Thank you very much. Okay, next we'll move to finance and audit. Let's keep on. Thank you, Mayor. Finance and Audit. It's Cape Art. Thank you Mayor. Finance and Audit met today. We had a brief meeting. We were very expedient. It's inefficient today. So we covered the investment policy. There are no changes to our investment policy. So that will go forward. We added our recommendation is to allow the city to participate in another government investment pool just to give us another option. And then the last thing that the staff brought to us was what they call the debt and disclosure policy. You should each have a copy of that for your late night reading. I'm sure it's very entertaining. But this is nothing new. This is what we already were doing, but we just kind of codified it in a document. And so there will be an approval process, I think on the May 7th agenda, Mr. Finlay. And so that's all we covered today. As I said, we were very efficient. Any questions from anybody? I'll be glad to try to answer them. Any questions? Thank you, Mayor. It's my report. Thank you, Mayor. It's my report. Thank you, Miss K. Par. All right. Next, we'll move to economic development. Mr. Shepard. Thank you, Mayor. Economic development. Met today. All members were present. And all matters were discussed in a close session. Okay. Thank you very much. Next, we'll move to appointments to boards and commissions. Mr. Buskin. Thank you mayor. We have no appointments to boards and commissions this evening Evening agenda items does anybody have anything? Miss K part Mr. Mayor on I don't have the should have done this already the evening agenda item dealing with the zoning case Gen. C. Can you give me the 1121? Just that right. I will be asking for a continuous tonight. Just I don't really have much of an issue with regard to the request of the use, but I do have a concern with regard to the curvilinear streets or lack thereof in the process. So I assume that the applicant or maybe people that are in opposition might be here tonight, but I would ask for continuance after we've opened that public hearing. Great. Okay. All right. Anything else on evening agenda items? Okay. Issues relative to city and tech stock projects might go ahead there I periodically I think we all get the questions of 360 in at 30 right now it's still Miss Carmichael it's still slated for first quarter of 2021 to be completed with that 30 and 360. Is that correct? Well, maybe. I think the last we heard was late summer fall 2021. They're trying to make up some time. They got they fell behind with some of the weather and some of the sequencing. So they're trying to make up some time but right now they're talking fall 2021 but they are looking to move it back up if they can. That's a long setback there. Yes it is. It's an awesome. And all for weather? With a lot of its weather some of it was sequencing. You know they had the full closures and trying to schedule that ended up being a little more difficult with the events and everything we had to schedule around. So that set them back a little bit as well. But they are trying diligently to catch back up. Okay. All right. Anybody have anything else on issues relative to city and textile projects? One thing I like. On Abram Street. Are we still on for it? Yes. That's what I was going to mention is Abram Street. We do have a planned closure from Pacon Street to center street. It will start May 1st in last till June 30th and that will allow us to pave the section in front of City Hall, put in the automated ballers that will raise up and down and also pave the section in front of City Hall, put in the automated ballers that will raise up and down, and also pave the bands that come through in the front of City Hall area to make that consistent and in the same color throughout so that we don't have differentials with different pores. So that'll be about two months. We're hoping to get through in about six weeks, but we've given some time for rain since we are in the rainy season. So that's a two month closure of again May 1st. And then we're still on for our end date of. End date of early 2020. Yes. Thank you for that not extending back. No, we're good on that very much. But you're glass being. This may be something of a future agenda item but just you know process we started to try to get rid of our bad streets in the progress we made on that. You get a chance. I think that's very striking when you think about the progress to go from 20% poor streets to 9% and thank you for that. That's major progress. And now with our citizens voting to move forward on this latest bond program, then we have a chance to even get further ahead. That's an awesome opportunity here. So we move forward. Mayor? Yes, we have a question of Ms. Carmichael. So with the closing it, the condo center you said basically, right? Yes. So how does that impact the opening of the Levit? Because generally people are crossing the street right there to go back and forth over to the Levit. We've coordinated with Levit on this closure as well as well as the downtown association and the patrons along the stretch. The levy will be much like it was last year. We will fence off the section between the construction and the levy pavilion and we'll have crossings on the weekends for pedestrians to cross back and forth from the parking lot to the levy. So it'll be much like last year when it was under construction. OK, but before we had some of the patrons sitting in the street to listen, and that's not going to be. That's not going to happen. That's not going to happen. OK. But hopefully in the fall, we'll be there. Hopefully by the way. We will be. Yes. Once we finish this section, once we after this closure, all the paving from center street to Cooper will be complete. The paving will be complete. The intersection at Cooper will not, and the sidewalks and the landscaping and all the enhancements will not, but the paving will be open. That's the goal. Great. That's the goal. OK. Any other questions from Mr. Carmichael on that? All right. Thank you. Next we'll move to legislative update Mr. J. Warren. Good afternoon Mayor and Council. J. Warren Director of Communication and Legislative Affairs. We are about a little under five weeks away from the end of the legislative session down in Austin. I have a couple of things I wanted to highlight to you. As you notice on your update there, the SB2, the sentence version of the property tax cap, has passed the Senate now. They did have some amendments, actually quite a few that they debated only a couple of them passed, the most significant one being that they raised that cap from the proposed 2.5% to 3.5%. The House has still not debated this on the floor. That is expected to happen tomorrow. And there is still at this moment at 2.5%, we'll see how that debate and discussion plays out on the floor tomorrow in the House. No real new movement on STRs from the last time we talked, that is still pending in committee in the cable right of way. This is a bill that I mentioned to you before that essentially lets the cable companies and the phone companies to say pick whichever is the lesser of the fees that they have been paying because they paid two different fees and pay only the lesser one of the two. There is the potential of an impact for the city, estimated somewhere between $2.8 and $4.5 million annually. Of course, that depends again on the fee that they select and how that all kind of plays out. That is moving its way through the chambers here at the end of this session. Few more things on the backside. One of interest is deals with building materials. It would essentially say the cities don't have the option of the right to be able to dictate what kind of building materials are used, but instead if it is in the, what's called the International Building Code, if that material is listed there then it would be Acceptable to use a construction within the city a new one that we hadn't mentioned to you before is the peer-to-peer Vehicle rentals and this is new to me as well as a topic But it's essentially kind of short-term rails but for cars So and then one of the companies you see listed here is called Turo. So essentially, if you want to rent your car out to someone, you have the capability of doing that. They would drive it around for the set period of time, whether that's a day or a couple of days, and then return the car. So it's kind of, and the legislator, really, I think, in looking at these bills, maybe a little ahead of the curve here, and instead behind the curve on these new technologies and new forms of transportation, I suppose you could call it. The first bill that you see listed there would actually not allow the city to collect its sales tax or rental tax from that. But the other two bills that I mentioned here, one in the Senate and one in the House, would allow for the collection of attacks which would have an impact of course here on Arlington. We have had a request for support of one of those bills. I wanted to make you all aware of that, similar to what we did with the gas bill that came up a few weeks back. And then the final point here before if you have any any questions, would deal with the payday lending. This is coming out of Washington, DC. It has been fairly quiet in Washington in terms that we've been really focusing more on these updates than what's happening in Austin. This is one issue that the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has proposed some rules that would basically send some of the key provisions that were a part of the 2017 payday lending rule. We've been working with our consultants in Washington, you see a little bit on this and should have some comments on the proposed rule to send to them. And we do not see that the proposed rule changes that they're making at the federal level would impact the ordinance that you all passed a few years back. So I happy to answer any questions you might have or take any direction you might have on the the request for the Support of the SB 20 sorry SB 1578 and House Bill 2872 As Moe's I Just wanted to ask a question really quickly. I had heard Late last week or early this week that the House bill 3778, which were term rentals, did not make it out of committee. Have you heard something different? I haven't heard that exactly, but we have not seen any movement on it. And we're getting to the point now, I think they had the exact number of days, but things don't move out of the house, they'll die if they do it in a Senate they die. So we're getting to a point where things have to start moving or they'll just kind of languishing committee. Well, I understood they took a vote on it and only chin button and one other person voted to take it out so it died. Okay. We might check on that. Sure. Any other? Yes, Ms. Thalman. Thank you, Mayor. Mr. Warren, can you give me a little bit of clarification on the cable ride away? So SB 1152, Spyett Center, Hancock, right? So, who represents part of this area? So it looks like this will cause, it says, estimated revenue and loss to the city of Arlington would be between 2.8 and 4.5 million annually. Can you help me understand why, you know, what is the benefit of this bill other than just to benefit big businesses? Well, I'm not sure exactly the, I think what they are describing it as is perhaps a double tax. So you're asking companies to pay twice. And I'm not sure that we all would necessarily see it the same way, but I think that's how that's the interpretation is placed on it. Mr. Yeilerson. Just in Belloch on it a little bit. What you're having is kind of a convergence of the industry where telephone companies now own some cable interest and cable interest now on phone companies and so that used to be two wires that are kind of becoming one. And so they want to pay for one wire not two wires even though there's dual Activity going on in the right of way and of course what what a lot of people don't realize is that right of ways one the single largest assets that a city has And we I think expect just compensation for the use of that right away And so this bill will severely as you've pointed out, impact this in our ongoing budget process in the tune of three to five million dollars. And that's real. That's real money that will not be able to be allocated towards any of the things that we were just talking about a few moments ago. And that's a equivalent of two to three cents on our tax rate. So it's it's consequential and get back to the next day. So, it's a very good way to get back to the next day. So, it's a very good way to get back to the next day. So, it's a very good way to get back to the next day. So, it's a very good way to get back to the next day. So, it's a very good way to get back to the next day. It's a repeal of a certain tax code section, and what it effectively does is loop out the TIFF incremental revenue from the tax rate calculation, which is an accelerator, if you will, as it relates to the various tax caps that are in place, if under current law TIFF districts as they're done, they're accepted from that. This would eliminate that and throw it into that mix. So it effectively disincentivizes the use of TIF districts and accelerates the compression on the tax caps that are being talked about. So it seems really simple and it seems like a cleanup, the way it's been presented, as let's just simplify things but it has a very clear Bite in our ability to manage our tip districts in the broader tax rate and We would suggest that we advise appropriate folks to pay attention to that and maybe send a letter of Concern about that if you all are okay with that. I think we definitely are. Now, that's a little doubt. We can call it the district described. Well, now, what it is, it's a repeal of a certain tax code. But it does have to do with tip districts. It was followed by Senator Ben Court. He's long expressed frustration about use of tip districts in the Houston area. And this is a cleanup in his mind, but as you clean up, it also reduces the ability to effectively use the tool. Yes, Ms. K. Park. With regard to Mr. Warren's question about those three bills that deal with renting your car basically right I'm not interested in and putting together letter supports. I don't know enough about it It's new to me. I mean, I've heard a little bit about it anecdotally, but I'm not very familiar So personally mayor I'm not interested in sending any letter support. Okay What about the others? There are any comments, opinions? Mr. Warren, I don't think we have a lot of interest in here and these without a doubt, but thank you for bringing them to our attention there with it, but I don't seem too attractive there for us to get behind. Also, thank you for watching the payday lending now. That's been a big one here in our town for a while. Thank you for that. All right. Next we'll move to discussion of flooding and erosion. You know, Ms. Carmichael did a very extensive overview of what was going on here in flooding and erosion. And a lot of people didn't see it. Ms. Carmichael, I know you did a detail one, but could you just give us an overview of what's going on now as far as with our flooding interrosion and the studies and so forth that are being done? Yes, sir. We have a number of contracts ongoing consultant contracts from, as a result of the floods last fall. We have our watershed studies ongoing, which will give us results related to our larger streaks and streams and creeks, detailing flood data and flood risk hazards that we'll be able to identify and turn into capital improvement projects. We also have a contract ongoing to identify over 70 locations of flooding where we can identify the frequency and depth of flooding along our roads and neighborhoods where localized drainage is overwhelmed. So this will give us a lot of information on, like I said, the frequency and the depth of flooding of homes so that we can develop again more capital improvement projects as well. We have some channel, a contract looking at channel erosion and some of our infrastructure failure so that we can put dollars towards that where those failures may be causing flooding. So what we'll do is once we get the results back of all of those, we will take them and prioritize those projects, which will be a number of projects. So we'll be prioritizing those and then moving forward and putting those into capital programs annually. And then buyouts have begun on buyouts are still continuing. Yes. House byouts are. Yes. Residential and commercial as well. Awesome. And real quickly. Ms. Moise. I would just like to add thank you for beginning to take a very preemptive position on the channel erosion because we all know what happens if we don't catch it early enough, then we create more flooding and more losses and more houses to buy out. So those of us in the North who see that in some of our channels really, really appreciate the job. I just started to take it really serious. Thank you. Yes. Then I'd encourage any citizens to call in if I have a question about their area and what's going on there. But no, it seems like it's interesting. You gave a great presentation last council meeting and then I had a lot of citizens call and say what's going on with the flooding. So that's why I asked for you to do a little bit again here. But anyway, of course, it takes on some of the projects, construction has already begun. Some biologists have happened, and then others, it's new flooding because we had historic flooding going on that had not occurred in some areas because we had two 100-year storms. So, consequently, we've got new studies going on and new work to solve these problems and then of course where they can't be solved really they are that's where we have biots they're being proposed to remove the homes from the floodplain. And then it's been greatly reduced because you'll know we used to have seven or eight hundred homes that at any given time would be in flood zones there and be flooded and now we were down to a couple hundred there or less. Yeah we had over 200 concerns come in during the 200 year floods that we had we had 200 calls of residential flooding so I dare say that would have been much more but for the work of the stormwater program and the funding that You allow us to put towards that And then you know you outlined several projects that we already had from our bond program going on that are under construction that will help solve some of these two that was really good Miss K part some of these two that was really good. Miss Kay Park. Terrace is my helper. Yes, she is. So just to kind of give a shout out to public works in parks. So last night, they had a neighborhood meeting dealing with key branch tributary and with D. Repark. It's just very well attended. Both representatives from both the departments were there. But it's what all of us hear a lot. So there was one individual, one citizen who was really upset because she had put in a lot of money, she had put Gabyans in, and we're going to come rip all that out. It's going to destroy the habitat. She's going to lose a lot of trees. Da-da-da-da. Please help me. Please help me. Don't make this happen. So I thanked her and took her name and everything. And as I turned to leave, another lady guy, she said, I'm going to send you an email. I'm going to come to council. I'm so glad you're doing this. My house is flooding. I've eroded and they kind of live across the creek from each other. So it just depends upon your perspective. So you know, it's, and it was heartbreaking for both. I mean, I really felt for both of those women. But staff does an incredible job. That's what they do all the time and I have to face that. And it was, as again, I will say, it was very well attended. A lot of really good comments. I said it was very well attended. A lot of really good comments. Daff really tried to hear and listen and do everything they could to explain to both of those types of individuals why we're doing what we're doing. But more than that, I love the fact that the Parks Department was partnering because I think it was a parks department, a project originally to make some improvements in Deer Park and then they could see the stream and they had a pawn there at Deer Park that needs a lot of work. So public works got involved and they're doing some more stream work upstream from it, I guess it is, right? So great job on staff's part of putting those two projects together. Thank you. Okay. Anything else on flooding and erosion? All right. Thank you, Ms. Carmichael. Next we'll move to short-term rentals and discussion on that. Ms. Topel? Thank you, Mayor. Jensie Topel, Planning and Development Services Director. So if you can go ahead. Thank you, Mayor. Jinsi Thopel Planning and Development Services Director. So if you can better thank you. So there are quite a few pieces to short term rentals that I now want to do. Show you how they all tie together. So we have a short term rental chapter that has been created and then we also have the UDC amendment related to short term rentals. So the UDC amendment related to short term rentals was the one that you approved on first reading last meeting and today you have the final reading on the agenda. Same thing for short term rental chapter, the first reading was on October 16th and the final reading is scheduled for today. After these two items have moved on, the fee resolution for the STR permit fee that is scheduled for next meeting. So process wise, again, adoption happens today, fee resolution next meeting, both the ordinances as well as the fee resolution becomes effective on August 1st. And why that date is because we need time to create the permit folder, get it all organized, so that people can actually apply for the permits. So August 1st will be the date permitting starts. And then there will be a two months time period provided to people who want to apply for the permit. They may be existing SDRs and want to apply for the permit and be known if they are approved or denied. If they are STRs, existing STRs have not to discontinue on October 1st, but we are providing two months time frame to go through that process. And then Council wish to have some grace period for the people who have been paying hot taxes. So a grace period will be given to them and they can discontinue their operation on January 30th. That's again, if they are unpermitted. If they can obtain a permit, they will go through the process and get a permit. We also plan to report back to council a year later because by January 31st is when you know for sure everything that's happening and then we get a little bit of time more to see how the implementation works so by May we should be able to report back. So before the effective date which is August 1st what are the things that's happening in the background as I said we will be working on creating that permit folder. We are hoping to create the permit folder as an online application. So people can do it very conveniently from their home and upload plans everything electronically. So May next month, we will send out letter to all the addresses that we know of, because the hot taxpayers, we know the addresses, so we could send letters out to them, letting them know of the effective date and what are the processes that they need to follow. We will also have training workshops for users who want to apply for a permit, do the hot registration, what those processes are, will have that in June, July. So there's a lot of background work that will be happening prior to the start date of permits. We'll also be looking at hiring people, the resources needed to make this work. So based on the resources, the annual STR permit fee proposed is $500 per application. It's for per site address. We are assuming about 300 permits that come in annually. We will have a recurring expenditure on the resources. So one code officer, one planning technician, and a third party vendor to help us with finding out what's there on the listings and getting all that information to us as well as BR247 hotline service. So again, the resources, of course, we have the permitting piece, but along with that permitting piece, there's inspection that goes in. We also will be having ongoing neighborhood inquiries, addressing all the complaints, the notice of violations, citations, any kind of permit revocation process that goes through appeals, noticing for renewals, and then reporting of all this data regularly and updating our website So a lot of again background work that will be happening with that and the third party vendor We they will collect the live data of all the listings in our LinkedIn send reports to us and maps showing the ones that are not holding a permit and In the eligible location so we can contact them. The ones holding a permit but advertising it for more number of people than what the permit allows them to and the ones that is just not in the eligible locations. They also serve as a 24-7 hotline so whenever the complaint comes, they take the message routed to the city staff for that area and also inform the STR operator immediately. So what you have at the STR chapter, I'm not going through the UDC amendment piece, this is now the STR chapter piece that I'm talking about. So what that chapter does is highlight, it really establishes the permitting procedures, conditions for operation of the STRs. It's really enables staff to implement what we are having in the UDC. So permit application requirements are listed in that chapter. It does talk about the city registration account requirement for the hotel occupancy tax, site plan for the applaud, the or not identifying parking spaces to be utilized for STRs. The dimension floor plan identifying bedrooms, emergency evacuation routes, and then the proof of insurance, and also what the proposed host rules are. STR permit it is one permit per site or address so you cannot take one permit that you have obtained for this site and also use the same permit for another side that you own. So it's one per side or address, non-transferable, annually renewed. The permit has to be displayed inside, very close to the front entrance. Notice of the rules to the STRs need to be posted too. And then the regulations part of it, regulations that we have talked about in the past few months, the maximum occupancy of two per bedroom and then a maximum limit of 12, parking limited to the number of available off-street spaces within that site, physical conversion of premises to add bedrooms or garage conversions not allowed, noise restriction between the time from 10 p.m. and 9 a.m. Outside congregation restriction between 10 p.m. and 9 a.m. Trash placement on curb. I've written it as on scheduled pickup day for that area and that's the one that you have on your table. There's a small correction in that to match with what we have in for everybody else. It now says it shall be unlawful for an owner or occupant to place or allow to be placed trash on the premises before 7 p.m. the evening prior to schedule pickup or on a day not schedule for pickup. So that clarification is on your desk. And then the premise cannot be used as a banquet hall. So those are the things we talked about previously, which is captured in the regulations. There was one more point of concern raised from the real estate professionals about seller of a home wanting to rent out their own house after the closing happens, just for a few days would they be called as a short-term rental? So we have addressed that by adding section 3.01B, which does say that they will not violate this ordinance by doing that. So that's addressed now. not violate this ordinance by doing that. So that's addressed now. It also provides grounds for revocation of permit. So after two citations in a 12 month period, it calls for a revocation. If you've falsified information in the application, that calls for a revocation. If you fail to comply with conditions of the permit, so if a maximum occupancy or whatever was written in the permit, you're not complying with those conditions, and you remain in noncompliance for 10 days after being notified, that calls for revocation as well. And then this charge just kind of shows you what the due process would be. Once a revocation notice is sent out and what the permit holder can do to appeal that. So that kind of sums up what we have going on with the STR chapter. Again, the permitting start date would only be August 1st. So this will all be effective August 1st. And then we have given some grace periods for the people who have been paying hot taxes. Okay, any questions from Mr. Topham, Ms. Mollies? I just have one question. This is very well covered and I'm just a Mollies amazed. I think I have 24 hours in my day and you must have 56. I guess you get so much done over your department. But I did want to ask a question about those. If you look we have a six month period and we have houses right now that are operating outside of the guidelines we're going to be setting. Do we have a plan, if they're going to be allowed to operate for really six months from August 1? Do we have a plan for bringing them into compliance with the standards we're setting for that six month period of time we're going to, in other words, allowing a house to go ahead and allow 20 people in for six months, it seems to defeat part of the purpose of this. So I think the enforcement, the first discontinuous date which you see is October 1st, which is actually the enforcement start date because from August 1st to October 1st, we are allowing people to apply for permits, get things in order, right? So October 1st will be the first date that we can really start doing enforcement of unparmited STRs, but the enforcement on the other side related to the nuisance factor can still continue during that time as well. But the enforcement related to not being permitted as a STR, that will only start October 1st. And then the ones that are paying hot taxes, we know they are addresses already. So there will be flags on those property that we are giving them that much time to work it out, whatever that needs to be. But we're not gonna be enforcing the new standards on them. We will, yes, standards will be applicable. Yes, yes, the news is part of it. Yes, that enforcement will be applicable. Yes, yes, yes. The nuisance part of it. Yes, that enforcement will be applicable to all of us. So if they are advertising on Airbnb, that they have 18, that they can have 18 people, they have to reduce that to 12 to continue to operate. Yes, so yeah, the standards will be effective on August. Okay, so that works. Thank you. I just wanted to be that, make that clear because I think people have that question. Other questions? Miss Lailman. Thank you mayor. Miss double, can you go back to the slide where it talks about the cost associated with the co-enforcement officer planning, and the third party. There we go. So my hesitation with this, and I think that the sound, you know, or timeline is great, and I echo what Mr. Morrie said. You've done an excellent job on this. My concern, I know in our budget, we approved the one full-time employee co-enforcement co-encompliance officer in the third party vendor. And I think at that time, and correct me if I'm wrong, we were looking at regulations citywide. And now we're looking at a very small area. And then also to add a full-time planning technician, I have a concern that we're spending a lot of money on this issue, and we've already spent a lot of time. But we're spending a lot of money on this issue that is really just a very small percentage of the city and I'm not sure that's the best use of our money so I'd like to look for ways that we can stretch those dollars a little bit. I don't know if you share my opinion on that. Well so you'd like Ms. Top able to take a look at what workforce and manpower might be needed here to be careful we don't over book the labor. You know, if we find that it's really too little, we have too little resources already, we can always add more with our upcoming budget cycle. I can definitely point out the last budget cycle when we had the code enforcement officer and third party vendor. The plan was that the permitting occurs through the third party vendor. At that time, there was no talk about the SUP or this kind of review with it. So the permit would have been just a registration process, and that the third party vendor could have done it because it's just registration. Right now with the permit process that we have set up, there is a planned review aspect of it also that happens. And we actually checked with a few other cities that do permitting through the third party vendor and found out that they do the third party vendor for the intake part, but they also have in-house staff to review it. For us, the good part is that we have Amanda and we have a great IT team that can set up this folder for us. So we have our intake part. We don't need anybody else to do that for us. So that's why we only need a permitting person in house to do the reviews and keep everything up to date with this. And that's the planning technician will also do a lot of other things. They will be the point of contact for the applicant, but also to the neighborhood. So there are other things that will also occur along with just the permitting part. That's just one piece of it. Mr. Shepard. Thank you Mayor. Trey, do we have the one FTE code compliance officer in our current budget? We do not have the planning technician, correct. And then we had budgeted some cost for the third party vendor, which now is going to morph. I'd kind of like to echo what Ms. Thalman said. I think the 300 STR permits applied for annually is a little optimistic and light of the limitations we've now put on as I recall we had about 300 city wide and so I think that that figure is grossly overstating the amount of potential revenue we'll have and we've had bad experiences with this kind of cost recovery, the buy the Corvette now and try to figure out how to pay for it later. So I just, I wanna make sure that we're all, I mean, it is what it is at this point, but I just wanna make sure that at least for me, I'm not signing off on that being an acceptable level of expenditure, we'll have to see what kind of permit revenue we've got. We'll just have to figure that out at the next budget cycle. Whatever that is. Ms. Mollies. I'm looking at this thinking one full time FDEC Compliance Officer. Myic Bassist Group is stressed to stretch extremely thin. And I could see in the first six months of this where we're trying to find all of the ones that are active and work on trying to bring the ones that are staying open for six months into compliance. I think we can run for six months, a code compliance while we're getting this program up and running. Officer, I think we can run him into the ground almost. If he does his job well, I don't know if Mike has someone he can spare that we could move over for six months while we get this program started up and then evaluate the FTE full-time position to see if a full-time code compliance officer's needed. Mr. Shepherd, I think part of the issue is, I think there are five short right now, is that right, Tray? Oh, of course. Yeah, so it's not a matter of, it's not as much a matter of Having the money to pay for them. It's also a matter of having them to pay so you know, it's it's a chicken and egg situation so While it's in the budget. It doesn't mean that the positions filled and I think I've heard somewhere that they're down on manpower from the positions they've been allocated in this budget as a person. Anyway, I hear what you're saying but it's going to be a challenge no matter what to do this. So what you're really saying is they're going to have to hire or fill a position that's vacant anyway? I mean, I just think we can't stretch that department any further and expect them to do a really good job. I don't know how long the other four positions, if these numbers are accurate, I don't know how long the other four positions have been vacant. But it wouldn't surprise me if they haven't been vacant for several months. It's just walked in. Very haven't been vacant for several months. Mr. Batch. Mr. Batch, you want to address that? Hi, here we go. So we are currently fully staffed as of Monday. So we have three people that are currently going through training. And so they will probably be released on their own about three to four months depending on how they accelerate through the program. Thank you. Congratulations. So Mike, then the next question is, do you have a person that we could move to this program for six months to start it up to meet the code compliance demands of it. I think that, let me address that. I think the planning tech work and the code compliance work, those are two separate types of work. And if the council, you know, we've approached this in the sense of full cost recovery. And to not supplant opportunity costs of other things, and I will tell you that all departments are stressed operationally to meet our community's expectations. That's code, that's police, that's planning, that's everybody. So as a new line of business kind of edges its way in, we can certainly accommodate anything at any fee that you all want to set. If you think this is too much staff or too much of a fee, it's all opportunity cost and it's all based on how much you would be willing to support kind of the new industry from a full cost recovery perspective. That said to your point, Mr. Shepard, two of those three items are already in the base budget. They were what was expected and now we've adapted based on changes that have occurred since last late summer. summer. But one of the things that we could maybe suggest to do, and I think it also is kind of long-year lawns, is instead of coming in with, say, a full-time FTE in the planning area now. Perhaps what we look to do is what we would call an overfill or it's almost like a seasonal part-time hire. It would be part-time full-time. I mean, it's a full-time job. It would be part time full time. I mean, it's a full time job, but it would be a part time seasonal kind of bridge type person that we could look at doing through some one time type resources and then reevaluate as we go into the budget so that I can get someone in here to handle the administrative elements of what's talked about but not embed the recurring FTE or the recurring cost until we can better assess it going into the fall and then maybe even in an ongoing way to make sure the workload has turned out to be what we thought it might be. Okay. All right, sir. Everybody all right. Okay. All right. Anything else on short-term rentals? Yes, Ms. Myers. Mayor, just a really quick, just to follow up on the last point that that city manager made, if this does get approved tonight, if I could just ask that the city manager and staff provide a, to council, you council you know work session maybe a year out As was pointed out on the slide and in that in that go specifically talk about the cost as well as the manpower hours So that can be included in that report as well not just in terms of the implementation process if Everyone's okay with that if everyone's okay with that. I think August of 2020. I wonder what? It's one year from the effect. Thank you. Okay. Thank you, Mayor. All right. Thank you. All right. Next we'll move to future agenda items. If I have any future agenda items. Can I have any future agenda items? Okay, with that, I see no other business to be conducted here and we will stand adjourned and come back at 6.30 for the evening meeting. Thank you very much for coming.