I've now locked to call the meeting of the Arlington City Council to order and the City Council will now go into closed session at 11.23 a.m. on December the 12th, 2017, and accordance with the following sections of VTCA, government code chapter 551.071 consultation with attorney. .072 deliberation regarding real property. .074 deliberation regarding personal matters. .087 deliberation regarding economic development negotiations. We can close the doors now. you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you Thank you. Okay. I'm going to go to the next room. I'm going to go to the next room. I'm going to go to the next room. I'm going to go to the next room. I'm going to go to the next room. I'm going to go to the next room. I'm going to go to the next room. I'm going to go to the next room. I'm going to go to the next room. I'm going to go to the next room. I'm going to go to the next one. I'm going to go to the next one. I'm going to go to the next one. I'm going to go to the next one. I'm going to go to the next one. I'm going to go to the next one. I'm going to go to the next one. I'm going to go to the next one. I'm going to go to the next one. I'm going to go to the next one. I'm going. I'm sorry. You need to go in and see me. I'm sorry. No, I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. Sorry. Sorry. Sorry. I'm going to go to the next floor. I'm going to go to the next floor. I'm going to go to the next floor. I'm going to go to the next floor. I'm going to go to the next floor. I'm going to go to the next floor. I'm going to go to the next floor. I'm going to go to the next floor. I'm going to go to the next floor. I'm going to go to the next floor. I'm going to go project update. We have Mr. Rob Matwick, the executive vice president here to present that to us. And Mr. Yelverton, do you want to say a few words here before Mr. Matwick? And then let me just say there to really appreciate the cooperation here of the Rangers and the great work that's being done. I mean, it is very exciting when you drive down Randall Mill Road or Ballpark Way right now to look over and see the great progress that has been made and to envision the difference that is going to make in our community because the revenue that is built there and the tourism that comes in is a phenomenal revenue source for our community to be able to take care of our neighborhoods and our to pay for our public safety our streets our parks and that is what is really a major contribution there and also I need to say a personal thanks to for in chant in chant is bringing great notoriety and other people there to our community. And for those of you who haven't been go, it is an incredible Christmas light display unlike anything I've ever seen that really touches all ages. I had my mother and father-in-law that was 83 and I had my twin grandsons that were two and a half and everything in between and we all enjoyed it. I'm not sure if I'm not sure if I'm not sure if I'm not sure if I'm not sure if I'm not sure if I'm not sure if I'm not sure if I'm not sure if I'm not sure if I'm not sure if I'm not sure if I'm not sure if I'm not sure if I'm not sure if I'm not sure if I'm not sure if I'm not sure if I'm not sure if I'm not sure if I'm not sure if I'm Council just is just in the up keeping up with our ability or desire to quarterly update you on project updates. We try to take a little bit of a view in the rear view mirror near term as well as what's kind of around the corner if you will to kind of keep everybody up to date on what's going on. And so compatible to Mr. Matt Wicks presentation we've emailed you out today and we'll be pushing out on social media this afternoon. The home played update, which is the written form of various progress that's going on and things that are coming that talk a little bit about our ground breaking and an update on Texas live and MWBE participation and various things like that. So that is a compatible written piece that will be out there to go with what Mr. McWix going to highlight here for us here in the next few moments. So I just want to make sure everybody knows to look at both sets of documents. Mr. Mack, we're ready. Mayor Williams, thank you. Members of Council, City staff, Mr. Yoverton, thank you so much for the opportunity today to come before you and update you on the project. Anyone who has driven up and down columns here in the past few months has seen that progress first hand with the number of trucks that have been going up and down as we're hauling off materials part of the excavation process. So we'll, as Mr. Yoverton indicated, we'll sort of look at where we've come since the last time we met with council, little of this information was covered last time And then we'll take a look ahead for the next few months to see some of the upcoming things we have going and then look at some of the Construction as it stands today. So in terms of the project update These literally are things have been done since last time we presented to council and I know the tree location relocation You know in the environment's important to all of us, we were actually able to save a number of the big old oak trees that were out on the B parking lot and relocate those to other areas around the property. Successful, I think we've had almost 100% success rate in terms of their survival with that move. And those were some pretty old trees. So we were glad to be able to do that. We've obviously established the perimeter as a mayor indicated if you drive past the site now. You'll see the construction fence and we've had to take down some lanes of traffic on Randall Mill for some work we're doing there right along the north edge of the property. But the perimeter is established and we're in the process of mobilization. Manhattan actually has taken over leasing a property on Division Street. A property that has been vacated there in the process was sort of rebuilding that to use as a headquarters for the next few years. In addition to a parcel of the land adjacent to that, which will be housing for temporary office trailers for HKS, Walter P. Moore, ME engineers, Bureau of Aratoss, and a number of the consultants that are working under the project at this time. So that's all taking place. Material testing through land tech, the engineering firm, they're on site daily to test soil and foundation construction materials as we start to put retaining walls into place. And then excavation, again, this is the massive dig that's taking place. We are 50% probably a little over 50% now. 700,000 cubic yards of material have been taken from the site, which is 48,000 truckloads. And again, this information is a few days old, so it's more than that. This is a 20-hour day, seven-day-a-week operation. We obviously have worked with our neighbors at AT&T Stadium on Cowboy Home Weekends or for Baylor Tech. Obviously we've shut down our operations out of respect for the activities taking place next door. So aside from those AT&T Stadium event days, we're going 20 hours a day with the halls. So it's quite a process. In terms of foundation, we've drilled over 160 piers along the perimeter wall and actually started to move internally on piers now. Retention system and I have some images of this to be able to see it gets built literally top down five feet at a time whereas we're only 15 to 20 percent complete under retention system, but that's just starting city, obviously, and city staff are very familiar with the sanitary surgery location that had to take place before we could actually start work on the ballpark site. So that is underway about 20% complete. We've been working with Encore on some electrical duck bank to put in for to support the ballpark and also for potential future development. We're about 60 complete there. Percent complete. A lot of that work actually took place along Nolan Ryan North of the ballpark project site and we've just really scratched the surface on on site utilities. So just about 10 percent complete there. So that's sort of where where we have been since the last time we came before council presented. So in the months ahead, obviously the excavation, there is an end date for that traffic on cons. We anticipate that that will be complete by the end of February, no later than then. We're fortunate to have had very good weather to this point. So we, I don't want to say that we're ahead of schedule, but we're certainly on pace, if not a little bit ahead at this stage, but we also know that winter is coming, and there could be a week where we lose some time. Retention system, and you'll see this in the images, that's scheduled to complete in March, Plaza Construction, which is actually adjacent to the live facility. Typically, that would be one of the last elements that we would do in a project like this, but because of lives opening next year, we'll actually have to have the plaza work done first to support Texas live. That work will start in February to coincide with the opening. Foundation construction, again ongoing for a few more months with drilling pier, spearcaps, underground dewatering system. As expected, we ran into some groundwater on the site as did happen at AT&T Stadium. And then the perimeter basement walls started to go into place as we build here. Concrete construction will start in March. Mechanical electrical plumbing underground, scheduled to start in March. More extensive utility work there. The highlighted elements are ones that are critical to us in terms of the path of the project. Bull steel, the notes says that the initial order will be placed in January. Actually, part of that order has already been placed. We need to get steel to the mills, so we can get fabricated, get back onto site to be part of the construction. So, bull steel, part of that, if not all that order, is actually going into place. The roof steel and mechanization, the design of the roof is still being finalized. That's probably the next most critical path for us, is the steel for the roof. And that order does need to get placed in January. So, the final design and those elements, connections, all the things that go into building a structure of that large need to get done so that we can place this order in January. And in value engineering, like any project of this size and scope, architects draw the contractors, respond to those drawings. We completed design documents at the end of September. Some of those documents went out to the subcont to those drawings. You know, we completed design documents at the end of September. Some of those documents went out to the subcontractor community. And we're now starting to get information back in from subcontractors so that we start to get real pricing and understand what the cost of the building really is, it's like building a house. You see a lot of things you want in the project and you know, you hope most can make it but the reality is the value engineering process has to take place to get it down to a budget number that is acceptable to the city and acceptable to the ranger so we're in that process now and that will be ongoing here for at least into January and again the roof structure is is a big part of that so that roof design needs to get finalized so we can order that steel and everything else will fall in the place behind it. Quick snapshot on MWBE as council knows you know we have a 25% goal happy to report here that in the early contract letting if you look at the commitment to date column you'll see that you know the commitments for MWB participation are at $43 million, 29% of the construction contracts that have been out on the street have gone to MWB firms, the $148 million. You'll see it in terms of what has been contracted, $19 million of the 148 is actually under contract now. So that represents about 13 percent of that 29 percent commitment. Now what's actually been paid to date is the last column. So but as you can see, you know the numbers, the MWV numbers and the total prime numbers in the last column are still escalating. But the commitment to date is probably the most important category there, the 29% commitment in the first blue column is most important. And obviously that will grow as the project grows. Just moving on to some of the images of the work. Some aerial images that were taken recently. We have these taken monthly, just to show progress from above. Usually take from all four directions. It's where the site looks today. You can see perimeter, the perimeter walls. They've gone into place. East South starting to form here along the west. Not as much activity yet on the north, but that will come soon. Included this image is to sew the Texas live and proximity to the ballpark. activity yet on the north, but that will come soon. Included this image is to sew the Texas live and proximity to the ballpark. Obviously, this is the live structure, which is well underway. If you're driven by and around the mill, you see the steel that's coming up out of the ground. Live still has several more sequences of steel that have to go into place as we go north to south. And also in the foreground here highlighted in yellow that's the excavation that has begun for the hotel tower that would be there. Again this is looking west to east and then adjacent to the hotel tower ultimately we will have the convention space the meeting space adjacent to the tower so sorry about much scribbling there, but just want to give you feel for where Texas live is in relation to the ballpark. And then this is sight looking from sort of the roof of Glowbife Park back toward the site. You know we've got in the foreground here a lot of this work is related to the sanitary sword work that has to go on here and over on the plaza side of things. But just wanted to give you a feel really for the scope and magnitude of everything that is going on here. It's amazing to see the choreography and all the movements that are taking place on this massive job site. And then looking into the actual excavation, you know, we've been hauling all the materials out of this area, you see here in the foreground, the retaining walls that have started to go into place to see two different colors, you know, of soil here, more sand here in the foreground, the shale above that, the gray area, as we get deeper and deeper, and sort of that shale level, which again is expected in a project like this. In this image, you just sort of see the procession of trucks. And literally this is what's running 20 hours a day as we go deeper and deeper into that hole. Again, this is down into the shale area. So this is closer to where the actual bowl of the ballpark will be in the field area. Let's see what the retaining wall is here out of the outer edge and as we dig down into this area. Again, this actually is more proximate to the bowl. You can start to see it actually is taking shape as they excavate down. And just another view back. This one sort of shows you can see the retaining wall top. It's on one of the north edge. You can see the sand layer below and then the shale as we go lower and lower into the dig at this stage. We have hit some boulders primarily over on the east side of the property. We're hoping we wouldn't hit too many. They encounter the same thing when they excavated for AT&T stadium. So this is not unusual for the soil or for the geography in the area that we're in. As you can see, if they're too large, they have to be broken down into smaller b smaller boards before they can be hauled off. We have actually had a few citizens that are called wanting to know if they can get a few boulders. Some of these, as you can tell by the size of the equipment there, they're not something you can pull your pickup truck in and have us drop in the back for you. But maybe as we break them down into some of the smaller rocks, some people have had interest. I'm not sure if we're going to be able to comply or not, but there has been interest in the boulder. So that process, they literally have to be chipped down the smaller pieces to hold those off. But hopefully, I think once we get through all the sand, I think we feel like those will go away. So hopefully we're reaching the end of the boulder piece of this. Just another image of that work. And you can see how big those pieces are. And they have to be burping down the whole off. So a little bit of a time consuming process, but hopefully we're near the end. And it's the retention wall. When they excavate down, the wall actually gets built from top down. So it's done in five foot lifts. So each one of these lines essentially represents five feet of excavation in the second place. And then these pieces that you see sticking out of the wall are actually soil nails. So those go in about 50 feet and they're grattered with concrete and those actually anchor the building into place. And then you'll see some utilities. You know, those things have to be accounted for and drawn in advance. So we can get utilities in the right places. You can see some of these things have already been stubbed in. So that when we get down to the bottom and start to build back, you know, we have the appropriate supplies that we need. Just another image of the retaining wall. back. You know, we have the appropriate supplies that we need. Just another image of the retaining wall. Again, this one to look for four rows or this is about 20 feet down. Some areas the park will have to go down, you know, the main con course down the field will be 50 feet below grade. So it's we're we said we're about 50% done with excavation, but retaining wall is obviously behind that. Another view, this would be a wall that's under, still under construction, you can see all the soil nails have not been placed there. Rebar up above for piers. Look at that in a second. And that's the other part of the project. As I mentioned, we've already placed over 160 piers into the project now. And this is how piers get built. It's the rebar that will go into place to form the piers. Once they're then drilled out into the ground. So that's the work that has been going on to date. A lot of digging, let's say the retaining wall is done in five foot sections. And the soil nails have to be shot into support the ground. So time consuming process that excavation loans for months, you know, retention wall is said to be five to six. So, you know, just a lot of time consuming work to get the foundations right so we can then start to build back up from there. About three weeks ago, we actually had a drone go out over the site. So I thought it might be interesting to see what some of that footage looks like. And I do want to credit J. Ward and the City Communications team. They've been great partners with us. Mr. Yoverton mentioned the home played update. I know that J. Ward's closely with John Blake from our team to put that together. Angie Swind from our staff who's here today all collaborative to put that information out and do want to say thank you to Jay and thank you for using footage like this to help inform citizens and in the community and large about what we have going on. So we'll go ahead and answer your questions. That bull is history. I always have to have a little Eric Nadel. But by the way, we did have police and fire department clearance to fly the drone that day too. So we don't go up in the air without notifying the police department that we're doing that sheep. So make sure I'm in good standing with which sheep Johnson. So any questions or anything, can answer for council? Council, in comments or questions to Mr. Mattlet? It is very impressive. As a swamma said, Rob, so we really appreciate you giving us an update in that overview with the drone. It was always very interesting. So you're 50% complete with the hauling off of it. And you said you expect to be done in February? No, later in November. Yes. In February? Hopefully we can get done a little bit earlier. Depending upon weather, I guess. Yes, ma'am. Yes, ma'am. Yes, ma'am. Yes, ma'am. Yes, ma'am. Yes, ma'am. Yes, ma'am. Yes, ma'am. Yes, ma'am. Yes, ma'am. Yes, ma'am. Yes, ma'am. Yes, ma'am. Yes, ma'am. Yes, ma'am. and conservatively I'll say end of February, not going to be hopefully can move the timetable up. As we know it's a fast track project, so anytime we can gain is welcome, but we also understand that winter's coming. And it's possible we run the snow, we run the rain, and we could lose time. But right now we've been tracking on schedule. And so I guess the really big question and do we expect to still be open, open in day 2020? Yes ma'am, that's still clean. Absolutely. We're really looking forward to any comments from council? Mr. Parker? Rob, where are we putting all this dirt? Is it all going to the landfill right now or what's going on with it? Yes, the majority of it is, yes, it's going to the San Terri Landfill now up north on Collins, Pasfer Indian. We've had some people that have been interested in possibly getting some of the dirt. We also may have a design change on the east side where we're going to move some of the dirt. We're excavating now back over there to sort of level some areas out that we excavated down in the beginning. So to be a short move actually we'll just take it from the hole over to the east side of the project. But I believe the majority of it this stage has gone to the landfill. Trey have we not been able to do anything on greenoaks? Nusher my understanding is that that's engineering core of engineer permitting kind of thing. Mr. Pairshan might want to answer a little more specifically to that, but we've got three requests. Go into the landfill has covered dirt. There's an area adjacent to Viridian, which has some interest. And that's in for I think core of engineer review and then the area off green oaks, which also would have an opportunity for fill to help in the future. But there's I think engineering issues and permitting issues that would not be able to sync with the time this dirt's gonna show up. Then, it can't be moved at a future date because that dirt's gonna be there for a while. It's just in a way stationed at the landfill. Yeah, well what Jim Paragion, Deputy Chief, Council Member Parker, what Mr. Yellerton said is exactly right in order to move dirt onto this, basically that North Harlington site. There would be a series of permits that would have to be issued not just city permits but core permits and that timing, especially with what the corps working on now with some of the hurricane recovery, is just not able to be done within the timeframe of the dirt being moved. Ms. Farman. I guess I think you've answered part of the question. I was just wondering, you said you were working 20 hours a day, seven days a week, which four hours are you off? I know four to six in the afternoon because I believe that was something we worked out with city in advance to stay off Collins during the busy time of the afternoon rush. And I believe there's a comparable time. I don't know if it's four to six a.m. but the afternoon drive was, you know, city staff indicated to us that it would be important to be off the roadways with the trucks from four to six in the afternoon drive was you know city staff indicated to us that it would be important to be off the roadways with the trucks from four to six in the afternoon. So we've taken those two off and then there must be a corresponding shift change. If I had to guess it'd probably 12 hours after that so probably sometime in the morning when we transition the overnight to the morning and day shift. It is. Yes ma'am. Any other comments or questions, Council? Mr. Matt, we really appreciate you giving us the update. And I think it's really good to capture the building of it because once it's up and the hotel is up in Texas, people coming down, it's like you can't envision it not being there, right? So I think it's really for historical purposes. I think it's really good to capture it now like it's, you can't envision it not being there, right? Right. So I think it's really for historical purposes. I think it's really good to capture it now. That's cool. Thank you. Well, we appreciate the opportunity to come before Mary, council, and present. So look forward to the next one. Thank you. We appreciate the partnership. Thank you so much for coming today. Thank you. Next step, we have the presentation of downtown and university of Downtown University Housing. Ms. Thopel, thank you, Jensi. Thank you. Good afternoon, Mayor and Council, and all present here, Jensi Thopel, Interim Director for the Community Development and Planning Department. On October 17th, we had presented Downtown and Student University Housing to the Municipal Policy Council Committee. As you may remember, the report out was done at the work session Council Member Glaspy as a chair reported. And there was lots of discussion about this topic and you all suggested that we come back to the full council. So that's where I am here. The key topics today will be UTR LinkedIn enrollment trends, the depth of demand analysis in that, downtown and university housing projects, the ones that's existing, what's under construction and what's proposed. And we did a little bit of study, bit comparable universities and cities. So City of Denton and City of Austin in particular. The four studies that we looked at to have this presentation ready before y'all was the 2013 housing profile that was done with the City of Arlington. 2014 student housing master plan from UTR LinkedIn. 2016, depth and demand analysis. This was an off-campus housing at UTR LinkedIn, but done by a student housing developer research firm, Myers Research, and 2017 campus housing information for student housing developers done by UTR LinkedIn. So what you see here, this is Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board, released this fall enrollment history at UTR LinkedIn from 2006 to 2017. The total enrollment this fall has been $41,175. What you see in blue color that represents the enrollment for on-campus hours only. And what, as you can see, that blue color keeps decreasing. So in fact, the number of students taking on-campus hours only has now reduced, and it is the lowest in the last nine years. The red color, on the other hand, represents online enrollment only. So that has been increasing each year and this year it has amounted to more than 30% of the total enrollment. Also point to note is the enrollment of students for partly on campus and partly online. That is represented in green and that is also on the rise. So in 2016, Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board had projected 40,276 students as the enrollment number for 2017. But as you can see, the census data that released this fall already shows that we are more than 1,500 students over the number that they projected. So it's our student enrollment is really going up and up. And then 2020 to 2025, there will be another increase and all the way to 2030. The majority of that enrollment growth is attributable to the master's student population. So it grew by more than 1,000 students or 9.9% from 2015 to 2016. UTR LinkedIn has assumed a leadership position in the 60-30 initiative, which is having 60% of Texas residents aged 25 to 34 possess a post-secondary degree or a certificate by 2030. So towards this goal, the university is really focused on increasing enrollment and graduation rates. So how does all this data help in estimating student-oriented housing demand? Found and residential partners, who is the developer for 848 Mitchell, this was the student housing project that recently got approved by Council on Benjen Mitchell. Shared with us the our market study, they had commissioned Myers Research, market research and consulting firm to prepare it. This depth of demand analysis attempts to quantify the number of UT Arlington students requiring off-campus housing. So the methodology used is from the total enrollment when you deduct part-time students and you deduct non-traditional students. What non-traditional students means is 25 years and older and you deduct traditional students who reside with parents and commute from home. So if you deduct these three segments that gives you the potential demand pool. So in case of undergraduate students, the study shows 5% of the total undergraduate students reside with parents and commute from home to school. 7% are enrolled part-time and 52% are older than 25, so that's that non-traditional category. So that leaves us with a potential demand of 36% or 11,177 undergraduate students. So all of these 11,177 undergraduate students, 5458 live in on-campus housing units, which leaves 5,719 undergrad students that create a potential demand for on-campus housing, off-campus housing. Using the similar method, it was found that 3,747 graduate students create a potential demand for off-campus housing. So adding both the undergrad and grad students create a potential demand for off-campus housing. So adding both the undergrad and grad students, it comes out to a total potential demand for the by the bed housing of 9466. Of the 9466 total demand, 1,687 are already satisfied with class A off-campus housing. So that gives us the remaining potential demand for off-campus housing to be 7,779. now note that this number was all derived in the 2016, with the 2016 data. So based on historic enrollment trends, Myers research estimated a growth rate of, for undergrads to be 3% growth and graduates to be 5% growth and then they forecasted that depth of demand for the by the bed housing for the following four years. So these calculations are based on approval of all projects and the removal of existing housing needed to make way for the proposed West Campus residence hall. So now with the denial of the third and center plan development that happened on November 7th, we took out those numbers from the table. And that's what we see as the potential demand for our student housing there. Now, one thing to note is that these numbers do not include the absorption that has happened with 101 center as well as with 404 border. Although these are traditional multi-family projects, they have been popular among students. So if these were also counted for absorption purposes, that demand would have been reduced by another 750 beds. So the effect that the upcoming residence hall and off-campus construction will have on the market is what is reflected in these pie charts. So by fall of 2020, off-campus, the purpose-built student housing will have increased to a 8.7% share of the market. Gaining most of its ground at the expense of on-campus housing and other off-campus housing. That's the traditional multi-family or the class B or C multi-family. Another point to note here would be that the study does not have an emphasis on how online enrollment is going to change the need for housing around the university. Just like the digital revolution of online shopping has rapidly changed the viability of brick and mortar retail, likewise online education will continue to reshape our higher education in short period of time. The question remains, how quickly these changes will impact on the traditional model of student housing. So what do we have as current student oriented housing? On campus we have 5458 total beds and off campus we have 1,687 total beds. That's the class-says student apartments. Again, it does not include traditional multi-family projects that are popular with student. What's under construction? We have West Campus Residence Hall, which provides 534 beds, lift plus, which provides 789 beds. the site plan is almost approved and the plat goes to PNZ next week. They anticipate opening in fall of 2019. And then you have 848 Mitchell's and then you have 848 Mitchell's. And then you have 848 Mitchell's. And then you have 848 Mitchell, which was recently approved. Their site plan has been approved and the building permit is in review. Again, anticipated opening is in fall of 2019. And then we did some compares with other cities similar to our city with the university being approximately in proximity to downtown. So that's University of North Texas, which is in Denton, Texas with the enrollment of 37,979. And again, university very close to downtown. There's another university there, Texas women's university also close to downtown. And then University of Texas, Austin, which has 51,331 total enrollment. UTR LinkedIn is the second largest university in the UTC system just behind UTO Austin. Going to Denton. Denton has a development code and a future land use comprehensive plan. So the Denton development code talks about downtown university core districts. And that district is created to encourage mixed-use developments, and it's supposed to be a very pedestrian-friendly district. There are four land-use categories in that district, Downtown Residential 1, Downtown Residential 2, Downtown Commercial Neighborhood, and Downtown Commercial General. that district, downtown residential one, downtown residential two, downtown commercial neighborhood, and downtown commercial general. What those four zoning districts do is they really have a density limitation. So the density allowances increase from eight dwelling units per acre in DR1 or the downtown residential one all the way up to 150 dwelling units per acre in DCG, which is a downtown commercial general. So as you go through these districts, there are height limitations also come into play. So Denton Plan 2030, this is their future land use map. And what this is showing you is the blue areas are where the university is and the maroon area in the center is the downtown. Right next to the blue areas are some lighter blue areas. That's where they call it as a neighborhood university compatibility area. That's the area that they are focusing on because it is heavily impacted by student housing, parking over spills, by the University Property Acquisition. So that's the area they're looking to create more area plans and try to see what can be done. Again, Denton does not have a separate student housing as a separate land use. It is just treated as another multi-family, but the density is what controls there. In the Austin Development Code, they utilize an overlay district and additional design standards are placed in that overlay district. There are parking reductions for commercial uses. The Austin Code is more so written to create some kind of incentives for affordability, for housing as well. So if you look at their zoning map, they have a CBD, which is the downtown mix, a lot of vital ask for mixed use, and then have unzoned the university area and around the university area is the orange color multi-family zoning so the university is surrounded by primarily multi-family zone property and that multi-family zoning has a range of districts in it so it goes from multi-family limited density MF11, all the way to MF6. And again, that is also showing you the density increase and the height increases. Again, Austin Development Code also is looking at creating more neighborhood plans. They already have some neighborhood plan for the west part of their university. They are the overlay district allows for density bonuses as long as a portion of their development is set aside for affordable housing. And then the developer can pay partial fee in lieu of providing that affordable housing. So coming back to our LinkedIn, what's allowed here, what's the maximum density that we allow. So this is a map that shows the downtown business zoning district in purple color, the downtown neighborhood overlay, which is in the light green color, and the current UTA property, which is in the light brown color, and then a bold red outline that you see, that's the recently expanded UTA authorized land acquisition boundary. Also in this map, we've added some neighborhood outlines to kind of show you where town north is, where Hanna is, where Oak Hill neighborhood is. So currently in the UDC, we do have density bonuses in the downtown business zoning district and the downtown neighborhood overlaid district. The maximum density allowed increases up to 80 and 100 units per acre if it meets all the criteria for a mixed-use projects. That's how we have given the density bonus based on whether it's a mixed-use project. And if it is a mixed-use project, it could be approved administratively. So the discussion during the October work session revolved around whether we need to rethink about where we want to locate these purposefully built private student housing projects. Are we taking up prime land around the downtown core with student housing rather than market rate multi-family? Until we have these answers and a decision made to move forward, do we need to place any kind of moratorium on new private student housing projects? Do we create a specific use called student housing? Is there a need to create a specific area or zone where we would allow student housing by right so that when student housing developers come to us, they only target properties within that zone or should we just restrict student housing developers come to us, the only target properties within that zone, or should we just restrict student housing in the downtown business zoning district? So to answer all these questions, we definitely need to engage with the university itself and as a main stakeholder, also all the neighborhoods surrounding the university and the downtown stakeholders. We are in the process of finalizing the consultant for the downtown master plan, the kickoff for the project is scheduled to be in January. All these people would be involved in that effort as well. So this effort can be combined with the downtown master plan, but I don't know if you want to wait for that whole project to be completed to get to any answers or direction on this. So I'm here to listen to your thoughts and your direction on how you would like us to proceed. Well, to begin the discussion, I think that the first thing that I'm interested in is protecting our downtown core. There, and I think that we have a lot of good places to be able to put student housing. And the opportunities are only going to grow here in downtown. And I just would hate to see it totally used up. My student housing, that's one issue I have that I think that we need to tackle and it was really you know we had a student housing project that popped right up really in our downtown core that I was surprised to see that we didn't have any option. The zoning was already there to allow it and it was right here on top of this. But then the other part is that I think it is important that we do provide for student housing there. And in fact, right now is a key time for student housing to be built. Well, the interest rates are what they are so that our university can continue to grow. And don't want to stifle that growth. So I think that the other questions that you had, I think we've got to define our core for me. But then the other questions I think need more research to answer for me before I could say that. But I want to try to draw out our downtown core and work very closely with downtown Arlington here and doing it. And then the last thing I'll say is that I think that we need to move on this. I don't think we need to wait until the master plan is done because right now it's prime time and we will have a lot more student housing developed. We see them they have been coming on a regular basis. And that's really good because it's a sign that our university is doing well and they expected to grow There along the way, but I thought I'd throw it open here for other questions or comments that counsel may have mr. Parker Thank you mayor Gents, yeah, I noticed up in Denton that you utilized a measure called dwelling units Density was a hundred and fifty dwelling units. Is that correct? That's correct. Okay. Now is a dwelling unit a normal student housing unit where there is a common area and four bedrooms in a dwelling unit? So dwelling unit will include that whole four bedroom. So it's one unit is just called one dwelling unit. OK, so I would rather you take a look at carbon-based units, which are actually students, OK? And find out what the density of students are in some of these projects because I think that that is the standard that we need to really take a look at. If you take a look at the 150 dwelling units okay per acre then that's 600 students. A density of 600 students per acre is craziness, okay? That's me, that's just me. I liked the way that you took a look at the demand for UTA and that the student demand of on-base living has actually gone down a little bit. And the other students are a real question mark for us. We don't know how they're going to fit into the mix. But for the most part, I agree that there is a demand for student housing in and around the downtown district, in and around the university. But I think that it has to be done. We don't need to fill that gap tomorrow. We need to progress methodically and do it in such a fashion as to get the best product for the community than we can and also for the living experience for the student. I think that's important to take a look at. We've had a, in one week, we had a project come to us with a density of 130 students. Now that's acceptable to some, unacceptable to others, but 130. And then the very next week we had somebody come with 270 students per acre. Okay, and it was unanimously defeated because that density was not attractive to counsel. So I think that there's a there's an area in there and I want might say that the developer stated that the 270 number worked and my question to him was why did the 130 number work for the guy last week? Okay so they're gonna tell you all kinds of stuff, but I think that the city needs a standard that we can say our density is this, and if you have a project that's more than that, we need to stick by our guns and say, this is our density, either live with it or don't. And so that would be my input to you. And thank you for your presentation. It was very helpful. Mr. Sheppard. Thank you, Mayor. I think the thing that I've been struggling with on this topic is for 20 some odd years we struggled with the downtown plan and trying to find a way to encourage development downtown. And I agree I'd way to encourage development downtown. And I agree I'd like to protect the core. But all during that, we were told, and I don't, I guess proof is in the pudding, that until we had some type of residential density down here, there really would be no interest in developing. Now, I don't know if that's residential density of people that make a million dollars a year or residential density of students. We never really got that deep in the weeds on what kind of residential density we needed. And so where I've been conflicted about this whole thing, student housing in general, is I've been nervous about the absorption rate. You know, we we seem one year we have enough the next year we don't and it seems like we get mixed signals. The math that Jinsy put up on the on the board there was a little fuzzy for me because there were a couple in their analysis of the demand, there were two or three units online that I didn't really see taken into account. Maybe they were and I just missed it. But all that's a long way of saying I don't know if more Torium's the right word but it concerns me that we're over the last, I guess, four years it's been. We've approved a lot of student housing, whether we do it by carbon units per acre or dwelling units per acre. And I for one would like to kind of tap the break a little bit and slow down and see how all of this kind of plays out. We had what we thought was some market rate housing that may or may not be market rate housing. And we just seem to have a lot of beds with potential demand, but I haven't seen everybody lease up. The ones that are there are doing well from my understanding. So I don't know. That's just a roundabout way of saying, I'm not sure what the answer is. I'd like to encourage development in downtown, but I don't know if residential development is the key as we were told for the last 20 years. Okay, Ms. K. Parts. Thank you Mayor and Mr. Shepherd, I agree with your analysis. So whether more Toriums are right word or not or pause, tap the breaks or whatever, but what do we do about the for instance where the zoning was already there and it doesn't even come to us? And so if there's some more Torium quote unquote or a pause or whatever and that we get to weigh in on it because it's a zoning case, I get it. But what if it's already zone? Mr. Shepherd has a comment. I guess that kind of, that's part of my comment. You know, back with the Frigginese study, I don't know, however many years ago that was, which developed the DB zoning district and the DN zoning district. And the whole idea at the time, as it'll conceive, as it might have been great opportunity to create an atmosphere to allow developers to come and develop hard to develop property. And in exchange for density, we would require some type of commercial zoning, whether it's restaurant retail or what have you on the ground floor. And that was all the rage, I don't know, 15 years ago. And it may have passed now, I don't know. But the thinking was, hey, if you want to provide all this density, you got to give us something in exchange. Because we need retail development. We need restaurants, we need banks, barbershops, all that kind of stuff. And so we were trying to encourage the development by giving density. Now, there have been a couple that have taken advantage of that and are telling us now they can't give the retail space away, even though they promised to give us that in exchange for the density. So I don't know what the answer is. I don't know if we need to revisit the downtown plan, but the DB and the DN zoning was specifically predicated on that basis with the friggin' ESE study. And I only know that because I spent two years of my life working on it back along the planning and zoning. So that was the idea. And I remember some of that discussion but I appreciate the refresher but it still begs the question about how do we protect land for commercial development while all the while making sure we're encouraging student housing in the places where it's needed but protecting the downtown core is the mayor who said I don't. the city of San Francisco. I think that's a good direction. I think what you just said would be good direction for staff to look at. There and I think it coincides with what Mr. Shepherd said. So I think having you look at. You know what what is the downtown core? What do we need to do that? Or where is student housing allowed under current zoning? And where it risks? You know, what is the downtown core? What do we need to do that, or where is student housing allowed under current zoning? And where at risk is Miss Cape Art said, and then is Mr. Shipperd said, what is that balance? And where is it that we want student housing to occur? So what we have in the books is the downtown core is the downtown business zoning district. So am I hearing that we want to redefine the downtown business zoning district? And that is the area. No, I think it would be defining an overlay in the core because it might not be following just purely the lines of the downtown business district. You know, I mean, there might be some circumstances that you would go outside of it, or maybe the other way around, that there may be some perimeter places that are good spots for it, Ms. Wolf. I agree. I think this is the time to really drill down. I hate to hear you say another overlike, because we have so many boundaries, including the public improvement boundary and the tax increment financing boundary. Most people look at it so much which line are we following now, but this is the time for the downtown management corporation to revise their five-year plan. So this would be the perfect time to come in and Perhaps not have them as solo but they're made up of property owners and business owners and And I know there's concern We need more density and commercial follows race thoughts and that's why we can't get anything down here In that you don't have enough people living here and commercial follows, root throbs. And that's why we can't get anything down here in that you don't have enough people living here. They don't have the borrowing or buying power. But our mind you downtown is less than 250 acres. UTA is over 450. So as Tom Craven said said 25, 30 years ago, you know, the 400 pound gorilla in the room is UTA and they don't want to build any more student housing and some of these folks who have built student housing around here have approached UTA and said would you like to purchase my new New Newtaly built department? UTA says no we're not to purchase my new Newtaly Bill Department? And UTA says no, we're not in the apartment bill. But we don't want to be in the dorm. We want to grow our product here and educate students. So I think the timing is right. I just hate to think that we're going to do another overlay and draw another line around it. My rule. It may be an alternative to that would be to actually revise the downtown. There you go. I mean, if you wanna bring in a racer in and let's kind of review, let's play like this was 25 years ago. Now we know what's on the ground. Now let's deter, I could totally support that that as long as we've got all the stakeholders and the property owners in the room but the hard thing about developing downtown is that original track that's a little 25 foot tracks of land and it was assembling that's where it's so expensive to go in and buy up everything on a block and you get one hold out. So how do you say we need commercial but it's got to follow density and population and how can you let a developer come in and assemble property? I think this is the perfect time to put together a working group and bring a racer and a new chalkboard and kind of start over. My question to Jensie is a lot of that green area that's the neighborhood overlay kind of falls into the historic area and I remind you most of that property to the west of first Methodist church and around there. Y'all wouldn't believe how much of that's already multi-family, duplex multi-family so it can happen just like that but we still got trailer parks just just just to the side of the I just think there's a lot of stuff to look at and if and I applaud the efforts to come in and redo but I'm saying let's bring in a racer and let's start scratch. This woman. Yeah, also the other thing that comes into play when I look at that is remember this core downtown. Remember how much of it is off the tax roll. We've got all the government buildings, the churches, a whole bunch of the university. You look at that map and a whole bunch of that didn't go to go and see what the university is outlined now and expanded. And then so I agree that I think the core downtown needs to maybe be tweaked to include maybe. I don't know which way you can go, but go another way. So I would agree with you because some of that can never be developed unless you think about how many buildings are here that are not available and how much land here that's not available in this downtown core and never will be probably. So. Another point then on that and I hate to start looking at the whole thing but one of the other impediments to development down here is our parking ordinance. When we adopted the DB zoning district we decided that cutting the required parking in half made a lot of sense. Well, even that is too much for some parcels. Then there are others in the downtown that would argue we don't have enough parking. So while we're, if we're going to be looking at erasing things, I would encourage us to look at other impediments to development as part of that examination. Parking is just one. There's a number of other things that have come up over the next last 15 years or so that people are saying the reason I'm not building down there is bill in the way. So, Ms. Wolfe. That's why if you increase your property values, it makes more sense to do structured parking than we had 68% of downtown was concrete and asphalt. And we had little retailers that said, no, no, no. You know, people, they had to park in front of my business. I cannot, that's where we had pushed back from so many people that said, no, I need my parking places here. So it has changed. So I think there's a whole different new point of use. Miss Walman. The parking, we've just started yesterday with new technology changing. And people are going to be using their, their automobiles less and less is what it looks like. When we do ride share and when UTA and bicycling and that is coming on and the new technology. So I think we need to be careful about trying to build too many, or maybe for the immediate future, there needs to be a short term, but long term, I don't think we're gonna need all that parking, is what's projected through transportation technology. So Ms. Tompill, I think that what we needed to do, you asked the right questions. And I think that a little bit of research needs to be done. And then perhaps I'll, I need to form a working group here specifically for this. I think. I did want to point out the parking issues. So in the last downtown master plan also, there was a parking study done and that's where those requirements came out, why we needed to reduce the number of parking. Similarly, but the new downtown master plan that we're looking at, we will be doing a parking study. So there will be some recommendations that come out of the downtown master plan related to parking. The immediate issue I think at hand was how are we protecting the core area from having student housing projects in there? And that's where we wanted to look at the core right now that we have, which is downtown business zoning district, but redefine it to see if that is the right core that we want to use as our protection tool, or if there has to be some tweaks to it. Is that what you're saying? Yes, I think that is one of the main things. There's your other questions need to be answered too, but that's the big one. Yes. I think there's a difference in commercial and business. You know, for years and years, we had a thriving downtown, but at five o'clock, the doors were closed because it was offices. It was the banks. It was municipal building, it was county government and the doors were locked and five o'clock you could walk down Main Street and you could walk down April and there wasn't a car, nothing ever came back. So we kept saying, how do you get a shoe store down here? How do you get a jewelry store to come back or how do you get commercial properties, you know, where it relies on people coming to exchange money for goods and build that walkability. And I think that's where you got to come in at some point and address the density where it is it come from because they're not going to get in their car and drive here to go buy a pair of shoes. So I love the ideal of coming together but it needs to be very timely. We'll have a working group work on this. Okay. Thank you. Thank you, Ms. Toggle. Next we'll move to the Arlington Urban Design Center update Miss Ann Foss. Good afternoon mayor and city council Ann Foss principal planner in the community development and planning department. I'm here to date to give you a quick update on the Arlington Urban Design Center, which has now been an operation for eight years and has recently completed its 300th project. The design center is a collaboration between the city and the UTA's College of Architecture, Planning, and Public Affairs, or Kappa. It's staffed by graduate student interns and we provide free conceptual design services to neighborhoods, private businesses, and government nonprofit institutions throughout Arlington. Some of our common project types include landscaping plans, facade improvements, site planning, building design, street scape enhancements, and visual renderings to be able to illustrate to our clients exactly what their goals or visions might look like. In your packet, you have a couple of slides outlining some of our recent accomplishments and illustrating several of our recent projects. And at this time I'm happy to take any questions you may have. Any questions or comments? Miss Cape Art. Just a shout out to Mr. Parijon for making this a reality. Back when when you came from Gary Was Gary North Carolina or Carrie North care? Wherever anyway, then he brought this idea with him and it's been such a success and I and a great partnership over at UTA So thank you and thank you for heading it up now. We appreciate your work. Thank you And thank you for heading it up now. We appreciate your work. Thank you. Yes, Ms. False, please express our gratitude there to the students and the professors and our staff that's involved there. It's a big help and really helps visualization and creative ideas to come forward and really appreciate that. Ms. Walman. Just one thing. How many days are they open? What are the working hours down there? I think the public would really more people should take advantage of that because it's an awesome endeavor Generally, we try to be open between 9 and 2 Monday through Thursday and the design center Space is located on the first floor of the city hall lobby. It's a little glassed-in box That's easy to see when you walk into the lobby. Our schedule does fluctuate a little bit based on student schedules, but generally Monday through Thursday, 9 to 2. Do people need an appointment? Nope. Anybody is welcome to stop in. The students are there to be able to answer some basic questions and my contact information is available there too And the students can refer people to me. We also have information on the city website and my contact information for people who may be looking for our services All right This will I just say oftentimes I'll have someone in my office to discuss a small piece of property or so. And I'll say, well, have you know what goes on downstairs? And so I'll just kind of drag them down there and let them walk through and see everything and what. And y'all are just wonderful of setting up appointments with those folks. And they had no idea. And it's just been a great asset to let people dream their dreams before they go and have to hire architects and building construction plans and it's just been great. So very successful. Thank you. Thank you, Miss Foss. Appreciate your work. Thank you. Next we'll move to current sign regulations and we'll turn over Miss Topel again. and we'll turn it over to Ms. Topel again. I can see the interim director of community development and planning. I'm just here to answer any questions you may have. Mr. Yeilverton, so I want to put a little more context to that. What we've provided here is just your current sign regulations. You all have talked, I think, at the retreat it was brought up. And maybe at one of the retreat, it was brought up and maybe at one of the council meetings it was brought up to discuss a little bit about what's going on in some of the market as it relates to sign ordinances or the willingness or ability for you all to talk about it again. So really this is intended to be to the what degree and what topics within this ordinance would you like to talk about it if any? And so the background information here is to To lay that out. So let me chair some Things here on this one is our I 30 corridor is predominantly developed Our I 20 corridor is getting there and then we have a section of 360 that is and then we have a brand new section of 360 that's coming in really with the main lanes being done south. We have some and now that we have had improvements and so forth both on interstate 30 and now on interstate 20 I think there are some specific uses there that are suffering because they cannot have signs and so forth. And I really would like to look at some of the specific uses there. And I'll give you an example. Here's the Park Place Mercedes right behind Cine Street there. And the owner there approached me and said, you know, if we were able to have a sign, people don't see us coming from the east going west, the westbound traffic there until they are past us. And the bridge is there and does block. And he said that it's an interesting business, some are destination oriented but those dealerships really do pick up on that. And then also have a hotel that has spent literally millions of dollars renovating their hotel and they have a pole sign out in front on 360 at Abram Street that they want to replace, but under the current ordinance, if they replace it, they're going to have to put a monument sign in basically. And it is not a good-looking sign and it needs to something to do with it and that's a specific instance now. You know, and maybe that's the answer that each one comes in for a variance there on it, but I think that these are two very real things that I think deserve our attention that could be huge upgrades. Otherwise, we're going to be sitting there with businesses hurting or ugly signs that we can't do anything with. And those are two instances where we have it because we know what our corridor is going to look like now and we have that benefit and that's a great thing because after cities have developed it gives you an opportunity there to go back and look. There it's specific areas to see where you can help and what you can. So that's where that first came from, Mr. Forker. Thank you, Mayor. If I'm not mistaken, six flags came to us to put up a sign that was very much the same as their previous sign. And couldn't that hotel utilize the same parameters with the ordinance that Six Flags used in order to... I understand the pull sign aspect of it, but Six Flags did put up a pull sign. So what's good enough for Six Flags ought to be good enough for that particular hotel. One of the things that I would like to see, Ms. Topel, is the fact that there are new technologies and signage that is coming to play. And of course, they want to come to our city. And they want to be able to utilize those technologies. And I didn't see in the ordinance where that capability is in that ordinance to take a look at these new technologies. How do you go about dealing with that? I think what technology wise, what was done is previously we had something called as electronic reader board and electronic message center signs. Electronic reader board was where you only had words that could be displayed and that will change after some time or scroll. Whereas electronic reader board is something digital that it just flips with an image or something like that. But as technology changed, there's really anybody who had an electronic reader board had the same technology embedded that could display it as an electronic message center. And so people had already started doing that. So we actually took out the electronic reader board completely and allowed all reader boards to just become electronic message center sign. So they can advertise as electronic message center sign. So that was one. And as you have, as you have a sign that was under the old ordinance and now is a non-compliant essentially with the new ordinance is there not something that will allow them to upgrade that specific sign that they have is there something in the ordinance that allows them to do that. So face change to a non-conforming sign is allowed they can always do a face change so if a new business comes or if the same business just wants to refresh their sign with the face change, they can do that. What they cannot do is enlarge that sign. So that's not allowed. However, with the sign code update that we did in 2015, most of the sign provisions, the area, the heights were all increased in all the other standards. So for example, on freeways, even if pole sign is not an allowed sign type, the monument sign which was only allowed to be 12 foot in height is now increased to 20 feet in height. The multi-famil-multiped tenant ground sign, which was supposed, which was previously only 15 feet in height, is now 25 feet in height. So there was an increase made, increase in the size of the sign to make it more effective for visibility purposes. I guess the reason that I'm asking that question is in the event that you have the hotel in question is backed up against that sign, is backed up against an overpass on a freeway. And if you take that particular sign that was way back in the day constructed and you want to modernize that sign You're going to lose X amount of feet and X amount of visibility From the freeway. So how do you accommodate that? Can they not simply put up a sign of the same dimension and Modernize that sign they cannot take out the sign and put something new there with that same dimension. They can reface it. However, that is the avenue to look at for an alternate sign plan, just like how you were saying with the six flags or the Harkin Arbor, where they did, they went through the process of alternate sign plan where there are site constraints or visibility issues and they're not able to literally meet our standards but there is some constraint that's making them go this path. That's the avenue to come for as an alternate sign plan but it goes through Council approval. Thank you. Yes, thank you. sign plan but it goes through council approval. Thank you. Yes. Thank you. Miss Sheppard. The Arlington Highlands had to do the the same thing when the when the bridge was constructed it it ended up obstructing the view westbound on 20 of their signs and so I would think that there is a, and on the books solution for the Mercedes dealership today, but I'm happy to look at it. Our sign ordinance has been a bear for years, and we turn left and we should have turned right. It seems like every time we've dealt with this, and I, the signs look better now than they did, but there are a number of people who end up getting hurt by the fact that they really would like to remove a poll sign, for example. But what they can put in its place doesn't really provide them the visibility that they need. And so you start comparing the cost of you know what a pylons are blade sign or whatever it is and you're like my gosh I'll just leave the tarp over the pole sign so we really don't get the best bang for the bug so maybe the alternative sign package deal or some little thing in the ordinance that says you don't like what staff says, you can come to council. I don't know. That worked. Other other comments input. Yeah, Miss Walman. Poll signs, we do have them, but they can only be how tall, 20 feet. 25. 25 feet. Because remember, we had that issue with 360. And they wanted 40. Was it 60? Yeah. And so, but we do have polls on it 25, but I guess that's not enough to. Well, I'm more interested. I think the new corridors we have a great up to. I'm talking about the existing corridors. I think is more what I'm concerned with because I think we're in pretty good shape in the new corridors there, but I do think that looking at new technology that Mr. Parker brought up is away and then the two instances that I brought up maybe there is a way with the alternate sign plan to take care of both of those down. So the big question is there, the last comment that Mr. Shepard made was that there are, that our sign ordinance has been an issue, but it's a question whether we do revisit that or not or leave it like it is. And I'll just instruct the people of Kundamini to come in with an alternate sign plan. Ms. K. Port. Well, it would seem like we could accommodate both, Mayor. So when you have a special situation like we're talking about the Mercedes-Benz dealership, I mean, there's an impediment there that was somewhat created by us, actually. That I guess I didn't envision that becoming a problem until it was brought to my attention by you. But in those situations, I don't know if it's really a variance or it's an anomaly kind of thing and it's, it is a deterrent to the business quarter, which is not what any of us I think you're desiring. But to open the whole thing back up, it's a massive undertaking. It is. And so is there a way staff that we can review it kind of on a case by case basis and you make a recommendation? It could come to council versus them actually having to go through the process of getting out of the council agenda. Oh, blah, blah, blah. I don't know if that's even possible, but whatever kind of creative thought you have with that. So right now in the books that we have is two processes. One is AEC which is an alternate equivalent compliance process which is approved administratively at my level and that is minor changes to our standards. But when it goes to a much major deviation, that's when we bring it to Council for an approval. You are asking for another process, is what? No, I'm asking for maybe a third way. But, and think about it. I mean, I think we're maybe a third way. And think about it. I think we're all thinking about it. But I think you kind of get the gist from what we're hearing in council. We'd like for situations like we've talked about today to have some special consideration or thought and be creative about how we can accommodate it if indeed it warrants it. Without them actually having to go through planning and zoning and coming to council for a public hearing that delays the process quite a bit. And what we did at the Highlands Disciro-Communist for Shepherd was, because it was a multi-tenant sign and it was ground-based, it wasn't technically a poll sign. Yeah, but it was a change. Yeah, right. We allowed it to go higher. So maybe it's something like that could work with Mercedes-Benz. Even right now. And with, instead of it being a poll sign. So kind of, whatever kind of creative thought you have about that Ms. Thalple, if you could kind of bring it back to us and let us consider it. Sure. If that's a suggestion Mayor. I think that sounds great. Everybody okay with that? Okay. That's all we do. Thank you very much. Appreciate it. Okay next we move into discussion of committee meetings and we'll start with municipal policy. Mr. Glaspy. Thank you Mayor of the municipal policy, Mr. Glanspie. Thank you, Mayor. The municipal policy committee met this morning with three members present. Subject, we were going to focus on home-based business ordinance. And the member of our group, who's most interested in that, was sick and not with us this morning. So we decided instead of grinding through unnecessarily, we would wait until Dr. Ferremayer has come back to discuss that. Then we'll move to community and neighborhood development, Ms. Wolf. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. We did meet. And starting last October, we began addressing parking issues, specifically parking in neighborhoods. And most critical that the committee felt like was the parking in the neighborhood surrounding the entertainment districts. So we worked with code enforcement, we worked with the police traffic group and we got a really good forward moving report today and I'm holding two pages of red. Y'all know when we change an ordinance that's in red. And we're starting with simply making sure that our general parking language and requirements is consistent with the state language. So we're gonna recommend the adoption of these revised definitions that will be coming forward to full council in January. I'm sure. And then also we wanted to look at the proposed entertainment district parking ordinance. And we really had two options there on which way we could go. And one was a resident only parking zone that all of these are citizen driven, I assure you. Vehicle permits would be required. There would have to be an enforcement capability. It would be by citation only versus looking at literally no parking zones. Now, you know, we're talking in the entertainment district with full restriction, no parking anytime during special events. Zones would be designated by a director that would be appointed by the city manager that would call those on those special events. No vehicle permits would be required, but it would include the towing ability because it would be in that area. We ask staff to move forward and bring that to work session to full council in January to discuss that no parking zone theory. And let's see how what the flavor and the desire is on that. The other issue that we're addressing is the parking in the neighborhoods. We see that. We got a really good hold on that. Again, it's a very proactive neighborhood driven. We're not ready to present that to full council yet, but we saw that as a very good future discussion island item. It would have to be neighborhood driven. It would have to be neighborhood specific. It would have to be under the control of that neighborhood. So we will continue to work with staff and bring that forward next. But we really feel like I think it was brought up that the NFL draft will be in April. The Rangers will be going full blown in April and that we just don't wanna delay the parking in those three specific neighborhoods that really about that, that had that incredible impact from a special event. So we'd like to get that on the books and I bring that to you all in in January and let's see what we can do with it. So we were like to get that on the books and bring that to you all in in January. Let's see what we can do with it. So we were in full agreement there and that concluded our meeting. Right. Mr. Parker, I'm sure you have comments. Just in addition to the chairman's comments, which was a very good report on what we what we discussed today. We're talking about the woodside area over behind Walmart. We're talking about the Roosevelt area, another area south, south and west of Roosevelt area. And the pressure, the fact that we put the stadium there has been something that has caused life in those areas during event times to be extremely difficult because of people passing through their neighborhoods, people parking on their lawns, people parking in the street, people actually not being considerate of the individuals that live in those neighborhoods. So what we thought the best thing to do would be put up no parking signs, be able to flip those no parking signs at each event. We thought that this time would be a good time to try to do this so that we could get not only the draft, but also the concert events that are very heavily attended and make sure that those that particular template or trial basis actually would work for us and even if you have during events, even if you have friends that want to come over to your home, they're going to have to find a place to park in your driveway or a neighbor's driveway in order to enjoy the event at your own home, which is problematic and something that the owners, not the tenants, but the owners of those properties is going to have to decide. So we thought this was the best way to go about this. We thought it would take away the marshaling that our police have to do currently and putting up the barricades and having the police out at each one of the entrances of all those neighborhoods. And it would simply take care of the problem in total. So that's the conclusion that we reached and we'll see what the flavor is of the council. Okay. Any other questions or comments? All right. We'll move on then to economic development, Mr. Shepard. Thank you Mayor Economic Development Committee. and then economic development, Mr. Shepherd. Economic development committee met today. All members were present. We had briefings from staff on matters that were discussed in executive session. Okay. Then we'll move to miscellaneous items, appointments to boards and commissions, Miss Alpino. Mayor will have 14 appointments this evening. Okay. Evening agenda items, does anybody have anything they want to discuss. Miss Wolfe. I wanted to point out that item 8.24 was the resolution of no objection for the heights it may feel and the applicant has asked for an extension for continuation so that will not be heard on tonight's agenda. The other one was we will remove from the table and you have before you the housing tax credit review policy revised as of today so you will see that change in red. So if you'll look at that and know that we will be bringing that forward this evening just wanted to point those two items out there. Great. Anything else on the evening agenda items? Okay. Then we'll move to issues relative to City and Techstop projects. Ms. Walman. I probably don't know exactly what I got a letter and maybe you got it too. From Techstop, they are addressing sound barriers on the 360-30. I think everybody got it. But just I think that's good for everyone to know that they are taking care of what they're supposed to be taking care of out there to help our businesses. So I think there's going to be some public care. I've glanced at the letter, but I didn't get the date, so I meant to bring it in. But anyway, they are addressing that issue. Great, thank you, Ms. Walman. Other issue, Mr. Parker and the Ms. K-PAR. Back on the agenda items for the evening, I'll be abstaining from 11-2, which is the platinum storage vote. Okay, Ms. K-PAR. Thank you, Mayor. I've recently seen some activity on 20 in Bowen. Ms. Carmichael, is that the text that you turn that you're getting prepared to do there? Mindy Carmichael, Director of Public Works and Transportation. I don't think that's the, there's some other work that text does doing as a standalone project. We've not awarded our project yet. Okay, okay. I've seen the cones out there along 20 at Bowen and I'm just trying to figure out what's going on. I say that was like some railing improvements or something along the along the highway itself. Is it? Okay. It would be under the free. Right. Right. But I thought maybe you I have to drive 287 lot in Mansfield and they're doing a bunch of that stuff and they're narrowing it down to two very tight I was wondering if we're about to do that bow and but that's not it. Okay. Thank you Anything else on relative to city and textile projects Okay future agenda items Okay. Future agenda items. Okay. Seeing no further business then for the afternoon session, we'll stand adjourned and we'll come back together at 630 tonight. Thank you. you