May 4th. May the 4th be with you work session the garland city council. Before we begin
our regular order today, we have several council members who are. It'll be their last
work session with us council member, bass council member beard and council member
williams and especially want to give. Well, give a word of thanks to all of you who I've
served with, had a pleasure serving with and wish you the best going forward. Thank you
so much for all of your service to the city. Thank you so much. And we also have one very
important councilmember here, council member williams, who's served over well. He served 12
years, that being six terms as city council member for district four. And we have a
few speakers who are signed up. They want to speak and commemorate this, this moment.
so, madam secretary, would you please call our first speaker who signed up for this? Yes,
sir. Stephen mason. Anywhere you want. Yes, sir. It's o open. I'm up in personal. Fellow. You
know, mayor, fellow council members. Good evening. It's good to be able to see all of
you here today. I want to take a moment to be able to recognize a good friend of mine.
I'll tell you. I served as the mayor of the city of cedar hill since 2019. But prior to that,
consistently for the last 16 years, I have been serving on the city council in cedar hill.
and I remember going back when I first came on in 2010, shortly within my within my
first term, I had met council member bj williams. Good evening, sir. And bj was
someone who was always warm, who always came to me and be able to give me some words of
advice. You know, you know, your your counterpart. And he just, you know, just always
gave me some words of wisdom. I remember even when he had termed out of his first cycle
that he still was active with texas association of black city council members. And if you're
not familiar with that organization, it is an affiliate of texas municipal
league, tml and you know, we that's it gives us an opportunity for us to be able
to try to come and educate, you know, elected officials and to be able to give them a platform
if they need help with things like budget, or they have a question about how to be able
to be a good council member. That's what that organization prides itself on. So council
member williams has been involved with that organization, that affiliation, for quite some time. That's where we met. But even after he had finished his first term, he still stayed
active. I don't have to tell you this, but he has been a good, you know, public servant.
and I just want to be able to come and hopefully this is a surprise to you, sir, to see me
here in your city, to be able to come and recognize you. So I do have a resolution here.
please oblige me to go ahead and read this. Whereas cj member I'm sorry. Whereas
council member bj williams has dedicated decades of service to the residents of garland and
broader north texas community through exemplary leadership, civic engagement and public
servant. Mr. Williams served first served on the garland city council from 2012 to 2018,
and was again sworn into office in 2020, continuing his service through may 2026. Throughout
his tenure, mr. Williams has demonstrated a steadfast commitment to improving
infrastructure, strengthening the community partnerships, advocating for policies that
enhance the quality of life of of residents. His service extends beyond elected official
elected office, including his role on the garland planning commission from 2002 to 2008,
where he has contributed to thoughtful planning and development efforts. Mr.
williams has been a dedicated advocate for civil rights and community empowerment, serving
as the president of the naacp garland unit from 1996 to 2010. His leadership has also been
recognized at the state of national levels through his service on transportation
infrastructure policy committee with the texas municipal league 2013 2014, and the
transportation and infrastructure services committee with the national league of cities in 2014 through 2018, mr. Williams has remained actively engaged in
his community through his faith and service as member of mount. And I can't say this name, is
it? Pisgah missionary baptist church in rhardson, texas, and throughout his lifelong
commitment as a member of omega psi phi fraternity, his legacy and leadership, mentorship, and
service continues to inspire those who follow in his footsteps and reflect the
highest ideals of public service. I resolve that I, steve mason, on behalf of the
city council and the citizens of cedar hill, texas, do hereby recognize and commend council
member bj williams for his outstanding service, leadership and unwavering dedication to
his community. Signed on the fourth day of may 2026, mayor steve mason and it's signed as
the tabccm past president. I'm not sure if you are aware, but andrea barefield the tabccm
president. She won her reelection and she is now. As of saturday, the president
elect of texas municipal league. So she is now to your mayor. So tmbccm since they regard the
city of cedar hill, since they regard to tisha hill out of oak springs, your neighbor, she is
going to walk k in through the door any minute now. But look, here's here's here it is from
from our heart. We just want to be able to thank you for who you are. Thank you for your
service. And we want to be able to give you your flowers. Thank you for what you have done in
our community and support to bcm, but also what you have done here in garland. So I have
this here for you, and I do want to give you your flowers, literally and figuratively.
this is for you, sir. Mayor, do you mind? Please? No, please.
thank you. Madam secretary. Do we have another speaker lined up? Yes, sir. Ronald e jones
and ernst. Good.
yeah. Honorable mayor. I usually give our speakers three minutes, but
I will defer. You have as long as you need, sir. Please go right ahead. We're not going to
deviate from protocol. The mayor, mayor, pro tem manager and members of the council. I
come this evening representing the omega psi phi fraternity, particularly the theta alpha
chapter, of which honorable bj williams is an outstanding member. The tentacles of his
service and the reach of his impact is nationwide, as you know. Of course, I know him as
a staff member of garland. I know him as the mayor of garland. He played a major role
in my election all three times. He played a majajor role in counseling me as a staff person,
but a lot of the history you may not be aware of. And thank you, councilman, more for
inviting us by way of the mayor and the council. We appreciate that. Bj had a major impact in
changing the structure of government in the city of garland, because we used to
elect council people at large. He played a major role in. That led to the implementation of
single member districts, and he insisted that it be done proper in order, without a lot of
fanfare being all in the news and all of that. And we thank you for what you've done. But
my sponsor in the omega psi phi fraternity, who would introduce other members who are with us,
will do most of the talking. Bj was an individual that wrote a letter of recommendation that
led to me being able to get through the first phase of being considered to be a member
of the beloved omega psi phi fraternity. Brother ernest good. Will you introduce our other
members who are with us and then comment on bj's impact? Good evening. My name is ernest
good and I have known bj for over 50 years. Not only as an omega but as a neighbor. I live
in mesquite on the hill and he lives down the hill in garland and I always tell him if it
rain, if there's a flood, he can come into me my house. Because he won't. We won't get
wet. But this afternoon, several brothers have shown come to show their support and
their love for billy, terrence randall. Ben tubbs, brother patrick smith and patrick is a
former district representative. The omega psi phi fraternity is a nationwide international
fraternity, and the four districts that we are part of are texas, louisiana, arkansas
and oklahoma. And patrick was a district representative for a couple of years, and I think I
saw henry hammond's brother, hammond. Okay. And I think I think all of them live in
mesquite and garland, with the exception of me and ben. Ben and I live in mesquite, but
we've all known billy for a long time. Billy. Ronnie said that billy is a stalwart in our
fraternity. When billy speaks, people listen. He's like the e.f. Hutton, because we know
when billy gets up to say something, he has something to share based on his knowledge
and his wisdom and just who he is. Not only have I known billy as a fraternity brother, but
billy in his wife dorothy, and his daughterhonda. We've been friends ever since I've been in
dallas. Our girls went to dance class together, so we just known billy for a long time.
and I'm glad that billy had an opportunity to serve the city of garland because he is a
servant. He's a servant leader. He's a dedicated person, as you all know. And we are just so
pleased to have him in as a member of our fraternity. And we wouldn't miss this opportunity to come out and give him his flowers, because I believe that you should give
people their flowers while they can smell them. I've had the opportunity to say a lot of
times at funerals, things about people and but they couldn't hear a thing. I said, but billy,
we love you and we respect you. And. And I'll say this, I'm glad that you're turning out so
that you can rest a little bit because you can't do it all. You know, you have to know when
to step down. And because of the way the city is structured, they tell you that you have to
step down after a certain amount of time. And it's not because they don't want you,
it's because they want somebody else to come in and try to fill your shoes. We love you, billy,
and thank you very much, mayor hedrick and the rest of the city council for allowing us to
come in and say these things about billy. All right. Thank you again, mayor. We appreciate
it very much. Thank you betty. Love you man. Okay. Thank you so much, madam secretary. Is
there anyone else signed to speak? Yes, sir. Ricky mcneil. Good evening, mr. Mayor. City
council. Thank you guys so very, very much. The late congress lady eddie bernice johnson
stated this several years ago. She said you can't serve without sacrificing. So the
council, lady beard, my councilman, bass, councilman williams, thank you all for
your service. Thank you for your sacrifice. Even though time away from family, time away from loved ones, we know it's costly, but thank you so much for your service.
additionally, I want to say councilman williams, thank you. Some of you may remember the
late entertainer and poet nipsey hussle. Nipsey hussle said, if you look in your
circle and the people don't inspire you in your circle, you don't have a circle. You have a
cage. Constable williams, thank you for being a part of this circle. Thank you for being a
part of my circle. Thank you for being a part of the circle, for the city of garland and the
north central texas area. Your inspiration, your courage, your convictions. They speak a lot.
being from louisiana, you know I love you dearly for that in and of itself, however, but
just for the way you carry yourself. We were mr. Mayor. We were in in houston several
years ago, councilman williams and I, and it was about 1:00 in the morning and I was trying to
go to bed. And he's over there making all kinds of noise. I'm like, what? This man, go to
sleep. However, the last thing I remember him saying was, I sent you an email. Have you
read it? Got up the next morning about six. Constable williams on the phone. Man, I
sent you an email, have you read it? I'm like, bj, you nobody read an email at 530 in
the morning. However, what that taught me though, as a young man as as he was mentoring me,
was the fact that when you're committed, you have high expectations. Constable
williams, thank you for high expectations. Thank you for being a person of integrity. And more importantly, thank you for inspiring the citizens of garland. Thank you sir. Madam
secretary, do we have any other speakers? No, sir. Anyone else here who would like to speak?
please come. Hello. Do I have to sit anywhere you like? Is the mic on? Okay? I'm
councilwoman artificial hill out of the city of box springs. I've known mr. Williams for at
least. Oh, jesus. 2016. And he's been an advocate for me. When I first came into office.
I started in 2015. So he's always been there for me and helped guide me through my
political career. We're going to miss you, but I'm still going to call you, and I just
want to say thank you. And you deserve these flowers today. Thank you. Councilmember
williams. I see you're in the queue, sir. Mr. Mayor, I, I wasn't going to say anything,
but I just want to say that these my brothers, mayor, mayor jones, miss smith, ernest and
the eternal mayor of city hill, all of you. My heart is is running over. You know, I sit
here and I listen. But your words have reached. Areas that were unreachable three years
ago, and you're sharing your caring. It brought me this far. And I want to say to each one
of you, I appreciate you from the bottom of my heart, linda, I appreciate you from the
bottom of my heart, all of you, ladies and gentlemen. So I just want to say for me to you,
thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, mayor sir. All right. We will miss you, sir. Thank
you. Thank you for all your service again to the city of garland. All right. We'll move
on with our regular order here. First item is our public comments on our work session
items. Madam secretary, do we have any speakers signed up for that portion? No, we do not.
okay. We'll move on to consider this consent agenda. I haven't had a request to pull any items,
but you'll have about 24 hours to do so. First item on written briefings is item number one
head start of greater dallas lease agreement extension. Item number two is parking
restrictions in downtown garland. Item number three is investment portfolio report.
item four is amendments to the fireworks prohibited ordinance. Item number five is bottleneck
improvements. Package number four right of way, an easement acquisitions update. Item
number six is texas dmv motor vehicle crime prevention authority catalytic converter
grant program application fiscal year 27. An item number seven is amendment ordinance
26-02. See no questions. Then we'll move on to our verbal briefings. First item is item
number eight, interstate highway 635 construction update. Good evening. Hello. All right.
how's it look? Very good. All right. Got it. Mayor council, thank you for having me tonight.
happy to be here to give an update on our lbj project. Hopefully you've noticed a
little bit of progress since the last time I was here. But I want to start out with just our
latest safety campaign. You all know that we lose ten people a day on our texas roadways due
to various fatality accidents. And so we've changed our campaign a little bit. Right
now it is drive like a texan. What that means is kind, courteous and safe. And so what
we've reviewed when we're reviewing our fatality accidents is a lot of it is
driver behavior. If we can try to change some of that driver behavior, we can make a big
difference. Wearing your seatbelt every day is going to make a huge difference of the
fatality accidents. Of those who are not wearing their seatbelts. We believe 90% of
those could have been saved if they had just been wearing their seatbelts, not driving while intoxicated, putting down your cell phone. I'm guilty of it, too. Put down your cell
phone while you're driving. So as you're talking to folks, if you can just help me spread
that word, we are trying the best we can engineering wise to improve the accidents on the
roadway. But also we need some help on the driver behavior. So if you can, please help in that
regard. Now, getting into the lbj project overview, I think every one of you are very
familiar with our project limits. We're rebuilding 635 from 75 to interstate 30. It's
a $1.7 billion project. It's a joint venture between floor and balfour beatty. Just looking at
the latest progress, we are getting very, very close to completion. If you've driven
the corridor lately, which I would expect most of you have, we have five general purpose
lanes open in each direction. Hopefully you've seen quite a bit of improvement along the
main lanes, but this picture is looking at greenville avenue. Greenville avenue is open in
its final configuration. If you can see the two bridges that kind of dive down into the
middle of 635, that wiwill beur future toll manage express lanes, and that will connect to
the 75 direct connectors. And so you'll have access from the 75 direct connectors down into
the toll managed lanes in the middle of 635. The next picture is abrams road and forest lane.
I know these are a little bit outside of the city limits, but it all feeds into to garland.
but abrams and forest are both open in their final configuration, so that is the
signal. Final signals are up. Everything is near completion there. We'll have a little bit
of touch up throughout the process, but everything is is getting very close on those two
intersections. Skillman avenue is also open in its final configuration. All the final
signals are up. Everything is complete at that location. And you can see again, the general
purpose lanes are open five lanes in each direction. You'll notice that we've got two toll
managed lanes in the middle. Those are not open yet. I'll get to that here in just a
second. But we are working on on the toll managed lanes. Now here's royal and miller. That
one is also complete. You'll notice just outside of the frontage roads we've got some
staging areas that we still need to clean up. That is on the list to do, but that will
come a little bit later in the project. The goal is to get lanes open as fast as we can.
here's plano road. It is open in its final configuration. Just a little bit of punch list.
cleaning up various items there at plano. Kingsley is open in its final configuration as well.
again, all the pavement markings are down, everything is open. You might see us doing
a little bit of punch list activities along kingsley, but for the most part, that one's
open. Jupiter, as of a few weeks ago, is open in its final configuration as well. Thank
you for staff has been wonderful to work with, trying to figure out the fastest way
we can build jupiter. There's a lot of traffic on jupiter. I'll also add the garland staff that
works on the signals. Probably one of the best that we've worked with in our district. We
work with a lot of city staff. They are top notch, they know their stuff, and they are very
quick to help us out. Very much appreciative on that one. Here's garland road, excuse me.
it is also open in its final configuration. You can see in this picture, I'm not sure if
you can see my cursor. The exit to northwest highway was not open when this picture was
taken. These pictures are as of april 21st. That has now been opened. We had some pavement
repairs as you tie down to northwest highway that we needed to do, but that exit is
now open so all the exits are open. Here is shiloh and northwest highway. I'll just
remind you in the final configuration, the access to the managed lanes is from shiloh. So you'll see a lot of our work crews going into the manage lanes from that shiloh
location. Soon we're going to have that open so you won't see the work crews at that location.
but again, all the general purpose lanes are open. Now. We're just working on the
middle to complete those toll managed lanes. So here's centerville and ferguson still
completing the pavement work that should be done by the end of this month. And so they're
working very hard to get all that done. You can see most of the pavements now. Now it's
just cleaning up some curb and pavement markings at that location. So centerville is very, very close. Here is la prada. La prata, for the most part, is open to its final
configuration. We have, if you can see my cursor, the southbound frontage road as you're coming from la prata to oats, that will be open by the end of this month as well. So
right now they're just cleaning up this work and then their city work beyond our project
limits. But for the most part, we are near completion on the prada. Here's oats and galloway
oats should be open by the end of the month. Galloway is following following a little
bit further behind. I've got it on a few slides, but that one will take us a few more months
to get galloway over 635 complete, but it is nearing completion as well. Here it is
just looking at the interchange. All the connectors are open, all the the general purpose
lanes are open. You can see as north is actually to the bottom of the screen. That is the
entrance to the future toll lane. We're still working on that location, just opening it
up, but all the pavement is complete. And so now it's really just working on the
managed lanes. Here's gus thomasson over interstate 30. That one's been done for a
little bit. We're still working on punch list items, but for the most part, gus thomasson
has been open here for quite a while. And then finally galloway over interstate 30, we
are going to do a bridge overlay. There's some things that we want to clean up on
that bridge. And so that is the last remaining work on galloway over interstate 30. We'll
overlay that over a weekend just to have a nice clean surface there. As that
construction has lingered and we've had to phase that bridge quite a bit. So looking at the
quantities, I like to show this because it gives a good indication of progress. But you can see we are just about across the board on 99% complete. On most of the
quantities. You'll see a little bit of barrier left to complete as well as riprap. That is
really just the concrete that areas that are tough to mow or it's not going to get sun.
that's what we where we put concrete riprap, if you will. So just looking at the bigger
picture items, northwest highway, it should be open completely by the end of may.
centerville open by the end of may, that southbound frontage road that we showed in the
picture. End of may oats, end of may galloway over 635. That will be end of june. And then
the toll managed lanes is going to take us until hopefully early august, potentially late
june or late july to open that. So we're as you drive through, you'll see that we're putting
all the transponders or the computer gadgets up on on the gantries. Right now, that work
is actually all tied to the base camp, if you will, is in houston. And so we've got to
make sure all the communications can go back to houston. That's where they they collect all the information for the tolling. That's where our contractor is based out of. So
they are on site working on all of that, but they'll work on the algorithm to figure out
what toll rate to set. And so that's a little bit of work left open, but our priority was
making sure we opened up those general purpose lanes as quickly as we could. So right
now, the schedule is showing the first week in august to open those toll managed lanes.
and then you'll see us along the alignment through the end of fall, really just cleaning
up various things going through. If there's something that we caught, some of the grass isn't
growing, we're going to go and replace that grass. And so there will be various punch lists. We call it punch list items going through the fall. So you'll see our contractor on
site through the fall. And with that, I'm happy to answer any questions. Mayor pro tem luck,
your first in the queue. I'm so excited that this is almost over. Are we going to have a
party? Big ribbon cutting? We can plan something. Absolutely. Let's just shut down the
highway and have a party on the highway for not to shut it down completely. But we can. We can
definitely plan something. You guys have been great. You've been very patient. And so I definitely think there's something to celebrate that I do. I totally agree and it
looks great. It's it's really nice to drive on a smooth, flat new road. How on those managed
toll lanes, are there two lanes in each direction or just one? So we're going to open two
lanes in each direction. The plan is we will only toll one direction. So if you remember
we are grandfathered tolled managed lanes. Big discussion before we started. And so in
the peak hour. So in the morning westbound will be told those two lanes, if you're
driving eastbound, those lanes will be free. And so we'll switch it over from midnight to
noon. And then from noon to midnight, eastbound will be told. So we're still honoring
the two toll managed lanes. We're just trying to make it as efficient as possible. Great.
how much longer are you going to need cement from the cement plant? They will be there
through through the fall because they will be pouring concrete. But we will continue
to push to get them to pack up and move out as quick as possible. Thank you. Yes. Thank
you so much. Thank you. Thank you, madam councilmember bass. Thank you, thank you. Susan.
it's nice to see you again. I appreciate all the information. So you mentioned the the
managed toll lanes and an algorithm to come up with the pricing on that. My question on
that is what is the objective of the toll lanes? What what is the objective of collecting the
toll? Yeah, no, that's a great question. So it is really to guarantee to guarantee a travel
time, if you will. And so the purpose of the toll managed lanes is you will be driving 50
miles an hour in that toll managed lane. So if you've got a soccer game to make or you've
got an appointment to make, we guarantee that you can get there in time and that toll
rate will change based on the congestion just within the managed lanes, if you will. And
so the more people that get in there, the higher the rate will be to try to make sure that we
maintain that 50 mile per hour travel speed through the managed lanes. I appreciate
that, that's a great explanation. I get asked that a lot. Why does it go up when
traffic increases? So that's a great explanation. Thank you very much. Thank you mayor. Thank you sir, councilmember dutton. So you stay through fall. How much through fall are
we? Are we looking. So I tend to sandbag. And so I would s that the last day of fall,
which I think is december 20th, around that time frame. There you go. Now, if you're my staff,
when I say fall, that means the first day of fall. But yeah, for you guys, I'm going to say
the end. Hopefully it'll be very minimal impacts. We're not trying to continue to make a
create a disturbance or anything like that, but there are going to be some slow items that we're trying to clean up and just make sure that we're we're leaving a good product.
perfect. I do want to say thank you because from the last time that you were here, we were
having a lot of issues with the cleanliness and just maintenance upkeep with the
batch plant. And that has drastically improved. So I want to say thank you for that. And
last time you were here, I told you I did not drive on your highways because I didn't want
to die. But I will say I have driven on the new the new stretch through garland, and it
actually feels so much safer. It it does not feel like you asked to go away tonight. So I
do appreciate that. And I love the access road. Yes, all the way from. So you can go under
30. I have a daughter that does not drive on the highway period. And so she depends on access
roads. And so she was very excited to see the access road when she had to take me to town
east to get dippin dots. So, so thank you. Thank you guys for all that you've been doing. And
we're, we're excited to see this done. Very good. Thank you. And thank you for your patience.
I know, I know it's been a lot on the entire council. We really appreciate I know you
guys have all gotten questions from your constituents. Really appreciate the patience. Thank
you, councilmember williams. Good evening. Thank you. I know thank you for all you've done.
can you for for the benefit of those who may be watching or listening, the texas
transportation commission had a huge role I getting this approved. Yes. Can you briefly
talk about that a minute? So the project cost $1.7 billion, getting that money, getting
that check written was a big. Big hurdle. I was one of the last members to testify at that
hearing, and I didn't know coming driving back, I didn't know what that was going to
look like, but it came through. So would y mind explaining to your audience? Yes. No. We had
a lot of people drive down and make comments that are are tex dot tex dot is governed by a
five member commission. And so they have a lot of discretionary funding that they
will put towards projects. And so advocates like yourself driving down to austin making
those comments, we were able to secure tex dot commission money as well as regional money. A
project of this size does not get funded just by by one source. And so the tex dot
commission funded it, provided funding for it, as well as the mpo funds, the local funds here
in this region. And so without people going and speaking up, we probably wouldn't we'd
probably still be working on. 635 and so our commission knew that this was a big project,
huge bottleneck. We needed to address it. And that's why they put funding towards it. Right.
well, I just want to say thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you, mayor sir. Councilmember
thomas. Yes, thank you all. You've done very, very well done. Presentation, I might add.
so and I want to about the bridge going across skillman councils, well aware that I use
that bridge every thursday night or date night to get out of town. So I don't embarrass
garland with my karaoke. But I'm curious about the arches over that particular stretch.
and it seems to be the only one. And so is that decorative? Is there some structural reason
that's there? Can you help me understand? Yeah. No, it's definitely a structural reason.
excuse me. At the time when we we designed skillman, that was actually going to be a separate
project. We were going to build that separately before the the rest of funding for 635 came
through, but we did not think we could fit supports underneath it. So as you're
driving underneath skillman, there is not a center support. Every other bridge actually has
a support underneath it. So as you drive underneath royal, you'll see columns underneath
kind of a mid span supporting that bridge. So with skillman as a breakout project, before
we started construction, we didn't know what we would do with the main lanes because we
were simply just going to build the skillman bridge. And so it was important not to have that
center support. So those arches are actually carrying the load for the bridge deck. And so
that's why it was it was an arch. Okay, that makes perfect sense. I just was curious as to
why that that was the only one. It's just timing of the reason. Exactly. Yes. That once we knew
that we were going to build the 635 main lanes, we could phase the project to make sure that
we had the center supports on the other bridges. Okay. Very good. That makes perfect sense.
thank you so much. Thanks for the great presentation. Thank you. Looking forward to you getting to the end. Yes. We're close. So will you be back to wrap us up here the first day
of winter? Absolutely. I'd be happy to come back and hopefully update you on a few
other garland projects, because this isn't the only project we're working on in garland. Right. Very good. Thank you, thank you, thank you, mayor. Thank you sir councilmember
beard. Well, first of all, it's very beautiful. It's it's wonderful. I, I, I can remember
when 635 opened and this is like the next big yay. Okay. But just for those that
remember, remember when 75 opened after all their construction, they did shut it
down for a party. So, you know, we could do that. But okay, I'm going to try to avoid that.
people are really enjoying the new lanes. But but just want to remember y'all. Y'all remember
that they did shut down 75 for a party. Okay. But yeah, it's it's going great. I was
avoiding 635 for a very long period of time. I am getting out there now and venturing it
to see what else is open to see, you know, where the exits are. And I am o one of those people
that, oh my god, there's the exit. And I wasn't used to that being the exit. So there is a
little learning curve there, but it drives very smoothly. It just have to remember going to
down garland avenue and went on. 635. You've got a u-turn, but it's nice to have an exit there.
so thank you again. I appreciate your update. And again, we could have that party.
thank you. You're only saying that because you're not up for your off council. Your
constituents won't complain. Deputy mayor pro tem well, I'll pile on the kudos for for 635.
it's it went from some something to absolutely avoid to something that is now
beautiful and really nice. Councilman thomas stole one of my questions, which was about
the bridge. The one, the one cool. That really cool bridge. I really love the lighting that
you did on it at night. It's if y'all haven't seen it, it's it's really neat to see. But
one of the things I really appreciate has been your annual presentations and you're able
to answer everything from both, you know, from the timetable and also technically how this
has all come along. And so really appreciciciate it. Thank, thank you, thththank you, thank
thank you. Yeah. So one thing I didn't mention regarding skillman city of dallas
actually maintains the bridge. So that that is one thing to keep in mind. Luckily you guys
don't have to maintain a bririd. Yes. And council member moore round us out, sir. Thank you,
mr. Mayor. Sounds like you came and you got all the accolades again tonight that were needed
necessary. I do want to echo that. Of course, we're very excited about. 635 but I also
want to say to council and to all of those who are listening tonight that this is just one
of many projects that caesar is involved with. I have the opportunity to work with her on
the regional transportation commission. And as a result of that, I think that you're also
coming in with I-30 coming in to 635. All over the city, all over the region. Everyone that
talks about caesar talks about the work that she does and the way of completing projects, of
bringing them on into fruition. I have yet to hear, and I want to say that I have yet to hear
anyone do any complaints as it relates to the work that she is doing, and I'm just very
excited about. 635 of course, but more importantly, all that's taking place here in the
region. And we're just glad to have you as that person who is our lead and our point,
continue to keep up the very good work, and we'll continue to bring you back here and give
you all these accolades. Okay, I appreciate it. Thank you very much. I've got a very big team
that helps me out. So it's not just me. I'm very spoiled that I've got a very good team that.
what are some of the other projects that you're working on here? So we're working on
interstate 30. We're hoping to actually put out for bids bass pro drive here in the next year
or so. And so we think we have been able to accelerate that one. And then we've got more
work to to do on interstate 30. And so those are a couple that I can come in and update you,
hopefully in a little while. Thank you. Might want to take over 190 again. I think that's
okay. Thank you so very much for your hard work. Thank you. Bless you. Thank you, sir. And
we will certainly have you back to talk about those other projects very soon. Thank you, I appreciate it. Thank you. And we'll move on to our next item is item number nine. New voting
software. Mayor and council. This item is based on discussions that I've had with
the council over the voting system that we have on the ipads, and it's been somewhat
clunky. And the question was posed maybe a year ago, even when I was back at it, whether
we could could use the crestron systems to vote so that we wouldn't have to use the ipad,
so they could just say yes or no on the on the crestron systems. And so tonight,
jonathan and jennifer will be presenting a proposed solution to allow a much simpler, easier
voting system so that we don't have to call staff up from time to time to get the voting
system working properly. All right. Good evening, mayor council. Mr. Betts, I'm joined
with jennifer here to kind of talk through some of the new voting. We've heard some of the
insane some of the issues that you all have encountered over. I guess we went live back in
may or june of last year. So even as last council meeting, we had the issue where we could
not get you logged into the ipad. So you had to revert back to the old way of raising your
hands. So we have a an exciting opportunity to show you how we can transition away from ipads.
mike and I both briefly talked about it. Right. We've had ipad issues where staff have to come
up and work with you to overcome some technical issues. So with the audio visual system
that we have in place today, all of that remains the same in regards to the displays that
are in front of you. We did not have to buy any additional hardware. It was just
reconfiguration of the software to allow a yes and no option. So you're well familiar with
this screen here. This is the screen from the ipad. So whenever the vote is up you
select yes or no. Then hit save. And again, this is kind of the view of the displays that you
have out there today as far as request to speak and a second in the motion. So this remains
the same. So this look remains the same to request to speak and make a motion. And a second.
what's changing is once the second the motion and second is completed, the secretary will
actually activate the voting process. Once the voting process is activated, you will
see this screen on the left that says choose voting option. Below you'll see a yes or no.
and once jennifer displays the vote, you will actually see the yes's and no's. And then you
also see a screen with how people voted. Now one thing to note you will see an abstain
button. Pretend you don't see that right? We're only going to use the yes and no with the
current programing software, the abstain button has to be there. We're looking at a
future upgrade of, you know, an upgrade in the software program and where we could actually
take the abstain away. So what we would like to do is actually walk you through a test vote.
so we have this room configured for as well. So, you know, one thing I failed to mention is
your ipads. So how do you see the the agenda. So we'll still have the ipads here. So if we
need to check on an ipad for you to, to actually see what's on the agenda, we can do that.
you're more than welcome to use your personal ipad like you did in the past or when you're not
here, right? To pull up the agenda. What's changing is just how you're actually going to
vote. So just like in the past, to start the vote, you will have someone do a motion. And
second, so we're going to walk through an exercise in here. So if I could have someone do a
mock motion and a mock second, please, I knew it would be councilmember bass chiming in
with the motion, sir. Okay, so once that's done, the city secretary will see the alert
pop up on her program to actually start the vote. And once she starts the vote, you
will see that screen that pretty didn't know what we're voting on, sir. What's your
motion? My motion is to continue this conversation and to continue making this an
easier process. All right. Yh. Too much discussion on that one. Same here. As it I don't know
what it is. Have you voted or is it a you gotta vote. So what what. Yeah. One one thing to
note I failed to mention is once you vote, your screen will revert back to the request to
speak and motion screen. Okay, so that's how you know that you voted. Now once it's the vote's
complete, that sends the signal to jennifer and she will actually display the vote. You'll see it on your monitors in front of you, your touch panels, as well ashe large
monitors in the room. Question can jennifer see who has and has not voted so she can call
them out? Yes, sir. Yep. So just like in the past, if you did not vote, she will call out.
please vote. Is it posble for. I'm sorry, one one second I if you could turn your mic on. I
don't have the ability to control mikes. The voting result screen is still up, so
that's an excellent point. So once the you know, once it's displayed, jennifer will revert
hide results. So then your, your touch panel goes back to how it should be for microphone
control. There we go. All right. So now councilmember moore go ahead sir. Yeah. Can the rest
of us get the the fast push button that karissa and margaret have such that when we
it would really be nice for us to be able to have that on our. Yeah. No, really, how does that
work that they're able to get it every time. I mean,'ll be sitting here sometime just
waiting to hit it, you know, it just doesn't come in. So what I'm hearing is put a delay.
there you go. Yeah. Did that have anything to do with age or anything? I mean no, sir. Okay.
all right. Thank you, mr. Mayor. Thank you sir. I want play against you on jeopardy,
because I think I win every time with you. Slow on the buzzer that mayor pro tem luck.
did you have a question, ma'am? I did not. I was trying to motion for a party on six. Okay.
very good. All right, so one follow up note is just like with the current system, with
the ipads, in the event you look on the screen and it shows a vote, not the way that you
press the button, right. You press. Yes, but you meant no. Just like today, you call out
for staff's attention and they will resubmit the vote. Councilmember dutton. The
program that we were using with the ipads, are we saving money by getting rid of it? So we're
actually still using it. So we're not losing any functionality. The voting on
the ipads was actually a add on. So we it's something we got by buying the rest of the software
that we have to have. So we're not forfeiting anything that we've already invested in. And
the beauty about the ipads is in the event we, we can't vote in this building. So we could
still revert back to the ipad voting if we ever had to remodel like we did years ago
and move to duckworth. Okay. Thank you. And it's the same like because we, we did the
audio visual all together. Is that correct? Yes. Okay. So maybe someone could just watch
one of our meetings on replay and hear the audio while we're talking about, because it's
still a little rough. Okay. It's been ongoing. Absolutely. Yeah. We'll continue looking at
that. We've been slowly working with our partner to come out and make slight modifications, trying to find that perfect spot for them to the audio is worse now than it was before.
they should fix it. Okay. It's been a year of rough audio. When you're trying to rewatch a
council meeting, you're like, what? What's happening? So that would be absolutely, that would
be amazing. But I appreciate switching from the ipad voting because it was, it was a lot on
our desks too. So I'm, I'm very excited that we're getting away from that. So thank you.
councilmember thomas, isn't it? Jonathan. You know, I'm always happy to see, you know,
technology, but brought forward. I, I guess my question is how's travis going to get any tv time
now? We'll have to figure out a different way. Let's let's let's keep him busy other ways.
so we so I know I think this is going to be a great new system. I really like the, the, the
things that we're seeing here. We didn't see the actual vote that we just did, did we? Or
was that a yes? Was that a vote? Jennifer shaking her head. No. Which was it? Yes. You know,
what you guys actually saw was how you voted. Yes, I voted it's not the actual. It was. So
we voted ectly as we voted exactly as the slide was. Yeah, that's that's kind of which is
why I asked the question because I saw the same vote as the slide. And I'm going, wait
a minute. Did we just follow the slide? What will happen there? I it is kind of a heck
of a coincidence. Could we do that one more time and everybody vote no except
carissa, you can abstain. Just so we see that we see something different on the slide.
absolutely. Can we do one more. So we just need a motion. Make a motion that we do one more
test. Yeah. Margaret had a quick finger there. And I was still I was still speaking
mayor. I hadn't really relinquished the the mic. I'm the parliamentarian here. So
it's I had to clear the motions. Yes. All right. Margaret. Something's wrong. I, I, I see
her, she's already back in her chair giggling you're doing this. Did we did we vote. Did I
miss. You. Don't remember if you voted. I thought I was touching second but I think I
voted so I don't know what I voted. You have to turn one. Alright, so we have there we go.
have the vote. It's different this time. Yes. Successful test there. Thank you. Very good.
all right. Anything else on the voting system? The last thing is what's next. So the system's
already operational in both rooms here in the chambers. In the event we have to revert to
this new system tomorrow, we certainly can. The staff is ready. We just haven't spent a
lot of time training the council on it. So we're planning on training a lot more
training on may 18th and 19th. Of course, with the new council members coming in. But in any
event, we need to we could certainly use the system tomorrow night. If there's
another ipad issue like the last council meeting. Okay, good. Any other questions? We
look forward to using the new system very soon. Thank you. I appreciate your time. We'll
move on then. Now to item number ten. It's the 2026 2027 federal grant allocation kick
off.
good evening council. I'm jason willhite with community development department. This is
moana woodard, the administrator for community development. And marilyn fitch, who is our financial manager for the same department. It is time again to go through the
2026 2027 grants program that we have. Some of this is going to be review, so we'll try and
make that brief. Some of it's going to be new business that we'll need some input from
council on coming very quickly. So try and make note of that as we go through the presentation.
the community development department is dedicated to enhancing the quality of life for low income residents. The key takeaway here is that we received three federal grants
and one nonfederal grant, so we'll go over that here briefly. But the major impacts that we
try to achieve by doing this is to foster safe and healthy neighborhoods, empower
economically disadvantaged populations, reduce housing insecurity, and encourage
self-sufficiency and community engagement. The one you're probably most familiar with is
cdbg, the community development block grant program. This is what we use to fund nonprofit
organizations for our public services. The housing rehabilitation program, great
homes, as well as some of the administrative funding that is used for to staff department,
the home infill partnership program. When you hear that, think of home, think of new new
construction. Most of you have been to an open house for us, where we've built a new home
where we partnered with a developer to build something new for an affordable housing project. The emergency solutions grant can only be used for homeless intervention.
we. We go through and we work with nonprofits on that as well. And then finally, we have the
garland housing finance program. We're currently annually under an annual agreement with ghc
pretty closely mirrors the cdbg housing rehabilitation program. The grants timeline is began in
february of this year, and we are now to may of 2026. So we are to the the first green
portion there where we have council kickoff public hearing, which will be tomorrow night.
there'll be a public hearing for all of the subrecipients to come before council and give them an opportunity to speak to council about the services they provide, as well as council
discussion and meetings will be further into the month. You will be receiving the
subrecipient spreadsheet tomorrow. So that's going to go to our active members of
council who can receive the email. That will be where we start to go through and
allocate funding, and we'll go into that in more depth here in just a second. The spreadsheets
are due back very quickly. We're going to ask that you have those back to us filled out with the allocations by may 15th, 2026. The reason for that is we want to have our first
discussion on may 18th. We've already got that set aside to go through those allocations
and the averages, as proposed by council on june 1st. We want to have that finalized and our
final discussion. And then on june 16th, we need to adopt the allocations in a regular
session. Just so you understand why that's so important. By by august 15th of 2026, we have to
have our annual action plan into hud. That's the that's the deadline to have that in. So we
really need a little bit of time to get everything set up. From the time that these
numbers are allocated to the time that we get that action plan put together and submitted
to hud. The community development block grant program is going to receive $2,089,794
community development block grant entitlement program provides an annual grant to develop variable urban communities by providing decent housing, suitable living
environment and expanding economic opportunities to low and moderate income persons.
just as a point of order there the entitlement community. That means we receive that directly
from hud. That also means that we report directly to hud. So that's why it's so important
for us to meet these deadlines. And this year, this is not an estimate. I know in prior years
I bring estimates before council. This is actually what we're getting this year. So there'll be no changes as far as adjustments on the next meeting. There are four key
programs to the cdbg funds, the first being the affordable housing programs, substantial
rehabilitation of owner occupied housing reconstruction, acquisition or demolition. The
second, the non public, not the nonprofit public service providers support youth and
elderly populations. Medical and mental health services, rental assistance and then food
services. The public facilities and neighborhood services. So street and sidewalk repair,
eligible public facilities upgrades, serving low income persons in parks and libraries
and the neighborhood beautification and low income neighborhoods. And then the city sponsored projects such as the code enforcement officers in low income areas. Let's go
back one slide. There we go. So one of the things that I did want to point out here was that
projects utilizing cdbg funding must be committed to projects that can be completed within a 12 month period for public services and a four year, four year project for building and
infrastructure projects from the receipt of the funding. That's not from the allocation of the funding when the money is put into that project. So we need to make sure that we have
projects that are ready to move forward very quickly. I know four years sounds like a verery
long time, but in in the the life of some of these projects, we, we do run into timeliness
issues quite often. Cdbg client housing eligibility. Again, this cdbg housing rehab and
acquisition programs. We have 1.125366 million. Set aside the initial point of contact
applicants must own and live in their property must be. U.s. Citizens have not used the
program in five years, and applicants are accepted on a quarterly basis. We do not. We
don't keep a running list of applications. There are definitely some very stringent
hud guidelines to that, so it makes more sense to take them in quarterly than rather than
try and create a list at the beginning of the year, eligibility of the household.
the household income must not exceed 80% of dallas county's area median income. As an
example of that, if you have a four person family in dallas county, the area median income
at 80% would be $93,850. So it's a pretty significant amount. A lot of people would
qualify for this type of funding, and we want to get that word out there that we're
offering this kind of assistance to those families. As far as underwriting is
concerned, the home must be in reasonable condition. There are stipulations that it cannot be
so deteriorated that when we've invested the funding that it does not meet minimum housing
criteria when we have accomplished that project. So it still needs to be in pretty
good condition in order for us to bring it up to minimum housing. The home cannot be in
a foreclosure or listed for sale, and applicants will be asked to submit all the income
documents, just like they would if they were going through a regular lending institution. As
far as approval, staff reviews and applications for approval to receive the grant. If
approved, inspectors will develop a scope of work and work with the contractor and homeowner through the completion, and then the department manages the program
all the way through completion and the final closing. The client public services
eligibility. We have $313,469. The initial point of contact council would allocate the not
to the nonprofit agencies, and that's what we're going to be requesting, going over just a
little bit here. And the city council allocates funding to local nonprofits annually. So
this time of year will always come in front of you guys and ask you how you want to spend
the money eligibility of the household, same as same as with cdbg, 80% of the dallas area
median income applicants for services must live in garland. So that's the restriction there.
the approval nonprofit entities are responsible for application applicant approvals and release
of services, and the city monitors each entity to ensure compliance with the grant. You
can see there's a pretty significant list there of the 2526 allocations for public
services. You'll see that on your worksheet tomorrow as well. There it there's a column that
tells you what they got last year and what they've requested this year. One change that we
are we would like to make is that we had three. The three final received less than $5,000
in allocation. Takes a lot to manage these and to audit these programs. And to be perfectly
frank with you, we need to up that to a minimum of $5,000 in allocation to each of these or
not do it. The cdbg project, eligibility for public places, neighborhood enhancement, and
code enforcementwe have $750,000. The city council allocates the funding annually,
and the city council allocated project dollars are administered initially by community development. This is where it changes significantly, though it is an area benefit.
so in other words, it's a cdbg eligible area where you have 51% of the people living in the
area are at 80% or below of the dallas area. So we're not we're not qualifying individuals now.
we're qualifying the area, project management, the city departments that are heading up
those projects are going to manage those, and community development monitors those departments to ensure compliance with the grant regulations. And then the two
projects that we have listed are the library outdoor learning program or outdoor
education area is at $421,570, and then code compliance is at 250 000, which is for 333
inspectors in the cdbg eligible areas. Affordable housing, home infill. Like I said, this is
where we talk about new construction. The the development of the new single
family affordable housing units. Like I said, most of you have seen these. The the key to this
is that that the city of garland is capable of in-house financing. And so holding these
mortgages, we can go over that in just a second as well. But holding these mortgages allows
us to get program income back. And we'll go over some of the numbers here in just a second.
but we can provide that custom mortgage loan tool to keep the home affordable and still put a
very nice product on the ground. So, for example, an example of that mortgage would be that the
purchase price is $350,000. The borrower's down payment is only $500. That's part of the
program. The loan amount is going to be split into 215 year mortgages. The first mortgage
is going to start the interest growth. The second mortgage is going to sit dormant until the
first mortgage matures. So at the end of 15 years, the second mortgage then begins to accrue
the the interest rate. It's an approximate revenue generator of $400,000 a year back to the
city. Through the number of mortgages we have right now, we have about 100 mortgages, I
think. I believe it's actually over 100 mortgages at this point that we that we're we're
holding the note to. So we have people coming in making their monthly payments. The program
income comes back in at $400,000 a year, some years. That's more than we get in
annual allocation. So it really does bolster that program to, to be able to grow it. The
third party mortgages. Sometimes we do finance these through a third party lender.
the main the main purpose for that would be if we need to speed up program income. So
we've got other projects that we have on the table we would like to do and other homes we
would like to build. We can get that money back in a lump sum and put that directly back into
the program as program income. The home client eligibility is very similar to cdbg. Home home
program has got $645,106 plus. Again, the 400,000 in program income. New homes are listed
through the mls through an agent and then the applicants must be first time home buyers
and u.s. Citizens. Eligibility of the household. The household income must not exceed 80% of
dallas area median income must be first time home buyers. We do a credit check to make sure
that they're creditworthy, and that they have sufficient income to purchase the home. As far as underwriting, again, this think of this as a standard mortgage office. We
take in all the same documents that a standard mortgage office would take in. And then finally,
through approval, the staff reviews the applications for approval in the mortgage program. The property and legal paperwork is submitted to a title company. So we generally
go through a title company for everything, rather than going through the city attorney's office. And the monthly mortgage payments are submitted to the city. So. Esg, this is
for the housing. Sorry, for homelessness or at risk people at risk of becoming homeless.
there's $174,311 available. This can only go to to the benefit of those who are
experiencing homelessness. So we want to make sure that we're very clear on that. It's not
something we could take and add to cdbg. There is some crossover with what cdbg is
capable of, but not what esg is capable of. So essentially this funds programs that provide
housing opportunities for homeless and garland garland persons. It expands the
capacity of nonprofit entities to provide homeless services for persons in garland and
provides program oversight and technical assistance to nonprofit agencies. The
nonprofit service provider is actually going to be the initial point of contact on that, and applicants must be u.s. Citizens. Eligibility is at 30% of the dallas county
area median income, so that's significantly lower than 80% across the board, and then must
be homeless or at risk of becoming homeless. If there has been an eviction notice, you,
they need to provide that information for rental assistance. And then the staff
reviews the nonprofit to ensure compliance with hud regulations for the program. So the
nonprofit is audited. And our final funding source is the garland housing finance
corporation housing partnership program. Again, this very closely mirrors the cdbg
program for housing with a couple of littlee caveats. We do work development agreements
with gfwc for new construction as well. So we may use part of the home infill funds to build
a home in partnership with ghc, but the bulk money goes to housing repairs, emergency
grants to senior citizens. We qualify everyone the same way, but the gfwc funding gives us
some leeway into who we can help and how fast. So there there are certain caveats that
cdbg requires that gfwc does not. And with that, that is the end of our presentation. I will
show you real quickly that tomorrow what you'll be receiving is a spreadsheet. If
I can get it to come up, a spreadsheet that's going to look like this in your email,
the yellow column is the only column that you'll be able to make changes to. That's where
you'll put in the amount you want to allocate to each to each subrecipient once you run
out of funding, it's going to zero it out. You'll have. You won't be able to put any more
numbers in. So you'll have to make adjustments as you go through to make sure we. Again,
we request that the smallest allocation to a subrecipient be $5,000. We ask that this. Be
ready by the 15th of may, so that on the 18th of may we can have a discussion about that.
did I leave anything out, mona? No. You did good. Okay. Just as in previous years, we're going
to average everything you come in, we can discuss all the different. What I bring back
from whoever submits things to me. So we should have that already. Nothing's changed from
last year as far as that's concerned. All right. I have a few questions here. Council
member dutton, we'll start with you. So my first question is we've got new council members
swearing in on the 12th. So this is kind of a a big thing. That they're not going to know
the information that we know. Now we've got three people coming in. That kind of
concerns me. I, I don't I know in 2023, we didn't do this until june last year. I guess
we did it about the same time, but I don't remember that it was right in the process of
getting. Maybe that's what it was. But with three new people coming in, it kind of concerns
me that we're doing this smack in the middle of them swearing in on the 12th, and then you're
wanting. This worksheet completed three days later. So I don't know if that anything
can be changed about that, but that is a very big concern. And I have one ask after council
individually sends their allocation to you guys. And then when you do the averages,
I would also like to include what each council person put in their worksheet, just kind of
as a, a way to know what everyone is thinking, I guess. Hold each other accountable.
but aside from that, that is all that I've got. We can definitely submit each middle
so that council consider that okay, how it was averaged. Okay, perfect. That's not a problem
as far as changing the dates at this point, I don't think we can because it's been posted.
it was posted in january, the calendar, and it's been sent to hud. We can take that in
consideration next year. But as far as changing the dates and letting new council come on, I
think we're just going to have to have the old council do this business. And next year we
would look at doing something different. So instead of a instead of a 15th deadline, we
probably need to look at a 12th deadline. Thank you. Councilmember thomas. So back
on slide seven. You talk about client housing eligibility. And I agree that I think there's
going to be a lot of people in garland that will meet the at least the income requirement
here. But I'm curious as to what areas this would apply to. Is there any area, every square
inch of garland. This applies. We qualify the client when we do housing repair programs or
with public services. It's a client eligibility. It's not an area eligibility. Now, if
you're looking at doing a community center or something like that, then it is an area
benefit. Okay, so and maybe that's my confusion. I got a map last year, cdbg district
seven eligible map. And so it's got some, some of this grayed out and some not. And so that
is the that's the area program. Is that what I'm, what I'm looking at here and where my
confusion is because I, I believe you're right. I wasn't in on this discussion. You had
it just before I was sworn in last year. So. Okay. Well, so that's the difference is that
the, the anybody in the area versus anybody in the city, this program could apply to
anybody in the city. Correct. That's what I wanted. I want it's an individual based
qualification when we're talking about housing. Okay. Yeah there is. There is no council district. We have not worked in, I'm sure. And I and I have some people that I, I
may think would would like to do something, but are not aware that they may be eligible for
things like this. And so I've had some people reach out to me and I'll say, I'll see what I
can do, not knowing what I can do because I wasn't in on this discussion last year. Because
if you did it, you know, right before the swearing in. So I agree with council member
dutton, maybe on may 31st deadline next year, to give new council people a chance to
really get their get their teeth, put that on the agenda for next year. So when we make
our calendar in january, we'll back it up a little, try to get it back up just a little bit to
give them a chance. They're going to be drinking from the virus. As I as I found out last
year. So anyway, and none of your clients just have them call our office. Okay. Very
good. We'll do. Thank you. Thank you very much. Thank you mayor. Thank you sir.
councilmember bass, I appreciate the presentation. And yeah, this of course,
something we've all noticed, right. We're going to have three people transitioning out and it's actually kind of a new thing, right? Last year we had one new person. The year before
that, we had one new person. The year before that, we had one new person. So this, you
know, for, you know, 3/8 of the council being new isn't something we've experienced
before. And. You want to count yourself to third. We'll go third. So. You know, I don't
want to tell anyone how to do their job or not. But there's I have a solution for this time.
so because on the morning of the 13th, what bj, chris and I have done on the 12th is moot,
right? We can fill this out and give it to you. Morning. 13th has moved. It doesn't count
anymore, right? What you guys could do is you could meet with the new council members.
there's three of them, right? It's not a quorum. It doesn't have to be posted. You could
meet with them, give them the presentation, and then give them the spreadsheet and then
give them the, you know, from the 13th to, I think you said the 18th to get that, to get
the those funds allocated in there in the manner they see fit and get that back to you.
and that that would be the solution for this. So as far as I see. Thank you mayor. Thank
you sir. Mayor pro tem luck, will you go to the slide with the library and code
allocations on it. The library outdoor learning program. Will you tell me more about that,
please? Yes. Correct. Yeah. That's for this year. The the south garland library. We're
proposing a we're calling the curiosity garden. We're working to make that more of an amenity
for south garland. And that's a follow up to what we've been doing for northwest and central
libraries to really just enhance that corridor, give that library an outdoor space
for people to use, and hopefully make that an amenity with lots of different uses for
that library. So can any of those funds be used towards library books? I don't think
they can buy books. They're they can be used for facilities, not so much for in facilities
being the external portion on this one. But they can't buy products like that. Okay. And
then for the code compliance officers. Maybe next year we could up the portion a little
bit because we need a lot of help and code with our new program going. And I think it
would be really nice to have as many officers in there as possible. But I don't decide
that. So thank you. Councilmember moore. Thank you, mr. Mayor. I heard two things.
and give me an example of homeless versus nearing homeless or. And then I heard
you say at one time, they have to be homeless. The distinctions. The city does not
do rental assistance under esg simply because there's not a lot of money, to be quite
honest. Most of this money goes to the domestic violence shelter for esg. So you're only
working with about $50,000 that goes towards rental assistance in this program. And we take
the homeless money. When we say have to be homeless, they have to be on the street. They they
have to have been already evicted and they need to get into some shelter or some
emergency shelter quit. Now the almost homeless, as if they were, you know, in danger of
being evicted within the next ten days. We could do that. But for garland, we havaven't done
that because there's just not a lot of money to split it up. We've looked at putting that
money for people that need rental assistance. We do it in cdbg public service because
there's more money available and you can reach more people being at 80% below rather than
30% below. Okay. And for the rapid rehousing, that's what we focus on. Like I said, it's
only $60,000. So that doesn't go a long way when you're looking at putting some clients
in housing for probably two weeks in a hotel and then, you know, 90 days to six months of
rent and utilities, it just doesn't go far. So that's why we chose to focus on the most
dangerous situation for esg funding language, that language that is truly within the
parameters of the. Okay. Correct. Because when you said it initially, it sounded like
you were saying, when you say near homeless, I'm thinking maybe they're in a shelter or
something, but no, they're already homeless, but you're actually talking about someone that's still in the home, right? There is not. Right, right. But we choose to, like I said, most
of those are funded through cdbg because there's more money available. Thank you, mr. Mayor.
thank you sir. Any other questions on this item? Then tomorrow we will be receiving
the spreadsheets in your email. Look forward to filling those out. Excuse me. Public hearing
tomorrow night. Yes. Sub recipients. Thank you council. Thank you. Move on to our next
item is item number 11 is development services committee report. Gdc amendment ordinance
2603.
thank you, mr. Mayor. This is an item that we had discussed at length at
development services committee, and we had come up with some some pretty, pretty good ideas
that we're excited to report out today. This is a very condensed version of what we
had presented to the development service committee. Good. Okay. But if you need
some details, I have those slides as well. So I can always go back to the details that we
have presented to development services committee. But I want to start off with the overall
goal of looking at carports. Why were we looking into the standards? We were instructed
to look into it with the vision of the current carports that we have in the city, a lot of it,
the way it's built, they may not be up to standards, or even if they are, they don't. They
may not esthetically be compatible with the main structure. Therefore, overall,
the notion was there is a possibility that these are not really contributing to having
great neighborhood esthetics. So that's where this came from. And that's the lens that we
have used to come up with our standards. So that's why you in the very first slides, we we
have come up with three different categories of how we are going to put in the
standards. So one is a standard that's applicable to all carports. If you want to have a
carport, it has to be on paved surface. It has to be engineering safe and all that.
those are just basic standards that all carports will have to fulfill. But then if it's a
carport that's visible from the street that both two staff and the development services
committee has a lot bigger impact on the neighborhood esthetics than the ones in the
rear. So the standards that will apply to the carports visible from the street.
currenenenenently in our code, s fronononttt y y y y yard or side n that can become kind
of inter interpretation really difficult sometimes. But once we we start drafting the
amendment you'll see how we tackle it. But the idea is if it's visible from the street,
it doesn't mean it doesn't really have to be in the front or the side, as long as it's
visible from a public street, the standards should be higher for those carports, and then we will have standards that are applicable to carports that are not visible from the streets,
typically in the rear. One example is in the rear, it could be of metal construction
and we wouldn't have an issue with that. So one big idea to implement, and we did a little
bit of research to see, when did garland start applying the two car garage requirement for
all single family residential homes? And that was with our gdc may from may 2015. So prior
to the gdc being amended being adopted, there was not a requirement that every single
house would have to have a garage. That's why we see a lot of older homes that may have
one car garage or we see some. The garage may have been converted. So that's why we see
a wide range of homes that are not just typical two car garage. Now, we recognize that when
there's not a two car garage, there is a further need for someone to have a carport to
protect their cars. So the idea is if it is a home that was built after the gdc was adopted,
which is may 2015, if it was a home built with the new standards of the gdc, and they
are required to have a two car garage, then we will not allow carports in the front anymore
when they're visible from the from the street. And on the flip side, the home that homes
that were built before that date, where the assumption is they were not required to have
the two car garage. In that case, we will allow carports to be visible from the public
street, but with robust standards. So that's where our enhanced standards will come in.
and those will include height when the main house is two story, then it's one set. If
it's one story, then it's another set of height, because the relationship will differ
from a two story main house and a one story main house. How the building materials. And again,
we'll work with city attorney's office to make sure we can actually apply all these
standards. But the idea is to make the materials be compatible with the main house,
put setback standards, put separation standards from the main house and things like that.
so those will have the most robust set of standards when the the carport is visible from
the public street. Now, currently in the gdc, we have we have lumped together carport,
canopies and porte cochere. We do see those things differently and the impact is pretty
different. We have seen. We have pictures of some some pretty good porte cashiers even
in our downtown that are integrated with the main house, that do not look like a, a
carport, that someone was just trying to put it out there with no further thoughts of the
esthetic of the house. So we, we think the porte cochere should have their own set of
standards. So eventually if council gives us gives us the thumbs up, we're going to
separate standards for carports, which will have three different set of standards for visible
from the public street, visible, not visible from the public street and all carports. Then
we'll have standards for porte cashiers, and we'll have standards for canopies, which
are different than carports because it's all lumped together. We often face a
challenge to interpret things. So that's kind of the genesis of the of the ideas that came
out of our discussions with dsc. The proposed standards, again will streamline and clarify
gdc's existing definitions. Again, we'll define the differences between carports,
canopies and porches and also patio covers. We got some additional feedback from our
committee members that we want to add. Clause that the maintenance requirements can be
legally enforceable, because at the end of the day, we do find there are a lot of carports
that are required to get a permit from our building inspections department that
were just built illegally. So regardless of what we do in our gdc, people can continue to
build carports illegally. And at that point, we need to make sure our code enforcement can
go out there and legally enforce all these standards that we are putting in, and
also enforce the maintenance piece of it, where it could be paint, it could be, it could be
the support columns, maybe out of compliance. So that's where we really need to work with ceo
as well. The another thing that the committee said was, well, one of the ideas that we had,
if it if the current home has a one car garage, then we want the carports width to be
compatible with that garage. So if it's a one car garage, it's possible to have the width
restricted to ten feet for that carport. If it's a two car garage, then it's more
compatible to have a carport that is covering the width of that two car garage. So things
like that will line it up in our amendments. And also, there was a concern raised because we
had put in minimum or maximum square footage for a carport, which was 400 square foot, but
there was a little bit of concern that for large trucks, that could require more than
20ft in length, what are we going to do about it? So we're going to add some flexibility
in our amendments to that. So again to summarize, we're not going to want to have carports
to be permitted for homes that are constructed after 2015. Homes that were constructed
prior to 2015. They will be subject to robust development standards, height setbacks,
building materials and so on and so forth. The standards will vary depending on whether
or not they're visible from the streets. Will clean up terms and definitions. Therefore,
what is a carport? What is a porte cochere? What is a canopy? What is a patio cover? We'll
define it clearly in the gdc. And we'll also work on. Right now we don't have anything
separate for port cashiers, but if we're using that term for its true meaning, when it's an
integrated element of the main building, we'll need to have separate standards for that as
well. So all of that is very much focused on residential carports. But there is an
element of nonresidential carports as well. But I think councilwoman luck wanted that
to be tackled separately. Once we have gone through this exercise of updating the
standards for residential carports, and there would be some learnings along the way,
and we will be able to apply it for the nonresidential carports. But that would be a kind of
next step. Once this this s is done. And then comes the operations side of it. How are
we really making sure all these standards are being applied right now? Carport permits
comes to the building inspections department planning doesn't necessarily, unless it
needs a variance through the board of adjustment or some kind of interpretation of the
gdc. It doesn't come to the planning department, but the standards that we are putting
in are very planning oriented. So we'll work with b, I and code compliance to make sure
proper training is there, so that objectively it could be applied at a permitting stage,
and it doesn't really require every now and then it'll require some interpretations,
but it is objective enough for by staff to apply and code compliance, to hold people
accountable to. So those were the big ideas. Again, we have a lot of slides, which we have
examples of some existing carports that don't really work. And what is it that we're
trying to prevent and all that? I'm happy to go into that or I'm happy to answer questions.
we're really asking whether or not these ideas resonate with you and whether or not we
should go and spend time working on these amendments. All right. We'll start with
council member dutton. I would be interested to see your examples of carports. So this
one is if you can see the columns, this will not even be a permitted because it it's not
even I don't think it matches our code to even today, but you can see one of the support
structure. It's outside of the paved surface. It's toward the to the grassy areas where they
just paved it out and put that support structure there. We will not. The new standards
will not allow something like this. Here's one where the original home had a one car
garage, but you can see when it. Again, this will not be permitted in any way with the
proposed standards because it doesn't comply witith the state of the compact. It's not
compatible with the main house, but you can see how it's way wider than what the framework
of the existing garage and how that can create some kind of esthetic disturbance for that
home. These are these are good, like what we want to see in the in the carports. But here, this
one again, I don't think this was this would be considered compatible with our current
code even. But there's no yeah. We have cars parked in the grass and yeah, it's not. So
these are some of the examples of non compliance. But also even if they did pull a permit
it may not not for this one but for some of the other ones. The proposed standards it would not
fit. And see it's other than that there's no the separation between the carport and the
home. That's also an issue that we need to take a look at. Let's do we have. I think we
had a good example of some nice. Can you can you go back to the one that you just had on the
screen? Because I've got, I'm interested to, to know what. What would be a no go on this
one. With the proposed with the proposed standards. Oh. Yeah. Well first of all. Well it's
not this one. There's a lot wrong with this house. You don't have. You mean this one,
right? This is visible from the street and metal construction. We will not allow that. It's
not even currently allowed. So this is my issue with this. Next to this house is the
dilapidated building that doesn't even get mowed. Okay. So in my opinion, putting so
much effort on a carport because if I'm looking at this, this looks like this looks like
a bougie, bougie money to me compared to what it's sitting next door to. So I struggle
with that. I struggle with if someone wants to do something to protect their property and
they're making an investment in their property, do we really want to just overthink that
process? Right. I, I agree the, the one with the oversize wood, it's ugly. It's not my house.
like, you know, so I, part of me thinks like we're, we're kind of, maybe we're putting
too much thought into it. If you go down buckingham, when it turns into pleasant valley,
those houses, all the rear all face on buckingham. So they. If they have a carport, is that
good or. No, because it's facing a public street like so I, I, I, I struggle a little
bit with this one. And what are we considering a canopy like a you put a tarp out over your
driveway or what? All of this is focused on just carports. Just think of traditional
carports built to protect your r. Canopies in some situations have been used
interchangeably in the past with carports, but in this situation, we're just trying to
clarify that it's not a canopy, it's a carport. We'll define we'll clarify it in the
definitions which is not currently available. Okay. I guess I was confused because
the slide that it said carports canopies, that's how it is in our current standards. Yeah.
okay. I mean, canopy should never be allowed. It's like a temporary business sign. We
don't allow those. So yeah, to me for residential buildings, there's no use for a for a
canopy. And that's what we want to clarify in the definitions. But currently it's all put together in one section carports, canopies, port cashiers. There's just one set
of standards for all of that. And that's the issue. Okay. Perfect. Yeah. I mean, my, my
biggest concecerns that we're maybe overthinking it. I, I don't know what t the feasibiliy
of having code compliance regulate carports is because like I said, I, I, if I were
standing at this property, just looking at it, that can't be that that carport would be the
least of my worries, the absolute least of my worries. And in the summer, all of those
trees bloom. You can barely even see the house from the street. I just, I, I'm
concerned that we've got other larger fish to fry. Where do we really worry about messing with
people that are just trying to protect their property? So that's totally up to city
council to decide. We do think there is a cascading effect of things sometimes if a whole if
there's one I don't want to, I'm trying to be really politically correct and an
anesthetic and a carport that is not as thick as thetically compatible with the house. And
it really sticks out. And that one house is really causing that entire block or entire
street to have some kind of impact visually. And then generally it's easier for
someone else to think, oh, well, my neighbor's doing it, so I'm going to put up a carport that
looks like that. And that's how it may have a cascading effect, but it's totally up to city
counci to determine on the priority. I mean, I, I, and I get it right, I get it. I would
rather everyone put up a carport than the people that have their hoard piles spewing
out all over, all over their yard. So I, I get the point of it. It's just this one's a
little, a little rough for me, so thank you. Yeah. Of course, mayor pro tem. So on the
current slide, that carport right there on under today's standards is not allowed. So it
may be legally non-conforming. We don't know when it was built. So that piece we don't we don't
even have data to go that deep. Well we can do some google image thing, but even with
current standards this will not be able to go in today. Right. So in my opinion, someone, a
code officer is looking at this house. I don't think they're looking at this house. I think they're looking at the property that's next to it, which like she said, is severely overgrown.
and for most of these, especially where houses really well maintained in this case, I
think that the the standards that we're developing now is more of a tool in the tool kit,
not necessarily. We're going to send everybody out to go look at all the carports in garland
and write a bunch of citations. That's not that's not the that's not the goal. The goal
is to have the ability to, to see someone who is violating our ordinance and be able to do
something about it. It's a tool. So thank you, mayor. Thank you ma'am. Councilmember beard. All
right. These aluminum I consider them temporary carports. They have popped up
all over my neighborhood in the last few years. It was just a couple that were kind of
grandfathered in because they'vbeen there forever. A big wind and they all get
damaged. So I can see where that would be. Want to bring that up a little more permanent
in their structure for being built. And I, you know, we've got to address, there's so many
things we need to address. And I know carports is one of those things. Overgrown yards is
another one of those things, but they're completely different things. So saying we
need to focus on this instead of this. Well, no, we need to focus on all of this and we
need to focus on all of that. I'm looking at this carport and it's falling down. On one
corner is what I'm looking at. I can see the ones that have been there maybe 15 years that
are semi-permanent, put in the ground strong as long as they're in good shape. But like
I said, I've seen them pop up all over the older parts of town that the garage has
already been converted. The garage was converted 30 years ago. There's no garage, there's
no carport. And all of a sudden we've got these little aluminum carport things being put in.
I'm sure they're done without permit. I'm sure they're not. Secured in the best of ways. So
I would like to see that that definition firmed up and some way to enforce it for those
temporary carports that are already and I'm sorry, it's they're not technically
temporary. They just are not permanently attached to the house or permanently attached
to the ground in a strong enough fashion that they will not blow away. So I would like
to see that. I like to see that that part of it really beefed up so they won't even be
allowed. So that's the beefing up that we are proposing that we don't allow it. Now, things
that are already there, if they were done with a permit, that's one thing. I don't see how that
if it's in the last few years, if it's metal, it's a front that's not currently allowed,
but there's just a lot of variable there. But the, the beefing up that we're proposing
is not to allow them at all in the when it's visible also on the visible from the street, if
the carport is going to be in the back. We do have several neighborhoods that the back and
the front are visible from the street and. I think we need to really take that into
consideration because, you know, I do it. Are we going to require the exact same
standards in the back because there's a street that runs behind it. So is it a street or
an alley? That street I can think of? A couple neighborhoods. Yeah. Like out
towards firewheel off of chris road, the streets. There's you can the house takes up the
whole block so you can see the back of the house from one street in the front of the
house, from another street. We did not contemplate that. So we'll have to think about it and see if we can come up with a solution. But the idea is, if you're visible, then no,
because that is what hurts the esthetic and the appeal of the neighborhood. But if it's
council's desire that we build in some some flexibility for those situations, it could be
seen as a it's a challenge for that, that particular property. We can take a look at that.
okay. Thank you. Thank you. Council member williams. Just one comment on the carports
concern. There's a street next street over for me. And the houses are built. And in one
instance, I saw a bunch of construction guys on the roof and they they were building
looked like an enclosed garage. So I made a call to build an inspection and asked, is it is
it permitted? Found out it wasn't. So there is no enclosed carport or garage, whatever you
want to call it there now. So I think how we how we following that. That rule as far as
carports or garages, whatever you want to call them, permitted, that are built right
next to a house. In fact, it's connected. They, they were on the roof using the same
material and they, they were about to build a, an extension, and they probably were going to
use it for other reasons. So what does that come in? What so so what what they come into
play. What what building permit come into play in this whole thing. Council. Mr. Mayor, just
a quick couple of notes just so I can frame the the discussion in terms of policy making here.
one is that cpter 3000, section 3000 of the texas government code relates to
building materials on residential structures. If we're talking about carports
being connected to houses or garages and they're attached to the house, there's very little
we can do in terms of what materials they use and what esthetics, whether it matches
the house. So if it's once it's connected, then they're going to be able to use what
materials they want. That includes pre-engineered aluminum. If that's what the
international question is. Is there any kind of building permit? Yes. So to get more
directly to your point is, how do we regulate the situation that you're talking about? When
somebody comes in and decides with the plan to build a garage onto their house, it's going to
be regulated primarily through setbacks from both the front and the side of the houses, if
they're allowed under our code because of setbacks to build a garage and they can build a
garage, and if they attach it to their house, they can probably use any material that's approved through the international codes. Okay, okay. Thank you. Yeah. Thank you sir.
deputy mayor pro tem. Well, our fine city attorney just beat me to the punch on that one. I was
thinking building materials were something that we were not able to regulate. And if it is
freestanding, that is when we can determine that. So we would probably be wise if we're going
to have a code of a method for regulating carports to make sure they are not attached to
the house, and you can also regulate even garages that are add ons, not just through
setbacks. You can also use articulation distances. So you can say that you're looking at
the house as one portion of the house can extend from the front of the location, extend a
certain amount of feet out front. And that can also help limit the use of carports and
garages that are being added on. If that's what council would want to do, you could do that
as well. The other thing I was just going to mention was just that when it comes to carports,
having if you have an alleyway and you have a. And you are building a carport in your
alley where you have limited. The public can see it very little other than the. Maybe
the four neighbors behind you. That seems to be a completely different type of situation
than a carport that's being built in the front of the house, where it affects the entire
block and the entire neighborhood. So just food for thought that's different. Yes.
all right. That's the whole I, what I took from this committee's discussion. And
that was where the committee wanted to have more clarity. Very good. Okay. Thank you sir.
council member moore. Thank you, mr. Mayor. What I'm hearing is. I'm very much appreciating what
I have heard coming from planning department, and that is the different manners by
which they are looking at bringing this ordinance or. Into compliance. I'm thinking
now more about the czb study and what that study has suggested to us as it relates
to our housing stock and what we're going to be needing to do as we go forward. And what I
have heard the planning committee say to us is that these are some categories,
these are some standards. These are some things that they want to bring to us that will help
us to be able to formulate that, that ordinance or those rules and regulations. I think it's
very important that that take place primarily because I also hear that, you know, when we
begin to talk about this subject, and I don't think I like that, I think I don't
think that what we're doing can be subjective. I think that whatever we do, it's going to
have to be standardized to the extent that we will be able to not go out to a piece of
property and say, I like that, or I don't like that, but to go out there and have a set of
standards that say, this is what the standards are going to be. And so with that, I'm
thinking that this may be a good time for us because you've given us your your
recommendations. You heard from the concerns that we have. I think it might be a good time
to say to them, let them go back and continue to work on this and bring us something
back that may be more closer to where we may be. All that at a point that we're able to say,
okay, that's, that's getting closer to what I think that we can. Agree to. Because if you
know, as we're going right now, I'm hearing more subjectivity and objectivity as it relates
to what's going to happen with this, this proposal, with this plan. That's what I would like
to see, mr. Mayor, is that we send it back to comttee. I'll send it back and let them
continue to work on it. And we and bring it back to us again in a more structured form.
thank you. Thank you, sir. Yes, I know it mentioned in the report that something will be
coming forward to council in the future and. Typically in these situations, when it comes
to the council, I'd like to bring it back to the full council for discussion and not
send it back to committee if I don't have to. So I would like to see what the city attorney's
office, in conjunction with the planning department, based upon the feedback tonight and the feedback they received in committee hearing. I would also like that presentation that you
showed briefly that was shown during the committee meeting. If you distribute that to the rest of the council, and then we can also provide more feedback on that as you're
working through an ordinance and then have it come back in a future work session, if that's
okay. So I'd like to proceed with that with an thank you, sir. Yes, I agree, thank you.
very good. Then we'll look forward to having that come back at a future work session
then. Council, I know we've been going a while, but hopefully this next one will be
aa short one. So I want to move quickly into item number 12, which is transportation
infrastructure mobility committee meeting report. Chairman thomas, your chair of
that committee, sir. So this. This item dealt with started out as one street, wood street,
which runs from jupiter to shiloh. And it is runs parallel to between miller and and
kingsley and about halfway between miller and kingsley. It's an industrial part of
district six. And we also included marquis drive, which runs between forrest and miller
from jupiter to shiloh. Both of these are total industrial areas. There is no residential
structures in that. I worked just a block from marquis over on miller park drive for eight
years when I first got got out here. So the staff did a. Did a good job by going and pulling
the the play. They went and asked, do you want this? Do you not? And so I'll let our
transportation director go ahead and tell us the results of what his findings were. So
thank you. So I'll just do the presentation I did to the committee back in march. Just
just a quick, brief overview of. So we have certain principles we follow and just generally.
but the biggest one is that we don't restrict parking in front of in front of someone's
property without their request or consent of that person. That's been something we've
learned the hard way over time. And it's not just doesn't go well when we do that. The city
ordinance has several ways of restricting parking. There's there's large parts of the
ordinance that list all the streets that have parking in the various restrictions that are on them. And then the city manager does have the authority to, in the ordinance to give
restrict parking less than 100ft. We do that for small, small, small, minor issues. And
just a reminder, know the commercial vehicles are not allowed to park on any public
street in garland overnight. That's whether it's signed or not. So on would look like,
councilman thomas said. We. We did look at two different streets, wood street and
marquis wood drive and drive. We. The. The proposal was to restrict parking on one side of
the street because it was difficult for vehicles to travel down the street because
if there's parking on both sides. So we went and surveyed all of the businesses along the
street on both sides, because we weren't sure which side we wanted to restrict parking on,
and all of the ones we talked to, 12 were in favor of it. Five we didn't. Responses from
two of those were just unoccupied lots. No one was opposed to it. So really what
we got was we're proposing restricting parking on nearly all of both sides of the street,
because that's really what people were asking for. As I mentioned, we talked to all of
these different people, the different businesses along the street. There is a large
section that is on the north side that's being redeveloped right now. We could revisit
that in the future when that gets occupied, but they they may very well want restrictions
there as well. And as you can see, there is actually quite a bit of the street that's
already restricted to no parking. Did the same thing on maki drive. Again, the idea was
to restrict parking on one side of the street. We surveyed all the businesses. 11 were in
favor, three didn't respond. No one was against it. And this is this is the findings. So what
we this is what we're proposing. Again, there's a fair amount of the street that's already
restricted from parking. The dashed lines are where we're proposing to add restrictions.
and interestingly, the the there's some additional restrictions we're adding along
kings road because the property owner, when we talked to them, they wanted it restricted along
those as well. So either either they didn't oppose the restrictions or they had asked
us for additional restrictions. So that's fairly common when we talk to people in these in
these in the industrial area, there's a big problem with particularly with trailers that
are left overnight. It's something that is difficult to enforce because our enforcement
officers that enforce the parking are not typically around overnight. So that's not
it's just it's just not a not easy to enforce. So that's all I've got. Okay. And so we're
talking about parking and then the driver leaving the vehicle to go somewhere else. If he's
just waiting in the vehicle to get into the business to get loaded, because the yard's
already full, that's not an issue. No, that's actually considered standing not okay.
so he would be so standing would still be allowed, but no parking. Right. Okay. I just
wanted to make sure that folks were clear on that, that we're going to we're still going to
allow trucks to wait there if they can't get into the yard. But I think most of these said,
we've got enough space in our yard. The trucks can get in here. There's no reason for
them to be parking on the street at all. Is that correct, sir? Right. And typically it
wasn't it wasn't their trucks that were parking o on the seet. It was trucks from somewhere
else. Okay. Very good. All right. That's all I have, mayor. Other questions? Go ahead. I
have some here. Council member dutton, we'll start with you. How far down are we planning on
making a. Just just adjacent to those properties, sit down to the the south. I have described
it. They're kind of the south west of that right here where the. On both sides, all the way
down to north. Have you had an opportunity to speak to the marshal's office? Just kind of
maybe get an idea of what complaints they get in that area? I didn't specifically
relate to this. I talked to them fairly often, but I didn't talk to them about this. We're
just we're really just looking at at, at marquis. So this came up as a part of that. Sure. So
in that entire area, the number of trucks. In the. Do you want a refund on this or the number
of trucks that park on both sides of all of those streets is insane. And when you have, I
mean, really any sized vehicle that's trying to navigate their way through there. I've I had a
lady actually a couple of weeks ago that that called she makes deliveries and she's in a
standard delivery van, whatever. And her major concern is that you cannot pull out onto any of
these streets safely because you can't see anything. And these are these are semis that
are parked there overnight. They they switch them out. There's a repair shop that will
take one and have them park on the street, pull them in and swap them out so that they
don't hit that, that mark, you know, so they know the game. And so that's it. It's not safe
back there at all. When there was a situation going on on jupiter road and pd, had the
street closed down, the only way that I could in the moment get through to go home waso
cut through marquis. It was it was quite terrifying. It was quite terrifying. Even with the
speed humps that you can't see the arrows. But there. It's just so, so much. Right. And
it's all the time. And so I, I don't know that there's an actual like real solution to it.
I don't know if it's these are people that would normally be paying $20 to park for 24 hours
at rikki rockett. It's definitely a situation. So I, I would if you can talk to judy,
she knows the whole. Story with the delivery lady trying to get through there and it's just not
safe. And, but I do I do appreciate this very much. I hope that it helps, but I, I
just don't know that they're actually going to care about a no parking sign. So where we
have, I think, I think we have where we have no parking sig, they can at least enforce it.
so it does seem to help, at least for a while. I know, I know council has asked us to do
a comprehensive study and we tried to take that on a couple years ago, and it's been a
little daunting to try to tackle the whole area all at once. So I think I think what
actually worked, this has worked pretty well. This, this process that we went through
for this. So I think it would be a good, a good thing to if, if to do this sort of one, one
or 2 or 3 streets at a time and then just take it on a little bit at a time, that seemed to
work pretty well. So we can certainly keep doing this for the next streets and just keep
going. So well, good luck. I appreciate it though. Thank you, mayor pro tem luck. Yes. So my
original ask on this was industrial zoning parking. So it was much broader than what
we have tonight. I if possible, I would like for multiple streets within the industrial
areas and five and six or any other two if those could be brought forward to tim to the
tim committee, sorry, not to a person named tim, to the tim committee and, and maybe we
have that done regularly so that these these streets can start to be monitored better
and that there's parking restrictions, at least on one side. I just want to read a
quick email that I received. Over the years. We have often seen semi truck cabs, trucks
and trailers and trailers parked on the east side of hightower drive, severely
limiting road use and causing safety issues due to limited visibility. Because that is
what the. That's the big problem that we have, is visibility. There are people
trying to turn on to jupiter from merritt and they can't see anything. Would. Is a similar
street that had that issue. I used to take that to work every day and it would always make me
so mad. So. So I would like to move forward with looking at these streets individually,
going through this process. And I think that that, you know, industrial zoning as a whole
and looking at parking in that way. That would break it up a little bit more so that we can
actually achieve some, somee go parking restrictions in these areas. Thank you. Very
good. Any other questions on this item? Councilmember moore? Thank you, mr. Mayor. So what
I'm hearing is that what you see presently, it really sounds like you don't really feel that
this is going to work or that. That's being on the committee. I want to when we when we bring
it back, I really would like to just understand, because I think I heard councilwoman
dutton saying that she really doesn't think this is going to work. Is that what I'm hearing?
not that. That's my biggest concern is, is it feasible for us to actually enforce? Because
like paul said, we don't have people that are overnight and so that are overnight
monitoring parking. So, I mean, I obviously, I trust, you know, our, our staff to do their due
diligence. And I, I don't question, you k k know, the recodation, I jt d d don't,,,,,I
don'ru that the people committing the ridiculousness are going t do their part.
right. I mean, they ran, they go through the residential areas. We can't even keep them
out of residential areas. So, I mean, it's I don't have faith in them, not us. It sounds like
it sounds to me though, like by doing this, at least it's going to give the marshals our code
compliance opportunity to at least eorce. Whereas right now there is no enforcement.
and what I think I hear staff saying is they want to try these two streets initially.
and then if it works, of course, go forward. If not, then repositi. Is that is that
what I'm hearing? I think, paul, is that what I'm hearing from you? Yeah. I mean, I do feel
like it's I mean, like you said, it's, it's. I think it's going to work initially. I mean, it
depends on enforcement. We can, we can talk some more to the marshals, but it does, it does
at least give them the opportunity to go and try to address the problem. Plus it'll,
it'll allow them to do it during the day, whereas the, the, the no parking of
overnight commercial vehicles, they can enforce that anywhere all the time. But that's,
that's pretty daunting to try to address overnight every night. Okay. And what I hear is
we do want to at that point, begin to do some type of ongoing reports such t that you
will have an opportunity to see is this or is this not working? Is that what I'm getting? Okay.
thank you, mr. Mayor. Mr. Mayor pro tem luck. Yes, this is a great plan. I want it done all
over the entire industrial section. Absolutely. And and because doing the entire zone
at one time is suca daunting task. I would like for that to be done, you know, in
perpetuity until we get the whole thing done, if that's what it takes. And again,
things like this, just like in the last case or in the last committee report out, we heard
this is a mechanism. It's a tool that we give to staff. If there is an opportunity to
enforce it and they can, then they have a no parking sign that they can look at and say,
hey, you're not supposed to be here. So, so it's all about giving staff as many tools as
they can to enforce where they can. Thank you. Thank you. Any other questions or comments on
this item? And we'll be looking towards formal consideration on may 19th. All right. Council,
that was the last item on our agenda. Now it's time to announce any future agenda
items anyone has. Last chance council member beard, bass and councilman williams, you did?
yes. I'll email my second. Thank you, council member denton. I would like public
safety committee to get with pd on. Thank you. Like come on now. On the gunshots, the random
gunshot and how we how we address it. And margaret and I's district. I don't know if
anyone else is facing this situation, but it is a multiple times a night rapid fire. And
it comes from the same area almost every night. You can set your clock to it. So I would I
would like to public safety committee to have a conversation with pd on what we
can make happen because it's it's wild. Okay. Anything else? That's it. Mayor pro tem luck.
I would like for chief brian to come to public safety and talk about noise violations, how
many calls we've gotten, and 2025 how many tickets were issued in that regard. And
second, councilmember dutton. Okay. Anything else? No, sir. Thank you. Very good. Any other
future agenda items? All right. Council then at 812. We're