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The waco city council on october 7th, 2025 to order at 3:. Waco city

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council. Nice crowd in here today. Welcome to all the people gathered here, mayor jim holmes. I'm joined on the dais here today by our council members, isabel lozano, josh

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boyd, darius ewing, george chase and mayor pro tem andrea fairfield, next to me, to my

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immediate left, also joined on the adjacent dais by our senior city staff. We have deputy city

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manager deidre emerson running the meeting today. Over here. We also have kristen hamilton,

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our city attorney, and our city secretary, michelle hicks, a full house here today. This is

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great. We're going to start the meeting today with a moment of silence. All right. First item

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of business today is a recognition of work session speakers. Is there anyone present who'd like to speak on a work session? Agenda item. City secretary hicks, do we

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have anybody signed up? No, mayor, we do not have any speakers. We have no speakers

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this afternoon, so we will now recess the regular session and convene into work session with

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a report from deputy city manager emerson. Good afternoon, mayor and council. You're right.

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we have a full house here today. We've got some special guests in the audience with us. And so

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I just want to take a minute to do an employee recognition. Since the last council meeting,

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our parks and recreation team has ensured two great experiences for two great

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projects in south waco. First, the official unveiling of the south waco mural, a vision of

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the cesar chavez neighborhood association that celebrates texas hispanic heritage and

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local contributions. And second, the groundbreaking for the alice martinez rodriguez park,

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a $25 million investment into an all inclusive park. A legacy project honoring former council

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member alice rodriguez and other hispanic leaders and their unwavering dedication to

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the community. We look forward to seeing this project be completed in late 2026, and

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then, for more than 30 years, the city of waco has observed national night out due to a

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special presentation scheduled for this evening's business session, we will respectfully

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ask mayor holmes to present the national night out proclamation during today's work session to

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ensure that we properly recognize this important community event. So, mayor, if

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we can get the national night out team, community team down and the issuance of detective

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mcgruff, I will meet you down at the podium. Mayor and deputy city manager, is it okay if

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those of us who grew up with mcgruff just in our hearts, could go down there as well?

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absolutely. It's your time to shine. I appreciate you. You're the best. Thank you for your

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service. We have we have a celebrity among us today right here. I really appreciate the

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national night out is such a special night for the city of each of early october, where we

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do this national night out day, and it's really a combination of neighborhood associations

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and neighborhoods, which have been strengthened materially over the last 5 or 6 years with

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harrison's with us today. Let's not here, but I'm so proud of the neighborhood associations

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and the strength that we have throughout the city. I think there's 22 individual neighborhood associations that really activate neighborhood care and neighborhood progress.

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and to have that matched with our public safety and our in our police department, we've

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got the best police chief in the world with chief victorian and with in the best police

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department in the world. And you know that. And I'm so proud to say this. We have the lowest

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crime rate in over 30 years. So it's a it's a. Which which is really we can thank the

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synergies the way I see the synergies of the neighborhood associations who are who care

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about the neighborhoods and the police department, who care to listen to the neighborhoods and

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and interact. Our relational policing is at an all time high. So I want to just add that in.

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and in addition to having mcgruff here, who's been a childhood hero of mine. So I'm

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glad you're here today. So with that, I'll read the proclamation. Hi, jim holmes, by virtue of the authority vested in me as mayor of the city of waco, texas, do hereby

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proclaim october 7th, 2025, as national night out day in the city of waco. So let's hear it.

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and I urge all citizens to join city council, city staff, and me, along with the waco police

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department, in observing america's night out against crime. National night out is a nationwide campaign that promotes strong relationships between police and the

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communities they serve. This initiative encourages neighbors to connect, to build trust, and

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to work together to make our neighborhoods safer and more united. On this day, we

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recognize the dedication of community members and neighborhood groups who partner with law enforcement to prevent crime and to build a sense of shared responsibility for

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public safety, whether by hosting block parties, organizing local events, or

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simply reaching out to connect with neighbors, residents are playing a vital role in shaping

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safer, more vibrant communities. We invite everyone in waco and the surrounding areas to turn

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on their porch lights, step outside, and join in this collective effort to strengthen

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community bonds and stand together against crime. In testimony whereof, witness my

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hand in the seal of the city of waco this seventh day of october, 2025, and is signed by

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all the members of council. So thank you very much. All right. A few words, please. Yes, sure.

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fantastic. Thank you, mayor and council, thank you to our city manager's office, city manager

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ford and our city manager's team leadership team. Our team. And miss candace cruz who has

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led this effort. We are visiting 25 neighborhoods on tonight. That's how many signed

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up for us to come and visit. And we're excited about that. And we hope that, you know,

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after council, you guys have an opportunity to go out to your neighborhoods, meet your

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neighbors, and just continue this just wonderful tradition that we have of national night

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out here in texas. So thank you. Thank you again for our proclamation. And we'll see you

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guys tonight. All right. All right. Thank you. Mayor, before you go too far, do you mind

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staying there just for a second, please? We have we noticed that we have our customer engagement

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team in the audience with us. And so would you all stand. And so it is national customer

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service week. And so there's a proclamation that you're scheduled to do at 6 p.m. But

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since all the staff are here now, would you mind doing that with them now? Absolutely.

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remain standing during my little this is going to be yeah, it's going to be long. This is

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about customer service week. And our group right here is representing that. You know,

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since I'm an old chief operating officer from a company, I love talking about

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best in class service and which is what I tried to do in the private sector and what I want

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to accomplish in public sector. And we've got such great staff here at the city that that

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really embraces that goal. We've built a culture of high performance and customer first

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mentality. We've been very intentional about that and we continue to improve with better

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system, better processes, and just a focus on on customer being number one. So thanks to

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staff and also thanks to waco residents, because this is always an interactive,

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iterative process. As we as we become better and the customers, customers and residents help us

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become better. So we're continually striving to be best in class. I appreciate the

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commitment. So with that, you all want to come down here so I can present this to you, please.

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this is great. Thanks. Appreciate you. Okay, I'm going to now read the proclamation. I,

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jim holmes, by virtue of the authority vested in me as mayor of the city of waco, texas, do

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hereby proclaim october 6th through 10th, 2025 as customer service week in the city of

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waco. Thank you. Appreciate you. John. And I urge all citizens to join the city council, city

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staff and me and recognize the hard work, dedication and achievements of our customer

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service professionals. Let us all commit to promoting a culture of service, gratitude,

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and respect not just this week, but every day of the year. Customer service stands as the

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heartbeat of any organization fostering trust, nurturing lasting relationships, and

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upholding the satisfaction and success of those served. The dedicated professionals who

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work in customer service serve as the face and the voice of the city of waco, demonstrating

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patience, empathy, problem solving skills, and a commitment to excellence. Each day, they play a vital role in shaping the customer experience, responding to concerns with

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care, resolving challenges with diligence, and going above and beyond to deliver value and

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support to our citizens. Customer service week is a nationally recognized event and

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is celebrated annually during the first full week of october to honor the people who serve

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and support customers with professionalism and pride. The theme of customer service week

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2025 is service with heart, and it reminds us that exceptional service standards beyond

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transactions and is about forging genuine connections, demonstrating care, and

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fostering a sense of community. And that's in testimony whereof witness my hand and the seal of

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the city of waco this seventh day of october, and signed by all the members of city council.

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so congratulations. Thank you, thank you. Thank you. Here we go. Just in time. We're going

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to have to move in. Move to the middle. Get the whole schmear. Thank you. All right.

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appreciate it. Oh, well, it's an honor to be here. And we certainly appreciate the

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support of our mayor and our council. Customer service, as the proclamation reads, is the

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face of the city. Many people never deal with any other department than ours in the

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city. So it's very important to us that we deliver that first in class service and that we

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support our citizens in trying to problem solve any issues they have with the city. So

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again, we appreciate your time. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, mayor, for making that special

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accommodation. There are three informal reports today and staff is available. If there

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are any questions. I had one question. Are we going to do these separately? Okay. The

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informal reports I did have a question on. Let me find my notes. Mayor, do you mind if if

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I make a note about our deputy city manager's first items? While you're looking for that

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question, I just wanted to say thanks to the parks team and to city manager bradley ford and

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to our assistant city managers and our staff for a wonderful unveiling of the mural at south

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waco community center, which was a great event, joyous and long overdue in many ways, but

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wonderfully delivered. So thanks to all for who made that happen. And also this last

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saturday, I felt like alice martinez rodriguez parks groundbreaking was a similarly joyful affair. So thank you to staff. Thank you to this council for prioritizing it. I

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think that was a major event in the life of our city, and looking forward to that park

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being developed in the next 14 months. And I'm going to echo everything, josh said. Because

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it was an the two events were amazing and just reflective of the community that we are and

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the community that we will be, and elevating our all of the cultures that are, that are

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significant in our community. I also wanted to mention on one of the other ir about the waco

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tourism rebranding project. Many of you know, we just underwent an amazing rebranding

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campaign for the city of waco itself. But as you know, we separated our our convention

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center into a different management team, and we've become a destination marketing

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organization. You'll hear dmo, that's what that is. We decided we needed to figure out what

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that looked like and how to be reflective of who we who we are to our visitors. And when I

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tell you, it is probably chinese arithmetic is on steroids, is easier than

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bringing in 8 million ideas to what is is waco and what we sell waco as, because it's more

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than one thing and we it cannot be drilled down into just one thing. That's waco. And so the

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team went out and got some amazing consultants. We had a lot of ideas come through. We

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threw all of them in the trash and started over again. Because if it's not right, it's not

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right. And like we said, cast the net on the other side. And what we did was found a way to

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represent our community. So it we're not talking about it here, but the information is in the

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on the agenda to go through and look at our new brand. It it's I think it embodies our

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community in a way that you can place it in any of the things that make waco, waco, and

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you'll be like, yep, that's exactly right. So I want to commend our comms team,

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certainly our our dmo team. Lisa blackman and her team, hannah, all of the the tourism

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team for coming together to choose the consultants to to work through the processes and

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to get it right. So thank you for that and congratulations on great work. Totally agree with

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mayor pro tem barefield on the the branding for the the tourism group. Just some new

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ideas that just seems like we're always coming up with good, new, better ideas. I love

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it. Oh, the informal report I think I've, I already reached out to to staff on this one on

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the the code international codes, where we have a recommendation for cooling

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facilities capable of maintaining indoor room temperatures of at least 15 degrees cooler than the outside temperature or to 85 degrees, whichever is lower. And I think

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we're going to adjust that. In theory, if the temperature was 70 degrees outside, you'd have

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to have a capability of having 55 and progressively colder and colder house, which didn't

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wasn't intuitive to me. So I think we're going to work to change that language. And paul

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is nodding his head. Good. Yes. That's all I had on the informal. There are two public

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hearings today in clint peters will cover those items later in the work session. The consent

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agenda includes 31 resolutions. These resolutions are a reflection of the continued

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commitment to ensure current and future projects and programs move forward. A few

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quick highlights would be. Resolution g six provides a request to council to accept a

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donation of technology, products and services for the steam center from cisco systems,

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inc. Resolution g7 authorizes actions for the westlake village development that acm

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paul kane and the developers team presented at the september 16th, 2025 work session,

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including approval of a development agreement and consent for creation of a

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municipal management district at the development. And then lastly, resolution g 11

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authorizes the conveyance of city owned property and federal grant funds towards the completion of the mixed use development at the old former sanger school site. Under the

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amended development agreement, infrastructure will be completed throughout 2026, and then we'll see the first phase of home start going up between november 2026 and november 2027,

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galen price, director of housing and community development, will present on this item later in the work session. There are six ordinances on the agenda today

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two first readings and four second readings. And if there are no questions that will

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conclude my report, any questions or comments on the work session items today, I

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just want to say that there's a wide variety of it's very exciting agenda. I encourage

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everybody to to read the whatever thousand pages of information. But to me, it just

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struck me that we're talking about economic development, where we have the meeting

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tonight for downtown. We're talking about in h five or in got to get all these streets.

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there's so much going on. We're talking about the steel 71 jobs and 117 million in new

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investment, which is super exciting. We're talking about housing some some cool projects,

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the westlake project, where we expand across the river with a bunch of housing. We're talking

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about downtown housing on the renaissance singer heights project with 25 units there.

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and we're talking about baylor area housing with the pud going in there on sixth and james.

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just super exciting there. And then also, this is the time of year where we we fund and

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demonstrate support for our business chambers. The african american chamber, cen-tex

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hispanic and greater waco chamber. Appreciate all their work and partnerships there.

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and then in addition to that, we have people are giving starting to give the city stuff,

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which is a great trend. A&m is donating a wildfire fighting. I don't know if it's a wildfire

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fighting vehicle. It's a wildfire fighting vehicle. One of those could be both, but

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that's cool. It's like a $650,000 unit. We're excited to accept that. And also cisco

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electrical is donating some very integral parts to our steam project. So this to me

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this is one this is great agenda a lot of cool stuff happening in the city. So yeah,

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if you have some bedtime reading time, open that baby up. It's got some cool stuff in it.

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but thanks deidre, that's all I have. We will now go to the consent agenda, which include

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resolutions g one through resolutions g 31. There are actually no affidavits of

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substantial interest today, which is, I think maybe the first time in a in a long time.

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but anyway, so we all get to vote on all 31 agenda items. So it includes resolutions g one

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through g 31. And the next item on the agenda is work session items b5 through b8. Deputy

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city manager emerson, will you please introduce the first work session? All right. So the

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first work session we have is the discussion of alternative improvements for texas central

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parkway. Charles lease, director of infrastructure services will present today. This presentation focuses on the rehabilitation of texas central parkway. Originally a

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two lane county road built in phases before 1970 through the 1990s. Now a critical

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industrial commercial corridor serving over 90 businesses in the city's texas central

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business park. With increasing traffic and heavy traffic, traffic truck use. Beyond its

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original design, the roadway is showing significant pavement distress. The proposed

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improvements discussed today aim to enhance ride quality, reduce annual maintenance

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demands and lower operational costs by potentially easing the strain on city resources.

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charles. Good afternoon, mayor and council honored to be here today. I feel like we've we've

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talked about streets for a few of these presentations, and those have been some marathon

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sessions. And we've talked about everything from from funding to street design to how

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we select streets for our program and how we rate streets. Today, we're going to try to do

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a half marathon, and we will talk about texas central parkway. Plan to talk a little

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bit about the history, how we got here, and perhaps a new strategy to get this street in

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a better condition, some recent bid trends and what's going on in our industry, how we propose

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to fund these improvements. And then talk a little bit about a schedule. Texas central parkway

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is a critical piece of infrastructure for the city of waco. It was built in the 60s

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and 70s. It was originally a county road, and now it serves one of our economic engines in

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texas central park, 90 plus businesses, 14,000 plus jobs. This area expects infill in the

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future and expects a vehicle load of around 14,000 vehicles each day by the year 2040. Just

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to give you an idea on total square footage, I've got a number there about 12,000,000fts

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of facility space. So lots of big business for waco, texas. In the past, the strategy for

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replacement of texas central parkway was a concrete street adjusting lane size, adjusting

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location of utilities. Quite an expensive endeavor. This is an important piece of our

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infrastructure, and so concrete was recommended for several reasons. Number one, lower

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maintenance supports additional traffic load and a longer useful life. However, lots of

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challenges with this extensive roadway reconstruction. Around $67 million. It's a heavy lift,

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especially with all the other things that are going on in waco, texas. This

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reconstruction also causes some other things, and we'll get into those in just a minute.

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all right. Texas central parkway, divided in four segments. I believe it's

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central park to imperial and segment one, that's circa 1994, paving and overlaid last in

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2017 and currently in a fair condition. Just two lanes of traffic. Segment two we're

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talking imperial to mars. It's also in a fair condition. 57 pci, two lanes constructed in

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the 60s, last overlaid in 1995. Segment three is a poor condition segment and it moves

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to four lanes. Lots of heavy traffic. We've got some rail section in there, and segment

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four is a fair section of paving four lanes as well. Looks like was reconstructed in

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86 and overlaid in 2005. Okay. So why why choose a preventative maintenance option

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versus a complete reconstruction. It's got a couple categories here. Number one is cost. We're looking at about a 10 to $11 million project versus a 65 to $70

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million project. Number two is just competing interests we've got. And I just listed a few of

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them here a several competing projects. We got speegleville road, speegleville bridge, we

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got downtown redevelopment and there are numerous other individual street segments that

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the city is interested in replacing above and beyond our normal street program. The

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preventative maintenance option will extend the existing lifespan of the street. If

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you'll recall, in our previous discussions, we're really wanting to take those fair

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streets and get the best bang for our buck and move those to a good condition.

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reconstruction is great. It would reset the lifespan of this particular paving, but it's a significantly higher cost. The other things that we need to think about in terms of

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these types of projects are traffic impacts, business impacts, a preventative maintenance program will have much less disruption to traffic flow for these businesses.

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perfect example is our bagby project. When you reconstruct a street from scratch, you work

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on utilities. It's extremely long, cumbersome, and impactful to all of those adjacent

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homeowners, property owners, businesses. And then just timing, we talked a little bit

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previously about getting these streets repaired and replaced and their appropriate time, and

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we can take advantage of those cheaper options to get a good quality pavement. All right.

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what what could we do with texas central parkway in terms of phasing this project. So we

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would start with drainage repairs. Phase one. We've got a couple of creeks here. We've

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got some antiquated drainage structures, some undersized drainage structures that need to be replaced. Phase two, we would do a little bit of railroad work, coordinate with

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uprr, and then phase three could be either a segmented or a complete paving, including

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some of the major intersections being done in concrete. Why would we do those in concrete?

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simply because turning moments and chewing up the asphalt with heavier trucks and and traffic.

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okay, phase one is about $1 million in drainage work. You see in these photos on the

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right hand side here, corrugated metal pipe. It's it's rotten and needs to be

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replaced. We would select materials of a that have better longevity, like a concrete rcp

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pipe. We would have some easement acquisition costs, some design costs, engineering

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and then obviously some construction costs. There are some opportunities to utilize

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some of our drainage funds and some other funds that we're going to talk about in a moment.

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phase two is railroad coordination. We would be working with the railroad to

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ensure the transition between city of waco paving. And those rail beds are adequate and up

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to standard. Right now. This is just a placeholder. We know there's going to be some

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dollars associated with that communication and coordination with the rail. We're estimating

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10,000, but that could go up based upon actual need at the time of design. All right. The

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most expensive portion by segment is selecting a pavement either preservation

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rehabilitation and partial replacement. So we do have an existing contract. When I moved

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to public works in july of last year, we had tapped the brakes on this particular project

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because of the changes and the potential for reorganization and some of the things that

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were, you know, just just going on with all the projects being moved into my purview, I do

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have some money available on that contract to pick this methodology up this concept and

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move it forward. And then you see the costs of the individual segments there, 800,000 all the

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way up to 4.9 million. All right. So here's just a summary of the different phases. All in

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about $11 million concept cost drainage is a million. Railroad is probably between 10,000 and

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$100,000 in the street rehabilitation. Preventive maintenance about $10 million.

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all right. This is a slide that just kind of shows the difference between the two

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methodologies. So segment one, the original concrete replacement $12 million

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estimate. We're talking about just less than $1 million. Now this is keeping the two lane

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asphalt type section instead of moving to a concrete additional lane section. We're not moving

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utilities. We're just taking that. I believe it was a fair section and bringing it up to a

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good condition. Segment $211 million original cost. We're looking at about $1 million now.

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again, a preservation, taking that fair street and moving it to a good condition. Segment

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three was the was the poor condition. It's got significantly more dollars

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associated with it. But again, a fraction of the original consideration for complete

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concrete replacement at $21 million plus or minus, we're looking at about a $3 million

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charge. And then segment four, this is where we spend a little bit more money and get some of

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that heavy traffic consideration taken care of at our intersections, and put some

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concrete intersections to get more longevity in the intersection, and then, of

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course, rehabilitate the rest of the paving with asphalt section. All right. Think back

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to our last conversation. We had this fantastic graph. I think it was the mayor's

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favorite. One of the mayor's favorites depends on whether if that's if it goes down this

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good or bad. Okay. This is good. It's good. So I think I like it. Alright. So if you'll recall we

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talked a little bit about what the trends are in our construction industry. And in

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the june 19th through december 20th into december 21st, prices of asphalt, this happens to be

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asphalt was fairly steady. You look at that. That average 12 month moving average line, the

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orange line, there were some peaks, but generally it stayed about $80 or so, a ton. And

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then of course we had covid and other local, national and international issues and prices

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just took off exponentially. And in sometime in 2022, they started to level out an

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increase linearly. And we still into december of 24, had extremely high prices. And

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thankfully there has been some easing. And that easing has been recognized not only in

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asphalt but in the labor market and other materials here within the city of waco. So we do see

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some prices coming down. Okay. This is a lot. I'll presented this slide a little bit more to

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it in one of our previous meetings, and we had talked about all the proposed projects.

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this is been updated to show all of the executed projects. So first grouping their bid

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prior to june 2025. Those are already construction started projects. And if you look there

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in the engineer's estimate, we had about $11.3 million worth of estimates, and actual bids

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came in at $8.9 million. So certainly seeing some potential for estimated savings there. In

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june, we bid for projects for $15 million of an estimate came in just short of 12 million.

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and you can see all the way down the list here on the right hand side, we had programed

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about $45 million in costs. Bids received $34 million in actual cost. Now that's not the

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end of the story. These are still estimates, right? These projects are just now we just

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bid these projects in august and september. We're just getting rolling. We could have the potential for contingency that are needed or change orders that occur or other

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instances where we will spend more than what was actually bid. However, there is some

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potential for funding here that could be utilized for texas central parkway. Okay, more to

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that story. Great slide. Charles. I just when I read it this weekend, I put refreshing

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on there and circled it many times. I mean, seeing those costs come back down and that

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other graph of the old you learned it the head and shoulders sort of that it's

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just it's a correction that we're seeing that will allow us to do more with our dollars. So

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it's good information and and yes, that 2222222.22 number is real. That is legitimate number.

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it's what actually was bid. So I didn't fall asleep at the keyboard on that one. The other

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one I know that that is high a priority is a bridge lighting. So we are working on the bridge

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lighting. We did receive a bid and we'll be talking about that in a future date. We're

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actually going to meet with that vendor here this week. So I know that's that's a big one.

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all right. What's what's also nice is infrastructure services is working incredibly hard to

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push more projects out by the end of the year. So we're talking about another $17

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million in october, 34 million anticipated in november and another 4 million in december.

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so there's some big ones in here. Downtown quiet zone. I know that one's been out there

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for a while, and you're starting to see some of those 20, 25 streets. We talked about

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some neighborhood streets, so you'll see street renal. Excuse me, rehabilitation, operational

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street maintenance and pavement rehabilitation projects. Operational street maintenance.

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remember, we divided concrete out from asphalt operations wherever we could get a better

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price, where the concrete contractor doesn't have to work asphalt and vice versa. So when

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you see operational street maintenance in a district that is concrete curb and gutter,

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valley gutter, a little bit of ramp, concrete work, when you see pavement rehabilitation

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projects in a district, you're looking at pavement only. You're looking at thin overlay

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mixes. You're looking at mill and overlay. You're looking at some of those types of projects.

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and when you see street rehabilitation, street rehabilitation projects, that's

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those are the ones we really couldn't break up. So those have got a little bit of both

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in there just because of timing and scheduling and, and how we push these projects out in

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anticipation of trying to get good bids. There is a little bit of art and magic to to push

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in some of these projects out and into december. We've got a few additional projects there.

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and so we're looking to hopefully ride that downward trend with these estimates and

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try to utilize the differential in what our original estimate was, what the bids come in at,

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what we actually spend, and try to piece together a phased approach to texas central

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parkway. And that looks a little bit like this. What are we getting for our monies?

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we're going to do a rehabilitation for segments three and four and that aerial

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and extend life by 8 to 10 years. Now we would look to maintain maintenance after that

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and extend that further. We can't just stop. So you'd have to do your crack seals, your

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your fog seals or whatever. We need to to continue to maintain that and extend that life. But

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we would expect at least an 8 to 10 year on those rehabilitation, preservation at

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least eight years. Plus. Again, you would also do maintenance beyond that. And that would be

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the segment one and two. The cost today is about $11 million. The potential funding is again,

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there are lots of asterisks there that you don't see that is contingent upon all of those

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dollars that we are spending in the in the current projects that are out and the upcoming

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projects that are going to come out. And then I would recommend that we immediately work some

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of those funds and get started on. Design and prep for a phased approach in the in the

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replacement of texas central parkway. And I put this schedule together to just kind of give you an idea of what that could look like, showing that we would get started on

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that phase one with drainage improvements and working with the railroad, then moving to our street strategies, and then hopefully go out for actual street work. First part of 2027.

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once all that design has come in and is finished. And also we'll have a much better idea

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because a lot of our other projects that are currently in construction will be wrapped up

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and will be financed out and know how much money is available. Oh, great. All right.

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any comments or questions for charles? Yeah, I appreciate charles. The update on texas

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central, because I do feel like it's a pretty vital road for the economic development

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success that we've seen there in the industrial park and its surrounding environs. So

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grateful for this approach. I know in the maybe best possible world, we would be laying that

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concrete foundation, reconstructing the whole thing. But under these circumstances, I feel like the preventative maintenance approach is both a good practical update for this

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road and definitely a cost efficient solution. So thank you for all the work you've

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done, and thanks for the kind of the update on all the bids that are coming in, which I

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think is helpful to us. So it's it's not no one. We're we're seeing some cost savings in some of our big project priorities as well. Thank you. Quick question. Can you remind

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me on those railroad crossings, what are they responsible for and what is the city

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responsible? We're responsible for the paving up to the railroad bed. So there are

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sometimes, you know, their standards change every once in a while, and they require

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certain transitions between the city's pavement and the rail bed. We had to deal with that

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on university parks where the rail cross. And we'll have to do it for all of the downtown

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quiet zone work. So I would anticipate in this zone similar type assessment and

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construction is there. I mean, this question may just be for the ether. Is there a realistic

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time zone in that downtown quiet zone yet? We're going to bid it in october, I mean, this

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month in its entirety, in its entirety this month. Okay. So the, the the one thing that we

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still have to coordinate with the railroad is who goes first, do we go together? That's still

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in the works. Okay. So I would say. By the end of the year we're going to know a price and

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probably have a decent schedule. Nice. And for the and I appreciate the the breakout of

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the intentional district street work. I hope that in some way there's like a comms plan

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around that so that we can do our due diligence in informing our neighbors and neighborhood

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associations what is going to happen, as in in real time, but with prep time, so that, you

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know, you can encourage people to get their minds right when they're the way they went home

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all the time is no longer the way they can go home. So I'm excited about that stuff going

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out. But if if the streets team can get with us or cso about how we can help you all message

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this work, that would be cool. Absolutely. I just want to commend you for getting

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creative on on getting this to a point where we can tackle it, you know, in the relatively

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near future to get this really critical infrastructure for a lot of, you know, a lot of our

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commercial tax base out there to be able to continue providing service. When I was

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reading this in the agenda, specifically, you know, section three, had I never gotten

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involved in, you know, civic face, you know, public facing work, I wouldn't know what pci

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ratings meant. And seeing a 16.7 kind of right in the middle of of what really for

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waco, you know, 59.7, 57.2 and 49.3 is kind of par for the course. Was really shocking.

387
00:42:32,333 --> 00:42:36,033
and then seeing the the construction overlay dates on that going back, you know, 30 years, 30 plus years at this point. So just the fact that we're able to, you know, and we

388
00:42:42,533 --> 00:42:46,366
talk about in these presentations, getting things from poor to good is always the most expensive endeavor that we undertake with streets. So seeing that that is still able

389
00:42:52,600 --> 00:42:52,600
to happen, getting creative with how we're doing that and making sure that it stays a

390
00:42:58,233 --> 00:42:58,233
part of this overall project, just kind of the general mindset that staff has taken

391
00:43:03,166 --> 00:43:03,166
this year and going forward to, hey, if we can't knock out this whole thing in one fell swoop

392
00:43:09,100 --> 00:43:09,100
with x amount of tens of millions of dollars, how do we eat this elephant? One bite at

393
00:43:14,000 --> 00:43:17,766
a time. I'm really loving that mindset that we're taking to tackle these bigger problems and hopefully start applying that to smaller problems and taking smaller chunks out of

394
00:43:22,500 --> 00:43:22,500
things that we see throughout the city. So thank you for that. Yeah. Great, charles, you're

395
00:43:29,933 --> 00:43:29,933
always the problem solver here. And I like whenever I think of you I think charles is the

396
00:43:35,366 --> 00:43:35,366
mikey of our in the old life cereal commercials. If you don't if you can't figure out

397
00:43:41,033 --> 00:43:41,033
how to fix it, you go to mikey. You go to charles least. Because it seems like whenever

398
00:43:45,233 --> 00:43:45,233
we have a problem that sort of complex or critical or really we want we know, we know we got

399
00:43:51,033 --> 00:43:51,033
to go from 75 million to preferably 10 million. Nobody knows how to do it. You kind of

400
00:43:56,433 --> 00:43:56,433
jumped in and figured out a way to at least get the initial, the initial look as a very

401
00:44:01,766 --> 00:44:01,766
functional and showing the right direction for what we're trying to do out there on, on

402
00:44:06,300 --> 00:44:06,300
texas central parkway, because that's the data you show is very compelling. 90 plus

403
00:44:10,900 --> 00:44:10,900
businesses out there, 14,000 jobs. And it's not just graphic packaging and all these new

404
00:44:18,166 --> 00:44:18,166
ones, but we have some old established businesses out there too, that need this road

405
00:44:23,266 --> 00:44:23,266
to be functional so they can get to and from work. Very creative phase, you know,

406
00:44:28,733 --> 00:44:32,266
focusing on intersections. I like the way you you're tackling this, so I'm supportive of it. One question I had real quick and going back to this, the one that we talked

407
00:44:37,666 --> 00:44:37,666
about, we're we're seeing some a crown here and we're coming down. We're seeing that in

408
00:44:43,033 --> 00:44:43,033
asphalt. Are we seeing other materials or is concrete having the same sort of trend. They're

409
00:44:50,600 --> 00:44:50,600
not all the same percentage. But yes, all of them are trending down. And I'll tell

410
00:44:55,333 --> 00:44:55,333
you a lot more in a couple of weeks when we bid bullhead. What that number really looks

411
00:45:00,500 --> 00:45:00,500
like. Great. And mayor, for those watching at home, maybe under the age of 40, perhaps

412
00:45:06,233 --> 00:45:06,233
city comms team could send out a link. Maybe a youtube video to mikey likes it. The life

413
00:45:10,900 --> 00:45:10,900
cereal commercial. Just just so those references can be picked up by a broad cross section.

414
00:45:15,266 --> 00:45:15,266
and another old reference from the 60s. Nobody, nobody knows about nobody know about it. But.

415
00:45:23,666 --> 00:45:23,666
okay. Life, cereal life is very good. I was like, dairy doesn't know. Yeah. Dairy. Right.

416
00:45:31,233 --> 00:45:31,233
darius has no idea what we're talking about. Sounds like a great guy. Yeah, he was he was.

417
00:45:36,066 --> 00:45:36,066
he was a trailblazer, charles. Even better than mikey. All right. Any other questions on

418
00:45:41,366 --> 00:45:41,366
this one? Thanks, charles. Great presentation. The next item, work session b six.

419
00:45:47,233 --> 00:45:47,233
deputy city manager emerson. Thank you, mayor jonathan cook. Ready, jonathan. Director of

420
00:45:56,066 --> 00:46:00,033
parks and recreation will discuss the holiday event plans for city departments, along with other events throughout the city. This is an annual report that he provides us so

421
00:46:05,866 --> 00:46:05,866
that we can get ready for the holidays. Thank you. Deputy city manager, emerson mayor and

422
00:46:14,000 --> 00:46:14,000
council always seems a little bit early to come and talk about holiday day events, but

423
00:46:20,200 --> 00:46:20,200
is it ever too early? So it might be 95 degrees outside. And so we're going to shift

424
00:46:27,166 --> 00:46:27,166
some gears here from charles's presentation and talk about everything we've got going on

425
00:46:32,200 --> 00:46:32,200
here in waco for the holidays. You know, as you know, holidays are a special time, brings the

426
00:46:38,533 --> 00:46:42,266
community together, creates a spirit of community throughout our downtown and really throughout our city. And so we're excited to have several events and community efforts

427
00:46:47,700 --> 00:46:47,700
that we've started over the past ten or so years that have really become traditions in our

428
00:46:52,866 --> 00:46:52,866
community. And we're excited to continue those traditions to make sure that the holiday

429
00:46:58,900 --> 00:46:58,900
cheer is spread throughout. So for today's presentation, we're going to do an overview of our

430
00:47:03,966 --> 00:47:03,966
festival event, waco wonderland, which will be taking place at the 1st of december. And then

431
00:47:09,300 --> 00:47:09,300
also look at our current plans for the downtown lighting display and also talk about the

432
00:47:15,666 --> 00:47:19,400
cameron park zoo wildlife display that will be taking place again this year. And then we want to look at how different departments throughout the city are

433
00:47:23,166 --> 00:47:23,166
spreading holiday cheer with different community events, and then also looking at just the

434
00:47:27,933 --> 00:47:27,933
holidays around our community. For waco wonderland, this is our big festival created in

435
00:47:35,033 --> 00:47:35,033
2013, that has really become a signature downtown festival for our city. It's a collaborative

436
00:47:40,900 --> 00:47:40,900
effort to where our city of waco parks team, along with all of our other event personnel

437
00:47:46,433 --> 00:47:46,433
from pd and traffic, come together and work with city center, waco and waco public

438
00:47:51,133 --> 00:47:51,133
improvement district and really showcases the downtown area. We like to get people not only

439
00:47:57,166 --> 00:47:57,166
from our community, but people traveling in to showcase what we have in downtown while

440
00:48:02,466 --> 00:48:02,466
they're also enjoying a holiday market and festivities at the heritage square area. It is

441
00:48:08,133 --> 00:48:11,133
funded through the public improvement district, but then also through local organizations and sponsorship with the city of waco providing personnel costs. Additional

442
00:48:16,200 --> 00:48:16,200
revenue streams. There are ticket sales for the attractions such as the ferris

443
00:48:21,366 --> 00:48:21,366
wheel or the ice snow tubing hill, and then we also collect fees from the vendors who

444
00:48:26,700 --> 00:48:26,700
participate in our mistletoe market. I mentioned a lot of city parks do take place. Our

445
00:48:32,633 --> 00:48:32,633
city departments come together to plan and manage this event. When you're averaging around

446
00:48:38,033 --> 00:48:38,033
crowds throughout the weekend, 20 to 25,000 is a lot of people and a lot of planning and

447
00:48:43,233 --> 00:48:43,233
efforts. And so I commend everyone for coming together each year and going above and

448
00:48:48,233 --> 00:48:48,233
beyond to make sure that we have a safe event to kick off the holiday season. Now,

449
00:48:54,633 --> 00:48:54,633
looking at 2024, want to look back at the year we had last year? Three day event friday,

450
00:49:01,166 --> 00:49:01,166
saturday and sunday, and we'll start off with our total visits just over 12,000 attendees. So

451
00:49:08,666 --> 00:49:08,666
if you're thinking and looking closely and say, well, hey, just on the last slide, you

452
00:49:14,466 --> 00:49:14,466
talked about 20 to 25,000. Unfortunately, in 2024, we got hit with some weather. We were

453
00:49:20,133 --> 00:49:20,133
able to have a very solid friday night with the tree lighting and fireworks. However,

454
00:49:25,200 --> 00:49:25,200
cold front came in. It was raining on the morning of the parade. We had it, but it was

455
00:49:31,600 --> 00:49:31,600
icicles hanging off of everyone and that misty, drizzly weather just continued, you know? But

456
00:49:37,033 --> 00:49:37,033
we had some diehard people that still came out that first night. And looking at our different

457
00:49:42,266 --> 00:49:42,266
placement data, we had over 8000 people for the tree lighting and fireworks. And

458
00:49:47,300 --> 00:49:47,300
then over the next two days, about 2300 people each day came out. So that was a dip of

459
00:49:53,266 --> 00:49:53,266
attendance. But we still had some solid revenue that came in from the ticket sales. On the

460
00:49:59,200 --> 00:49:59,200
right you see a big red dot there, sort of in the middle. This is a heat map that shows

461
00:50:04,466 --> 00:50:04,466
where people came from and wanted to show. We've continued to see an expansion of this

462
00:50:09,100 --> 00:50:09,100
event, but it's a regional reach, obviously a core draw from waco, but we see a lot of

463
00:50:15,566 --> 00:50:15,566
regional attendance, people coming down from the surrounding communities, and

464
00:50:20,100 --> 00:50:20,100
then this also attracts our local community. We know that. So it's one of those sort of

465
00:50:25,300 --> 00:50:28,300
hybrid events to where we're starting to see that tourism and economic impact of people wanting to come down and looking for something to do with a fireworks show and

466
00:50:33,733 --> 00:50:33,733
additional shopping throughout the weekend. Now, specifically for this year, weekend of

467
00:50:41,033 --> 00:50:44,966
holiday cheer is going to be december 5th through seventh. We're always on that first weekend, so we have a full month to celebrate the holidays here in downtown waco, but

468
00:50:50,066 --> 00:50:50,066
we'll be starting off with our annual tree lighting ceremony. And then also our fireworks

469
00:50:55,166 --> 00:50:55,166
show is going to be taking place on that night to kick off the holidays. We'll follow up

470
00:51:00,166 --> 00:51:00,166
on saturday with the holiday parade, working with creative waco once again in different

471
00:51:06,933 --> 00:51:06,933
organizations to help produce that parade, which travels down alston avenue. And we'll be

472
00:51:11,466 --> 00:51:11,466
bringing back, I mentioned the mistletoe market, my favorite, all the local food trucks. I

473
00:51:17,066 --> 00:51:17,066
try to visit each one, but that's always fun. We'll usually have about 15 or so out

474
00:51:21,100 --> 00:51:21,100
there surrounding the square, so that's always good to see everyone come out and enjoy the

475
00:51:27,066 --> 00:51:27,066
community entertainment stage. On friday, saturday and sunday we have a main stage area where

476
00:51:32,433 --> 00:51:32,433
we have different organizations, dance groups, church choirs, you name it, just a variety of

477
00:51:38,366 --> 00:51:38,366
community entertainment and that's on top of the attractions. The ferris wheel,

478
00:51:42,533 --> 00:51:42,533
the snow tube. Hill's got two different slides for the youngsters and the ones a

479
00:51:47,233 --> 00:51:47,233
little older like myself to go down. So we have a library, always looking to collaborate

480
00:51:53,200 --> 00:51:53,200
and have different people out. I know the library comes out, pet circle comes out and then

481
00:51:59,100 --> 00:51:59,100
santa will be making a special appearance all three days of the event. And we have a

482
00:52:04,300 --> 00:52:04,300
santa's house where people can come and take free pictures with santa as well. Now from

483
00:52:12,233 --> 00:52:12,233
waco wonderland. Obviously when we flip the switch and turn the tree lights on it. Also, we

484
00:52:17,200 --> 00:52:17,200
start off with the season of lights throughout the city hall and heritage square area, also

485
00:52:22,266 --> 00:52:22,266
at bridge street and at the convention center. So there is coordination between city city

486
00:52:27,366 --> 00:52:27,366
center waco and our convention center that our parks and rec team works on the installation

487
00:52:32,866 --> 00:52:32,866
of downtown light displays and holiday decor, and also different photograph

488
00:52:37,633 --> 00:52:37,633
opportunities. Those selfie moments, lighting locations. We've got heritage square and

489
00:52:44,133 --> 00:52:44,133
working with our trees and the pergolas there light up. Also, we lighting at bridge street

490
00:52:49,366 --> 00:52:49,366
plaza looking at. We have a tree that's been in place there and lighting of the hedge areas

491
00:52:55,366 --> 00:52:55,366
and looking at some expansion of some lightings for a little bit more wow factor, but it's a

492
00:53:00,033 --> 00:53:00,033
really beautiful sight because with the white lights over there, it's a definitely a nice

493
00:53:04,066 --> 00:53:04,066
spot. And then our city hall, the front trees on the entrance and a tree in front of the

494
00:53:10,166 --> 00:53:10,166
fountain area. And then we also always place a big w in different lights around the

495
00:53:15,100 --> 00:53:15,100
convention center as well. The lighting installation is done with the contract with city

496
00:53:20,233 --> 00:53:20,233
center waco and the company out of houston. That company does come in with the installation,

497
00:53:26,466 --> 00:53:26,466
removal and different decor. We've got that scheduled for mid-november, so the elves will

498
00:53:32,233 --> 00:53:32,233
start to be scurrying around a little bit, and those lights will be up through january.

499
00:53:38,366 --> 00:53:38,366
throughout the holiday season. You know, I mentioned traditions earlier and right on

500
00:53:46,100 --> 00:53:46,100
waco, wonderland hill is another strong tradition that our cameron park zoo staff does

501
00:53:52,366 --> 00:53:52,366
an amazing job with wildlife at the cameron park zoo. This has now been going on a fifth year.

502
00:53:58,366 --> 00:53:58,366
it really showcases the zoo and cameron park, but just an incredible display to go at

503
00:54:04,100 --> 00:54:04,100
night and to be able to walk around the inner loop to where you have more than 3 million

504
00:54:09,066 --> 00:54:09,066
lights and 65 light displays and trees. It's really captivating and once again,

505
00:54:14,300 --> 00:54:14,300
that we've seen families year in and year out. It becomes the thing to do. It is going to be

506
00:54:19,966 --> 00:54:19,966
open. Wildlife will be open on select nights from november 29th, right after thanksgiving,

507
00:54:24,433 --> 00:54:24,433
going all the way through the end of december. Last year, 15,000 people attended this, so

508
00:54:30,100 --> 00:54:30,100
a good way of revenue stream that the cameron park zoo has in place to drive traffic to

509
00:54:36,133 --> 00:54:36,133
the zoo. Even during the cold months. It includes the event also as visit with santa,

510
00:54:41,266 --> 00:54:41,266
scheduled and different activities, food and beverage options. And they've done. Now

511
00:54:47,100 --> 00:54:47,100
you're able to get a combo ticket as well to where you can get regular admission to the

512
00:54:51,600 --> 00:54:51,600
zoo and then also get a wildlife submission. So some creative marketing and planning

513
00:54:55,666 --> 00:54:55,666
going into this event, and we're always thankful they also host a city appreciation city

514
00:55:01,133 --> 00:55:01,133
employee appreciation event to where city employees are welcome to bring their families

515
00:55:05,400 --> 00:55:05,400
out, to go through wildlife at the zoo. And that's a great evening. Last year we had more

516
00:55:11,633 --> 00:55:11,633
than 1200 employees and their families take part in that one. Another one that's really a

517
00:55:19,133 --> 00:55:19,133
highlight and sort of everybody's favorite. A little department rivalry sort of

518
00:55:24,433 --> 00:55:28,266
kicked off and everybody pushes a little further, and I'm always excited to see what's going to come out of our holiday cheer being spread around through city vehicles.

519
00:55:33,333 --> 00:55:33,333
and it's funny because none of the directors really want, or the chiefs really want to let

520
00:55:38,300 --> 00:55:38,300
on to what they're doing this year. They're all little secretive about it, but it's a

521
00:55:43,200 --> 00:55:43,200
fun program. And for those that don't know, we have staff members that decorate fire

522
00:55:47,933 --> 00:55:47,933
trucks, police vehicles, public works vehicles to where they travel around the neighborhoods

523
00:55:54,566 --> 00:55:54,566
or schools, different events, the libraries, and they go to these different locations at

524
00:56:00,100 --> 00:56:00,100
night and really bring the holiday spirit to the neighborhoods. And so I'm

525
00:56:04,566 --> 00:56:08,233
working with our communications department. There's an interactive map now that shows the schedule of where the vehicles are, where they're going, and so you can plan out

526
00:56:14,133 --> 00:56:14,133
and try not to miss when they drive by. But these vehicles, it's just a small thing that

527
00:56:20,233 --> 00:56:20,233
makes a big impact. And kids and families love to see them. And so thankful for the city

528
00:56:25,133 --> 00:56:25,133
staff. They also make an appearance at the other events and different attractions. So

529
00:56:30,000 --> 00:56:30,000
this one's really become a great tradition of departments coming together to spread the

530
00:56:34,300 --> 00:56:34,300
holiday spirit. Jonathan, I don't know if you may be at liberty to say or not, but can

531
00:56:39,066 --> 00:56:39,066
you confirm or disconfirm the grinch mobile? I can not. Oh, I can not. I do not know. I'm not

532
00:56:47,333 --> 00:56:47,333
going to throw that out there. But all I know we're decorating. Okay, but a little switch up.

533
00:56:52,166 --> 00:56:52,166
okay, alright. I'll keep my eye out for the grinch though. Or something similar. Something.

534
00:56:58,633 --> 00:56:58,633
something similar. All right, all right, see? All right. Department. Other other holiday

535
00:57:04,833 --> 00:57:04,833
activities. We open our community centers up during the holidays as a place for kids to

536
00:57:11,266 --> 00:57:15,066
come and enjoy different activities. And also at those community centers, we have community groups come in and do performances, and other city facilities do that as well.

537
00:57:21,166 --> 00:57:21,166
public works always. Every year. Billy dehart, they put together some good programs and like

538
00:57:25,433 --> 00:57:25,433
their annual bicycle drive, just employees doing a little bit extra to make sure that

539
00:57:30,366 --> 00:57:30,366
everyone has a good holidays. Waco pd, our mobile welcome center, is going to be out this

540
00:57:36,366 --> 00:57:40,166
year visiting the different events as well. I know they're getting ready to open their downtown location, and I know our mobile welcome center is going to be visiting all these

541
00:57:44,933 --> 00:57:44,933
events. And as I mentioned, the library has programing our youth council with the holiday

542
00:57:50,533 --> 00:57:50,533
toy collection. And then of course I name dropped them earlier. But if you're not

543
00:57:55,100 --> 00:57:55,100
giving away a pet circle animal for the holidays, somebody's missing out. So a great present.

544
00:58:01,233 --> 00:58:01,233
always a little holiday adoption. Nothing like hearing a little boxed up, whimpering

545
00:58:05,466 --> 00:58:05,466
under the tree, you know what I mean? Just it's not me. A lot of traditional events. And

546
00:58:13,033 --> 00:58:13,033
y'all, this is just a sample. One thing that we do is with our waco wonderland homepage

547
00:58:18,100 --> 00:58:18,100
and social media efforts. We're the first weekend, but then we switch over and make sure to

548
00:58:23,033 --> 00:58:23,033
try to promote different events throughout the city. And these are just some annual ones that

549
00:58:27,166 --> 00:58:27,166
take place, like the h-e-b feast of sharing, baylor's annual christmas on fifth

550
00:58:32,533 --> 00:58:32,533
street, the holiday farmers market taking place this year. So some great partnerships and

551
00:58:38,166 --> 00:58:38,166
different events throughout the month, and we're squaring up for a good holiday season.

552
00:58:45,433 --> 00:58:45,433
quick reminder our event support the festive season throughout the city, not just

553
00:58:51,100 --> 00:58:51,100
in downtown, but we also have things at the zoo or community centers and different

554
00:58:55,533 --> 00:58:55,533
facilities. We'll be starting the installation of the lights in november. Right after

555
00:59:00,800 --> 00:59:00,800
thanksgiving, cameron park zoo will be opening up its wild lights, and then throughout the

556
00:59:06,233 --> 00:59:06,233
month of december, decorated city vehicles will be traveling around town, and we'll be

557
00:59:10,333 --> 00:59:10,333
kicking off with waco wonderland on december 5th through the sixth for the

558
00:59:15,666 --> 00:59:15,666
annual tree lighting and fireworks show. And I believe we got a quick preview before

559
00:59:19,933 --> 00:59:19,933
we wrap it up. So I appreciate it and we're looking forward to the holidays. Any questions?

560
01:00:02,166 --> 01:00:05,400
I'm happy to answer them today. Any questions for jonathan? Thanks, jonathan I appreciate it. You know, it's it truly is the most wonderful time of the year and all the work that the

561
01:00:13,566 --> 01:00:13,566
multiple departments do to to bring holiday cheer for our residents and our visitors is

562
01:00:19,133 --> 01:00:19,133
amazing each year. And you all try to you all outdo yourselves annually. So I can't wait to

563
01:00:24,133 --> 01:00:24,133
see what this year is. Even though y'all aren't coming off any secrets, I do want to know

564
01:00:29,000 --> 01:00:29,000
are are we doing live reindeer this year? I do think we are trying to get that arranged. I

565
01:00:35,800 --> 01:00:35,800
know they were there last year, so, you know, they're sort of hard to come by. Well, I mean a

566
01:00:42,233 --> 01:00:42,233
little bit here's they're great for photos. Here's the problem. See, when y'all do these

567
01:00:47,233 --> 01:00:47,233
amazing things we expect you to do them all the time. So a dozen reindeer, you know, I

568
01:00:52,066 --> 01:00:52,066
mean, you know, work on phone santa and see if we can get some reindeer to come down.

569
01:00:58,566 --> 01:00:58,566
right. And I also did want to highlight you mentioned the expansion of the lighting and

570
01:01:03,266 --> 01:01:03,266
bridge street plaza and all the things I know, the holiday market that the farmers market

571
01:01:09,033 --> 01:01:09,033
did last year was really, really cool and amazing. And with the additional lighting,

572
01:01:14,066 --> 01:01:14,066
it just really made for a a wonderful event. And so I look forward to that as well as what

573
01:01:21,433 --> 01:01:21,433
we have in heritage square and of course, all the things the I know each year my family enjoys

574
01:01:27,266 --> 01:01:27,266
the the zoo lights tremendously and just y'all do an amazing job. And we I was at an event

575
01:01:35,866 --> 01:01:35,866
at multi-purpose. I can't even remember what the event was. And it wasn't a city event. And

576
01:01:43,333 --> 01:01:43,333
one of the trucks came by and everybody lost their minds. So it's great to see the impact

577
01:01:50,333 --> 01:01:50,333
and joy that it brings to our, our neighborhoods and our communities. So thank all of

578
01:01:54,533 --> 01:01:54,533
you for what you do in that part. Thank you. Appreciate it. Yeah. Thanks, jonathan. I think

579
01:02:00,166 --> 01:02:00,166
all of us have great memories of downtown, you know, christmas events and that kind

580
01:02:05,433 --> 01:02:05,433
of deal. And you're building memories here for for young and old. And it's just it's great.

581
01:02:10,666 --> 01:02:14,500
and it continues to be as council. As mayor pro tem benefield said, it continues to get just bigger and better every year. So I appreciate your efforts in bringing all

582
01:02:18,800 --> 01:02:18,800
this to life. It's it's it's a lot of fun. Thank you. Any other questions, guys? All

583
01:02:24,333 --> 01:02:24,333
right. Thanks, jonathan. Next item is work session b seven. We're going to talk a little

584
01:02:30,266 --> 01:02:30,266
bit about renaissance at sanger heights. Deputy city manager emerson. Yes. So galen price

585
01:02:36,566 --> 01:02:40,200
director of housing and community development. And mike stone, executive director of grassroots, will provide an update on the pocket neighborhood project that has

586
01:02:44,666 --> 01:02:44,666
been years in the making at the former sanger avenue elementary school that closed in 1974 and

587
01:02:52,700 --> 01:02:52,700
in 2008 was subject to arsonists who set the vacant building on fire. This is

588
01:02:58,633 --> 01:02:58,633
another collaborative project between the city, between city departments, as well as our

589
01:03:03,233 --> 01:03:03,233
nonprofit groups. We are thankful to our federal partners as well as congressman

590
01:03:07,600 --> 01:03:07,600
sessions for supporting this project. Galen. Thank you. Deputy city manager emerson.

591
01:03:14,266 --> 01:03:14,266
good afternoon, mayor and council. As deputy city manager, emerson mentioned, this is a

592
01:03:21,200 --> 01:03:21,200
project that's been years in the making. Today I'm joined by mike stone with grassroots, and

593
01:03:27,366 --> 01:03:27,366
we'll be discussing the renaissance at sanger heights, which is a collaborative

594
01:03:31,966 --> 01:03:31,966
private public partnership that will result in a pocket neighborhood consisting of 25

595
01:03:37,500 --> 01:03:37,500
single family homes located in north waco on the old sanger elementary school site. In this

596
01:03:46,100 --> 01:03:46,100
presentation, we'll be discussing a history of the project, giving a project

597
01:03:51,100 --> 01:03:51,100
overview. The council request next steps along with a timeline of construction. So

598
01:04:00,033 --> 01:04:00,033
this project began back in 2010 with the actual purchase of this, the property and the

599
01:04:06,133 --> 01:04:06,133
demolition of the old brick school building. Three rfps have been issued in regards to

600
01:04:11,933 --> 01:04:11,933
this project. Grassroots. Grassroots did respond to an initial one, but the response

601
01:04:19,266 --> 01:04:19,266
was initially not accepted. Back in 2018. They were selected after the response

602
01:04:25,700 --> 01:04:25,700
with the renaissance at sanger heights. Development. Subsequently, the city was

603
01:04:30,933 --> 01:04:30,933
preparing to do some utility upgrades in these in the area around the site, and so the the

604
01:04:40,033 --> 01:04:40,033
city bid the water and sewer improvements for the connections for the houses that

605
01:04:45,366 --> 01:04:45,366
were front 17th and 18th street as part of the the work that we were doing. So not to have to

606
01:04:52,833 --> 01:04:52,833
dig up the the street twice. As this work was being completed, additional funding became

607
01:05:00,033 --> 01:05:00,033
available, including arpa dollars, which subsequently some of that was dedicated to

608
01:05:07,366 --> 01:05:07,366
this project. In 2023, we also received a request to apply for community project funding at

609
01:05:16,033 --> 01:05:16,033
the federal level from congressman pete sessions. In march of 2024, we received

610
01:05:23,233 --> 01:05:23,233
notification of a grant award in the amount of $3 million, which is the catalyst of 14 of

611
01:05:30,166 --> 01:05:30,166
the homes being made affordable within this project, the city completed their infrastructure

612
01:05:37,466 --> 01:05:37,466
improvements as well as a pud being approved in 2024 as well. And with that, I'll turn it

613
01:05:46,166 --> 01:05:46,166
over to mike so he can get into the overview of the project. Good afternoon, mayor and

614
01:05:52,266 --> 01:05:52,266
council. It is a great day to come and talk to you about renaissance at sanger.

615
01:05:57,166 --> 01:05:57,166
renaissance is a way to describe a rebirth or a revival. And that's what we're doing on

616
01:06:03,366 --> 01:06:03,366
this site of this old school. So but I want to honor some of the hard work that's going

617
01:06:09,266 --> 01:06:09,266
along. There has been a lot of city staff, city managers, city mayors, and I added them all up

618
01:06:16,200 --> 01:06:16,200
this morning. There have been five different city managers, I'm sorry, five city mayors,

619
01:06:21,933 --> 01:06:21,933
four city managers, four city attorneys, and five city council members that have been

620
01:06:27,933 --> 01:06:27,933
a part of this project. So I want to thank every one of them, starting with larry growth. So

621
01:06:33,033 --> 01:06:33,033
thank you all for making this because this is not an easy project to do. And we're not

622
01:06:37,466 --> 01:06:37,466
there yet, but we're getting started. But at the very beginning of this, we started

623
01:06:42,233 --> 01:06:42,233
with a vision casting, where we met with all the community members in and around there,

624
01:06:48,266 --> 01:06:48,266
actually right across the street from the site. And we asked one of our great partners,

625
01:06:52,966 --> 01:06:52,966
walker partners, to come and help us. And actually, jed walker came with us, his sketch

626
01:06:58,366 --> 01:06:58,366
paper and sketched out different ideas on what what the community want. We went

627
01:07:03,333 --> 01:07:03,333
through at least seven different plans on what we would do to get to the point

628
01:07:09,200 --> 01:07:09,200
where we're at today. I also want to highlight rpdr is the one that's been able to help

629
01:07:16,766 --> 01:07:16,766
take all these great ideas and then put them to light and bring color to them along the

630
01:07:21,400 --> 01:07:21,400
way. So flip the slide. This is the renaissance at sanger heights. So it's a three acre

631
01:07:28,100 --> 01:07:28,100
development unlike any that you've seen in waco. It's a very dense family, single

632
01:07:33,433 --> 01:07:33,433
family pocket neighborhood. So you can see there's two large green spaces, one that runs

633
01:07:38,666 --> 01:07:38,666
through the center of the property and one that is anchored on the side with a

634
01:07:43,533 --> 01:07:43,533
historic tree. So the streets are 17th, 18th fort and singer. It's just a little bit off of

635
01:07:50,133 --> 01:07:50,133
waco drive, and we have 25 single family homes, and these are homes for sale, and 14 of

636
01:07:56,933 --> 01:07:56,933
those are going to be for affordable and 11 are going to be market rate. So our

637
01:08:07,433 --> 01:08:07,433
community features that we have there, because of all the green space that we have, we will

638
01:08:12,233 --> 01:08:12,233
have a homeowner association to take care of the common green area. We're going to have lots

639
01:08:17,200 --> 01:08:21,133
of sidewalks, some that go through the middle of the property and then surrounded as well. And I always want to. Everybody ask me about the historic oak tree, and we're

640
01:08:25,200 --> 01:08:25,200
not doing anything with the tree. We love our tree and we want to keep their excellent.

641
01:08:31,500 --> 01:08:31,500
so our design is one and two story houses from 1200 to 2100ft■!s. It's going to be a

642
01:08:38,033 --> 01:08:38,033
mixture of sizes, and you won't be able to tell the difference between a market rate house and

643
01:08:44,033 --> 01:08:44,033
affordable house from the street, and also tying our old with the new is. We were able

644
01:08:50,266 --> 01:08:50,266
to save 500 bricks from the old school, and we're going to reuse those as the first step

645
01:08:55,966 --> 01:08:55,966
to every one of the houses. That's cool. The funding is, as galen was talking about, is is

646
01:09:04,666 --> 01:09:04,666
layered. So the biggest chunk that we have is the community project funding grant. And we

647
01:09:10,000 --> 01:09:10,000
are very honored to be selected by that at $3 million, is the biggest grant grassroots has

648
01:09:16,366 --> 01:09:16,366
ever seen. So this is allowing us to be able to make more homes affordable. Originally,

649
01:09:21,333 --> 01:09:21,333
our plan called for six affordable homes and now we're able to do 14. And then also

650
01:09:27,466 --> 01:09:27,466
the arpa funds allows us to also use some of those funds for the infrastructure. Maybe

651
01:09:35,200 --> 01:09:35,200
we'll get those will those arpa funds. And I may have missed this when I was out, but will

652
01:09:40,633 --> 01:09:40,633
those arpa funds be committed and dispersed in time. Yes. Okay. Yes, they will be part of

653
01:09:45,966 --> 01:09:45,966
the phase one infrastructure, which will be completed at the latest of november of 26. But

654
01:09:51,200 --> 01:09:51,200
those will actually be the first funds used as part of the the infrastructure. Perfect.

655
01:09:56,233 --> 01:09:56,233
thank you. Good question. We are going to be doing a lot of outreach and marketing to the

656
01:10:02,433 --> 01:10:06,433
community, especially sanger heights and brook oaks. So those are the neighborhood associations all around the area. We'll be collaborating with all of our local

657
01:10:12,200 --> 01:10:12,200
affordable housing providers, all the folks that work with low income families here in

658
01:10:17,266 --> 01:10:17,266
town, trying to help more people become homeowners in waco. Our next step in the

659
01:10:22,100 --> 01:10:22,100
whole project after today would be getting the infrastructure contract awarded so we can

660
01:10:28,166 --> 01:10:28,166
start moving dirt and making it look more like the pictures that you see today. And we

661
01:10:33,800 --> 01:10:33,800
anticipate we'll have a groundbreaking in january, and you'll see lots of tv on social

662
01:10:39,333 --> 01:10:39,333
media and and print to let people know what is going on at sanger and, and how they can be

663
01:10:49,133 --> 01:10:49,133
a part of it. So with that, I'm going to turn it over to galen to finish up our presentation.

664
01:10:56,166 --> 01:10:56,166
so mayor and council, tonight on your agenda, you have an item that is requesting

665
01:11:02,233 --> 01:11:02,233
approval of an agreement between the city and grassroots for the cpf project funding in

666
01:11:08,766 --> 01:11:08,766
the amount of $3 million, as well as an item requesting an amendment and restatement of an

667
01:11:15,200 --> 01:11:15,200
existing development agreement that uses the arpa dollars. This will align the

668
01:11:21,033 --> 01:11:21,033
requirements and timeline of the arpa agreement along with the cpf agreement. In addition,

669
01:11:28,366 --> 01:11:28,366
there is a request for the conveyance of the property for grassroots to be able to do the

670
01:11:36,033 --> 01:11:36,033
project development at this site. If council approves these items, the next steps would be

671
01:11:42,833 --> 01:11:42,833
the execution of these agreements as well as the commencement of project

672
01:11:47,366 --> 01:11:47,366
marketing as and the commencement of the phase one, which is the infrastructure

673
01:11:52,566 --> 01:11:52,566
development for this project. The on site infrastructure. Okay. This slide here shows a

674
01:11:59,133 --> 01:11:59,133
timeline of the project, which the phase one infrastructure would begin in february of 2026.

675
01:12:07,066 --> 01:12:07,066
and as part of that, the arpa dollars would be used first in the commencement of that phase

676
01:12:13,500 --> 01:12:13,500
one infrastructure and then subsequent cpf funding would be used for the remaining part of

677
01:12:20,366 --> 01:12:20,366
the infrastructure, as well as the construction of the homes, which the infrastructure is

678
01:12:25,133 --> 01:12:25,133
scheduled to last approximately nine months. With the phase two, which is the construction of

679
01:12:31,566 --> 01:12:31,566
the homes beginning in november of 2026. Now, each subsequent phase with construction of the

680
01:12:38,033 --> 01:12:38,033
homes will include the construction of affordable and market rate units in each of

681
01:12:43,400 --> 01:12:43,400
the phases. And with that, I will answer any questions that you may have. Any questions for

682
01:12:51,366 --> 01:12:51,366
mike and galen? Yes. Thank you guys. The $6.2 million of private investment. Tell me

683
01:12:59,300 --> 01:12:59,300
about that. How does that work? Most of that will be construction loans. So we're

684
01:13:04,500 --> 01:13:04,500
going to have to go and get for building houses. It's not actual true investment. It's

685
01:13:11,800 --> 01:13:11,800
it's loans. Loans. That's great. I you know there are I say this I feel like almost every time

686
01:13:21,566 --> 01:13:21,566
we talk about this project, but there are very few projects that have been on the docket

687
01:13:26,133 --> 01:13:26,133
since I got on council in 2020. This has been on the docket since before then. I feel like,

688
01:13:31,166 --> 01:13:31,166
you know, we get kind of updates every so once in a while. And this is the most

689
01:13:36,033 --> 01:13:36,033
substantive to date with with hard timelines put in place. You know, it's amazing that

690
01:13:40,500 --> 01:13:40,500
we've been able to increase that affordable number up to 14 units. This is going to be

691
01:13:46,233 --> 01:13:46,233
transformational for north waco. My the first house I ever lived in in north waco was on 22nd

692
01:13:51,333 --> 01:13:51,333
and morrow about nine years ago. So I drove by the old sanger school lot, still had the

693
01:13:56,633 --> 01:13:56,633
archway in place every day on the way to and from work, and always thought that, you know,

694
01:14:01,433 --> 01:14:01,433
that's a cool lot. That's really central to a lot of things, and I hope something

695
01:14:06,000 --> 01:14:06,000
great happens with it. And this is certainly something great that's happening with it. So I

696
01:14:10,200 --> 01:14:10,200
could not be more pleased to be at this point. You know, I'll full transparency, everyone

697
01:14:16,033 --> 01:14:20,033
watching and listening to the crowd. I was texting with mike about this project recently and I said, you know, the biggest thing I want from you for the rest of the way is to get with

698
01:14:25,533 --> 01:14:25,533
me. On how we as a city can get out of your way to get it done. I just want to make sure that

699
01:14:31,700 --> 01:14:31,700
that this is done well and on time. And, you know, as we are working with our community

700
01:14:36,000 --> 01:14:36,000
partners that are helping folks attain homeownership, one question I did have for you is,

701
01:14:44,233 --> 01:14:44,233
are you guys spinning up programs, you know, currently to start working with people

702
01:14:48,633 --> 01:14:48,633
even now to get them in the pipeline, to be able to purchase one of the homes at

703
01:14:53,100 --> 01:14:53,100
the time of completion, or will it be a go to market and work with community organizations

704
01:14:57,466 --> 01:14:57,466
that are working with low income folks? At that point, we're already ramping up as we

705
01:15:02,566 --> 01:15:02,566
speak. We hired another housing counselor in our office who's actually spanish speaking. So

706
01:15:07,366 --> 01:15:07,366
we were able to reach both markets that way. Awesome. Ramping up. That's great. And I

707
01:15:13,333 --> 01:15:13,333
can say just to add to that, we have reviewed a couple of applications for down payment

708
01:15:19,000 --> 01:15:19,000
assistance who are targeting the development at at the renaissance at sanger. So that

709
01:15:25,166 --> 01:15:25,166
process has started. Yeah, I mean, the one benefit to this taking as long as it has and as

710
01:15:31,000 --> 01:15:31,000
long as it will until it's complete, is that we, you know, we have enough time to engage

711
01:15:35,200 --> 01:15:35,200
someone who maybe is starting at square zero in the home buying journey and get them to

712
01:15:39,966 --> 01:15:39,966
a point where they're able to, you know, bring a substantial amount to the table to purchase

713
01:15:45,033 --> 01:15:45,033
the home. So that is fantastic. I love the the mixed income aspect of it. I love the

714
01:15:49,966 --> 01:15:49,966
renderings. You know, if in 2027, if we're if we're kicking the tires looking to move, it's

715
01:15:55,133 --> 01:15:55,133
certainly on the list. We love that part of town. It's got a special, special place in our

716
01:15:59,266 --> 01:15:59,266
hearts. And obviously it's right in the middle of d4. So really, really proud of the

717
01:16:03,966 --> 01:16:03,966
work that's been done on this. I know that every step of the way it's been, you know, hey,

718
01:16:08,300 --> 01:16:08,300
can we get x amount of dollars from this and some money from here and there? So to be able

719
01:16:13,933 --> 01:16:13,933
to have it all come in place and from the time the projects, you know, initiation to now, we

720
01:16:19,133 --> 01:16:19,133
saw the we saw the chart of asphalt earlier. Right. So these these costs are not fixed

721
01:16:24,500 --> 01:16:24,500
from, from when you go into this and make the initial budget. So I know it's not been

722
01:16:29,300 --> 01:16:29,300
easy to keep things at a rate where they can be affordable. So I'm glad we've been able to

723
01:16:34,266 --> 01:16:37,366
come alongside these different entities to provide the funding to make that a reality. So thank you for your work on this. Any, any way we can help in getting this across the finish

724
01:16:42,400 --> 01:16:42,400
line. Once it starts, let us know and looking forward to turning some dirt in january. I

725
01:16:49,066 --> 01:16:49,066
go to church in the nearby area and I've been driving by the site for those 15 years. I

726
01:16:54,600 --> 01:16:54,600
remember the first time reading about it in 2010. I was just a brand new lawyer with a full

727
01:16:59,133 --> 01:16:59,133
head of hair, so I'm looking forward to this thing seeing completion in the next year or

728
01:17:05,466 --> 01:17:05,466
two. So god bless. Appreciate y'all. Great. It's yeah, the the renderings are beautiful.

729
01:17:11,300 --> 01:17:11,300
urban housing very important for us. It's a great location. Nice design, nice price points

730
01:17:17,466 --> 01:17:17,466
and some green space in there too. So I think everybody's a fan of what we're doing here.

731
01:17:23,200 --> 01:17:23,200
urban area housing is so important because the good parts of it, you already have

732
01:17:28,333 --> 01:17:32,200
infrastructure there. You already have the roads, you already have the water, you already have utilities, and everything's in place. So it's not quite as expensive as going

733
01:17:35,733 --> 01:17:35,733
into the burbs. But the tough part is for a builder, it's hard to build one lot at a time

734
01:17:42,266 --> 01:17:42,266
because a lot of times the lots are all over the place. So this is kind of the best of both

735
01:17:47,500 --> 01:17:47,500
worlds, where we have 25 units in one place and we're able to develop some economies of scale

736
01:17:52,200 --> 01:17:52,200
for the for the builders. So this is very exciting and I appreciate your energy. And,

737
01:17:57,800 --> 01:17:57,800
mike, I appreciate your persistence and perseverance in helping the city. And galen,

738
01:18:03,566 --> 01:18:03,566
appreciate both of you guys work on this project. Looking forward to it. Thank you. Now,

739
01:18:08,933 --> 01:18:08,933
deputy city manager emerson, what are we going to do the work session b8 or are we ready

740
01:18:15,900 --> 01:18:15,900
to. Is there one more thing left? Yeah, we we have time for clint peters. Okay. It's not

741
01:18:22,000 --> 01:18:22,000
often that he gets to go at this time. So clint. Yay. Thank you mayor city council. We just

742
01:18:35,133 --> 01:18:35,133
have two public hearings tonight. So this should be pretty quick. We have one

743
01:18:40,366 --> 01:18:40,366
easement abandoned abandonment and then a continuation of a zoning change from our last

744
01:18:46,000 --> 01:18:46,000
meeting. The first one is an easement abandoned abandonment at 2500 mary avenue. This is

745
01:18:51,133 --> 01:18:51,133
the new live oak classical school sports facility. That's been developing over the last

746
01:18:59,166 --> 01:18:59,166
couple of years. There's a there's a ten foot electrical line easement there that

747
01:19:06,733 --> 01:19:06,733
they're requesting to abandon. They the city staff and applicant has been working with

748
01:19:13,266 --> 01:19:13,266
encore. So the plan is to abandon this easement. And then there is the need for encore to

749
01:19:21,000 --> 01:19:21,000
obtain a smaller easement. So that will happen in between the first reading and second

750
01:19:25,566 --> 01:19:25,566
reading as a separate instrument. There's no other need, public need for the

751
01:19:31,033 --> 01:19:31,033
easement. So we feel like it's a good idea to abandon it. Planning commission did

752
01:19:38,233 --> 01:19:38,233
recommend approval of the request. And then our second public hearing is the

753
01:19:43,333 --> 01:19:43,333
continuance of a rezoning request at 2424 16 robinson drive. This is about 1.7 acres

754
01:19:51,933 --> 01:19:51,933
right at the corner of robinson drive and primrose drive, across from the stripes gas

755
01:19:59,633 --> 01:19:59,633
station. There's there's two commercial buildings on the site and then two small homes

756
01:20:05,933 --> 01:20:05,933
on the site as well. It does have currently it does have mixed zoning. So c3 there for

757
01:20:13,100 --> 01:20:13,100
the front two thirds of the property is c3 zoning, which is our general commercial. And

758
01:20:18,400 --> 01:20:18,400
then you see a strip of r1 single family, which is about 100ft wide on the back of the

759
01:20:26,100 --> 01:20:26,100
property. The back third of the property. If you remember, at our last public hearing, the

760
01:20:34,666 --> 01:20:34,666
homeowner on this property at that's r2 zoned came and had concerns about commercial

761
01:20:39,733 --> 01:20:39,733
zoning being up against his property. So the case was continued to let us work with

762
01:20:46,600 --> 01:20:46,600
the applicant and the the neighbor to see if we could come up with a compromise on on

763
01:20:51,933 --> 01:20:51,933
the request. So what what we did come up with the applicant has revised their request to

764
01:21:01,166 --> 01:21:01,166
scale back the commercial zoning and leave a 75 foot buffer of residential single

765
01:21:08,500 --> 01:21:08,500
family zoning on the property between the adjacent home and where the commercial zoning is.

766
01:21:16,066 --> 01:21:16,066
so the c3 zoning would go away, so it would be a down zoning for that two thirds of the

767
01:21:22,033 --> 01:21:22,033
property from c3 to c2. And then you'd have 25ft of the 100 foot r1 be requested to to

768
01:21:31,533 --> 01:21:31,533
change that c2, and then you'd have a 75 foot buffer of residential zoning that could

769
01:21:36,533 --> 01:21:36,533
not be developed for commercial uses between the adjacent property was that negotiated

770
01:21:44,133 --> 01:21:44,133
with the parties, or is that just something that's coming out fresh or so this this was a

771
01:21:50,766 --> 01:21:50,766
revised submittal from the applicant after discussion with both city staff and the

772
01:21:56,433 --> 01:21:56,433
neighbor. Okay. I will say it's my understanding the neighbor is still going to oppose it,

773
01:22:04,100 --> 01:22:04,100
just doesn't want any more encroachment of commercial zoning towards his property,

774
01:22:09,300 --> 01:22:09,300
which is understandable. But staff does feel that it is a good compromise that it gets

775
01:22:14,166 --> 01:22:14,166
rid of a heavier commercial zoning down to c2, and then also provides a little bit more

776
01:22:20,233 --> 01:22:20,233
of developable area for commercial development there in a very commercial corridor,

777
01:22:27,366 --> 01:22:27,366
while providing, you know, still a 75 foot buffer between the the the neighbors property.

778
01:22:34,166 --> 01:22:34,166
here's a picture of the the commercial zone property that's already that's already zoned

779
01:22:40,366 --> 01:22:43,966
commercial. This is the c3 portion where you have the two commercial buildings. And then if you look, this is the edge of the commercial zoning where this fence is. And then this is

780
01:22:49,033 --> 01:22:49,033
the 100ft of residential zoning currently. And then about if, if the revised application is

781
01:22:57,966 --> 01:22:57,966
approved, then 25ft of this would be zoned commercial and you'd still have a 75ft buffer

782
01:23:04,200 --> 01:23:04,200
of residential zoning. It is the intent of the applicant to demo these homes. So this would

783
01:23:12,233 --> 01:23:12,233
just be a green space buffer between that would remain r1 be between the the commercial

784
01:23:21,333 --> 01:23:21,333
zoning and the r-2 zoning adjacent to it. I will say we can't condition the rezoning.

785
01:23:27,966 --> 01:23:27,966
so it can't you know it. We can't say that it's condition that it has to stay green space,

786
01:23:33,866 --> 01:23:33,866
but it would only be allowed to be developed for uses that would be permitted in r1, b,

787
01:23:40,500 --> 01:23:40,500
which are residential uses, and then some and some low intensity noncommercial uses.

788
01:23:48,066 --> 01:23:48,066
and clint, just a just a quick question on those two structures that are to be

789
01:23:53,433 --> 01:23:53,433
demoed under the plan or under the the intention, are those currently vacant, boarded up.

790
01:23:59,200 --> 01:23:59,200
they are currently vacant. And there's actually these these two houses actually went to the

791
01:24:05,066 --> 01:24:05,066
our building standards commission board last month. And there's actually a

792
01:24:10,166 --> 01:24:10,166
demolition order on those. So either way these houses would be demoed. They're going to

793
01:24:15,900 --> 01:24:15,900
okay. But they've they've kind of blighted property. They're. Well that sorry will, will the

794
01:24:22,933 --> 01:24:22,933
demolition order if not acted on soon enough in in any way impede them from being able to

795
01:24:31,200 --> 01:24:31,200
move forward with any other part of the project as the landowner? No, no it wouldn't.

796
01:24:36,433 --> 01:24:36,433
yeah. And they're they're. The reason why they're holding off on the demo right now is if, if

797
01:24:45,066 --> 01:24:45,066
the rezoning gets approved, they would demo all the buildings at once because the

798
01:24:49,100 --> 01:24:49,100
commercial buildings would come down to if if they don't get the zoning, then they'll just

799
01:24:55,200 --> 01:24:55,200
demo the two homes separately. And then this is just looking at the at the corner of that

800
01:25:01,366 --> 01:25:01,366
intersection. You can see looking down robinson drive back towards the circle, that

801
01:25:06,766 --> 01:25:06,766
it is a commercial corridor. Planning commission did recommend approval of the whole

802
01:25:12,933 --> 01:25:12,933
request. And and and staff does support the revised request with the smaller. Request down

803
01:25:24,133 --> 01:25:24,133
to the just the 25ft of the r1 b. So did the compromise go back to plan? Did you say it

804
01:25:32,233 --> 01:25:32,233
does not require it? So there's because it's a smaller request, it doesn't require it to go

805
01:25:38,700 --> 01:25:38,700
back okay. So so so your options tonight would be to obviously you could deny the

806
01:25:45,533 --> 01:25:45,533
request and it would just stay c3 zoning in r1, b 100 foot width. You could approve the

807
01:25:54,033 --> 01:25:54,033
the original request which would be c2 for the whole property. Or you could approve

808
01:25:58,533 --> 01:25:58,533
the revised request, which would be the smaller c2 for just the 25ft of the r1 b

809
01:26:05,300 --> 01:26:05,300
zoning. Any other questions for director peters? All right. Thanks, clint. Sure glad we

810
01:26:14,300 --> 01:26:14,300
worked you in for the first time in a long time. There was only two, so I guess we had

811
01:26:20,500 --> 01:26:20,500
time. Any requests for future agenda items, council members? Any future agenda items are

812
01:26:27,800 --> 01:26:31,266
needed to cover? All right, we'll now recess the work session. Reconvene the regular session for executive session as read into the record by the city secretary at 4:27 p.m.

813
01:26:38,233 --> 01:26:38,233
notice is hereby given that the city council will go into executive session according to

814
01:26:42,433 --> 01:26:42,433
the following provisions. Number one attorney briefing texas open meetings act,

815
01:26:47,633 --> 01:26:51,066
section 551 .071 nuisance abatement regarding criminal activity and building code standards under texas civil practice and remedies code, chapter 125 and texas local

816
01:26:56,033 --> 01:26:56,033
government code, chapter 54 and the housing finance act, texas local government code, chapter

817
01:27:03,200 --> 01:27:03,200
394, number two attorney briefing, texas open meetings act, section 551 .071. O'neill,

818
01:27:08,833 --> 01:27:08,833
perez versus city of waco. Cause number 2020 3-2636. Dash four 170 70th judicial district.

819
01:27:20,100 --> 01:27:20,100
number three attorney briefing, texas open meetings act, section 551 .071 and personnel,

820
01:27:26,266 --> 01:27:26,266
texas open meetings act, section 551.074. Discussion of city manager appointment

821
01:27:31,266 --> 01:27:31,266
process number four real property texas open meetings act, section 551.072. Number

822
01:27:37,166 --> 01:27:37,166
five economic development texas open meetings act. Section 551.087 and number six

823
01:27:44,333 --> 01:27:44,333
personnel texas open meetings act, sectiondoctor? Are you rea. Ready. We'll now call the

824
01:27:56,549 --> 01:27:56,549
business session of october 7th, 2025 to order at 6:02 p.m. And all waco city council members

825
01:28:05,116 --> 01:28:05,116
are present. And I will now turn it over to our wisd board president, jose vedanya to call

826
01:28:12,149 --> 01:28:12,149
its meeting. A special meeting of the of the waco isd school board district is hereby call

827
01:28:18,882 --> 01:28:18,882
to order. All items which may be discussed or voted upon this evening have been posted as

828
01:28:23,949 --> 01:28:23,949
required by state law. Great. With that, we will move to our first item. Please join us all

829
01:28:30,016 --> 01:28:30,016
for the pledge of allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the united states of america

830
01:28:38,482 --> 01:28:38,482
and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under god, indivisible, with liberty and

831
01:28:47,682 --> 01:28:47,682
justice for all. Great, great man. So great to have everybody here tonight. This is a full

832
01:28:57,282 --> 01:28:57,282
house, a full dais of of folks here. We'll introduce everybody here in a second. The next item

833
01:29:03,749 --> 01:29:03,749
on the agenda is individual item e, one individual consideration jointly with the

834
01:29:10,016 --> 01:29:10,016
waco independent school district board of trustees. And I'm going to turn it over to

835
01:29:15,749 --> 01:29:15,749
deputy city manager deidra emerson. Good evening mayor and council and isd school board

836
01:29:20,349 --> 01:29:20,349
members. Tonight we have the opportunity to talk about one yet one more project that has

837
01:29:26,449 --> 01:29:26,449
started with a long line of folks. Right? So some are sitting on the on the dais

838
01:29:32,549 --> 01:29:32,549
today. Some are sitting on this side of the dais today. But there are folks that have

839
01:29:37,182 --> 01:29:37,182
participated in this process that are not sitting on this dais. And so first, I'd like to

840
01:29:42,549 --> 01:29:42,549
recognize those individuals, specifically the prior superintendent, doctor

841
01:29:48,282 --> 01:29:48,282
kincannon, and the work in that council and the board members that have served in that

842
01:29:53,149 --> 01:29:53,149
process to get help, get us to this point. Next, I want to make sure that I recognize the

843
01:29:59,149 --> 01:29:59,149
teams who have worked hard currently and to bring this project forward. First, our

844
01:30:05,349 --> 01:30:05,349
city manager, bradley ford. Tom bock, and I'm so excited to know that his family gets to

845
01:30:13,182 --> 01:30:13,182
see him in this element today. And so tom bock, the director of strategic initiatives, our

846
01:30:18,216 --> 01:30:18,216
city attorney crystal kristen hamilton karam, deputy city attorney kathy purdon, and

847
01:30:26,349 --> 01:30:26,349
business support manager tressa gamblin for waco isd superintendent doctor tiffany

848
01:30:32,816 --> 01:30:32,816
spicer, deputy superintendent doctor melissa king knowles, chief of staff elizabeth cox

849
01:30:38,049 --> 01:30:38,049
and attorney pete russick of sheehy, lovelace and mayfield. Thank you all for the dedicated

850
01:30:44,149 --> 01:30:44,149
hours and collaboration on this project. Tonight's joint item advances a shared city isd

851
01:30:50,149 --> 01:30:50,149
effort authorizing the city's purchase of the former indian spring middle school campus and

852
01:30:56,216 --> 01:30:56,216
the nearby track fields, paired with the lease back and an interlocal agreement focused on

853
01:31:00,249 --> 01:31:00,249
education and community use, honoring the site's history while positioning it for waco's

854
01:31:07,449 --> 01:31:07,449
future. This action is a cornerstone move within the downtown redevelopment plan,

855
01:31:12,216 --> 01:31:12,216
especially the barnes branch district, reconnecting central public spaces, supportive civic

856
01:31:18,282 --> 01:31:18,282
and cultural life, and encouraging economic growth. What's before you approval to

857
01:31:24,049 --> 01:31:24,049
purchase approximately 22.8 acres at 500 north university parks and the 324 jefferson

858
01:31:33,249 --> 01:31:33,249
north fourth street track area for $32.2 million, plus associated closing costs up to

859
01:31:41,982 --> 01:31:41,982
$100,000, and the budget alignments necessary to fund this transaction. Companion

860
01:31:47,982 --> 01:31:47,982
agreements will keep operations smooth during the transition and deepen the city isd

861
01:31:53,682 --> 01:31:53,682
partnership at least through march 31st, 2026, and an interlocal providing discounted

862
01:32:00,316 --> 01:32:00,316
access to downtown venues, including foster pavilion, for up to two graduation events per

863
01:32:05,116 --> 01:32:05,116
year through 2037, and the waco convention center for up to five annual events, plus

864
01:32:12,549 --> 01:32:12,549
structured student learning experiences and a minimum of ten annual internships or

865
01:32:17,482 --> 01:32:17,482
externships across city departments. At this time, waco isd superintendent doctor

866
01:32:23,149 --> 01:32:23,149
spicer and city of waco director of strategic initiatives tom bock will

867
01:32:28,616 --> 01:32:28,616
provide a brief overview of the transaction. Thank you. Deputy city manager deidre emerson,

868
01:32:35,349 --> 01:32:35,349
really appreciate that introduction. Thank you. Mayor, council president and board.

869
01:32:41,016 --> 01:32:41,016
what a special occasion this is. And thank you all for the vision and leadership that

870
01:32:46,216 --> 01:32:46,216
brought us here tonight. It's my distinct pleasure to be presenting a recap of why we're

871
01:32:52,116 --> 01:32:52,116
taking this step together. And with that, a brief overview here is this milestone in

872
01:32:58,316 --> 01:32:58,316
partnership between the city and school district represents an alignment between our

873
01:33:03,182 --> 01:33:03,182
respective strategic plans. We have just a brief overview of our goals the project vision

874
01:33:09,049 --> 01:33:09,049
together, what this transaction framework looks like, and then the next steps ahead of us. So

875
01:33:15,016 --> 01:33:15,016
with that, I will turn it over for some discussion about the strategic plan priorities. And

876
01:33:20,082 --> 01:33:20,082
there's a button on the microphone. Yes, sir. Thank you, mr. Ball. Thank you, mr.

877
01:33:25,149 --> 01:33:29,049
president. Thank you, mr. Mayor. Thank you trustees. Thank you. City council members. As you may or may not know, waco isd has adopted a strategic plan with four priorities. And

878
01:33:33,149 --> 01:33:33,149
they're very, hopefully simple but very clear. Our students, they're always first.

879
01:33:38,016 --> 01:33:42,016
everything we do is at the forefront of our students, their needs academically, emotionally, socially, behaviorally. All the things we do are about our students. And

880
01:33:46,482 --> 01:33:46,482
then secondly, staff. We cannot serve our students without the proper staff. And with that,

881
01:33:51,382 --> 01:33:51,382
that means how we hire, how we recruit, how we retain, and how we develop those people who a dy

882
01:33:59,116 --> 01:33:59,116
basis. But we also know we cannot do this work without you, and that's our community. It

883
01:34:04,249 --> 01:34:04,249
takes everybody inside the schools, but outside the schools and also within our

884
01:34:08,382 --> 01:34:08,382
community. And so we know that we have to come together. Remember the adage, it takes a

885
01:34:13,182 --> 01:34:13,182
village, right? We believe in that wholeheartedly. So we cannot do this work without

886
01:34:17,316 --> 01:34:17,316
each of you that are in this space. And then lastly, we have to be good stewards of our

887
01:34:22,182 --> 01:34:22,182
finances and our operational efficiencies. And with that, that's not only our money and

888
01:34:26,882 --> 01:34:26,882
our finances. Thank you, miss davis, but it's also our operations with transportation,

889
01:34:31,749 --> 01:34:31,749
food service, all the things that kind of go behind the scenes that make school happen.

890
01:34:36,482 --> 01:34:36,482
and so with that, today, as we move on to our strategic planning priorities, this

891
01:34:41,549 --> 01:34:41,549
speaks to specifically number three. And number four, this opportunity has been an

892
01:34:48,349 --> 01:34:48,349
opportunity for waco isd to not only the vision of our district, but also the vision of our city.

893
01:34:55,116 --> 01:34:55,116
and with that, we have the opportunity to, I'll say, put forth efforts and finances into

894
01:35:01,116 --> 01:35:01,116
our our economic, I'll say balance, if you will, our fund balance. But also, as you know,

895
01:35:07,716 --> 01:35:07,716
there's just a lot of uncertainty in education. And so this is a great prime

896
01:35:11,982 --> 01:35:11,982
opportunity for our district to make a smart move investment, to make sure that we're putting

897
01:35:17,349 --> 01:35:17,349
money back into that balance, but also taking care of our facilities as we go forward.

898
01:35:21,982 --> 01:35:21,982
and so we are excited about the opportunity to meet the needs of our students, our staff, our

899
01:35:27,049 --> 01:35:27,049
district and also our community. So thank you for the opportunity to partner with you

900
01:35:31,116 --> 01:35:31,116
and be a part of this tremendous and exciting opportunity that will leave a

901
01:35:35,149 --> 01:35:35,149
legacy for generations to come. Thank you, doctor spicer. The partnership opportunity here,

902
01:35:42,682 --> 01:35:42,682
the alignment between our strategic goals became very clear and started to take

903
01:35:48,649 --> 01:35:48,649
visible form as we entered into this discussion about the future of downtown, with some

904
01:35:54,249 --> 01:35:54,249
very clear goals that go beyond a typical economic development project. And so what that

905
01:36:00,749 --> 01:36:00,749
distilled down to for us early 2024 and collaboratively through the engagement of a

906
01:36:07,049 --> 01:36:07,049
development partner and hunt development group, working with a team of consultants, working

907
01:36:12,016 --> 01:36:12,016
with leadership from both of these organizations, the project mission aligned between

908
01:36:16,216 --> 01:36:16,216
behind these three elements. Creating density downtown, a gravitational center that is

909
01:36:23,182 --> 01:36:23,182
very much rooted in celebrating our stories as a community. The entire community making

910
01:36:28,316 --> 01:36:28,316
downtown for everyone, and then thinking beyond just the transactional nature of a one

911
01:36:34,082 --> 01:36:34,082
time economic development push, but prepare an abundant future for generations with 100 year

912
01:36:40,249 --> 01:36:40,249
goal. That's reflected in the strategic roadmap that came out of that process. So adopted in

913
01:36:48,049 --> 01:36:48,049
late june of 2024 is a very detailed process for how we can step into transforming the

914
01:36:54,982 --> 01:36:54,982
downtown of our community. But the image on the right there is helpful in illustrating where

915
01:36:59,982 --> 01:36:59,982
these overlaps occur. We have 100 acres that we've been talking about for over a year.

916
01:37:05,049 --> 01:37:05,049
the yellow highlights are all the all the properties that come into this partnership from

917
01:37:09,982 --> 01:37:09,982
waco isd. So this is significant. We're working together to transform the the

918
01:37:15,149 --> 01:37:15,149
face of our community, the shape of our future and the prosperity of both of our

919
01:37:21,149 --> 01:37:21,149
organizations and the missions that we serve. So the project vision, specifically, you've

920
01:37:26,282 --> 01:37:26,282
you've seen many of these presentations many times, but what it boils down to is within

921
01:37:31,282 --> 01:37:31,282
100 acres, we've got five distinct defining character districts. The heart and soul

922
01:37:37,016 --> 01:37:37,016
of that is really reflected in what we refer to as barons branch, the barons branch

923
01:37:41,182 --> 01:37:41,182
district. On that previous slide, where the red outline was. The vast majority of this

924
01:37:46,482 --> 01:37:46,482
is on property that currently is the former track property. A portion of it is also on the

925
01:37:52,349 --> 01:37:52,349
school site. But this is such a culturally rich fabric of our community with stories that

926
01:37:58,349 --> 01:37:58,349
have been undertold and lost for more than a generation, but not forgotten. And so it's

927
01:38:04,382 --> 01:38:04,382
really a privilege to be able to talk about going beyond a vision for what that future

928
01:38:10,449 --> 01:38:10,449
could be like, to create concrete plans for taking steps forward in that direction. The

929
01:38:15,149 --> 01:38:15,149
action today will put us on that path, and some imagery that, again, has been in

930
01:38:21,349 --> 01:38:21,349
preparation over the past year, working with hunt development group and nationally renowned

931
01:38:28,482 --> 01:38:28,482
consulting partners. But it is a park district that creates that fabric and the setting for

932
01:38:36,316 --> 01:38:36,316
these stories to be highlighted that draws in a closeness of investment, development, but

933
01:38:42,916 --> 01:38:42,916
also life. Blood for our downtown makes people from waco, whether they live downtown or

934
01:38:49,049 --> 01:38:49,049
not, want to come downtown to celebrate this, the cal dose neighborhood is is largely the

935
01:38:55,982 --> 01:38:55,982
area that we're talking about, a former neighborhood that was impacted, wiped out by urban

936
01:39:01,682 --> 01:39:01,682
renewal. The the central spine of that community was organized around second street. Here we

937
01:39:07,249 --> 01:39:07,249
have an animation of what the future of that corridor can be. It's a pedestrian only

938
01:39:15,482 --> 01:39:15,482
environment on this particular corridor. It's anchored with visual breadcrumbs to draw

939
01:39:23,982 --> 01:39:23,982
visitors and locals alike through, to explore a park environment, shops, restaurants,

940
01:39:31,116 --> 01:39:31,116
dining with retail and and I'm sorry with office and residential above but populated

941
01:39:36,749 --> 01:39:36,749
with a character that is very much like cameron park playing on that long history of waco,

942
01:39:43,082 --> 01:39:43,082
drawing that into our downtown, creating opportunities for performance or small scale

943
01:39:51,282 --> 01:39:51,282
activities, and then really throwing a lot of effort into nodding to our past and our

944
01:39:55,982 --> 01:39:55,982
history, but without recreating an artificial past. We're trying to. I'm not sure how I

945
01:40:03,149 --> 01:40:03,149
did that, but we're trying to cultivate an authentic representation of the heritage

946
01:40:11,482 --> 01:40:11,482
that we can celebrate together. And so this brings us into one of the showpieces of this

947
01:40:16,149 --> 01:40:16,149
entire district is la plaza, creating a plaza that has not existed, but by anchoring it

948
01:40:21,949 --> 01:40:21,949
with an element that very much speaks to the historic public life of the neighborhood around

949
01:40:29,516 --> 01:40:29,516
la pila fountain. And then looking back at this alignment. That has always been an

950
01:40:35,149 --> 01:40:35,149
opportunity here but has never been fully realized. So an alignment to borrow that

951
01:40:39,616 --> 01:40:39,616
beautiful facade, that architectural facade of saint francis catholic church, that's

952
01:40:45,916 --> 01:40:45,916
one of the key highlights of the park center district. But also, you know, there there are

953
01:40:52,382 --> 01:40:52,382
many features that families can get really excited about. So a play fountain that, again,

954
01:40:57,216 --> 01:40:57,216
speaks that language of cameron park and the fountains and springs throughout our

955
01:41:01,816 --> 01:41:01,816
community. They can again be the organizing elements of recreation and and civic life.

956
01:41:08,282 --> 01:41:08,282
and those features don't have to be isolated splash pads. They will, in fact, trickle

957
01:41:14,249 --> 01:41:14,249
throughout the majority of this park district, cascading down the topography that's created

958
01:41:19,249 --> 01:41:19,249
and opened up as we resurrect the barons branch creek that also flowed through this area.

959
01:41:25,916 --> 01:41:25,916
that creek element is really important. It is currently in tunnels under the ground and

960
01:41:31,349 --> 01:41:31,349
has been forgotten to a large extent, but it's very important to unlocking this area. So we

961
01:41:36,449 --> 01:41:36,449
are increasing the storm carrying capacity of that tunnel system so that the

962
01:41:42,182 --> 01:41:42,182
feature on top of the ground that resurrects the creek can be manageable, calm and

963
01:41:49,382 --> 01:41:49,382
welcoming environment in any condition. So even in a 500 year flood event, this area

964
01:41:55,916 --> 01:41:55,916
will channel those waters strategically to avoid impact to neighboring real estate and

965
01:42:01,649 --> 01:42:01,649
that creek. It does not at all look like a flood control device whatsoever. This is a

966
01:42:09,182 --> 01:42:09,182
very lush, naturalistic environment with beautiful cascades interwoven among

967
01:42:15,349 --> 01:42:15,349
limestone and performance areas. And la la la la fountain within the la la plaza. This is one of

968
01:42:23,616 --> 01:42:23,616
the defining callbacks that is too precious to ignore. And so one of the key things to note

969
01:42:28,416 --> 01:42:28,416
here is that the existing fountain it in its original location, will remain and be

970
01:42:35,116 --> 01:42:35,116
uncovered in a way that respects its authentic history, but it'll also be recreated in

971
01:42:41,949 --> 01:42:41,949
a way that we can make functioning and bring that water back further up onto the

972
01:42:46,416 --> 01:42:46,416
plaza. So our our heart and soul is in this project, and we hope that it resonates with the

973
01:42:52,182 --> 01:42:52,182
community. The feedback we've gotten so far indicates we're on the right track, but we've

974
01:42:56,216 --> 01:42:56,216
done we've come a long way to put this project on track, for. We're in the permitting process

975
01:43:02,149 --> 01:43:02,149
now, so this is navigating right along on schedule. And and again, everything about

976
01:43:07,316 --> 01:43:07,316
this is touching on that gravitational center that's authentic and tailored for waco,

977
01:43:13,982 --> 01:43:13,982
steeped in the story of this place and embracing the spirit that successful communities

978
01:43:19,249 --> 01:43:19,249
know is that downtown, you've got to you've got to serve the locals first. And smart,

979
01:43:25,582 --> 01:43:25,582
innovative collaboration is what this partnership is all about. So the transaction

980
01:43:31,249 --> 01:43:31,249
transaction framework is maybe the primary function that we're here to talk about tonight.

981
01:43:37,282 --> 01:43:37,282
it's representing the sale and purchase of two tracts of land. The first contains the school,

982
01:43:43,049 --> 01:43:43,049
indian springs school, there in the background from waco drive over to jefferson along the

983
01:43:48,349 --> 01:43:48,349
river, and then from jefferson towards washington is the former track property. And so

984
01:43:54,382 --> 01:43:54,382
these two properties together are over 22 acres. And at 22.8 acres and approximately at that

985
01:44:02,882 --> 01:44:02,882
intersection of jefferson university parks. And just to again touch on what overlaps

986
01:44:09,182 --> 01:44:13,116
within that barons branch district, the image on the left helps show that very clearly that the vast majority of the tract property and a good portion of the school property

987
01:44:18,049 --> 01:44:18,049
are both part of barons branch and essential to its success. The transaction framework is a

988
01:44:24,449 --> 01:44:24,449
series of agreements that are tied together. So the most traditional side of this is the

989
01:44:29,016 --> 01:44:29,016
purchase and sale agreement. And again, that's the $32.2 million that the city is paying

990
01:44:35,582 --> 01:44:35,582
at closing. It's broken into two releases from escrow. The first is at closing the $28.48

991
01:44:43,349 --> 01:44:43,349
million, and then the second payment will be made. The $3.72 million will be made on march

992
01:44:51,916 --> 01:44:51,916
31st. At the end of the leaseback period. The other side of the agreement is really

993
01:44:57,382 --> 01:44:57,382
reflected in the interlocal side of it. The interlocal agreement touches on a lot of

994
01:45:02,249 --> 01:45:02,249
what we've discussed as partnership extras. These are really where we show how we can

995
01:45:07,282 --> 01:45:07,282
work together strategically for the long term that this is a partnership, not a transaction.

996
01:45:13,616 --> 01:45:13,616
so certainly the short term leaseback is one element of that. It goes beyond just the

997
01:45:19,082 --> 01:45:19,082
short term though. So there's there's opportunities for the school district to salvage

998
01:45:24,216 --> 01:45:24,216
equipment that still has life. There's certainly a side by side approach to the outreach

999
01:45:29,949 --> 01:45:29,949
that has to happen as we go through the same engagement process that brought many of

1000
01:45:35,549 --> 01:45:35,549
these storytelling threads to our attention. For the barons branch district and the history

1001
01:45:40,016 --> 01:45:40,016
of the neighborhood, there's that same energy and focus that will go into uncovering the

1002
01:45:45,616 --> 01:45:45,616
threads and stories for this campus and this property and its history and what it's meant

1003
01:45:49,982 --> 01:45:53,782
to our community. It will continue to be reflected. There's ways that's going to spill into the into the barons branch district, and there's certainly a lot of information

1004
01:45:58,449 --> 01:45:58,449
or a lot of ways that it will inform the ballpark district as well that will overlay this

1005
01:46:04,516 --> 01:46:04,516
area. Internships, externships, excursions. These are things that our organizations have

1006
01:46:12,149 --> 01:46:12,149
aligned on in years past, and this helps cement a path forward for us to continue

1007
01:46:17,249 --> 01:46:17,249
doing that successfully over the next ten years. So that's very exciting, leveraging all

1008
01:46:22,616 --> 01:46:22,616
the great things that, you know, the great opportunities that a city and doing its business as

1009
01:46:28,116 --> 01:46:28,116
a city can afford to the young minds and young students, but also leveraging this project

1010
01:46:34,782 --> 01:46:34,782
and leveraging the construction aspect of that and replicating the success that waco isd has

1011
01:46:40,316 --> 01:46:40,316
enjoyed so well with making opportunities as waco high school was under construction.

1012
01:46:44,882 --> 01:46:44,882
those are those are really great ideas that we're going to pull into the city's project as

1013
01:46:48,949 --> 01:46:52,882
well. So those were great discussions and great opportunities were brought to the table that way. Similarly, as we're focused on downtown and what brings the life to our

1014
01:46:58,482 --> 01:46:58,482
downtown, thinking about our, our venues. And so this building, the convention center,

1015
01:47:03,016 --> 01:47:03,016
is one great venue downtown, but also the foster pavilion, that's another one that the

1016
01:47:07,949 --> 01:47:07,949
city has had a hand in bringing to fruition and has some rights on the table to to bring into

1017
01:47:14,449 --> 01:47:18,316
this partnership. So we're excited to have defined how those things can work together for the betterment of our community and visually showcasing how our school

1018
01:47:23,182 --> 01:47:23,182
district is an important, crucial part of the success of this community. And then for

1019
01:47:29,216 --> 01:47:29,216
the longer term, there are elements of the strategic roadmap that we didn't we

1020
01:47:35,316 --> 01:47:35,316
didn't get to everything yet we haven't gotten to everything yet. And we want to preserve

1021
01:47:39,716 --> 01:47:39,716
that conversation for a later date. To say that if the stars align on a joint municipal

1022
01:47:45,182 --> 01:47:45,182
campus and administrative campus, those are things that we can still return to in the

1023
01:47:50,049 --> 01:47:50,049
future. So those remain in the strategic roadmap. We're open to that as opportunities

1024
01:47:55,316 --> 01:47:55,316
present themselves for our organizations. But in the background, as the success of

1025
01:48:00,182 --> 01:48:00,182
this first phase takes hold as a success of downtown and the downtown redevelopment project

1026
01:48:05,249 --> 01:48:05,249
take hold. There's a there's a bottom line that is very important to both of our

1027
01:48:10,249 --> 01:48:10,249
organizations and that our bond capacity, our ability to do good things, grow wisely and

1028
01:48:15,616 --> 01:48:15,616
invest in our facilities. That capacity will be growing all the while in the background. So

1029
01:48:20,316 --> 01:48:20,316
it's it's very exciting to be able to bring a deal like this for your discussion and

1030
01:48:25,116 --> 01:48:25,116
consideration tonight. And again, just distilling that down to the basics. What's in

1031
01:48:31,316 --> 01:48:31,316
front of you today for consideration is a set of three agreements the purchase and

1032
01:48:36,782 --> 01:48:36,782
sale agreement. The lease agreement is a part of that. And then the interlocal

1033
01:48:41,249 --> 01:48:41,249
agreement. All three of those together are in front of you for consideration at a future

1034
01:48:46,382 --> 01:48:46,382
council meeting through the spring of of this coming year, we'll be bringing you strategic

1035
01:48:52,449 --> 01:48:52,449
roadmap updates for adoption. There will be a focused effort on updating that document to

1036
01:48:57,982 --> 01:48:57,982
reflect everything we've learned in the past year, updating that document to

1037
01:49:02,282 --> 01:49:02,282
reflect the impact and importance of this transaction. So we want to keep it valid and

1038
01:49:06,349 --> 01:49:06,349
current and useful to us. So we will do the work in the background to support that

1039
01:49:12,282 --> 01:49:12,282
update and bring it to your attention for consideration, all the while advancing some of

1040
01:49:17,616 --> 01:49:17,616
the other tools for the success of development. So form based code is going to be coming to

1041
01:49:22,649 --> 01:49:22,649
you in early 2026. The financial process of funding bears branch construction,

1042
01:49:27,782 --> 01:49:27,782
construction. Those will be conversations in the spring of this coming year. And then

1043
01:49:33,582 --> 01:49:33,582
ultimately, we'll be requesting or recommending an agreement amendment with hunt development

1044
01:49:39,149 --> 01:49:39,149
group for the bears branch construction. We're on track for all of those things. We're

1045
01:49:43,316 --> 01:49:43,316
in the permitting phase right now. We believe we'll be shovel ready by the middle of 2026, so

1046
01:49:49,649 --> 01:49:49,649
that's pretty exciting. This is a amazing watershed moment. I'm having to pinch myself up here,

1047
01:49:54,916 --> 01:49:54,916
but it's been a lot of work and a lot of hands to bring an amazing an amazing partnership

1048
01:50:03,182 --> 01:50:03,182
forward for you. So with that deputy city manager, I'll turn it back to you. All right.

1049
01:50:11,216 --> 01:50:11,216
thank you, tom, and thank you for your leadership in this project. It's been it's meant a

1050
01:50:16,349 --> 01:50:16,349
lot to to us within the city organization. Thank you. Thank you. So, mayor, based on tom's

1051
01:50:21,316 --> 01:50:21,316
presentation, the presentation by doctor spicer, the requested actions tonight are one. Adopt

1052
01:50:26,716 --> 01:50:26,716
budget amendments. Two approve the purchase and sale agreement. Approve the lease back. Approve

1053
01:50:32,049 --> 01:50:32,049
the interlocal for education and community partnerships, and authorize the city manager to

1054
01:50:37,982 --> 01:50:37,982
execute related documents. Intended outcomes are clear. Preserve the legacy of indian

1055
01:50:44,549 --> 01:50:44,549
spring. Expand community and educational use of downtown and accelerate the brand's barons

1056
01:50:51,449 --> 01:50:51,449
branch. First phase with a strong city isd partnership with that mayor. I'll turn it

1057
01:50:57,182 --> 01:50:57,182
back to you. Yeah, what we'll do right now, there's going to be a series of two approval

1058
01:51:02,149 --> 01:51:02,149
cycles here. The first of all, the city council will will make a motion on this, and then we

1059
01:51:09,149 --> 01:51:09,149
will I will turn it over to mr. Bardana for to to get the discussion from the school. So

1060
01:51:16,749 --> 01:51:16,749
at this point I'll entertain a motion on this. We'll, we'll discuss it after we hear the

1061
01:51:23,016 --> 01:51:23,016
motion. Mayor, as the proud parent of two children in waco isd, it would be my distinct

1062
01:51:28,416 --> 01:51:28,416
pleasure to move to approve the said motion here today. We have a motion for approval. Do I

1063
01:51:35,749 --> 01:51:35,749
hear a second? Second have a motion and second. Is there any discussion? Mayor, I just want

1064
01:51:41,182 --> 01:51:41,182
to say I'm grateful for the work that our city staff has done. I know deidra bradley,

1065
01:51:47,949 --> 01:51:47,949
tom, the whole cmo team on this, grateful for doctor spicer. I'm grateful for her predecessor,

1066
01:51:59,449 --> 01:51:59,449
grateful for this wonderful board, the school board and this council for all their work

1067
01:52:04,349 --> 01:52:04,349
to get us to this point. I think it's it's been a it's been a great journey of

1068
01:52:09,349 --> 01:52:09,349
partnership. And I think this is a an incredible opportunity. And I'm just glad that the

1069
01:52:14,582 --> 01:52:14,582
mayor allowed me to hold the briefcase with the money in it, which was kind of a thrill for

1070
01:52:19,049 --> 01:52:19,049
me first. So you still have it? I still got it. Yeah, it's in my truck. Where are you parked?

1071
01:52:23,349 --> 01:52:23,349
just. I'll. I'll continue that by saying. Well, go ahead, go ahead, go ahead. Thank you to

1072
01:52:33,282 --> 01:52:33,282
all the parties involved. This is. This was no small feat to get accomplished. And it took

1073
01:52:40,116 --> 01:52:40,116
everybody in both organizations to get it done. And it's so much more. We earlier in our

1074
01:52:49,249 --> 01:52:49,249
work session, we spoke about untold stories, how we got the opportunity to celebrate the

1075
01:52:55,416 --> 01:52:55,416
mural at the southwest community center and to break the ground on alice rodriguez

1076
01:53:02,816 --> 01:53:02,816
martinez, martinez, rodriguez park. And and those are some of our untold stories in history.

1077
01:53:08,449 --> 01:53:08,449
and this is a huge opportunity to continue those efforts. It's not like we can put back the

1078
01:53:15,016 --> 01:53:15,016
buildings that urban renewal removed, but we can do is bring back the community that was

1079
01:53:21,416 --> 01:53:21,416
lost in that process. And I think the opportunity to showcase and highlight our

1080
01:53:28,016 --> 01:53:28,016
natural resources that we have and create an opportunity to make spaces of fellowship. You

1081
01:53:37,049 --> 01:53:37,049
know, we've we've been all over the country looking at at various parks and things and

1082
01:53:43,349 --> 01:53:43,349
the way brooklyn park is set up. And I was like, oh, this is going to be so much better in

1083
01:53:49,216 --> 01:53:49,216
downtown waco because just the topography or, you know, even in greenville last week, it's

1084
01:53:53,516 --> 01:53:53,516
like, okay, so yeah, this is cool. However, the falls are one thing, but it's a whole

1085
01:53:59,016 --> 01:53:59,016
river that's running through it, and we have an opportunity to get all of this done in a way

1086
01:54:03,916 --> 01:54:03,916
that will be beneficial for generations to come. So that's the impact of this this

1087
01:54:09,016 --> 01:54:09,016
opportunity that we have. That's that's the beauty of this long standing partnership

1088
01:54:15,249 --> 01:54:15,249
that we've had with waco isd to just continue to grow in waco for wacoans, for first wacoans

1089
01:54:24,416 --> 01:54:24,416
first, then for everyone else who gets to experience the city. So it is it is my privilege and

1090
01:54:30,316 --> 01:54:30,316
pleasure to have sat through this process and been a part of it. I'll just add that, you

1091
01:54:35,082 --> 01:54:35,082
know, to mayor pro tem point, this has not been an easy process. And when we as a city

1092
01:54:41,082 --> 01:54:41,082
kind of put the cart before the horse and make this big plan with land we don't own yet,

1093
01:54:46,216 --> 01:54:46,216
there's a lot of trust in the relationships that we have with the wonderful board up here.

1094
01:54:50,316 --> 01:54:50,316
and, and, and in that process, there's transitions. We we have a new mayor in place since,

1095
01:54:55,716 --> 01:54:55,716
since this started, which has a new superintendent, a new board members, we have new council

1096
01:55:00,782 --> 01:55:00,782
members. So the relationship maintaining its strength throughout that time was really

1097
01:55:06,482 --> 01:55:06,482
crucial to getting to this point. So I'm very appreciative of the efforts across the board,

1098
01:55:12,482 --> 01:55:12,482
pun intended. And I will say that caught that one. And I will say that waco is is is

1099
01:55:21,016 --> 01:55:21,016
stronger when wisd is stronger. There are aspects of this agreement outside of just the

1100
01:55:27,182 --> 01:55:27,182
financial aspect on its face, which, you know, we benefit by unlocking a key piece of this,

1101
01:55:33,349 --> 01:55:36,882
end as well as hopefully with the tax base that we're all betting on, will be there on the back end. But you know, when I think about the sort of ancillary

1102
01:55:41,849 --> 01:55:41,849
benefits of this agreement with the foster pavilion use and the convention center use, I think

1103
01:55:46,816 --> 01:55:46,816
of exposures and internships and externships. I think of exposing students to the place

1104
01:55:52,016 --> 01:55:52,016
that they call home in a way that maybe they haven't seen it before. There are, you know,

1105
01:55:57,416 --> 01:56:01,182
hundreds if not thousands of kids in wisd that are never going to go to foster pavilion outside of going to a graduation. Same thing with coming down to the convention

1106
01:56:04,916 --> 01:56:07,982
center, and same thing with interacting with city staff and an internship and externship, and whether that entices them to stay here and keep their talent and their skills here,

1107
01:56:11,882 --> 01:56:11,882
we're going to be better for it. Or if we send them off and they're proud sons and

1108
01:56:17,449 --> 01:56:20,749
daughters of the city of waco, both city of waco and wisd stand to benefit tremendously from this. So I'm thrilled. Obviously, the the development itself is going to be great.

1109
01:56:24,982 --> 01:56:24,982
I've got a I've got a two year old daughter. That's kind of what makes me keep this in

1110
01:56:29,849 --> 01:56:29,849
perspective. That I can be happy for something happening in 15 years is that, you know,

1111
01:56:33,916 --> 01:56:33,916
she'll be able to enjoy it all. But this is something that is transformational for our city

1112
01:56:38,182 --> 01:56:42,182
and for our for our school district here. And I'm looking forward to continued success and partnership down the line. All right. I'll just cap that with saying that the city of

1113
01:56:52,049 --> 01:56:52,049
waco will have such a great relationship that's so important in a growing city

1114
01:56:57,016 --> 01:56:57,016
like waco. And I want to thank doctor spicer. I'm going to go right down the line here to

1115
01:57:03,449 --> 01:57:03,449
board president jose vidana and the entire board. Jeremy davis, jim patton, angelo ochoa, keith

1116
01:57:08,016 --> 01:57:08,016
guillory, taylor bledsoe, and you guys have been great to work with. As we figured this

1117
01:57:13,982 --> 01:57:13,982
out. As council member ewing stated, we've been working on this for a while, and kind of

1118
01:57:19,816 --> 01:57:19,816
the dream has been sort of out there, and we have to get the nuts and bolts of this thing

1119
01:57:25,049 --> 01:57:25,049
out of the way first. But I think this is a great transaction that will benefit

1120
01:57:29,849 --> 01:57:29,849
both the city and the school. Tom bock I could watch that that video time. I just you

1121
01:57:37,849 --> 01:57:37,849
could just have it on a real repeat for 24 hours. I just love looking at what that's

1122
01:57:42,182 --> 01:57:42,182
going to look like, walking around in that park and imagining our residents of waco.

1123
01:57:46,882 --> 01:57:46,882
that's going to be a community park. That's going to be for the residents of waco to enjoy

1124
01:57:52,282 --> 01:57:52,282
and be proud of. So this transaction really helps us move forward with a visionary

1125
01:58:00,016 --> 01:58:00,016
downtown redevelopment plan that will be transformative. I'm just convinced this will be

1126
01:58:04,982 --> 01:58:04,982
it's going to give us a charge here downtown and have people from around the world that come

1127
01:58:11,149 --> 01:58:11,149
to waco. They're going to they're going to want to come back when this thing is all

1128
01:58:15,416 --> 01:58:15,416
built out. It's great riverfront site. The entire riverfront is very connected to

1129
01:58:19,982 --> 01:58:19,982
what the city already has. So we'll be creating new public spaces, and it's going to allow

1130
01:58:25,982 --> 01:58:25,982
us a little bit of flexibility for for downtown development. This is going to be a source of

1131
01:58:33,282 --> 01:58:33,282
pride for all of us for generations to come. This way. This will identify what waco is.

1132
01:58:38,349 --> 01:58:38,349
and as we go into this, I know you're seeing all these pictures of what we're doing,

1133
01:58:42,982 --> 01:58:42,982
but as we get into the details and the planning community, input is going to be super

1134
01:58:48,049 --> 01:58:48,049
important as we as tommy bork is in, city manager ford have kind of shown what our concepts

1135
01:58:54,916 --> 01:58:54,916
are. We want to shape those as we go. So we we know that we want to celebrate our past and

1136
01:59:02,016 --> 01:59:02,016
make it important for the future, too. Just it's it's it's a wonderful plan. So we're

1137
01:59:07,716 --> 01:59:07,716
depending on on community feedback on this. What we're seeing is we let kind of people

1138
01:59:12,949 --> 01:59:12,949
peek in. What we're doing is a lot of enthusiasm and a lot of support, and just a lot of

1139
01:59:19,149 --> 01:59:19,149
looking forward to how soon can we get all this done. I will tell you that when this is done,

1140
01:59:24,782 --> 01:59:24,782
we will make the san antonio san antonio riverwalk look like a dirty canal. You know, this

1141
01:59:29,349 --> 01:59:29,349
is going to be super. This is going to be great stuff. Well landscaped. And we got

1142
01:59:34,916 --> 01:59:38,782
elevation there. And anybody that's been by behrens branch where we where we're looking at this. It's basically in the floodplain right now. And it's not going to be anything until

1143
01:59:42,982 --> 01:59:42,982
we can kind of make it happen. So together with wisd, we're super happy that we can take

1144
01:59:47,816 --> 01:59:47,816
first steps in this, in this process. So any further discussion with that? I think

1145
01:59:55,882 --> 01:59:55,882
that's all the discussion. So city secretary hicks, will you please pull the council ordered.

1146
02:00:02,416 --> 02:00:02,416
yes. Fairfield. Yes. Ewing. Yes. Chase. Yes. Holmes I that motion passes and at this time

1147
02:00:11,049 --> 02:00:11,049
I will. I'll also point out that council member lozano had a a affidavit of substantial

1148
02:00:19,249 --> 02:00:19,249
interest, since she works for wisd. So she did not vote on that. None of the 30 some

1149
02:00:23,916 --> 02:00:23,916
million is going to go to you, right, isabel? Anyway, at this point, I'm going to turn it

1150
02:00:29,149 --> 02:00:29,149
over to board president jose vidana for wisd action. Thank you. Is there a motion I move

1151
02:00:36,882 --> 02:00:36,882
to approve the purchase and sale, lease and interlocal agreements with the city of

1152
02:00:41,816 --> 02:00:41,816
waco as presented, and authorize the superintendent to execute all necessary documents.

1153
02:00:46,416 --> 02:00:46,416
I second, thank you, mr. Bledsoe. Is there any discussion? Just wanted to say,

1154
02:00:52,882 --> 02:00:52,882
man, what an exciting time to be away. Cohen. Want to thank the council, the school

1155
02:01:00,849 --> 02:01:00,849
district, everybody. Tom bork, bradley ford, doctor spicer, pete rusick elizabeth cox,

1156
02:01:06,216 --> 02:01:06,216
everybody up from the school district in the city who really did all the work to make this

1157
02:01:11,282 --> 02:01:11,282
happen. I'm thankful just to come in on the back end and and get to be a part of this cool

1158
02:01:16,082 --> 02:01:16,082
ceremony, because this is what makes waco such a special place. We've had transitions at the

1159
02:01:20,649 --> 02:01:20,649
school district level, the city level, the council level, the school, the school board level.

1160
02:01:26,116 --> 02:01:30,082
and for a deal of this magnitude and scope to still be able to go through, I think speaks to what makes our community so special. So thankful to get to be a part of

1161
02:01:35,049 --> 02:01:35,049
it. Mister, is there any discussion? No. Just want to thank again. I feel like

1162
02:01:40,382 --> 02:01:40,382
councilman ewing kind of set it all up. I mean, the perfect job of explaining all the benefits

1163
02:01:46,182 --> 02:01:46,182
we are receiving, our students, the future, very, very blessed and happy about being a part of

1164
02:01:52,216 --> 02:01:52,216
this, this whole process with all of you. And just like hillary and kind of joined at

1165
02:01:56,249 --> 02:01:56,249
the end, tail end of it. But I feel very lucky and fortunate to be a part of it. Thank you

1166
02:02:01,716 --> 02:02:05,216
for that. Appreciate it. Mr. Davis, is there any discussion fortunate to be around throughout the process? Definitely excited and happy about all the work that

1167
02:02:10,849 --> 02:02:10,849
everyone's done. Definitely proud of the benefits that our students will get throughout

1168
02:02:16,649 --> 02:02:16,649
this process immediately and throughout the phases of the project for future wacoans to

1169
02:02:22,016 --> 02:02:22,016
come. So I'm just happy to be a part of this process. Mr. Patton, is there any discussion?

1170
02:02:28,282 --> 02:02:28,282
sure. I think that indian springs has always been a very important part of waco isd

1171
02:02:38,049 --> 02:02:38,049
history, and I feel that this is an opportunity to continue the impact that this school had

1172
02:02:49,916 --> 02:02:49,916
in, in a new and unique way. And with the the transaction, this will also help waco isd

1173
02:02:59,982 --> 02:02:59,982
financially from a security aspect and will allow us to focus these resources on

1174
02:03:09,316 --> 02:03:09,316
helping our students both today and tomorrow. And I appreciate how. Collaborative mayor your

1175
02:03:19,749 --> 02:03:19,749
team has been with the school board. And it's been a very transparent process that I've

1176
02:03:29,882 --> 02:03:29,882
learned a lot from, and I appreciate that opportunity to be a part of it. Mr. Cho, is

1177
02:03:36,049 --> 02:03:36,049
there any discussion? Yeah, just a few comments. So 100, 105 years ago, my grandfather

1178
02:03:43,449 --> 02:03:43,449
purchased one of the first houses on second street down there and helped his family and

1179
02:03:50,382 --> 02:03:50,382
lots of other families help build saint francis church. My great my grandfather ended up

1180
02:03:54,882 --> 02:03:54,882
teaching at jefferson. More years later, isabel and I ended up teaching when it was aj

1181
02:04:00,849 --> 02:04:00,849
moore. So it's a very special part of waco for our family. But I do want to say a big

1182
02:04:08,649 --> 02:04:08,649
thank you to the city of waco, not just for recognizing the history of that area, but also

1183
02:04:14,382 --> 02:04:14,382
honoring those communities that were displaced. I'm sure there's going to be plenty of

1184
02:04:18,949 --> 02:04:18,949
time for more thank yous down the road, but I know how hard our team worked, and I I'm sure

1185
02:04:25,082 --> 02:04:25,082
it was equally as much on y'all's end. It's just a very exciting time to see what's

1186
02:04:32,016 --> 02:04:32,016
coming. I've been telling my kids, as we drive around that area, that it's not going to

1187
02:04:36,816 --> 02:04:36,816
look the same in ten years, and that's that's a very exciting for us. All in favor, please

1188
02:04:45,516 --> 02:04:45,516
say hi. I, I, mr. President, please note my abstention from voting on this item, sir. Let

1189
02:04:55,916 --> 02:04:55,916
the minutes reflect that the motion passed unanimously, with mr. Guillory abstaining. Now,

1190
02:05:04,816 --> 02:05:04,816
this special called school board meeting is now adjourned at 639. And accordingly, the

1191
02:05:12,916 --> 02:05:12,916
city council will recess at our business session at 640. And what do you have for. We will

1192
02:05:27,193 --> 02:05:27,193
now reconvene the business session meeting at 651. The next item on the business

1193
02:05:36,493 --> 02:05:36,493
session is to consider a couple of proclamations, and we will talk about fire prevention week.

1194
02:05:42,393 --> 02:05:42,393
and we have a couple of law school issues here. So I'm going to meet. We'll meet down

1195
02:05:48,160 --> 02:05:48,160
at the podium I will meet with the fire prevention. Is that chief bergerson. There you are.

1196
02:05:53,293 --> 02:05:53,293
alright. Great. I had my bag for today. Chief. Great, great. This is an honor for me to have

1197
02:06:14,393 --> 02:06:14,393
to stand here with these public safety officers. People who are protecting us as we as we go

1198
02:06:20,093 --> 02:06:20,093
through life here in waco. I appreciate you guys being here tonight to celebrate fire

1199
02:06:24,160 --> 02:06:24,160
prevention week. You know, public safety is number one. And everybody knows that I have

1200
02:06:29,327 --> 02:06:29,327
the necessary and the and the the necessary things that need to be the possible and the

1201
02:06:35,360 --> 02:06:39,360
impossible necessary as public safety. We got to have public safety every, every day of the week, every minute of the day. And you guys come through with that, I appreciate it. The waco

1202
02:06:44,760 --> 02:06:44,760
fire department is to me the best in the country. We have an iso one rating, which is the

1203
02:06:50,360 --> 02:06:50,360
highest rating you can get. Our response times are fantastic. We're well equipped to new fire

1204
02:06:55,060 --> 02:06:55,060
stations that we have in waco, and one on richey road, one coming in on lasalle. Just a

1205
02:07:01,193 --> 02:07:01,193
great, great fire department. I'm so super proud of you. So as we celebrate the fire

1206
02:07:06,293 --> 02:07:06,293
prevention week, I will be reading this present or this proclamation. I, jim holmes, by

1207
02:07:14,093 --> 02:07:14,093
virtue of the authority vested in me as mayor of the city of waco, texas, do hereby proclaim

1208
02:07:20,193 --> 02:07:20,193
october 5th through 11th, 2025 as fire prevention week in the city of waco. So to. And I urge

1209
02:07:31,127 --> 02:07:31,127
all citizens to join the city council, city staff and me, along with waco fire department

1210
02:07:37,160 --> 02:07:37,160
and observing fire prevention week. Fire remains a serious safety concern and lithium

1211
02:07:43,327 --> 02:07:43,327
batteries and household devices pose added fire risks. Common household electronics are

1212
02:07:49,393 --> 02:07:49,393
powered by lithium ion batteries, which, if misused, damaged or improperly charged,

1213
02:07:54,560 --> 02:07:54,560
can overheat, start a fire, or explode. The national fire protection association reports

1214
02:08:00,460 --> 02:08:00,460
an increase in battery related fires, highlighting the need for public awareness and safety

1215
02:08:05,260 --> 02:08:05,260
education. The 2025 fire prevention week theme charge into fire safety lithium ion

1216
02:08:12,227 --> 02:08:12,227
batteries in your home emphasizes safe battery use through proper charging and

1217
02:08:17,027 --> 02:08:17,027
responsible recycling. The city of waco and the waco fire department are dedicated to

1218
02:08:21,260 --> 02:08:25,160
protecting the safety and well-being of residents and visitors alike, and are committed to reducing fire risks through prevention efforts. Public safety,

1219
02:08:29,527 --> 02:08:29,527
education and community outreach, and this proclamation is in testimony whereof witness

1220
02:08:34,327 --> 02:08:34,327
my hand in the seal of the city of waco, the seventh day of october, signed by all the city

1221
02:08:41,593 --> 02:08:41,593
council members, and I will present it to you now. Thank you, chief. Thank you. I'd like

1222
02:08:52,227 --> 02:08:52,227
to say a few words, chief, real quickly. Thank you, mayor, mayor and council, thank you

1223
02:09:02,227 --> 02:09:05,693
for proclaiming this year's fire prevention week. While this week brings special attention, every day must be fire prevention day in our homes, schools, and workplaces,

1224
02:09:11,393 --> 02:09:11,393
I want to recognize the dedication of our firefighters and especially the members of

1225
02:09:16,293 --> 02:09:16,293
our fire marshal's office, whom I've asked to join me this evening. They work tirelessly

1226
02:09:21,960 --> 02:09:21,960
behind the scenes, often going unnoticed to keep our community safe through education,

1227
02:09:28,193 --> 02:09:28,193
inspections and prevention efforts. Because of these combined efforts and the

1228
02:09:33,360 --> 02:09:33,360
vigilance of our citizens, it is now been 962 days since waco has experienced a fire death.

1229
02:09:42,893 --> 02:09:42,893
that's not by chance. That's a community achievement. For a city of our size over two and a

1230
02:09:49,827 --> 02:09:49,827
half years. Quite honestly, it's almost unheard of. Your support empowers our

1231
02:09:55,460 --> 02:09:55,460
firefighters and our fire marshals to do more than just respond. We prevent. So thank

1232
02:10:01,227 --> 02:10:01,227
you for your support in helping us keep waco a safe place. Thanks it. If we could have tom

1233
02:10:22,360 --> 02:10:22,360
and beth if you'd come up. The mayor has allowed me to present this proclamation to two of my

1234
02:10:29,627 --> 02:10:29,627
former professors, current colleagues and good friends, beth miller and tom featherston.

1235
02:10:34,293 --> 02:10:34,293
I, jim holmes, by virtue of the authority vested in me as mayor of the city of waco, texas, do

1236
02:10:40,260 --> 02:10:40,260
hereby proclaim october 7th, 2025, as elizabeth miller and tom featherston day in the city

1237
02:10:46,493 --> 02:10:46,493
of waco. We urge all citizens to join the city council, city staff, and me in honoring the

1238
02:10:56,993 --> 02:11:00,627
outstanding contributions of professors elizabeth miller and thomas m featherston, jr to baylor university, the legal profession, the city of waco, and the state of texas.

1239
02:11:04,393 --> 02:11:04,393
professor miller is the m, stephen and alice, a beard chair in business and

1240
02:11:08,727 --> 02:11:12,260
transactional law at baylor law school. She received her bachelor's degree from baylor university and her law degree from baylor law school. She is widely recognized as one of the

1241
02:11:17,293 --> 02:11:20,227
nation's foremost legal experts on business organizations, particularly in the areas of texas, business entities, and llcs. Her work has influenced both both the academic study

1242
02:11:25,727 --> 02:11:25,727
and the practice of business law across the united states. Her influential work in texas

1243
02:11:31,560 --> 02:11:35,060
business law includes coauthoring comprehensive three volume treatise on business organizations. At baylor law school, she developed the business law boot camp and the

1244
02:11:39,593 --> 02:11:39,593
national transaction law competition the closer, and she assisted in the development and

1245
02:11:44,460 --> 02:11:48,127
management of the entrepreneurship clinic, which served small business owners, small business owners here in central texas. Professor miller has been recognized repeatedly

1246
02:11:52,693 --> 02:11:52,693
for excellence in teaching, scholarship, and service. She is a life fellow of both the

1247
02:11:57,227 --> 02:11:57,227
american bar foundation and the texas bar foundation, and as a member of the american law

1248
02:12:01,393 --> 02:12:05,260
institute. She was named outstanding professor by baylor university in 2006, and received multiple awards from the american bar association for her dedication to advancing

1249
02:12:09,193 --> 02:12:09,193
business law and mentoring future generation of lawyers. Professor featherston received

1250
02:12:15,227 --> 02:12:19,227
his bachelor's degree from baylor university and law degree from baylor law school. He joined the baylor law faculty in 1982. I think I was about three years old at the

1251
02:12:24,427 --> 02:12:24,427
time. After his time in private practice, and quickly established himself as a

1252
02:12:28,460 --> 02:12:28,460
leading scholar. He currently holds the mills cox chair of law. Throughout his

1253
02:12:33,327 --> 02:12:37,193
distinguished career, professor featherston has been recognized as one of texas's foremost experts in estate planning, trust, and marital property. His contributions to texas law

1254
02:12:41,560 --> 02:12:45,327
include chairing the state bar committee that revised the state's guardianship statutes in the 1980s, and later leading the committee in the 1990s that overhauled the claims

1255
02:12:50,093 --> 02:12:50,093
procedures in the texas probate code. He has authored numerous articles presented at hundreds

1256
02:12:54,493 --> 02:12:54,493
of continuing legal education programs, and served as a mentor to generations of baylor

1257
02:12:59,027 --> 02:12:59,027
lawyers. He has received awards from the texas state bar of texas and the texas bar

1258
02:13:03,593 --> 02:13:03,593
foundation for his dedication to legal education, the profession, and our community.

1259
02:13:08,093 --> 02:13:12,027
in addition to his scholarship, professor featherston has been a tireless servant to our community. He has been the driving force behind the baylor law school estate planning

1260
02:13:16,593 --> 02:13:20,527
clinic, supervising law students in the drafting of nearly 600 wills for veterans and first responders in central texas. Through their commitment to scholarship, devotion to

1261
02:13:25,260 --> 02:13:25,260
students, and leadership in the profession and in our community. Professors, professors

1262
02:13:29,493 --> 02:13:32,727
featherston and miller have enhanced baylor law school's reputation for excellence and contributed significantly to strengthening our community. In testimony whereof, witness my

1263
02:13:37,393 --> 02:13:37,393
hand in the seal of the city of the city of waco, the seventh day of october. Year of our

1264
02:13:43,927 --> 02:13:43,927
lord 2025. Thank you so much. Thank. You. Thanks. Thanks. Thanks a lot. Thanks. So. Okay.

1265
02:14:23,360 --> 02:14:23,360
all right. Here we go. We're back. We're back up here. The next item on the agenda tonight

1266
02:14:32,993 --> 02:14:32,993
is the consent agenda. Consent agenda includes resolutions g one through g 31. Is there a

1267
02:14:39,993 --> 02:14:39,993
motion on the consent agenda? Mayor, I'll move for approval on the consent agenda. Second,

1268
02:14:48,193 --> 02:14:48,193
I hear a motion and a second. Any discussion on the consent agenda? Please pull the council.

1269
02:14:55,660 --> 02:14:55,660
lozano. Yes. Yes. Yes. Ewing. Yes. Chase. Yes. Holmes I that motion passes. The next item is

1270
02:15:04,627 --> 02:15:04,627
public hearing. H one director clint peters. Honorable mayor. Members of the council. This is

1271
02:15:14,327 --> 02:15:14,327
a public hearing to consider an ordinance abandoning a ten foot wide electric line easement on

1272
02:15:19,127 --> 02:15:19,127
property located between south 23rd street and south 25th street and known as 2500 mary

1273
02:15:24,960 --> 02:15:24,960
avenue, by a vote of eight zero. Planning commission recommended approval. The abandonment

1274
02:15:30,193 --> 02:15:30,193
request, based on the following findings and conditions. The findings are as as recommended

1275
02:15:34,560 --> 02:15:34,560
to be modified. The abandonment of the electric utility easement will not negatively

1276
02:15:39,527 --> 02:15:39,527
impact utility access for surrounding properties, and there will be no adverse impact

1277
02:15:44,560 --> 02:15:44,560
to surrounding street systems or other found easements. We do have two updated conditions

1278
02:15:51,527 --> 02:15:51,527
prior to city council final action of the easement abandonment. Provide a copy of

1279
02:15:56,327 --> 02:15:56,327
the recorded easement and right of way between waco warriors sports foundation and encore

1280
02:16:01,293 --> 02:16:01,293
electric delivery company, llc and easement shall be retained and recorded for any utilities

1281
02:16:08,393 --> 02:16:08,393
discovered during development of the abandonment area, or the utilities may be relocated at

1282
02:16:13,293 --> 02:16:13,293
the developer's expense as coordinated by the appropriate utility provider. Thank you.

1283
02:16:19,860 --> 02:16:19,860
clint, is there any questions for staff or director peters there being no questions from

1284
02:16:27,260 --> 02:16:27,260
council, I will now open up public hearing for comments. Is anyone present you'd like to

1285
02:16:32,327 --> 02:16:32,327
speak regarding this item? Seeing no one, we will close the public hearing and I'll

1286
02:16:37,760 --> 02:16:37,760
entertain a motion. I motion to approve. Second, we have a motion and a second. Any

1287
02:16:43,760 --> 02:16:43,760
discussion? No discussion. So, city secretary hicks, will you please pull the council? Lozano.

1288
02:16:50,460 --> 02:16:50,460
yes. Board of rude. Yes. Fairfield. Yes. Ewing. Yes. Chase. Yes. Holmes. I that

1289
02:16:56,360 --> 02:16:56,360
motion passes. The next item is public hearing. H two. Director peters. Honorable mayor.

1290
02:17:03,127 --> 02:17:07,060
members of the council. This is a continuance of a public hearing to consider an ordinance changing the land use designation from medium density residential office, flex to

1291
02:17:11,627 --> 02:17:11,627
office industrial flex, and to rezone from r1, b and c3 to c2 on property known as 2424 16

1292
02:17:21,427 --> 02:17:21,427
robinson drive. The applicant has submitted a revised request and those are at your place.

1293
02:17:28,527 --> 02:17:28,527
and if we click it one more, it's up on the screen to the revised request does reduce the

1294
02:17:37,327 --> 02:17:37,327
amount of the change on the r1 b portion to just 25ft of that 100ft of r1. B zoning staff

1295
02:17:48,127 --> 02:17:48,127
does recommend approval of the revised request, based on the findings from planning

1296
02:17:54,693 --> 02:17:54,693
commission on the original request. Is that the entire presentation? We talked a

1297
02:18:01,093 --> 02:18:01,093
little bit about it at the work session this afternoon. Are there any questions for staff?

1298
02:18:08,227 --> 02:18:08,227
I'll now open a public hearing for comments. And I have two cards. The first card is the

1299
02:18:14,293 --> 02:18:14,293
applicant. So you'll come first mary villarreal. Please state your name and address. For the

1300
02:18:28,293 --> 02:18:28,293
record, you have three minutes. Mary villarreal with the enfield group at 401 study with

1301
02:18:33,993 --> 02:18:33,993
street, houston, texas, 77 007. Good evening mayor and members of city council. My name is

1302
02:18:41,093 --> 02:18:44,993
mentioned as mary villarreal with the enfield group on behalf of robinson waco investments llc. We would like to thank staff for their continued efforts on this

1303
02:18:49,960 --> 02:18:49,960
request. We'd also like to thank the neighbor, mr. Daniel. I hope I don't tear up his name,

1304
02:18:57,160 --> 02:18:57,160
I believe, for taking the time to meet with us as well as all of you, for your kind

1305
02:19:03,227 --> 02:19:03,227
consideration of the rezoning application before you. Today, we acknowledge that there was a

1306
02:19:08,160 --> 02:19:08,160
need to go beyond the usual improvements to make this project an asset to the

1307
02:19:13,227 --> 02:19:13,227
community and address the concern of our neighbor. As mentioned, we met with mr.

1308
02:19:18,493 --> 02:19:18,493
pancholi and staff to determine what more could be done to ease our neighbors concerns. The

1309
02:19:23,093 --> 02:19:23,093
following site revisions have been made. Only 25ft of the east 100ft, measured from the

1310
02:19:28,560 --> 02:19:28,560
property line, will be included in the c-2, and the 75ft closest to the east property

1311
02:19:34,260 --> 02:19:34,260
line to our neighbor will remain residential to prevent any future commercial

1312
02:19:38,493 --> 02:19:38,493
structures being built closer to the neighboring property. To the east, we're the developer

1313
02:19:44,427 --> 02:19:44,427
will install a six foot metal fence will be installed along the east property line to

1314
02:19:49,093 --> 02:19:49,093
protect the neighbor and tract. The detention facility will be enclosed with a chainlink fence

1315
02:19:54,593 --> 02:19:54,593
to prevent anyone from going back in the rear, and it will be area will be well lit. We,

1316
02:20:00,327 --> 02:20:00,327
the developer, will also make sure to put up no loitering signs. So we posted the

1317
02:20:04,793 --> 02:20:04,793
property. We hope these constructive actions will ease our neighbors concerns and meet

1318
02:20:09,393 --> 02:20:09,393
with your approval to promote this application to the second reading. Thank you so much.

1319
02:20:15,127 --> 02:20:15,127
thank you. Thank you, miss villareal. Any questions for miss villarreal? Thank you. We

1320
02:20:22,460 --> 02:20:22,460
have another card here, mr. Daniel pantaleo. As you approach the podium, please

1321
02:20:30,060 --> 02:20:33,993
state your name and address for the record and you'll have three minutes to address. Council. It's daniel. My address is 2708 primrose drive, waco, texas, 76706. And I don't

1322
02:20:40,393 --> 02:20:40,393
know if I'm allowed to I made like, copies of like, a little presentation for y'all. I don't

1323
02:20:45,393 --> 02:20:45,393
know if I'm allowed to give y'all that or not. And then real quick, just. Okay. One

1324
02:20:56,860 --> 02:20:56,860
second, one second, one second. So. It's like two separate other forms. So the first form

1325
02:21:34,060 --> 02:21:34,060
you'll be receiving is just something just I kind of typed up just kind of old school like

1326
02:21:39,393 --> 02:21:39,393
like like I learned from high school. Basically. I'll go over there. I guess, once you

1327
02:21:45,960 --> 02:21:45,960
receive those forms. Just go ahead of. All right. Okay. So there's three parts to it. Yeah.

1328
02:22:13,993 --> 02:22:13,993
yes yes yes, sir. So first one is just just just kind of like what I'll be going over with

1329
02:22:20,360 --> 02:22:20,360
you. My concerns of for that property. The second is so yesterday I went over to some

1330
02:22:28,193 --> 02:22:32,160
of my neighbors. I know you guys sent out a bunch of letters two months ago in reference to who would oppose this. And you guys got just just me, of course. And I went

1331
02:22:38,060 --> 02:22:38,060
out and got seven signatures in an hour in my neighborhood yesterday, just knocking door

1332
02:22:42,693 --> 02:22:42,693
to door about. Basically, those are signatures and their addresses of just citizens that

1333
02:22:47,127 --> 02:22:47,127
are concerned about that, that basically that me being a gas station, they, they, they don't

1334
02:22:53,493 --> 02:22:53,493
believe that it just needs to stay, that they don't need to encroach any further into our,

1335
02:22:57,627 --> 02:23:00,360
in our neighborhood. And they're concerned. They're, they've, they've, they've voiced their concerns with me about just, just problems that they're having. So start with

1336
02:23:07,293 --> 02:23:11,293
like there's traffic concerns at the intersections. Robinson drive experiences heavy traffic, heavy traffic, in addition to commercial addition of a commercial convenience store,

1337
02:23:16,293 --> 02:23:16,293
would greatly increase congestion. Delivery trucks and customers vehicles and late

1338
02:23:22,660 --> 02:23:26,160
night traffic would create safety hazards for drivers, pedestrians and children in that neighborhood. Like over the years, I've seen like multiple accidents at

1339
02:23:31,460 --> 02:23:31,460
intersection. Being a gas station, I don't I don't think it's going to help it at at all.

1340
02:23:37,160 --> 02:23:37,160
basically impact on my property value. Personally, I think what I've looked online, it's going

1341
02:23:42,427 --> 02:23:42,427
to decrease my property value about 10 to 20%, with that gas station being closest to me,

1342
02:23:47,193 --> 02:23:47,193
with the residents behind me, I couldn't find an exact number, but it's going to definitely

1343
02:23:52,593 --> 02:23:52,593
decrease their property value. It's not it's not. Nothing benefits. Having a gas station

1344
02:23:58,127 --> 02:23:58,127
just right by your neighborhood. Like the next thing is my neighborhood safety concerns.

1345
02:24:04,227 --> 02:24:04,227
being in law enforcement. I've I've I know it sounds crazy, but I normally watch watch gas

1346
02:24:10,227 --> 02:24:10,227
stations. There's so much drug activity soliciting homeless people and drug usage, alcohol,

1347
02:24:16,327 --> 02:24:16,327
alcohol use usage. And that just brings it that much closer. I mean, I see this stuff that

1348
02:24:21,360 --> 02:24:21,360
happens at the melody ranch and then the stripes across the street and just being another

1349
02:24:26,527 --> 02:24:26,527
gas station built across that intersection, it's just not going to do us any good or

1350
02:24:31,393 --> 02:24:35,393
whatever. It's just going to bring it that much closer to the neighborhood. And we have a lot of kids that ride like, I know y'all got. Y'all did a great job building a bike lane

1351
02:24:40,360 --> 02:24:40,360
there. We have a lot of people that ride their bikes, children that walk back to school,

1352
02:24:44,727 --> 02:24:48,160
whatever. There's a apartment complex about a mile down the road. So that's just just wouldn't be any good. And as far as, yeah, the safety concerns, there's a lot of

1353
02:24:52,360 --> 02:24:52,360
concerns. And I went over I know like we brought up the calls for service. And I think

1354
02:24:57,093 --> 02:24:57,093
clint told me we had a discussion over the phone and he brought it up. He told me

1355
02:25:01,227 --> 02:25:01,227
some numbers, but I actually have a friend through dispatch. And like over the last, the

1356
02:25:05,260 --> 02:25:05,260
stripes over the last starting 2022, had 123 calls for service for hundred and one, 22, 23, 83.

1357
02:25:11,360 --> 02:25:11,360
I've seen a decrease in 2024, 60 and in 2025, 63 so far. But we're going into the basically

1358
02:25:18,960 --> 02:25:18,960
the prime disturbance is for 911 going into the holiday season. And then at melody

1359
02:25:23,460 --> 02:25:23,460
ranch, separate calls for service in 2022 with 70, 20, 23, 39, 20, 2449 and 20 2537 so far

1360
02:25:34,093 --> 02:25:34,093
this year. And that's just in that area. So just there's a lot and I haven't she actually

1361
02:25:41,127 --> 02:25:41,127
added a lot of like traffic stops that cops make and fire ems for that area. And that

1362
02:25:46,260 --> 02:25:50,060
adds about probably additionally probably about another hundred calls or so. So there's just a lot of criminal activity in that area and just having another gas station. I

1363
02:25:55,127 --> 02:25:55,127
know I can't tell them what they can build there, but I want to make it difficult.

1364
02:25:59,260 --> 02:25:59,260
right. And so I think they should stay exactly what it is. And, and they should just work

1365
02:26:04,160 --> 02:26:04,160
with what they have. And that way they don't encroach on my property, which directly

1366
02:26:08,227 --> 02:26:12,060
affects me and my neighbor. And that second, the third letter is from my neighbor. He's like, right, right next to me. And he, his, his son and his family wrote that letter to me. So

1367
02:26:17,327 --> 02:26:21,127
like, there's there's concern for this. I'm sorry. I guess I'm going over my time. But basically, I appreciate you a little extra time because I think we spent like five

1368
02:26:24,527 --> 02:26:24,527
minutes. Yeah. So anyways, that's those are my concerns. I appreciate you guys hearing me

1369
02:26:28,793 --> 02:26:28,793
out and everything. And like I said, I just hope I just hope that I don't want them to

1370
02:26:33,327 --> 02:26:37,193
encroach. Just I want them to work with what they have already, if that's possible. Are you the neighbor that lives directly behind? Yeah, yeah, yeah. And there's the way that

1371
02:26:41,193 --> 02:26:41,193
works. If that's so I'm trying. I'm not I'm not like when I'm looking at these plans or

1372
02:26:46,227 --> 02:26:49,860
whatever, I'm like literally on the side there's like two neighbors right next to his property. And and so like that fence line is going to it's going to affect us. And so like,

1373
02:26:57,227 --> 02:26:57,227
I know what happens at these gas station at night, there's people doing drugs behind them

1374
02:27:01,427 --> 02:27:01,427
and stuff and like that. Just I just had a daughter. So like I'm super concerned or whatever.

1375
02:27:06,293 --> 02:27:06,293
and I've heard stories from yesterday speaking with when I was getting those signatures

1376
02:27:10,360 --> 02:27:10,360
about two years ago, the stripes got robbed, the bad guys ran over across the street

1377
02:27:15,193 --> 02:27:15,193
and like, went through my I guess they I'm pretty sure they went through my back yard

1378
02:27:19,227 --> 02:27:19,227
because they said they got managed to make it into her backyard. They wouldn't.

1379
02:27:23,593 --> 02:27:27,493
there's no way they would have made it into her backyard without going through mine. And so she was like worried about it. And so it's just like, yeah, it's just those those are

1380
02:27:31,560 --> 02:27:35,393
problems. And then there's like, there's a gas station right across the street already. And so like I said, I don't think like I said, I think they just should just do what they, what

1381
02:27:41,060 --> 02:27:44,393
they have. Okay. Thank you. Any other questions? Thank you miss penalties. Now I will call back up for rebuttal. If you would like. Miss villarreal. Thank you mayor, I just I did want to

1382
02:27:57,360 --> 02:27:57,360
mention a little bit more about the traffic on the robinson side. They are adding and

1383
02:28:03,027 --> 02:28:03,027
getting there. Having approved through txdot deceleration lane. Hopefully that will help a

1384
02:28:08,160 --> 02:28:08,160
little bit on that side. I just wanted to reiterate that the the back area of the store is

1385
02:28:14,193 --> 02:28:14,193
going to be fenced. It will be well lit, there will be no loitering signs. The developer,

1386
02:28:20,227 --> 02:28:20,227
when we met with the neighbor, you know, he did mention and told them that they would be

1387
02:28:26,127 --> 02:28:26,127
proactive in, you know, keeping an eye on on the property to make sure that there wasn't

1388
02:28:32,193 --> 02:28:32,193
anyone in the area that you know, was just, you know, could cause harm. So thank you so

1389
02:28:38,260 --> 02:28:38,260
much for your consideration. Thank you. Miss. Any questions for miss? Go ahead. The

1390
02:28:44,027 --> 02:28:44,027
entrance points are where there's one on the robinson drive side and then there's one

1391
02:28:50,127 --> 02:28:50,127
on the primary side. The one on the robinson side is the one that's going to have the

1392
02:28:55,260 --> 02:28:55,260
deceleration lane. That's right. And melody ranch is here to stay right there. It's on the

1393
02:29:06,293 --> 02:29:06,293
side that. Side of. May or no. Okay. Thank you. Miss. Any other any other questions or

1394
02:29:23,060 --> 02:29:23,060
comments I will entertain. Oh see first of all let me ask is there anyone else who'd like to

1395
02:29:29,293 --> 02:29:29,293
speak on this item? We have one more speaker here. We've got two couple. I've got a couple

1396
02:29:35,193 --> 02:29:35,193
more speakers. As you approach the podium, please state your name and address. For the

1397
02:29:41,593 --> 02:29:41,593
record, you'll have three minutes to address council. Good afternoon. Council and

1398
02:29:46,227 --> 02:29:46,227
mayor. My name is kaylee alexander. I am the secretary for the alta vista neighborhood

1399
02:29:52,593 --> 02:29:52,593
association, which is the area in which this parcel is located. Up until last night, myself as

1400
02:30:00,393 --> 02:30:00,393
a resident and the alta vista neighborhood association board were not informed of the

1401
02:30:06,293 --> 02:30:06,293
rezoning of this parcel. Historically, the neighborhood association receives

1402
02:30:12,160 --> 02:30:12,160
correspondence from the city of waco regarding the rezoning of a parcel, and for whatever

1403
02:30:17,293 --> 02:30:17,293
reason, I contacted board members last night and nobody has received any correspondence

1404
02:30:23,027 --> 02:30:23,027
regarding this. And historically, in my experience with being active in the board,

1405
02:30:31,260 --> 02:30:31,260
typically developers come to the board members and present their plans for rezoning any

1406
02:30:37,093 --> 02:30:37,093
building. And as the board, we can conduct our own analysis and what would benefit our

1407
02:30:44,560 --> 02:30:44,560
community and the residents that reside within our community. We have not had the

1408
02:30:49,827 --> 02:30:49,827
opportunity to engage with the developers or the investment group regarding this parcel,

1409
02:30:54,493 --> 02:30:54,493
which is an extreme concern to all of the board members. I am here representing both myself

1410
02:31:00,093 --> 02:31:00,093
as a resident. I am at 2431 south 27th street, which is right around the corner from

1411
02:31:07,527 --> 02:31:07,527
this parcel. And as a resident, I was not informed until my neighbor came knocking on my

1412
02:31:13,993 --> 02:31:13,993
door last night. I thought he was a solicitor. Turns out he's actually doing something great

1413
02:31:19,593 --> 02:31:19,593
for the neighborhood, which I appreciate. So as a board member with alta vista, we

1414
02:31:25,627 --> 02:31:25,627
request more time and we request more communication in collaboration with the city of

1415
02:31:32,060 --> 02:31:32,060
waco and the developer who is planning to develop this property. Thank you, thank you.

1416
02:31:39,193 --> 02:31:39,193
we have any other speakers? We have one more. It looks like as you approach the podium, please

1417
02:31:46,060 --> 02:31:46,060
state your name and address for the record and you will have three minutes to address

1418
02:31:50,360 --> 02:31:50,360
council. My name is celia sanchez and I have a property at 2425 south 27th. I just

1419
02:32:00,693 --> 02:32:00,693
wanted to let you all know that I also was not informed and did not know about any of this

1420
02:32:08,027 --> 02:32:08,027
until last night, when he came door to door, not soliciting. So we were we we as a whole

1421
02:32:19,693 --> 02:32:19,693
neighborhood have have had no knowledge of this going on the rezoning, so we didn't have a

1422
02:32:26,527 --> 02:32:26,527
chance to protest it. I don't know what's going on as far as mailing or if it's a problem

1423
02:32:33,293 --> 02:32:33,293
with the postal service or the city that that that happened. Maybe there needs to be signing

1424
02:32:43,327 --> 02:32:43,327
of maybe signatures of, you know, showing that we've received the letters going

1425
02:32:51,860 --> 02:32:51,860
forward. But my my concern is also with having that backing up to my property and my just

1426
02:33:03,893 --> 02:33:03,893
the safety issues with the homeless and the kind of traffic that that brings. Like

1427
02:33:12,193 --> 02:33:12,193
daniel mentioned, we did have a an issue a couple of years ago where a the stripes was robbed

1428
02:33:20,560 --> 02:33:20,560
and the perpetrator ended up in our backyard going through our backyards. And it's just a big

1429
02:33:27,993 --> 02:33:27,993
safety concern. I don't think the chain link fence is going to be good enough, as far as

1430
02:33:34,593 --> 02:33:34,593
I'm concerned, to make us feel safe and to make me feel like my children are going to be

1431
02:33:41,093 --> 02:33:41,093
safe. You know, with that backing up to our our backyards. So I guess that's all I wanted

1432
02:33:48,427 --> 02:33:48,427
to say. Thank you. Miss, miss. Miss sanchez, any questions of miss sanchez? Clint, I'm going

1433
02:33:56,227 --> 02:33:56,227
to ask you, everybody. This was everybody was notified and in accordance, give us our

1434
02:34:02,260 --> 02:34:02,260
procedure for that again, just so sure. So we follow state law on notification. We send out

1435
02:34:10,093 --> 02:34:10,093
notices to property owners within 200ft of the request so that that dotted line on the

1436
02:34:16,127 --> 02:34:16,127
map is our is what we noticed it. And then we also send out notices to any. The state law

1437
02:34:25,560 --> 02:34:25,560
requires us to send it to the property owners. We also if they're if their lease tenants

1438
02:34:31,093 --> 02:34:31,093
we send it to the actual physical addresses too. So we mailed out to 22 notices on

1439
02:34:35,993 --> 02:34:35,993
this one. And then also we work with our neighborhood engagement department to get

1440
02:34:42,293 --> 02:34:42,293
the notices out to the neighborhood associations. I believe they send those out via

1441
02:34:48,827 --> 02:34:48,827
email, but we'll definitely follow up with with them and alta vista to make sure that

1442
02:34:54,227 --> 02:34:54,227
they're they're getting those notices along those lines. Can I just ask? I know the first

1443
02:34:59,293 --> 02:34:59,293
speaker, the neighbor presented to us at least a list of names of neighbors in opposition. I

1444
02:35:07,293 --> 02:35:07,293
assume that that wasn't filed with the city or wouldn't necessarily hadn't met the

1445
02:35:14,160 --> 02:35:14,160
deadline for a petition along those lines, is that did you look at that, or did you see

1446
02:35:20,127 --> 02:35:20,127
that? We have not seen it yet. It definitely is something that can be submitted for

1447
02:35:26,060 --> 02:35:26,060
consideration at the public hearing, because that could if 20% of the surrounding owners

1448
02:35:33,593 --> 02:35:33,593
opposed. In a petition that was filed with the city, then that could bind the vote of the

1449
02:35:39,293 --> 02:35:39,293
council needing a supermajority in this case, is that correct? That's correct. Yes. Council

1450
02:35:44,327 --> 02:35:44,327
member. Council member, if I may, that would be within the notification distance. And it

1451
02:35:50,193 --> 02:35:50,193
doesn't appear that these are in that notification circle. Okay. These are all neighbors

1452
02:35:58,293 --> 02:35:58,293
within 200ft. Yes, sir. That circle okay. And then I guess the the. The conditions that we

1453
02:36:14,327 --> 02:36:14,327
worked out were originally were wanting to go see to the entire deal that the condition worked

1454
02:36:20,660 --> 02:36:20,660
out was make the back 25 foot far one be. Yeah. So that's our recommendation that the that

1455
02:36:27,193 --> 02:36:27,193
the zoning change would just be for 25ft of the r1b area, which would leave a 75 foot buffer

1456
02:36:39,793 --> 02:36:39,793
between the adjacent property. Okay. Any other go ahead. Sorry, clint. And this may be a

1457
02:36:47,127 --> 02:36:47,127
question for miss villareal being as she mentioned it, you said txdot was you were working

1458
02:36:52,327 --> 02:36:52,327
with txdot about a deceleration lane at the on robinson drive. Yes, ma'am. Or the at. I'm

1459
02:37:03,293 --> 02:37:03,293
trying to imagine where and and where are you in that process because I mean, it's not like.

1460
02:37:08,427 --> 02:37:08,427
text that moves quickly. She says behind her hands. We're still we're currently in the

1461
02:37:16,260 --> 02:37:16,260
permitting phase for that. And so drawings have to be submitted to txdot. And so

1462
02:37:22,393 --> 02:37:22,393
that's they're still in review of that. Is there one on the other side of the street? I

1463
02:37:28,660 --> 02:37:28,660
don't think not to my knowledge, probably not. And I go that way every day because that's where

1464
02:37:36,427 --> 02:37:36,427
I come back from university. So yeah, it'll be on the robinson side just south of the of the

1465
02:37:44,960 --> 02:37:44,960
southwest corner there it'll be it'll be about 75ft. Yes, ma'am. Any other questions for

1466
02:37:54,560 --> 02:37:54,560
director peters or mr. Okay. At this point, I will entertain a motion. No seeing. No speakers

1467
02:38:04,593 --> 02:38:08,593
will close the public hearing. Almost forgot. Close that public hearing and I will entertain a motion. Mayor, for clarification, are we motioning to approve the continuance? Is

1468
02:38:15,993 --> 02:38:15,993
that what's on the table here? You can move however you want. The spirit. Sorry. Mayor, I

1469
02:38:27,693 --> 02:38:27,693
move to. Oppose the recommendation I. Second, we have a motion and a second to

1470
02:38:39,027 --> 02:38:39,027
to vote no on the on the on this. On this. Yeah. The land use designation and the rezone.

1471
02:38:51,093 --> 02:38:51,093
is there any further discussion? I think it just having the neighborhood association be a

1472
02:39:00,527 --> 02:39:00,527
part of it, I think would be a big help in future instances coming forward. As a developer,

1473
02:39:08,193 --> 02:39:08,193
engaging with them. If you're doing a zoning change, I think goes a long way, especially if

1474
02:39:13,260 --> 02:39:13,260
they're coming forward to council, make a formal recommendation one way or the

1475
02:39:18,293 --> 02:39:18,293
other. And for clarification, there is a process about reapplication with a no vote,

1476
02:39:27,093 --> 02:39:27,093
is there not? I think, one year a year. Yes, ma'am. There's a so for a denial, a similar

1477
02:39:41,527 --> 02:39:41,527
request would have to wait one year to reapply. A different request could come back before

1478
02:39:48,293 --> 02:39:48,293
that. But if they're requesting commercial zoning that would that would require a year

1479
02:39:53,327 --> 02:39:53,327
period before they could. When you say a different request, what would that a different

1480
02:39:57,360 --> 02:39:57,360
zoning district. Yeah. Which is possible. Yeah okay. Any further discussion? I mean for

1481
02:40:04,027 --> 02:40:04,027
me on these, you know, that is kind of a commercial area. But I do think we build in public

1482
02:40:10,593 --> 02:40:10,593
comment to these requests for a reason. And I think if the neighbors feel that this is

1483
02:40:15,193 --> 02:40:15,193
inappropriate at this time, then I feel comfortable going with the motion. It feels like

1484
02:40:25,360 --> 02:40:25,360
we didn't follow protocol. And and I think neighborhood association was reached out to

1485
02:40:30,427 --> 02:40:30,427
and we had a we had a staff make recommendations. But that said let's take it to a vote.

1486
02:40:39,960 --> 02:40:39,960
city secretary hicks, will you please pull the council? Lozano. Yes. Border road. Yes.

1487
02:40:48,627 --> 02:40:48,627
fairfield. Yes. Ewing. Yes. Chase. Yes. Holmes. Yes. That motion to deny the zoning and

1488
02:40:57,627 --> 02:40:57,627
land use designation passes the next item on the agenda is in section one individual

1489
02:41:06,827 --> 02:41:06,827
consideration. And the first item to consider is ordinance I. One city attorney, hamilton

1490
02:41:12,527 --> 02:41:12,527
karam, will you please introduce the first ordinance? Yes, sir. An ordinance amending

1491
02:41:18,560 --> 02:41:18,560
sections 13, four, three through 13, dash 405 and 13 dash 418 of division two, open

1492
02:41:24,227 --> 02:41:24,227
air vending of article nine prohibited activities and indoor and outdoor vending of

1493
02:41:30,527 --> 02:41:30,527
chapter 13 licenses, permits and business regulations of the code of the city. Code to

1494
02:41:37,827 --> 02:41:37,827
specify additional prohibitions and providing for a penalty. This ordinance comes to council

1495
02:41:42,427 --> 02:41:42,427
on a first reading. I'll entertain a motion on this ordinance. Move approval.

1496
02:41:52,027 --> 02:41:52,027
second, we have a motion and a second. Any discussion? City secretary hicks, will you

1497
02:41:56,560 --> 02:41:56,560
please pull the council? Lozano. Yes. Yes. Fairfield. Yes. Yes. Chase. Yes. Holmes. That motion

1498
02:42:05,460 --> 02:42:05,460
passes. The next item to consider. Ordinance. I two city attorney hamilton karam. An

1499
02:42:13,327 --> 02:42:13,327
ordinance amending sections 1347, 1369 72 through 1378, 1391, 1392, 1395 and 13 dash

1500
02:42:24,060 --> 02:42:24,060
119, and the title of division three of article two amusements of chapter 13 licenses, permits

1501
02:42:30,293 --> 02:42:30,293
and business regulations of the city code to prohibit amusement redemption machines and change

1502
02:42:36,827 --> 02:42:36,827
licensing requirements for nightclubs and indoor amusement facilities, and providing for a

1503
02:42:42,093 --> 02:42:42,093
penalty. This ordinance comes to council on first reading. I'll entertain a motion on

1504
02:42:48,793 --> 02:42:48,793
first reading. I'll move for approval. Second motion. We have a second. Any discussion?

1505
02:42:54,960 --> 02:42:54,960
I just want to say that I'm happy to be getting in line with the the larger,

1506
02:42:59,160 --> 02:42:59,160
overarching law on these matters for the state and also just acknowledging that, you

1507
02:43:05,060 --> 02:43:05,060
know, these things colloquially referred to as eight liners, are a net negative for the

1508
02:43:10,360 --> 02:43:10,360
communities that you find them in. And so I'm glad to be making it harder to operate

1509
02:43:15,560 --> 02:43:15,560
things that are actively making our constituents lives more difficult. As the district. As

1510
02:43:23,527 --> 02:43:23,527
the council member for district three, I realize my district has been at the epicenter of

1511
02:43:28,027 --> 02:43:28,027
some of this, but I agree and concur with my colleague from district four. That yeah, this

1512
02:43:36,993 --> 02:43:36,993
does this go into effect on jan one or jan one is when the. Yes, sir. Yes, mayor. Okay. That was

1513
02:43:45,327 --> 02:43:45,327
right. Any other discussion? City secretary hicks, will you please pull the council? Lozano.

1514
02:43:52,093 --> 02:43:52,093
yes. Border? Yes. Fairfield. Yes. Ewing. Yes. Chase. Yes. Holmes. That motion passes. The

1515
02:43:59,227 --> 02:43:59,227
next item to consider is ordinance I. Three city attorney hamilton, an ordinance

1516
02:44:04,360 --> 02:44:04,360
amending section 1876 a of the city of waco. City code of ordinances to increase the

1517
02:44:10,427 --> 02:44:10,427
number of fire lieutenant positions. Grade four from 47 to 48. Decrease the number of

1518
02:44:15,327 --> 02:44:15,327
fire equipment. Engineer positions. Grade two from 58 to 57 and increase the number of

1519
02:44:21,360 --> 02:44:21,360
firefighters. Grade one from 90 to 93. This ordinance was approved by a60 council vote on

1520
02:44:28,127 --> 02:44:28,127
first reading on september 16th, 2025. Do I hear a motion on second reading move for

1521
02:44:33,560 --> 02:44:33,560
approval on second reading? Second motion in a second. Any discussion? City secretary

1522
02:44:40,160 --> 02:44:40,160
hicks, will you please pull the council? Lozano. Yes. Water? Yes. Fairfield. Yes. Ewing. Yes.

1523
02:44:47,993 --> 02:44:47,993
chase. Yes. Holmes. That motion passes. The next item is ordinance I for city attorney,

1524
02:44:53,493 --> 02:44:53,493
hamilton county ordinance revising section 26, dash two, 31 and 20 622 39. Division six

1525
02:45:00,327 --> 02:45:00,327
reporting requirements of article six sanitary sewer and use regulations of chapter 26

1526
02:45:05,327 --> 02:45:05,327
utilities of the waco city code to clarify language related to the submission of required

1527
02:45:11,193 --> 02:45:11,193
reports for permitted industrial wastewater users and providing a savings clause and

1528
02:45:17,460 --> 02:45:17,460
providing for penalties. This ordinance was approved by six zero council vote on first

1529
02:45:22,427 --> 02:45:22,427
reading. Is there a motion on second reading for approval on second reading second, I hear a

1530
02:45:28,260 --> 02:45:28,260
motion and a second. Any further discussion? City secretary hicks, will you

1531
02:45:32,727 --> 02:45:32,727
please pull the council? Lozano. Yes. Fairfield. Yes. Ewing. Yes. Chase. Yes. Holmes. I the next

1532
02:45:41,160 --> 02:45:41,160
item that motion does pass. The next item to consider is ordinance I five city attorney

1533
02:45:47,893 --> 02:45:47,893
hamilton karen. An ordinance of the city of waco, texas, creating a planned unit

1534
02:45:52,593 --> 02:45:52,593
development, changing the zoning classification from o two and c three to a pud on

1535
02:45:58,027 --> 02:45:58,027
certain property containing approximately 2.14 acres of land situated in the thomas j.

1536
02:46:02,193 --> 02:46:02,193
chambers survey, city of waco, mclennan county, texas. According to the plat recorded

1537
02:46:07,327 --> 02:46:07,327
in instrument number (200) 902-9433 of the official records of mclennan county,

1538
02:46:15,093 --> 02:46:15,093
texas, known as 602 james avenue property id 353 77, approving the concept plan for

1539
02:46:21,393 --> 02:46:21,393
the pud and providing for penalties. This ordinance was approved by six zero council

1540
02:46:26,293 --> 02:46:26,293
vote on first reading on september 16th, 2025. I'll entertain a motion on this

1541
02:46:31,960 --> 02:46:31,960
second reading. Move. Approval, mayor, second motion and second. Any discussion. There being no

1542
02:46:40,993 --> 02:46:40,993
discussion, I'll close that. And city secretary hicks, would you please pull the council?

1543
02:46:45,960 --> 02:46:45,960
lozano. Yes. Border. Yes. Fairfield. Yes. Ewing. Yes. Chase. Yes. Holmes I that

1544
02:46:53,427 --> 02:46:53,427
motion passes. The next item we consider is ordinance I six city attorney. Hamilton. Karen.

1545
02:46:58,393 --> 02:46:58,393
an ordinance of the city of waco, texas, providing that the code of ordinances be amended

1546
02:47:03,393 --> 02:47:03,393
by revising section 20 8-2 47 in chapter 28 zoning of the code, providing that the zoning

1547
02:47:08,993 --> 02:47:08,993
map shall be changed so that certain property containing approximately 0.364 acres,

1548
02:47:14,127 --> 02:47:14,127
known as 1229 daughtry avenue, property ids 162187162114. Portion of 162113 shall be

1549
02:47:24,260 --> 02:47:24,260
changed from r-2 district classification become and be designated to r three. C

1550
02:47:29,760 --> 02:47:29,760
district classification and providing for penalties. This ordinance was approved by a six

1551
02:47:34,393 --> 02:47:34,393
year old council vote on first reading on september 16th, 2025. Do I hear a motion on the

1552
02:47:39,227 --> 02:47:39,227
second reading move? Approval on second reading. Second motion in a second. Any

1553
02:47:45,027 --> 02:47:45,027
discussion? There being no discussion, I will ask city secretary hicks to please pull

1554
02:47:50,227 --> 02:47:50,227
the council. Lozano. Yes. Yes. Fairfield. Ewing. Yes. Chase. Yes. Holmes I that motion

1555
02:47:59,260 --> 02:48:03,160
passes. The next item to consider is the hearing of visitors. We have a couple cards here tonight during the hearing of visitor section of the agenda. We provide an

1556
02:48:07,727 --> 02:48:11,393
opportunity for the public to present concerns or address issues that are not matters for consideration listed on the agenda. The council is unable to conduct a discussion, but

1557
02:48:15,927 --> 02:48:15,927
we'll listen. You know, we'll ask staff to look into concerns. We'll provide follow up. Please

1558
02:48:20,460 --> 02:48:24,460
provide registration information so that staff can contact you if necessary. If you have handouts, please let us know at the beginning of your presentation and staff

1559
02:48:28,760 --> 02:48:32,293
will distribute those to the council. If you're unable to approach the podium due to physical limitations, a microphone is available to be brought to you. When called to

1560
02:48:35,293 --> 02:48:35,293
the podium, please state your name and address. For the record, each speaker must limit

1561
02:48:39,427 --> 02:48:43,093
comments to three minutes. If you're speaking on behalf of a group of ten or more individuals present, please have those persons stand at the beginning of your comments and

1562
02:48:47,393 --> 02:48:51,060
you will be given ten minutes to address the council. Please note that if you stand in support of a person getting ten minutes to speak, you are forfeiting your right to speak

1563
02:48:55,293 --> 02:48:59,260
on that item. For any person addressing the council through the use of a translator, the speaking time will be doubled to accommodate the translation services. While public

1564
02:49:02,260 --> 02:49:02,260
discourse is very important to the council, we have to maintain order in the meeting

1565
02:49:06,293 --> 02:49:06,293
so that all persons may be heard and city business may be conducted. So directed by me,

1566
02:49:11,160 --> 02:49:15,093
the sergeant at arms shall remove from the council any person who, while addressing the city council or while attending the city council meeting, makes impertinent or

1567
02:49:18,993 --> 02:49:18,993
personal or slanderous remarks, becomes boisterous, or makes unauthorized remarks. When the

1568
02:49:26,260 --> 02:49:26,260
audience claps your hands, stomps, feet, whistles, yells, or makes similar demonstrations.

1569
02:49:31,593 --> 02:49:31,593
so with that, we'll call on a couple cards. Here we have joe phipps jr and joe phipps,

1570
02:49:36,827 --> 02:49:36,827
senior. I see joe junior. He wants to go first. Senior. We'll let we'll let senior go

1571
02:49:42,260 --> 02:49:42,260
first. Experience. Mr. Phipps, as you get to the podium, please state your name and

1572
02:49:51,227 --> 02:49:51,227
address for the record and we'll give you three minutes to address council. I'm joe phipps,

1573
02:49:56,027 --> 02:49:56,027
senior. I got a junior in the wings. He said for me to go first so he can clean it up.

1574
02:50:02,727 --> 02:50:02,727
after I finish. I own university rentals. I own quite a bit of property at baylor

1575
02:50:09,227 --> 02:50:09,227
university, own property from seventh street on bagby, eighth street, spade avenue, ninth

1576
02:50:17,827 --> 02:50:17,827
street, 10th street, 11th street and 12th street. And so I have quite a bit of land at

1577
02:50:25,427 --> 02:50:25,427
baylor. Probably the largest single property owner. We have experienced on the project.

1578
02:50:33,227 --> 02:50:33,227
that was on 11th, 10th in speight, a parking issue where that they did not provide

1579
02:50:43,260 --> 02:50:43,260
enough parking for visitors, or when they brought goods in the postman and picking up

1580
02:50:49,427 --> 02:50:49,427
different things, and they end up parking in my parking lot, which we have major issues with.

1581
02:50:58,027 --> 02:50:58,027
they then built the project over where the building is. They built it right on the

1582
02:51:05,693 --> 02:51:05,693
property line. You have four corners that you're going to get killed trying to move

1583
02:51:10,960 --> 02:51:10,960
around because you can't see they end up didn't provide enough parking. They end up

1584
02:51:17,060 --> 02:51:17,060
parking. Over in my tree house apartments, which is right across the street. And so we

1585
02:51:24,627 --> 02:51:24,627
wanted what we're after is to get sufficient parking allowed in the project. That's on james

1586
02:51:35,227 --> 02:51:35,227
street, fifth and james. And your concern is. When you provide your sufficient parking,

1587
02:51:46,560 --> 02:51:46,560
then you have to take into consideration that there could be more than one person living

1588
02:51:54,093 --> 02:51:54,093
in the apartment, which normally means more than one car. You're going to normally

1589
02:52:00,460 --> 02:52:00,460
find out that whenever baylor has parents day homecoming and the different events that come

1590
02:52:08,493 --> 02:52:08,493
to to baylor, then these people, you'll have girls there that will have dates coming to pick

1591
02:52:16,160 --> 02:52:16,160
them up. You'll have these people and they will not be able to get into the parking

1592
02:52:21,327 --> 02:52:21,327
garage because there's no parking place. They end up having to park somewhere on the

1593
02:52:26,927 --> 02:52:26,927
street. Bagby will be allocated with no parking on the street. Right now, fifth street is

1594
02:52:33,527 --> 02:52:33,527
allocated with no parking on the street. Right now, james street is a total mess. When

1595
02:52:40,660 --> 02:52:40,660
baylor's putting some something on it over at waco hall or whatever. You can't get up and

1596
02:52:48,093 --> 02:52:48,093
down james street. And basically the only parking on the street happens to be on my

1597
02:52:54,327 --> 02:52:54,327
side on seventh street, and the side that's over by the church. There's no parking. And so this

1598
02:53:02,227 --> 02:53:02,227
is going to there's no place for these people. The overflow to occur unless they park in my

1599
02:53:11,460 --> 02:53:11,460
parking place, my my place. And this is one of the things that we are objecting to. Thank you,

1600
02:53:19,160 --> 02:53:19,160
mr. Phipps. The second thing is their entrance. I'm afraid your time is up. You're cutting into

1601
02:53:24,227 --> 02:53:24,227
your son's time here. Pardon me? You're cutting into your son's time. You had three minutes and

1602
02:53:28,793 --> 02:53:28,793
we've gone about four, so we've got to wrap it up. Second thing is that basically it shows that

1603
02:53:35,493 --> 02:53:35,493
their entrance to the parking garage is going to probably be on bagby. And if you drive up

1604
02:53:45,093 --> 02:53:45,093
and down bagby anywhere between 8:00 and 10:00, you're taking your life in your own hands.

1605
02:53:53,393 --> 02:53:53,393
got it? Thank you, mr. Phipps, I appreciate it. And so this is our. We're not really objecting

1606
02:53:58,960 --> 02:53:58,960
to the project. It's just the parking issue. Yeah. Can staff follow up with the phipps? Yeah.

1607
02:54:09,093 --> 02:54:09,093
joe. Joe. I mean, mr. Phipps. Junior, please, as you approach the podium, state your name and

1608
02:54:15,560 --> 02:54:15,560
address. For the record, you'll have three minutes to address council. Joe phipps, junior. I

1609
02:54:20,393 --> 02:54:20,393
live 13 castle bluff court, waco, texas. I, I live probably for 30 plus years on the corner

1610
02:54:25,993 --> 02:54:25,993
of seventh and bagby. So I have a little experience on traffic in the area. It's we have

1611
02:54:31,327 --> 02:54:35,127
concerns. We have I do property management for university rentals. We basically have dealt with the parking issues at the view and the point, which are our apartment

1612
02:54:40,593 --> 02:54:40,593
complexes. They at least have parking on the sides of the street. This place won't. Fifth

1613
02:54:46,393 --> 02:54:46,393
street has no parking. I don't see how you can have barely any parking in front of a james.

1614
02:54:52,127 --> 02:54:52,127
because you have waco hall. You're going to have a church there. And what my father

1615
02:54:56,427 --> 02:54:56,427
didn't bring up, you have like a fedex, uber, all these people coming in, people coming in to

1616
02:55:01,060 --> 02:55:01,060
pay rent. So you have to reserve the other places. Didn't really even think about

1617
02:55:05,160 --> 02:55:05,160
that. They just maximized parking on that. And then you get to seventh street and you

1618
02:55:10,693 --> 02:55:10,693
only have one side of parking. I was kind of surprised, shocked that they're going to

1619
02:55:14,993 --> 02:55:14,993
let the parking garage go out on bagby, because bagby, if you've ever been to baylor,

1620
02:55:19,760 --> 02:55:19,760
it's kind of like the I-35. They said they did a traffic thing for fourth, fifth and

1621
02:55:24,360 --> 02:55:24,360
stuff. In my experience on bagby, everybody coming from waco always takes 18th street

1622
02:55:29,027 --> 02:55:29,027
and goes down bagby and shoots down that way and stuff. And so I was going, I don't know if

1623
02:55:34,260 --> 02:55:34,260
they can, but you said, boy, it would be a lot easier for traffic things if, if, if the

1624
02:55:39,260 --> 02:55:39,260
parking garage would empty on fifth street, where at least there's not that big

1625
02:55:43,427 --> 02:55:43,427
thoroughfare because it's basically one lane going each way with a turn lane, and then

1626
02:55:48,360 --> 02:55:48,360
you're saying 600? Or how many cars are in that garage, you know, coming out when classes

1627
02:55:53,260 --> 02:55:57,093
are coming, you know, and baylor students, you know, people say, oh, it's close to class. It's it's, you know, close to their classes and all that. Everybody I know went to

1628
02:56:02,193 --> 02:56:02,193
baylor. If it's raining that day, they're going to try to drive right next to their

1629
02:56:06,227 --> 02:56:10,227
building, and their dad will pay for the parking ticket later on, you know, as far as that goes. And so it's it's that's wonderful. But that's a reality I live in. And so we're

1630
02:56:15,227 --> 02:56:15,227
just worried about in previous big ones, they did, you know, it seemed like they didn't

1631
02:56:21,527 --> 02:56:21,527
think that stuff out. And I'm saying, hey, at this project there's I'm looking at like

1632
02:56:26,960 --> 02:56:26,960
almost three sides of it. You can't park next to the complex where all those others they can

1633
02:56:32,060 --> 02:56:32,060
and stuff. And then you look at visitors. I always have, like the manager and stuff. They

1634
02:56:37,460 --> 02:56:37,460
always parked in my parking lot, the ups, they always parked in my parking lot, or they would

1635
02:56:41,593 --> 02:56:41,593
just park in the middle of the street, and then there'd be a car accident and the poor

1636
02:56:46,060 --> 02:56:46,060
students would be saying, well, wasn't my fault. And then you see the driver drive off in the

1637
02:56:50,093 --> 02:56:50,093
the ups car who caused the accident. And, you know, he's not worried about it because,

1638
02:56:54,360 --> 02:56:54,360
you know, they couldn't see around him and stuff. So that's really my concern on that. And

1639
02:56:59,127 --> 02:56:59,127
then and then you throw in the fact on the parking is that everybody in this room, at some

1640
02:57:04,027 --> 02:57:04,027
point or other during baylor time has parked in that parking lot. And so then that added

1641
02:57:08,327 --> 02:57:08,327
parking that goes in that general area and stuff, because they're going to have to find

1642
02:57:12,560 --> 02:57:12,560
an alternative parking spot place. But anyway, that's it. That's those are my concerns.

1643
02:57:19,193 --> 02:57:19,193
perfect. Thank you, mr. Phipps. And thank you, mr. Phipps. And we'll have staff look into that.

1644
02:57:25,260 --> 02:57:25,260
and that's the parking issues related to that. Are there any other any other speakers

1645
02:57:33,993 --> 02:57:33,993
tonight who'd like to speak during hearing and visitors? Anybody here? I see no hands

1646
02:57:38,593 --> 02:57:38,593
being raised. Seeing none. We will close the hearing of visitors and we will go

1647
02:57:43,593 --> 02:57:43,593
directly to council. Comments on items of community interest, any announcements council would

1648
02:57:49,693 --> 02:57:49,693
like to make or comments or anything in general. Okay, I'll just really quickly say that

1649
02:57:56,660 --> 02:57:56,660
myself. Councilwoman lozano, mayor pro tem barefield and yourself made a trip to

1650
02:58:01,460 --> 02:58:01,460
greenville, south carolina last week for an intercity visit and wanted to extend a quick thank

1651
02:58:05,493 --> 02:58:05,493
you to their city management and their mayor for welcoming us so warmly. It's a great city.

1652
02:58:10,127 --> 02:58:10,127
they do a lot of things well. I'm hoping to replicate some of it here and learn from the

1653
02:58:15,393 --> 02:58:15,393
mistakes they've made along the way and try to avoid those. So had a great time in greenville,

1654
02:58:20,360 --> 02:58:20,360
learned a lot and again thanks to their city management and their mayor. Yeah, great

1655
02:58:26,227 --> 02:58:26,227
meetings and end to the greater waco chamber for putting the trip together. Very well

1656
02:58:31,227 --> 02:58:31,227
organized, very interesting. Mayor, I had something prepared that I that was pretty poignant,

1657
02:58:36,993 --> 02:58:36,993
but I decided I'm just going to cede my time to the honorable council member from district

1658
02:58:42,760 --> 02:58:42,760
five, t, george chase. George. George, you got nothing. Alright, I will, I will say

1659
02:58:53,227 --> 02:58:53,227
before I call on george the. And I think mayor pro tem mentioned it during a slow part

1660
02:58:59,127 --> 02:58:59,127
of the meeting this afternoon. Great, great festivities saturday at the ellis martinez

1661
02:59:05,627 --> 02:59:05,627
rodriguez park. That was so much fun. And I don't think jonathan is still here, but

1662
02:59:10,227 --> 02:59:10,227
great job of getting that organized. That was just the the work we're doing in our

1663
02:59:15,260 --> 02:59:15,260
parks and rec. And the expansion there is just truly amazing and fun. Council member

1664
02:59:21,393 --> 02:59:25,327
lozano and I were at the hispanic leadership network meeting last night, which is also great here during hispanic leadership month, and we have another one tomorrow or

1665
02:59:32,060 --> 02:59:32,060
thursday. Thursday night, the the chamber. So a lot of things going on here in waco, a lot, a

1666
02:59:39,460 --> 02:59:39,460
lot of fun. George. You sure? Nothing. I saw her, he was going with that and I. Yeah.

1667
02:59:45,127 --> 02:59:45,127
all right. Okay. Thanks, george. Alright, now we have the last. The last item is scheduling a

1668
02:59:52,227 --> 02:59:52,227
future agenda items. Any future agenda items? No. There being no further business. The