Mobility Committee Meeting Transcript – 11/19/2020 Title: City of Austin Channel: 6 - COAUS Recorded On: 11/19/2020 6:00:00 AM Original Air Date: 11/19/2020 Transcript Generated by SnapStream ================================== Please note that the following transcript is for reference purposes and does not constitute the official record of actions taken during the meeting. For the official record of actions of the meeting, please refer to the Approved Minutes. [1:03:11 PM] >> Hopefully by the time we get to the presentations the other folks will be joining us. I'm going to convene the meeting of the mobility committee at 1:0:73 P.M. And the first item on the agenda is. >> Kitchen: Let me ask my colleague, or the first item on our agenda is approval of the minutes from October 8th. Are you comfortable moving moving forward with that or do you feel like you need more time? >> Move approval. >> Kitchen: So move approval. >> Second. >> Kitchen: All in favor? We're passing -- so we passed the minutes from October 8th. Okay, so now we're going to go ahead and take our speakers. We have four people that signed up to speak. So we'll go ahead and take [1:04:12 PM] them first and then after that we will get to our first agenda item. So is Stephanie Haiden on the line? Can you all allow her to speak? >> I do not see the name Stephanie Hayden, but I have everyone unmuted right now. >> Kitchen: If Stephanie is not there, what about Herman Hendrick? >> Herman Hendrick -- no Herman Hendrick yet. Displich and felicity Maxwell. >> No felicity yet. >> Kitchen: Or Eric Kaufman. >> Yes, I'm here. This is Eric. >> Kitchen: Okay, Eric, if you want to go ahead then. I know you signed up to speak on one of the items we're taking up later relating to healthy streets. If you'd like to go ahead, [1:05:13 PM] you've got two minutes. >> Thank you very much. And thank you committee members for the time. This is first time I've ever participated as a citizen in local government. So exciting moment, but I felt compelled to get signed up and just say a couple of words in support of healthy streets and thanking you all for the program and hoping to encourage its continued use. My wife and I, we live on Bolden avenue, so right at our front door is a healthy street and it's just been a tremendous resource I think for the whole neighborhood as opposed to trying to jam on a sidewalk and avert your gaze and get around folks during this difficult pandemic. People have the space to have a conversation and kind of stay connected with their community and folks can walk, bike, run, navigate strollers, pets, it's just really been fantastic and kind of helped us all kind [1:06:14 PM] of manage through what's obviously been a pretty challenging year. So that's all I want to say but thank you very much for the time. >> Kitchen: Thank you, Eric. It has been very exciting to have those healthy streets. So participate -- we appreciate your comments. Colleagues, we're going to turn now to our first briefing -- our first discussion and briefing item, the update on project connect. And so if you all want to move over our presenters for that. And I want to recognize my colleagues from the housing committee that are with us. Gregg Casar and Natasha harper-madison and mayor, welcome. This is an item that's of interest to the entire council and particularly as we move forward to the housing committee and the mobility committee. >> Chair, I just wanted to let you know that I'm online now. [1:07:14 PM] >> Kitchen: Okay, I see you. Thank you, Allison. All right, do we have our presenters? >> [Indiscernible]. >> Kitchen: We have several presenters. We also have from capmetro we should have -- I think it's Dave couch. Anique who should be on this part with you? >> Hello, good afternoon, council member kitchen, committee members. It should be nefertiti Jackman as well as Brian oaks and perhaps Jake key nuremberg from capmetro. >> Kitchen: Please move over the capmetro folks, too. Okay, so let me just kick [1:08:15 PM] this off by saying this is very exciting. We have a huge opportunity as we all know and I know all of you worked very hard on this, but we have a huge opportunity with project connect. A lot of work for our community and for our staff. To fulfill the promise of project connect, but it is very exciting. It's a game changer for our community and the opportunity really to build a system that works better for the whole community and really -- really works hard to make our community more equitable in terms of access to transportation. So today we're going to get an update on really what is several aspects of this, from the housing perspective and the work that we've all done and built into project connect that relates to that connection between housing [1:09:16 PM] and transportation, and the dollars that we have designated and committed to supportive housing along the transit lines, and to anti-displacement efforts. So we'll have an update on that aspect of this. And also we'll have an update on the aspect of moving forward with the atp and the process for implementation and construction of the just whole range of components of project connect. So council member Casar, did you want to say anything from the housing committee perspective as we get started? >> Casar: I'm sorry, I was having a little trouble with webex, but we were thinking about first at having this at the housing committee. Instead of having it at both, we thought this would be a good place to have it. So I'm really happy to join everyone here. I want to thank this committee and the whole [1:10:18 PM] community for the huge trust and important step with project connect. And, yes, I think something that was really important to the whole community and to the council was making sure that this is a system that not only serves our city, but serves the cause of transportation justice, which many other transit's systems have not been able to -- they've been able to move a lot of people around, but not necessarily serving people equitably, so I'm really glad we're [indiscernible] On this topic. And thank you for your work on this. >> You're on mute, Ann. >> Kitchen: I'll turn it over to you. >> Okay, good afternoon, council member kitchen, council member Casar. Council members from both mobility and housing committees. I am starting off the presentation, but this is a [1:11:18 PM] group effort amongst multiple individuals from multiple departments spanning our equity office, our innovation office, our resilience office, and housing and planning department. Today we'll be giving a briefing on the development of an equity assessment tool to be used with the implementation of project connect. The tool is primarily focused to -- as you mentioned, council member kitchen -- the 300 million in antidi placement funds approved by voters along with project connect on November 3rd. The funds are meant to be focused on antidisplacement activities, programming and various other items that have been articulated through multiple resolutions and contract with the voters as we led up to the referendum on November 3rd. And it's important to note, too, that the equity [1:12:18 PM] assessment tool that we are developing will work in tandem and in a complementary manner to the environmental process that will be ongoing with project connect the [indiscernible] Process. Next slide. Our agenda today is to make clear for the public all of the different policy mandates that have been issued by this council around equity and mobility investments. It's quite robust and the 300 million -- couple the300 million to help us leverage the bond funding. That was the largest in our history for housing. And this was a real milestone opportunity for our city. We'll be going through again in more Dee till the stream structure that is working on the development of this prioritization tool for the [1:13:19 PM] 300 million. Our work to date and our next steps. We have hit the ground running, but there is a lot to do. Mostly because it is very important at the core of this work that we build this tool with the community. It's very important that we get that right and so we're thinking through what that looks like and definitely want input from you all after you hear what we have to say and what might be on your mind with regards to engaging the community. Next slide, please. So this slide is meant to show you all in beautiful colors all of your work around mobility and equity, starting with the 2016 corridor program contracted with builders which had an equity lens applied that you all wanted to see. Then moving to the 2019 approval of the Austin strategic mobility plan and [1:14:19 PM] specifically chapter 6 and action items related to chapter 6. One of which called for the creation of equity analysis Zones so that we can think about transportation investments in a different way. We were looking at zip codes or census tracts or neighborhoods that are susceptible to gentrification and specifically displacement. Then moving on to this year, a resolution in April and then a resolution in September that got into more detail about the importance of placing equity at the front and at the fore most importance as we look at a huge transportation investment like project connect. And then specifically the language in the contract with voters for both proposition a and proposition B. So this is the spectrum of council directives that we're working with as we develop this tool. Next slide, please. [1:15:25 PM] So a reminder from 2016, which seems like a long time ago now, there was contract with the voters and a mandate to consider existing and new affordable housing with an emphasis on promoting healthy equitable communities. And so since 2016, the corridor program office has done a really good job and has been successful in creating a prior tiesation tool that considers quantitative traffic data as well as qualitative inputs to create the priorities for that program. And you all have been briefed and have seen their construction program and seen how that tool works. And so we don't want to start from scratch. We want to build on that good work done by the 2016 program. We know more now than we did four years ago on what it means to be equitable and [1:16:26 PM] what kind of tools are going to work best for different needs within the community and so that's what we're hoping to develop with this tool using of course a lot of examples that already exist and building upon them. Next slide. Next slide is a brief overview of chapter 6 of the strategic mobility plan that is titled equity, and really -- does a really good job of being up front about the way historical not only locally, but nationally, transportation infrastructure has been used to divide communities. And it's important that we reverse that, and we use transportation investment to connect communities. And that is at the forefront of this work that we're doing in this prioritization tool. We don't want to create different silo tools. And so the team is really looking at this action item [1:17:27 PM] 200 that asks for a framework to designate geographic Zones, looking at criteria for vulnerable areas such as race, income, car ownership and so we're looking at this item and hoping that this tool that we're creating can also be used to satisfy this equity analysis zone mandate. Meaning that while we're using the tool for project connect, we should also use this tool for other investments as they come our way. And implement the equity analysis zone and so we also have on the right here the picture is a map from our uprooted study that was done by UT and it contains a lot of really good data points and information. And so we're really at a great point in time right now with so much information to be able to inform this tool to guide the 300 million. Next slide, please. [1:18:32 PM] And finally before I pass the presentation on to Ms. Jack man from our housing and planning department, this is a reminder of back in April of this year, the council asked staff to provide recommendations in thinking about project connect to prevent transportation investment related displacement by aligning our current policy services, programs and resources, also asks for recommendations to ensure that people of all incomes can benefit from our transportation investments and lastly, recommendations for financing additional strategies and solutions. In that response we talked about as I mentioned before about being collaborative with the Nepa process and the recommendations for mitigation that will likely come out of that process, the development of a tool which we're briefing you on today. The need to create an interdepartmental interagency group to coordinate investments [1:19:33 PM] around and near planned transit and I would say that also is going to include the community. And we have not put this advisory committee together yet, but that is on our agenda to do soon. And then assuring that all affordable housing programming that we have existing now, as I said before from the 2018 housing bond and any other funding sources, partnerships with our wonderful nonprofit partners that we leverage as much as we can and be very efficient because this is a large investment and this is there is going to be a lot of need and we need to do the best we can with funding that we have. With that overview I'm going to hand the presentation over to Ms. Jackman who is heading up our displacement prevention division at housing and planning. Thank you. >> Thank you, annick. [1:20:34 PM] Can I please have a next slide. Thank you very much. Proposition a contract with voters outlines four major components for the city to address which includes the process for the creation of neighborhood level strategies, the creation of an equity assessment tool. Created with community, a neighborhood level prevention and mitigation strategies and the creation of a performance dashboard. Specifically, we are guided to -- within six months of voter approval -- to provide the process for the creation of neighborhood level strategies along with community members and community-based organizations. We should also -- we're guided to create an equity assessment tool to Nan Al lies on a neighborhood level the potential for unintended or undesirable effects of the transit investment that [1:21:35 PM] contribute to difficulties for households to remain in place, specifically pressures related to gentrification and displacement and also opportunities to make investments to build economic mobility for residents. The tool will help us focus any allocated antidisplacement funding and help dismantle structural, racial in equity and create equitable outcomes for all to eliminate the direct and indirect -- and cultural displacement of neighborhoods. Next slide, please. The city is also directed to create with the community neighborhood level prevention and mitigation strategies based on the equity assessment tool which -- to include recommendations that leverage other programs to create a more connected effort for antidisplacement strategies and recommendations for funding proposals and implementation [1:22:37 PM] of identified strategies. And as I shared the creation of a performance dashboard to track the progress on strategies that have been identified for implementation for each neighborhood. Next slide, please. The direction that was provided to capital metro -- capmetro will serve as the fta sponsor, the federal transit administration sponsor and conduct and environmental justice analysis as required under the national veermt Al policy act for each eligible project as well as provide recommendations to the Austin transit partnership for financing tools and strategies based upon that Nepa review. The direction for the Austin transit partnership includes the development of propose as on an ongoing basis, based upon the recommendation from the city and capital metro and provide a budget for [1:23:38 PM] approval by city council and the capital metro board. And further more, enter a local agreements and/or grant agreement was the city to timely develop and implement antidisplacement strategies. Next slide, please. In September 2020, there was also a count resolution regarding project connect and it guided city staff to work with impacted neighborhoods in the creation of neighborhood level antidisplacement strategies and priorities to identify and track key performance indicators related to equity and displacement and to establish key performance indicator trig ergs that signal the need for posted council discussion as well as public comment on the status of equity and antidisplacement strategies associated with project connect. Next slide, please. [1:24:43 PM] Project connect allocated $300 million for acquiring real property and financing tools, as well as other antidisplacement strategies related to the implementation of project connect to include such things as the construction or development of new affordable housing, the preservation, repair and rehabilitation of existing affordable housing, financial assistance for home ownership, home repair, rental subsidies, the right to return assistance that grants current tenants of affordable housing the option to Lisa a unit of comparable size following the completion of rehabilitation of affordable housing as well as other strategies that could build economic mobility opportunities for residents along the transit corridors and increase transit supportive economic development as well as ridership. Next slide. [1:25:48 PM] The guidance for proposition B provided guidance to develop the recommendations for implementation of transportation infrastructure proposals, both the prioritize investments in traditionally under served communities, low income communities and other vulnerable communities as well as anticipating unintended consequences that might disproportionately affect historically under served communities and under represented populations and to be able to proactively mitigate these efforts, as well as look at existing project priorities rillet for all programs identified in the resolution and make sure that they are evaluated and modified to further prioritize equitable outcomes. Next slide, please. The work to date, it has been ongoing by all of the [1:26:51 PM] groups involved in this project, and also work before which includes the antidisplacement recommendations which were reviewed and we came up with over 600 recommendations that were gathered from these various documents. There is also the 15 strategic displacement prevention priorities that have been established as a result of those recommendations, some are in the process of being implemented. Some are already complete. So those are ongoing. There is also the neighborhood strategies stabilization tool which was created by the innovation office. There is the affordable housing and transit a affordable map series that was created that was shared recently with the housing committee. And then there is most recently the displacement provision division that was created with the merger of the housing -- well neighborhood housing and community development and [1:27:51 PM] the planning and zoning department. The focus of the division at this time is on tenant stabilization as well as community preservation and transportation investments and displacement prevention analysis. Next slide, please. And this is just highlighting some of where the recommendations -- the various recommendations have come from which will have a number of references to UT's uprooted report. The analysis of impediments to fair housing choice, the port on institutional racism and systemic in equities, the peoples plan and the antidisplacement task force. Next slide, please. There is also a tool that has been very helpful. [Lapse in audio] And what it [1:28:51 PM] does is it helps staff, policymakers and advocates really assess neighborhood demographics and vulnerability to gentrification. Really helping us to know where we can direct resources, policies and programmings based upon the data and information that is found. Next slide, please. And finally, there is the affordable housing -- transit affordable housing map series which was created which provides a list of a affordable housing throughout the city. It includes units that are at risk of displacement. Those which the affordability periods are expiring. It shows what city-owned assets and properties, based on zip codes and mapping. [1:29:52 PM] It also shows the ownership as well as rental units by the department. I want to say nacd, but by HPD, but those are all in there and those are tools that we can sort of shows the investments along transit corridors. And with that I'll pass the presentation on to Brian oaks, our equity officer. Good afternoon, everyone. Can we go to the next slide. >> So as we mentioned earlier, since voters approved project connect, we are moving forward with the directive to begin the focus on the buildout of the equity assessment tool of project connect as well as the implementation phase of that tool. And before you you can see these are the core departments that are part of that process, which is the equity office, the innovation office, our [1:30:54 PM] resilience portfolio, housing and planning department as well as our transportation department. And as we move forward with the project, we may identify a need for additional departments to be at the table as a part of this process. These are the initial core departments that have been actively involved in sort of planning and trying to get this effort going. If you go to the next slide. , Our immediate objective is to really assure within that six-months we meet the timeline for the development of the tool. And as an initial step, we've had a lot of conversations around talking about the type of environment we really need in order to be successful to do really good equity work. At a global level for the city, our ultimate mission is to really bring this equity lens into our we make our decisions and how we operate and how we function as a city. And in oer for us to do [1:31:55 PM] that, we have a framework where we focus on three distinct areas. The first one is that we spend a lot of time around normalizing a shared understanding and that really has to do with as people come together to really sort of do work around equity, do they clearly understand what equity is? Are they really grounded in history? Do they really have a clear understanding of the objectives that we tried to achieve when we talk about equity? And so a lot of work around -- oftentimes I say how do we sort of build and develop people and develop their analysis to really see equity in the work that they do? We also believe that it's important to organize. Equity is really sort of not work that's conducive to being done solo. It really takes partnership. A lot of times partnership within an organization or department, partnership [1:32:56 PM] across institutions and if you look at the scope and size of an effort like project connect, lots of different organizations and institutions that are coming together to be able to make this happen for our community. And so as we go through this process, how do we sort of organize and make sure that these equity principals show up in all these different bodies of work that need to happen. And last but not least, operationalizing equity, which is how do you put equity into action in terms of a business profit and really the use of an equity scorecard or tool as part of project connect is really a great example of what operationalizing equity look like. And so in order to have an equity scorecard or tool to be effective, we need to make sure that it's in an environment that is conducive to receiving and using the data and information it yields. [1:33:56 PM] And at a high level, some of the guiding principles we have for this project is that we really want to make sure that we center on the value of having a shared mandate for Irish equity. Racial equity. So of all the key bodies that come together to move project connect forward, how do we sort of make sure that that shared value and that mandate around racial equity and striving for advanced racial equity is really centered across all of them. We also are really focused on the need to rebalance power and decision- making structures and just to give some context to that, a lot of really sort of good equity work is about sometimes disrupting a traditional pattern that produced a certain sort of state of outcomes, right? And so in efforts to rebalance power as a way to [1:34:56 PM] really sort of disrupt some of the standard way that we may have done things in the past to get better outcomes, so as a part of this process, what are the mechanisms that we have in the decision-making structures to help us do that? One of the ways that we feel that we can really do that is to make sure that we include and we involve people that have direct impact and who have lived experience into that decision-making process. Are there opportunities on some of the governing boards, decision-making bodies where we really make sure that we emphasize and we carve out space or hold space for people who have been directly impacted to make sure that their voices are centered along the way. I think one of the things that I really loved about the language in the contract with voters is that it spoke about co- creation with community and we're going to really hold ourselves accountable to that. And that's our last bullet is in terms of how do we [1:35:58 PM] really hold ourselves in terms of being accountable to those mostly directly impacted by those displacement pressures. So if you go to the next slide, we're starting to sort of work and develop a timeline to be able to meet that six-month deadline that's in the contract with voters. And so annick mentioned earlier that it's going to be an ongoing process for us to really sort of coordinate with the project connect team that's leading the Nepa process and so this has been a learning experience for me and, you know, I think for the public also in that an infrastructure project the size of project connect requires an environmental impact study and as parted of that impact study, it not only includes the physical environment, but we're understanding that it includes the human [1:36:59 PM] environment as well. And so it takes into account the impact of a project on low income communities or communities of color or other vulnerable populations. And so we actually think that the Nepa process will really help inform the equity assessment tool, but we also think vice verse is vice versa, the equity assessment tool can help inform the Nepa process as well as the process surrounding the human impact of a project. So we've actually had our first meeting with the Nepa team to begin to sort of discuss how we clap did collaborate and make sure we're aligned with each other as we go through this process. In the fall of 2020 currently, we are working on developing a scope of work for a consultant that can come on board to help us with the process develop the tool with community and in [1:38:01 PM] addition we would also like for this consultant to serve as an independent third party evaluate or and that's a best practice that we often bring to our process of doing an equity a assessment tool. Because usually most assessment tools are a self-assessment tool by an organization, so it helps to have a counter balance of a third party being independent to us to really sort of give us feedback and insight on that assessment and we would be looking for this consultant to help be a part of that process as well. In the winter of 2021, so projecting out in January and February is to have the contracted entity really begin to lead us in a process to cocreate the tool with community and if you go to the next slide, our goal is in the spring of 2021, we would define the process to implement the use of the [1:39:03 PM] tool with community. And then leading into the summer moving forward would be the implement the equity assessment tool with the community and that would definitely include work with impacted neighborhoods, and the creation of neighborhood level antidisplacement strategies and priorities that nefertiti talked about earlier. How do we measure success. So what would be the key performance indicators related to equity and displacement and how will we know that we're trending for successor that we're on pace to really sort of deliver on the council's directive as a part of this effort, but also most importantly, that we're having the right positive impact for communities as we move forward with this process. And I think that we're going to open it up for questions. >> Kitchen: Well, actually, Brian, thank you. We're going to have capmetro take first and then take questions. So you all will stay with [1:40:04 PM] us. I think we have a short presentation with capmetro about the next steps for implementation of the project. So Jackie, if you wanted to go ahead with that. Then we'll circle back -- Jackie or Dave, whoever is going to make that presentation. >> Yep, this is Jackie. Hello. Hello, council members. Thank you for the opportunity to give you an update. I believe we have some slides loaded up. If we could present those. There we go. Great. My name is Jackie newer Een bering. I'm the community engagement manager at capital metro and I'm pleased to update you on the latest developments of moving project connect forward. On November 4th, our staff began a flurry of activity to begin work to move this project forward in [1:41:04 PM] collaboration with city staff. And the first step is to set up the board, the leadership of the atp, and so as a reminder, the atp board composition is going to be an Austin city council member, a capital metro board member, a community expert in the area of finance, a community expert in the area of engineering and construction, a community expert in planning and sustainability, and a city of Austin staff member as an ex-officio member. So we have posted the application process on our new website, the Austin transit partnership.org. And step 1 for applicants would be to submit a resume and a letter of interest via the website. The applications are due in a short amount of time. The deadline is November 27th, but we are on a very tight scheduled to get this moving by January. [1:42:05 PM] Step 2 would be to provide experience, qualifications or substitute experience to be independently verified and provided to the joint capital metro/austin city council nominating committee. Step 3 the nominating committee will submit nominees for appointment at a December 18th joint meeting of the Austin city council and capmetro board of directors. And then step 4, the inaugural atp board will meet on January 20th to approve bylaws, elect officers and adopt an interim budget. Next slide, please. I wanted to take some time to review our project connect program sequence to remind everybody about how the different projects will proceed as we move forward. So first I'll direct your attention to the bottom of [1:43:07 PM] the slide, the color key. The gray area is for Nepa and preliminary engineering. That means that the environment assessment and preliminary engineering and design are happening simultaneously. Then the blue, the light blue is for final design and procurement. And then construction is represented by the darker blue. So if you'll look at the light rail lines, the Orange line and the blue line, year 1 to 2 are for Nepa and preliminary engineering. Then years 2 to 3 and 4 are for final design and procurement with construction beginning in year 4. With completion of construction for both lines expected in year 9. So we're probably looking at about 2029. For the metrorail enhancement, the red line, those enhancements will be online within the first two years. For the green line, we [1:44:08 PM] expect Nepa and preliminary engineering to begin in year 8, with completion of the greenine in year 13. The metrorapid lines -- three of the four metrorapid lines would be launched within the first four years. The gold line will go through the Nepa process with the understanding that it could be developed in the future as a light rail line. So it will go through the same Nepa environmental assessment as the Orange and blue lines will. So it will be online a bit later between years and 4 and 5. And then the metro express and park & rides will be ongoing from year 1 to year 9 throughout. Metro bus, metro access improvements also ongoing from year 1 through year 7. Customer technology systems within the first two years. And down at the bottom where it says transit supportive [1:45:09 PM] investments, that represents the antidisplacement fund and the allocation of those funds through out the different phases of the project. Next slide, please. So for next steps, the timeline has been developed this way. In December and January we have contracted with Boston consulting group to do a strategic program delivery risk analysis and an atp road map. We will also importantly initiate the development of the atp community advisory group. This group is going to be key in helping to guide the strategy for antidisplacement measures. We will also initiate the broad more station red line construction. And begin design on the mccalifornia la station. The Mccalla station is going to go where the new stadium is being constructed. Some of our new technology [1:46:10 PM] will be launched very early in this phase. We will launch the mobile app fair capping pilot, which is a new equity tool that we're using to limit the amount that people have to pay for passes. A cash to mobile app is being developed for all retail outlets so that people who use cash or who are not banged can utilize our app to purchase their passes. And then on December 18th, we will be holding a joint capital metro board and city council meeting and that meeting -- the important developments at that meeting will be approving the articles of incorporation and bylaws, selecting the atp board, and approving capmetro and atp, city of Austin atp support services las. We expect the first atp [1:47:10 PM] board meeting to take place on January 20th at which time we will adopt bylaws, budget, support services, Ila's and elect officers. And then in the next period between February and may, we will initiate the atp board hiring of an independent auditor. We'll initiate the Orange, blue line Nepa virtual community meetings. And those are expected to happen in late January through February. Also metrorapid expo line, pleasant valley line and gold line community engagement will begin during this time. We will have the integration of the capmetro app with our pickup for fare payment and trip planning. Pickup is our on demand neighborhood circulator service. Community engagement for new pickup Zones will begin as well. We expect to launch three of those in the spring. [1:48:12 PM] And a federal notice of intent will move forward for the Orange and blue lines. Then in the June through September timeframe, we'll have an approval of antidisplacement program funding grant agreement, no later than June. An approval of tri party joint powers agreement between city of Austin, capital metro and atp. We'll continue Orange, blue line Nepa virtual community meetings. And continue community development of our new pickup Zones. We'll initiate red line double tracking construction between Leander and lake line stations which will allow us to prepare for higher frequency and more service on the red line. Initiate red line best practices -- excuse me -- rail program best practices review with intercity site visits for those best practices. And initiate construction on metrorapid expo line and [1:49:13 PM] pleasant valley lines in October through January. And we'll also launch a new full account-based fare system including fare capping, a smart card and a virtual card program. And then annual city of Austin, capital metro atp tri party meeting will be held during this timeframe with management and independent audit reports. And finally, continuing the Orange and blue line Nepa virtual community meetings through January of 2022. So this is the timeline for the atp moving forward. And that concludes my presentation. >> Kitchen: Thank you very much. So now we will turn to questions on both of these first presentations that we've had on the process related to our equity projects and our antidisplacement tools as [1:50:13 PM] well as the process related to moving forward with project connect. So who would like to speak first? Who has questions? Any questions? Okay, council member harper-madison. >> Thank you for all the work you guys are doing. I know it's probably pretty daunting. So just referring back to the Austin transit partnership, I just wanted to make sure that I heard clearly it was going to be an ongoing -- there was a point of check-in that they had to do with you all? Did I hear that or did I make that up? >> So we're trying to coordinate our efforts with the Nepa team because as a part of that environmental [1:51:17 PM] impact is -- there is the physical environment, but then there is also the human environment. And a lot of the populations that they look at in terms of that criteria for Nepa really interswect the population that you sort of look for in terms of the outcome of the equity assessment tool and so it makes sense that we would really be sort of aligned with each other and informing each other as a part of that process. So I think as we move forward, we'll get more clarity around what it looks like. We had our initial meeting -- I'll be honest to tell you there is a learning curve for us to really even just understand the full Nepa process. So really what our first meeting was committed to and a better understanding what their timeline is and what some of those components look like. As we move forward with our process, we can see how we can intersect the two together. I will tell you that I think [1:52:17 PM] as we move forward, we as a team are also interested or trying to sort of -- how we sort of build out the clarity of how the information collected from the tool is sort of fed into the Austin transit partnership and I wanted to make sure that members of the Austin transit partnership have a really good equity lens, too, so that as that data comes through, that they truly understand and can connect to it and help with their decision-making as well and in terms of how they're informed. And that just goes back to that whole how do we sort of create this optimal environment to really be able to do the work. >> Kitchen: The they are aspect of that, council member, just the other aspects you may have been asking about is, Brian are spoken to the trigger that's built in around the kpis. [1:53:19 PM] There is a trigger that if a certain metric is met, it will trigger a conversation back with the council. So I don't know if that's what you were asking about, but I wanted to make sure that you got that part. >> Harper-madison: That was at least part of it but there is a second part. One thing -- so this is one -- this is a televised meeting, right? >> Kitchen: Yes, it's a public meeting. >> Harper-madison: I want us to be careful about acronyms. Where we can. >> Kitchen: Thank you. The performance indicators. Sorry about that. >> Harper-madison: That's okay. I know people always ask afterwards. So Brian the other thing I was going to ask is I couldn't help but notice this last year, we've asked the equity office to, you know, run a multitude of things through the equity tool and asked the equity office to take on a lot, including now transit and land use and you probably know Eric in my office had a conversation with you. [1:54:19 PM] I had an idea around us having a full time land use person in the equity office. And so that's something I'd like to continue to discuss with you, but more importantly, I'd like to know how we can support you all. I think we're asking for a lot, including learning all this new subject matter. And so I appreciate your candor about just sort of learning these new processes. And you certainly don't have to answer now, but I think it would behoove us all to consider how we can be more supportive to the equity office considering just how much we're asking y'all to take on. >> I really appreciate that. We say we're small, but mighty. I think we try to show up and be in as many spaces as we can to really support the staff and the work that we're doing around equity. But I think definitely -- you know I appreciate the conversation to talk more about different resources in support of the office so we can really sort of make sure that we deliver really good work across a lot of the [1:55:20 PM] different priority areas for the city. So thank you for that. >> Harper-madison: Sure. I appreciate it. I think all of us as a council, as a body, I think we all recognize the importance of putting equity first in everything that we do, but we sort of -- we're going to tap out our primary resources around equity if we're not careful. >> We also are in the business of trying to put ourselves out of business, too. So we -- >> Harper-madison: I appreciate that. >> We spend a lot of time trying to also develop and build up our staff to have this lens so we don't have to be everywhere all at the same time and that they, too, feel confident in being able to lead this work on themselves. >> Harper-madison: Thank you. The other question I had was for Jackie. >> Yes, hi. >> Harper-madison: Hi, Jackie. So I was looking through the slides as you went along, and I saw multiple opportunities for community engagement and -- correct me [1:56:21 PM] if I'm just thinking out of sequence, but I didn't see the green line in there? >> There will be green line outreach as we get closer to the Nepa and environmental and engineering process for the green line, which is a little bit further down the road. >> Harper-madison: Okay. If you wouldn't mind checking in with my office and giving us a general idea. Because I'd like to be able to answer questions that come in. Thank you. >> Kitchen: Okay, council members, do we have other questions? I can't see everyone. So if you are -- if you're wanting to ask a question, you can unmute -- okay, I can see council member Casar. You wanting to ahead. >> Casar: Thanks, chair. I really appreciate that we're going to be putting together the equity tool on how we best use the antidisplacement dollars. I also hope that maybe we can think of a way to make [1:57:23 PM] sure that we're deploying some of the first 100 million as quickly as possible. I would hate for us to do a lot of community engagement and to bring the consultants on and for that to push us out deep into year 2 and if at the conclusion of that conversation is, man, we really should have spent 30 or 40 million of this at the end of year 1, that would be a shame. And so potentially something for y'all to be thinking about is are there -- is there some interim -- because I assume that we're putting together an antidisplacement strategy for the whole decade worth of spend, maybe there is some short-term strategy that can be put together that helps us not slow down or miss a strategic window at the end of year 1 or at the beginning of year 2. Maybe y'all have already thought about that, but I just wanted to raise that concern because we know that the dollars will go less and less far later down the process. And I don't want to be [1:58:23 PM] impatient, but at the same time I want to make sure that thoughtful processes we set up don't have us missing an opportunity early on. Have y'all already started some of that conversation? >> Kitchen: Let me jaws say I would second that, council member Casar. Really if we do not get our work done on the front end, we'll be too late. So thank you for bringing that up. Does anybody want to speak to that? Any of the -- did you want to ask someone in particular, council member Casar? >> Casar: If it's just like we'll take that into consideration and work on it, that is fine. I didn't want to assume that you guys hadn't already started thinking of that. >> I think that's valid. I'll respond for the group. It's good to hear that detail from the two committees. And council members as we look at how we definitely [1:59:24 PM] could look at both short, medium and long range prioritization. And you're exactly right, there are going to be opportunities that might be important appropriate to do sooner than later. And so we will take that into advisement as we roll our sleeves up the next few weeks on how we're going to approach this. >> Casar: And I have a much smaller question. As my second question, which is I just now noticed that the deadline for applying to atp lands on a Friday. If our staff and people are going to start picking up the Saturday after Thanksgivings on working and reviewing those, then it's fine to keep the deadline there. My question is, if-- my question is if people have their time off on the city staff side, is there a reason to not give people after Thanksgiving and if the answer is no that our staff are working [2:00:25 PM] that weekend, and we should keep the deadline but I wanted to ask the question before it gets too far out. >> Jack, I don't know if you can speak to that, I can tell you council member Casar that the committee is meeting on the first I believe, but we know that the staff will be doing some work, and let me double check that. No, let's see, I think we're meeting on the first to go over them -- the committee, the nominating committee. So the staff may be working over the weekend or they may be working on that Monday, I'm not certain. Go ahead, Jackie? >> I was going to say that I expect that there will be work on that over the weekend but I can double check with our leadership and find out if we could accept applications over the weekend as well and let you guys know. [2:01:25 PM] >> And if that's the answer and it would make your work way harder, we'd totally keep it. We don't want to make your work harder and you have already announced that deadline so I'm not asking to change it, I'm just flagging that if people aren't going to be reviewing them on Saturday that maybe we give folks some time to digest their virtual Thanksgiving meals. >> It's a good question. I can find out. Thanks. >> Just let us know. It's fine either way. >> Will do. >> Kitchen: Council member Flannigan, you had your hand up? >> Flannigan: We spent a lot of time developing this path forward so it's great to see that things are matching what the voters supported. But I do want to kind of triple down on what council member Casar said about speed with the displacement money because we [2:02:25 PM] also have affordable housing bonds from two years ago that there's still opportunity and, you know, bonds to expand. And so I think that there's a lot of work to be done there and I don't want to -- you know, council members get in trouble when I think we brainstorm in public but I do want to be involved in that work because as council member Casar said, the longer we take, the less that we'll get. And there's tools available to us that we have been underselling, maybe in part because we were not sure what things that we'd move forward. Now that it's all moving forward let's go faster. And so I'm looking forward to helping to be a part of that too. >> Kitchen: Thank you, mayor? >> Mayor Steve Adler: I also agree with the speed so that we can get stuff initiated because I think that there are some opportunities that will be presented early and won't be as good opportunities as we move through. One of the neat things about this proposition a after it left us and went to the community was [2:03:27 PM] that in large parts of the community really got involved in putting their shoulder to advocating for this in their communities and working to get it passed. And I know that this process of setting up the community engagement that the community advisory council was center to a lot of those community efforts and advocacy. So as you are moving forward to set that up and figure out how that looks, make sure that you're engaging the community, even in the process of setting up the process to set it up. Because there are a lot of people that they're real invested at this point and themselves have made promises to their constituencies. >> Kitchen: Thank you, mayor. That's a good point. I think that we'll all have the opportunity to talk about that process probably on December 18th, and that has to be built with the community as you said. [2:04:27 PM] So, thank you for that comment. I have one quick question -- does anyone else have a question first? Let me take my colleagues first. Council member Ellis, do you have questions? No. Council member harper- madison? >> Harper-madison: Thank you. Real quick. It was for the preservation, repair and rehab and financial assistance, etc., does any of that apply to existing multifamily or exclusively houses, single- family homes? >> So that list is the list that was a part of the contract with the voters. So in terms of what exactly that refers to, we have not identified that. As a staff, we have met recently, and this is the H.P.D. Staff, and we are in the process of identifying what will be our [2:05:30 PM] strategy -- not to go ahead of the community-informed process and that engagement, but making sure that we are directing our investments both identifying the gentrifying areas as well as both projected, current and projected, and especially around the project connect corridor. So those are some things that are still to be outlined for our department as a whole. >> Kitchen: Thank you, I'd love to follow along as you develop that process and I know that we have multiple, multiple family complexes that are going to be on some of these proposed lines, so I'm just curious how that will play out. But, thank you, I appreciate it. >> Okay, yes. >> Okay, I have one last question I believe for I believe Jackie. So, Jackie, when you laid out the timeline, I think that you meant to mention the mentuca? [2:06:31 PM] >> Yes, council member, yes. The line that is also the burnet line from the domain area and head south and travel on south Lamar and serve the oak areas, that will also be -- we'll be doing community engagement on that in the spring and it will also be part of the process, the engagement process, moving forward. So I'm glad that you caught that, I appreciate that. >> Thank you. Well, let me thank you all for this presentation and thank the members of the housing committee for joining us. I think that this is very exciting and it's good to see -- I think as council member Flannigan said it's good to see the work thatou are all beginning -- or, actually, you began it before, but you're continuing with. So I really appreciate that. This is exciting and there's a lot of work to be done. We're here to support you, to support your work, to, you know, [2:07:31 PM] to be -- to be supportive in terms what we are hearing and talking with our community about. And so really, really appreciate y'all presenting this today. It's very exciting. So, thank you. >> Thank you for having us. >> Thank you. >> Thank you for having us. I appreciate it with the committee members here and seeing that timeline feels really different after -- than before. >> Kitchen: Yes, it does. Very exciting. So, all right, so we're going to turn back to our agenda. I'm going to turn back to where we were starting because we had a few of our people that had signed up to speak that were not yet on the line, so I'm going to see if they're on the line now and we'll take them real quickly before we turn to our next item. So we have walker and felicitiy [2:08:31 PM] Maxwell that had signed up. Were any of those three here and would like to speak now? >> Chair, I do not see a Herman or Hendrix on the line. The other name that you mentioned? >> Kitchen:hayden walker. >> This is Hayden walker, I'm here. >> Kitchen: Thank you for your patience. Go ahead. >> Absolutely. It was great to hear the update. It's so exciting. So I signed up on item number 8, which is "Future items" but I wanted to say a couple of things first. One is that I think that I'm remiss in thanking all of you for all of your support and leadership and all of your hard work on prop a and B. It was so exciting to see both of them pass and I just can't tell you how excited I am to see the coming transformation O our whole transportation system. [2:09:31 PM] And I also wanted to note that I think that on the form to speak, one was not listed so several advocates told us that they wanted to speak on healthy streets but since it wasn't listed, they didn't sign up. So I just wanted to note that there are people out there that wanted to speak on "Healthy streets" and I'm imagining that you'll hear from them in other ways. I did see from K.U. Temperature a few years ago that they were headed back into stage four, which is unfortunate to see. But the real reason that I signed up to mention I-35. I just wanted to encourage all of you to participate in the current scoping that is going on with txdot. Scoping is tow important to the environmental process and that period closes December 12th. I have been talking to other people who are involved in highway projects around Texas, including I-45 in Houston and they have very clearly said that if they had to do anything and go back in time, they would go [2:10:32 PM] back to scoping and make sure they got scoping right for those projects. That it would have really helped a lot. So I just encourage all of you to do that as noted in her presentation that we have historically used transportation infrastructure to divide communities. And I hope that we really take this opportunity with I-35 to reconnect our communities instead. So, thank you very much for your time. I appreciate it. >> Kitchen: Thank you, and that's a good reminder to us. I appreciate that. So let's see, the last speaker was felicity Maxwell, is she on? >> Chair, I do not see them. And I will unmute everyone to just make sure but I do not think that she is on. >> Kitchen: All right, thank you. We'll turn to the next briefing which is the -- >> Is that item 4? >> Kitchen: Item number 4. [2:11:33 PM] >> I had the -- if you can hear me. Who do I move over? Let's see here -- >> Kitchen: I know that Zach was one and I'm not sure who our other speakers are. >> Hi, everyone. Katie weddick and I'm here to speak to this and Zach Lofton and Jacob should also be moved over. >> Good afternoon, everyone. >> Great, well, thank you all for your time this afternoon. I'm the urban sales program manager with public works department. And I'm here to talk about the Bergstrom planning study that we [2:12:34 PM] did in partnership with campo and worked with capital metro closely. So next slide, please. So I'm going to talk about the planning study overall and the public input that we have received, and then I'll go over the concepts we have developed. And then next steps for beginning implementation. Next slide. So here you can see the Bergstrom spur corridor. It's a six-mile corridor of abandoned railroad right-of-way from Vincent and southwest Austin to 183, and the airport. And the goal of this study was to come up with a vision of what could occur within this corridor. And so we're looking here at short term adding an urban trail to the corridor and then a long-term vision of what transit could look like, so what's the potential. And the platinum planning study looks at transportation in relation to factors such as housing, the environment, and [2:13:36 PM] environmental development and equity and more. Next slide. So starting in November 2019, we hosted a public meeting and had an online survey. Our project team attended a handful of regular community meetings. We had standard stakeholder group meetings a few times throughout the project with the stakeholder group consisting of the representatives from the southeast neighborhood plan contact team, ctrma, and txdot and the airport. We contacted the local business community and this summer we hosted a virtual open house. And with all of this we received over 300 responses on what the vision for the corridor could look like. And in general what we have heard was a lot of support for multimodal actions and the need for improved safety for pedestrians and bicyclists, and the desire for landscaping and shade, and this idea of creating a sense of place, rather than just an area to pass through. Next slide. [2:14:41 PM] So here you can see the whole corridor, which we split into three different segments and I will go over each segment in depth. But what I want to note here is that the dark gray line is the trail, which would run alongside the entire corridor. And then the dotted line is transit. And to the left, we would look this starting at the south congress transit center as a logical western terminus and then there's the option to continue on the street to the east. Okay, next slide. So here we have the western segment and this is Vincent drive to south congress. And what we're proposing here is a near-term improvement to redevelop this as a listen yar park. So -- linear park. This would have a urban trail so a separate path for people on foot or people on bikes to reduce the conflicts of people traveling at different speeds. This path would contact the [2:15:41 PM] neighborhood to the elementary school and the south congress transit center. Next slide. And then we get to south congress transit center. Our project team really looked at could this area be redeveloped and what could that look like? Again, this is just a vision of something that could happen. And so what we're looking at here is if this could be redeveloped to be transit-oriented development with higher density. Higher density is needed to make transit viable within this corridor, to add enough demand. So here we're looking at how we engage the development and have it phase not only transit but to incorporate the trail. We could do this through outdoor seating and interesting playscapes or public art. Next slide. So then continuing to move east, here you see south congress to I-35. And in this area, we'd be [2:16:41 PM] looking at having a trail and transit run adjacent to each other. With the potential connections to nearby street networks. Next slide. So here's an image of what that could look like and this is an example in Los Angeles where you have the transitway and the trail adjacent. So they're separated by a vegetative buffer and the size could grow or shrink depending on the width of the right-of-way. I want to note here that this would be more comfortable for trail users than traveling along the traditional street because instead of constant vehicle traffic it would just be the occasional transit. Next slide. So when we get to I- 35, we looked a lot at what this crossing could look like, and the vision that our project team came up with is that transit would need to be below grade in [2:17:42 PM] a tunnel below 35. And this would allow transit to continue on an efficient schedule, and not disrupt the vehicle traffic on 35. Unfortunately, because of the presence of bridge columns for 35, there isn't enough space to have both the transit and the trail below grade. So here we'd be looking at the transit going underground and the trail continuing at street level. Next slide. So here you have just an overview of what this would look like at Santiago street and you see the transit way and it begins to descend underground and then the trail would move north to cross at the existing intersection. Next. And then on the east side, the transitway reemerges and the urban trail comes back towards the Bergstrom right- of-way. [2:18:43 PM] Next. And then, of course, we'd have to look a lot at safety improvements for the trail crossing to make this all ages and abilities crossing. So here you see an example of frontage roads in San Antonio. You can see that the trail is separated with landscaping from the vehicle traffic, bicycle and pedestrian signals have been added. There's a raised crosswalk and it's a different pavement color. These are all just some of the improvements that we could add to this intersection. Next. So then continuing east, we again have the trail and transit running adjacent to each other within the corridor continuing to toggle lanes and there's connections to the on-street network and the potential connection across 71 to country club creek trail which would really tie all of our trail system together. [2:19:45 PM] Next. And here are some cross-sections of what this could look like. So the top image would be what is proposed in the near term. A pedestrian path and a 14-foot bikeway. And then if and when transit would be added to the corridor, the transit could replace the pedestrian path and the bikeway would either become a shared-use pa where people on foot and people on bikes would travel alongside each other, or if additional right-of-way is required, the pedestrian path could be reestablished on the other side. But here really shows you kind of the near-term look at how things could look like long term. Next. So when we get to Todd lane this was another area identified for potential activation. This site is currently owned and operated by Austin resource recovery. So, again, this is kind of a vision of something that could happen. And here is where any transit [2:20:49 PM] along the Bergstrom corridor would intersect with the rapid line. So this would be a good location for a transit stop and some activation that could pop-up businesses or food trucks. And these smaller scale than what is proposed if the south congress transit center. So here you see the site and the transit is the red line shown running through it with the light blue lines the urban trail. And so both of them travel through the site and then you see them exit on Burleson road. Next slide. So when we get to Burleson road, the Bergstrom spur right-of-way runs just parallel to the Burleson right-of-way. So here we propose that the transit remain on street in a dedicated lane if needed. Dual track urban trail could be established within the Bergstrom spur corridor and connect to the street as necessary. [2:21:49 PM] Next slide. And we heard a lot from the public that along this section of Burleson road there's a need for controlled crossings to allow people to safely reach their destinations, so this could look like a full signalized intersection in some areas or it could be an rafb which is what you see on Riverside in the top left image. Next. And here you see the remainder of the eastern segment reaching all the way to 183. So the blue lines show potential transit traveling on this existing street network, so transit could travel from Burleson to metropolis and metlink and metro center and then connect to the proposed blue line on Riverside. The white dotted line is the future urban trail proposed. And it could continue along the Bergstrom spur right-of-way [2:22:49 PM] until it reaches 183, where future plans for 183 would propose shared use paths that could connect. But along with this the urban trail could also branch out to the northeast and the southeast and improve connectivity and connect people to their destinations. And then what you see in red is a long-term vision of what high capacity transit should look like. So coming from Burleson the transit could continue in the Bergstrom right-of-way and continue either on oak lane or to 183 alongside the trail. And some of this could require that transit be completed at different grades. So our team looked at potentially a below- grade approach. To the next slide. So here you see that same image of when transit costs under I-35 and the same concept could be [2:23:50 PM] used to avoid any conflicts with adjacent uses in this area. And, again, this is just, you know, what would be a long-term vision of something that could occur with the recommendation to be more near term with the on-street network. Okay, and then next slide. And so then now I want to talk about implementation. In the short term, so for the next five years or so, we'd be looking at right-of-way acquisition. The city doesn't own the western most segment of the spur yet. And then we'd be looking at trail construction. And mid-term, so we're looking at five to 20 years, it would start to do trail programming, we'd continue trail construction to extend the limits of the trail. And begin to consider on-street transit contingent on nearby development and demand. And then long term we could continue to look at opportunities for more transit within the corridor, or adding [2:24:51 PM] that high capacity transit if it would become more needed. Next. So what we're doing right now the urban trails program has partnershipped with the parks and recreation program to acquire this portion of right-of-way from union pacific. This is that western segment, and so negotiations are underway now. Next. And then urban trails has begun coordination with Austin energy. The majority of this corridor does contain Austin energy transmission lines so in the near term urban trails will need to seek permission from Austin energy to build a trail adjacent to their transmission lines. And long term if transit is to be introduced. Some transmission power lines would likely have to be relocated and this is at the expense of the project. So it's really important to bring Austin energy into these [2:25:53 PM] conversations early. Okay, next. So I know that was a lot of information, but now I want to open it up to any questions and I also have Zach Lofton with campo and Jacob Calhoun to address questions as well. >> Kitchen: Let me say first, Katie, thank you very much to you and the rest of the team that have worked on this. It is -- it's been a project in the works for a long time and a dream for a lot of folks in the city, including in south Austin, to have that kind of trail access and perhaps at some point a transit access. So this -- this looks great. It's very exciting. So we appreciate y'all getting this segment of the stage of the work done. And also just for everyone else a reminder that when we adopted [2:26:57 PM] the map for project connect with with it, we just flagged this project as something that could potentially at some point in the future be added to our system-wide map. And as you pointed out in your presentation, that's a future item. Step number one, or the things that you're working on, as well as the trail aspect of this. So, thank you. Does anyone have any questions for Katie or for the team? And I can't see everyone. Council member Ellis and then council member alter. >> Ellis: Is all financing been identified for this or a need for additional resources? >> Right now we don't have funding identified beyond the funding for this study. This was really step one. And then we have the funding with the parks department for the acquisition of the property. But that is as far as we have gotten right now. And then, of course, now that [2:27:59 PM] prop B has passed we're working on allocating that funding and so with this being a tier one trail it's a good candidate but none of that has been determined yet. >> Ellis: That's great, thanks. >> Thank you. >> Kitchen: And, yes, thank you, with prop B that provides some exciting opportunities so thanks for your help on that, council member Ellis. >> Ellis: Very excited to see the voter support for it too, knowing that is really what it comes down to. But it is great to see. >> Kitchen: Um-hmm. Council member alter, did you have a question? I think that you're muted. >> Alter: Can you hear me now? >> Kitchen: Yes. >> Alter: Okay, it said that I was still muted. I know that this is an area I know that council member kitchen had let on to get the study done in the first place. I wanted to acknowledge her leadership and I'm excited to see the vision and the possibilities come with this design. And hopeful that there will be ways to fund pieces of it. [2:29:03 PM] >> Kitchen: Thank you, it's been a long time coming and I know that all of the folks in Austin, especially the folks across the south, are excited about this potential. So if there's no other questions, we will move on. Any other questions? Okay. Thank you very much, Katie. >> Thank you. >> Kitchen: Thank you, Zach and it's been an important team member with campo and with the city on this. So thank you all. So, okay, the next item we have a standing item with our report from -- from our U.T.C., Mario champion. >> Hey, everybody. Can you hear me? >> Kitchen: Yes, we can hear you. >> Okay. Hi, everybody, my name is Marco champion, and thank you, chair, and council members. [2:30:03 PM] What I'm going to talk about is a resolution that we passed in the October meeting. We did not have a November meeting because it got scheduled too late. And this particular recommendation is on the Austin climate equity plan. We had quite a vigorous set of discussions, definitely want to point out commissioner Davis who drafted the recommendation which we came back and passed. We really identified kind of two key concerns -- not concerns because our plan was very large -- but two kind of key concerns in the climate equity plan generaly. One is a reliance on electric cars and cars generally versus active transportation. That is, we identified bicycling and rolling and walking. There's a couple of statements in the plan that identified private fossil fuel-burning cars and trucks as the greatest challenge and the greatest contributor to greenhouse gas emissions. But that plan also identifies [2:31:03 PM] potentially 400,000 to 500,000 electric vehicles as a suitable replacement. This is conceptually, and it still relies on sprawl and vehicles as opposed to active transportation. You know, and we sort of pondered why 400,000 electric vehicles and not 40,000 electric bikes. You could really make a difference with something like that. And this tied into another -- another dimension which was sort of how campo particularly -- and its policies -- kind of incentivized this sprawl and the regional transportation decisions. So the planning organization and it's kind of a transportation policy board has a bias towards, you kn, car, vehicle infrastructure. And we can take a lot of that space and use it for active transportation. And this ties back into the healthy streets which when I was here last time we talked about and we will probably talk about again at U.T.C. And it dives [2:32:05 PM] into other things that are sort of outside of campo but the I-35 plan. So this dimension of car reliance to electric car reliance, and campo and those policy boards led us to a recommendation that sort of has four points to it. I will sort of summarize them. We wanted to ask the office of sustainability to revise the plan to have more aggressive goals and reducing cars. And equally aggressive goals in increasing the amount of space in the infrastructure dedicated to non-cars. Buses, light rail, bikes, e-bikes and scooters and wheelchairs, walking, all of those. And then other specific element was the direct opposite of the transportation and the real estate to work together to identify the city-owned right-of-way that right now could be moved temporarily or permanently into things like healthy streets. So one of the things that the pandemic showed is that we could move quickly on things and we [2:33:06 PM] don't have to do them permanently and they can definitely have an advantage and to be an asset. So those are two of them around the kinds of transportation infrastructure. And the other two were policy. So we would like if, you know, the council members that sit on campo or the transportation policy board would, you know, take with them this urgency around the strategic mobility plan, vision zero, project connect, prop a, prop B, their successes, to try to influence campo and the policy board to dedicate space to non-car centric travel. And the second part of that is, again, A.T.D. And the sustainability, to particularly sponsor an amendment to campo's 2045 plan that directly considers climate change impacts. So whether we have talked with other people from campo, there's not a direct call out for the sort of climate change impact of their overall strategy and policy. So that's kind of a lot so I'll [2:34:09 PM] stop there. And there's one more element that I would like to submit on, but that's our big agenda item. And it was an 8-0 vote, there was a lot of support and, again, I want to recognize commissioner Kelly Davis for putting in a ton of work to actually draft these pieces and to assimilate within that quite hefty plan. Any questions about this particularly? >> Kitchen: Any questions, guys? I just want to say thank you. I mean, these are really good -- good well thought out recommendations and we'll take a look at them. So, thank you. >> You're welcome. Just to give you specifically recommendation number 2020- 10130.2a. And the other item that I have been asked by people on the U.T.C. -- We were way in on the I- 35 process. If there's any guidance that you might have -- I know that this may be too early from your committee on how we might weigh [2:35:10 PM] in or if there are places that we can work together, we are certainly open to that -- that guidance or that discussion. If you happen to have some. If not -- it's pretty quick. >> Kitchen: Okay. Any comments or questions from anyone? Any comments for Mario and the item that he just asked about? Council member Flannigan? >> Flannigan: I know that anyone watching campo knows how challenging that was and certainly I-35. And a lot of compromises were made at the direction of tx dot. I am hopeful that we can do what key can as a region to make that project, you know, accomplish -- actually accomplish the goals that we seek to accomplish about mobility and certainly climate change and everything else. I don't -- I don't know exactly how that's going to work -- [2:36:13 PM] [laughter]. You know, hopefully when it coming to txdot, what other choice do we have? And there are elections in 2022, so we'll see. >> Kitchen: Yeah, thank for asking about that, Mario. We will wrap our minds around it and think more about what we can do about that. And engage with you guys because I know that we could use your help. >> Um-hmm. There are certainly people enthusiastic to engage in the general world as well as the commission. So however we can make some of these stated goals, like the climate plans, you know, and vision zero and strategic mobility plan, how, we could get those wrapped in, that would be great. >> Kitchen: All right, thank you very much. >> Okay, thank you for having me. >> Kitchen: Yes, thank you. I appreciate having you as part of our team. So we're going to turn now to our last item, which is an update on "Healthy streets" and before we do that I have one [2:37:14 PM] very, very quick thing for us to vote on and that is theption of our meeting calendar. Can I have a motion to adopt that? Motion from council member Flannigan and second from council member Ellis. All in favor? It's adopted. Okay. So now we'll move to the healthy streets update. >> I think -- she was going to do her presentation first. These are a couple photos that I'd like to pull up afterwards as I make a couple comments. But I think that Laura is going first. >> Thank you, council member, Ellis, and I'm joined by Anna martin, our assistant director. [2:38:14 PM] So she may want to make opening remarks here as we get started. I'm not sure if she's pulled over yet. >> Anna martin has been moved over. >> Okay. Good afternoon, council members. Thank you so much for asking us to be here today. We're excited to tell you the history of what we've done in healthy streets and where we are headed in the next few months. With me is Laura danfeld who has been the lead on this program. And Laura is going to give a really brief presentation on our us and then both Laura and I will be available to answer any questions afterwards. >> Thanks, Anna. And I'll ask maybe city hall to bring up the slide deck for the council members. So these are the photos -- I think that there's one other [2:39:15 PM] backup document. Yeah, there you go. Perfect. Well, great, thank you so much. And we'll make our remarks very short to offer the most amount of time for discussion. And so just to lay some groundwork for those who might be new to this, the healthy streets initiative was passed by council in a resolution in may. Really out of the direction in our state, vary stages of covid-risked guidelines for physical distancing. So looking for ways that people can get space as they stay home and look for places to get outside and to get vitamin D and exercise and the like. So it was on the heels of some early efforts, so maybe go to slide three, to show a couple of photos that share a bit about the outside lane closure on pleasant valley road over the longhorn dam in a known pinch point for heavy trail use. [2:40:15 PM] And it then moved into establishing an initial five miles under that council direction that admittedly had very little public consultation. We really pride ourselves on engaging with the community to understand needs and to be responsive, and so it was a bit of a new approach for us. I think that one that we tried to really build upon those lessons learned for the next batch, which if you go to the next slide, we're able to get another five miles out on the street to -- to provide as much benefit in this program as possible across the city. That included outreach to communities that had been historically underinvested. And will just pause to say that we were not quite as successful at getting interest and buy-in from those communities. I think that is really a function of the incredible amounts of stress and bands did bands bandwidth [2:41:18 PM] with food and shelter and requirements in the midst of the pandemic. So there were efforts to try to get city wide and not quite met from our perspective. I think due to some of those bigger challenges. Moving on to slide number six, that kind are kind of shows a bit more about the -- one more after that -- the full program. Which we had 12 miles on 25 different street segments and six council districts with a variety of temporary devices forming space to try to make it more comfortable to walk or bike or generally just use non-motorized transportation. One of the highlights of the program has been recruiting black captains. We've had 35 volunteers across all of these streets to support us in seeing things out on the street, nudging things back into place. They don't supplant the ability to check the devices and we do [2:42:19 PM] that daily during the week and on Saturdays and that's really thanks to our colleagues at public works to help us with that daily maintenance. And we have at its peak six divisions that were involved in maintaining the program. We're now down to three, but it was definitely a team effort. And then finally to offer we've got a couple of evaluation tools out there to really measure success. And that we see through the use as we observe it in our daily checks as well as through online tools like in slide number 8, where you can see -- 7 and 8, that is -- where you can see some of the feedback. And there are links on the website where you can dig into much, much more detail on how people are using these streets, who is responding, and where the support is, which generally city-wide is about, you know, 75% 25% and then on slide 8 you [2:43:20 PM] can sort of see where particular zip codes were. You know, it was more supportive and less supportive. And as far as the current status, we did initiate in September a slow wind down of the program really in service to a lot of the competing parties for critical infrastructure city wide trying to keep pace with our goals with the 2016 mobility bond and as well as 18, and now as we gear up and we scale up for the additional work brought about by prop B, we're also, you know, recognizing that a lot of staff that pivoted to this initiative had to pivot back to their other duties. So working with who is available. And then the costs. So we rent these devices and they are temporary and do require a lot of upkeep and maintenance. So just being prudent about those resources going forward. And, finally, going to slide number 10, one of the more [2:44:21 PM] exciting parts I think that maybe is two more slides down -- great. Yeah. There we go. Perfect. The slow streets program is really out of the council direction was a request to create a permanent benefit here. So taking, for example, the photo in the top part of the slide, a temporary sort of set-up with barrels into something that might be more permanent. And maybe even more aesthetically pleasing as well as environmentally supportive. So looking at like a rain guard type of approach. So we're already starting to incorporate some of these tools and techniques into our permanent infrastructure around neighborhood bikeways and have now initiated work with tool design on an update to the sidewalk and urban trails plan. Which will include a very robust slow streets pilot program. We will identify criteria, really leaning on the community that has benefited from the healthy streets initiative to [2:45:22 PM] help inform criteria and locations for 10 pilot programs. Moving to the next slide, just a comment on some of the related work to really understand street space and how it can best serve our community, both now and in a pandemic situation where the space and physical distancing is so critical to everyone's safety, but also looking long of long term at the safety benefits that we can realize and making changes to streets that we're very well underway with a variety of projects, including protected intersections throughout the city, and crossings for people walking. And interim safety improvements as well as our new speed management program. And the ongoing neighborhood bikeways. So with that, I wanted to -- I'll pause and turn it back to the item sponsor, chair kitchen and council member Ellis, and open it up for discussions and questions from here. >> Kitchen: Okay, does anybody have any questions, council [2:46:23 PM] member Ellis, did you want to say something in or you had pictures that you wanted to show, right? >> Ellis: Yeah, and I have a couple of notes that I just wanted -- >> Kitchen: Okay. Go ahead. >> Ellis: If Amy wants to pull up those pictures and slowly scroll through them, they are provided and backed up on the website and they're courtesy of Adam Greenfield over at rock Austin, so we appreciate him putting those online and keeping track on the ground of how people are utilizing these. I saw these on Instagram and I thought that they were so charming. I loved to see how neighbors were utilizing this. I think that this conversation is also timely because we're just now entering stage four again, so I know that when we started this back in may, what are we going to do because we're all stuck in our home and we don't want to be crowded in parks and in trails and we need more space now that traffic has minimized. So I know that it's been an ongoing project. The big successes has been that [2:47:25 PM] it created safe space for social distancing, socializing during covid. It provides both physical and mental health benefits. Another success is that it provides an opportunity to use the temporary infrastructure to explore rebalancing use O our public right-of-way to better support walking, biking, strolling and rolling, as we have seen in some of the pictures. And to make our streets safer for everybody, especially kids and older folks and pets. And this regard healthy streets served as a valuable pilot program. In some places the installations have been a huge success, and in others they were not as embraced by the community and that is okay, that is part of learning to do something new and wanting people to communicate about what it is that they want or don't want in their community. And it's perfectly fine. This temporary infrastructure allows to us try new things and to do rapid prototype and adapt easily around what is and is not working. The unexpected success is that a community was built out of this, showing the avenue G success, [2:48:27 PM] our inboxes are inundated with people saying they love avenue G and they want to keep Belfast. So I am glad to see the transportation department take these successes and see how we can turn them into more permanent infrastructure. I know that Laura mentioned a slow streets pilot, which is what healthy streets is called in a couple of different places across the globe. So I really like the play of a temporary healthy street versus a permanent healthy street. So I think that is something that we may want to think about moving forward is how we refer to these spaces. And there has been a lot of collaboration offline about what does it mean to turn something temporary into something permanent and how do we -- how do we figure out those goals. So I fully support us working -- working toward this and staff and the advocates have been extremely helpful in trying to navigate something that is a new idea and to take notes from other communities trying this out to figure out our best practices. And so as much as I support moving out and the rolling out of healthy streets or slow [2:49:29 PM] streets, we have heard a number of questions and concerns from the public and other council offices regarding the proposed winddown, especially now that we're entering stage four. So that's a concern they would really like us to be able to hold on to the ones that are really popular and maybe find some new ones if at all possible. Regarding the costs, I completely understand, that's one of the biggest issues. If we had all of the money and all of the time, but we would be able to do a lot more with it. But, again, I really appreciate staff -- staff's intent and commitment to trying to find this balance and to trying to find something that works. So I do believe that even under non-covid circumstances, there's value in testing out these changes with temporary infrastructure. Which can allow us to try healthy streets in more locations, maybe on a rotating basis to gauge success, and to further engage with how are we doing with covid and what public space is necessary. So I'm curious to know if there's been conversations and cost analysis done to consider [2:50:32 PM] maybe purchasing or crowdsourcing different things that might work instead of that cost -- a couple of examples, and then is it necessary that city staff is going out each day? Because I think that some communities have maybe found twice a week is working. And if this means recruiting more block captains, I understand that, but there's got to be a commitment to this. Regarding this semi-permanent infrastructure, I have been looking at the conversations around what do these barriers look like. Oakland is doing things that are like planters. Almost like tiny community gardens, which I really, really loved that idea of making it something that is also a benefit to the public. And so I'm also curious to know if permanent healthy streets would be considered or are being considered on places like avenue G that are showing such amazing community involvement for that particular street. And then I'm thinking about how -- how to engage this and what [2:51:33 PM] is the threshold for figuring out where the permanent healthy streets could go. So I know that I have been talking a long time but I will wrap it up quickly. For my colleagues, the bigger picture and looking ahead potentially in the next budget cycle, I'm really curious how we might be able to bolster either the staff of A.T.D., and the street design team or public works to try to do this just like commissioner champion was saying from the transportation commission, supporting those goals climate change and resilience and vision zero and equity goals. We understand that they're shouldering a critical workload at this time already and I thank y'all for all of your work, including healthy streets and beyond healthy streets. And with the recent success of prop B we have an historic $460 million to invest in active transportation and safety and infrastructure and we need sufficient staffing or contracting to get those dollars invested quickly. I think that this has been an incredible program and it is actually been a lot of fun for [2:52:34 PM] me to wrap my brain around these concepts and the conversations. And I really appreciated Julie on my team, Laura on your team, and Anna and then Adam from rock Austin, and the outside coalition, there's been so many amazing community partners that I think that there is huge success here that should be celebrated. I know that there's still some further conversations to be had about what it's going to be like in the future. But I think that it's just been a really cool program and, I mean, really -- we have policy, and the community and the city staff is really what makes it fly. So thank you for that. All right, I'm done now. >> Kitchen: You are not excited about it, right, not at all. >> Ellis: I could talk all day about this. >> Kitchen: It's a very exciting program. You know, thank you for bringing those pictures. I think that I noticed that there was a girl scout troop, [2:53:34 PM] and so that was very cool. And one of the things that is interesting too is the ability to make our streets more aesthetically pleasing, you know. Which is really important. So I think that the ability to recognize that we don't just have to have concrete slabs, you know. And I know that part of what the staff has done that's not this project per se, but has been related in a way is the effort to allow for crosswalks -- painted crosswalks, that allow for some additional creativity around what they look like. So, thank you, that was well said council member Ellis. I agree. And we need to think about what we can do to continue to support this program. Are there questions or any other council members that would like to say anything? [2:54:37 PM] Okay. I can't see you, Jimmy, but I'm sure that you're waving for your excitement for this program too. >> Yeah, I'm still here. You said my name so now I have to speak, that's the rule. Another -- another person that my office has been working with is doing these kind of tactical or these pilot programs and doing a small version of healthy streets. But being able to do it on neighborhood streets where we're also seeing speeding. And kind of a point between the staff's process to reinvent the local area traffic management but giving the neighborhood some control. We have been working with a couple neighborhoods in my district to do that. So I think there's a meeting of the two things. You get healthy streets on the big scale and we have been doing stuff on the small scale. So that will be really good work for us, council member Ellis, for you and I to brainstorm on for 2021. >> Kitchen: Okay. Any other thoughts? All right. [2:55:37 PM] Thank you, Laura. >> Thank you. >> Kitchen: Thank you for everyone working on this. So, okay, so last is just future items. Is there anything that people would like to mention at this point? Of course there's plenty of opportunity between the meetings, but anything that anyone wants to raise? No? All right. I can't believe it, we're actually five minutes short of our ending time. So let me just say thank you all and we will adjourn at 2:55.