Mobility Committee Meeting Transcript – 01/21/2021 Title: City of Austin Channel: 6 - COAUS Recorded On: 1/21/2021 6:00:00 AM Original Air Date: 1/21/2021 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. [1:02:32 PM] >> Kitchen: All right. It looks like we're ready to go. Wait. What happened to Vanessa? We should keep Vanessa in. There sure. >> Sorry about that. >> Kitchen: That's okay. No worries, except we can't see you now, Vanessa. There you go. Thank you for joining us, councilmember Fuentes. All right, we are ready to begin and commence our mobility committee meeting at 1:02 P.M. Our first item on the agenda is approval of the minutes of the mobility committee meeting of November 19th. So motion from councilmember Ellis, second from councilmember alter. All in favor? It's unanimous. All right, our first item today is a briefing on the implementation of the 2020 prop B mobility bonds. [1:03:34 PM] So we'll get our staff on to -- we don't have any -- so colleagues, we don't have any speakers signed up today. And to let you know our timeline, we have about an hour for this item. >> [Inaudible - no mic]. >> Alter: Can you try and speak up a little bit. >> I've had microphone issues. I'll speak louder here. Is that better? I'm [indiscernible], assistant director of public works along with the [indiscernible]. And we want to thank you for the opportunity to present today on the 2020 mobility bond. We're very excited to move these mobility projects forward. Ann and I are going to review the programs funded by the bond, next steps on moving the program forward. [1:04:38 PM] Next slide. On November fourth voters in Austin approved a 460-million-dollar active mobility bond which includes one million for neighborhood partnering, 80 million for sidewalks, 80 million for urban trails, 40 million for bikeways, 20 million for safe routes to school, 19 million for local transit, 65 million for safety and vision zero, 53 million for substandard streets and 102 million for major capital improvement. All these represent a significant investment in existing mobility programs and will require enhanced management coordination to efficiently deliver these projects across the various programs. Next slide, please. There are several guiding documents of the existing programs to provide coordination and prioritization, including the imagine Austin plan, strategic direction 2023, [1:05:39 PM] the Austin strategic mobility plan and the bicycle plan and trails master plan, Austin climate plan, sidewalk and Ada transition plan. As you know, the 2021 draft mobility annual plan is currently available for review and comment through February 7th and will be discussed in a later agenda item in this committee meeting. Next slide. The sidewalk program will receive $80 million in bond focusing with a focus on high and very high priority sidewalks within a quarter mile of schools, bus stops and parks, which address 20% of the identified need and the bond funding is split between new sidewalks and rehabilitation of existing sidewalks. Next slide. The urban trails program will receive $80 million of bond funding focusing on the construction of 30% of the city's tier 1 urban trails identified in the urban trails master plan. [1:06:39 PM] And will provide for the design and development of tier 2 urban trails. Projects will address barriers to the active transportation network. Neighboring partnering program will have community led partnerships for active transportation mobility projects, which include a proportional match from [indiscernible]. Next slide. Safe routes to school received 20 million in bond funding to focus on high and very high priority projects, advancing hundreds of low cost, high value projects addressing approximately eight percent of the need of the high and very high rated projects. I would now like to hand it over to Ana martin to review the remaining programs funded by the 2020 bond and [indiscernible]. >> Thanks. Can everyone hear me okay. [1:07:39 PM] So continuing on walking through our program buckets, 2020 gives us 65 million for vision zero and that builds upon investments that were also made in 2016 and 2018 with the bonds. This program plans to tackle safety through several approaches, continuation of our reconstruction of major intersections, reduction in high risk speeding, looking at system-wide pedestrian safety improvements, as well as rapid response projects on the high industry roadways that were identified in the asmp. Next slide, please. 2020 gives us 40 million additional dollars for bikeways and that's again on top of 20 million that we're currently delivering as part of the 2016 mobility bond. We're going to continue to follow the priorities set in the 2014 bicycle plan and in [1:08:40 PM] the 2019 asmp. The funding will allow us to complete about 70% of the all ages and abilities bikeways network. And a hallmark of the bikeways program is to work in close coordination with our transit program and our pedestrian safety program to deliver complete and safe projects for everyone. Next slide, please. A new local mobility program established with this bond is for transit enhancement. This is a new program. Again as I said, established with 2020, but it really builds on a working partnership that's been developed between atd, Austin transportation, and capital metro. These projects are separate from proposition a and this program will focus on projects to improve the speed and reliability of our local transit service as well as enhancing access to transit. This may include an expansion of our micromobility fleet as well as parking for those [1:09:41 PM] devices, as well as additional investments in communications and technology. Next slide. The next bucket here is substandard streets and this is a great example of again building on work that was completed in the 2016 mobility bond. As I'm sure our council is well aware, we studied nine substandard streets that were named in the 2016 mobility bond and identified improvements to bring those streets up to city standards. So this 53 million is setting us up for improvements to many of those roadways. Council asked us to prioritize Johnny Morris road and Ross road. And we'll also be looking for partnership opportunities or grants to help us expand the reach of this 53 million and look for ways to improve the other roadways in the bucket as well. [1:10:41 PM] Next slide. The last major category is major capital improvement projects. And there were five named projects in this bucket. The first being the longhorn dam bridge. And so the funding here will construct a new pedestrian and bicycle bridge adjacent to the pleasant valley road crossing of the longhorn dam. If you've been out there you know how uncomfortable it is right now between the fence and the very narrow sidewalk, so this is a much anticipated and exciting project. The second is the congress avenue urban design initiative. And this will bring improvements to the heart of congress avenue from the lake up to the capital. The third project in the bucket is the Barton springs road bridge project. And as part of the funding here we'll perform preliminary engineering activities related to the Barton springs road bridge [1:11:48 PM] near assie and Barton springs road. This is another project building on the work that we did in 2016 we completed a corridor study for south pleasant valley road. So the funding in this large capital bucket is intended to fill a gap in the current pleasant valley alignment just north of Ben white. And this connection is anticipated to greatly benefit the planned metro rapid route on pleasant valley that's funded as part of the prop a. And finally, corridor place making. We've developed a really robust placemaking program along with the corridor's work using the 2016 mobility bond. So again funding this this large capital delivery bucket will allow us to extend the reach of the placemaking projects that are already planned as part of the corridor program. The next slide, please. [1:12:51 PM] So we've shared this graphic in previous communications to mayor and council, but I think it shows really well the build up of 2016, 2018 and now the 2020 mobility bond program. The dark blue and the light blue represent the current workload of our teams that are working to develop the 2016 and '18 mobility bonds. As you can see it's kind of hard to see with the scale now, but there is a big jump up between 2020 and 2021 in delivery of the 2016 and 2018 bond. And that's what we're working through right now. And we had always planned for in 2021 and 2022 to be our peak delivery years with a slow wind down in 23 and 24. So the green color here represents the 2020 bond. We have divided our delivery strategies into two categories. One will be ramping up our local mobility program to [1:13:51 PM] deliver at a higher rate per year through 2027. And the second strategy being that some of the larger projects like the substandard street bucket and the large cip bucket will be delivered through more traditional cip delivery methods. Along with prop B, the contract with the voters gave additional direction to staff in a couple of areas. So a couple of things that we're highlighting for y'all that we will be working through. One was develop recommendations for implementation of the 2020 bond in a manner that prioritizes investment in traditionally underserved areas. So each of our existing programs have the current framework that we've been working on for 2016. But part of our work this year as we prepare for 2020 delivery will be to review each of these prioritization [1:14:52 PM] frameworks critically and incorporate an equity review into our annual mobility annual plan process. The second item from the contract with the voters that I wanted to highlight was that council asked us to deliver this program within six years of approval of the first construction contract. The six-year time frame is extremely aggressive, especially when you compound that on top of the 2018 and the -- 2016 and 2018 work we're already doing. So we're confident that we can deliver this, but it will really take intense focus from city hall all the way down to the staff level. Our plan for delivery depends on a midyear budget amendment to allow for the onboarding of new staff as well as bond appropriations necessary to get our start-up activities underway. The remainder of 2021 will [1:15:52 PM] be focused on onboarding new staff and ramping up the delivery capabilities of our local mobility programs. We'll also be working through the equity analysis and framework that I talked about previously. Additionally design contracts will be initiated for our larger projects that fall into the traditional cip delivery category. We've planned to bring the first construction project to council in 2022, which will start the six-year delivery timeline. In the meantime, though, the community and council, we're not going to miss a beat. Throughout 2021 we'll continue to deliver projects as part of the 2016 and 2018 investments. Next slide, please. So I just want to recap some key themes that staff has:alessed around as we're [1:16:52 PM] preparing for the 2020 bond. No doubt this is a huge mountain to climb, but we're excited for the opportunity to deliver this program for the community. As I mentioned, 2021 will largely be a year for capacity building. We need to hack sell rate 2016 and 2018, unstick some of the bottle necks that have been uncovered over the last four years and prepare ourselves for those peak delivery years of 22 through 2027. We need to create multiple delivery options and we have some strategies put together in both atd and public works and through contracting to minimize our risk overall. We are already prioritizing, planning and delivering, but these steps will become even more important as we take on a higher workload. Finally, I know y'all are familiar with our mobility [1:17:54 PM] annual plan process. This year we'll be updating that framework to include 2020 as well as bring capital metro in with the project connect investments so that we can be looking at our mobility portfolio as a whole. And I already discussed the equity framework, but that's something that we're already thinking through about how to best incorporate that into the M.A.P. Process. Next slide. So we'll be coming to council mid February for a midyear budget amendment to allow us to jumpstart the capacity building. We're going to use a combination of hiring new staff, utilizing staff augmentation contracts, as well as hiring consultants to support the bond delivery. So the hiring and training of new staff of course takes time so we'd like to begin that work immediately. [1:18:55 PM] Some of our new staff will be sent to areas for the bottleneck that we currently see, which will in turn help us accelerate the 2016 and 2018 work. This also allows us to meet the desire of the council and the community to deliver these projects faster. We anticipate that additional resources may be required beyond the midyear budget amendment, but we'll bring those forward through the typical budget process in future years. Next slide. Okay. So this is our 2020 implementation schedule. Just two short months ago that voters approved prop B. We've been spending December and part of January now resource planning and strategizing of how we'll undertake this delivery. Yesterday we spoke to bond oversight commission to today of course we're here [1:19:56 PM] at mobility committee. We Amy a council briefing and council action in mid February for the authorization for the midyear budget amendments. The spring, summer and fall of 2020 will be spent again undertaking the capacity building activities that I described and also working through the prioritization inequity analysis. Fall 2021 I expect that we'll start getting contracts out on the street and then project delivery will start in 2022 and run through 2027. I also want to mention there's another touch point with mobility committee that the cpo, the corner project office team will be bringing forward. The passage of prop a has some overlaps with the approved corridor construction program. So the cpo team and atd have been coordinating with the [1:20:57 PM] project connect team and will bring back information to mobility committee likely next month on recommended changes within the corridor construction program. I believe this is my last slide. I want to mention that in addition to me and Eric, rob spillar, Mike Trimble and Richard Mendoza I believe are all available so we're here to help with any questions you might have. I think the wrap up slide is the next one. >> Kitchen: Thanks, Ana. Lessee. People have questions and -- let's see. Okay. We'll start with councilmember Ellis. >> Ellis: Thank you, chair kitchen. This is really exciting. I know we were expecting to see some sort of framework early 2021, January, February potentially, and [1:22:00 PM] for this coming to our committee before we've even had our first council meeting together is something that I think shows the dedication of our transportation and public3 works staff, which is very exciting. I do think that including props a and B into the existing mapping that has the mobility annual plans is a really creative decision. A lot of times people see I know something in my neighborhood is expected, I know a timeline, but I can't remember which proposition and where it is on the list so I think that's a really creative way to have, you know, one clearinghouse for all this mobility information. I have a couple of questions, but I know that other people may as well, so I don't necessarily need to do all of mine in order. I want to make sure that we can all have time to ask questions. But I did know that when you talked about 2016 and 2018 bottlenecks, do you have an idea of how those [1:23:00 PM] bottlenecks, advise not solving some of those, but in our project implementation going forward, are you going to incorporate that information and make sure we don't end up with bottlenecks for these propositions as well? >> That's a great question. If you think back to 2016, that was the single largest mobility investment that we had made as a city. So we're halfway in to delivery of that bond. So of course, things have come to light that may not have been anticipated back in 2016. So I think the midyear budget amendment that we'll bring to y'all next month will help us get resources in additional areas like permitting, as well as our signs and marketing crews that do a lot of the project implementation for us among several other resources. So yes, I'm confident and hopeful that we'll unstick some of these bottlenecks and help us deliver 2020. [1:24:01 PM] >> Ellis: That's really great to hear and I know your staff works really hard so I know you have the right people working on this type of solution. Do you have a little more concrete information about how you're going to prioritize projects. I know that a lot of these plans have their own prioritization process built into them, but when you have multiple plans you're trying to weave together, how you will prioritize projects and let the community members know when to expect things in their neighborhood. >> So I think we are planning to build upon the mobility annual plan process. As you know, we have the sidewalks and bike ways and all of these local mobility programs have their individual plans and then we have that rolled up into the Austin strategic mobility plan. So every year through that M.A.P. Process all of our groups get together in the same room over the course of days and plan out our projects for the year. And what we want to make sure is that we're [1:25:02 PM] delivering complete projects for the community. So one we use our plans and two, we all plan together about what we're going to be doing for the upcoming year. So that's how we'll continue for the local mobility programs. We're going to establish some different criteria for the substandard streets, and we're just starting on that framework now, but that bucket is a little different. It's more quarterly of what we did in 2016. So we'll be diving through the nine plans, taking into account the direction from council on prioritizations and scoping all those projects for the 53 million. I'd say there are a couple of approaches, and let's build on what we've learned and used from 2016. >> Ellis: And do you know what projects? Are there any -- >> I don't. >> Ellis: [Indiscernible], that will be early out the [1:26:02 PM] door. >> You know, as a community member, I don't think you will be able to tell the difference between 2016, '18 and 2020, so all of 2021 we're going to be delivering projects from the M.A.P. So I don't know that our community cares which bucket it's from. They just want projects that help their kids get to school or help them get around their neighborhood. So you'll see a continuous flow of projects over the next year. >> Ellis: That's appreciated. I'll ask one more and then pass it off because I'm sure my colleagues have questions. Do you have a plan for which commissions you might take some of these items to? Obviously bond oversight will be involved? Will urban transportation be involved or environmental commission or any others that we should let people to be on the lookout for some of these topics coming to them? >> That's a great question. I don't have a schedule set out just yet, but over the past four years we've routinely worked with bond oversight, of course, as well as the BAC and the pac. [1:27:05 PM] Urban transportation commission we visit a lot as well. I'll ask any of my co-workers on the call if they want to jump in, but we'll plan on routinely checking in on those commissions as we go. >> Ellis: That's exciting. I have a couple more, but I know people probably have their own to ask so I'll let my colleagues have a moment. >> Kitchen: Councilmember Fuentes, if you want to ask your questions next? >> Fuentes: Yes, chair kitchen. Mine are on substandard streets and if those will be prioritized. I know the statesman recently did an article about Ross road and I received feedback from our community that wanted to know when construction would start because the way we had -- my understanding is it's a shovel ready project and I guess it was the first [1:28:06 PM] phase of the engineering report completed. And the article alluded to the timeline starting in 23 for construction. So I wanted to see if there's any way to start that process sooner, given the high need in that area. So I'm curious for your thoughts. And I also know that we're meeting later this week or next week and if that's a better time to get into the detail of that project, I'm happy to discuss it then as well. >> Yes, welcome, councilmember. We're really happy to have you. Ross road is definitely a critical need and we have step one done complete of many steps. What we did was complete a preliminary engineering report which outlined the recommended improvements for Ross road as well as some of the factors to look for as far as drainage and environmental and others. The next step, which probably is adding time to [1:29:06 PM] the clock as you saw in 2023 is design. So design for a large project like Ross road could take 12 to 18 months, I would say. So we have a couple of things to get through first. We need to get through the prioritization, we need to work with with Travis county because they have a project in the area as well. And then we'll have to get into design and probably start late this year or 2022. So that timeline is probably accurate, but we'll see everything we can do on our side to get that going as soon as possible. >> Kitchen: Councilmember alter. >> Alter: Thank you. Let me know if my microphone acts up. I've been having some issues with it. Thank you. This is a lot of projects that we've been asking you to deliver and I appreciate that you are being forthright and candid about the call of what is being -- scale of what is being asked of you and would ask that you continue to acknowledge the magnitude and make sure that we are planning for the [1:30:08 PM] scale of what we are asking of staff. We're fortunate that this is a bond and so we have some room to maneuver to fund staff for that, but I think it's really important that we are forthright about that, so I appreciate it. I had a question about interprogram collaboration. So you have this whole kind of local mobility bucket, but some of the high priority safe routes to school programs in my district might be bike lanes. So how is that working? Across departments? >> Yeah, that's a great question. Our teams have really just organically established this ongoing day-to-day coordination. So our safe routes program works directly with the bikeways who works with sidewalks and we're constantly communicating on a day-to-day basis. So we'll look at safe routes, highest priority projects for next year and [1:31:09 PM] then the bikeways team and layer in their work with sidewalks. We'll maneuver and move things around so we can deliver a complete project for a school or a community. So that coordination is always ongoing. And if there are specific things you're seeing that you don't think the connections are being made, I would be happy to talk to you about that offline and see what we can do. >> Alter: Yeah, we've been working closely with safe routes to school and trying to work with the other programs, but I wasn't at all apparent from the presentation and the buckets how that would play out, especially in my district that isn't falling into a lot of the buckets exactly as they are. And is not identified for specific projects. So obviously there's high and very high needs, etcetera, but we also have to make sure that we are providing projects in every district. So I'm trying to understand -- it's not exactly tied to the other [1:32:09 PM] question, but it is related in that, you know, the bike lane projects that could deliver for safe routes to school may not be the highest priority for every safe route to school, but they may be a high priority for bike lanes and ones that overlap in that way I would want to make sure that we are trying to find funding for. So at some point I would very much like to better understand how this plays out in practice across districts so we can make sure we're making investments everywhere. Obviously we're following the equity guidelines that we had, but that's not always clear to focus as to how that plays out and how we are measuring that in practice. I would like to have more conversations, but it doesn't have to be today on that. My other question is this is a massive scale between this and the mobility bond and prop a. [1:33:12 PM] How are we making sure that we have the worker protections there in order to scale this? One piece is to scale this, but for the most part our folks don't go out and build the projects. We contract with other folks. And in the environment with so much construction planned, how are we thinking about making that easier and simpler and more people get jobs? >> That's a really great question. And add in I-35 to that list, another massive project for our region, I would say this is a huge risk for us as a city for us and for capital metro and for txdot. Of course we need people to come and build these projects for us. We plan to build on a lot of the work we started with 2016 so there has been a very concerted effort for outreach to the consultant and contractor community, [1:34:12 PM] especially trying to work with our smbr programs. So we're consistently with out with those groups telling them what's been coming and trying to break out projects into discrete pieces so person contractors with bid on certain developments. Really trying to attract more vendors to our area. Eric, I don't know if you want to add anything to that? >> Yes, I think what you're saying is right on point. Additional outreach that we can get for contractors in the community, but that also being able to control what we can on our side in terms of the size of the projects that we're putting out to bid, utilizing idiq contracting so we can get smaller contractors involved and sort of try and spread the word as much as we can across the different sizes and availability and capacity of contractors that are in our area and as well as reaching out to other contractors outside of Texas. So everyone is at least aware of the opportunities [1:35:12 PM] that are here in Austin. >> Alter: So I understand that makes sense as something that is sort of under control of atd or public works, but it seems like there are additional opportunities for us to leverage these programs from the workforce side, whether it's in partnership with workforce solutions or ACC or the contract. We can can have as many contractors as we want, but if there's nobody they can hire because we haven't helped people see this as a viable vocational choice, they can't hire. That doesn't seem to be sort of under the rubric of atd or public works so I just think we should consider and if there's right people in our offices that we should talk to, I think we should consider what does that look like as a workforce program? We have all of these companies that are moving [1:36:13 PM] here. We have got to grow that workforce and we have people so at the same time in our community that are out of work who could be up skilled to be able to help build out all these projects and it's just an opportunity that I would hate for us to miss. So if you have some thoughts on who we connect more up with on that, it's not something I've seen as part of our workforce plans, per se. >> Yeah, that's a great idea. I know that we included some job training requirements as part of the program so that's a program that's building. Really great comments and I'll take these back to cco and some of our partner departments and see if we can get moving. >> Alter: I wanted to underscore it's not necessarily your bailiwick to do that, so we should-- you're doing a good job of [1:37:14 PM] facilitating between atd and public works, but we need to think about that and making sure that that's prominent on our radar screen and it's going to affect the success of the programs as well. Thank you. >> Councilmember, this is director Mendoza. One of the things that [indiscernible]. Annual contractor fairs where we invite the community to come in and talk to us and other contractors about the community and of course the on the job training program that we emulated from txdot. They did that program for many years. We greatly anticipate our partnership with them to [indiscernible] Our contracting capacity. And to safeguards that we have in place that as we come through this pandemic environment that we're doing everything that we can to safeguard those workers. [1:38:21 PM] >> Kitchen: Okay. Councilmember alter, are you -- >> Alter: I'm done, thank you. >> Kitchen: All right, I'm going to ask a few questions and then we'll circle back around also. So I want to talk -- I want to ask first, this is one of the questions that I think I've heard from some in the public. So I would ask that you all just explain this you know, we have passed a number of bonds in recent years so I would like to understand the relationship between moving forward aggressively with these bonds, which I think is good, but how that relates to our other bonds in 2018. My understanding is that moving forward with these transportation bonds will not delay or slowdown our housing bonds, for example, the issuance of our housing bonds, for example. But I would like for you to think about that because I know it's one of the questions that I have had in the past. [1:39:24 PM] >> Most certainly, councilmember. Director Mendoza again. Of course we the voters did pass a sizeable 2018 infrastructure bond. Many of those support our other strategic areas, our libraries, our parks. Those programs are continuing Andrew Rivera two or three years ago when I first arrived, one of the things that we did in public works kind of a lessons learned from the central library project was we stood up a dedicated vertical architectural project management team that didn't have to compete for internal resources with the overall project management that was [indiscernible] In public works. So that team is led by our city architect, Janis white. And their baseline schedules are going to remain intact and be non- affected by the additional workload that we [1:40:25 PM] are having for work. We are developing a similar tact [indiscernible] And a project management group that will develop ongoing working relationships and familiarity with these types of projects with the local mobility teams. And that's going to be our best tact going forward. We are not expecting any impact to the vertical side if you will for 2018 and those other very critical infrastructure investments from the addition of the 2020 transit mobility bond. >> Kitchen: Okay. So our ability to issue the bonds within the limitations of our financial parameters, the ability to issue these bonds I'm understanding will not delay issuance of housing bonds in particular. So can you all speak to that, acm Mendoza, can you speak to that? [1:41:26 PM] I want to make sure, I hear what you're saying, Mr. Men doze, with regard to the [indiscernible] Aspects of it and that's good to hear. I want to confirm it with regard to the actual issuance of bond dollars. >> Yes, councilmember. We can certainly loop back with the cfo's office to ensure that we're on schedule. In terms of the bond dollars that are allocated for the mobility outcome, we don't anticipate any interruption in issuance of those bonds. >> Kitchen: Okay. No interruption of the timeline for issuance of bonds under the 2018. That's just something that council would need to understand. I don't understand it, but I would not want to -- I would not want to be -- have unhappened results from [1:42:28 PM] that. And you know, I know we have urgency in the timeline with regard to our housing bonds. So it sounds to me, my understanding at this point, is that there is not an impact, but I would ask that that be clarified with the cfo's office. Thank you. And I have one other question and that relates to the prioritization process that I think that maybe councilmember Ellis had asked about. My request would be that when y'all get to the -- when y'all work through your processes and your identified projects for prioritization, that you incorporate into your process bringing those back to council and this committee so that we can have an understanding of what those priorities are going forward. And also as a council we can share information and [1:43:30 PM] provide input into that process. Now, I understand that that's what normally occurs through our cip process, perhaps, or through other processes. And I think that -- I think you had mentioned a -- the annual mobility plan. Regardless, I want to understand and want to include in the process a touch point back with the council. Ideally from my perspective, I would think that the council would want to approve the prioritization schedules. So can you all speak to that? >> Councilmember, this is Robert spillar, director of Austin transportation department. You know, we've not prioritized the projects yet and that's a very fluid process. And of course we will come back to you as you requested with identification of what the prioritization process would be. And then this is a six year [1:44:31 PM] program so we'll have an overall sort of concept to the prioritization, and then from year to year as projects shift around it's our plan to report back to council on an annual work plan on that year's efforts. As you know, it's in the best of our efforts, we'll identify a project and prioritize it for any given year and then we'll ultimately find something in the way that prevents us from keeping that schedule. We try to be transparent with you and the public and the committees that that's what happens with construction. Sometimes we have to make a last minute shift in priorities because there's an intervening issue. We've really developed I think a good annual work plan concept with the 2016 bond and we'll be continuing that process after the initial prioritization. As Ana said, and Eric said, [1:45:31 PM] we need to go through the analysis that we've committed to and it will not change that course. We will still be doing that. >> Kitchen: Okay, thank you. Councilmember Ellis, I think you had more questions? >> Ellis: Yes. There are some things rolling around in my head as we're discussing this and it's the first time we've circled around on the implementation of this bond. Is the mobility plan site going to be the main clearinghouse for the information or will there be a separate landing page that is specific to this one so that the questions about certain aspects of it, a stagnant page. Can you tell me if there's one spot or a second spot for the locale as well? >> We're still ironing out the details, but I think we're going to build on a lot of the tools that we've [1:46:32 PM] developed for 2016. We rely pretty heavily on the landing page for the 2016 mobility bond, the capital projects explorer that shows status of all the individual projects. And we do a lot of story boarding and links from that page so we're going to build on some of those tools and then determine what else we need to do to be telling the public consistently what's going on with 2020. >> Ellis: I appreciate that. Another thought I had which councilmember kitchen had touched on was will we be getting updates according to certain timelines like quarterly, semi-annually or would it be more based on phases and milestones? Once we get through ab and C, then we'll be able to identify the next steps to anticipate. Have you short of -- it seems like you're figuring out what that's going to look like. >> Yeah, I'll say we're here on January 21st. I would think by March or [1:47:33 PM] April perhaps check in again with the mobility committee or perhaps the memo outline the reporting structures. But as we've discussed I think in a previous question, we'll plan on frequent frequents to mobility committee as well as some of the other commissions that we routinely consult with. I will he will okay. Will there be one main point of contact or is there going to be a couple of people in a couple of places, like finance person, a public works person and a -- have you thought about those details yet? >> Yeah. Eric and I are it for right now. We have the support of rehab bin Richard and all of our teams. If those contacts change or evolve we'll be sure to communicate that to you. >> Ellis: Okay. That's appreciated. >> Councilmember? Rob spillar again. On that just to let you know, even though this is a single mobility bond, $460 million, it really [1:48:34 PM] funds a whole range of projects so each of those projects we're simply funding those programs moving forward. So it's really more like a collection of mobility bonds that we're doing all at once. So we hear you. It would be nice for you to have a single point of contact and we'll work on that so that we try to coordinate across all the pieces. That makes a lot of sense. >> Ellis: That can help us turn that information back to constituents if we know we're all getting the same information and that's available for us to share. >> We want to do that tragedy on our side -- triage on that side to make it as easy for you and as well as the residents. >> Ellis: That's very much appreciated. Mr. Bailey had discussed in a bit of detail the ideq contracts so I know a lot of us know what that means, but I know there may be people following along with great interest, but the idiq contracts are indefinite [1:49:34 PM] deliverable, indefinite quantity, which in my experience works as a rotation list where you have 10 qualified firms and as the projects become shovel ready the first one on the list gets a project. Is that how you're thinking of this working? >> It really depends on how you break it out. Really it's one contractor when who proposes on -- >> Kitchen: Eric, could you speak a little louder? >> Sorry about that, I'll talk a little louder too. It's not really a rotation list because those are really for professional services. This is where we would identify a contractor. Let's say it's a contractor idiq. Let's say we put out an ifp for quantities that is usually going to take place and there's usually a renewal period on there as well. Then assignments are given to that contractor to perform work under the idiq. Those can often depend on size and location and things like that. [1:50:35 PM] The idea with that idiq contracting would be to try and keep those ifbs on the smaller side so it opens up the bidding field to more contractors, as well as doing casualty idiqs for the program. You can divide it geographically, divide it by district, divide it a bunch of different ways, but it is a good way to provide for construction for projects that don't really face permitting or engineering design kind of challenges. If we're going out there's a bunch of cracked sidewalks that we want to replace, there's no trees in the way. That's a really good indicate for an idiq sidewalk project. That of course can apply to a bunch of different things, signals and signs and markings and bike ways and all kinds of different programs we'll be able to use that quit to get work out in -- idiq out in the work quickly on projects that are not technically complex from a design or permitting perspective. >> That's appreciated. Thanks for going into a [1:51:36 PM] little bit more detail about how those contracts would work. Are there any ideas for the signage? I know we've done some -- y'all have done in creative things with the bike signage in downtown specifically, but as we do things like urban trails or bike lanes in other areas, is there an intent right now on to improve upon our bike signage options? Is that something that you're considering with this? >> One of the things I hear quite a bit is wayfinding. So if you're on a trail where does that take you? I know there's been some thought in the urban trails program about how to revamp and update their wayfinding. I believe that's going to be one of our priorities in 2021. >> Ellis: That's great. I know as I bike near the new cap metro station, the [1:52:37 PM] one near the convention center that came in under time and under budget, which is always great to hear, at first it was tricky for me to navigate on a bike so it got me to thinking about as people new to commuting by bicycle, how do we make it how do we have people the ability to know where they're going and are in the right spot, especially when there's construction happening, sometimes it get scary when you're in the middle of a lane, you don't know where you're supposed to go, so I've been thinking about painting or signage. I know things have been done for different mobility options. I know that's on your mind and was curious about how this would work with this proposition. >> Councilmember, we'll look into that. I think that's a great suggestion. Even absent of this bond program. [1:53:38 PM] Thank you. >> Ellis: I appreciate that. And my last thought would be seeing as how councilmember alter had led on the creation of the conservation corps, I wasn't sure if there was any opportunity for those initiatives to benefit each other. So I hadn't dug into it enough or spoken with councilmember alter about if -- I'm sure she's got our hands on it so I don't know if there are opportunities, but I thought if there were any, that might be a good partnership if they have the same goal and anything is happening in the same spaces, that might be an interesting conversation. >> Kitchen: Yes. Did you want to speak to that, councilmember alter? >> Alter: Yes, I would say that there are many opportunities here where we could potentially partner with CCC and again it goes back to the workforce questions. This is less about the [1:54:38 PM] contractors and more about the voids, but I think it's certainly a way that we can be thinking about the projects and my office can make sure we connect you up with charge who is in charge of the accc work to see if there's some interesting overlap. Thank you, councilmember Ellis, for raising that. >> Ellis: It's a great initiative. >> Kitchen: Councilmember Ellis, I think -- that's such a great program and I no he that councilmember alter has been working on shepherding that, so I appreciate that. This might create some really cool synergies there. So let's see. We have about five more minutes for this allotted time. Are there other questions. Councilmember Fuentes, did you have any other questions? No. Any other questions, councilmember alter? Okay. I have one last one. Did you finish yours, councilmember Ellis? >> Ellis: I did, I get my [1:55:39 PM] questions, thank you. >> Kitchen: I have one other -- it's not really a question. It's really a point that I want to make because I know that folks in south Austin continually ask about that. I wanted to point out again that the Bergstrom spur trail is one of our it's one that would be in the mix for funding for consideration on this. So I want to reassure folks in south Austin. And I'm also -- I don't mean to pick out particular projects because there are still some really exciting projects here, but I also want to give a nod to the pleasant valley project, which is going to create great synergies with project connect and the brt along there. And there's something that I know our staff identified awhile back and we've talked about funding through campo and other means. So this is very exciting to be able to identify that. [1:56:42 PM] So thanks, everyone. This is very helpful. I know you guys are on top of that. Once again our transportation team is doing a great job. Y'all have demonstrated over the years with the 2020 bonds that you know how to get big projects done, and so we just -- so the voters have now given you and we just gave you an even taller assignment. I know that you all can do it. And I like the graphic. I like the little graphic with the mountain climber. It's great. All right, guys. Thank you very much. We appreciate your time today. This was very helpful. The next item, everyone, is an update on the red line parkway. And we have about 15 minutes or so for that update. So I'm not certain who is giving us the update, but if [1:57:43 PM] we can bring those folks in. >> I'll get them on there right now. >> Kitchen: And I believe that councilmember pool may be trying to get in. >> Yes, I just let her in. Hello, everyone, I'm kitty wit tick with the urban trails program. And councilmember pool, welcome. We are now on our second briefing item which relates to the red line parkway. >> Pool: Perfect timing. Thanks so much. >> I'm going to do an overview of the red line trail and the parkway initiative and I'll hand it over to Tom Wald with the [1:58:43 PM] red line parkway initiative to talk about his organization. >> Kitchen: Okay. We need to let Tom Wald in also. >> Next slide. There we go. [1:59:44 PM] So an overview of the red line trail, this is a 32-mile proposed trail network that you can see here. And it follows capital metro's red line rail from downtown Austin to Leander. And about 10 miles of trail currently exist, but I do want to note that some of this is along new hope drive in cedar park so it's still connected to red line trail, but not part of the 32 miles. So it's a pretty ambitious undertaking for completing this whole corridor. Next slide. So now I'll go over some of the completed segments. One of the longer pieces is what you see here and it runs from about holly shores up into cherrywood and passes through the mlk station. APD this is all a little bit different. It's not a uniform segment so part of it is the [2:00:47 PM] pedernales street protected bike lanes that is pictured here and another part is the standard urban trail which you can see a picture here of upper boggy creek trail which opened in 2019 and is a 15-foot concrete trail that runs from 12th street to mlk station. Next slide. And then another completed segment is along airport boulevard. So here you see it's a little different from the off street, totally off street separated trail, but it's still in this nice shared use path along airport and this connects from highland to crestview station. Next. Then up north there are two existing segments, one near lakeline station and then one pictured here at Avery ranch. Can you can see the ranch [2:01:48 PM] that supports both of these segments. Next slide. Then from the active projects we are currently working on lower boggy creek trail and this will extend from rosewood to 12th street and connect to the upper boggy creek trail that was shown earlier. What's really exciting about this project it will be Austin's first separated dual track urban trail. So you can see this image. There's two paths, one is for pedestrians and people moving slightly slower. And then the other is this wider path for bicyclists or people on wheels moving faster. So this allows just a more comfortable experience. So we're really excited about this one and construction is going to be complete in mid February. Next slide. Then another project is the portion from northern walnut creek trail to Braker. [2:02:51 PM] So this will connect the walnut creek trails system south to Braker and the Austin fc stadium. And this is adjacent to the proposed broadmoor station and it will be really beneficial connection, connecting people both to the cap metro stations and to the future stadium, which can help move people around on game days. Next slide. So the urban trails program is focused on implementing the urban trail network throughout the city, but then we also are partnering with red line parkway initiative which focuses just on implementation of this red line corridor. And as a reminder, council passed a resolution in 2019 that called for the formation of a partnership between the city of Austin and red line parkway initiative, and this is almost finalized under legal review now, but we've already been working very closely with the organization. And the great thing about [2:03:52 PM] partners is that they can help by leveraging volunteers and private resources. So the partnership that we're working on is modeled off of the partnership that we have with shoal creek conservancy and then other trail partners that we work with very frequently are hill country conservancy, the trail foundation, Austin parks foundation, and Waterloo greenway. I'm sure there are others as well. >> Pool: Katie, excuse me real quick. I want to just jump in here if I could, chair, just briefly, to acknowledge all of these different groups, in particular. Tom has worked with my staff with the parkway and resolution partnership and I appreciate the work that has been done to advance this framework in order to get the trail on the ground. So thanks so much to everybody who is on this [2:04:52 PM] call today who have been so diligently working on it. Appreciate the support. >> Thank you. This was a great transition, but I would like to actually hand the floor over to Tom Wald to talk about all the work that he's been doing and then we'll both be available for questions. So Tom, if you are ready. >> Yeah. I don't have slides, but I'll go ahead and start. Tom Wald, executive director of the red line parkway initiative, supporting the 32-mile trail. >> Kitchen: I'm sorry, Tom. If you could speak up just a little bit and perhaps we can take down the presentation so we can see each other better. Go ahead, Tom. >> I hope the audio is better. We're supporting the 32-mile trail along the capital metro red line. And very brief history in [2:05:53 PM] 2004 capital metro area voters approved the red line metro rail. In addition to approving right-of-way for the red line trail. And capital metro had hoped to complete the trail by 2019 and since that was wasn't on track we founded the initiative 2017 to accelerate it and I began as staff on the full-time initiative. And it was to formalize our partnerships with the two primary agencies responsible for completing the red line trail and that our capital metro and city of Austin. And then in November 2019 as councilmember pool mentioned and Katie mentioned, city council directed staff to pursue a partnership and capital metro did the same with -- or their board did the same with their staff. Our work is organized into four programs and those are plan the parkway, fund the parkway, build the parkway and activate the parkway. In 2020 we made progress in [2:06:54 PM] all of these areas. We continued with some additional parkway planning. We helped ensure room for the parkway through several new developments along the corridor, especially in collaboration with urban trail staff. We have been working to ensure that I-35 crossings at fourth street, Hancock center and airport boulevard are car free in addition to supporting connections and transit amenities along I- 35. We worked with the city on active red line trail projects including the boggy creek trail, Braker to walnut creek project and some interim onstreet connections. We also worked with the city of Leander stop to create a new trail connection for the Leander station that is expected to open by next year. And we worked with peer organizations, city council and others to support parkway funding through props B and a in November and other work as well last year. So this year we will work to secure public and private funding to ramp up community engagement and development of the parkway plan with [2:07:54 PM] [indiscernible] That began this summer. And the target for council adoption of the plan in early 2022. We aim to help bring capital metro into alignment with national rails with trails best practices including federal railroad administration guidelines for constrained areas. So formalize partnerships with all corridor government agencies to help ensure adoption of the parkway plan and also broaden support to fund the parkway and for cooperation in the time that the parkway is implemented. Of course, also in 2021 we're going to be working to expand our community outreach, continue working on car-free crossings for the parkway at I-35 and also at Lamar. And to host walking, biking, running and other events along the parkway. Of course, once local health conditions permit. And we'll be working on some other projects as well. And I'll bring the floor back to Katie. >> Yeah, thank you, Tom. [2:08:54 PM] >> Thank you, councilmember. >> Kitchen: Okay. So do we have questions for these folks on the red line parkway? Councilmember Ellis? >> I could come up with one. That was a great presentation. I'm really excited about it and glad that councilmember pool had brought this forward. Do you have an expected timeline of implementation. Is that how you get the funding and how quickly you can move on these projects? >> Katie, I'm guessing by your pause that you would like me to answer that first? >> I can answer -- from the urban trails perspective we're just looking at this in terms of segments. So the two active projects are what I spoke about and then we'll be looking to see [2:09:54 PM] how we'll prioritize our 2020 bond funds that we don't know yet. And we don't have an overall implementation schedule for the whole corridor as that really depends on funding availability. >> Ellis: Very interesting. Did I hear something about the potential for further council action? >> So I don't know if it's coming from Katie or me, but yes, we're putting together the scope along with urban trails to develop the parkway plan. And we intend to bring that back to city council for their support along with other jurisdictional support and private funding to fund the plan. And we're hoping to have that come back within the next few months. I understand that that's pretty ambitious. To your last question about full implementation, our hope is that there will be a continuous trail by the end [2:10:55 PM] of the decade with an interim route established over the next two years that would probably include a lot of onstreet connectioned an maybe bike lanes and that sort of thing. If we complete the parkway plan that would include an initial trail line by next year, then secure public funding in addition to the funding through prop B, additional funding over the next two years not just Austin funding, but other jurisdictions and federal and state funding, if we could secure that by, say, 2024, then we would expect that construction to be [indiscernible] By 2030. >> Kitchen: Thank you. Did does that answer your question, councilmember Ellis? >> Ellis: It does. That's great. I also appreciate your involvement in our urban trails stoked group. We had been talking about the permitting process and we know you were involved with that so we're appreciative of your input as well. >> Kitchen: I have one [2:11:56 PM] question and that is just -- actually, just a statement. I think that I really appreciate you all coming and talking about the red line parkway. This is such an important initiative. It's a big undertaking and 32 miles will be an amazing connection for the city once it's all completed and together. So I think it's important for us to continue to hear about the progress that's being made because it's such an important initiative. And it's also something that is important that we collaborate with the other ones on the ground and I would anticipate you doing that. My one last question is are there any -- what are the particular -- I don't mean this to be real open-ended, but let me just invite you if there's any particular [2:12:59 PM] challenges for this project particularly in collaboration with other projects, that you would like to -- either of you would like to bring to us our attention at this point? >> I think in terms of our active projects, they're both moving forward. Of course, the biggest that will that any urban trail project faces and this project is no exception, is right-of-way acquisition. It's always trying to develop in an area that's already developed and is really hard to find the little space that's available. And of course capital metro is going to be double tracking and adding all this very needed infrastructure to our city so it's just becomes the question of where do we find space? And I think some of that as Tom is saying could be these interim onstreet options but that will always be a challenge as we work to implement. >> Yeah, I'll just add. I think Katie pretty much [2:14:00 PM] summed it up pretty well. One of the unique aspects of our project is that we do have the asset of potentially using capital metro right-of-way, but then it also proves to be a challenge because there are competing interests on that same space. >> Kitchen: Thank you. To the extent that the council can be helpful with these challenges, we will continue to stay engaged with you. So thank you all. All right. >> Thank you. >> Appreciate it, thank you. Our next item is -- we have an update from the chair of the utc. If he is with us. Let's see. Yes, Mario champion, if you could let him in. Welcome. >> There we go. >> Kitchen: There you go. [2:15:00 PM] >> All right. Thank you for having me. Do you want me to just jump in? >> Kitchen: Yes, go ahead. We appreciate all the work utc is doing. >> Appreciate it. Thanks for having a me. So there's two items I want to update you about. Both of these documents are on the Austin, texas.governor Utt site. The first is a recommendation that we spent two meetings on passed at the last meeting which is the I-35 capital express scoping recommendation. We talk about, so I want to give accolades to commissioners Susan Summers, Daniel Alvarez and myself, we all worked on this and talked about it in larger body. We identified four main categories, climate, safety, [2:16:00 PM] equity and high capacity transit. If you look through our whereases, I won't read them all, but a couple are worth noting because we talked about these a bit. Essentially the city of Austin faces a climate catastrophe if we don't act in a concerted way how we spend money. Especially how we spend in planning for fossil fuel vehicles instead of things like high capacity transit. We talk about that quite a bit. We also -- Austin's strategic mobility plan, I'm sure you know, calls for 50% mode share goal and spending the money we might spend on widening I-35 does not naturally fall into pushing that goal forward. We also talk about safety quite a bit. There's the vision zero plan and the fact that I-35, subsidies proportionately affects people of color when there are extents and [2:17:00 PM] injuries. So making that making that corridor wider and faster does not fall in line with those goals. We talk about equity. There's a couple whereases, but it's important to say that I-35 was directed an intentional project to physically enforce racial segregation and widening I-35 and making it faster is not - - does not help that. We also came out in favor of the cut and cap or living solution. It's a real possibility there to reconnect some of I-35 and to make it more human centered. We didn't say I-35 needs to go away, but to make it wider is unlikely to address the issues that it's set to address like congestion. A lot of evidence around that. And finally, the main category was high capacity transit. Given that in 2020 we passed project connect and it's a [2:18:01 PM] huge deal. We feel like the city, the pulse of the citizens of the city favor high capacity transit. It was a project -- prop a and prop B were successes. And widening I-35 does not seem to fit in with that. Especially the Orange line and others fit some of the same demographic need and potentially if we spend the money helping project connect succeed we'll get a higher capacity transit. I won't read you all the resolves, but the key one that sums up, be it resolved utk urges txdot to not widen I-35. Then there's others, we should be able to meet safety and movement and maintenance requirements without making it wider. If we did add width to the overall and we should add that width for active transportation and high capacity transit rather than [2:19:02 PM] for single occupancy vehicles. We should work to minimize negative climate impacts that also focuses on high capacity transit. And then a couple of other very specific ones. Make sure that all of the plans that the city of Austin has already adopted, the strategic mobility plan, the street design guide, the vision zero goals, the national Austin comprehensive plan, that those are included at least by reference and hopefully in a material way into txdot's scoping initiatives. You know, we understand that city of Austin is not in charge of txdot, but whereas we have some members and we have some influence, we should try to meet what the citizens have said that they wanted, and we think prop a, prop B and climate change concerns are pretty good indication of that. There's more detail, but I will stop there on specific things, but if anyone has questions about that, I would be happy to give you [2:20:02 PM] insight to our discussion or deliberations. >> Kitchen: Well, I think that there's -- I want to share with you and see if other councilmembers have comments or questions, but I want to share with you that we really appreciate that recommendation from utc of the city has submitted a letter, you know, at the end of December initial concerns, and a number of us also signed to a letter with a number of concerns for the scoping aspect of ih-35. They are consistent with the concerns that you all and the utc has raised. As we move forward with additional action in the city, I think it's important for us to work closely with you and the utc on those additional efforts. We may be moving -- a number of us may be moving forward with a resolution, for [2:21:02 PM] example, for the council to more formally make comments and endorse the comments that our staff have made to txdot, and that's something that I know that those of us who have been involved with -- with councilmember Ellis and others who have been involved with comments on the ih-35 scoping will want to talk with you about that. >> We would be happy to. I will say and we were glad to receive a briefing from director spillar and maybe some others. And there's a lot of alignment. You know, whether or not those things can be made to happen of course is the issue, but we were pleasantly surprised by the amount of alignment [indiscernible] So that was good. That was nice. >> Kitchen: Okay. Councilmember Ellis, did you want to add anything from the work we've done on the [2:22:05 PM] ih-35 scoping or -- >> Ellis: There's been a lot of dialogue going on and I've spoken to councilmember kitchen a few times about this, and I think it's so important for our community to know that we understand that the conversation around I-35 is not just about cars. It's not just about pavement. I was lucky to get to participate in one of the panels that [inaudible] I believe it was and it was talking about, you know, they bring in experts and they ask a few questions and create these opportunities for you to be able to tell professionals, you know, that are not necessarily invested in this personally but are curious about transportation on a national level. And so much of the conversation came about racial segregation. I know director spillar was just mentioning I think yesterday about how you separate people from jobs when you go with roads a certain way. And so these conversations are ongoing and we're very [2:23:08 PM] much aware the way we plan for transportation and evacuate for transportation planning means we need to advocate for our communities. We need bike connectivity, we Snead shared use paths, we need to think about air quality. So there's so much more that goes into this conversation and I'm appreciate you, the utc and colleagues are very understanding of that and looking at these plans in a way that, you know, takes great weight and great measure to really make sure that over the next 10, 20, 30 years, whatever we are deciding to do and advocating for is the best we can possibly make out of a situation. You know, when you are dealing with different levels of policy, federal, state and local, you've got to find the right blend to make sure that our communities are protected and that we are creating a future that is [inaudible] To climate change and healthier in the long run. So we definitely appreciate your involvement in this. >> Thank you. [2:24:10 PM] >> Kitchen: Anybody else have comments or questions for Mario? Was there a second item you wanted to -- >> There is a second item. So we also passed a recommendation around the current draft of the transportation criteria manual, which I'm not sure it's exact time line from draft to kind of a published document. It's a pretty specific kind of manual, as you might be able to guess, but it really gets into some details that at the policy level that actually have pretty big impacts. I want to recognize commissioner Daniel Hennessey for really doing the bulk of the work in reading this document. It's a weighty, specific document. But he identified and we talked about several elements and came up with four recommendations that I think are -- one of them is very specific, the other three a little more [2:25:12 PM] policywise. They are aimed at making it easier for developments to understand their impact and to kind of remove some of the bureaucracy but without making it free for all for all. I'll go through the one easy resolution which is basically street lanes where at all possible not be wider than 12 feet. There's a couple instances depending where you count gutters they might be wider, but there's good science or data he mentioned that shows how people maneuver in bigger lanes and how it's safer to have the 12-foot lane than to have wider lanes. Some other ones that have a bigger policy impact are around whether or not you require a licensed professional engineer to do some of the transportation demand management. That raises the cost and it's not really a skill set that needs -- and other jurisdictions don't require a licensed pe to do some of those aspects. This makes it easier for people to do the outcome we want which is spend some [2:26:13 PM] effort on transportation demand management, but not really up their costs in a way that make it more expensive and take more time. Another specific one was around traffic impact analysis. So there is some guidelines in there that decide who makes those decisions and whether it can be handled administrative or whether they have to go through another process. And where it makes sense to handle them administratively, that that could be useful. Otherwise you end up having to go in front of council or go through extra hoops for things that may not really require and get us to the goals we want in the rest of the criteria manual. The most complex one is is this interplay between tia, transportation impact analysis, comprehensive transportation reviews, and transportation demand management, which are all sort of ways to understand what might be the impact and [2:27:15 PM] how to think about that and what to weight and how to value those criteria. Compared to these like rough -- [inaudible] And how to pay for them, it's a little tough for everybody to figure that out. And there is some effort that could be taken to make that clearer. Just because it makes it easier for developers to go forward and makes it easier for staff to understand what's right and wrong and where to put the values. So staff was very amenable to looking at these pieces and understand how to clarify especially as engineers start to take this on board and indicate how hard or easy it will be and what the impact will be on their developments. So that's a summary of this one is a little more technical, but that's a summary. The goal being get to where we need to get and what the [2:28:15 PM] vision says so the sentiment remains the same, but maybe tweaking how we understand those pieces and how they relate together. >> Kitchen: Thank you. That's very helpful. I'm glad you all are weighing into that level of detail with a criteria manual. One of the big challenges for us from a council perspective is -- comes also during the zoning process when we're trying to think about the impact of a new development on the streets capacity. To handle cars or bikes or pedestrians or whatever. And so that -- the timing of when and how these allegations are done -- analysis are done in terms of figuring out appropriate zoning. I know that's something I've struggled with before. So I appreciate all the particular points that you brought up and it sounds to me like you've -- you all have been working with staff and have gotten some [2:29:16 PM] responsiveness in terms of working on those ideas. >> I would definitely say so. They understood them, there was some, you know, material conversation about why one route or another route might work and where they might be able to investigate, you know, clarifications and being a little more opinionated about the best way to do it even if there is some flexibility. Sometimes having too many choices is not actually helpful because you may get a little paralyzed by that or they don't know how to judge it and say that is the right way or the best way or the appropriate way. >> Kitchen: Questions? Do others have questions for comments? All right, well, thank you very much for joining us. This is really helpful for us and the committee and we're glad that you've been able to start participating with us. >> Happy to do it and I will see you next time. >> Kitchen: Okay. Thank you. [2:30:16 PM] >> Bye. >> Kitchen: All right, colleagues, our last item is the 2021 mobility annual plan. And we have until 3:00 for that item. >> Well, actually we have 20, 25 minutes for that item. Then one last thing. All right. Thank you. >> Thank you, chair kitchen and members of the committee. Welcome councilmember Fuentes. My name is Laura, division manager for the active transportation street design division. Over a few of our 2016 mobility programs and I'm joined by my colleague. >> Ja nay Spence. >> We have the distinct privilege to work with immensely talented people on hundreds of projects all [2:31:17 PM] over the city. And today represent the breadth of work made possible through the 2016 mobility bond and as shared earlier in the presentations from Anna and Eric, we will be using this process to build on those programs with the resources under the 18 and 2020 bond programs as well. So we are really grateful for the chance to share about the mobility annual plan with you and use this platform of the mobility committee to share with the community how important and strategic this is to really deliver on the expectations that you all set for us as well as reach the -- you know, realize the benefit to everyone from a mobility perspective, and as Mario discussed for all of the policy goals that sd23 puts out for us from a public health and climate perspective. So with these slides we'll jump right into it. To the next slide. Thank you. [2:32:17 PM] The 2016 mobility bond, as Anna mentioned earlier, really marked a total inflexion point with our investment in mobility and we recognize those needs only grow over time asbestos pointed out in previous memos. With the 2016 mobility bond, as many know and for the community as a whole, that was $720 million with about half a billion so the corridor mobility program, 101 million to regional mobility, and then a local mobility program that provides funds for sidewalks, safe routes to schools, which is a whole new program coming out of this program, urban trails, bike ways, intersection safety and substandard streets and capital renewal. It gave us the need to create a process by which we could be accountable and transparent especially with that local mobility work, but also agile and flexible in how we deliver that at scale in eight years across [2:33:18 PM] the city. So we can go to the next slide. And that is the essence of what the mobility annual map offers to us. It's an annual coordination process that deeply investigates and evaluates the opportunities across the programs so we can deliver the best possible projects whether it is, you know, a suite of crossings that serve a school along with maybe, you know, a bikeway or increasingly transit accessibility and prevents. It looks iteratively and annually at the year ahead, so this is forward facing. We've recently incorporated that backyard look as well as we've published the final drafts so that we have both perspectives, but really the forward facing look. And it does give us a chance to forecast that work in ways we've never done before. Giving both councilmembers a chance to help us understand [2:34:19 PM] the unique needs of their constituents as well as the community as a whole. We really want to encourage folks that haven't had a chance to weigh in to do so, they can do so through February 7th. And we've had amazing response. So really grateful for all the feedback we've been receiving this round. We've I think gone through at least four or five of these processes, and it stands out to strategic to delivering a bond this size. We get requests from cities across the country want to go understand this and the ways that we're able to deliver so many, many projects for the community. You can go to the next slide. To get into a bit of the nitty-gritty of the process, as -- you know, the annual -- mobility annual plan is very important. We have our planning documents, we have our north star in mobility in terms of [2:35:19 PM] the asmp and we have the strategic direction 2023. From those priorities and policies, we look closely at where we might have common cause with each other, whether it's delivering a project that will touch on mobility and safety for everyone, opening up a left-turn lane, pedestrian crossing, slowing down speeds to residential levels that just make a more comfortable environment for everyone. That process happens across the program. We've got virtual this year and we're able to talk with each other, here each other's needs and issues. The exciting part about this process is it offers a very strong framework for getting better and under prop B that getting better focuses on bringing in an equity framework and prioritization that strengthens that, the safe school program has set the bar for an incredible [2:36:20 PM] understanding of equitable investment for our kids knowing that some districts have a lot more schools than others, this needs are not, you know, -- we also have a duty to look at the entire city. So that's really where that coordination can be so valuable. We get out of that leveraging projects that might not only look at 2016 bond dollars but also quarter cent dollars and other resources that can bring to bear. I also see this process as being strong for the incorporating green infrastructure. Being able to see where we can bring in rain gardens or other natural elements into the streetscape as we continue to build out this work through prop B. From there we develop a report and an interactive map which we're going to touch on in a minute. And we share that with councilmembers to get that close on the ground understanding of needs in the district. And then we release the map to the community for that feedback. [2:37:20 PM] And then go about the hard work of coordinating this -- these various projects and delivering them. Every single program works slightly differently to respond to the unique needs. For safe bike ways we're looking at the tradeoff of existing street space. We need to deliver a network and need to look at the space we have available and oftentimes that requires a community conversation to get to those outcomes. Whereas something more straightforward like a series of crossings or, you know, even an intersection safety project would be different in terms of how it's perceived and implemented. So this process respects those differences while also allowing us to coordinate and deliver at scale across the city. With that we'll go to the next slide. So as I mentioned there's a report and an interactive map that's on this website here as shown on this slide [2:38:21 PM] and it's really a great way to navigate the work ahead. With that we want to dive into each program and give you a glimpse of that work. Planned and proposed into 2021 and beyond. With that I'll turn it over to Jan nay to get us started and we'll go to the next slide. You are muted. >> I was cruising there for a second. All right. So what you are looking at the interactive map with all the layers turned on, tons of colors, a lot of work going on. The cool thing about this interactive map, you can turn on and off the different layers and look at each program and Zook into certain areas of town. You can click on each one to get more information about the project so it's a really cool tool to see all these in one place and a lot of spots within our city [2:39:21 PM] websites you can see safe routes, urban trails, but this is a really cool to see all of them and how they are working together. Next slide, please. So with that I'll start with the public works programs, sidewalks. The darker red projects that you see are the private center plans for 2021 and the lighter projects with the ones planned in 2022, 2024. This is an iterative process that we'll bring back. What you see is 41 different projects so a the look of work going on. What you don't see is the amount of work the sidewalk program does for all the other programs as well. They do a bulk of the construction for the safe routes to school programs, bike ways, pedestrian safety, corridor program, urban trails, npp and quarter cent. The sidewalk program is a huge delivery item because they have those contracts we [2:40:22 PM] were talking about earlier and they are the masters of how those contracts can work and so this is a huge delivery outside of the work sidewalk is doing. This that you see here, the specific projects to the sidewalk program. Next slide. This is our safe walks to school. We did 137 walk audits which is over 600 miles that we had did walk audits on in Austin and identified over 4,600 recommended projects. You know, a lot of work that went into doing these walks. Half a mile for walking infrastructure and two miles for biking infrastructure. Next slide. And now you can see these are all the projects that we're looking at [inaudible] School money. A lot of these are smaller projects. A the look of them are intersection projects. They are the biggest barrier a lot of times when talking about kids going to school [2:41:22 PM] are intersections and street crossings, improving sight angles so drivers can better see the smaller students and have better and safer routes to school. But you can see quite a lot of work for the safe routes to school program as well. If you go to the safe routes to school website, austintexas.gov/safe routes, there's a map that shows improvements by school. This is a great tool you can click in, but if anybody wanted to see for their particular school information, we have that as well on the website. Next slide, please. That will be the urban trails one I think is the next one. Perfect. Thank you so much. So on this one, these projects are delivered a little bit differently than the last ones. These are a bunch of small projects delivering a bunch of projects year on year. The urban trails are a little more typical project delivery where it's designed. You can see along corridor [2:42:25 PM] lines T dashed lines are still going to be in designer per and the ones the darker colors are the ones slated for construction. You can see shoal creek trail shown as a dark line because we'll be working on way finding. As he were speaking early, councilmember Ellis, talks way finding, we want to make sure it's as usable as possible especially for new people using the trail that there's no barrier to entry and having those way finding. A lot of projects are small sections but might be closing out bigger projects. For instance, some pieces of violent crown trail or country club trail, in those cases we'll be looking at how we can through way finding. Once you have a long segment, that's a perfect opportunity versus smaller sections you are not sure what the mileage is going to going to be. You can include signs saying this way to library or other public places and that's something that we'll continue to look at with our 2020 money as building out bigger networks. [2:43:27 PM] Working closely with our bike ways program recognizing our system is part of their system and people use them interchangeably. It needs to be cohesive in that way. There are a few other projects in construction now. Katie talked about lower boggy creek trail. Also violent trail crown north we're hoping will start this year. Another small connection that is the copperfield elementary trail connection. We're doing a lot of fun work in urban trails and that's it for our public works programs. Of course, if there are questions, I would be more than happy to answer them. I've give it back to Laura to continue. >> Thanks. We'll go to the next slide. To round out the other local mobility programs, we have our intersection safety vision zero program. That started out with 20 named locations in 2016. Seven have been completed of the 15 and then we have -- that were identified, [2:44:27 PM] there's others on the corridors that are being addressed as well through that program. And this is a great example of just one sliver of a huge effort to address safety. This is with the 2020 bond we'll be able to incorporate that broader portfolio of safety work going forward. The other area that you'll see in the future is the transit enhancement which focuses on local transit, speed, reliability and access. The next slide. The bake ways program is equally expansive as the safe routes. As mentioned with sidewalks we rely on great deal on the sidewalk and social projects division to deliver a lot of the concrete work associated with the bikeways projects. Recently we've incorporated a lot of protected intersection type designs that coordinate with them. Likewise as we rely on them for delivery, we offer street design for sidewalks [2:45:28 PM] and safe routes to school and to some degree urban trails as well. To get to councilmember Ellis' plan, there are street design or public process for projects that really have those tradeoffs and tricky situations, we need to navigate with the community. Oftentimes transportation will step in to support safe routes to schools or urban trails or sidewalks and we'll lean on them for relationships with schools, understanding a broader holistic kind of neighborhood based approach for an entire school and neighborhood community with respect to safe routes to school, leveraging dollars together and then working with sidewalks and special projects to deliver that work. And some of the stunning concrete work I think all of you probably have in your districts actually, certainly the councilmembers on the mobility committee, I can think of projects in every district that really showcase really outstanding [2:46:29 PM] infrastructure. The envy and interest from a lot of our peer cities to be able to do this as such scale and to such quality and so quickly really, it's pretty extraordinary. Based on some of the contractual processes and coordination processes among which is this mobility annual planning process. We can go to the next slide. I'll just touch on quickly the accompanying programs corridor and regional. The corridor program is -- was the largest every den for mobility in recent memory. Now perhaps equalled by the 2020 active mobility and safety bond work. So the corridor program has a separate reporting structure and process that was set out initially with [2:47:30 PM] the 2016 bond, but we've incorporated that to offer that look with the 2016 work. We've tried to bring in some of the discreet projects and find better ways to represent that and -- as those projects spin off such as the south Lamar work between Riverside and Barton springs and the like. Slaughter as well and many other places where work is progressing. We'll go to the next slide. Then, of course, the regional program is also really important set of projects in partnership with txdot and really shows when the region works together, we can get a lot of really important work done. And as those were scoped and chartered at the outset in the bond itself, those are generally understood, but the mobility plan offers a way to touch base with the community about where those are at and the various stages and just to keep that visibility and trance pattern sickle cell with the [2:48:30 PM] process. Next lied. And finally our colleagues in the budget office and others have done an amazing job to collect all of the capital work of the city whether it's mobility, water or what have you. There's so much need to maintain what we have as well as build new. And not the least of which is our mobility systems. When a project is scoped and budgeted, it appears on the explorer and can be a way for people to understand the breadth of work across the mobility portfolio as well as other places. With that, we will be more than happy to take questions or feedback and thank you again for the chance to talk about this and get the community even more aware and involved in this annual process. >> Kitchen: Thank you. This is excellent. Very helpful and very clear way for people to understand the projects on the horizon. [2:49:31 PM] So let's take down the presentation and do we have questions? Questions or comments from anyone? Okay, I have a question then. So this is the -- this is the plan for moving forward this year, right? Okay. And can you just explain -- you had a graphic that showed sort of the cycle of the draft and then taking input and then the final. Can you generally explain to folks the time line for that, you know, what time of year do you all put out the draft and that sort of thing. >> You are muted, Laura. >> Thank you. I think that city hall helps us not have distraction so we appreciate that. I don't always notice when it's gone mute. Yes, thank you for that question. Generally the cadence has [2:50:32 PM] been, you know, spring-summer is when we're starting to look at our opportunities for that next year. Meanwhile, our colleagues with public works, streets and bridge are starting to plan out their annual maintenance. As many of you know, we achieve incredible effeciencys, a tenth of a cost of a stand-alone project. That's a -- what I call mini corridors where we're looking at streets super holistically, traffic calming, all the pieces and parts. So we let that -- those two processes kind of take place and then around the early, early fall we're coming together with all of that -- real it's the gis layer on top. Of gis Larry. November, December time frame and that public engage. Process December through [2:51:32 PM] into February with a final outlook in February, March. >> Kitchen: Okay. And for the public, if they wanted to engage in this process, how would they do that? >> Yes, and so we will start to put the word out about mid December, and it's actually been fantastic and a big thank you to all of your offices helping to amplify the message and giving us this platform to continue to share that. We have had really good engagement this year. So it's now -- mid December, through January. We've got a couple more weeks to encourage feedback through our other commissions and councils to get the word out. And then in February we'll start to really sort through a lot of that feedback. We want to adjust. We want to be nimble. We want to respect all of that great feedback. The nice thing about the [2:52:32 PM] annual process, if something is maybe a bit out of reach right now, it gives us a chance to grab it for the future or shift things around to just be as responsive as we can be. >> It's also a good way we can show leverage opportunities if things pop up from grants or whatever else, we can show changes easily to the public and, you know, get feedback on them. >> Kitchen: Is there a particular date or deadline that people should be aware of for this [indiscernible]? >> Yeah, to February 7th is the deadline for comment on the map. I do want to make sure we are clear too that, you know, this is planned and proposed work. So there's often deeper work that we do with actual neighborhoods around projects that are forecasted in the map. That's really important so we can understand help present the tradeoffs, understand the intended benefit, and hopefully get to a good understanding. So there's subsequent work beyond this, this effort. This is really to help forecast that broader [2:53:33 PM] portfolio and subsequent work after that with community members. >> Kitchen: Thank you very much. Councilmember Ellis? >> Ellis: Sorry, I know you asked for questions before you went. >> Kitchen: That's okay. >> Ellis: Very much appreciate the annual plan updates and we usually get a copy that has everything listed so we can look up which safe routes for school are in our district. We found that to be helpful because we're able to put that into our newsletter so people are able to see that in multiple forms a list and an interactive website, which is nice. Is there any intent in future months or years to do a more comprehensive space? Because I know a lot of the work you all may have completed is no longer showing up on the map since it's done. Improvements to streets that are not part of a bond fund but are on the maintenance list. And so I didn't know if [2:54:33 PM] there was, you know, probably an awareness, but I don't know if there's an intent necessarily at this point to tight merge more of the plan so that people just have one space to go to and anything like that on your radar yet? >> Yeah, thank you, councilmember. It absolutely is. I think the gift that was the 2020 prop B is that we now have these programs can scale, need to scale and we can bring in additional resources to show the full breadth of work. So yeah, it's certainly work that -- layers we can add in appreciate ING this really is that forward facing. There are other, like the capitol project explorer so probably multiple tools, but to be able to forecast comprehensively I think with [2:55:35 PM] 2021, that 2022 map will have that full breadth of work. >> I wanted to add it's difficult to show the past work, the work that may be in the plan but isn't currently actually planned or funded and also the funded. And there's a fine line of making it easy and readable for everybody versus including too much information where it's not as usable. But it is something we're going to continue to improve upon and we recognize how it's nice to have it all in one place but not too busy or hard to understand. We're continue to go improve that and add more information that's still user friendly. >> Ellis: Really appreciate that. As we put more and more information [indiscernible] To the point where old computer won't load them or someone has a hard time reading it just because there's so many layers built in that you may not even know where to start. So I know that's a lot of work to compile, and I [2:56:35 PM] figured it was on your radar, but I know we want to make sure those living in our city have the ability to look at when to expect improvements and no matter which funding source it's coming from. People sometimes just want to know when can I expect this stoplight to be built. You know, they don't necessarily need to worry about the rest of the details. >> And we are excited for it to join with the 2018 and 2020 bond and become a more holistic process. Even for us we're doing a lot of different work and trying to remember is this report for that funding or that funding and it's better to say here's what we're doing in the next year looking at doing. We're looking forward to that as well. >> Ellis: Thank you. Really appreciate it. >> Kitchen: All right, thank you all. This is very helpful and a good reminder for all of us of these tools that are available. Thanks for all your work on this. >> Thank you so much. >> Kitchen: Colleagues, [2:57:36 PM] the last item on the agenda is identify items to discuss at future meetings, if anyone wants to raise anything now. Councilmember alter. >> Alter: Thank you. I think this would be for this committee. When we passed the Austin civilian conservation corps in the spring, we included a proviso with respect to exploring telecommuting evolution during and post-covid. And a direction to kind of develop policies, as I recall. So I don't know that that necessarily has to be the next meeting because we're still very much in the covid work and learning the lessons, but I think it would be a good thing for us to be thinking ahead. I know that the county has developed a goal of 75% telecommuting and that may not be realistic for the city of Austin, but I think we should take advantage of [2:58:38 PM] this opportunity to carry forward the positive elements with respect to telecommuting that we can. So I'm not sure exactly at this point if that is atd or hrd or the city manager's office, but I think it would be good to hear back, circle back on that. >> Kitchen: Okay. Thank you. That's a good one to keep in the hopper, you know. Councilmember Ellis? >> Ellis: I think that fits well in line with asmp conversations and so maybe there's a couple different angles of those mode shift goals where we can talk about telecommuting and some of the other things that may just need an update. And I'm sure that we'll continue doing prop a and prop B updates along the way because I know it seems like daily there's updates with the work that councilmember kitchen and councilmember alter are doing with prop a [2:59:38 PM] and so I think those conversations are really interesting and probably good to keep getting updates along the way. I know those conversations never stop. You all kept working on them straight through the break. >> Kitchen: Yes, and it looks like ih-35 is going to be a project for the city at least for a while. We have a lot of the city is along ih-35 and even for areas not along ih-35, everybody is impacted. So that might be another one to at some point to have some more conversation about. So all right. Anything else, guys? We are adjourning exactly on time at 3:00. Thanks everybody. Thanks for joining us, Lessly and Vanessa joined us earlier. Thank you all. Bye.