Mobility Committee Transcript (MOBC) – 2/10/2022 Title: ATXN-1 (24hr) Channel: 6 - ATXN-1 Recorded On: 2/10/2022 6:00:00 AM Original Air Date: 2/10/2022 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. [1:13:32 PM] >> Ellis: Welcome, everybody. I am council member page Ellis. I'm the chair of the mobility committee. I am joined today by vice-chair Kelly who is joining us remotely and we have council members harper- madison remote and councilmember kitchen who is with me on the dais. >> Alter: Will not be able to join us -- mayor pro tem alter will not be able to join us today. We have a full agenda with panelists and information for today. I will call this meeting to order. It is 1:13 P.M. On February 10th. It is a Thursday and we are here in council chambers. We will get started with public communication. We do have Zenobia Joseph here in person. Would you love to share your information with us today? >> Thank you, madam chair, [1:14:32 PM] members. I'm Zenobia Joseph. Let me start thanking the guys at kinko's. There's a guy named Keith who saved me eight dollars today and I think it's important for you to understand that sometimes it takes a village for me to get things done for city council. As it regards the handouts I gave you, I wanted to comment specifically about Leander. As you're aware they have a may 7, 2022 election that's coming up so I testified before them. I just wanted to share the lack of transparency that actually went into that interlocal agreement. The document is actually blank. So later today you will be talking about wanting the community to rely on the staff to actually provide information about the blue line. And so I adamantly reject that as an option and would ask you instead to recognize that when capital metro considered redeveloping north Lamar transit center on or about 2014 under Mike Martinez when he was chair, they actually put out what's called an rif or request for [1:15:33 PM] information, so that the experts could actually come back and tell them what we could do with the site. So I would ask you to allow the experts to tell us how much it would cost to put buses on the lady bird bridge as opposed to just having staff come back and tell us that they can't do it. One of the other reasons I don't trust the staff, respectfully, is the other item before you is the loophole in the law. It's the revolving door. So Caleb rich art actually worked in district 1. He then resigned after you took the vote, went to work for project connect, a political action committee. They were obviously supporting project connect. And after project connect passed he went back to the northeast Austin office. So there was nothing the ethics commission could do unless a filed a complaint in lack of integrity. But there's a gap there and I would ask you to recognize [1:16:33 PM] that when mobility items go before the voters that there needs to be a way for -- just like lobbyists, that there's some kind of period that a member on city council has to wait before they can actually be rehired. I will lastly tell you that title victims of the civil rights act of 1964 prohibits discrimination basioned on race, color or national origin. And specifically it requires neutrality. So respectfully, councilmember kitchen, I just want to acknowledge that you actually gave the pac $1,000 too. So we had ctrma, central regional mobility authority, two of the members appointed from Travis county commissioners' court, nikelle Meade also also arm bust gave five thousand dollars. So that's not a neutral position and it doesn't represent all of the steps. And so that's my opposition. I've given you the actual system map so that when you start to talk about equity you can actually see where [1:17:34 PM] it highlighted, 60 minutes all day long, only in the black neighborhoods. And lastly I'll say it's 45 minutes north of north Lamar transit center and to transfer. Thank you for allowing me to make my comments. If you have any questions I'll gladly answer them at this time. >> Ellis: Thank you for coming to speak with us today. There are any questions or comments before we move into the agenda? I don't see any hands raised. Thank you for coming and speaking. It's nice to see you in person. I've heard your voice many, many times. >> Thank you. And respectfully, madam chair on the process, and I've talked to Christopher orientation agenda doesn't say that we can speak virtually. In the future if that's a possibility, you will hear me on the phone and I'm sure it would be helpful for other citizens to know that. It didn't even have the staff liaison. Lastly let me say thank you to the clerk mmryna. [1:18:39 PM] She responded quickly. >> Ellis: I know we've changed practices over the past two years but want to stay open and transparent. Pleasure to see you today. Zenobia Joseph thank you. It safe in here. I'm the only one, or one or two people. >> Ellis: There's not many people, but a lot of people watching at home, so thank you. We will now move into the items on today's agenda. I will briefly mention that we will take up item 5 first. This is something that was asked by the vice-chair of the urban transportation commission is going to be speaking with us in a few moments. I know we have a standing item on this agenda where Mr. Mario chompian, the chair speaks with us. The vice-chair is filling in for him today. And this is something I think could be helpful for our agenda moving forward, so I would like the committee members to think about whether they have any thoughts or comments they would leak to make. But I think getting the utc [1:19:39 PM] information out early would be helpful so we don't have people volunteering their time on a commission also then waiting through LAN entire council committee before the end to come and speak with us. That's an adjustment I plan to make moving forward and you are all welcome to let me know if that's something that works in your idea of how this committee works as well. I value your input. We will now take up item 5, update of the vice-chair of the audit regarding recent items and then we will continue moving down the schedule in the regular numeric order. So after that we will take up item 2, the project connect blue line bridge and Orange line design on Guadalupe street. And then we will take up item number 3, the racial equity anti-displacement tool related to project connect. And item 4, federal mobility grants from the investment infrastructure and jobs act. And at the end we will take up item 6, update from assistant city manager Gina [1:20:41 PM] fiandaca on the strategic mobility outcome. And lastly identifying future items as we do in most items. In that note we will now hear from Suzanne Summers, the vice-chair of the utc. Thanks for being here today. >> Thanks. Can you hear me? >> Ellis: Yes. >> Hi, council members, thank you approximate for being with us today. Bear with me here. So we actually met -- audit didn't meet in January. We didn't make quorum. Actually we had to move our meeting to make quorum, but we met on Tuesday night this past week and we did have a really packed agenda actually. So just a quick summary of those items, we voted on a right-of-way vacation for Harvey street. We approved that. There was some discussion, concern from the neighborhood about the development, but we ended up going ahead and several [1:21:42 PM] members encouraged the individuals that spoke to us to continue to engage as the site goes through development, but definitely stay engaged there, but we did ultimately approve that right-of-way vacation. And then the project connect blue line bridge, lady bird lake bridge, I know you're about to hear some more information on that as well and there's been a lot of information out there in the community. This is our second time appearing on that matter. We actually heard from a little bit on that in our December meeting as well. This was a second follow-up meeting. We continue to discuss that. There's a recent memo that was published pretty close to our meeting time that makes some commitments to continue studying the idea and concept of buses on the lady bird lake bridge. And trying to get that figured out. Staff wants time to study that on I guess themselves and sort of then have that process concluded in may. And I think you're going to [1:22:42 PM] hear more on that from different people. We did not ultimately take any action on this. There's some very strong opinions expressed by many of the utc members, which I could elaborate more on I think. But I think that there's general. I think generally my sense is utc members mostly do support the idea of it being further studied and I think there will be a range of opinions, but unfortunately since we didn't have a recommendation to vote on it we didn't take any action so I can't identify a unified sense of what exactly all the utc members think specifically in more detail than that. I'm happy to answer questions as best I can if you have questions about that. We also also took up an item on booting. There has been a request from some of the services that do the booting and vehicle immobilization to be able to use a type of boot [1:23:43 PM] that the customer can remove themselves, which creates a greater level of convenience. City staff looked at this with the companies and created some recommendations, and the utc definitely agreed with the staff recommendations and we voted to approve -- recommend approval of the city staff recommendations. This would include the city staff additions there where the customers would still have the ability. If they didn't want to self remove it you would use an app and put in a code and pay. If you didn't want to do that, you could call somebody within an hour to take the boot a you wouldn't have to provide a deposit. There was a concept of putting a deposit in to cover the cost of the boot and going in to retrieve it somewhere else. City staff said you won't have to pay a deposit, but there should be a secure, well lit receptacle on each property where booting may occur so the customer can return the boot safely there and without having to travel to a different location. [1:24:43 PM] So we agree with all those recommendations of city staff and recommended that approval to go on through up to council. And then we had our last item is kind of a complex one. We had a recommendation about land use, which is not in our purview, but land use around transit. So I think our commissioners are very concerned about transit oriented development, equitable transit oriented development, and specifically with project connect in making sure that we're doing our best to support transit by zoning appropriately near transit for additional density so that we can have transit-supportive density. So it's a little bit of a unique recommendation from the commission, but it basically asks that the planning department as well as the land use commissions [1:25:46 PM] consider transit in their work and asks them to sort of provide some heft to that or justification if they're not going to put a lot of density and around our lines. I can read it to you. It's a little bit after complex piece, but we're just really in our recent meetings, I think thinking about the way that land use and transit interact and we can put a voice forward in that we need to advance our new best transit lanes with transit supported density that's also equitable. And that's an observation we did make from the dais in our work on Tuesday. We said that this also really does need to take into consideration the racial equity [1:26:47 PM] anti-displacement tool, which I think you will hear more about today as well, but we added that in there so these things should all be considered when we're doing land use. And we shouldn't just be -- well, I'll leave it there. So you can read what we wrote. >> Ellis: Thank you for that update. I'm glad that our committee and your commission are working so much in step right now. It seems like the very things that we're having dialogue about as a council are the very things that you as a commission are making up. So it seeps like we're heading in the right direction and I certainly appreciate your willingness to lead and serve on that commission. Are there any questions from the committee members? I see councilmember harper-madison. >> Harper-madison: Thank you, chair, and Ms. Somers and I appreciate your [1:27:48 PM] attention and that you very clearly stated how land use and transit are directly connected. We can't have the conversations separate from one another. And I appreciate that people in professional positions with very deep expertise, thank you for that. I do have a question about you were talking about the digital component, the deposits, etcetera, etcetera. Because we know so many people are unbanked and just don't have access in that way. So I do have an access question if walk me through what that looks like for people who don't have access. >> Yeah. And I don't know if -- I don't think this is on your agenda. If you've seen it, a presentation, I am assuming now that utc has recommended this that will be escalating to either the mobility committee or council at large, but so the concept is that you would -- that was actually an intervention [1:28:49 PM] that staff made so that it wouldn't be exclusively online. So you would -- when you get booted there's a sticker that goes on the passenger -- driver's side window and it gives you the instructions. >> Harper- madison: We've all seen those big Orange stickers that get slapped on people's cars. I know what you're talking about. >> They'll say like go to the app and pay if you like, and that's more convenient for you. Or you can still -- this was what staff said. We still want to have sort of the non-digital option where here's the number you can call and they'll come out within an hour. But for those people who prefer the self- removal if that was easier for them, that would be an option. And they would still have the option to call someone to remove that for them if that wasn't what they wanted to do. So that was kind of the situation there. So I think that the prior process where you call somebody to come out and remove the boot, whatever was going on there before, which I don't actually know -- I know a little bit about, not a ton about, that wouldn't change. It would just be offering people another option. [1:29:50 PM] >> Harper-madison: I appreciate that very much. As a follow-up I would say something along the lines of when we talk about equity, right, and how these things severely affect people who don't have access. So if you can't get that boot off your car, what does that look like for them? I would like very much if your office will follow up with mine, I would like very much to talk about from an equity perspective, what does that look like for them? >> I'm not staff, I'm a volunteer commissioner, but I think that to me speaking as a commissioner and who think about transportation a whole lot, giving options is a good thing. We didn't used to allow booting. It was all towing. In a sense that allowing the booting option is a little bit -- it's a lot faster for people because when you ghettoed you're talking about the next day taking a bus out M getting a ride from somebody else somewhere, calling a taxi, [1:30:51 PM] that kind of thing. So I think the booting can the potential to get somebody out to you in an hour with the call was faster and so now we're offering a more digital option that might have some access, but overall I would agree with you there that giving people different options, if we're going to be enforcing parking on private parking lots at all, giving people diverse options so they can access is probably the way to go. But I'm sure that you're going to get a staff presentation from Jacob Culver son about this and their way of engaging the companies as they study this. >> Harper-madison: I look forward to that. While I can appreciate that you are a volunteer, which by the way, thank you for your service if nobody has told you. I don't know if y'all know how much we appreciate the volunteers who do this good, good work. I will say this -- and this is not saying this to you or asking you. [1:31:51 PM] This is me saying to the committee as a whole. Y'all heard what she just said, right? So when we do the thing at the end of the meeting when we talk about future items, if I'm the only one who heard that there's a problem here, then, you know. And I would say as an additional, rather, point of consideration not just what does it look like when you get booted and you can't unboot your car? What does it look like when you're riding dirty, if I'm being honest? You have bad inspection and they impound your car. You can't get it out. Those are things I'd like to as a committee I'd like for us to have some conversations about that moving forward. >> Ellis: It's very much appreciate and a great topic. Are there other questions from the committee members? [1:32:51 PM] Not at this time? I certainly appreciate the conversation around booting. I think these are very good points brought up by councilmember harper-madison and I think it's something we need to make sure that we are not further preventing people from being able to lead productive lives. Just because you make a wrong mistake or park in the wrong spot at the wrong time you don't want your next week or two to be affected by it or affect your employment. We know it's certainly an issue. I know we've also had conversations about some private entities operating in the public right-of-way and wanting to make sure that we don't end up with equipment left on places on sidewalks where it creates other mobility issues or in blains and things like that as we try to make sure that all of these modes of accessibility are available to everybody who needs to access them. And I certainly appreciate the conversation around land use and conversation. I know over the past few years we've had many conversations about how it can't be discussed in one [1:33:52 PM] silo or another. They do have to be discussed at the same time because it's about where people or and where people are going. We want to be able to live, work and play in spaces that give them the best use of all of their resources so you're not spending all of your life in a car, all of your money on your transportation and your housing. So we certainly appreciate that, I know I do, to make sure we're right sizing all of the things that affect a family's budget and a person's budget. I appreciate the work you're doing and if there's no further questions on this, I see vice-chair Kelly, did you have more questions before we move on to the next topic? >> I have more of a statement. I think you did a great job, way the way, of presenting I'm sorry, I turned the camera off. My eyes were real watery. I'm concerned about people who may be of lesser means and then have a fine put on to them. I think there is one situation that we have to be careful of because we don't want to push people further [1:34:53 PM] into poverty than they might already be, especially if they rely on their people to get to and from their main source of income. So I hope that's part of the conversation so that we can address it if we need to. And thank you again for your time and effort. And thank you for volunteering in your role because we need people like you to really think subjects and ideas to the city so we can have that conversation. Thank you. >> Ellis: Thank you for joining us, vice-chair of the urban transportation commission. I know this is the first time for you presenting but we appreciate your service and for you speaking today. Thank you. >> Thank you too much. >> Ellis: We will now move on to the next item, which is going to be item number 2, the project connect blue line bridge and Orange line design on Guadalupe. >> Awesome, thank you. Annick Beaudet, mobility officer for project connect. Thank you, chair Ellis and members of the mobility committee, for having us [1:35:53 PM] here today. I'm joined by Peter Mullan from the Austin transit partnership, as well as Dottie Watkins from capital metro. And we're pleased to provide you with a short presentation that I'm going to hand over to Peter to run through because he has done it so many times. He's very efficient with it. And then we will be here to answer questions about it. There was also a memo issued earlier this week that gives some more detail than what's in the presentation and we are all here and happy to answer questions that you may have. So with that, Ana martin is also here from the transportation department. She has been a collaborative partner along with the city project connect office as we work through this particular component. She's very important -- a very important person on many other components as well, her and her staff, but on this one in particular she's been very hands on so she is here as well. Peter, take it away. >> Thank you, an unique and [1:36:57 PM] thank you, committee -- annick and committee chair and committee members. This is my first time presenting to the mobility committee so I echo Suzanne about being a little nervous, but we appreciate your time. And we also I just want to make -- thank annick? >> Harper-madison: Chair and Mr. Mullan, is there any way for us to make this a little bit bigger. >> Ellis: We can ask ctm. It is full screen in chambers and I'm sorry, I can't see anyone other than the speakers, so you may need to unmute and tell me you're waving your hand. We may be able to zoom in but you may also have an option on your screen for portions of it, but it is full screen here. >> Harper-madison: Thank you. I appreciate that. And I would also like to say to Mr. Mullan and our previous speaker, thank you for showing up and showing out as first time speakers. We appreciate it very much. [1:37:57 PM] >> Nice to see you. >> It won't be his last. [Laughter]. As we move through this program. He will be seasoned. >> Ellis: I agree. It's good to see you on this side of things, Mr. Mullan. Nike to see you all. And I also want to thank annick and Ana for their partnership. This program is of many multiple projects that is only going to succeed through the partnership between capital metro, the city of Austin, and atp. And I think we have a really great working relationship and this is one example of how we're working through details of many. So just want to thank the city for that. Let's go to the next. So this is a very brief presentation because we don't have conclusions or recommendations at this time but we did want to give the committee an update on where we are, specifically in relationship to the blue [1:38:57 PM] line bridge, given some of the public discussion that has been, as you've heard on this topic. And so we look forward to coming back to the committee again once we have more information. Just to frame out where we are in the process, the -- project connect actually is a program of multiple projects. We are moving forward with almost all of them and right as -- as of right now the Orange and blue lines, which is the two lines, they're in the environmental review process, but we are also making progress on improvements to the red line and improvements to additions of new neighborhood circulators as well as new metrorapid lines, we had a groundbreaking on the expo line which I think some of you attended in December, and we're anticipating groundbreaking on the pleasant valley line [1:39:58 PM] shortly. We're in design on the Menchaca and gold line. Multiple aspects of the program. Today we're focusing on the subject of the blue line bridge, which is a bridge over lady bird lake on the blue line. And just basically in the vicinity of the south central waterfront. You can see on the right on the system map where there's located, obviously a critical moment as part of the light rail system in particular. Next. Sorry, go back one. Sorry, Christopher. Just one thing else to say is not only are we moving multiple aspects of the program forward together. We always strive -- it's an important aspect of the work on any individual project to see how they fit together into the system. This is a system and we always have to look at each individual component through that lens, and certainly that's true for the topic we're talking about today. [1:40:59 PM] So that we can provide the best service to as many of our constituents as we possibly can, and particularly those who rely on the service the most and will rely on the service the most in the future. Next. So this is a zoom-in on the location of the blue line. Sorry, go back 1, thanks. The location of the blue line bridge over lady bird lake, and you can see the -- you've got I-35, which is that big white swath on the right, the congress avenue bridge and the south first street bridge. And so the alignment of the blue line bridge runs basically from the eastside of the south central waterfront and the 315 congress pud across the lake and then lining up basically with Trinity street. So the blue line runs along the east Riverside corridor. [1:41:59 PM] When it gets to the south central waterfront it takes a turn and this is all running at surface, right, at grade. There's an at-grade station, currently called the waterfront station, that you can see at kind of the bottom of the image. And then it starts as it approaches the south central waterfront, approaches the lake, starts on to go up into a bridge over the lake, and then when it gets to the northside of the lake it makes a transition from a bridge directly in to the subway tunnel. So the portion of the blue line that runs underground through downtown and then meets up with the Orange line and together they run underground through downtown. So that whole subway system that's part of the plan. So again, it's a pretty interesting moment because we're going from surface to bridge to tunnel all really in one area. And there's an underground station on the northside of [1:43:00 PM] the lake, the Rainey macc station, the platform itself is centered between Cesar Chavez and second street but approximate there will be enchances on the southside of Cesar Chavez. So that's the general orientation. We have been developing the design of the bridge. We're in early phases of design. We'll be rolling out the 30% design, engineering design of the whole blue and Orange lines later this summer, along with the draft environmental impact statement. So this is early days in design, but important for us to resolve the programmatic requirements and the environmental impacts of those necessary transit infrastructure. So to date we've been developing the blue line bridge for the blue line, light rail, as well as for pedestrians and cyclists. One of the things that we're very aware of is from the [1:44:00 PM] waller creek design plan and Waterloo greenway identified a pedestrian bridge in this location so we thought there were some opportunities to have some efficiencies to co-locate that pedestrian facility with the blue line bridge so that those would be combined into a single bridge. So we're in that process of developing how that would -- at least how the alignment would work for all those things. And during this preliminary design phase as we were engaging the public, we had a community design workshop in the fall and through other venues. The question has been asked what about buses? Could the bridge also have capacity to carry buses as well? Which is a really important question. It's an excellent question. Really significant opportunity, of course, for long-term benefits to our transit infrastructure. And so we are in the process of studying how that capacity could be integrated [1:45:00 PM] into the bridge design and so we're right now in that -- we're in that analysis process. And I think we also as we get into that, I'll talk about the criteria, there are lots of ways to look at this, lots of different angles that are important to look at it from so we're studying all of those. Go to the next. So this analysis is underway. I'll talk about timing specifically in what we're doing in the next slide. But to give a sense of timing, when we are in the environmental review process, I want to try to fold that into this process and stay on our overall program timelines. We are anticipating having a public meeting on the subject in April with the goal of reaching a decision about this issue of what capacity the bridge should be designed for by the end of may and following that [1:46:01 PM] into the -- folding that into the process going forward. One thing is it has been the intention to have a global design competition for the bridge itself and so we are holding off on launching that process until we have that decision resolved about what the requirements for the bridge will be. We feel like it's important to give competitors clear instructions about what they are designing to. This is a structural engineering design competition primarily. So that's currently on hold and then depending on the decision about those programmatic requirements, we'll move forward from there. Next. So we're looking at this topic from a number of different angles, all of which are really important. So one is design and engineering. So specifically how would we fold that into the design [1:47:03 PM] criteria? And I think there are a couple of different ways to do this. One is that the buses would have a separate dedicated guideway, separate from the light rail. There are examples where bus and rail share a single guideway so we will be looking at that option as well from an engineering standpoint but also an operation standpoint. We also have to look at what the impacts to the landings of the bills on south and north shores so that it would be if any additional impacts due to this we have identified and documented them and reviewed those with the public and it's part of the decision making. One of the impacts that we have identified already is the conflict with the existing waller creek boat house. We've had some pretty robust discussions with the community about that topic. It's obviously a really important asset to community [1:48:05 PM] and part -- we are supporting pard and working with the community to look at alternate locations for the boat house. Is if there are additional impacts to the buses to the bridge, then we have to understand those also. Operations, obviously how the buses and rail would interact with each other as well as with the surrounding network. We have to understand that. And at least what the main impacts or -- and opportunities are for that. Looking at the bus service planning framework. So I think it's important for us to -- bus service planning is a process that capmetro undergoes on a five-year basis, every five-year basis. So we won't know what the bus service plan is when we complete the blue line. We know that there will be changes to it because of the addition of this new transit information, but we do need to at least understand what the kind of opportunities for bus network planning are [1:49:07 PM] so that we understand what the opportunity associated with the bridge is. So we'll be looking at that. We have to also look at the federal process. So the blue line is participating in the federal transit administration's new starts program. We are in the project development phase, and that's part of the reason why we're going through the environmental impact statement process. And so any changes or any of the function and purpose of this infrastructure that's being proposed through that process has to get folded into that process and we have to understand what the impacts are or how it might affect it. Again, not making a judgment about that in any way, but that's just an important criteria. The fta is going to be -- is a major partner of ours in this process, will be a major funder of the program. So we just have to make sure that they are part of this process as well and that [1:50:07 PM] this -- their lens, their opinions and viewpoint is taken into consideration as well. There are -- you know, in order to leverage this opportunity of buses on the bridge, we also have to understand what other investments might need to be made or changes might need to be made in the network beyond the bridge itself to make sure that we're taking advantage of this opportunity of the bridge. Again, we don't know what those are yet, but I think we want to make sure we think through that as well so that we can present the full picture to the public. And then lastly, if there are any potential cost impact. Again, don't know if there will be or won't be, whether it's really material in the grand scheme of the program, but again it's important criteria always for us to consider. So these are some of the issues that we'll be studying. This is all laid out also in a lot more detail in the memo that was circulated to you earlier this week. And we'll be back later in [1:51:08 PM] the spring to talk about our conclusions. And again, I think our goal is working together, city, capmetro, atp, community, to make sure that we are making the right decisions for the long-term for the public so that we can serve this community to the best of our ability and equitably. So that's our objective. Go to the next. I think that's it. Yeah. So really I'm happy to take any questions about the process or anything else you might be of interest. I know there's also some questions about the Orange line and I'm happy to take those as well. >> Ellis: Yes. I would love to get a brief update about the Orange line as well very quickly while we're on this topic, but I know councilmember kitchen has her hand up so I'm going to let you answer her question first. >> Kitchen: Thank you, capture, I'll be quick. -- Thank you, chair, I'll be quick. [1:52:08 PM] Mr. Mullan, when you were going through the criteria for the analysis related to the considering buses on the bridge, I wanted to ask you about -- this may be inherent already in one of your categories, but I would think that the -- the impact on access for the community would be a consideration as well as equity-related issues. And so I'm hoping that that is a component of the analysis. And can you speak to that a bit? >> Yeah, absolutely. And I'm also -- Dottie Watkins, who is the deputy CEO at capital metro is here as well. So if she has anything to add on this in terms of just the -- how we serve or will plan to serve transit users, she's probably better equipped to answer that than [1:53:09 PM] I am. But yeah, absolutely. We have to make sure that -- this is why we are doing all this is to make sure that we can increase access to our community, to transit, and particularly for those who need it the most. And so that generally -- if there's an opportunity to improve that through the addition of buses to the bridge, then I think we certainly want to understand that and make sure that we're leveraging that. So that's certainly part of the analysis. >> Kitchen: And then I would -- go ahead. >> I would add as well that the environmental impact statement, that process, includes not just the physical environment but the environmental as well. >> Kitchen: So that would be in regard to having buses on the bridge. >> Yes are that's a part of [1:54:09 PM] the overall analysis as a part of the transit program, so that is definitely something key that we're considering. And really looking at how does -- how could the bridge be part of an overall transit network. And I think it's something that we are working to make sure that we keep in mind and we help the community keep in mind as we build out project connect that project connect and the Orange line and blue line and the pieces of infrastructure being built under the program are not just a transit system, they're an expansion of our transit system. So the background bus network that will support our light rail system is just as important or maybe in some cases even more important to how people get around. So looking at which users in our community are most likely going to be able to avail themselves of the light rail and which users will need bus to connect to the light rail or make their entire trip so the entire system works as an [1:55:10 PM] integrated network. So all of that is stuff we're still working through. We've been for the better part of a year working with one of the consultants on a background bus network plan, so understanding along all of the light rail corridors where the buses will intersect with the light rail so that we understand what that might mean for the bus service. But absolutely we are looking at how do we serve people throughout the community, not just that live on these corridors. >> Kitchen: Okay. Last question. So I heard you say the timeline about making a decision about the bus service on the bridge. I heard you make the analysis of the use for folks and the buses will be part of the analysis before a decision is made on whether or not buses will be allowed on the bridge. And then the second thing I'm hearing is that this is just a head's up. I think that, chair, you're probably familiar with this. [1:56:10 PM] March 2nd we have a joint meeting between the city council, the capmetro board and the atp to talk about a whole range of issues. And this is one of them. That are coming up that are potentially policy issues. And at that time I'll be wanting to understand how the decision is being made and also how the city councilmembers weigh in on that decision. So thank you. Thank you, chair, for allowing me to ask. >> Ellis: I appreciate that. This is a very important conversation because we know that being able to have all types of transit are going to be really important with the studies that go on about cost, impacts to floodplain, impacts to wildlife potentially since it's relatively close to where the bats are. But at the same time this is a very long, extensive plan. This is a plan about the future. So we want to make sure whatever we're doing we're getting right. So I really appreciate [1:57:11 PM] stakeholders bringing this idea up and everyone's willingness to participate in this conversation to really figure out the best path forward. I think it's very important that what we're doing we get right in this moment. If there's no other questions on this at the moment, I know we do want to hear a brief update about the Guadalupe street too. Did you want to ask a quick question, councilmember harper-madison? We can always come back to blue and Orange. I just didn't want to get bogged down in blue without also hearing Orange and asking those questions if appropriate, but go ahead,. >> Harper-madison: P harper-madison I'll throw the questions out there and maybe we can combine the response. The question is is there a way for us to utilize existing infrastructure like the south first bridge, for example? Is that an option? And then would that make a bus option on the blue line bridge redundant? And I'm happy to have those questions answered at the same time if that's more productive, chair. Thank you, I appreciate you. >> Ellis: Thank you. Is there a quick update on [1:58:11 PM] the Guadalupe Orange line? I know that's a conversation that multiple sides of staff and stakeholders and the atp have been involved in so I just wondered if we could add that into this discussion and then if there's know more questions about blue and Orange then we have an opportunity to cover both fiandaca. >> Yes. Absolutely. We've been corking of course on multiple components, including on the Orange line which is a very tricky area with regards to constraints in the right of way -- multiple stakeholders, lots of pedestrians -- highest in the city. We've worked hard with the stakeholders as well as consultants and design teams to decide which options to move forward through the 30 per cent. I'm going to hand it over to Peter to talk about where we are in those decisions as we move towards a 30 per cent and what is likely to be shown in [1:59:13 PM] the 30 per cent. And then Anna may want to add a few things too because there's a lot of operational considerations on the drag that are different than on the bridge because of all the modes of traffic and the densities around uno. I'll let Peter give a high level of where we are, what's moving forward, and maybe Ann in give more details on the specific options and why we landed there. >> Great. Thank you. The Orange line is also -- like the blue line -- is going to the preliminary engineering phase. We expect to roll out the draft on the impact statement and design this summer. You know, on the drag specifically we are carrying two options forward for the drag itself, which we've been [2:00:16 PM] reviewing with the community. We have two communities at workshops in November -- one personal, one in virtual. We also have one coming up. We continuing to get feedback on the options so when we come to the 30 per cent -- we'll be presenting both but I expect that there will be a kind of staff recommendation in terms of, you know, preference between the options. Again, that will be part of the conversation when we roll out the 30 per cent. The -- you know, the community engagement is really -- obviously really critical and gotten lots of good feedback from different constituencies. So, you know, UT, business owners on the drag. You know, neighborhood association representatives -- [2:01:16 PM] both in west campus but also shoal crest and north university -- all around that area. It's a great example of howdy verse and hybrid -- how diverse our community here is and we ool use that to -- we'll use that to make the best decision moving forward. Once we pick a general option for how to proceed, there will be lots of design development that occurs and details to refine it and make it better. The engagement doesn't end at that point but we do want to make sure we're defining the project appropriately and also making sure we have a clear path forward. >> Chair: Thank you for that. [2:02:17 PM] Now that we've heard about blue and Orange I want to open questions up for both of those. I'm not sure if council member carper -- harper-madison's question got answered. >> Looks like Anna can respond to that. >> Thank you for the question. That's a good one. If you think of the infrastructure, we have few constraints. That's one of the biggest constraints we have. There's the congress avenue bridge, the drake bridge, south Lamar and the highways. There are a lot of buses that traverse the south brinl now. One of the -- bridge now. One of the complicating factors is they make turns at city hall. Transit- only lanes are difficult because we want to make sure -- that we're [2:03:18 PM] improving travel time for buses. Having said that, we have a project in the works right now and we're looking to see what we can do on the bridge in on junction with cap metro to make that smoother. As we look down the line, our city is growing like crazy and we're going to need more options. As we look at a generational invest. Here, it's hard to preclude the need for buses on the Trinity bridge. We're going to need all of our bridges as hard as possible, and I think that's why we're digging in now. We'll be happy to come back in a month or so and have more analysis and present those findings. >> Chair: Thank you for that. Are there more questions? I think I see council member kitchen >> Kitchen: If there's time and others don't have questions. >> Chair: I don't see anyone else, so why don't you go [2:04:19 PM] ahead. >> Kitchen: I have a lot of questions and I can take a lot of them -- some of them off line. But I'm really unclear on the decision-making process. And so maybe this is an item that really needs to wait for a conversation on March 2nd when all the boards are together. So feel free to tell me that if that's what we need to know, but I -- there's a lot of entities that are impacted here that need to be part of the decision making. So I don't have clarity. Thank you, Mr. Mullen, for telling us the timeline but I'm not sure the timeline is aligning with opportunities for the boards to weigh in. I'll stop there. I see that council member harper-madison has a question. >> Harper-madison: Why don't -- >> Chair: Why don't you go [2:05:21 PM] ahead >> Harper-madison: Thank you. I have to turn my camera off. I don't know if anyone else has a thing with allergies right now. It is doing the thing. You don't need to see all that. But as a layperson, right, I was in another committee meeting earlier where I'm listening to the words, but as a person who's not politically ambitious, as a person who has showed up because I believe in my community, I believe this is the people's building, this is the people's money, this is the people's time -- we need to be speaking to the people. It doesn't make sense to me. Like, I'm trying to -- you know, as a layperson, I'm trying to recognize what it is you're saying. But it doesn't make sense to me that, you know, let me try to appropriately articulate my question. What I'm not hearing is why does this need to be a ten-year [2:06:22 PM] process for the buses to get their own lanes? I don't understand what you're saying, and I think maybe this is -- to council member kitchen who has been a champion for mobility -- to her point, she's got questions, and I'm telling you as a layperson, I got questions. I don't understand what you're saying right now. So I don't understand the timeline. I'm just a little confused. And I don't know exactly how to articulate my question. Maybe it's not a question too much as a statement, but it just feels like if you're talking to the general public, how does this make sense to them? How do you say the words in a way that make sense to them where they understand the timeline, where they understand what you're trying to say? If I don't get it -- and I'm telling you, I've been trying to wrap my head around for three and a half years around mobility -- if I don't get it, I don't think they get it and I think we're doing a disservice to the general public. [2:07:25 PM] >> Kitchen: I can try to answer, council member harper-madison. I appreciate the question. That's what we tried to do with the strategic mobility plan -- talk to people in ways that we were asking them what the product was going to be, how it was going to be used. I can attempt to say that all of the people working on project connect want to move the most people through our major arterials as possible with the bridges that cross our Lakes being those ma jor arterials. There's very few where there's lots of roads -- very few bridges. It's that much more important to understand the carrying capacity of all types of vehicles -- cars, buses, light rail as we build project connect. But with that comes lots of technical challenges as we are [2:08:26 PM] retro fitting rail and buses for that matter into a dense, urban environment. I would say to the public who's listening that while that's the ultimate goal we all want and -- we know you. You unanimously voted and we appreciate that to maximize our people through the through-puts. But there's constraints, trade-offs. On March 2nd we hope to start to day light some of the trade-offs. Peter talked about with specifics to the bridge there's the out-flow where the water flows into lady bird lake, and that has maintenance needs that need to be balanced with how the tunnel -- the bridge becomes the tunnel and the space required and we heard about the boathouse and needing [2:09:28 PM] to move the boathouse for those reasons. There's utilities that need to be used. So we want the buses to be able to be there as council member -- chair Ellis said. We need to get it right. But what we're doing right now is looking at all those details and we hope -- to council member kitchen's question -- I know this isn't going to provide complete clarity but our approach right now in the program is consensus and collaboration. Atp, capital metro and the city, we hope to come based on all those things and more that I said -- there's electrical distribution lines that are hard to move. How do we weave the bridge and potentially the bus lane through those things? How much will it cost? All of those things. We think it's workable but we got to work through all that. And we're hoping that we can find consensus on a recommendation that we can make to the council to the atp board [2:10:29 PM] and to the capital metro board to help y'all's decision along. Beyond that we may need a different process, but at this point maybe I have rose-colored glasses on but I'm hoping the staffs from the three agencies can work on it. Daylight it -- we talked about -- Peter and I -- and dotty -- having a meeting for the bridge again, maybe in April, where we can know more from our analysis and daylight more of it. So I don't know if that helped explain it in more layman terms but I tried >> Harper-madison: You did try and the one thing you didn't say and I think we need to say -- we keep telling people we're moving in an equity [2:11:29 PM] forward perspective. We need -- we promised that. We need to make sure that's the forward perspective. >> Absolutely. Looking at equity in the system -- this opportunity must take that lens so we don't repeat what we've done in the past with transportation -- not only us but others in the country. Thank you for that. >> Chair: Yes. I can appreciate -- this is a highly technical consideration, not only in engineers but because we have approved the joint powers where we have governing bodies beholden to the documents they approved. I respect this is a technical and complex conversation but at the same time with respect to [2:12:29 PM] transparency this is a conversation that needs to be had. People need to know what to expect and I appreciate -- council member kitchen mentioned the meeting on March 2nd which will occur before the next mobility meeting -- that we'll get together and discuss some of the details. Our roles are different. The city council is the funding mechanism and we therefore have the responsibility to make sure we're all in agreement as we move forward, hopefully in lock step together to make sure our community voices are being heard. I think there may be opportunities that still need to be looked at -- the opportunity to have dedicated bus lines on first and potentially the Trinity bridge. I think all options should be on the table to make sure we're addressing this correctly. When I think of adding bridges into the downtown area, all I can think of is the whole spirit of project connect was to get people in and out of downtown without needing a car. So I want to be respectful and mindful that we're not trying [2:13:31 PM] to increase vehicle capacity but trying to move more people in better ways without damaging the environment. And so I think that's all at the forefront of our minds as we move through this -- we're trying to be good stewards of our binding agreements and at the same time these are important things for us to be addressing over the next couple of weeks. We've got three weeks until that meeting. Council member kitchen had one more. >> Kitchen: If you want to take her first. >> Chair: Vice chair Kelly? >> Kelly: Thank you. And thank you, council member harper-madison, for raising those points. They're very important. It reminded me of something you told me once, which was you can't put the toothpaste back in the container you squeeze it out of. This is one of the things we need to be mindful and particular about the process we use and make sure we talk to everyone. I also want to say that I'm [2:14:32 PM] happy to hear that we are including the boathouse in those conversations because it's a very important thing to be mindful of -- how this will affect that process. The boathouse is an important asset and I want to make sure people are able to utilize that as they enjoy our downtown spaces. Thanks, everyone, for this conversation. >> Chair: Council member kitchen? >> Kitchen: I agree with the points my colleagues are bringing up. I would expect that you all are trying to work towards consensus and I appreciate articulating that. So that will be important for our conversation on March 2nd and after that. What needs to be crystal clear is how the decision is made based on what data and what information, and thank you council member Harper Madison. [2:15:32 PM] We need to lead with with the impact on equity. So -- and we need to be crystal clear on what the role is of the three boards in weighing in on this decision. And I look forward to some consensus from our staff and recommendations for all of us to consider. I think of this as a policy decision that is appropriate for the three boards to consider and weigh in on. >> Yeah. And I think that's consistent with the staff intention around that March 2nd meeting. So really appreciate all that, council member. I do want to set some expectations about that meeting because I think it will be less about the substance of the issues than about, you know, the process as you described. So we won't have -- we won't be ready about a decision on March 2nd but I think you're right -- to have the discussion so everybody is clear about what [2:16:33 PM] the decision-making process is, not just for this but the period of details and design issues. Our job as staff is to put forward where we think there are real decision and trade-offs to be made and to lay out all the facts. That's I think the plan of what we would do leading -- basically leading up to this summer when we start to -- really need to put it all together and to make some decisions about a path forward. >> Chair: Thank you for that. I have one last questions. I have gotten a couple of questions about the city's scope comments. Could you speak briefly about those? >> Sure. Back in April, at the end of April, participating agencies through the federal environmental impact statement process are, you know -- are [2:17:35 PM] asked to make comments to be considered for the scope of the environmental impact statement for the project. And so we gathered -- we heard throughout the city and gathered multiple pages of raw comments, of which buses on the bridge were made by Austin transportation -- mainly by Austin transportation given their history working on transit S Ed, speed, and reliability and coordinating on managed lane projects and all that. We consolidated all the raw comments in a letter that was then sent to atp. In that letter, you know, we made the comment that I made earlier in the presentation that, you know, we had the blue line bridge, we had gaudaloupe [2:18:36 PM] in mind but we need the role of the program to move as many people as possible. So I believe what we're talking about now is completely in line with those comments and with the scope of the Eis. So thank you -- I just -- you know, it's good -- thank you for asking that question so we could clarify that, that that was the city's response as a participating agency and a partner. We're in a unique situation that we are participating in. But we're also a funding partner, as you mentioned earlier. >> Chair: Thank you for that. It sounded like an idea I mentioned earlier but you articulated it more eloquently, that we want to move people quicker and safer but in a mindful way and as we give people safer spaces you are thereby making sure we don't have more vehicles idling. Nobody likes to be idling in [2:19:37 PM] the vehicle. That's the worst-case scenario in that particular situation. I think we are about to move on to the next item. I want to say thank you for joining us today. I have faith we have brilliant minds working on this. We have vocal community advocates uplifting each other and making sure we're doing it together. I think we'll be able to move forward as long as we listen and engineer and finance in a way that we need to be doing things for the city. I appreciate you working so hard on this. Council member harper-madison. >> Harper-madison: I noted we have someone from housing and planning. She's our displacement person. Hi there. I see your face now. >> Chair: She may be here for the item we're about to take up. >> Harper-madison: Just making sure we didn't miss the opportunity to have our input. >> Chair: No. Just getting started. [2:20:37 PM] The next item is racial equity antidisplacement tool related to project connect. >> Yes. You're a little ahead. Can you hear me clearly? >> Chair: Yes. >> I'm going to provide -- what I will share is what I'm going to provide is sort of an update with where we are of the implementation of the investment to prevent displacement of residents as relates to the project connect investments. What I will share is that this is not necessarily a briefing on the development of the equity tool but it will -- I will sort of outline how we will be using the tool to prioritize investments for the $300 million. There were a number of partners [2:21:37 PM] involved with planning and the development of the tool, including staff members from the equity office -- Bryan oaks sort of led this process and this work. Also, members of the innovation office were involved, the project connect office, and along with housing and planning and the economic development department. Next slide, please. Thank you. So what I will outline is how we will be utilizing the report -- the equity tool and report and then also how we will -- how we have outlined our budget for years one and two and the community development fund, the uses and when those funds or solicitation will be open for community members or organizations to begin applying [2:22:37 PM] for funds. Next slide, please. The way we're utilizing the tool -- I'm happy to come back later and bring in some of my colleagues -- Bryan, alba, maybe others that worked on the development of the tool. But I really want to share how we will be using the tool. We work with about 30 community catalysts. They were selected from a pool of over a hundred apapplicants. These were people with lived experiences that helped us inform some of the priority purposes for the tool. But the tool and report is basically -- it's an aspirational document. It's explaining why the funds are needed. Some people don't understand that there has been a history of underinvestment in black and brown communities, and there has been a huge displacement of people of color in the city of Austin. [2:23:37 PM] So we provide some historical context as to why this fund, the $300 million investments are important. And also, we have seen across the country often times transit investments have -- whether intentionally or unintentionally really negatively impacted the presence of black and brown communities and have -- sometimes there are unintended consequences. We want to make sure we understand why the $300 million investments are needed. The tool and report really also helps to understand and identify where the investments are needed most. What communities should be prioritized based on demographic information? We want to make sure -- and other research. We want to outline -- or the tool outlines how we can direct the investments using [2:24:39 PM] priority -- or community priorities, which is one of the central things when we're talking about equity. We want to center the voices of the people who are most impacted. And they outline a set of priorities which included not only affordable housing, which our department is responsible for leading in the city but there are other things including high quality jobs, support of businesses as well as purchasing land for community projects. What I will share with you is how we will be implementing the funds or some community priorities as it relates to housing. The catalyst and those who helped to inform this tool, they really wanted us to know that displacement -- how displacement incurs and how we [2:25:40 PM] can correct displacement pressures -- they're multifocal. Not just one thing. In addition to housing, it's also having access to high-quality jobs. It's having cultural anchors in a community. All these are equally important threads that are needed to make sure that communities are stabilize and that residents are able to remain in their homes and businesses. Next slide, please. And so the tool was designed with the community lens to really help us guide the decisions about how the funds would be used and invested, and as you see, this word bubble was one of the exercises that we did during the workshops with the catalysts. And you will see that investment is one of the highest priority. That's based upon what the community members said. All these words were important, [2:26:41 PM] but you'll see investments, affordable housing, accountability, and community power are some of the highlighted things. But what we have seen -- one of the reasons why so many people are facing displacement or are displaced is because historically communities of colors, their neighborhoods, schools, and communities and their assets have been underinvested. What they communicated to us is that we really want to see investment in our communities and do not exclude us from the process, right? This is a $7 billion program -- invest. How are we equally invested and included in this process? Then also affordable housing was something that was also important. It is not number one, as you see. But it was also equally important. Just the investment and [2:27:41 PM] community power, which is really centering the voices of the people who will -- or have the potential to be most imkt -- impacted by the transit investment. We will also use the tool to -- and when I say the report and decision and matrix as well as the map. We have used this report to lay out the questions in the grant application, as well as the evaluation process. So the equity tool will inform two key components of how funding will be distributed. Next slide, please. And so the tool is actually called -- it's the nothing about us without us. It's a racial equity antidisplacement tool. What they say -- under -- the bottom line is accountability to community. [2:28:42 PM] So again, that's centering the people who are most impacted, making sure their voices are heard, making sure they are included in the process, and so just centering the community in all of our decisions as it relates to project connect -- not only the $300 million but project connect as a whole. The tool and report identifies some priority places. We want to make sure that the funds that are invested and used as a result of this project are all focused within one mile of a project connect station but that it is also -- has to include -- there are two parts of that geographic priority. So one mile of a project connect station but then also in areas that are facing a displacement risk. The priority purposes include investments that advance at [2:29:43 PM] least one priority purpose that is in included in the tool and report. And then we also have the maps and dashboards that help us understand the conditions and these respective geograpies and I'll show you some of that information briefly. But it is an interactive map and dashboard. And then also the application and scoring. So the tool will help the evaluators and applicants really make sure that they identify the communities that are facing displacement risk and those investments -- we are looking for organizations, communication-based organizations that are working in the communities that are vulnerable to displacement, connected to or within one mile of the project connect station. Next slide, please. Thank you. [2:30:44 PM] And so this is another way that we are using the tool and report. So we've created a dashboard and maps that give us really good demographic information. And this is something that we have to be clear. The $300 million is not to address displacement throughout the city of Austin. That is not the goal. We really -- we're looking for transit-induced displacement. That's what we're trying to solve for. We have to recognize that the $300 million -- knowing that that's -- funds are being given over a 13-year period we cannot solve all the displacement pressures that our city is facing, so we want these investments to be very focused and very targeted, if you will. So we want to be able to -- and these reports and maps -- they build off of the work that was completed by UT. Our office really worked to simplify some of the [2:31:45 PM] categories. So we're looking at communities that are experiencing active displacement risk, those that are facing vulnerable displacement risk and chronic displacement, which is on going or sustained displacement. They've had significant loss in community demographics. So what you will see on the right side are some of the characteristics that make a household vulnerable to displacement. So we're able to tap on using this data and really hone in on some of the neighborhood nuances that help us to better understand the communities and where we might best intervene and direct some of the resources. Next slide, please. So what you will see here -- so [2:32:46 PM] we use the tool and report and other things like our housing blueprint, other reports -- UT uprooted report. To inform how the investments would be allocated for years one and two. Included in this is a $23 million land acquisition which was previously -- we received council direction for, and so the other two areas of investments include land development at $21 million and then also community development at $20 million. And the other funds will be for staffing and then community engagement and outreach, just to make sure that we get the word out, people are engaged and organizations are aware that these funds are available. These three priority areas are consistent with information that was included in the tool and the report. And it is also consistent with [2:33:47 PM] city council in a direction that is included in the project connect contract with the voters, which include land acquisition, affordable housing, and economic mobility investments. Next slide, please. Here I will include just a little bit detail -- not a lot but just brief detail around the 23 million land acquisition. So these funds will be available to 501(c)(3) Nonprofit organizations for the purpose of preserving and developing affordable housing on small sites as well as rental ownership on larger sites -- so for the preservation of existing sites. It will also include funding for land acquisition as well as land baking of large sites to expand the city's community land trust. But the criteria for all three [2:34:48 PM] sources of funding must be within one mile of project connect in areas that are active and most vulnerable to displacement. Next slide, please. Then we also have allocated $23 million for land development. These funds will be available to both private and non-profit developers to acquire state tax incentives and bonds for rental housing, development assistant and ownership, housing ownership assistant. For housing, rehabilitation and construction for affordable housing. Next slide, please. So whereas the funding available that I pointed out on the first slide -- that is an existing program. The community development fund is -- we are allocating $20 [2:35:48 PM] million which will be available, and we put in here a competitive grant process. A competitive contracting process I think might be more appropriate and especially based on what we have heard from the procurement office. But funds will be available to address the needs of homeowners, tenants, and for solutions that provide economic mobility. And, again, it is for projects and investments within one mile of project connect areas -- project connect and areas active and most vulnerable to displacement. Next slide, please. And so we're looking for a variety of solutions. This might be existing programs. So organizations can apply for either -- if they want to propose new solutions or if they want to expand on the existing services that they currently provide to residents. [2:36:51 PM] We are looking for community-driven solutions and initiatives in this area. Next slide, please. And this is the same for -- so there will be three categories under community development -- services which are opportunities to expand, tenant services, and then also opportunities that expand and preserve homeownership opportunities. And so this is just a list -- we're giving examples, but this is -- it's not limited to what we have identified. Next slide, please. And so as I said, we've outlined two primary categories -- both solutions to address the needs of tenants and then a category that's prior -- prioritizes homeowners and we are also looking for [2:37:54 PM] strategies that might fall in either category, but we really want to -- this is the category that we feel can address some of the economic mobility opportunities, so the key -- one of the keys -- not the key, but one of the keys to keeping people from being displaced is to provide additional economic mobility opportunities. It's one thing to provide affordable housing and that people can afford and remain in place, but we also want to expand the choices and the options that people have to be full participants in Austin's thriving economy. We're looking for a number of strategies and will provide a template for suggestions through some of the research and work we have done. We're looking for community wealth-building strategies to address displacement issues. [2:38:54 PM] Next slide, please. I think that's -- so where we are now, we are -- we're still on target. Our goal is to release notice of funding available on March 31st. That's where our aim is. Right now we're working on developing and finalizing the strategies for our community outreach, and we really want to focus some of that outreach in areas that are vulnerable, active, and experiencing chronic displacement risks and organizations -- reaching out to the organizations and communities and really doing -- focus outreach in those areas. The goal is to release the solicitation, notice of funding available, by March 31st, and then we will provide a number of technical assistance meetings to really help organizations seeking to apply [2:39:56 PM] for funding to be successful in their proposals, and we'll release that information at a later time. And the goal is to have the applications submitted by June 3rd and there will be a process by which this information will go to the project connect community advisory committee and they will send the recommendations back to city council for final approval. And so we certainly hope that by the fall -- and I know this seems like a long time line, but by the fall we hoped that either applicants will be notified and we will be working on contracts to distribute the funding at that time. Next slide. I'll take questions at this time if there are any. Thank you. >> Chair: Perfect. Thank you for that presentation. I would like to draw folks' attention to the back-up. We had added the community [2:40:57 PM] advise community antidisplacement recommendations to the back-up. I know council member kitchen, who has her hands up, put up a message board post today. So I'm going to turn it over to you. >> Kitchen: Thank you. So on the message board I let my colleagues know that I'll be bringing forward a resolution, which is not unlike what we did last year. Last year we had a resolution that improved the use of -- I think it was 21 million she was talking about in the first part of year one. So this is for first and second year, though we have an authority for the first year. I posted that on the message board, and I'm certain that everyone will, you know -- everyone who wants to sign on is certainly welcome. And it's one of those resolutions that a lot of [2:41:57 PM] people have an interest in. I have one or two quick questions. Would that -- okay. So I wanted to ask -- just to clarify on the criteria. I think I heard you say within one mile, plus in the areas identified at risk or vulnerable to gentrification. But I wanted to clarify, does that mean within one mile of a? >> Station >> Kitchen: A station. But not a bus station. A station that's part of the high capacity system, like a rail station or a brt station? >> Yes. High-capacity transit >> Kitchen: Thank you. >> Thank you for that clarification. We're going to start being more specific on that. >> Kitchen: That helps. And one question then for you [2:42:58 PM] is, one of the questions I've had -- and thank you -- let me say thank you for all the work you're doing on this. It's very thoughtful and I appreciate all the analysis that's gone into it and the planning that's gone into it. So I have a question about individuals. So if a person is an individual living in one of these places - - you know, one of the areas identified at risk for gentrification within a mile of a brtr rail station. How do they apply? If they're an individual that it makes sense for them and they're interested in assistance for homeownership, for example, or rental assistance, how do they get into this process? >> Uh-huh. That's a good question, and we have had discussions on that. The goal, andcertainly going to see if [2:44:00 PM] we get this right -- is that organizations -- because we don't provide direct assistance. We contract with community partners and other vendors to provide assistance. So the hope and expectation that there will be community organizations that are providing this assistance -- so whether it's -- there are some existing programs that we have, right, which they will be able to apply to. But if it's something specific to home repair or homeownership -- >> Kitchen: Uh-huh. >> -- And this is why we wanted to sort of outline -- I guess to flag to community based organizations. This is what we're looking for. Our hope is that there will be organizations that will apply for this funding where we can direct individual residents. >> Kitchen: Okay. So you could direct that the funding has to be used in that way. So if you're choosing an [2:45:03 PM] organization, you're choosing and organization and they have to fund the individuals that meet the criteria that you all set. >> Right >> Kitchen: Right? >> Yes, that is correct. And I will say, if we notice -- and this is why the funding will be for, like, one to two years. I can speak to what we hope to do -- if there are gaps, if people are falling through -- this is a new program but we're going to constantly measure the outcomes, which we will be reporting to council as well. The good thing is we have an opportunity to make changes with our budget priorities in future years. The cac -- the community advisory committee -- will be working to hear from community and take feedback in additional community engagement, which we have heard. It's important that we have and will be conducted this spring so that we can inform future [2:46:05 PM] years of how we will establish budget priorities. So if we need to come back with specific rfp's looking for what we need to address the needs of the community, we can do that >> Kitchen: I'm glad to hear you say that. 300 million is not a lot of money over 10 years to address anti-displacement. So I'm hoping to see targeted interventions that we have done some analysis to understand -- to know that they are the interventions or services or programs or whatever that will help people in these areas. And so I appreciate the targeting you've already done with regard to the locations. I would like to see some more analysis of what strategies would work best in which locations, and that may be something that is a future item. But I think that that would be important. [2:47:05 PM] Otherwise, we may end up funding strategies that are not the most effective in -- and in not the areas where they need to be. So that's what I'm really concerned about. So thank you. >> Uh-huh. >> Kitchen: Thank you. >> Chair: Those were good remarks. I had constant thoughts that we're evaluating the dollars being used and that we're strategiing along the way to make sure we have the most focused of the limited resources. I know there's conversation about some of the distance from the stops or the different -- what's the word I'm looking for? Levels of displacement and how chronic it is, whether expected, whether it's on going and how can we make sure we are helping the folks most at risk of displacement and also looking through the long-term [2:48:06 PM] plan to make sure we're not focused in one direction and we missed something over the years because we know these anti-displacement dollars will come in batches throughout the course of project connect. We want to make sure as we move through the first segment that we line ourselves up for the future. That's an important conversation for us to be having. Let's go to council member harper-ma Dison and I want to keep an eye on the clock. We may need to look at federal grants as a pre view and bring it back next meeting. Let's go to harper-madison to close us out. >> Harper-madison: I know you don't mess around. You run a tight ship. Some of what I'm going to ask is going to have to be a longer conversation. Excuse me, y'all. I have continuously, especially [2:49:08 PM] as we talk about -- have concerns -- as we had this conversation about mobility, displacement, land use - - do we have land-use experts working on the team -- the mobility tool? I want to make sure we're not missing an opportunity to have someone who is a land-use expert talking to the ekt wity experts -- I want to make sure we are sure we are covering our basis. I'm asking you to answer today. But it's something that continuously comes up if R me. If we're going to have the equity office -- if we're going to have the equity office have to face all these things -- transit, mobility, housing -- there's no way -- I don't believe for one minute that we have all the appropriate experts in place to help the equity office -- set them up for success. That's a concern of mine. So I want to make certain we [2:50:09 PM] have the appropriate experts in place that are helping to define the tool before we deploy the tool because while I can appreciate, you know, someone has an expertise in equity doesn't necessarily have an expert in H land use. That's one thing I wanted to point out. Then I also wrote down displacement risk. You talked about acquisition and land trust. I want to know -- so now that we have the Austin economic development corporation, they can do acquisitions. The difference between them being city adjacent and them being the city means a lot of dollars. So, you know, sometimes they say, hey, this thing costs $17,000. And the city says I'm going to buy it. And they say, I'm sorry it costs -- so recognizing the [2:51:12 PM] city gets gouged when we go acquisition -- I'm concerned about that. And then remediation. That's another concern -- question I have. So when we're talking about -- when we purchase property, especially in underinvested areas of town. A lot of this stuff needs remediation, which costs a lot of money. If it was an autoshop, whatever the thing was before, that costs way more money to remediate the thing if it needs -- you know, somebody to come in and do lead paint abatement, to address as bes tows -- whatever. I'm just throwing it out for my colleagues and you. These are things I think about when we're having these conversations. Thank you for the time and presentation. I appreciate it. Thank you. >> If you don't mind, I'd like to answer the first two questions. I think as I share -- the team [2:52:17 PM] that worked on the development of the tool, it was a cross city -- it was a cross-collaboration. The equity office, they were one component. But in addition to that, we did have housing and planning staff, which did include planners from -- and leaders and planners from the housing and planning department. We had the Austin transit -- I forgot the acronym for our transit team. So they were there also, and then they -- some transitioned and it was primarily project connect staff. Our consultants were mobility experts. Those are all the things we took into consideration when that team was formed. So that's one thing. And then the second question was about the land acquisition. So part of the money -- there's [2:53:17 PM] $8 million that will be for land acquisition for the community-based organizations. And the other portion of those dollars will be for the Austin Housen finance corporation -- housing finance corporation, which is similar to acquire land for the city-owned land trust. You are correct. Not only is the city facing the challenges with being gouged when people say, well, we know you have $300 million -- or atp -- I have heard from members of that team. They're also experiencing that. Those are things we have to be strategic about and it's going to take strategy and strong negotiations. And then also sometimes that's why we have to be -- we have to be smart about how information is going out when we're interested in purchasing a [2:54:17 PM] property. But the last question -- I will leave that for some of my colleagues. That's an area I don't deal in in terms of remediation. I have seen that can be a problem for families and community-based organizations as well. >> Harper-madison: Thank you very much. I look forward to following up. >> Thank you. >> Chair: Thank you for those questions. If there's no further questions for Ms. Jackman, we have a couple of minutes to get what will be an intro to the federal mobility grants. I hope we can bring this back to the next meeting. Sorry for running out of time, Mr. Spiller. >> That's okay. I also know that assistant city manager Gina fiandaca wanted to make a report. Perhaps you should take that first and we come back to the next meeting for the grants discussion. [2:55:17 PM] I think -- madame chair -- sum up that we provided a handout or we can provide a handout to you. Staff is visibly working on identifying a proposal for council to perhaps submit as the city. One of the things we hear over and over is although the -- you know, the news and the national press is that the federal government has passed a large funding bill. When you divide that out by year and numbers, we have to be realistic about our odds of getting specific amounts of money. And our best opportunity is to submit a single proposal as opposed to multiple proroposals. That is the introduction in a nutshell. We are working to come back to council in a variety of ways to meet the current call, which is about for grants for the race -- or proposals for the grant which will be somewhere [2:56:17 PM] nationwide -- 1.5 billion for this. It's about a $25 million project cap. That's really all I have to tell you all in a summary. And will be happy to come back and give you your time. >> Chair: I appreciate that and we've been able to speak about that off line. This is not the first we're hearing about it. We will bring you back for the next meeting and look forward to your continued discussions with us. >> Yes. >> Chair: As far as assistant city manager's report -- I don't know that I had questions. Why don't you go ahead and come up. >> Thank you, chair. I'm here if there are any questions. Otherwise, I will give you your time back as well. >> Chair: I always do like your reports and I know we don't always have time for Q and a, which means it's a good thing -- it's self-explanatory. [2:57:18 PM] Some of the items on here are die lighted as the violet crown north connection that's in southwest Austin that has been quite a while in the making. We're excited to see that underway this month. There's safe routes to school for mills elementary. We're excited to see improvements all over the city but especially mobility connections in places that don't always end up high on the list as far as urgency but are still important for our safety and community. Does anyone have any other questions for the assistant city manager? No? And with that, the only thing left on the agenda is to identify future items. We're take up federal grants item at a future meeting. There are asmp amendments we'll want to talk about, corridor construction program updates, atx walk bike role, livering [2:58:19 PM] streets program is currently under development. Txdot I-35 is on going. Welcome out for the next steps. Vice chair has recognized a bond program for city of Austin residents who reside in Williamson county. We've tried to coordinate an automateded vehicle panel. I think that will be an interesting conversation. Newly added to the list today is quote, unquote riding dirty by council member harper-madison. We added that to the list already. I don't know that I expected we would put that on an agenda but it is. >> Harper-madison: Let's keep it real. Keep it on there like that. The other thing I have to ask about is dedicated south first bridge access -- dedicated lanes. I have questions about that. [2:59:20 PM] So I'll be more articulate than riding dirty when I send you and your staff what it is that I'm trying to ask with that. I'd like to add that as well. >> Chair: That's great. We'll see if legal and staff can come to an agreement on the posting language. >> Harper-madison: I appreciate that. >> Chair: We ended on time. It is 2:59. This is the mobility committee. We did it. Next time expect the urban transportation item at the beginning so we can be respectful of the volunteer's times and getting them back to their lives in a timely fashion. With that it is 2:59 and mobility committee is adjourned. Thank you all.