City Council Special Called Meeting Transcript (Joint Meeting with Capital Metro Board of Directors and Austin Transit Partnership Board of Directors) – 03/02/2022 Title: ATXN-1 (24hr) Channel: 6 - ATXN-1 Recorded On: 3/2/2022 6:00:00 AM Original Air Date: 3/2/2022 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. [8:39:15 AM] >> Travillion: Good morning. My name is geoff Travillion in a new role and new responsibilities. And if you see wade cooper down at the end of the table smiling quite broadly, you will know what happened. [Laughter]. All right. We are in a joint session with capital metro, the Austin city council and the Austin transit partnership board. First I'll call the capmetro board into order and then I will pass to each of my fellow chairs their groups call to order as well. So the time is now 8:39 and the capital metro board is now called to order. Chair Castro barrerra. Cass. >> Good morning, everybody. The time is now 8:40 A.M. And the Austin transit board [8:40:16 AM] is now called to order. >> Travillion: Mayor? >> Mayor Adler: It's March 2nd, 2022 we call to order the Austin city council portion of this. Also we have a quorum present. >> Travillion: All right. I guess it really is important to lay out the date too. Today is to provide another opportunity for all three parties in project connect to get together and collaborate about how we're going to move forward and expand transit in the area. With our staffs working and the community as well. Before we dive into our agenda I want to make sure all our counterparts have an opportunity to make opening remarks. I'll turn it over to atp. >> Thank you, chair. I'm so happy and honored and [8:41:16 AM] grateful to be here and that the Austin transit partnership, the city of Austin and capital metro are gathered together. These conversations are fundamental to the equal and open partnership we need to implement project connect. I want to thank mayor Adler, former capital metro board chair cooper and current chair Travillion for their support of atp. A special thank you, geoff, for being a part of the committee that appointed us, and alongside councilmember alter, councilmember kitchen and board member Mitchell. Just a little over a year ago the people of Austin made a transformative investment. It wasn't just about transportation or how we will move. It was about how we will grow and what kind of city we will be. To help make that vision a reality -- I lost my spot for a moment, sorry. [8:42:16 AM] To help make that vision a reality, the voters created an independent organization with its own board to implement and finance the program. Our new atp board has had a productive and fulfilling year. We built up our team, we established transparent policies and practices, we stood up our internal audit function. We hired key staff with robust transit experience and I'm most proud to say we grew our community engagement efforts, including the formation of our technical advisory committees. In all of these efforts the board is committed to keeping our promises to the people of Austin. Today we will hear about the year ahead and the hard work that's still to be done. It's important for all of us, the atp board, city council, capital metro board and most of all the public to hear this update together. Austin is a special place and it has the potential to be truly a nurturing city. [8:43:19 AM] It's at its best when we come together as true partners to get meaningful things accomplished. Such equitable partnerships require more work. We know it's true, but it's so, so worthwhile. It delivers better and more sustainable results to the people we all serve. Lastly, both vice-chair Dr. Burnette and board member Elkins send their regrets not being here in person due to prior travel commitments. The atp board and staff will continue to look for opportunities for improved and robust dialogue, to work through these important milestones, decisions and trade-offs together. We are enthusiastic that we can move this transformative infrastructure program forward in an open, equitable, transparent, effective way and fulfill the promises made in the contract with our voters. Thank you, chair Travillion, for inviting me to make these opening remarks. >> Travillion: Thank you. Mayor Adler? [8:44:22 AM] >> Mayor Adler: Mr. Chair, good to see you in this new role. Congratulations in it. >> Travillion: Thank you, I think. [Laughter]. >> Mayor Adler: You're there now. There's no going back. And it's good to be here on behalf of council with the atp board and the capmetro board. For people that are watching there's cross membership of both so we're all kind of welcoming one another being here today. It's a real integrated structure. Thanks to the staffs in the city and capmetro and atp, which by all accounts and what we see working more closely together I think than we've ever had in terms of regional staff work pointing to real important projects. Austin is growing, as we all know, like crazy. And we need to make sure that as we grow we preserve [8:45:22 AM] what's magical about this place and we deserve the diversity and we preserve what it is that's special. It's a hard thing to do as we watch other cities that have gone before us in a similar role and have not been able to negotiate those paths well. Doing that is going to require us to really look at those elements in our city that are necessary to develop in order to preserve the quality of life and access an opportunity for people and transportation and mobility is one of the most important things to making sure that in the future we're the Austin that we continue to want to be. Right now we're living in the golden age right now with mobility development here in Austin and Travis county and central Texas. We are in the midth of a doubling of the size of the Austin airport, a four billion dollar project, which is critical to our [8:46:23 AM] city and just incredibly exciting. I think we're all proud of the airport we have. It's unique. And now to be in a situation where it is doubling before us. But what's interesting is that four billion dollar project, which could be the largest project in a city is not our largest project. At the same time that's happening we have a six billion dollar project to cap and stitch together I-35, bringing together our community, adding what I hope will be transit lanes where people are on transit traveling at 45 miles per hour past cars that are stuck in lanes. Not everybody is going to get out of their car and get into a bus, but no one is going to do that if the buses are stuck in the same traffic that the cars are in. And that's an exciting project. It's six billion dollars to really fundamentally hit equity in this city and to [8:47:23 AM] undo past injustices. That six billion dollar project by itself would be transformative in any city. And that is not our largest project. For mobility in our city. As we gather here today on a $7.2 billion project connect that has mass public transit getting within a 10 or 12 minute walkshed of 60 to 70% of the affordable housing that exists in our city, getting access in mobility in parts of our community that have not seen it before. Communities where people have to travel and change buses, an hour commute to work or an hour commute to a clinic is not something that we can sustain, that any family with sustain. This is a transformative project and the voters in our area three times now in the last six years from gone [8:48:25 AM] to the polls to support work moving forward, the last time approving project connect. Grave responsibility, real important that we deliver this project for the community as they have charged these three groups to do, capmetro, the city council and atp. This meeting that we're having today is I think the first time that we are going to be really airing for the community what it is that are the tough choices that have to be made in a project like this. The tough issues. Because this is a big project and it's going to have impacts both ones we like and ones we don't like and we're going to be in a constant trading off of what we can do, what we would like to do, what we need to do. This project becomes really [8:49:26 AM] real today. Because those choices that are outlined then will be put against a calendar and we'll see exactly what it is that we have to do in order to make sure that this project ultimately gets built on its budget and on time. And delivered to the community as we have an obligation to do. This is an important because it's going to true us up. It's going to answer a lot of questions we have in the community about who gets to decide what and what questions and what order and how are they going to be decided. This I think is probably going to be the most important meeting that we've had yet on project connect. I know staff has worked really, really hard on this and I appreciate it. And Mr. Chair and madam chair, it will be an exciting day today and I'm really looking forward to opening up the project to community to be able to see what's going on. >> Travillion: Thank you, mayor. I will be brief because we've got a lot of ground to cover between now and 11:00. [8:50:27 AM] And I want to make sure that we adhere to the schedule to the extent that we can, but at the same time I want to make sure that everybody has an opportunity to ask any questions that they ask and have answered. So we want to do is document all questions. If you have a question we will write them down and make sure that they're chronicled and ultimately provide written answers for them so we can identify what people were concerned about, things that we need to do research on, things that we need to bring back to the public. So if we don't get to every question because we are moving quickly through segments, that does not mean that we will not ultimately answer the questions and thoroughly. So there are a few natural breaks that go through the process. I guess we'll just kind of raise our hands like the Baptist church and kind of [8:51:28 AM] step out and come back in. But ultimately what we want to do is adhere to the schedule as much as we can, but document every question that the boards and the community might have. Dottie Watkins, can you start us off, please? And I think we have our slide deck with us, so if you have the slide deck? >> There we go. Let me get this going. Good morning, everyone. Thank you, chair Travillion and welcome to the capmetro board and the council. My name is the deputy CEO for the council and I'll be kicking us off this morning. There we go. [8:52:28 AM] Our agenda today is to really focus in on the light rail decision-making process and schedule for the project connect program. There has been a lot of work done in the last year and few months. And we would like to -- we'll start by highlighting some of the topics in the light rail design that the three staffs have achieved concurrence on. So we've been working on a lot of really detailed design issues, and the vast majority of the line, capital metro, atp, and the city of Austin, all agree exactly what makes the most tense sens for the community. There are still some areas that are the most difficult areas. You will probably not be surprised to hear of some of the ones we're still working on because they're the places that we have the most needs, wants and desires and often the least space so we'll highlight what those are as well as highlight a few program administrative topics that we want to get resolved over the coming months. Really what we want to do, [8:53:30 AM] though, is look forward toward concurrence. We think it is phenomenal that this project to date has received the support of both boards and the council and we want to make sure that we continue gaining that concurrence throughout this entire project. And time permitting at the end we do have a brief program update. There's a whole lot more to project connect other than the Orange and blue light rail lines, but we will focus our time and attention today on the light rail. So let's talk about the decision- making process and schedule. And start with the purpose of the meeting. As I mentioned, we'll be reviewing where we are and where we're going. There is a lot to be said for transparency and we want to make sure that not just the information we have but the process we're using is made transparent to the public. We also have some important schedule management pieces to walk through. This program is enormous and its success requires partnership with the federal [8:54:31 AM] government for funding. And so we need to make sure that we maintain our schedule in a way that keeps us on track to best be able to get that federal funding. We want to have a transparent discussion about the design. As I mentioned we've made a lot of decisions on what we think makes sense and to we'll highlight some of those. We want to also daylight the list of issues that remain to be studied in terms of both design and some of the program administrative topics. But if you take nothing else away from today we hope that you will feel comfortable and confident with the decision-making process and schedule that we'll be undertaking over the course of this calendar year. It is good governance that we make sure all of the partnership is truly on the same page when it comes to these decisions and trade- offs. There are some places where we'll have to make really tough decisions so our goal through this whole process is to get to the end of the year where we ask these [8:55:32 AM] three parties, the two boards and the council, to vote -- a vote of concurrence on the 30% design and our kind of implementation segments. That is not required by any law, but we believe it to be good governance. And as I mentioned, transparency is important to this project. And all of project has been done in a very transparent way. So we really want to make sure that it's clear that the community is on board and that we've had a thoughtful process before we move forward with the kind of detailed implementation. It also is going to be a great vote of support from the community to have the atp board, the capital metro board and the Austin city council to be in concurrence where we are as we take the next step in the federal funding process. So highest level schedulewise, in all of 2019 and it could be argued a couple of years before that really developing the vision [8:56:32 AM] with the community. We have done a ton of community engagement and we have a ton left to do to understand what it is we're trying to do. 2020 got us into the weeds of how might this get funded, what should our governance be. We established the concepts and gained voter approval. Since then as chair Veronica, I'm not going to say your last name right, mentioned that we've been building the team so the Austin transit partnership team has grown, the city has a project connect office, capital metro is building its own project connect office and we're really doing a lot to get all of the processes and people in place for what is going to be an enormous transformation of this community. And by the end of 2022 we want to be in a place where we are ready to get the greenlight from federal government to build the Orange and blue lines and to go forward. So that's where we are and [8:57:33 AM] it's an exciting place to be, but the devil is in the details. With that I'd like to turn it over to my colleague Dave couch who will start getting into some of the details of the schedule. Thank you. >> Travillion: As David comes guard forward, I just want to tell the board that ultimately we want to get through the next two presentations and then we'll have a q&a period. >> Dottie, thank you very much. I'm Dave couch, the previous engineer on project connect with atp. As Dottie went through there have been milestones that have gone on in each one of the years, but as we now get into 2022, it is the critical point that we have to get through to be able to get to the 30% design, the decisions at the end of the year and also move forward with the environmental process. So to get that to a level of milestones we've developed an overall schedule and this is what it is in format and I'll go to the next slide so everybody has a chance to [8:58:34 AM] actually read it. This is basically a milestone schedule. It is the overall decision making schedule. As we go ahead and move forward through the next few months that results in an action in middle of December of this year. As most of you know, we have gone through and we're finishing up the 30% design in estimates. We'll yaw that to go ahead and go forward and run different scenarios, the same way we did before we went through the referendum, which will then result in a staff recommendation, a preliminary staff recommendation that will come back during basically the month of August. That triggers one of the environmental processes, which is a 45 day required process for public involvement. And during that 45-day period there will be a public hearing. So as we get to that point in the program what will be [8:59:34 AM] remaining are basically the public comments. We've received tremendous help and comments from the city and other entities that we're incorporating, but by the time we get to point that we are there it will be other comments from the community. We move forward from there with the next step, which is a recommendation that would come from the staff during the month of November. And then basically go in to December to go ahead and finalize that recommendation, which allows us to move forward through the steps that get us to a record of decision after the beginning of next year and that ultimate goal of getting to a full funding grant agreement in mid 2024. That's the overall timeline. That's what we've now put in this Gantt chart so we have a way to go ahead and track it and move forward. The bottom half of this chart really is what shows that parallel of the community involvement. [9:00:35 AM] When you look at what is there for the series of community workshops that are there basically through the months of March through June, those are the items that are the main ones we have to go through and agree and resolve. That will be the input from the overall community to be able to incorporate that and be able to have it when we come out with the preliminary recommendation during the month of August. Along with that we show each one of the milestones that I mentioned on the previous slide with the preliminary recommendation coming in August with the public hearing and then on to basically the staff recommendation and then the action that would come in December. So those are the community involvement side that matches what is there with respect to the individual activity slide that was before it. If I go on to the next session, this is the progression that we have gone through. [9:01:36 AM] We started out with conceptual engineering, went to 15% and now we're at 30%, which is the key to us making the decisions going through, looking at what the consequence will be, and then moving on from there towards the federal process. Beyond 30% it really is an expansion of what the base design is as we go from 30 to 60 to 90 to 100% those are the steps that really refine it and define exactly what we have. It will define in detail that's there, for example, in stations. That's the progression that we will wind up going through on the design side as we get to that next step in the process. With that I'd like to turn it over to annick for the next session of the presentation. >> Thank you, Dave. Good morning. I'm annick Beaudet, mobility officer for project connect [9:02:36 AM] for the city of Austin and I'm thrilled to be here this morning. To talk about a framework. I'm going to explain the framework for the discussion of the details this morning. The staffs have collaborated and have come up with three bucket, so to speak, to go through the details with you of where we are as of today. So the first bucket is designed light rail design topics. The second is areas requiring resolution for the Orange and blue lines still being discussed and reviewed. And some programs on administrative review topics that are being discussed and we're still working on and we want to daylight those for all of you. So I'm going to go through the first bucket which is the design topics that we've reached consensus on. Over the last year through collaboration amongst the [9:03:38 AM] staffs, we have been out in the community also with extensive workshops and other types of meetings where we've been gathering as much public information as possible as we move forward on -- as we were going through the 15% and now the 30%. And we've come to realize that there's a lot of consensus on a lot of items and they can be grouped into certain themes. So the first one is related to real estate and right-of-way. And essentially our approach, the three staffs, capital metro, Austin transit partnership and the city of Austin, we have agreed that we are going to strive to accommodate all modes of travel in the right-of-way while striving to impact property and right-of-way in the least amount that we can. So we want to acquire the least amount of right-of-way. We want to have the least [9:04:38 AM] amount of disruption to properties as possible while still accommodating not only the retrofitting of rail into our right-of-way, but our existing pedestrian networks, sidewalks, vehicular networks, etcetera. So we've been able to do that for the most part and it's been a pleasure working and collaborating and seeing the consensus and the creativity that comes as we all work together to implement our strategic mobility plan, which is going to rely on not only transit, but all other modes as well. So the other thing that we've come to consensus on is when we must impact travelways, we are bypassing residential at the highest priority to preserve because of our affordability crisis that we're in and the housing crisis that we're in. So that is the number one item that we're trying [9:05:38 AM] reduce impacts upon. The next theme for concurrence is actually quite a lot so I'm going to slow down a bit. We have two slides on this one related to where we've come to consensus on necessary roadway modifications and specifically what's going to happen with left turns through the Orange line, the complete Orange line corridor and the blue line corridor. So it's necessary for us to modify access to private drives along the length of the corridors. So left turns will be permissible at signals as we currently are, however, where there's permissible left turns where you don't have, say, a green arrow for a left turn, those would be replaced by a u-turn movement. So another way to say it is all access for properties [9:06:38 AM] along the light rail corridor will be right in, right out. So I'll say that again, we'll be replacing left turn movements where there's not a protected left turn with a u-turn movement so you might have to travel a little bit further down the roadway, make a left turn at a signal to cross over and access the property. So that is a major modification. And the reason for that, the why, is for efficiency of all modes and most importantly safety. As we all probably know, left turns are tricky today and adding the crossing of the rail is just another maneuver that is better done with a u-turn maneuver. The other modification that we've all agreed upon is modifying onstreet parking and specifically I'm going to go through three locations where we know for sure today. Again, this is as of today. [9:07:39 AM] What we have consensus on as we go to the 30% design. As Dave said, the 30% is just that. It's 30%. There's still a lot that we need to do before we get to the final decisions. And we'll be having those workshops over the next four months. So onstreet parking will be modified and removed and the back- in angled parking removed on south congress between Milton and Gibson so we know that for sure. Modified or removed. That will have to happen between congress -- on congress between Milton and Gibson. And then the removal of parking on Guadalupe between 41st and 43rd street. And the removal of parking on fourth street downtown between Guadalupe and Trinity. Moving on to other roadway operational changes that we've agreed upon is the right sizing of segments along the rail routes to accommodate reliable safe [9:08:39 AM] transit in a dedicated guideway. And so in some cases we have to reduce vehicular lanes in order to do this. And so I'm going to run through four specific areas of note. So the first is just the agreement that the rail will be center running and so that's an important to note that that was a decision that was made early on and continues through today. We haven't changed that. So on Riverside drive between I-35 and 183 we are going to reduce by one lane in each direction generally. So again Riverside between I-35 and 183, lessening by one lane in each direction and Guadalupe street between martin Luther king, Jr. Boulevard and the triangle including the university area or the drag, we're looking at allocating a portion of existing right-of-way to the transit [9:09:40 AM] and multi-modal use. So we're looking at reducing a lane in that area of Guadalupe as well. And then another Josh modification is in the UT area just north of the university proper is extending Dean Keeton where it currently T's into Guadalupe, extending that one block to the west to connect with San Antonio. And the reasons for all of these changes are again for the efficiency of all the modes to travel along the corridor in an efficient and safe manner. And then specifically on the extension of Dean Keeton, one block to the west we want to assure that circulation for vehicles, bicycles and pedestrians, can continue. That improves the east-west connectivity, which as a planner something I've heard over the years a lot from the needs of west campus is traversing east-west from west campus into the university. So that will be helpful with that. The last item on roadway [9:10:41 AM] modifications and left turns is changing movements and intersections and adding new traffic signals. So we will be looking at adding new traffic signals in coordination with the Austin transportation department to facilitate safe movement and operations around the rail. So as we see the need for those, that is definitely on the table. We'll be making some changes along the corridors at intersections where you currently can turn from the corridor on to cross streets. There will be some modifications to some of those along the corridor, but generally there's very few changes to signalized intersections as we know them today. So the motion important part of this, of this portion, is that we -- staff is compiling a list of these changes specifically at each intersection and we will post those and make those [9:11:43 AM] publicly available within the next probably two months. So while we were -- while we're going through the schedule that Dave pointed out and having the pointed meetings on these unresolved locations that Dave is about to walk us through, we'll be posting these specific intersections. So folks living along the corridor can specifically look at areas that they traverse often and see how those change or might not change. Next we have concurrence on how to handle pedestrian crossings. And coordination like I've been talking about all the different transportation systems that we have and we're developing. So specifically we've agreed that again, we want to accommodate all bus light rail vehicle pedestrian and bicycle travel and we've agreed that we may need to redesign those to a minimum standard if needed in order [9:12:43 AM] to make them all fit and we have a new transportation criteria manual that was recently approved that guides us in that way, which is fantastic. Every station this, a key point, from a pedestrian safety aspect, is every station will have protected signalized pedestrian crossings at both ends of the stations, so no matter what way you exit the train, no matter what way you decide to go, you will be protected as you cross the street. So that will be through a signal or a pedestrian hybrid beacon. And lastly we've agreed on looking at transit signal priority along all the corridors of course to allow for the efficient timing and reliability of the rail. So we will likely look at signal timing changes as the project develops. Lastly, I want to go through some specific locations that we realized we had some [9:13:45 AM] problems to resolve as we were going from 15 to 30%. And mostly these were raised sometimes by the staffs, but then sometimes at community meetings where we weren't aware of ways that the current discussion about the project was impacting residents. So the waller creek boat house, there's consensus that we do need to move that and we're working very closely with our parks department and with boat house community on how to do that. We had extensive input from the Norwood park foundation as we were looking at the blue line and Riverside and learned that they plans for renovating and upkeeping the Norwood house area and we were able to coordinate with them to assure that they didn't do any construction that would then be torn up and we could coordinate with them to maybe have some economies of scale and help them with their sidewalk plans, etcetera. [9:14:48 AM] And then one of the most rewarding before I pass it over to Dave to talk about things we're still resolving. But one of the most rewarding collaborations we had was hearing from the riverwalk condo folks and as they were getting involved in the blue line coming right in front of their residence they realized they would be impacted. And we worked really hard to minimize that impact and we were able to get to a positive solution and I think that's indicative or I know that's cave of how we'll continue to work to preserve housing in the best way we can along the corridors. So thank you for letting me go through that in such a detailed way, but that's the point of the meeting today is to get as much out there as we can. And again, we'll be posting the intersection locations as soon as possible and I'll be passing the presentation back to Dave now to talk through several items where we're still discussing. >> Travillion: Let's hold on for a moment because this might be a good breaking [9:15:51 AM] point have discussion. So thank you for your presentation. What we want to do here is make sure we talk about or have questions on everything that's been -- anything that's been presented so far. We want to try to make sure that we stay on schedule so let's have the q&a period for about 30 minutes or so and what I'll do is I'll make sure that we call on folks. If I can't see you,, and I see you, councilmember pool, and you're first in line. I want to make sure that we get a homelessness to talk for 30 minutes and if we can't get everything done let's make sure that we write questions down. And if we have time later on in the presentation, we can circle back to the area. With that being said, councilmember pool. >> Pool: Thank you, chair. I'll go ahead, annick, and just tell you the three different points that I made and if there's anything in there that you feel like you [9:16:51 AM] can respond to it right now that would be great, otherwise as the chair had recommended I'd like to just toss them into the hop four a later turnaround. A couple of these are in the weeds. The point you were making about the right-of-way, whenever we have big projects there's always a place where all of the supplies and the resources are stored, like a lay down or whatever the stage willing area is. I would like to know where on the map those places will be even temporarily. I know we're looking for very little interruption for people who live along the project, but there will be entries and exits and so forth. I would like to get a sense of that because the community will want to know where those places will be. On the left turn access I wanted to know if the streets will be retrofitted for the stack lanes and what would they look like? Will we have center turn lanes? Will they be protected? What's the design on those? Then the cost of the projects in the first [9:17:54 AM] bucket, for example, snailing traffic signals, pedestrian crossings, the new roads. I'm assuming that the funding for that comes from project connect. I wanted to confirm that. >> Thank you, councilmember pool. I'll take the first one and I'll refer over to Dave couch on that. If I can repeat the question to make sure I got it. We identified areas where [indiscernible] [Garbled audio]. We're definitely looking at that, but as far as any confirmation we may have to get back to you, but I'll ask Dave if he can confirm any locations that have been resolved at this point. >> We've started to look through that but as we go through the process of looking at the types of contracts and how large the contracts would be and in which areas, that's when we'll be defining exactly where that has to be. [9:18:54 AM] >> Pool: And the point driving this of course is our commitment to let the adjacent neighbors, be they commercial or residential or whatever, are well aware of the timing for those staging areas? When they'll arrive and when they will be cleaned up and returned to I guess a better state. Good. >> Yeah, thank you for that. We'll make sure as we move forward that we're having a public information plan that gets folks alert of those areas as soon as possible. On the retrofitting for the left turns, the specific designs we have designs we have some of that done that we're reviewing now in the 30% and there were un-- there will be seen acknowledge changes and striping changes required as we modify the permissible left turns. So the public will be able to see as much of that as possible in the 30%. And as we're developing it and as we release the list [9:19:55 AM] we're also available -- we'll make it clear if anyone has any specific questions about how their specific intersection might change, we'd be happy to sit down with anyone who wants to look at how those plans are progressing because that's really important as folks maneuver their neighborhood. So you have our commitment for that. And then as far as the cuts. For a lot of the improvements as far as pedestrian hybrid beacons at the end of each station and things we need to do to modify the left turn lanes, the lions share of that will be funded by the project, but there are going to be what we called betterments for the transportation system so we're talking about a term betterment that is where the cost for an improvement to city assets would be borne by the city. It's an economy of scale and it makes sense for us to [9:20:56 AM] implement our urban trail network or improve our pedestrian network and we want to do that in partnership so that we can save some funding and do it at the same time. That would be borne by the city and we would use various funds for that, most likely previous bond funds for local mobility or other. But the lion's share of it will be borne by the project. But there's a lot of coordination and that is another area where -- that is currently in development and the themes are what I'm going to talk about bucket 3 that are still in the works. >> Pool: That sounds really great. With regard to the betterments and the sharing of the costs, I know that will be a piece that would be discussed by the council and so it would be good to have all that information disclosed. >> Travillion: All right. I'll recognize the mayor and then councilmember kitchen. >> Mayor Adler: And I appreciate that, chair, just in terms of framing this part of the conversation. I really appreciate the way councilmember pool did this. It's kind of in the spirit of this meeting. Since we only have a little [9:21:56 AM] over two hours we're not going to resolve anything today, but we do want to make sure that we identify issues and that's how I read this packet. More than anything else is just beginning to let the public know what the issues are that are being resolved and what's happening. Obviously through the spring I guess we get to the calendar in a second, someone's going to talk to us about how we actually get the information and how we resolve anything that needs to be resolved. So I appreciate that. >> Travillion: Councilmember kitchen. >> Kitchen: I just wanted to clarify and clearly state a few things that I think are inherent in this, and let me say first thank you so much. You've done a lot of work in putting this together and it's very, very helpful. So -- and this is all about process, the comments that I have at the moment. I'm assuming that this information that we have in [9:22:57 AM] front of us is available to the public. I see heads nodding. If you could just state how the public can access these materials that would be helpful. Let me just finish. So there's how people can access these materials would be helpful. The other thing is if you could state a little more clearly the process for consulting with the advisory committees, there's a whole range of advisory committees I note in the backup there's the cac committees for examples are note understand a dot on the timeline. So you want to be -- we haven't had -- I appreciate the backup and the conversation that there will be community input but I'm not hearing the details for that. If you would talk for a few minutes to explain that those advisory committees, including the cac, are part of the input process, that [9:23:59 AM] would be helpful. And then I also just want to emphasize that very clearly that who is deciding, what is the process for deciding and what is driving the timeline? So what I'm hearing is that the importance and the critical nature of completing the 30% design and submitting it to the fta this year or by December getting concurrence is what is driving our timeline. That the process is what is laid out here for we're working towards our staff working together, we're working towards the community engagement and input process and we're working towards the three boards concurring. With the recommendations before submittal to the fta. So I wanted to be real clear for the public that that's what we're talking about here in terms of the process. So if someone could speak to [9:25:00 AM] the engagement of the advisory committees, that would be helpful. >> As you look at the different committees and the dots, if you will, that are on the top of that section, what it does is it shows the subjects that we're doing within the communities and how that comes forward to each one of the committees. That's how some vary that way. And in terms of the way you've described the process of getting through to December that's exactly right with as we go through issues, then there will be staff recommendations that come along to each one of the times from preliminary in August up through the final recommendation in November. >> Kitchen: Okay. And if I'm understanding the timeline correctly, the actual draft of the submittal will be available for the public to read and review and that is after the series of workshops that will occur so people have [9:26:01 AM] the opportunity to understand in more detail the kind of decisions that will be made, but there will be a draft document that people can review. I think that was in August, is that correct? >> That's the 45-day period that is required by the Nepa process. >> Kitchen: Okay. >> And just to your converse question about posted materials, the capital metro board and atp board and city council have all posted this as a public meeting so all three of them have also posted the materials for this meeting at that site. So whichever site you're most familiar with in terms of going through to access public meeting materials, it's on all three. >> Kitchen: Okay. Thank you very much. >> Travillion: Any additional questions. >> Ellis: Chair, I had my hand up, councilmember Ellis. >> Travillion: Okay. I wasn't looking at the board. Councilmember Ellis, please go ahead. >> Ellis: That's okay, thank you. Looks like there's a lot of great folks in the room. I am wasn't sure how visible we were on this screen. I appreciated councilmember kitchen's question about [9:27:01 AM] where these documents are going to be stored so I think it would be good for the public to have like a project connect landing page with opportunities for community input to have the Gantt chart that was posted visibly there so that it's very easy for us to share it with folks. But I also had a question about about the pedestrian and Blake signals and what kind of technology will be used there. I know there are some on the market that are heat censored or things that be triggered without people have to get off their bike or needing to be near a sensor to push the button. I just wanted to know if the future to understand are we using the most modern technology and what kind of principles and processes for the bicycle, pedestrian, and wheelchair accessible spaces of this project are going to be? >> Thank you, councilmember Ellis. I've made a note that when we post the left turn information we can post information if we know it at that time, otherwise we'll keep that in mind. [9:28:02 AM] At this point I just looked over at Ms. Martin who is here and has been a great partner from the Austin transportation department, and we are still looking into the best technology, things are changing quickly with regards to maturing how we do bike and ped systems as you know, so we want to make sure that we're doing that in the best way that we can and we'll keep everyone updated. >> Travillion: Did >> Travillion: Did I see board member cooper? >> This may be a question for Dave. I want to go back to the technical milestones for a moment and be sure that I understand, and perhaps the community as well, the time scale changes at the top. I was looking at this. The key objective I gather for this year, the remaining nine months of this year is to get to a point towards the end of this year where the three boards can [9:29:02 AM] agree on 30% design and segment phasing plan? >> Yes, that's exactly right. And the 30%, the segment phasing plan are the two primary ones, yes. >> So between now and the end of the year, we need to make major decisions collectively on this -- on the design of the blue line and the Orange line. We have nine months to get that done? >> That's exactly right. Given the process of the public community meetings and then the staff conclusions as we've started to talk about, that would be the recommendations that would come forward for actions. >> So that takes us through the end of '22. And then by the end of '23, which I gather would be winter of '23 and winter of '24, we'll have finalized the Nepa environmental documents and submitted those and gotten a record of decision from fta on [9:30:07 AM] that document? >> That's correct. >> Can you give us a little bit more granularity on how much time we would expect fta to need to get to a record of decision? I'm trying to figure out when our work ends on that and when the fta's work begins, and how much time they need. >> What we put in there right now is typical times that Tess for -- it is for fta to review the documents. We've coordinated it with them. It depends upon the process, the number of comments that they have, but that's our projection right now in working with fta of when we would get there. >> Just because I'm struggling a little bit with these last couple of benchmarks, on the one that's entitled blue line/orange line finalization of Nepa environmental documents, that's on us? >> No, the Nepa document is actually an fta document. We do the analysis and provide [9:31:08 AM] the input. It's up to fta to process that and to put it through. And then they provide the approval of the Nepa document. That's not a document that is owned at the project level. It's something that is owned by fta. >> I've got it. So between December and March -- December of this year and the end of February, we would hope to have those documents in the hands of fta with them reaching a record of decision by the end of February? >> That's the current projection. That gets us to the point that we've worked through it with fta and that's what the normal type of process is. Once we get past December, it's in the fta's hands. But that's where we believe we can get. >> And the following fta coordination for approval into engineering phase, could you just talk a little bit more [9:32:09 AM] about that? >> There are a whole series of things that are -- the process, procedure, administrative types of things that you have to do in order to have a grant from fta. Everything from change control requirements to claims to processing of documents. And you have to get through a whole list of those and have approval of those before you get to the end of the project development phase. So we have three things to do. It's that administrative type. And the second one is the Nepa process and the 30% design. >> And just to wrap this up because I know time is tight, it sounds to me like -- correct me if I'm wrong -- but the end of December, our work to some degree is largely done and it's more on the fta? >> It's basically in their hands. [9:33:09 AM] But if they in their review and publishing of the document, there are other questions that come up, we will have to work through those with them. >> So if there's slack in this timeline on our end, where does it exist? >> It's tight through this year and the next step of getting to the ffga during the middle of '24. This is a very tight timeline to go through. That's why this year is critical. >> Thank you. >> Travillion: All right. Let's have a quick comment for the CEO and then we'll recognize councilmember Kelly. >> A very quick comment, board member cooper. I think you're leading to something that we want to highlight towards the end of this chart, which is the full funding grant agreement is critical to getting as much federal spending as possible. Getting the full funding grant agreement in 2024, we put an S because the Orange and blue line [9:34:11 AM] are two different projects, we have to get rated in the fta rating process which is August of '23. To get in the rating process, we, therefore, have to have a record of decision and work through the process. So those are anchor dates and the fta August is a firm piece. There is no wiggle room. That's their process every year. If it's not in the rating in August it can't get in the president's proposed budget for the following agreer. To Dave's point, fairly aggressive schedule. That's why we built so much community process at the front end so we can get towards consent agenda at the end versus trying to solve something and later in the fall -- we want to work together as a team to solve as many things as possible to make sure the end of the process is smooth. I wanted to anchor everyone in the criticality of the grant piece. Thank you. >> Travillion: Okay. So I'm going to recognize councilmember Kelly, followed by councilmember alter. >> Kelly: There we go. It's so good to see everybody [9:35:11 AM] here today. Thank you very much for this informative presentation. I was looking at the community feedback period and I didn't see specifically mentioned any school districts or our partners with the schools. I was wondering if we might be able to include that. It's definitely a necessary thing to consider if children are going to be using this to get back and forth to school or after-school activities. That would be helpful information. I was wondering how these plans might fit into the safe routes to schools programs, if you all had considered that, and also existing school zone areas that might be affected by project connect. >> Great questions, I'm with the city. I'll respond as we have the safe routes to school program. As we talk about the betterments, as I'm always responding to councilmember pool's question, we are working through the lense of what are our annual plans for local [9:36:13 AM] mobility bonds and projects and how do they coordinate with what we're developing for project connect. So that is absolutely part of the collaboration process. We'll be looking specifically at safe routes to school, bike and ped and trail and signal locations, but also at those systems as a whole. So that is part of it. It's a great idea to reach out to the school districts. We can add that to what we're doing. So, yeah, that would be my response. I don't know if Dottie or Dave would like to add anything. >> Yes, we would be glad to add whichever associations or schools to the community outreach. That's our objective, is to get as much community input as we possibly can. >> Kelly: Thank you very much. Outside of Austin ISD, round Rock ISD also covers a [9:37:13 AM] significant portion of my district and will be part of this plan moving forward, so I don't want to leave them out. I appreciate it. Thank you. >> Travillion: All right, councilmember alter. [ Off mic ] >> I can hear you. >> We can't hear on this end. >> Alter: Better? >> No. [ Laughing ] [9:38:22 AM] >> Alter: This one sounds like it's up. Thank you. Good morning, everyone. Three mics. Really wants to hear what I have to say. [ Laughing ] >> Alter: So, I'm not sure if it's in this section or later, but I would be interested in learning more about what's happening around the triangle as you make the turn off of Lamar on to Guadalupe and in that area what decisions have been made. And then particularly how we are working with the state for them to support this project through that area, but also some of that area has quite a lot of state property, which we're staging -- for staging and other things might be incredibly helpful to the process. You know, there have been buildings that have been built there because we didn't get this off the ground earlier. So I'd like to know more about [9:39:23 AM] how that's working. I don't know if this is the time to talk about that or not, but I wanted to surface. >> Councilmember, that is not a part of the rest of this presentation, but be more than happy to get with you afterwards to go through exactly what we're doing in that area. >> Alter: Okay. We were talking a lot about what's happening right where the rail lines are going, but I would like to understand what we think the knock-on effects are going to be for Lamar when we put the rail down Guadalupe. >> That's another one that we will cover part of that when we go through the drag a little bit later. But the entirety of the alignment, we can go through that at whichever point in time for specific areas. >> I'll add to that, councilmember alter, that when we go ahead and post the specifics on the left turn maneuvers and different operations, I think you'll be able to see what's happening to [9:40:26 AM] that degree around the triangle, and again, Dave will go through some of it and some of the unresolved issues, but those are areas that we're still working on and as we know them, we'll circle back with your office. With regards to working with the state, we've definitely had some good conversations along the Orange line with some different state facilities to maximize use of the right-of-way and other things. And you're exactly right, those are opportunities for staging that we're aware of and pursuing discussions with, so. >> Travillion: Okay. Is there -- okay, all right, councilmember kitchen. >> Kitchen: I just wanted to clarify that the discussion today is the Orange line and the blue line, that the consensus points that you have talked about may or may not apply to the brt lines. And so I just want the public not to get confused and for us [9:41:27 AM] not to get confused. I'm remind myself that these consensus things that you're presenting to us are Orange line and blue line-specific, is that correct? >> That's correct, councilmember. >> Kitchen: Okay. Thank you. >> Travillion: All right. Are there any other questions about this section, or should we move forward to get more information? We're still on schedule, so if we can go forward now? All right, let's go ahead. Dave, I think you have the next section? >> Is your mic on? >> Got it. Sorry. The next section is bucket number 2. These are the items that we still have to work through to come up with a resolution. Is there are a series of them that are listed on this slide. [9:42:35 AM] And basically, we have got the Guadalupe section and the drag that we have to work through configuration. Pleasant valley is one we'll use as an example in a couple of minutes with respect to -- did I get the right -- I jumped a slide. Okay. Pleasant valley is one that we will use as an example in the next slide to go ahead and show what the pros and cons are for each section of it. Crestview we're going to go ahead and do an area there with the way it's currently configured that would have an elevated section for the light rail, but we're also looking at the potential to go ahead and depress the red line. That's something we'll go through in detail at a future time. Lady bird lake bridge is one that we're working through with respect to utilization of that bridge. That's an ongoing effort. Each one of these are listed in that timeline for the community events. The subway scope and length, what happens when we go down [9:43:35 AM] south congress, what do we do at the martin Luther king area going back up on to Guadalupe and what do we do at the Trinity spur where we've got an area that could go up 4th street beyond Trinity. What do we do where there is the downtown concourses? Right now in the 30% design, we have concourses between all three of the stations. They're there on the blue line. And then as you go forward with the rail maintenance facility, it requires a 60-acre facility, so we're working on finalizing that. Vehicles and systems is a very complicated process that we go through. Things are changing rapidly in the systems area, so that's something we will work our way through as time goes on. And one of the things that's there is the utilities. Anytime you do something in a city that has got a series of utilities that have been there for years it's always one of the complicated areas. I'd like to go ahead and [9:44:36 AM] specifically use an example, which is Riverside and pleasant valley. There's two options there. Basically, the first option is to go ahead and put an underpass that would go under the section of pleasant valley that is between the eastbound and the westbound lanes. That's what's shown on example a. It would basically keep the roadway in the same configuration. Option two is basically to go ahead and put the bus and rail together with in essence a traffic circle around the area. Those are the two options that are out there right now. And as we go through this, we're going to have a series of considerations that we talk through to come to a resolution. In this case we'll be looking at accessibility, making sure that that is there and everything complies with Ada requirements. Transfer between transit modes, something that is particularly [9:45:37 AM] important. Safety, travel times, the things that are there, quality management, and place-making and landscaping. How will that station fit in with the surrounding area and then also a factor that will be there, what the cost will be for each of those two options. So that's an example of one of the ones that we will be working through. It will be that same form and format. And as we meet collectively with the city, atp and cap metro those are the things that we'll work through to get a proposed recommendation to move forward with each one of those open items. >> Travillion: All right. Thank you, Dave. This is -- >> If I may jump in briefly, just to clarify, in the appendix it was at your seats as well as posted on all three parties' sites, there is a sheet that looks much like this slide that Dave presented for pleasant valley and Riverside. For each of the other topic [9:46:38 AM] areas that still require resolution. I just wanted to call that out. >> Thank you. >> Travillion: All right. And this is a fairly robust area, so let's not take the time for 30 more minutes of questions right here, but let's start with the mayor. >> Mayor Adler: Just as we discussed, chair, we're not going to resolve any of these, obviously. But I note that on the timeline that you handed out to us a moment ago, there is a blue diamond on the calendar that points us to when each of these is going to be put back in front of the community at a community meeting. Keep, please, the council and the cap metro board and the atp on the development of these concepts and those community meetings as they happen so we're current. The goal being to make sure that neither we nor the community is surprised when -- by anything -- when the 30% drawing [9:47:38 AM] recommendation comes out. At that point, everybody should have a really good idea of what's happening and how these things are being resolved. And I really appreciate the daylighting here now, because I think this is a real important step to getting us to that place. But I know we're not going to resolve any of these today to go through the pros and cons. You have to develop that and it's going to be a much bigger bite. But I appreciate you elevating those now so the community can see where the tough choices are. >> Travillion: All right. Questions, board member Stratton. >> Oh, wait. There it is. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Just to dovetail on what mayor [9:48:40 AM] Adler said, when we first went through this process when we were designing the project connect master plan, that we were initially looking at things such as should we do bus rapid transit or light rail transit and staff brought to us various proposals and showed us the pros and cons and brought cost estimates and that kind of thing. But as I seem to recall, we as the three bodies didn't take a vote necessarily, per se, on oh, we wanted this versus that. The process was, we went through these work sessions, staff brought us ideas, we provided feedback, and then ultimately when it came time -- and the feedback also came from the community and then at the very end of the day, when we took a vote there was consensus built [9:49:40 AM] and we saw what we needed to see. And then here's what it is, let's all vote and then we'll move forward. Is that going to kind of be the process here with this? Because I know right now you're showing us here are two renderings and possibilities, option a and option B for eastside pleasant valley. We have a couple in our appendices for the drag. Is this going to kind of be the same sort of process, Mr. Couch, that we went through as we were first even deciding how we were going to proceed with project connect in the first place? >> That's the reason that we wind up with all the community meetings, to get the community input. It's where we will provide briefings to each one of the committees. As we did previously, initially with coming back with a staff recommendation, that's the process that we will go ahead and follow in this case. >> Stratton: Okay. Great. Thank you very much. [9:50:42 AM] >> Travillion: Board member kitchen. >> Kitchen: Thank you. I think it would be helpful to -- I know we're not trying to talk about the, you know, the content today, and that's fine. But I think that in presenting these, I need to understand a bit better about the information that will be presented to us. Because, for example, I would like to understand better -- in a little more depth in terms of -- I guess it might be pros and cons type of thing, because this gives me a heads-up that there are two considerations. It gives me a heads-up on tradeoffs, but it doesn't tell me what the issue is. You know, it doesn't tell me what the challenge is. Because I'm sure there's challenges in all these areas. It doesn't tell me why we might [9:51:43 AM] choose one over the other -- not we, but why the process is going through to choose one or the other. So, my comment is, I'm hopeful that that level of conversation will happen in these community meetings. And I also think it will be important for us as board members to get that level of feedback. So we could do that by participating in the community workshops, which is fine. But just presenting it this way gives me a heads-up that this is an issue, but it doesn't tell me anything about why would I care one way or the other, other than my own -- what I might bring to the table, which is really not -- the decision-making that you want is not every individual's preferences or biases. What you want is decision-making around those considerations and tradeoffs. I just want to give you some feedback that this level of detail doesn't tell me much, [9:52:43 AM] which is fine. I think today we're just -- it's not a criticism, it's just a suggestion for the next level of conversation. Without some more specificity around which one of these is more accessible and why, or which one makes it faster for who, I can't tell anything. >> The way we put this together is considerations and tradeoffs. Each one of the items will be looked at and examined as we go through the process, because some of them are going to be a large pro, some will wind up being a con and that's what we'll go through with the community process. >> Kitchen: Okay. >> The more involvement that's there from council and board members, then that will be super as we get through the process. >> Kitchen: Okay. The level of detail I'm asking about will be discussed as part of the community process. >> Yes. We'll discuss in detail each one of these items. >> Kitchen: And someone who may not be able to participate [9:53:43 AM] in that process, those will be part of materials and backup as well as recorded in the discussions, is that right? >> Mhmm. >> Travillion: Madam chair. >> If I may also, councilmember kitchen, we are also in the technical advisory groups, we are doing deep dives within these sections. And one thing I have asked the team as we prepare for those meetings is to give the materials to the advisory boards ahead of time and ask for their feedback and expertise, and what questions we're seeking answer from the them as well. So we're trying our best to make those advisory meetings more meaningful and productive. And also one thing that for example with this particular intersection, one thing that we have heard from members of the cac who have not participated in [9:54:44 AM] our advisory committees is that whenever we're going to have grade changes or subterranean stations that there is a level of redundancy for accessibility, because if elevators end up breaking down or have not been maintained. So what the team has been doing is thinking through solutions that are not just elevators, but what are we doing to have redundancies to help through these very unique circumstances. So I hope that answers your question. >> Kitchen: Yes, that reminds me, that helps me understand that for people that might really want to dig into the details, that there's a process for that that they can listen to through the technical advisory committees. Okay. Thank you. >> Travillion: I think -- I cannot see the board members that are not here, so if there's someone that has a question, please let me know. But one question I want to ask is, you know, there are a lot of [9:55:46 AM] investments currently being made for example with pickup Zones, when we talk about dessau, pleasant valley, dove springs, Delco center. What are we doing to make sure that the community understands the connectivity between the investments that are being made, for example in the eastern crescent now, and how they will be impacted and whether it will be more efficient when all of these other things come into place? I just want to know how we are telling people where they can find that information. Or is that something that we need to focus a little more on? >> At this point we are still drilling down to how the transit network is going to connect to the Orange and blue lines and as we get into location-specific areas, the deep dives that councilmember kitchen was talking about will be able to highlight some of those issues as well. On all of these topics that remain, we've done in many cases at least one if not two or three [9:56:47 AM] rounds of community input to date and our expectation is that this last round of community conversations will give us the level of information that we need. As we have been doing since before the vision was even an adopted vision, we are open to talking to anyone and everyone who has an interest in the program and would like our community engagement staff to help make sure that they or their neighborhood association or whomever is involved, because we recognize that this isn't going to be something that's great because our staff is great, or great because our boards and council is great. It's going to be great because we were all involved in putting it together. >> Travillion: Any other questions? Am I missing anyone? >> Chair Travillion. >> Renteria: Renteria. >> Travillion: Let me recognize board member Renteria. >> I had my hand up, councilmember Ellis. >> Travillion: I'll get you [9:57:48 AM] next. All right. >> Renteria: My question is, you know, I really like the design, the option a there on Riverside and pleasant valley. I use that quite a lot. And I like the configuration. We have a lot of residents that live on the south side of this street that actually walks to the stores and all the other little convenience stores and shops that's on the other side. And so I like the concept of being able to just walk across and -- to H-E-B that's there. That's where a lot of the people that live on the south go. But can you let me know or have that information, but the two options, is it because of the way it's designed because of the cost, or -- can you explain and give me some more detail on how [9:58:50 AM] these two designs came about? If you don't have that answer today I would like you to send it to my office later. >> We can send more information. Basically what we've looked at is the two considerations that we'll go ahead and be looking at in detail beyond it. Each one has its advantages and disadvantages and we'll bring all of those out in the community meeting, but we can send you more information. >> Travillion: All right. Thank you. >> Renteria: Thank you. >> Travillion: All right, councilmember Fuentes. >> Fuentes: Oh, it's on. Okay, great. I didn't see the green dot. Thank you so much, chair. I wanted to build off what you were sharing about having opportunities for the -- our community to comment on neighborhood pickup Zones. I think that certainly for southeast and in dove springs that has been a bubbling conversation that folks have been having. So having that be part of the community workshop session, and [9:59:50 AM] having it very overt too for folks to know that if we're talking about Riverside pleasant valley station design, this is also an opportunity to talk about potential pickup as well. And I know that this area, and particularly around Riverside and pleasant valley has been super involved. I had the opportunity to participate in one of the community workshops and was very thrilled to see over 100 people on that virtual zoom meeting. So I know the folks -- our neighbors have a lot of feedback to give. I look forward to seeing what the response is on option a and B. As part of that community work session honing in on travel times and understanding the options. If you go with option a what does that look like for the purple line, for the brt. What can one expect to have -- what type of wait time one could [10:00:50 AM] expect to have. And lastly my question is, is it one workshop in may to talk about this station design, or will there be multiple opportunities throughout may? >> The intent right now is one, but if there's a desire to have more than one, then we can work our way through something like that. Whatever the community needs, then we can go ahead and work through that. And part of this also will be, in all probability, virtual. So that will give people capability at their leisure to see it. >> Fuentes: Thank you so much for your community outreach efforts. Again, just knowing that we had that many people on a zoom meeting shows and demonstrates the extensive work that the team is doing in making sure that folks know about the opportunity to engage. >> Travillion: I think the other thing that should not be lost here is as we prepare for public meetings and as we talk about what's coming, we know that all the material are online [10:01:53 AM] and people can have access to them, and then ask questions and give us feedback. If we get a certain number of questions, a significant amount of interest, then that might drive where our meetings go and who we're talking to. It's really important to recognize that we need to make sure that we're following all the questions we get. And the questions we get hopefully come in writing and get written answers as well. And hopefully that will drive the meetings as well. Did I see councilmember kitchen? >> Kitchen: Yes, and I apologize. This is really from -- I'll be quick about it. You had gone over a number -- I think you called them universal design or something like that. So, I see here the consideration is place-making and landscaping [10:02:55 AM] and so my question is just, is there -- is that applicable across the board? In other words, has there been any decision comparable for landscaping, for example, and the use of trees for shading? Or is that more of a case-by-case basis that those decisions are made? The earlier conversation was about left hand turn lanes, always going to be the same. Have you made some decisions about the use of trees and landscaping for shade? >> We're looking at -- right now with the existing trees up and down the corridors. And as we go into the next phases of design and develop place-making and things, that's when all of that will be taken into account in detail. >> Kitchen: Okay, because I would like to understand better. I understand that -- obviously there's some case-by-case depending on location and stuff, but it seems to me that one of the universal policies might be [10:03:56 AM] that we really need to use trees and landscaping both for -- it makes the areas more walkable. It's also important for our climate, lots of other reasons. So I would like to understand what the policy is going to be once y'all get to that point around the use of place-making in particular, and especially the landscaping and trees. >> Travillion: Let me recognize -- it will be councilmember Ellis and then I think followed by councilmember tovo. All right. Councilmember Ellis, please. >> Ellis: Thank you, chair. I appreciate us being able to daylight some of the considerations we need to take before finalizing what this particular intersection is going to look like. Another factor that I just want to make sure that we -- when the [10:04:57 AM] information comes back to us that we have, bridge maintenance and sections and in addition to that, any sorts of issues with nesting birds and things of that nature. I know oftentimes when bridges are built it's very common that you're going to be doing routine inspection and there will be ongoing maintenance costs so I want to make sure we have that information when we have this conversation again, just to make sure that we don't end up in a situation where we have birds routinely nesting there and then it becomes unsafe for them as the light rail is built into that space and there could be some impacts there that we just want to consider. And I also appreciate chair Castro's comments about community input aspects. It reminds me of conversations about what is most inviting to the public and where are people invited and where are people tolerated. And I want to make sure that as we build out this project we're [10:05:58 AM] considering mixing really inviting and easy for the end user to be able to use light rail and multimodal transit in order to make this project really successful. So I know we're all going to be having to weigh the costs and the planning aspects of how to do a project like this. We know that bridges are more expensive than not building bridges, but if it creates a really inviting space that people are more likely to use public transit, that could be something I would be on board with. >> Travillion: Thank you. And councilmember tovo. >> Tovo: Thank you, chair and thank you, councilmember Ellis for talking about bridges, among the other issues you raised, because one of the areas that I'd like to continue to look toward are the different options that stakeholders have suggested for bus service and pedestrian- designated areas over bridges. And I know there are a couple [10:07:00 AM] different options floating out there. I'm sorry I had to step out for just a bit of the discussion, so this goes to the earlier piece. But I want to thank the staff from all of the entities for laying out so clearly the different basic principles that have been -- become guidelines at this point. That's really useful for the community to hear, and then where are the points of continued discussion. Thank you for working hard on waller creek. I know that's an issue that we have lots of community input about, and I appreciate that -- the way in which the staff are working with the stakeholders to find a solution and be productive about that. Also in my district you've been working with the park folks as you indicated, Norwood house and park stakeholders. And so this is a really good example of how from the Norwood [10:08:00 AM] house to the river walk to other community conversations going on that we're making sure that we're really working to preserve some of those key assets, key community assets while we embrace what is going to be a transformative mobility system. Some areas that I'm continuing to really focus on, one is the bridges that I just mentioned and what we do with those and how we make sure that we have robust bus and pedestrian ways along those. And then the other area of particular focus for me is the area around campus. And I know you all have heard a lot from community stakeholders in that area, from university area partners and others about -- that they would like to urge you to think about other options that would really minimize the potential conflict, or potential busyness in that area, because there are so many pedestrians. One of the suggestions that's been made is to keep the tunnel [10:09:00 AM] a bit longer. We want to really serve that campus area robustly with transit. So it will be a balance of different interests, but I appreciate the work that you have been doing with those stakeholders and I'll continue to stay plugged into it. So, thanks again for the conversation today. >> Travillion: All right. Let's see, councilmember kitchen. >> Kitchen: I'm curious also that we're in the process -- the conversation will happen about the overall impacts of particular decisions. Perhaps that's something that comes to us at the end of the process. And cost is what I have in mind when I'm thinking about that, because if -- I'm thinking that if we're looking at cost individually across each one of these areas, I mean, obviously at some point you have to think about the overall cost and how that might impact other aspects of the project connect package. [10:10:03 AM] So where in the process, or what's the timeline for thinking -- for daylighting any issues like that? Does that come at the end of the conversation? Or just tell me where in the conversation we might understand the impact of any of these decisions on the overall cost and the timeline for proceeding with the entire project and other aspects of the project. >> That's what would be included in the preliminary recommendation in August. >> Kitchen: Okay. >> It would tie together the cost and the sequence and everything else. >> Kitchen: Okay. So a package of decisions in August on each one of these areas as well as the other aspects of project connect. And part of that would help us understand any impacts those decisions collectively or individually were having on the overall project connect plan and [10:11:04 AM] timeline, right? >> It would be -- as we go through each one of these and come to a resolution at staff, then we'll run various scenarios that would come forward with a recommendation of the entirety of it. >> Kitchen: Okay. >> Travillion: All right. See any more questions? Oh, okay. Councilmember vela. >> Vela: Thank you, chair. Just a brief question about -- I see the utility coordination is one of the areas pending. And I spoke to staff briefly about this the other day, but where are we or what are our thoughts regarding burying the utility lines, in particular along north Lamar? Obviously it's a tremendous transit opportunity, you know, to get the high-quality high-speed transit along north [10:12:06 AM] Lamar, but it's also a tremendous opportunity to redevelop the north Lamar corridor into a really vibrant corridor with some residential and commercial. And one of the aspects that I am concerned about is the amount of right-of-way that the utilities take currently. And I'm just wondering what are the possibilities of burying those utility lines along the north Lamar boulevard stretch of -- and what are staff's thoughts about that at this point. >> Utilities are one of the more complex portions of the light rail project, particularly what is at grade. And we'll be looking at all of the utilities, some of which will have to be relocated because of the guideway. Otherwise will be increased in size. It's a whole package that we will be looking at on all of the utilities. >> Councilmember vela, I would respond as well on the city side [10:13:07 AM] that after meeting with you and meeting with folks in the district 4 community over the years we've realized that is an important design aspect. And we're discussing it. We don't have any resolve on that but it is something that we're looking at and also talking with Mike tremble who runs the 2016 corridor program and he'll be making improvements in some of these corridors more near term. And so we're talking to him about those as well. >> Vela: And just a quick followup, in term of thes of the decision- making on that, would this be in the late 2022 timeframe for decision on what to do about the utilities, or what would be a timeframe on that decision? >> It will be tied into what we come forward with in the preliminary presentation in August, which then can go forward. And there's the opportunity when we come back with the final recommendation in November. [10:14:09 AM] It would get there in the August timeframe. >> Vela: Thank you very much. >> Travillion: Let's see, we have got two more sections that we need to try to cover before we get done, so if we can lay out I think annick will provide our next presentation. But we will have a few minutes left over for questions after we get these two presentations out of the way, all right? Thank you, annick? Your mic is not hot. >> Now it's on. Great. Thank you for that discussion. This is one slide on -- to daylight -- let's see if I can advance. Could you advance the slide? For some reason this one's not working. There we go. Program administrative topics -- so, as the staffs have been collaborating over the last year, we've had four themes that [10:15:11 AM] we wanted to daylight that have come up that we're still working towards. And so there's four that I'll highlight today. So, specifically I'll bring us back to the October -- the last time we all were together on October 29th and a resolution that was passed by mayor and council directing the city manager to work through a scan of our processes, our permitting process and our city code to be proactive on things that may need to be changed in order to do things differently for different results, to facilitate this program. And so we are actively working on what we're calling the predictability ordinance to see how -- what things may need to change. And we will have an update for you all on how that's progressing in April. The next item is, as you can imagine, we are working through our administrative guiding principles for real estate [10:16:13 AM] acquisitions, how we're doing right-of-way acquisition through the development review process that happens right here in this building that we're in the dsd being housed here, and just our overall management strategy, which like I said before, what we've determined is that we want to have the least amount of disturbance possible to properties with a priority on residential. And then -- so there's a lot that we still need to work through administratively on those programs. And then councilmember kitchen, you mentioned trees. And that is definitely something we're focused on from a programmatic aspect, as you suggested. Definitely site by site, especially where there's large stations with a lot of transfers, there offers a unique opportunity to look at that specific context. But we are working with dsd and the tree program to look at a programmatic approach to implementing our urban forestry [10:17:15 AM] plan, as well as our climate plan, working with the office of sustainability. So that's something still in discussion. As Dave mentioned, we are doing a complete tree survey with the 30% so we will understand what we may be impacting and then really start thinking as upfront as possible how to mitigate and have the least impact as possible. And then as councilmember pool mentioned earlier, we are working on thinking through a series of interlocal agreements that will come at various -- in various timing across the program for agreements between the three agencies on the betterments related to utilities, cost-sharing, as well as improvements to other aspects of the transportation system. So these are all ongoing topics that the three staffs are working on. If anyone has any questions related to any of these topics, [10:18:16 AM] please contact the project connect office. We'll be happy to provide more information. So that's all that I had on the program administrative topics. And then I'm going to now turn the presentation over to Brian Buchanan, with our program office. And chair Travillion, I don't know if you want to take questions on the administrative topic or go straight to Brian. >> Travillion: If we can get through the presentation so that we can hear everything, then we can bring questions back from any area that we need to. So, please go ahead, Brian. >> Good morning, everybody. My name is Brian Buchanan, program manager and vice president with htr in in centraltexas. I have the great opportunity to work with the individuals that you have brought on board to get to where you are today and to where you are trying to get to in the future. They are a dedicated team of individuals that have worked through everything we've all worked through over the last two [10:19:16 AM] years to get to this conversation today. So I think you guys should all be very proud of what's before you today and moving forward. One of the great things about being almost last is a lot of the conversation has already occurred. And just trying to wrap it up and put a bow around it about how we might move forward. So, we mentioned over the last -- over the summer timeframe, from now until summer, there's design inputs related to station design, street design, working our way through all those different design elements at a staff level to try to get concurrence. But there's a series of things that we all understand now more than ever such as economic and resource inputs we have to take into account, our real estate market, and in the central market, the federal funding, [10:20:17 AM] workforce availability in the area with everything that's going on, the great growth occurring and how do you bring all those elements together. And you've heard about the community inputs and conversations we need and want to have and continue to have in driving the design of the program and the ultimate recommendation. The ultimate recommendation as we mentioned, this summer, heading towards that August milestone in the schedule, we will be bringing together 30% design and cost estimates associated. That will head out for a public hearing and the public process associated with that and get community input on the draft environmental statement. But along with that, our case is growing. We have brought on additional resources through contracts with [10:21:18 AM] atp to do some risk and financial modeling associated with the program. We are working with them to develop an integrated financial model including funding and federal finance strategy and analysis and risk and contracting and procurement strategies moving forward. All that will be developed into a phasing plan that we will be bringing before you in the fall for recommendation and ultimate vote in the December timeframe. All to try to stay on that timeline to get a record of decision for the federal government on the environmental impact statement in the early 2023 timeframe and then ultimately an ffga in 2024. Once we receive that R.O.D., that allows the agencies and the entities to start contracting for different elements associated with that. They become eligible for reimbursement through the eventual grant. [10:22:20 AM] A little bit about the decision inputs, we've talked a lot about these, but finalizing the program scope is very important. What is the program that you want to move through the federal process, what is the program you want to build for the community and how are you going to implement that. I mentioned a lot of other projects that are going on. It's not only from a workforce and labor but how do you move around this community when you've got I-35 under construction, you have major corridor programs that are going on, other major construction projects going on, airport expansion and all that. All that needs to be figured out and thought about as we move forward. Once again, labor and workforce availability, I don't think I need to mention anything more about that. Also, laying out the program for operational requirements, ultimately for turning the system over to cap metro, what are those different types of things associated with the operational needs in order to provide safe, reliable transit for the community. And then bringing on our other [10:23:23 AM] partner that we all want and need. And that's bringing some of that federal money here to Austin and working our way through the federal process and the governance process associated with that program. All that leads to, you know, a series of cost drivers and things that we anticipate will be talked about in the August timeframe as we develop them, but trying to get a handle on what is the inflation, labor, supply chain that we are going to be implementing this program under and trying to put risk and analysis around that. The real estate and right-of-way needs for the project and how do we work with that, minimize that and acquire what we need in order to build the best project. We mentioned scope, another example is the subway length. That is a major cost driver and that is something we will be bringing before you in a recommendation about what we've heard in the community, what we need to work through through design progression in 30%, and [10:24:24 AM] bring those before you at the August timeframe. So just to summarize it in five nice colored blocks, from now until the June timeframe we're going to continue with the technical analysis, community engagement, preliminary design, trying to work through these design decisions that need to be made. Staff will make a recommendation on that design in August and the phasing and delivery of that program. That will then kick off the public process for that design, that environmental document associated with that. And then final recommendation based on what we heard through the public process and during the summer of 2022, of this year. We will come before the boards and bodies with a recommendation, or whatever policy decisions need to be made in the December timeframe. So that's the end of my presentation. Thank you. >> Travillion: All right. [10:25:24 AM] Certainly an incredibly important series of policies that we need to discuss. Let's start with councilmember pool. >> Pool: Thanks, chair. I have a question I guess for anik, when you were laying out in your last piece about meetings and community input sessions and so forth. I wanted to ask or have you give us some additional information on, especially in the really complex different station designs at your locations, for example, crestview station. I was interested in knowing whether we would be able to organize neighborhood-specific meetings to hear and answer questions that residents might have. And that would be specific to different areas of town and different districts, and the particular residents who live or work in a particular area that maybe even would be near the [10:26:24 AM] site where those rail stations would be. >> Yeah, as Dave mentioned, the plan right now is at least one and there would probably be hybrid in-person at this point with us being at stage 3, a hybrid and in- person option. Most likely it would be located close to the in-person, to the location as possible. But that's good input. And if there's coordination with the district offices with councilmembers to help us get the word out, we will work with Jackie, the director of engagement at atp, to take that input and we definitely would rely on y'all's assistance if you wanted to have town halls or something like that specific in addition to what we're doing, we are open as Dave said, to talking to as many people as possible as we are working through these critical, unresolved matters. So any assistance is welcome. >> Pool: That's great. [10:27:24 AM] So what you're saying is beyond what you all are already planning, if those of us who have a rail station in or next to our district would be able to hold specific area meetings, that's going to be really helpful. >> Yes. >> Pool: Thanks so much. >> Travillion: Once again, that feedback email is something that people can comment on, ask for things, ask questions. I see -- recognize the mayor next. And Dottie . . .? >> On the community involvement piece, one of the tools that Jackie has been deploying and has been very successful has been block-walking. We've been doing a lot of block-walking around specific projects. I know the team is in the southeast Austin area today or tomorrow highlighting the upcoming work to talk about, for example, the pleasant valley intersection that we had earlier. So, as you as leaders in our community are aware of groups [10:28:24 AM] and/or locations where you think we can gain access to members of the public who might have an interest in a particular topic, please highlight those so that we can make sure we get out. Like we mentioned before, we want to make sure everyone who might possibly have an interest in these decisions and this project has an opportunity for their voice to be heard. >> Travillion: All right. I'll recognize the mayor and then I saw wade cooper next. If there's anyone else that I missed, just let me know. >> Mayor Adler: I really appreciate the presentation. [ Clearing throat ] I know you're going to get some updates in a second, but as concerns the main thrust of today's meeting, the material we went through, I appreciate that. And I would just reiterate the hope that the process that you're setting up gets us to the place where when the 30% drawings come out in August, there are no surprises, everyone pretty much knows what's going to be in them because they watched the conversations in the community, they participated in those, they heard the pros and [10:29:24 AM] cons like councilmember kitchen was asking about early enough to really be able to engage on them so that those conversation happen in the community. Again, just so that there are no surprises about budget, about sequencing, about the design choices. That's what we're trying to get to. I appreciate the conversation today. I've heard in the community over and over again the question -- the issues, is it the council, is it atp. Who decides. And I think what you have laid out here today really emphasizes the fact that there's no simple answer to that question. It's hard to see any big decision here that doesn't impact sequencing and budget. They are ultimately things that are decided by us all together. So I think that it's going to be all of us together that really need to join to join together as board [10:30:26 AM] member Stratton laid out. I have absolute confidence when the three staffs really fight through the tough issues and bring to us a consensus opinion, as we saw before, I think that there's going to be a lot of momentum behind those. But to the degree that those are difficult to achieve, we are here to -- to be able to help facilitate that. But, again, don't disappear into a back room somewhere to make those decisions because then it will be a surprise to all of the rest of us. And that -- at a really high level is what you are trying to avoid. What that means is: You have to publicly confront the tough issues. Don't save the public or us from the tough issues that are happening. Elevate the tough issues, so that everybody can see that this is hard and -- and this ultimately -- project will involve choices. We're not going to be able to get everything we want. We're going to have to make hard choices and the more you bring on the community, [10:31:26 AM] the easier that process is going to be. We can't get to the place in the fall where suddenly we see we're being introduced to a new issue that then we have to stop and slow down to be able to resolve something that -- that didn't surface earlier. So, please, get them out. Which means that when you do the open meetings, that you are having over the next three months, they're not just open meetings. As councilmember kitchen asked and others have asked, lay out what the pros and cons -- lay out for the group before the meeting starts what the tough issues are, try to anticipate those, so that you actually get really directed input from the community on the things that are going to be the hard issues. This project is about choices. This year is going to be about choices. Cost choices, design choices. And -- and we recognize as a community some of them are going to be hard and we all don't get everything we want. I think it's really [10:32:26 AM] important on the hyper-local issues that you elevate those, too, because those are things that are going to catch us. Where are you losing lanes? The people in those areas need to know that where is parking not going to be sustained? Where are there going to be changes in the way people use their -- their roadways, change is disruptive and -- and elevate those things. The left turn lanes, left turns disappearing in front of properties. Elevate these issues as early in the process as you can. So when they are associated and they come out in the August design, no one is surprised or didn't anticipate exactly what it was that's going to be happening. I would also say that you have to get costs out earlier. The suggestion was made we would get those by August. I would say August is way too late to get out costs. We ought to be hearing costs as you are beginning to have the public meetings here, that are coming up here next two weeks, start laying out [10:33:28 AM] costs. As we have them. There's going to be tough choices. Every one of us knows that if we extend the tunnel further south than we had originally talked about, because apparently there's really good reason to do that that costs money. If we take the tunnel north of mlk that takes money to be able to avoid the intersection. Heck, just the cost of materials has gone up in the last year and a half. Lay out the cost issues early because it's, you know, I, for one believe, I think it's going to be the consensus opinion, that we do this project within the authorization that the voters gave us. We're not going to come back and ask for additional financial authorization. We have to make choices, you know. Do we -- do we have it come back -- a project come back in nine years as opposed to eight years in order to do a more complete project? Do we leave something off that we would have liked to have had in order to drive [10:34:28 AM] the project? So I urge you -- right now there's a void on costs, and I think that you need to start getting out those costs in the context of choices that we get to make. But this project ultimately will -- will be done with authorization that the taxpayers have given us and now we have to work within that parameter, I think. And then I would just really thank the staff for this work, this presentation. This is hard stuff. When you look at the decisions that you want to be able to present to the community in August, with no surprises, I think of the daunting challenge that you guys have over the next four months. Because it is going to be that four-month period of time where you are really going to have to elevate all of these things, to have the conversations about choices so that you can do the final month or month and a half or two months worth to be able to actually get 30% drawings out in August that are no surprise drawings. Annick, Dave, Dottie and [10:35:29 AM] Gina and Spencer, thank you. Special thanks for Randy, you know, we're figuring out a lot of this as we initiate the project, not really knowing how to approach this. We tried to think of everything we could. But obviously we're still working through how this -- how we work with each other and how we work on this project and we're deciding that not just for the next year or two, but for the next 10, 15, 20 years, and Randy, you stepped out and in front of this in a way early while we figure this stuff out to make sure that we were out of the gate quickly. You got us out of the gate quickly. I just really appreciate that. You have brought staff to this project, it's a really strong team. I just want to say thanks for helping get us out of the gate quickly while we figure all of this other stuff, figure it out. I'm excited. The secretary of transportation is going to be in Austin here in two [10:36:29 AM] weeks. And I -- I know that he is anxious to hear where we are and how we're progressing on this project, that I think we have some great stuff to be able to talk to him about. Thank you. Travillion all right, thank you, mayor, board member cooper? >> Cooper: Thank you, chair. Thank you, mayor, I appreciate your comments. I think they are very well taken. One of the things that strikes me as my earlier comments perhaps -- highlighted is that super tight timeframe that we are on right now. Feels like we've been on a tight timeframe since March of 2018. It seems like there's been one hurdle after another every six weeks or so that was critical to all that we have done. And I guess having jumped all of those hurdles to this point, I would underscore the mayor's comments that we really have to keep our eye [10:37:29 AM] firmly focused on the finish line, which I think, I gather from Dave's earlier comments, is really about us getting to a consensus by the end of this year on these major issues. I think all of us, staff, board, city council, have to be super focused on the prize, which is making that mark and then we can't control what the fta does, but we certainly can control how we comport ourselves between now and then. Dave, I had a specific issue and maybe this is a Randy issue, in a town where -- where democracy is often a full contact sport and everybody has got opinions on everything, we kind of went by quickly the operational requirements. But if I have learned anything in seven or so years at capital metro, it is the technical aspects of how trains run and buses interject with trains, [10:38:32 AM] platform heights and catinaries and all of those sorts of things really have huge consequences down the road. I wonder if you could just give us a quick summary as you have on the routes and the number of issues that are going to be big issues that collectively decide on where we are on the operational requirements, it's not specifics, but one of the big ticket items that -- how will those get to use the term that we perhaps have overused today, daylighted in advance of our decision making time period. >> Let me start it and then get Dottie to kind of follow up one piece of it. The good thing that we've got going right now is -- it's a Brad new since there isn't any light rail here. We can be very creative and move to the future. The bad part of that is there is no light rail experience from operators, mechanics, maintainers, it's a whole organization that has to get put together to [10:39:32 AM] be able to operate and maintain a light rail system. It's not only the mechanics and operators, it's also an engineering section. So it's a whole nother section that needs to be there. It needs to get-together -- as Dottie -- as you go through the process, you've got the engineering people and maintainers involved assist we do the construction and as we go ahead and do the testing. So the time to start is not too far in the future. And I would ask Dottie to go ahead and comment on that. >> Absolutely. So um yeah Dave mentioned some of the technical aspects and I will highlight that one of the -- of the items that you have in your appendix is actually a bit of an overview of some of the decisions that we need to make about the vehicles, because the vehicles themselves will drive a lot of those technology topics that you are talking about. But I want to take this opportunity to also highlight the important workforce development work that has to happen. Excuse me. Building these two lines is, [10:40:33 AM] in fact, going to be an engineering and construction challenge like few others. As will be the development of the, you know, hundreds of women and men who will operate and maintain the system on a day to day basis. So capital metro has actually already started thinking about how do we prepare ourselves to be ready to operate this system, after Dave is done constructing it for us. We have just hired our first key to that puzzle, which is a workforce development director that we hired out of Washington D.C. Alberto Moreno who brings a lot of experience in helping developing workforces. But we have a number of positions, everything from the folks that engineer the next set of vehicles and solve complex problems, all the folks that drive the equipment, all the folks that maintain the equipment, folks who clean the stations, all of that we [10:41:33 AM] need to get on board before we can open any of this. So we are now charting the path within the community of how do we make sure that the right workforce is available for us. When that happens. And so that is an enormous effort. I would argue maybe as complicated and difficult of an effort as actually engineering and constructing the thing. And that is something that we are already working on. >> If I might, just a quick follow-up. [Cooper] In the appendix you have vehicles and system design issues. How will they be brought to the public as well and when? Because I know that's going to be something people have an interest in. Where on the timeline does that fit in with all of the other intersections and -- >> There's a blue dot. >> There's a dot that is -- a section that is in here. >> It's the end of June. >> End of June? >> Yeah. >> [Multiple voices] [10:42:34 AM] >> One quick comment for sake of time. This is something that the capital metro board will have to spend an enormous amount of time on in the upcoming years. As Dottie mentioned it's workforce, 40% maybe workforce to capital metro two over the next seven to eight to 10 years. Some of those staffing arrangements have to be done much shorter than people realize. When we start getting our test vehicles, which is years before in our world before revenue service, we already need staff. Everything we build capital metro has to safety certify. So if Dave tomorrow said to Dottie, here's a piece of infrastructure, Dottie has to have the team that actually will operationally certify that through a federal safety process. Our financials have to work together. So our enterprise resource management system. So when we do reports to the fta, it's all rolled up in how they see all of those things work. Asset management system. By federal law, unlike say [10:43:35 AM] cities or even highways, we have very strict laws around asset management and our [indiscernible] Repair program, that we have to follow and get signed off by fta. So all of these assets, [indiscernible] Asset management system. All of our customer information systems. Every -- basically, you know, one thing that I want to [indiscernible] Everyone, we have a transit system. This is beyond critical for the community. We have a transit system. We are expanding that transit system. We're not building a transit system. We have a transit system, we are adding more to that, it all has to work together. That's buses and trains at stations, customer information, it's an app, public safety staff, it's our union contracts with atu and how would he -- they do collective bargaining. All of these things interconnect together. I think Dottie is right. In some ways they are parallel efforts and some days will be harder than others. But it's an enormous amount of stuff all stitched together. Chair, story, I'm sorry -- [10:44:35 AM] >> Do that to me -- >> Board member cooper, this is a topic that we will have to bring to the board over and over at capital metro to do that parallel track. So it's a great thing to be highlighting today. >> Cooper: Well, bringing to the board just from planning purposes, you're talking about a lot this year. I'm trying to think about this timeline and what we as the capital metro board and atp board and city need to be focused on relative to this timeline this year. What hurdles do we need to make, so -- >> All right. Let's see. We've got the question from board member Stratton, then councilmember Ellis. >> Thank you, I think this really dovetails on what my fellow colleague board member cooper was saying. To senior staff here is what role and decision points do you feel are respective boards, the atp board, the capital metro board and the Austin city council, once we [10:45:38 AM] separate from here, will have to individually consider and be making separate from as a group like this. Because this document recommends and note dates the triparty requirements. What do you all foresee will we have to do separately in our roles to continue moving this process down the line between -- let's just take now and the end of the year when we're looking at that -- the approval of the 30% fund -- the 30% design. >> The pieces that are there from the technical analysis and how we go forward with each one of the open items, is intended to be a recommendation that comes back from staff. If there are issues that can't get solved at staff, then obviously they would get elevated to a different level. From a standpoint as was explained earlier, there really isn't a statutory requirement for an approval in December. It's something that is good [10:46:39 AM] practice to be able to do that. And those are really the sections that are there. I know that there are also, I'm sure, going to be things that are Ila's that I really can't speak to, but I'm sure there will be other administrative items that are required, but I'm out over the end of my skis at that point. >> Quick comment and summation, board member Stratton would be again I think the mayor stated it well. From the programmatic aspect, this is a big triparty, everyone has to be in concurrence. I think, you know, our goal at staff is just like preelection. Prereferendum. We're going for unanimous vote for all three bodies because we believe that means we have done our job well, we have dated, brought the -- daylighted, brought the whole community along, all united moving into '23. Numerous individual actions from different entities. Some are known, some are [10:47:41 AM] unknown to the process. A good example is atp just on that board approved a new contract with Ernst & young to help us with the risk management and construction methodology process. Good example. Capital metro approved contracts for metro rapid because that's part of their program. Ilas between the city and capital metro between type B funding and bike lanes, coming up relatively soon. There's going to have to be las between atp and the city, atp and capital metro on things real estate, atp legally doesn't have that ability. Both of those entities will have to do some of that work for atp. There's going to be a lot [indiscernible] Over time. Staff is working through that and one of the goals coming up in a few months is to kind of have a better roadmap of those different activities. Some of those will get done through process, then trying to visualize how all of this will work over multiple years. Some of this could be through the budget process [10:48:41 AM] of each entity, too. A good example, Dottie will probably bring in this budget process, new people to help with all of the stuff that we just talked about, operational readiness. Not really related to atp or the city. The city might have something on utilities, rules, practice with atp that capital metro doesn't need to do. These are things that will just evolve through time. The mayor said it best, the large stuff is all of us together and this little pieces are how to effectuate the larger plan. Travillion all right, councilmember Ellis? Councilmember Ellis? >> Thank you, chair. I think this is a really exciting moment to be able to move forward. I look forward to us being able to make these decisions. I think it's important for us to [indiscernible] With our community. But I think it's going to be really exciting to get into these nitty-gritty details, decide which choices, how we're going to make the most of financing that's been approved and to really see [10:49:42 AM] this come to life. I think this is a really exciting moment and look forward to the decisions that we'll make over the next year. I know it won't be easy because it's really big work and important work, but I look forward to it because I think we're going to see the biggest and best impacts and people are really going to finally be able to see exactly what to expect over the coming careers. I think this is a really exciting moment for us to be laying out this roadmap and to understand what's going to happen between here and the end of the year, because it's really big and very exciting. >> Thank you, board member kitchen, did you have something? >> Kitchen: Yes, thank you councilmember Ellis. That's the feeling that I want to come away from this with. It is exciting. We are all in this together. We're going to bring it home together. With the community. So I really appreciate that. [10:50:43 AM] I do have a quick question probably is to be answered later, something that I would like to understand. I don't know if it's a this year activity or next year activity. But, you know, we have talked about a business mitigation strategy. I think that's what we called it in the jpa, which is a process for understanding, once we get to the construction phases, what happens with the businesses and how we work with the businesses to address their needs. So I just need to understand the timeline for that. It doesn't have to be answered right now unless you all know it. But I just want to reassure our business community, along these routes, that's front and center and something that we addressed in the jap and it will fit in the timeline in terms of the conversation. >> Travillion: Thank you, all right. >> Thank you, everyone, for the insightful comments. I just wanted to take a moment to again thank the staff. I know we have nine minutes left. But please do -- >> Actually eight, but who [10:51:43 AM] is counting? [Laughter]. >> It is really exciting. I mean, we started this meeting saying how excited we are to now finally be in person, be together, recognize each other's presence, each other's gifts and talents and passions. So I just really want to voice our appreciation and our gratitude to have so much much energy put forward together today. And a couple of things just to clarify because I thought there were actually going to be part of the slide that we are going to go into detail. Do please take a look at that appendix that you were given because one of the things that we have here as we go through is the drag, we talked about Riverside and pleasant valley, blue line, lady bird lake, another one of the exhibits, crestview station is going to be really intense. I mean, there's a lot of utilities there and as councilmember vela mentioned, you know, a lot of the opportunities that we can be able to take a look [10:52:44 AM] at closer are part of that station. And the tunnel itself consideration. So that appendix, please take a close look, send us your questions through the email that was given to project connect.com/get involved. And also as we talk about the tradeoffs, as we are thinking about inflation, labor shortages, we can also need to -- I look forward to staff giving us recommendations of if we need to have in some areas time to pause and think about, as things stabilize, I mean, inflation then hits a point of normalcy, right and labor shortages also now we have partnerships with ACC and we're able to really start ramping up our labor force. Help us understand what are the things that we can prioritize while another aspect is in the flux, right? So help us get that guidance [10:53:45 AM] forward. I love what you said, ex-chair cooper, board member cooper, a democracy is a full contact sport in this town. But what a beautiful thing to have. Right? What a beautiful thing to have this democracy. As we think of our -- of our partners in other countries that are fighting war, we are thinking of the potential of -- of making this city more nurturing. I can't say that enough. This is for future renegations, this is for our children. These are -- future generations, for our children, decisions that will impact all of us. You have our commitment from atp that we will be looking at the finances. And as we deploy Dottie's maintenance facilities, we want to be included in how those costs affect the entire program. Please help us understand so that we can all help you deliver those maintenance facilities early. And help us, you know, brief us, give us that feedback. [10:54:46 AM] Okay? So that we can help fund it. So with all of this, I really want to thank everyone and appreciate the -- just the joy of being together today. So thank you. >> Travillion: All right. Well, I think we're getting to the end of our session. I want to make sure that we get -- that we are true to the timing that we have put in place. However, I would like to take a moment and just give Dottie an opportunity to give us a program update. There's some things that we should know that -- that they have put together. Go ahead, Dottie. >> All right. So as I'm sure you have figured out in the last couple of hours, the Orange and blue line are a big deal. But they aren't all of project connect, project connect is a program of projects and we've got some great stuff going on in the other pieces of the program that we just wanted to give you a few quick updates about and make sure that everybody is remembering all of the other great work that's going on. The first with our metro rapid lines, two groundbreakings in the last [10:55:47 AM] handful of months for our first two metro rapid lines coming you the under this program. The first will be the -- what we are calling the [indiscernible] Line that will serve the Travis county expo center [sound cutting out] Pleasant valley line. We are very excited about both of those lines, both of those lines will be operated by fully electric vehicles. Capital metro's board of directors approves the country's to date largest contract for. All electric vehicles to support not just the vehicles for this program, but our ongoing conversion of our fleet from diesel to electric vehicles. We have also received the letter of no prejudice on our pleasant valley and expo metro rapid lines, that's really federal speak for it's okay to stand spending money with the expectation of reimbursement. That's really exciting. So we have construction crews out there right now, if you joined us at the expo groundbreaking at lbj high school, if you went out there right now, you would see a little bit of rubble [10:56:48 AM] to the side because we have started actually digging up to build great new pads for our shelters and bus stops. We are really excited about that. We have worked well under-- work well underway for the metro rapid oak hill and manchaca extensions. Those will be coming online in early 2024. But we have those designs underway. We have kicked off our first groundbreaking in 2021 was with our metro rail double tracking red line. There's red line improvements happening to be able to continue to invest in that system so that it can best serve our community as well. I'll skip over -- I have control of the thing. I will skip over the Orange and blue line. We are doing a lot of great stuff on that. I think we have learned that. But I also wanted to highlight the work that the -- our partners at the city of Austin are doing in terms of anti-displacement and the work that they are doing collectively with [10:57:48 AM] capital metro for equitable transit oriented development or etod. In 2022, there's $65 million committed to be invested by the city for -- for the equitable -- excuse me, the anti-displacement efforts. There's a little chart here that comes from their anti-displacement programs. They are currently accepting online applications for folks that want to help acquire properties for the purposes of low income housing. There's a great anti-displacement tool that has been created by the city and was provided less than a couple of months ago. And capital metro is leading a process of equitable transit oriented development studies as being supported by three different planning grants by the fta to really dive into specific station locations and help define how it is that we can make sure that the development [10:58:49 AM] that is inevitable after we make these sorts of investments in the transit system is development that's supportive of our entire community and doesn't leave anyone out. Really excited about that work. It's been a great partnership between capital metro and the city of Austin and once we get a lot of the initial station area stuff figured out, the city will be taking that to build their framework for how to help guide that development. And then definitely last but not least, we have already launched the first three neighborhood circulators, what we refer to as pickup Zones. Those are in the dessau, north oak hill, south manchaca area. Those are going very well. You will see on here the little chart that shows you how these programs are split between the entities. The question was asked earlier which things does each board or council have to focus on. At the high E level, this is -- highest level this is sort of how we have divvied up the work. I can assure you on a daily [10:59:51 AM] basis the staffs of the three groups are working together. We have a project connect office, staff from capital metro, Austin transit partnership and the city of Austin and we collaborate and work together very well. The reason we are here is because we have been able to work so well together and so I think that has been our success and will continue to be our success. You will also note that you have begun receiving a monthly executive project connect update to help make sure that you as you're policy leaders and board members are kept up to date on all of the things that are going on in the program. So we didn't want to let you go today thinking that Orange and blue were the only exciting things happening within this program. But did want to highlight those last few things. And that concludes the slides that we have to share with you today. I'll turn it back over to chair Travillion. >> Travillion: Thank you, we are a little bit over time, but I think it was worthwhile to hear what's going on in the field already. We all have the opportunity through our -- through our [11:00:55 AM] email address feedback@project connect.com, to take a little time, digest the material that we have seen, then ask additional questions if we need to. Just want to thank everybody for putting the time in this morning, for all of the staff work that was done, and unless there are any objections, I suggest that - - that we adjourn and the time is now 11:01. So -- so I will turn it over to -- to you, if you on-- >> City council portion of this meeting is adjourned also. [Indiscernible]. >> Second. >> Atp? >> Thank you. The Austin transit partnership adjourns this meeting, the time is 11:05. >> Travillion: Capital metro also adjourns the meeting at 11:01, thank you all for coming out and let's get to work. [End of meeting].