Mobility Committee Transcript (MOBC) – 4/14/2022 Title: ATXN-1 (24hr) Channel: 6 - ATXN-1 Recorded On: 4/14/2022 6:00:00 AM Original Air Date: 4/14/2022 Transcript Generated by SnapStream ================================== Please note that the following transcript is for reference purposes and does not constitute the official record of actions taken during the meeting. For the official record of actions of the meeting, please refer to the Approved Minutes. [1:08:29 PM] >> I am convening the mobility committee here on April 14th at 1:08 P.M. We're in city hall. I am on the dais with my colleague council member kitchen and we have remote vice chair Kelly, mayor pro tem harp er -- alter. Council member harper-madison is not able to join us. I know we have received e-mails - - there are e-mails from community members who have been paying attention to some of these presentations as posted. Item one is approval of the minutes of the mobility committee on March 10th? All in favor? It is unanimous by all [1:09:30 PM] participating, with council member harper-madison not participating today. Item two -- I see Mario champion is here. >> Thank you, community members. I know we're pressed for time. I'll be pretty quick. The last urban transportation meet -- we went through many of the presentations you're going to get today, I seems like. I'll talk about two of them. The red river extension alignment. There's discussion about whether it's leading up to the current standard that the city is professing with things like the Austin strategic mobility plan -- the way bikes and pedestrians are being treated. We know part of this is on UT property. May have a different level of complexity there. There is citizen communication. Maybe these are the same [1:10:32 PM] folks -- former council member Kris ryely and -- others expressing concerns the extension and alignment is not meeting the standards that we have today. There was one item -- we did not take action on that item. It wasn't set up that way but it was definitely an expression of opinion that needs some looking into. The item we did take on the screen now where we took action is a recommendation that is -- it's an extension of a discussion we had last month where we didn't have enough time to get into it. We brought it back up again. This is based on some word about a nonprofit. If you haven't seen that presentation -- about how campo does its planning. I can sum it up into two most important parts -- the need for scenario planning and the need for ways to look at the forecasts. In the presentation from farm and city you'll see they go back and look at what the [1:11:32 PM] predictions have been because now that time has passed you can see if they have been accurate or not. They've turned out to not be accurate much of the time. They do not have multiple alternatives. The process, which is encouraged by the federal highway administration, is a way to address that concern. We made a recommendation that the members on campo work on making changes. Particularly if you go to the results section, it's use an equitable planning approach, look at how to more accurately assess the accuracy and previous predictions so we don't make mistakes down the road. And that is the end of my quick summary. Are there any questions? >> Chair: Thank you for that comprehensive run down. I appreciate the communication [1:12:34 PM] you have been having with your commission and the stakeholders who have e-mailed us. We've been able to see their information and concerns particularly about the red river alignment which we'll get a briefing on today. Any questions from the committee members? Not at this time. >> I would say thank you and we can talk more about this. But appreciate the recommendation. >> Thank you. >> Chair: Thank you very much. >> Thank y'all. >> Chair: Always good to see you. >> You too >> Chair: We'll move to item number three, update on the street impact fee program. Hold on just a second. Let's make sure your Mike is on. >> Can you all hear me all [1:13:35 PM] right? >> Chair: Yes. >> Good afternoon, chair, vice chair, mayor pro tem, and council members. I'm with the Austin transportation department. I'm sponsor of some of the projects you'll hear about today. The first is the street I can't active program. As most of you know the ordinance was approved in 2020. What is street impact fee? It is allows the developments to pay for themselves. Under this structure, the applicants will have to pay their fair and equitable share of their improvements towards mobility. In this particular program, every applicant will have to pay a particular fee based on their intensity, land use, and location of the development. And with that fee, the city is [1:14:35 PM] going to provide improvements to mobility and infrastructure to accommodate new growth and developments. So the beauty of the street impact fee program is that the applicants can calculate the exposure to mobility at the inception of the development. They don't really have to wait until the site plan or the -- so it provides predictability, certainty and transparency to the development to the community and citizens of Austin. With that, street impact ordnance being approved -- we worked in the background to get us ready to initiate collection on December -- or on June 20th of this year. We had worked on several programming -- finance programming as well as the overall framework of the the [1:15:36 PM] the program. Now that we are getting close to the collection date within two months, we are ready to initiate the collection. With that I'm going to hand it over to my colleague who is division manager and he's going to walk us through some of the work we have done in the past 18 months. Thank you. >> Thank you. I am with Austin transportation department. Good afternoon. As he said, the street impact fee -- closer? Is that better? All right. How about that? Street impact fee was adopted by council December 2020. There was a delay of 18 months, partly to have the -- also the new transportation manual in place alongside this and to get some internal systems ready to go to implement the collection. [1:16:37 PM] Today I'm just going to talk about the -- little bit about the time line overall, what is outstanding past June, what was accomplished last year in 2021, where we are today, what's left to go, and begin to give you sampling of questions as they become more and more aware of the street impact fee and trying to understand what this means to individual projects they have. We are just about 10 to 12 weeks away from having our first collection in June. That is an on going activity. We have several items that we're doing internally for our staff and then also the public -- we'll get into those details also. The ordinance had two milestones that will take place in December 2022. It will be a forward facing [1:17:37 PM] dashboard. The projects where the money is being spent, and to have more transparency of how the funding is being received and used by the city. And then lastly there is an item -- still not enough. >> (Indiscernible). Thank you. >> The last item that is going to be triggered within the ordinance itself -- tia's -- right now they're exempt from collecting the street impact fee. That grandfathering expires in December of 2023. Last year several activities began to take place. We began to have informational sessions with the community to inform them of general concepts of the guidelines and how it would be implemented. We prepared an estimating work sheet so the public can look at potential exposure with the street impact fee based on land uses and intensity and to start [1:18:38 PM] looking at some of the reductions they may be eligible for and to have conversations with city staff to talk about obtaining those reductions as our project is developed. There is a public-facing guideline that last year we -- standard operating procedures where the staff has been compiled. We started doing compiling of the projects on the back end after funding has come in. So far this year we are just about to start testing within -- all the program has been done. We're kicking the tires, if you will, for staff to go in and make sure everything is ready to go once the first building permit comes in so we can collect it and record everything appropriately. There's been briefings with council members and mayor in regards to those project prioritizations, getting input of what projects should be selected as money comes in and [1:19:40 PM] also how to -- what projects we may need to save on -- additional time to bring in funds to handle bigger projects. We are looking at currently -- projects will start becoming buildable, if you will, from street impact fees in probably about two years to get enough funding in each of the service areas to initiate projects. We're continuing to do stakeholder outreach. We're doing e-mails, additional workshops. We have some beginning later this month. We are beginning to also do some things with different media formats, not only social media, television, atxn, things of that nature. There's going to be more and more information available. It's a detailed ordinance once you get into the meat of it. We have had professional organizations contact us and say can you speak to our group about the street immaterial pact fee, and we're more than [1:20:43 PM] happy to do that. We're beginning to move off lines and see what is the project going to entail. So once funds are collected we can move into the design of some of the projects. As the ordinance states the fees begin collecting in about ten weeks. As I mentioned a few minutes ago we're going to have stakeholder outreach meetings. The first will be in April, in a couple of weeks. These are where we're going to get into details with the individual developers, landowners to come in and make sure they understand how these street impact fee will impact the project, how to go through the process when they build their building permits, some of the information they need to be documenting and some of the information we'll need to document for long efty within the system. So everybody knows if there's offsets, when the credit is due. Those are document and agreed [1:21:43 PM] to. We have bigger players, if you will -- repeat developers that have asked lots of questions but we'll have a formal meeting with them in may. As street impact fee becomes more of the vocabulary within the developed community in Austin there are several questions we're beginning to get. Just wanted to share with you some of the things coming across, the conversations we're having with two individuals. We had a church calling in and saying are we automatically exempt from the street impact fee because we're a nonprofit. We had to walk them through. We said we understand your predicament. The way the ordinance is written, it's based on the number of peak-hour trips, irregardless of the entity itself. It's a land use group, they are congregational type of organization, adding additional square footage. They were asking how that works. They're not adding enough to [1:22:45 PM] trigger the street impact fee, but those are questions we're beginning to get. Other questions such as, hey, I'm going to be paying so much fee and -- on this development and I've agreed to build some things, there's offset credits, can I carry them to a future project? Again, we point to them -- we're in the ordinance -- in the ordinance itself where that is not allowable. If we're working closely with each individual applicant so they're not overly burdened for the purpose of their development so that, yes, there's a spread sheet and the rates have been all defined but we're not out to get any developer to overdo what is their obligation. The new TCM addresses some of the offset reductions that take place -- parking, transit, internal capture -- things of that nature. Very much they are aligned with the new TCM. Some of those are capped by which service area the project is located in. And we're beginning to have [1:23:46 PM] conversations with a lot of how do they account for the productions -- above the line, below the line -- things of that type of conversation. Something came up -- developer saying, hey, I'm building an afordable housing, multifamily unit, and does all my affordable housing count as a reduction? The simple answer is no. The way the ordinance is written, multifamily for affordable housing has to be no higher than 60 per cent of mfi. There are lots of developments. I'd like to do some 80 per cent, 85 per cent. Those would not give them reduction in street impact fee. It must be maximum 80 per cent mfi. We're continuing to put the bow on everything, if you will, to get this implemented so we're confident collections will begin in June. There are some unknowns we're trying to figure out -- how long will it take to process [1:24:49 PM] these street impact fee assessments once they come in for building permit? Our staff is training. We're taking the mentality of all hands on deck come June so that we are not complicating the process of putting in the burden and they're not getting their building permits so staff will be available to assist them at any time. With that, is there any questions you would like to ask of me? >> Chair: I have a couple of short ones, but if any other committee members do -- I wasn't planning on going first but council member kitchen said I should. Thanks to council member kitchen. I know when we were calculating the fees -- she was the chair at the time. I remember it being complicated but people were always willing to answer questions and walk us through it. This has been many years in the making. So we appreciate your work on it and, you know, helping to educate the xhunlt through stakeholder involvement so people know what to expect. [1:25:50 PM] For the stakeholder outreach these dates -- do you need people to register for them ahead of time or if people show up without registering, what's your preference. >> We are sending out information e-mails that they can register ahead of time and they'll get the link. The first is going to be solely online. The others will be hybrid format. They can walk in the room. They don't have to register to have a registration and seat. We're going to record the sessions. If they're unavailable to attend, they could still listen to the recording. >> Chair: That's great. I did see there are a couple of recordings there for meetings that have happen inned the past. The slide that has the link to the austintexas.gov street impact fee, is there a spot where these recent questions or faq's will be posted or are you [1:26:51 PM] still collecting that. >> We have some questions already with responses on there. I don't think we call the section faq's. The thought is as we go through the workshops we'll add and extend those, categorizing depending on what type of questions they are. That will be on going, even after June as people come in to do their processing of their building permit. There will probably be more questions. Those will be updated fairly frequently. >> Chair: That's great and I think the map that has been published with this is helpful to understand there is, I think, a through M -- there's? >> 17 >> Chair: 17 service areas to make sure as things are being built and as the infrastructure is paid for that everyone is balancing out so you're not paying for projects that aren't benefiting your business and customers. You're staying close in with your neighborhood and places that people live, work, play near these developments. The 60 per cent mfi number -- [1:27:54 PM] was that something that the committee or council addressed? Or was that an administrative choice? I think it's a great idea. If you were going to do 70, maybe -- I just couldn't remember the conversation. >> Yeah. I'm going to defer. I do know it's written in the ordinance itself. It's not an administrative decision. Council member kitchen may have insight into the number. >> Kitchen: I remember we had a lot of conversation about it. The thinking was, if I'm remembering correctly, there should be some level set that's significant. Maybe you can remind us. >> Chair: There's been a lot of information we've packed in our heads from then and now. >> Kitchen: That's right. A lot about mfi levels and housing. >> Sorry. Thanks. I think that was the thinking [1:28:55 PM] during the discussion on the city council dais. There has to be a certain level of affordable housing and that was 60 per cent mfi. >> Chair: Good for us. I think that's a great choice that we made. That is the last of my questions. Did -- I see mayor pro tem alter has her hand up. >> Kitchen: I have one on this subject >> Chair: Do you mind if we do council member kitchen's question first and then I'll go to mayor pro tem. >> Kitchen: Just a clarification on the 60 per cent. Remind me how it applies. Just tell me how it applies. >> Sure. When they declare affordable housing, obviously they're going to get certification that that is affordable housing they have agreed to. For each unit? >> Okay. >> -- Affordable housing there is a standard reduction that comes straight off the top. >> Kitchen: All right. Great. That's all my questions. [1:29:55 PM] >> Chair: Mayor pro tem? >> Alter: Thank you. I'm very excited to see this, in depth, fully in practice so we can have the resource coming in to address our system's needs more fully. I think this has been a very thought-out process. On page 7 in the slide deck back-up -- I'm not sure if it was the same thing you presented, under the two-tier transportation analysis section, there's a note that there were changes made to response development groups. Can you speak a little bit to what changes were made. >> I'm going to let uple because he was part of the discussions. >> Thank you, mayor pro tem. [1:30:58 PM] I think that's an excellent question. When we worked with different stakeholders -- all the people from the development community, there was an urge to kind of differentiate between the small scale development and larger developments because more often than not what we see is we treat all the developments the same, but with the new street immaterial pact fee the -- impact fee the -- it's going to be determined already by the impact fee. So that's why we wanted to have a two-tier system so that the small scale developments don't take too long to go through the review process. And for the largest scale developments that will have regional impact they'll go to the full scale tia process for review. >> Chair: Okay. So the idea is they're basically going to pay a straight impact fee but if [1:31:58 PM] you're having a bigger than normal impact on the system you need to be able to do the fuller analysis so that we can capture bigger impact. >> Correct, mayor pro tem. So the idea is that since their immaterial pact on the system is being calculated by the impact fee, the tia is going to be the mechanism of what type of improvements they would need for the development. On the smaller scale we're going to focus on safety and certain mobility improvements. But again, for larger scale developments it might go beyond their site and they'll have to do a fuller scale tia. >> Alter: Can you repeat the answer to the question about the nonprofits? I think you were saying they would have to do the fuller tia because they were small but they still have to pay the street impact fees. Is that? >> For nonprofit, I don't think there's going to be a separate category for impact [1:32:59 PM] fee or tia's because a nonprofit -- they generate trips and will have impact on the system. So I don't think there's going to be a different consideration for the nonprofits. >> Alter: I wasn't advocating a different one. I just wanted to make sure I understood you were making some differentiating. I think it was about the tia, that they likely wouldn't have to do the tia. >> That's correct. >> Alter: Thank you. >> Uh-huh. >> Chair: Are there anymore questions on this topic before moving to the next one? It does not appear so. Thank you for that presentation. The next item, number 4, is briefing on the new transportation criteria manual adopted by the transportation department on December 6, 2021. >> Thank you, chair. Development officer for Austin [1:33:59 PM] transportation department. Most of you know that we had been working on the transportation criteria manual updating for the past five, six years. The last time I believe our criteria -- I know the TCM was updated substantially in 1980s. In 40 years this was the first time we were successful to update this particular manual. So while updating this four-decades-old document, we focused on the design and safety standards, specifically on pedestrian, bicycle, and safety and connectivity. That was a big element that we updated in our current criteria manual. The other item we really focused on was to provide flexibility in design and to provide some contact sensitive design guidance. [1:34:59 PM] Now that we live in a built environment, more often than not we don't have the ideal scenario. How do we design? I believe many of you have some concerns about the asmp update, like when we were trying to update some of the levels of the streets to high level surface streets. I think the concern was that if we need, say, 80 feet of right of way, are we going to acquire additional right of way for implementing the high-level streets. And the answer is no. Like, I think there are tools we have in the updated TCM where we can provide the connectivity for ped des yans or bicyclists or any modes. That's what TCM provides -- it provides the flexibility and contact sensitive design, where even if you need 80 feet of right of way but in constant [1:36:00 PM] condition we can provide all the elements in 60 feet if that's available. I think that was a big element and the other element was to incorporate the street impact fee to complement our impact fee program, we updated our development review methods so that they speak to each other and it's complementary. Before I hand it over to our project manager for this project, I would like to convey our -- although this project was led by atd, many of the departments contributed significantly on this -- Austin fire department, public works department, development services department, housing and planning department and many other departments -- they provided valuable input on this. And lastly, this is the beginning of updating our TCM. With all the updates it's not yet perfect but we are able -- now that we are able to [1:37:00 PM] untangle this 40-yield-old TCM document with the updating process we will continue to updating it every year or every other year and make the improvements as we go. With that, I'm going to hand it over to Daniel Moran. >> Thank you for having us here today. I'm with the Austin transportation department. That's for me. Great. So as was mentioned the current TCM we have was created an drafted in the 1980s. Quite a lot has changed since then. What's happening currently during development review processes, this old TCM is requiring lots of developmental waivers to achieve some of the goals -- mobility goals we have [1:38:02 PM] set out for ourselves during the development review process. So that was a big push for us to update the TCM. We also wanted to create -- update our tia and mitigation analysis process to make for something more predictable and easy for developers and the public to understand. Thank you. It wasn't working. So -- provide a better foundation for engineering decisions and design during site plan, subdivision, and zoning processes. We wanted to incorporate some national standards, including ashto - - the current TCM reference some of those. The updated TCM will allow us [1:39:02 PM] to almost inherently adopt updated criteria as those national standards change. We also are reflecting asmp goals and providing flexible design guidance for constrained conditions for established streets, which is, you know, a lot of Austin is already established. So providing those flexible design guides is very helpful for the development review process. One of our most important goals is to prioritize safety for all modes of transportation and to include updates -- to include the street impact fee. So this project has been in development for quite a while. We praelly started -- really started in 2017 with Austin street design guide. We used this this time to take various development proposals in conjunction with development services department and kind of test out some of the cross sections that we felt more appropriate, which helped guide [1:40:03 PM] our final TCM document. In the winter of 2020 we went above and beyond and prior to the formal rules process we posted TCM for public review, held some meetings with the public. We were able to incorporate that into our final TCM document that we brought through the formal rules posting process last fall. In December the city manager formally adopted the transportation criteria manual. That will be effective June 20th of this year, 2022. So just some of the key themes that we heard from the public. We heard a lot about requiring street trees and wanting to see more of that here around Austin. Making it easier to prioritize pedestrian and bicycle safety. Updates to geometric design. [1:41:04 PM] Comments about driveways, parking, loading and the tia process as I mentioned before. A big push to have more of a clear waiver process as well as transportation in the manual. These are some of the changes. This slide and the next slide -- to the TCM. We're narrowing cross sections to allow for protected bicycle lanes as well as street trees and adequate sidewalks. We've added safer street and driveway crossings for pedestrians, bikes and transit. We're aligning with the goals of the asmp and vision zero. The flexible context and -- it's a big improvement. We have a flowchart to help developers know better -- you know, if they have a development that comes in and it does have a constrained condition, they'll know how to design those projects instead [1:42:05 PM] of having to contact staff first and have a lot of back and forth. That will be great for predictability on the development review side. And we've also included raised bicycle lanes which is a great improvement for bicycle safety. In addition, we worked with public works to provide updated pavement design criteria. That will allow for the pavement design to last longer. It assigns with some national best practices regarding the design criteria. In addition, like we mentioned previously, we've produced a two-tiers tia process. This focuses on small developments and larger developments. The great thing about that is the smaller development tias is focused on transportation demand management so help promote modes of transportation, note solely focused on vehicle trips. [1:43:07 PM] So next steps -- we've been providing updates to boards and commissions here in the month of April. We'll be holding a public stakeholder meeting in mid may as well as six more subject-specific workshops in early June. We will update you all on when those are formally scheduled so that people can register for those. Like I mentioned, the implementation or effective date of the TCM is June 20th, which is also reliance with the impact street fee ordinance. We have committed to take sure this TCM remains updated and is more of a living document. We want to ensure when people log on that they can be confident that that document reflects the city's current mobility goals so we will be providing updates most likely biannually or annually. And that's all I had today. Happy to answer questions. [1:44:08 PM] >> Chair: Thank you. Questions? Council member kitchen? >> Kitchen: I have a question related to -- two things. One's related to the street trees. I just wanted a little bit more detail about when they're required. I see here that they're -- it's now in the TCM that they're included in required street cross sections. Can you give me a little more detail when those might be required. >> Sure. Those would be required basically on any new roadway to be placed -- roadway, bicycle, street tree and pedestrian. Frontage that would be reconstructed per TCM guidelines would be required to provide street trees. >> Kitchen: Is there any exceptions to that. >> There are often conversations with existing utilities or existing conditions that may negate or, [1:45:08 PM] you know, make it so that those street trees may be moved in different locations. Those would be on a site-by-site basis. >> Kitchen: Okay. My second question relates to the tia's. Particularly the smaller development tia's. Does that mean there's a different trigger and also I know at one point there was conversations about, you know, standardized tia's which would save the cost of smaller developments. If you could speak a little bit more about what was done there. >> Thank you, council member. You are correct. There is going to be different for small-scale development. The trigger is going to be 2,000 for full scale -- 2,000 daily trips. For larger it's 5,000. For smaller scale tia's we're going to focus on safety and connectivity in addition to the [1:46:09 PM] site so the review process for those small developments doesn't take that long. >> Kitchen: Okay. Is there any provision you -- we've talked at various times about with the tia process -- well, actually the development process as a whole. Looking at cumulative impact. So is there any provision for that in the tia process. >> Yes. Generally when a tia is conducted, we consider all the projects that are already approved in the background. So, say, like if there are certain site plans approved but not yet built, we are supposed to add in the traffic in the background and on top of that we should add the new development from the traffic site. >> Kitchen: They'd have to be approved at the site plan, not the zoning, level. >> Correct, council member. But on top of all this, to account for any additional development that are not [1:47:11 PM] approved yet, we apply a nominal growth rate to traffic so we account for the unapproved cases. >> Kitchen: Okay. Thank you. >> Thank you, council member. >> Chair: Thank you. I have a couple of questions. What does the prioritization look like if the street section is less than ideal? I know you have great drawings of ideal cross sections. What happens when you don't have that space? How do you prioritize all the different modes of transportation that need to be accommodated. >> In the TCM we really focus on safety as one of our main goals. The developer would take a look alt the existing roadway conditions and think of -- the TCM kind of helps them think of alternatives to get those -- the different level -- the different aspects of the cross section onto the site. Often times that could include public access easement where the sidewalk is maybe pushed on [1:48:11 PM] to the property. Or the bike lane is maybe pushed on to a shared-use path. But those -- there's a flowchart that kind of outlines that process. >> Chair: Very good. I have a question. I really like the slide that actually had an alternative. Back of curb configuration. How do you plan to decide whether the bike lane is closer to the cars and there's a tree protect thing pedestrian versus having the tree closer to the cars so bike and ped are further away from vehicular traffic. >> That's a great question. We spent a lot of time with the bicycle community as well as our engineers to determine that configuration. I think a lot of that has to do with maintenance and just for the bicyclist to be able to get to their destinations efficiently. So that's how those -- that cross section lay-out was [1:49:13 PM] determined. >> Chair: Thank you. My personal preference is to have the bike and ped durter away from the cars. I know there's been a couple of incidents where the car jumped the curb and ended up in a tree next to the sidewalk. We really, really have a commitment to try and maintain that level of safety, as I know the transportation department does. So I think anything we can do to mitigate high-speed impacts away from people who don't have the protection of a vehicle will make transportation much safer in the city. As far as dedicated transit lanes, do you have criteria pointed out in here to figure out if and when a dedicated transit lane can be added? I know there's recent conversation about the south first street bridge getting some improvements. What is that conversation going to look like moving forward, especially since we're adding bus lanes and bus routes all the time through cap metro. >> That's a great question. Because the TCM kind of [1:50:15 PM] predated, you know, the updates to our transit plans, we do have place-holder language in the TCM which will allow any type of criteria that project connect or cap metro adopts in the near future to work in alignment with the TCM. A developer would be able to look at the criteria that outlines any future transit considerations. And they would assume that those would most likely be in place or partially responsible for making sure they can fit in front of their development. They would work with our atd staff for those site-specific issues. >> Chair: Okay. And then I think this will be my last question. What happens if most of a block is already well developed and you have someone coming in who -- the expectation is they'll participate in the updated criteria manual. Would they pay into street impact fee or another form of [1:51:16 PM] fee in lieu until updates can be made to the entire street or would they be expected to build something that may not match the rest of the street initially. >> In those situations if the kwoper develop -- if the developer felt the TCM criteria were out of line, they would contact staff to see if we wanted to determine the criteria to be constructed or if we wanted to create more of a site-specific situation but as far as the street impact fee, I might let uple answer the question. I believe they would still be required. >> Thank you, chair. I think that's a great question. Any development, if triggered -- they'll be subject to the street impact fee. To specific question about whether one particular site is going to trigger TCM possession [1:52:18 PM] if the other neighbor -- neighboring developments are not really developing -- so the answer is in those situations we'll probably go with the right of way dedication but not change the specific section because as you understand it is going to be a mismatch to the entire neighborhood street. So we'll have to consider this case by case but this is very likely that we're not going to change one specific section since it is going to be mismatch for the entire street. >> Chair: Okay. Thank you for that. >> Absolutely. >> Chair: Do we have other questions? I see council member kitchen has her hand up. Is there anyone else that would like to go before we circle back. >> No. I asked my question during the last session, which was on the TCM. But I think I got my question answered. >> Chair: Great. Council member kitchen. >> Kitchen: I wanted to follow up on a question the chair had because I'm not sure I [1:53:18 PM] understood the answer, and that is related to lanes that could become dedicated lanes or could be used for bus lanes on a temporary basis. Is there criteria? I don't know if it belongs in the TCM, but is there criteria in the TCM about when that could be possible or is that more of an asmp kind of dedication. >> Director of transportation. You're asking about a tool, transit lanes -- >> Kitchen: Right. >> -- That are often retro fitted into streets. It's often inch by inch, foot by foot redesign of the street. We certainly coordinate with capital metro when they have a bus rapid transit. It's our goal to accelerate transit and make it as efficient as possible. So, you know, do we have specific design standards in [1:54:19 PM] the TCM? We do but often it is -- you know, it is a remodel of an existing street. So we do the absolute best we can to achieve the goals of transit as well as the TCM. >> Kitchen: What about a circumstance that you may temporarily be using? I'm forgetting the right term. You may temporarily be using a lane for dedicated transit? Is there criteria that applies to that too. >> Thank you, council member. We have design criteria, but how we do that -- I think those are based on analysis and discussion with cap metro. >> Kitchen: I understand that. So cap metro said we think it would be nice to use a lane down south Lamar. Or to experiment with the a lane down south Lamar during [1:55:20 PM] high speed -- during certain traffic times as a dedicated lane. Then they would talk to us and we -- would we have to look at the TCM and say the criteria says X, or is it flexible enough in there that it can be adapted. >> Let me reword that. I don't think we have a checklist that -- >> Kitchen: Okay. >> -- That if the situation meets these conditions it's an automatic yes. What I would recommend to you is when a proposal comes forward, we analyze it, bring to council the positives and minuses, brief the policy make ers and that's an administrative decision the city trfk engineer can take. We've done temporary analyses and so forth but often in the course of investigating those temporary uses, we may come back with a different recommendation, and so we always work collectively with [1:56:21 PM] capital metro and with other transit providers. >> Kitchen: That makes sense. I wanted to make sure there wasn't a checklist that ended up in a no or that there was enough flexibility in the TCM -- if that were to be the case that it was desirable in the future that there would be an avenue to consider it. >> Absolutely. In Austin transportation department, city of Austin designated the first lanes in town, we looked at what other people used as standards. The transit met those standards. We subsequently held other requests from cap metro to that level. We've since come to the understanding that there are other system attributes that we need to adhere to and council surely has been directive in terms of, hey, we want to promote project connect and we want to promote metro rapid routes. But when we look at how we make [1:57:22 PM] transit efficient, we need to look at the whole package. >> Kitchen: Uh-huh. >> So we've implemented signal prioritize, et cetera and have worked collaboratively with capital metro to maximize the benefits there. But there's not a checklist that ends up at yes or no. >> Kitchen: You guys don't normally operate that way but I wanted to double check. >> It's probably some criteria that said, hmm, let's go back and check or what can we do to increase the number of buses or so forth. But they're not written down. They're just thoughts. >> Kitchen: Thank y'all very much. >> Chair: I'm glad to hear that. I know the transportation department and public works have been helpful and supportive when capital metro is trying to increase ridership and be careful about the the carbon footprint. >> Absolutely. I hope we've helped them make [1:58:22 PM] better decisions about their service and the way they pr vied service as well. Hopefully it's been collaborative both ways. >> Chair: Thank you. >> I know you've received some e-mails and questions. I think maybe some of those e-mails have been based on incomplete information so I'll be here to help answer any questions you might have about the cross section and the type of bicycle facilities that we have on here. But with that, I'll turn it over to Paul to make the presentation and if there are questions afterwards, he and I can help answer. >> Thank you. I'm joined by my colleague who [1:59:23 PM] will be talking about the old red river promenade public plaza [garbled audio]. Next slide, please. >> Chair: Paul, it's breaking up a little bit. I'm wondering -- you don't have your camera on. I'm not sure if there's a space that may have better wi-fi connection, but it was chopping up on our end. >> Paul, this is city hall av. If you're joining from your browser, exit out if you are having trouble issues with your PC or laptop you can download the app on to your phone. That would be a last resort. Okay, we see you. [2:00:25 PM] Hi. Can you -- can you do a little talking for us so that we can see how your connection is? >> So while he's having difficulty, Paul, why don't you -- >> Let me transition over to hot spot -- >> While you transition, why don't we go ahead and start with the presentation and you can jump in and take over and you can get back on, okay. So this is a project that has been long in coming and it is an effort to realign the red river corridor. Essentially back to its old historic connection from a number of years gone by. The purpose of this project was to accommodate the UT master plan for the moody center phase one and also accommodate central [2:01:28 PM] health's redevelopment of the health center area. As you will remember that council is influential in helping Seton move their main locations down town which is now the Dell medical center and create that medical center there in the campus as an expansion of the university of Texas. And so this is in an existing grid system. And it is actually very exciting. Because it will allow us to straighten red river out from about 12th street and through the university and past lbj presidential library and connect with the existing red river up near St. David's hospital up there in the north. So we'll be talking about a couple of areas along here just so that you all can get a briefing on this. The first phase is the realignment of red river from [2:02:28 PM] approximately mlk boulevard to 15th street. And that is in the shaded box there and we'll show you what that looks like. As you remember, currently next to Waterloo park the existing red river that's been closed for some time was really disconnected when we moved Seton hospital, which is the Dell medical school hospital, just north of 15th street there and into the alignment of where red river was. UT previous was part of that move, realigned red river, that's Orange as you see there going north and connecting -- again to red river, where it veered off its historic alignment. And then went on through U.T. And this provided us with a disconnected grid, certainly, not that the preference at the time we did that -- we were in agreement with the health district as well as the university of Texas of the [2:03:28 PM] long-term goal was to restraighten and to reconnect red river to create an opportunity for a public plaza there along Waterloo park. And we'll talk about that. But to regain the efficiency of a new road that would more or less go straight through on the old alignment of red river. And so there you see the new alignment in Orange. Once finished, we will really go straight. And there will be this remnant piece of what is existing red river that we'll be able to turn into some type of plaza and we'll talk about that. On the right side here you see sort of the approximate building footprints of what would be the future innovations district or the healthsouth project as they continue to build out and some really interesting opportunities with the grid there to restraighten it. We'll certainly help us in terms of the efficiency of people [2:04:29 PM] being able to regain use of that red river corridor. The purple is after we vacate the existing red river that is next to Waterloo park and it really gives us an opportunity to repurpose that piece. My recommendation, our recommendation, is to maintain it as right-of-way so that it can be maintained by our right-of-way organizations, public works and Austin transportation department. It gives a little bit more flexibility in terms of the use to be able to partner that with the uses that are blooming as you would in Waterloo park there just adjacent. Paul, are you back yet? Okay. We'll keep going. >> Yes, rob, I'm here. All right, great. This is -- yep. This is a blow up view of what the current and the future alignments between 12th and 15th [2:05:31 PM] street look like and the yellow is the old red river alignment between 12th and 15th which Luke will be talking about next. And what's in Orange is the new alignment of new red river between 12th and 15th which is nearing completion. Next slide, please. This is a progress photo taken March 31st, just two weeks ago, with the new paving and the glass facade is a property with UT as the major tenant for it. Next steps, so they anticipate completion of block 164 as well as the roadway this spring/summer, and atd staff will work with our partners to [2:06:38 PM] transition to a pedestrian oriented amenity. Next item, please. So the future items coming to council hopefully in June of this year, the right-of-way reimbursement which is a vacation of approximately .35 acres of old red river to central health. And then watershed protection department will be bringing an item for a $75,000 contribution for enhanced water drainage. >> Madam chair, if I can point out one thing there. You know, one of the directions from both council and management was to achieve this new red river as a cashless transaction. And so the only funds that are being exchanged here are actually to take care of a larger stormwater drainage issue and that's the watershed protection from elsewhere in [2:07:39 PM] this part of our grid. And so we thought that was in keeping with the direction that we received from council. The exchange, the small piece of right-of-way to make that building that was constructed to work and perceived as part of that cashless transaction to allow us to get a new street and the benefits that come from a new grid connection. Okay, Paul. >> Great, thank you. Next slide, please. This is a quick update on the section of red river to the north that's going through the UT campus along Robert Denham drive. We were notified a couple of weeks ago that the bike pedestrian access detour through campus was temporarily impeded just due to the construction sequence of the moody center. We did reach out to UT, our [2:08:41 PM] partners there, and they anticipate reopening that bike ped route through campus no later than April 20th. So that's just a quick update on the realignment to the north. Next slide, please. Ok, so I know that we heard and that at the committee heard input from Ms. Walker and Mr. Riley regarding the typical section of what's being built between 12th and 15th street. And we're thankful for the input and the dialogue on that. So, here in this case -- and like we heard from the TCM update before us that at the time of this site plan, 2019, 2020, the guidelines that we had were the existing ttcn and the Austin street design guide and it recommended a level three [2:09:42 PM] urban profile, which is 96-feet of right-of-way, unfortunately, we only had 80 feet of right-of-way to work with and in some areas it's as little as 77 feet. So the challenge facing dsd and atd staff and urban design is essentially to fit about 27 feet of elements on each side into anywhere from 18 to 20 feet of right-of-way on each side. So what we're -- we were able to fit in is in the -- and this is looking south essentially from 15th street downhill towards 12th street, is one lane, one travel lane each direction with a center turn lane in order to maneuver into the adjacent [2:10:43 PM] buildings. And a 5 1/2-foot bike lane going southbound which is downhill with a 1.5 foot buffer and an 8- foot sidewalk going southbound. And then in the northbound direction which is generally uphill, we were able to come up with a 10-foot shared use path with an eight-foot landscape and furniture and rain garden zone buffer going northbound. It's also important for us to understand that this right-of-way is currently central health's. It is not under the control of the city or atd, and so there will be future opportunities to make refinements to the -- to the typical section in the future once this is a city right-of- way. Next slide, please. This is a series of construction [2:11:45 PM] progress photos taken over the last couple of months, just -- most of these are looking -- looking north and some of them are looking south as you can see some of the specifics of what's on the ground today. Next slide, please. And this is the overall layout of how the right-of-way transactions are going to occur with the new red river being towards the top of the screen with north being to the left. And the section that will be conveyed to central health is in the royal blue, with the city retaining the bright yellow section, which will be a 25-foot emergency vehicle access in order to access the old red river public plaza promenade which will be to the south. [2:12:46 PM] And now I'll turn it over to my colleague to talk about how we are going to transition this old red river alignment to a future public plaza. >> Okay, thank you, I might do a second mic check before I get started. Is everything good? >> Yes, we can hear you. >> Okay, thank you, Christopher. Well, thank you, rod, and thank you, Paul, for providing the background and the details of red river street realignment, and the new red river portion that we looked at with the cross sections between 12th and 15th street. And then we briefly talked about the opportunities that is adjacent to Waterloo park which is this old red river between 12th and 15th street. Before we get started though, as you're aware in and around this area on 12th and 15th street it will be busier with increasing density. We talked about block 164, central health. There's also a 32-story symphony [2:13:47 PM] square mixed use right there and it doesn't show on this map but it's on the southeast corner of 12th and red river. The UT and the moody event center and even large effects at Waterloo and greenway are going to all collide kind of in and near this site. But the intermediate phase that we'll talk about first in this phase one allows the community to support and take advantage of the public space and this near term kind of phase before major capital construction happens. Many public plazas or promenades proceed from this phase one into a final design. And typically it can take anywhere between two and five years. But the promenade will provide accessible mobility by transforming what was once a heavy vehicular kind of traffic into more of an access ibilityd accessibility for all and looking for pedestrians and cyclists and shared mobility on this site. And this can be used through [2:14:48 PM] existing infrastructure and collaborating internally and externally with our partnerships that are kind of in and near this site. We will kind of do this by implementing collapsable Ballard blockades, we will also maintain that 25-foot right-of-way emergency access. So first where you kind of see here in blue, central health will have this 55-foot wide area between the area, so they can enter and exit through the parking garage. Both of these slides show you the same information and the next one provides aerial for it, but the remainder of old red river between 12th and 14th will kind of being a public plaza, a promenade. But as you see the yellow line that extends past Waterloo and greenway and from 15th street, that's the 25- foot right of way emergency access. So this intermediate phase will have a six-month assessment of the existing infrastructure. And it will kind of kick off [2:15:49 PM] this summer and go a bit to the end of the year while we do stakeholder engagement and be able to collect that data and looking at our existing infrastructure and see some of the possibilities. I mean, next slide, so similar to what you see downtown, on fourth street between Trinity and I-35. So this is kind of the downtown stationary and some of the photos that you see, at least up top, where we'll focus on public space for safety and dedicated for emergency access and blockades that I kind of talked about previously. But there has always been some additional interest with Bloomberg art installation and this as a low cost strategy that activates streets, but, again, right now we're still in phase one, again, we're in the short-term phase so that's what we're kind of looking towards next. But next slide. But, as we move into phase two, which is that community [2:16:50 PM] engagement process, so moving from the interim short-term public plaza to a community engagement process, we will collaborate by documenting the existing conditions, programming input sessions. We'll have workshops, shared aesthetic design concepts and while doing this we will collect feedback from the community. And typically this space with the community and after kind of a stakeholder engagement, this really typically takes about a 12-month process, so working to kick this off at the beginning of 2023. And then next slide. So phase three, when we are looking into a long-term public plaza. So after an urban design analysis and there's been conceptual development and strategies that community and stakeholder engagement, we then really look at opportunity and analysis and we define the concepts that were kind of shared with the community. From there we'll move actually to plans and estimates, where we have construction and documentation. [2:17:50 PM] Typically this could take up to like 24 months to kind of go through that whole process to get the design that is approved holistic approach and then being able to actually have construction kind of set in place. So after this, I'm open to wanting to -- I want to hear questions about whether the old red river opportunity, the new red river alignment, or even the full extent and some of the questions that kind of come in place, especially with the bicycle lanes on the new alignment. >> Ellis: Questions? I don't see any hands up. I just have one. I am less familiar with biking in this particular area. So is there coordination happening to make sure that cyclists either know that there may be a safer route to take, or -- how is that factored in from [2:18:51 PM] the sections that we're looking at now from the sections on the outside of this particular project? >> Right. Thank you, madam chair. Well, first of all the new road is not open quite yet. So we go through a process where one gets turned off and one gets turned on and when the new one gets turned on, the new road gets opened, obviously, and transitions to the city of Austin. And there will be wayfinding and communication and hopefully a celebration of what is really, you know, one of the last new roads in downtown Austin. So, it will be very clear for pedestrians and bicyclists and it will look like a continuous route. >> Ellis: That's really good to hear. I know with the opening of the Waterloo greenway there's a lot of folks trying the different methods of transportation in this particular area and I think that it's a prime opportunity to try to get things right, even as we have been talking about the street impact fee and the [2:19:52 PM] criteria manual, and the cross-sections and just really trying to understand in this transition period how to set ourselves up for success moving forward. Knowing how hard it is to retrofit later when you only have so much -- so much space to work in. >> Absolutely. And as you can see we only have really three lanes and the turn lane is necessary because we do have people that will be turning left to get into buildings. And, you know, we were asked by council to match the right-of-way that is north of 15th street that is consistent with UT's design. And so what that also means is that as additional new buildings come in, we expect that they will be set back from this transportation frontage. They won't be built right up to the -- to the edge of the pedestrian way. And so it will actually I believe just like north of 15th, actually feel much more open than I think that we are concerned about right now or as a community might be concerned about. So it will be more open as that goes forward. [2:20:52 PM] >> Ellis: And as far as the flexy posts, are those accompanied with any sort of parking curbs or safety measures that we have seen, for example, on the south congress bridge, they have a combination of both and they are working well, though the lanes are wider in that instance. >> It was a push to try those rubber curbs between the flexi posts and those are easily added subsequent to this. Those, again, are just again a visual reminder that there's a bike facility there. This street will be rather slow. It will not be the old red river that seems higher speed, because of just the width of the lanes and the activities that are going on there. So we think that the design is safe. There certainly will be paint on the ground to help the drivers visually to distinguish where the bike and where the non-bike travel is appropriate. >> Ellis: And could you tell me if you know off the top of your [2:21:54 PM] head what lighting might be like? >> I would like to say bright but I don't actually know. >> Ellis: Thank you. Councilmember kitchen. >> Kitchen: Just one comment. I think that the idea, you know, of the plaza area and the promenade area is really cool. And I can't help but notice that the pictures had a painting on the -- so there's a lot of opportunity, I guess, for public art, I guess is what I'm saying. And it makes the area look really inviting. >> You know, keeping it as right-of-way, designating it as pedestrians only, that's within the city traffic engineer's authority, it allows us a lot more leeway in how we paint and make that look. And so since we won't have automated vehicles hopefully driving in that area, we don't have to worry so much about machine learning and knowing what to expect, and so we can [2:22:55 PM] have a more dynamic, pretty exciting opportunity to do something on a horizontal canvass. >> Kitchen: Well that is great, absolutely great. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Ellis: Thank you and that takes us to our next topic which I know that you're filling in for the assistant manager fiandaca today. Would you like to present her strategic mobility outcome. >> You bet. I believe that a mobility outcome pamphlet was circulated to all of you and if there are certain questions to respond to. >> Ellis: I don't have questions but I like the information that comes in these memos. I focus on what is in my part of town or happening broadly across the city and seeing trail connections and hybrid beacons along the way, it's always just an insightful way to see the progress that is taking place across the city. I see mayor pro tem, may have a [2:23:56 PM] question. >> I don't know if this is a topic for a future meeting. I would like an update on how we address the challenges with ts at the airport? >> No, I cannot answer that and that would be a great topic for a future conversation and I'll be happy to pass that along though. >> Thank you. And I don't know what our next meeting is and so in the interim -- >> I will certainly pass that along and if that's a communication that director yaft can reach out to your office or the other offices, I will communicate that request. I do know from the newspaper that there was a headline that the officers were on the way, but that's according to the popular news. But thank you. >> Ellis: Thank you, that is a great suggestion for us to know more about, whether that is in this committee or offline. Next month -- that leads us into [2:24:56 PM] the last item which is identifying future items and we always have a running list, but may is going to be bike month. So there's going to be a number of topics that we're covering, because we think that it's fun to celebrate bike month and do everything that is bike infrastructure and bicycling and e-bikes that we can do. And, June, I know that there was a discussion of doing a special called topic for the mobility committee but we're not going to have that one after all, so I wanted to daylight that to the committee members and the public that there will not be one in June. And with that, do we have any other items to cover, any last comments? At 2:25 P.M., I am adjourning the mobility committee meeting. Thanks for being here, everybody. I thank you to Christopher parks and our staff liaison and Julie Montgomery, my policy director and you do a lot of work wrangling all of the information to get us here today. >> I'm just glad that we made time. >> Ellis: Bye.