Mobility Committee (MOBC) Transcript – 10/6/2022 Title: ATXN-1 (24hr) Channel: 1 - ATXN-1 Recorded On: 10/6/2022 6:00:00 AM Original Air Date: 10/6/2022 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. [1:03:55 PM] >> Ellis: Perfect. I am councilmember Paige Ellis, chair of the mobility committee. It is 1 03:00 P.M. On October 6, we are here in city council chambers. I have vice chair Kelly joining us remotely and on the dais councilmember kitchen and mayor pro tem alter. We don't have any speakers currently signed up so we will move to item 1, approve the minutes of the mobility committee meeting of September 8, 2022. Motion is made by vice chair Kelly. Do I have a second? Mayor pro tem alter seconds. All in favor? It is unanimous. Councilmember kitchen? >> Kitchen: Yes. >> Ellis: Unanimous on the dais and councilmember harper-madison is not able to join us. The urban transportation option, the urban transportation commission option, chair champion is not able to join us either so we'll skip that item and hope to see him back for the [1:04:56 PM] next meeting. That takes us to item 3, updates on wildfire evacuation, mobility and route coordination. Who do we have presenting that item? I know we're moving along quickly. We're already on item number 3. >> Jim Dale, assistant director for the transportation department. Thank you for your patience. We were running last-minute logistics for the presentation this afternoon. We're here as a team. We know this topic of wildfire evacuation planning and response is very important to the city council. Also to our community as well as the people here and multitudes of folks that are behind us supporting us as well. And so in prepare for this opening piece, there's one sentence that I came across [1:05:58 PM] that really struck a chord with me was about wildfires know no boundaries. Looking at what we're doing in terms of coordination, we're working acrossse jurisdictional boundaries. The boundaries within the city between departments but also with agencies in the region. So we -- again, we have city staff here today. We're going to switch off between the slides and cover the slides in our respective domains. Then answer any questions that y'all will have at the end. Hopefully we're looking forward to any feedback, consider that in the planning and also in our response effort. And so I want to go ahead and get started and turn it over to chief Della Rosa with the Austin fire department to kick us off. >> Thank you. Good afternoon, mayor pro tem, committee chair, [1:06:59 PM] and councilmembers all. And others in the chambers. We're going to go through this presentation in the way that we would address normal wildfire. The goal here is to be able to share how it would happen if we were to have to have a wildfire evacuation event incident tomorrow. So this is how we currently would be following the city's wildfire evacuation plans. We'll at the end be talking about how we are constantly reviewing these plans and always trying to evolve. As wildfire is not static neither are our plans. We're constantly trying to make them better, taking in input. We'll be going in this order, Austin fire, police, as well as Austin transportation department and how they interface with all our efforts as this is a collaborative approach. Next slide, please. [1:07:59 PM] So for Austin fire department response, we actually start our planning well beforehand. I'll just -- many of you already know what we're doing beforehand, but briefly, one of the things we often do and we do every day when we start going to a higher -- a very high or above national fire danger Ng is that we will start sending out situational reports out to a distribution list that includes hesome and they send it further to all our partners so we can all be heads on a swivel. This is communicating that information, what is the expected fire behavior, what are fuels in our area, dryness and what the weather we're seeing and expecting in the immediate day of and the follongng days. Also what fire behavior and activity we've actually had. In the event we do have a wildfire that's happening, our incident command is going to arrive. [1:08:59 PM] That's the first engine or ladder or fire apparatus that arrives. That officer is going to take immediate control. They will establish incident command and they will do whatever actions are needed for immediate preservation of life and to I initiate the stabilization of that mitigation. We always prioritize life as our first initial actions because that is our issues dent priorities, prioritization, life, stabilization and economic -- minimizing economic loss after. That incident commander will do a situation assessment to determine what the appropriate thing, actions are. Whether it is to start attacking the fire, if it's a small iient fire, that's often the best thing we can do. If it's larger than we may not be able to get ahead of it before it starts threatening lives in a serious manner, we will start either a decision to evacuate or shelter in [1:09:59 PM] place. This is all depending on where it is, what the conditions of the fires are, as well as the road network and where this incident would be happening. Once that is determined, if it is an evacuation or a shelter in place, they will advise their communications center. That is on fire dispatch. They will do that over the radio system. That dispatch is in a clean room that isn't dealing with the other requirements of the on-scene personnel. They will be able to notify and enact hsem. Any time we start evacuations, we notify our hsem duty officers so they can start the eoc activation as well as the dispatcher will work with law enforcement to do evacuation notification. That's utilizing our ever bridge and reverse 911 systems. They will coordinate with on-scene APD officers on [1:11:00 PM] evacuation routes and aspects. We want to make sure that the people going into the immediately dangerous to life and health areas have the proper training and protective equipment. So we will most likely the fire officers and crews will be going in to checking those houses that are in that immediate. We can utilize APD officers on the fringes or on what we call the warm zone if it's not immediately dangerous, but the -- this is where it starts becoming a collaborative approach. Fire will be first on scene. They will recognize the need, they will start the evacuation, they will do that immediate evacuation with talking with residents of that area. And then law enforcement will start controlling the routes and they will talk more about what they are doing on there, but they start shepherding the personnel and citizens out of that dangerous area where we need them immediately evacuated from. The crews on S will continue that situational awareness. They will assess the fire severity, they will start determining if they have enough resources on scene, [1:12:02 PM] develop at mate plans and coning and emergency plans they will start salvaging the command protocol as well as the stages area and they will be seeing what the next step is, what plan Bs and Cs are. Are we going to be able to handle it here if we can note get a handle right here, what is the next step, what is the next neighborhood or streets that will have to be evacuated. So we'll identify the immediate evacuation zone, then we'll start talking about and determining what the pre-evacuation -- which other areas are going to be on pre-evacuation alert or evacuation warning, and then communicating that up to if the eoc is stood up or to our law enforcement partners so they can start talking with those groups as well as maintaining the corridor. If the eoc is stood up, we will send a representative of outside of the immediate area to go be our representative to handle fire branch at the eoc. If the eoc is not stood up [1:13:04 PM] yet, we'll still activate our own department activation center so we can be aware of what's going on. What we've seen in the Austin area ur fire patterns here are multiple small 100-acre or less fires, but they tend to happen throughout the entire region. So while we have a fire that we may be dealing with in southeast Austin that's a grass fire, we may also be having fires up in northwest Austin as well as up in cedar park or round~rock, pflugerville. So it is something that we have to make sure we're keeping awareness of the entire region and the resources. These events are resource intensive. We want to send as many resources as is appropriate while still maintaining a ready staff that we can deal with the high possibility of other events that are going to happen at the same time. With that I'll pass it on for the next slide, please, [1:14:06 PM] to APD. >> Good afternoon, council, mayor pro tem. I'm officer Everett belldon with the Austin police department, particularly the emergency management unit. I'm going to follow up what chief has already elaborated on and touch on some areas I will go back over. So as far as our response goes, same as fire, same as other public safyy entities. We'll take immediate action with the initial individual that shows up for us. So that being the case, it may be fire at times, it may be the police department at [1:15:07 PM] times, that has the officer on scene first. Whoever is there first, their primary goal is going to be life safety. So with that, that individual will assess the scene and then M the appropriate decision to whether or not they have to do some sort of evacuation, immediate rescue, anything for the preservation of life. Because that's our first and primary goal. Moving on, much like chief said, we're going to coordinate with AFD, not so much in the initial door to door notifications, but form a unified command so that can have clear and decisive actions that need to be taken. If AFD needs assistance with evacuations, or door to door, they will let us know, they will let us know the safe areas for us to perform these duties in so that we are not putting officers in jeopardy causing more work for our brothers and brothers and sisters with AFD to then help us [1:16:08 PM] out. Part of that unified command we'll establish also that we need to move forward with evacuation and that would mean evacuation routes and depend upon the location. We'll set up the egress. We'll take a look at whether or not we need to cordon off areas and not let anyone else come back in or down certain roads so that we're set up to have a good flow of traffic to help those that are prioritized to get out first, and then the remaining individuals to get out of the area so that AFD can do their job and we won't allow them back into the area until AFD, of course, tells us it's safe to do so. With that, we may use a contraflow where we utilize all lanes of traffic and just turn everybody in one direction. An with resources being limited, we may end up using outside agencies to assist us so that we can make sure it's done safely for our citizens that we serve. [1:17:12 PM] The next aspect that I would go over that is part of our response is the security of the scene, the perimeter to help keep those away from the area so that AFD can do their job. And then when AFD deems it safe, we'll also have security internally. So perimeter to start, then we'll move internally to prevent looters and ugly aspects like that from taking place. But we won't do that until AFD tells us that this area is safe to do so because obviously they have the right equipment to handle those situations and then we do not. And lastly is as far as the eoc, like chief said, if they stand up the eoc, we have representation to report to eoc to form up as part of the public safety branch and then begin formulating decisions and taking action from there to assist those that are back [1:18:14 PM] at the original command post on scene. And that pretty much sums up our response. Thank you. >> Ellis: Thank you very much. I think we'll H from hsem next, but stay close in case we have questions for you at the end. >> Good afternoon, council, mayor pro tem. My name is Eva more with the office of homeland security and emergency management. As the assistant chief ntntioned, we receive information from the fire department as to what the situation is and we are monitoring that activity and we will set up a situation assessment team as needed. Upon their request, we will also activate the eoc in support of the incident. And what we do provide is coordination of that support effort. So the communications plan, [1:19:16 PM] coordinating with transportation, you know, cap metro, txdot, as well as Austin transportation. We coordinate if a medical operation center is needed, we coordinate with our partners who are ngos, so red cross, et cetera. If there is assistance needed on a larger scale from the state such as a regional traffic plan, we would request that assistance from the state or the federal government. And we coordinate as needed with our surrounding communities. It's obviously very important to have direct and actionable information provided to the community, so we activate the joint information system and oversee that public information distribution. We do activate shelter sites as needed, and we issue emergency notifications and [1:20:18 PM] community alerts. We also keep our officials up to date on the incident progress as needed. We will work with the financial services department to make sure that we are tracking disaster expenses, and then we will also coordinate on reentry and recovery operations. With that, I will hand that back to Jim. Thank you. >> Thanks. Next slide, please. So as chief mentioned at the very beginning that we structured this presentation in in order of the response. The reason we're at the end is because we play a support role in responding to a wildfire evacuation scenario. So one of those things that we're working on right now is starting to take a look at Austin fire department, they've designated some evacuation routes for different at-risk areas of our community. And so we're reviewing those. [1:21:18 PM] We're looking at the traffic control that's been suggested, we're also estimating that quantities of traffic control we need so during that emergency we can have that on hand. We also as part of that is planning on not only like chief said there's usually more than one event happens, so having enough that we can do our best to provide T the traffic control ndeded that then frees up Austin police department to do other things. Things that are higher priority. Then as we work through this on the planning side here, we're also developing evacuation signal timing plans for these communities. There will more than likely be police officers managing the traffic close in to the evacuation, but as we get further out, there's things we can do with traveler information as well as signal time to go help move the people away from the area and get them out of there and get them to [1:22:20 PM] safety. A couple other things too thatn't have on the slide but are very important for what we do is we'll also respond to the eoc if it's activated to be there to help coordinate. We have a strong coordination role on a daily basis with public works, but definitely in a situation like this where we may get resources spread thin, we would be calling on them to help support us on the traffic control side. And a couple other things too is coordinating with txdot, that W was mentioned on efas slide. Also coordinating with them, a number of at-risk areas are on txdot roadways and we don't control all the signals along those roadways so there's coordination efforts with them. We've also been participating in some table-top exercises in the past month and more to come in the future. So that's with the transportation side. Let's go to the next slide. I'll turn it back over to efa and then I'll be back up [1:23:23 PM] to close this out. >> All right. So hsem provides that coordination element for the update of thedland- urban interface evacuation plan. As has been mentioned, this is something that is constantly reviewed, along with reviewing those roles and responsibilities of each department and each partner agency. And then we also have table-top exercises. We had one a month ago led by the naval academy with our elected officials, and we continue to have those blble-tops led by Travis county oem and with a lot of coordination from all agencies. And so those help us to refine our planning. And that is the end of our slide. Thank you. >> Thanks again. I just want to say just with [1:24:24 PM] our presentation, we have the four departments here today. There's so many others that are involved in this evacuation planning and spending to an incident goes well beyond use city resources. County and the state as well are involved in that. As well as the folks back in -- in our departments that are working on this right now. I know that that is occurring as well. So we're glad to take any questions that you may have. >> Ellis: Thank you. Mayor pro tem alter requested this item, so if you would like to go first. >> Alter: Thank you, chair Ellis. So if I had to say what keeps me up at night as a councilmember, it is the scenario of a wildfire and not having the evacuation work properly. So I'm really pleased to have you all four here demonstrating how you are working together and to have this high-level view of things. And so I see this as progress from where we were N our Austin strategic [1:25:24 PM] mobility plan which this committee was involved in we elevated the importance and role of the transportation department in emergency planning and with respect to evacuation, and I know that my office had an amendment in there or part of the draft that we worked on with you to make sure that this would be part of that strategic mobility plan. But atd's role and this is the mobility committee I think is extremely important and I don't know that it has to date been really integrated and coordinated well and there's huge opportunities. So I recognize this is progress, but I'm going to push you a little because this is what keeps me up at night. This was all sort of really high level, and like if you read the evacuation plan again, it's sort of very high level. And I do wonder when you actually have to face the situation, and I know you can't plan for everything and you have to be high level, but the parts of my community as we saw with this exercise which I had the opportunity to be part [1:26:25 PM] of that at the end of the exercise, we had 30,000 people trapped between 360 and 620 and we did not have a solution to get them out. So what did you learn from that exercise and what is being incorporated so that if everything went wrong as in that scenario, you know, which could be this weekend for what was in that scenario, you know, what did you guys learn and what are the weaknesses and the areas for next steps for further working on this, as you said this is not ever complete. And I know you personally may not have been there, director. >> No, really appreciate the question and Austin fire department will take care of answering that question. They've been doing a lot of evacuation planning and that's what we're -- and Austin transportation department is involved in reviewing that. They can answer your specific question. Or at least I'm saying Andre [1:27:26 PM] can. We'll find out in a second. >> Thank you. And really it has been beneficial in getting to know Jim and getting his entire team involved more in that. What we learned from the Navy post-graduate executive seminar was the importance of a common operating picture. While we have internal plans and we've been working on our education, increasing the training and certifications and skills within the Austin fire department, what became painfully obvious in that is that we are not going to be able to solve this solution by ourselves. So we have to be able to share what we're seeing in vernacular and -- by ems, by transportation that we have the -- that we're talking -- if we're talking fireboxes, if we're talking road segments, whatever W talking about is utilized [1:28:26 PM] and understood by the other people on those radios so we can safely enact those evacuations. If it comes back and someone who is three miles away from our incident command post says that road is shut down, do not send people here, we need to immediately be able to change the evacuation routes with coordination with law enforcement to either secondary evacuation routes or to a temporary assembly point that has been pre-designated and shelter. We're working right now with draft maps of the entire city that have been created to identify potential routes, evacuation routes. What we learned in the paradise fire in California is if you say this is your evacuation route, it becomes a dangerous situation because it's not like a hurricane where we know where the danger is coming from and people will always resort to what they trained on and what they thought of in a blue sky day. If we teach our citizens and [1:29:27 PM] residents that you need to evacuate by making a right off Mesa and going downhill and then making a left, then when you hit the highway, that could be leading those people into danger. So we have to do that situational awareness. We have to have that common lexicon. And the second part shows where we're going to be relying on you all. As we start educating, sending out those evacuation maps, what we found out at that Kerr ties and you were the one that brought this up, mayor pro tem, you all, the city councilmembers have an incredible communication tool with residents, with people of your area and we need to make sure you are involved and know that so you can amplify the message so we can get the evacuation needs out to the residents in that area in the appropriate area early from a trustworthy source so they know where to go. We cannot, what we learned [1:30:27 PM] in 2011, is try to evacuate an entire massive neighborhood like in steiner ranch because it becomes a chokehold. We have to do a phased evacuation. So that common operating picture, that trusted communication going outwards to the residents where they see it and they listen and they choose to go early so that we can minimize that and we can all avoid that nightmare that I think keeps us all up. >> Alter: Thank you. Did you want to add anything? No? Okay. So again, we have a lot of this sort of high- level thing, you know, when you talk about doing contraflow, is there a plan to contraflow 2222? Or 620 or 360? >> Jim Dale, assistant director of transportation department. Right now we will look at the plans that Austin fire [1:31:27 PM] department is preparing for 2222. One of the themes in that area, when we do contraflow, enduring an emergency we have to be very thoughtful not to cause secondary incidents. We'll be thoughtful if Ta a look at that and we'll have a more specific answer for you once we look at that. We're looking at that area out there right now at river place, but we'll also be looking at 2222. Another important thing is that, aen we've talked with Austin fire department about contraflowing big roadways, a big challenge is making sure we maintain access into a neighborhood too. We would love just to get everyone out, but we need to get the fire apparatus and other resources into that neighborhood to address that threat that's occurring at the time. So it is something that we'll take a look at, mayor pro tem, and we'll have an [1:32:28 PM] answer back to you. >> Alter: Thank you. One last question I would like to ask. So we now have sort of the principals talking to each other in the departments which I think is a step forward from where we were at least focusing on it, but I'm still concerned that, you know, the fire house chief -- I'm not sure if they are the battalion chief or which vernacular is the best, that they know even in their area what is evacuation choices are and that they understand this plan. But the same is true for our APD officers and whoever is controlling the rim at APD. How is that training happening at lower levels within the system? >> I'll take -- Andre is probably going to have to add. A couple of things are happening in that regard for thatoordination, and you one of those is homeland [1:33:30 PM] security and emergency management. They will spin up the emergency operation center to help us plan and coordinate, maintain that situational awareness of what's happening there on the ground and what needs to change. But also there's the incident command training that a number of folks have gone through to understand that structure that is set up to make decisions and what roles each of us play in that. Chief, you may have something else to add to that. >> Sure. I think what Jim was mentioning was the ics training and the incident command training is something we are asking in all our important agencies who worked in this field have stepped up to be able to come up. That does help create that common vocabulary as they follow that mandated ics training that is required in the bible for public safety, but often not thought about in the support agencies. Being able to have this all together is very beneficial in the planning stage. For the company officer on [1:34:32 PM] the scenes, we now have had all of our battalion chiefs go through that responding to the interface training that you were able to within some of that. All of our high-level white shirts battalion chiefs have gone through it. We have approximately -- I don't have the exact number, but over 300 of our personnel have gone through it. They are going through it right now, Fridays and Mondays they stay up until 10:30 at night doing the training on the Friday nights as they go through the classroom portion and then they are actually out in the field on Mondays there working on how to actually evacuate areas, how to triage houses on whether they need to be evacuated or if they can be sheltered in place. The command level is identifying is there the need, if there is the need, how do I do, what am I looking for those choke points and whew is the best evacuation route for this incident in this neighborhood to get people out. And then we work with that. We're starting to get that, [1:35:34 PM] APD has been involved as well as ems. They are going to be playing an integral part in their roles in trying to make sure that we're able to address any potential patients that we have as well as collect then areas in there. They are starting to come in on this. As we have draft plans, they are reviewing itith their nses and sets to make sure these are going to work for them or we can adjust it before we can make it finalized that we start pushing out. >> Alter: Thank you, and I think we'll probably invite you guys to com back at some point next year so you can report on further progress and so that you know there's at least another checkpoint on here. You know, to encourage that collaboration, which I see has evolved greatly and I appreciate it. >> Ellis: Go ahead. >> I was just going to make one -- councilmembers outrank me so I'll hold off on my comment. >> Ellis: We'll make sure we don't conclude without [1:36:34 PM] letting you get your thought out. >> Thank you. >> Ellis: Councilmember kitchen. Itchen: Thank you. This is very helpful information. My question is just want to go catch up on the latest information about how we assess evacuation routes as part of our development processes. So I've had a number of zoning cases, and I know others have too, that -- where the question has come up about the ability of a road to -- to manage increased traffic in areas that border on wildlands. So what are we doing now in terms of assessing evacuation routes as we are -- during the [1:37:34 PM] development process as part of zoning cases? >> That aspect is very important to us. I need to check with our team and see what assessments that we're doing. We don't want to be adding to the approximate that those single in and single road out areas of town create for that evacuation, but also for getting the response. We love going back to imagine Austin, compact and connected. The connected is very important for our network in terms of mobility, but also it plays another role for this evacuation as well. Councilmember, I'll need to get back to you on that but it is an important aspect. I'll find out what a number of developments also occur in the county and seeing what the county is doing or what influence they can have in that area as well. >> Kitchen: That would be helpful because we have [1:38:35 PM] areas that you can't connect because they are on a cul-de-sac and there's no opportunity to connect. So -- and this may -- if I'm missing something, that's fine, but just let me know. But I know that our zoning cases, if they are of certain size, that they will trigger a traffic impact assessment, but I'm not certain these include an assessment on -- that addresses evacuation risk, and I may have missed it, but I'm not seeing that. I don't know if my colleagues are aware of other things, but I've had at least -- well, I've had several cases. And so I think it's really important that we do that kind of assessment any time we're talking about development near a wildland [1:39:37 PM] area. And like I'm saying, some of this may be happening and I'm just not aware of it, but I would like to understand that better. >> I'll definitely get an answer back to you. You are right on as far as the mechanism to look at that would be the traffic impact analysis and whether that means for certain areas of town wider roads to be able to accommodate that evacuation apparatus getting in andlly maybe pushing on some of those connections that may be available there and seeing how we can facilitate those happening. So there's -- I'll get back to you with that with what we're doing and what we may change. >> Kitchen: The other issue would be our tias are triggered with certain -- at learn levels. And one issue may be whether that's an appropriate level in an area where -- in an area where there is one way out. >> Right. >> Kitchen: You know, and whether we ought to be more proactively assessing areas [1:40:38 PM] that there's only one way out. >> Right, maybe like you're Ying we reduce that criteria and take a look at what that specific text of that development is so that we can in the design process address some things that may -- if they do have to evacuate, it makes it easier for them to get out and better opportunity through the planning and design process like what you're saying is protect life at that stage before something happens. >> Kitchen: Yeah, I'm just concerned it's after the fact. Oftentimes during a zoning case we're trying to balance how many additional units, for example, and where they might be that are appropriate. So, again, thank you. >> Thank you. >> Alter: I can speak really quickly to that. >> Ellis: Go ahead and finish that out. Vice chair Kelly has her hand up. >> Alter: You may recall in the spring we passed a [1:41:38 PM] resolution to initiate code amendments that would sort of finish the adoption of the code because they had been embedded in the land development code rewrite. I believe this issue is addressed in that process, but we don't have the code amendments back yet. Right now it's being done somewhat informally as part of the wui code implementation,,, and I think the fire marshal felt like they were handling it, but, correct me if I am wrong, it was covered under the initiation to move that forward. But I agree it is a problem and the reason I'm so concerned about 2222 and 620 is we have a lot of areas that don't have the ins and ts, but I think there may be one more piece that we're supposed to be doing this fall in the initiation and once that comes back. But please do send us all [1:42:39 PM] any additional information. >> Kitchen: Thank you very much. Yeah, I'd like -- so it sounds like if I'm understanding correctly that there's a step for a code change potentially to address the specific issue that I brought up. Is that -- did I understand you correctly? >> Chief bokey is going to be the one who is in there. He has mentioned when he's been talking about the implementation of the wui code and how that tia does trigger questions and conversations on that. I do not know and I'll get back and work with a coordinated response to whether it's actually formally embedded or if it's an informal conversation that's happening. >> Kitchen: Yeah, I just want to -- okay, that sounds good. In south Austin we have some areas, and I know other parts of the city does also, but in south Austin we have some areas that are at high risk of wildfire and only [1:43:43 PM] have one way out. >> And that's one of the things -- that tool developed by the wildfire division on the austin-travis county wildfire hub does a great job of showing than and we're utilizing that for the wui code. Where we have west areas, you have one way in and it's on the flight sides of a grassy field, you can drive through that since it's mostly dry conditions. But if your one way out, one way in and all your other potential in off-road escape roads are downrecipices is not viable. >> Kitchen: It won't be viable if you have to drive through houses to get out of a neighborhood, you know, when you can't do that either. I just would like to understand the details and I would like to understand if it's coming back to us. [1:44:44 PM] >> Ellis: Vice chair Kelly. >> Kelly: Thank you and thank you all for this wonderful discussion. I'm going to channel my inner councilmember Houston and let everybody know Nims was mentioned earlier. Natialal management system. Members of the community need to personally prepare in the event of a wildfire and there are many resources on the city's website to do that. I encourage people to look at those and make a plan for family members in case something like this were to occur in their area. I have one question. How often are wildfire threat assessments connected throughout the city and is there somewhere on line community members can view those? >> They are happening on a regular basis and they are when residents request them. We have an active fire adapt I have coordinator who go out to neighborhood events, [1:45:44 PM] neighborhood association events as well as just events in general in the area, are constantly talking about the ready, set go and the importance of a wildfire home hazard assessment. We're doing some active training right now. There is a site off the wildfire hub that we developed for the public safety commission on our report that will show and is a visual that's a realtime show that tells you exactly how many home hazard assessments are going, what our activity and mitigation efforts are. I'm happy to get the link and send it to you all after. >> Kelly: That would be great. Thank you so much. And that's all my questions for now. >> Ellis: That is a good remind their the first 72 begins with you. I know with wildfire depending on the situation, that scenario may change depending if you are told to evacuate, but really trying to make sure that, you know, our households are prepared for a few days of difficult whether, whether it's wildfire, floods, you know, hurricanes, tornado-type [1:46:45 PM] behavior, it's just something we can't take lightly and sit back on our heels and be surprised unexpectedly later on. I wanted to ask a question. There was an article recently about wildfire versus wind and the interplay between those. Could you speak for a moment, chief. >> There was a great aicicle that came either yesterday or the day before at the statesman that had comments from justice Jones who we all know as well as Randy dunser, but a huge resource we still lean on and is in Florida. He does wildfires and floods and is a great representative of the Austin fire department, both active and retired. What the article was talking about was during our summer months, everything was dry. And what we were facing is fuel-driven fires. That because of the live fuel moisture dropping down because of our historic drought continuing that's [1:47:45 PM] where we were getting highest risk factors from. Right now in the fall as temperatures start to drop, as our humidity levels start to increase, that is not as common of a -- or not the most precipitous risk factor. Right now what we start seeing in our fall months is higher winds, more sustained winds for a longer duration. So the probability of initiation, it's still dry, we have a lot of grasses that grew during that little bit of rain that was mentioned by Brad Smith, an incredible tsf forecaster and fire behavior analyst. What he's saying is those will start drying out eventually, right now we have humidity. Just because it droops doesn't mean it's zero. If we have something that starts due to a house fire that extends into the grasses or a car fire on a [1:48:45 PM] median, that if it coincides with one of our fall wind events, that wind can drive and overshadow that return of moisture that we're having if fuel. It's all a triangle. If any one is longer, it increases the hazard. So it's the fire triangle of fuels, which are dry, and in the summer that was our longest -- my hands won't do it very well. It's very big. And inincreases the risk and probability of fire. Right now those fuels have gotten less risky, but if we have winds, that increases. Also the last leg of that triangle is topography. So we know that fire's behavior is also more aggressive in a high topography, high slope situation because it pre-heats the fuels that are above it. That's what that article was talking about. >> Ellis: Thank you, that's helpful. I didn't want to let the program go by without addressing that article. [1:49:46 PM] And I appreciate kind of the references to not only making sure your family is protected and prepared for different scenarios, there are resources for brush mitigation year round, for homeowners and even apartment dwellers to bring to landlord's attention that something needs to be done. And then I did have one brief question. Is there a general length of time where a neighborhood may be sitting and waiting to let you do your assessment and figure out what the game plan is? If there's an alert there's a wildfire near their neighborhood, is there a general length of time people may want to sit and wait to see what y'all's determination is? >> Are -- if you could clarify, are you talking about home hazard assessment as how long it would take for someone to reach back or in case of a actual wildfire incident where we start doing an evacuation? >> Ellis: In case of actual evacuation. I didn't put a good space [1:50:46 PM] between the thoughts about readiness and the thought if there is actually a wildfire, so I was talking about the latter. >> Four to eight minutes, doing quick assessment. The people in the houses next to which ever wildfire, they will know within minutes of us there. We're loud and have sirens going. If you think back to our pinnacle fire in there, those houses that were off scenic brook that were immediately threatened were advised very quickly. The rest of the neighborhood, those six blocks that were contingent around there where we were seeing the ember cast become a problem, were advised through pa systems off of our fire apparatus, from law enforcement driving down the street, from a multitude of social media and reverse 911 all within half an hour. After that half hour, it's when we start getting into extended event where you are going to have to be worrying [1:51:47 PM] about, okay, who is in evacuation warning, not immediate evacuation season in right now but -- zone but one in warning that those will be happening within a couple of hours. That 72 hours startsith you, with me, I'm going to write it down, that was beautiful so I'm going to steal it from you. But that concept is when we get into our high fire danger systems, when we're sending that information out, when you see those national fire danger rating systems that every fire station outside of a lot of our schools, when they start creeping up, it is imperative that we all do our part to minimize ignition sources by not throwing cigarettes out, controlling the spark, by securing your chains if you are using a trail so you don't spark, so that we don't have accidental backyard barbecues that start a fire that becomes the problem that we're all sending all these resources to. If I could take one moment [1:52:48 PM] and just share that towards the end of the summer, we had -- before those weather events came in, we had a series of pretty significant wildfires in there. One of them even triggered an evacuation. And I am happy to say that it went very smoothly. Law enforcement was there and we actually was towards the county so sheriffs came in, they started evacuating neighborhood and a business area right next to where the fire was going. We had tfs, Texas forest services showing up with dozer resources. We had people standing by at the tanker base at abia who were evaluating what resources they had in case we need to do start utilizing them. There was a coordinated, collaborative approach to it that those members when law enforcement said they need to do evacuate listened. We had cap metro send out [1:53:49 PM] buses because has a hot Texas summer, to be ready to help if anybody couldn't drive away, needed a place for temporary shelter. We have to do each incident that we go to, we have to do better than the last. That comes with planning and training and we're working down that way. So I'm thankful for the efforts that y'all put into this as well as our partner agencies. >> Ellis: Thank you. I appreciate the collaboration with others. For some of us who represent the outskirts of town, we want to make sure we're prepared as well if something happens at the edge of where the city limits are. Is that contraflow study also happening in other areas? Mayor pro tem alter listed a few in her district. Is that happening all around town? >> I'll let Jim talk to the contraflow. >> Ellis: The Traff >> Yeah, for the evacuation of routes, potential [1:54:50 PM] evacuation routes, not set in stone evacuations, but the different potential ones we could utilize is citywide. So it's going everywhere E, prioritizing the training and efforts to get the secondhand voting of our public safety and our transportation on the areas that have the highest wildfire risk through our wildfire risk map that's on the hub. Then they will be utilized for the entire area because we know it's not just in the high-risk areas that we're going to have a potential for wildfire. >> Ellis: And the last thing we would want is say go this direction and all of a sudden there's a different county in another county where people are being told to come this direction. I really appreciate that. I think that's the last of my questions. I think so. I will just -- mayor pro tem, go ahead. >> Alter: Thank you. I appreciate my colleagues' questions. [1:55:51 PM] One of the things we didn't talk much about, although you mentioned was the refuge areas, which again in the same areas where you have one way in and one way out you don't have refuge areas identified or cleared. So what are we doing to, you know, it's one thing to plan when we have a new development, but we have a lot of developments right now that are essentially oneway in, one way out. And I've never been able to get an answer about these refugees. If you don't have an answer now, if you can get me one. I know long lane canyon is one way in, one way out. If there's a fire, we're not even going in there. We need to have these refugees identified. >> Sore's a multiple-pronged approach to the need for those areas. So there is the resilient hub that the office of sustainability is working on and we're helping them to [1:56:52 PM] make sure the resilient hubs were doing wildfire risk assessments on those but also they could be the lied and hardened to be good shelter in place locations in case of a wildfire, make sure they are not in areas that will flood as well. Additionally to that on the -- for wildfire specific, we're also working to identify temporary assembly points which a are areas that are safe. They could be the golf courses, they could be some of the parks that we have, especially down towards that. They could be areas up against a large body of water that have a higher probability of survival. We're working to identify temporary assembly points, taps, in all our high-risk areas as well. We need to vet those out with transportation, with police and ems. We don't want an area that is identified that doesn't allow for ems, medical [1:57:52 PM] patient care. It would be ideal if they also allowed for medivac if we ended up needing that. We want to make sure we don't identify anything that doesn't work well. Those reviews are going on by our brother and sister organizations. >> It's not wildfire specific, but I did want to mention that we do have certain sites selected and we're working on getting more where we have mission ready packages placed. So it's basically a space that's identified within all of the district areas that wouldave, you know, some basic needs taken care of such as water, food and other critical supplies for 72 hours for up to 75 community members. And so that's something that we're hoping to expand on and make sure that we have viable sites spotted all [1:58:53 PM] around the city. >> Alter: I'm aware I think we're working with you to identify location in district 10, but the resiliency hubs are not in the high wildfire areas in the west, almost all the ones piloted are on the east side. I was talking about temporary shelter in place areas where you need a big parkint or you need a field that's cleared away from the trees, and people need to know where some of those are. I don't even think we have them identified and that's the next step that we need, at least in my district. >> Understood. I'll take that back. >> Alter: Thank you. >> Ellis: I think that covers it. Thank you for joining us today. We appreciate the information you shared and look forward to seeing more information. If there is anything sent out following up, can you send them to all councilmembers, even the [1:59:53 PM] ones not on mobility. It's probably helpful for them. Let's move on to the next item, update on the airport expansion and development program. >> Good afternoon, council, mayor pro tem. My name is summer Schindler, the new chief development officer at the airport. I've recently STA in the -- this past August, coming and moving back to Texas, my home state and back to Austin. So I'm happy to be here and I'm happy to be a part of this exciting time with the airport as we are starting to kick off major growth and catch up with the growth of the air service has already [2:00:54 PM] been seeing. You can go to the next slide. Can you hear me? Perfect. Thank you. Just for a little bit of back drop of what we're doing or why we're doing it, I guess, is we have seen unprecedent growth in Austin. Before covid we were seeing unpretty dent growth of 10%. Industry average has been 4% around 2018, 2019, but you will see overall averages between 2 and 3%. Austin returned after covid setting new records not only for Austin but with any other airport dough mess stickly in the united States. We were the number one airport and gained 37 non-stop routes, more than any other airport in the United States as well. So we have grown tremendously overnight and, you know, something that we could not have predicted in [2:01:58 PM] 2019 and in 2020. So frame of reference, when the airport opened in 1999, it was designed to serve 11 million passengers. The 2019 expansion with the new Gates, it helped us or should allowed us to expand for 15 million. What we're seeing right now is expected to hit 22 million annual passengers. We're able to accommodate that with some advances in technology and immediate projects and processes that we're putting in place. So now W can to the journey with Austin. And the Austin expansion program, the aep. We're expected to see the same growth before covid and [2:02:59 PM] the only thing bounding U is our infrastructure. We want to maintain an excellent passenger experience and we want to be able to have a program that is very flexible for the airline industry, which means that we have to be agile and dynamic, be able to start and stop as we grow with the airlines. We also want to take advantage to replace, repair some. Aging infrastructure that goes along with having a 24-year-old terminal and buildings. So as we go through this journey, and it really is a journey, something that we didn't see previously with the new airport that opened one day, that you are kind of seeing these projects as in the next four years, some immediate relief, in the next ten years to allow for the growth and we're even planning for 20 years and beyond. We will continue to see these big programs whether it's a new concourse, a [2:04:01 PM] tunnel, utility plant roadways, an essential processing unit that will continue to go on and on for many, many, many years. So not just one ribbon cutting ceremony for us. I think there will be many more for ongoing growth N the near term, there are some exciting things planned to help provide some relief. Some additional check-in, ticket count others the curbside. Some fill-ins of atriums and spaces to add additional security checkpoints, provide that relief there. We have a large baggage project underway to more than -- more than eventually triple the size of our baggage capacity. Improvements at our gate 13 to allow for a busing opion which will really help us during the construction time for phasing and provide that of non-contact gate log and off-loading of passengers so that we won't [2:05:02 PM] have an impact but we can still service at the same level. We also have the new west Gates where we'll be expanding three additional Gates with more amenities. New lounge space, new outside deck for all customers, restrooms, child play area, a nursing mothers room, so sorts of things considered in that new expansion as well. Some of this is kind of the plan of the layout of the Barbara Jordan terminal. The expansion of the westgate,urbside counters are coming this spring. The west infill is a project we'll be adding more economic points on the concourse level but also there to provide the structure for the new baggage expansion project. We'll also start moving forward with the atrium infell that will help us provide more space as we are growing as well for queuing [2:06:02 PM] and checkpoints space throughout that head house. In the atrium infill, one thing we want to do over the next six months is study what we will do here. What are some really different levers and things that we can do now. So as we look into infilling this with new structure, column and stuff, we will be evaluating all-new technologies we're seeing in other airports that -- with the airlines leading the way on these new technologies that will actually expedite the processing and allow us to move the passengers through the space more quickly. So as we start to do the structures on that, you will start to see those things go through. We'll also do those studies in the meantime. So really the project life cycle I've given here just the initial five of the very, very near term, the next four years of projects. As the other projects, we [2:07:02 PM] are really starting to kick off that programming or envision phase. But right now for the projects that are a little bit more advanced either in design or in build or construction, it's gate 13. We expect that to come online next summer. The baggage system, we expect those to -- the first phase to open in the second quarter of 2024. With the phase 2 coming online in 2026 with that west infill space with more checkpoint lines. And then at the beginning O 2026, we also expect the west gate expansion T the three Gates to come on board. The other phase that is we showed previously with the bumpt of bjt, the Gates, the tunnel, we're really starting to kick off that envision face are we decide what's in those spaces now and those will start to come on later as we start to define those bigger elements. Update on our [2:08:05 PM] environmental assessment. The comment period onhehe draft P was open until April 7th of this past year. The final was filed on June 13 and a finding of no significant impact, fonsi from the FAA, was received July 26. We have approval on the ea to move forward with this. Methods of funding. So we have initial high-level cost and more refined costs on those initial four immediate relief projects, but as we go into the envision phase of the other projects, we'll be starting to really refine what the overall program will be. So the program will be funded through our cash reserves and future revenues from the airport. This past year we did a 400 million-dollar bond sale so all those projects we just saw are actually funded through that bond. [2:09:05 PM] We also get annual grants from the FAA for our air field improvement program, and 'll be also receiving grants from the B.I.L. As well. And we till to evaluate for additional grant opportunities as well. That's my update today. I'm open for feedback. I definitely want to hear feedback how often would like these updates or in a more one on one session or how you want to get those feedback to me. >> Ellis: I appreciate that. Welcome to the new position. >> Thank you. Ellis: Even though it's been a couple weeks. We've been talking about in this forum is this the place for getting regular updates, are we working toward how to make sure that maybe there's televising of the airport advisory commission meetings just to help with some of that work. I'm not sure we found the [2:10:06 PM] exact forum and cadence, but we are all interested in how the airport is doing and kind of working through some of the growing pains. I'll admit as the airport gets more popular, there's been a couple of growing pains seems like you all are working through. I'll open up for questions from the committee members. Mayor pro tem. >> Alter: Thank you and I would just like to join the chair in welcoming you to Austin. It's nice to meet you. >> Thank you. >> Alter: We're excited to have you. I do think it's important that the mobility committee focuses more on the airport given the extent of the investments. I don't know what the appropriate cadence is, but I think we certainly heard that there was a sense in the community of a lack of transparency, and this committee can be one of the mechanisms that we use to make sure that we are aware and the community understands what various next steps are. [2:11:08 PM] Two things that I wanted to raise. One is TSA, and I happen to have been through the airport on multiple trips in the last several weeks and I did not have any issues, but I know that we've experienced several TSA bottlenecks probably before you came on. And I know there were some investments, can you speak to what has changed with respect to the TSA investments to make sure that we don't experience those long lines, those delayed flights, those missed flights like we did I think it was in the spring. >> Yeah, currently we're evaluating designs with the TSA to bring in some of the newer -- new equipment to expedite screening as well as and other locations to add in the central area where the central screening [2:12:08 PM] checkpoint two, where we could add additional screening checkpoints as well. The TSA has been involved in bringing that sort of equipment that will increase through-put. As far as operational and staffings, I don't quite have that information. I think my colleagues over operations have more detail, but I can find out more of that. >> Alter: Yeah, I would be curious also if we have some sort of marketing program to get more people into the pre-tsa program. >> Okay. >> Alter: If we had more people doing that, they wouldn't be in the other checkpoints and io through on pre-tsa and it's really very smooth, but my session of when I had to renew it it was kind of a pain still to sign up and I don' know what we're doing to make that accessible, you know, to not have it be only at the airport or to make it really easy at the airport to take care of that paperwork, et cetera. >> Okay. >> Alter: I think that might be one way to address [2:13:10 PM] that. And then, you know, as I understand it, a good chunk of the funding for this does come through the airlines and fees that they are paying. One of the things I've noticed in going to other communities, on one hand we have the best airport, the most local, it has the most character, I think. But then when you look around in these other communities, the airlines are contributing to those communities in lots of ways and they seem really absent in Austin. I know we're not necessarily the hub for them. We have a special project that councilmember Fuentes and I have asked the auditor how this works in other cities, but I think as we grow and push the envelope on this airport, we need to be asking the airlines that are coming in to be part of our community, particularly for the neighborhoods that are near the airport, but [2:14:12 PM] even beyond. You know, you go in other cities and the airlines are doing all sorts of things to sponsor this, that and the other and you just don't -- you don't see that here. And we need to reframe that and make that the expectation. Not just for the airlines but for all the corporations that are coming here. So I appreciate this update and, you know, look forward to leag more. >> Okay. >> Ellis: Do we have any other questions from the committee members? I don't think so. I think that's it for today, but I look forward to connecting with you further to figure out how often you come to the mobility committee and trying to get the airport advisory commission meetings televised where they can live on atxn and folks can watch those later. That would be helpful and sharing the information as the airport continues on its path way. >> Yes. [2:15:14 PM] Most definitely. Thank you. >> Ellis: Thank you. That takes us to item number 6, the assistant manager's report. >> Good afternoon, chair. Thank you for having us here this afternoon. My assistant city manager's monthly mobility report is included in backup and I'm here to answer any questions for you. >> Ellis: Looks great. I see councilmember Renteria on the bike trail over by the holly plant. That looked like a really lovely event. Are there any quens for the assistant city manager? Mayor pro tem has her hand up. >> Alter:hank you. I wanted to know for the electric vehicles, one of the things I keep getting asked by constituents is when APD is going to move to electric vehicles, and I had some correspondence with [2:16:15 PM] them, I don't know, over the summer. Have the forward lightning pickup trucks arrived -- Ford -- or the vehicles perp expecting? >> We did receive one Ford lightning. I believe we're waiting for the others. I will follow up with our fleet director and get back to you on that. >> Alter: I just wanted to take this moment to thank our staff who are helping out from fleet and from Austin energy in Florida. We talk about the wildfire risk and what that can do for our community, Florida is really going through that kind of disaster right now and I'm pleased that our city is able to help in a significant way. >> Thank you, mayor pro tem. We appreciate those kind words and I'll be sure that our fleet department is aware. >> Ellis: Any other questions? I think that does it. >> Thank you. >> Ellis: Thanks for being [2:17:15 PM] with us. I had failed to mention item number 5 is being postponed, but that leads us to item 7, identifying future items. So that item is definitely still on the list of information to be presented in the future. November 10th will be our last meeting of 2022 for the mobility committee. So we have a few ideas on the list. We're not going to get to them all, but we will be looking at the 2023 committee schedule, 2020 active transportation and safe mobility bond update, vision zero, the public works service plan update that we are postponing today, and potentially Barton springs road improvement projects. So we'll be on the lookout for those items coming in the future. And then a few more items that we have on the list that don't quite have a date yet would be an update on scooters and micromobility, south congress parking district, status update on comprehensive trail system and the gaps left to fill in that system. [2:18:16 PM] The sd23 metric regarding overgrown trees and plants blocking bike lanes and update measuring our asmp mode share shift goals. If there is anything more, we're happy to add those today. We just won't know which month we do. Vice chair Kelly. >> Kelly: I had the opportunity to attend the move conference last week with my staff, and we saw some presentations about autonomous rid share services. And I think that that would be a very interesting topic for us to discuss here in Austin. And then I also want to echo the briefing from parking enforcement regarding micromobility. As we enter into the festival season, that's going to be an interesting topic for us to really take a look at. >> Ellis: Absolutely. I love that idea. Any other topics we want to add to the list today? You can always email your thoughts too if you think of [2:19:17 PM] anything later. On that note it is 2:19 and we have finished all our business for the day. Thank you for joining us and I will adjourn the meeting of the mobility committee at 2:19 P.M.