Mobility Committee (MOBC) Meeting Transcript – 1/23/2025 Title: ATXN-1 (24hr) Channel: 1 - ATXN-1 Recorded On: 1/23/2025 6:00:00AM Original Air Date: 1/23/2025 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. [1:04:04 PM] I hope everybody was able to have a relaxing holiday. We are getting the mobility committee started. We don't have a council meeting until the 30th, so we are doing this before our actual regularly scheduled programing begins. But today is January 23rd, 2025. The time is 1:04 P.M. We are meeting here in Austin city hall. I'm joined by I am the chair page Ellis. I'm joined by vice chair zo qadri, council member chito vela, and we have Krista Laine joining us. She is not officially appointed to the committee yet, but hopes to join next week. So she is joining for this meeting. And I believe council member harper- madison is either on remotely or will be joining shortly. That takes us to our public communication. Rey will you please call our speakers? >> Yes. The first speaker is Phillip Wiley. >> Welcome. I believe you have three minutes. [1:05:05 PM] three minutes. >> Okay. Thank you again. My name is Phillip Wiley. I've lived downtown since March of 1992, and I'm here speaking as an advocate for more housing downtown. I do have three charts that that I sent. I've by training. I was a supply chain planning fellow, and I had an obligation to spread the word and educate people on the field. And I'm about 30 some years late getting around to doing that. So I understand sometimes people don't do things on the schedule we would like them to do. But here I am. I'm here now because supply chain management is all about getting the right things to the right place at the right time. If you miss any of those three, then you don't succeed in what you and other people are wanting you to accomplish. Part of the reason I'm here is to talk about mobility oriented [1:06:05 PM] talk about mobility oriented development, and why the time is absolutely right for everybody to be extremely focused on that. And it's partly because the project connect station plans have become more stable. And I think we sort of have a license to do things we didn't in the past because of that. Next chart, please. This is a photo of a new building that is the right place. It's one block from the new rail station on 15th and Guadalupe. It's the right thing. It's replacing a surface level parking lot. It isn't the right height. The people building it wanted to go much taller up to what they would have been allowed to do. I don't think that would have been nearly enough, but this is what we ended up with, and I think we should be thinking about what what happened there. What can we do to avoid that happening too [1:07:05 PM] do to avoid that happening too often? Because this is the most important area. If we want project connect to succeed, or if project connect never happens and we have busses, we want mass transit to succeed. So we need to separate. This is not for project connect. It's for the health of our public transit system. Next chart please. This is another permission slip. A lot of times when people see things that are contracts, they think of all the limitations that are put on them. This shows height limits for building downtown, and that's how people normally think of it. That isn't what necessarily comes to mind for me. To me, it's a license to build as tall as you want anywhere on the downtown grid that doesn't have one of those color codes. And I've been researching this recently, back in 1983 when this was put into place. And thank you all for [1:08:06 PM] place. And thank you all for your service. >> If you would like to also email your comments if you haven't already, we'd love to look through them. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Wiley. Can we have council member harper-madison joining remotely now? I believe we have one more speaker. >> We do. Our next speaker is Kate Hainsworth. >> Who is handing off a very tiny little baby. Qureshi. >> Reduce the unintended speaking. >> You're great. You may need to push the red button. Hi. >> My name is Kate Hainsworth. As you saw, I have a small child, so you'll forgive me for reading this time. I will be back next time with photos. Don't worry and I will go off the cuff then. My name is Kate. I'm the organizer of the south [1:09:07 PM] I'm the organizer of the south Austin healthy street, which Matt has shown you in previous presentations and which is in the process of becoming a shared street. It encompasses 96 households, and since its installation one year ago, it has seen increased support through two time extensions and one geographic expansion. I'm speaking today not because anybody asked me to, but to attest to the importance and success of the living streets program and the team behind it, and to ask for your continued support of both. First, the success of the program. In our neighborhood, there is less traffic and it is slower. I'm trusting the data from Matt as the source of truth, but if you go by the perception of the residents, this is undeniably true. People feel safer. This results in happy neighbors and more non- car use of the streets. Dogs, bikers, strollers, neighbors in wheelchairs, more of all of them, and out more often. This feels like a virtuous cycle before our eyes. [1:10:08 PM] virtuous cycle before our eyes. Reduce traffic, increase pedestrians, leading to further reduced traffic. There is more community. Okay, sure. How do you measure that? We have more events with more people joining each time. Events we've hosted within our healthy street include ice cream trucks in the summer, a Halloween Dia de los muertos block party, and park volunteering. Our last event, we had more than 80 volunteer hours contributed and among other activities, spread 5 pounds of wildflower seeds. To a couple random things to note. A personal favorite about these events is their drop in uncomplicated, low stress way to build community and chat with other neighbors that you'd otherwise be hoping you ran into when you took your trash can out. I've had my arm twisted into starting up an email distro, because the number of people who want to be included who aren't specifically within [1:11:08 PM] who aren't specifically within our geography of the street, citing specifically that they long for more community and want to be a part of ours. We've got some nonevents that happen every week, same day, same time. There's a bike gang now of about 15 kids and a couple of dads who've dusted off their skateboards to ride around the circuit. Inside the healthy street, anyone is welcome. There's now a picnic table in my front yard, where a bunch of us sit and hang out and chit chat. And as of last week, there's a stroller gang too, with me and two other babies and moms who walk the blocks to get fresh air. There's a borrowing and gifting economy across generations and neighbors in our neighborhood. If you oh shoot, if you need something delivered, you leave it out with a. >> I will send you the rest of this. Again, my ability to continue to support this program and the team behind it, and remove obstacles. Again. [1:12:09 PM] remove obstacles. Again. >> Thank you so much for coming to speak, and thank you for bringing your tiny baby in here. It is very nice to see the next generation get their first experience at city hall. >> Yes for sure. >> Thank you, thank you. >> I didn't realize I can't speak on that. I didn't realize living streets causes all these gangs to come up in the city, watch out for the stroller, stroller gangs and bike gangs. >> They might deliver things to other neighbors for you. Yeah, that is wonderful. Okay, that takes us to our first item, which is approval of the minutes for the November 14th meeting. I have a motion made by the vice chair, seconded by council member vela. All in favor, which is all four of us in attendance. Krista will be voting next time. Hopefully we've got unanimous approval for the four of us in attendance. Thank you. Item number two is an update from the urban transportation commission chair, which is Susan Summers. Do we have her logged into the webex? There she is. >> Hello. [1:13:15 PM] >> Hello. >> Yes. Give us just a second. With technology okay. We can see you now. Welcome, chair Summers. >> Great. Can you hear me as well? >> Yes. >> Great. Okay. Awesome. Council members, thank you so much for having me today as well. To our new council and potential new mobility committee member. Welcome. It's always a delight to present to you every month about our actions. We did not have a January meeting for utc, so I don't have anything to report there. We canceled that meeting. We did have a December meeting, which has been since the last time I presented for you. So today what I'm going to share with you is the actions that were taken at our December 3rd, 2024 meeting. So we had actually a really long meeting, much, much longer. We're now competing with planning commission, apparently on how long we're going to go. Quite a long meeting. And we did. We received presentations on the cap metro rapid program that's rolling out new stops and lines later this spring through project connect. So we heard [1:14:16 PM] project connect. So we heard about that. We also heard about the corridor program update from capital delivery services. So that's a very was a great presentation. I think we were pleased to receive that. I encourage you all to check that out as well. And I think you can count that utc will be really monitoring that corridor program throughout 2025 and hopefully hearing more and maybe doing some feedback on that as well. We also heard a presentation from not really a presentation, a presentation from city staff, I guess, about the interactions that staff is having with the campo 2050 regional transportation plan. And I do think it's really important we didn't pass a new recommendation in December. But what we did decide to do is we actually, as part of our official comment from the urban transportation commission on the campo 2050 regional transportation plan, comments enclosed in like mid-december, like about a week or two, week and week to ten [1:15:16 PM] or two, week and week to ten days after our meeting of utc, we actually forwarded a recommendation of our body from, I believe it was from 2022, maybe may 2022. I'll find the recommendation number and share that out with you all. And it actually talks a lot about for the regional transportation planning, what utc is hoping that, you know, some of the modeling, we know that the modeling that campo tends to do consistently over the years overestimates the population growth in the suburban regions of our metro and underestimates the growth in the urban core, which can have a lot of effect on the funding that Austin can receive for transportation projects and versus that of other municipalities. So we have some recommendations for council and staff that would include, you know, obviously advocating that we know that there is demand and growth that's going to be in our city, and we don't want to underestimate that as well. As for campo and some of their practices as well from [1:16:18 PM] their practices as well from that recommendation. And so when we went back, we didn't have a draft recommendation, but when we went back and looked at the recommendation, we realized it really spoke to all the points that we had about this process. So we just submitted that as a utc comment to campo. So I'll share. I'll make sure that gets shared with the members of council and mobility committee so that you're as well. But that comment now for the campo 2050 has closed. And then we also heard a presentation on the congress avenue urban design initiative, which is obviously very exciting. And we passed a recommendation with that. It's available on our site. I'll mainly just focus on our be it resolved, because I think that's always where the meat is there. But let me just sort of overview this recommendation for you all. Utc expresses its support for the congress avenue urban design vision plan, and urges the city [1:17:19 PM] vision plan, and urges the city manager to take all action necessary to ensure full adoption of the plan, be it further resolved, the urban transportation commission recommends city manager use this opportunity to fully implement city council resolutions number 20 1706 22, dash 33 and 2009 11, 1907 to implement a sylnovia on congress avenue as a pilot for the plaza configuration on congress avenue, suggested in the urban design initiative. Be it further resolved that we recommend the director of transportation and public works lift the indefinite moratorium on new downtown streets events, which has been in effect since 2014, to ensure a regular schedule of programing can be implemented alongside the introduction of public plazas on congress avenue, and ensure the success of commercial business on the corridor. This is actually I mean, to me, this is actually a little shocking that we have an indefinite moratorium on new downtown street events. Did you know? So anyway, because I just even hearing our public [1:18:22 PM] I just even hearing our public speaker in terms of activating our streets, building community, fighting our loneliness epidemic in this country, making sure that we are in community with one another, those things are very, very important. I think be it further resolved, utc recommends transportation and public works, evaluate opportunities to improve the seventh through 11th street design in future phases and design iterations, including installation of retractable bollards to where limited auto access is required. Designated lanes, markings, alternative routes, or preferred movements for bicyclists while traveling for the public plaza. Preparing for the eventual two way conversion of seventh, eighth, ninth, and 10th streets to two way streets as envisioned by the Austin core transportation plan. I know more to come on that and consider prioritization of bicycle parking and the proposed amenity Zones. Be it further resolved, we recommend transportation and public works, evaluate opportunities to improve the Cesar Chavez through seventh street design and future phases and design iterations, including design designating the outer lanes from second street to sixth street as curbside drop [1:19:23 PM] to sixth street as curbside drop off and delivery, including bulb outs at each intersection, double loaded sidewalks featuring destinations on both sides of the pedestrian walkway with buildings on one side and street vendors, kiosks, and dining on the other side. Raised sidewalks for both the sidewalk and bikeway, enhancing the pedestrian gateway at Cesar Chavez, including the elimination of the slip lanes nd installing pedestrian scrambles at congress avenue and Cesar Chavez and congress avenue and sixth street. So I think we're really proud of that recommendation. Quite a lot of work went into it. We also did a lot of diligence to try to capture some of the recommendations that we really liked from the backpack from congress for new urbanism, central Texas, from safe streets, Austin. You'll see that designated on some of these items in those bullet points as well. With that, I'm happy to take any questions. >> Committee members questions. We have vice chair qadri. >> Sorry my mic doesn't work, so I'm gonna have to carry this over. Yeah, not a questions, I guess. More comments. I need a haircut. First comment. Just [1:20:25 PM] haircut. First comment. Just really want to thank utc for all their recommendations. I know a lot of this stuff we've been hearing from advocates. I feel like even before I was, I was on this dais and a lot of the recs that you all have mentioned, I'm really excited about ciclovia. That's something myself and council member Vella have talked a lot about. And as a former downtown resident, you talked about, you know, fighting the loneliness epidemic, pandemic and, you know, how do we actually build community? That's one way that I always felt like it was just something that was really missing during my time living in downtown. So I'm really excited about that. Also excited about the changes to the side streets related to the congress avenue, you know, making it a two way conversion. So and then we really appreciate as an office and I think as a diocese, the feedback on the improvements to the Cesar Chavez and seventh street design. And we really want to make sure as we look at this street reconstruction, that we get everything right and not have to [1:21:26 PM] everything right and not have to continue to go back to the drawing table. So that's my hope that we're able to kind of realize the full vision. You know, kind of, you know, get our shot at it and do it right the first time. So really, really appreciate all the work that you all do. >> Yeah, absolutely. And if I could just respond I think you're absolutely right. I think the, the current sort of phasing and planning we're going to see pretty dramatic changes and infusions of hopefully infusions of activity and some of the areas that are a little less traveled, those areas which may be, you know, like up in the northern section of Cesar Chavez, has been a little bit harder with some of the maybe street level activity businesses. And so we're going to be really I really like the way how staff has been about infusing and what it's going to take to like, really grow that area. I think, you know, farther south, there's a lot more activity, which means there's more competition for that action. And I think it's also like the money needed to get it right. Right. And so I think that could be an area [1:22:28 PM] think that could be an area where it potential future bonding cycles, we want to infuse some money because it may take some some more dramatic rebuilds a little farther south as well. So those are just some things to think about, especially as we start talking about future transportation bond planning as well. >> Yeah. And my only other comment was, you know, I think the work that we sorry, the work that we do on anything, it's always looking forward to the future. Right. So you know, might have not been there when I was a downtown resident, but I really hope that folks who live in downtown now, who live in downtown in five years and ten years and 100 years, you know, Philip who spoke, had said he's been in the downtown area since 1992. I was two years old in 1992, but yeah, I was going to say I wore diapers, but I don't know if you wear diapers as a two year old. You did. Maybe I was. >> Maybe if you're real, real elite. Yeah. >> But you know, it's about building for the future, and I really hope we get it right. So that way, you know, our kids, [1:23:28 PM] that way, you know, our kids, kids, kids could enjoy it. And future councils are like, well, we don't have to do that because that really smart council from 2025 did that. So thanks. >> Absolutely. >> That's great I appreciate those comments. Way to make us all feel old that you were born in 1990. Yeah, right. You're actually not that young. I'm sorry. But like I guess I'm just old. I want to echo that. I appreciate the expanding the context of not just focusing on what is the right of way on one street or another. I was able to sit down with our new hcm for public safety, Eddie Garcia, earlier today, and really talk about how he's thinking about the downtown area. And he's also expanding that context of what problems are we trying to solve, what vision do we want to implement for the future, and how can we make sure that we're looking at it all at the same time? You know, a lot of folks about the uptown congress or the ones that are using east west connector streets, but there's a [1:24:29 PM] connector streets, but there's a whole lot of streets in downtown that don't actually have a lot of car traffic. So it's surprising to me to think of, you know, these, these quieter Zones, if you will, and how we can better activate those and use those for the folks that want to be in the downtown area. There's a lot of good things to see. There's a lot of good places to go. And so I appreciate this, this perspective that you're bringing. >> Great. Thank you. Thank you. >> All right. I think that does it for that item. Now perfect segue into item number three which is a living streets program status update. Key initiatives, next steps. This is an item that we had tried to take up at an earlier meeting. And we just had such great conversation. We ran out of time, but we certainly appreciate our speakers coming today to talk about issues like this. And so now we're very excited to take up this item. >> We have Matt Maggio speaking on the living street side. >> Welcome. >> Hi all. Thank you for having [1:25:29 PM] >> Hi all. Thank you for having us back. I'm actually really excited to be here. And I'm really grateful for chair Summers coming between Kate and myself speaking because we didn't actually arrange for Kate to come in, and I was kind of teary eyed with her speech. It's been a year since I've been here, and as we get this kind of going, what I wanted to be able to do is make sure that we're able to ensure that you guys actually hear us from some of our constituents that typically can't make it to one of these meetings. So I'm not sure that I can do this, but if one of you could click. >> On I like healthy living streets in my neighborhood because it allows more kids to be riding their bikes, skateboarding, to walk across it, and less cars going very fast down it. >> I like to walk on my street opposite Larry and Donna so I can get eggs for mommy to eat already when we get home. I like [1:26:33 PM] already when we get home. I like the healthy streets. >> Because it's a lot safer for us to cross the street if we're going to friend's house, and if we're biking and we don't have to worry about getting run over, it just feels a lot safer. >> I really like the Orange cones because then the cars only get to let go to flowers, smiles and. Then lastly is really safe. And then we get to bicycle with our friends back and forth. I like my street because it's safe, so when our friends are out of town, we can walk to their house and feed their pets. I like the living streets because I can play with my neighbors. I like my safe street because I like walking my dog in the shade. >> I love the healthy streets because I feel like it's given me more of an opportunity to hang out with the littler kids in our neighborhood, and I really loved being able to teach some of them how to bike, and [1:27:34 PM] some of them how to bike, and then we can have a lot of fun. And if we didn't have it, then it would be really hard. And I don't think that it would be as close as we are. >> I'm going to stop it there. It does go on for another full minute. We did provide the mp4 file to council so that you guys can actually listen to it on your own, but in the last year, we've actually made a lot of strides. Not only do we have a fan club that apparently follows us on a regular basis, but they know us by our first names, and that's because of the program success and our team's effort to reach out into the community and actually make this a really successful program. Since we last met, we did combine all three activations, neighborhood block parties, healthy streets, and play streets under one banner, the living streets program. And that has allowed us to adapt a lot of things that you're going to see in this presentation. So we're going to go over the current schedule of how we go about this, what our demand and our response to that [1:28:35 PM] demand and our response to that demand has been. A look back at our initial activations and the lessons learned from these, some improvements that came out of that. And next step, transitions and studies. So a while back we started out with just one installation. That's that light blue piece on the diagram that you're seeing above. And it extended into q1. We did a major media outreach and marketing push for this. We specifically targeted the entire city as a whole and then focused also in on equity Zones with additional advertisements. And we'll get to why we did that in a second. But essentially, these things run hand in hand, meaning that now we're running every quarter, every three months, we are launching another set of activations. So while you're actually applying for your application or your renewal, we are installing a set of [1:29:36 PM] are installing a set of applications and renewal. And what that does is it allows my team to focus on the effort at hand and allows that high point of high activity, really focused concentration on the renewal or application approval process versus the installation process, and vice versa. And that cycle has worked out very well for us, allowing us to launch several more than we anticipated. So this is a makeup of our city by district council member Ellis, I know that one of your questions has been, why do I have so few? And the reality is you don't. But you are on the lower side. And part of that is, is because it is spread out throughout the city. And where we are seeing the need for this most is places that don't have sidewalks, don't have that connectivity. And district eight does have a lot of that great connectivity, which is why this program is [1:30:36 PM] which is why this program is needed on a citywide basis. So we look at this and say, okay, for seven and nine are really, really pivotal districts. And there's a large concentration there. How and why is that going on and what lessons can we learn? I'll come back to those in a second. When we look at what our advertising marketing campaign did, our expressions of interest quiz actually shows that the original 40 ish applications that we got, of which we launched 18, we had a roughly 18% in the medium high and most vulnerable communities. Now we are running at the least and medium low at 45% of our applications, and the medium high and most vulnerable at 37%. We're closing that gap. And that's really critical to the success of this program. So previously we saw stuff in the [1:31:37 PM] previously we saw stuff in the north south corridor between mopac and 35. We are now bridging out above 183 and east of 35. What we don't see is a large response from districts two and district six. And if we look at the capacity and need for those areas, we'll see some distinctions in a couple of minutes. So all this came back. We did our first round of applications. We launched 18 of those. So of those seven healthy streets, renewed four place streets renewed one of those place streets didn't renew because it became a healthy street later. They really like the idea of extending it and connecting their neighborhood much more than just doing a single block in our second round of applications that was launched October 4th or the beginning of this fiscal year, we added six of the 12 healthy street applications and four of the ten, bringing us up to a nice total of. I got to do the [1:32:38 PM] nice total of. I got to do the math real fast. That's 11 and 1021 applications. And you'll see now we're running at 37 starting in February. We've just entered our third round of applications. And again, we're doing these on a quarterly basis. We have the capacity and we've proven our staff that we can support this. And this is going to be the rate that we're going to continue to renew and approve as long as the budget stays in place as we have it, we can support all of these applications. You see two deferred applications in here, and that's really important to note. Those two deferred applications are up in district four. And it's because within a one tenth square mile area, we had five applications apply. And from a connectivity standpoint, that's actually detrimental to [1:33:40 PM] that's actually detrimental to the goals of the program. Meaning if we cause confusion, how do people actually navigate through their neighborhood? So what we've done is we've actually reached out to two out of the five and asked them to defer. And right now we're going to launch two, hold two, launch the two held and then hold the other two and vice versa. Ironically, there are only two blocks away from each other, so it's kind of a perfect sympathetic relationship where the community can actually move just two blocks away and still be on a play street. And that's really kind of critical because as we're looking at the expansion of this program and its depth, we are going to have relationships like this and they're going to give us patterns and tell us more information. Again, we'll come back to that. Good. >> It looks like we have a question from council member Vella. >> Quick question, which [1:34:40 PM] >> Quick question, which neighborhoods in district four? >> It's all in the brentwood neighborhood and then the neighborhood. >> And the Wooton neighborhood. Yes. Okay. Got it. That's what I thought. We'd had discussion with Wooton, and that was where we launched the first one, correct? Yeah. They they love them. They they love the first one. And they've been wanting more. >> Yes. And it's statistically there, but it also might tell us something. So we did a survey of those first activations, basically a one block radius around every activation to find out what the neighborhoods all thought of these activations. Not surprisingly, they're favorable 62% in support of a play street and 69% in support of a healthy street. What is distinctly interesting about this chart is actually my next slide, and I want you to focus in on the 62% support and play streets. We collected data. We asked for comments on the healthy street side. It's very clear, relaxed, happy, safe, [1:35:41 PM] clear, relaxed, happy, safe, healthy, safer. Right? On the play street side, we start to see comments like frustrated, annoyed, insanely terrible, not necessarily related to each other, but those are the larger words that come out. And what we're starting to realize is that we have the idea, right. But it might be in the implementation, and that 62% is a telling factor, because the first question we asked, am I using the play street? 50% of our respondents said that they are not using the play street, which means we still have a favorable rate, right? 62% are in favor, 50% of our respondents aren't using the play street. And that's an interesting tale for us. In other words, something's going on here that really does work, but maybe not the way we're working it. And here's what we found out. The word complete street closure is misleading a little bit. [1:36:43 PM] misleading a little bit. Meaning, when we think about a complete street closure, it has the appearance of exclusion rather than inclusion that people feel like that street has priority over other streets. And that's actually not the case. The next piece is the control panels include resident control points at both ends of the street. So this is Cambridge that you're looking at. It's one of the streets that didn't renew its 1000 linear feet, just slightly under a quarter mile from end to end. When you're monitoring those Gates at the end of the intersections, you cannot see the middle of the road where the children are playing, nor can you communicate with your other residents. There are 27 houses on this, 17 approved. But when you think about that from a staffing standpoint, and these are staffed by the residents, that's nine people working this three days. That is a large percentage of that. 17 means every other [1:37:44 PM] of that. 17 means every other week you are working this shift. And because of that it becomes really untenable. My child's playing, but I don't even get to watch or participate. And that was kind of the sentiment and feedback we were getting. In addition to that, we always get this kind of feedback, which is Orange cones. Why Orange cones? They're temporary. It has a very specific meaning in Texas uniform code for transportation. It means that there's construction or other activity prohibiting the use of the street. In our case, pedestrians walking it. But that construction piece is the first connotation we all dwell on right when it's properly installed. It's neat and orderly. When people don't like it, they move it off to the side of the road and it becomes disorganized and no one understands what's going on. [1:38:44 PM] understands what's going on. Additionally, the amount of equipment that we have to use to make these closures effective is a lot. So it does clutter up the road, and we need to look for future examples of how to do this better. And the last thing is the term local traffic only. What does this mean? It means that if you have business on the street, you're welcome. Amazon wants to do a delivery. By all means. Fire departments coming through. By all means, you're visiting a friend or a neighbor that lives on that street, by all means. But if you're just passing through, we request that you take another route. And that's for the safety of the people using the street. So these were the quick lessons learned on that. And when we look at that area of cluster up in the brentwood neighborhood and the Wooton neighborhood, what we see is a whole bunch of streets that are acting as class one residential level streets without this other connectivity. So everyone is fighting for capacity up there, and it's [1:39:45 PM] capacity up there, and it's because the neighborhood was built in the 60s, right? So it didn't have the concept of a million person city. So this program has proven its success because it is providing that alternative to calming that traffic and allowing the residents to get back out on the streets. The other piece that those interviews and surveys and data led us to was minor updates on our prioritization. So food access becomes its own category. This is actually being driven by the former office of sustainability, and the fact that food access is one of the critical pieces that people use transportation to get to. So we did want to acknowledge that and put that separate. We also improved our park scores. And as always, it's the prioritization score of the activation times. The percentage of residents that approve it that gives you your approval rank. In other words, [1:40:46 PM] approval rank. In other words, you may have a high prioritization score, but just squeak by at that 60% and may be pushed out by someone who's got 100% approval and a slightly lower activation score. And that allows for streets that really are driven, are residentially approving this to push their application further. Next, on the play streets, we recognize that we had some serious things to consider on play streets. So street length really became a critical issue. And then the number of access control points, it's much easier to function on a dead end or a cul de sac where you have one control point and one monitor for the children, versus two control points. And if everyone's in line of sight with each other or can verbally communicate with each other, that's even better. So we did establish that as a priority to determine if that will make a change in the effectiveness and [1:41:46 PM] change in the effectiveness and approval from the residents. Next piece that utc has asked us to look at is, how do we take this into a more permanent structure? By nature, a living street is temporary. It lasts six months. It's a wonderful experience. You have the option for renewal throughout the process, but those that desire it do really enjoy it. And this is actually Kate and Stacy's street. It's south. Austin shared a healthy street. It's right off of six and oltorf, and it's actually transitioning to a shared street. And this is the way we do this. So we look at the installations that I have. We do the community outreach through living streets, and we reach out to the residents and we work hand in hand with them to develop their scheme. And while this is diagrammatic in nature, because we're still in the planning and design phase of this, essentially what we're [1:42:46 PM] this, essentially what we're saying is if we look at this area, how can we actually use the street as a sidewalk and share it with cars? And the way you do that is create curb extensions, pinch points, traffic circles, and small sidewalks that turn into the neighborhood creating gateways. And it's this process where we're piloting on south Austin that we'll be able to take to other living streets and make a significant impact on the amount of sidewalks that we need to replace within Austin. Next thing is, is since we last talked, we were awarded safe streets and roads for all grant through the federal highway administration, and that grant allows us to flex $1.5 million on demonstration techniques in the resolution. It calls for easy, accessible and esthetically pleasing closures. [1:43:47 PM] esthetically pleasing closures. And I'm going to try to play this again for you. These are sketches that we did early on to support the ss for a grant that was submitted over a year ago. And the concept here is, is how do we create the behavior change and look at different equipment, the placement configuration of that equipment, and how do we look at how it activates this space. So that takes time and effort and research. So each one of these transitions could be a transition that we make. And the end goal is to create the behavior change over two and a half years where we can have a different style of living street. The equipment still temporary, still meets all the traffic codes for crashworthiness and improves the neighborhood's esthetics. It's going to be through this process that we really improve the program and start to deploy it on a more holistic method. [1:44:48 PM] on a more holistic method. Additionally, this will allow us to test scenarios that can then be turned into a shared street, and shared streets can then be turned into complete streets. And the term definitions there are living streets are temporary. Shared streets are minimal. Infrastructure work that don't necessarily include sidewalks. Complete streets have defined crosswalks, pinch points, controlled parking, lighting, trees, and other amenities on it. And that's the goal of the asmp is to get all of our streets to that. But that takes time. We didn't stop. We are still going. We know that play streets are the most critical issue for us. We have started to look at different ways to approach this. This is a pilot that we're getting ready to launch on one of our existing play streets, called an activity zone. It's a very specific zone in the right of way that does [1:45:48 PM] in the right of way that does not include a full closure of the road. It includes an a very aggressive chicane, forcing you to slow down, stop, navigate a 25 foot wide gap in between two traffic barriers, and then move through the activity zone shown here in green, onto your next piece. That allows a responsible party. Older teenager, a young adult, a parent to kind of monitor the traffic, say car. Allow the car time to stop. Slow down. Not enough time to accelerate through the closure and then move through the space without inhibiting their to transverse through the network. If this is successful, our hope and vision is that this actually gets used on all of our living streets. It may become a piece on a neighborhood block [1:46:48 PM] piece on a neighborhood block party. It may become a piece on a healthy street for an activity zone, so that you have a more defined, highly active area. And it may be part and parcel of a play street so that you have that additional safety. Last piece for you guys is we plan on the continuity of this program. We are going to be doing another outreach and marketing campaign. Again, it will be targeted citywide. It will specifically focus additional resources on those in vulnerable areas and our equity Zones. We are moving formally with the living streets to shared streets transition and looking at bond package funding to do this as well, and how that actually might play out. We're formalizing that process. And the main part of that is this continuity and connection back from shared streets to the living streets lab, the ss for funding. And that's really the [1:47:49 PM] funding. And that's really the goal is to develop this kit of parts, this template and this body of work that transitions from one piece all the way through the other, so that our residents have what they need in their neighborhoods. And that's the end of my presentation. I'll open it up to any questions for you guys. >> We'll open it up to questions from the committee. But I have to warn you, if you're going to bring babies and then play audio of children and then show pictures of puppies, maybe the next meeting has to have some adoptable puppies or something so that. >> We. >> Can we can do that. >> Okay. Good, good. Do we have any questions from the committee members? >> I don't have any questions. I'm just excited to see a lot of the sorry, I don't know why I keep moving away from the mic. >> They're sharing a mic. They're not dueting. They just they like to sit really close. >> To. >> Each other. Anyone would want to hear me sing? No. I'm just happy to see a lot of the temporary activations become permanent. And, you know, I remember being a candidate for office years, years ago. I'm not young anymore. Even though I was born in 1990. But I remember in [1:48:50 PM] born in 1990. But I remember in Hyde park seeing some of the this, you know, the activations there. And I thought it was the coolest thing in the world. And I think the thing that people normally I guess know about and are used to and attend is that 37th street lights, which is, I think, the coolest thing. Well, there's a lot of cool things in district nine, but one of the cool things in district nine. So I just want to applaud everyone for working on all these great initiatives in the city. >> That's great. I wanted to add a comment. I know you mentioned some of the districts that didn't have as many of these, or either they weren't applied for or they didn't qualify. An interesting background to how some of these neighborhoods became in the city is that the neighborhoods got built on their own, and oftentimes the people who built those neighborhoods decided to put sidewalks in. And then when they annexed into the city, now we are maintaining the sidewalks and all of the water infrastructure and all all of those other things that go with being a part of the city of [1:49:51 PM] being a part of the city of Austin. And so it's interesting when you mentioned district two and district six, I'm sure they probably have similar backgrounds is that someone built them with a big vision plan, and then the city is on the hook for maintaining all of the infrastructure. And a really big conversation that we've been having with our neighborhoods is the really wide streets. There was an era where they thought a fire truck couldn't possibly get through if it wasn't, you know, essentially four lanes wide but just not striped for it. And some of these streets are that big and bigger, but they're really only two lanes of driving, and they're just not conducive to a kid learning how to ride a bike or taking food across the street to your neighbor. You know, these are issues that we're having to retrofit into this 80s, 90s build is when I think a lot of those neighborhoods were built. And so, you know, hopefully there's some wins on different streets in those neighborhoods where people can do that or cul de sacs. But it's something that we've been struggling with for a long time, is how do we make the incidence of crashes and [1:50:52 PM] incidence of crashes and pedestrian and cyclist safety a higher priority on these streets that the city didn't build, but we have to maintain them. So I think that's a very interesting conversation. And then I wanted to ask very quickly about item 31 on our next agenda, talks about transportation and public works doing. Barricades. Let me see if I can pull up the language. Rubber curbs and planters potentially. Is that information you can share today? We can always put it through the main q&a on exactly what is that? Is this for living streets and healthy streets, or is this part of a broader conversation? >> I'm going to have to defer to my colleagues from transportation public works. I'm not aware of that. So if. >> We can put it through the q&a, if, yeah, I don't want to put anyone on the spot, I'm seeing nods. We'll do the q&a and just understand that better, because I have seen as I'm about town, these big planters that forklifts have to move, and I'm [1:51:54 PM] forklifts have to move, and I'm trying to wrap my head around this conversation of, yes, I understand the Orange striped barricades do look like a construction zone, and they don't seem as welcoming. They seem like caution. Stay away alert as opposed to the inviting way of saying you are on a quieter neighborhood street now. And so I'm interested to see if the department is able to find materials that can help with that conversation, or if I need to start finding some new materials and try to propose them to y'all about, hey, what can we do that is in line with safety standards for transportation, public works, but also mentally signals to people to go slower and is more inviting versus the caution Orange. >> So that's exactly why we applied for the ss for a money so that we can begin to study those. We recognize that dichotomy between safety and esthetics and welcoming neighborhoods, and that it is a [1:52:54 PM] neighborhoods, and that it is a fine line between those two pieces. No one's going to want to go to a neighborhood that's not safe, right? Simply put. >> Right. And I respect that. The department doesn't necessarily want to put things in that might be able to accommodate trees or pollinator gardens or community gardens where people can plant food. If it's not a structure that's safe to be in the street, and how how we can bridge the gap here. So I will keep looking and put that on my to do list about can we open that conversation up? Can we make things prettier and still safe for everybody? >> Excellent. We would appreciate that support okay. >> Sounds good. Yeah. >> Council member Laine. >> Thank you so much for this introduction as I'm fairly new to the diocese here. And just joining this committee for the meeting for the first time, I see I noticed how low participation has been from district six so far. And I know from my knowledge of our district that we, in fact, have [1:53:55 PM] district that we, in fact, have a high concentration of families with children. We have a high concentration of seniors, we have a low concentration of places for the community to gather that are not private in some way, shape or form. And we also have a lot of streets that the configuration would lend itself to this. So I am really looking forward to getting more specific knowledge so that I can bring this information out to our community and find some ways to bring this really appealing program out to our district. Thank you so much. >> Thank you also. >> Was a fantastic presentation. I'm glad. Thank you for letting us postpone it from the last meeting. I think this was a great conversation, and I'm glad that we were able to have a little more time to be able to talk about it. Are there any more questions from the committee members? It appears. >> Not. >> Chair, unless I have a question. >> All right. Council member harper-madison. >> Thank you. And actually, I texted it to you because I'm not sure if this is the appropriate [1:54:55 PM] sure if this is the appropriate staff member to answer this question, but there was commentary earlier about a moratorium for community events. I was just wondering if somebody in the room could expand on that moratorium, and if we could add that as an item in that q&a that you're going to submit. If we could add questions about the who, what, when, where, why they are. Because I'm not familiar. I think it was our urban transportation committee chair. >> Certainly, yes. The utc had passed a recommendation that included information about that. I see director Mendoza is here. If you know that answer off the top of your head. >> The answer off the top of my head is we used to evaluate that moratorium of additional large events in the downtown space annually. And because of all the construction and the development that was going on, trying to maintain a reasonable flow of, you know, traffic safely. And a couple of years ago, when I [1:55:57 PM] couple of years ago, when I first came into the former Austin transportation department, it was recommended to me that we just reevaluate that internally on a year to year basis and make it indefinite. So I'll be visiting back with my transportation team and we'll reevaluate that. It's been two years since we looked at it, and I can get back to the mobility committee. >> That's great. Thank you for the information, and we'll see if we can figure out a way to get that information back to us. >> Certainly. >> Thank you. All right. I think that's the end of our questions. We will now move on to the next item, which is going to be item four, the 2016 bond corridor construction program update. >> Great to be with you all here today. My name is Eric Bailey. [1:56:57 PM] today. My name is Eric Bailey. I'm the deputy director of capital delivery services. And pull up my notes here real quick and we'll get going. All right I appreciate your time today. Committee chair members, thank you for having us to give you an update on the corridor construction program as we move forward. Let's see. There we go. Perfect. So the development of the projects in the 2016 mobility bond has been a long process. As you all know, when the bond was approved, the plans throughout the corridors were in a concept level plan and not fully developed. And as those projects move through the planning and design process, it became clear that the funding available in the bond would not be sufficient to meet the needs that have been identified during the design. The project teams were optimistic that additional funding could be identified, but ultimately the program needed to move into construction. So we're delivering projects along those corridors. For some of the [1:57:57 PM] corridors. For some of the corridors, there were major complications related to the land development code, adding impervious cover along the corridors, including new sidewalks and bike paths, which in turn required storm drain upgrades, which led to situations where a relatively minor 5 to $10 million transportation project turned into a 15 to $20 million storm drain project, with some transportation enhancements on top of that, which was clearly not the intent of the 2016 mobility bond we have been working through. We at cds have been working through those details with our partners in transportation, public works, as well as watershed protection and Austin water related to permitting and scoping. Now we're at a point where the major construction effort begins. As you can see from the graphic above, one of the tenants throughout the entire life of the program has been the community engagement in terms of not only detailing the plans for what we're going to be doing, getting community feedback and input on those plans. But now, as we're moving into construction, making sure everyone on the corridors is aware of those impacts, and [1:58:58 PM] aware of those impacts, and we're able to accommodate folks as much as we can. So some upcoming highlights of projects moving forward in the near future include the extension of the shared use path on the west side of airport boulevard from 55th street to 45th street. Construction of the William cannon drive project from running water to Mckinney falls, which is currently under construction and is aided by a campo grant. There's ongoing bicycle and pedestrian improvements on all corridors. We're currently advertising forbid the slaughter Laine project, which goes from Brodie to mopac, as well as a new idiq contract to deliver shared use paths along burnet and airport road, and that idiq contract is scheduled to advertise here in the next two months. Upcoming bids to be advertised in the next 60 days are for the burnet road project, all the way from 183 to mopac. That's going to be divided into two sections. And then later this spring, early summer, we're going to be moving forward with the south Lamar boulevard project from Barton springs to I-71. That is probably the largest project [1:59:58 PM] probably the largest project that's in the entire package. That's been that's moving forward to construction as a part of this program. You know, one of the things we've done additionally in capital delivery services, when the when the corridor project program came to us was consolidating 27 existing web pages into nine active pages that are available in the links you see on the right side there, we're making sure that those web pages are all monitored. So for when questions are asked by the public, we're able to rapidly respond, as well as including schematic plans and project plans so folks can have those resources at their fingertips to be able to tell what's going on along the corridors. >> I think. >> We've got a quick question. Yeah. Council member vela. >> I'd I Q. >> Sorry, yeah, idk, that's sorry for using jargon there. >> That's engineering. >> That later. But we'll let the expert. >> Yes that's engineering speak. So that's indefinite delivery indefinite quantity. That's where we go out for bid with a contractor where we don't have a fully baked set of plans yet. Most of the time it's used for [2:00:59 PM] Most of the time it's used for things like sidewalks and bikeways and that kind of thing where you don't need a fully engineered set. But they provide a bid based on a certain square footage of concrete, and we agree on a price of $5 per square foot. And we say, all right, we're going to go from point a to point B, and there's multiple assignments in there. >> Got it. So it's similar to rfp a different type of kind of request for construction work. >> Correct. Exactly. >> Thank you. >> No. Perfect. >> So the program so far has completed $255 million in spending, with approximately $100 million in leveraged funds from grants, developers and internal partnering. We're starting to see concentration of the program into the construction and warranty phases, and spending is really going to ramp up here in the next two years on construction, including an estimated $146 million in projects going to bid and construction in calendar 2025. As I mentioned before, the community engagement has been a [2:02:01 PM] community engagement has been a very robust process throughout the entire program from 2017 to the current day. We're now pivoting to focus on construction impacts, particularly with local businesses and residents, to make sure that construction impact is minimized as much as possible. As we move through with active construction, I'll move on and go through the corridors and then open that up for some conversation here. So we'll start with the airport boulevard corridor. The section from Lamar to 55th is complete, and in the warranty phase, we're shifting our focus to delivering shared use paths along the west side of airport from 55th to 45th. And once we have that new idiq contract in place, we'll continue with the idiq delivery of the pedestrian and bicycle improvements from east of 35, all the way down to 183. A tricky point of coordination that we're working through now is with txdot and the I-35 project. Obviously, we don't want to put in a bunch of work that's then subsequently going to be removed in the next couple of years as that project moves through. Additionally, we partnered with txdot to replace the Mok Ann trail bridge, and [2:03:01 PM] the Mok Ann trail bridge, and that project is going to be one that's designed by the city of Austin and then constructed by txdot north Lamar boulevard. We've installed intersection improvements like you see here, where a signalized intersection is improved with shorter crossing distances and dedicated bike lanes to improve safety and circulation. Those have gone in at Grady, cooper, Fairfield and Powell. Additionally, the transportation public works sidewalks program is going to be filling in sidewalk gaps on north Lamar from Ramberg to palmer. This is one of the areas where there's open channel drainage and really represents a challenging stretch for the corridor program, because it's a great example of what I mentioned before of the coordination between multiple city departments, as well as txdot to deliver on a long term solution and improvements necessary for pedestrian and vehicular safety. Basically, at the end of the day, where we're adding impervious cover, we need to take what was previously open channel drainage and put it into conduits, which means we basically need to rebuild the entire storm drain system. It's [2:04:03 PM] entire storm drain system. It's an example of a project where there's a much needed improvement there, but we're limited in what we can do short term without large scale coordination between the city departments and txdot. All of our partners have been, you know, happy to come and talk with us. But again, this is a project that has a longer term delivery timeframe than what we can really do with the 2016 bond. So on Barnet road, we've completed the intersections at Koenig and baker. The Kramer Laine drainage project is currently under construction and nearing completion. The drainage project enables the remainder of the burnet road work from 183 to mopac to get underway, and then the section of burnet road from Whitehorse trail to 183 will be delivered via the dec method. Using that new contract that will be advertised shortly. What's going to end up at the end of the day after construction is complete? Is the entire section of burnet from 2222 all the way up to mopac is going to have improvements all along that. Corridor. For the Riverside corridor, we've completed intersection and [2:05:04 PM] completed intersection and signal work at ten and four willow creek, Wickersham, coriander and vargas to improve pedestrian and bicycle circulation. We have signals at frontier valley and airport commerce that are currently under construction. The bulk of the roadway improvements along this section have been deferred due to the upcoming changes from the project connect, which is going to be running the railroad tracks down the middle of the of the median here. And so again, we didn't want to put in any improvements other than safety improvements to have them only be removed in the near future when project kind of comes. Through for Guadalupe. We've completed the work on Guadalupe and nueces, as well as the contraflow transit Laine shown here, which improves bus circulation and route timing. And Guadalupe is another case where the bulk of the improvements have been in this area have been deferred in coordination with project connect for when the that transit project comes through on the Guadalupe corridor from 38th all the way into downtown, the William cannon corridor. We've [2:06:04 PM] William cannon corridor. We've improved signals that you can see here. It's a long list. I won't go through it and read it. And then, as well as the existing project that's in construction, from running water to Mckinney falls, you can see that has access to a lot of new developments and improved safety and utility access here. Other improvements along William cannon are pending the evaluation of funds that are going to be available to be delivered via the dec methodology. Once that work along airport and burnet is complete for slaughter Laine, we've installed bicycle and pedestrian improvements there as well as upcoming. Signal improvements and the current project that we have out for bid for the section from mopac to Brodie. And south Lamar. As I mentioned before, south Lamar is one of the major improvements on the corridor from Barton springs to 290. We're going to be installing sidewalks and shared use paths on both sides of the road. This project is scheduled [2:07:05 PM] road. This project is scheduled to go to bid in the summer of 2025. This is going to be a very massive project. Our current construction estimates are showing around $60 million for this section of road. The work that's going on there now is Austin energy reconnecting and utility relocations to expedite the work that our contractor is going to be doing when they come through here to build out the new transportation infrastructure as well as associated drainage, water, wastewater improvements that are much needed in this area. And then finally, east martin Luther king boulevard. This is a section of east mlk from 183 to decker. It's currently at 90%. Design. It includes improved sidewalks and bike lanes for the full length, as well as intermittent median dividers providing safety enhancements along this roadway. This is a project that is going to be designed by the city, but built with built by txdot. So txdot is going to hold the contract. This is again on txdot right of way, and that construction is [2:08:06 PM] and that construction is estimated to start in early 2026. I know that was a very quick overview, but I'll open it up for questions. I'm sure you all have questions along the way. >> All right, let's open it. >> Up for questions. Council member vela, why don't you kick it off? >> Thank you very. >> Much. >> I see you, council member harper-madison. I'll call on you next, okay? >> I saw that there's no pending construction on the north. Lamar corridor. >> We're filling in sidewalk gaps with the sidewalks and special programs group. So that's really the priority is, is that safety improvement? Improvement to make sure that that sidewalk network is complete. But in terms of a larger project along north Lamar, that's one of the ones I mentioned. It's a it's a pretty significant change to the stormwater drainage in that area that needs to be undertaken. And that's a partnership with, you know, not only transportation, public works, watershed protection, as well as txdot in moving that project forward. >> The great. Now, I may have some questions that you may not [2:09:07 PM] some questions that you may not have the immediate answers to, but I guess what is in the current status of the north Lamar corridor improvements? Again, the idea is going to go out for to fill in the sidewalk gaps. Is that correct? >> We're actually using a different an existing idiq contract to fill in those gaps. So that project some of the sections there are will be underway shortly from our ssp program, which already has an existing program there. But I assume you're talking about the larger project and the coordination that's needed there. And that's that's something where we need to work on engaging txdot in exactly what that looks like and prioritize funding from the city standpoint as well. >> And the existing signal improvements have. I can see them in my mind's eye are basically better, more visible lights and better again, curb cuts, Ada improvements, better [2:10:08 PM] cuts, Ada improvements, better paint, you know, those kinds of things like that. Basically more visible. What then we're going to fill in the sidewalk gaps and then there is just a big kind of question Marc. I mean, and I'm not trying to put words in your mouth. I'm just trying to understand where we are, because I know it was a very ambitious. And again, we've talked before about, you know, why we are where we are. But but kind of, you know, what was the original vision and where are we today. >> Yeah. So as we move through the planning process, we really came to the realization that the amount of effort that was needed out there, the amount of coordination across the departments, wouldn't allow that project to be designed and delivered in the timeline that we're talking about for the 2016 bond. So that project hasn't gone away. I know transportation public works is still working on that in the in the design side, planning that, potentially cueing that up for a future bond program, something that's just [2:11:09 PM] program, something that's just purely dedicated to that north Lamar piece. And we're working with our partners in watershed protection to figure out exactly what their requirements are for taking that open channel drainage and closing it in so we can use the full width of the right of way there rather than having it, you know, be drainage channels basically. >> And again, not to put words in your mouth, but what we need to do, there is no subsurface drainage. Basically, the water on north Lamar drains into the ditch that runs along north Lamar. And the, you know, eventually into the river. The what we need to do is fix the drainage before we can do anything to the surface. Is that a fair way to put it? >> Yeah, fix is probably not really the right word, but the drainage needs to be in order to use the drainage ditches. As you know, adequate pedestrian and or bicycle, you know, circulation. There needs to be a cover on them, right? You can't put bikes and people in the ditch. And so in order to do that, you need to put it in a pipe. And so in order to put it in a pipe, [2:12:10 PM] order to put it in a pipe, there's a lot of work obviously, that needs to go into that. You need to install, you know, catch basins and the infrastructure and all that other kind of stuff. So there's there is a lot of work that needs to go into that so that we can use the full right of way that exists there now. >> Okay. And I think to me, the big question then and again, this is the one that may there may not be an immediate answer for. But you know, how much were we expecting this to cost when we budgeted for this in 2016? And what are we looking at today? In other words, what's the gap that we're talking about to do the full rebuild of north Lamar, that everybody agrees that we need? Yep, yep. >> I don't have that number in front of me. I can get you that information. I'd have to. I'd want to dig through it and make sure I'm giving you accurate information on that. But I think, you know, part of that is a good example of what we're trying to do at cds2 in terms of the new bond programs and working through that a little bit better. Before we go to the voters with the numbers and say, look, yes, we need this project and we want to make sure that we [2:13:11 PM] and we want to make sure that we have an accurate cost estimate in terms of what's really needed to fully deliver on what we're putting forth in those bond programs. >> And my would we need additional bond funds and ultimately to complete the north Lamar corridor project? >> We would need funding where that comes from. We can have the discussion about where those funds. >> Come from. And another question, again, this may not be, but the existing bond funding that was dedicated to that, my sense would be that we're not going to use it all on the sidewalk. Improvements that we're planning. In other words, how much is left over from the north Lamar corridor project and how much do we need? You know, in other words, kind of I'd really like to see those numbers line up. So we have so we can start planning in earnest now that we've looked at it, now that we have a better sense of what it would cost so we can move the project forward. And again, this is not just about drainage or, you know, comfort. North Lamar is one of the most [2:14:11 PM] North Lamar is one of the most dangerous streets in the city, and there's lots of deaths and there's lots of injuries. And it's very difficult street in general to interact with. So I definitely we're we're bonds are coming up at some point again. And that I want the north Lamar north Lamar corridor project to be completed with this next tranche of bonds. Because I, I just really feel like we've kind of broken faith with the folks there because people were expecting. And here we are in 2025. And, you know, other than a handful of signal upgrades, you know, not much has happened. So that's going to be a major priority of mine. I've got for years, but I'm going to be pushing pretty hard on that north Lamar corridor and would love to get some numbers. Yep. >> Sounds great. I've got council member harper-madison next and then I'll call on vice chair qadri. >> Thank you very much chair. I appreciate it and thank you for your questions. Council member vela those are similar questions [2:15:12 PM] vela those are similar questions to what I would have for that north Lamar area. But moving over to district one, I do have a question about that. Mlk out to decker improvement. You said we're at 90% there. It would be great to see where we're falling short, where that additional 10% is. But my specific question is, is there any overlap between this particular effort being executed and the safe routes to school programmatic efforts that are being deployed in the same general area? >> Yeah, I mean, we're coordinating with a bunch of projects in that area. Johnny Morris road is up there in terms of the connection, right by the walnut creek wastewater plant, in terms of the safe routes to school coordination and things. I don't know that they have any plans in that specific area along mlk, because we know that the corridor program is coming up and is funded. And just to clarify, the 90% is as we progress through design, we're at the 90% design milestone. So we're moving the project [2:16:13 PM] we're moving the project forward. You know, the funding is available and identified in the in the bond program to move that project forward. So we do have ongoing coordination meetings. We meet, you know, every other Tuesday with our our corridor team. There are folks in that meeting from transportation, public works, safe routes to school, the sidewalk program and folks like that. So the coordination is ongoing. And there are some other cip projects out there that we're coordinating with as well. >> Awesome. Thank you. I really appreciate that update. Do you have any anticipated completion for the design phase? That's at 90%. >> It'll be about let's see, 26. It's going to be 6 to 9 months or so, and we'll be at our 100% design milestone. And then usually it takes, you know, a couple of months from there to get the permit and get all that ready to go. So we're looking at, you know, mid to late 25 when we'll be ready to go for advertisement for that project. >> Fantastic. Thank you. I appreciate the update. >> Yep. >> All right. That brings us to vice chair qadri. And then I'll [2:17:14 PM] vice chair qadri. And then I'll have a couple questions after that. >> Great. >> Sorry. First question and I appreciate the presentation. Could you do you have an update on south Lamar or do you have a timeline of when you would have an update on that? >> Yeah. So in terms like where we're at in the project. Yeah. So we're at 100% design. We're working through some final permitting issues and in improvements to the. The water and wastewater infrastructure there that were coordinated. We've been coordinating with Austin water for quite a while. Right now. We're working on getting our txdot permit and making sure that that everything's in line for that. But as I mentioned, you know, it's going to we're looking to go for advertisement for that project in the summer of this year. So it's rounding the bend and we're getting ready to, to get the permit ready and get that project out and get it advertised. >> Great. And then I had a question more on I guess project timeline related stuff. Is there a time when you guys might revisit designs to update before [2:18:16 PM] revisit designs to update before construction? Because I know a lot of times when it comes to things like bike and pedestrian practices, you know, often that's kind of in flux and, you know, it changes every so often. So is it is it kind of do those changes match any other changes? >> Yeah. The transportation public works, you know, bicycle team reviews the plans when they're when they're submitted. So they've been participating with us along the way. I wouldn't foresee any major changes just because they've been aware of this for so long. Kind of know what the what the plan is there. But at that same time, if there's something that drastically changes or they want to be able to adapt or change that kind of thing, that is something that we can handle through a change order during construction and be able to make those those improvements and those updates just because generally those are relatively low cost changes that we can make to tweak things here and there. >> Got it. And then my last question, we often we hear a lot from constituents on I guess like design details around the [2:19:16 PM] like design details around the corridors. I was going to say schematics, but sometimes I mispronounce it. But I said it right. I think and I just want to know if there's a way, if we could get those design details online. So the public could, could, could be viewing those. >> Yeah, those are actually up. And that's one of the major things we did. And one of the major things we public too, when we went out is like, where are your plans? What's what's going on? And so one of the big pushes on the website updates, consolidating those websites is making sure that there are plans that are shown on the web pages as well. >> So great. So they're already updated. >> Yeah, they're up there. Great. Yeah. And I've heard good response on those people. Appreciate seeing those. You know when we have something that's, you know, more of a schematic plan like the idiq stuff is it's really kind of high level, you know, colors on a page kind of thing. But for projects where we're going out to an invitation for bid, we've been including, you know, a couple of, you know, section pages that are up there that show the full details of what it's going to look like. And we're always open if folks have questions or there's something [2:20:16 PM] questions or there's something that they think should be on the plans, it's not, you know, we respond to those questions as well. >> Great. Thank you. >> Those are great questions. I'm going to circle back to something that council member Vella had touched on, which is, you know, the increase in cost due to drainage issues. You know, about ten years ago, our our flooding, we certainly had localized flooding. We certainly had creek flooding. But those issues have become more and more severe over the years. So I wanted to flag this as something I think would be a great conversation, as our next bond is developed, is to look at what types of flooding are happening and impacting certain neighborhoods. I know I think it's council member Vella had had some from a very specific street that were trying to, you know, bring to our attention that there were some localized flooding issues for them. And so I think this is a larger conversation, especially if it's impacting bonds that voters already approved, is how can we create a more comprehensive plan to fix those flooding issues that, you know, aren't necessarily just a road project? [2:21:17 PM] necessarily just a road project? They might actually be creek projects? And how do we kind of make sure we've got that creek drainage happening and other sorts of infrastructure? And so I guess that's less of a question and just more of I think that's a conversation that is good for the whole city to be having, regardless of how the flooding is happening. Just looking at how can we make sure that each district where they are seeing issues is, is addressed and is something that we can make sure we're delivering for those constituents is going to be a really high priority for me. And I also wanted to flag, I know that transportation staff had or cds staff had a, a community meeting with some of the folks in my district just last week about slaughter Laine improvements for in front of bowie high. And so I appreciate it. Seems like that conversation went well. I think there's a lot of questions, because there's been so many years between when it got approved and how the community involvement meetings have happened. I know that I went to one many years ago. I just can't find the information [2:22:18 PM] just can't find the information that I got from it, but it seems like the conversation is going well, and I want to make sure that, you know, the those parents didn't have students at bowie high when this bond was developed. And so now they're experiencing in real time the realities of their kids having to cross slaughter Laine, which is going to be six lanes now to go to the sports fields. And so I want to make sure that that folks that are impacted by these projects have as much information as possible, and my team has either already asked or will be asking soon about some of those schematics and trying to make sure that all the information that we can possibly share with them about these crossings and about, you know, how big is the sidewalk? Is there a shared use path? You know, how how do those pedestrian crossings work is going to be important? Because most of those folks weren't thinking about it in those years. You know, it's different now that their student is the one crossing the street. Right? So I just want to flag that updated information is good. I think as these projects get to this kind of eight year Marc to [2:23:20 PM] this kind of eight year Marc to make sure that folks have the information that's been shared, or at least have realistic expectations of what's going to be there, and they know who to ask questions of. So I appreciate the teams being responsive. I know there's been you know, back then transportation public works were separate. We had a different delivery service model. And so there may just be a little bit of learning to kind of make sure that everybody knows kind of who to ask questions of and what information is being shared. But a lot of the folks at the highest level of doing this are still here. You've been here a long time, like our directors and assistant directors are many of the same people. Just trying to make sure that the folks who are asking questions, we know how to get them the information that they need. >> I would for sure refer folks to those websites. We've spent a lot of time retooling those and making sure that they have information that's that's relevant and applicable to people that are asking questions. And like I said, there's contact names and information, email addresses on there and stuff like that that we monitor on a regular basis. So if there's a piece of information that isn't on the website that someone wants to [2:24:21 PM] website that someone wants to see, we're happy to share that and send it out. We don't want to, you know, attach 400 page plan sets to the website either. So, you know. >> That's I know I used to have a browser that would crash every time I tried to open some of those big schematics. So I understand they don't always work well on big websites, but appreciate staff's flexibility in trying to get that information to folks. Are there any more questions on this topic before we move on? I think that's it. Thank you. Thank you. All right. Item number five is the report by transportation public works department on ongoing mobility programs and projects in the central Texas region, including construction and service updates. This was formerly known as the acms mobility report, but it's where we share all the good news that staff's been working on that doesn't necessarily get airtime for briefings and memos, but it's still great work happening. Welcome, director. >> Thank you, chair and committee members Richard Mendoza, director of transportation, public works. So at the back of your agenda packet today, you've got our January city of Austin mobility report. I'm not going to read [2:25:22 PM] report. I'm not going to read through it verbatim, but the highlights include an update of a recently completed project that was partnered. We partnered with capmetro on along Trinity and San Jacinto. We effectively were able to put in the dedicated bus lanes that will support the project connect bus rapid transit expo line, which will be coming to our city this spring. So that's exciting news. A great deal of collaboration and coordination went into this, not just between capmetro and the city, but also with the state, as many state facilities abut that roadway. So we're excited about that. As a side benefit, we were also able to affect some improved safety improvements, both at the crosswalks and for our bicycle network. On the next page, you have an update of one of our vision zero initiatives to increase street lighting throughout the city so that work is starting in earnest. And the [2:26:24 PM] is starting in earnest. And the month of January. And there's 14 locations that we have planned, and that will be about an eight month project. Data shows that nighttime acts, not accidents, but collisions frequently. Lack of lighting is one of the factors in that a couple of pages later, there's another vision zero initiative that we provided. Update. Just as a reminder, we do have a program that will allow folks that elect to get home safely after a night of entertainment. And if they take an Uber or an alternate transportation home and leave their city vehicle or not their city vehicle, but their vehicle in a city space overnight and it's ticketed, all they have to do is produce a copy of that ticket and a receipt of that ride share, and we will dismiss that ticket. So we're promoting, you know, safe driving practices. So two vision zero [2:27:26 PM] practices. So two vision zero initiatives. Also in the last couple of months, we've been working really closely with our friends at Austin high and Austin ISD to reevaluate parking spaces around Austin high. Austin high is having increasing parking needs for both their students as well as teachers, so a great partnership there. And then finally, a report from capmetro. The updated and had board approval of some service level changes. These changes are in anticipation of the upcoming expo and pleasant valley bus rapid transit lines, and those were also approved by the project connect voters in that referendum. So happy to report on that. And then finally, a couple of updates from our partners here at capital delivery services. We're making progress on the airport boulevard construction as well as slaughter Laine c-2 segment. [2:28:26 PM] as slaughter Laine c-2 segment. You can read all the good news about those projects coming to fruition there. So thank you. >> That's fantastic. I always like to highlight sharing the good news. You know, we try to save time for the more detailed briefings. But we know there's a lot of work going on behind the scenes to help make our our roads and our community safer and stronger. I will flag quickly because you mentioned capmetro. I know they're doing some work right now and doing public hearings on fare collection system and how some of those work. So if you're interested in that conversation, follow the capmetro meetings, of which council member vela and I both serve on. And we may be having a third mobility committee member joining us as well, hopefully in the near future yet to be determined. But those conversations are happening with capmetro and in real time. So if you're curious about that those details, then check out the capmetro board page. Council member vela. >> And I just wanted to give the. I should have mentioned it when Mr. Bailey was here, but the airport boulevard [2:29:27 PM] the airport boulevard improvements are looking great. People are very excited about it. They see them, you know, just kind of sneaking down airport. And when they do eventually extend the length of it, that's going to be a really important travel corridor. And I know folks in, I think district four and all the other districts that it touches are very happy to see those. >> Fantastic. Well, if I'm not mistaken, are you good? Do you have any questions? All right. Council member Laine is okay. The next item is a list of identifying future items. Generally what we think February is going to hold for us is updates on federal mobility grants, outlook, project connect update and briefing on mobility project planning and how that process takes place. March may hold core transportation plan briefing, climate pollution reduction, and we'll see if it's a timely moment for us to talk about I-35 again. And so just wanted folks to know that those conversations are Teed up for [2:30:28 PM] conversations are Teed up for the next couple of months. And then we have a whole laundry list of other great things. So if you want to add anything new, now is the time to do it. And we also can share the list with committee members. So you all know if we've got your item on the list, I see vice chair qadri has his hand up, and then council member harper-madison. >> Yeah. Could I add something? Yeah, it's something that a lot of people hate, something that some people like. Oh, the sixth street pilot. So just to get an evaluation of that, if we could have it on the February meeting, I think that'd be great. Right before south by hits us in March. >> All right. Sixth street pilot program and then council member harper-madison. >> Yes. So we were visited the other day by a developer who's working on a project in, in district one, and the project is virtually carless. They have a fleet of two shared vehicles. And so I just want to have them [2:31:28 PM] And so I just want to have them come in and talk about their model and how they were able to use some of our density bonuses for the ability to be able to work on this virtually carless multifamily value. And so that was one. And then the other one is and I don't know that this necessarily needs to be an item for future consideration, but I'm getting a lot of calls from folks, most especially out in like colony park area about street repairs. They feel like they are either subpar or incomplete and just want more information about the chronology of the street repairs and sort of best practices and when they'll be complete. >> We can certainly add that to the list. You know, if these are, you know, maintenance projects that are just the full length of the street or are they [2:32:28 PM] length of the street or are they things like water utility cuts that may have a bumpy temporary repair until the, you know, is it like cut into the street repairs or is it just full length maintenance and repair? >> I got the impression that we're talking about cut into the street repairs and patches. >> Yeah, yeah, I definitely see those. And I know, especially if they're temporary, they're really unsightly and very bumpy, especially as someone who has a smaller vehicle. I feel those, but I think that would be really great and timely to have an update on kind of what that process is and, and how to have that conversation. I see our new acm Rogers is here to address us. Would you like to add anything? >> Yes, madam chair, if there's specific areas that Michael Rogers, assistant city manager, if there's specific areas or specific product projects that are out there that you have questions on, please let me know and we can investigate that immediately. We don't have to wait until the next meeting. However, you know, giving a [2:33:29 PM] However, you know, giving a briefing on all of this is perfect, but we just don't want to wait until next month, especially if there's a potential problem. Just wanted to. >> Acm Rogers I'll make sure to get you a list and send that over to you. >> Thank you so much. >> That is perfect. And I know we spoke earlier today about, you know, having some sort of regular cadence just so we don't have to pepper him with questions. I can make a list and then say, okay, here's three things to look at. Here's four things to look at so we can figure out what that looks like. But welcome. >> Thank you. Thank you, madam chair. >> All right. Any other future items. It does not appear there are any. I will say we are. Stand adjourned at 2:34 P.M. Thank you, everyone, and welcome back.