Mobility Committee (MOBC) Meeting Transcript – 9/18/2025 Title: ATXN-1 (24hr) Channel: 1 - ATXN-1 Recorded On: 9/18/2025 6:00:00AM Original Air Date: 9/18/2025 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. [1:06:05 PM] For our mobility committee. So on that note. Oh, hi. Hey. There we go. Oh, on that note, it seems like we are live now. It is 1:06 P.M. I am the chair of the mobility committee. Paige Ellis. I am joined remotely by the vice chair, zo qadri, who will be on and off camera because he has a very tiny human at home and is trying to make sure he's a great father during these early days. And I'm joined with everybody else here on the dais on the mobility committee. So it is 1:06 P.M. We are meeting here in city council chambers, and I believe we have a couple of speakers to kick us off today. >> Yes. If we can have Ryan Saunders. >> It does not appear Ryan is here today. >> Up next, we'll have Hayden black walker. >> Welcome. >> Thank you very much. I'm Hayden black walker. I just [1:07:07 PM] Hayden black walker. I just wanted to make sure I know I've harassed you all by email, but I wanted to be here in person to to remind that the first week of October is week without driving. Council member Ellis and her office have been working on putting together a press conference, and we have more than I think. We have 23 organizations now across the city that are partnering in this effort. It's really just an education campaign across the United States and all 50 states to build empathy, to recognize that 30% of our population doesn't drive for whatever reason. It might be a medical reason, it might be age related. Children obviously don't drive and that we can build a transportation system that better serves everybody with lots of choices. So the goal is to try. I'm going to try not to drive a single occupancy vehicle. You can get a ride, you can walk, you can bike, you can get on your scooter, you whatever, whatever works for you. And if you do [1:08:09 PM] works for you. And if you do drive, the goal is just to ask folks to think about like what they would have done if they couldn't. Because there are a lot of people in our community who don't have the choice to just jump in their car like I did today when I was running late. So anyway, it starts September 29th and wraps up October 5th. So we hope we see you out there riding busses and bikes and all sorts of fun things. Thanks very much. >> It's great. Thank you. >> That's everybody. >> All right. >> So I'm just going to scoot over on. There we go. All right. >> That brings us to item number one, which is approval of the minutes for the mobility committees meeting on July 17th, 2025. Do I have a motion made by council member harper-madison, seconded by vice chair qadri. All in favor of approving the minutes. Raise your hand. That is unanimous [1:09:09 PM] your hand. That is unanimous for all in attendance. The next item we have was listed for briefing from the urban transportation commission regarding their actions from the August and September meetings. I believe they don't need to join us today, because they didn't have a lot of actions that needed to be presented to us. Some of them were more administrative, so if there's no objection, we will move through that and move O to the next item. Which will be item number three. Updates regarding trees on city streets. And I believe we have Michelle Marx joining us. Welcome. >> Hello, mobility commission members. Thank you for having me today, Michelle Marx, transportation officer with transportation public works. I'm here today to provide you [1:10:09 PM] I'm here today to provide you an update on an approximately nine month process that transportation has been facilitating with the technical advisory review panel, the tarp, to address one of the. Let me go ahead and progress to the next slide. One of the resolutions passed by council back in 2024. Thank you. And that was 2024. Back in March 21st, council passed a resolution asking the city manager to develop and explore, rather explore a right of way design and management plan, working with the tarp to identify the barriers to the installation and maintenance of green infrastructure in Austin, rights of wa, and to develop some recommendations for how we might address those barriers in [1:11:10 PM] might address those barriers in a kind of interdepartmental fashion. And and so, you know, I don't think it's too much to to kind of back up and talk about the benefits of street trees in particular, many of these which were articulated in the council resolution back in 2024. And, you know, trees really are vital public infrastructure when it comes to heat mitigation, when it comes to climate resilience, also, when it comes to to transportation safety and, you know, creating an active and attractive active transportation network, places where people can walk and bike comfortably in our 100 plus degree heat. So in recognition of kind of the essential nature of of trees and street trees as public infrastructure in our cities, and increasingly so [1:12:11 PM] cities, and increasingly so given the kind of changes we're seeing in our increasingly hot and arid climate. Transportation worked with the tarp to take a look at what are the barriers to green infrastructure in our rights of way, and what are some kind of recommended processes and kind of critical S for for developing a work plan to start to address them. So accordingly, we in transportation worked with the tarp and specifically with kind of a working group of tarp members that included representatives from across all of our departments that are potentially impacted by regulations and street trees in the right of way, which are, frankly, all of them. And so we did have kind of broad interdepartmental representation on this [1:13:11 PM] representation on this workgroup. The green infrastructure working group also included representatives from the design and development profession, as well folks with experience trying to navigate our city's regulations and requirements and processes around street trees as part of private development. So a wide array of kind of experience and expertise on this tarp working group. Now, the recommendations that the the tarp working group developed are intended to be directed toward city leadership and departmenteadership. These are recommendations for what this working group sees as kind of the critical components that need to be part of an interdepartmental work plan to start to address some of the barriers we see to street trees in Austin. I will say th we have started to share these tarp recommendations with department leadership and and [1:14:12 PM] department leadership and and their staff, and thehat review is ongoing. I'll speak a little bit more toward this at the end of my slide deck here, but we will be developing a memo to mayor and council by the end of October, providing a consolidated staff response to these recommendations and some reflection on how, again, at an interdepartmental level, we might fold some of these recommendations into our work plans. A little bit about the the process that this tarp working group went through over that nine month period. And again, this is in direct response to the language in the resolution that council issued. They started by collectively, you know, taking a broad look at what the barriers to street trees are in our city. And those barriers are are not just regulatory. A lot of them are a [1:15:14 PM] regulatory. A lot of them are a lot of our barriers areyou know, the various provisions in, in code and within our administrative design criteria manuals. But the tarp group also identified permitting related barriers and process related barriers that are precluding the provision of street trees as well as, you know, what what we've categorized as more programmatic level barriers that might be related to just broader institutional challenges or challenges related to the way we resource ourselves, for example. So collectively, they identified in a technical memo a very robust list of regulatory, permitting and programmaticbarriers to street trees. Then they stepped back and with assistance from our consultant team, did some pretty robust peer city and precedent research. We wanted to get a really good sense of how other cities comparable to ours have [1:16:14 PM] cities comparable to ours have addressed the types of barriers that we're confronting. We recognize that we are not the first city to try and figure out how to fit street trees into our right of way while protecting our, you kw,w, hard, so to speak, infrastructure as well. So how have other cities accomplished ts, and is there anything to learn? And then finally consolidating kind of those those first two steps, the working group did put together a document that, as I mentioned, is being reviewed by department leadership. Now with 12 very solid, very actionable recommendations to address Austin's barriers to street trees. And those are grouped according to regulatory foundations recommendations for how to address our regulatory barriers, recommendations for process improvements, recommendations for just [1:17:15 PM] recommendations for just operationally, how we think about maintaining trees in the right of way, and then thinking about how we provide and plan for our capital projects in the city. The working group also gave some thought to of these 12. Recommended actions. How should we start to think about phasing these as we develop work plans? And the thinking here from the group is that we really should be focusing our efforts first on the regulatory barriers within our various criteria manuals, our administrative regulations, as well as taking a look at our code provisions. And then once that foundation is in place, and then taking a hard look at recommendations for process and permitting improvements, as well as kind of operational recommendations for how we maintain trees in the right of [1:18:17 PM] maintain trees in the right of way. And then building on that. Asas you can see, it's a bit of a waterfall. Having those systems in place. The thinking is, will then be in a good position to start to more regularly integrate street trees into our own capital planning and projects. So I'm going to very briefly walk you through the 12 recommendations that the working group developed. Again, this is an abbreviated overview. The document that the tarp developed that staff is reviewing now is is much more robust. Certainly there are a lot of kind of contextual considerations and a lot of specificity behind each of these 12 recommendations. But I'll kind of give the 30,000 foot view just to kind of provide an overview of the structure of the tarps thinking here. And first is this tranche of recommended actions related [1:19:17 PM] of recommended actions related to our regulatory foundations. The first recommendation is to take a hard look at the transportation criteria manual and real make it very clear that the TCM moving forward really needs to very strongly develop design requirements and guidance for the provision of street trees as part of the sidewalk corridor. Right now, it can be very confusing trying to figure out, you know, what are the regulatory requirements. If I want to put trees in the right of way with my development and right now, frankly, the requirements are somewhat scattered, there are some street TRE related provisions, yes, in the TCM, but also there are some provisions that you have to unearth in the environmental criteria manual. Some provisions in the utility [1:20:19 PM] provisions in the utility criteria manuals. It's it's a little bit of a constellation that right now folks have to kind of map out for their own by taking a holistic approach with the TCM and and clarifying how street trees need to be provided as part of the sidewalk corridor. And not only that, how all of these various right of way elements really need to work together cohesively is going to vastly simplifyor applicants and project designers on the capital side as well. Clarify how street trees fit within the sidewalk, how they fit within the entire right of way, and how the elements of the right of way in all of our manuals come together. How do street trees need to relate to utility clearance? For example, both below grade and above grade? How, you know, given common constraints that we see over [1:21:19 PM] constraints that we see over and over with like limited right of way. For example, how do you create kind of a standardized approach to addressing those constraints that takes into consideration the whole allocation of space within the right of way? So clarifying and really kind of repositioning the TCM to be more of a holistic right of way design guidance just made a lot of ssese to the group associated that with that is recommendation number two here. And this would happen need to happen in tandem. And that's updating our standards specifications to provide more clarity for when I'm planting a street TRE. How big does that need to be? How much soil volume do I need to provide? What are the standard details for how we provide street trees in the sidewalk corridor? What are our pre-approved product lists for irrigation materials or structural soil cells, for Exe? We don't have that [1:22:21 PM] Exe? We don't have that kind of clarity right now. Also in tandem to this work is the tarp's number three recommendation here. And that's doing a deep dive into the utility criteria manual with our partners at the utility departments to take a look at where there might be opportunities for kind of more space efficient practices, particularly when it comes to underground infrastructure. The tarp is very cognizant and hyper aware of our need to protect our utility infrastructure both below, above and at street level, but also the working group felt like there are opportunities out there to, to work interdepartmentally to, to maybe get more space efficient with our, particularly with our clearance requirements when it comes to wet infrastructure for street trees. One example of [1:23:21 PM] street trees. One example of this that comes to mind is if we are creating more robust standards for how street trees are planted in the sidewalk corridor that Ude things like root barriers or soil cells, for emple, that really contain those TRE roots looking R war? Does that present an opportunity to tighten up some of our clearance requirements for underground water infrastructure? This is one example. I think the tarp is also very cognizant of of not wanting to suggest anything that's technically infeasible to our utility partners or potentially risky. But again, the recommendation is to develop a work plan to work together to look for those opportunity areas. Recommendation four is to work with our urban forester to update our approved street TRE list. And that's really to make sure that the street TRE list is definitely adapted to, to be provide kind of climate [1:24:25 PM] provide kind of climate resilience and kind of calibrated to our hotter and drier conditions, but also to make sure that we're providing contextual guidance that allows project owners and applicants to put the right TRE in the right place. So for constrained locations, for example, where we do have a lot of infrastructure, there are certainly going to be right and wrong species. Another example where we might have, you know, limited planting space or soil volumes, there are going to be species that can and cannot thrive in those conditions. So can our street TRE list be more nuanced to context? And then finally, the the tarp is is proposing that, you know, after this kind of consolidated approach to refining our administrative criteria manuals, [1:25:26 PM] administrative criteria manuals, it's also worth keeping our the option on the table to consider whether or not there's appetite to update city code to more clearly require street trees as part of those sidewalk and frontage improvements, both for private development and capital projects. We do think that many of the regulatory barriers can can really be addressed in these kind of administrative manual cleanup recommendations. So really recommendation number five here is sething that could be considered at a later date. There are certainly pros and cons as we think about this recommendation, but wanted to kind of leave that on the table. All right. Moving on. The next tranche of recommendations are really thinking about how can we streamline our processes to [1:26:29 PM] we streamline our processes to remove those process and permitting related barriers to to street trees. And the first is to work with our colleagues at dsd to take a look at our development review kind of workflows and timelines, and make sure that there is kind of an interdepartmental process at early stage during the development review process to collaboratively identify what the required right of way improvements need to be, and a collaborative, inter-departmental approach is important here, because nine times out of ten, you're going to be dealing with nonstandard situations where constraints have to be addressed and there needs to be an established inter-departmental resolution process with kind of clear decision making and escalation pathways to clarify to the applicant how to resolve those [1:27:29 PM] applicant how to resolve those right of way conflicts and to provide that clarity for right of way improvements. And then once these kind of regulatory and process improvements are in place, again, working with our dsd partners to really provide some very broad education to applicants and then also internally to our own staff, clarifying the new kind of rules and regulations and processes to ensure that street trees are indeed provided in conjunction with frontage and sidewalk improvements. And I actually want to pause here. I realized I missed kind of an important talking point earlier he presentation. And and that is why in the green infrastructure initiative, so much of the focus has been on street trees. More narrowly green infrastructure can can be a very broad term. You know, things like landscaping in the [1:28:30 PM] things like landscaping in the right of way or even stormwater Swales in the right of way. But in discussions with the tarp, it was kind of acknowledged early on that street trees is where the bang for the buck is when we're talking about impacting heat island, when we're talking about carbon absorption, when we're talking about creating a safer, more shaded environment for biking and walking and taking the bus, it's really street trees that are the low hanging fit that give us the most bang for the buck there. And frankly, that's been, you know, a challenge for us at the city for so many years and focusing our efforts on that kind of low lying fruit and, and clearing up those hurdles would be such a huge, huge win for the city when it comes to things like bioretention or stormwater Swales, that is also certainly also another type of green infrastructure, but one that's much more kind of technically [1:29:31 PM] much more kind of technically bound and a little bit more complicated when it come to determining size and location and suitability, and when we would have to work on really closely in a more technically directed way with our partners at stormwater. But I think the tarp's thinking is there's so much to do here, so many actions to recommend just with street TRE provision alone. So that is where their focus is here. They did intentionally decide to, you know, use the terminology green infrastructure when talking about street trees though, because the messaging from the tarp really is that we as a city need to be thinking about trees and the right of way as critical infrastructure, as a component of the right of way that we need to reconcile with other infrastructure, as other cities have done before us. So forgive me that back up there. I'll go. I'll keep moving forward. Looking at the next [1:30:32 PM] forward. Looking at the next group of recommendations, which are to look at our kind of systems for how we maintain trees in the right of way. Currently, when a development proposes including street trees in the project, we require a license agreement for that TRE. And that kind of triggers a one off kind of case by case review of each and every street TRE, which can be, as you might expect, very onerous. It's almost like a second site plan review. And, and and it's a huge barrier. We heard this over and over again that our city's license agreement requirement for street trees is a huge, huge barrier and applicants would rather just not go there at all. So the recommendation is that we, moving forward, eliminate our practice of requiring private [1:31:34 PM] practice of requiring private license agreement for street trees. Which begs the question then how will we address maintenance? And there are a few options there. In other many other cities there are there's a universal code provision, for example, that just stipulates that adjacent private property owners are responsible for maintaining street trees along their property frontage. It's stated once universally in code, and you do away with the need to review every street TRE individually as a case by case basis. But the recommendation, I think, is slightly more. Visionary. Their thinking is they would like to recommend that we explore options for city led maintenance of trees and the right of way. And the thinking there is, you know, that really gives us the surety we need on the public side to make sure that those trees are maintained properly with with mandated private maintenance. [1:32:35 PM] mandated private maintenance. It's very difficult to to make sure that trees are maintained on regular schedules so that when, you know, storms are hit our city, we're not in a more precarious situation than we need to be. It can be very difficult to make sure that trees are kept healthy, putting those in the city's asset class allows us to develop kind of a proactive, time based approach to pruning, maintaining and making sure those trees are in good condition to weather whatever storm, both literal and figurative, is coming our way. Of course, this is would be, you know, a big new program with, you know, potential need to identify potential funding sources to set up that new program, I know acm Rogers has had some experience working [1:33:37 PM] had some experience working with community members in some of his prior cities of employment, where they've had some successes working with community to address maintenance of vegetation in the right of way. Perhaps you wanted to say a couple of words. >> Thank you so much. And and thank you, madam chair and council members, especially when we're talking about city led maintenance of of any type of vegetation. I think we have to be very creative. And some of the programs that that I've dealt with and worked on are dealing with public private partnerships, working with non-profits as well, and looking at vegetation management in in the city of Peoria, where I used to work, we had issues with our vegetation management and high weeds, and we worked with nonprofit organizations and [1:34:38 PM] nonprofit organizations and young people within our community to set up programs, workforce type of programs that taught the young people how to run a business, that taught them how to deal with the maintenance infrastructure or the vegetation management and and programs like that had so many benefits beyond just the costs where the young people actually learned a great trade and they they ended up in Peoria taking over contracts that we were bidding out for right of way maintenance. They became so successful doing that. So when looking at this item number nine, I think it if this is something that that then starts to become an item for city led maintenance, we have to get as creative as possible. And I think there can be some programs that we can come up with that can be win win wins for our community as an overall situation. [1:35:38 PM] situation. >> Thank you for that. And then, of course, if we're going to start to, you know, take on a new asset class and develop these kin strategic, proactive maintenance approaches. Number ten, we really need to conduct a thorough inventory of what we have out there now in the right of way and start to kind of identify not just gaps in our street TRE network, but also condition data so that we can start to program those maintenance needs. And then finally, this last kind of group of recommendations, number 11, with, you know, all of those in place, the thinking is we would then be in a good position to start to think about developing a green infrastructure investment plan, knowing where the gaps and the needs are, developing kind of a programmatic approach to [1:36:38 PM] programmatic approach to establish priorities for street trees, funding sources, programmatic targets, for example. And and this would need to be in close coordination with kind of the cip needs of our sister departments, looking at where we can leverage our resources with each other. If a if a street is getting torn up to kind of renew or expand suranean infrastructure, that's a great opportunity, for example, to put that infrastructure in the right place and allow for street trees. And then number 12 finally, is is to incorpo street trees regularly into our baseline scopes and budgets for capital projects. This is, you know, something that we all aspire to. There are potential resource implications to to definitely be aware of though. [1:37:38 PM] definitely be aware of though. However, you know, to the extent that projects need to reign infrastructure or purchase right of way to make street trees viable, for example, that can have a significant, you know, budget impact to capital projects and limit, you know, the extent of what we're able to deliver. So there are trade offs here to be cognizant of. But we you know, the tar very much wants to, you know, get to a place where our capital projects are, you know, that's just part of our baseline scope when we're building sidewalks, for example, is is including trees as part of that, of that sidewalk. Scope of work. So those are the the 12 recommendations from the working group. I other than briefing you all today on this work, we do have these various commission briefings scheduled for the next month or so. And this will all be happening. As I mentioned, while department [1:38:39 PM] I mentioned, while department leadership are reviewing in detail these recommendations. And while we're kind of working, as I mentioned collaboratively on this memo to mayor and council to be issued at the end of October to provide some clarity regarding how we can start to reflect some of these recommendations in our work plans. So I'll leave it at that. Happy to answer questions. >> Thank you. I really appreciate that information. I know there's been a lot of conversation and detail going into this, and especially the regulatory piece of this is really important to me. I know when we did site plan light, there was a lot of collaboration that was able to come forward with watershed protection, looking at those impacts. But the the real conversation around utilities impacts is very much, I think, the ringleader of conversation. There is a lot of folks that I've heard from that want to plant the street trees and are ready to fund the [1:39:40 PM] and are ready to fund the street trees, and it's the permitting process that really hinders that ability. And even if there's some other ability to do a fee in lieu, it still doesn't mean that TRE is going to show up on that block. And the truth is, if we want people to be utilizing our sidewalks and shared use pathways and not doing the the drive alone thing, that we're going to have to make sure the regulatory framework is there and that it's more cost effective, smoother, faster for the folks that are there with a TRE, with a contractor ready to go as soon as their development is approved. And so I appreciate the the detailed conversations that you're having with everybody. I have one brief question. Is there any discussion around the idea of median trees? I'm curious about especially really wide roads that are seeing redevelopment. How do we kind of bring them into a better streetscape than what we're currently seeing, and are there any considerations that you all are aware of, or is this a conversation we can have, you know, over the next couple of weeks or months to look at [1:40:41 PM] weeks or months to look at opportunities for trees actually in the median to help slow down traffic and make safer crossings for pedestrians. >> And in that detail, tarp report, they do clarify that as part of those TCM updates, that we also want to take a look at more broadly, vegetation in the right of way, including medians, including pedestrian islands, for example. So yes, street trees in the median would definitely be on the table as part of that process. >> That's great. I know this conversation is around trees in particular, but I'm also curious about other plants, like pollinators that are lower profile. Those might be easier to be more flexible as as the city grows. And so are you looking at other plants that are not necessarily trees as far as being able to create community benefit, but still be a little more flexible if we need to change sidewalks or anything like that? [1:41:42 PM] anything like that? >> Yeah. >> I think we would definitely want to look at vegetation in the right of way more broadly as part of that TCM update. When it comes to like ground level landscaping and other plants, there's definitely a maintenance question we have to answer there and solve for. I know our urban forestry teams are not kind of equipped from a staff or resource perspective to, you know, maintain plants in the right of way that aren't trees. But I think there's definitely opportunity to encourage that with private property owner maintenance. And that's what's happening today, where do see vegetation in the right of way, ground level landscaping. Those property owners are maintaining that. So there I think, is opportunity to kind of clarify that process, those requirements and those maintenance obligations. >> And if I could and there's also other opportunities with adopt a programs that I've seen [1:42:43 PM] adopt a programs that I've seen a lot of these programs being very successful, especially for management of plants and, and other type of vegetation within those right of ways. And that's why I said when when it comes to the maintenance, I think we have to be very creative and come up with multiple ways to be able to manage these types of programs. But I feel in our community we could have some very good adaptive programs as well. >> I agree, I think this is definitely a a regionality that cares a lot about rolling up their sleeves and doing the good work because they believe in it and it makes their community better. I'm reminded of when I was able to go on the chamber of commerce trip, and I was able to go on one of the walk shops that they do, and it was about trees in the right of way, and it was very eye opening to see that not only do they have a full inventory of every TRE in Washington, D.C. It's 2.2 million trees, if I remember correctly, but the folks that have those street [1:43:43 PM] folks that have those street trees in front of their doorstep are the ones that tend to care for it. They tend to want to see it thrive. They're willing to buy mulch. You know, these are very small pad sites that these trees go into. And I'm very interested in the conversation around how do we do something like that here? I also appreciate the the call out to the fact that the same species of trees are not going to work in all parts of town. You know, we a lot of folks that follow environmental work know that whether you're west or east of the balcones escarpment, you're going to have very different species of trees that thrive there. I want to make sure we're looking at all parts of town, not just our beautiful oak trees and our heritage oaks, but some of the other trees that may not live hundreds and hundreds of years, but still provide great shade for the neighbors that are living in those localities right now. And so I'm curious to see us be able to move forward through that a little more. And the last question I'll have before I turn it over to my colleagues is on the regulatory framework. I know there's been some policies we [1:44:43 PM] there's been some policies we brought forward where we had to ask, as the reports come out, do we need to follow up with council direction, or is it something that staff feels they have the blessing to go ahead and move forward with those conversations on an agenda, without us having to bring it? I've seen different methods that people prefer to use, and so do we know at this point if we'll need to continue to carry that forward from a council direction, or if staff will move forward with the bits and pieces that they need. >> Our interpretation. >> Is that we don't require council direction at this time to go ahead and develop a work plan to update those administrative manuals. So that would be the first tranche of work and neither do we, you know, need to seek an action from you to update our processes. You know, certainly if we do move forward and there is recommendation to consider code amendments, we would need to come to you, of course. But I think we're poised to go [1:45:43 PM] I think we're poised to go ahead and start developing that criteria. Manual update work plan. >> Okay. Sounds good. >> Questions from council member Laine. >> Thank you so much. I'm so excited to see this come forward. I know it's be a really I completely agree that this aspect of the development process has been really challenging. So love to see the presentation. I have a few questions. Have you given thought to testing some the recommendations through pilot projects before full wide, city wide implementation? And if so, can you tell me more about that? >> Yeah, we have considered that. And again, that's another detail in the kind of more protracted document looking at ongoing kind of in progress capital projects as opportunities to test out some of these concepts, things like, you know, the congress avenue work happening are one example [1:46:44 PM] work happening are one example that's been discussed. The upcoming, you know, the the per we're currently developing for sixth street would be another opportunity. So yes, we I think we can do some proof of concept exploration. >> So and I bring this thank you. And I bring this up for a couple of different reasons. One of them has to do with what council member Ellis just referred to is the very different growing conditions in different parts of our city. But another aspect of it is that there are some parts of our city that have significant, as far as I know, have significantly greater obstacles to implementing trees and others where there are fewer obstacles, and there is an extreme shortage of trees as well. So it could be less costly, more impactful. In terms of how quickly we're able to add trees to our canopy, which is such an important part of the political dynamics in our city. So have you has there been any consideration of parts [1:47:45 PM] been any consideration of parts of the city where there is are fewer obstacles and strong need at this point or not yet? >> Yeah. I appreciate your acknowledgment of oft paradox. That is definitely something we would have to wrestle with. You know, when we get to the point of developing our kind of programmatic infill capital plan. You're absolutely right. All of those factors would have to be be weighed at that point. That's as much as we've thought about it so far. >> Okay, I'll throw out one more little piece about that is, you know, the value of having trees of different ages in the city. And so if, if, if we do identify some of these geographic areas that are really primed to have a big impact, it also can help us have those, those younger trees come in, you know, in stages. That's helpful as well. So let's see as far as the one of my favorite topics, okay. Because of where I represent, I appreciated the list of partners that you were working with on this. And I, I would ask if there has been [1:48:47 PM] ask if there has been consideration to the stage at which other utility partners, such as peck, might be integrated into this plan. They're not quite 50% of my district, but it's a pretty significant part of the district. And I'm sure there are other situations that are similar. >> Yeah, you're absolutely right. And so far, this work has really just been kind of internal workshopping. When we get to the point of putting our work plan together to do the administrative and regulatory work, we're going to need a broader kind of public process for that with more stakeholders. So, yes, we would need to fold in those additional stakeholders at that point for sure. >> Okay. I like to learn a little bit more about the permitting and process improvements, and also how some these changes might impact [1:49:49 PM] these changes might impact that flow if it will impact the time to get through the process, the staffing needs kind of. And how how are we working towards improving in that area? I know it's a big category, so. >> Good afternoon. My name is Curtis beatty. I work with transportation. I'm in the division that oversees the development review process for our department. One thing we're trying to do is not impede the improvements that have been made to date. Over the past 2 to 4 years. We are looking at having conversations with developments earlier so that we talk holistically about the right of way. And so when we not only have the requirements for street trees, but we'll say, here's how we can help you do that, meaninordination with both utilities, other requirements behind the street requirements if they have unique site conditions. So [1:50:50 PM] unique site conditions. So we're wanting to have those conversations as early as possible with the developer, bring them in and have those conversations. This would not we have had conversations with olc to see if this is a that is an appropriate target to have these communications, and they are revamping their process right now, and it's going to be more of a coordination of utilities only. And we didn't want to overlap and expand the scope of that group. So we're looking at how to do this early. As soon as the application gets in, we're talking to them about the right of way in general which would include street trees. Depending on what gets put in the code, we will have a waiver process that will be very similar to driveway waivers, sidewalk waivers that we have. That's pretty much administrative. It doesn't add any time to the process. It's just a matter of some paperwork that has to be done. And we are right now in the process trying to reduce the overall review [1:51:51 PM] to reduce the overall review process. We're averaging about six cycles per site. We're trying to get that down to four. So we don't see any impact to the overall time. Just by having the requirement for street trees and the review of that responsibility. >> Thank you. I also appreciate it. Acm Rogers comments and having already experienced the proof of concept of working with some non-profits and other groups on some of that work, and I'm really excited to see this come forward, I'm sure it will be met with great excitement from the community as we start to see more shade. So thank you! >> They say the best time to plant a TRE was 20 years ago, right? But the next best time is right now. Council member vela did you have a question? >> I love that thing. That's a great thing. The first of all, this is great. There are, and we've had a number of converons with folks that have pointed out to us in great detail the the regulatory and kind of other barriers. And again, I honestly, I think a [1:52:51 PM] again, I honestly, I think a lot of people, it's one of those things they don't even go through this process, you know what I mean? They're just like, you know what, we're just going to plant the TRE. And and that may be the right thing to do. In a lot of these cases. I'm thinking about more kind of single family homes that technically, I think you were supposed to get a license agreement, even if you're a single family homeowner that wants to plant a TRE in the city's right of way. Technically, you're supposed to apply for a license agreement and pay. I think the fee went up for the license agreement from like 2400 to about $5,000. If I'm. Is that is that. >> Yes, that is correct. We have had conversations with the legal department to talk about the license agreement process D what we can remove and not have license agreement requirements for street trees and irrigation for those trees. Yeah, that was a very fruitful conversation. We are also we had a conversation today. Typically we are issuing letters, transportation department issuing letters. [1:53:51 PM] department issuing letters. When people have placed trees in the right of way, asking them to remove or obtain a license agreement. And we're going to administratively change that. So a license agreement is not required. Just notify them that it is in the right of way. And if we need to remove it to maintain other infrastructure, it we will have that responsibility. >> And again I think many of the barriers that that you're laying out here in the recommendations are solid. And there's a lot of regulatory and licensing and cost barriers that we can think relatively easily eliminate. The utilities are another I think that's more of a a there are legitimate concerns about utilities. Where are how involved have Austin water and Austin energy been with the tarp and with kind of where we are with the recommendations? >> We've shared theserecommendations with leadership, Austin energy and Austin water. And as I mentioned, they're still kind of digging in. You [1:54:53 PM] still kind of digging in. You know, I, I think, you know, understandably, their concern is protecting their infrastructure. Of course, our message really has been that's our objective as well. But we do, I think, see opportunities. So for example, you know, I mentioned already if we are going to start requiring, you know, root barriers and soil cells to keep TRE roots contained, do we need nine feet of clearance between to the next, you know, water pipe, for example? Maybe not. If we can provide confirmation from the city arborist that a TRE can be removed to maintain water infrastructure that might be under the TRE, does that provide some kind of assurance [1:55:53 PM] provide some kind of assurance to our utility partners about changing our practices to allow that kind of stacking? So those are the types of opportunities we want to look for. And our messaging really has has been like, let's work collaboratively together. I think I'm very optimistic that, you know, when we sit down to kind of develop our work plan, that we're we're going to develop something positive here. So, yeah. >> And that's again, look forward to it. Look forward to the conversation. And and I just want to highlight that because again that that's when there are utilities present. Obviously that's a whole other level of concern. That said there's not always utilities present. You know. And so my my sense would be that there's a lot of low hanging fruit where there are no utility barriers or concerns that, you know, we can kind of immediately be like, you know what this whole street [1:56:55 PM] you know what this whole street is, you know, this whole side of the street or whatever the case may be. So I just wanted to just kind of comment on that, that, you know, to to the extent that this kind of has to be a phased approach where, you know, those places where there is a real tangle of utilities that that makes things very complicated, you know, we'll work through that. But, you know, where there's not I mean, let's, let's get some trees planted, you know, yesterday. Right. >> So 20 years ago. >> Right. That's right. >> I appreciate the conversation. I know that the utility conflicts are really kind of I think where the, for lack of a better term, like where the curb is, where it's like, hey, these these are real impacts. And it's not because council doesn't want us to be able to do these things. It's because those impacts to those utilities are also going to have infrastructure costs associated with them. And we know how much council does not want to unfairly increase costs for utility rates as we work through those conversations. But if there's any community [1:57:55 PM] But if there's any community that can get their heads together and make it work and find some creative solutions, it's Austin, Texas. All right, let's move on to the next item. If there's no more questions, I don't see any other hands up that is going to take us to. Item number four, which is an update on the safe routes to school program and planning. Welcome, miss Gentles. Good to see you. >> Hello. >> Good afternoon. >> My name is Colleen Gentles. I am the infrastructure project manager for the safe routes to school program within the community services division in the Austin transportation and public works department, and we are just providing an update [1:58:55 PM] are just providing an update today for the first time in about two years. This one, this big one. Thank you. Okay, so the mission of the safe routes to school program is to increase the number of students walking and biking to school by creating a safer, healthier, and more equitable environment that fosters human powered transportation. And the vision of our program is to engage with the community to create a safer, healthier, and more equitable environment that fosters human powered transportation. As the first choice for city of Austin students. Okay, so safe routes to school is really a four arms in one, you could say. So I'm going to touch on the three circles briefly and then we'll focus on infrastructure. So the crossing guard program was formed in 1991. It's composed of a manager, seven supervisors, 14 assistants and over 200 crossing guards within seven public school stricts in the city of Austin, full purpose [1:59:56 PM] city of Austin, full purpose jurisdiction. So that includes Austin, del valle, eanes, Leander, pflugerville, and Round Rock ISD. We also have guards at three charter schools as well harmony science academy on runberg, magnolia montessori on pecan brook, and then idea montopolis off of montopolis. So we service over 100 schools. We offer trainings for our for our crossing guards. In the fall and the spring. We have walking school busses. We're going to pilot a bike train this year, and we have a really robust team, and we're very proud of our crossing guards. The second circle I'll talk about is the education team that was created in 1992, that is composed of a manager and four staff. We go into the pe classes of the schools and do walking and biking safety training with two different types of programing programing, one for grades pre-k through [2:00:57 PM] one for grades pre-k through two D then another for grades three through third through fifth. We offer bike rodeos, safety patrol training, also lessons for daycare centers or adults as well. So last school year, 2024 to 2025, we serviced 990 different schools. 36,000 students were trained. We offered one bike rodeo and 16 community and school fairs. We participated in. The third circle is engagement that was created in 2012. The purpose of the engagement team is to motivate students to walk and bike to school. We of different campaigns throughout the school year, including park and walk boau which is bike on Wednesday, walk on Wednesday, the national walk to school day event in October, and the national bike to school day in the spring in may. And then lastly, we have the fourth arm of safe routes to school infrastructure, and that was created in 2016. And that's the part that we'll focus on mostly today in the presentation. Okay, so the infrastructure program [2:01:58 PM] so the infrastructure program was born out of the 2016 mobility bond. In 2016, safe routes to school received $27.5 million, divided equally among the ten city council districts, to allow the city to address safe routes to school. The safe routes to school program is a partnership with local school districts to address safety concerns of routes to school, and encourage children and families to bike or walk to school. Improvements may include infrastructure options that create a safer environment such as sidewalks, traffic calming devices, protected bicycle facilities and urban tr. And then in 2020, we received an additional $20 million to address barriers identified in our infrastructure report, which I'll talk about shortly with a focus on very high and high benefit cost projects. And we also allocated some funding up to 1 million for 2020 from the 2020 bond to address barriers near charter schools, especially those in historically low socioeconomic status areas around Austin. And so the infrastructure report was created out of the 2016 [2:03:00 PM] was created out of the 2016 bond. We received the funding from that, from that bond, we did an initial ask of school concerns through 137 schools within the city of Austin, full purpose jurisdiction. We looked at elementary schools and middle schools. Primarily. We offered walk audits, which is where we walked with city staff and consultant staff and engineers to kind of assess walking and biking routes to school and looking at barriers those students would face. We offered five open houses, 50 pop up engagement events and had a really robust time collecting data from 2017 through 2018. Then in 2019, we did an internal review of all the data we collected from the conversations with the schools and also conversations from the engagement events. We released a draft report of our findings, had a three week comment period, and then the final report was published towards the end of 2019 and early 2020, right before covid changed the world. And then what came of the [2:04:03 PM] And then what came of the report? So from the report, we found over 4600 different barriers preventing students to safely walk and bike to school. And so we broke those barriers down into nine different categories. The top two were missing or sidewalks in need of repair and or curb ramps missing, or curb ramps that were not Ada compliant or missing crosswalks or curb extensions. And so the top two categories you can see there came to 37% of the total barriers were sidewalk related, 34% were curb ramp crosswalk related as well. So other rrrriers that we found we broke into other categories, including traffic control, bike lanes, trails, shared use paths, and then over and underpasses. And then we had a others catego which kind of captured things, not in those eight different buckets, including like vegetation issues, signage [2:05:04 PM] like vegetation issues, signage missing or signage, Kahn conversions and things like that to. And then the analysis broke down into four different categories demand, safety, equity and stakeholder input. So for demand that was 35% of the total score. We ran the model in gis. We looked at schools walking within a half mile and then two miles for biking. So we looked at where the students lived in that radius. But we use network analysis. So we use the sidewalk and street network not as the crows flies, just to give a more accurate, realistic perception of how you WOU actually travel to school. We also did safety analysis, and that was 30% of the model where we looked at the number and frequency of bike and pedestrian crashes. We looked at the functional class score of the street, so all the streets have a class score. We use that in our scoring method as well as engineering judgment. Did it make sense to put a recommendation for a speed cushion on this road, or like a [2:06:04 PM] cushion on this road, or like a ped island? And those were kinds of conversations we had with our engineers about what made the most sense as a treatment option for the barrier. Then we also looked at equity, which is 20% of the model that looked at census data, including the free and reduced eligibility rate for the students, and then the poverty rate broken down by the census blocks. And then lastly, we accounted for stakeholder input. So this is the engagement we got from 50 community events and the five open houses. And so we collected the data two ways in a wiki map. So like a virtual map format. And then also in a paper map on like at the actual events in person, where we captured the written comments. We also made it a point to include in our engagement all the different places people would be at. So not just at the schools, but at the libraries, the grocery stores, the churches, the parks, everywhere we could find people. We set up engagement to capture their feedback. And then we took all of this data and created [2:07:04 PM] of this data and created reports by school. And so this is a snapshot of one for Blanton. And so in the reports which are available on our website, we have a little bit of a background that I just talked about, the process of the scoring, the overall benefit and estimated cost benefit chart and then the recommendations by the school. So in this example here, every barrier is given an id number. The schools that are close within the half mile radius for walking in two mile radius for biking, the location, the street that the barrier is on, the issue, the recommendation and then the scoring category. So it's a quintile system from very high to very low. And we broke it down into overall benefit and then estimated cost benefit. So as you can see here some projects ranked very high in both categories. Some ranked medium or low in one or the other. And it just kind of depends. It depends on the recommendation. So some infrastructure improvements are more cost effective than others. And we just simply use this as a guiding principle to moving projects forward. And then one [2:08:06 PM] projects forward. And then one of the other things that we looked at too, was how to make our most walking and biking improvements near as many schools as possible. So we wanted to make meaningful connections, not just checking a box of recommendations. Met. And then one of my favorite parts about our program is leveraging of funds. And so we let the public dollar go further by partnering with people internal to the city and external to the city. So on the screen here, I've listed some of our partners urban trails neighborhood partnering program, sidewalk street and bridge bikeway, signals, speed management, vision zero pedestrian crossing program, and the corridor program, and then external partners including the seven school districts listed Austin, del valle, eanes, Leander, pflugerville, Round Rock, capmetro, and then. Legacy. Funding. And then this is where we're at as of September 1st, when we ran the numbers for the for this presentation, our total spend. So this is combining the 2016 bond money and the 2020 bond money. We're [2:09:06 PM] and the 2020 bond money. We're at $38.9 million spent. That's out the door on projects on the ground. We have $2.6 million encumbered. So those are projects in fda's waiting to be built. And then 5.9 million is in planned projects that's not assigned an fdu number yet or a funding source number yet. So we are all well on the way to spending out all of our combined funding of $47.5 million, and then this is a project count of barriers addressed out of as of the end of June. So we run this analysis quarterly. We have 603 barriers addressed. And of this amount 389 are from intersection improvements, 165 from sidewalk improvements, 28 from streets, seven from trails, and 14 from other and other includes our our signal type infrastructure like school zone beacons or or traffic lights, things like that that we've funded. And altogether that's [2:10:07 PM] funded. And altogether that's coming to over 70%. And then let's see. Oh yeah. And then our last the last couple of slides I have here are the ciur resolution numbers. So this is from the ciur in may. We're just providing a little bit of an update of where that lands. And so we are planning on refreshing and updating our infrtructure plan in 2026 utilizing utilizing internal staff and contract capacity. We've been meeting with some consultants. We're working on getting a scope finalized, and so we're really excited to to launch a walk audits at schools in the spring. So this time we're going to include high schools, and we're going to include new schools that have been built, including bear creek elementary, Blazier intermediate, as well as Marshall middle school. So we're excited to have those schools captured now and get feedback from those campuses. We're also going to incorporate the city council boundaries [2:11:07 PM] the city council boundaries that have changed since the 2016 report was done. And then also we're going to incorporate new school boundaries and catchment areas as part of the school consolidations. Aisd is voting on on November 20th, so the short list of schools will be released, I believe it's October 3rd next month, and then the board will vote on November 28th on potential school closures or consolidations. And either way, aisd is redoing all of their school boundaries because of all of the changes that's happening for them. And so and we also are keeping a close eye, we we have heard that Leander ISD is also looking at some consolidation. So we're keeping an eye on that as well, because we have schools in those in that district. And then the last part of the resolution was looking at some of the school Zones. And so transportation engineering colleags looked at a did a comprehensive evaluation of current school zone implementation practices. [2:12:08 PM] zone implementation practices. And they are proposing a change to focus on placing school Zones primarily at unprotected crossings, to also include school frontages. The proposal would also align with expectations of placing school Zones where their potential traffic conflicts at all the crossings, including school driveways and nearby intersections. The evaluation indicates that we would need hundreds of new or modified school Zones based on the school locations and operations, and the infrastructure. Maintenance costs are estimated at 5 million based off the existing school locations and the operations and the cost today of school zone beacons. And that's my update. So here's my contact information if you need to reach me. But I'm also here if there's any questions. >> That was great. Thank you. And I also want to mention even eanes ISD had to close one elementary school and consolidate two campuses. So it's affecting everyone. >> Yeah. [2:13:08 PM] >> Yeah. >> It really is trying to make sure that, you know, with the way state budgets work, just trying to make everything work, make sure we've got enough teachers and class sizes are appropriate, is affecting every school district that our community touches. >> Yes. Thank you for sharing. >> I have a question. That's a guilty pleasure. The bike bus program. Do you want to speak briefly? I know that there was a call for people to sign up to apply to be a bike bus leader. Do you want to talk about that program at all? >> Let me see. I will actually kick it to my boss. >> Yeah. >> I see a new speaker coming. Yes. >> Hi. Good afternoon. Amir Momin, the. >> Division manager over the community services division. And yeah, this year we're trying to we've been doing walking school busses for a few years. So what we thought was hiring crossing guards to be bike bus leaders, but they need to be bikers. So we have different parameters that we put in place, and we're doing different trainings and trying to build that out and seeing what it looks like. We're also working with schools to make [2:14:09 PM] working with schools to make sure that, you know, it's not just going to be one. With the walking school bus, you need two individuals. With a bike bus, you need three. So making sure that it's a group of folks. So we're just working through that process right now. >> And the idea is that if you have a bunch of kids that live in the same neighborhood on the same block, that they are all going to school together at the same time, whether they're walking together, biking together, correct? >> Like so, comparing it to our walking school bus, we have one where it's picking up kids at different apartment complexes along the way. So this would be the same thing where we would coordinate it time and place, like we'll be at this corner at this time and pick up individuals on the way there. >> I love that, I love it. Do we have any questions of our our staff? Let's start with council member vela one. >> Just one quick question. On page five. You have the project recommendations for the infrastructure report that lists that 4662 projects, $825 million. And then so page ten, the total count of barriers addressed refers back to page five. Right? Like, you know, in [2:15:10 PM] five. Right? Like, you know, in other words, those the total there. And I can't remember what the total is, but you know 309 one. >> 6 or 3. >> Yeah. That's the list of, of projects that we've addressed as part of the infrastructure report. >> Correct. There's there's an asterisk though. So we've also done improvements at schools and addressed barriers that were not necessarily called out in the report. So the 603 refers to the total amount of barriers addressed coming from that 4600. But some of those, foample, we put in a ped island at bowie high school down south. So that's not specifically called out as a recommendation because we didn't do walk audits at high schools. But the need came up. The community asked for it. We talked to the area engineers. It made sense. There was 100 kids crossing, so we put it in, but we counted it. But it's not necessarily from the 4600. >> As you get in the field and see, you know what? We actually need something here. You go ahead and knock it out, regardless of whether it's on the list or not. >> Right? Correct. And then we funded it. Yes. >> Okay. Great. I just wanted [2:16:11 PM] >> Okay. Great. I just wanted to, to to clarify that. And then one more quick question. $5 million based on existing infrastructure, maintenance costs are estimated at $5 million based on existing school locations and operations. What is where is that coming from? Are we talking about expanding school Zones, like the additional kind of lights and signage and stuff like that, or what that what does that $5 million refer to? >> I'm going to call someone else over here. >> She brought a team. >> I brought the people that know the ansrs. >> Good afternoon. Eric bullock, managing engineer, transportation engineering division manager. The $5 million, about 90% of that cost, is cost for new signs, whether that be school flashers or static signs or markings. And to your question, yeah, we've we've identified possibly 200 or so new school Zones and another 100 existing that would have to be modified based on these new criteria of kind of focusing more on the frontages of schools rather than just [2:17:11 PM] of schools rather than just where people might be crossing in an uncontrolled location. So and the other 10% would be probably new staff members we'd identify because the more infrastructure hopefully we'd get, you know, support for staff. And just there's always maintenance costs, especially for the the flashers. So that's kind of what that cost entails. >> Got it. Thank you very much. >> That's helpful. And I know we had a conversation around school Zones because I have a high school in my district that has has school facilities on the other side of the road. And so we had to kind of go through that conversation of what happens when you have, you know, four different levels of freshman, sophomore, junior, senior, going through cross country and soccer practice. And the teams are going this way and that way. You know it all hours of the morning and evening. And so I think it's helpful to have thos part of the assessment. Just so we're not leaving any of those circumstances out. But I know when I started high school, I was 14 years old, and the idea of letting me do whatever I wanted to do and not have a [2:18:12 PM] wanted to do and not have a school zone there to make sure that I was safe. And traffic is probably something that a lot of parents of 14 year Olds are thinking about these days. Council member Laine, do you have some questions? >> I do, thank you. One I love this program. Thank you for your work too. I love the pedestrian and bike busses. Thank you for I saw your wonderful post. Basically, this is the one that just warms my heart always. I'm really excited to see what comes out of the high school analysis, and I do have some questions. So I think I'll start with the presentation mentions leveraging funds with school districts and capmetro, but it doesn't list any corporate partners. Has Austin explored corporate partnerships like the general motors grants that other cities have received, just to know more about that? >> That's a good question. I was going to say we've applied for like ss for grants in conjunction with our partners in the city. I'm aware about that. >> But but no, we haven't as San Francisco. We haven't looked at that. As for corporate corporate partners, [2:19:13 PM] corporate corporate partners, yeah. >> Well, if you begin to, I'd be happy to have conversations about corporate entities that might be interested in this type of opportunity. Out in my neck of the woods in northwest and northwest Austin. So thank you. So I have another question, and I haven't looked in detail at your walk audits, but there are a number of schools in my district that have are either in the etj just barely, or they have the streets that front to the schools. Some of them are in the etj, all of them are in the etj. There are also circumstances in which there are these really pretty small circles and lines of etj that, for example, impact the only sidewalk that an entire neighborhood could use to get to the school. That's less than two miles away. And in some of these circumstances, I've seen these sidewalks also indicated as being just substandard, substandard sidewalk in the sidewalk plan. And so I was hoping to understand a little [2:20:14 PM] hoping to understand a little bit better how you handled those issues. When you're doing your evaluation of what to prioritize. >> Yeah, that's a good question. So we focused on schools that are fully in the city of Austin, full purpose jurisdiction, with the understanding that some of the streets around them, like, I don't know if you're thinking about like, Palm Springs elementary. >> Is a wonderful example. >> Yes. I was thinking, I wonder if she's thinking palm Springs. Yeah. So we're some of the schools, like one side is in the city and then the other side is in the county and then or the etj and then, but the whole catchment area for the school is like a circle. Right. And so, so we've been focusing on doing improvements only within the city side, just due to the limitations of the bond dollars and what that's asked for. I know that there is partnerships with like the arterial management division, where school zone beacons, for example, they have a partnership with Travis county, and so they can operate those and maintain them even if they're in the etj and not the full city limits. So in that in [2:21:15 PM] full city limits. So in that in that perspective, we have those kinds of relationships. At this time, we've only just been focusing on improvements, like only on the city side. So yeah, I don't know if you want to add anything else. >> So I'm going to I'm sorry, did you have go ahead. Okay. I'm going to strongly ask that we come up with a plan for those circumstances that is a little different, because in my neck of the woods we have circumstances. And Palm Springs is a little unusual in that a lot of its catchment area is also not in the city of Austin. But if you look at schools like Pearson ranch and Elsa England, it's only the school that's in the etj. Yeah, the rest is all in Austin. When you get to looking at Mcneil high school, there's a box drawn around it so that it's in the etj. And, you know, and if you look at laurel mountain elementary, you know, it's that's where you get these title weird shapes nearby. And the kids have to pass through it. But the schools in Austin. Yeah. And as I'm looking at your map and your projects, like none of those schools are a part of it. And so there are very real [2:22:16 PM] And so there are very real safety concerns. And by excluding the schools that, I mean, these are the schools that serve our district. >> Yeah. So those schools do have walk audits and reports and recommendations and barriers being addressed. So we have done improvements at almost all those schools. You're probably not aware, but the the Elsa England Pearson ranch up north, we are working on getting that fb into a traffic light. >> So I am aware of some of the recent. >> Changes. >> In fact. And I will let you know that the principle of I and I, I don't remember if else England or Pearson ranch actually at the orientation said we are getting these improvements to the entire parent class with excitement. But that's that is also part of the reason why I'm asking that we take another look at this issue. Yeah, because it's it's quite pervasive across those northern and northwestern suburbs. And, and I'm happy to discuss in greater detail somewhere else. But I know it also impacts probably all of our outlying areas to a certain [2:23:17 PM] our outlying areas to a certain extent. >> Yeah, we can definitely take a closer look, but we we have not forgotten about those schools like kind of on the edges. So yeah. >> Yeah. >> Okay. Thank you. >> And then I love all the collaboration that I'm hearing about. I have a couple questions. There are some very high speed roads that I also don't see have been identified, that are definitely the only way to get to some schools. And we all know that, you know, there's no motor unit to APD. And there are, you know, not a lot of speeding enforcement going on. And and I wonder if given those circumstances, if that could be a reason to elevate the addition of the crosswalks where you can push a button to cross. Because again, I'm thinking of areas where there there are high speed traffic, there are not complete sidewalks and there is never speeding enforcement. And this is and there are all ages of kids from K through 12 who would have to use that as a route to school, and whoever can avoid it is getting dropped [2:24:17 PM] can avoid it is getting dropped off by their parents. So I wanted to maybe ask about that on some of the bigger roads too. Like I'm thinking of Mcneil drive. >> Right now. >> Yeah, I know there's a sidewalk project or a shared use path project happening now. And Mcneil, it started Monday, and so I believe it's going west though, towards 183, not toward the high school. I don't have a a signal like plan for upgrading all the infrastructure at the traffic lights. But I do know that our colleagues in tpw on the sidewalk team and with us as we are doing sidewalk improvements and curb ramp improvements that hit intersections, all of it's being upgraded at once. And so it is coming with actual projects. I don't know if they have like a separate plan for all their infrastructure. And then we're also upgrading the push buttons at yaupon springs and spicewood springs road as well, right by canyon vista middle. So that's coming this fall as well to get crossings on both sides. >> And those are also very beloved improvements. And I know that this high speed traffic is an issue that occurs, [2:25:18 PM] traffic is an issue that occurs, you know, in your district also near the schools. And I know that Mcneil will not end up having continuous sidewalks and there are not crosswalks. So it's a very long walk. Finally, as we're talking about safety on the frontage of the schools and some of these collaborations like the crossing guards project, I would love to try to make some lemonade out of some lemons. You know, with the state law that requires an sro or security personnel at every campus in the state. I know Round Rock ISD is only hiring officers. I wonder if we might consider looking into collaboration with the school districts, with the sros, as it relates to maintaining those safe frontage roads during drop off and pickup times, and that might be a low cost to the city approach of a new type of collaboration. >> I mean, we currently collaborate with the school district pds, and currently the issue is there's only so much coverage. So, you know, with aid there at middle schools [2:26:19 PM] aid there at middle schools and high schools already. So they have a really hard time helping out with issues happening at elementary school. So those conversations are happening, and I'm hoping that once it is fully staffed, and I think there's a timeline, like over the next few years, we'll be able to tap into them a little bit more to assist us with those speeders and parents that are having egregious behavior in front of the campuses. >> Okay. Thank you very much. >> And I'll flag the conversation about traffic enforcement is going to be on our session, so stay tuned for that. I have one more question before we move on to the next item. But what is the current discussion around urban trails and park spaces as helping kids get to and from school? I know I had a neighborhood partnering program operate in my district because people were able to get to elementary and middle school easier by cutting through some green space near the neighborhood. Are those parts of the conversations that you're having, or are you open to conversations around those being safe ways to go instead of being on street or directly adjacent to the street? [2:27:22 PM] adjacent to the street? >> Yeah, for sure. We have urban trails is called out as recommendations in our existing infrastructure report. We have or co-funding with the urban trails program, the trail through Bartholomew park that will go from stony brook to east 51st street. And so that is like 98% at design. So it should go to construction next year. And so safe routes is co-funding that as part of a larger watershed Austin water project, which is really exciting. So that will connect people from Windsor park down to the Mueller neighborhood. And then recently we've also purchased land in conjunction with the parks department and Austin water for this greenbelt track near Linda elementary down south. And so we are going to work through with consulting engineers, getting a design and a trail through that project as well. So we are looking at trails. They are definitely a lot more costly than say pan islands or school zone beacons, etc. So we're very strategic with that. As we look at funding sources dwindling down. [2:28:24 PM] funding sources dwindling down. But we definitely have accounted for trails and specific areas, and definitely in partnership with other entities too. So we're cost sharing. >> That's great to hear. I can only say that biking through a park is much more pleasant than biking next to traffic, but at the same time, the the programs and the departments that are doing this work to build sidewalks, build urban trails has been fantastically successful with a lot of applause around the community. So let us know what we can do to help support it and help help further the missions that that you guys are trying to accomplish. >> Thank you. Yes. And we also add it's really important to us in particular to that we have lighting on all these trails as well, especially with time zone changes and kids trying to get to and from school. >> So absolutely, there's I know too much about lighting on trails, so I won't go into that. But thank you for the presentation. Thank you. Appreciate you. Our next item we're going to take up is the report by Austin transportation public works department related to ongoing mobility programs and projects in the central Texas region, formerly known as the acm's report. But now we [2:29:25 PM] the acm's report. But now we have assistant director Anna martin joining us today. Do you want to give us a brief rundown of that? >> Good afternoon. Great to be here today, filling in on behalf of director Mendoza, who's away. You should have a report in your backup titled the city of Austin mobility report, which are some highlights from our mobility portfolio internal to the city, as well as some of our key partner projects. So I'll just hit some highlights here. Public parking restrictions, return to Stephen F Austin drive. So on our theme of schools, particularly high schools, Stephen F Austin is a road that runs between the lake and Austin. >> High school. It looks and feels like a city street, but it's actually an aisd owned road. We have a public access agreement that allows us to make sure folks can can use it and park on it to access the trail as well as the school. So new parking restrictions are [2:30:25 PM] new parking restrictions are going in effect this school year, which will reserve the parking for Austin high parking pass holders during the Monday through Friday during school hours. After those hours, it opens up to the general public. So that's new if there's any. When in doubt, I would say read the signs carefully. Capital metro begins, new service changes. They do this three times a year. The two of the three changes are focused on supporting UT students. So the shuttles that get folks around campus. And the third change is extending night owl service out to the airport. The city of Austin seeks input to better navigate central Texas roadways. So the city, led by tpg, is conducting a research study. We want to learn more about how people in the city and the surrounding counties use%-ptransportation in their daily lives, and what are those barriers to choosing [2:31:27 PM] barriers to choosing alternative modes. Looking ahead at the, you know, 10 to 15 years of really heavy construction we expect in our region, we want to just understand these patterns, develop a future marketing and outreach campaign to help foster mode shift, and really just keep our community moving in different ways. During this heavy construction period. There has been a public service announcement campaign centered around motorcyclist safety. So this is focused on messaging to the motorcyclists themselves as well as drivers. Unfortunately, we'ven an uptick this year in serious injuries and fatalities among motorcycle drivers. So just a timely reminder to everyone to to be careful on our roadways. Delta airlines announced new nonstop service to Denver, Columbus, Ohio and Kansas City, Missouri. They're also increasing service on two existing routes to San [2:32:28 PM] on two existing routes to San Francisco and Indianapolis. Also out at the airport. The airport hosted the inaugural public art makers expo on August 23rd, a first of its kind event that brought together 125 artists, designers and fabricators local to Austin and centralas to better show off and advertise opportunities for future art with the airport expansion. Happy to provide an update on the Ross road construction project. This is a great representation of a project moving through bond cycles. A preliminary engineering report was funded for Ross road back in 2016 and 2020. The mobility bond funded design and construction, and so we're currently underway with a major upgrade to Ross road from 71 to pierce Laine serves three different del valle ISD schools. [2:33:29 PM] different del valle ISD schools. So a much needed project construction going well and is on schedule. Also from the mobility bond portfolio. Happy to provide an update on airport boulevard. Construction work has been underway on the segment between us 90 and I-35. There's a beautiful new shared use path running along the west side adjacent to the up railroad. We're also doing some signal upgrades and a fb as well. Construn on that segment is expected to wrap up this October, so next month. And finally, also related to corridor construction, the city is seeking news for the burnet road corridor. The section from 183 to bright Verde way that will be advertised this month, and additionally also this month. The next section of burnet will also go to advertisement and that will be the section from bright Verde way up to mopac. So we'll see a lot of active [2:34:29 PM] So we'll see a lot of active work on on burnet road from 183 to the north. That's what I have for highlights. I'm happy to answer any questions. >> Love to see those. There's a couple street names I think are in d4. Do you have any questions? >> No, I it's great to see the night owl service to the airport. I remember when we heard about that on capital metro, and some of the comments just really stuck out to me. Like Austin does not have public transit to the airport when you get you know, there was kind of shock that that it was just like, come on now, you're a major American city. You know, there's no bus that goes to the airport past. I can't remember what the time was, but it was just made a world of sense to say that you should run busses as long as there's planes landing. Really? Right. So that was a big one. I'm very happy to see that that service go into effect. And that's a good move by capital metro. >> Yeah. Or at least have an on call service or something like that. But that's I know a [2:35:29 PM] that. But that's I know a capmetro service. On that note, a few of us were able to speak to some students at UT last night, and one of them lived in Leander and was hoping that red line would stay open a little longer so that she didn't have to find a ride home Ano way. And so I think that call continues, and we'll certainly pick those conversations up since three of us on this committee also are fortunate to serve on the metro board. So we'll take up those conversations. Do you have any questions on those items? >> Yes I do. >> Oh, let's kick it off. >> I was really interested to read about the information about Austin high school parking. It seems like a very innovative and much needed solution. I'm wondering if you think that there's opportunity for similar partnerships with other schools that face parking challenges. And I think the private street aspect is a bit more unusual. But many of our schools are surrounded by public streets. >> So yeah, my colleague spoke really well of the safe routes to school program. As we start to look at the high schools in detail, it might be really interesting to also think about collecting the parking data and [2:36:30 PM] collecting the parking data and seeing where the usage is really heavy, see where there's opportunities to shift kids to carpool or walking and biking, and then just looking at parking availability. It tends to spill over into all the neighborhood streets, which can be frustrating for folks that live around high school. So I would say the Austin high is unique because it's a private road, but certainly something we can look at as we do these next round of audits. >> Streets, businesses, apartment complexes, all of it. Yeah. Yes. All right. Thank you. Oh, right. I did have one more question. The park atx that's offering the the free parking sessions. And there are a lot of digital tools that are increasingly available. Can you tell me a little bit about how we're making these types of things accessible to people who don't have a smartphone or reliable internet access, and that sort of thing there? >> There is still a requirement that per block, there needs to be a physical place where you can go and put your money in, or put your credit card in and [2:37:31 PM] or put your credit card in and access parking that way. So that still exists, although we're cutting down on that infrasucture and just having it one per block. >> Okay. Thank you. Thanks. >> Any further questions on this item? Thank you. Appreciate that update. We also have on the list our briefings by memorandum. There's a I will forewarn there are a number of items that are briefing by memorandum. And then a whole subsequent list of previously distributed memos tyou'll be able to reference in the packet. So make sure if you want to read through all of those that you click on the link. That's on the mobility committee website that that actually says like the agenda packet, it will have all the presentations and backup documentation right next to each other. But those briefings by memo are I-35 construction impacts on the hike and bike trail, parking and water quality memo dated August 1st, 2025 and initial progress project request list for the 2026 bond development update [2:38:34 PM] 2026 bond development update memo from the end of July, a bond election advisory task force memo sixth street safety pilot barricade placement memo. So a lot of work going on in that downtown area. And an update on sixth street preliminary engineering study. So there's a lot of work going on between the corps transportation plan, as well as some very specific sixth street updates and improvements. And those barricades are being beautified by the downtown Austin alliance, which we very much appreciate. So I know that APD is working well in tandem with some of our other city partners, to be able to keep that area safe and to make sure that everybody who wants to enjoy it can, but that everybody is doing so in a safe manner. Do we have any questions from committee members on those five memorandum? I think we've looked through them. I think we're all kind of following that bond task forcedevelopment, trying to make sure that our our wish lists are in. But there is about $4 billion of ask for about $640 million of money. So it's it's [2:39:36 PM] million of money. So it's it's going to be a slog for everybody to get through and to try to work through that. But make sure that if you have a wish list, that you want your council members to be aware of, that you go ahead and let us know so that we can try to incorporate conversations around assessing the need for those those changes that people want to see in the community. Yeah. On one of these five okay. Yep. Go ahead. >> On number seven. That's one of the ones that you'll stop. >> Right. Yep. Number seven bond development update okay. >> So as we think about especially as we're tracking all these things so carefully and the questions we're getting from the community, I'm wondering I'm one very grateful for the work that's been done by staff to ensure that we're delivering on the capital projects that we say we're delivering on. And I'm wondering if there's any are there any specific process changes that will ensure that projects will be delivered within the six year cycle that you could refresh me on, as and us on as we are answering constituent questions in that [2:40:38 PM] constituent questions in that regard. >> To be clear, this is about items that may or may not be approved in November 26th. And what is the completion timeline? >> Answer if you're comfortable. If you're not, I live. >> Good. Good afternoon. Council. Council members. It's my name is Kara Boyles. I'm the director of capital delivery services. So the question is on the timeline as to giving continuing to give input on projects for the bond. Specific changes have been made that will ensure that we deliver? >> You're probably aware we've started this process much sooner, much earlier than in the past. And so I think that's a critical piece of this. We've brought the two together. We've been doing sessions with them, bringing departments together [2:41:38 PM] bringing departments together with them to explain the process, to allow departments to give updates on past bond projects, to talk about how they are putting together their needs assessment. And so we're really out in front of the planning process then maybe in prior bond cycles. So in that way, we're looking right now internally at cds, at what are the project scopes and doing a really deep dive in vetting those in terms of what are the schedules, what are the costs, what are the risks that we need to be aware of as we move projects into a bond package? >> Thank you. >> That's helpful. I know there's some projects that lend themselves really well to this is how long the project should take. And then there's some, you know, like land acquisition or, you know, it's like a balance between what becomes available, what dollars are available within the cadence of collecting property tax dollars and then looking with the financial balance of as some old bonds are being fulfilled [2:42:39 PM] old bonds are being fulfilled and expired, how to kind of layer those in, which happens a lot with school districts as well. Now you're familiar with. >> And that's been our goal to look at all projects through that lens. Can we execute implement this in a six year bond cycle as defined by council? >> And I also think just ning from where the problems came up and applying those better. So I was just hoping to get that nice formulation refresh while we go out. Thank you so much. >> Perfect. Love it. I have a couple of questions that are coming in. Zo had to drop off so he could be with his family on item number six. I know the district nine office has shared some social media about those hike and bike trail impacts. I think there is some heritage and protected trees that might be moving as part of that project. Is there can anyone speak to whether those might be able to be relocated or what the what the plans are through txdot process? I realize txdot [2:43:41 PM] txdot process? I realize txdot is not here T to answer that question. So we're asking city staff. >> Unfortunately, I don't think I can answer it either, but we have routine weekly communication with txdot, so I'm happy to find out and report back. >> I'm generally so curious about how to relocate more trees if they are fully grown and they're happy and healthy, how we keep those in our urban TRE canopy. And so if you would please just flag that and see if we could get a question offline, I think that would be great. And then on item number nine about the sixth street project, regarding the preliminary engineering memo, what kind of outreach should folks expect to see from this point in the future? >> Very timely question. We held our second stakeholder meeting yesterday where we met with business owners and property owners along sixth street to give them a preview of the upcoming public outreach. So tomorrow you'll see the website launched where we're going to show three different alternatives we're evaluating [2:44:41 PM] alternatives we're evaluating for sixth street. So there'll be an option to review all of that work online as well as participate in a survey. And our goal is by the end of this year, to have a preferred option for sixth street so that we can launch into the design phase. >> Okay. >> Thank you for that information. All right. Any questions on the previously distributed map? I think those are not posted for discussion. So I would say if you have questions on any of those items please reach out to city staff. But make sure you're reading them and reviewing them and sharing them with your constituents that might be affected. And then as far as future items, is the next the next thing on our list. So October 16th, we might work back into that metro transit plan. I know the few of us that get to do work with metro every week are already looking at that transportation plan. I think we had I think that was the topic of the public hearing. That was a week or two ago. On looking at some of those changes and plans that may be coming forward, and then [2:45:43 PM] coming forward, and then potentially an item on city leap and traffic enforcement update, which I know, some of which I see a lot as just high, high rates of speeding through neighborhoods, especially on the outskirts of town where the the roads are really, really wide and there's not a lot of speed bumps or stop signs or street lights or anything like that to help slow down traffic. But it sounds like maybe how those discussions work in school areas, and how to make sure that folks are getting to and from school might just be a slide or two that we could open up for conversation during that meeting on November, we may look at a state of Austin bridges and city roadway conditions. So those are the ones that we have flagged right now. We are also scheduled to meet early December, which I know is very close to the end of where our council meeting schedule gives us 2 or 3 meetings off for us to focus on our constituent work solely. And then there's a whole slew of other items for the future, including mobility, annual plan, citywide lighting plan, the street impact fee study update, [2:46:44 PM] street impact fee study update, project connect, updates from atp bike, pedestrian access for project connect station areas, the big loop, any sort of tips and tricks we can learn from other communities, especially those working in the global area of how to have better bike networks and pedestrian safety. Connecting the edges of town and the region into the core, which was a specific request from council member Laine. I-35 maintenance interlocal agreement. Transportation and air quality around schools. Shoal creek trail and gaps public charging stations, streetscape design and carlist multifamily development. Case studies that we can learn from. So if there's anything beyond that that people want to bring to our attention, we're happy to fit it into the queue and to try to get a little more deep dive into these conversations, which I always find to be so productive. Are there any other questions from the committee before adjournment? I don't see any hands. Thank you all for those presentations. It is 2:47 [2:47:44 PM] those presentations. It is 2:47 P.M. And we are adjourning the mobility committee. Thank you.