##VIDEO ID:tz0jT0Rbxcg## thanks thanks for your permission we'll call the meeting to order please stand for the pledge of allegiance of alates good evening and welcome everyone uh Tom take the roll call please mayor King pres council member at large Austin present council member postma present Kelly present pusta Fisher present Waller present Basin present we have a quorum your honor thank you I have number one is a motion for the adoption of the agenda so moved second all in favor I opposed motion carries item number two is a motion approving our minutes from our January 6 2025 meeting so moved second all in favor I opposed motion carries nothing under recognitions and awards IEM number four is the consent to agenda need a motion so moved second all in favor I I opposed motion carries item number five presentation from SE on the comprehensive plan Holly I'm just going to check my email bless you I know there's been some difficulty getting the presentation up and maybe if you wanted to if it's difficult we could probably put move it down the agenda too yeah if you do that all right let's move on to item number six on under petitions and request looking for a motion approving the 2025 Council boards and commission appointments with the repl of council member Baker with council member waller for a motion all moved second all in favor I opposed motion carries item number seven is a uh motion approving our audit engagement letter with Clifton lison Allen Tom we have uh engagement letter from our Auditors Clifton Larsson Allen uh in tow looks like they're proposing a about a 6.7% increase to $ 54,1 2017 um at this point in time we would request council's approval of this in the future if we wanted to look at different audit firms you really need to start probably in April May June to bid it out but this point time they're a local firm um and we'd request approval of the a engagement letter sign very thanks Tom councel any questions Mr Daner on this subject Tom do we know what the driver is other than everything else is St cost uh we're seeing this from other our other Finance directors that the costs are going up five plus percent everywhere and they're having a hard time retaining staff which means they got to hire pay more which means they got to pass it on okay thank you I'd move to approve second all in favor I opposed motion carries it number eight is a resolution approving or sanitary sewer summer averaging program Stephen as we discussed at the last work session our program we are recommending to change to a six-month on six-month off program from what it currently is now uh the new program the plan for applying your winter average water usage to your summer sewer billing would be tailored around that concept where sewer use from the months of November through April will be build on the actual consumption and will also be used to calculate the average sewer usage the months of May through October will be build at actual consumption or the sewer usage average whichever is lower so by making this a six-month on six-month off program we avoid uh what happen this year during Dry Falls where we have people see higher than normal sewer bills in October and it creates a a full 12 month plan where we can uh more hopefully more easily explain to Residents when they have questions about about how their summer sewer bill is determined to make sure that to ensure them that their um outside water usage in the summer does not go to uh impact their their sewer bill so with that we would recommend Council approval of this revised uh resolution very good thanks for your work on this Stephen Council any questions on this otherwise looking for resolution Jo moved second Tom council member posma I heli I pusta hi Fisher hi Waller hi Basin hi council member large Austin hi resolution passes 70 your honor thank you number Nine's resolution setting our 2025 Street assessment rates Stephen our goal with Street assessments is to assess approximately 40% of the street reconstruction cost to adjacent Property Owners we have uh for about the last 15 years we've had set assessment rates where people are charged based on their front foot um so the the width of their lot that is adjacent to the street we also have many other um items listed in our Paving assessment policy that apply to assessments based on a corner lot policy whether or not you're a commercial residential or you have an apartment so there's many factors that go into it but this year we would recommend increasing our fees by approximately 7% so our sidewalk would be $7.50 a square foot 6in sidewalk would be $11 a square foot our curban gutter on our projects would be $22.50 per lineal foot a residential rate for Street reconstruction is proposed to be $68.84 per lineal foot and our commercial rate is planned to be $982 cents and then we also have a millon overlay rate so with that we'd recommend uh these new rates for 2025 thank you stepen Council any questions Mr Lang looking for resolution approving number nine resolution so move second Tom council member posma hi heli hi vusta hi Fisher hi Waller hi Basin hi council member at large Austin I resolution pass is 70 you're on very good uh ready hly you ready for the presentation we're good yeah thank uh thank everyone for their troubleshooting skills and uh Mr Nolan will present welcome Mr Nolan all right thank you thank you mayor members of council for the opportunity to there we go thank you uh for the opportunity to present to you um an update on the comprehensive planning process that we started a few months ago also thanks for your patient as we did this this troubleshooting so we were in front of you Bria Grace who's the project manager for SE um for the entire project a few months ago when we kicked this off and I'm here to present the city's update on the comp plan so I'm Mark Nolan senior planner with SE and uh working with our team on the comprehensive planning project and so very quickly here's here's the agenda we'll talk about schedule and Milestones what the planning process entails what we've heard from the public kind of a quick overview of the public engagement so far and then next steps so the schedule and Milestones this is kind of a a simple uh graphic that kind of shows the three phases of the project so phase one is discover and excite that's the part where we get the word out we get in front of the public we start to gather information gather data to get the process going phase two is plan and review that's when we actually do the uh groundwork do the writing of the chapters really put the document together and then phase three is refine and adopt we'll describe those here in a little bit but essentially there are four tasks in the project the first three we'll talk about first project initiation and data Gathering uh that's something that we are kind of wrapping up right now public engagement is ongoing but is really front-loaded in the plan and then again the development of the comprehensive plan itself so phase one which brought us through just about the end of the year uh again is discover and excite and so what we have accomplished during that period are listed on the screen uh we developed a project website which has been very active and U gave the city a lot of Outreach tools uh public engagement process uh that we put in place both in person and online we have had um working very closely with our partners both at the county and impact Austin and others on this process and you know that whole um relationship has been wonderful to get participation in the plan and to be able to have a chance to work with the county in parallel while they do their their comprehensive plan as well has been valuable on I think on mutually beneficial on both sides we've had a community survey we're on our second Community survey right now in an online mapping tool and we have created uh for both the county and the City a uh planning advisory committee as well as a technical advisory committee we'll talk about that here in a little bit and then of course we've done data collection and initial mapping and uh we have been reviewing previous documents of both the 2016 comprehensive plan and downtown plan and other documents too uh for the city phase two which we have are just getting started in right now um we have been working with the pack and the community on developing refining a Community Vision we'll talk about about that here in a few minutes uh we've done data collection and recommendations we've got a demographics and uh kind of Economic Development summary from Maxfield research uh the velocity group team has been in town a couple of times that's Daniel hints and the firms that you see on the rightand side of the slide have uh come in for a few days to work on some of those specialty areas of the plan the Food City aspect of the plan the downtown master plan and some of their other work which uh will be mostly wrapped up by uh by this spring but we've been working closely with them as they've come in and out of town and then um again we've done GIS mapping we're starting to do chapter development which talk about in a minute and we had our first open housee and then phase three um not sure why that's highlighted but that is the um the part of the plan where you all uh adopt the plan so we review the draft comprehensive planning documents typically have an openhouse public review period and then the city and county both adopt comprehensive plans and this is an outline of the overall planning process is a little bit more detailed to what I was just discussing it's got public feedback up front and then where we develop that Community Vision collect data we look at what's called a gap analysis that's where we look at the systems throughout the city to look where those needs are that need to be filled and start to make recommendations for future change this planning process of planning Horizon for the document is looking out to 2045 so it's got a 20-year plan Horizon which in the planning world isn't all that much but to most people's a lot so um that's you know we're looking into the future as much as we can with this process and then um we are do we'll be documenting all of this in the planning document and getting feedback um from the communities of practice these are groups that Daniel hint and his team are putting together working with impact awon to to kind of help um build implementation into this process so a lot of times the comprehensive plan you get the final document there's implementation steps in there who's going to do what and when and then it's up to you all in the community to implement that plan what we're doing right now is we're building implementation into the plan now so those there are groups that can Champion components of those plans um after the consultant team has has gone away so implementation is going to be key and then we prepare the draft plan but again that goes public we refine it and then we adopt it so the core plan elements or chapters uh are listed on this slide these May tweak a little bit here and there but there are a lot more components to this that aren't shown that are rolled up into these chapters what I wanted to show here is that the first three chapters there's an introduction Community profile that's the statistics and growth projections and engagement summaries are all kind of the introduction of the plan and the real meat of the plan where the recommendations are made looking at land use Transportation water neighborhood re revitalizations parks open space all those chapters in the middle of the plan that's where all of the re goals and recommendations are made and then the implementation section again is where um we work with the community to determine what projects get done when they happen and by who so this is just another look at the schedule um what I wanted to highlight here is at the top we we got pack meetings listed 1 through 12 um that's the planning advisory committee and then we are here right now we did just have um on the 9th a meeting with the planning advisory committee uh for the city that was our third meeting and where we've got a vision statement to look at here and I'll show that to you and then for the next few months we'll be covering topics with the planning advisory committee so next month we're looking at transportation and parks in open space um Etc so we cover individual topics through that phase two of the plan so as I've said we've met three times with the pack the planning advisory committee the first one was a joint meeting with with the county and the second two were individually and really the topics that we've covered with that committee uh are what a comprehensive plan is and how it's used what their roles and responsibilities are the pack developed a vision statement that I'll share with you in a in a moment and that's one that we are still revising we brought it out to the public at the open house last week um given them a public engagement update what we've been hearing from the community and then last last meeting we really focused on sustainability and resiliency how those are important overarching themes for the city's comprehensive plan and so here is the vision statement that the pack members came up at with their November 13th meeting and um I'm not going to read this word for word it is a bit long we're going to be working on shortening this up but the idea here is that we sat down with the pack and each member with a little bit of help a gaming kind of system developed their own vision for what the city looks like what they want the city to look like in 20145 so this isn't necessarily what it looks like now parts of it is but it's what the city wants to be in 20 years and so they talk about being welcoming and diverse with a blend of culture and arts education neighborhoods uh families are connected by a sense of community and history and tradition a prosperous place to um that's accessible and inclusive making it a great location to live work visit Etc so um I invite uh invite you all to uh provide some input on this and I'll tell you how you can do that um in a little bit again we did get some input from this at the at the open house here recently and and we'll be revising that I mean this this vision statement and the county has their own will remain as a draft throughout the entire process until it's adopted by you um later on this fall winter hey Mark I just wanted to jump in at that point and just say that we have three pack members here tonight actually council member postma um Joe Bower and Steve Kim and uh valy from our county is here here she's my counterpart who I've been working with on the comprehensive plan I appreciate their uh involvement we do and with these uh these Pats these advisory committees we do try and put them to work as much as we can each meeting is we try and have an activity and have it be a working meeting and really have them get some ownership to the plan they an advisory committee to to all of you really into this whole process but the idea is for them to kind of be the public conduit in and out of the plan just some quick engagement highlights um we've been working on engagement for a few months now and we have a database that we're keeping internally and Nick n nney at at impact Austin has been doing a tremendous job and getting out there and meeting with people so we've had over 120 events meetings whether it's online or in person already and those range from one-on-one meetings to uh the open house we had last week we have had over 120 participants in those meetings um that's a total of online and in person and then the online survey uh we've had uh 600 nearly 600 survey participants uh so far that's the first survey the second survey that's out there and then also an interactive map that we have uh online um for folks to pin things and make comments so we've gotten some great responses from folks and this held true at the Joint open house we have held on the 15th last week along with the county and uh so we had over 70 people come to this event a lot of you several people in here came to the event which we really appreciate the great steady flow of people for two hours it was an openhouse format so we had 16 boards poster boards throughout the room activities for kids and and ways to take the online survey in person uh there and you can see from the boards this is just a couple of the boards that we had just one of the demonstr the amount of activity and engagement that we got at at this event I mean it it's really fantastic and so we are still developing summary of the event that takes a week or two to pull all this information together and we will hopefully have uh something for for you all and for the pack um next week and at the same time we have what we're calling a virtual openhouse so this is a location where you not only can take the survey but there's also a 3 minute recorded PowerPoint presentation so if you can use this QR code to get there uh or through the uh project website as well and so you can what's great about this is that it doesn't just have words or a paragraph explaining what a comprehensive plan is there's an actual presentation that's that's paced really well that Bria recorded that I think is is a great primer for people who just don't know what a comprehensive plan is and and why we're asking for their input so that's on there and then you can also take a survey for both the county and uh the city um you could take one or both of those and they get into a lot more detail you may recall there was the first survey was a three question survey that was when what do you like about the city what do you don't like and what would you change or how can it change this one gets into more detail about those topic areas so be priority questions about transportation and Parks housing Economic Development you know it takes I know that I saw Craig and how took the survey at the event it takes a few minutes to to to take the survey but this is really helpful for us this is where we get and for the pack to get a lot of information specifically as we look at those individual planning elements and that's live right now so next steps so we um again we're having that virtual openhouse and Survey there's no end date to that right now it'll be up for at least a couple more weeks um we're doing what we can to keep driving um driving folks to the survey with love for all of you council members uh and staff to do the same as you're talking folks in the community um to get the word out and and have those surveys get those numbers up on those surveys um the velocity group is going to be in town for the entire week of the 17th now the 17th's a city holiday but they'll be in town that entire week people they've got a schedule put together D Daniel hint has all that is putting all that together I think he booked an Airbnb that he's offering for his team to stay and we'll be there as well um periodically members of SE um and particular particular our next pack meeting is during that week so that'll be in person on February 20th where we'll be discussing again transportation and open space and then we will just continue to develop the comprehensive plan chapter content again that's just when we work closely with the Pac and the TAC to really just start to develop content the comprehensive plan chapter by chapter and that's my update any questions EXC I have a question um actually a couple of questions but my first one is could you just give a general description of what a comp plan is um and I have noticed that often um uh people are more familiar with a strategic plan or a work plan and how does a comp plan differ from that and is it in fact a commitment to funding every project that's in a comp plan or uh how does that work yeah so a comprehensive plan is essentially I mean it is in State Statute um how a comprehensive plan works but it's a guiding document over a period of time typically 10 or 20 years A lot of times communities it's it's it really focuses on land use and this one will as well um but it really covers um all the topics of you know the city to identify goals a vision and goals for all of its systems and how it wants to grow over 20 years and then it sets those goals and me and um um how to measure success with those goals and then it does set up an implementation plan that looks identifies some projects some strategies that can be implemented it doesn't commit money or funding to anything although a comprehensive plan does identify funding opportunities um as part of that and then but where the comprehensive plan does have maybe more teeth is that the um the um regulation city regulations zoning ordinance has to is to support the comprehensive plan and so typically after a comprehensive plan happens um there'll be some recommended changes to the zoning ordinance to make sure that it matches the comprehensive plan great thank you um my second question is just about the engagement how is Austin ranking compared to other communities in terms of people showing up to give their input on the comp plan it's ranking it's ranking well and this has come up before we think we see these numbers Austin's a community of 26 27,000 people and you know we like to get those numbers bigger but you know as we were talking about at the open house it's not so much the size of community that gets those numbers up it's just the work that everyone does to get the word out and so relatively speaking we're very happy with these numbers we'd like them to you know go up even higher but you know because of the way that we're setting up the engagement process and once the summer months come in we're going to try and tie in some of these events with food and you know those other kinds of local events too that really get people out there I just want wanted to add that we are tracking demographics as much as people will give us that information and so we'll try to fill the gaps where we have some missing uh input and there was like and we noticed the age group of course was a little bit higher as far as input we did work uh and also thanks to Nick to working with uh our school superintendent and other people at the school district they set up a a I guess an opportunity for the students to come to our open house and provide some input and they got some volunteer hours for that so we're trying to find some unique ways to get more uh uh inputs and more uh feedback from all all sectors of our population yes thank you it's a very good point we try and keep the engagement process as flexible as we can so we can pivot like that because some of the demographics we got on our first survey did show that participation was low for that 20 and under age range and so we are active looking to to reach those students and we did have a handful of them show up at the open house great thank you thank you Mr Nolan I I thought there was great energy at the open house at uh at Ruby rner I thought when I pulled in the parking lot the there wasn't rain make stalls open so I thought attendance was awesome too I appreciate the work that you and uh and the philosophy group are doing and it's a it's worth noting again that this has not been done before we're County and City are partnering together through their comp plans and downtown master plan as well but a lot of energy behind it and I appreciate the work being done by SE thank you Mr mer couple of questions um with it first of all I mean thank you for the work that you're doing thank you for the work that the the pack is doing I mean this is probably some of the most important work that we're doing as a community to really clearly Define our future for the next 20 to 30 years um so first question is as we kind of building off the last conversation are we also going out to some of the under repesentative groups I know like a welcome you know like a Human Rights Commission one of the things that we've learned is like you got to go to the churches you got to go to the coffee shop are we doing a lot of that work as well yeah that's that's built into our engagement plan we haven't done a ton of that yet but um the idea is we also we're working with the Welcome Center pretty closely on on identifying some of those opportunities too and we did have some translation at the open house but yeah going to that's always best to go to folks so we did have a popup um at the at the fair um this is back in whenever you oops whenever you have the fair right yeah August similar weather than yes and so that's that was an opportunity for us to come where the people are you know that's not necessarily I mean the fair doesn't it pulls people from all over right but you know part of this plan is you really want to focus on going to where the people are where the residents are but also in those areas that bring in people from outside because you know tourism and economic development is a big piece too second question is as we think about like our role as like a city council local government like what is best in class involvement look like in terms of helping to align on like here's the vision for where we're going here's how we're going to prioritize the stuff that we're doing are there things that like we should be doing as a council providing more feedback or setting up like what is best-in-class local government involvement look to maximize the potential of a comp plan to succeed it's a great question these updates are are good but also in between you know we can't we don't have our scope to come here every month and give you an update right so the best thing is you know if if Holly or others want to give regular updates to provide feedback um with all of you and like I said before you know the first action that you take will be to adopt the comprehensive plan right the first official action but we really would like you to go out to your constituents and you represent different boards um be able to talk to folks about you know what's coming up and so I think the best thing for us to do is to keep you informed and so it doesn't um fall to the Wayside right it's a long process comprehensive plans take typically a year and a half to two years and um in the middle part of the project is I wouldn't say it NE it gets quiet but it does start to you know that's and we're all got our heads down and we're writing content so okay and then I think I would just add that you know just always the opportunity to educate our community about how policy is made and how we how local government works I guess just in general good well I know I speak at least for myself is I mean anything that we can do to continue to to push forward and support it um if you're not getting that from us let us know I mean we've got Holly and you know Mike and you know folks that are involved which is great and Craig um but yeah I mean I think this fits so well with where we want to get to because I think we've had a little bit of torper over the last probably 10 15 years in terms of like Clarity on like where are we going right like we had Vision 2020 very very successful kind of took a step back for a little bit you know to focus on some other things and now we need kind of that Vision 2045 and so I think just incredibly exciting and you know you have our full support and anything that we can do to continue to support it structurally physically whatever I will I will say speaking of that you know that's a 20-year Vision but we really advise communities to update the plan or at least revisit it every five years and so uh because you know we can't predict the future and things change you can't predict you know pandemic you can't there's a lot of things that come up that change things and so it's important to do that and so maybe as Council to be able to consider providing the resources for staff to be able to do that I I kind of chime in on that too I think one of the things I'm you know the meetings they've at the last meeting that we had they really mapped out like each month we're kind of tackling a different piece of the pie like a tourism month you know and some of the stuff on there that we're going to be looking at is some of the stuff that as a council and I'm sure the County Board is the same way that you know just because there's a plan that we have in place or a policy then it still gets brought before us did do you want to oneoff do you want to change what you said you were going to do so like making sure that we're all really comfortable what's in this plan knowing we can't dictate what future councils do but boy at least for the first two or three years we should all be able to go by this road map pretty well because we all had saying input it and hoping that the county does the same thing um and then the other little nugget I'd say is uh I I know that I believe it was can't remember was Vision or mission statement you saw in there and I'm well aware and I mentioned that our city leaders have been doing some of that work through the Sor group and so we're going to try and take a look and have an alignment so that we don't have two or three different vision and mission statements as a city they are similar they're not worlds apart and you did send those to us staff did and so they are there's definitely overlap there we we just want to make sure that there aren't contradictions or exclusions in either one mayor I think also the community is a practice any council member would be free to come and participate in any of those we'll get you the meeting times um we're supposed to get that soon um so we'll send that out to you and if you're available for one of those please jump in yeah we do have a a handout that describes what those are um which I think maybe we can send that out what Nick had put together for the P house yeah I'll just make sure that we have the most recent update and then um I think Daniel said he would have a schedule put together soon this week yes MH exciting stuff very good anything else thank you Mr Nolan I appreciate the update we'll look forward to more and uh continue the great work thank you thank you all thank you thank you all right jumping back ahead item number 10 is resolution approving our budget amendment number two adjustment number two Tom as part of the fiveyear cap Improvement plan the city council set aside $400,000 of fund balance for the police department for for a purchase of a vehicle to replace the humby that the federal government donated I think many of you probably saw it out back today um that being said um we'd like to offer a budget adjustment number two for $400,000 use a fund balance in the general fund in order to pay for that I'm sure Dustin or chief mckin might have something to say about the vehicle so sure yeah for us it's uh you know taking a look we talk about you know next 20 years this is really a 30-year vehicle for us uh an investment in uh our current officers our younger officers and the officers that will come uh we did get the hve about a decade ago and it was a hand-me down at the time and we'll ultimately go back to the military uh what we found is it certainly was a step up from not having anything uh we have used it it has protected our officers it has protected our citizens but it does have some limitations uh we went to Albert Lee a couple years ago with an active shooter uh uh we were on the perimeter we weren't able to get close it's simply not enclosed um and KO had sent a unit like the one you saw over they were actually able to get close you know work on getting people into the building and things like that that vehicle was shot during that particular engagement and it did protect the folks inside um you know a little over a year ago Burnsville had their incident and well that did have the loss initial loss of of three people's lives they also used a similar vehicle to again protect those at the scene that also came under Fire was able to protect the officers and that's just a little bit unfortunately the nature of of even places like Austin Albert Lee where those events can come up uh this this would be 30 years uh of making investment protecting the staff um with the limitations the humy again we've had it 10 years it was decades old and we've gotten it we're having some delamination of the windows to where ultimately it's not going to be usable and we just can't get Replacements from the federal government and so this is just an opportunity to uh make that investment replace that unit and and let us use that for uh we use it for negotiating we use it to get close to places but really protect uh protect our staff for the next 30 Years so thank you excellent thanks Chief and I appreciate the four officers here in attendance and whoever got the contact with Albert Lee I appreciate maybe Dustin Hicks might have made that contact so I appreciate Albert Lee bringing that over and just just uh I know I speak for this whole Council in the city of Austin when I just want to say to the Austin PD we fully support you guys I understand you know being short staff it's difficult times but if we can do anything and this this Bearcat is certainly an investment Like Chief mckin said for the future but we want to act uh you know prudently also and protect your your Safety and Security and and what you do for the the city so uh I I think it's going to take about a year a little better to make but the money will be will be spent and and we're looking forward to getting that bear cat again appreciate what you guys do for us uh any other questions for this approving the budget adjustment for the Bearcat and wel to approve second Tom council member posma I heli I pusta hi fiser I Waller hi Basin hi council member large Austin I resolution passes 70 your honor thank you Tom uh moving on to item number 11 is a series of requests approving the Cannabis ordinance a motion approving or the preparation of the ordinance uh we discussed that at last meeting um looking for a uh motion uh for preparation of the ordinance as moved second all in favor I I oppos Tom motion by council member Fisher second by council member posma for a motion to prepare the ordinance so an I vote is in favor of such council member posma hi heli hi pusta hi Fisher hi Waller hi Basin I counc large Austin n motion passes 61 your honor thank you Tom I number 11b is adoption of the ordinance so we move second Tom council member posma hi heli I pusta Fisher I Waller hi Basin hi council at large Austin n ordinance passes 61 since this is the second reading your honor thanks Tom I have number 11 C is summary publication of the ordinance so moved second Tom council member posma hi heli hi pusta hi Fisher hi Waller hi Basin hi council member at large Austin I resolution passes 70 your H okay number 12 is approving a budget adjustment number three to the Central Garage fund Tom here we are two meetings in and we're already on our third budget adjustment for the year I think last year I so we're on a little record here we're buying cool stuff though yeah we are buying cool stuff um we had two requests one from park and rec department and one from the public works department um I believe they uh field groomer is shot they need to replace it so uh Mr Sean and his staff have looked at using the exist exting budget within the central garage fund to reduce the egg tractor $24,000 from the bud original budget eliminate a gator for $1,000 and those savings would allow them to buy a new Toro field Pro field groomer um so that's a net net zero in addition to that week or so ago public works department received information from the county on the chipper that we jointly share 30 years old needs about at least 25 Grand worth of uh repair and they're not convinced that will fix it so instead they're looking at allocating $115,000 fund balance out to buy a new Tripper with the county as a joint purchase again as opposed to investing more money into a 30-year old piece of equipment with that being said we would request budget adjustment number three which would a authorize the public works department to go into that uh program with the county and then B would allow the park and rec department to get the field groomer and not increase their budget a lot in force such very good thank you Council any questions from Mr Daner I was looking for a uh approving the budget adjust number three Central Garage fund all moved second Tom council member posma hi heli hi pusta hi Fisher hi Waller hi Basin hi council member large Austin hi resolution passes 70 your honor thank you uh item number 13 is a motion approve proving a preliminary preliminary plat for Nature's Ridge fourth subdivision Holly yeah this uh application was brought by Nature Ridge properties of Austin uh during the January 14th 2025 meeting of the Austin Planning Commission the commission reviewed the nature Ridge forth preliminary plat and uh this particular proposed subdivision would uh fill out the space available within the boundaries of what uh nature Ridge properties owns in that area um the property is uh located between 13th Place Northeast and 20th Street Northeast um it is west of the horal nature center and uh consists of approximately 12.5 acres and the proposed uh subdivision is 30 Lots after reviewing with five Planning Commission Commissioners present the commission voted unanimously uh 5 to zero to approve the preliminary plat as proposed with the following condition one uh final approval by the city engineer and Austin utilities two that a development agreement and civil drawings detailing all facets of the construction and any remaining minimum subdivision standards required for the pending project be submitted along with the final plat the final plat shall be submitted and approved within six months of approval of the preliminary plat all applicable provisions of the subdivision code and permitting agency shall be met uh and then there's a strip a 30 foot strip at the the North End of the subdivision that we're still talking about how that should be uh handled there's a burm in that area uh related to storm water um and that that issue should be resolved before the final plat is approved um we do not have a date for that at this time but there is a compressed timeline due to Unique aspects of this uh project was which includes a partnership with the city and uh nature rid properties of Austin and and um Stephen will talk a little bit more about that but uh the uh yeah that's it you have any questions about the uh Planning Commission action or recommendation thanks hly seems like we just did the three third plat about six months ago maybe now we're on the fourth plat it's good there's movement out there years going that then Stephen you have something to add to that yeah I do I just wanted to talk a little bit about next steps so Holly mentioned um what some of those next steps are with the final plat the development agreement which are normal things that we do as part of a residential development but uh some unique things with this project is um we are going to look at uh constructing the project with um the city format for Street reconstruction where the city will get involved we will publicly bid the project and then we will assess the project cost back to these 30 Lots so essentially the city is becoming the funding entity for this project it allows us to be a little bit more involved with the infrastructure construction to ensure that the work is getting completed according to our our normal standards it also helps us to ensure that timelines are being met as it will be under our control or under our oversight and it also helps out the developer in that we are becoming the lending agency and those costs are assessed back to the property working with um our City attorney necessary agreements right now so that um the costs this fall after construction was complete we would have the final assessment hearing and those costs would then show up on those empty lots in the spring of 2026 and once those lots are sold to a builder or uh another entity that cost would need to be paid but we would treat it like a regular Street assessment where it could be spread out over 15 years with interest and that whole process but then once that lot changes hands from the original developer the amount would need to be paid so uh little unique project and you'll be hearing more about it in the future as we bring forward uh the assessment roles for this area and some of the uh will be award um developing the project plans and specs and awarding the project so there'll be more involvement with this one than what you normally see on a on a residential development excellent I think I would just add I think because of the timeline with the assessment we were trying to bring this back to council the second meeting in February is that right yeah February okay excent thank you Council any questions uh I have a question can you talk a little bit about what risks there might be to the community if um the housing doesn't get built for whatever reason um and what you're doing to sort of mitigate those risks I happen to have heard about some history of um developing residential plats um because of my job so I'm just curious what you guys looked at and how you're mitigating risks well uh you could look back at Phase One of this development that started back in 2007 and it's at empty for not empty but slow slow construction for many years um that's always a possibility into the future our our intent with this is these assess ments would be spread out on their taxes like I mentioned over 15 years there's always risk to the city when um someone could uh walk away from those assessments um there's also risk to the developer as well so with anything that we do there's always inherent risk but we felt that this was a good way to promote development gave um a developer other options for funding sources with us uh playing that role so uh in weighing those different risk we felt that um this was a good kind of a good option to keep projects moving forward um similar to this Craig uh I'd also add the um project would be secured by the land so in the event that they defaulted then we would be owners of the land which puts us in potentially an interesting circumstance of being a developer which we're not necessarily interested in doing we could turn around sell that to another developer um to take it over as a as a possibility but we have the security of the land so that they would be walking away from that and protect us in that regard too thank thank you thank you yeah I would just I mean Stephen Craig Hy I would commend you guys for the creativity here because we know as we've talked about housing that we've heard you know over and over again it's like if we can just drisk this a little bit for the developer it makes such a difference in terms of making it financially feasible to build housing in Austin and so very supportive of it yeah obviously there's there's a level of risk but feels like we're going in with the the right approach so thank you for your creativity and that you're right on that the you know the hardest thing for the developers to come come up with that upfront capital for the major cost of the infrastructure so being patient for that but yet still being protected over the long run we're going to be here as an entity so yes there's risk but we can take a patient attitude with it so it help them along good work very good thank you looking for a motion FR number 13 so move second all in favor I opposed motion carries item number 14 is a motion requesting the sale of a sweeper Stephen in our CIP we've identified the replacement of this 2016 uh Elgen sweeper and we always look at options for how we get our best value out of a tradein and in this case uh we feel that selling this vehic vcle at auction Hamilton auction company gives us the best possible return um to apply those funds that we get from the sale to our new purchase so we would request Council approval to sell this sweeper at the upcoming Hamilton auction which is in early March excellent thank Stephen any questions councelor looking for a motion otherwise so moved second all in favor I I opposed sweeper goes to sale uh number 15 is a uh resolution approving the gambling permit premise permit for hay Hayward Fire Relief Association to sell eabs and and pull tab papers at Applebee's looking for a resolution so moved second uh Tom council member Postman I Ellie I pusta hi bisher I Waller hi Basin hi council member large Austin hi resolution passes 70 your honor very good uh are there any citizens present looking to address the council and items that weren't on the agenda hearing none honorary council member Cindy you have anything reports and recommendations correct uh we have cgmc legislative action day coming up on February 12th a couple of you have reached out to me if there's anyone else that would have interest uh please reach out otherwise that's all I have very good all right on the city council comments uh Becky I have nothing Jason I just wanted to note for the minutes um that today was the celebration of life for Bob Brinkman um you know Wonderful Life wonderful member of the community um incredibly involved in so many different things and so we certainly mourn his passing and thank him for all his contributions and his family are in our thoughts very good thanks Jason Mike nothing your honor Jeff uh nothing your honor nothing your honor well Jo uh just uh that the Human Rights Commission last night put on a wonderful dinner in honor of MLK Community dinner great turnout and a huge thank you to everyone that made that happen excellent thank you well um thank you officers for coming to the meeting and and listening paying attention and thanks for the things you do every day right just like to Echo Joyce's comment on that community meal yesterday that was very well attended and talk about a full service city council at the end of it uh council member Postman jump started a a patron of visitors uh car for him so thank you uh as you look for city council do everything they will do everything for you uh I want to highlight the January anniversaries we got a few folks here Lyn Thompson celebrating 28 years of the park and wreck Tim Brandt 27 years Street Department Trisha Brandon Park and wreck for 25 years Ernesto Cantu police for 25 brt stro police for 22 years Dustin wenberg with the police for 22 years uh Jamie grabau with the wastewater treatment plant for 19 years Melissa Wilson Finance for 17 Sarah steinhoff uh library of 15 years Jim McCoy fire 11 years I know that guy uh Josh Sim engineering 11 years Mike LS Street Department 10 years uh Nate haes from the police department nine years Mike bster sewer maintenance for 7 years Wanda Hatfield for with the clerk's Department uh three years and Damen shraer also with the police department for two years so thanks for all those folks that do a lot of great work on uh uh with our city department so with that look to meeting or motion to adjourn the meeting so moved second all in favor I I opposed we are adjourned we'll take about a 5 minute break till the work session