City Council - Regular Meeting

Good evening everyone. I'd like to welcome you to the April 20th city council work session. And I ask that you silence your devices, please. It's the almost to the close of a very busy Monday. So, welcome. At this time, I would like to recognize director of transportation, Mike Nun, to make a presentation to us.

Good evening, Mayor Council. Tonight uh we have a team from NC do and partial transportation group is going to present uh the proposed routes riding of Church Street as mentioned in the package from Tarlington uh to Fifth Street. This project was actually ongo if you will or pretty ready to to move forward in 2021. uh we delayed co other things with budgeting has not moved forward but thankfully now uh it's back in the discussion realm and we're here tonight to bring those proposals to you and talk about the one he's actually selected at the time for that before we begin to move forward more details on that so I'll turn to Michigan This is something else. All right. Good evening, Mayor and members of the Burlington City Council staff. I mean my name is and I am the project manager with park and transportation group and with me here is merit is our senior project and play associate. Okay, we are here to present the updated analysis from the US7 along along the US7 corridor from Tarton Avenue to West Street and uh to share our findings and our recommendations on the alternative that we have chosen for this project.

Okay. Uh okay. This study, this project is literally focused on the US7 in Burlington from Fton Avenue to West Street. It's along a major segment along the US70 corridor. It's kind of been labeled as a major arterial for the region and it's kind of pretty much connects US20 from near US 29 near Greensboro to I 85 near Eno. Our current current work is kind of to re-evaluate the NCD project 609. I mean we are updating the 2019 study that was done back uh prior to co time and using the NC approved traffic forecast from June 30th 2025. are looking at the three scenarios. Actually, we're doing we're looking at the 2025 no build conditions and the 2050 no build conditions and 2050 build conditions. So, the 20 the 2019 study examined four different build alternatives. Okay. with combination of two or four lanes and either raised medians or a center lane the two-way left turn. In this update, we are kind of pretty much focusing only on alternative one, the preferred build scenario and confirming its operational safety measurements. Okay, then just give you a little background about this project. This project kind of focuses on that 7 to I mentioned earlier where we kind of pretty much looking at how to handle the growing traffic through 2050 and improving safety and support the Burlington Graham NO's long range plan for this. The project was first included in the 2020 2029 state transportation

improvement project program but construction was delayed and reprogrammed due to co related fiscal constraints and rising costs. It's now programmed for construction in fiscal year 2030. Uh our work kind of pretty much is evaluating the improvement such as the raised med or the center turn lane. We're going to reduce the rear end and left crashes and also can add a 14t outside lanes that can better accommodate bicycles and new or upgraded sidewalks in coordination with the city. All of this is being done with within the framework of current traffic forecasts, environmental reviews and federal air quality and community impacts requirements. So just to kind of give you a little background I mean back in 2019 capacity analysis was done traffic capacity analysis was done and we evaluated four alternative on US7 alternatives one and two used a 17 and a half foot graze medium with right in right out access at most minor streets and full median openings at key locations like the intersection of Country Club and West Kitchen, Carolina and Royal Brook, West Kime, and West Streets. Alternative three and four instead used a two-way left turns. Based on both operations and safety, alternatives one and two would raise mediums performed based on our study the best. and 20 and there was a study done a joint venture between NC State and NC DOT back in 2004 that kind of supported

the raised medians as safer than set up turn lanes. Alternative one and two. Alternative one uses a two-lane race, has slightly more delay than the fourlane option, but still meets the acceptable level of service and uh better supports a road diet than multi model needs, making it a strong preferred concept based on coordination with the city of Burlington. The concept was defined from a five lane uh undivided or four lane median section to a two-lane divided. Uh and we had to introduce the concept of road diet to the point which has minimal level of service impacts and reduce reduces the property impacts such as rightways, acquisitions and so forth and improves safety. The multimodal approach has shifted from corridor bike lanes towards a 10- foot multi-use path on the north side and a 5-foot sidewalk on the south side and improve the pedestrian access and crossing near the park at Church Street and Main Street consistent with the city's connectivity goals. Okay, moving forward. That was up to 2019. Then the project was put on hold. Okay. And it stayed Norman for about 6 years and they got restarted last year. NCD wanted to go ahead and restart the project. So before we went ahead and restarted the project, we we needed to update the information that we got. So we needed an updated traffic forecast and we needed an update crash history for that segment.

So a crash history and safety analysis was conducted early this year just to come up with new data and we reviewed the most five the re that we we reviewed the most recent five years of crash data. We took the data from 2021 to 2025 and at the crash rates along the segments what we found is pretty higher than the statewide average and uh for for a similar four lane urban highway and there were four severe crashes along that segment we found out including a left turn crashes at North Main and West Fifth Street and a head-on collision and unfortunately a pedestrian fatality on that stretch. Statewide data showed that converting from four lane undivided road to a two-lane divided road with a raised median reduces total fatal and injury crashes by a large margin. So that's why alternative one that we came up with again with a raised medium and turn lanes is expected to provide a substantial safety improvements you know overexisting conditions. Okay. So knowing that much so we went ahead and conducted our 2025 capacity analysis and the finding that we came up with is using the updated NCDOT traffic forecast that was done last year. We analyzed three scenarios. the 2025 no build condition and the 20 future year 2050 no build and the future year 2050 build condition for the chosen alternative which is alternative one under the no build condition the signals along the rail operate well and actually they operate at a level service but that's

with the no condition but several side street approaches dropped to a level of service ENF which is below our minimum. Our minimum is level so to speak. So especially by 2050. So with the 2050 build alternative condition, the major intersections operate at level service C which is above the minimum or better. and most minor approaches at at level service D or better which like I said level service D is our minimum exception to level service with only few remaining operate at level service ENF movement or low volume side streets and what in a little bit when once we go through the design we show those minor streets where we had a level service ENF we created a medium brakes to alleviate some of those issues. And while some turn movements see longer cues, they don't spill back or fail to clear. So the signals operate just fine. And overall, alternative one provides acceptable operations through future year 2015 and supports a road diet, reduces conflict points with a raised medium and better accommodates multimodal trail. The key priorities that we came out of this is preserve landscaping near the main street, right in right access to the out region. and maintain a 35 mph speed limit along the route and improve school access, pedestrian safety and access management and utilities and geometry inside districts.

So the design worked just perfect and I think back in that the city of Burlington has kind of agreed on the design and we moved forward and and we're going to show you now we got into the design and okay what we have on the top we have an a photo and we have you're not going to see it here but we'll zoom in a little bit once we get to the design. We have we have kind of overlaid our proposed design of the existing oral for the project and it goes from on the left side from main street all the way to fifth uh west fifth street on the right side in the bottom here just give you a cross-section of the proposed two lane section where we have a two lane two 12t lanes with on the south side we show the 5ft sidewalk and on the northern side we show the 10 foot multi-use path that's been designed on the far right in the bottom that's the miss south main street where we kind of realign south main street and converted it from a stop condition to a signal condition and created crosswalks so people can have easy access to the park from the north side and from the south side now we can zoom in to the just Quick question on the crosssection. Do you have is there vegetative separation between the curb and the sidewalk and multi-use path or is it directly on the curve?

It's 2 and 1/2 ft on either side. Okay. So, there's a separation.

There is a separation between that curve. Okay, this is just kind of show you this is we we overlaid our proposed uh design on top of the existing condition. So you see the south main street. We converted that to a signal and we showed the uh crosswalks from the northern side and from to the south side and uh we show the number of planes coming in. We got uh move. Okay. So what we did is we maintained the signal at country club and kitchen street and then we have a raised media all across the project. Keep all the way. And then we have a medium break at uh Carolina and Will Brook. And then we have another medium break at K Street where people can able to make a left turn. And then we have a raised medium all the way until the next signal which is at fifth street. So technically what we have is we have arranged them all the way all the way we have three singles fifth street and uh uh right there. Yeah the country club and south lane and all that kind of tied in with the Avenue signal system. So it's part of the coordinated signal system. So

and also we have a easy access to the algorithm where we have a right and right apps and also for the schools. Yeah. Uh it's right now it's red.

We have a cover right there. So with this road diet well we I mean we just kind of we're trying to create a win-win situation you know where we can minimize our right away in acquisition as much as we can you know and maintaining the utilities. This is going to be also another topic that we'll kind of tackle once we proceed with the design and uh and also kind of pretty much preserve the right kind of right house along the northern stretch to the arito and to the schools and created a more kind of easier transition to traffic. Okay. I'm just going to add on to what I'm was saying. Um the the South Church Street, it's US70 is considered a urban arterial. Uh the wagon between Charlton and West Fifth Street. The posted speed is 35. We designed it for 40 40 mph. The typical section as he alluded to is carbon gutter section with the 17 1/2 ft raised medium to be grass. Uh at the intersections they would neck down with left turn lanes being 12t lane and 4ft concrete idle to separate the traffic. The BMS uh would be 10t with the 5ft sidewalk and you would have 14t burn on the north side which would have the 10ft multi-use path. Uh let's see the uh the existing pavement width varies from 48 to 68 ft. It's primarily uh 44T that is accommodating the the four 11t lanes

that's currently out there today with the curb gutter. Uh the I guess at the beginning of project at the end of the project it's a little bit wider as we kind of transition out. Uh existing rideway varies from 66 to 90 ft and again it's primarily 66 ft within the main corridor and just kind of widens out at the beginning and end of the project. Uh there's 74 parcels that are fall in this corridor or are impacted. um at least through the limits that we were able to uh to uh to at least well within the constraints of our survey data at the time. This was in 2018. So we've uh gone through with preliminary rightway impacts and 74 parcels would have some type of rightway impact or take um or I'm sorry 2/3 of those 49 parcels would would have some type of way impact. All those parcels would have some type of temporary construction ement whether it's just slopes because a lot of this just falls within the existing footprint of what's out there today. Uh so you would have uh those slope impacts. Um we didn't really uh at the time we didn't have any hydraulic analysis that was done. We were not contracted or at that point it just had never materialized. Uh so the color that's out there at the arburetum uh we I based on the construction limits that we do have we anticipate that on the south side there would be a potential extension of the culver that's

11t x 5t box culbert um I I think um and then I guess to minimize some of the other impacts we did place So I think we have the other map that shows just the mapping that I mean that doesn't matter. It's um we there's currently about six retaining walls out there. um one at the beginning of the project there's a car dealership u there's apparently a retaining wall and and um I think uh three toward the end of the project on the north side and then two um let's see two I guess yeah two in the middle like I guess church street and West Summit and Carolina Avenue. So, right at the beginning right there, there's see the text it's kind of pointing out to at the very beginning um on that first parcel. So, all these retaining walls are where walls already exist. U we're just trying to lessen the impact to their parcel. Um, we were able to preserve the retaining wall in front of the arboritum. Uh, the slope stakes do extend past the wall, but it's not significant. I think we can grade to the existing wall. Um, I can't say without the hydraulic analysis not being done that there wouldn't be an extension on that side um on the north side.

And I think that's about all I had to really add on to uh what I had already laid out. Uh we're welcome to take any questions that anybody may have. Thank you. Questions from council. Got a few. Um so just to clarify the initial proposal you talked about 14 play outside this is just 10 mult.

Yeah the they initially were uh going to have those uh I believe it was going to be on both sides but then they decided to just what they moved toward the multi-use path and alleviate that two foot which is good to keep the multimodal off street. So, appreciate that. Um, you mentioned it's it's posted at 35, but the design spec was 40 miles per hour. Can you explain that a little more? We have two schools and two parks right here.

Right. I mean, we typically depending on the type of facility, we always design for 5 miles over just that that's just been standard NC DOT protocol. um that always we we come up with the design criteria at the beginning of the project and uh if we're directed to lower it than we would but uh you know for highways we would typically go 10 miles over design over that usually kind of pretty much the design speed is 5 miles hour over the post speed.

Okay. So kind of pretty much our design we we designed the road for let's say for 40 miles per hour but actually our closest speed will be 35 miles per hour and once the project is opened up usually our traffic folks will go out there we might use the ball bank indicator for all the curves and measure the speed along the major arterial and decide whether we want to stick with the 40 mile design as opposed speed or just stick with the norms which is 5 miles per hour below the design On average, it's always we follow ASHA guidelines and ash guidelines. The closest speed is 5 miles less than the actual design. What would be the design differences if this were designed for 35 miles?

If it was designed for 35 mph, it's going to then go down to 25 mph. You know, I mean, it would still it would still be pretty much where it is now. It's just uh between the 5 mph difference in the charts that we use for acceptable radius and super elevation. Uh it it wouldn't vary much from where we're at now. It would I would say that uh majority of the curves would come and stay exactly where they're at now. Does it change lane width at all?

It wouldn't change lane width. uh we would still stay with what we have set out with you know as far as the the 12T and that's the beauty about having this broad diet you know once you know we're able to maintain the a lot of the existing features yeah and maintain the landscaping around the area you know having good access safe speed you know for pedestrians and and create a more of a multimodel feature for the design does it increase your level of service computations.

Yeah. I mean level service I mean like what we came up with we came up with for this stretch level service. Okay. which is kind of pretty much way above the minimum you know I mean you can go much higher you know you have better level service but that's not really I mean make a difference you know as long as you maintain the level of service being above I mean we have an acceptable design and we can use designs if warranted if there was an area where we couldn't quite meet 35 m an hour we can certainly uh put in a request or a design exception. It would be approved by NC do and that that applies vertically to vertical lines as well. Okay, we want to appreciate alternative one over alternatives three or I guess two and four lane cross-sections were just the reduced impact on a right of way acquisition and the businesses and properties along this. So, thank you for prioritizing this one. Uh I had another question regarding um crossing for multimmoal traffic at the arburitum and then Glenwood. Glenwood is our cycle route one um crossing currently. Um so our cross town bicycle route is cycle route one that uses Glenwood. So with the median now on Glenwood, did you make any adjustments for cycle crossing there or would that traffic need to move Caroline Avenue? Uh keep going to the east little bit further.

So there's a stopwide elimination at CL that yes there is no stoplight there. Yeah. Well, we what we created we created medium breaks, you know. Yeah. I think he's alluding to whether there was any bicycles or pedestrian accommodations crossing Church Street.

Yeah. So, it's two separate issues. One would be I we've talked about this before in other contexts that are the arburitum has lots of foot traffic. There's no good crossing there. The sight lines aren't great. But then Glenwood is also our cycle route one within the city. So our multimodal network and so this doesn't seem to allow for any types of crossing at Glenwood for multimodal.

So in the center is the arboritum is and Glenwood would be up. It's off the map to the west. It's further to the west. One more. Yeah. So the far far west the right in right out. That's cycle route one. I mean that's I mean if that's one of your your um your plan for pedestrian or bicycle pre-existing

pre-existing then we would likely put a break in there uh for pedestrian and put in pedestrian signal. is uh we could accommodate that with breaking medium high visibility crosswalks and also we can explore the option of having a mid block crossing you know since we're having lower speed limits you know for traffic

yeah the one lane each way is hugely helpful with a refuge and so a vast improvement so just want to make sure that gets noted in the designations And then the last item I had was um if you go back towards Williams High School, I don't know if you all done any design studies. Uh if you observe pedestrian student behavior there, uh there's a lot of pedestrians who use the median as a refuge and do a diagonal cross. Um, so I would love to see some level of design that's a crossing deterrent to encourage folks to use the crossings that you've designed at the high school there.

Yeah, I can see that being you could go out there any day after. Yeah, we earlier today school didn't see a whole lot of crap. That's certainly uh something you can take into consideration different. Yeah. Just kind of to bring this up, you know, I mean the initial study was kind of pretty much coming to kind of focus on the through and turning movements. Okay.

You know, and uh once we came up with a plan and the road plan the project has stopped. So you know then now since we can proceed I mean we can create more you know design features and we can accommodate some. the comments that you got

and we didn't really specify but a lot of those left turn movements in the median they are most all of them are at least 200 ft and then a 90 ft or 100 foot taper uh I think I do not spill back into the traffic into the through traffic most of the right turn lanes are are more on 100 foot and 100 foot taper

yeah we don't know our simul ation model the same traffic and our simulation model can pretty much create all the cycles all clear all traffic is clear within one cycle. So even though they show some key build up along the main line but within one side traffic you know

thank you other questions all my questions I would put an asterisk on the 35 mph 40 mile like design specification above as we further on this to to really look at could we make The design is encouraging slower movement. Again, two parks, two schools, lots of student here. We already have six here by residents. Yeah, I mean it would still be posted at 35. People drive based on how ongoing issue know well. So, let's make sure the road feels obviously 35, not not 40.

40. Yeah. And they usually kind of with the raw diets, you know, the concept the raw diet kind of kind of illusion makes people kind of pretty much it moves us in the right direction. Correct. I'm saying if we're going to do all this work, let's make sure I mean I, you know, roundabouts would certainly help curtail some of that. I right where I live, there's schools and they have roundabouts actually right after the school entrance. They uh they definitely slow the traffic down. There aren't roundabouts. No, no, I don't know that you have room,

right? Disrupt the level of service pretty

Thanks. I'm recreational parks, so I'm pretty concerned about the um area from uh Rockwood O'Neal, Church Street all the way down uh to uh Will Brook Park. Uh, I probably looking around this room, I probably travel this street way more than anybody else in this room because I've been doing it almost 60 years and I go home and uh back and forth traffic. Plus, my office is right there. And so I'm in and out of that street all day. And uh number one I want to say that simulation on your cues on the flight in heavy traffic times like 5:00 in the afternoon. You don't get through those stop lights in one chain. It takes it takes several to get through that area. So and that's boots on the ground not simulation but I encountered it all the time. Number two, the sidewalk on the U south side of the Church Street from Overbrook to uh let's say Kitchen Street uh along Maine. Uh it's very narrow and flat on the curb and uh if you walk and that's a heavily walked street because of it surrounds the park. Um you feel like you're in the traffic. uh you know especially walking uh east and the traffic is coming behind you. You don't know what's going on. So is that going to be why that sidewalk? The sidewalk would be a 5ft sidewalk. You would have that 2 and 1/2t separation from the back of curb to sidewalk. Um depending on the project limits because it doesn't really extend back all the way to Overbrook. um unless you know unless the project limits get

altered but uh uh for our the purposes in our design like I mentioned the the beginning of the project didn't actually start until uh I think just after uh right before kitchen um it's not quite to main street so we couldn't assess any impact to those and and the tie in just because the survey data was I mean they had the mapping like the topo mapping but they didn't have the actual survey shots on the ground so we could put that into

but yeah that if if it were to be extended back to the the question but the answer would be yes we would widen the sidewalk we would widen it travel circles around our main part of our park it's a real big attraction for people walking for size. Uh that intersection that's a big improvement. I understand that's a it's a stoplight on on Church Street now where main church will or separate the church there. Correct.

Yes. Because that is I won't say it's a dangerous intersection, but it's a very tricky intersection because you got traffic coming off of Maine. It wants to go left on uh Church Street uh going west. Church Street runs east and west although it's named north and south. Anyway, if you look at the sun, you know, east and west uh and uh the traffic coming there to stop on Maine to turn left, plus the traffic coming down Church going uh west. Uh they have a a stop there, too. And it's very confusing to people that don't know that intersection. Nobody knows who's got the right away, you know. And I've seen I don't know how many near crashes and some crashes of people trying to turn uh left back on the on the main street and the person going the other way turning left to go down Church Street. And that is a thousand times or better improvement. So I'm happy to see that. That's been a a really terrible place for for a long long time. Uh and um uh certainly we're uh we're concerned there with all the uh traffic that comes in there. Uh City Park is our most used park. That's right in front of the amusement park area which is the most popular part of City Park. So there's traffic coming every which way there. Uh YMCA is right up the street. So lots of action on on Main Street going uh towards downtown. Uh and uh any help we can get in there is much appreciated. This it's really congested. And then we got a bus stop right past there too. So that's more traffic. But uh anyway uh and down towards Littlebrook. I appreciate that. One of the things we strive to do in Burlington is is connect our parks with safe pedestrian routes for people to

want to walk our our greenways and so forth. And um that is a very church street is a natural barrier to us because lots of our parks are on one side of church on the other side and you try to cross church it is very difficult unless it's a signal there and Will Brook Park does not have a signal. So people that like go from little rock to city park or vice versa it's it's hard to get across church street there. So, I appreciate what you're doing and uh Mike, thank you very much for that. But, uh, and I I'm not criticizing. I'm just trying to point out from somebody that's been there a long long time. And we we're kind of still in the early stages the design. I mean, like I said, I mean, once the concept was uh we came up with the concept, CO came along. So everything was pressed down picked up last year and here we are and we can move forward you know

this is what you see is just a basic concept you know of the rope diet that we came up with and uh it's subject for finetuning it's a fine tuning process certainly

thank you bring up a good point the western boundary of this um between Carlton western boundary of this and Rockwood I think this project falls into one DOT project and then there's the uh Hill Road project that's in another one, but I think that's a gap that's not stored in either projects. Um, so it's not necessarily going to have action that would ever build a multi-use path. So I think I would love for kind of staff council to keep an eye on that gap because that's also a couple parcels that are unlikely to redevelop. So basically from Alamance Road to the Main Street Journal um

well I think more particular from Rockwood O'Neal to where this multi path is going to end. Okay, would be something that I think we we're going to need to explore how we play that gap. Um because there's unlikely to be a DOT project to score those three blocks because there's not a DOT lead necessary there. So we can ask our traffic to know of another DOT project to pay attention to that. Yeah. Like can we figure out a way to run a concurrent project

that would connect the end of that multi-use path to rock deal and the the bike there because there's also no pedestrian crossing options back. So that would allow folks the opportunity to get over. So sidewalks I'm looking I'm looking at Mr. our sidewalks and streets could I traffic commission and sidewalk.

Well, there there is there's there's two issues that will go on here that the only thing we miss park section. So hopefully if so desire we would have the great opportunity to build it ourselves and put it in front of yeah there's a section that goes on the run project that's preliminary right now that includes uh up to the park sign that block once you cross in front of that restaurant. So it's all preliminary you know but in the end we would be the last piece and hopefully be able to get that bill since we don't Yeah. Thank you. Thank you so much for your presentation. You're welcome.

And next on our agenda, we have um I want to recognize city engineer Andy Ratler to um update us on the streets. Thank you. Good evening, Mayor Council. I'm here with Spencer and John Glasco where now they're consultants on this project and we're here to give you an update on the streetscape project. So, this project actually goes back quite some time. probably 2008 was when they first started outlining the need for improvements and doing a streetcape project. It was also, you know, picked up by some of the downtown parking plans and then various numbers of, you know, ways to um gain public input from having meetings with the general public, business owners, council, work sessions, resolutions to pass uh requests for funding with newcomers. We have the go bonds. We have um definitely been putting in a significant amount of effort trying to get ideas and the concerns and you know good things that we could actually provide. We won't go into all those in great detail. This is one of the conceptual plans that council approved showing that there are more sidewalks in many of the areas but there's parking lots. reduce the

sidewalk and so that we could actually have more on street parking without the uh additional sidewalks. And it even showed a raised intersection here at uh Front and Main Street. Many of those public meetings that we had provided input and ways that we tried to incorporate into the project. Safety was a big concern. We wanted to make sure that that was very front and center, whether that was ADA compliance and accessibility or traffic um control and traffic calming by raised intersections and also having cameras out there. We wanted outdoor dining to be an option for the restaurants that we have downtown. We also wanted to look at doing infrastructure upgrades that were necessary above and beyond the water and the sewer upgrades that we are currently doing. That might be storm water improvements or it might be replacing new street lights, pedestrian lights to provide better uh lighting out there. We also wanted to have uh access and loading and unloading zones with the paramount as that became, you know, a front and center item of this downtown. We wanted front street to be pedestriancentric and it's going to be the model for the rest of the streetscape project as we move forward throughout the rest of downtown. of the major phases. We wanted to move up this particular the this twob block section on Front Street and Spring Street adjacent to the Paramount to coincide with the grand opening and the soft roll out of the first event in December of 2026 as well as the new commerce funding needed to be spent by December of 2026. So, we pulled this section out and we're using this also to create, you know, some additional uh availability for the special events that we hold downtown. Public safety, IT and broadband, vegetation and beautifification, just some of the things that we were also considering. With that, I will turn it over to

Spencer, who will speak to the actual design that we came up with for these two blocks. And as you can see, we've um we took all the community input and the goals of staff. We're really trying to bring it together into this uh phase. And between that and really trying to set this as like with this being the initial phase of the project of one set, you know, set that cornerstone for the downtown for future um development. Um, as you can see, um, going from Main Street on Front Street, we incorporate, uh, two raised intersections and we do, um, bringing the curb lines in, doing a little bit of road down. really trying to put the focus on pedestrian safety and then and just that environment of people being downtown and want to walk from side to side, being able to sit down, you know, enjoy a meal together, um, grab some ice cream and coffee and just really enjoy the outdoor space, not worrying about the speed of cars. So that's one of the main focus re reasons why we want to use raised intersections um is provide that safety for the pedestrians but also to help reduce you know some of the traffic speeds going through downtown. Um some of the other things we uh looked at was at the intersections we're also introducing some ballers just to pro provide some separation from people and pedestrian traffic with it being a race condition that could be potential hazardous and also with that being able to use that for special events downtown to help provide that safety barrier uh for police. We've been able to work with the police department and also the fire department requirement site throughout this project. Um, as you can also see, and John will elaborate this a little more, is just improve some of the landscaping, some of just the design downtown. Try to take what downtown already has, just build a contract. Some other things uh with parking, we're maintaining the same number of parking

spaces in this area, but we are also almost doubling the sidewalk on the north side there. for some of the restaurants to be able to provide even additional more outdoor seating space. Um, you know, some of the other things we uh are able to do, we're providing opportunity for the city to have some of their own electrical needs. Um, we across the street from Paramont Theater on Spring Street where we have a couple food truck festivals. So, if there's any events that food trucks could be able to park there and plug in and not have to use outdoor generators. Um, we also have throughout all the tree wells. We're providing um we're providing some outlets for holiday lights and then also some additional outlets throughout just for being able to plug in. If you have a festival bolt, they can easily plug into the city be able to cut those off and on as needed. some of the infrastructure improvements we're making to um outside of just electrical, we are introducing new lighting. We're focus on some big lighting at the intersections, make sure those are staying nice and lit. Also provides more pedestrian lighting throughout the corridor of the project area. We're also uh we examined some storm water infrastructure that was in place in some areas and found that some of those are starting to fall apart. So, we are replacing those. We're also improving it throughout the project area. Uh, oh yeah, one thing I was going to pass on to with the raised intersection just kind of give you a better idea if you don't know what they are. Raise intersections also called tabletops. It just provides the intersection is at the same level as your sidewalks and helps provide um just a safety bar kind of like a speed bump. Um, it forces cars and trucks to slow down and makes it a little bit more welcoming for pedestrians across.

So, I'll talk a little bit about the details of this project. So, again, as Spencer mentioned, that wider sidewalk, um, we're trying to set the tone and set a a language that is implemented in this part of downtown, but can also be implemented in future phases. So thinking about the brick banding um as you saw on the renderings um what we see here is on the north side um of of Front Street. So you've got um approximately 10 foot wide concrete sidewalk which is really more geared towards moving for pedestrian move back and forth. And then you've got an approximately 8 to 9 foot brick banded area that becomes more of that space for seating for outdoor dining. Um, it gives the restaurants a chance to kind of have space for tables so that the outdoor dining and pedestrian activity can can intermix. Um, you'll see we've got tree grates there. It's the same tree grid that you all have now downtown. We will change out the logo to the current logo. So, not stuck with the rover logo. Um, concrete paving again will look just very similar to what you already have out front of beer works. In other areas, that same sort of scoring pattern, that 5x5 pattern. Um, as far as the brick branding, we're carrying this theme really throughout the um, scope of our downtown or our section of the downtown project, which will again carry out throughout. Um, we've got this nice darker kind of red uh, banding that that sort of defines that that area and then more of a tanner um, brown color brick that will create that uh, paper field. Um, thinking about the different patterns as well. Um, so really using that that breaking to help define those spaces. And on the south side, um, well, on the south side of the street, we're not going to have as wide of a sidewalk, but we are still trying to keep that same brick banding. In this case, we've got the tree grade with another 4T beyond it. on the south side of the street. We've got just really that great becomes that sort of a boundary for the

So you can see on this south side it's a little bit more of a narrow because we have the parking, we have less sidewalk work, but still trying to create those spaces. On the north side you've got a little bit wider space. And again, that language can be carried out throughout downtown as we go further into future phases. whether it's spaces that are tight and narrow, you've got a language areas where you may want to incorporate top of the dining, you have different language that still kind of speaks together. Um, and then you can see we've got some benches and planters there. Go back to the detail slide. So, uh, thinking about the benches, um, this would become a basically a downtown standard. Um, the 6T metal slat bench. It fits with some of the character that's already been started with the trash cans. uh taking the color black, it's going to blend in a little bit more to the landscape, not be as noticeable, still comfortable to sit on. Uh the trash cans and receptacles. Again, the same thing that you already have downtown, but in black. Again, to help sort of blend into the landscape a little bit. Um Spencer had mentioned the ballard as intersections. So, thinking a little bit more of a modern ballard. Um again, this will be a flash right now, just the product. So, again, try to think about how all these elements really work together. And then um we want to have a little bit more fun. So the Paramount Theater, a big showcase piece. Uh we want to do something a little bit different. So thinking about these uh more of a custom curved bench um to give a little bit more whimsy to it, a little bit more fun. Uh thinking about instead of the metal straps, it becomes wood straps. Uh you can see it there. You want one in each corner of the Paramount. Uh and what that does really is gives the user a chance to sit facing either direction. So, um, day in and day out, you want to have a sit, you know, just, uh, you can look out up the street while you're waiting for your, uh, partner who's in a different store or on on event night, um, it's a place to spill out during intermission. It's a place to hang out before the show or after the show, facing both ways. So, it really becomes a a very useful bench.

Um, navigation won't be used throughout downtown a whole lot, but can be used in unique places. Maybe except for a library, maybe it's in front of a park. Things that'll be be kind of figured out later. So, think about landscape, you know, really think about how we can um provide a human scale, a softer scale to down a lot of concrete, a lot of brick. How can we kind of soften that a little bit? So, uh, these aren't the exact trees. We're actually going to work with uh Amy and her and urban forester to really construct, you know, and local nurseries to find the exact right trees. But again, thinking about canopy and shade trees to provide shade. Uh they'll start off small, but over time they'll grow uh really big. What you can't see that we're actually really excited about is an underground um soil system. So think of you'll you'll praise them, you know, from forever ago, right? Um those will provide a structure for the sidewalk to sit on top of but will allow for that planting soil to be nice and loose and fluffy um and not get compacted. A lot of those roots to really grow the trees to grow really healthy. So it'll be a not something you can see necessarily, but you'll see the growth of the trees and the health of the trees. Um thinking about, you know, just simple plantings at the intersections. Uh things like ornamental grasses. We've got um some evergreen shrubs to help screen one of the utility features on Spring Street by Paramount. There's some big backflow preventers. This will help soften that. Don't think we can fully screen them as big as they are, but um again, thinking about trying to add color, add some softness to it. Um you're looking at opportunities to incorporate planters. Uh so simple metal boxes uh with some simple uh planting schemes. Again, ordinary grasses. If uh the city wants to, they can incorporate annuals on a regular basis. So it gives that opportunity that flexibility. These blenders are also movable. Um so they can also be used to be moved around with forklift to um

block off streets if that's desired or they can be, you know, if you put in one spot they're not quite working, you can pick them up and move them pretty easily. So, um, and then thinking about the lighting, uh, you know, at the intersections, um, the big shoe box head that you are typical of overhead vehicle lights, the way to illuminate those intersections, but as soon as you get away from those intersections, a long door, a walking corridor, uh, the shorter, um, Mitchell open um, it's at more of a 15 to 20 foot height. It comes more that pedestrian scale. They're closer together, similar to what you have on Main Street, but just a little bit different. But again, it's the idea to provide the pedestrian scale um along the streets and then illuminate the intersections for safety.

So to you know continue what Spencer and John were talking about the drainage improvements that we see you know that may be needed because we're putting in a raised intersection of watering flow differently. Uh we are adding uh loading and unloading zones near the Paramount so that when caterers are coming in or an event is coming in they can use that area specifically for loading and unloading and then that turns into a great drop off pickup zone when if there is an event taking place. So if you want to drop off your spouse or your grandmother then you can drop them off there. and you know making those ADA improvements that are you know going to be easier for people to access getting on and off the sidewalk. We are looking at an alternate that we can add to the plan of creating additional ADA parking and where the Christmas tree used to be and whether or not that's something we want to add that that would aid the paramount uh patrons that are coming that you know making sure that there's adequate parking for them. I know that uh you know Scott and John have worked extensively with our broadband uh providers trying to get somebody to actually come in and partner with us to do downtown Wi-Fi and broadband. Unfortunately, we didn't have any takers. However, we are still going to be running fiber for the city's use and we are going to put in a conduit that's large enough that somebody that wants to come in in the future would be able to utilize that. So, it's something that hopefully will have some more interest down the line. Um, as they mentioned, the special events, the, you know, outlets for anybody to hook up to during the event that we want that to occur, we're actually going to be installing outlets that can be raised up and then dropped back down and be recessed into the sidewalk when they're not in use. The larger uh hookups for food trucks

and stuff will still be a pole like they are currently. um adding traffic cameras, you know, the 4P to actually be able to look at the pedestrians and the cost and everything that's going on downtown for that safety, you know, component. We're also looking at the soil scale systems for the healthy trees. New Life is going to partner with us to help with some of the plantings in the downtown. We have had Maggie reached out to businesses around the front street area and asked if there was any interest in on street uh dining and there there was definitely some interest there and everybody was interested in the fact that we aren't taking any parking spaces away. We're relocating some spring but they're still there. So, and we're going to add some of the ware signs that will help direct you to block parking and things like that. timeline. We're going to be moving pretty quickly because we mentioned that uh the Paramount stop roll out is going to be December 4th and the new commerce grant needs to have those funds expended, excuse me, by the end of the year. So, we have already actually advertised this project. We're having the pre- bid meeting next week and on May 21st, we'll have the bid opening shortly thereafter. will tabulate the bids, bring it to council for approval of the construction project and that construction will take place June through December and we hope that we will get that uh moved through quickly. There are going to be inconveniences as we know with construction. It's dirty. It's dusty. It's messy. It's muddy. It's not going to be, you know, something that is um what you want to take, you know, your kids out and see on the weekend. But what we will end up with at the end is some place that people want to uh showcase. We are going to have complete closures of Fright Street and Spring Street to allow contractors to move more quickly. That's going to be

one of the main things we're focusing on. Get in, get out, get done. um they will be maintaining ADA compliance um access to the businesses. There's either going to be 5 ft that's adjacent to the building um or they're going to have 5T adjacent to the curb while that work is going on with barriers in between to provide safety component. Occasionally they you know going to be doing some night work whether it's there is only one entrance to the business and we need to pour the concrete right in front of their door. That might be something that we uh do in the evening. It's not going to be something we do every night and just you know on a case by case basis if it's needed use high test high quick set concrete and then you know there may be some brief water outages if we have to relocate some of the meters and any of the downtown residents that actually live in above the businesses will have access at all times to their home. And we are going to be working to provide additional marketing to say sidewalks are open, businesses are open, and make sure that, you know, that is obvious to anybody visiting downtown. Don't want to scare you too bad. Don't want you to, you know, think that this is going to be something that we are going to be able to accomplish without, you know, making a little bit of a mess in order to, you know, sometimes you have to scramble eggs to make your omelette. But um we do have updates that Maggie has been great about sending out for our downtown utility work and anybody can sign up for those that wants to and we are hoping that once we complete this section that it is a much more inviting place for everybody to come. This is one of the focal points for where our events are are held. I think we have worked with just about every single department at the city. I mean whether it was transportation, public works, you know, economic development, we you know it with broadband, the engineering, the you

know admin, we had uh public works, we you know have been working with that in addition to all of the input we had from businesses and residents, the city council throughout the project or the BBC or parking, you know, authority. So trying to incorporate all of this and make sure that you know we caught the highlights of everything that you know people wanted to see within reason and uh we hope to have that uh nice grand opening at Paron on December 4th and to be ready for those picture opportunities. Any questions?

The comment I'm excited to see this um especially the the state of our downtown streets right now. Um it's exciting to see um something to look forward to. Um yeah, before and after before and after. So you know there is good news at the end of the construction, but

it's something that you know we think we can definitely you know get to a point where you know this was one of the renderings that was done early on. It's not quite what we're going to be looking like because we will not have any of the traffic mask, but u I'm very excited for downtown and what we can make of it. Any questions?

Um, first off, since we have so many downtown events, I was curious if you explored any type of removable traffic barriers to prevent vehicles from traveling through a festival or downtown street. Yeah, we actually have um that's some that map we're actually going to be putting in. We just had a discussion this past week, but we're looking at um at a couple locations where we're going to put removable ballers. Okay.

And we're looking at a couple options to for one be able to place them, make sure that the crash tested to provide that staging, work with the police department, you know, try to find out what that level surface we need to make and um make also easy for maintenance personnel or city works to be able to actually install them. Um so we we've looked at a couple areas. So right now we're looking at constrainting at the intersection of front screen knowing that maybe we don't want to install somewhere else where it wouldn't be used in the future and maybe use some other alternatives. Front main

front idea is to carry those subsequent phases come along to introduce them where they make sense. putting them right now at front and main doesn't necessarily make sense because cars can come in and then all of a sudden stop and can't come around. So, we're going to make sure placed and appropriate that we don't create other issues. Um, working with the PD and looking at whether it's retractable or removed and we can set it aside and so we're working with Sean as well. So those are being considered and these are some permanent boards that are going to be on the sidewalk to make sure that cars stay where they're supposed to.

And then also just as I mentioned those those planters are movable so that should that be desired that they can be moved in place and that was one of the early thoughts but kind of we try to go more towards the grass but again those in place to help as additional barriers as well. Great. Um and second question was um have you all faced in any level of curbside management for like Door Dash and other type of operations that some of the restaurants don't utilize as you shifted parking around? You know it's been conversation lots of urban areas is how do you do that? So so you don't have cars stopping in lanes as they pick up deliveries and stuff like that. We do have a loading and unloading zone over here that is, you know, primarily used for the Paramount, but it's something that, you know, certainly could be looked at as a short-term parking spot. Um, and of course there are parking places on the south side of Front Street.

Any other questions? Thank you. Other questions?

Thank you so much. And next we have an update on storm water fee and credit policy. And I recognize Amy Barber. Thank you for allowing me to be back to talk about the storm water um proposed change. Um and tonight we'll talk about a credit policy is that we came up with um we'll cover six main areas today. Uh we're going to talk about what Smallar does which we have before the proposed credit policy. um qualifications for credit and financial implications on a cap. So, we're kind of jumping around a little bit, but it's really to address some questions that were outstanding from the last time we were here. So, our current services um we are currently meeting the status quo um which I think you know we've tried to communicate that in the past. Um we are uh maintaining our compliance with our city store permit as well as other store permits that we have throughout the city. Um we are managing a $1.2 million capital for capital improvements. Um and we have enough to do one watershed study at the moment. And then these other u activities that we have on here are um meeting compliance for our storm water permit. So, our proposed level of service, um,

one of the first meetings with council, uh, we presented a, uh, three different levels of service, and council, uh, agreed and showed the most interest in in one proposed level of service, and this is that level of service. Um so with additional funding that would um help to it would assist the capital improvement plan costs. So some of those projects for the capital improvement would be Main Street in Ireland, Chandler Avenue, Virginia Avenue replacement and the stream stabilization. Um it would help to enhance our 8020 cost share program. Um and then uh and very importantly it would allow for additional staff um and equipment for the stormwater division. Um basically right now we're very reactive and uh a fee change would allow us to be more proactive. So like I said we're kind of jumping all over. Um, but the last time we came, we discussed uh what does it look like to have a credit policy in place if we did change our fee structure to an ERG based fee. Um, so we did explore the different options. Um, we kind of nailed down one proposed credit fee um policy for your review which was included in your packet. Um, so that I'll just go over now. I'll go over the um just the ins and outs of that proposed credit policy. Um, it's per it's performance-based credit policy. So, it's not just a install it and forget about it. It's installing storm water control measures or other BMPPS that will actually make a difference um with the amount of runoff coming from a property. Um

it's emphasizes a very clear administrative um procedure. Um and with that clear administrative procedure um we have deadline we have application packets. We have a deadline for those applications and that aligns with other programs enforcement programs that or inspection programs excuse me that the stormwater division runs. Um so it would allow for um consistency with that deadline. Um so applicants for the credit policy would submit um required storm water control measure information to the city to the storm water division for review. Uh and I'll go over what those different options are, what they look like um in the coming slides. Um and as part of the administrative uh process, we would have compliance tracking as well. So our proposed credit policy overview, it's a three- tiered system. So tier one uh would be a 15% credit amount. Um and it would capture be best management practices to be installed would capture the first half inch of rain. Um which is pretty important um to get that first flush. Um May 31st would be the deadline for to submit applications, inspection reports if required or photographs, however we we end up tracking that. Um, and with tier one, we would require inspection or proof of function every 3 years instead of every year like we do with some of our larger engineered devices. Uh, tier 2 would be a 25% credit amount. Um, and these are stormwater control measures that meet uh, North Carolina Division of Environmental Qualities uh, minimum design criteria. So that's the

criteria that the stormwater division currently uses to inspect, review, um, and make sure that these SCMs are compliant. Um, so those those, uh, design specifications are already created for us. So we would just go by that that template. Again, it would be a May 31st um, of each year. Uh, application deadline. Um and each year the applicants would have to reertify. So through an annual inspection process they would um send in their annual inspection report to us um and that would basically allow them for that credit for the following suite. Um tier three would be a 40% reduction. So tier three is different from tier one and tier two specifically tier two um in that it is going above and beyond what we require now. So tier 2 is very much catered towards developments that were required to have an SDM or storm water control measure and they have one in place and they're meeting their current um requirements. Tier three is going above and beyond with that engineered design. Um so right now the uh SCMs are only required to meet a one-year storm event and tier three if they installed it would be um would manage a 10year 24-hour storm. So it would handle significantly more storm water runoff. Um and in some of these SDMs depending on space and and and and uh money of course um developments that currently have and are meeting our storm water requirement through their SCM they have the potential to upgrade that current SCM as well if there's if everything aligns.

Um so the SCM requirements um just some examples actually. So tier one rain gardens, permeable pavement, storm water wetlands, vegetated swailes um and these are best management practices that are recommended by um US EPA for storm water control for smaller properties. Um and I'll get into the cost of these SCMs as well because I know that was a question. Um, tier two would be like the SC that we see throughout the city now. So, your bio retention basins, your wet ponds, your sand filters, storm water wetlands, and there's some others as well that could be used. Tier three um would be uh basically what tier 2 SCMs are um but again designed to control a higher amount of storm water. So estimated fiscal impact um of the credit policy um we expect it to be manageable um on the total current base rate. Um tiers one and two combined are estimated to reduce the rate base by about 4%. Um or 1,725 erus. Um, tier 3 is negligible immediate impact. Um, but it it serves as an incentive for redevelopment and development to kind of go above and beyond. So, some estimated costs. Um, so rain gardens $1.15 to 460 per square foot. Of course, these these costs can vary. Um but these are um the sources that we got for these uh cost estimates are are pretty reliable. So um permeable pavement is a little bit more expensive and maintenance costs for permeable

pavement is up there. Um storm water wetland is an the most expensive option on here. However, it does provide um the most environmental impact. So um maintenance for each of these would still be required but maintenance for these is also except permeable pavement is also manageable. Um it can be done with volunteers. It can be done with by the community. So you don't have to be um specially trained necessarily to maintain some of these SC tier 2 and tier three. I looked those together because they are um basically the same device just engineered differently. Um so buyer retention basin 10 to $40 per square foot permeable pavement $30,000 to 100,000 and again these prices are going to these costs are going to vary based on size and and other factors. Um but this is just to give you an idea and same as tier one maintenance is going to be required. So, a revenue estimate. Um, this is a transition and my transitions are not smooth. I tried to come up with like a smooth transition for this, but we are, the last time I was here, we also talked about um a cap versus a non-cap. Um, so I'm going to go into comparing having a cap versus non-cap. Um, for tiers, I'm sorry. Um year five is when you're going to see um the biggest difference in having a cap versus not having a cap. Um there's about a $500,000 difference there in year five. So um that's what I really want to highlight highlight here. It's it's pretty small in the other year. The differences are pretty small um through year 1 through four.

So um before this chart makes sense u remember that one eru is is equivalent to an average size home for imperous surface. So um basically if if a if a development has 500 erus, they are shedding 500 homes worth of storm water runoff. Um so that's something I really I really want to highlight here. Um but this chart shows who is affected by the cap. Um and as you can see from this chart, the bottom um are the erus, the amount of erus. Um and then the uh y-axis is the um amount of properties that have that many erus. Um so as you can see it is a handful of properties uh small amount of properties that would be impacted by having that cap. Um and uh the majority of the properties have you know the lesser the 100 125 yards. So our uh recommendation at this point we're here to gather information, answer questions, and then move forward from there. Um, however, if if council is happy with where we're at and there's not very many questions, we do need to start thinking about a public hearing date for this fee change. Um, and so that's, you know, something I'm here to see if we are ready to discuss that. If we're not, no worries. Um, and then determine a potential adoptive and effective just a timeline. um something we can move forward and question.

So, thank you for working on this and for tolerating my questions outside. I appreciate questions.

Thank you. Um yes, I really appreciate what the like providing ideas and and helping businesses understand things that they can do to reduce their rate. Um so which is not just about reducing the rate, it's about making the storm water runoff manageable. Um so yes, thank you for that. Um I don't I don't know that I have a question. I know that we're going to be meeting um soon. Don't remember exactly when that is, but soon to have some conversation about um caps. Um, so I do wonder, well, let me just pause right there and say, does do other council members have questions, comments? I just was curious, can you just explain the relationship between the credit and then kind of the recalculation of eru for a property? So, if they made a change

and they asked to have their recalculated versus credit, right? So, are those do those both simultaneously or can somebody self- select whatever? So it would basically be determined by that application process and reertification. Um so by that May 31st deadline that's when we need to review everything for the next school year. Um so it can happen simultaneously but it won't be effective until the next fiscal year. Does that answer your question? Sort of. So I guess the credit would be an ongoing opportunity for business. Correct. But it has they have to reertify each year. Okay.

Or the tier one and tier three or tier two and tier three. Tier one would be resertification for three years. So alternatively a property owner could choose to reduce implementable service surface without actually implementing storm water control. Absolutely. And ask for so it's all those different options. Yes. Okay. Fantastic. Other questions? So, you asked if we could think about a public hearing date um if you're to that date and you know if you all are feel that we're ready and prepared for that but

you know I'm I'm thinking our next we we have another um work session coming up pretty quickly um two weeks I guess. Yeah. So, um I mean I wonder if if we could make that a target to actually set that public hearing. I guess we need two weeks for a public hearing question or actually set the public hearing after two weeks.

Yes. I mean so that we can say on May 4th work session um yes all all questions are settled and I maybe I'm the only one who has questions. And this is um I just want to throw in there that uh there's options to have a separate a separate public hearing date or um this is something that um Peggy you may be able to provide some input on is the um having the public hearing with the budget hearing. So that's kind of up to you on like what kind of makes sense, but that is an option. I think they'd be two separate public hearings. They could be on the same day if that was as quickly as we wanted to move because

most the budget public hearing most likely would be the first meeting in June. Um and if all went well, council adopted the fee change and part two would be when what would be the effective date? um we could not have an effective date of July one because there's a lot of stuff that needs to occur behind the scenes to get the data um for each property implement that in the billing system. So I I think the earliest if if we were to adopt anytime now say June the earliest it could be effective probably would be a January one. Um, and there's a lot of hoops we'd have to jump through to make sure that our billing system works. We think that's that would be a feasible timeline. And of course, it could be pushed back. I don't know that we can do it any quicker. It kind of makes sense either in January one or July one

to fill inside budget. It could be March. I mean, just be prated. And I would just add that yes, they could the two public hearings could be on the same night. We would just need to be clear which public hearing we're having, right? Right. Of course. Yeah. I mean, I think the budget public hearing is going to be a big significant public hearing. No, I mean, not that this one is not significant.

Yeah. the next time you present to us or is it an offline push of sample amounts for the cap amounts and how that impacts various business sizes? I thought we were moving in that direction, right? No. So, showing the the sample size for each of the businesses that are in Yeah, you showed that those columns, right, of the different sizes. Yeah, cuz you had concerns about who's paying how much and who's getting discounted how much.

We're not really seeing that unless I do the math by myself on each of those. I feel like we all want to look at the the total numbers of what each bucket's going to cost us with or without a cap. Not just the grand total amount, but the impact on various businesses, I think. If I'm wrong, tell me. Well, that information got emailed out. I didn't see it. Yeah, I I could reset that. Yeah, push push that again. I'll take a look at it. Maybe that'll answer my question. But if you want, I went through that spreadsheet and kind of both it just listed parcel and kind of owner, but I went through and was like, is this apartment? Is this industrial? Is this vacant land? And so I brought a bunch of copies of that.

And so in looking at that, effectively what this does is create an incentive not to comply or not to produce storm water. So we're giving a financial boost. At the same time, we have the expense of dealing with storm water. Um, which I think is counterintuitive. But it's it's a temporary incentive not to do that, right? Well, as long as there's a cap. I thought the cap was a transition period, not a permanent response for us. That would be permanent. The way we proposed it. Cap would be permanent. I I don't think Well, we get to that we at year five, we would have a cap, but that doesn't mean it' be a cap forever. Council

council could change that at some point. Yeah. Or decide now that whenever we adopted that there would be no cap and then it's just implemented.

Yeah. And looking at the properties impacted and looking at the properties impacted most of the ones above the cap. You got large shopping centers, you've got Walmart, you got Target, you got corporate players who pay this anyway in other places. So they're not going to bat in the eye. There's no reason when we have great needs as you to deal with neighborhoods and safety issues. Um so I I really don't think the cap does any of what we want it to do with the overall system. So I'd be curious to know where the rest of council falls on that cap because I feel like that's a decision before a public hearing. Is it public carrying for the cap or is it non-capped?

I have felt like the the cap is a benefit for um businesses with the very large footprint, right? Um which as you said, most of them are very large businesses that I think probably can manage that. my concern is on the other end for the small businesses and and that's one reason why I'm really appreciative of the um opportunities to reduce um because I think that can be I mean you you lay out a variety of credit possibilities um and I'm certain that there may be more but but that's a beginning and I think that can help smaller businesses to be able to think about that it's it is the smaller business. It's the other end this end of that slide that I'm concerned about. Um how how do we help a how do we benefit a small business rather than a very large business. So and and we've had some of those conversations and I'm I'm not uh I don't I don't understand enough to to I'm getting there. I'm learning um to be able to make an informed decision and and so that's my only um kind of wrestling with all of this

and I think I'm the only one okay

you bring up a really good point and I've like been rolling it over my head for the last couple months and maybe I don't know if you sign the costs of some of these reductions so Yeah. So like things like this like the biggest factor is by having this type of system we're kind of bearing the responsibility for building infrastructure and then offering the option to a small business or property owner or even a large property owner to choose. Do you want to pursue a credit or a reduced DRU strategy or do you want to just pay your fee and let the city deal with the complexity of a building like figuring out how to deal with the storm water? And it's which one makes fiscal sense for your model, your business, your property. Do you have the land to do it? Um, but we definitely know we need to address these things whether it's addressed on the site of the property or at the site of the problem.

So, so did you have another question? No, I mean I think my concern is we've got a bunch of businesses that are paying $7 a month. Right.

Right. and they're going to go to 10 112,000 and that if the cap runs for 5 years, that's basically their notice and compliance time to figure out how to get to a point where they can spend substantially different money than they're spending today. And I wouldn't advocate that there's a permanent cap, but I think that's a process that gets those businesses to change their funding model and payment model to be able to come in compliance in a reasonable period of time. I would be even okay with you taper that 5-year compliance model. the caps 100% of this number and then 75 50 25 whatever but it moves them towards understanding how much money they have to pay into the system because of the amount of impact they're having on the storm water system.

Yeah. I do worry though is that we've already got the 5year taper so we're asking folks who are under the cap to bear their full cost initially. Yeah. And then by having a cap, we're saying if you're bigger, and most of these bigger companies have more capacity to bear that cost than the smaller folks, correct? But they're the ones who are offering a reduced bearings. So

versus like if we really we could also choose to change the $7 fee for ERU to $6, which would help everybody and then also do the graded 5year with no cap. So it would benefit every single property versus creating this two different classes of Sure. Yeah. So

our small businesses or churches. So whether we wanted that to be $6 or $5 I do think all our models show $7 over all five years. I don't know that's realistic because if we look at our water rates, we're trying to plan for inflation and the everything going up and yes this is going to generate more money over those 5 years but the cost of nothing is static over 5 years so I think it would be more realistic and more honest on our part to maybe set a lower ERU now and then recognize that it's probably going to go up because we have unforeseen changes cost of construction cost of capital so it's likely over that 5year implementation that might need to go up from5 to $6 or 550 build in that expectation of the ERU price going up rather than frontloading it at seven and pretending that seven is going to be the right number five years.

I think we can certainly go back and um plug in six for example for the base rate and see how that impacts the revenue for yeah for our meeting we can have it. I think I think that sounds good to me. Um and and then would we at that meeting anticipate a public hearing date? Setting the public if if Yeah. If we've satisfactorily answered all your questions and ready to move forward. Okay. That that may generate more questions.

Oh, that's true. We're not under any strict deadline to get this adopted other than the longer that we postpone it postpone it um the longer it get till it gets implemented and right we're not generating revenue to address some of these problems right and and we're asking um your department to keep answering these questions while you're asking for help in hiring more people so I completely get that um yeah

but we need to make we need to make the cat fit your desires as well. It needs to to manage both the small residential small business and the larger businesses and it needs to uh create the revenue in the way that that city council needs it to be created. Thank you. Thank you. Well stated any suggestions the different puzzles over this and over I won't say what I'm thinking I think some more about it I feel the same way

so sounds like May 4th we'll see you again thank you so So, next on our agenda is um Amy Barber. Please share with us.

I'd like to get everything done like in one day. after our fun presentation. Um, I'm here to talk to you now about the Staley Creek stream restoration, proposed Staley Creek stream restoration at Robinson Park. Um, and and the purpose of this presentation is to gain council support. um we are going to apply for a grant if we have that support and we'll need a resolution um of support for that grant. So um tonight I'll go over the context of the project, the proposed plan and the um financial impact as well as the timeline. So, the purpose of doing a um stream restoration project at Robinson Park um is to uh bring the stream that's flowing right down the middle of Robinson Park um into a a healthy environmentally functioning um stream ecosystem, but also to beautify the park and make it more welcoming, make it more aesthetically pleasing. Um, and the project driver for this is the severe stream bank erosion. Um, which I'll show you in some pictures to follow. Uh, we have a pedestrian walking bridge that actually provides access from one side of the park to the other side of the park and that bridge is being undermined. Um, I am not an engineer so I do not know if this um sound structurally sound for people to walk across but it's absolutely being undermined. So, um those were the drivers for this, but we also have a significant amount of flooding going on in that area. Um during specific rain events, um Key Street and Jackson Street

flood and the police department has to go out and set some barriers for us. Um we also have some residents that are flooding as well in that area. Um so, a focus of the stream restoration project would also be to alleviate some of that flooding that the community is is feeling. Um so again the goal of this presentation is to gain council support for this project. These are pictures don't really do stream justice whenever you try to like show the um severity of of a problem. But if you can see in the um far right picture um the abutments of the bridge are um completely undermined by the erosion. Uh this other shot in the middle, uh I don't know if you can tell, but it's just broken up concrete that the water has made its way behind and is now crumbling. Um and then the last the smaller picture is really just showcasing that when you drive past Robson Park, there's a significant amount of vegetation along the stream. However, it's a significant amount of invasive vegetation that's not providing a lot of um a soil support for the streaming. Um and again we have the failing bridge. We have a lot of litter um a lot of debris that clogs that curt um that goes under raw hut. Uh and that contributes to the flooding upstream as well. So proposed solution um these are pictures as you may recognize of the arburetum. um a proposed solution in our eyes and staff's eyes would look like a smaller version of the arburedum. Um so the really focusing on the type of stream restoration project that was installed there um utilizing some natural um engineering solutions in the stream instead of just hard armoring the

banks um and reconnecting the flood plane um and protecting our infrastructure. We do have a sanitary sewer line that crosses the stream twice in the park. Um so part of this would be to also protect that infrastructure as well as the bridge. Um but it would be more of a natural um channel design. So things like you see in the bottom picture that help to slow water, but it's still aesthetically pleasing. Um so that slows the water down a little bit um within the channel. um and connecting the flood plane that's really going to um uh really manipulate where flooding can occur. So, it's still allowing the stream to kind of stretch out and breathe, but doing it in design areas instead of on the brick.

Uh project benefits, there's multiple benefits, economic, social, environmental, and regional. Um economically uh we would see benefits through more people visiting in a city visiting that park. Um we would be protecting our infrastructure as well. Um and social benefits. Uh we've all seen the benefits of the art freedom and what it has done to the community. Um so this is I would use that as an example of what we would like to see happen at Robinson Park and for the surrounding community there. um environmental. So um the stream that flows through Robson Park is called Staley Creek. Um it flows to Service Creek. It's in the northern part of of Burlington. Flows to Service Creek which ultimately goes to the Hall River. Um and uh so we wouldn't just be benefiting this small 700 linear foot section of stream. We would be helping. This is at the headarters of that stream. meaning it's like right where it start very close to right where it starts and that's a very important section of ecosystem for a stream. Um so it would be a regional benefit as well. We'd be benefiting water quality on a larger um larger risk. So the budget right now we have budgeted um for this project to be $450,000 from the city from the stormwater division. Um and then DWI, so the division of um the DWI grant would be for up to 200,000. I did have a meeting with the uh one of the grant administrators and they said this project is competitive um based on infrastructure needs and community needs as well. Um again, that's just a grant request and this is what I'm seeking approval for. Um and then New Leaf Society has also expressed interest in

supporting this project as well. um they have not provided a monetary um amount for us but they have expressed and written us a letter of support already. So um they wanted to handle the planting portion. So that's part of the project. We would leave some significant because there are some great trees there. We would leave we're going to do a survey leave those trees and um then plant around those trees those larger sized trees. and just removing them all. Uh but we would still reed with native wild flowers and things like we did with the arburidum timeline. So the um requests for qualifications actually went out March 20th. Um this Friday is when they are due. Uh the proposals will be due. So that'll give us an idea of how many um consultants and engineers are interested in the project. Um I met on site with three consultants who are interested in the project. Um and at this point we are waiting for those um proposals to come in on Friday and then we'll uh do a notice of award uh May 4th. staff recommendation is to support the project um and adopt a resolution in support of that project for the DWI grant. And so what we need to determine is whether or not this is on the agenda tomorrow night. And we don't vote on that, right? But I can recommend that that happen. Okay. That's what I'd like to do. I mean, we're not working on that.

Like staff want to request an addition to 2019 agenda to resolution. Yeah. Yeah. The the resolution was the packet. Yes. We'll place that on your agenda tomorrow night for consideration on it. Thank you. Thank you. I have one question. I know we lost quite a number of trees in the arbor as a result of some of the construction activity. Were there any lessons we learned that we can apply here to try to preserve more of the campaign trees?

Yeah, absolutely. So, with Willoughbrook will be a little bit different um or is a little bit different just because there was a uh good amount of rerouting and diverging the stream. Um so, the trees that were there did have to did unfortunately go. Um there may be a little bit of diversion, but for the most part, it's going to line up with how it is now. So, I don't foresee as many trees coming out at all. We've actually already told our um interested engineers that we would go through and do a tree survey of what we want to keep. Um and then basically they'll just let us know if we have to remove those. I think a lesson learned is utilizing if we do have to take some of these trees down, utilizing those resources in the actual design um in in some capacity. I just have one budget question. So if you don't get the grant, the cost to us is 650, not 450, right? We still the whole project cost if we don't get the grant,

right? Don't forget new $200,000. Very interesting buying some bushes. Um, and are there other nonprofits that we could reach out to that might be Absolutely. So, uh, well, they're not a nonprofit, but it did bring to mind that I wanted to talk to council about. Duke Energy has easements in Robinson Park. So, I've reached out to Duke Energy to see if they would want to partner on this project as well. Not a nonprofit, but there are nonprofits in the area that I can reach out to. Absolutely.

And not nonprofits are fine, too. Um, yes. Thank you so much. Yeah, thank you. One one other question. I was just curious, how much of the like recreational areas around this park are within the flood plane for? And then are there things that we can consider for are those to be hardened or more damage resistant in the flood plane if we're looking at water storage?

Yeah. So, if you look at um well, yeah, I should have made a map for you. I apologize. So, if you're looking from RAW, the LA left side or the west side of the park, the majority of that is actually in the flood plane. Um and then not as much on the other side. However, um there's some manipulation that can go on as far as can we utilize the flood plane on the other side more so than the one on where the basketball court is, for example. Um because I I think that's the most used feature in the park is the basketball court. So, we don't want to mess with that. But there are areas that we could really emphasize where we want that flooding to be and to allow it when it does have to happen. That way it's moved downstream opposed to where it's at at Jackson Street right now.

Thank you. Thank you. And next on our agenda is the 2025 Bington Police Department progress report. We recognize Chief

5 minutes. Okay, we'll do 5 minutes. It's um 6:50 on my clock. 655. Yeah.

Heat. Heat.

Okay, it is 656. I gave you an extra minute. You're so kind. So kind. Okay, chief.

All right, we're good. Uh, thank you, Councilman. I'm here to provide you an update on the police department. Uh, also in the back got Assistant Chief Josh White on the right. Assistant Chief right on the left. Um, I'll tell you that uh if I get hit by a bus tonight or tomorrow, transit's probably on the hook. You're still going to be in really, really good. These are enormously capable uh folks doing really tough work through the presentation any point to ask questions by the way they are on topic. I want to start out by uh recognizing the volunteers, professional staff and telecommunicators and police officers. They are great people doing heroic work every day and we are extremely lucky to have them on our city and on our team. Their jobs are continuing to get more difficult and technically demanding as as the public's expectations for professional police service increase. Without them, none of the things I'm here to talk to you about would be possible. We owe them our deepest thanks and our continued support. Last year was a really great year for the police department and it's a great year for public safety in Burlington because of them. This is the overview. Uh the scope of police work in Burlington is huge. pres presentation includes a variety of uh small parts of the department uh condensed down to help explain some of the big picture. And so the details, you know, they're not going to be exhaustive as we go through these, but hopefully they'll be uh uh provide a good illustration. We'll start big, we'll move to some small stuff, and then finish bigger. In Burlington, we have all the same problems of a large city. violence, theft, sexual assaults, crimes against children and the elderly, cartel level drug trafficking, street level drug dealing, gangs, domestic violence, speeding, everything else that you can think of. To provide effective police

service across all these areas, we break down the work into big picture priorities. That way, we understand where to spend our time. They're listed here in priority 911 calls, prevention of crime, and then building community trust. So in many ways they support each other but they are also separate and distinct. So for example, we can't make significant investments of police officer time to community engagement if we are not preventing firearm violence by locating and seizing illegal firearms before they are used in a shooting.

That's a simplified real world example of how we prioritize and these components drive the way that we do work each day. So let's start with return on investment in police services. As a result of the hard work of the staff of the police department, they save society over $40 million, a high level strategic execution to reduce victimization. That figure doesn't doesn't include the benefits from apprehending offenders who committed offenses or the restitution they paid for victim to victims. It also isn't captured here, but the police department won every murder trial by trial or plea this year. A man who executed three people in a apartment with an assault rifle. The man who shot and killed seven-year-old Mason Jenkins. That's a reflection of excellence now and from years past. On the slide, you see that we provided zcores where possible. As a refresher, these are how many standard deviations are you away from the average. So, we want zcores that are plus or minus two to believe that change is real and not due to chance. Starting in the center up top, fatal and non-fatal overdoses, statistically significant reductions compared to the prior year and the 5-year average. DWI has the largest number ever, 40% increase over 24. 162 arrests for DWI for the DI unit. That's just two people working consistently. This is this means drastic improvements in roadway safety when those people are being detected before they crash into something. Large property crime reductions, statistically significant again compared to the prior year, the 5-year average with the largest reductions in burglary, lararseny, and motor vehicle theft, and also large violent crime reductions both for 2024 and the 5-year average. the largest reductions in aggravated assault, which includes things like shooting people where they don't die, robbery, and

sexual offenses. And we also had half as many homicides as 2024. To achieve those results, we focused patrol officer time on strategic priorities to reduce crime, improve traffic safety, and address community complaints. That also takes the entire professional staff doing their jobs, which are critically important. We've moved from being reactive to being preventative. Preventing victimization is the number one objective. What you see here, traffic safety, top middle, citywide reduction, 16% in crashes, a very significant increase in traffic stops compared to the prior year in the 5-year average. AET top right, which is the Alamance Narcotics Enforcement Team, a multi-jurisdictional task force, that just celebrated its 10th year. a humongous increase in mass seizures. I'll address that a little bit more detail later. In addition to firearms and arrest over 2024 comparisons, our downtown officer was extremely effective with business owners, customers, and unsheltered. And our technology investments like the drones of first responder, project mobile cameras, and license plate readers materially improved outcomes and allocated resources more efficiently. license plate readers, 71 arrests, 37 recovered stolen vehicles, seizure of four illegal firearms, and the development of 38 critical leads in criminal investigations. The drone is a first responder, 51 arrests. It found 19 missing people or runaway children, 297 vitally important intelligence shared with staff, including uh the resolution of the Springwood Park incident. That was only one one pilot on 24% of eligible calls. There are substantially more demand for more pilots within the

PD. NOLA cameras, many arrests, particularly including armed offenders in some of our highest risk neighborhoods. This technology cameras that the police department, the city pay for, are only way to be in neighborhoods 24/7 365. You also see at the bottom an intentional and humongous reduction in overtime primarily for police officers. That's a direct reflection of improved department efficiency. I'll tell you that I do not forecast that for the next fiscal year. I don't think that that kind of reduction can be sustained. Top to bottom, the department's been highly effective at crime prevention and we certainly want to maintain this level of performance in future years. I need to share some details about one specialized unit so you can understand the benefits of the unique work. Please remember that there are about 11 specialized units in the police department and each one does really important and unique work. We specialize the work because it is uh complex and complicated. I'll explain that a little bit more later. And because there's a significant strategic advantage that's created by these small units. I mentioned what uh ADET the uh acronym before is the Alamance Narcotics Enforcement Team. They've been highly effective. Their scope of work is Mexican drug cartel distribution multi-jurisdictional coordination with other agencies and their work spills over really across the region, state and country. Uh they do work directly with um uh federal agencies both uh in the United States and internationally. and they target drug suppliers for overdoses and violent offenses. They're also really critical to stopping the supply of drugs into our schools, particularly around vapes and other THC products. One addition that was really important

this past year was the good violent crime unit. We call that ECU for short. It only exists because staffing increased in 2024 as a direct result of the 22 raises. It takes about a year and a half to two years to overcome significant staffing shortages. The opioid and violent crime unit, it's two people and one supervisor. They focus on overdose investigations and violent crime by targeting the nexus between narcotics networks and firearm violence. We think of a very uh they call it the power feud. It's a math term, but 5% of offenders are typically responsible for 80% of violence. And that's the group that they work on. Their work over the course of the past year has led to really significant increases and call outs for our SWAT team and missions to apprehend violent armed drug traffickers. Chief, as you uh head to the next slide, I'll just share share with the group that from a statewide perspective, ANET is an absolute unequivocal leader in wire taps and major drug investigations. SBI will tell you that nobody compares to the work that ANET does. They are absolutely the top of the heap for the state of North Carolina.

Thank you. Uh and this shows it all. Uh ANET had the largest methamphetamine uh seizure in state history last year. Uh that is the tip of the iceberg for what's happening locally. Methamphetamine trafficking is drastically up. Uh OBCU is a really important uh integration. Uh they're directly responsible for what you see here, the increase in arrests and firearm seizures uh and the constant disruption of violent offenders. When they can't sit down and be safe somewhere, it's difficult for them to plan a shooting. when they're getting arrested with a firearm driving down the road because we know who they are and what they've been up to, it's difficult for them to do a shooting. And you see that play out in those broader violent crime statistics. We use the drug and firearm trends to reasonably predict potential escalation of other problems. And what we see given the scale and purity of the meth that's being sent to Bronx and and keep in mind this is directly from the border and it's directly from the cartels is that we should expect continued negative impacts that either accelerate uh that that likely accelerate unless control. Um we're hearing the same uh confirmation from LA County Health Department as they see a different group of clients come through their doors around the same issue. You may have seen that show up uh recently with the arrest of an offender who was running through some yards, breaking into cars, and then got in fight with the police officers. This is an issue that doesn't have enough trained officers to deal with the uh scale of the problem. Um so that responsibility shifts back to our patrol officers who have done a phenomenal job working community complaints. Uh the arrest uh last the case last Friday uh on Lacy was an example of that. Uh but it's really important also to know that the cartel connected offenders, they are extremely sophisticated and their the entirety of their focus every day is on avoiding detection by law enforcement. So we got to have these specialized units like AET and uh OBCU to address

the drug and violent crime problems that are going in the city. I know that Councilman uh Batunus asked about loud vehicles earlier. Absolutely. Uh uh the correct uh question. a significant community concern and a department focus has been on loud vehicles. Uh for us, we put the highest priority on stopping and sighting the vehicles whose exhaust sounds like gunfire. It's ridiculous. It's creates fear of violence in neighborhoods and uh it's dangerous for people that are driving down the roads. On the left side, you see some modified vehicles that have those features. Push button things to bypass exhaust on the top one and then some that are just cut off and bypass on the bottom. We've issued 57 noise uh vehicle noise citations across 25 and 26. And as you'll see, their primary uh locations are on major city corridors. Um and they're citywide. Of course, the median age cited for drivers is 20 uh 54 male, three female. I also want you to know I've spoken directly to the district attorney's office about this. We don't want to see these issues uh dealt with like it's a slap on the wrist or not significant uh to the community. and he shares the same focus on effective prosecution for these offenses. Now, for the 911 center, I want you to know that this is an absolute gem for the city of Burlington. We cover four agencies, over 200 personnel across 42 square miles. The nature of the work for a telecommunicator, we're talking 911 phone calls, administrative calls, radio traffic for police and fire, six computer systems, and four agencies all at one time. It's busy. It's even busier when there's a multi- channelannel emergency that's going on. Um, we've had uh completed workload analysis that shows that there's far too much work for the current size of the 911 center. Uh, particularly when they're they still have to do things like training, quality assurance checks to

make sure they're doing it the right way, audits, database entries, and then the multi- channelannel events that do happen. Uh so to meet the immediate demands and keep everybody safe over the course of the last year we spent a lot of money on overtime uh with that work group to make sure that they had enough people working to keep keep everybody safe. The police officers the firefighters in Burlington and Green and do have a pending request for some additional staff to deal with that workload. The third priority that you saw in that big picture is to engage and reassure the community. The number one issue for community engagement and reassurance is effective 911 response and harm prevention. If we are bad at the basics of police work, it is difficult to be a welcome face in many neighborhoods. We've got to prevent crime to be that welcome face. So, for example, the Mortown community is substantially safer as a result of the police work over the past year and years, and our partnership with the residents has flourished. As a result of these improvements and police department focus, we've seen substantial economic development, and you can see this yourself as you drive around places like Mororrowtown and Morgantown, as well as other areas of the city. We also continue to focus on personal interactions and programs that engage and reassure the community. You see some of those listed here. And to be clear, it's really difficult to get these the totality of this uh on one slide. Uh clear accreditation for law enforcement and communications. That was our four-year uh reacredititation. A three-year SBI audit with no um no issues. the first ever full audit of all the evidence in the police department, over 35,000 items. Our outreach and contacts increased by 60% to over 62,000. That's individual people. 58 community watch groups and Crimestoppers tips up

over 30 up 32%. The continuation of the community academy in both English and Spanish, just surpassing 300 total graduates for the program. the implementation of hotspot policing, which involves programming police officers on patrol to visit specific places in the city that are the at most at risk for violence three times per day for 15 minutes. It's random and people have no idea where we're coming when the police officers are going to be there. And that's why the uh evidence demonstrates and what our statistics demonstrate that you get crime reduction as a result. When the officers go there, they go to the location, they get out of their cars, they talk to people, and they try to go inside places. Think of businesses in particular as a place where they all we always want them to go and check. We've seen tremendous improvements in safety at these locations and also the elimination of significant amounts of uh both crime and nuisance things that the communities call about. We've also very very very significantly focused on close neighborhood partnerships so that we have responsible parties that will help us in many of the most at risk places. Places like Morotown, Burlington Housing Authority, Bmont Apartments, Tucker Street Apartments, Macintosh on the lake, commercial property owners and retail businesses. As a result of that, we had a very free flow of information both directions from the police department and from the businesses so we make and and residents. so that we make sure that issues are being addressed as fast as possible. All these things working together to engage and reassure the community currently and some things that are uh ongoing. We see uh the demands for police services changing also. That's not a surprise that it's happened in 2012 and continues through 26 with validation. It's busy across the spectrum of crime and and safety issues. Uh society

changes, police services have to change. These uh increases are uh number one crimes reported to Alman County Department of Social Services and that involves cases of neglect and abuse against children and the elderly. These are these are difficult cases to investigate. There are a lot of them that have come through a a very significant increase in the first quarter of 26 both in referrals and cases assigned to detectives. When you increase the the amount of work that the detectives have to do, it makes it more difficult to do the totality of it. And again, they're not easy cases. Same thing for intimate crimes against children. Um these are technically demanding cases. They're also leading to substantial increases in high-risisk arrests and search warrants. You've seen those come out. The complex and complicated component of this complex because they are cases that require navigating a difficult series of systems like our community partners at Crossroads, but also government agencies like DSS, DA's office, and the courts. complicated because putting these cases together is very difficult, tedious, detailed, and in these cases revolting. They require substantial talent to investigate successfully and repeatedly. What the increase in cases means is we have to have more great officers as we also continue to focus on keeping the current detectives healthy while they continue to do difficult work. I haven't discussed it here or I didn't put it on the slide. Uh but we've seen a big increase in protests also. We have so far great protesters in Burlington and almost zero uh safety issues and uh very minimal crime issues. But it does demand a lot of police work to make sure that the people that uh come out to protest are safe. uh expertise, personnel, training, equipment, and

supervision so that we make sure we're protecting the constitutional rights of the participants and maintain a safe environment. We already forecast more of that uh for this year. Also need to tell you about police officer staffing. How do you do emergency response, harm prevention, and reassure the community? Uh to provide some numbers, today we've got 143 of 152 police officer positions filled. Don't worry.

132 of those positions are fully trained to be qualified to answer a 911 call by themselves. Now, keep in mind that includes people like me and those two guys. And while I'll do just fine on 99% of those uh 911 calls, I'm not the guy that you want out there doing. That means that there are about 11 of those positions where somebody is hired but not trained. They're in field training or they're in BL at any one point. We also have five to 10% of all trained staff that are unavailable to work. That's because they're injured, they're pregnant, they're on FMLA. All totally legitimate reasons to not be in a uniform and doing frontline police work. So today, we've got about 125 police officers available to work. That's about 17% that are not able to go to a 911 call to call those allocated positions. To explain the rest of it, police officer staffing projections are highly predictable. It's based on current staffing, historical separations and current separations like things that you know the retirements or separations that that we already have uh been announced. Cadets that are hired and successfully trained in the VAT training cycle. I'll tell you that since the fall of 2024, we have not been able to fill to 152 officer positions. That is three rounds of cadet hiring. We have had zero laterals hired since the fall since May of 2024. We are consistently losing the best qualified candidates for officer to other agencies for calls of pay. You see that up here where there is a $9,000 difference in starting pay during year 1 with a very specific local competitor. I can tell you that by October 1, we project there to be 125 to 129 trained officers. So that's the equivalent between now and then of losing a small

unit like OBCU or the DWI unit or as much as the whole special victim's unit. That means 30 to 50 officers short on the train side by that time in uh October of this year. The current trajectory looks very similar to 2019 through 2022 when I was on the front lines of that either in hiring or as an assistant chief. And it took two full years to recover from. That was hiring as many as 50 people a year. Trained officer staffing is falling. There are not enough qualified applicants to be hired to replace them with the current tools we have already. hiring can't keep pace and it hasn't been able to keep pace since the fall of 24. You see some specifics on the slide. Vacancies across all the work groups, trained officer staff declining. The separation rate is essentially untrained. The $85,000 cost to uh replace is consistent. The cadet class reduction size has been evident since the fall of 24 from 15 down to down to now six. And I think that's probably about where we're going to come in when the class starts in July. We are unable to replace the losses. That means that there are vacancies in DNET patrol. The downtown officer, community resource officer retires in a few months. That one will be vacant as well as SRO positions. We're currently very blessed that we have elementary school SRO's. They're retired police officers and they've come back to continue to work in a part-time capacity. Part of what's important to know though is is that like you've got me for a long time because I'm going to make it to retirement. Those guys have already retired. They can and periodically do hang it up after the end of the school year. That will that creates an increasing demand for us. So those uh gaps in specialized assignments continue to grow. The projections are pretty uh pretty clear

through the fall of 26. Pays continues to be substantially behind by peer agencies. There's been no base salary increase since the fall of 22. Uh the 50 milei labor market is really where we deal with uh applicants coming from people who we can actually hire. We're at the 40th percentile down from the 85th in the fall of 22. And like I said, losing those qual those uh good qualified applicants. It was actually two that took that uh alternative job. Uh and that was about two months ago that we had hoped to get into the fall class. There are a lot of really smart people in cities, counties, states, and federal agencies that are trying to figure out how to change this so there are enough police officers to do the job that we need need them to do. In Burlington, we've added professional staff positions. We've moved administrative assignments away from police officers to change who does the work. We've embraced online and telephone reporting. We've got to balance the workload. We've changed police work dramatically to make it better for officers so that they're doing doing work that only police officers can do. That is the objective. We have a a culture that's focused on excellence, staff support, employee recognition, but there are parts of police work that we can't change. They are the only people in our city that we can rely on to confront armed people with firearms. And let's be clear, in Burlington, we're not talking about we we actively send them out to find those people who are shooters and arrest them if they're committing crimes before they shoot somebody else. That takes a special type of person. We send them to investigate all types of terrible incidents. Many of you have read about those. I can't get through this list right now and talk about them, but I'll tell you that that includes the abuse and murder of a starving man with cerebral pausy or the

elderly pedestrian who's been struck and killed by a car. Takes a special type of person to do that. They've got to do that simultaneously while they defend themselves, while they're punched, kicked, spit on, threatened with death and violation of themselves and their families. They're subjected to everinccreasing scrutiny by the public rightfully and the courts rightfully as their every action is recorded on video and dissected by attorneys, judges, and juries. And if you're not familiar with the new US Supreme Court case, Arms versus Felix, you should read it. It means that they have more responsibility as it relates to use of force than they did before. Take great comfort. It falls in line with our practice and our policies and our expectations. So, the city of Burlington doesn't have a lot to worry about as it relates to the way our officers are going to perform, but it does put anybody considering the police profession profession at a place where they are going to have an increased scrutiny. These folks suffer over 400 dramatic incidents per year per officer and they bring them all home. It's a profession with really extreme requirements that they must all be able to deal with when they are in personal danger with limited information and circumstances that are changing really fast. Requirements of the profession, all these things that I've talked about, they continue to escalate while the labor market continues to advance around us. As a city, we are behind the labor market for police officer and the trajectory is for decline in trained police officers in the city. I'm really providing this overview of this particular section for your consideration and action however you see fit. But keep in mind regardless of any action that you do take, we will carry

on. transition to a new opportunity. There is a program called the Law Enforcement Support Office for Defense Logistics Agency. They run a program to allow surplus federal property and equipment leases that really benefit the taxpayer. The PD has previously participated in this program and we ask to again uh join the program. Now, it has a uh one-year requirement for council review in case anybody does anything silly with it. The equipment that we're primarily interested in right out of the gate is gym equipment for our police officers and firefighters as well as night vision optics for our SWAT officers and K9s. The police department maintains the gym for the police officers and the firefighters uh so that they're physically fit when they do the work. Keep in mind that like a you know it's hard for me to really uh comprehend this but like one piece of gym equipment say is for uh you know bench press or something they're5 to $10,000. Fortunately for us the police officers and the firefighters use them a lot but that means they do need to be replaced. So this is an option there. Night vision optics are necessary to work in the dark and the police departments requested funding for this equipment for several years but it is pricey. I mean, let's and let's be clear, that means it'll boost down the priority list. This program, though, allows the city to lease that equipment. What we expect is large savings for the taxpayers around these particular types of items. The other thing that's really good about this program is is that requires the protocols for use, evaluation of effectiveness, and auditing and accountability procedures to be publicly available. we have all that stuff that we're, you know, prepared to move forward with the in the event that council refuses to authorize. So that's the uh the only

request that I have from this is to uh for council to consider authorization to participate in the program and if so, you know, to put it on the consent agenda tomorrow night. Happy to provide any additional information on that one. Chief, I vaguely remember the gym and sort of renting the the equipment. What did we do two years ago? I feel like it came up before. We have we have invested probably between 10 and 20,000, especially if we have some uh like federal drug money in that facility pretty much every year. Okay.

And so uh part of what you're probably thinking about is a replacement of an older piece of equipment. We buy almost nothing new. We are blessed to have a like one of the world's largest suppliers that used gym equipment in Alamance County and they give us really good prices on it and that's one of the places that we've used uh to acquire stuff in the past. That's probably what you're thinking of but it's also not free. You know, we still we still get charged, you know, a wholesale rate for it. Uh but that's that's probably what you're thinking about. And so there's there's all the time, you know, it's uh the cables break enough or the the um the poles that the machine glides on get bent sufficiently, you know, it's got to go to the trash.

So, um any questions about adding this to the consent agenda tomorrow? I just want to be clear in that um it would require a budget then when it comes to the exact equipment or whatever. Um yes. Yes. Okay. But after they receive that then if they choose certain equipment or something it's going to it's not in the budget. tomorrow at the moment. Just want to make sure but they could could not move to that place if we don't approve. Yeah, sounds good. Thank you.

I do have a question. Um so chief, you you talked about some of the work that's been done over the past few years as far as how do we support officers, how we should attach to civilian administrative roles to help them be more effective. Um cities have seen this kind of e and flow of reevaluate the pay scale to do great for a couple years and then we have to lose all our officers. Are there things that we can do to try to lessen the e and flow cycle or like how do we not get ourselves back?

Yeah, I mean I think it's a great question. I think that some of what the city's done historically is to evaluate pay every three years, you know, for for various staff members. I think that that can help with some of that and balance out, you know, where it feels like there's a peak in a valley and it is more like closer to average. Um, this is a space where every agency in 50 mi wants police officers and the market has not adjusted to what that really means. Um, part of what we saw in the 2022 time frame in particular is is that the market moved really aggressively because the deficiency in staffing was so high and everybody's looking at the shootings and murders pile up and it's like who's going to deal with those? Um, so I I think that uh not getting to a place where the numbers are so bad that they I'll tell you the exact conversation from the fall of 2022 is eventually it starts to be a spiral that accelerates itself as things start to get worse and worse. And the the idea and the primary objective is to avoid going far down that where it starts to accelerate. That's that's the main objective. So I think that the frequency and evaluation is really the important point to try to not fall behind to the point where uh you're not competitive for for police officers from other agencies for two years. That's pretty rough. I think our our corrective injects are too infrequent,

right? So, we coast and then it's really damn bad and we do a monumental fix and then we coast and then we fix and then we coast and then we fix. And we need to be in a place where we're adding enough base increases every year on a consistent basis to stay in whatever we think is the right place to be. Right. the top 30% of our region. We need to be in that place and stay in that place. Um because the diminished capacity is really impactful to the human beings that live in our city.

The the large scale picture from my data set is there's 18,000 cops, 14,000 deputies, so 32,000 sworn gun towers in the state. There's 3,000 vacancies minimum across the state of that pool of professional policing. And so you're you're chasing ghosts to try to make sure that those vacancies fall somewhere else because the system isn't going to fix that. Okay? So we have to not be musical chairs maybe is the better analogy. We need to not be left out. And so um that annual base increase probably for both police and fire is is pretty substantial.

Yeah. I mean jumping from 85th percentile to 40 percentile like that

three years fast. I think the the you know taking back to the the main key takeaways here and these are the things that you tell everybody and I tell everybody who will listen to me. Burlington's a safe community. These police officers and the community and their engagement with the police department have drastically improved public safety. That is really really good. You've got high performance across the police department. You've got great people doing really tough work. It's a high return on investment in the the areas where you get the the most significant return. The 911 center is an absolute gem. So many of these calls go wrong and what you see in other places because of what happens in the 911 center. If the information's wrong for a firefighter or for a police officer, it can be tragic. And our community relationships are are really good. I don't know if you guys saw the Mortown survey. Uh that was a uh uh felt like in an A+ on the police department side. I can share that. But they conducted an independent survey and they asked about the relationship with the police department and it was really good and that felt really nice. Happy to answer any additional questions that you have.

Thank you. You're welcome. Thank you for the report and thank you for all that you do. I'll pass.

And also I I appreciate your um comment about evaluate you may have used the word fix evaluate the fix. you said on an annual basis. I mean that that's what happens with many professions, right? That there's a cost of living increase um and bonus or whatever and we we should value our employees too. Thank you. I think it's bigger than that, right? It is cost of living. The cost of living is what we do for all city employees, right? and then these most critical positions because what's happening is

the competitiveness of the other people around us they're adding 10 and 15 to 20%. In big jumps cuz they didn't do anything for 5 years, right? And so if one neighbor bumps that much then like at our retreat we ought to figure out what's the scale and where do we want to be? Pick the number. Do we want to be 50? No, probably 25 or 30 is where we need to sit. I'd love us to be less than that, but that's the place you sit. And when we start to see the pivot because they're increasing, then you got to dump salary in immediately. Well, I think evaluate and project is is the phrase I would really want to go to. But I think that point to like where do we want to be and we want to stay at.

Yes. We set the benchmark and then it's simple math for staff to make sure that we stay there. Yeah. Thank you. Next on our agenda are city council committee reports. We have I don't know what eight different committees that um the five of us have to be excused. Um but thank you.

Thank you. Um so we're going to move very quickly. Um I know that uh I have attended three of these uh and don't really have a lot of update to share other than um the city of Burlington is showing up at the these meetings um because most of the time when I get on some of these meetings there are city staff there too. So that's that's really nice. Do you have any left some you want to read them from the um I just joined this board what I think last month the TAC um so we sent a summary of those meetings it's about 10 pages though

and while we can share those and have them included in this email city staff Ian did you have active meets on Wednesday this week I the one meeting um two months ago. It was a great opportunity to get up to speed on the board. We've had a lot going on in here tonight and um so we'll move on from those committee reports to our city man.

Uh thank you. I I'll make my comments quick, too. Um council member SM mentioned the retreat. Um we did do a request for proposals, sent that out, got responses back on Friday. Um we got responses from six firms and so we're in the process of evaluating those. Um we'll bring back some more information to you. Um and we intend to have a firm selected by the early May. Um and based on the feedback that we got from our initial uh survey um the consultants were asked to write proposals on for a professional design facilitation of a one-day retreat. um the selected consultants responsible for preparing retreat, facilitation of the day of and capturing action items for council staff followrough. Um we'll refine the agenda after the consult has been selected, but it will likely involve sessions on uh potential changes to the council makeup, the team building exercise council and several staff presentations on specific topics as time allows. on topics of interest that we don't cover in retriev

um the when we did the um survey it seemed like the general consensus was that Thursdays would be the best day um and tenatively sometime in July or August once we narrow down the consult narrow down that's good there are three dates that kind of work best as far as looking out dates for staff end July July.

Yeah. So um David here I can stand up. I sit down. There's no difference. Um we have have an update on uh their request to um recognize Mr. F and Robinson Park kind of procedure.

Yeah. Basically there's you know a lot of guidance except for the uh pond policy that we have regarding uh naming rights and systems to a paragraph. It's pretty much up to the city council's responsibility to do it. Uh but you might want to take since this is a recreation facility, you may want to take some uh advice from the recreation commission and also the pond committee and they give that back to you and have something. Thank you.

And we'll try to move that along. Um and Rachel, could you give us update on uh the 250th America celebration?

Sure. Um the mayor and then I think in your notes from NLC, the America 250 kind of came up. So um phone staff has been planning our annual July 3rd in the park event, but kind of trying to make that a showcase for the America 250. They are planning the biggest fireworks show um that the department's had to date and that's thanks to a sponsorship from last. Um so they'll have larger caliber shells and more showced.

They've also got a special logo in design in design. I know you're probably seeing this latest special events logos. They're working on one especially for the 250 and that'll be used for some um more aggressive marketing thanks to the STDA funds. So looking at billboards, um digital marketing, that sort of thing to make folks aware of the event. Um we've got free bands, you know, all those the climbing walls, playables, food trucks, yard tables, all those things at the park as well. In addition to what county staff is planning for July 3rd, I did want to mention the Alamance Peacemakers Guild um has an 80 by 80 commemorative quilt that they're going to have on display throughout the county to celebrate the 250th this year. And um they'll have it at city hall in July. So we'll we'll plan to put that up and perhaps we can have some a representative come and speak about it at council meeting community. That's what we've got on record this morning.

And one other thing, you've probably seen on the news that um some of the larger cities and utility systems have have enacted water conservation measures measures, Charlotte water, Raleigh water, um statesboro. Um so I had our staff check and um our water levels are exceptionally doing our lakes are doing exceptionally well. Um, Kamak and Macintosh are both within 4 in of normal pool elevation. Um, so we have plenty of water. Um, we do, um, encourage our residents to to, you know, do some self monitoring, self conservation measures, make sure their plumbing's not leaking. Um, be conscious and, you know, do full loads of laundry, full loads of dishwasher, whatot. Just do do some small steps to help conserve water. Um we're the area is in what is called a um a severe drought or D2 level um according to the state drought monitors um which encourages conservation if the region goes to um the third level which is extreme drought then then we may um look at enacting our stage one conservation measures which are more formalized voluntary conservation which in addition to those things I mentioned or deal with some some of the car washing and um limiting uh washing of houses, the sidewalks, things of that nature. Um but right now we're we're in due

Thank you. That's all that Thank you. Thank you all. This has been a full evening. Um and so we will meet back here again tomorrow for our city council meeting. Mayor, do we want to present more?

I do have one item that I just want to members here. Um, as we go into kind of budget session, I think it's also pertinent council as the performance review responsibility for our two staff attorneys would love for us to decide how we want to take care of that. Okay. want to make sure that's on our Thank you. So, if there's nothing else then um we can adjourn for tonight and um prepare for city council. Thank you all.