City Council - workshop

Welcome everybody to the City of Farmer's Branch City Council study session for Tuesday, July 21st. Our first order of business this afternoon are public comments. I do not have anybody signed up to speak this afternoon, so we will move right along to item C1, our regular study session items. Item C1, which is to review and discuss consent and regular agenda items. Councilwoman Gonzalez?

Nothing for me, Mayor.

Councilwoman Bennett?

Nothing for me, Mayor.

Councilman Reed. Nothing here. Councilman Villafranca.

Nothing. Thank you, Mayor.

Councilman Neal.

Nothing. Thank you.

All righty. Next up will be item C2, discuss and receive presentation on fiscal year 2026-27 budget update, including fiscal outlook, revenue considerations, strategic investment areas, and ongoing budget developments.

Thank you. Thank you. Good evening, everyone. My name is Jay Patel. I'm the finance director for the city, and today we'll be continuing our journey along the fiscal year 2027 budget process. And as you can see on the timeline on your screen, We are entering the final phases of the budget process. In the coming days, we'll receive our certified property values from our appraisal district, which will really be that last puzzle piece we need to finish our property tax revenue projections, as well as complete the proposed budget book, which we aim to submit to you by our July 31st deadline, as required by the city charter. So the slide on your screen has served as a budget scorecard, if you will, throughout the budget process. And you'll see that there's only a couple key priority items left, our revenue updates as well as our tax rates. And both of those go rather hand in hand as we await the certified property values. Once we receive those, we'll be able to finalize the revenue portion, the property tax revenue portion for the upcoming year, as well as we'll be in a place to begin those tax rate discussions with you all as a council throughout the months of August. As for budget priorities, this list remains consistent from our last budget session. Apart from that box on the bottom right-hand side of your screen, 1% compensation increases for city staff, And following our internal budget review with our city mayor's office, staff was able to identify enough capacity to incorporate a 1% merit-based increase for our staff members, for our city staff members, apart from directors and deputy directors, which you will see reflected in the proposed budget, which you'll receive in the coming weeks. As for fee changes, these remain consistent based on our discussions that we've had throughout this year. Our first fee change that we seek to propose in the upcoming budget year is the naming change from the solid waste or the trash fee to a landfill closure fee, as well as the second fee change, which is a credit card fee increase from 2.5% to 3.5%, which will allow staff to uniformly apply these fees to all users using this convenience tool. And we'll return with these fee updates in the month of August in a formal ordinance to be considered by you all as a council. A communication plan, and this one that we found, transparency has been key throughout this entire process, as our budget development and discussion should not just happen in this room. It's a community effort, and we need to be sure that that micro communication is embodied throughout this process. We're here every study session providing you with updates along the way, and it's important for us to translate that to our citizens. So in the coming weeks, You'll see the budget 101 videos posted throughout city facilities as they have been. Our social media posts will continue in the coming weeks. The budget boards, which you'll see on the lobby, will continue to produce those and provide those updates to our residents as well as you all as updates occur and we can finalize different aspects of the budget. and the printed materials, the budget and brief pamphlet, the trifold, which is a very visual tool to condense the budget book into one snapshot document. We're currently producing, and we hope to have that done in the coming weeks as well. Ultimately, all this is in preparation for the town hall. We want to make sure that this is an interactive experience, that residents understand what's in the budget, they have the opportunity to ask questions, and they can participate in the process as a whole. And that takes us to looking ahead to the month of September. As we finalize and prepare the budget for the fiscal year 2027, it is important for us to effectively close out our current year budget. So internally, what Finance will be doing over the coming weeks is working with each of our city departments to forecast the revenue updates and the expenditure updates in order to return to you all in the month of September to provide this forecast as well as any budget amendments that may be needed as a result of forecasting all our revenues and expenditures for the year. And with that, I'd like to conclude my presentation. I'd be happy to answer any questions.

Thank you very much, Jay. Councilwoman Gonzalez?

No question, just a comment. I love the social media, the Making Sense post. That was clever. Thank you so much.

Councilwoman Bennett?

I just have one question. So the pamphlets that you guys are putting together, what locations will you have them available prior to the budget town hall, number one, and will they be like at the rec center and the branch connection, like locations where people can pick them up and look at them?

That is the goal. The town hall, we have historically had them at the town hall, but we are currently in the process of printing those pamphlets. We do expect them to have them produced in the next couple of weeks. So that is the goal, to have them in public locations where people can pick them up and go through them. Absolutely.

Councilman Reid.

I love everything being broken down into bite-sized pieces, so I really appreciate that, Jay. Quick question on the credit card fee. Just so everyone is aware, previously, people who had... the auto pay onto a credit card, we're not being charged fees, correct? So not only will everyone experience the increase, but those folks that weren't being charged before will now be charged as well to make it much more equitable across the board. Is that accurate?

That's correct, that's correct. will be fulfilling the intent of council by uniformly applying these charges to anyone using this convenience tool throughout utility billing operations. So yes, they weren't paying to utilize that service in the past and they will now be going forward.

Okay. amazing. I see it more and more. We went out to dinner. Oh, we went to watch the soccer game Sunday. And even the restaurant we were at, they have a cash fee and a credit card. This is your bill if you pay cash. This is your bill if you pay credit card. So it's out there. This is nothing new. We're not an outlier. We're just kind of catching up to everyone else. Excellent. Thank you.

Councilman Villafranca.

Thank you so much, Jay. I appreciate you so much. I have a few questions. I still feel really uncomfortable about the employee benefits portion, in particular the health insurance. We did receive at the last meeting, we did receive a wonderful detailed report from Jeffrey, but I really feel like I'd like to know if it's possible for us to look at sort of the other plans and the pros and cons. It just felt like it was really like a major medical emergency health insurance rather than just health insurance. And I know there's a lot going on, and I know the numbers are not that great, but I really want to make sure that we are taking care of our staff. They are the ones that make this city as great as it is. I just had to go yesterday for, I have an ear infection, and my prescription was zero dollars. And I pay a lot of money for my health insurance. It's a personal insurance. So I just want to make sure. It just felt like it was a major medical thing. And the other thing, are you able to talk a little bit about the 12% water rate increase? We just had a huge increase. And another 12% in less than a year, it seems like a lot. And I know that the water's gone up a lot. I know that we're going through all of that, but is there any way to make it a little bit more bite-sized maybe for residents not to feel such a huge jump in their water bill?

So it would delay the capital improvement plan that we have assigned for the waterways for our infrastructure fund. So it would push out the improvements that we have to get caught up on. Because what the rate increase is based on a plan to address the capital needs that we've accrued to date and then move forward in terms of a maintenance aspect from there. So it would delay the... infrastructure initiative that we've currently incorporated into the budget book, but it's at the will of council to have these discussions and for us to work through these things. That's the primary result that I see being as a result of that.

Okay, and then regarding the community garden, is there anything that we can start doing now to start sort of helping that along, or we're just, this is just, we're waiting for the process to do what it needs to do?

So staff is actively working on assessing all of our options to make this as beneficial and successful as possible, whether it be grant opportunities and making sure that we can make use of not the taxpayers' dollars, but just external sources to really fulfill the need of the community, as well as other private-public partnerships. So working with the business owners and other leaders in our community to really make this a successful effort. But one of the main, we're currently researching all avenues at a staff level, and definitely be sure to keep you apprised of all activity as a result.

Please keep all of us apprised, because I think it would be of interest to all of us. Thank you so much. Absolutely, thank you.

Councilman Neill. Thank you, Mayor. Thank you, Jay. I was wondering if I could add something to one of your themes on the slide for budget communications plan. You have there under the themes to keep the same tax rate. Can we adjust that to keep or cut the tax rate? Certainly. Keep the same and or reduce it? And I'm bringing that forward again as as My colleagues up here have already mentioned we're talking about another 12% water rate increase, an additional 1% increase per credit card processing. So we're putting a little more and more each year seemingly onto the backs of our residents and It can be a little hard to some of the residents. The other thing I was wondering if you could tell me, I could just circle back a little bit to the credit card fee that's going to be increased to 3.5%, and that's more of a convenience to our residents. Is there anything that we can do for those that want to, I guess, pay cash or come down here and pay the check or whatever to eliminate that fee? What is the timeline allowed from the time they received their bill in the mail, so to speak, email, that they are allowed to then come down to the city hall? Where I'm going with this is can we give them some extra time, a few extra days or something as an additional convenience so that if they wanted to pay with a cash or check, they could come forward and not risk too much of a late fee sort of thing? Tell me about that process.

So it's approximately two weeks from the due date to when you receive the bill, but to delay that in terms of the receivable aspect, I would have to do, I just want to evaluate the impact.

Yeah, because occasionally our post office has some challenges with delivery and that sort of thing, so sometimes residents don't quite get them in a sufficient amount of time, and then they're rushing to try to get down here and pay, so I don't know if we can just Maybe be mindful of that as we go forward here, get creative with some maybe alternatives or something. Absolutely. I just wanted to be mindful of that.

Agreed. And increasing the communication plan on the alternatives is definitely a focus as well in terms of the other options should you choose to forego that fee, whether it be cash payments, check.

ACH, I understand. 100%.

Since we're already discussing this, can you tell us what the options are? So rather than have to mail it in and have the problem of snail mail not showing up, ACH, that it can come right out of your checking account, is that an option? That's correct, yes. Tell us what the options are so people will know.

That's a great question. So ACH or bank drive is definitely a great tool to utilize, as well as coming in person here in the office with a cash or check. We have a kiosk available out in the parking lot area. So there are various other avenues should you choose to not choose that convenience form a method of payment as well.

And then will they still be fine? charge 3.5% if it's a debit card or is it just for credit card?

It is all inclusive, all cards, yes.

Okay, thank you. Yes, ma'am.

Anything else?

No, thanks, I'm all done.

Very good, thank you, Jay. Absolutely, thank you all. All right, next up on C3, discuss and provide direction on implementing a community garden.

Hello, Mayor, Council, Aaron Flores, Senior Management Analyst, and with me also is Rob Diaz, Director of Parks and Recreation. We're kind of tackling this together. So just a little background on the community garden discussion that we've been having. So this was identified by the city council as a way to enhance our neighborhood through our strategic planning process. And so since that discussion, staff has been meeting with the different departments, seeing what that would look like, what it would take to get this going. We've also been reaching out to different entities to determine a funding source with the idea that we could do a lot of the work in house, have some sponsorships and different partnerships to cover the rest of the cost so that it's not costing taxpayers any money. We're gonna try to take care of it the most cost efficient way possible. And so during that process, we have contacted and met with several different entities. A lot of the funding sources are not open until toward the end of the year. Their grant processes are closed right now, but we're continuing to follow up. So today we're just here, just kind of a kickoff discussion, getting council's feedback on what you would like to see out of this community garden, any feedback you have on the implementation. And we will also continue to research our funding options, seeing what's the best process for our policies and procedures for this community garden. We want to incorporate the educational aspect, the All of the all of the different aspects that Council wants to see we want to try to implement. So we are here today to answer any questions.

Thank you very much, Aaron. Councilman Gonzalez.

I guess I would just kind of want to know how will it work? Is it anyone can just go in and pick vegetables? Who would be gardening it? Is it going to be closed at night? That's kind of like my main. of kind of how it's gonna really work?

Yeah, so we'll have volunteers that will sign up. And so one of the things that staff is trying to do through all of our different volunteer initiatives is to have a master database of volunteers. They'll go through the city to ensure that they're vetted, and we'll have policies for that. So it wouldn't just be anyone. They would have to go through a process, but it would be open to anyone, if that makes sense.

Yeah, my husband and I did that volunteer vetting thing a couple weeks ago, so it's nice to know that you'll be able to take care of that. So the plan is anyone can go in and grab some items. They don't have to be a volunteer. They don't have to be on a registry or anything, kind of maybe someone in need that may need some help.

Well, I think what we would look at, this is Robert Diaz, Park and Rec Director. We would model it after our current garden location. It's organized in that the people that have plots out there, they register for those. We no longer are taking any fees for those, but we still go through that process, the vetting process, so we know who's out there, what plots they have, so that people are just randomly... Now, there's not a fence around the current garden, so are people out there probably taking things when they shouldn't? Probably, but it's a lot of trust there that people are letting the garden kind of work as it needs to. But that is something to probably think about. Another location would be how we want to secure it, and that will be part of our vetting process when we kind of work through it.

Okay, thank you.

Councilman Bennett.

So could, I'm just kind of brainstorming on this. Could we do a composting area there, since it's there?

Yeah, so the departments have been meeting together. We've been meeting with Public Works as well to discuss composting, mulching options, what that would look like. Yes, we're working through that. Perfect, thank you.

Councilman Reed.

The current setup, do we currently donate some to MetroCrest Services?

Yes. They donate to, I believe that's the only charity they donate to, but they have quite a bit of food that goes to MetroCrest.

Okay. Do they provide volunteers or... any type of assistance?

As far as I know, they do not.

Is that something we could look into? Sure. And you're talking about from an educational perspective, helping folks learn how to run their own garden, perhaps might be able to incorporate a program with folks from MetroCrest Services to be part of that.

And I think that they have their own garden, if I recall. But they definitely, because sometimes the quantities of food that comes out of there, I know they like to be able, the gardeners like to be able to take it somewhere. MetroCrest does receive it, I think, on a regular basis. But that is a good point.

Right, just something I was thinking about, and then if there's any other charities that we might want to think of, or programs at schools.

For sure, yeah, and we're researching other city gardens as well, just trying to get those ideas. So yes, we'll look into that.

Perfect, thank you. Councilwoman Villafranca.

Thank you so much, appreciate that. We had a garden there a few years back, and it's really a lot of fun. We learned a lot. Are you able to discuss locations that we're looking at at this time?

We're still evaluating feasible locations for this. There's a lot of considerations to go into as far as irrigation and different things of that nature, but we'll be coming back to council with an item on that.

Okay. And I know we have quite a few master gardeners here in the city that I know would be thrilled to take the lead and be a part of this program. Will the current tenants of the community garden, will they have like first right of refusal or everything will be starting all over again? Can you tell us a little bit about that?

I don't think we've gotten that far in the process. You know, I would hope that, yeah, I mean, we'll work with that group to see if, depending on what the location ends up being, if they want to plot in the new place, we would work with them. You know, I would like to work with them probably before we open it up to everybody just to get, if they want to be accommodated in a new place. But that's something we'll work through.

Great. And then just based on the comments and questions from my colleagues, Are you able to just sort of walk us through what sort of the big picture of you go in, you apply, you pay X number, and then you get like a 10 by whatever, and kind of walk us through what that looks like so everybody can understand?

So we haven't finalized the details on that yet, but we are envisioning having a policy in place where they would come in, volunteers would be vetted, we would offer sponsorships to businesses or organizations that could sponsor a plot or a full raised garden bed. So yes, we haven't worked all the way through that yet, but we'll come back with an update.

Thank you so much.

Councilman Neill. Thank you, Mayor, and thank you, Aaron and Robert. Do you have any idea how much funding is needed for this ballpark? Any numbers come across?

So we're still in the very early planning stages, so I don't have a good ballpark number for you yet, but like I said, we're trying to keep the cost as minimal as possible, utilizing resources we already have in grants and other items.

Right, and whatever that number is, would you expect that to be an ongoing... budgetary item that we'd need to continue funding, or is it, obviously there's some initial costs to sort of, you know, build a place, but.

So the initial build out would be the largest expense, and then the ongoing maintenance would be mostly irrigation and water. Rob can kind of speak to that a little bit.

Sure, sure. Yeah, I think there's ongoing costs to the current garden. Water irrigation probably from an ongoing cost would be the primary factor there. Typically right now, our staff is still assisting. We go out there once a week, a couple of staff, just to kind of do the to-do list. Yeah, kind of take care of some of the bigger stuff. But really, the gardeners are great. very self-sustaining. We provide the access and they do all the work and then we do kind of help somewhat organize a monthly meeting for them just to kind of stay a little bit organized if there's anything that and we were probably those same services we would emulate at another location.

Okay, so what about like physical security and or lighting, gating? Are those things you're going to consider those as well? I'm not saying to do that. I'm just, you're probably still early in the process here. So just maybe consider some of those as maybe appropriate or not. I don't know, whatever you think is right. One thing I might suggest is, it sounds like Robert, it sounds like you meet with the group of people out there regularly. I don't know if it makes sense or not. And I'll leave that up to you and staff. Maybe if there's a, We could have a subcommittee maybe within the Parks and Rec board that can kind of help facilitate this and maybe have some of those volunteers that are in the community garden now participate as a subcommittee to have more input to the whole process and feel more included. I'm throwing that out there for consideration. I'm not asking you to do that. Just another idea maybe to have a little more input from them. And then finally, can you tell me about the current vetting process? I've met with several of those community garden users out there and some of them are a little concerned by the depth at which the vetting is going on. Could you maybe just go through that and clarify a little bit for us?

Well, basically there's an application process. And then I know that the church helps with some of the background checks. We used to do those. The city used to do those. We no longer do those. So that is something that the Chapel Hill Church takes care of. The gardeners work directly with them to deal with that. But other than that, you know, we staff assist with if there's an open, somebody gives up their plot, then they, you know, they help coordinate other than with the volunteers there. But that's really, that's about it.

Right, right. And so those background checks, and that's where we're trying to get to with this because this is who they've complained to me about those background checks. Is that a requirement that the city is putting forward that you require them to have a background check?

That was something that had been put in place when the garden was first opened. I think there was concerns, I guess, with people who would be in the garden. And so when we stopped doing them, we basically turned it back over to the gardeners and said, if that's something you want to continue doing, you'll have to find another source to do that. And the church was willing to step up and kind of take that on for them.

Okay, and is the church funding the costs for those? Okay, so the city's not paying or required to do the... Okay, so that's just something that the users of the community garden want and they've asked the church. Or the church has stepped up to help in that area?

Yeah, to facilitate it. And to be honest, at this point, I know initially they were going to help pay, but I think what I've heard lately is I think the church is just, I don't think there's a big cost to it, and there's not a lot of people using it. So from what I understand, they're just taking that cost on on their own.

Okay, okay. Thanks, Robert. That's all I have, Mayor. Thanks.

My understanding is that the reason they asked for the background checks is that they have the German school and there are children on campus, and that is the requirement. the reason for requiring a background check.

Anybody else? No? All righty. Thank you, Robert. Okay, thank you. And Erin. Thank you. Next up is item C4, presentation regarding blockchain technology, artificial intelligence, and AI resident call assistance system.

I'd like to table that. I've asked for further information, and Councilman Reed has that as well.

Okay. We'll move on to item C5, which is discussion and feedback regarding draft landscape amendments to the comprehensive zoning ordinance.

Good afternoon, Mayor and Council Members. I'm Tara Bradley with the Planning Department Division. And tonight I will be presenting an overview of the draft landscape ordinance. And so the purpose of this item is to discuss this draft landscape item. And with that, this project has been ongoing for some time. It was last before PNZ in 2023 and in Council in 2024. Whereas this draft that we have today will reflect comments received at that time as well. For however, for ease of discussion and understand the comparisons in this presentation, This will be between the current landscaping draft and the proposed draft. So just to provide what is the purpose of the amendment here, it is to update minimum landscape requirements, improve landscape use transitions, and update terminology and definitions to support. this amendment. While staff was going through this amendment, they realized that this current landscape is not in competition with the rest of other cities, but to bring it forward with other cities as we continue to do infill and grow. And also to them having just kind of a little higher concentration for development landscaping opportunities. So with the current There is no residential requirement, but this one would propose that there would be a requirement for one tree for development, one shade lot, and that would not be for existing lots, but it would be for developments that are being proposed, and also if they decide to redevelop the lot, then there would be a tree requirement. And also soil stabilization would be incorporated, which would mostly be with turf, and again, existing lots would not be considered non-conforming. So for non-residential, right now it stands as it is 5% of the lot not covered by structures, and they require street trees. With the proposed, it would require multifamily to have a 20% coverage of multifamily. does allow for 40% of this to be hardscape amenities that can be within the complex, and also would add landscaping for industrial at 20% and 50% in the front of the building, and commercial institutional retail at 15% and 50% in the front. And then all parking lot landscape would count towards the total as well, too. So with this item amendment, also a new item has been incorporated. It would be managed natural landscapes. And right now, this shows example of drought tolerant zero scape and pollinator gardens, which would be incorporated into allow for single family and also for non-residential as well, too. So with this tonight, I'm seeking your feedback, staff and the consultant as well. And with your feedback, we will incorporate these provisions into the draft and then hopefully move forward with going back to PNZ with a draft to adopt and then moving on to City Council for adoption. And this completes my presentation and I'm here for the feedback to gain to incorporate into this amendment.

Thank you very much. This was requested by Councilwoman Villafranca, so I'll start with you.

Thank you so much. I really appreciate that. I just have one quick question regarding the tree requirement. Are we able to give sort of a range of size that would need to be planted? I've heard of another city where the builders actually meet the requirement by planting like a 10-inch tree that's going to take, 15 years to grow. Is there any way to make that more clear?

That is feedback I could take in to incorporate into the amendment. Right now it stands three inches is the minimum that they were requiring for like single family. But if 10 isn't that you would, we can review it and come back to you on that.

I just want to make sure that we don't have builders that are you know, finding the loopholes and planting a three, you know, three inch tree that's going to take years for it to actually be a tree that provides any kind of shade. I really appreciate this. This is really good. Thank you.

Councilman Gonzalez.

Thank you, Tara. I really like this. I think it definitely sets us apart from other cities, our landscaping, and I think increasing it will really enhance our city. So I'm okay with it all. We do give out free trees annually, so even though those homes that are already established, they still have the possibility of giving one and just increasing the beauty of our city.

Councilman Bennett.

Okay, I'm gonna double down on what Councilwoman Villafranca said. So previously in other presentations, we had been told, so say if it's a three inch tree or three inch diameter, okay, that they could plant three trees that were one inch and that qualified for the three inch. And I think that's kind of where we're trying to nail that down specifically. So they're not trying, people aren't trying to get around that qualification. Does that make sense? It definitely does. Okay. And the other thing, I just wanted to make sure, when you say redevelopment, what you're really saying is, like, if they completely demo it and build new, that's when this comes into play. None of our preexisting older homes or any of that come into play with this specific policy. They're all closed. basically grandfathered in?

To my knowledge, not today, but that was something I will make sure to double check to make sure that that is, we have somehow capture it in our code.

Okay, because that was the response I was given from the city manager. So, and then I had one last concern. There is a statement, if you read the policy, And it basically says, where did I put it? Plants not listed below may be used with approval of the city manager or designee. Does that really rise to the level of the city manager to make that decision? Or can somebody in the department make that decision? I asked that question, too, and he said he was going to put it into the department. I will confirm. Okay, thank you.

Typically, the designee is whoever the city manager designates. It's going to be, in general, the department director and then whomever the department director assigns to do it. So it won't be the city manager physically approving the lists or the specific trees. It's going to be somebody in that department.

Councilman Reid.

I just wanted to get the clarification on the grandfathering, so my question was answered. Thank you.

Councilman Neal.

Thank you, Mayor. I do have quite a few questions in this area. As you know or may not know, I was on planning and zoning when this landscape ordinance came forward in 2023, and I served on that subcommittee, so I'm pretty knowledgeable about what was done at that time. And I can tell you that it was quite extensive planning time-consuming effort. We had also engaged multiple master gardeners, arborists as well. I guess I just want to start out by saying I really don't want to have too much overreach here on top of our residents as sort of a general thought. It's more of a guidance to try and help them identify plants and trees that are native to this area to help them but i i don't know if we should be in the business of telling someone that they cannot plant a certain tree especially if they're paying for it and it's going to die anyway that should be on them it's not the city to say no you cannot plant this tree or plant unless of course it's an evasive some sort of an invasive planter or shrub site I'd like to just add some caution around that. And I do see, back to some of the discussion regarding the parameters, I think the discussion was correct that when a, let's say a residential home is completely demolished and redeveloped, if they happen to have a very large tree in the front yard that's been there for 50 years and it's 20, 30 inches in diameter, The requirement is, or at least was, was that they need to plant sufficient amount of trees to meet that 20 inch diameter. That could be four or five inch diameter trees, or two 10 inches, that sort of thing. That was my recollection. I didn't look to that level of detail here in this. But that was the general idea there, so. And just to follow up on another point that came out, I do see as I look at the actual ordinance, the draft on, I guess it's page two, under landscaping plan, there is section E1 letter D, it says no landscaping plan is required for one and two family residential lots. And I think that is a caveat, is that unless that lot is completely redeveloped, is that true? for requiring a landscape plan for a residential lot if it's completely redeveloped?

No. I guess I'm just a little confused. Let me double check that one for you. Yeah, that's okay.

That's okay. I have a lot of questions here. I'm just a little confused by the language. I'm here for feedback today to get that. In the sense it says that no landscape plan is required for one or two family residents. However, if it's a complete demo rebuild, I don't know. if that's still true or not so if you could just help me understand that a little bit i'd also want to add a little more caution into the section f on the irrigation plans again i want us to be mindful of overreach into personal property private property if we're going to have requirements of an irrigation plan in light of you know, our concerns over water and water use. I guess it is helpful and mindful to have a plan such as this to help with the management of water, that sort of thing. But I don't want to go too far beyond that and require them to put a certain kind of watering system and that sort of thing to any great degree. So I just want to be mindful of that. Um, actually on page four of the draft, it has comments in there that regular trimming, aeration, edging, weeding, and fertilization of shrubs grant cover turf. And you probably don't have the answer. Maybe I should ask Ben, but is our, is our code enforcement team going to be able to handle this degree of cutting? What is it here? Trimming, aeration, edging, weeding, fertilization of shrubs. If someone is out of compliance, are they going to be? flag for not edging, aerating, weeding, et cetera? Something we may wanna think about. I'm just going through the draft. I've made notes along the way here.

I'm sorry, Council Member Neill, can you please state which in this last, what you just stated, which?

Yeah, that was on, for the irrigation was page three. The next one, page four, letter B, where it talks about regular trimming, aeration, edging, weeding, fertilization of shrubs, ground cover, and turf grasses. It just made me think, well, there's a code enforcement nightmare if you're gonna be managing that or monitoring that. And I did want to point out one other thing on that same page four under the letter H, one and two family residential landscaping, it does clearly say existing residential uses shall not be considered nonconforming. So that's their sort of the grandfather clauses as the way I read it. So if I'm wrong, please let me know. Let's see. On to page number eight, number two, it says managed natural landscape. There is a statement in there where it talks about purpose of the section to permit managed natural landscapes in a manner that supports pollinator habitat and drought tolerant planting, variscaping while preserving public safety. And then the next statement says neighborhood compatibility. That seems a little subjective to me. How are we gonna manage that? What is neighborhood compatibility mean? So I'm not asking for an answer, just maybe you can take that and zero in on that maybe a little bit, not more. And then sort of the last thing I guess is, I guess it's what, pages nine through 15, there's quite a bit of different shrubs and trees and that sort of thing. These are, as I understand it, suggested shrubs and trees. I'm just wondering what happens if someone doesn't plant one of these things on the list. Are they gonna get in trouble?

I will say no, but I will double check for you.

Again, I'm not asking for the answer, just things for you to consider as you go back on that. So that's enough for right now. I thank you. Thank you very much, Tara and Mayor. Appreciate it.

Thank you. I just want to add that any time we start to regulate what people can do on their property, it's going to present a problem. I'm for less regulation. regulation in that regard I Think if we had good code standards, and we have a good code department that are keeping an eye on those standards that Issues should be able to take care of themselves without putting undue burden on our residents and more regulation now in the In terms of commercial properties, I'm all for having things spelled out because that is a part of the city that tends to not get regular attention necessarily. It certainly shows itself when properties are not well landscaped, and I'm not sure that those properties receive proper attention from code enforcement. So whatever we do is going to create an issue or an additional workload for another department. So as long as we know that, that is a very important thing to take note of. But I don't have a problem with, if we put an informational page somewhere on our website saying hey these plants do well in farmers branch but when we start dictating this is what you have to do these are the type of plants i'm gonna oppose that all day long because we've got six people up here six different tastes and we got forty three thousand residents and probably not too many that are going to agree with us so um i i just What is our goal? We want a well-landscaped city. What does that look like? It's going to be different for each one of us. Another goal would be water conservation. From my standpoint, it's more about providing education to residents than regulation. I understand that we have to have some rules in place for what is done. So that's my little two cents on all that. Councilwoman?

I'd like to add that I wholeheartedly agree with Councilman Reed and the mayor. I think when I originally requested this, we need to be more inclusive, especially with this 12% water increase. We need to make sure that Zeriscape is part of our plan, especially since we're already doing it on parts of city property. We have mentioned several times that there's a list, that someone created a list. If we could make that available, that would be, I think, really helpful to people that are trying to, you know, I go to the nursery and I just stand there and get overwhelmed because I don't know exactly what to plant. I think that would be really helpful. But I do agree that the idea is for people to have more freedom to do what they need to do on their yard. But for me, the Zeriscape portion is really, really important.

Councilman Reid. I'm not sure whether this would be the ordinance for this to happen on, but when we had the meeting last week with the various committee heads, we had talked about rain barrels and whether it's one of the big detractors is you can have the rain barrel in the rear of your home where it's away from minus site, but not in the front. And if we're talking about landscaping in the front, maybe we could add something that would allow decorative rain barrels, not industrial looking blue plastic things, but decorative rain barrels to go along with the water preservation theme, and one that's not, where it's not required to have something blocking the site, any type of screening to go with that. As long as it fits in, it's attractive versus something that's going to be detrimental to the look of the home.

Thank you. I just want to add a comment to that. While I appreciate the retention of water and the water barrels, I think you start going down that path, it's gonna be a subjective nature as to what's an attractive rain barrel versus a non-attractive rain barrel. I think that could become a troubling time for code enforcement to try and enforce what's nice and what's not sort of thing. I'd be cautious in that area. Thank you.

Councilman Gonzales.

Okay, I'm going to have to agree with Mayor and Councilman Villafranca. So I did kind of look at this, but just following along with what also Councilman Neal said, something else caught my eye on page four. Section G, replacing the landscape that died with the same plant type, and the replacement should occur within 30 days. Yeah, I feel like we're being a little too nitpicky, but I also agree with Mayor. I actually did my right along with... or city manager for my weekly meeting and a lot of my things were, who takes care of the grass there? Well, the business owner, it's not looking the best. So I think the businesses could probably have more regulation, but as far as their residents kind of, I agree we need to kind of back off a little bit. I think we do also agree we need to educate them because it would be nice to have plants that are native to our soil. So educating them and but maybe not being so extreme that make sure it's done in 30 days or whatever is going to happen.

I'm going to piggyback on that one. Realistically, 30 days of replacing something in the dead of winter or going into it can't happen. it's not going to survive yet again, and that's just another expense. So I think maybe seasonally, somehow that needs to be incorporated in. What are they replacing? Is it something that's plantable within 30 days during that season? Because if it isn't, it's a mute point, and it's yet another expense for the resident.

So I'm hearing unanimously that we're saying less regulation, but for me, the Zeriscape portion is really, really important.

Okay, all right you get what you need Okay, thank you. Thank you I We're going to take a break at this point and come back for six, seven and eight only because I think six is going to take a little while to have discussion. And and then it might also be good if we have that discussion when there are more folks in the audience. So, well, we love you, but we'd like to see more of you.

Your quality, not quantity.

Yeah. So at this point, we'll go ahead and take a break now and then come back out for the meeting at 6 o'clock.