City Council - Regular Meeting

Bye. do do Thank you. Bye.

Good evening and welcome to the regular meeting of the Irving City Council for July 30, 2026. It's a pleasure to have each one of you here and especially to see a nice crowd out here. I think there's going to be some very interesting things that we'll probably try to move pretty quickly through, so get you home before the sun's down. Okay. Shanae, do we have anyone signed up to give an announcement?

Yes, sir, we do. We have two people signed up to give public service announcements. Let me read the script real quick. Well, let me save time. We have three minutes. You have three minutes to get this. And I understand one of y'all has a PowerPoint. So when you get to that, Mr. Fernando here will help you put that up. First person is Hema Narasimhan and second is Pranjal Vaidya.

Honorable Mayor and members of the Irving City Council, namaste and a very good evening. My name is Hema Narasimhan, residing in 1339 Wooddock Drive, Irving 75063. It is indeed an honor to be here in this good city representing an organization like the HSS or the Hindu Swayamsevak Sangh. Among other things, we strive to carry forward the culture of service and volunteerism We are grateful to contribute through civic engagements, charitable services, cultural programs, and support for our neighbors in their time of need. I'm here to bring to your attention some of the things we've done in the past few months in this regard. To keep Irving beautiful, we have adopted a spot in Kinwest Parkway. We, children, teenagers, and adults, have gotten together every month to clean and pick up stray trash there. This is our second year in doing so. Our biggest festival is also a time to be the most charitable. We collect canned and packaged food for those in need, especially since the festival of Diwali is soon followed by winter. In 2024, we donated around 1,250 pounds of food to Metro Crest, and last year, around 600 pounds was donated to Irving Cares. We've been engaging with Carter Blood Care to organize blood donation camps where eligible volunteers are encouraged to register or walk in. 43 donors have come forward in the past year. 54 hours, that's the time we, and here it has been mostly our high school and middle school kids, spent helping out at Irving Cares, organizing shelves, bagging food, and cleaning as needed. We support and participate in various cultural and service-oriented projects undertaken by the Interfaith Alliance of Irving. Few of our friends are members and are actively engaged with them. Our children honor and celebrate their teachers during the Guru Vandana every year. And we also celebrate the Universal Oneness Day with civic leaders and first responders, thus expressing our gratitude for their service and strengthening our bond. In our most recent undertaking, we donated school supplies to the Irving School Foundation. These supplies will be used to help underprivileged children start their school year with confidence and joy. Also, in collaboration with the Interfaith Alliance, we have raised necessary funds to provide warm meals to the homeless during inclement weather. Our diversity is not a challenge to overcome. It's one of America's greatest strengths. By embracing both our cultural heritage and our shared American identity, we can help build an even stronger, more welcoming, and more vibrant city and country. We look forward to serving our community and to engage with the city actively.

Namaste.

Pranjal Vaidya.

May I start? Good evening, honorable mayor and members of Irving City Council. My name is Pranjal Vaidya, a member of Hindu Swayam Saviksang and a Kapel resident, but we meet weekly in Irving. This year we celebrate America's 250th anniversary, an incredible milestone for our country and our community. As one of many Hindu Americans who proudly call Irving home, it is an honor to be able to celebrate this extraordinary milestone. As Hindu Americans, we have been blessed to live and practice our culture in the city of Irving. Here, we have been able to engage with an understanding, kind, and thoughtful community. Irving has become known for a strong culture of service and volunteerism, and people from all different backgrounds have come together to make the city one of the best places to live. One of the principles that our culture teaches us is Vasudeva Kutumbakam, a Sanskrit phrase which means the world is one family. It represents the exact things that America embodies every single day, respect, service, acceptance, and community. In this country, we have the privilege of being able to practice what we believe, preserve our traditions, and engage with an understanding and free community. As Hindus and as Americans, we're grateful to be able to celebrate the opportunities and freedoms that America has given us. And we're even more grateful to be able to celebrate it with this wonderful community. As a testament to the values of service that America embodies, we as Hindu Americans strive to assimilate with this value and help our community in various ways. Whether it be blood drives with Carter Blood Care, waking up on weekend mornings to clean local parks in Irving, or hosting school supplies drives with the Interfaith Alliance, We are blessed to be a part of community through acts of service. Along with service, we are also proud to state that 37 temples and have hosted and celebrated 250 years of independence by having various banners and events in their religious places. further demonstrating how we are proud as Hindu Americans to be a part of this milestone. As we celebrate 250 years of independence, let's continue strengthening the bonds that unite us. By embracing both our cultural heritage and our shared American identity, we can help to build an even stronger, more welcoming, and more vibrant Irving. Thank you for the opportunity to share our gratitude, and on behalf of the Hindu American community, congratulations to our nation on this historic milestone, and happy 250th anniversary of American independence. Thank you.

That concludes our speakers, Mayor.

Mr. Mayor? Mr. Mayor?

Yes. They seem to have a big group here. Can we get them up for a photo real quick? Sure. Do you all want to come up for a group photo? Sure.

Go ahead and stand up.

You can hide us. That's okay. Hey, David, you weren't kidding. You had a group coming up.

Okay, right here for the first photo, please. Thank you.

No, thank you for all what you do. Thank you. Okay, at this time, will you please stand? The invocations this evening will be given by Pastor Matt Hensley from the Plymouth Park Baptist Church here in Irving.

Pastor. Thank you. Let's pray. gracious heavenly father we come before you with gratitude for the breath in our lungs lord i thank you for the gift of your son who came to live a perfect life for us die a sacrificial death for us rise again victoriously for us and will save us when we turn to you in faith lord we thank you for this day and we ask that you give wisdom to the city council members and the honorable mayor as they make decisions and as they listen to the citizens and lord we just thank you for this great city that we call home, and we thank you again for the time that we have together. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.

At this time, I'd like to ask Councilman John Block, will you lead us in the Pledge of Allegiance?

Place your hand over your heart and recite the pledges with me.

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for

I think at this time we have proclamations and announcements. Am I correct? Now Chief Steve Dye from the Texas Police Chiefs Association has a presentation for our Chief, Chief Derek Miller.

Well, I started my day in a 7.30 meeting with Chief Miller, so I guess it's fitting that we end in a 7 o'clock council meeting tonight. So, Mr. Mayor, council members, Mr. City Manager, my name is Steve Dye. I'm Chief of Police in Allen. I'm also on the Board of Officers for the Texas Police Chiefs Association. Tonight, I have the honor of representing the Texas Law Enforcement Accreditation Program. The Texas Police Chiefs Association is comprised of approximately 1,700 police chiefs and command staff members across our great state, leaders committed to advancing the professionalism in policing. It is my privilege to be here tonight to present the Irving Police Department with its certificate of reaccreditation with TPCA. TPCA created the accreditation program to provide a framework for professional excellence in Texas law enforcement. You may be familiar with accreditation programs in schools, hospitals, and universities, each requiring proof of adherence to rigorous standards. Our program is no different. Texas law enforcement accreditation program is entirely voluntarily, yet it demands a high level of accountability. Agencies must demonstrate compliance with 173 standards rooted in Texas law, court rulings, and modern best practices. These standards cover the full scope of police operations, including use of force, protection of individual rights, vehicle pursuits, property and evidence management, patrol and investigative procedures, and proper training, among many others. This program has become the gold standard for professional policing in Texas. Agencies across the state are working tirelessly to meet and maintain these standards. The Irving Police Department first achieved accreditation status in 2009 17 years ago, becoming the 17th agency in the state to achieve and maintain accreditation. Tonight, we proudly announce that the department has achieved reaccreditation, an accomplishment that is far from easy. To earn this distinction, Irving PD initially dedicated more than a year to auditing and revising their policies, procedures, and practices. Since then, they have submitted annual compliance reports and maintained ongoing adherence to these standards. Every four years, the department undergoes a rigorous on-site assessment conducted by law enforcement assessors from outside the agency. These assessors inspect facilities, review procedures, ride along with officers, and conduct staff interviews, all to verify compliance. The assessment findings are then reviewed by the TPCA Accreditation Committee, which unanimously voted to reaccredit the Irving Police Department. To put this achievement into perspective, of the approximately 2,700 law enforcement agencies in Texas, only 232 have successfully achieved and maintained accreditation. This evening, we proudly recognize Chief Derek Miller and the Irving Police Department for their exemplary performance and continued commitment to professional policing. This reaccreditation confirms that Irving PD is among the very best in Texas. The certificate I present tonight is symbolic. While it represents professional excellence, its true value really lies in the process, the dedication, the discipline, and the commitment required to achieve it. And the work doesn't stop here. The department will continue to submit annual reports and in four years undergo another comprehensive on-site evaluation to maintain this distinguished status. So the Irving Police Department is truly a leader in Texas law enforcement, and I know your community and you all are very proud. So I would like to invite Chief Derek Miller and our soon-to-be fourth vice president of IACP up here to the podium. Chief, congratulations on behalf of the Texas Police Chief's Department to you and your department. Good job, Derek. Appreciate it.

Thank you all. Appreciate it. If I could have just another point of personal privilege. I've been taking those all day today. I apologize.

Chief Dye presented this to me, but my name is nowhere on this.

The Irving Police Department name is on this certificate. This is emblematic of the hard work and dedication that the men and women, the over 600 men and women of your department put in every day and display to the residents every day. And on behalf of them, we'd like to thank you, the residents of our city, for your unwavering support, and then you, council and mayor and city staff, for your support of us. Thank you very, very much. Thank you.

Chief Dye, don't leave yet. I want to tell you, I really appreciated your comments about two weeks ago at the North Texas Crime Commission when you were there with about five of your other colleagues. But what I really saw that you presented was really the update on what's really going on. So I wanted to personally thank you and taking care of our police force here. So thank you.

Well, thank you, Mayor, for saying that. You've got a great chief, as you know, and a great department. So it was my privilege and honor to be here tonight. And Chris, good to see you, my friend. Take care. Thank you.

Okay, we're going to go through... Our council agenda will be going through items 1 through 47. At this time, I would like to ask our city manager for a city operations update.

No update this evening, your mayor.

Thank you. Okay, at this time, consent agenda, items 2 to 39. I understand that we have one item that's going to be, has been asked to... for us to discuss, but at this point, is there a comment on that? Let me see if I can make sure I have the right one here. Okay, well, let me just walk through what we gotta do. Consent agenda.

Mayor. Yes. I think the item that you're talking about is item number 13, I asked for it to be cool. Thank you, that's exactly right. Only for a separate vote, no discussion. What's that? Only for a separate vote, no discussion for me. Do you want to move that at this time? Yeah, I mean, you can go ahead and put it on the floor, and somebody can make a motion on it, because you don't want my motion.

Why don't I go ahead and read it? That'll make it simpler, right? Item number 13, resolution, approving the submission of of the fiscal year 2026-2027 action plan to the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development for the use of federal funds, Community Development Block Grant, Hope Investment Partnership Grant, and Emergency Solutions Grant. Motion to approve. Is there a second? Second. Show your vote. Thank you, Dennis. Okay, at this point.

Motion approved 7-2.

Okay. We have a total vote. Can you bring that vote up again?

I know it's 7-2, but can we show it?

Okay, I'm not quick tonight. I can tell okay We have the following items Two three and four on the consent agenda which are approving our special meeting minutes of Thursday July 16 2026 along with approving the work session minutes of Thursday July 16 2026 and while also approving the regular meeting minutes for Thursday, July 16, 2026. So I have a motion.

Mayor, point of order. Mayor.

Well, I was going to make a motion to approve the rest of the consent agenda.

Mayor, for point of order, are we approving the entire consent agenda?

Yeah, I know. I'm going there. Okay. Items.

Okay.

I was dealing with the three items. Okay.

I just want to make sure for the record. Thank you.

Yeah. Great. Thank you. Second the motion.

There's a motion and there's no second? Motion to approve the consent agenda. The motion I made was to approve the rest of the consent agenda. Okay, good. Second? Second.

Okay. Show your vote. Okay. Okay, at this point, individual consideration for items 40 to 41. 40, ordinance public hearing and designating approximately 14.698 acres of land as tax abatement reinvestment zone number 66. Sinead, do we have anyone signed up to speak on this item?

No, sir.

Motion to approve. Thank you. Is there a second?

Thank you.

Please show your vote. Item number passes unanimous. 41, resolution approving the tax abatement agreement between City of Irving and the Trillium Engineering LLC in the amount dependent upon annual qualifications. Do we have anybody to speak on this, Shanae?

No, sir.

Okay. Motion to approve. Thank you. Is there a second? Please show your vote. Okay. We are now on zoning cases and companion items, items 42 to 46. Item 42, Ordinance 2025-224-ZC, zoning change from SP2-R-TH, close paren, generalized site plan, townhouse residential, and storage units to SP2-R-TH, close paren, generalized site plan, townhouse residential, and storage units with variances to the required rear yard setback at 1612 Brentwood Drive. Shanae, do we have anyone signed up to speak?

No, sir, but would you like me to swear on the other speakers that are going to come up? Yes, okay. Please raise your right hand if you're going to speak tonight. Do you solemnly swear or affirm that all statements which you will make tonight to the City Council of the City of Irving will be the truth and nothing but the truth? Please have a seat. And no, sir, we don't have anybody that signed up in 41.

Okay. Motion to approve this. I second the motion. Thank you. Show your vote. Thank you. unanimous next item 43 ordinance 2026-200-cp-amendment to the comprehensive plan future land use map from quotes manufacturing warehouse close quotes to quote local commercial close quotes approximately 2.7024 acres at 3915 Walnut Hair Lane. Sinead, do we have anyone signed up to speak on this item?

Yes, Mayor Jim Dewey signed up to speak on 43 and 44. So, Mr. Dewey, you can take those in however order you want.

Second the motion.

Okay.

Jim, I'm not even able to hear you tonight. What do I say? Thank you, gentlemen. Show your vote. passes unanimously. Thank you. Item 44, Ordinance 2026-173-ZC-Zoning Change from SP2 to ParenC-W, close. Generalized Site Plan Commercial Warehouse and State Highway 161 Overlay to SP2, ParenC-N, close. generalized site plan neighborhood commercial and State Highway 161 overlay approximately two point seven zero two four acres at 3915 Walnut here at Lane. Is there anyone to speak on this Sinead? Mr. Tim Dewey Second motion second show your vote Item 45, Ordinance 2026-175-ZC-Zoning Change from SP1, quote, detailed site plan close for veterinary hospital including overnight keeping of animals to C-N neighborhood commercial. Excuse me, at 3009 West Pioneer Drive. Sinead, is there anyone signed up to speak?

No, sir.

Motion to approve. Second the motion.

Show your vote, please. Item number 46, Ordinance 2026-160, UDC, amending the Unified Development Code to require short-term rentals in certain residential districts to be approved by conditional use permit and related amendments. Sinead, do we have anyone sign up to speak?

Yes, we do. Richard Martin.

and brian burns richard you can come first good evening everyone um on this order i saw the amendment to uh unify the code i guess

Can you please list your name and address for me? Oh, I'm sorry. That's okay.

Richard Martin. Do I need to give my address?

Yes.

My address is 2906 Grove Street at 75060. Thank you, sir. Okay. I am basically looking at this with the understanding that this now is not knowing what the condition usage would be and what the criteria in the print, what you're saying for that. But my position is on when we're looking at sub short term rentals in a neighborhood, the whole idea I understand for single home, single family home zoning was to maintain the value of the residents and of course the second part of that was to discriminate from people who look like me and of course that whole idea failed many years ago to prove that anyone, any color, any race, any creed could tear down a neighborhood, not just necessarily one of color. With that, there's also always a positive and a negative. Of course, we all know what the negative was. The positive was it all rose up and made the neighborhoods valuable. My short-term rentals can cause a split in the neighborhoods. It can divide the neighbors. It can bring down the value of a neighborhood. if their regulations and codes are not strong enough to eliminate or to identify the type of short-term rentals that would be allowed so my position would be to come up with a new definition for the air and b airbnb type rentals as well as day labor type rentals for short term the problem being that of course congestion on the streets one minute left congestions on the street disruptions of sound loud parties sanitation issues and all those factors come into play as far as maintaining their original plan in which to be to maintain the value of the single-family home neighborhood and if we want to continue to use the grants for uh housing developments in the area i would think that that would be something we would focus on as opposed to short-term rentals but doing things to uplift families and that's what we want here in urban is more families into these single-family homes so i know this is a burdensome thing that you're going to have to decide on and i hope that we can come up with either separation in terms in definition of what the short-term rentals would be categorized.

Thank you, Mr. Martin.

Thank you.

Brian Burns.

Good evening, Mayor and City Councilman. My name is Brian Burns. I live at 1524 Atlanta Drive, Irving, Texas. I appreciate this opportunity to speak today. I'm here because I care deeply about my neighborhood and the people who call it home. Residential neighbors are supposed to provide stability, safety, and sense of community. Unfortunately, the increase of short-term rentals is changing that. Many of our senior citizens no longer feel comfortable sitting in front of their porches, taking walks, because they never... know who will be staying next door or what. Families with young children are hesitant to let their kids play outside because of the constant flow of strangers in and out of the house every few days. This isn't about attacking a property owner or responsible visitors. It's about protecting the character in neighborhoods that were built for permanent residents, not revolving door lodging. We already have hotels, motels, extended stay hotels throughout Irving that are designed, staffed, and regulated and zoned to accommodate short-term visitors. Residential neighbors were never intended to function as a commercial lodging business. When homes become short-term rentals, neighbors lose relationships that may make the community strong instead of knowing who lives next door they have the new faces every week this is less accountability more uncertainty increased traffic noise parking concerns and the growth of feeling our neighborhood is no longer a place where we can families can simply enjoy living the residents who have invested their lives in these neighborhoods deserve better. They deserve consistency, security, and peace of mind that comes knowing that they're from their neighbors. I respectfully ask that You put the interests of Irving residents first by supporting stronger restrictions or prohibiting short-term residence in residential neighbors altogether. Our neighborhood should be places where families grow, children's play, seniors feel safe, and neighbors know one another. Please help preserve the quality of life that made Irving such a great place to live. Thank you for your time and service. Thank you.

That completes our speakers, Mayor.

Okay. Thank you. Council, I'll return it to the council. Excuse me. Okay.

Are you Renee?

Would you like to come and speak? I would. Okay, please take the oath when you come up. You did raise your hand. Okay, great.

Yeah, I don't have you, so I'm going to have to give you a card after you speak.

She has it. Maybe it got tucked under something. It's okay. I'll fill another one.

Oh, it got put in the wrong pile. Okay.

Thank you.

You did sign up. Kathy Martin. Are you Kathy Martin?

I am Kathy Martin, 2906 Grove Street, Irving, Texas, 75060. I just wanted to add one thing. That was awesome, you guys. But there was just one thing that I was thinking. When you write the language for short-term rentals, could you add in there to exclude... rooming houses and boarding houses. So this is when you have, I live in my house, I have five bedrooms, let's say.

Ms. Martin, can you pull the microphone closer?

Oh, can you not? Do I need to start over?

That's better. No.

You guys heard me though, right? So that someone who owns a house and has many bedrooms, right, that we don't have. And that's what boarding houses are. And we know that boarding houses are not single family residence. That is not. And that we know for sure. You could even ask Mr. Google because he will tell you. So anyway, I wanted to suggest that that would be something really good. You know, sometimes we need more language because people kind of go crazy, you know, if it's too broad. So that's my request. Thank you.

And then we have Sandra Parker, final speaker.

My name is Sandra Parker. I live at 1311 Cooper Drive, Irving, Texas, and I'm here for lots of different reasons. The first being that the house that I'm talking about that is a boarding house, thank you for bringing that up. We need to not have boarding houses. There are 12 to 18 men living in that house. They're operating three businesses out of the house. There are 30 heavy equipment and business trucks parked. They've just paved over the 50-foot right of way for Exxon to access the gas pipeline, and it looks like they're planning on paving the rest of the lot. But if we don't have ordinances that control how many people can live in a house that's owned single family and check up on that, our city is just going to turn into one big boarding house. They're now, in addition to the one official house, there's a second official standalone housing unit that used to be a two-car garage. There's a standalone shed that's hidden from the street behind the two-car parking garage that's a standalone house. And enough lumber was just delivered to build a shed that the city approved the construction of and You know, you've got 18 people in a 2,000-square-foot house. We just need to do better with our wording about the restrictions, what's allowed, and to check and see if people are actually registered to be having the houses. There is also another house. One minute left. where there's a camper in the driveway that people live in. It's just out of hand. And there are a lot of old people in the neighborhood, and I agree with people don't feel safe because they don't know who... they're going to wind up talking to or who's there or whatever. So when y'all rewrite, please include some real clear language. Thank you.

That completes our speakers for real this time.

So that completes...

Comments, am I correct?

Yes, sir.

I'd like to add, I'll return it to the council, but I'd like to ask Jocelyn and Chain, are you up there? Come on down, please. Okay, I think you heard a little bit, some of the discussions. Comments, please.

So the comment that was made about the difference between short-term rentals and rooming houses, the difference is the 30-day rule. So short-term rentals are anything less than 30 days. It's not their home. It's not where they live. They rent it for, again, up to 30 days. They have to pay hotel occupancy taxes. It is intended to be just a place where they stay while they're in town. A rooming house is for more than 30 days. It's where the person typically lives or stays, you know, has a lease longer than that period of time. So there are two different... One is more of an overnight or a vacation type of rental. The other one is a home or a residence rental. Okay.

Shane, would you? Sure. Comments, please, on... The lady was asking about... rooming and boarding houses. Yes.

There's clearly a distinction as Jocelyn was just commenting on. Whereas rooming houses are in our code defined as renting individual rooms and there's the 30 day versus long term distinction. So we have regulations right now and we're working right now on EVALUATING THOSE AND BEEFING SOME OF THOSE UP AND PLAN TO RETURN TO YOU HERE AT A FUTURE MEETING WITH SOME CLARIFYING LANGUAGE IN REGARDS TO ROOMING HOUSES. I MADE A NUMBER OF NOTES ABOUT THINGS THAT SHE WAS MENTIONING BECAUSE I WANT MY STAFF THAT ARE BACK THERE WITH ME TO MEET WITH HER. COMMENT SECTION HERE TO UNDERSTAND A FEW THINGS AND MAKE SURE WE KNOW WHERE THAT'S AT BECAUSE I'D LIKE TO LOOK INTO THOSE THINGS. But there's clearly a distinction between a short-term rental and a rooming house in our code. And the ordinance before you this evening actually puts the short-term rental definition in the zoning code that's already in our Chapter 8 so that we have consistency there to make sure that short-term rentals are treated as a specific use. And then rooming houses are treated as a separate use that are prohibited in the residential.

Thank you. Any comments from it? Yes. David and then, well, Abdul and then David.

Thank you, Mayor. So basically, this ordinance applies to the single-family homes which are going to be less than 30 days.

Yes, sir. Yes, sir.

And anything above 30 days would not be considered as a short-term rental?

Yeah, if it's over 30 days, it's a long-term rental. And so it's not required in the code to register or to pay hot tax or do those various things that's required. That's different than a rooming house. A rooming house, even though it may be longer than 30 days, is a different animal. If in fact someone has a home where they're renting out individual rooms and they're doing it for less than 30 days, you recently adopted language to prohibit that type of activity. So code enforcement currently checks the listings of short-term rentals to make sure that they're only supplying a single listing for a single property so that they can't get separate guests get separate guest stays into the same home on the short-term rental. So we have some regulation and some practice now to tighten that up regarding the less than 30-day rentals. The longer ones that are 30 days, they don't have to register, but if they're operating as a rooming house where they're renting individual rooms, we have current zoning code language that addresses those, and we're working to beef that up now. So we have zoning...

allowances for those type of homes which is more than 30 days and stay with the homeowners, right?

Yes, if it's... The room. The individual rooms, we have zoning code language right now. Okay. That if, and I would call it a foundation of where we're starting our enforcement. Again, we're going to work to clarify and beef up some of that, but we have language right now that says that boarding houses and rooming houses and these sorts of activities are prohibited in the long term in the residential zoning areas right now. Yes, sir. All right, thank you.

David. Thank you, Mayor. Thank you... Mr. and Mrs. Martin for being here. Ms. Parker, thank you for coming and talking. Been working with Brian for a while now on this. We have two different issues. First, this is our short-term rental. This is the Airbnb. My personal feeling is single-family neighborhoods should be exactly that, single-family neighborhoods. And you're looking at... The Airbnbs, I stay in Airbnbs when I travel. I get what they are. But this is our first step to regulating them in our city. So we sent out 56,000 notices to every single family owner out there letting you know this is what we're doing. You can come talk to the city council. But here we are today. This is a good ordinance to start at. There's lawsuits from Fort Worth, from Dallas, from Austin, from New Brunsvilles on trying to limit Airbnb. So there's some state laws that we have to look at. I call them split pads, the boarding houses. We only have, I believe, Jocelyn, correct me if I'm wrong, two zoned in the whole city. Two boarding houses that are approved?

Yes, so rooming houses are only allowed in what we call the RXF district. It's the residential extra family, which is kind of an odd district.

So in our single-family neighborhoods, these should not be zoned. They're currently not zoned to be boarding houses. So if you can get with Shane after this meeting, make sure you get the addresses and tell everybody you know if you see these boarding houses. Please call our code enforcement and get the address to them So we can start trying to do something on these things. It is very difficult. We can't go into people's homes. We can't do these things. So the enforcement side of things is tough, but we are going to continue looking at our ordinances and our codes and doing exactly this in the future to prohibit these things in single family neighborhoods. In apartment areas or warehouse areas, there's different rules. But in our single family neighborhoods, we really have to protect them. I thank you all for coming out and talking. This will pass tonight. our next vote here, but it's just the beginning and make sure you keep coming and telling us things in our city we need to fix. So I appreciate it.

Thank you, Mayor.

Thank you for all of those. that came to speak and that came to support, I presume, this ordinance, we heard it very clearly from all the residents, shut them down, essentially. Nobody's thrilled about a single family home being used as a hotel right next to them because of all the nuisance that it brings into the neighborhood and how it destroys the character. So we heard it, it was quite complicated. It took much longer than I would have wished and that you would have wished too understand and thank you Shane and the legal department to understand how we could address this in a way that goes as far as we can based on our municipal power and existing case law to alleviate the issue as much as we can. So this is definitely a step in the right direction. I'm very excited that that's gonna definitely stop the increase in short-term rentals and put some standards for the existing ones which are pretty severe. So with that I'm looking forward to more oversight into rental properties in general, the apartment standards, those are phenomenal as well, so I'm happy about those. And this ordinance is great, appreciate everybody that has been working so hard on it, and of course I will be supporting it.

Council Member Block. Thank you very much, Mayor. I just wanted to, before we vote on this, also say thank you to several people, mostly to you, Mayor, and to Councilman Webb, You guys are the only two left on the council that first took this up. It predates me. I remember watching the first short-term rental registration ordinance pass, and that was a very encouraging moment to watch that pass and know that this was already on council's mind. And then to get onto council and to continue to work with staff, who I also very much want to thank, Shane, Jocelyn, K.O., and his team, Janet. They've been tireless in their efforts to go as far as we can, and they don't seem to get tired of us wanting to go farther. This is definitely the most significant step that we have taken. as a council to protect the integrity of our neighborhoods. And I am beyond proud to vote for this ordinance. And I look forward to not ending the fight to protect our neighborhoods here and continuing to push. Thank you.

Councilman Conroy.

YEAH, THIS IS A GREAT ORDINANCE TO PROTECT SINGLE-FAMILY HOMEOWNERS IN THE CITY. AS COUNCILMAN BLOCK SAID, IT'S BEEN SOMETHING THAT'S BEEN WORKED ON FOR QUITE A WHILE WITH MULTIPLE STEPS, AND I'M GLAD THIS WAS ANOTHER ONE THAT WERE TAKEN TONIGHT. ALONG THOSE SAME LINES, YOU KNOW, WE LOOK AT WE'VE BEEN WORKING ON THINGS TO ALSO TO PROTECT THE HOMEOWNERS FROM A GREATER DENSITY, WHETHER HAVING A MULTI-FAMILY UNIT ON THE EDGE OF YOUR NEIGHBORHOOD. or ADUs packing the backyards, which also can be rented out, and as we talked about earlier, identifying those and getting those enforced is hard to do because it's in the backyards, so you can't see those. So that's part of it as well, trying to limit that density to protect our neighborhoods and make them family-oriented is our goal, and I'm glad we're doing that tonight. Thank you.

Adam. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. And I'm just really going to echo the remarks. I think my fellow councilmen have said it all very well. So yeah, thank you to all the city leads who have worked on this over the years. And thank you all residents for your coming down here and your dedication to this issue as well. So you've been patiently waiting for this to happen. And along with us, right? So this is a very legally complicated issue. It deals with private property rights. It's not a simple problem to solve. So yeah, kudos to everybody who worked so hard on it. And yeah, thank you all. I think this is a great day for our city. Thank you.

Councilman Fogg, please.

Thank you so much, Mayor.

Well, first of all, I thank everybody for coming here tonight. One of the things I really enjoy about Irving is there is an amazing partnership between city and its residents. And whenever there's a challenge that comes up, we partner on it and we work together on it. And kudos to the city staff for bringing this forward. In my neighborhood, we have two Airbnb or short-term rentals. One of them rents by the room, which is extremely annoying, especially because they have six bedrooms and they rent all of them. Sometimes they run programs out of there, and then the other one, they're rented to events. So if they have pre-wedding events and stuff like that, they're rented to those. A lot of our neighbors, they stop letting their kids go out because we don't know who our neighbor is. When we move into the neighborhood, we are looking for neighborhood families, and that takes away from that. One of the things I like everybody to take a look at is take a look at the ordinance that's being proposed today and what is in it. It is not just nice to have stuff the way the staff has put it together, it has teeth to it. There's enforcement involved. And I requested Shane and our technology team to maybe add an item to report a concern app in the dropdown. So if you do see something that is not supposed to be there, so number one, educate yourself on what that ordinance is. And if you see it, report it. So really appreciate everybody. Thank you so much.

Luis, you're still on?

Just a naive remark, because some people seem to want us to go further. For us to be able to go further, in many instances here, we are taking interests. We are undermining certain financial interests that go against the common good and the well-being of residents. So that's why the grassroots being engaged and coming here as you are doing today is so important because otherwise people that are in these elected positions will say, well, we can't do it because then there's going to be all these powerful people are going to come after us. So that's why we need your support and we need you doing exactly what you're doing today. So thank you very much for that.

Okay, I think we've heard from, I think, our constituents that have a very direct line and experience on dealing with this issue, but more importantly, it was important that you heard from two of our professionals, our head of our planning department, as well as our code enforcement, because really what you're also talking about is your safety, your health, because of some of the activities going whatever is going on. So at the end of the day, it's really important that this is a very, I guess, not an easy ordinance to put together and try to wrap everything in it. But we got a really great start. and you'll see more as we develop it if we need to add to it, but your input is critical, and I want to thank you for that. At this point, gentlemen?

I'd like to make a motion for approval. Second the motion. Second.

Show your vote, please. And it passes unanimously. Okay, at this point, we have a last item, and the item is item 47, which is dealing with the selection of the mayor pro tem and the deputy mayor pro tem of our council. The administrative comments are the following. Impact, the selection of the mayor pro tem and the deputy mayor pro tem assumes continuity of municipal government in the absence of the mayor or the mayor pro tem. Item two, the accordance with the City of Irving's Charter, Article 4, Section 10, the City Council shall select from among its eight council members a mayor pro tem who shall perform the duties of mayor in the mayor's absence or disability and the deputy mayor pro tem who shall perform the duties of the mayor pro tem in the mayor pro tem's absence or disability. I would like to announce tonight that we have now as our deputy mayor Mark Conaway and our deputy mayor pro tem will be Dennis Webb. Is there a motion?

Mayor. Mayor. Correction. What's that? I'm the deputy mayor pro tem. Mark Cronowitz is the mayor pro tem. Right. Thank you. Thanks for the correction. Yes.

Mr. Mayor, I'd like to make a motion.

Hold on. I've got to read the motion. David, make the motion.

I move to appoint the honorable councilman Mark Cronowitz as mayor pro tem and the honorable councilman Dennis Webb As Deputy Mayor Pro Tem.

Second.

Is there a second?

I second.

All right. We have a motion and a second. Show your vote, please. Thank you, gentlemen. That's a unanimous vote. So at this time, let's take a minute for people that would like to get ready to either take a stretch. We will go into the final portion of our evening, and that's public comments from the public. Thank you.