City Council - Regular Meeting

This is the city of Montgomery at the California public meeting.

This is actually running a little bit different. It's a public meeting versus an actual meeting for business. This is more informative. For the state of Montgomery, this is the city of Montgomery. It's July 9th, 2016. All in order would be Brian Monaghan, Ms. Jo Fox, Mr. Jeff Angelo, and Ms. Carol Langley present. I do know that Mr. Fisher and Stan Donaldson will not be here in case he may be in at some point tonight. With that, it's time to order. On your agenda, we have citizens comments number two. We're going to stretch that with those at the end so that this is productive and you hear exactly what's going to happen and listen to the plans and then how you take them. So moving right along, we'll go to presentation number three on the agenda. Presentation and Discussion of the Business Improvement Grant Guidelines by Kimberly Gonzalez, Assistant Director of Economic Development, and Ms. Gonzalez.

Hello. Thank you all for being here. Before I get started on the grant presentation, I wanted to just kind of give a general statement. Thank you for joining us for the Young and Enclosed Men's Public Meeting. For those that have not yet had the opportunity to meet, my name is Kimberly Gonzalez, and I am the Assistant Director of Economic Development for the City of Montgomery. The Downtown Improvements Project is funded by the Montgomery Economic Development Corporation and supported by the City Council. Construction is anticipated to begin later this year with completion expected in spring of 2027. This project is intended to enhance our historic downtown by improving walkability, pedestrian and traffic safety, accessibility, and the overall visitor experience while preserving the unique character and history that make Montgomery so special. Throughout construction, the city is committed to minimizing impacts on local businesses by carefully phasing the work schedule, with particular attention given to the holiday season and other peak business periods. This evening, our project team, including WGA consultant engineers in Bucks and Landscape Architecture, will provide an overview of the planned improvements, discuss the project timeline, and highlight key milestones as we move toward construction. The purpose of tonight's meeting is to share information, answer questions, and hear all your feedback. To begin, I'll provide an overview of the new business improvement grant program, which is scheduled to launch through the Montgomery Economic Development Corporation this October. Following that presentation, I will turn the meeting over to our engineering and landscape architecture teams, who will walk you through the project design. Thank you. construction phasing, and anticipated timeline and greater detail. And at the conclusion of our presentations, we'll open the floor for public comment and questions. We appreciate you all being here and for your participation. And we will go ahead and move into the Montgomery Economic Development Corporation Business Improvement Grant Program.

You can go ahead and switch to the next slide, please.

Okay, the Montgomery Economic Development Corporation's Business Improvement Grant Program is designed to encourage investment in local businesses and commercial properties by providing financial assistance for improvements that enhance the community's economic vitality and appearance. By supporting business growth, downtown revitalization, and commercial development, the program seeks to help create jobs, increase property values, attract visitors, and strengthen Montgomery's tax base while preserving the character that makes the community unique. Before we go into the eligible improvements, I did just want to give a bit more background to the program because this is a very quick presentation. It's just a few slides, and then the bulk of tonight will be turned over to the engineering and landscape team. The Business Improvement Grant Program is a new initiative that's funded by the Montgomery Economic Development Corporation, or NEDC, and is scheduled to launch on October 1st of 2026. The program is available to all eligible businesses located within the city of Montgomery. but we do encourage and we are hopeful that our downtown businesses will take advantage of the opportunity. As the Downtown Improvements Project moves forward, this program will serve to complement the downtown improvements by helping property owners and businesses make improvements to their own buildings and sites. There is an application that must be submitted to apply for the program and the MEDC will review all applications to determine funding and eligibility. So let's talk about some of the potential eligible improvements that we've listed out in the guidelines. These include things such as facade improvements, sign improvements, general property improvements, landscaping improvements, business displacement grant, and a mega grant. So let's touch on each of these and then I'll give more specific examples of things that would be covered under this grant program if the business is eligible. So for facade improvements, we look at things such as awnings, windows for replacement, enhancing exterior building lighting. For sign improvements, we're referring to storefront signage. And this is for installation, renovation, and removal projects. General property improvements would be things such as HVAC upgrades, plumbing upgrades, electrical repairs, improving decorative fencing, streetscape amenities such as outdoor street furniture would also be included in this. Landscaping improvements, of course, this is things such as shrubs, vines, hedges, trees or palms, landscape lighting. Let's go to the Mega Grant. We'll come back to the Business Displacement Grant. The Mega Grant is maybe awarded for a multi-tenant retail business. This is when, rather than a sole tenant, the actual business owner of an entire building is putting in for... improvements for that building. So it would include a larger project and it has different requirements in terms of investment into this. And then the Business Displacement Grant, this is designed to aid businesses that have been displaced from their current place of business due to the property selling that is the intent and the heart behind this project. This one is on a month-to-month basis, and this would help match rent for a property for up to six months. Like I said, on a month-to-month basis, aside from the business displacement grant, which is on that month-to-month matching field, the rest of these improvements are reimbursement grants. So let's say someone does a project that is $10,000 to improve stairways and accessible entryways. The NADC will then reimburse that business which is half of that expense to match one for one, if the project is approved. Can we go to the next slide, please? More specific project examples, replacing entryway stairs and or accessible ramps for entry into the business, adding in landscape lighting and shrubbery outside of your business, replacement of storefront signage with new signs, facade improvements such as addition of awnings, door and window replacement, and certain exterior painting projects, and projects that improve safety and functionality such as electrical systems and HVAC upgrades. We can move on to the next slide, please. Funding. All grants with exception of the business displacement grant are reimbursement grants for fiscal year 2026 to 2027. $25,000 has been set aside preliminarily. This can be changed depending on how the program goes and at the direction of the board. And the application for this business improvement grant will open on October 1st of 2026. And along with the guidelines, you'll receive an application and all the other requirements that go along with applying for the grant. And that will go through me and through the MEDC office. And I think that's the last slide.

Yes. Thank you.

Next on the agenda is Presentation and Discussion of the Downtown Improvement Project by Buxton Landscape Architect, W.J. Rousseau, Peter, and Cindy Stanton.

Hello, good evening, ECC and Council. I just want to provide a little bit of context As Council and the UBC are aware, this project has gone through a couple of iterations over the last couple of years, and so I wanted to just kind of make the overall picture of how we ended up here. So first, this project was previously scoped out in kind of multiple, actually, let me back up, introductions. Zachary Tennell is the WGA City Engineer, and then I have Kat Lynch with Bucks and Landscape Architects. She is the CEO on the downtown business market. Now, back to how we got here. This project was previously scoped out in a couple of different projects. One was a downtown water line replacement that looked to up-size multiple water lines along Cowan Street, College Street, Carolina Street, from existing 4- and 6-inch to 8- and 12-inch. And so that is one project that was previously in design but got put on pause due to climate change. Another project that was considered was the McAllen Street streetscape improvements that was previously considered. This looked to do pavement improvements along McAllen Street from College to Caroline, allowing for improvements to add a very similar great pavement to the center of McAllen from College to Caroline. That project was ultimately put aside and then combined with the water line project. And now what this project entails is upsizing the water line along McAllen Street. The additional water line components will be added during a separate project at a future date. Paving improvements, which again was and wrote in with this project and storm included as well. We've been able to increase the scope of the project. And so instead of Caroline, to college.

It's now from college to 105.

And again, all within the realm of what we previously budgeted for those individual projects. Now we're including pavement, landscaping improvements, lighting improvements, water line, and storm. And so all of that was done to kind of help with the city and making sure that we're not going in downtown and breaking up newly constructed infrastructure at one time or multiple times with the goal of minimizing destruction and displacement and lack of access to the downtown community. And so that is how we can jump here. And I will give it to Kat to kind of talk about some of the specific landscape improvements for the project.

So we can flip sides, please. This was just sort of how we started. High-level big picture concepts that I'm going to talk about in design. I wanted to have imagery accompany it. So we're talking about improvements that are pedestrian realm. So that's going to be upgraded paving, pavers, trees, street trees, but all of them. impact, it's going to be low maintenance. So when we're talking about trees down the gallon, we're thinking about putting in the tree grays, like you'll see in the images to the right, planters, so that also the tree grays improve your walkability, gives more of a pedestrian zone to walk. Any planting would be in planters, again, to keep maintenance at its knees. And then we're trying to maintain the beautiful historic tarmac of the downtown and also provide opportunities for highlighting the charm of downtown. So these are just inspirational pictures. If you could look to the next slide. This is our overall concept that Zach was saying. It goes from Collins Street all the way to 105. And when we're looking at the right-of-way along McAllen, all the improvements that we've just talked about are suggested in those little dots, but I have blow-ups in each area. So I have the north area, if you'd like to do them there. Next slide, please. This is the north end. So we are north, this is the left. And those are your existing papers right there at College Street. Then what we're suggesting is improving the parking situation throughout the whole project. So streamlining that into head-in parking one way on McAllen. Improving pedestrian walkways, so crossing streets is going to be safer and more designated with improvements, mid-street crossings, and then also at Caroline. The other assignment is cycling the trees and the grates that we would see with these benches and your historic acorn lights, sort of a facelift, and a nice unified rhythm and pattern down your streetscape. But next slide would be a sort of a cross-section of the north end there, looking at what we would want to do with some lighting. And as you can see there, to the left, that's to scale in person and that wider area for pedestrians to walk, but also keeping cars sort of at one end as well. This is a sketch of rendering of an example of interstitial mid-street crossings and what we would suggest in terms of fixed benches, again, planters and pots, and keeping that pedestrian realm very nicely open for walkability. That's the north side. Next slide, please. It's gonna be the south end. So now we're looking at Caroline to 105. Again, coming down at Gowan, we are introducing one-way parking, a new upright sidewalk on the west side and also on the east side. Again, trees. Those trees would be set in landscape, not in pavers. There's a little bit more breadth to the roadway there. And then sort of the golden child to this entry to your downtown is right there at the hard corner of Liberty and 105. where we're taking a little bit of an extrapolation of the Texas star and making that pedestrian feature with a historic tree right in the middle, and then anchoring it as a beacon to come into downtown with a new monument. And that is on the next slide. Here's some sections and cross sections of what that sign would look like. and where our sort tree would be set up, nice and proud, so that from all corners and vantage points along that intersection, you can see that you're entering a new special place. Now this is a sketch up, a rendering of the monument sign, and it was done by a lighting designer, or sign designer, LED Partners, but we're working in conjunction with them to get that merriment to that extrapolated star plaza. Next slide, please. There it is then. You can see also we're in the paintings at 105 and then at John Butler and Caroline. Again, we're introducing new paintings in those intersections to give you a sense of place, a sense to slow down, and that your entrance is special. And again, that vehicular slowdown is really very important when we're talking, introducing people walking in the space.

And then now kind of just to discuss, you know, the phasing of the project. Understanding that there will be immediate impact to downtown business owners. That is one of the higher priorities of this project is when we get to construction, we're not wanting to take away any potential economic benefit from the downtown project. So what we're proposing is phasing of the project to minimize that impact. Looking kind of at that far left exhibit, you'll see kind of full closure of McAllen from Caroline to 105. This would still allow access for the property owners on the east and west to still have access to their businesses. And then stalling construction north of Caroline until after the busy season of the holidays. I understand that we're bidding this project around September, so construction will start Q3 of this year all the way through Q1 of next year. And so kind of going from that, looking at the next phase of construction, the middle exhibit and the right exhibit, and on the next page as well, we're thinking of only isolating quadrants of McAllen from College to Caroline, again, to continue access so there's no full cutoff of traffic. Obviously, there will be delays in the that the best we can with the contractor once we get into construction. So at any given time, there will still be through traffic available for downtown property owners and pedestrians and vehicle traffic.

So we're not closing off McAllen at any one time during this construction.

And as you look kind of just over these exhibits, you'll see how we're promoting some of this detour traffic from College to Carolina 105 to 149 to Maiden, Prairie, etc., utilizing those streets the best that we can. And again, as we get further in along with design and start scoping this out with contractors, we'll be able to better ascertain how to better do that during construction. Right now, this is a very preliminary sketch, and we'll actually have something concrete planned and coordinated with staff, PD, as well as the contractors during construction. And again, kind of, you know,

a fair amount of project for the city.

It's gonna be setting the stage for what downtown Montgomery is, making sure that all stakeholders are involved in the planning process, but understanding that there will be short-term discomfort for a long time. So make sure that that is echoed and that's in committee's care.

With that, we will be opening for our citizens' conference. If you've got any questions, please feel free to come to the podium and not too far, and we're happy to answer any questions.

I noticed on the diagram that the trees and shrubs in front of my business would be removed.

While it might really look good, it's going to take all the shade that's available on the west side of the building. And it's really hot in the summertime there. So having the trees across the street is not really going to help shade or cool off the walkway.

So I would be against that. The other thing is I have natural plants. I have palmettos in the front, native to the area. It looks like it's Montgomery because it's got palmettos and we've got them all around and also crape myrtle.

So could you go back to that slide real quickly so we can see your visual? And then maybe talk about the metadata.

We didn't add your plants in there. About six inches of it is in our right-of-way.

The rest of it is your private property. And that's kind of where I discussed with you the other day. And this is where that grant will come in or something. You know, if we put planners here, we don't disrupt that at all. I mean, there are a few of those that are kind of up to the front. There's no reason why we have to tear all of them out there.

I think it's going to be just meeting with you and then once we bid this out, we'll be able to kind of have a discussion with you and say, okay, this is what we're going to do. I was supposed to meet you Tuesday afternoon.

I never made it, but that's my only concern.

Yeah. And we have looked at that and of course we've got landscape that we can draw in whether that's even a little more protected planter or something. That you can decide on your own because most of that other than about six inches is your private property. Thank you.

So to that point though, he brings up a good point. We think that trees there is the best because it gets some of the white stuff and then inside the neighborhood

What are you asking?

So those trees on his side versus the other side is what I'm asking. The greenery is on the most western side, it looks like.

The problem is between the parking and the actual private property. I don't know where we would go with it.

Okay, just curious.

There used to be a big tree right there.

They cut it down. They cut that down. And my stuff is like right here. So, and right here.

And it could be potential, you know, up towards those corners to add more trees. I don't know how we would fit them on his side there because there's just not enough.

I was just curious. What do you think about those trees on that side?

Which three are you talking about?

It looks like there may be, like, one or two.

So why don't you come to our property, and you can show us legally where we're going to go over there so we can have a real data.

Well, this is a concept, so this is not in stone what we're doing.

We live over there, so I can come and meet with all these property owners so you can show us what you are planning to do over there. Exactly.

Thank you for the opportunity. Rebecca Luriga with Texas and Beyond. I have a quick question. Is that okay? Yeah, go right ahead. So I'm looking at all of the beautification that's happening on McAllen Street, and I'm wondering if there will be any duplication of Greenway and Pop-Tarts for the businesses that are off on Liberty? I saw it. I missed it. Okay.

So it is in the plan and we do plan to do that. Some of that we'll have to do through the grant program. Some of it we can duplicate It's not her city road, so we run into that. But if on your private property, you would like the EDC to help you with some of those things, and I think Kimberly talked to you about that. I think there's an opportunity there.

Okay, so that's to the plan. Yes.

All right, part one.

Part two, is there any plans to update? There is a sign that calls out the businesses as you enter And make a new sign right there on the corner. Correct. So right at 105 Liberty. It's a little... quote unquote tacky. So is there a new concept of getting that sign? Yes.

Yes, I'll answer that too. So we're in the process. The EDC, MEDC has already approved the production of this sign. It will be a lot nicer. If you'd like, sometime I'll have people to bring down, show you the pictures of it. Now we're not gonna place it until the construction is built, once it's being aware, the damage or whatever.

I'm sorry. So I'm a little competitive. So we have Conroe and Woodlands are very proud of their arts. So are we going to add arts on that sign also in addition to . So. Do you want me to answer that?

Okay, so the actual signs themselves are already developed, designed, and starting in the office. They'll be implemented throughout the city, not specifically downtown to begin with, because of the construction that's going to be going on, but around entrances, all of the signs. As far as art is concerned, there's no specific art designation, I don't think, Kimberly?

We actually built into the grant program, into the facade improvement, that murals that are painted on buildings may be included in the grant program. So if someone wants to do a mural in downtown and submit to have part of that covered by the EDC, And that is included. But what else are you referring to when you talk about art? Yeah, let me just back up.

So one of the things that, for example, we have the street dance, right, which is a form of art, right? And I hope that the city continues that because it brings a lot of young people to that topic. So that's a form of art. We can have concerts in that similar area. That's a form of art. We have a fine arts gallery in downtown, just in case anybody didn't know we have one. So that's art as well. So what I'm asking as part of my part A question is on that side, and then realize that you have already You just gotta copy paste. But I was wondering if there's an opportunity to say that there's art, A-R-T, which encompass dancing, finance, painting, music, all of that is a form of art. So to highlight that we have that offering,

design that we're doing, you'll be able to do that. It has a big area that we can put in there. I mean, it's not designed to advertise businesses or anything. It's designed to tell people where to go. Exactly.

Like antiques, restaurants, this, that.

That's exactly what it'll do.

Thank you.

I mean, as a general question, do you like the design, the concept as of today, do you think this is an improvement? It definitely adds, we're adding more parking, we're adding more vulnerability, we're adding, we're making the change to one-way traffic. It's a type of challenge that we're facing. would you like to say something i just had a quick you said adding parking how many parking spaces are we adding and we're actually adding in downtown i believe 40.

Go to the next slide.

So actually previous slide.

All the parking on So all the parking north of Caroline is existing. We're not taking away, we're not adding. The parking on the south side, we're adding parking on that northern lot, adjacent to Caroline and adjacent to McAllen, extending on McAllen parking from the Historic Society Museum. And then south of that, we're adding new parking slots as well. So overall, downtown, there will be approximately 38. We're still going through design, finalizing everything, but we will be adding parking downtown.

So Caroline between Liberty and McAllen? So that's 105 up to...

So added parking here, and then added parking here, and then added parking... Where the trees came down and where that lot is. Correct. Gotcha.

But we're also going to have parking at the new city.

And that'll be open all the time?

That'll be open all the time for public parking? And in the design of the municipal complex right now, we're gonna extend that parking lot, so we're, of course, we haven't bid that project out yet, but we are trying to add more parking in the front as well.

And Mr. Chilowitz, too, when we saw the first rendering of City Hall, it adds 100 parking spots to the existing there today, plus these 38. Approximately 140, from gyms to 105. Well, I really want to come up to them. We just want to double check. We're still down there by the museum. That is correct. Yeah, and it's cordoned off today. You're right. Zach, one last question I was going to ask. No, you're good. This project, from start to finish, even though it's going to be like improvements and stuff, so it won't disrupt businesses, because you know, I mean, how long do you think the whole total length will be? Because you know I'll have to be more short-term.

So if we're going to bid out in September and starting contracts, it's probably another month, so October for actual notice to proceed with the contractor, getting them out on site in the middle of October, probably just thinking about straight construction, probably ending around March of 2027. That's not accounting for the phasing, so it may delay a little bit, but probably about March when we get off the landscaping, the paving, the storm, the waterline.

So from 105 to whatever, I mean, we need that.

Yes.

Okay. Five months. So whether they have a, whether we'll obviously have a, you know, that five-month timeframe is, you know, ideal situations.

Well, and so let's just go ahead, and as people are probably thinking about it, the parade route will be changing, so therefore that will not impact the construction that's happening on the county. Correct. Okay.

No, that's fine. Could you give us a better idea of when Jim's hardware parking and all of that will be impacted? Because putting on the, with the historical society, putting on the... The vendors and the cookie walk, we're struggling to find a place for our vendors to park, and we wondered if it was even a possibility to park in the gym's parking lot area.

It's public parking, yes.

It's always good to be in there and unloading like at 5.30 in the morning, but they need a place to park. You say it's public parking, but no one knows it. But anybody can park there.

I see people park there all the time. Nobody gets a ticket. Nobody gets towed.

Nothing happens. You just park there. It's the people's parking lot because it's owned by the city.

I think it's the same. Like Braylon was saying, we have the wayfinding signs going in, and this was added after we approved that, I mean, the building. So we'll just add more wayfinding signs.

Those will be directional to City Hall, the other parking, all the public parks.

The parking here, other parking there, and not big parking. That's going to be a mess.

And those signs that you're talking about there for like the City Hall and the other public parking that we already have, those can go in now, right? Because that has nothing to do with the McAllen Street. So are those planning soon?

The project, the City Hall project was not even on like a thought when we... We've been doing this now for four and a half years. So it's just now coming to fruition. that we signed through the implement. But to answer your question, we will add those parking signs to the City Hall area as a directional because it's a part of the city now.

We've already created one that shows City Hall this way. But we could make standard... public parking signs over there.

Even Sands City Hall right now, just the actual public parking that we currently have to call that out so that people do know so they don't park everywhere that they're not supposed to park.

Yeah, I'm a victim of that as well, so I understand. Yeah, we're definitely on top of the parking directionals, and you can also get on our website, too, so there's a lot. Now that we have some extra horsepower with Kimberly, she will be guiding us in and making sure that everything gets buttoned up so people know where they're going.

And we have about six public parking signs where there is public parking down there and they're gonna be very identifiable so you'll be able to, that's part of the Wayfinding project.

So we're about to make our flyer for all these vendors. And we just want to make sure we don't have too many and too little parking. So you don't think the Jim's parking lot will be an issue at December 12th? No. Okay, good.

And also the school is a great partner to the city. So if they wanted to park down there in our upper and that parking lot too, I mean, you can- We've all been out running shows, golf carts, but- I still think that that's not a bad thing, because some of our guys might think that they may be better off by the school and not the school that they're in, because some of them will have bigger men just in the group.

and the beds on that part that commercial there across from the school and they're very partnership city and they're open to people parking there that's great okay and i think we'll be able to put some some temporary public parking during that time because you know construction of that building is also going to start during that time but a lot of that is going to be pre-stuffed Over where the, I don't know what you call that, where we used to store the lumber, the building that's beside, that's coming out and then now in the staging area.

But the parking out front should still be unaffected. Right.

Yes, ma'am?

What are pavers? Tell me what pavers are. Bricks?

Yeah, bricks. They're bricks? Mm-hmm. Okay.

Okay. We have bricks in the front of our shop and twice a year, it's the bricks and then we have steps. And twice a year, we have to pick up those bricks and add more soil, twice a year, because they sink. I'm not so sure that pavers there are going, they're going to move.

So, definitely agree with that sentiment. What we're doing on that intersection and the intersection to the south is mimicking what's done on college is essentially under your brick pavers is concrete pavement so they don't shift during any type of rain.

Because, trust me, they're going to move a lot.

We've had extensive conversations about that.

And even with the deep enough

underneath that that up there at college that's been in great shape and continues to stay in great shape that's yeah just being right and with the trade-off of that is you know you have to refresh that paint on stamp concrete versus the brick it's pretty much that color permanent so but definitely understand the concern on that for sure

Do you have a question? What happens to KO Corner? Is the bench going to be moved out while construction is done?

So we'll be protecting all of those historic markers on that corner of Caroline and McAllen. There actually have been plans and conversations of improving that canopy area. So definitely continue to keep that historical marker there. Or relocating it somewhere north, closer to the community center.

But again, the thoughts are still...

Okay, not the bench. The plaza, the marker.

Gazebo. I call it the bus stop. It looks like a bus stop. The bench will stay in place. Okay, all right. It's a bus stop. That's all it's ever been.

Can you guys talk a little bit about the backside of the businesses on Liberty to McAllen, if you guys plan on improving that at any point? Yeah, on the west side of McAllen, that's the backside of those businesses and it could stand some improvement from a purely objective standpoint.

They could get grants. Thank you.

What about trash cans with this improvement on the street? It's nice, and just to his point, it is the backside of their buildings, and that is where they put their trash cans. So what is gonna happen with those?

We've done a study on doing trash cans for specific mill businesses, like these businesses go to this can, and I don't know, Brent, what y'all decided to do with that. I have a centralized so we can get pull the green trash cans off the streets, right?

So there's no real right away to put dumpsters or anything. There's no real alleys. The alleys have become streets. So there's, you know, I mean, you do see some on Maiden, even though that's a street. So really street though.

Maiden is not really a walking string.

Yeah, but it seems so bright. And we are gonna create a one-way on Maiden to match the one-way on McGowan to create it going around this way because it's so skinny. The point is, we don't have easy access to public property to set dumpsters. So there has to be some way to work with the businesses to have their trash cans, however that is.

Yeah, that's more of what I'm talking about. I don't think dumpsters are the answer to this. I mean, something that the city could help them with a somehow cover or facade that goes around them that... Thank you.

Cover that. That's been on our radar for a long time. We could use some input from the stakeholders downtown on that because we can't just go in and disrupt. Of course not. We wouldn't do that anyway. But we do need some suggestions because it's kind of a sticky widget. We're not quite sure how to make that work for everybody. If you guys got some suggestions on how to make that work, please share it with us.

Unfortunately, it's going to be on each individual business owner to do it because there is nothing you guys can do to force it at this point.

Right. I mean, we'd be more than willing to put a six-foot fence up, maybe even an eight-foot fence.

They would block the trash cans. But we're on maintenance, so again, it's really not a walking route. But seriously, people walk down Macau, and there's trash cans every 20 feet.

How are they going to have the trash picked up during construction? Are they going to have to push them out to the ends of the corners? We did that for the Antique Festival. I pushed everybody's...

So we'll definitely coordinate that with the local trash pickup and contractors. as well as regular operating businesses. Trash is coordinated. That'll just have to get worked out a little bit further into the process.

And maybe it would be for a short amount of time, putting it on me, and just because it's in the trash bin, I can just pick it up and take it to everybody's.

It's just for a little bit of time.

Anybody else? Any questions, concerns, feedback?

Can I share one thing? So, UDC has been working on this close to five years. It has taken for two administrations. We have a wonderful, wonderful marketing campaign. We have a good team. We have a lot of goodness coming to downtown. And it's going to be Atlanta. Not a, not a, we're not changing the culture of the city, the look of the city. We just want, we just want to have a sense of, you know, give it a little love. If you've got ideas on how to make that better, this is a great time to start sharing those. But just know this, we've been working tirelessly to try to get this done. to the finish line, we really hope with wayfinding, with a new city's streetscape, with other marketing things that are coming down the road over the next couple months, we'll see a lot of marketing for the city to bring business to our downtown area. And there's other ancillary businesses that are coming in that are going to create jobs and add more volume to your businesses. I'm part of that community, so I understand. I'm part of the district people downtown. So just know this. We're real excited. It's getting so close. And when you start seeing it all come together, I think you're going to be proud again of Texas.

Thank you. this is a sales tax, this is what you businesses bring in to us, and that it is not increasing the property taxes for your businesses or for our residents. It is very important. 149 Main Street. Are there any money to make that look better? So TxDOT, we just had a meeting recently with TxDOT, and they are going to be doing remilling and redoing, but there's just, there's not the right-of-way on the sides, because if they do, it takes off in front of, from Cozy all the way to Larry Jacobs, it takes off that whole entire walkway, and we don't want that either, right? So TxDOT is redoing the road from 1097 to 105. when that's gonna happen later next year after all of this happens. It's getting prettier, but there's not any changes per se. Mainly, it's kind of dangerous. The sidewalks and time, not even the parking, but just the sidewalks are rough and they're not consistent. So it's not, you know, really pedestrian friendly. Yeah, and that's a big reason to bring McAllen to be the heartbeat and not 149 bringing people over here to walk. If they want to go to the west side of 1-49, they can cross over 1-49, certainly. But it's to bring the traffic. Right now, it's Bush Club traffic. Things on McAllen and 149, but we can kind of bring it to the downside. It's a lot safer. So my rancher's daughter and the bank, H-Lines, They're not going to be able to operate off my gallery. Say that again? I mean, people are still going to need to get off to the west side. 100%. I'm not saying they won't. I'm just saying that adding all of that parking gets them off of 149 parking that's not really there. It's in the right-of-way of TxDOT. Let's get them parked where they're going to be safe, and it's better for them to walk across than it is to park there and dodge traffic and walk around.

Okay.

And the other thing about Kexau, you, everyone at your residence, you've got to hold up your state reps. Let me tell you what, they are the people who should be talking to Kexau, not all of us, because just one little city does not really, you know, I don't think it moves my own mind, but when their constituents, the rep's constituents start talking about it, you sometimes get a little bit of their reaction. There's just nothing right away there to improve. They talked about doing the walkways. You can't because of mountain spaces. Then they talked about sort of the turn lane years ago, nine or ten years ago. And that was going to shut down businesses for three months out of time per block. And businesses won't survive. So it's a huge conundrum. And it's a... what to do without impacting business to get better mobility. So that's the right of way, but they... I don't know exactly. Where is exactly the right-of-way end?

It is a little cloudy, even from Tetra's standpoint. So if you look on this picture, you'll see how that dashed line... the east side of liberty street effectively where your parking stalls end on uh our department stalls end on that uh historic society building is where the right away is and so to the point of adding in sidewalks redoing paving and expanding that so it's more safe for residents and pedestrians to cross. It is very hard because of the right way. And so realizing we had a conversation like Sarah mentioned a couple weeks ago on that exact thing. And so we're doing what we can to work with tech stock on improving that area because we understand that it is a hotspot for pedestrian traffic. And tech stock has been made aware of our concerns. But again, It's TxDOT. I don't know if any of y'all work with TxDOT day-to-day. They are to get on the radar. So definitely understand they plan 40, 50 years out. And so thinking of that, we are constantly asking, constantly promoting the city's interest and concerns on mobility, traffic, that kind of safety concerns. So why would you think that?

Well, in Texas, I was planning that 10 years ago, and they got their hands slapped big time, so they're really gun-shy. I'm talking about 149, because the businesses came, which was the right thing to do, what happened, them not doing anything, because what they were going to do was going to kill them.

So along with that, for those businesses, and because we watch people do it all the time, how about crosswalks? So TxDOT will not support a crosswalk at Caroline and 149. What about the existing crosswalk? Can they just at least...

They told us that we could put up a sign, but the minute somebody gets hit, then that's going to be on us because that's not a TxDOT approved walkway.

So the crosswalk that's currently there, is there plans to repaint?

Yeah, that's part of the whole building and all of that building. By Burger Fresh and then by Rancher's Daughter. Those are the two TxDOT approved walkways. And those are going to be repainted soon? Yes.

Question for Mr. Walker. With the addition of the city hall and that public parking, is there going to be anything to facilitate an easier transition for pedestrians going south versus having to walk out onto 149?

Yeah, so from over Clepper into the community center and going down Maiden.

is there is there that in this project or is that down the line different well so we had talked about redoing the whole community complex and part of it's going to be in a second third phase of what we're doing on the gal on the back side because we're also you know there's a sidewalk coming from the whole school down there we're going to connect that all the way down and bring it across Can I just ask why they tore down the tree? Which tree? The big tree on the corner of 105 and the one that they're gonna build, put a new tree there.

The tree right there at 105 and 149. That was a concrete tree.

Why did they do it? It was junk trees.

To make room for parking.

It's horse apple trees. They're Bodark trees.

Bodark trees. It has a green apple thing. I just get lots of people that ask. So I just want the reason why that one big tree on the corner was torn down. Okay. Okay.

And we are putting more trees back. Yeah, I was just, people asked why they were, so I just. Which pair of these trees?

Pecan. Okay. Pecan. Okay. What is the mound of dirt?

Well, we showed that there. I didn't see it.

Is that going to be the big tree?

Yes, the Liberty Tree to South Side of America, Street 50, and then the big one start, and then down the road, it's just like that.

Okay. And what kind of tree is that going to be?

What kind of tree?

It's a... It's being donated by the Daughters of the Revolution. They will be here in August. They're going to bring a marble, I believe it is, plaque to designate it as the Montgomery Liberty Tree.

And the conversation is to call that the Liberty Park. You know, to kind of create this whole star thing. That's actually on the agenda.

There was actually a lot of thought put into this. They didn't just go out and cut a bunch of trees down and say, all right, let's figure this out now.

I guess part of it was that, like, none of us businesses were told. So it was like one day they just came out and cut all the trees. It's like, oh, okay, well, there goes all the shade.

It's been a couple of years, but I mean, this is going to go on and on.

It shouldn't have taken this long to be done.

If you want to improve the place, there's going to be some changes that everyone has to do. Absolutely. Will it be lit up at night? Yes. There are some airs light.

Just on the tree?

It'll be a new marked site.

You know, we've heard a lot about downtown and its improvements, but everybody here has concerns about our city along with the council. But our objective as council is to make sure the thoroughfares run into the city, highlight what we see when we get to the mills. So that's something that TJ and I, we talked about working on because time is great, but there's a lot more going on at all four directions. So if we didn't enhance all four directions coming into And now that we've tackled this major piece and it's taken forever, we have great administrative support. But now that that's done, the money's been put aside, we can start focusing on the areas that TJ and Armida are talking about that really need to be cleaned up coming into our city. And I think they've got some good plans on how to do that. So, you know, it's one step, baby step at a time. We've got an administration that moves super quick now, which we didn't have before. And it's been really a lot of fun. You guys are going to get excited when you start seeing some of these things change.

It's finally happening. It's good.

Yeah.

So is the grant money only there for businesses to allocate that money anywhere else?

The business improvement grant is a general grant for any business located in the city of Montgomery. So in the grant guidelines, there will be reference to the historical overlay with design recommendations. So that's been included. And the intent is that any business in the city can apply for the grant.

basically to clean up the back of their buildings on the county.

Is there anything in there for life?

No, it has to, a business is defined as a, it has to be for profit.

There could be potential other types of grants for that, though.

Yes, it's because of the actual definition of a business and business. So it has to be someone that's turning a profit.

So like the project that we've talked about and Mr. TJ with the cemetery, you know, he came, I don't know how many months ago, but that's a project that EDC can take up. That's an on-profit, that's historic, so we can do those projects too.

This specifically is for businesses. If it's a non-profit, then yes, we can figure out how else to tackle that on a case-by-case if it falls within what the agency can actually do legally.

Well, I know that the back of my name looks not pristine, but the back of Gallup, where the name is cottage, it doesn't look pristine either.

So you're asking about doing something to beautify that. That would be historical right after that. Yes. Yeah, you know, I actually, this is, yes, I think it's on topic. I actually have a meeting with the HGAC, I think in a week or two, and we're going to sit down and talk about all the grant programs that are available. So I can ask about that when I meet with them, and then we can also look at potential for EDC as well.

Well, the Historic Commission also has like 50 grand a year to do that. Yeah, that's not available. Okay. So I'm saying there's other grant, local grant money that maybe the Storks Society could go after.

This is all, so this is going to start up a county, and we're also helping everybody. But then we want Maine, and we want Prairie, and we want College, and Carolina, all to look pristine. But this, you've got to start somewhere. So this is where we're starting. And the ideal is downtown. We know you're in a historic downtown, but now we're in your ear. Bye. the uniformity, the look, the feel, and now you're able to know just by optics where you are. What did you call that?

Placemaking?

Yes, so you just know where you are.

This is just the start, and I think we're headed in a very good and successful and productive direction. I think the idea, and I mean, I have a vision because Aaron and all of us have been part of all of it,

When you get to McGowan Street from 105, granted, there's not a lot of easy ways to turn there, but we're gonna put wayfinding signs telling them to turn on McGowan Street. And with the brick working in the road and looking towards the community center, it's gonna create a whole visual down that house. That's kind of the idea that was created. The look of it's gonna make it look like what that's about.

All right, is there anything else? It's the time. And you know, everybody here is available anytime if you have feedback or, you know. But if you have a three in the morning and have an idea, write it down and give us a call at eight. We appreciate everybody being here with that.