Remarks by Melody Ryan
222 remarks on the record, newest first · Page 5 of 9
- Play at 40:13
“So that was one of the questions that had sent in advance along those lines of, and you had referenced the committee that was going over that, and I'm not sure who was on that committee, but has there been developer review of these concepts and the different stakeholder feedback about whether what we're trying to propose would actually incentivize them to do, for the outcomes that we're looking for?”
City Council · Sep 8, 2026
- Play at 45:59
“I had lots of friends who also had town homes and garages under and small, right? So, well, mine was kind of large, you know, with like 150 or 200, but there's others with, you know, 15 or 20 or maybe just six or eight on a redeveloped lot that was a blight and they turned it into beautiful, you know, affordable homes for people to get their foot into the market. So that's just why I'm kind of wondering where these are going to go, because it could be various reasons. It could be a large, you know, organization with HOA and all that stuff. Or it could, well, probably if they were attached,…”
City Council · Sep 8, 2026
- Play at 48:07
“I'm not saying that was Los Angeles. I'm not saying that that's here in Los Angeles.”
City Council · Sep 8, 2026
- Play at 48:15
“Or on a busy street. Like, in Los Angeles, I go there, but, like, their home, and I mean, you know, three lanes each way, you know, you don't want to turn into your home off of that street, so they, you know, some of those, when they got older, they turned them into townhomes that you know, or more appropriate on a busy street. So those types of things, you know, there's little small lots.”
City Council · Sep 8, 2026
- Play at 54:38
“So, again, I'm visual on this. just wondering how these changes compare like if we had an example okay you i don't know you're an apartment complex or you're a restaurant center whatever how does this look under current versus new and then i guess um I do like the market to determine things, but also want to make sure we don't have not enough parking. So I don't know where that balance is. But just wondering, like, how much parking would be reduced under these new rules? And then also, what kind of cost impact is that to, you know, to the property owner under the, you know, like, is it saving…”
City Council · Sep 8, 2026
- Play at 59:17
“other thing with public spaces to your point about size and location orientation um going along with that is i just want to make sure that if something is public and they're getting credit for it that it's actually available and accessible to the public and not in the middle of somewhere where like no one knows and it's basically a private park but they got credit for providing public space”
City Council · Sep 8, 2026
- Play at 1:06:16
“Well, so I've wondered, and I don't know that I've seen the answer, although I think people have thrown this out, is when you're looking at this type of use, this certain amount of land that could maybe be used for residential, how does it compare with how much water and energy and other things and traffic and all of that? uh between the different uses because a lot i've been told well this is consuming less energy less water than if we had a single family you know a neighborhood there i don't know if that's true or not i mean i don't know but i'm curious to that and like what is When we talk…”
City Council · Sep 8, 2026
- Play at 1:11:47
“What problem are we trying to solve here with putting this restriction on residentials who've already moved in? I mean, my HOA already requires two trees on a lot. This happened to me. I was not happy about it.”
City Council · Sep 8, 2026
- Play at 1:12:07
“19-year-old tree died, carpenter ants, root problem because we put a nice tree ring that stopped the roots from growing. It was a large tree. And so, you know, and I've seen some stories in our neighboring city about, you know, the city going after people for removing trees that were going to damage their home, you know, or damage their foundation. So I'm... i'm not sure what we're trying to solve here and then um and i also wonder about the additional cost or you know going from a eight inch to a six inch for developments or um i guess i guess i'm just not sure are we like really losing that…”
City Council · Sep 8, 2026
- Play at 1:13:21
“Home Depot, they will do it for a year even if it... No, my home builder... Oh, but I got... Trees live and trees die.”
City Council · Sep 8, 2026
- Play at 1:15:17
“is that what i heard it's very expensive to remove yeah a large tree yeah yeah yeah three five eight grand depending on the size of the fruit what is it what did you mean by minute if if it's dead or diseased we have ways to mitigate that what does that mean i mean does the homeowner has a dead tree and they still have to go through some city application process no they we have just buy right um allowances yeah not an extra”
City Council · Sep 8, 2026
- Play at 1:16:14
“Well, because you could have a healthy, I mean, this happened at another property that I own. you have a healthy tree what is going on with you killing trees it wasn't me no this was a different one where a tree was planted without good discussion and it was too close to the house and then now we have six eight thousand dollars of foundation because of this tree And so, like, someone else has mentioned that they have, you know, like, and then, especially if we're going to have smaller lot sizes, how many trees can you fit where it's not going to rip up the, the roots aren't going to, you…”
City Council · Sep 8, 2026
- Play at 1:17:02
“Yeah, exactly. The tree roots of... I know all sorts of things. When you own a home long enough.”
City Council · Sep 8, 2026
- Play at 1:19:47
“because the neighborhoods so i mean because the goal is to build on the system right and we need to do it in a smart way but if you get 100 of your parkland just go to your private thing that only you can use then you're not adding to the system and then they're likely also you know to go and put more stress on other systems that are nearby caesar's folks always coming to my park all the time all right”
City Council · Sep 8, 2026
- Play at 1:21:38
“So, I mean, what I said earlier goes back to this. I think if we don't have alternative uses to show this property owner could do A, B, or C, here's the impact of these things because A lot of times it's like, well, I just don't want anything on that land, right? And, you know, people have that about whatever is going to go next to the land, especially if it's been undeveloped for a long time. So I'm real concerned to go out to the public without context.”
City Council · Sep 8, 2026
- Play at 1:29:15
“Um, but we have that discussion now like is there what are the things that there's general consensus about? What are the things that only one or two people you want to list the five?”
City Council · Sep 8, 2026
- Play at 1:32:22
“So is the developer... Feedback going to be during that open house period of September 17th through October 4th. Developers here, as well as developers who do that type of project that we want to be considered. Yeah, it's virtual.”
City Council · Sep 8, 2026
- Play at 1:32:40
“Well, I mean, like reaching out specifically, inviting, not just say, hey, fill this out if you want to.”
City Council · Sep 8, 2026
- Play at 2:51:35
“So overall, my goal is to get the overall no new revenue tax rate of 0.5407. And I think we should also evaluate whether we can do better than that. But the bigger issue is the recurring cost base. Pflugerville is currently growing around 1% to 2% per year. So I want to understand whether personnel, contracts, facilities, and service costs are growing at a sustainable rate relative to the population. workload, and comparable communities. I'm looking at both immediate opportunities to lower the fiscal 27 tax and utility rates and structural changes that can reduce pressure in future years. One…”
City Council · Sep 8, 2026
- Play at 2:58:04
“OKAY. I GUESS I, WELL, THERE'S A LOT, AND I'M NOT SURE I SAW THAT WRITTEN IN THE BUDGET. OKAY. SO THEN THE OTHER, MY OTHER CONCERNS IS WE HAVE REDUCED OUR PERSONNEL BY 10 POSITIONS OVERALL. But personnel is still going up a lot. And there was a number of different things. And there is a market rate adjustment. And I don't recall receiving any report or anything about that. And we haven't discussed it as a council. So it's a large amount. I'm not saying that I disagree with it. But we haven't had a discussion about it. have the amount like what is the amount that this impacts our budget so…”
City Council · Sep 8, 2026
- Play at 3:01:41
“I understand that there is, we're not sure.”
City Council · Sep 8, 2026
- Play at 3:05:23
“Some of these things just need further, I feel like there needs to be further discussion and, you know, a policy direction or a strategy of why things are the way they are. Why are you doing that? So it's just that we didn't have a robust conversation last meeting and I had asked for a work session item. I missed the deadline apparently. um so that we could have more of a discussion you know in a work session um so that's why this is my last time to bring these up so i just i want to have more conversations about these types of things that maybe we haven't looked at in a while you know let's…”
City Council · Sep 8, 2026
- Play at 3:07:13
“And then I think my final large thing is, and I brought it up before.”
City Council · Sep 8, 2026
- Play at 3:07:20
“I hope so. Okay. the Justice Center courtroom renovation.”
City Council · Sep 8, 2026
- Play at 3:07:36
“There's a $2.2 million CIP, not all of it's in 2027, but it's 2.2 million. And out of that, 58% of it is contingency. So over 1.1 million and whatever it is, is contingency. And it's for 2,500 square feet to include a kitchen and some renovation of this space. So I just feel that's a vastly, overextended on the pricing on that. And that's an opportunity.”
City Council · Sep 8, 2026