City Council - Packet - briefing

I'll call 730 packet brief into order. Ann, please call the roll.

Mayor Morgan.

Here.

Mayor Pro Tem Montgomery. Here. Council Member Lee. Council Member Flores. Here. Council Member Fleming. Here. Council Member Ortega.

Here.

Council Member Stephens. Here.

All right. Citizen communication. Anybody wishing to speak? Seeing none. All right, staff briefing D1, consider staff briefings and council member discussion and or questions regarding items on the agenda for the July 9th, 2026 city council meeting. We have a presentation from planning and development. Anything on the consent? Okay. G1, consider public testimony regarding and a resolution approving the city of Round Rock City BG funds.

Good morning, Mayor and Council. Morning. All right, so this is the CDBG proposed action plan. The first public hearing was held back on March 26th, and our CDBG budget allocation for the upcoming fiscal year is $641,705, which is a slight decrease of about $30,000 from the previous year. Our contact at HUD did not give a reason for the reduction, but that does leave us with $96,255 for social service funding, $128,341 to administer the budget and the projects, and then $417,109 for the projects themselves. I'll begin with the social services portion. The CDBG and General Fund social service applications are made available to social service agencies via online, through the city's website. Applications are submitted online and are available mid-February and are due mid-March. A courtesy email is also sent to all social service agencies that have applied in the past, and an ad is posted in the Round Rock Leader notifying of the application dates. Once applications are received, staff review, and the applications are subject to a risk analysis using set criteria and performance measures. Staff proposes funding recommendations that are presented for your consideration and approval. Staff recommends $30,000 to the Brown Rock Area Serving Center for their food pantry program, $30,000 for their housing assistance, $20,000 for the Williamson-Burnett County's Meals on Wheels, and $16,255 for CASA. These funding levels are very similar to last year, with the exception of CASA receiving $3,745 less due to the overall grant decrease. Council should also be commended that in addition to the maximum $96,255 that we can use for funding local nonprofits, the city contributes an additional $250,000 from the general fund. This council is one of few who support our local nonprofits that help the low-income community with general fund dollars. On the project side, Projects are limited and must serve low to moderate income areas as designated by the U.S. Census or individual residents who qualify as low income under the federal guidelines. Each year, Liz accepts applications from city departments for projects in LMI areas. This year, we did not receive any applications from city departments, so staff proposes using the project budget for home repairs and lists two possible alternative projects. The first being a pair of shade structures at settlement at Green Hill Parks and sidewalk gap installation downtown. We currently have 15 applicants for the home repair and five already qualified. We feel confident that we can use this budget for home repair if that's the direction council wishes to go. And then finally to help low to moderate income residents find resources they need, information is available on our website. Numerous city staff are referral sources which include Liz, code enforcement, neighborhood services, our neighborhood leaders, utility billing, It's also a great contact point for sharing these community resources. And the nonprofits that we work with, they network together and refer residents to one another. And finally, the Housing Authority is also an excellent referral source for our home repair and other programs. And with that, I'm available for any questions you may have. Questions? Councilman Flores.

Good morning, Joe. Good morning, sir. On the 417 for the projects? Yes. You said we had... maybe identified 15 prospects, will that exhaust the full 417?

The full map is 16 and some change. So we currently have 15, but recruiting is never a problem with our network of resources. So we just currently have 15 on the list. But even going on a few months from now, we should be able to have plenty.

And do you think it will use all the 417? Yes. Do we have monies from previous years that have been allocated for home repair? We do have some that we're currently using on some home repairs as well. Okay. So we never have a problem using all of the funds for the home repair projects?

No. Fortunately for us, with the limits that we have set up at $25,000 per house, it's oftentimes we're trying to get things off of the needs list to fit it under the $25,000. A lot of times they're looking at roof and HVAC units and things like that, which are pretty pricey.

And then for those gaps that you identify, I mean, do you work with all your other neighborhood contacts or groups to try to get them access to some services or some repair?

Absolutely, yeah. When we meet with all of our home repair applicants, even if they qualify or if they don't, You know, we do kind of a smaller needs assessment. And anything that they mention that they need help with, whether it be minor home repair things, you know, we've got the Round Rock Helpers. If it's yard work, we've got churches through the Neighborhood Services Team. So, yeah, anything that we identify that they mention as struggles, we try to, you know, pair them up with service providers that we are aware of. Awesome. Thank you, sir.

Any other questions over here? Council Member Ortega.

Real quick, since... They sent us less money this time around, and you requested a reason for that. Are you going to continue to follow up to find out what that reason is?

Yes, we'll press them as hard as we can to hopefully get an answer.

Is this the first time you've seen this happen in reduction?

We've had a reduction, but it's been several years. So nothing recently. All right.

Thank you.

Council Member Stevens.

Joe, I just want to make sure I understood you correctly. So the projects would either be home repair or shade structure or gap or a combination?

It can be a combination. So by the time we closed applications, we didn't receive anything formal from any of the city departments. We normally get them from public works or parks. However, they did express interest that, you know, they could use these funds for these two projects that I listed. So that's why we're listing them as alternatives. So if the Parks Department or Public Works says, yep, all right, we already used some of these funds for this project, we can just amend, you know, we don't even have to amend the plan. We can just allocate some funds to that and move forward. So we would have, you know, less for the home repair and then we would use those funds for whichever project the department needs.

I think that's my follow-up question is how do you make that determination of which one gets the resources?

That's a good question. Liz, we don't need to bring it back to council for... Okay.

So we list it as an alternate. It's already gone through the public comment period, so it's already in there. Okay. And we can shift gears at any time.

Okay. So within your department, you'll just make that decision?

Well, I've been with guidance from the city manager.

Okay. Yeah. I just wasn't sure what that process was.

Yep.

Okay. Okay. Thank you.

Any other questions? All right. Thanks, Joe.

Thank you.

Consider a resolution authorizing the Mayor to execute an agreement with Gallagher Benefit Services. Tyler.

Hello, Mayor and Council Members. So in summary, our employee benefits consultant is a full-service advisor to the City of Round Rock. They provide strategic, financial, actuarial, compliance, communication, wellness, and administrative support to our benefits and wellness programs. And just to put a few numbers into context, our current self-funded health budget is $24.7 million. So our consultant plays a critical role in helping us with the actuarial of that and maintaining the solvency of that fund. Currently, we have about 2,400 covered lives enrolled in our benefits program. So that does include employees, which are about 1,150. And then additionally of that 2,400 lives, in addition to the 1,150 active employees, that would include our retirees, spouses, and dependent children. So earlier this year, we issued a request for proposal for employee benefits consultant. And through that process, we had 10 professional vendors respond. And through our evaluation process, we identified Gallagher Benefit Services as our top choice. And so they had the best overall cost proposal and the highest rating. And so that's how we landed with Gallagher. And in addition to them being the top selected vendor from that process, over the five-year contract that we're requesting the mayor and council to approve, we are expected to save about $110,000 total compared to what we are currently paying with our current benefits consultants. And then additionally, this Thursday evening, when we bring the actual item for council approval, Betty Gwynn with Gallagher Benefit Services, she's the senior area vice president and leads their public sector team and will oversee our account management team should we be able to contract with them. She's actually officed in Austin, so she's local. She will be in attendance at the meeting as well. So should you have any questions for her, I'll be happy to answer any questions if there are this morning.

And I think that savings is annually, right? $110,000 annually? I projected that to be- Or is that over five years?

Five years, correct.

Okay. Any questions for Tyler? Council Member Fleming?

Good morning. Good morning. I remember from last time we were looking at the self-insurance that looking at the expenditures, there was more out-of-pocket than we were anticipating. So whenever we're working with this consultant, is that one of the things they're going to be looking at, continuing the self-funded and the best way to do it and manage? I mean, obviously, we don't know exactly what people are going to come down with and how we're going to help, but are they looking at all that risk?

That is correct. So that is one of the strongest benefits that a consultant brings to us since we are self-funded is those actuarial services. So they have a projection where they look at the history and project forward. And unfortunately, last year we had some high-cost claimants. Those are kind of hard to really estimate for. But yes, so Gallagher, should we be effective with them, would play a critical role in helping us and our finance department as well with that actuarial process.

And then kind of seeing if and when there ever needs to be a change.

That is correct.

Okay, thank you.

You're welcome. Council Member Flores. So on the 110 savings, that's just the cost of the consultant services. That's the savings.

That is correct. So we pay a monthly fee when you analyze that times five. That's how we're projecting the 100.

But then they're still going to evaluate everything else. And there may be other savings in the health care coverages or plans provided.

That is correct. So we're going to ask them to do a full review of all of our benefits programs. And then if they recommend that we take any out to the solicitation process, and then that, you know, can potentially save us money through that process as well.

Thank you.

You're welcome.

Questions over here?

All right.

All right, thank you. G3, consider a resolution authorizing the manager to issue a purchase order to FKG Austin.

Good morning, Mayor and Council.

Good morning.

Okay, the General Services would like to establish a one-time purchase with SKG for furniture and install for the Public Safety Training Center Phase 2 project. Just a quick reminder, this project, where this furniture is really going to go is we're expanding the main building about 7,000 square foot. We're also adding a new classroom in the backside, and that's about 5,000 square foot. And we're still on target to finish March 18th, 2027. And with that, I'd be happy to answer any questions.

Questions? Council Member Tagan? What was the process in selecting this company? Were there other companies you all looked at as well?

So we deal in with FRI and SKG. We've used SKG before on Bob Bennett, and we've had great experience. Customer service is awesome. So we felt it was based on an omni-cooperative that we chose these.

All right.

Thank you. Any other questions over here? All right. G4, consider a resolution. Authorized in Mary Dix can agree with Cap Fleet Upfitters LLC for the purchase of public safety and firehouse supplies and equipment.

General Services would like to enter a contract with Cap Fleet Upfitters, and this is for upfitting parts and labor for police and fire and our other white fleet that's a little more complicated than we can handle. Good thing about this company is we've used them before. We have a contract with Caldwell Ford and Country, so when we buy Tahos and Explorers, we're able to run it through Caldwell Ford, through Cap Fleet, so we've used them in the past. And again, this is just primarily for our white fleet that we can't handle internally, so... I'd be happy to answer any questions if you have any.

Councilman Ortega. What are the supplies in question that you need to do the function of what we need to do there? I'm not... What are the supplies? What are you ordering?

Light bars, flashers, you know, when you upfit a police car or let's take the White Fleet, for example, on a utility vehicle, you know, you've got the flashers and the strobe lights and all that good stuff. That's what CAP Fleet does.

All right.

Thank you. So whatever we can't do internally, the more complicated stuff, then we'll have to send out to the CAP Fleet.

Oh, okay.

Thank you.

Any other questions? Council Member Stephens.

Corey, is this an exact dollar amount or is this a not to exceed?

I'm sorry, I didn't even go over that. My apologies. So the cost is not to exceed $1 million. The contract will expire on 3-29.

Okay, thank you.

Sorry.

Mayor Pro Tem.

I'm just curious, what percentage of those upgrades do you have to give to the SKD or that you can't do in-house?

To SKD? Yes.

What percentage? My bad. Still reading the last one.

I'm not sure I understand the question.

So you said they handle everything that you guys can't do in-house, right?

So on our white, when I'm saying that, so if we have a standard light bar that we have to add on a utility vehicle or a transportation vehicle, we can truly handle that in-house. But if it gets more complicated than that, that's when we'll have to send that out. Or if we get too busy, we'll truly use those guys as an alternate.

Okay, so it's not really something that you use a lot.

It's just kind of... And if we have to purchase parts and pieces, a new light bar that's gone bad, we'll reach out to Cap Fleet and buy those parts and pieces from them and install them ourselves.

Okay, thank you. Councilman Flores.

I'm guessing a white fleet just means a vehicle off the lot without any accessories or branding?

When I'm saying white fleet, it's all of our utilities vehicles, our transportation vehicles. It's the white trucks that are out there day to day.

Okay. Everything that's not police and fire.

Thank you. There you go.

Thank you. Any other questions? All right. Thank you. Yes, sir. G5, consider a resolution authorizing Mayor to QA change order number two with capital excavation.

Michael. Good morning, Mayor and Council. This is our Wyoming Springs project. It's going very well. We're just waiting to be completed in August of this year. So that's coming up in the next about two months. Basically, the roadway is finished. We need to do landscaping, plant trees. We need to install two signals, finish the installation there at Sanbas and Wyoming Springs, and then also at Creek Bend and Wyoming Springs, finish those traffic signals. And then just some general cleanup. We're also putting in privacy fencing along the right-of-way. Project's going well. This is a $94,000 change order, quantity adjustment. There's some items. When you're on Harriman Road, we did install some columns for the bridge. So we're putting in some more guardrail and protection for the motorist on Harriman. If you've been down there, it's kind of a winding road, and we want to make sure it's protected. Also some tree wells and some things like that, some irrigation taps for the water system, and then some additional time for the contractor. But very happy with this road. Can't wait to open it here in a couple months. I'd be happy to answer any questions. Questions? Mayor Pro Temo?

Michael, what will be the speed limit on that roadway, or will you have to wait until a study's done after it's open?

Yeah, I'm trying to recall what it is today. That's a county road, Harriman, as it comes through here. But we work with the county and do traffic studies. I'm trying to think what it is today. I'll find out before Thursday for you exactly what it is. It's a very, you know, originally, you know, 20 years ago, it was very narrow, and there was a lot of accidents on it. Now that they have the regional trail on one side, they've widened it up. But I'll verify the speed limit. We're always doing traffic studies with the county on these types of projects.

Councilman Stephens.

Michael, I'm just looking at the item adding 135 calendar days for various delays, tree clearing, Atmos, Encore, four months. Are those things that just kind of popped up in the project that we didn't anticipate from the beginning? Yes. Any help from Encore, Atmos with those charges related to that? Yes.

I would say, so a lot of times, dry utilities do become an issue. We do put in time during a project. A lot of times, we try to get that work done prior to awarding it, right? We need two meters on the Encore. We need a meter for the traffic signals on both sides. We always look at that if the project was fully delayed because of a dry utility only, then we would be looking for, hey, work with this dry utility. In this case, because we're adding some change order things, we're kind of going along at that same pace, and we don't feel like just because of Encore is why we're adding these dates.

Okay.

But we, I will say, we work well with all the dry utilities the best we can. We have a monthly meeting with all of them on all of our capital projects like this so that we keep the coordination going. But, you know, on other projects, we've been delayed because of dry utility work. Sure.

And then second question, when you said a couple months, my ears perked up knowing that school's right around the corner and this is going to be a great corridor to get to. 620 and Round Rock High School. So it's not going to be open by the beginning of school.

School starts, what, about the middle of August?

Yeah.

I'm not going to stand here right now and say that. We're anticipating by the end of August, but things happen at the very end. Let's just take the Encore thing.

I just know with Chisholm Trail right now, the options for those kids to get to school in the mornings is limited.

If it's not for the first day, it'll be very shortly thereafter. We have to get those Encore meters for both the signals because we need those fully functioning before we'll open the road. So if everything's completed but the two traffic signals, we still will hold off.

And we'll make sure this is open and running before anything at Sandbass and Perryman where we're going to do that work, correct?

Yes, ma'am. That roundabout you're referring to is under design right now.

So still plenty.

Yeah, we're still way ahead of that. Okay. This will be another west side project that gets us north-south.

I'm very excited to drive on it.

This will alleviate, you know, traffic on Creek Bend, Sandbass, 3406. That'll be a good avenue from north all the way down to 620. Yeah, perfect.

I appreciate it. Thank you.

Yes, ma'am.

Any other questions? Questions? All right. G6, consider resolution authorizing the mayor to execute supplemental contract number six with Fries and Nichols.

This is the Chisholm Trail South project that we refer to. It's under construction there from Sanbas as you head down here to Sunset. That project is underway. We will be finished in October. That's the latest projection. We are pushing them very hard. I can stand here and tell you we're going to be through, but we're going to have that thing open for the holiday season. So October is right now the projection on that. The item before you is work south of where we're stopping here, just south of Sunset. We're going to add a pedestrian sidewalk on the west side as you cross the bridge. So we need to extend the culverts right here in Brushy Creek. We're going to extend the culverts to the west side, and then we're going to put a... sidewalk on top of that that gets you from north to south across the creek. You have the bridge on the east side, but this will be a surface sidewalk that goes this direction. The engineering is part with freezing nickels for the whole project, but the construction we're going to split separately because we have a 25% rule for change orders. So this project here, we will not be able to change order this in because it's possibly 25% of the original project. So what we're planning to do is do the engineering here with this project here. This item before you is $221,000. And then we're going to probably hold the plans and probably wait until after the first of the year and then bid it after January 1. Because we still have to figure out, do we just close one lane when we're doing the work? I don't want to close both lanes, but we can do it faster if we close both lanes. But we'll work through that. But we don't want to disrupt the holiday season for this one. So this is just additional engineering work for that work, $221,000. Questions?

Council Member Stephens.

Not a question, just a comment that I appreciate that we listened to the public on this. I know that there was a lot of concern getting over that bridge and how to access the north and south sides of the creek. So just more of a comment of thank you for listening, and I'll be excited to see that once it's done.

Thank you.

Any other questions? Questions?

I would only say that once you open it, the road, be real careful closing it back. I mean, those businesses, we've been getting a lot of emails over there. And so I don't want to do anything to impact them anymore than they've been impacted. So if it does take a little longer to do, then so be it. But I mean, if they do it in 30 days, maybe it's a little bit different. But if it's a two-, three-, four-month project, You know, I think we've got to try to, I mean, the opening and the closing is not good for them to, even though it's on the opposite side, so it may not be as big of an issue.

I agree with you, Mayor.

And I do appreciate all the work y'all have done to help redirect traffic over there and a couple other places in the area where there's construction going on.

So it's been it's been tough for those businesses. We understand.

Yeah. So, yes, sir. Appreciate it. G7 consider resolution authorize merit X to the second amendment to the amended and restated wholesale water supply.

This is Blessing Mobile Home Park. It's a we call it a donut hole. It's not in the city limits. You have County Road 172 right here. McNeil Road is up to the north. And then you have La Frontera over here. About year 2000, we signed a wholesale water-wastewater agreement with them for 230 LUEs, so 230 connections. 2019, they asked for one more, so it's 231. They're asking for three more here, so we'll have 234 connections to the water-wastewater system. We make sure we check and make sure we have capacity to handle that. In this case, we do. They will pay us the impact fees for each connection, so we get that funding. and then it will remain a wholesale customer. So this is an amendment to their agreement to add three more connections to the water and wastewater system. Questions?

Council Member Flores. So that area is in the county or ETJ?

It's county. It's ETJ and county, just not in our city limits. All right, thank you.

Any other questions? G-8, consider to take action on resolution of the City Council of the City of Round Rock regarding the financing of Williamson County Regional Raw Water Line.

This line here is the water line that brings water from Lake Stillhouse Hollow to Lake Georgetown. Very important, obviously, to our system. It's owned by the City of Round Rock, City of Georgetown, Brushy Creek Mud. It's operated by the Brazos River Authority. The item before you is just authorization for the BRA to issue bonds for additional pump improvements and some rehab work on a piece of the water line between Georgetown and Stillhouse. It's a very expensive project. Probably when it's all said and done, it's going to be about $70 million. Round Rock is 28% of that. We are 28% of that whole system. So that's the intake structure at Lake Stillhouse and the 28-mile pipeline that comes all the way to Lake Georgetown. This project will add an additional pump and replace a few so it'll have its ultimate capacity to be able to pump 56 million gallons a day from Lake Stealth House to Lake Georgetown. Today we can pump 40 million gallons a day. And to kind of be honest, we are probably taking more water than 28% through the pipeline today. But it's a system. So we pay 28% of all rehab costs, all construction costs. But this item before you is for BRA to issue the bonds. They're a AA plus rated agency. So all three entities that own it will have to approve this item so that the BRA can issue in different takedowns over the course of the project. I'd be happy to answer any questions.

Questions? Council Member Flores. So the $70 million is our portion or the total portion of the project? Total portion. Okay, total project. And then those lines exist. These are just improving. The lines are rehabbing them?

There's one line. It's a 48-inch pipeline. There's a segment that we are either going to parallel or do some rehab to. but the main portion is to add new pumps at the intake structure at Stillhouse.

Okay. But the existing pipeline stays the same capacity? Yes. Okay. All right. Thank you. How long has that been?

Right around the year 2000 is when that was installed. Thank you.

Any other questions? All right. G9, consider a resolution authorizing the mayor to execute a contract for engineering services with CDM Smith.

This is just part of what we do. We do master planning. So this is to update our water, wastewater, and reuse water master plan. We update the master plan about every three years, three or four years. We look at land use assumptions. We look at population growth. We look at where growth is occurring in the city. This develops our 10-year CIP, but also keeps track of our ultimate CIP so that we are planning for the future. We're building for the future so that we're positioned round rock well for economic development opportunities. I think we've done a great job of that over the years. So this master plan is really important to us to make sure that we stay ahead of the game. if land uses or population starts to show greater in an area that we weren't planning for, that may indicate we need to upsize some water lines, et cetera. When do we do plant expansions, all those things. So CDM Smith has been an engineering firm that we've worked with for many, many years. This is $547,000 to update all of these plans for us. Once we complete that, then we'll re-look at our impact fees for water and wastewater to see if those need to be adjusted. I'd be happy to answer any questions.

Questions? Questions? All right. Thank you, Michael. Yes, sir. Ordinances H-1 consider public testimony regarding an ordinance approving amendment number five of the plan unit development number 129.

Good morning, Mayor, Council members. This is PUD amendment number five, the second major amendment that is proposed to the district PUD, which is PUD number 129. So for geographic reference, we are here south of Lewis Hennep Boulevard, northwest of Greenlawn Boulevard. The infrastructure is well underway for the project out here. The developer has been working on that very efficiently, and they're almost done with all of that ground level and below ground infrastructure for the whole site. And the multifamily phase one project right around here where the cursor is, the building permit was issued for that a few months ago so they're working on that one currently the pud was originally approved back in 2021 there have been three minor amendments and one major amendment since then we're back here for major amendments total amendment number five major amendment number two because the changes to the development standards in the pud exceed those that can be approved at the staff level or administratively so it does require going back through pnz and city council There are no proposed changes to the land uses or to the overall height or density, but it is just a scope in terms of the development standards and building setbacks and building design that needs to go back through the public hearing process. Again, since there are no changes to the proposed land uses, we're still looking at a high density mixed use development. This is still fitting in with the vision of Round Rock 2030, the city's comprehensive plan. This whole entire area down here that you see in the hash as well as the Boardwalk Shopping Center La Frontera is visioned as mixed use now and into the future as well. The original PUDs, like first these two graphics up here, the one on the left was taken from the developer's original presentation at first, when the PUD was first coming through. There's some changes that are presented here in Exhibit B that's on the right side here, kind of replacing the original vision on the left. And so the primary things you're going to notice is just a little bit less density along this eastern part of the project, along Greenlawn Boulevard down here. The original one, they still have this office that was planned originally to be the phase one. It was going to be a 200,000 square foot, four-story office building with a parking garage next to it. It's still in their plan to build that. As envisioned here, it had to take a break because due to COVID and the total collapse of the office market, that was no longer a viable thing to pursue first and foremost. So they're shifting a little bit due to those changing market conditions to do a food and beverage plaza here on this side. where originally there was going to be a little bit more density planned right there, and then having some retail over here on this side as well with some surface parking in front of that retail and surface parking in front of the food and beverage plaza here. That's one of the major changes in this PUD because they have heard from their tenants just due to all the changing market conditions. First of all, it's not economical for them to build parking garages up front without having those large big fish tenants in the fold. Additionally, in order to draw these retailers and the food and beverage tenants into these buildings. They've heard from those tenants that they need visibility from Greenlawn, and they also need visible parking as well. So in order to help accommodate that for the developer and keep these things moving forward, we are currently reviewing site development permits both for this food and beverage plaza as well as we have the first submittal for that retailer there right there in our hands. So we know those are real, and they're moving forward with those. We are making adjustments to the PUD to help accommodate those. So overall, we're still looking at a high-density urban-style development. There's going to be a lot of multifamily. There will be a lot of office when that market is able to turn around. There's still envisioned to be a large hotel here as well. But overall, we're kind of looking at more of an internally-oriented development kind of around this what's called Marshall Circle around here, everything kind of orienting inwards instead of orienting outwards in a way. So some changes in the PUD that need to be made to accommodate this amendment request is the elimination of a maximum setback from Greenlawn Boulevard. So under the previous proposal, we had a maximum setback, which is also called a build two line, essentially forcing a building up to the right of way to be kind of presenting its front face towards Greenlawn Boulevard. We are doing away with that maximum setback from Greenlawn in order to allow the buildings along this frontage to be pushed further back to have that parking in the street yard there. We're also modifying some of those maximum building setbacks along the internal streets elsewhere in the development. So on this exhibit that we have here on the left side, with the green line along Greenlawn Boulevard indicating there is no maximum building setback, so a building can be set as far away from the Greenlawn right-of-way as the developer chooses. For all these internal rows with the orange lines going around them, most of these are private streets. A couple of them are public, but still they all act as a right-of-way. There is a changing from a 10-foot to a 15-foot maximum building setback that will allow the developer to have a little bit more room to play with in between the building and the sidewalk. That could be programmed areas for seating for pedestrians, for even just landscaping, and then a 25-foot maximum setback along the north side from Louisiana. So as part of the going through this thought process and working with the developer on this, we staff, I'm not going to lie, we had a little bit of reservations about adding a lot of surface parking in the Greenlawn Boulevard area. We understand the needs to change with the market, to pivot with the market in order to bring everything to reality. So the developer, they were working with us very diligently on some building design standards for the buildings that are going to be facing Greenlawn. So example for this food and beverage plaza area that you're seeing over here, these buildings are all internally oriented towards a pedestrian Paseo. So you see a series of essentially five buildings right here. The front of these buildings are all going to be faced inwards towards this pedestrian Paseo, heavily landscaped, very well amenitized. But that leaves you with essentially the back of a building service yard essentially facing the public right-of-way Greenlawn Boulevard. And so the developer worked with us very diligently to help upgrade some of the landscaping along the right-of-way itself to help buffer some of those views, but also on the building design standards for the buildings back there. So obviously you're not going to be able to have walls of windows, those are kitchen areas, those are service areas. But they worked with us to help create some articulation standards, some building orientation elevation standard as well to ensure that there's not just long expanses of blank walls facing Greenland Boulevard. The Planning and Zoning Commission considered this amendment on June 3rd of last month and they voted unanimously to recommend approval. We didn't have any speakers at the public hearing. That's it for my presentation. The developer will be present here on Thursday evening and they'll have their own presentation as well.

Questions? Council Member Fleming.

So you mentioned the 25-foot setback on Lewis-Henna. Is that a change, or what's going, if you can elaborate a little bit more, the red line?

That one, I believe, is actually staying the same right there. The purpose of this exhibit is really just to present the setbacks throughout the entirety of the development. I believe that one is staying the same, but I can go back and double-check, comparing it to the previous amendment, so thing that we had to do if you notice in your packet it's just a completely clean document there are no red lines because as we were going through the red line process with the developer there were just too many changes across the entirety of the pud even though they weren't focused on land use it was all just development standards we thought it would be a lot clearer to actually present a clean document here instead of having this very complicated set of red lines so that's why we have a clean set here but it makes it harder to compare against the existing pud and the regulations that are in place right now but i can Double check and bring that back on Thursday to let you know.

Okay. And then, so if I understand correctly, no more parking garage. And that's why we're doing this.

Parking garages are still going to be built throughout this development, just not as part of this first phase, nothing right now. So a lot, the bulk of these, so the multifamily building that is currently being built, that is a wrapped building around a multi-story parking garage. So that is still occurring. All the multifamily that does get built in the future will likely need parking garages as well. Probably the hotel that they build, future office phases too. It's just that in these first retail and food and beverage areas up here where they previously did have plans for higher density and parking garages, that's no longer the case. And so we still anticipate there to be plenty of garages and high density tall buildings here, just not for this next phase of food and beverage and retail.

Okay. And then I know like when we're looking at maize and there was a lot of work done to put up the fencing around that, I forget the name, the Renaissance. Yes. And it's got the tree, the vines now growing on it and it looks really pretty, but it greatly helped that visibility and that look of this strip center. So I appreciate y'all spending time to try to figure out how to make it look best. And then I would just hope that, you know, as they're building and we're kind of seeing that end product, if if there needs to be anything to pretty it up a little, that they be open to it. I'm just like we had to make some changes along Mays because I do think that's important.

I agree. And I think the developer has every reason to make sure that that elevation, that side of the development presents well to Greenlawn to help bring people in that way. You don't want people thinking they're coming in through the back part of a development through the service area. So I know they're going to work very hard on that. We just wanted to work with them to actually have some standards to hold them to so that we can review their building permit and their site development permit against those standards.

Thank you.

Council Member Flores. Kind of a follow-up on the green lawn part of it. So did we make any changes or allowances for signage? Because if it's all inward facing, how do they tell the story that store is there, this store is there, this store is there?

We haven't made any changes to the signage allowances with this PUD amendment. They're still allowed to have what would be called subdivision identification signs or, you know, basically larger signs identifying multi-tenant retail centers at those kind of entry areas here along District Way or at this four-way intersection with Green Lawn, District Way when you're going northwest into the development, Pflugerville Parkway down to the east there, and a similar idea there. A lot of times that might just be branding, just a sign simply saying the district without listing every single tenant in there. They still have some size requirements based on code that they have to work within But they do have different ways of creating signage for different tenants or for the overall development. But we're not using the PUD to change, get rid of, modify those standards. They're working within the normal code parameters.

Yeah. If you went back to your concept plan from what the view might look like. One more. Kind of the vision. That one. So.

So they are able to have building signage on each of the individual buildings here. These are just placeholder signs seeing what those could look like, where those could be located.

So they can have that or some form of that.

They're not only... stuck with multi-tenant signs. So each building could still have its own sign as well.

And I'm sorry to get into the weeds. Does that allow for like lighted signs or is it just?

Depending on the type of the sign, there are different types of illumination as well. We have standards for certain signs that can only be internally illuminated, like through channel letters or through halation. Other times they can be externally illuminated. You know, with gooseneck lighting or other kinds of lighting, we want to stay away from the up lighting as much as we can. We don't really like to have that lighting oriented vertically, but it really depends on the type of sign that they're going to be installing, how that can be illuminated.

It's interesting that we did away with the parking requirement, and they want more parking.

That is one thing that you see a lot of times. It really varies based on that user. Sometimes if you do have a big box retailer, they actually hate parking maximums more than parking minimums. But other times you'll come across a smaller developer and they say, thank goodness you did this. This is really going to help me add a patio or just add something else that it couldn't have done before.

Good job. Thank you. Thank you. Council Member Stevens. Mm-hmm.

To your point, Council Member Flores, I was thinking the same thing. In this conceptual plan there, it looks like there's a shared use pathway down here at the bottom. Is that one of our 10 foot?

Yes. Yeah, I do believe that this is part of our green lawn project along that will be running along here, a shared use path.

Okay, so this won't affect that at all. That stays in there. Where does it connect on the northern side?

So right here, just off The screen or outside the bounds of this project is the shops at Green Lawn Shopping Center. They're actually going to be our mark for the developer here is going to be kind of doing a little land deal to take over some of their parking lot right there so that they can create this new driveway into the development right there. So they've got a good working relationship together to work out that deal to change some of that parking lot, but also to make a sidewalk connection up there.

Okay. So in theory, though, you'll be able to...

Continuous sidewalks. Perfect. Yes.

Thank you.

Any other questions?

Yeah, I'm okay with this change. I mean, I think it, I mean, look at some other mixed use projects, i.e. the domain. I mean, it's the same way on the outside, on the back end of it. I think that, you know, that what this allows this, you know, with these mixed uses, it allows people to come to these places instead of just the people living there. And I think that's a type of retailer that they're trying to, attract in that will bring people, plus the people that are already there and living. So anyway. All right. Any other questions?

Thank you.

E1, consider a presentation regarding a long-range financial plan.

Good morning. Good morning. This is the time of year we start presenting our long-range financial plans as part of our fiscal year 2027 budget process. Staff's been working on this for several months now. We're looking forward to our upcoming budget workshop on July 23rd, where we'll start presenting the 2027 budget to the public. But before that, this morning is one of our important parts where we take a moment to look at our long-range financial planning. Today is just a high-level overview of our city's long-range financial planning efforts. Long-range financial planning is a tool that helps us understand the current and future environment to identify challenges and opportunities, and also to begin thinking about the next steps as we continue on our 2027 budget process. Not only is long range financial planning the best practice, but it is also required by the city's financial policies that are adopted annually by the city council as part of each operating budget. We do long range financial planning for each of our major funds shown here in this graphic. Most of the presentation this morning will be on the city's general fund. However, we do have long range financial plans going for all of our major funds. to make sure that budgetary decisions we are informing mayor and council of the impacts of look at not only the impacts of the one year work on the budget, but also that they are sustainable over long term to make sure that our ongoing revenues will cover ongoing expenses, not just for this year, but for five years into the future. Starting now with some overall assumptions, we look at population growth. We have annual population growth of 3% a year. 2031, which is where our five-year long-range planning goes to, has a population estimate of 165,000 people. So that's more friends, families, and neighbors who will be driving on our streets, using our parks. So we want to really make sure we incorporate that into our long-range planning efforts. We do have an assumptions of moderate local development and economic growth. When we look at the economy, there is a lot of uncertainty still. However, there is some underlying stability. So that is worked into our assumptions as well. And first and foremost, our city council strategic goals continue as the guiding direction for all of our long-range financial planning decisions and our budgetary decisions. Again, the economic outlook is looking stable. The CPI, the Consumer Price Index, and the PPI indexes are higher than the 2% target. 4.2% with CPI in May 2026. The June number should be coming out shortly. So the inflation is up, largely driven by fuel prices and then the impacts those have on the rest of the goods. So we do have some inflationary pressures baked into our financial modeling for long-term planning as well. Property value increases have moderated. We had Alvin Linkford, the chief appraiser for Williamson County, was here with you last month, and he presented that the median home value for Round Rock for this upcoming year, we're looking at a decrease from $402,000 to $378,000. That's a decrease of 6%. So we have seen home values moderate and even decrease this current year. Again, that's the median. Each individual home will have its own impact. And then the commercial values are stable with some slight growth there. Sales tax remains our largest revenue source. It is a volatile source of revenue, so we have several measures in place to limit an overdependency on it. Our general fund cap of 45% still remains in place. That means when we look at total general fund revenue, sales tax cannot, by policy, make up more than 45% of that makeup. And once I get to the next slide, start looking at some of those revenues, we'll see we're comfortably in line with that limit. Property taxes, we have forecasted in M&O rate increases as needed as we continue to implement the 2023 voter-approved bond program. The upcoming budget year, 2027 in particular, has a lot of operating costs for those as we look to open both Fire Station 11 as well as the Athletic Performance Center. So we'll see those as well. And again, our goal over time is to balance sales tax and property tax, eventually have them more aligned, which we'll look at on the next slide as well. So this shows our general fund revenues as projected in our long-range financial planning from fiscal year 2027 out to fiscal year 2031. You see we'll have growth at $37.1 million over that five-year period. In 2027, we have sales tax, again, comfortably below that 45% cap. It slides down to 38% out by 2031. Looking back in time, back in fiscal year 2006, property tax was 18% and sales tax 63%. So you can see how over time we've definitely aligned those more and they'll be more balanced working into the future. Again, limiting the dependency on the more volatile sales tax revenues. This shows our sales tax outlook. We have about $112 million in total sales tax across general fund, type B, and general self-finance for 2027. That slides up to $124 million by 2031. For sales tax projections, we do continue to be conservative in our sales tax projections. We're projecting 3% growth for next year. So again, for all of our revenue projections, we try and be conservative but accurate, and we have 3% growth factored in. On our property tax revenues and rates, for our M&O portion of the tax rate, we are growing that at the 3.5% M&O cap from 2027 up to 2031. That is really to fill in some of those operating costs of the bond projects, continue to fund public safety initiatives, and have a couple positions for non-public safety and that we'll get to in the major programs as well. On the debt side of the tax rate, we have the debt rate set as needed from 2027 to 2031. Again, as we continue going through our city's long-range debt plan, issuing those voter-approved GOs, continuing to issue our limited tax notes for fleet replacement as well. Our preliminary tax estimates are that we'll have $451 million in new property for 2027. We typically get an average of about $500 million per year in new property, so we have that from fiscal year 2028 and beyond, and that generates between $2.2 and $2.4 million of property tax revenues each year from that new property hitting the tax roll. Looking now at our expenses, some cost assumptions. For the general fund, we have base salary increase of $6 million for fiscal year 2027. That is both our public safety, which is our contract increases and step increases, as well as our civilian staff moderating in fiscal year 2028 and beyond. But we still have some assumptions for salary increases there. Health insurance, we have a $1.3 million increase for fiscal year 2027. I heard from Tyler earlier we're excited to have Gallagher, our new benefits consultant, on board to really help inform some decisions regarding our health insurance into the future. For our TMRS, we are evaluating a transition, a potential transition to an 8% employee contribution period during the five-year period of our long-range transfer planning. It's not penciled in in any one year, but it is an initiative that we're continuing to look at in line with the city's strategic plan. And then operating costs, I mentioned inflation earlier, so we have some inflationary growth factors in there to make sure that we're accounting for things costing more over time. For growth, we do have staff, largely public safety staff and operating costs of the bond projects. We do have some other, a few other staff positions in there for the general fund as well. Our challenge is really running the same, rising costs, still limitations on property tax, both current and then potential future state legislation could of course change that as well. And then rising healthcare costs is something we continue to evaluate as well. These next few slides are going to be major programs we have factored into our long-range transfer planning for the general fund over the next five years. This middle column here, annual cost, I did want to point out that that is the total operating dollars we look to, the impact these will have over a five-year period. So it's not a single annual operating impact, but it's the total five-year cost. So starting out with our public safety departments, we have Fire Station 11 scheduled to open in 2027. That'll be 15 firefighters added in the 2027 budget as planned. Also one civilian staff. Looking out beyond that, probably closer to 2030 towards the end of this five-year period because we have new staff for Fire Station 12 potentially. and continuing to increase our staffing factor for our fire department. Police officers, we have seven police officers planned for the 2027 budget, one civilian staff, and also just new officers over the rest of the five-year period as we continue to add both fire and police officers. Looking at some of our other departments, general services for facility and custodial staff for our new bond project building scheduled to open in 2027. We have some new employees there. Parks and Recreation, those 17 employees are planned for the athletic performance center scheduled to open at Old Sellers Park. Beyond that, we're looking at the Old Settlers Park and field expansion with an additional few remaining FTEs in the long-range plans, a traffic signal crew of two FTEs for transportation with some additional staffing for growth there beyond, and then just a few others for all other general fund departments in the five-year period. So this chart reflects our total five-year outlook for the general fund. The kind of big blocks of color represent the expenses. You'll see the base just continuing to grow with those assumptions we talked about. You'll see the new programs tentatively planned in as they open up new 2023 voter-approved bond facilities. and have growth in public safety, general services, and other departments. The line at top represents general fund revenues, again, showing a gap. We are in balance as planned for fiscal year 2027. We'll continue to have a little gap that we'll fill in. We are retaining some flexibility in this plan. And as we get out to the end, fiscal year 2030, fiscal year 2031, should council decide to continue moving forward about the same pattern of bond We've done in the past we have the potential to have some future bond projects that have some operating impacts that will fill in some of that gap out in 2030 2031 So as I start to wrap up this presentation Some just major points to close us out. We have a stable outlook and missed it amidst economic uncertainty we have major projects under construction with operating impacts that we are counting for in our long-range financial planning and Looking at taxable assessed values, we have growth planned in up to $30 billion by 2031. We'll still have one of the lowest property tax rates in Central Texas in the state, according to our long-range financial plans. And we have large commercial developments, like the district you heard about earlier this morning, like some others, on the horizon. So what's next is that we'll keep evaluating the future. We will be presenting again publicly in the budget workshop on July 23rd more details about each of the long-range financial plans in each of the major funds. We will continue to maintain our steady conservative sales tax projections, continue to evaluate the use of other revenue sources where appropriate, and continue to carefully consider what should be, quote, under the roof. Happy to answer any questions.

Questions? Questions?

Question?

I have a couple real quick. Can you go back to the $6 million employee raises? Yeah, of that $6 million, do we know how much is the fire and the police?

Yeah, so for 2027, fire and police makes up $3.9 million. So...

Everybody, you know, you always get this misinformation out there that all our new growth pays for itself. It doesn't even pay for our police and fire raises. Is that correct? Yes, sir. All right. And then can you move on to the next slide? One more. Another one. Sorry about that. I'm just trying to think where. And another one. One more. Sorry. Okay. All right.

Yeah, I don't guess.

One more. Let me just make sure. Yeah, so I think people don't realize how much money we've saved by not going to the voters for a bond through our excess savings on budget and for one-time needs. How much money are we with regards to taking off the rows in the sense of not going out to bonds? At one time, it was over $100 million.

Yeah.

Do we know where it's roughly right now?

I don't have that number with me this morning, but we definitely can do it. One chart I think shows it is when we go back to the sales tax chart, you know, this is our sales tax by different types. And really back in 2019, 2020, that very top block of color, that that's GSFC or general self-finance, that is when we started using sales tax revenues as we look to limit our dependence on that volatile revenue source that sales tax is. We intentionally budget sales tax, not in the general fund for recurring costs, but to come in directly into general self-finance for those one-time costs. You can see if we add up that block of color over time, that's a lot of our sales tax revenues that we're spending on one-time projects that then saves us from having to go out to the voters. Because we've used those for major building remodels and just different big projects that could potentially have been bond funded. But instead, we were really flowing it through our general self-finance.

Yeah, I'd just be curious on what that number is roughly. Absolutely. And, you know, I think it's a story to tell. You know, people think sales, you know, everybody wants to eliminate property tax and rely on sales tax. That would be a disaster. You know, but, you know, I do worry about it. I mean, I think everybody up here ought to be worried about it. because the state's going to have their hands in it, and they're not going away. It doesn't sound like on it. And so it's just something that people need to be aware of, that it is very volatile. And when it tanks, good luck, because it will tank. I mean, there's always downs in the economy and stuff.

All right. Thank you, Kevin.

Good job. All right. Any other questions, comments? All right. We stand down.