Neighborhood Commission - Regular Meeting

Alright. I'll call over the San Marcos Neighborhood Commission meeting at how is it? 06:01PM. Yvonne, will you call the roll, please?

Robert Eby. Larry Mock.

Here.

Bobby Gossa Hernandez.

I think she's here. Right?

Bobbie, are you there? Yes.

My audio is on. I

can I can I heard something? Say that again, Bobbie?

My audio is on.

There you go. We got you. Thank you.

Mhmm. Michael Adams?

Here.

Estella Enriquez?

Here.

Michael Vernon?

Here.

Taylor Faucette? Heidi Holiday McKittrick?

Here.

Holland?

Here.

Jay Whiteside? Daniel Martinez?

Here.

Absentees are Robert Eby, Taylor Faucette, and Jay Whiteside.

Alright. Moving on. Citizen comment period, three minutes per citizen. Persons wishing to participate, during the citizen comment portion of the meeting must email ypalacios@sanmarcusex.gov prior to 12PM on January 15, the day of the meeting. A link to join by mobile device, laptop, or desktop computer will be provided for participation as well as a call in number to join by phone. Yvonne, do we have any citizen comments?

We do. Maxfield Baker.

Alright. So, Baker, if you're ready.

I'm gonna Yeah. Is it should I stand? I don't know.

Stand. Can

stand. Can stand. People. Yeah. To

you. I'll

pull. Cool.

Alright. Yes. I'm Maxwell Baker. I am here today as the founder of the San Marcos Civics Club. We started last year, and we have been working to educate our community members about what our boards and commissions do, as well as how people can be more engaged with government. In our second year, we have decided to focus on housing. This was kind of voted on by the group as one of the worst issues in San Marcos. And as an extension of that, we are kicking off our campaign, to fight for a tenants bill of rights here in San Marcos. The tenants bill of rights encapsulates a lot of different things, and we are using the National Low Income Housing Coalition's kind of backdrop for that. They have a very easy website, the nlihc.org.

If you all are interested in an in-depth, discussion, they have a nice convenient video for you to watch, that outlines kind of the seven tenants of what a tenants bill of rights will encapsulate. So we think that with the city moving towards re, kind of reagentizing the housing action plan that came up in a recent work session back in November, in addition to a presentation given by, Shannon, oh god. What's her last name? Maddie. No. Not Madding Lee. Fitzpatrick. Shannon Fitzpatrick. She gave a presentation about ripped by the bed bedrooms, right, and just how there's a lot of problems around those, and we hear about that in our community. So yeah.

We are planning to and the reason I wanted to come here today is we are planning to actually go out and block walk neighborhoods as one of the ways to drum up support for this in addition to trying to be at the San Marcos city council's visioning session to see if council members kinda pick this up. So I wanted to come here. I I regret to say that this is the first time I've come to a neighborhood commission meeting. And, honestly, in both the neighborhoods I've lived in, I've never really heard much from my neighborhood commissioners. So part of what I want to do and that was the Rio Vista neighborhood and currently in Dunbar.

What I wanna do is, you know, make a better relationship with you all as our commissioners, see if you all are interested in in any of the aspects of attendance bill of rights, which also includes our businesses. Businesses are also renters in our in San Marcos. Right? And so we think that there's a lot of opportunity to have some really good discussions around this. The San Marcos Civics Club meets the fourth Monday of each month at Tantra Coffee House from 06:30 to 08:30PM.

So it's a nice casual kind of dialogue driven meeting, where we've talked about the different issues facing San Marcos. And this month, our meeting will be on the twenty seventh. We were actually trying to bring in other stakeholders than just renters and kind of your average community members. So we've invited Pat Fernandez from Hart Properties to come and kind of give some expertise and some, you know, background to, you know, things that landlords and property managers might think or feel about a tenant's bill of rights. So with that said, I am planning to stay here for the majority of y'all's meeting, or actually all of your meeting. If you have any questions, feel free to reach out, and I would love to connect with you all. Thank you.

What's your website?

The Civics Club does not have a website. We have a Facebook group right now, and an Instagram. We do have I I take that back. We have a Linktree, linktr.ee/smcivicsclub. And that will take you to the abundance of resources we've created as well as, some of the the goals and stuff we're working on. Thank you.

Thank you very much.

What was what was

the m l I h c? So Linktree? Well, the so the tenant's billing right.

Yeah. It's

oh, the the National Lowest of Housing Coalition. That is nlihc.org. Yeah.

Alrighty. Moving on. Minutes considered for approval by motion of 10/16/2024 meeting minutes. No meeting minutes for 11/28/2024 as no quorum was met. I'll give everybody just a couple minutes to look over the minutes, and then we'll take a vote.

Excuse me. I I don't know. Yvonne, were you able to send out the packet? I didn't receive it. I did. I sent out

the packet. You know what, though? There was, I think it was Bobby's and Larry's that bounced back. And so I had to send it in a different format, but yours didn't bounce back. And that was

So yesterday

it is.

Yesterday morning where everything was sent.

I only got the other two for about, like, the notice of demolition and the comp plan. I didn't get the packet. Okay.

Did you get it, Robert?

I got it.

Yeah. I did,

so I got I got the packet, but I don't see the minutes.

Yeah. They're in there.

It's in there. The let me put I'm gonna put the minutes, and I'm gonna put the packet. I'm gonna share that with you now.

Okay. Thank you so much.

Can everybody see the minutes? Yes. We can.

Good. Yes. Yes.

06:30PM to 08:30PM.

To look over everything, I'll take a motion to approve.

One second. A motion to approve. I'm sorry.

I'll second.

Thank you, Heidi. Uh-huh.

Robert Eby.

Hi.

Larry Mock.

Hi.

Bobby Garcia Hernandez.

Hi.

Michael Adams.

Hi.

Estella Enriquez.

Aye.

Michael Vernon?

Yes.

Taylor Fawcett? Heidi Holiday McKittrick? Aye. Corey Holland?

Aye.

Jay Whiteside? Daniel Martinez?

Aye.

Moving on, guest speaker, Andrea Villal sorry. Say it for me. Villalobos. I'm sorry. Assistant director of planning and development services, received a presentation from the planning and development services department on the draft Blanco Gardens neighborhood area plan. Okay?

Thank you.

Alrighty. And good evening, commissioners. I'm actually going to introduce Britney Faulkner here sitting next to me. She's our senior planning technician. I don't believe she's presented to this commission or board just yet, But she's actually the project manager for the Blanco Gardens area plan. She's been working with that neighborhood for the past few years on the plan. So she's she's gonna give the presentation and an update, and I'll be here to answer questions. But she also knows everything about this class as well. So I'll hand it over to Brittany.

Well, thank you. I'm gonna actually, I'll come up near you, Yvonne, so that I can run the show up here.

Yeah. We're trying to get it to this one.

Yeah. It's just appears so gonna hit the present button then. Yeah. It's just a

Move this

up a little bit.

Oh, it's this oh, no. Yeah. Yeah. I know. To touch it. And

Oh, I see.

And the cursor.

Yeah. See it. The cursor disappears. Yeah. Oh, interesting.

I'm probably the one up here. So

I don't have

the high-tech stuff with the council chamber.

I know. My cursor's gone. It's not

I

don't know. It's.

Is it gone? See, I'm leaving. It's not. It's not. Oh, yes. There. Perfect.

Thank you so much. Oh my gosh. I don't know if we can stay there after I sneak right in. Okay. Oh, thank you. Please, hello again, everyone. Like Andrea mentioned, my name is Britney Faulkner. I'm the senior planning technician here with the, city of San Marcos' planning department. And like she said, I'm I've also been working, on the Flango Gardens neighborhood area plan for a couple years now. And so I'm just here to to present an update to y'all, so that you can see a little bit of what's in the plan and what we've been working on through that process.

So as part of the comprehensive plan, seven different areas were identified by city council as, highlight areas for area plans. And tonight, we're gonna discuss the the Blanca Gardens area plan. So the boundary for this plan was approved by city council back in August 2002 or 2022. Excuse me. And it encompasses the area between IH 35, Highway 80, and River Road.

The role of neighborhood area planning is to look at and balance the needs and challenges of specific neighborhoods with opportunities for those neighborhoods. It studies the character of the neighborhood. Think of it more as, like, the DNA of a neighborhood. And it also provides opportunities to speak with neighborhood residents on more localized key topics. It also helps to identify projects and programs that are specific to that neighborhood.

So we started development of this plan back in October 2022 and have steadily walked the plan, through the drafting process towards adoption over the past, two and a half, almost three years now. Development of the plan involves speaking to a variety of different people throughout the process, and community engagement was such an integral part of the comprehensive plan that we wanted to continue that through the development of the area plans as well. The intent of the plan is to balance all of the voices heard throughout the development of the plan process. So in terms of community outreach, we've hosted five steering committee meetings, along with a steering committee walking tour of the neighborhood. And the steering committee for this plan was made up of residents from within the area plan boundary.

We also held two community workshops and several intercept events, and postcards advertising these events were sent to all property owners and tenants within the boundary for each event. The postcards included both English and Spanish text, and the staff had a Spanish speaker present, at the community workshops to serve the demographic of the neighborhood. Take home tool kits were also provided at each event so that community members who needed a little bit more time with all of the information, or if they had neighbors that weren't able to make it to the meeting, they were able to participate and provide input through those those take home exercises. Summary reports for each engagement events, can be found in appendix c of the area plan. And over 300 written comments were received across the two community workshops and the draft plan comment period.

Additionally, postcards inform the property owners and tenants that the draft plan is moving forward for adoption. About 1,500 postcards were mailed for each of those engagement events, which I think totals to about 5,000 postcards sent overall. So the anatomy of the plan, the plan itself is broken out into seven key topics, getting around, history, art, and culture, public spaces and amenities, streetscapes, business and economy, housing, and building form and development. So within each of those seven topics, topics, it it describes describes key concepts and existing conditions in the neighborhood, as well as describes community and stakeholder feedback that was received as part of the plan's development. Each section also identifies specific recommendations for the area plan, and and each of these recommendations is intended to be carried out, by, you know, different departments in the city.

We were strategic and intentional about tying, what we heard as part of community engagement back into the plan and any recommendations within the plan. Our second community workshop that we held was all about refining what we heard at that first meeting, and that refinement continued throughout the drafting process. So on this slide here, you can see a page out of our getting around section, and how one of those subsections is broken down. So within each of those subsections, it first introduces key concepts and existing conditions, followed by the community and stakeholder feedback that we'd heard. At the end of each subsection, specific recommendations for the area plan are introduced, again, with most of these being carried out by, the city and or, you know, partners that we would have.

So this slide demonstrates how the big ideas that we heard from community and stakeholders have been translated into recommendations. One big idea example is that community members want to feel safe while walking and biking through the neighborhood, and they also wanted to create additional safe, spaces for children to play. So within the plan, you can find two recommendations which, better speak to to the neighborhood regarding this issue. So the first one we pulled out is streetscapes 1.2, which says to consider safety improvements at high traffic intersections and other areas where incidents between pedestrians, cyclists, and drivers are most likely to occur. And this includes the vicinity of Stokes Park along Cape Road.

And, actually, during the area plan process, this intersection was identified by residents, and they really expressed that they wanted to implement a traffic control measure in this area to help reduce vehicle speeds and then to make it a little bit safer to move from the Blanco Gardens neighborhood itself down to the San Marcos River. And a lot of folks noted that temporary stop signs had been put in place at that intersection of River Road and Cape Road due to some ongoing construction in the neighborhood. So we've heard that feedback. And then within months of receiving it, staff, including myself from the planning department, worked with folks from our engineering department and our public works department, to replace that temporary installation with a permanent four way stop sign. So it's just an example of how what we're hearing at, you know, these different community events and workshops, are being translated into to things that are implemented on the ground.

Another example that we pulled out of the plan is getting around 2.1, which says to install signage or other way finding measures to designate a walking loop trail along key streets throughout the neighborhood and to consider streetscape enhancements to remote the use of this trail for commuting to services as well as active recreation or fitness. So our priority route was identified by the community along River Road, Bug Lane, and Linda Drive. So we would consider branding this walking trail as Cuevas Walking Loop, which highlights a long standing local business within the neighborhood. Several recommendations include enhancements to specific locations within the neighborhood that help to achieve an overall goal. So this example we pulled out from Streetscapes 1.2, which suggests that existing conditions may be upgraded to improve pedestrian and children's safety at Stokes Park.

And this illustration was actually provided to us by Mike Vernon, who is one of our steering committee members. So thank you so much.

Yes. Call me the artiste.

So included throughout the plan are, case studies of similar communities to San Marcos that have experienced success with specific recommendations. So this case study here highlights Santa Fe, New Mexico's annual pop up playground event, which could be similarly implemented in Blanco Gardens to identify areas for potential new parks and public spaces. Implementation of the plan is just as important as the development of the plan, and so we've included an action, an action plan section, which outlines how the goals of the plan may be achieved. For each topic and subtopic within the plan, there are short term action items that could be implemented. These items can be easily checked off the list as we move into implementation.

So, And essentially, this section of the plan will act as our to do list kinda going forward. The action plan also identifies potential leaders and partners as well as the driver needed to implement the action. Kind of in a similar case as I mentioned previously, the city will be the driver, and so implementation will require us to work with many other city departments. A couple that come to mind include public works, parks and recreation, and engineering, but I'm sure it will require, you know, a collaboration between all city departments. The implementation will require financial investment as well.

And so there's a list of financing tools in the plan, which identifies outside funding sources that can be applied for. Again, in most cases, the city will be the driver, and so we will most likely be the entity that applies for this funding. I do wanna note that this is not an all encompassing list, and staff does recognize that additional funding could become available in the future. And the neighborhood character study is also included in the plan as an appendix. This study was directed by city council to be carried out with each area plan, and it documents the factors that contribute to the character of the neighborhood, things like lot size, architectural styles, and building orientation.

It provides descriptions of quantitative metrics and qualitative factors, and it also recommends how the neighborhood character can be respected and maintained. Throughout plan development, staff was on the ground going property to property, gathering data using geographic information systems. I think most folks may know it as GIS, and that provided us some of those metrics as well. Following adoption, that neighborhood character study will become publicly accessible, and it will be most commonly used in predevelopment meetings that the planning department has. And then those meetings are essentially where staff can discuss how a proposed development, you know, where developers kind of working in the neighborhood, can incorporate these guidelines so that, new development or infill development can be compatible with the existing neighborhood.

And And without the guidance of this neighborhood character study or the area plan in general, the concern is that out of scale and otherwise noncompatible development will result. As with the comprehensive plan and the the downtown plan that were both recently adopted, once the Blanco Gardens neighborhood area plan is adopted, nothing on the ground will change until it's implemented through other initiatives. So following adoption of this plan, staff will need to evaluate and update the land development code as necessary, incorporate the plan into the CIP or the capital improvement plan, and begin evaluating projects, plans, and policies for short term implementation. Kind of at the very end of the process, staff provided a survey to the eight member steering committee meeting following, their final meeting on December 11, back in 2024, and about four responses were received. Each of the responses received, all voted yes to recommending the plan to Planning and Zoning Commission and city council for consideration.

And then we're also here to provide an update to y'all as well. And out of those eight members, four did not give a response. And I know that, you know, Mike is here with us, but just in general, I wanna really thank the steering committee for all of the hard work that y'all have put in. They were, you know, kinda instrumental in really helping to to move this process along for the past two, almost three years. They provided myself and other staff with updates and really helped to spread the word just about what engagement events were happening concerning the plan, where folks could find information, and, you know, different meeting dates.

So I really do just wanna highlight my steering committee and thank them so much for the work they've done on the plan. Alright. So what you can see here, this slide shows, the current adoption schedule of the plan. I will note that there is a typo on the slide, and so I do apologize. But, essentially, what we're gonna do moving forward is we've provided an update to Planning and Zoning Commission actually last night.

And then next week, we'll provide an update to city council regarding the plan as well. Additionally, we've let the community know that the plan has begun the adoption process, and mailed postcards again to property owners and tenants within the in the plan area boundary. We will also be hosting a neighborhood presentation meeting next week, to provide information on the adoption timeline and then to answer any questions that the community might have about the plan, or the adoption schedule. The plan is being presented to Planning and Zoning Commission for a recommendation on February 11, and then staff anticipates that it will be forwarded to city council for a public hearing and discussion on March 4 where no action will be taken, and then again on March 18 at which the city council will take action. Because the plan is adopted as a resolution, it actually won't need that second reading.

And so that's kind of the the typo there on the slide, that last line. And so I do apologize for that. Great. So to view, to view the draft plan, the adoption schedule, and then to explore past events and ongoing capital improvement projects within the neighborhood, you can visit the project story map for the most up to date information. It's So either gonna be that link that you see on the screen, or you can scan the QR code for more information as well. And at this time, I really, again, wanna highlight Mike Vernon, as one of the members of our steering committee. And I don't know if you wanted to say a couple words, Mike, about playing a couple of Oh, perfect.

Hey, beautiful. Yeah. Know, we talked about there was a individual that was wanting to build a two story structure for his mother, I think. That's what he's saying.

But

so I'm looking here at this diagram on page 15. And I think, you know, I've talked to a couple of people there. I mean, I haven't talked to everybody, but, I mean, I can tell you if you look at those things on Sturgeon, which are fine there. That's why we love these apartments. It's kind of isolated. But people don't want that in that neighborhood. So is this does this address that?

Yes.

Is this, like, how you're supposed to if you wanna add on, this is how you gotta do it? You can't come up?

Well, so the I guess, the idea of the neighborhood character study is that it provides a recommendation, you know, based on all the feedback we receive. And the land development code is what, you know, folks actually, you know, have to follow or at least, you know, legally abide by. So the the neighborhood character study is used sort of as a suggestion with all of that feedback that's been provided from the community.

Yeah.

And so while, you know, property owners can do what their zoning district allows them to do, the character study at least provides them with, you know, tools and techniques and guidance for how to really make, you know, their product kinda match the neighborhood.

Yeah. Mhmm.

Yeah. Because you see that in Austin. And when I was out there in Los Angeles, you see how well that eventually took over all the neighborhoods, those kind of structures. And in Austin, you know, where there were really need all neighborhoods, there's just just mismatch of all kinds of things. Not that that's necessarily a bad thing, I suppose, but I think it would really be for Blanco Gardens. I think it would not be good. I don't think it would fit at all. I don't think the people would want

that, really.

Because eventually, those become Airbnb type situations and things like that too.

Yeah. And kinda like how I described a little bit. So staff of the planning department, we have these predevelopment meetings before, you know, folks come in who wanna, you know, develop property or, you know, add additions onto their homes. And so this will be a really great tool for us to use Yeah. Kinda to get the ball rolling on, like, what the community wants, how, you know, new projects can match that

as well. Right. Mhmm. And as far as just one

other thing. As far as

funding over here, and I mentioned this to people before, but my son went to school out at Stephen F. Austin Forestry. And his best friend that I helped raise is now ahead in an apartment at the Texas Parks and Wildlife. And I spoke to him. He said we can get funding. They're all set to give us funding for trails and things, and nobody seems to wanna listen to me. So, you know, I've done what I could do. But it's coming up. The deadline is in a few weeks. And if it doesn't get done now, there won't be any funding for 2026.

But I'll be glad to pass information along again to anyone that wants to do anything about it. I certainly am not in a position to accept grants. It's gotta be y'all.

Or the Greenbelt Alliance.

You know what else have? Oh, I'm sorry.

Yeah. I I have two questions. So one, the reason it has to go to city council to vote on is because there's recommendations in here. There's, like, actions to be done. Is that why city council has to approve this?

I'm not too sure

actually why it goes as a resolution. My understanding is that they're all, like, the comprehensive plan, the downtown plan, they're all just adopted as resolutions. I don't know the history behind it or the reason why, but

Council did give us direction to follow this adoption process. You know, there's nothing in the code that says we had to come give you an update or go to PNC to give you an update, but they gave us direction to follow this. So we're kind of creating the process. This is the fur this will be the first neighborhood area plan. Well, we had one kind of go forward, but this is we're the new thing for San Marcos. This would potentially be the first that we would have adopted in terms of a neighborhood plan. So, yeah, we're still we're able to work with council and maybe this is process. So we'll probably hard code it in the development codes, then it'll be real clear. Like, it's a resolution, and this is how many times you have

to go to council. Right.

And then all the

subsequent plans will follow kind of that process as well. Yeah.

Mhmm. Interesting.

The fall next question is I saw MIG on the plan. Do you do you know how much money we paid to third party contractors to develop this?

I can find that number. So this the area plans were part of the comprehensive plan package.

Oh, that's

part of that.

Mhmm. So that was approved by council in 2020, 2021, I believe. And so MIG was, the consultant group that helped us do the comprehensive plan, and then we have seven different area plans that they helped us with.

And that was a package deal?

Mhmm. Yeah. They approved us package.

Anybody have any questions? Bobby?

Mhmm. I do. Britney, was any consideration given to honoring the history of the neighborhood, and is it documented anywhere in the doc in the in the plan?

Yes. We actually we have a whole section about, the history, arts, and culture of the neighborhood, just because it's, you know, one of the oldest neighborhoods in the city, and it's, you know, situated between the two rivers. Let me find a specific page number, except I don't have my plan on me. But we do have a whole section in the plan that, talks a little bit about the existing the existing, historic landmarks within the neighborhood or adjacent to the neighborhood as well as some of the long standing businesses. And then we have some recommendations in there as well to gather some more stories from, you know, longtime residents of the neighborhood. And that way, we're able to to document their lived experiences and their stories as well.

And, Robbie, we do have a, on our website, we have a, submit your neighborhood story, submission form because one of the things that we found when we were developing this plan is we we don't have a lot of photos or and there's lots of photos of throughout town, but this neighborhood, we don't have a lot of historical photos. So through the conversations with the committee, we were even asking if folks have lived there for a long time and just have, like, old photo albums of what the neighborhood looked like. That could be something that we do as part of the campaign that's a recommendation in here. So then we can actually document that at the library. And I think we're we when we were doing our research, we couldn't find a lot, even in the library. So that's definitely a gap, until we talk about it in the plan.

Right. Mhmm. So is there an action item then written into the document to pursue that? And I have because we're seeing I I have a project that I'm working on in Austin that's the Saint John neighborhood, and it's, the oldest African American neighborhood in the in the city. And there there's a lot of there's some development coming in that this that is being done by the city in conjunction with a a a developer.

But honoring the history of that neighborhood has taken priority over how they do the the conceptual the conceptual designs, but also there's a pocket park that that is adjacent to it that's involved and will be expanded. And so going forward, it becomes important for that information to be documented. There's been an exceptional amount of history that's been gathered up and is now archived in the Austin History Center. I imagine that there we would have an equivalent way to do that here so that that history could be preserved. You know, one of the one of the reasons that we moved to do the Mexican American and indigenous cultural heritage districts for the three first of the first three of San Marcos was exactly for that reason.

We're able gather up more information from from some of those first Tejano families that moved in, but also to archive and preserve that history for for future.

Yes. And, in the, in that history, art, and culture section, I know that we do have a couple recommendations that, talk about different partnerships, with some of those, I guess, historic, oh my gosh.

Yep. Bobby, it's on page 20.

There we go.

We've got a oral history. We recommend doing an oral history program to in collaboration with the library to get some of the oral history pieces. And then we also talk about establishing partnerships with, essentially, the Indigenous Cultures Institute of Central, the Council for Indigenous and Tohono Community to basically share the story of that plan area. And then we can do you know, with communications, we could do, videos. We could do actual events.

So I'd be interested in talking to you to see your successes because, you know, hopefully, the plan can be adopted, and we can start to think through implementation because that sounds like a great way to knock off some of these things. Because I feel like that's actually, like you mentioned, the first thing to do before you start moving into other recommendations in a way is to start to capture those, like, histories and stories could be a good way to kick it off.

Yes. Counsel for the indigenous and Tejana communities, which is appointed by the Hays County judge, is a great place for you to start. One, because they've already begun doing a lot of the the community stories with individuals that are, like, for instance, 90 years old and have have knowledge knowledge. So I encourage you to to connect with them soon.

Yes. Thank you so much. They'll be a a great contact to reach out to.

Thank you.

Anybody else have any questions? No? Alrighty. Well, thank you, Britney. Thank you, Andrea. We appreciate y'all coming out and giving us presentation.

Of course. Thank you. I can pass this back to you. Thank you. Of course.

Alright. Moving on. Items up for action and discussion. Review and discuss with possible action commissioner meetings for year 2025. I guess if we wanted to talk about if we're keeping the same schedule as last year.

Yeah. So, I looked at all the holidays, and nothing really interferes with our our monthly meetings. So I think the only thing to discuss is possibly, do you still want to have a summer month off and also December? Okay. And what summer month as well if that's still

So I'll open it up

if anybody wants to make any comment. I think when was it last year we took June? Was it June or July?

I think it was July.

Okay. It was we we had one the last couple years that I've been on the board, we've had one month in the summer where we we skipped the meeting and then December where we skipped the meeting. So I'll open it up if anybody wants to talk about it, make a recommendation, say you're good with that. Bobby, did you I saw you on mute. Did you have anything?

Go ahead.

Want to support that.

Support that? Is that you said?

Yes.

Okay. Anybody else have anything? Does anybody have a recommendation on what month of the summer they would like to skip?

July is usually a good one. Mhmm.

July? K. If I'm here, I'd like I I think August is a really good month. It's where everybody else gets Okay. Travels and stuff.

Anybody have any comment?

I can share with you that the first day of school for the new the new school year in 2025 is is August 13 is what's being proposed by the board of trustees. So you know that families will be back from vacations and being it's the thirteenth. It's actually falls on our I think our on the Wednesday that we that we meet for August. July seems to be a good month simply because a lot of people take advantage of the extra holiday that we have there, July 4, and then some some individuals have additional, you know, time that they can take off and create you know, work that into a longer extended vacation. From a community outreach and engagement standpoint, I could tell you that it's really difficult to get communities to come together during during July for community meetings or to even attend via Zoom.

So it you know, that's the reason that I would propose that July be the month that we that we take off.

Okay. So unless anybody has anything else they wanna say, what I'm hearing is we wanna at least we all kind of agree on December, and we we want one month in the summer off. So, Yvonne, I'm gonna ask you for guidance, I guess. Do we need to vote on what month we wanna take off?

Does somebody wanna, have a, motion?

Okay.

Have a motion

for a month?

Can I make a motion?

For for which month, Daniel?

I'm just gonna make a motion to have a Christmas break and to have July off for the summer.

Okay. Bobby seconds. I can't hear a word these people are saying. So he Daniel said that he's making a motion to take July and December off. Okay. Bobby seconded. Alright. So I guess we'll take a vote now. Uh-huh. Okay. That's fine. So just so everybody's clear, this is a vote. The motion is that we will take July and December off. We're voting yes or no on that motion.

Robert Eby? Aye. Larry Mock?

Abstain.

Bobby Garcia Fernandez?

Aye.

Michael Adams?

Aye.

Estella Enriquez? Aye. Vernon?

Yes.

Taylor Fawcett? Heidi Holiday McKittrick? Heidi Holiday McKittrick? Yes. Hi. Sorry. My my audio was out for a moment. Oh, that's okay. Thank you. Corey Holland?

Aye. Okay.

Jay Whiteside? Daniel Martinez?

Aye. Okay.

Vote passes. One abstain.

Okay. So does that satisfy, or do we need to vote on the actual calendar now?

No. We're good.

Good. Okay. Alright. Thank you all very much. Moving on to reports. Vitality coordinator report from Tiffany Harris. Updates on happenings in the community. Tiffany, how are you doing?

I'm gonna take that.

Oh, never mind. Greg is doing it. Oh, boy. Look at that.

A little bit ago, and she's got a migraine. And Okay. So please, please take it. So she says a few things. So there's gonna be a public meeting on January 27 starting at six on the Capes Pond Park that's going on just across the street kind of over here. January 26? January 27 at

Twenty seventh.

PM. Sinai Pentecostal Church, just just across 123 over here. And anybody can come. We're putting out normal notifications, but we're sending postcards to the Blanco Gardens and the Wallace edition because they're kind of bookend both sides of that. I do have a note here from Tiffany that if you want her to come speak at the civics club, be open for that.

And she'll send something out tomorrow. They just had a meeting today on it, so she'll get some more information out to everybody through Yvonne. And then the last thing is university class will be starting up again here pretty soon. We'll be opening up reservations. So if you know somebody, let them know. It's been very well attended, and a lot of people like it. Anybody I know Mr. Baker has gone. Robert. Robert's gone through.

What is it?

It's called University. Oh, yeah. And it's where all the departments talk about what they do and stuff. I will she didn't give me this to to say, but I'll toot her horn for you for her is we had a non neighborhood nonprofit come and talk to us if they wanted would like to start a teen university for high schoolers, and so that will be the summer. The university class, it's once a week. For the teens, it'll be three or four days, however long, one one shot. So that will be coming. So that's all we have for

Greg, on that, you may not know. It's I I don't recall. Is it once a week, or is it once a month? It it's it used to be, like, on Thursday night or something. Right?

It's once a week for eight weeks.

Eight weeks. Okay. I've I've wanted to do it last week, but I haven't been wearing my skin.

Yeah. And I think oh, Wednesday? I can't what day

is it?

It's on a Thursday.

Oh, so I think it used to be Thursday. Don't if

it's Thursday? Yeah. Okay. Thursday. And we do some meetings in one place, like the library will hold three or four, but we do a lot of the meetings out at the different sites,

like

the fire department. My brain's fogging up right now, but it's and then afterwards, we don't do tours during the the process because it just sunlight doesn't stay light very long, and so you can't do really good outside tours and stuff. But at the end, we will offer a tour. I think this year, they went to the wastewater facility and the water treatment. Mhmm.

So and we'll open that up for past members that maybe didn't get to go or something. And we do that for people that had missed a class. We'll let them know that, you know, let's say they missed neighborhood enhancement night, and that's such an exciting night that we wanna come. They come, and we have some peep because they had something with the kids or something. Right. So it just gives them a chance to catch up. That's all I got.

Okay. Anybody have any questions for Greg about that?

I have a comment Just to to to provide you with some additional information on the Capes Pond Park project. That is actually a Hays County project. But when we were doing the community outreach and engagement meetings, a lot of questions regarding the city's drainage project park and there was a request from for the city to come and answer some of those questions. And so this is actually a meeting that the neighborhood requested, and commissioner Inglesby and city manager Stephanie Reyes were re were were asked to come and meet with the community, and that's why this meeting is being held.

So Yes. For some

yeah. That that participated in the in the Capes Pond Park community engagement meetings or community meetings. This is an additional that is being brought forward.

Alright. Thank you, Bobby. Welcome. Alright. Moving on. So, Greg, give us update on the deer feeding resolution.

I will be reporting as myself. Alright. Yes. So we took the deer feeding issue to council. And did anybody get to watch that?

It was interesting. Of course, our recommendation or your recommendation was education and some statistics and stuff. So now we'll be working with the department or division that most closely related since they're animals with the animal services. So I'll work with their marketing people to get some classes or informational material and how we can collect some of the data and stuff. I will be reaching out or they will be reaching out to you and the guy

from Parks and Wildlife. Plappert?

Yeah. Yep. As as to, like, what is the best way to get this information out? Whether it's a video, is it brochures and stuff? Just multiple different ways. So we'll have more information as we get it.

Why was the meeting interesting?

Because this is a item that as even as we kinda saw in our meetings, there's those that don't that like deer feeding and there's that don't. Oh, yeah. And we had a council member that brought up maybe we should start a hunting program for the deer, and that really got opened some eyeballs.

You know the open season wherever you're at?

He found the far end of the conversation really fast. Yeah.

So it was were people getting mad and so? They are just not mad, but I think just

The council got off the council got off track from the resolution. They didn't really discuss the resolution. They discussed their own ideas.

Yeah. So anyway, we'll take that and, you know, get information out. So they did approve us going forward. Yeah. Alright.

Anybody have any questions for Greg on that? No? Alright. Moving on then. Question and answer session for the press and public. This is an opportunity for the press and public to ask questions related to the agenda. Three minutes per individual. Yvonne, do we have press or public?

If yeah.

Nice. Go ahead, miss Springer.

I'm gonna stand because I I feel obliged. Okay. So it was made mention that the neighborhood character plan stuff is going to what sounds like fall into the staff's matrix, where it says preferred, not preferred, inconsistent. Is that was that my understanding?

It it wouldn't be in the matrix, the equivalency table, but, we would incorporate it into the staff report. So we'd probably make another another table or something like that, but it wouldn't be, like, the equivalency table, which is the preferred, not preferred, preferred scenario amendment type stuff. But I think we'd still be creating some type of, you know, Excel that's going to be able to, like, pull in the recommendations and character as an analysis tool in this topic. Okay. I need to think through what it looks like, but that's the intent.

And to commissioner Vernon's point, this will not stop or impede or cause any extra notification if a project is deemed to be outside of the character of the neighborhood. Correct? And and the follow-up question to that, is there a governmental, tool that could be used that would require some form of variance type of, requirement? You know, this is so far because, yes, they can build what's my right on the thing. But if if we are adopting, you know, these new strategies and plans, then everything

after

that date could have something more strict than what is currently in the land development code. Right? Things get grandfathered in all the time. I know we don't like to to do that, but that that was that option discussed as part of this change to ensure that the character of the neighborhoods is maintained? And just to one last question, since I don't wanna overstep by three minutes.

Does the neighborhood commission have funding of its own, to kind of do some of this, like, neighborhood outreach party in your park type stuff to, you know, get the word out about these different plans or these different you know, Bobby mentioned, like, a cultural event for for a neighborhood. Like, is that something that the neighborhood commission has funding for? Yeah. So if so, how much and what uses are are they limited to?

I'll answer the last question first as my memory goes. So the budget, we don't have a specific budget for the commission. It just comes out of neighborhood enhancement. So we do budget for neighborhood engagement, which includes mailings and food and, you know, beverages and snacks at some of the meetings we have. We do what's the neighborhood meeting?

Neighborhood conversations. Neighborhood conversations if something's coming up in in an area. That's because that falls under our so there's not I can't give you a specific dollar amount because we just roll it into all of this stuff. Nullet? Yes. So,

yes, speaking about the neighborhood character study, so kinda like we mentioned and like you described as well. So the like, whatever the property is zoned is kind of what they have by right. And then this character study asks it acts as, you know, suggestions or just encouragements for the folks looking to develop their property or, you know, add something to their own. I think that the one of the ways that, I guess, we thought of that's incorporated into the plan, to give it more teeth and have it act as a development code in a way is to establish an overlay district for the neighborhood that would have kind of specific, you know, development guidelines for the Blanco Gardens area. I think that that process, it's kind of begun and carried out by city council, you know, barring opinions from the, and recommendations from the neighborhood as well.

Because it would it really would only be applied to that neighborhood, and it it would essentially act as a development code. So whatever is in that overlay district is kinda what you either have to put in, or it's what you're limited to.

It's called a neighborhood conservation district. It's a housing section. We we had a similar recommendation in the Dunbar Heritage Area Plan, and it's a tool that especially in areas that have older homes, like, as a preservation tool, you can create an overlay. And then that would have specific standards. They're not applicable to all neighborhoods.

They're just an overlay for Blanco Gardens. So if that's one of the tools that we use to document, if council wanted to give the neighbor character setting more teeth, you could go an overlay route. And then we would it would basically be like a a zoning district. So we'd probably be doing more work with the neighborhood to see if that's something that they wanted to do. But that's kind of one of the tools that we do have, as a city to do.

Thank you.

Thank you, mister Baker. Alright. I guess that that's all we have. If anybody has any last set questions or anything, other than that, I'll take a

motion for adjournment.

Motion to adjourn. Second.

Alright. Daniel first. And who was the second? I'm sorry. Bobby? Bobby's the second.

K. Robert Eby?

Aye.

Larry Mock? Aye. Daxide and Vandes? Aye. Michael Adams. Aye. Estella Enriquez. Aye. Vernon. Aye. Taylor Faucette. Patty Holiday McKittrick. Aye. Holland.

Aye.

Jay White? Martinez?

Aye. Thank you all very much. I will close the meeting of the Neighborhood Commission at 06:55PM.