Meetings of Interest 14: April 14, 2024

Meetings of Interest: 🐴 Horseless Carriage

April 14, 2024 • Estimated Reading Time: 12 minutes

Sunday, April 14, 2024

Good evening:

Well, we made it through eclipse mania and it was actually pretty darn cool, as this DDI Solar Eclipse Watch Party video recap proves.

This week, we're back to regularly scheduled programming (and trash pickup), including:

  • What I'm calling a crossover Meetings of Interest episode featuring the City of Dallas and DART.

  • Recommended changes to the City Charter, the foundational document that outlines the structure, powers, and functions of our city's government, now headed to City Council for review.

  • The uncertain future of horse-drawn carriages in Dallas.

  • A variety of new fees that could be passed on to residents, business owners, and developers to help chip away at the city's $16 billion in unfunded infrastructure and facility needs.

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⚡ Highlights From Last Week's Meetings of Interest:

🚨 Dallas police will soon implement a new third-party online platform to manage the hiring of off-duty police officers, after the City Council on Wednesday approved

. The new process (

) will include fees to be passed on to some businesses when City equipment such as patrol cars are used as part of the off-duty assignment. The fees will not be charged to any Expanded Neighborhood Patrol (ENP), Public Improvement District (PID), or nonprofit organizations. This change has been in the works for years as a result of

with DPD's management and oversight of off-duty jobs.

🏘️ The City Council unanimously adopted the

"to expand its efforts to preserve the city’s historic and cultural spaces important to communities of color after decades of disinvestment,"

.

🚊 The

voted on Thursday to seek more than $50 million in federal funding for electric buses and charging stations to help prepare for the 2026 FIFA World Cup, which will feature nine matches at AT&T Stadium in Arlington,

.

📜 The volunteer Charter Review Commission completed its work on Thursday night, sending a package of 30 recommended amendments to City Council for consideration next month,

. Voters must ultimately approve any changes to the City's foundational document.

outlining all recommended Charter changes.

Thanks to DDI's Nikia Summerlin, Urban Planning Manager, for monitoring hours of meetings every week and contributing to the above summaries.Questions? Nikia can be reached at [email protected].

📝 Memos of Interest:

-- City officials will host two public meetings to seek input on a plan to install dozens of digital advertising and wayfinding kiosks on the busiest sidewalks in Downtown, Uptown, and other parts of Dallas. The virtual meeting is set for Monday, April 22, at 6 p.m. The in-person meeting is scheduled to be held at City Hall the following Monday, April 29, at 6 p.m.

, including how to register to speak.

-- Check out all the latest City Hall memos 

 and 

.

Meetings of Interest: April 15 - 19, 2024

Monday, April 15

🎭

 Dallas City Council Quality of Life, Arts, and Culture Committee, 9 a.m., Council Chambers, 6th Floor, Dallas City Hall, 1500 Marilla St.

-- Will the Dallas City Council soon ban horse-drawn carriages? We could get more hints during

, where only one company is currently permitted to operate. The briefing suggests one alternative is to go back to the future and replace the need for horses with "mechanical propulsion" carriages. Before you know it, we might even be riding around in "automobiles." The

Dallas Observer

.

-- The committee will also be

, which calls for major renovations of Downtown's J. Erik Jonsson Central Library. The library opened in 1982 and has never been comprehensively renovated.

. Skip to the section on the Central Library

.

🚇

-- This is the City of Dallas/DART version of one of those

Law & Order/SVU

crossover episodes. Some of your favorite Dallas elected and appointed officials team up around the same City Council horseshoe for a very special episode of Meetings of Interest. You won't want to miss this tomorrow, 1 p.m. Central/2 p.m. Eastern, on Government Access Channel 16 (

).

--  DART Board Vice Chair Rodney Schlosser is briefing the group on city population projections that could mean Dallas will no longer hold its eight-seat majority on the 15-member board as soon as 2030.

. His presentation also includes the above chart showing how DART sales tax collections have changed by member city over time.

-- The Pearl Street and Ross Avenue intersection in the Arts District will get new and improved traffic signals, funded by DDI and some of the millions in DART money being sent back to City Hall for a variety of transportation-related projects,

.

-- Discussions are ongoing on potential new fees "to augment existing funds needed to address the City’s $16B of unfunded infrastructure and facility needs and to fully recover costs for services,"

. This includes the potential for a transportation user fee, which "would be assessed to residents and businesses based upon the traffic levels generated by each dwelling unit or business." It sounds a lot like what the City of Austin implemented years ago,

. Public Works staff and the City Attorney's Office have been evaluating this idea since at least last year. No new fees appear imminent, and the memo outlines several more layers of stakeholder input and studies.

Tuesday, April 16

🚌

Dallas Area Rapid Transit (DART) Board of Directors, 6 p.m., Board Room, 1401 Pacific Avenue, Dallas; Watch Live Here

Wednesday, April 17

💼

 Dallas City Council Briefing Meeting, 9 a.m., Council Chambers, 6th Floor, Dallas City Hall, 1500 Marilla St.

-- The Dallas Public Library draft strategic plan mentioned above is also being briefed to the full City Council.

.

-- Also on the agenda is the proposed HUD Consolidated Plan Budget for next fiscal year. The briefing is not yet posted.

Thursday, April 18

🛝

Dallas Park and Recreation Board, 10 a.m., 6FN Conference Room, Dallas City Hall, 1500 Marilla St.

📑

City Plan Commission Special Called ForwardDallas Public Hearing, 6 p.m., Council Chambers, 6th Floor, Dallas City Hall, 1500 Marilla St.

-- Here's hoping this meeting is less about ranting at the good people on our City Plan Commission and more about productive feedback and questions regarding the

. For an intelligent deep dive on why this discussion is so important -- and why so many folks are fearful of the imminent death of single-family neighborhoods -- check out Matt Goodman's recent piece in

D Magazine

,

Did we miss anything? Do you have any questions? Just want to talk about meetings?

.

Were you forwarded this newsletter?

.

Have a great week.

Best,

Scott Goldstein

Downtown Dallas, Inc.

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