Meetings of Interest 4: Jan. 28, 2024

Meetings of Interest: 💰 Decision Time

January 28, 2024 • Estimated Reading Time: 11 minutes

Sunday, January 28, 2024

Good evening:

Downtown Dallas, Inc. (DDI), and a few hundred of our closest friends will be back at City Hall on Wednesday for another highly-anticipated City Council discussion of the proposed $1.25 billion bond.

This will be a hugely important meeting with council members expected to discuss preferred allocations for streets, parks, arts, libraries, housing, economic development, police and fire facilities, flood protection and more. You can sign up to speak until 5 p.m. on Tuesday

.

Read on for more on the bond and:

  • The latest on one of the most transformative mixed-use projects planned for the northwest corner of Downtown.

  • Why the City's Economic Development Corporation (EDC) board is meeting behind closed doors at least twice this week, following a meeting this past Friday.

  • Proposals to change how the Mayor Pro Tem and Deputy Mayor Pro Tem are selected or do away with the positions that fill in for the mayor at meetings and events.

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⚡ Highlights From Last Week's Meetings of Interest:

-- The City's quasi-independent nonprofit Economic Development Corporation (EDC) board (new logo, who dis?) met on Friday in what appears to be a candidate interview for the organization's first permanent CEO. The EDC will meet at least twice more this coming week to interview more candidates in executive session.

-- The Charter Review Commission on Tuesday night continued its review of proposed amendments to the City's foundational document. Among dozens of proposals are two that would either eliminate the Mayor Pro Tem and Deputy Mayor Pro Tem positions or allow the Mayor to appoint to those positions, which fill in running meetings and attending events when the Mayor is out of town or unavailable. Currently, the City Council votes to appoint to those positions, but it often leads to vicious political battles.

from

KERA

. Check out the status of all proposed amendments on the

.

-- The City Council on Wednesday approved up to $55 million in bond funds to pay off a Fort Worth natural gas drilling company that won a lawsuit against the City in 2020.

from

The Dallas Morning News

.

-- The Texas-OU Red River Rivalry is officially extended at the Cotton Bowl through 2036, following a unanimous City Council vote. Extensive stadium renovations are part of the deal.

.

-- The City Council again deferred a decision on proposed new fees for residential and commercial development that City staff estimates would generate $22 million in new revenue. The item is expected again on the March 27 City Council agenda.

.

-- The City Council also voted to keep open until Feb. 28 a public hearing on shifting millions in federal funds originally earmarked for rental assistance to supportive services as part of an ongoing initiative to house people experiencing homelessness. City staff said they support the delay.

-- Check out the

for vote outcomes on all items from last week's meeting.

-- The grand vision for phase 1 of the Field Street District of Downtown was detailed on Friday before the Urban Design Peer Review Panel at City Hall. Pacific Elm Properties and Headington Cos. are teaming up on a 30-story residential and hotel high-rise planned across the street from Fountain Place (rendering above), 

. DDI is a long-time supporter of this project, which includes implementation of key elements of our strategic

360 Plan

for Downtown.

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 Council members have submitted six different funding options for the 2024 Bond Program,

and set for debate at Wednesday's City Council meeting. Staff will take that direction to finalize proposition language and allocation amounts for further review at the Feb. 7 City Council briefing meeting. The City Council is expected to vote on Feb. 14 to call the election for May.

-- Fair Park housed 1,651 people experiencing homelessness during the cold weather blast earlier this month,

that includes other highlights of the Office of Homeless Solutions response.

-- Check out all the latest City Hall memos

and

.

Meetings of Interest: January 29 - February 2, 2024

Monday, January 29

🏞

Dallas Park and Recreation Board Special Called Meeting, 2 p.m., 6FN Conference Room, Dallas City Hall, 1500 Marilla St.

-- The board will make a series of recommendations on how to allocate smaller parks bond packages should the City Council decide to fund less than the Community Bond Task Force-recommended $350 million, which appears likely. I serve as the District 10 (Lake Highlands) representative on this board.

Tuesday, January 30

🅿

 Zoning Ordinance Advisory Committee (ZOAC), 9 a.m., Room 6ES, Dallas City Hall, 1500 Marilla St.

-- Parking reform is on the agenda again, the latest turn in a journey that dates to October 2019. The committee will discuss potential changes to the Dallas Development Code regarding off-street parking and loading requirements, including off-street parking management strategies and design of parking lots and bike spaces."We've got a good group of panel members and I'd anticipate this meeting being more action-oriented than in the past," writes ZOAC Member Ryan Behring. DDI is closely following this, but thus far we do not expect major changes to Downtown parking regulations, where extreme reductions in requirements already apply.

🤑

 Economic Development Corporation (EDC) Board of Directors, 5:45 p.m., 1900 N. Pearl St., Suite 1800, Dallas

-- Candidate interviews will be held privately in executive session for the EDC's first CEO. 

Wednesday, January 31

🤑

 Economic Development Corporation (EDC) Board of Directors, 8:30 a.m., 1900 N. Pearl St., Suite 1800, Dallas

-- More candidate interviews for the nonprofit's CEO position, to be held in executive session.

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

-- This meeting, requested by memo from Mayor Eric L. Johnson, includes critical discussion on how to allocate $1.25 billion for a May bond election. In addition to debate on the six proposed packages mentioned in the memo linked above, council members will be presented with the latest staff recommendations and the proposed timeline to work toward a May election.

.

-- Also on the agenda is discussion on the idea of allowing more duplexes, triplexes, and fourplexes in single-family neighborhoods. For good background on that ongoing debate, check out this

piece from last month. Read the briefing

.

Thursday, February 1

📃

City Plan Commission, 9 a.m. Briefing; 12:30 p.m. Public Hearing, Council Chambers, 6th Floor, Dallas City Hall, 1500 Marilla St.

-- Staff will brief the CPC Annual Report and the ongoing

.

🤝🏽

-- This agenda includes further conversation on the mayor's Homelessness, Organizations, Policies, and Encampments (HOPE) Report.

-- The group will also discuss ongoing tracking of the cost of homelessness, which may include data provided by DDI on what we spend annually for homeless outreach services.

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 GoldsteinChief of External Affairs& Government Relations

Downtown Dallas, Inc.

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