Meetings of Interest
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Meetings of Interest 7: Feb. 18, 2024

Meetings of Interest 7: Feb. 18, 2024

Meetings of Interest: 💃 Jenny From The Bond

February 18, 2024 • Estimated Reading Time: 14 minutes

Sunday, February 18, 2024

Good evening:

Planning a $1.25 billion bond program is no easy task.

Jenny Nicewander (right) helped cobble together the package as the interim director of the City of Dallas Office of Bond and Construction Management for more than a year.

Talk about pressure.

On Thursday, the day after the City Council voted 14-1 to send 10 bond propositions to voters on May 4, City Manager T.C. Broadnax dropped the "interim" from Nicewander's title, according to

this memo to the mayor and City Council members

Serving on the Community Bond Task Force and working with DDI's Public Policy Task Force last year, I got a close-up view of how Jenny operates. She is unflappable, an important trait for someone expected to know enough about the City's $16 billion-plus needs inventory to answer questions on the fly. She is dedicated, working long hours to get the bond proposal over the finish line for a May election. Nicewander is also, well, quite nice, which should never be taken for granted.

So, Mazel Tov, Jenny! For those of us who worked with you over the past year, you'll always be Jenny from the bond.

Speaking of the bond, our above chart breaks down where the City Council landed for the various allocations. It got a bit confusing in the final hours before the vote on Wednesday. There was a failed last-minute attempt to fund critical City Hall upgrades by cutting other propositions, which

The Dallas Morning News

editorial board calls an embarrassing display of poor planning

(ouch).

We at Downtown Dallas, Inc., (DDI) are confident that a portion of the $521 million streets and transportation proposition can be allocated to DDI priority projects. We are also thrilled with the $75 million allocation for arts institutions, most of which are located in our incredible Dallas Arts District.

Specific projects within each bucket are still being finalized, so DDI will be working closely with Downtown Council members Jesse Moreno and Paul E. Ridley to ensure Downtown projects are funded.

City staff will hit the road again to share information on the bond proposals ahead of the May 4 election. We will continue to share project information with you as it becomes available.

Read on for more on:

The fate of the historic Aldredge House on Swiss Avenue.
Where City staff wants to move more than $188 million in federal pandemic relief funds.
How much money is yet to be spent from our last big bond program in 2017.

⚡ Highlights From Last Week's Meetings of Interest:

-- Dallas Area Rapid Transit (DART) leaders are considering up to $55 million in renovations for the agency's Downtown headquarters. But they are also not ruling out a potential building sale or demolition,

the Dallas Business Journal reports

. The discussion took place at a DART board meeting last week.

-- In separate voting items, the City Council on Wednesday approved a 100% property tax exemption to qualifying child care centers and loosened rules on the opening of child and adult daycare facilities in residential neighborhoods,

The Dallas Morning News reports

-- The City Council on Wednesday also approved:

Item 3, authorizing the issuance and sale of up to $55 million in bonds to pay Trinity East Energy, LLC. The gas drilling company successfully sued the city after paying $19 million for the right to drill on Dallas parkland only to later be denied the permits to do so.
Item 6, amending the City's "anti-litter regulations" to reduce redundancy of two existing codes use for litter violations on private property.
Item 13, approving a mixed-income multifamily housing development backed by state tax credits at 805 Elm Street in the West End. The $92 million multi-building project from Sycamore Strategies, LLC, is expected to include 160 units, with 48 studios, 64 one-bedroom, 42 two-bedroom, and six three-bedroom units.
Item 26, a $3.1 million contract to reconstruct traffic signals at four northern Dallas intersections that were damaged in the October 2019 tornado.
Item 27, a $700,0000 contract with Staples for period products and other hygiene items for people in high needs communities.
Item 35, a development agreement with the nonprofit Dallas Wetlands Foundation for the Dallas Water Commons project in the Cedars neighborhood south of Downtown. DDI has long supported the project, funded in part by $7.4 million in 2017 bond funds. Learn more.
Item 38, the biggest one of the day, the order for a $1.25 billion May bond election.
Item 39, extending the City's contract with HR&A Advisors, Inc., through June 30, 2025, for consulting tied to implementation of the Economic Development Policy. The extension increases the contract from $2.3 million to $3.8 million. Read more about the work HR&A is doing.

-- The City Plan Commission on Thursday unanimously approved a 5-year renewal of a Specific Use Permit (SUP) for the Aldredge House on Swiss Avenue. The City Council still must approve the SUP to allow the historic home to continue operating as a museum, meeting, and fundraising space for extended hours.

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:

-- As of the end of last year, the City had committed 86% of the $1.05 billion approved by voters in the 2017 Bond Program. The above chart offers more information on the status of that bond program.

Meetings of Interest: February 20 - 23, 2024

Tuesday, February 20

🎭

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

-- The on-again, off-again debate about how the City could better provide sanitation and recycling collection is back on with

this briefing

on current procedures and "future considerations." Among those considerations is an "aim to service only alleys that are safe and efficient in which to operate."

-- Briefings on

Dallas Animal Services

and

Authorized Zoning Hearings

are also on the agenda.

🚇

City Council Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, 1 p.m., Council Chambers, 6th Floor, Dallas City Hall, 1500 Marilla St.

-- The only scheduled briefing is an update on the City's Vision Zero initiative, which set a goal of zero traffic fatalities in Dallas and a 50% reduction in severe injuries by 2030. A briefing to the full City Council is planned for March 6.

📃

Charter Review Commission, 6:30 p.m., Council Chambers, 6th Floor, Dallas City Hall, 1500 Marilla St.

-- The agenda includes proposals to change

City Council size, term lengths, and term limits

, and a long-debated proposal to

move City Council elections to November from May

Wednesday, February 21

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

-- City staff recommends reallocating more than $188 million in federal pandemic relief funds to cover Dallas Fire-Rescue emergency response payroll and a variety of other programs and projects. The above charts (click to enlarge) outline where the money was originally intended to be spent and where it would be moved, should City Council approve on Feb. 28. The City must obligate all funds by Sept. 30, or it must be returned to the U.S. Treasury.

-- City staff estimates $1.36 billion will need to be spent on streets improvements over the next five years just to keep them from getting worse than they already are, also known as "zero degradation." That amount assumes voters approve the $521.2 million streets bond in May. By comparison, $26.5 million is expected to be spent on sidewalks over the same time period. Read more in

this briefing on the city's Infrastructure Management Program

Thursday, February 22

🏞

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

-- Park Board will consider a $1.25 million fundraising and community engagement agreement with the Trust for Public Land (TPL) for design and development of five city-owned properties into neighborhood parks, part of the

mayor's Dallas Greening Initiative

-- Three voting items cover engineering, architecture, and construction services for badly needed renovations and additions for the Cotton Bowl at Fair Park.

-- A briefing on the future of Old City Park, just south of Downtown, is also on the agenda. The Dallas County Heritage Society (DCHS) is turning management of the park back over to the Park & Recreation Department in May.

-- A workshop and vote is also scheduled on priority parks bond projects.