Richardson City Council/City Plan Commission Joint Work Session July 31st, 2023
OPENING
All councilmembers are present as well as City Manager Don Magner and City Secretary Aimee Nemer.
Seven of the nine city plan commissioners are present. Commissioner Bohnsack and Commissioner Beach are absent.
Two public speakers are present. The first speaker gives input on the city hall design. He encourages the city to consider following the example of Chicago’s city hall and building a “green roof” or a roof garden to conserve energy. The second speaker urges the city to seriously utilize the input given by the community on the comprehensive plan. She asks that the city and consultant prioritize the feedback from the community on sustainability and protecting neighborhoods. She hopes to see drafted plans include sections on housing, mobility, environmental protections, future land use, and fiscal impact. She asks Council to consider more bike lanes, trees, and updated zoning to reduce parking spaces. She notes that the focus seems to be on economic planning for future TIF districts. She states the current presentation ignores the fact that small, locally owned shops shouldn’t be targets for reinvestment or redevelopment. Rather, they should be protected. She also encourages the city to hold additional public hearings.
COMP PLAN COMMUNITY FEEDBACK
Kimley-Horn consultants Mark Bowers and Jessica Rossi as well as consultant Monica Heid from Prologue Planning present the results of the first round of community feedback for the Envision Richardson Comp Plan.
Jessica presents the response to initial Council concerns. She starts by clarifying the retail vacancy rates. At the initial presentation, it seemed there were high retail vacancy rates. The data was analyzed again and shows that 7% of retail properties have a vacancy rate of 20% or more. The second concern was that the commuting patterns and job totals didn’t add up. This database was also reviewed, and the numbers were brought closer in alignment. 122,000 jobs exist in Richardson. 8,500 live and work in the city. 43,000 commute out. 104,000 commute in.
Mark presents a summary of the participation in the first round of feedback. They estimated that roughly 7,340 individual interactions took place. The comp plan website has received just shy of 6,000 visits. 21 interviews have been conducted involving roughly 55 stakeholders. Almost 590 responses to the online survey were received. 85 people gave feedback via the online engagement boards. The two in-person workshops were attended by roughly 200 people. Pop-up engagement kiosks were placed at city facilities, chamber of commerce events, the UTD School of Management, the Network of Community Ministries, and First United Methodist Church. Eight additional locations were contacted but unresponsive to requests. 24 people volunteered as ambassadors. These ambassadors have held 20 discussions involving roughly 80 community members. (JN: To put it in perspective, roughly 9,500 people voted in the last municipal election. And that’s with all the door knocking and fundraising and get-out-the-vote efforts.)
VISION CONCEPTS (WORD CLOUD)
Mark then presents a word cloud for the preliminary vision concepts based on the feedback received. Some of the most supported words include Safe, Family, Sustainable, Connected, Maintained, Diverse, Inclusive, and Growth.
The CPC and Council provide feedback on what words they most support. Commissioner Costantino likes Innovative and asks for Sustainability to be further defined. Vice-Chair Southard wants more engagement with the non-English speaking community and more engagement at public meetings. Commissioner Roberts likes Diverse and Inclusive. He also asks if they are tracking the demographics of participants to ensure that diverse and inclusive responses are being given. Mark replies that, as far as the in-person meetings go, the respondents may not have been representative of Richardson’s diversity. They will continue to strive for more inclusive input as the process goes on. Commissioner Purdy wants Futuristic, Innovative, and Fun added. Commissioner Walraven wants Community added. Chairman Marsh asks for Richardson’s excellence to be highlighted in the vision statement. Councilwoman Justice likes Sustainable Growth and Attainable. Councilman Hutchenrider wants Competitive added. Councilman Corcoran likes Sustainable, Community, Attainable, Dense, Dynamic and Creative. Mayor Pro Tem Shamsul likes Sustainable and Exceptional. Councilman Dorian likes Eco-friendly. Mayor Dubey likes Opportunistic.
Councilman Barrios likes Innovative and Sustainable. He also shares comments on what he hopes the plan will be. He expresses concern that only 55 people have been directly interviewed, noting that 25% of that number includes the Council and City Plan Commission. He asks what the specific plan is for ensuring diverse representation when collecting feedback. He also asks how many stakeholders utilized the different language options for taking the survey. Noting that the 7,340 individual interactions could include some duplication if individuals attended multiple forums, he also asks how many individual people have given input. Mark answers that they don’t have an answer just yet, but they can cross reference data to provide an estimate. City Manager Don Magner jumps in to ask for clarification of Council’s expectations in this process. He notes that the current plan was supported by Council at their last presentation. Don further states that that can’t guarantee that the demographics of respondents will match the demographics of the city if participation is voluntary. He asks for Council to clarify their expectations.
Councilman Barrios responds that while he doesn’t expect the demographics to perfectly match, he does want a plan for inclusiveness in responses. He specifically asks for minority faith communities and cultural centers to be included, naming the Raindrop Foundation, the Islamic Association of North Texas, and Mt. Pisgah Missionary Baptist Church. He is then rather rudely interrupted by Councilman Hutchenrider. Councilman Hutchenrider states that Barrios’ line of feedback is not the purpose of the current question. He digs in further, exclaiming that he does not support Councilman Barrios’ concerns. He asks Barrios to take his comments out of the public forum and share them privately. He further states that, not only is this not the purpose of the current question, but it’s not even the purpose of the night. Councilman Hutchenrider goes on to share his opinion on the public comments shared at the July 10th meeting regarding the NRA considering a move to Richardson. He calls it disheartening to see that people showed up to speak on an issue that wasn’t realistic, but very few show up for budget and comp plan discussions. He specifically says, “Can we please stick to the script tonight?”
Councilman Barrios responds, stating that this is germane because Diverse and Inclusive were noted as vision concepts supported by the community. Thus, we should live by those words and do what we can to be inclusive in the feedback collection process. City Manager Don Magner commits that he will look at additional opportunities to get feedback from new audiences. Mark states that Councilmembers reaching out to the groups that have been unresponsive could help their efforts in getting responses.
STRATEGIC ISSUES
Monica presents the 10 overarching strategic issues based on this first round of feedback.
Land Use - maintaining economically stable areas while addressing underperforming areas and attracting quality development to vacant land.
Transportation & Mobility - maintaining a safe and efficient system that accommodates multiple modes of travel.
Community Facilities - protecting the city’s assets by maintaining and replacing facilities when necessary, and ensuring facilities functionally deliver high quality services.
Infrastructure - maintaining or upgrading aging infrastructure to preserve quality of life and promote economic development. Also working with regional agencies to meet water, wastewater, and solid waste needs.
Neighborhoods & Housing - preserving and enhancing neighborhoods while encouraging creative housing solutions to address affordability and workforce recruitment challenges.
Parks, Trails, & Open Space - continuing investments, improving connectivity, and maintaining quality events and programming.
Natural Environment - specifically establishing and promoting eco-friendly design, construction, technology, and operations to minimize environmental impact. Also collaborating with regional agencies to develop environmentally sustainable solutions and involving residents and businesses in efforts.
Reinvestment Areas - identifying locations that provide opportunities for investment/reinvestment and using incentives wisely to encourage improvements.
Economic Development - making Richardson more competitive while diversifying local business and supporting businesses of all sizes.
Implementation - develop strategy for implementing and monitoring goals and actions while providing transparency and flexibility in the plan to accommodate new opportunities.
Now, the CPC and Council provide feedback on these strategies. Chairman Marsh and Vice-Chair Southard want to add a priority for studying the changing office/retail landscape. Commissioner Costantino and Commissioner Roberts want to see more strategies for Public Safety in the plan. Commissioner Purdy wants to see a section dedicated to Technology. He also asks for the Black community’s specific community needs to be thought about. Councilman Hutchenrider wants to add a futuristic focus to Transportation & Mobility. He also asks for a specific strategy for UTD. Mayor Pro Tem Shamsul asks for a focus on justifications for decision making, highlighting the “why” along the way and the effects of any decisions made. Councilman Corcoran wants to see implementation strategies that provide multiple options if decisions don’t pan out the way we expect. He also wants to see a callout of lessons learned from the previous comp plan’s implementation. Monica notes that the previous comp plan did not include an Implementation section. Councilman Barrios asks what the justification is for the Economic Development strategies. Monica answers that stakeholders specializing in real estate noted that certain spaces, the IQ for example, don’t compete as well with similar areas in other cities due to aging facilities and capabilities resulting in lower lease rates and less interest. Councilman Barrios also wants to see adaptive reuse strategies and a plan for connecting the “places” we have made across the city. Mayor Dubey wants to add something highlighting the state law compliance component.
REINVESTMENT AREAS, NEXT STEPS, AND CLOSING
Jessica presents the final section on reinvestment areas. Several criteria were used to evaluate areas for reinvestment, including comparing building and land values, individual parcel size and placement, vacancy and lease rates, and if the location is locally owned. In addition to the four already identified potential reinvestment areas, two new areas were identified based on community feedback. The first newly identified area, Area E, is the area north of Spring Valley Rd between Central Expwy and Weatherred and south of St. Paul the Apostle Catholic Church. The second area, Area F, is the area between Frances Way and Belt Line from the intersection to the railroad.
With all factors and feedback considered, the consultant recommends 5 of the areas for further reinvestment study. Ranked highest to lowest priority, the recommendation is to study Area C (W Arapaho), Area F (Belt Line/Frances), Area B (W Campbell), Area E (W. Spring Valley), and Area D (Belt Line/Plano).
Chairman Marsh and Councilwoman Justice agree with studying Area D. Commissioner Costantino asks why tonight’s implementation focus is only on reinvestment areas. Don Magner answers that once the reinvestment areas are agreed upon, implementation discussions on the rest of the strategic issues will happen later in the process. Councilman Corcoran agrees that the reinvestment study shouldn’t dominate the comp plan. He also wants to see inclusion of other metrics like safety. Councilman Barrios is concerned that Area F includes residential developments. He doesn’t want people displaced.
And with that, Community Summit 1 is in the books. A complete summary of the feedback collected so far will be available at EnvisionRichardson.com . The next presentation to Council will be Sep. 25th and will include a vision statement, guiding principles, and a preliminary scenario structure. The second round of community feedback will begin in October.
The consent agenda is approved unanimously.
Council discusses the Eisemann Center Volunteer Appreciation Dinner, the RISD Lunch & Learn, the Mayor’s Summer Internship Program, and the NTFB Peanut Butter Drive.
Meeting adjourned.