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HomeMy WebLinkAboutMinutes Capital Improvement Advisory Committee - 10/08/2022 MINUTES - REGULAR MEETING CAPTIAL IMPROVEMENTS ADVISORY COMMITTEE CITY OF CORPUS CHRISTI CITY HALL – 6TH FL 1201 LEOPARD STREET December 08, 2022 11:30 A.M. I. Call to Order/Roll Call The meeting was called to order by Chairman Mostaghasi and a quorum was established with Hailey Gonzalez absent. II. Approval of Minutes: October 20, 2022 A motion was made by Mr. Munoz to approve the minutes listed above and it was seconded by Mr. Summers. The motion passed. III. Approval of Absences: Jesus Jimenez IV. Public Comment: None. V. Discussion or Possible Action: Presentation of the Wastewater Master Plan Study Kim Keefer, Pape-Dawson Engineers introduces staff and begins the presentation. Kim, project manager for a series of four (4) master plans being undertaken by the City of Corpus Christi which are Water, Wastewater, Stormwater, & Roads. Today Wastewater will be discussed and in the January 2023 meeting, Water will be the last master plan to be discussed. Kim states how today’s presentation will be an overview of the wastewater system, a discussion of what the City’s master plan is now, identify the current standing in this impact fee process, explicitly discuss the City’s system growth, the Capital Improvement Plan and will walk through one of the examples on how the system is analyzed. Kim goes on to review nomenclature presented and to briefly discuss a water cycle and water systems in general. Kim states today’s discussion will focus on the use, the collection system, and the treatment plants. Kim continues to explain all sources aside from residential use that contribute to be treated by the wastewater plant. Kim describes in more detail, water systems in general with the illustration on slide 8 of the presentation. Next, presented was the review of gravity/sewer mains of the presentation. Minimum and maximum wastewater line slopes chart, wastewater flow, manholes, and lift stations were shown and discussed. Kim states because Corpus Christi is very flat, there is a significant number of lift stations throughout the City. Inflow and infiltration are discussed and what the process is when there are issues with the sewer system. Issues that can arise from overflow of the sewer system have occurred in Corpus Christi, so the City together with the USEPA came to an agreement to avoid these issues and so that lift stations are not overloaded which is known as a consent order. Kim shares this is brought up because there are improvements that need to be paid for that meet the consent order and reviewed by EPA. For the master plan there are additional improvements on top of that, that are needed for growth. One of the things needed as part of the master plan is to decide how much of it is fixing an existing pipe and how much of it is needed so more growth can come into the City. As development occurs, fixing an existing pipe or replacing with a larger pipe must be determined, in which this must be divided into two pots of money as COMMITTEE MEMBERS: Moses Mostaghasi – Chairman Ramiro Munoz – Vice Chairman George Laster Trey Summers John Holmgreen Patricia Aitken COMMITTEE MEMBERS: Velda Tamez Ann Mahaffey Rudy Garza, Jr. Alex Harris Melody Nixon Bice Hailey Gonzalez one can be in the impact fee while the other cannot. Kim states, if impact fees are decided for the City or not, either way, it is good to know the division. Moses Mostaghasi inquires about the City of Corpus Christi having a 1.5 billion dollar fine that is to be paid over the next 15 years which is now down to 12 years and asks Kim if this is the agreement she is referring to. Rudy Garza Jr. states it is not a fine, but rather the investment the City has to pay for this agreement. Kim describes that the City has defined a program that is 1 billion + (plus) together with the EPA that must be invested to the system in order to fix it, none of which is impact fee related. Moses responds saying, unless it is determined the line needs to be upsized for future growth, which is a replacement not a fix. Kim confirms and agrees. Cara Tackett states that on that line, only the portion allocated to the upsize is impact fee eligible not the whole line. Cara states the methodology that will be used to determine the cost associated with the upsizing of the line has not been decided. There are many ways to determine the costs in which will require further discussion with the City, CIAC Committee and Pape Dawson to decide. Trey Summers inquires if this will all be done in one process and Cara states it will be Pape’s recommendation to do in one process. Trey inquires if it is City staff that will ultimately decide what methodology will be used. Kim states for the purposes of the master plan and to move from master plan into a study for the impact fee, it is more efficient to provide assumptions for pipes and if the City decides something different, then adjusts will be made. Trey asks for clarification on who has final say of the ultimate decision and Cara states this will be discussed and shared at a later time as the master plan must be completed first. Kim discusses next subject of Treatment Facilities, the functions, and a brief overview of the processes and the general idea of how the wastewater system works. Next topic – Corpus Christi Wastewater Master Plan. Brett Flint begins presentation stating Corpus Christi currently has several wastewater master plans, a number of regional master plans that are based on the individual treatment plants and the area they serve and there was an overall master plan that was created in 2016 that was never adopted by the City. Since then, there has been a number of amendments to the master plans and because of those amendments, it is time and needed is a master plan that meets state law for the impact fee analysis. Pape Dawson has used the existing master plans as their base to start from. Brett Flint goes on to discuss the Impact Fee Process of the presentation. Kim discusses Service Areas and Land Use Assumptions of presentation and goes into Future Growth topic. Kim recaps the discussed topics and states there are processes the City must proactively do to ensure the system works properly and proficiently. At this time, Kim introduces Scott Harris with Lockwood Andrews & Newnan (consultant working with Pape Dawson) to review the Treatment Plant topic of the presentation in further depth. Scott discusses Future Flows table on slide 36 of presentation. Scott concludes his presentation topic discussing strategies for growth and that they will be developing a list of projects at each of the six plants that are growth related projects, that would potentially have impact fees attributed to. Mr. Mostaghasi states he is aware that the City has taken some active measures to checking clean outs and manholes but this was done in some newer subdivisions, inquiring why this would be done in newer subdivisions and not in older existing areas. Scott explains the smoke test Moses is referring to is a process for finding INI in which Kim discussed briefly. Kim discusses process. A question from the audience came up stating the mention of the review of a regional sewage plant, asking if that was used as part of the study. Scott states he reviewed the study that was done in 2016 to see if there was any information that could be used to assist with the list of six plants that were developed. Kim introduces Santosh Gunavante (Design Leader for Pape Dawson), to present the next topic - Sewer Analysis of the presentation. Santosh goes on to review the Allison Sewer Basin Analysis in more detail. Santosh concludes and lists the Next Steps of the presentation: Project list for all service areas; Construction cost for all projects; Capital improvements plan for report; and a Public meeting. Kim wraps up presentation and for any queries. Moses asks about how pipe replacement will be defined for an existing over capacitated pipe identified to be replaced. If it would be considered a City project or an Impact Fee project depending on the anticipated growth of the area. If no future growth is anticipated in the area, it would be considered a City project, Kim explains. Moses inquires of the table from the presentation list, how many lift stations the City currently has. Santosh states there are 106 lift stations. Moses goes on to inquire if during the analysis if Pape could determine if all lift stations were built similarly. His question being if the City of Corpus Christi has a process or model to follow for lift stations because the price can fluctuate tremendously from one lift station to another when comparing to other surrounding cities. Moses asks if a design standard for lift stations will be identified in the master planning or will the committee have any input so that so much money is not spend pointlessly. Kim explains that the standard in their scope is to follow TCEQ requirements and states they are not under scope currently to identify changes to the City’s design standards. Anything additional, would need to be addressed to the City to request higher design standards other and the minimum standards that are required by TCEQ. Mr. Ramiro Munoz states that would be a different department. Michael Dice states CCW unfortunately could not be at this meeting due to a meeting conflict but will be in attendance at next CIAC meeting covering Water Master Plan Update and this concern can certainly be addressed at that time. Trey Summers has a question about the Roadways presentation at our last CIAC meeting referring to master planning for streets within city limits. Trey states since that meeting, City Council has passed an annexation where the City went down county right of way to annex a piece of property not contiguous with the City. Pending if this is allowed, how would a plan to master plan City streets with this type of approach by the City be handled. Cara Tackett states transportation is one of the most difficult under the impact fee statue because it is specific in the size of the area that is being studied and included is a cap at the city limits line for impact fees. Cara states it will definitely have to be a conversation when we get to that level. Tray asks, how does one master plan for this. Cara responds that in other cities, they have a traffic impact analysis ordinance that sets a radius of the site whether inside city limits or outside city limits and identify impacts to the road network and intersections within the radius that are established. Moses Mostaghasi inquires about committee member vacancies and new appointees’ status. Michael Dice states all applications and renewals are being processed by the City Secretary’s Office and we are actively working on it. VI. Future Agenda Items None. VII. Director’s Report: None. VIII. Adjournment There being no further business to discuss, the meeting adjourned at 1:15 p.m.