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HomeMy WebLinkAboutMinutes Capital Improvement Advisory Committee - 02/23/2023 MINUTES - REGULAR MEETING CAPITAL IMPROVEMENTS ADVISORY COMMITTEE CITY OF CORPUS CHRISTI CITY HALL – 6TH FLOOR CONFERENCE ROOM 1201 LEOPARD STREET February 23, 2023 11:30 A.M. COMMITTEE MEMBERS: COMMITTEE MEMBERS: Moses Mostaghasi-Chairman Alex Harris Coretta Graham-Vice Chairman JJ Hart Tricia Aiken Ann Mahaffey Bart Braselton Eli McKay Rudy Garza, Jr. Melody Nixon-Bice Hailey Gonzalez Chad Skrobarczyk Jonathan Gonzalez Trey Summers Velda Tamez I. Call to Order/Roll Call The meeting was called to order by Chairman Mostaghasi at 11:45 am and a quorum was established with members Bart Braselton, Alex Harris, Velda Tamez, Ann Mahaffey, and Melody Nixon-Bice absent. II. Public Comment: None III. Approval of Minutes: December 8, 2022 A motion was made by Member Garza to approve the minutes and seconded by Member Graham. The motion passed. The Vote: All Aye. IV. Approval of Absences: Hailey Gonzalez A motion was made by Member Garza to approve the absence and seconded by Member Graham. The motion passed. The Vote: All Aye. V. Appointment of Chairman. Member Mostaghasi opened nominations for Chairman. Member Garza nominated Mr. Mostaghasi. Member Aiken seconded. There being no further nominations, Mr. Mostaghasi closed nominations and called for a vote. The Vote: Aye: 9. Abstain: 1, Member Graham. The vote passed. VI. Appointment of Vice Chairman. Member Mostaghasi opened nominations for Vice Chairman. Member McKay nominated Member Graham. Member Gonzalez seconded. There being no further nominations, Mr. Mostaghasi closed nominations and called for a vote. The Vote: All Aye. The vote passed. VII. Discussion or Possible Action: 2022 Capital Improvements Advisory Committee Annual Report. Member Garza moved to approve Item VII. Member Summers seconded. The Vote: All Aye. The motion passed. VIII. Discussion and Possible Action: Presentation of the Water Master Plan Update (Chairman Mostaghasi asked all the new members to introduce themselves) Kim Keefer, with Pape-Dawson Engineering, introduced their staff, welcomed new CIAC members, and began the presentation by stating Pape-Dawson is working with the city to do four Master Plans: water, wastewater, stormwater, and roadways. There is a very prescribed process that they are following in order to be able to reuse this document if we decide to move forward with a different way of funding some of these improvements. They have identified where parts of the city would grow. The Master Plan is supposed to look at 10 years of improvements. As they moved forward with the four different areas, they decided to do updates sharing how they got to the process as engineers. They have already done roadways, stormwater, wastewater, and today they are doing the city’s water system. Their partner is LAN. Scott Harris, Regional Manager for LAN, stated that he appreciates working with Pape-Dawson and the CIAC. LAN has been serving this area for many years. Mr. Harris introduced Lisa Lattu, Water Engineer/Planner, who leads efforts across the state. Ms. Lattu stated that water is a scarce and valuable resource all over the country and the demand is high and a challenge to make sure they deliver water to growing businesses and residents. The Master Pan effort is to help prepare for growth and be ready; be aware of what is coming and what is needed; to sequence, finance, and plan to prepare for the future. The process is governed by state law and is quite complex. Ms. Lattu gave an overview of our Municipal Water Cycle: water sources, drinking water treatment, drinking water system, water distribution, and water sales; while providing details of each step. The land use has been done and they are moving on to capital improvements, and then they will move on to review the analysis for possible impact fees and whether to recommend to City Council. Ms. Lattu presented the Municipal Water Cycle, reviewing existing water infrastructure needs, future growth, and future improvements. The idea is to look at the ongoing work as planned and existing assets and simulate the system growth. Is it ready for more demand? We must be able to plan and deliver water efficiently. Growth has been established for each of the ADP’s and then applied to the water systems. Land Use Assumptions have been delivered to the committee; Land Use is existing land use data used to understand the undeveloped regions within the city limits and future land use data is used to evaluate the undeveloped land and determine the growth impacts. They estimate 18,000 new families in the next 10 years. Commissioners discussed why London growth was not on the chart; Pape-Dawson will get that updated. Ms. Lattu introduced the use of the hydraulic model to stimulate growth, verify proposed needs, confirm existing capacity, and demonstrated expected water delivery flow and pressure. Chairman Mostaghasi detailed the Water Master Plan for the CIAC members. LAN is using the existing system but is aware of future projects, and the model will show the existing system and what is needed to fill the gaps to make the system as resilient as it can be. Chairman Mostaghasi asked about source water and impact fees and desalinization. Ms. Lattu responded that source water will be separate, they can increase a supply in the model if additional water is needed throughout the system. The source water and determination, where it is needed and where it may come from is a different project. Does this affect impact fees? Ms. Keefer stated the Master Plan and Scope of Services is to assume that everything is still coming from O.N. Stevens, a single point of entry. New source points can be put into the model. If improvements are done, a cost would be assigned to new growth and affect impact fees. They are not calculating a major new water source. A Commissioner asked if there are single source tie-ins spots if we have a new source; Ms. Keefer responded no, not at this time. If there is a source on the south side of the city, they would revise the model and show water coming in from the South. They expect the Master Plan to be completed in June. Chairman Mostaghasi stated if somebody is doing new projects tying into a water source based on the new Master Plan vs. the old master plan, how does that work? Recommendations by the CIAC will be given to Council. Ms. Lattu continued stating part of it is looking at planned developments, existing systems, and future land use. The water system works best when it is gridded like a street so the water can go where it is needed. Keeping it moving keeps it fresh. They are identifying whether or not additional lines are required via this process and coming up with a list of projects for Master Plan Water Improvement. Utilities use a flushing process to dispense of stale water. They do not know how many dead-ends the city currently has. Ms. Lattu stated that was a quick dive into the Water Master Planning process. They are analyzing and doing projections to come up with those service area project lists that will have costs associated with them rolled up into the CIP and bring back to the city for the rest of the process. The idea is to see what might be needed for growth and to have a sequence to have the most important projects teed up; what projects are needed and the cost; which needs to be built in time to support the growth. The next phase is how the financing is going to happen, and what funds will be used. Right now, the funds the city is using are state and federal financing as well as revenue bonds and existing trust funds. Ms. Keefer stated at the next several meetings they will present the Master Plans themselves. Wastewater: they will bring what they have found in the treatment plants and the improvements necessary; how much flow they will serve, both growth and existing; pipelines; improvements and adjustments; lift stations; install projects; cost; timing; and existing vs. growth service to citizens. Roadways, Stormwater, and Water: same process. Water will occur in June. At that point, discussion will be held regarding if another funding source is needed. There is a defined process through the state that we must go through if we want to implement fees. Recommendations will then be presented to Council. A Commissioner asked if there is a maximum capacity for the O.N. Stevens plant? Ms. Keefer stated it is limited by the area owned by the city on the plant site; yes, there is a maximum capacity. In planning for the future, when do you start looking at alternative plants? Ms. Keefer stated once you hit 75% on wastewater, you need to start planning for how to handle the next capacity of waste water. Same thing happens with water. Growth rates for city proper are slower than other cities. If additional capacity is required, they will make that recommendation and start planning. Their Master Plans cover 10 years; could be close to capacity now. They need to look at the improvements. City Manager Zanoni stated the plant is running at maximum capacity today and needs massive upgrades to take it to that next step. As a city that has 500,000 customers/residents served, the city is at a real high-risk position with only one plant; if we have a catastrophic event or even a minor event that takes O.N. Stevens down, we are out of business. We are looking at alternate sites, such as desalinization; whether for or against; one positive is it would introduce another water treatment system to our distribution system; a stand-alone plant, producing 20 to 40 million gallons a day. At least we would have a secondary plant to produce some water to some customers. If you look at Texas major cities; San Antonio, Austin, Dallas; they all have at least three. In Houston, they have three or in excess of three; equally producing water. What we are realizing is that the city, over time, has put themselves in a high-risk situation with one treatment plant. There are a lot of computerized systems and if there is a problem, explosion, fire, terrorist event, etc., that takes O.N. Stevens out. We need more capacity, a big CIP to expand our capacity. Secondarily, we need redundancy. Chairman Mostaghasi asked that prior agenda and minutes be sent to CIAC. Commissioners also asked for higher resolution maps. Kim Keefer stated she would update the SharePoint site, so Commissioners can use that resource. IX. Future Agenda Items: DS Director Al Raymond stated he would be sending an invite to all new members for orientation. X. Director’s Report: Director Raymond discussed the schedule for the year. Pape-Dawson meets with the Department, then CIAC, within the same month. In April and May, there are two Roadway meetings, in June and July, there are two Stormwater Master Plan meetings, etc. and culminates in May 2024. Director Raymond would like this to culminate in December 2023 and proposed doubling up meetings or extend regular meetings. If CIAC concurs, we will adjust the schedule and distribute. We could study impact fees and get the recommendation to Council. We will send out the two options for members to decide. Chairman Mostaghasi stated this is a lot if information to digest, especially with new members. They spend a lot of the meetings catching people up, and he suggested we catch everyone up first before we condense or combine meetings. Director Raymond replied that was a great suggestion. The 15 members of this committee will ultimately make recommendations to Council for many things; one, adoption of the Master Plans; which requires understanding to some extent and to agree with it; this is the way the city will grow in the next 10 years, and that we agree with the CIP that will get us there in the next 10 years, this is the right impact fee for this service area, for that plan, over the next 10 years. One of the reasons why the meetings are each month, is we didn’t want it to appear that you are drinking from a fire hydrant. It’s a lot of information. It’s important that this group get its arms around it and understands on some level that this is the way the city should move forward. There is a commitment requirement. This information determines how the city will grow, and the quality of life. That is the reason why we did one each month. If we met for five hours, it gives us time to ask questions. There will be screens, hard copies, easels, a much more interactive session with Pape-Dawson. The questions you need to ask are asked and answered. We can then wrap up the Master Plans. It has the potential to of being too much, too fast. Chairman Mostaghasi stated to make sure we give the information in one or two more meetings, then condense or combine meetings. We could have spent time today to update our new members. Chairman Mostaghasi wants to do it as fast as possible and already with six people missing, we miss 25% of the information. 15 people will be voting, members should value this committee because it is important. Director Raymond stated he would send out the options to CIAC. Director Raymond would like the recommendations to be made to Council in November or December. We have a three-year contract, and this is the third year. Chairman Mostaghasi stated it is the $4.2 million developers’ fees that paid for the Master Plans that are being discussed today. The dates given for city department meetings, are the members allowed to attend those meetings? Director Raymond replied they are not public meetings. A Commissioner asked if they would be sent the plans before the actual meeting if you are going over them the day before? Can we look at them in advance? Kim Keefer stated on Wastewater, they were asked to give the agendas a week in advance. For Wastewater Master Plan, you will get that as close to a week in advance if not earlier. The rest of them, they have been requested by the city to give them to you with at least two to three weeks to look at and digest. They just can’t do it with Wastewater. Director Raymond stated August 17 is the date for the Water Master Plan. Looking at the schedule, after the Master Plan meetings, we will be looking at the impact fee meetings and discuss the Master Plan and Service Areas; circle back; and after that there will be a meeting for all the Master Plan recommendations. A citizen asked when the public will be given information and when they can speak. Chairman Mostaghasi stated everybody’s opinion matters and public comment is allowed, when is it useful to come in with questions. Director Raymond stated all CIAC meetings are public meetings and in addition to that, in July we will go on tour to all districts for public engagement regarding the Master Plans. There will be ongoing public meetings. The citizen asked about water districts in the London Area, are they being incorporated in this or how are we working with the Violet Water District? They get water from Corpus Christi. How do we combine that? Water is licensed from the state. Unless one of those other systems give up part of their area, the city has no jurisdiction. The citizen asked about development. The development is outside of the ETJ. Director Raymond stated we are doing a 10-year projection at this point and will look at it then. A citizen asked if the draft Master Plans will also be available prior to the meetings so the public can be informed to ask questions and be prepared. Chairman Mostaghasi stated probably not the drafts. Director Raymond stated it is a public meeting and once we have the drafts we can publish and post so anyone can comment during or before the meeting. CCW could not attend this meeting, they are doing a repair. XI. Adjournment: There being no further business to discuss, the meeting adjourned at 1:00 pm.