 at the table, and we're going to talk about some big, big issues. We're going to get briefed on exactly what some of those things are. I just want to say thank you. Thank you for being here tonight, and thank you for taking that step. I want to thank Goughlin Field for helping to agree to this. 7-Eleven is here. The whole idea is to have an important conversation about what makes place significant. What's culturally significant about places like Walthaus. And we know we have other issues like this throughout the city. So this, I think, is going to be very groundbreaking for all of us. It's important for us at the City Council to see this kind of collaboration, this kind of conversation. And so we hope to work together collaboratively, positively, towards some great ideas. With that, I'm going to welcome Shannon Miller of OHP to help reap us and walk us through what some of the issues are and get us up to date on what we're doing here tonight. Shannon Miller. Thank you so much. So again, we're not in any sort of, the ball is really in the applicant's court in terms of timing. They're not in an application before the city at the moment. And so we don't know necessarily when that next step will occur. But whenever it does, it will then be scheduled for the HDRC. There is a kind of FAQ for Colnack's question sheet that is on the front table. And they wanted to pick it up. But it has some of the basic information that we got. Some of you might be asking. And so be sure to grab that and you can have questions. And then also, Claudia Guerra and Kathy Rodriguez are here in the back, also from OHP. And they'll be floating around a lot, as will I. If you have any questions related to the process or design review or anything like that, while we're going through the evening. So with that, I'll turn the room over to Tim. Yes, please. I'll spend here a little minute and talk to you from here. So a lot of what Shannon mentioned was strictly the start and the finish to the end product of this discussion regarding this problem. And what we were suggesting is that it needs to be part of the community. It needs to reference some of the stuff that happened on the site. It should not be ignoring that the mall house was here. It should be celebrating that this was the site of the mall house. So one of the things that we required, there are two historic signs on the property. One's a little bit larger, one's a little smaller. We asked that they incorporate one of the signs into their plans. They agreed to that. They also agreed to donate the other sign to an organization on the west side that would be willing to take care of it. So they were willing to do that. We started looking at the architecture of the existing mall house, the scale of it, the size of it, how it's oriented to the street and see if any of those things could be mimicked. And then the last point that we kind of talked about was, again, this community gathering space. So we asked them to try to create a community gathering space on the site, an outdoor place, a covered place that you couldn't necessarily pull a car up into. That might be a gathering place, a picnic table, something like that. We're dealing with trying to find possibilities in public projects that not only sometimes look towards revitalization and trying to find something new and a way of expressing ourselves as a community and wherever we're going, but also quite a bit in terms of the notion of place keeping. The idea of trying to preserve the integrity or the authenticity of what we all remember that has been inherited through the work of generations that have come before. I'm fortunate to be a third generation San Antonio. So I've got lots of photographs of what San Antonio looked like to kind of help me become passionate about the projects that we're doing as a city today. And I also get the chance to work with a lot of artists. And public art isn't simply about artists, though. Every project that happens in the public realm involving property owners is involving professionals and consultants and thinkers about finding a solution. And in this kind of a project, which is not one of a kind, there's many projects in many areas of the city that are facing situations of this type, it's important to remember that the benefit we have in face of the situation is kind of reaching into our creative best, our ability to work with situations and find beauty and find something that we can do that is the best available option sometimes. Because nothing we never necessarily say the same forever. The other thing to remember is the talents that we have as a community. We have the talents that go into projects of this kind but also amazing fabricators, artists. And it's kind of a situation where whatever we can think has the possibility to actually come to life when we're working through a public art process. We literally find a lot of people that years ago would say, not in my backyard, not, you know, they're resistant to that type of investment, cultural investment, but we're in a different city today and I think that there's a lot that could be accomplished. I think part of this conversation is about looking for the nexus between the community and also development which is happening at an ever increasing pace but it also brings back opportunity to communities and jobs and it brings back, you know, some prosperity as well. So I think that what's on the table today with artists and community members and architects is to look deeply at what could be done and when it comes to public art, every surface, every vantage point sometimes opens up a new opportunity and many of the times those can be at a very high caliber that can draw attention not only locally but nationally and then on the other side of things, a very simple appointment project can do something that recalls the past like in a deep and very touching manner and so the murals that capture images of those that have gone before are what we do to kind of keep them with us today and honor them. Just to make sure that everyone understands, this property is currently zoned in such a way that allows for the 7-Eleven to operate as is so no rezoning is required, it is an abuse allowed by right so the conversation tonight is really not intended to be about abuse because that is already determined by the underlying zoning as is dictated by the city council. This is really about design and that is what is under the purview of HDRC and that is what we're here to discuss is what is the appropriate design for whatever is to be constructed on the site and we really do not have the ability to comment on use because that is already determined by the underlying zoning. I guess one key point and I kind of come up at the end that preserving or retaining a social gathering space there on the site is much more important than maybe retaining the architectural components of the malt house. The malt house is a very important place for community, for gathering and for people to meet with one another or just hang out and retaining those elements on the site is very important. The malt house was seen as a sort of community geographic landmark so in speaking the malt house was a point of reference in the Westside community the need to create a democratic space that welcomes the full spectrum of the Westside community I think one of the wonderful points about the malt house was its price point allowed for anyone to enjoy it and while selling it as its own price points still creating a space where everyone in the community feels welcome to be there and making it convenient not just for those accessing the site via their vehicle but also for those accessing it through the bus and on foot. My name is Isabel Garcia and I don't know how we're supposed to share this plan, any idea? Any piece of paper? Describe it. Describe it. Describe it. So what we did was we went with what they're proposing pretty much because in terms of what Paul was just saying it's not so much trying to preserve the natural building as it might be trying to preserve a memory. So what we did was we looked at taking the building as they proposed it and sliding it just a few feet as many feet as they can they said there's a little bit of room to the north to allow for there to be more room along the what it is to the side up to the corner where it hits the front of the board so that we can put in a covered or a canopy kind of patio area that then allows the neighborhood to come in and start to take ownership of that space. It would be, well it would be covered pretty much from where the parking on the interior of the site is to 7-Eleven pretty much to the corner and it might wrap the corner and have some kind of relationship to the roots of the proposed bus stop as well. This way then there becomes a kind of transitional space between 7-Eleven and the street allowing for people whether they're pedestrians or just neighbors coming over to actually occupy that space. It was also suggested that maybe on the interior of the building they provide a function that hearkens back to the mall house from the standpoint of the gallery and that would be to have three tables there where you can sit with your company or look at the sandwich you buy or whatever it might be to kind of generate that idea of people staying there not just kind of buying, paying and leaving but actually spending some time there and hanging out because social spaces on the outside are great unless you kind of but only as an idea unless there's something to have you actually linger so this would be doing that to promote that idea and then on the north side where there's parking we were also looking at maybe providing a canopy over those parking spaces to again kind of make a gesture back to what the old mall house was in terms of when you would pull up in your car and park under that canopy and you know they would come and serve you I don't think so I don't have anything to do with that but you never know. Any other ideas on that? I'll make reference to the poles, the tent pole type. The structure for the canopy for the pumps to maybe be a little bit more playful kind of referencing back to that kind of architecture of that area that was on that time. I guess our priority was to kind of look at all the different aspects of the mall house and highly related to the residents at that time and you know I have vivid memories of the 80s home that's what I remember but I do remember it was a place to go and I think memories is probably what stands out in our mind as being a priority was the neighborhood and the fact that you know not only the entire neighborhood around the mall house came to visit this restaurant but from all over San Antonio so it was to us an icon and so looking at the comments that the HDRC gave plus all the input that we had we've come up with our own solution as to how we can incorporate everything that we heard but the biggest thing is just the memories felt that this was sort of similar to the pig stand although very different in many ways but there were similarities we think that the mall house should be respected I think the fact that so many people have fond memories of this location I think that needs to be implemented into the plan Being realistic, the first thing we asked was where the guest exit will be? Will it be next to the neighborhood or what? And also where the tank is going to come through? And the only way for it to be done is to be able to build so some of that location part has to be addressed and everyone should be aware of it so the coming in and the tagging charts they're also using one name of our customers so we looked at the entryway, the exits safety, public safety so that was the first thing and then from there we went all crazy and started going into the building putting the mall house sign here and there and everywhere but top priority is safety of the community how are we going to get these tankers in and out and also we're not having people from the SAM shelter reaching our area so it's only fair for the 7,000 people to be aware that they do need to have a way of seeing all parts of their facility outside, inside, everywhere we do put tables because at first that was the first thing and we don't put tables but then we're going to attract an element that most of us are probably used to right now but an element others are not used to so that will affect our business also so we just try to be open and honest and things that they need to look at this is starting to all families so that's where we came to to be able to design the building and just be aware of that so we don't have any surprises later that hey, wait a minute, wait a minute the first element of the site was the food of the mall house and we thought about a couple of different ways to incorporate the food or the memories of the food one being to use recipes from the old mall house and specifically we focused on onion rings onion rings that could be sold we also were trying to address some of the concerns of turning the 7-Eleven into a restaurant which might not be ideal for 7-Eleven so we thought maybe putting a food truck on the site would be good specifically the mall house food truck and maybe incorporating the signage onto the top of the food truck in some way would be exciting and that keeps right into the second element that we thought was most important which was community gathering space which obviously would be just working hand in hand with that food truck and we tried to address some of the concerns other groups have brought up about potential emergency issues so we'll let Paul talk a little bit more about that and the design the third element was a reflection of the history of the site so that would have this thing like photography, URLs a time capsule or other creative storytelling methods that incorporating quotes or stories into physical structures on the site like sidewalks or other physical monuments to those stories and then last but certainly not least the structural features of the current the current structure like the canopies and the signage we felt were pretty similar to incorporated in some way into the future plans and so all of those are reflected in our in our stages