 Okay, we are recording. All right, great. So, yeah, I'm Greg Simmons. I'm 1 of the assistant directors in the city's transportation and public works department. And the stormwater management program is 1 of my areas of responsibility. And so we're. Appreciate y'all joining us tonight. It's always a pleasure to get together with the Arlingtonites community pretty much unmatched for passion for the community. And it's always. Impressive and inspiring, um, you know, I wish that my interactions over the years, you know, generally would have been on a more positive topic, but, you know, we've got a really challenging situation relative to the drainage issues in the central Arlington Heights neighborhood. I've been personally engaged on this issue for 16 years now. And I don't know how many public meetings, formal, how many informal meetings and conversations, like they would be countless this point, but all of that speaks to just the fact that it's an extremely challenging situation to try. And address all the needs and so we're working really hard to try and. Satisfy as much as possible the different factions here, basically, but, you know, in some cases, we've got some mutually exclusive challenges. And that's what makes it so difficult. And so, you know, we want to we want to listen again and hear from y'all and to the Wilhelm's point. We do have some background information just to refresh everybody. On how we got to where we are just to help you get a little appreciation for the broader context again, and some of the challenges that we're dealing with as you see on the screen, you know, we do want to have interaction here. We know and realize that this sort of thing as complicated as it is can bring up lots and lots of questions. And there's lots of directions we can go and we want to try and maintain as much as we can, you know, about an hour meeting here. So we won't, we may not be able to go into to all the questions, but we'll try as as much as we can to address the ones that have a pretty straightforward answer. And then we'll figure out the best way to respond to the other ones. But again, 1 of the things we've committed to throughout this process is keeping. The community up to date on what's going on and making sure that there was a plenty of opportunities to hear your feedback. And so that's kind of what tonight is all about. And with that, I will turn it over to Jennifer to take you through the presentation. Okay, thank you, Greg. Thank you everyone for being here with us tonight. I'm going to. If I can click us forward. Okay, so today, we're going to go through again, like Greg said, we're going to go through a background. So it's, it is a little bit lengthy, but I really want to make sure that everyone who's new to the neighborhood has a good understanding of how we got to be where we're at today. And what properties that we've actually acquired so far, and then what remains, what our plan is regarding selling the properties to a developer for redevelopment and what we're going to be calling a notice of sale. And then we'll talk about our open space use plan for the 2 properties that we're acquiring with FEMA grant funding, which is a historic mitigation requirement. So the flooding problem in the central Arlington Heights area is really the same problem experienced in many other neighborhoods across the city of 4th and really cities nationwide. So, before the city started to develop, the area was drained by natural creeks and swales that took the storm water to the Trinity river. And as the area began to develop to make it easier to build, many natural creeks and swales were converted into storm drain pipes and then structures that were built on top of or around the drainage pipes. So, the screenshot that you see here are some plans from 1924 showing that natural creek that used to be in Arlington Heights area in blue, and then it shows the new proposed drainage pipe in red. So, the drainage pipe was going was put into convey that water instead of the creek. So, the problem is, is that oftentimes the drainage pipes that were constructed weren't large enough to convey all the storm water runoff that is in the area today. There's probably several reasons for that back then. I'm sure they had different standards and expectations. They probably didn't anticipate future development and all the impervious cover that we have today. People's lifestyles might have been less vulnerable to flood damage. And then there's the argument of climate change. So, so the flooding in Arlington Heights has been going on for many years and it was actually identified in the city's 1967 drainage master plan. So, while we've been keeping keeping pretty good track of reported flooding in the area since 2004, we're pretty certain that the flooding was has been pretty significant. And there, there's a lot of flooding that we don't know about for this part of town to actually be identified in the city's 1967 plan. So, the map on this slide here shows the 3 drainage areas that make up the Arlington Heights community. So, on the left, you've got Western and the middle central and then on the right, Eastern Arlington Heights. So, each area drains from the Northwest to the Southeast into the Trinity River through systems, mainly comprised of undersized storm drain pipes. So, the blue areas on the map represent the approximate flood risk along the red drainage pipes. And so, where you see the darker, the darker shades of blue is where the water is deeper. And then the photos that you see on the screen are some of the past flooding that has been experienced in that area in green. So, these blocks of Western and Carlton, which is what we call ground zero. And that's the focus of tonight's meeting. So, to mitigate the flooding throughout Arlington Heights, we really would have to get the water all the way to the Trinity, which as you can see here really isn't easy. You've got the giant highway, I 30 through the middle of the drainage area. You've got the Union Pacific Railroad and then, of course, you've got lots and lots of development. So, so we, when we move the water, we'd have to move it to a place where there is an adequate outfall. So there's got to be place to take that water without causing flooding on someone else. So, what's been done so far. So, there was a really large flood event in 2004 and that actually helped create the city of Fort Worth stormwater utility and the rain event had significant flooding in the central Arlington Heights area. And since that time, the city of Fort Worth has been working with various consulting companies. Freesa Nichols, who is on the call today, is one of the main ones who's been working with us really to help us understand what the flood risk is out there and trying to look at ways to mitigate that risk and do that engineering evaluation. So, the city's invested over a million dollars and is in evaluating the flood risk in the central Arlington Heights area. We've done benchmarking of what other communities have done to mitigate similar types of flooding. We've held multiple public and community meetings, all trying to work towards identifying an effective, affordable and acceptable flood mitigation measure without moving the flooding to another area. So, the only the affordable measures that we've identified really only provide a small amount of relief in the most frequent rain events. And so that's basically no relief for the 100 year event. So, the concept shown on the screen, just show a couple of the measures that we have looked looked at as a part of the engineering evaluation. So, we've looked at storm drain improvements. We've looked at big tunneling. We've looked at surface and underground detention basins. We've looked at property buyout in varying numbers of homes and locations. And then we've also looked at more greener methods of mitigation like bioswales and rain gardens. So, based on what all the evaluation has shown the city has done several projects to mitigate flooding as much as practically feasible. So, between 2016 or 2012 and 2016. We designed and constructed surface detention at Hewlin and Bryce right across from the Walgreens. I'm sure y'all are familiar with that basin. We purchased 3 commercial lots and put that basin in. And then we also put in big underground boxes under the street on Bryce, Western and Ashland. So together those provide around 5 and a half acre feet of detention storage. So just kind of see you understand what 5 and a half acre feet really is. It would equate to around 12 Central Arlington sized residential area that contains stormwater 2 feet deep. So that's a little over half a block on 1 side of the street holding 2 feet of water. So another way that I kind of like to explain it is a football field over an acre. And so 1 acre foot of water is roughly equivalent to 1 foot of water across a football field. So here we've kind of created a football field with 5 and a half feet of water sitting on top of it. That's how much water is that the basin can hold. And you can see in this photo from 2017 and many other times since then the basin does fill up. And the community downstream has said that that all of these I put in have been effective, but it's it's just a little bit and there's a lot of stormwater. So, so for comparison purposes, I reached out to frees and nickels because they've been doing this for a long time and and they did remind me that we had looked at how much actually acre feet of storage would be needed to mitigate the 100 year event in this area. And that's around 60 residential properties that would be converted into 4 multi use basins around 15 feet deep. And so those basins would be around 130 acre feet. So, just for comparison purposes, we've got 5 and a half acre feet, but we would need 130 acre feet to really store the amount of stormwater running through this area and we're going to hold questions until the end. So, like, that's totally fine that you have your hand up, but I just want to let you know that. So, so, so once we put these in the basin and underground to start detention, we're in in June, 27, 2016. The rain event dropped around 3 inches in 1 hour in the Arlington Heights area, which is around a 25 year storm. And that storm has around a 4% chance of happening in any given year and any given location. And so, even with the basin and the under street detention in place, home flooding still happened as shown in this photo on Western Avenue. So, in conclusion, after 12 years of intensive evaluation, the city determined that there really isn't an effective, affordable and acceptable solution to mitigate the flooding in Arlington Heights. So, out of all the measures evaluated property acquisition was identified as the most effective and affordable solution, but it did not meet the goal of community consensus and acceptability. So, the city felt that voluntary buyout would provide relief to residents most at risk and that the flood risk was urgent enough to move forward without community consensus. And so, voluntary buyout provides 100% flood mitigation to the properties that are bought out so they will no longer flood again because they're gone. And then it also would give us an opportunity to use the properties that were bought out to put in stormwater detention to mitigate for residents downstream. But as I've said, it's just a little bit of detention that would be possible from buyout. So, the detention can also serve as a green recreational community area for the community. It's done in other areas across the country. So, without the city began applying for grant funding for voluntary buyout in 2017, we applied for several grants and we received one from FEMA in 2018. And then we held a public meeting in October, 2018 to discuss the city's plan to move forward with voluntary buyout. And due to the community concerns expressed in that meeting, the city decided to pursue selling the properties that we have acquired through voluntary acquisition for redevelopment. Instead of creating the green space, detention base and concept. So, where are we at today? So, after that October, 2018 public meeting, we began the process of acquiring the property with the main purpose of mediating the flood risk to those most flood prone homes so that ground zero area that was circled on the map. And so, again, the buyout itself really does nothing to mitigate flood risk to other residents unless we were able to put detention and that's just a small amount of mitigation. So, 9 properties on Western and Carlton have been acquired between the summer of 2019 and the summer of 2020 with a cost of around 3.8 million dollars. And so these properties are shown in blue on the screen. And so the map shows also the 100 year flood risk that Frieza Nichols has mapped for this area. And so just kind of so y'all understand the 100 year flood risk has around a 26% chance of occurring over a 30 year mortgage. So, lots of people, when they buy their home, they get a 30 year mortgage. So, you've got a 26% chance if you live in one of these areas of actually flooding from the 100 year event. So, the 2 green hatched properties on Western are the properties that we're acquiring with the grant funding. And so the city council will be asked to approve the purchase of these 2 homes on May 24th and the grant covers $550,000 out of a total acquisition cost of $667,000 for these properties. And so the grant stipulates that the structures have to be demolished within 90 days of closing and the property remain green space and perpetuity because the whole purpose of the grant from FEMA is to mitigate continued claims on the national flood insurance program and restore natural floodplain functions to property that should never have been developed. So, I will say that we have been asked instead of just demolishing the 2 FEMA homes, could we possibly sell them to somebody to move them somewhere else or salvage them so they don't all end up in the landfill. And that is something that we have reached out to FEMA to see if that is acceptable under the grant. So, we're still there. They've asked some follow up questions. So, we're still waiting from them, but we're looking into that possibility. So now I'm talking about the notice of sale. So, as mentioned earlier, based on the community's concerns about creating a green space and detention basin out of the properties we voluntarily acquire, we've been working on developing a notice of sale to sell these properties to a developer for redevelopment that complies with very specific guidelines and conditions. So, we're planning to finalize the notice of sale in June and issue it this summer after considering feedback, really focusing on the residents that live on Western and Carlton closest to these properties. So, we plan to issue the notice of sale for 60 days. We really want to ensure that there's enough time for developers to really think about this. This is a unique type of project. And so, while the notice of sale is open, we'll have a pre-bid meeting. They'll also be an opportunity for developers to go out and to visit these sites so they can really understand what's going on to put together a better proposal. We're planning to share the notice of sale with the Fort Worth development community and over 100 historic preservation community contacts in the hopes to identify a valuable bidder. And we're also going to be seeking input from local residential real estate professionals on the best way to get the word out about this opportunity. So, while the city will reserve the right to reject any bidder, the whole purpose of the notice of sale is to identify a viable bidder. And the hope is to complete the sale of the property by the end of the year. So, however, if we don't identify a viable bidder, the city would fall back on the green space and detention basin concept and we would work closely with the community on the design of this area. So, I wanted to go over just a few of the key features about the notice of sale. And after tonight's meeting, I will send out the draft notice of sale documents with a link to the meeting recording. So, y'all can take a look at that and anyone who's missed the meeting can see it as well. So, the first requirement of the notice for sale is that the developer has to buy all properties because the project is very unique and complex. We really just want 1 developer to coordinate with. So, we don't want to sell each lot to an individual developer or resident or try to sell the lots on Carlton separately from the ones on western. We're really trying to ensure a very coordinated approach to the redevelopment project. So, we have received multiple requests from community representatives that we allow sales to multiple developers. And we feel like this is already going to be a very challenging process. And so, really to be managed most effectively, that's why we're looking at 1 developer. We really feel like that multiple developers will make this project even harder than we think it's already going to be. So, the 2 FEMA grant properties are that we're showing green on that last slide. They will not be a part of the notice for sale. Those will stay city owned. So, we coordinated with FEMA and FEMA does not allow those properties to be sold per federal code. So, they have to remain owned by a public entity or a qualified conservation organization. So, that's why we can't include those within that. So, however, there's a potential that if the homes on either side of those lots is redeveloped in the future. That those property owners could use those as yard space and we could have an agreement with them. So, people could use them and maintain them just like part of their yard, as long as they're in compliance with the uses allowed on FEMA property. And I'm going to go over those in a few minutes. So, also the best value method will be used to select the developer. And so, I'll talk about that actually a little bit more on another slide. The notice of sale will also stipulate a minimum acceptable bid. And so, we are going to start an appraisal very soon to determine the value of the property, taking into account the restrictions being imposed on the developer. So, we really expect the value of the properties to be much less than what we purchased them for a few slides back. So, our city appraisal was done to make the property owners whole that we're experiencing the flooding. And so, it did not take flood risk into account when those properties were valued in the past, while the appraisal that we are about to do will take the flood risk into account, as well as all of the development restrictions. So, the restrictions that will be placed on the property will reduce the profitability of the redevelopment to prospective bidders. So, we really want to make sure that that appraisal is as accurate as possible. So, they can understand that when bidding on the properties. A developer must complete all requirements. All of the redevelopment within 30 months of actually closing. So, we're hoping we can sell these by the end of the year. So, within 30 months, we hope that they would have everything redeveloped. The developer, if they fail to meet that option, or if they fail to meet the 30 months, we do have the option to buy the properties back. But we're really hoping that they're successful and we're going to work with them to make them successful. So, another big piece of it is that new or elevated homes must be at least two feet above the flood level and comply with other stormwater and city for worth regulations. So, elevating or flood proofing at least two feet above the flood risk is a city of Fort Worth requirement for all development in flood prone areas. So, based on the flood levels and the two foot requirements, if the existing homes are elevated, they will be around a little over three to around four and a half feet higher than the current finish floor elevation of the homes. And so, we've actually got a couple homes shown on the slide and one of the residents went out there and marked lines on the home. And so, if you go out in the field on Carleton right now, you will see those lines. I stuck a red bar over the lines just because it showed up better on the PowerPoint. But I want to thank him for doing that. And we actually sent Theresa Nichols out to confirm. I didn't want people to go by and look at the line and it'd be wrong, but he did a really good job. The line was pretty good. So, thank you, Jim, if you're on the call. And then also this bottom photo just shows an example of how the elevation could be done. So, the homes need to have skirting fully around it. So, it's not like they're just like stuck out there on piers, like when you go to Galveston and you see those homes where people can drive underneath and so forth. But really, we need that skirting around there. Two, as a flood mitigation effort because the water right now hits those current homes and we want that water to continue to slow down and hit those homes to make sure people downstream aren't flooding. Let's see. Also, part of the notice of sale is we really want to make sure that future purchasers or renters of these properties understand the flood risk. And so, there's going to be a disclosure form that they have to sign to really make sure they understand. So, we don't want anyone to be surprised that even though the homes are elevated, properties are still going to flood. People's vehicles could get damaged. Their fences could be knocked over. Their landscaping could be ripped up. So, we just want to make sure that people are aware that that risk is going to continue. And then lastly, of course, pretty important for the rest of the neighborhood is that the developer needs to protect the downstream and adjacent properties during the redevelopment. And I have another slide in a couple minutes to talk about that in a little bit more detail. So, based on the feedback we received from the Arlington Heights leadership and the residents, we put together guidelines for redevelopment of the homes. And we modeled these after the historic Fairmount guidelines. So, we really, the whole purpose of the feedback we received was we wanted or the neighborhood wanted the new structures to really harmonize with the existing structures. And so, we have pretty specific guidelines on the height and the width setbacks, building form, site configuration and materials. That's just a few. And when I send out the draft documents, you all will be able to see that. The developer's plans will be reviewed for compliance with guidelines and conformance with all city afford development standards before building permits are issued. And the concepts on the slide here just kind of show some of those graphics that are in the design guidelines that you'll see. So, the 1 on the left trying to show that we want to maintain a consistent building line. The 1 in the middle is just trying to show kind of the look and the feel of the homes. The 1 on the right is showing that the garages would be back in the back and not up on the front of the properties. So, the restrictions and the notice for sale are the only requirements that are being placed on the bidders relative to the final product that are above and beyond existing requirements. And these are based on, again, the feedback that we've received from the community. So, as mentioned earlier, said the developer must protect downstream and adjacent properties during redevelopment. So, what they'll have to do is they have to demonstrate that they aren't aggravating that existing flood risk. The city will be reviewing ultimate and interim development plans for compliance with city standards. And so, we typically don't review interim development plans, but because of the flood risk in this area, we wanted to add that to our review to really make sure that the risk is considered during the development process and not just for the final build. The developer will be required to maintain the existing fences around the sides and the backs of the properties since the fences really do control the flow of storm water in the area and removing them could increase the risk of flooding to others. So, if the developer maintains the flow pass around the homes, they maintain or offset new impervious cover and they don't significantly change the grading, they can develop in a way that doesn't aggravate flooding to others. Also note that we've been asked if we could require a developer to add larger pipes or detention or bioswales to a part of their development. But we did not put that as a requirement in the notice of sale, because as I said earlier, the benefits are just so, so small. And we already knew that this was going to be a very complex project. And so, we wanted to not have that as a requirement. Okay, so how are we going to select the best bidder? So, as I said earlier, we're going to use this best value selection process. So, that means we're considering more than just price when we look at the bids. So, the best value bidder will get the most points. So, one is we will look and they'll get points for the highest bid. And then also based on the feedback from the Neighborhood Association for a preference to see the existing homes elevated versus tear down and new build, we have given elevation for the foremost significant home, these four homes shown on the slide. These are ones that we've received feedback from the neighborhood that these were kind of more special than other homes. And so, we have given them points if they choose to elevate these homes instead of tear them down and rebuild. Also, there's going to be a community preference checklist that has other topics. The community said it was important, but they're not requirements. So, tree preservation, the bioswales, permeable pavement, rain barrels and elevation and importance with Secretary of the Interior Standards. And so, we will actually work with the leadership to form a community group that will help us. They will evaluate the bids, really focusing on the community preferences the developer is willing to accommodate. And they will rank each bid from poor to exceptional. And the city will then assign points based on the community's scores. So, y'all will help us review these bids that way. So, we'll work with the Arlington Heights leadership to form that group really. We hope that the majority of the group are residents on those impacted blocks. Of Western and Carlton and we're almost there. Okay, so the open space use plan. So, as I mentioned earlier, FEMA requires the city to perform historic mitigation for the demolition of the two homes shown on this slide do our grant funding. And so, part of the mitigation is to create an open space use plan for these properties how they'll be used to maintain after the purchase and demolition while complying with FEMA specific guidelines for allowable uses. So, in general, there's really little that we can do with these properties other than just keep them undeveloped to not make any flooding worse. And so, the draft plan that we've created that will show in a second. We really focused on the community feedback that we've received so far. In the past, we were really told that the neighborhood doesn't want these sites to be turned into a community gathering area. Y'all didn't want it to attract unwanted uses or visitors. And then you wanted the ability for those future residents next to them to be able to use the yards. So, we really want to get your feedback tonight or within the next week on the concept that we've put together. So then we can take that feedback and begin our historic consultation process and work towards finalizing the plan. So the groups on the screen are part of the historic consultation process. And as you will see, Christina Pethowski is representing the neighborhood in that group. So what you see today, this is the current plan with the two FEMA properties on each side. And then this is the open space use plan here. So it really just shows what the properties would look like after those two grant funded structures are demolished. So you can see all the homes, the impervious surfaces are removed. The city is planning to add sprinklers and turf grass to stabilize the sites. We're going to try to save the existing trees as much as possible. The back and the side fencing will remain. As I said, that's really important to mitigate flooding. And then the city will come in and mow and maintain these properties as appropriate. I know we've been mowing right now the properties. And so we'll continue to mow those. And then as mentioned earlier, in the future, these residents on either side could have the opportunity of partnering with the city to maintain these spaces, to use them as play space for gardening, outdoor furniture. So kind of the biggest things is they can't put buildings on them. They can't put paved areas on them. Those are kind of big no-no's. Okay, so last slide. So kind of next steps, just to summarize, these are things I already pointed out is coming up next week. Council will be requested to approve the purchase of the two properties with FEMA grant funding. And then we will work towards demolition within 90 days of closing. And as I said, again, we're trying to work with FEMA to see is there a possibility to actually relocate those homes or salvage from the homes so they don't just go to the landfill. So we're still working on that. This summer we'll start the historic consultation process after we get feedback from y'all on that open space use plan. And then the hope is, this late summer, early fall, is to actually issue that notice of sale to look for a developer to redevelop these sites. So with that, here is my contact information and we will take questions. And as I said, again, we will be sending out the link to the recording after the meeting and the draft notice of sale documents so everyone can take a look at them. And if y'all can provide feedback by next Friday, that would really help us in terms of I want to make sure that everyone has time to look at the information and provide us feedback just because, you know, I spent over 30 minutes on that presentation. So, okay, I think Lynn is going to help me with the questions, but I know Ms. Erin has had her hand up for a long time. Thank you, Jennifer, really great overview. This is really the first time that I've been exposed to it and just kudos to you because that was a lot of information to get through. So I actually think that the 33 minutes was spot on. You know, just a couple of questions. So I'm at 2020 Carlton. So I'm we're very familiar with the Bryce area retention fund. That has not been a value add per se to the neighborhood. And especially, you know, like even I know that the city maintains it, but it doesn't it's not necessarily the most aesthetic aesthetic pleasing. We've also had problems with loiterers. You know, there's there's a lot of concerns there. So I'm really delighted to hear that it sounds like the city's first priority is to resell these houses. And so just a couple of quick questions like that. So yes, getting the this isn't something that we would sell it in an apartment apartment complex could be built. Okay, down. No, so that's one of the requirements is it's got to stay a single family. Not replanting the lots. Perfect. Second, you know, the appraisal effect, you know, I know that this is probably a question that many of the other homeowners in this area have our taxes went up significantly. And I'm just wondering how, you know, I like it's it's a little bit of a struggle, you know, when we're looking at this and we're acknowledging that the appraisals for many houses, nine houses in our area are going down. Ours are going up doesn't doesn't feel right. And I'm wondering how that those appraisals are going to affect our home values. And frankly, like, do we do we need a tax break considering the fact that this is happening literally in our backyards? So in terms of the appraisal that we're going to do or the appraisals that we have done to purchase the nine properties, I would say the appraisals that you're going to do and the appraisals it just doesn't I guess this is a I'm sorry for not being very articulate with my question. It doesn't make sense that we're recognizing that these houses are of lower value. And yet our values are increasing when there's significant burden associated with rebuilding this area. Something's not adding up. So the appraisal that we're going to be doing. So it will value these properties lower because it's going to take into a fact into account the fact that a developer is going to have to come in. And they're going to have to either take those existing homes and pay to elevate them. They're going to have to pay to bring them up to city standards. Or they're going to have to tear them down. And then they're going to have to rebuild a very new home to city standards. And it's got to comply with that whole list of regulations and totally makes sense. Yeah. I totally get that. And so they're buying it at a discount basically because of course I just I think that it really needs to be said that the you know I'm a little bit weary about our appraisal going up and the potential for this actually to sink our home values in the long run. For I see you kind of moving around over there. But before I know that I probably won't be able to ask any other questions. The only other concern I noted was when we say anything like maintained by those homeowners that is such a wild card and you could have somebody as delightful as my neighbor Bert or guy who like does a beautiful job with their garden or you could have not that right. So I just would really consider that last but not least Jennifer again. Thank you so much. And I'd really like to be part of any community group or lend my support because we're here for the long run. We've got two little kids. We're not planning on moving. We love this neighborhood and I just want to support you guys however we can. So thank you. And I'll and I'll shut up. No. Thank you. No. Thank you. Good feedback. So Linda, I don't know who's next. Have you been keeping track at all? We had one in the chat. Yeah. I can't hear Linda. Unfortunately. Yeah. Well and I had a woman Kerry Richards. Yeah. Kerry Richards asked the question that she lives next door. I think to some of these lots and no one told her about the flood risk and why did one of the people why are we advising these people and she didn't find out about it. No. Hi. I'm Kerry. So I bought the house at 2208 Carlton and the other day when I met Burt is the first I've heard about this. No one told me it didn't come up in any documents during the purchase. This is the first home I ever bought and now I'm finding out that the three houses next to me are going to be demolished. They're probably going to be taller than my house. They're going to be I just I don't know what they're going to do to my house. I don't want to live through however you know 30 months of construction. It just this is all news to me and I just am appalled that I didn't know like it's just and I've spent I bought the house a year ago and I've been working on it for eight months. It was supposed to take four and I moved in two weeks ago and this is the first I've heard about any of this. Right. Yeah I can definitely see lots of times in people by properties the disclosure documents really focus on the FEMA floodplains and and so this is not a FEMA floodplain that goes through the area. Kind of as I mentioned it's a lot really due to that undersized storm drain infrastructure. So I will say in the future is that the city is working towards trying to make our maps for these flood prone areas readily available to the public. So right now people can actually go on one address Fort Worth website. They could type in an address and they will actually say if there is a FEMA floodplain or if there's potential for high water on a property which is specifically the situation that we're talking about here. So this non FEMA flooding. So that information is already out there right now and we're trying to make that information even more widely available and trying to regulate small lot development in this area so it is not aggravating flood risk to existing residents and so there's actually going to be action taken to council in June focused on updating our stormwater regulations to better regulate these areas for small lot development specifically just like what we're talking about in Arlington Heights and then we will also be rolling out maps on the website so people understand that this flood risk is out there. So unfortunately you are not the first one who has said they've experienced something just like this. Unfortunately we hear it before and that's why we're trying to work towards this effort so people are warned before they can make that purchase and can take that into consideration when they take when they make. What about me? I wasn't. So what do I do going forward like and this is that little White House is next door to me literally. So I don't know what it's going to do to my property. I don't know what it's going to do to my property value. I don't want to live through 30 months of construction. I moved here because it was quiet you know. I mean so I will probably have to meet with you separately but I really don't know what I'm supposed to do with this information just getting it now. This is something anyone buying in this neighborhood has a right to know. So what I'd like to know is if the city sent out notices to owners in this neighborhood. If anything was sent to people informing them because if it was it should have been disclosed to me and it wasn't because I never would have bought this house. Okay yeah I'm happy to talk with you separately. So we'll call Kerry. Okay because I think I don't know what I'm going to do with my situation here. I'm not living through 30 months of construction so we'll have to figure out some an option. And Jennifer, Nick Rich, thank you again for putting that together. You did a good job. The question I have is as far as the elevated structures are concerned has Frees and Nichols been able to do any sort of modeling to try and mimic to the best of their ability what a race structure will do to the flow of water and how it by raising the structures how it actually helps mitigate the flood risks to people downstream not necessarily the homes that are elevated but people that are further downstream because the water's got to go somewhere and it's going to back up somewhere and if the structures are elevated and there's less objects or less structures in the way to stop the water or stop the flow I should say you know it's still got to go so it's still got to go somewhere so I just didn't know if you know since Frees and Nichols is at at Charles Disposals from an engineering perspective what they're bottling or you know what they've they viewed on that. Yes let me let me ask you there. So this bottom home right here so you won't see homes up on piers with the water able to flow through quickly because that would actually then flood people downstream so they've got to be homes and so just out taking the home that's there right now today and elevating it it's not going to have any benefits to flooding or it's not going to have any negative impacts on flooding either so you're basically just taking that home you're elevating it up so water will still then hit that bottom surface around it so Frees and Nichols has taken a look and they say that this can be done without aggravating existing flood risks leaving the fencing is really important is there anyone from Frees that just wants to jump in there just kind of from an engineering perspective and say anything about that. Yeah I just would reiterate Jennifer what we found in the modeling as the fences are the controlling factor in the hydrolox flow out of these so as long as we maintain the fencing we believe that the flow after the private design will be very similar. Thank you guys thank you guys. So if I understood him correctly he said the flow would still be similar it would not mitigate the wouldn't lessen the flood potential the flood potential still going to be there yeah it's just that water's not going to be entering people's homes. Yes yeah this project yeah this project redevelopment project does nothing to mitigate home risk or flood risk to other other homes all it does is take those existing ground zero flood prone homes and elevate them up above two feet above the base flood elevation and so so that was initially just kind of going so that we wanted to do green space and detention for all of these homes it would just be another little piece just kind of like the other detention basin but because of the community concern about you know the green space and unwanted uses in the green space that's why we have now turned to the redevelopment concept so it was really because of the community concern. Jennifer we got another question from Burt Wilhelm the builder that wins the bid for the property what kind of project will they be building other houses? Yes yeah they have to be single family residential homes yes that fit the whole character of the community. I see Ms. Richards you've got your hand back up maybe maybe just never went down I don't know. Okay and this is Sandy. I just wanted to add to that question so there won't be the two properties where I actually do plexus so these will all be single family and then and again I apologize this may be known to others but and then the the neighborhood group that's working with you will have input on the the look and the feel and that kind of thing to the homes that they'll be putting in. So yes single family and right now the notice of sale the guidelines and restrictions we have put together are all based off of the feedback that the neighborhood leadership provided to us a couple years ago so very very specific on what they want to see in y'all's neighborhood they wanted to look very uniform to what's there today and so I know Christina Petalski I know a lot of y'all know her she's been working with us for several years on this and so we've been really listening and she's been conveying community feedback through her to us to help us put this together. And Jennifer how do we get on to this community group so when the RFP comes back from the notice of sale how do we get on that group for the community to evaluate it understand you guys criterias and also I want to kind of get an idea of where will this be posted when will it be posted right so in terms of how we get on the group I'll probably you know work with Christina just as a long-term leader for y'all's neighborhood and figure out how to work you know get that group together I'm really gonna kind of focus on Christina helping me get those right residents that live closest to those homes on that group so definitely and then in terms of you know how it'll be advertised we're really trying to to look at the options available to us we want this to go out we want people to see it we know it's going to be a unique project and not just like every random builder is going to bed so so we're open if y'all got ideas or you know people we want people to share it when it goes out we're trying to post it for a long enough time so people can really have a chance to think about it and look at it and when we have that pre-bed meeting it might come up hey you know this is not enough time for a developer and so we'll be listening during that pre-bed meeting and potentially you know we could have you know an extension or you know trying to answer questions to see we really want this to be successful for the development community and for your neighborhood awesome and one more question well how's the communication for this rfp going to get out or any other updates you know with this that going to get we need to be on an email a distribution list or how does it you know how do we understand when the next steps are going to be especially the rfp and all that good stuff right right so I think probably what we can do is is I know linda's done a good job like getting everyone's emails to get y'all the the calendar and everything for y'all to participate so we can start an email list through that and then of course work through the neighborhood leadership and they can promote it out through their leadership and we can keep y'all up to date as like when we go get ready to issue and when the bids come in so so we're happy to keep y'all as we actually start to move forward I know we've kind of been in that like acquisition mode but but we have been working with Christina over the last few years and giving her updates as we have acquired them but we're happy to be a little more active as we actually start to move forward into this all right thank you I'll yield to the others we've got Emily sorry what we have a question from Emily Baxter at 21 21 western uh she says we understand she understands that we're looking for one developer are those of us adjacent and able to purchase part or all of the lot next door to us so uh so no right now we're we're looking for one developer but but if there are people who are interested in actually acquiring one of those either elevated or newly built homes then we will put you in contact with the developer we can give that developer your name and then they could reach out and maybe y'all could work together to you know say hey I want one of these houses you know built how I want it so so we're willing to definitely put you in contact with that future developer and Matt did we answer your questions I believe so three Richard has a few more questions um one of which is would the new homes cause more flooding to existing homes some proof but ours next door would not so you broke and carry someone sorry you broke up can you hear me Jennifer yes yeah so the question is is whether the new homes will cause more flooding to existing homes because the new homes are going to be floodproof but theirs are not so no so that that's a big we do not want to cause more flooding to the existing residents and so that's why um I had that slide earlier you know we'll really want to make sure that they're looking at the grading that those fences remain in place that they're not adding a whole bunch of impervious surface when it's not there today or they're offsetting it so we don't want someone to take that smaller house footprint and then suddenly decide to pave the whole backyard so that could have impacts so we'll be looking at all those types of things when we review the plans for these properties before they're approved because we do not want the new homes to aggravate the existing flooding and then Carrie had one other question uh so we'll get hers as will the city reimburse any property loss of value that harms homeowners as a result of the project again iterating that she was not informed prior to purchasing but should have been about this project so I will um I'll say no to that but I will say that we uh we work really hard with Arlington Heights neighborhood association to keep residents up to speed on what we're doing in the neighborhood I know the city does projects all over the community all over the city and we issue public meetings so city projects they're not they're not rare they happen all over but we're really going to work to make this project successful we want the developer to one of the actually in that notice of sale documents we say we want them to be keeping the community up to speed on what's going on and we don't want the construction to go on forever that's why we have a restriction of that's got to be complete within 30 months so hopefully it doesn't take because I think a lot of that is going to be you know they're planning they're going to have to put together their plan but we also knew too based off the the market at how it is today materials and so forth um their supply shortages so we wanted to make sure that there was time to actually have a viable uh development plan uh so we don't have to go to that green space and detention concept because we know that the community would rather see these homes elevated and I'll add on to that carry to the city does have a process if you if you believe that you've been damaged in some way due to something the city is responsible for there is a way you can file a claim with the city and it's reviewed by the legal team to see if the city has any liability so I know Jennifer was going to talk to you follow up and we'd be happy to provide you all the information on how to file that claim so yeah then I don't think we did answer all of Matt's questions he asked has the city considered removing the homes and leaving the property as at grade green space strategically placed fencing in the open space could help manage flow I mean we did kind of but I think he asked the question after you describe the green space options he might want to reiterate on that Jennifer right so uh so what we talked about is that if if we left it as green space so if the if the notice of sale we don't get a viable bidder I mean go back to the green space concept we would go and create a swarm water detention basin in that area because initially the whole purpose of the project was one to mitigate the flooding of these homes at ground zero that repetitively flooded and then two we would like to the rest of the the neighborhood downstream to benefit from the detention we you know as I as I said there's a lot of storm water running through this area so as much detention as that we can get we're really trying to protect more than just those structures that we bought so we would work really closely with the community I know in October 2018 we kind of threw up some design concepts in that meeting and so we probably start with those and sit down with a small working group of community members and really try to figure out you know what is the best design concept um so it doesn't um you know you've got clear sight lines so it doesn't like encourage people to hide in the basin or things like that so we would take all of that into account when when designing the concept yeah hey Jennifer this doesn't matter if I can expand a little bit on that yeah go ahead yeah so understanding that but I guess the way I look at it if we put in raised structures which you know I understand the city wants the development of possible um you know we're not improving the downstream condition for downstream residents if in that situation we're just putting new homes that it may be out of place so that's why I didn't know if I can even if the critical part isn't creating more detention because it's not going to solve the problem is help mitigate some smaller items you have we considered as the at-grade park area that's more useful for local residents as opposed to you know an actual base and I think the residents um upgrade the corner on Carlton and Bryce mentioned like the current basin across from Walgreen isn't really useful for the area so I'm not sure a basin in the middle of the middle of the neighborhood is actually that useful either in an at-grade option may be more more useful or beneficial so we would have to to look at it to evaluate the impact of an at-grade like it really wouldn't be a basin just an at-grade green space on the homes downstream so so one yes frees and nickels has said those fences need to be in place so you would just have these fences you'd have these open lots but suddenly those homes wouldn't be there anymore and so the fences are there the homes are also slowing down that water so that might not be feasible uh when we looked at this in the past we evaluated putting in a basin and putting in a basin definitely you know didn't have downstream impacts and actually had those benefits to the residents downstream another thing is um you know as we would form a small group we really you know would work with y'all on you know how can we make this basin a valuable multi-use basin you know what what do you want to see there what do you want the looks to be um so that's something that we would work with y'all on okay a few more things here we're kind of running out of time so let's try Carrie also I don't know if you can see the chat Carrie but Niels Brown from our real property division has also put in a website link for the Texas I guess it's real estate commission and his point is is that your real estate agent could potentially be a lot of property if in fact they should have disclosed this to you and did not so that might be another route you want to go the problem is you can't really prove that you know proving that they knew is really difficult you know like how do you prove that they knew so yeah I understand so that's that's sort of the thing but the thing is you know I mean there should have been notices or something I mean the owner of my property was disabled she was you know not totally with it her kids were kind of you know running the property but not really staying here so like it she needed a higher touch to be informed of what was going on than your average person so I mean my agent will just say that she would know so but I appreciate you posting that but that's what she's going to say I understand um Grant you've had your hand up a couple of times I want to give you a chance am I unmuted now yes you are okay so I'm just going back to that last statement about calling Trek and blaming a real estate agent so I've been living here since August of last year and I'm on Western I'm right I'm right on the corner of Bryson Western I live right by the the flood basin and I had no clue about this for months um my neighbor we're doing a little watch party here my neighbor Steve who lives right next door who used to own some property on right there on Bryson the city had bought from his turn into the basin he's the one who ended up telling me two or three months I would say into this project after I met of rehab in this house after I met him that this street floods which who would think in the middle of Arlington Heights a street would flood so I'm just trying to say that it's not going to be the real estate agent's fault that helped you pick a house this is a a problem that's been going on for a hundred years hundreds of years that nobody really knows about unless you lived here and through it um Steve has been here 17 years you can't see him he's right off to my side and he has seen this street flood several times so to blame a real estate agent doesn't make sense because there's just another person who's just doing their best to find a house for other people so don't blame the real estate agent on this um the original homeowner who had been here for a while would know about things flooding but not the agent that helped buy the house I just wanted to throw you out there no that's a good point thank you thank you and I do and I'm here I do want to throw this back up here real quick just showing you know the flooding is pretty isolated right you know kind of following that storm drain system and so so if you you know if you don't live you know real close to that area you might not ever see the flooding so I just throw that out there yeah and again the grants point Jennifer went over it before we recognize the issue whether being flood prone areas that are not in FEMA flood maps and that's actually something you know that we are really trying to actively mitigate that risk there by communicating that much more you know openly so people do are aware of that again that's a problem nationwide the a lot of the a lot of the most highly flood prone areas all across the country are not in FEMA flood plain maps and getting the word out on the risk there is a big challenge so we have one more question in the chat bird asked is the city planning to purchase two more homes to bring the home count to nine and which home so Jennifer if you could clarify the number of houses and what we've done and what we're doing right so uh so this knob here on this green so we have purchased nine properties so far those are the ones in blue and then we're only purchasing two more properties these ones kind of with the green dashed line on them through the FEMA grant so the two through the FEMA grant will be going to the council next week all the blue ones have already been purchased we are not planning to purchase any more properties in this area okay that is the last of the questions in the chat and I don't see any more hands so Jennifer you want to oh I do see another carry do you have another question your hand still uppers with the just didn't come down for the last time no it didn't come down but I would sell my property if you decide you'll do one more because I don't want to deal with any of this I'll just move to Wutherford we'll follow up with you carry after that I understand that's that's difficult situation and then Nick I see your hand I don't know if that's an old hand or a new hand no it's it's it's a new one um I just I go back to you know raising the structures doesn't mitigate flooding and it still has to travel downhill if this is a good map across the house that's across from the on the Carlton and for everybody that does that's on the chat that doesn't know me I'm Nick Rich I'm at 2209 Carlton I'm across the street from Kerry and Kerry I'll be happy to talk to you about this at a later date but right across the street from the 22 22 24 and the 2300 on Carlton if you go back to that one property or that one slide Jennifer that's got the map that shows the the flood playing with the with the pipe um so yeah they're perfect so that that top photo is a good representation of what happens on Carlton obviously the bottom photo is western um so those two properties that I mentioned across from the 22 24 and the 2300 the yellow house and the one next door those houses flood as well and I know that those weren't initially on the docket to be purchased but they're impacted by this too and so by raising raising structures I just want to point out that it doesn't mitigate it doesn't slow down the flow of water the flow the water volume is still going to be there there's still going to be a lake every five six seven years on Carlton and on western and so I think that you know I brought this up in a previous uh previous call but uh those two FEMA houses with the house that the city owns in the middle um I honestly think that those that needs to be another retention area similar to the one that's on Walgreens I don't like the one across from Walgreens just like everybody else but you know like I brought up in the previous call uh you know we could put a fence across that and no one would be any any wiser that there's a detention pond there that should in conjunction with the one across from Walgreens at least slow the volume of water down as it heads downstream and allow for the system underneath the ground the pipes to catch up and relieve that water so that the people that are downstream from these houses that the city owns aren't impacted as severely as they are right now so so Nick I really have a question I don't really have a question it's more of a comment I just want to throw that out there again as a you know as a consideration I know that you know you showed the slide that kept that house there but really we got to figure out how to we're putting a band-aid on a bad situation right now so let's put a an even bigger bandage on it and try and slow down the volume of water if we can't solve the problem which we all know what the only way to solve the problem is to dig a pipe underneath I-30 and get it to the Turney River which is going to cost 60 70 80 million dollars on the low end so so uh some comments I um that I I've asked frees and nickels after you asked that question a couple weeks ago you know how much more detention could we get if we took the two FEMA and that one between them and they said you know y'all like correct me if I'm wrong but I mean it was like less than an acre foot um so very very small amount but you know every small amount does help and that that was our whole plan to begin with to put in the detention because residents right now say that the detention that's in there right now Helene and Bryce and the under street detention they say that it makes a difference and so even though it's small those most frequent events you know it's another little bit um of help for those downstream so but it's so very small and Jennifer I'd like to also add to that I'm sorry I won't take any more anybody's any more time and I'm sorry but uh Western has the underground detention Ashland has the underground detention when I bought my house in 2015 we redid all the utilities on Carlton repaved Carlton but the city ran out of money for the underground detention that initially Freese and Nichols also wanted to put in and Carlton so that when water did get all the way through and got down into Carlton that it had somewhere to you know to slow it down and store it until the system could catch up so I want to add to the two FEMA houses and the house that you know is in the middle that the city owns call it a wash you make that a detention pond and then you put the detention the same detention system at the end of Carlton that's similar to Ashland and similar to Western and that'll add even more protection to help relieve the pressure of the system and and Nick I believe uh Freese and Nichols can and tell me if I'm wrong or right but I believe that they did evaluate the Carlton detention and it was determined that once Western and Ashland was in place it didn't have any meaningful benefit based off how the system works it's can y'all talk about that I know it's been a while yeah you're right Jennifer we did evaluate um underground detention in Carlton we actually looked at underground detention through a number of streets across the watershed and it it's kind of the same story every little bit helps but only to you know a little bit okay so just a little bit more yeah and it wasn't Nick it wasn't a matter of us running out of money I mean I guess in a sense you could look at it that way but it's a matter of you know benefit cost and with the resources we have with all the needs across the city trying to provide the best benefit we can again the level of benefit that would be received you know compared to the cost you know it just wasn't as big as much bang for the buck as we could get in other parts of the city for other needs and so that was the decision there was to take it out of to not do that in Carlton yeah I'll echo what Greg said it is the underground detention is a very expensive you know per unit cost in terms of the storage you get no understood and understood hey that maybe that was an unnecessary comment that was not directed at either one of you just so you guys are aware so or or even freaks and nickels for that point I'd be interested in seeing what the modeling that you know an updated modeling looks like when you put those factors into place like I like I outlined or mentioned okay I think I don't see any other questions Greg Linda now I don't see any others and we're 15 minutes over our stated time I know a few quite a few people have already left but so yeah I guess we ought to go ahead and wrap Jennifer if you will okay well well thank you all I'm gonna I'm gonna stop the recording before I forget and hold on so what