 So, if we could, Xavier, we could pause. I believe Ms. Mania Bader Sabal has a few words to say. I want to give her a chance to express herself here. You know, I want to thank her because she definitely brought this issue to us. And we feel after the six meetings, it's very important that we hear from Count Timber on Mania Bader Sabal on this matter. So Mania Bader Sabal. Liveability cannot be separated from neighborhoods. Lately, I have been struck with the predictions of an increase of population by one million by the year 2040. When one considers that it took 100 years between 1900 and the year 2000 to reach a million in San Antonio, it is apparent that the next million will be reached in only about four decades. With such accelerated growth and much of it coming from our own natural births within our existing population, it will take a very open, transparent and inclusive government to make it a smooth boat. We only have to see what is happening in other cities today where discontent and lack of trust simmers until it explodes. We never want this for our beloved city. We will always be inclusive. I think there are things that we can do now to make sure we do not exclude anyone. And a couple of them are these. In this morning's express, there was an opinion piece by Norel Boyu, the head of NELCAP, who wrote that we need a housing policy in San Antonio. Today, the city uses certain plans and regulatory documents, such as a UDC, regulations on the efforts that were heard to create development policy. The housing commission have made a few policy recommendations around incentives for affordable housing, zoning notices, and are working on some through the resident retention subcommittee. But all these amount to disjointed documents and regulations that have to be researched and cobbled together. There is no housing policy. That is needed for many reasons, but one is to level the playing field between the development community and the public. In your comprehensive plan voted on last week, you made amendments that will protect the Tier 1 neighborhoods thank you, Councilor Devino. This is proper because we are already being impacted by the effort to create more dense housing patterns. I live in one of these neighborhoods. However, as I understand it, these amendments only impact neighborhoods represented by official city sanctioned neighborhood associations. They do not mitigate impact on all the rest of the inner city in the east, west, and south sides that are vulnerable. They do not have registered neighborhood associations. That does not represent people who live in vulnerable parks. Another lesson from Rackenrich Park Planning is that as we read the plan, many of us felt that the exclusion of working class people who are users of the park was there. They have kept that park alive. As a friendly place for families for many years, most of these are Mexican-American families. This was also brought out in the hearings. Finally, in San Antonio, we enjoyed a very strong culture and a history that goes back thousands of years. The historic structures and sites that we still have and the commons that we all enjoy must be protected for everyone to enjoy. Loosing this legacy will make our city one that looks like any other city in the country. We must work hard to protect our uniqueness. That is how we represent everyone. Thank you very much. Thank you, Ms. Muneer-Lewis. I just want to say that we helped us to get a process that I think is very, very thoughtful and to your point. We want to make sure that it is inclusive and we look forward to the discussion today. Today's discussion is about how we manage a plant-based park that is the city's park. Thank you for all your help. With that, we'll begin the citizens to be heard. Ms. Ana Ramirez. Good evening. City Councilman, Stad, Mr. Kupia. Thank you for allowing us to speak. I didn't think that we were wanting to give them the opportunity, so I don't have a prepared speech. Nevertheless, okay, I am the Chair of the River Road Neighborhood Association. Breckenridge Park is our front lawn. In addition to that, we all grew up in Breckenridge Park. So we hold it very dear to all of us, particularly Hispanics. Now, I only went to for the meetings for the vetting of the Breckenridge Park master plan. I did it in the meeting at the Botanical Garden, as well as Lyons Field, as well as the Guadalupe Cultural Arts, and I forget the other name, Doris Griffin Center. What I heard was consistent throughout the first of all as far as citizens to be heard. The, essentially, it was all about how all of it spoke, including myself, or concern about exclusion, because the common denominator of this entire plan has been to exclude again in addressing the 1.1 million that we're expected to have. It seems as if this plan is not for our people that use the park on a regular basis. One wants to put lots of walking trails, thus eliminating lots of parking spaces and access to parking and the different areas throughout the park. By eliminating them, again, eliminate access. What I did hear also consistently in all of the meetings, including quite a few people from our neighborhood association, was the fact that it was, you know, totally eliminating everything that is dear to us. And insisting, and I noticed here in this plan that you have here, still including the taking away of all of the parking spaces and still insisting upon the grand lawn. Again, like Maria Beriussova indicated, this is south of Texas. In times of drought and all, we have a grand lawn and elimination of trees. This is totally against what we do, what we use. And again, having a parking garage, that I guess we would be then combining that would be already planned parking garage for the San Antonio Zoo. It both are one and the same. But this is going to be a pretty crowded parking lot. Then how can people take what we do today and on a regular basis include taking families, what partying with barbecue grills, because a little grills there are not sufficient. Partying with barbecue grills and and tarps and birthday cakes. And all of the things that are necessary to put on a picnic in the park. Thank you. Thank you, Ms. Nadez. I appreciate your comments. This is Gianna Vendon. So I just wanted to speak to the 1.1 million people who we always talk about, right? And many of these people are supposed to be to the millennial. I am millennial. And the definition of millennial is someone who is born between 1980 and 2000. Although the word millennial now has a different connotation to someone who is well-feeded. Someone who is poor at middle class who has a lot of free time who can live in excessive locks and who would want a master plan like this. And so I always get really frustrated when I see plans that the city has and creates for millennials because I wonder who are these millennials you are talking to. Because most of the people that I know from millennials that maybe you just fight it's because they do not have cars. Because they cannot afford them. Because they are in debt because of college. And so a lot of my friends and a lot of my fellow millennials who went to college still live with their parents. And so going to Procurent Park is still a family affair. And so anything that has to do with the plan has to be multi-generational. And that is what I see wrong with this plan is that it doesn't really take into consideration the ADA facility. It doesn't take into consideration multi-generation galleries. For example, my father is limited mobility because of the signal problem. And so he cannot walk that far if we have to park further away and then walk to a sitting area. And that is the reality for many families. In a few years I plan to have kids. So then I'm going to be ruining my limited mobility father with me and my kids and all our stuff. And we're going to have to go on some sort of train to get where we have to go. That's going to be a nightmare. So what I really want to say though is that I think the PR in general, not just for this time but for anything that the city does that the department does really has to do better at PR. Better outreach. Being a grassroots organization we flyer. We go out after work and we go out on our own time. We go out in the morning to Takadia. We go out at parks. A lot of people a lot of my friends Michael and I had to pass out fires for these things. They went out and they had they even made a day out of it. They went to Bracket Ridge and they had a little party and they just had enough fires but they're having a party. So I think we have to kind of keep that in mind. Just do better PR and do better outreach. Thank you. Thank you, Ms. Ms. Graciela Sanchez. Thank you council members for allowing us to speak daily. When you have these gatherings you all have your engagement and we don't get to speak so I really appreciate that. For me the most important thing in today's conversation is process. They're as a resident as you heard me say last Thursday somebody who's lived here whose family has lived here over 126 years. In the same two block radius of Veracruz, Santiago and between Navidad and Salinas we're people who are invested in San Antonio. We love San Antonio. San Antonio is ours and we have done so much work as a family but also myself as the director of the Esperanza to make San Antonio better especially for the people who have lived here historically. But over and over what we're seeing and each year more and more often is that it seems like decisions are being made behind closed doors between city staff and the interested parties who want to do something with the city. So, Hey Street Bridge was even on lawsuit and it's being appealed in the Fourth Court of Appeals. The community helped to save that bridge. The city was going to tear it down in the 1980s. The community started with Nettie Hinton collected signatures, had it saved raise over $3 million. And then all of a sudden almost out of nowhere guy wants to do business, negotiates with Lauren Houston, Patty Giovanni they've got one over a million dollars to build a restaurant to do all of this work for his benefit, not the community benefit. Center they have this what's happening with their what's happening with the Alameda Center Main Plaza becomes privatized and goes into a Main Plaza Conservancy. Hemisphere, we're reading by Hemisphere in 2011 because we're not going to be allowed to vote on hotels that get built. Now people are attacking you Mr. Deviniova, that was stuff that was happening then, but we're reading about it in the paper. We shouldn't be reading about these things in the paper, we should be part of the process. We're reading the overview of the 300 people who came to the meetings about this park, but it's 300 people and we're over a million folks when we collect signatures we're talking and knocking on doors saying how do you feel about history how do you feel about this, how do you thousands of people we're talking to face to face and they're telling us they're not happy and so I appreciate this Deviniova but slow down the process listen to the community Travis Park it's just everything is being privatized and it's our public monies and they are public spaces and the public, especially your working class community who has nothing else except maybe a car to drive to Bracken Ridge or a car to drive somewhere else or a bus to take, we need to have access to those, we cannot be charged and I already know that the William museum apparently is going to have that parking lot that they're going to start charging and it's in the budget and we just hear about things around the block so please slow this process down and thank you very much for your time thank you census George Cisneros thank you always nice to be here in front of our elected officials and city staff you all worked so hard to get to Bracken now we have three comments to make one is about time the second one is the symbolism of the direction and the last one is amenities for tenants the time I was worried about is a rush to action the park is not going there is no need you're not going to get 9.5 or 10 or an 8.3 if we rush this plan there is no need to hurry I think the smartest thing to do is you sometimes let the land go fallow and you'll get a better crop I would encourage staff to slow down the process a year maybe a term maybe two terms there is no rush to change Bracken Ridge Park unless the other things like the symbolism of direction is important front doors usually mean welcome come into my house welcome I want you into my world I'm wondering why the front door of Bracken Ridge Park Alamo Heights, Terrell Hills almost park instead of the people of San Antonio so directionality and symbolism of the front door of the park is very important right now you can say come to my front door don't worry about it there is no back door for the people of San Antonio because Broadway and the park entrances from that area entities for the tenants who don't pay city taxes on the Broadway reach if you look at the 37 apartment complexes built Build Your Brand Broadway, Jones Josephine Grayson, Pearl almost all of them got tax abatements so none of the tenants pay taxes through their rent because the landlords are not into taxes if you look at the 1220 loss for instance there's 307 units there and the way the city planned it out was $15,000 per unit over 10 years so we lose $4.6 million of tax money and revenues on just the 1220 loss alone the camp plan we lose $5,860,000 in 10 years with the abatements that landlord was given so we're making Broadway's part into a wellness fitness community amenity for people who do basic taxes and that's what really bothers me about this whole thing we open the front door to the north have no back door to the south and we give away the park as an amenity to all the kids who may be unacquainted if we have the right space to go down and move to Mumbai for all we know if it could happen on Friday this equity group has no commitment to San Antonio so all I'm saying is time we don't need to rush the park is not going anywhere thank you thank you Mr. Chair thank you Ms. Antonio Castaneda thank you all and thank you I hope for that knows the space the space with me can not be assisted okay he has to translate that okay thank you very much I'm just thanking council members for for the space which is after all public space is in line and so we're here today we need to talk precisely about public space and we didn't know we would have to listen to be heard so I actually am not prepared but I do want to make a couple comments and my concern about Reckon Ridge Park I'd like to talk about a little bit within the context of policies training San Antonio's growth and development which others have spoken to much more eloquently much more specifically so my comments are broad in general but it's a concern that I have had since I have moved to San Antonio almost 25 years ago and that is that policies I see policies being developed and action taken for attending to the growth and development of the city but they're being developed without it seems to me consideration for the economic realities of San Antonio and what I mean by that is that as we know San Antonio is among one of the cities one of the five cities that is most economically segregated now what does that mean and what does that mean when we think about policies for growth and development for me what that reality also means is that we exist in San Antonio within a context of historical and contemporary systemic inequality and so that's really what we're talking about in one form or another is that what we have seen with this process has in fact reflected that systemic inequality and that systemic inequality is based on race certainly on gender and sexuality but here we're talking more specifically about class and to some degree race because it is Mexican American families largely we use that part and so if we do the master plan as it is currently conceptualized then what we are doing is we are removing Mexican American families from public space and I'd like us to think about that and what that means when the highest percentage of the population of this city is that so thank you again for the ability to come speak to you in this public space and thank you for your work we need to understand that this is not easy and we have some sense of pressures that befall you but and we're not here to add to the pressure but we are here to raise our voices and to be listened to thanks thank you Mrs. Custon at this time I'd like to say a few words of the conservancy to come and say a few words this weekend we had an opportunity to take a tour with Maria Villarromas and my parks commissioner Jennifer Martinez and joining us was also a real power of the mayor's office I want to thank you for that conversation and I want to give you a chance to say a few words for spending part of your Sunday with us hello councilman staff yesterday was very exciting and today after our tour I was in the park looking at the section of the dam and yes thank you and we took pictures of some of our board and served tonight Joe Cowherd our president our vice president our secretary and we would like to thank you for looking forward in this process the Rackridge Park Conservancy is standing with you as a partner to expand the collaboration with the community with the staff with you to create a positive move forward I am not discouraged I think what has come about almost the rest of the additional public meetings is encouraging and exciting we know the community loves this park it is a park before the entire city it is for all districts not just one and so the conservancy recognizes that and I have taken it to heart as I have sat through all of the meetings there have been eight two before the last bit and we have listened carefully and so this should be a slow in the river process we work with you on we support the process going forward to identify the projects that we can all come together and support there are things that need to be done in the park and I did invite people to join me in the park for tours as I did with Councilor Moran I would like to invite you to meet us there it is different when you are standing looking at the needs that are required in the park there is maintenance and there are agreements that can be done and there is common ground and I respect your opinion and I think we need to leave in a very positive direction this can be considered similar but it is nothing at all in the plaza in terms of the depth of research that is beginning and will be done over a period of time I would like to suggest that we do that in this instance too and we are ready to partner with you thank you Mr. Bobbitt at this time I would also like to welcome Jennifer Martinez she serves as my parks commissioner and has done a great job of doing that in fact she attended four meetings and has provided incredible insight and a chance to give her perspective about this effort as she joined us yesterday as well for these four meetings thank you chairman see members of the community members of the city staff my perspective I attended about 75% of the sessions those that were at the garden center as the chairman mentioned my name is Jennifer Martinez and I am also a member of the corporate community in San Antonio and the downtown resident and an avid cyclist that enjoys a park movement I would say that in stepping back and looking at the comments that were provided during the meetings there are really three key categories that I would place those comments in and the first one is a sense of place so it is very clear that San Antonio loves this park in fact we heard multiple stories something back to the 1940s 1950s of families that had significant memories and milestones at this park what we heard is that sense of action is saying it's okay to haul us and it's okay to step back and work together we're all San Antonio regardless of our last names and regardless of our histories how do we work together in a country that's working apart right now and how do we take a chance to step back and say Brighton Ridge means something for all of San Antonio and so I would say our partners to the South Toyota they do a really great job of moving this into action in fact the Japanese call this Genchi Genbutsu which means go and see and so I would encourage our really great city staff members in our leadership to go and see what are the users doing today whether it's the elderly softball team that I have no idea about if you look at the park or the community volunteer who organizes open running nights or a couch to five k's or those that just simply want to be the ducks what are our users doing today and how do we do it in a way that's with high tech through surveys or through social media or ways that are low tech through knocking on doors and asking how do you use the park today what are opportunities that we have what do you want to see just like that single mom who said I really love your soft heart and I would love just to see some type of splash pad to happen to my kids and not have to be charged for it and so I encourage the committee to continue to think about how do we really integrate the park and I appreciate all the work that the city does and we are truly a unique city that is leading the floor from when it comes to working together thank you Mr. Matthews certainly the service is a great park's condition so before the presentation a couple of council members would like to say a few words thank you chair I just want to open up I've been looking forward to this presentation today because it comes on the heels of a renewed awakening that San Antonio often times has been shaped into sometimes more vigorously than others about the process of picking this on the head we have to be reminded sometimes that folks are going to buy into the ultimate product or outcome we need to buy into the process so I've been looking forward to today because it's going to give us an opportunity to very much hear a bit of the process of the input that wasn't captured to begin with and in a situation like this where we have a park like Brackenburg filled with so much tradition and legacy we really have to go as slow as we can and I think for this committee who will ultimately move something forward to a full council we should come to a consensus or decision about what we do recognizing the fact that we may have put the carpet for the worse on the process going out and coming up with ideas that haven't yet been filled with the color of those people to use on the park so I've heard a lot of great things from our speakers specifically I appreciate Gianna's nod to the multi-generational fingerprints that it is based on Brackenburg Park so any one of those fingerprints is rubbed off it gives the community a sense that things are changing and not necessarily to their benefit but attaching to that is great the fact that maybe the barbecue or the access the Easter picnics don't happen like they used to I think that's just part of the DNA of Brackenburg as the future plans for a new inclusion of the many of us but I was reminding briefly of what the process could be to come up with visions and dreams and we were very convinced that we did not have the community's buy-in we did not accomplish something but it was the end of the day we know that things are not going to be perfect but as long as folks feel like they're part of the process and we did that very early on before we even committed ourselves to the amount of money we were going for I think we need to get it right here on Brackenburg so as we leave today I think we should come up with a sense of whether it makes sense for us to refresh the process here to restart the process and make sure we're ready for the presentation Thank you Councilman I think we'll look forward to this discussion today Councilman Ward Thank you Chair and thank you all for coming out to the numerous meetings and the numerous times that I've seen in the community looking at the passion that was especially at the events recently that kind of leads to my dreams of people being passionate about all the items come up in San Antonio because I think we still need hundreds of more people to engage in this conversation to really make this a community effort but we've definitely made a step here to make things better for our city and I applaud you all for your passion in moving this process forward I also think that this was definitely needed and the fact that we're definitely having a committee at 6 o'clock in the evening shows that we're attempting to do our part to make things more accessible and we need your feedback to hear these things are working so we appreciate the feedback that's come through this process as we know that it has not only changed this process and the future of Brackenridge Park but future processes that we have so hopefully we learn from our earlier missteps and that we can focus on doing this on the front end as opposed to the back end or at least the perceived front end as opposed to the back end so I definitely think that we're heading in the right direction we're not there yet and there are definitely improvements that we can make in the process but also in our public facilities so that we can make them more engaging I appreciate George's remarks in regards to the front door I've had issues with some of the places in my district that are in the community but don't seem to be for the community and I don't want that for Brackenridge Park and I know you don't want it either so I think we can all work together to make this a more meaningful experience but also a more meaningful park for more sentimental use Thank you, Councilman Thank you Mr. Chairman I also look forward to making the night as well because I'm reminded of how important what Brackenridge Park means to all of us whether you're from San Antonio or not I think you recognize how beautiful that Brackenridge is and it's not lost upon me or this community how important it is for us to make sure that we get this process right but we can't do that without you all so I'm very encouraged to see so we can work from all across the city at night to ensure that we we get this process and make sure that we can look forward to the full council to make sure that we have this input and we recognize what Brackenridge means to all of us in San Antonio and throughout the community as well so thank you Thank you Councilman With that we can go ahead and begin the presentation Xavier I'd like to thank you for all your hard work so when this came up we met quite frequently and I want to thank your responsiveness and I want to thank the team as well for helping to host the six meetings citywide and we look forward to this presentation it really managed a lot of hard work and I want to reaffirm that we are listening and so Jerrucan Thank you Chair and Committee so we're providing a briefing on the input we received from the additional public meetings that were held in response to the draft master plan so just a quick update from the presentation that was provided to the neighborhoods and the mobility committee back in March 29 just a reminder we were going through a draft master plan process our design consultants our Rialto Studio is the lead with three other partners that are being in tandem with them on the draft master plan process so at that March 29 meeting some items were presented to the committee when that draft was provided both to the public and the mayor and council which talked about some of the issues that had been identified with those range really from everything from diminished environment to accessibility the amount of impervious covered parking and traffic and weight finding type of issues with the whole park so as part of the draft the committee or I'm sorry the consultants came up with five areas so as part of that draft it was presented by strategies were identified to address some of those issues those current issues with the park to restore natural park features and improve water quality sorry so thank you so again to address some of these issues my strategy which were outlined in the draft master plan the first one was restore natural park features and improve water quality the second one was to restore and preserve and articulate the park culture and historic features so that deals a lot with some of the first structures and features of the park the water work system that are in the park all those are history and speak to the growth of San Antonio and the development of San Antonio and are all located within the park increased park visibility and pedestrian access was really addressing how the park is viewed from the perimeter is there a common area is there a central theme of how you approach the park and then another, the last two were one was to recapture green space and blue and pervious covered parking and then the other one was to reduce vehicular traffic through the use of street closures and the transit system so that's what was in this five strategies so after we had our neighborhood livability meeting in March we held a public meeting in April of the San Antonio Potential Park Center and at that meeting the items were presented and there was definitely some conversation and some concerns about some of the areas, particularly around the parking and the closure of streets at that same time after that meeting Councilman Trevino was approached by members of the community that felt that that one meeting really didn't allow enough opportunity or would consider the historic park user so it didn't allow enough opportunity for the public at large and the public across San Antonio to really engage in the conversation of the draft master plan so at that point we came with a plan to conduct six additional meetings those were all advertised both in English and Spanish through the newspaper we had radio spots on everything from NPR to Spanish language media we did a dedicated website to put the draft master plan out on the internet to allow people to comment on it and we also advertised the six meetings along with some of the people in the community who went out and walked in the park, we did as well again we had staff that went out and gave flyers out people using the park so that we really felt we could try to broaden the depth of the engagement beyond the one meeting so we did have the six additional meetings we had a total of 363 undivided attendees there were some attendees who attended more than one meeting but at all the meetings there were 184 citizens spoke and we received over 103 common cards as well as the verbal communication that was provided the meetings vary everything from the largest meeting which is the lines field we had 103 attendees and then the next largest was at the Guadalupe Cultural Arts Center we had 94 attendees the zip code reflects that where we had double digit attendees from the zip code there were five zip codes that these individuals came from so for example what you would expect around the park this park is surrounded by 780209 and 780212 we had 64 individuals from the 780209 and 40 from the 780212 and then it varies based on going a little bit further and a little bit west but again I think what this exemplifies is that the message did get out in particular I think two people that either lived near the park are also visiting the park from other areas of the city so out of that out of that those public meetings we had an exercise that allowed the public to respond to those different five strategies we talked about in general public support were around the strategies around the natural resources around the historical features of the park as well as increased park visibility and the connectivity to the neighborhoods those are the ones that really overwhelming me and we have attachments that were here and families that kind of give all the different percentages of the different components of those but those overwhelmingly had public support the areas that did not were dealing with the people over about reducing parking within the park closing roads within the park and I think that last one is I think the reduced impervious cover was supported so I'm not sure not that one but those were the main areas that there was not support for so what we are proposing is that we move forward with completing the exercises moving toward the finalization of the master plan but the areas the areas where there was not public support those areas not be included in the final master plan that would be presented to council so that master plan would not include any type of trans system of people mover it would not include any reduction of parking within the park and it would not include any road closures within the park we would though recommend that there be a section in the draft master plan or in the final master plan but we spoke to that there are issues around probably the vehicular traffic the pedestrian traffic and mobility that would need to ultimately be addressed but probably in a much more engaged fashion and just targeted on those subjects so that it's not about you know restoring the essay kids and talking about how do we maneuver with people and cars but that conversation only be about that if that conversation is ever to move forward again but in this plan we would recommend that those three areas not be included and available for any questions we had one more person signed up to speak I think it says here prevo prevo thank you for always a little bit of your doors and your ears to hear us and talk about any engagement any technical dialogues when it comes to community, community building and governance I really like to list some of the positivity that was spoken today with the fellow community folks and that we do want to engage in very very well intentional conversations about accountable governance and I know you all happen to be one of the ones that participate the most I'm not calling that the north side of the districts but I intentionally know that our district to represent a lot of communities of color and communities of working families the biggest issue for me is that on the work that I do in southwestern we talk about environmental racism and environmental justice we speak about the design of cities that are very particular to certain areas according to their zip codes according to their neighborhoods and according to their population directly someone next to me so for the consensus of San Antonio right now we're talking about the visibility of over a million and these numbers that we're talking about in the meetings are really insignificant I would like to compliment that some of the people that we that happen to attend to this meeting that happens to be according to the membership mobilization that we did as grassroots organizers and the fact that we push ourselves through phone calls conversations but also you know social media something that we are pretty well known for with Zou and as well as Bassa at the Joseph Center the biggest question for us is are these parking lots or parking garages going to be efficient and free and available for community folks that want to use the park also the housing issues we're talking about Broadway Street which is a highly new street to be living at and there's a lot of this place I know that because my sister tried to get a house to live there and to get a new job in San Antonio and she was discouraged and told that she could not afford to live around Broadway I do live in District 1 I know what it means to see the impact and the new developing that comes out of our district in our neighborhood but at the same time my house is one of the sales so that means I can't even live in there so we're talking about a park that is accessible and it's the bridge between and communities of color and working class families but it's also a bridge of understanding the development and privatization of San Antonio is happening in a really fast pace and we are not trying to even intervene or even stop it it's happening really really fast the pro worry is a threat to some of the folks I know this as a single person that lives on Verdel Street I have families and neighbors but I have neighbors or families that I can't even keep up with services but what's the time of this? of the time is up? oh shit ok thank you so much for your time and you and me and our apologies for Matt seeing you on the list we want to make sure everybody's heard Chair, if I can make one correction I'm sorry I'm supposed to the last item on the not public which was the impervious cover is correct I was thinking invasive species and habitat restoration but I got myself in view so that item again did not have all the support in the plan so I just wanted to clarify that thank you so before we continue questions I want to recognize that tomorrow of the San Antonio Zoo is here we also got a great tour of that zoo this weekend doing an incredible job in that zoo and I want to thank you for being here really are engaged not only this issue but community and city process and certainly appreciate all that you're doing would you like to say a few words? thank you thank you to the committee and to the city staff and to the community that's all been working on and to see all the passion and the city about Breford Park and all the attention that it's getting it's truly the park in San Antonio that you can say everybody uses so it's a very exciting time for us it's got really three layers to it there's this historic, incredible, historic layer where the estate is and the water works there's a recreational layer that we know families have been pulling up for generations it's very inspiring to see and then there's a natural layer to the park it's really a wonderful green space among our community so it's very important for people just a little bit of clarification on the garage but I know it's coming up a couple of times the zoo has been working independently on the garage since my arrival in December of 2014 right when I came on board my SA had run full of community and asked where's parking in San Antonio and where's Breford Park one hand down so we've been working on this it's an issue of the park accessibility traffic and parking are big issues today I walked just from the pan down to the front of the zoo and 52 negative signs coming in talking about our park directions 52 negative signs with no parking tow zones and things like that between the stadium and the zoo and then going the other way towards Cuba there's 20 signs so 72 signs in about half a mile stating no parking so it's not a very welcoming experience in the park and what we're trying to do with our parking garage is build a garage on a school district parking lot just adding another 600 spots and we want this garage to be free for the community to come down and use access to the zoo the park, the witty, the museum and all the great attractions that are down there so I just wanted to clarify one of those points with our friends independent it just happened to also land with the master plan to build the garage on the perimeter of the zoo on the park on non-park property so that's what we're doing and I'll be here afterwards and thank you for coming out following me to the zoo when you come and visit happy to have you and happy to be engaged thank you Mr. Mayor appreciate it so I think what's really neat about what's occurred over the summer is that top of mind has been Brackenridge Park in fact no offense to the other parks in our city but Brackenridge Park showed why it is an important park sitting wide it really was the park we were all talking about and my hope is that we can turn that into an incredible positive momentum for our city for this park you know you talked about some of the items that were some positive and huge things speak to some of those items so for example one of them was restore natural park features and improve water quality so because the San Juan River runs through the park there were a lot of opportunities to improve the way storm water runoff reaches the San Juan River to reduce the amount of pollutants that reach the river so in the master plan it talks about low impact design features which are really water cleansing type of features through vegetation and vital swells things that are natural not anything mechanical but purely a natural landscaping environment also the Catapa Pershing which is kind of somewhat is a moat to Breckinridge Park to Broadway it is a concrete ditch that serves as a restore water runoff and using and restoring that making that in that eco restoration having it look more natural very similar to the mission reach of the San Juan River where you're able to maybe have some bike and hike trails next to it but it again serves as a natural environment for birds for wildlife and not just basically a family drainage channel that separates the park from Breckinridge Mr. Colonel Breckinridge had essentially a water work so the Asakia systems and some of the water works tunneling systems are still present in the park the pump house the original pump house that where water was used to be channeled those are all still existing but in the park but are in disrepair over time need some work to either restore them or repurpose them into more maybe a fuse that is compatible with park users today and then the last one talked about the perimeter of the park really if you think about Breckinridge Park and they're really like signage and a common theme or look so that when you're in Breckinridge Park you really feel like you've arrived and you've come to the park so that receives some positive feedback and the idea of how do we approach the park and know that if you are there that you're not going the wrong way you're trying to get to the witty as opposed to the zoo and wayfinding and directional things adapt to the nature. Those are the three strategies that have overwhelming public support. In this question we'll go to Zia Gromis we've both got a tour of the park you guys will see some of the items here speak to some of the the availability of funds for deferred maintenance and what you saw regarding that capacity to address those issues. So what we one of the areas that we know that needs some maintenance is the retaining walls of Breckinridge Park and over the past couple of years we have been investing roughly about half a million dollars to make some of those repairs. The 2017 budget that the city manager will be sending to the council on Thursday is recommending a commitment of $500,000 to continue with those repairs. Also the Amida Flores Park is in need of some repairs as well. Some of the structures are historic and we need to preserve them. So we are including in the budget $300,000 dedicated to that park. So that's what we have in our operating budget within our general fund but we are aware that the need is well beyond those $800,000 that I mentioned. So one of the areas that we are looking at is the bond program and as Mike Christie presented some of the very early proposals for consideration of the council and the community is roughly about $7.5 million that could be utilized to make improvements to the park. So one of the areas that as Xavier mentioned and the community has noticed is some of the structural aspects of the park. The catalpa drainage ditch that needs to be repaired, the retaining walls and overall to make the park more attractive to also get rid of some of the invasive vegetation that we have in some of the areas of the park so we can feature some of the architectural aspects of the park in a much better functional way. So that is how we as staff are making those recommendations for council consideration to address some of those maintenance issues that are necessary to make to our park. And some of these items when we're talking that they're somewhat timely because they're being held by temporary temporary structures. Is that correct? That's correct. So when we started the program to address some of the river walls we only had a small section of failure or blowout. Since that time there have been two other large areas that have appeared one year away in the museum that's right next to the development improvements they've made and then this other piece down by member beach in another large section. So one of the challenges we're having to, it's not a challenge but the difference is as opposed to any other wall is that in a lot of these cases we end up creating a new re-fortified wall and the old historic mason work goes on top of that almost as a facade. So it's not as easy as ripping something out and putting something in new engineer. We actually have to deliberately and purposefully take apart what's there and we're able to salvage it and then build the engineer piece and then go back and put that old historic mason work back in so that again it keeps the integrity of the historic feature of the park. The park is on the national register of historic places there's all kind of state designations as well so it's very different from any other part too that we cannot just come in and make major changes to the park, the park itself and the integrity of it at least physically has to stay in time. That's really an important piece for a fortified history because of all the history I got to see some of this just yesterday in which there's pieces of this park, the historic park that are preserved by being covered up. Is that correct? Correct. So actually with one of those people really not knowing that much about historic features have in some way helped preserve some of them because they're either covered or people do not really visit those areas or frequent them very often but at the same time it doesn't bring awareness and the public will to see some of those improvements made. So some of the Ezekias, some of the walls have been covered, some of the soot or the fill that has occurred in parts of the river are somewhat holding up and protecting some of the historic areas and so that's another component that makes it a little challenging. We are making those improvements is not only with the actual wall itself but everything else is surrounded so it almost every inch of reference part is an archeological significant site and so anytime we do anything there we usually have UTSA opportunity to look at it the park itself is just rich in both pre-historic historic pre-colonial German settlers, I mean the history of San Antonio is in that part and so anything we do we have to do it very carefully. So let's go back to the items that were and we like that as as negative pieces, let's reaffirm what we don't want let's go to the items. So what we heard in the public comment and we saw across the board both in the exercise where people went to the board and were able to identify areas that they supported on support both the common cards I would say the number one thing that people were really against was the people who were the tram. The concept of having some type of system where you were required to be able to navigate within the park only through the utilization of this mechanism was not supported very strongly. The next really dealt with reducing parking and what that was again what we heard were people that felt the accessibility of being able to drive right into Grimeridge Park to drive very close to maybe your destination whether it's a specific picnic pad or place where you're used to picnicking or wherever that is and being able to have that parking readily available and so convenient was something that people did not want to give up. And the other was road closures and the concern there was again and I can relate to that because you know Breckridge Park is kind of a motor park in a certain way and so part of that was the ability of being able to drive through the park from one area to another to be able to not walk if you didn't want to and the ability to be able to as part of your enjoyment being able to experience you know as you're driving through the park the wonders of it and the nature of it so people were not in favor of closing any of the existing streets. And then the reduced and pervious cover really gets to the parking lots. So one of the things that the consultants looked at was how do we recapture some green space in the park? How do we get some of that back? But unless you're eliminating a building, the parking is covered or is existing and so the community through this process was not in favor of removing any of the parking or any of the structures that are there today. Let's talk about some of the comments. I think this really leads us to receive this report with some of the comments and others who with all kinds of comments give you a take on some of the more surprising comments about the park. I don't think they were just really surprising. I think everyone of these who especially from the park perspective we know how popular it is especially at Easter and the holidays that's something that the parks department embraces. You know we make, we go to extra efforts that during those holidays we provide facilities whether that's additional correlates, additional roll off trash containers, whether it's volunteers going out and handing out recycling bags for recycling of bottles and cans. That is something that we are very aware of and again we embrace and celebrate every year we get a media release that we put out about a week before Easter listing all the parks within the city assuming that you're able to camp in overnight. So that's something that we're very aware of. I think probably some of the things that were the most surprising really dealt with the ability to drive through the park. I think we do have some challenges of people who use the park as a cut through to get to other destinations that's not within the park to put it bluntly but I think there are other methods that consultants can look at that do not require the closure of park to maybe mitigate for some of that. So I think that was one of the ones that I was a little bit more surprised that across the board not closing any of the streets was what the Was it one of the comments about the golf course? Yes. So there was a conversation around the golf course which itself is historic and it was kind of one of these instead of reducing parking and adding a great lawn why not just recapture the golf course and open that up and then you wouldn't have to lose parking. That is a whole different subject and a whole policy discussion around that. It is part of the Municipal Golf Association. It is one of six courses. It is I would say the backbone of the system. Financially it helps support the other golf courses that we have in the community whether they be in District 8 or District 3 all the ones that we have through the system are supported mainly by Brevenridge and again it is historic so that was a little bit of a surprise but I think that kind of goes with the idea of the public looking at alternatives trying to participate and say we don't like this idea but the goal we are trying to reach is goal A we think there are other strategies to reach there and they all should be considered and we agree that that is a great exercise because we are going to look at something that needs to be looked at and look at all the strategies and all the strategies may not work just like some of these strategies didn't work but that doesn't mean they shouldn't be vetted and at least explain and explore I agree with you in reading some of these comments and there is quite a few one of the website comments that I found very intriguing the park has been a driving part since horse and buggy days I thought that was great talks speaks to history and how people feel very much connected to their park and what it means to be San Antonio and what it means to be a little different it also talks about involving the people who use the park I think these are all very worthy comments and really speak to the passion of our city and the passion for this park seeing that there is some items that are just non-starters I think we can safely say that we will not be pursuing those certainly I would like to talk about as been mentioned there is no need to rush my own parks commissioner said come see it because that's probably offers some opportunity to really further build on the trust that we need to earn with our community all too often we are doing a process that sometimes makes people feel left out and this park has been top of mind all summer long it's an opportunity to carry that momentum and I just want to say as chair of this community we are not going to do this process without the community that's a very important process as a state to involve the people who actually use the park with that you think there is an opportunity to slow this down a bit and reaffirm some of these positive items if we can go switch the slide over to the positive stuff if we take some of these things that are supported and then build on some of these comments and ideas where we are actually involving community input and doing it at the park so now it's no longer looking at the drawing and using red dots but rather finding a more innovative approach to community involvement community engagement at this park to truly master plan this to truly say this is what it feels like I can only imagine there's nobody in here that can argue with a kid who would actually tell you what it would be at a park so we've had this discussion and I see an incredible opportunity here to have a more engaged process with the community maybe an innovative approach to master planning speak to us about that is that something we could do and then maybe come back to Newark I think definitely what we saw is the draft was a draft it's always been a draft it's been finalized with it and I think through the work of the community and yourself we've been able to enlarge that conversation but that conversation today has been focused around those areas that were of the most concern so I think if we move forward and we have those areas off the table that allows us then now to concentrate on the areas where there is a consensus and where there is support and how do we even grow that further and how do we make sure that moving through these areas where there is general support that we are doing it the correct way and the way that it reflects what the general public is expecting to see at the end and I think that's critical because you know what we have right now our concepts and some renderings but as you all have said when you're actually out on the park it is a different environment you see symbols of historic structures and you get to hear the story about them and understand how they were used and how they're not being used today or potentially being used today that's a different type of engagement than through an exercise that was done today so there is something we could do where we actually do some on-site engagement you know for lack of a better word some type of charrette exercise but it's a little bit more interactive and more engaging with the park user on-site yes and I would say we would want to deploy whatever is available to us to help with that experience the idea is whether it's a mock up, a charrette utilizing some of the highest technologies down to zero technology, very low tech to help people understand what that experience might be I think that would be a worthy cause and it could certainly help innovate this process to truly include the community and the users of the park as part of what we're doing at this park Councilman if I may add I think one of the conversations that Xavier and I have is that we would like to take the opportunity all the comments that we got from the public that we should have done from the very beginning and that is to engage the community at the beginning of the process even before we brought the draft recommendation to the neighborhood center of the village so we are excited about this opportunity to take the input and the comments that we got from the community and as Xavier mentioned in your conversations as well to do an innovative approach to bring the community to the park and talk about those potential improvements that we can make to the Bracken Bridge park Thank you, I think everybody could get excited about that to really truly be an engagement piece and I think it will help sort of keep this park top of mind as we go into the fall Councilman Simion if you would Sure, I just want to add on top of that that Councilman and I have a few conversations about what is the next step here understanding that there were some mistakes made at the beginning of this process and so you need to understand whether we want to admit it or not the city has made mistakes around transparency and inclusion on this process but also other processes and what we are trying to say with this example is that we actually would not be here but for the community finding the issue without our help, found it on their own brought us to a point where we are questioning whether this actually is a thing of surprise in regard to the plans of Bracken Bridge and we need to learn something from this lesson we need to learn that oftentimes not just with Bracken Bridge but other things that we are taking out of the city of the projects that were too often putting forward a product that doesn't get included for the first part of that was the people that were using it that's why I think the strategy which is sort of a hybrid is taking it out to the community where we know there will be members and users in this case Bracken Bridge Park asking them about what they envision in this area as a park user today and doing that multiple times over but if there is any lesson I think is what you are getting to is that if we are missing out especially on a project like this on a community and they can easily criticize like they have on this one at the end of the day when saying look this is a draft plan it's almost half way big not fully big and we still get to fear about it and I think that's what we are trying to get a complete ride on so the only question I would ask if I can share this are we now making a statement of the fact that what is read what is we heard from community members that we do not want to see in the future of Bracken Bridge are we moving these off the table correct we would not move an item forward that would include these items that did not have the public support that would have been the normal process of a draft master plan to begin with I think the issue we had here is the public process that we did have a place because there was one that was not inclusive or robust enough and that's what we try to do when we correct that with the draft we take that draft master plan out and I think what we are going to see now is even when we look at zip codes how it still is very concentrated in the areas neighboring the park I think if we are really looking at park users and really engaging that component I think this next exercise of taking something out to the park and doing it in the park when people are there we will get some feedback from that I think that's something that has not traditionally been done and I think it's a good test for us to see what kind of engagement do we get what kind of information and to bring that back to the committee because we either will get some really good feedback or we may hear that people aren't engaged but we don't know at this point and I think that's the thing we can't answer that engagement because we are going to make it fun we are parks we are going to have fun so part of that is we are going to make it fun we are going to have other type of activities to it because this is the day I've always said through all the years I've presented to Merritt Council has been a park isn't any good no one wants to go to an empty park is not a park so that's just green space so the idea is we want to make sure we have something that's what the public wants to see and where we use well let's do it let's move forward because I know what is true is that everybody wants to see improvements made at Brackenridge Park there's some low hanging fruit some maintenance issues some historic upgrades that we need to make and we want to do those but let's get this right and let's go out and see it in a way that creates a new model for us thank you thank you Councilman thank you chair first of all I'm very glad to hear that and get input from park users because like I said earlier Brackenridge Park is standing for this park we want to make sure that we get it right because it's coming upon us so I'm glad that we're going to take a new approach to this and get it right for residents to have an expectation of what Brackenridge Park should be so we're going to move ahead as the evil does down at the park so we got a second stuff and glad to be a part of it thank you Councilman and I'm assuming this is an example do we have a council action on this can we have action on this yes the action that we would ask the committee to take today is to support and not receive public support from the drop master plan and they go back and begin the public process for those items that did receive public support so we can hear the community start that process and then bring that back to the neighborhoods end of ability committee with a recommendation that includes a public input I will make that motion and pay credit or credit to you I think this is actually okay alright we have a motion to move forward on the items that have been supported and to discuss items that have not been supported and also to begin a very innovative community engagement piece that I think we all look forward to and we're going to hold you to the fun part so with that all those in favor so thank you David thanks again to your staff on all your helpfulness thank you my hand for all your support thank you thank everybody in the community for all your support and the conservancy for being here tonight and I know there was a question slide at the end but we didn't quite get to the slide and I had some questions I don't know if anyone else did well so the questions basically are reported from the committee you're welcome to talk to us after we answer you offer a to be heard but you're welcome to come talk to us after this meeting well this was my first meeting I kind of missed all the other ones because I didn't hear about them until afterwards okay well again just know that we're reaffirming that the community engagement piece we look forward to talking to you again my name is thank you so much for all you've done I want to thank the design team tomorrow for being here again staff so with that we'll move on to item number two