Tovo direction for Convention Center items 18, 48, and 95

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Shannon Halley
Posts: 36
Joined: Mon Nov 24, 2014 10:27 am

Tovo direction for Convention Center items 18, 48, and 95

Post by Shannon Halley »

The City Council directs the City Manager as follows:

1) The Convention Center expansion – and all actions to advance that project – should substantially align with the placemaking imperatives of the Palm District Planning Initiative (formerly referred to as “Palm District Master Plan”) as expressed in Resolution 20190523-029.

2) The Project Team for the Convention Center Expansion currently includes Conventional Wisdom, CBRE, the Office of Real Estate, the Law Department, and the Convention Center. The City’s project team should expand to include a representative from the University of Texas Center for Sustainable Development (assuming such an arrangement can be secured) and the city staff members from the Urban Design Division, Parks and Recreation, and Economic Development departments who serve on the Palm District Planning Initiative R/UDAT Steering Committee.

3) The Council affirms its intent that if the Convention Center is expanded westward, a substantial portion of the existing facility would be removed and reconfigured as public open space to create a gateway to Palm Park and Waterloo Greenway. By December 1, 2020, and prior to a purchase and lease agreement for the western tracts coming to Council for deliberation, the City Manager shall bring for Council approval design elements that reflect this commitment as well as the Council intent of ensuring development in the area along Waller Creek accords with the Waller Creek (Waterloo Greenway) Regulating Plan.

4) References to the area surrounding the Convention Center shall describe it as the “Palm District” rather than the “Convention Center District.”

5) The City Manager shall return to Council with a budget amendment at the next feasible Council meeting to appropriate funding in the Convention Center Capital Fund that is derived from the 2% hotel occupancy tax (HOT) for expansion to cover the cost of the earnest money required for item 95 on today’s agenda.
Senior Policy Advisor
Office of Kathie Tovo, District 9