On the record is brought to you by Steve and Adele Dufilho San Antonio is a fast growing, fast moving city with something new happening every day.

That's why each week we go on the record with Randy Beamer and the newsmakers who are driving this change.

Then we gather at the Reporters Roundtable to talk about the latest news stories with the journalist behind those stories.

Joining us now as we go on the Record with Randy Beamer.

Hi, everybody, and thank you for joining us for this edition of On the Record.

I'm Randy Beamer.

And this week we're going to talk about a number of things from the San Antonio water system, looking at some proposed impact fees that will affect developers.

We'll get to that.

But first, we're going to be talking about a couple of city departments, parts of the city government you may not know about.

One of them just came out with a new report.

This is the city office of Sustainability and the sustainability officer, Doug Melnick joins us today.

Thank you very much for coming in.

Thanks for having me.

Before we get into this report, you just came out with a 2023 report about what you've done, where you're going.

Looking ahead.

For those who do not know the Office of Sustainability and how long it's been around and what it does, In a nutshell, what is it?

You know, we're the department in the city that really is focused on looking forward and looking to the future and and focused on addressing efficiency throughout the organization.

Tackling climate change is really being our been our big charge since city council adopted the climate plan back in 2019.

And there is an office of innovation.

It's different than the sustainability in that office of Innovation is really looking at.

They focus very much on cutting edge technologies.

You hear about smart cities.

I think there's a big close relationship between our two offices.

We're basically looking forward to how can we do things better, more efficiently, more sustainably, and and really look towards those new emerging trends.

Now, in your report that just came out, I thought it was there's a lot of interesting information, but I thought it was fascinating that right up at the top and in big, bold print, you say despite skepticism around climate change or climate action in San Antonio, this report is proof of our city's dedication to sustainability.

First of all, what are you talking about exactly?

And despite skepticism.

Yeah, because is it skepticism of climate change itself or a San Antonio action on it?

And I'll frame this with this is not a San Antonio issue.

I think, you know, there's there's skepticism, skepticism from some members of the community that we're not doing enough quickly enough.

And I think I acknowledge that when you look at the climate science, when you look at the the latest national climate assessment, the science is clear.

We need to do more faster.

So I wanted to acknowledge that.

But I also wanted to highlight all of the work that the city, city office, sustainability, other departments and other partner agencies like CPS Energy are doing.

A lot is happening.

One of the biggest things is the city Solar project $30 million project launched last year, a huge, huge project.

Basically, it's a solar installations at 42 city sites, providing clean power directly to those buildings.

It'll cover about 11% of the city's electricity consumption.

It's funded in large part through resources from the Federal Inflation Reduction Act, and it'll pay for itself in a matter of, you know, ten years or so.

You know, again, it shows that we can do this.

The markets there, the benefits span not just saving money and improving resilience, but improving air quality, improving health outcomes.

We're super excited about that project and that also it serves as an example to other businesses as well because it's on that scale.

What are some of the examples that you're doing right now that people can adopt?

Well, so I think know one, getting back to that solar example, we were able to take advantage of these federal tax credits for the first time due to the Inflation Reduction Act.

Any entity that doesn't pay taxes can do the same thing school districts, universities, nonprofits.

So we're hoping to get the word out to show that this is how we did it and how you can do it to save money and reduce your your carbon emission.

The money is still out there coming in from the federal government through this.

It's available now.

And so we'll be setting up some listening sessions where we'll want to get the word out and sit down with these other entities to really learn about what we're doing.

Electrifying our vehicles.

By the end of 2025, we'll have 100 full, fully electric vehicles in our fleet.

They're more efficient.

They save money long term.

And again, there's federal incentives.

Our work on trying to mitigate urban heat, island painting, parking lots, large parking lots with a lighter, reflective material, help cool a parking cool pavement.

Hope.

Well, that's a new thing you talked about last year, the first in Texas.

As I understand it, we had the largest and first deployment in Texas.

We just finished our first major deployment from last summer and UTSA delivered a report that we'll be releasing soon that shows how the pavement performs and what the results were.

Yes.

So the Southwest research is actually done testing of how what the heat is in the air or in the whole.

It was it was UTSA, UTSA, I'm sorry, they deployed students and faculty to in the heat of summer to go out to these sites and basically use multiple sensors to see what's the temperature of the surface, what's the temperature at six feet up, as well as how are these materials performing in terms of safety?

How about the surrounding area?

Did they test that as well?

I mean, is it just it's also there's also a control site.

So basically, we want to understand how the material performs and how it performs compared to a site that doesn't have that material.

And this is another thing that businesses could adopt, even people at their own homes, just lighter pavement, lighter, lighter, lighter roof materials.

We're actually going to be launching later this year our second phase of our heat mitigation program.

We want to concentrate on a few key areas based upon their level of of heat and different equity indicators.

And the goal is how do we layer multiple measures in a concentrated location, cool pavement, reflective roofs, trees, green infrastructure, which is basically a way of managing stormwater using natural systems.

How do we layer all of these up and working with UTSA to measure the impact?

We want to figure out what's the formula to get to a certain result?

Want to get to trees in a minute, but first, when you mentioned EVs, now EVs have had a little bit of bad press recently.

You know, there's charging stations, people aren't as willing to get into EVs because they don't think there's a network yet.

The city is trying to help with the network, at least for the city and around.

Where are we with that?

Yeah, so we've we've deployed charging infrastructure that's probably accessible at multiple city facilities.

We're also building out our own municipal network for our own vehicles.

I think it's also a learning process.

We have a EV for, say, a communications and educational program.

You know, one of the things about EVs and I recently purchased a used EV this past year, there's also federal incentives for for that as well for our used for used or new so people can check that out.

You'll learn a lot once you get it.

I charge my vehicle at night and that gets me, you know, the charge that I need throughout the day.

And that's how most people do it.

So how much do you save?

Because you still have to use electricity compared to gas driving around the same.

How much are you spending?

Yeah, it's I haven't checked it out for myself yet, but based upon studies and other research, there are significant savings.

You know, EVs are just more efficient than gas powered vehicles.

They also have lower maintenance costs.

I think what we're seeing nationally is and I'm sure you've seen in the news, there are some manufacturers that are starting to sort of reduce some of their projections.

But I think the overall trend is we're still seeing an increase in in EV purchases.

But again, like I said, it's an a still a an emerging technology that people are learning to get used to.

How about at home solar and what impact that has now?

It used to be through CPS, you could get a rebate, I believe, locally or some kind of credit that's gone away with the advent of what's called community solar.

Right.

What is the adoption of that?

Yes.

So right now, CPS still has solar incentives for, I believe, nonprofit entities.

So there's still an opportunity.

But CPS will hopefully be rolling out their next community solar program later this year and they can't get it out fast enough.

And that means people in apartments as well as wherever you get your.

And if you don't have a roof, basically you buy a subscription and you get that that benefit of of solar.

It's we know we're seeing solar exploding not just in San Antonio and Texas, but nationally.

And I think distributed solar is going to be key to our our success not only in meeting climate goals, but from a resilience factor and a number of things that you mentioned in here that are coming up in 2024.

But you also mentioned specifically you're looking forward to some new projects.

You haven't mentioned that.

Well, one of the big ones I really want to make sure folks are aware of, you know, when we talk about addressing sustainability and climate, it's it's not up to just a government.

It really takes the community.

So in that spirit, Council has approved funding in our budget for this year to launch a S.A Climate Ready Community Action Fund and basically is that that is grants up to $20,000 to community organizations or businesses really hopefully focusing on service businesses to implement various components of the climate plan that could be creating a community garden or getting renewable or electric vehicles or working on an organics diversion program.

Basically anything we just want to look for projects that are going to have measurable successes and measurable goals that we can quantify.

But it's about empowering the community.

And if folks are interested in learning more about that, those applications are live.

They closed April 30th and they can find out information at a sustainability income, and that's where they can also find out about this 2023 report that you're just 2023 report is there.

And we also want to highlight that there's also information, again for residents around all of the federal tax incentives that are available that they can take advantage of.

All right.

Well, thanks very much.

Springtime time to plant things.

We can all do that.

Doug Melnick, City of San Antonio, sustainability officer, appreciate your time.

Thank you so much.

Another city of San Antonio Department you might not have heard a lot about or even know exists.

And I have to read it here.

There is the Economic development department, the Global Engagement Office, and the head of that, the chief diplomacy and protocol officer.

The head of global engagement is Sheri Deutsch Shahi, who is also.

Thanks for coming in, first of all, appreciate it.

And congratulations that you were just named the World Affairs Council here.

They're international, global Citizen of the Year, which is cool.

And we'll get to what that means in just a minute.

But first, what is the Department of Global Engagement?

People might wonder why does the city of San Antonio have this?

What do you do?

Well, thank you, Randy.

Thank you for having me.

The global engagement is a division of the economic Development Department, which has four divisions overall.

And we are obviously within the city organization, the Economic Development Department is one of 40 plus city departments.

So global engagement is the area within the city that provides that front door for international groups, international visitors when they come to interact with our mayor and the city council members, we are in charge of protocol, international protocol for the city.

We promote our official relationships around the world.

We help and work with our international business and trade.

Again, all of this work done with our community partners.

We work very closely with the community like Greater Seattle and other groups that go out as well, certainly.

And a big success story of people under why is this dates back to the eighties.

Henry Cisneros, the first sister city, was in Japan.

And coming out of it directly is when that Toyota announced that they were going to create their manufacturing plant in San Antonio.

We look at our history of our relationship with with Japan.

It started back in 1986, 87, and it was under then Mayor Henry Cisneros when they signed a sister city agreement fast track foreword.

It was very relevant when Toyota made the decision to invest incentives.

And there are other sister cities as well as friendship cities.

Absolutely.

You're looking ahead at those.

What are some of those cities we have?

So we have 12 sister cities around the world, six of them in Asia, one in Africa, three in Europe, two here in the Americas.

And we have three friendship cities.

And the friendship cities are less formal, let's say they're not formalized by city ordinance.

And we also have some letters of intent or more use that have been signed in the past.

But it's all about official relationships, global relationships and our engagement in the world and economic development, because that's what you're under and it has paid off over the years.

Some people wonder, this is diplomacy and protocol.

It sounds a little high flying for a city, but it it pays off, of course.

And when we say economic development is really those long term outcomes in terms of jobs that our community attracts and those jobs and they increase the quality of life.

Over the last ten years, there have been more than 60 international projects in the San Antonio region with more than $9 billion of capital expenditure from the U.K. recently.

That was one of the the one that was recently announced.

Yes, it was a few months ago, a greater asset announced it.

I mean, that was, again, another game changing announcement is going to be an investment that is going to obviously have positive outcomes over the years to come.

And now on to the World Affairs Council and your new global citizen Award.

Tell us about that.

What the World Affairs Council does.

It's here in San Antonio, this group, and it's been around for a while.

That also helps in economic development.

So the World Affairs Council of San Antonio is one of more than 60 world affairs councils around the country.

It's an organization, a nonprofit that promotes foreign affairs, foreign policy awareness, and also supports, for instance, youth and education in terms of international relations.

And so it's very important for a city like ours to have an organization like the World Affairs Council of San Antonio and their once a year annual fundraise, or is their International Citizen of the Year.

Is that coming up?

Bob Gates is going to speak?

Yes.

Yes.

Dr. Gates will be the keynote speaker on March March the seventh.

And that's going to be a wonderful night.

And we hope that if any of anyone watching this program is interested in coming to hear Bob Gates speak, that they sign up with the World Affairs Council website.

All right.

Well, thank you very much and congratulations on that global Thank you.

Award frequent flier miles.

I guess so as well for the city.

Anyway, thank you.

De La Sheehy, who is the I have to read it, Chief diplomacy and protocol officer of the head of global engagement for the city of San Antonio.

Thanks.

Thank you so much.

Out Reporters Roundtable this week we are talking about some new saws and Antonio water systems fees because of a whole lot of growth and much of it they predict over the next ten years.

In fact, I know it's hard to believe how much growth they are predicting to talk about.

That is Liz Tight, who wrote a article on this recently and reporter for the Express-News and The Hill, Country and Environment.

Thank you very much for coming in.

This isn't a done deal yet, but what are they looking at in terms of these new fees?

These impact fees won't hit everybody.

It's not your regular water user, but new ones, right?

So these are one time fees that are paid at the time of connection.

So if you're building a new house or a new office building or a new hotel, that's the point at which they're paid.

But if you're a homebuyer, you might see the cost as you're buying your new house.

And what are these range from?

So they vary by location because they're all based on how much it costs SaaS to move water and wastewater around the city.

So on the northwest side, where the elevation is highest, it costs the most to push water uphill.

And it's job exactly.

And it's farther to go downhill then to get to the wastewater treatment plants, which are mostly on the south side.

So in that area, you know, fees are going to go up as high as about $11,000, up from about 80 $500 in some parts of the south side, where it costs less to move that water numbers are closer to 7300.

And that's all based on per one dwelling unit.

And in your story also, you highlight that there's a I guess, a committee that looked at this and then recommended these fees.

And most of the people on that committee are are real estate developers or in that industry, which might surprise you about the number or the amount of the fees, but they're okay with that.

Yeah.

State law requires that 40% of the committee is from the real estate and development industry.

But the current committee is made up of 60% and those committee members are appointed by city council and by the mayor, and they use all of these various state laws and requirements to determine exactly how much of their development costs can be reached by these fees.

They're going to say they're going to pass those on to homebuyers.

This is one of those things that sellers needs to do.

And why I mean, we're talking growth, but how much are we looking at?

Well, there's a lot of growth.

Source has to update them.

They're required to every five years.

But part of why they're climbing so much is because SaaS is seeing so much growth.

They're projecting somewhere in the realm of around 160,000 new water equivalent dwelling units, which is long term.

It basically means the amount of water that an average residential home is expected to use per day.

A home?

Yes, a house, but not an apartment.

Correct.

So an apartment or a condo would be assessed a fee, a half dwelling unit metric and something like a hotel or an event venue.

We'll have to calculate that.

And that's all part of SaaS process, as you know, when you're signing up to connect.

But 160,000 new equivalents to a residential home, that's a lot of water.

That means it's a lot more infrastructure.

This all needs to put in to get the water to those and a lot of people and some of that, does that also go to maintenance?

I mean, that's in a residential they are fees homeowners you know somebody an apartment there are fees for that already but this is an addition to that to to defray costs of growth.

And this is only for capital costs.

So when SaaS is determining or when the committee is determining these fees, they can't take into account operations and maintenance.

It's only for new capital costs.

And that's all part of the regulations that govern this.

And this is, again, not a done deal.

But in March, they're going to look at and voting on this and then when would it take effect?

So after assuming that the science board approves it in March, it would then go to city council.

They would have to have a public hearing on it and adopt it on two readings.

So looking at tentatively June would be when they would take effect.

So if you're looking at buying a house, maybe buy it before June, maybe not Talk to your realtor, maybe.

But you know, new house, the increase is the largest percentage increase is going to be on that far northwest side outside of 1604 kind of along I-10.

And it's going up about $3,000 there.

So you have to take that into account, I guess.

How much is your house and how much does $3,000 factor into it?

And I asked you this before and it's an unfair question.

I know.

So I wonder, do you have any idea whether this is going to pass?

As the committee recommended, it soars and then the city council now have to vote.

When it was brought to the size board, they were they seemed supportive of it.

They asked some clarifying questions, but I didn't hear any questions that indicated that they weren't going to be supportive.

But I don't like to predict what elected officials are going to do.

That's their job to report on them.

Elected officials also up in San Marcos made a decision on a proposed buckets.

Tell us about that, because I know you've had a lot of response to it.

Any story about Bucky's Always.

Bucky's is always big news around here.

The San Marcos City Council voted last night to approve tax incentives for a new Bucky's.

So they're looking at a location on IE 35 on the south bound frontage road just south of it's called the Carrington Road is the intersection.

But if you're in San Antonio, the thought is if you drive through San Marcos and just keep going a little bit, you'll hit it.

Or if you're headed south, it'll be there.

The thought is there.

If you drive through San Marcos, you've already driven by a Bucky's in New Braunfels, 20 miles away.

What kind of response that you get from people in the area?

There were a couple of folks who spoke up at council last night who had some questions about why the city was giving incentives to this big corporation saying, you know, small businesses are the backbone of San Marcos and that they should be the ones incentivize.

But the council across the board was very supportive.

They talked about how glad they were to have Bucky's wages and Bucky's benefits available.

And part of the tax agreement that they reached with the company is that they have to make an attempt to hire local employees and local contractors.

And 20 miles away from the Bucky's, you mentioned that, well, one's on the one side for southbound ones for northbound.

Is that the concept?

I think so.

I don't want to read Bucky's mind, but, you know, if you're headed south from Austin, you can access this new Bucky's without ever going through any kind of traffic signal.

You just come off the interstate onto the frontage road and then hop back on.

And I think that's what makes it an appealing location and it's expected to be a full sized Bucky's, not a mini Bucky's because it's just down the road, 74,000 square feet.

So not quite the largest Bucky's, but it's pretty close by my understanding.

All right.

A lot of people are nuggets as well.

Now, you also have reported on kind of a environmental fight up in the Hill country that, you know, there's been a lot of chapters on this, but it's over the warbler or a warbler.

Tell us about that.

Sure.

So there is a developer just in northern Bear County, so outside of city limits and Cibolo Canyons is a development and the developer is looking to swap land in and out of a conservation easement, which is land that was set aside to protect the golden sheep warbler, which is endangered.

So the developer has land in the same area or nearby from the development and the swap wouldn't be a one for one acreage.

They're going to give the developer would get more acreage than they would get or take from that conservation easement.

Correct.

The developer wants to take out about 33 acres because it says it would make its development work contiguous and that it would overall reduce the development area and they would add in 144 acres on the different side of the development.

But to contiguous part, I guess that's one of the concerns of people who are against the swap because the the warbler environment would be less contiguous or less what they're used to in the area of the Warblers that that like that conservation easement right now.

Some of the concern is about specifically the tree coverage on those different pieces of property.

So I've heard from some residents in the area who say that, you know, the canopy cover of the trees on the land that is currently protected is much better for the Warblers.

It better suits what they like than the land that the developer is proposing to add.

But I talked to the developer and they're saying that they've been doing surveys and that the Warbler has not actually been seen on that land that they're looking to remove in about 20 years.

And they think the land they're looking to add would be beneficial for the Warblers.

And again, this is still early in the stages or at least hasn't been final Approval from Fish and Wildlife is at it.

Yes, US Fish and Wildlife because it's related to endangered species.

They're the ones who are going to have the final say.

So they collected public comments up to last week and now it's in their hands to make a decision.

Any timeline on that?

I don't think so.

All right.

Well, thanks very much.

Interesting stuff, Liz Tights, reporter for the Express-News and The Hill Country and on the Environment.

Appreciate you coming in and thank you for joining us for this edition of On the Record.

You can download this show, look at it again, download any show or the podcast.

Just go to KLRN.org I'm Randy Beamer and we'll see you next time on the record is brought to you by Steve and Adele Dufilho