City Council Highlights – February 5, 2024
Last updated on February 05, 2024
City Council Update 2.5.24
CITY COUNCIL WORKSHOP – Stormwater Update
We continue to see tremendous growth across our community. Additionally, as you know, in 2022 we had unprecedented rainfall and historic flooding from Hurricane Ian. These types of storm events and the continued growth we’re seeing continue to put a significant demand on our stormwater infrastructure. As a city, maintaining these operations and planning for future needs, is a critical function of our Public Works Department and Streets and Stormwater Division.
To give us an update on this, we’d like to call on our Public Works Director, Corey Knight.
CITY COUNCIL MEETING
AWARDS/RECOGNITIONS
We have a number of awards and recognitions today. In a few minutes we’ll hear from Deputy City Attorney Jody Litchford to help us honor Chief Assistant City Attorney Natasha Williams, who is retiring after 35 years.
And then Doug Richards, a proud UCF alum from the mayor's office, will introduce a proclamation to celebrate the UCF cheer team’s national title. But first up is Black History Month.
Black History Month Proclamation
Recognizing Black History Month supports our community’s collective efforts to ensure that Orlando is a welcoming and inclusive city. We are grateful for the members of our City of Orlando team on our Black History Month Planning Committee, who are coordinating events that help our community celebrate Black heritage and history.
We’d like to call on Marcia Hope Goodwin, our Director of Community Affairs, to give us an overview of our Black History Month recognition.
GENERAL ITEMS
2024 U.S. Olympic Team Trials – Marathon Recap and Recognition
This past weekend was a showcase of our vibrant city and downtown as we hosted two big events: the U.S. Olympic Marathon Team Trials and the NFL Pro Bowl Games. We often say that Orlando is the nation’s premier sports event destination and the last few days showed our ability to host impressive events.
So many City of Orlando employees – from every single department - worked hard on the planning and day of management to ensure that both events were impactful. We want to thank them and our many partners who helped us welcome premier athletes, visitors and national television audiences to our community.
ITEMS OF NOTE
B#2 and CRA#5 – Downtown Digital Wayfinding Contract
Moving on to items of note, on today’s agenda, we further our Future-Ready City Master Plan and build upon our smart parking and mobility investments as we look to approve funding for our downtown digital wayfinding system. This new system will add digital signs with real-time information to guide people to open parking garages and curb traffic congestion during major events – ultimately improving the downtown experience.
J#1 – Vision Zero CROSS Agreement
Also on the agenda, as part of our Vision Zero efforts to reduce traffic fatalities, we’ll move forward a joint agreement that will improve safety at our high injury intersections and roadways, including - Kirkman Road, Colonial Drive, Orange Blossom Trail, Orange Avenue and Semoran Boulevard. Through this grant funding we will be able to create safer crossings, construct new bike paths, restore sidewalks and enhance access to transportation options – all making our community safer for all travelers.