(soft music) - [Shelia] It is really good to see you here, as we begin to delve further into, and take in some of your information, some of your questions, some of your concerns as we make our way through what is, what is to be a fluid piece of work for the city, meaning that it can adjust and change at any given time.

But it's very important that you're here.

And the reason, I'll say the reason that we're having this gathering, if you will, this evening is because we wanted to make sure that citizens in district one and district two had the opportunity to really be engaged in this process.

There have been concerns that that had not been the situation, and we vowed that we're not gonna let that happen again.

If folks feel that that's what happened, then we get to fix that thing.

My mama said, if you mess something up, you get an opportunity to do just that.

- What's interesting is when you go back and look at the 1948 plan (gentle music) or the 1958 plan, when they relegated the blacks over here, you look at it, they knew about the chemicals.

They knew about the Mainline Railroad.

They knew about this plant, 'cause it was there.

They knew all of that when they made this plan up back then.

- You know, this was part of the city's plan to concentrate industrial zoning and you know, kind of bad land uses in communities of color.

And this started, you know, since in 1923, the city put together an ordinance that said that African Americans had to live in a certain section of town, modern day Chatman Hill.

I think it said that they could live north of Avenue 16th or east of Avenue C, which no longer exists.

It's I-27 now.

(gentle music) - When you hear statements like we don't want to deal with the past.

That means we don't really want to address that.

We wanna sweep that under the rug and move forward without us even addressing it.

And that, it's kind of hard to do.

If we don't address the issue of what's at hand, how do we move forward from it?

- The city of Lubbock was about to start updating their land use plan for the first time in, gosh, 32 years.

The last one they did was in 1986.

And so they were putting together this plan called the Lubbock 2040 plan.

I was kind of shocked to find that all of the industrial zoning is in the east and the north side.

And we thought, my God, what's going on here?

(gentle music) - [Natalie] This was something that started from 1926, when the city said there's only a specific area in which African American people could reside.

And when they did that, they also, in case, you know, as you look through the years, you had a railroad track on one side, you had industrial sites on one side, you had I-27 on one side.

So when you look at it from overhead, you can clearly see how the community is cut off from the rest of the city.

But again, that wasn't something that I noticed, or even, you know, considered, I could remember as a kid.

- This is the 1959 proposed land use map.

And that dark gray area is industrial.

Okay?

As you can see where you have, where it was predominantly African American and predominantly Hispanic, what do you see the concentration of heavy industry?

This is a 1986 land use plan.

The one on the left is at that time, the existing land use, and as black and brown people started to reside closer to the other portion, you see the difference in the land-use, how it changed.

And that's where you start to see the gray, and the concentration of the heavy industry, where you don't see it in any other areas except for those specific areas.

And this is a 2040, this is what the city is saying, like Miss Edward stated, the city has made plans to say, this is what we want our city to look like in the year of 2040.

This is 2020.

So that's 20 years from now is what the city's saying, This is how we want our city to look.

Take a look at the map.

(gentle music) - I did attend most of the meetings for the 2040 plan.

And I'm glad that they had it in different places.

I know all the way back-dated to 1923 where we, and I'm saying we, as black people, people of color, being African American or African American descent only lived in that flats area.

We could not live west of Avenue C. My grandma lived on 16th and Avenue C. I was born in a home, in a house on 16th and Avenue B.

And that's all I knew until I was four years of age.

That's when I moved over.

I do know there that there have been inequities.

- One of the main things we have to do is we have to sell East Lubbock to our people, to everybody.

It's not just our people, everybody's our people.

We have to sell East Lubbock.

Why can I go just down here and get, you know, a Slurpee, and I can't do it over here, but one place.

Anything they can do, remember Lubbock, East Lubbock is a portion of Lubbock.

There's no different town over here that I know of.

[Shelia] No matter where people are, they want the same thing.

We heard the same thing.

People want their roads, you know, paved, you know.

People want sidewalks.

People want a safe, want safe neighborhoods.

They want to be able to commute from here to there without issues.

It's the same thing.

- I had no idea that a lot of this was even going on in my 26 years of being on the East Side, and living on the East Side at that moment when those plans came out.

And so the educational part about it made me really want to be involved and speak out on issues that I had seen growing up all my life in East Lubbock.

It was just a really eye-opening experience, and I just wanted to have a seat at the table.

- So a comprehensive plan in our case was something that hadn't been done in more than 30 years.

And we appointed a group of more than 30 citizens, who worked with some consultants, and looked at the way land is being used in our community today, identified the way we would like to change that going forward.

It really became more than just land use.

It became a comprehensive plan for the community.

They made five primary recommendations, but there were a number of secondary recommendations, and plenty for us to work on.

- When they formed the CPAC, we each had, were allowed to give names from our districts.

I tried to get representation or pick representation that was pretty much similar to the makeup of our community.

I chose a white male, a Hispanic male, and an African American woman.

They went, the group went through, all throughout the city, and there were some things that maybe I would've liked to have been different.

I know one of the biggest focuses was the north and east areas of the city.

And I think it was very important in that, because something that really kind of went away from what I wanted, the north and east Lubbock community development corporation lost funding from the city.

So I felt like it was, that was a good place to begin addressing the concerns of the northern and eastern portions of the city.

- We had so many of those council meetings is that we, we don't have a voice 'cause we don't have a seat at the table.

After we spoke during those times, I felt like we had more of a seat, but it really didn't count.

- [Billie] I was a chair of the neighborhood association, and I heard about the 2040 plan, and I needed to see how it applied to the area where I live in, which is East Lubbock.

And I wanted to see what kind of plan did they have?

Who did they have setting up that plan?

How did it relate to where we, where I lived?

I found out that the 2040 plan committee had been leading meetings for a long time, and it wasn't that well representative of the people who lived there.

Then I had to find out what was being said.

So it made me upset.

- That plan had been in fruition for over a year and a half, and nobody brought up those concerns, but we weren't educated on it.

The times in the, of the city council meetings, or getting that information to East Lubbock of how to attend a city council meeting, what to do when you attend, or when are those meetings available for us or open to the public.

That's unheard of in East Lubbock.

- So I kept trying to get people in the neighborhood.

Come on, we gotta go.

We gotta tell them how you feel about what you're reading.

And we can no longer be left out.

Stop leaving us out.

When my daddy worked real hard and my mom, and the neighborhood, and they thought they were doing some good, and there were rules, and ordinances that were, we didn't even know about that.

That stopped the progress from where I was living.

- Texas Housers got interested in what was going on in Lubbock because we were working with Legal Aid of Northwest Texas at the time.

They had just received a big grant to look into systemic issues of discrimination, and try to address those through community education and legal action.

And so we were working with them to help kind of research issues, and talked to people on the ground to just figure out what they were going through out here.

(people clapping) And so I started coming out here in about October of 2017, and just started talking to neighborhoods on the east and north side, working with neighborhood associations, community activists, you know, concerned citizens.

And I started talking with the Chatman Hill Neighborhood Association.

And at that time there was just a lot of concern about a nearby cotton oil mill, Pyco, which is off of Avenue A, and they had just had a particularly bad cotton season.

I mean, it was good for them 'cause they were producing a lot of cotton, but for the neighborhood, that's just right across the street from the plant, the cotton oil mill was letting off all of this, just kind of gas and smoke.

Cotton seeds were going everywhere.

There are these huge, when after the ginning season, there are these huge tall piles of cotton seeds that go up about 15 stories, and they were blowing into people's yards, getting caught in people's air conditioning units, people out there have to replace their air conditioning units more often than they should because a cotton seed gets stuck in there, and cause problems.

The question of why don't people just move.

I mean, if you're living in an area that has been bombarded with industrial hazards, doesn't have a lot of private amenities, harder to get a bank loan, your property value is gonna be much lower.

And so it's really hard to sell a house in that area , and then find a comparable house in another part of town.

That's what we're trying to do now as a country is trying to eradicate those segregated living patterns with affordable housing policy that allows for maximum choice.

So affordable housing in those high opportunity areas, and just finding ways to build up those neighborhoods that have been overlooked for generations, so that wherever you live, you're not going to live in a situation where the city isn't treating you equally and fairly.

- Most concerning is most likely the industrial zoning, because I think that shies businesses away.

I think it shies away from development.

As a business, I wouldn't want a customer coming back and saying, hey, we were sitting at your restaurant, and now all of a sudden we're having asthma flare ups because all of the dust from Pyco, right?

Like, you put a McDonald's on top of that, now they have all kind of concerns that go along with that.

And I think that starts a chain effect, a domino effect kind of thing, where we don't have opportunities for kids to get jobs.

I think that's one of my main voices of concern because I work with kids, and I do deal with a lot of kids who come from single family homes.

In the days of having one parent household is few and far between without having some kind of assistance and help.

And I look at our young men, of what are their, our young men and women, of what are the opportunities to help their families?

Do you know what I mean?

A lot of people say, well, anybody can get a job.

Well, anybody can, but do you wanna find a ride every day?

If you're barely making minimum wage, can you afford an Uber every day, and help out mom and dad or supply for yourself?

How do we say they need to go work.

They need to find that sense of responsibility.

Does that trickle effect cause kids to go to the streets, and cause kids to not care about education, and try to find a way to make money, and all of these things, that trickle-effect all the way down.

I think that's a huge thing that's concerning to me.

- When we first began, part of my being on council, started addressing the deal with Pyco, and how do you approach that?

I mean, is that, because people will say, oh well, let's sue.

Well, man, I tell you what, they've got the money, man.

We could, we could be suing them until your grandkids get old.

And so is the best way to work with them to say, hey, let's come up with an idea that can lessen some of those concerns.

I mean, there's been a gamut of things to happen.

I know that Adam Pirtle and his group, and I think AJ McLeod was in on it, Kathy Pope and all those.

The first step was the purple air monitors.

My information is they've not revealed much.

So, I think it just, it's a continuous walk that we have to do, but in the process, if we have a relationship with those folks to say, hey, we want you to do these things to make sure that we remain safe until such time that we figure something else out.

Right now is where we are.

What can we do now?

- Testing, testing.

Can you hear me back there?

Well, good day to everyone.

We're glad to see everyone that is out here today be a part of what we are planning to be a successful endeavor, to try to get the city of Lubbock to recognize the entire city of Lubbock, Texas.

It has been brought to our attention that a complaint against the city is set forth.

The NAACP, which stands for the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, stands against all forms of injustice, and we will continue to fight for justice until all, without regard to race, gender, creed, religion, enjoy equal status in the city of Lubbock.

(train honking) (gentle music) (people chattering) - Oh morning, sir.

- You doing alright?

- Good to see you.

- You doing good?

- Yeah, I'm doing great.

How are you?

- I'm doing good.

- Good.

Oh yeah.

- [Speaker] Can everybody hear me?

Do I need to have my mic?

We have through the Texas Housers and the Texas Advocacy, we decided that we need to have a townhouse meeting, or a community meeting to update you on the complaint that we have with the city, concerning the city.

Some of the neighborhood association people and the people with the Texas Housers got in touch with us, and asked us to come to a meeting and talk to them about some situations that had occurred with the city.

So we did, and found out that the city's representatives hadn't really tried to have dialogue with them, concerning the 2040 and the comprehensive plan.

It was getting close to the time where they was going to have the final vote on it and put it in effect, so we had a short time, but we decided since this group had came to us and had filed a complaint, that's where the complaint comes from, we only filed what the neighborhood associations and other leaders in the community wanted, and that they wanted to file a complaint, so we did that.

- Most of the members of the East Lubbock clients are a part of that complaint that was put in by HUD.

It's a slippery slope.

When I look at how to maneuver through that complaint, and how to maneuver through the circles of we need the city though, right?

Like, I look at it on both sides is that complaint is a valid, great complaint.

And then as a city, if we don't have the city on our side to fix some of these issues, do we ever come to a happy medium?

You know what I mean?

Do we ever get to a place where now we are one city?

Everybody knows the barrier there shows the divide in our city, and that's I-27.

And it's always like the left side of I-27 looking north, versus the right side of I-27, and everything that we've ever had, and I don't know when it's gonna be that we are all one city.

- Unfortunately I-27, you know, bisects our community.

And in some ways I think that's caused some challenges between east and west, but, you know, from my perspective, and I think our record on this is solid, and that is we're going to work to make the east side better, just like we're trying to make the north side better, or other parts of our community.

- Yeah, HUD, when they're doling out federal money, they wanna make sure that communities, especially community members living in low and moderate income neighborhoods, where the CDBG dollars are supposed to go, have the opportunity to participate in the planning and the consolidated plan, and in the Analysis of Impediment.

Those two documents that are key to a city getting its money, which, you know, there's a strong mandate in the Fair Housing Act.

The reason that that whole act was enacted was to eliminate the vestiges of segregation.

To allow those things to linger.

it just kind of flies in the face of what it means to be a decent American.

- [Milton] So we sent it on in, it went to HUD, and that's around the time that we got the pandemic.

So everything just slowed down, but HUD decided that they would send it to the DOJ.

And when the DOJ got it, that took a little while, but then it came back that they said it wasn't in their jurisdiction.

So they sent it back to HUD.

Once it got back to HUD, we was under the impression now, well, I was, as the president of the Lubbock NAACP, was under the impression that they was going to take time to come and investigate for themselves, and then get back with us, that is try to have a meeting, but with the complainants and the city.

Now that didn't take place.

At that time, they couldn't meet with them because of the pandemic.

And then after everything opened up, then it was concluded that the complaint had been dropped.

(train honking) - Well, zoning certainly shows a community's values.

Where you put different land uses, be it single family homes, be it commercial, be it industrial zoning, it shows, you know, the kinds of uses that you want to have in a city.

So when you put industrial zoning right next to a residence, and you say that, you know, like in the 1959 plan, there's a whole passage about how a neighborhood needs to be free from the, I can't remember the exact quote, but like the dangers of industry, shouldn't be next to smoke, and noxious odors, and stuff like that.

But that plan puts the industry right next to the black neighborhood, right next to the Hispanic neighborhood.

So like we've been saying, that happened in the past, but to continue those past patterns, be it out of an idea of, oh, that's just the way things have always been and we can't make those changes, to it's just sounds like it's too hard to address.

- Our community developed, a lot of the industrial part of our community developed along the railroad.

The main railroad runs east of the east of the interstate, or at the interstate.

So if we could do things differently, and we do things differently today.

We don't develop like we once developed, unfortunately you can't, at least my way of thinking, you can't go in and, you know, uproot businesses and industry that has made significant investment.

They own their land.

I mean we're Americans.

We have, you know, Texans, we have property rights and all that goes along with that.

However, we do expect them to be good citizens.

And so, you know, if it's noise or if it's emissions, or whatever it may be, we expect that they're responsible in that matter.

- I understand that under the fifth amendment people have property rights, and you know, you can't just uproot somebody immediately without paying them money.

But if the city is going to put it, is going to treat everybody equally, it needs to do just that, treat everybody equally, and protect every citizen from these hazards, protect people's property values, protect people's like, enjoyment of their own homes to be able to go out into their front yard and you know, have a picnic, or just mow the lawn, or, you know, enjoy your home as you would want to in your own home.

- I think further, we look for opportunities.

We've done this downtown.

We're trying to do it in East Lubbock to provide some incentives.

We have an incentive program in place where if that business owner or that property owner is willing to invest in their business or property, we'll be their partner.

We've done, we do that also with single family residences that have fallen into disrepair.

And we want residences to remain owner-occupied.

That's good for a community.

That's even better for a neighborhood.

I think a community's only as strong as, you know, the neighborhoods in the community.

- [Adam] here are a lot of things that the city can do to address this issue, be it amortization, be it code enforcement, be it just changing zoning near neighborhoods where there's not a current use right now.

There's a big, you know, there's some abandoned properties, and we could just change that zoning right now, so that some new property wouldn't be able to come in and build a new industry.

That wouldn't be particularly hard to do at all.

And we're hopeful that in this UDC process, that the city will do that.

- [Milton] There are still some other avenues out there I am considering.

I've also been in touch again with the Texas Housers, and they are looking at some different things that I don't feel like I need to mention at this time.

But if the city did comply with what they had indicated from the 2040 plan and the comprehensive plan, things could have worked out more smoothly.

They have here recently hired a new neighborhood planner.

And I'm hoping that when they start working through a process, that they would include the entire community, and not just certain representatives.

- We've put in place a process where we've got a group of citizens, some that were part of putting the plan together, some that were not that serve as an oversight group.

So they can give us an unwashed opinion as to how we're doing, you know, with the implementation.

- I had people come to the meetings at the city hall.

And as a result, I got appointed to the oversight committee.

(gentle music) - Now the comprehensive plan oversight committee meeting, the first matter business is public comment.

If there's anyone wishing to speak on any item on today's agenda, please come forward.

State your name and address clearly for the public record.

There was a sign-in no later than 10:00 AM on the day of the meeting.

We have Adam Hernandez, who is the only one so far.

Now we're on Zoom too.

So if anybody's on Zoom, just Zoom on in, and we'll get you on the program, all right?

All right, Adam, go right ahead.

- All right.

Good morning committee.

So today I believe you're talking about nonconforming uses.

What I'm commenting on is of course, support for the transitional zoning in the industrial areas.

And then I actually want to present something else to this body that we've kind of figured out since our last meeting.

So one of the things you guys all asked for the staff to bring you to the last meeting, which unfortunately wasn't brought, was what does it look like to get rid of these industrial areas next to neighborhoods?

One of those things is putting amortization in the UDC.

And so luckily for us, we're in the middle of updating this, or actually creating this UDC.

If we don't put amortization in there, it does not give the city the option later on to do the other two steps that would be necessary to get this completed.

And so I am imploring you all to not let this UDC wrap up without having amortization in there.

Now, putting it in there does nothing for the time being, it just gives the city an option.

Okay?

And so then the other two steps would be approaching the board of adjustments, and then city council.

But that, again, is not relevant to this body.

- Yeah, so my understanding of amortization is that it's this process by which the city would give an existing business a certain amount of time to operate in their location, 30 years, 40 years, whatever.

And then at the end of that time, they would have to move.

Now, there could potentially be some financial arrangements where there was some fair market value paid for the business at the end of that time.

But I'm not a supporter of that.

I've not seen it work well.

I'm still looking for examples of, in Texas, where that's, where that has worked on a broad scale.

You know, I think about our private property rights.

It's the first thing I think about, As a business owner, I look at it through the lens of a business owner.

You know, there are some businesses in our community that if we could wave a magic wand, we'd move them somewhere else, but we'd have to move the railroad too.

And, you know, we often forget about the fact that they developed along the railroad for good reason.

So, that's where I stand on amortization.

I've been upfront about it.

I, we've never talked about it as a council, interestingly enough.

And it's never even bubbled up to the point where it's been a discussion at a council level.

I would assume that some of that was brought up as they went through the planning effort.

I don't recall.

I tried real hard to let the citizens and the consultants do the work before they brought it to us, but I don't see footing for that, or support for that in Lubbock.

Welcome to coffee with the mayor.

It's good to be at United on Parkway.

It's for those of you that have never come to one of these before, we do this about once a month, and we spend an hour and we just talk about whatever might be on your mind.

Okay, let's talk about zoning.

- When it comes to infrastructure and zoning, a lot of times people don't come to, you're a businessman, okay, you are in business to make money.

Even though Parkway and Cherry Point is an opportunity zone, a lot of businesses have not come.

Why?

Because of industrial zoning.

A lot of, they're not gonna wanna make money here, where there's smoke, right?

There's a lot of things that are hazardous to the health and welfare of people who live in this community.

Now, when you talk about the city, they're not, it's not their job to get businesses.

It's not the government's job to get businesses, but it is however in a city's position to change zoning.

We can do something called amortization.

We can adapt an amortization ordinance, which is not unusual.

And I'm sure it's been brought to the table already.

That's something we can do as soon as possible.

Also down zoning and re-zoning.

Those are things that the city has the power to do so that our community can flourish, just like every other community.

You say, well, what do we want in our community?

Whatever you have in your community, sir.

That's what we would want.

We don't want an industry in our backyard, just like you don't appreciate it.

Neither do we.

As the demographics in the community change, we would like our community to change as well, so just saying that businesses have been here before us, guess what, things are changing, and they should change too and go away.

And there are ways that they can.

- Okay, to your zoning question or comment.

First of all, I do not support amortization.

We've talked about this before.

Amortization is this concept that if you're a business owner, who's invested in a business, land in a business, that the city comes in and gives you a certain number of years to operate, and then they're gonna take, you're gonna have to close.

- What if they're hazardous?

If there are hazardous to the health and welfare of a community.

- But who decides that?

I think it's private property rights, okay?

Because they've come in, somebody's built a business, based upon a certain set of rules, a certain zoning or whatever.

Okay, now I'm not saying that it was right.

I'm just saying that's how it was done.

Now I do support.

- [Advocate] Well, we definitely want amortization because that's the only way that the zoning can change for those that have been grandfathered in.

Well, I mean, we know that that process is quite a lengthy process.

That could take anywhere from, you know, who knows 5, 6, 7, 8 years down the road before anything can actually take place.

But at least if there's a mechanism to where we can begin to work with that, to where, you know, these businesses have been approached, and this is how this particular type of zoning is going to be phased out, you know, it's time to start re-looking at where to relocate, so that, you know, you're not in this neighborhood or near this neighborhood so that, you know, then we would know that that all would be the best outcome.

And so that's why we're hoping that this, you know, that we at least start the initial steps to at least get that in there to where we do have an ability to make some changes.

I think that's the best thing we can do at this point.

- You know, other cities have, like Dallas has what's called an amortization ordinance, where they have rezoned places that are in, or can rezone places that are industrial.

And for the property owner that has his or her industry there, an appraiser will kind of figure out how long that industry, or how long the investment that that owner has put into the industry, how long it needs to stay in place before that investment can be recouped.

And then after a certain period of time, that industry will have to move once they've recouped their investment.

So these kinds of things have happened, and it's not like Lubbock couldn't follow what other cities have done to, you know, make a fairer zoning system.

- [Community member] Let's change those laws.

You have the power as a city official to make those changes for our community, so that it can flourish just like south and southwest Lubbock.

- I don't.

- You can't ask a man to cut his pocket change, you know?

.

I don't, I don't support amortization.

- [Billie] What would I like to see for the neighborhood?

I want it right.

If we have, if we have a city that said, we love you, we love you.

We love everybody, and we are.

Let's work together and make it right.

I want my 96 year old mother to be able to sit on the porch, but every time she sits out there, that air comes and she has to inhale something.

Let's make things better.

I'm for getting things better, having better communication.

I want that for the community, a better way, a better quality of life for the way that people in the Dunbar-Manhattan, or all east and north of Lubbock, people have worked for this to be better too.

- I guess I'll wrap up with this.

We need to be in a mind-frame as a city, and that's the staff, all committees, city council.

We need to be in the mind-frame that these industrial areas cannot be next to residential, point blank, period.

We have to stop beating around the bush about this, and we have to make up our minds, and be very clear and intentional, and say as a city, we are getting rid of this embarrassing situation, because it is embarrassing for our city.

- [Billie] There's a process that needs to be met.

And we hired on planners that's to work on certain areas, certain things, and they believe we have a little timeline, but with that, we need to make sure, and we are there to make sure that he comes in and does what it needs to be done, and do right by the community, as the 2040 plan has stated.

- When it comes to the neighborhood planning aspect of it, I think that the hope is going to be that neighborhoods become vibrant, that they are being taken care of, that there's good advocacy for these neighborhoods, that neighborhood associations are gonna be more involved, that there's going to be, you know, a bigger interest in working with the neighborhoods that are a part of the, you know, of course in north and east Lubbock, being a focus of this 2040 plan, not only is the whole city gonna be impacted by the plan, but there's a specific emphasis on north and east Lubbock.

- Being a part of the 2040 comprehensive oversight committee was something that was great coming out of it because now I know we have that voice that can, that's gonna stand up and say, hey, I don't think this is right.

I don't think this looks the same.

But when I look at the CPAC committee, I looked at how many of those people on that committee actually stood up and said, hey, what about the industrial zoning that's been around our neighborhood since 1943 or 1923 when we had the ordinance that separated African Americans from the rest of the community, why are we still going with the same plan?

(people chattering) - [Shelia] This is the initial part of the process.

My concern was when they were having the stakeholders' meeting, when they were calling for community and stuff like that, y'all, we didn't show up, but I'm glad you're here now.

So I know what you can do.

- It's just in so many years of being overlooked.

- I know.

- So many years of this stuff, and it's not just Lubbock, it's everywhere.

- Yeah.

- And it's like, when it might not be, it sounds like they're not changing the map of this process.

There are opportunities to change the map - There you go.

- And it's just like, when are they gonna do it?

- Well, here's the deal.

- When are they gonna do it?

- The deal of it is where we are now didn't happen overnight.

- No, I completely understand that.

- So, it's a process to get it to begin moving, moving in a different direction.

It is.

- Even now, we're learning more facts about zoning and industrial zoning and mixed zoning than I ever would in my entire life, just because this plan started.

And because we went and spoke and talked about it.

Because now that education has started to roll.

- The plan from our perspective was mostly just about how are we going to develop the southwest side?

How are we going to grow?

Or how is the city gonna grow?

And they weren't focusing on how they're gonna revitalize the east and the north side.

And so one of our big points of contention, aside from all the industry being concentrated on the east and north side was just that the community participation and the outreach was bad.

Now, the city is doing what's called creating a unified development code, where they're going to carry out the directives in the 2040 comprehensive plan, make it into law in the zoning code.

They're gonna combine all the zoning codes, or all the zoning laws that are on the books.

Some are outdated.

I mean, frankly, a lot of them are outdated.

Some are vague and don't make much sense.

And so the goal of the UDC is to try to combine all these old laws, put it into something that a normal person can understand, and also carry out the directives of the comprehensive plan.

- Nobody wants to think about a kid, whether they're black, white, Hispanic, whatever, having to deal with asthma issues as a young kid, right?

Or because of where their parents chose to stay at, or have to chose or were put to stay at.

I think nobody wants to have to deal with that issue, but the reality of it is, is a lot of people didn't know.

A lot of people don't know, and that barrier causes it hard to be changed, because who's gonna say, oh, go in East Lubbock, and they'll approve every industrial zone.

No, that's not the reality, right?

You can't just go in, take everything out that's been established, that's businesses, that's families that are also having to suffer because of those things.

But I think that not being educated on those subjects have caused this to be a issue that has become bigger than what can be fixed in a year or two or five years.

So it's just, I think that barrier of not being educated on it is huge.

I think it's concerning, and it always will be concerning.

- And as we move forward, I hope that they make more of an effort to pay attention to these people that are showing up to these meetings.

I mean, they deserve to be heard.

- I'm trying to soak in as much as I can and my neighborhood meetings, trying to make sure that people are informed, that they come there informed.

So other actions can be made.

Things have to stop if we are, if we are gonna be a community, an all-one community, things need to be done in decent and in order.

And why does it, why is it not?

- [Shelia] There are differences in the city.

There's older portions of the city, and there's newer portions of the city.

And really in the 2040 plan, there wasn't a lot to really drill down and address those things in the older portions of the city.

And my concern is, is if you don't address the things or the concern in the older areas of the city, those newer portions, guess what, are gonna become the older portions of the city.

Everybody likes new and bright.

That's what happened in central Lubbock So I think that that's something that we could have done a better job of, of drilling down on that.

But I think the opportunity with the unified development code, in addition to being able to make some changes and make sure that we focus, and some of those things that we want to have in the newer portions get done in the older areas of the city.

- With the changes, no, there needs to be changes, not know with the changes, the changes, some things are being done.

A small amount of things are being done, 'cause I know Shelia Patterson Harris is doing some things.

She was able to show us some things we're doing industrially, getting a bigger fence up, and something like that And Pyco, with Pyco.

It can be better than that.

We're better than that.

I believe the city can be better than that.

- [Advocate] So the land use map, (chuckles) the land use map is the one that really has to be changed.

In order for north and east Lubbock to be able to see the best outcomes of what could be as a result of the 2040, the land use map would have to be changed.

And of course, you know, we've heard and we've asked, and they've said, well, for those that are zoned at this point, the way that they're zoned, there's not much we can do there.

Any future zoning, yes, we can make a difference there for any future zoning that wants to do any kind of heavy industrial or any heavy commercial around a neighborhood, that can definitely be impacted.

But for those that are already existing, there's not much that can be done there.

Thus, the amortization has to come in.

And so that's where we're seeing that there could be some potential changes.

The 2040 plan is to enhance, to work with what we have existing, of course, and so this neighborhood planner is supposed to be in, working with our neighborhoods and helping also to work with maybe some of these business owners that have some of these heavy industrial sites, have these concrete batch companies, have these, you know, places that are really causing some problems for some of our, for our neighborhoods, so that he can also help to see how maybe we need to come to the table and see how we can make it better for the people that live in this neighborhood.

- [Mayor Pope] As we finish our UDC work, there's parts of eastern and northern Lubbock that are zoned as transitional, and likely, we probably should take the step to make sure that they become, that that becomes residential, to protect those neighborhoods from an encroachment that might happen from industrial, could happen.

I don't think it would happen with this council.

We're pretty resolute on how we want to see that eastern part of our community, the northern part of our community grow.

But I think that's a thing we can do also to provide the right kind of buffer.

Now, you know, we've got some situations in the eastern and northern part of our community where you've got industrial and residential development that bump up at each other.

It's not ideal.

As that industrial development or businesses, particularly, close or move somewhere else, then I think you could reclaim that, but you know, that's part of our future.

I think we have to get on the right course towards that.

And I think our council has been pretty open about what our goals are in that regard.

- To their credit, they put in a big section in chapter seven of the 2040 plan.

You know, kind of talking about the concerns that the neighborhood associations on the east side identified.

And in that chapter, the consultant suggested that the cities start removing some of that industrial zoning, not allowing industrial zoning to expand, putting together a blue ribbon commission to investigate how all of this stuff over on the east side, north side, is affecting people growing up over there.

And that was passed along with the plan.

But the big ask that the community had to change the land use map to start actually going into the land use map and pulling out some of these areas that are zoned industrial, that didn't happen.

- When we go into this, we have the idea that, okay, it may not go as well as we hope, right?

But if we start the conversation, it's already a win.

So even if we don't get anything that we had expected to get, just the fact that it's on their lips is a win to us because it's a conversation that started that it never would've been had we not got in this fight in the first place.

- I think there's still a whole lot more work to be done.

From a city standpoint, what we, I don't know.

I don't know what we can do.

Right now, with what we have on the books, there's not a darn thing we can do, other than is if it's a concern for citizens, encourage them to have those conversations with TCEQ or EPA, and make those complaints and whatnot, and call them on what they say they'll do.

We've got state reps here.

Hit those guys up, and have those conversations with them if that's the concern.

I don't think that there's not a place that we can go.

I don't think we remain silent at a city level.

I just think that we continue to draw attention to it, as it is a concern.

As a council person, all the stuff that I'd like to do, like I said, there's some stuff I don't even have, that's not even within my, in my role.

All the things that you'd like to do, they're not done always at the city council level.

They're done within communities.

I make decisions often that sometimes I may not necessarily agree with them, but my constituents say, hey, that's the direction we want you to go.

So.

- One of the goals of course, is to continue to have our meetings, making sure that we have all the right information, that we have all the city personnel that represents codes.

It represents, you know, the police department, that we've got them at at our meetings so that they can share information about what's pertinent and important to our neighbors.

We also continue to invite our elected officials that are representing our particular districts and precinct to make sure that they also share information about what's going on at their level, because it actually has an impact on every neighborhood.

- If we're saying that we, that the city needs to invest more into the community, what better way to do that than to start yourself, right?

So the thing that you want to see done, you be the change you wanna see.

So that was the deciding factor behind building a home here in East Lubbock.

So, you know, that's basically why we ended up doing it, and it's great.

Like I'm comfortable over here.

You know, it doesn't flood over here, you know?

So, you know, that's a few of the reasons, but there's, you know, I enjoy my community.

Yes, I want it to look better.

Yes, I want more infrastructure.

Yes, we want more buildings, but I love it.

The, you know, we have beautiful parks over here.

You know, so there's pros and cons to it.

But ultimately because I have faith that it will change for the better, and I wanna be a part of that change.

- People take intense pride in living on the east side, and they care a lot about it.

They care about their neighbors.

Even people that move away, come back and try and help the community.

But I mean, there's certainly fire to get something done and to make major improvements.

- I think they've also had a voice in the UDC and the work that's being done there.

We need to look at subdivision regulations.

We need to look at potentially developing places and areas with more density.

We need to think about things differently.

And so, and I think the input of all citizens from all over our community has made an impact there.

We're not always going to agree, but that's okay.

Sometimes we pass things on the dais that I'm on the other side of, but understand that what the process is, and all I can do is make sure the process is done, you know, in an appropriate way.

So that's my general thought, but engagement matters.

It's important.

- So as things change, you want things to be better, but I get concerned that if they happen to quickly, it has the potential to displace people, to create situations where people won't be able to afford to live in the homes that they have.

And I think change is good, but I think change has to happen over time.

(gentle music) - [Margaret] From time to time, you know, things just kind of change.

One of my friends has a phrase, and it goes something kinda like this.

We need to be everywhere.

We need people who are mentoring children.

We need people who are focusing on zoning.

We need people who are focusing on the political climate.

We need people who, and with that, you know, getting people registered to vote, getting people to understand the importance of voting.

We need to have people who are looking at economics, what can we do to improve the economy here?

So I think that we need to be everywhere.

And one of the things that I try to instill in my own children is if you're going to be involved in whatever you are doing, know what you're doing, develop your skills so that when you speak, people listen to you, so that when you speak, you know what you're talking about, and that you can have a plan.

- What people don't realize is even if you go back to Martin Luther King, Martin Luther King, even though he preached that we, you know, stay calm and we work together, and things like this, Martin Luther king was a smart person who knew how to use his position within the law.

He knew.

And so, and even Malcolm X and others, one thing that they had going for them, they didn't just stop if someone didn't like what they were saying.

And I applaud this group because it's a lot of people are saying that they out here causing trouble, or they may be doing this here, but I don't look at it that way.

Here's a people who are a group of people who are looking for change, and they are tired of going in the same way.

- And I feel like that the young leaders that we have that are up and coming, that they are doing a really good job of doing that.

My encouragement would be to keep on doing that, to keep on learning, continue to serve on boards, apply to serve on boards.

You know, you can't do anything about zoning.

You can talk and yell and scream and write a letter But if you are on the zoning board, well you have a vote.

if you're on the airport board, you have a vote.

If you're on the health board, you have a vote.

And so whatever it is, you know, get involved from the grassroots part so that your voice can be heard, so that you can make a difference, and bring someone to the table with you.