AMARILLO, Texas (KAMR/KCIT) – The City of Amarillo released the agenda for its first scheduled City Council meeting of 2023, set for 1 p.m. on Tuesday at City Hall, located at 601 S Buchanan in downtown Amarillo.

The council is expected to receive an update from the Solid Waste Department, as well as discuss and vote on other matters including buying property for the Transformation Park project and designating Neighborhood Empowerment Zones.

As previously reported on MyHighPlains.com, the Amarillo Solid Waste Department was set to return to twice-a-week trash collection services on Monday after switching to once-a-week collections in September 2022, due to cited staff shortages. As of Monday, the city noted that the department’s staff had 82% of its positions filled along with 97% of its equipment operator positions.

Also on the agenda’s listed consent items was a consideration of purchasing property on SW Sixth Avenue for the construction of the Transformation Park project.

Non-consent items on the agenda included considering an ordinance that would designate certain areas of the city as Neighborhood Empowerment Zones.

In other communities such as Fort Worth, NEZs are meant to “promote housing, economic development, and quality services” in communities by making certain tax abatements, fee waivers, and the release of city liens available to property owners that build or rehabilitate property within their bounds. According to the Texas Local Government Code, municipal governments might waive certain fees for, enter agreements with, and set base performance standards for property owners that operate within established NEZs.

The full agenda can be viewed below.

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