##VIDEO ID:QkxhYTsr8Qw## e e e e e e e e we'll call the popka community redevelopment AG agency to order uh um we'll get right to the the approval of minutes got c meeting me minutes of July 17th and CR c meeting minutes of August 21st a motion to approve Mr Mayor Mr Mayor sure uh if I can uh if we could take the minutes in chronological order um starting with July 17th I would move that those minutes be approved as presented so we got a motion to approve the CRA meeting minutes of July 17 2024 okay um anything I would just want I did give this cler is to correct the titles instead of Mayor should be chair and instead of commissioner should be okay minute okay so we got a motion by uh member Drago a second by member Velasquez all those in favor I I'll oppos motion carries unanimously now all right mayor uh for the August meeting uh which I attended and uh member Williams was not present so uh any reference in the minutes relative to member Williams being present or approving motions relative to resolutions need to be stricken and amended as such so I would move uh Mr Mayor that the minutes for August 21st 2024 uh be amended to reflect uh Miss Williams not being present and approved as presented so we just what we need to do then under the roll call would just be member Nikki Williams absence that yes and everything else in would follow no there's motions that show Miss Williams voting yes okay okay I will say the same thing that there's some references in there that refer to the mayor commission yeah I see that yeah should and all right I'll add that to my Amendment motion okay so we got a motion by member Drago a second by uh member Smith all those in favor I oppose motion carries unanimously public comment anybody from public come on sure yeah come on up commissioner good evening I wish you'd had this meeting tomorrow after serving on the canvas in Born to all hours last night but I am here with you um I'm just happy you're having this meeting today and I um when reading the agenda I just had um a concern because it was about a year ago and I brought you the resolution um the approval uh of the extension and you have basically have yearly extensions with having to send your plans for approval to the board of County Commissioners that said tonight on your agenda that you were going back to the 2017 update and what was approved by us last year was all those all that we had done a year ago with Jim hit so I'm hopefully that'll be us right now but if you choose to make any changes the way I read this document is that it has to come back to the board of County Commissioners for approval my reason for being here is is is really I'm behind you I want this Cru to be successful and I didn't want you to have a meeting and go that direction without realizing if you make substantial changes tonight it has to come back before my board again for approval and so that's I gave you the document I highlighted for you the where is on page two the delegation resolution provides that the plan shall not be modified without the express consent of the board as evidenced by approving resolution that the city shall not deviate substantially from the projects set forth in the plan without modifying the plan and our concern as a board uh was not really what was in your plan it's just that you achieve and you accomplish and you succeed with your plan it wasn't so much what your plan was and because that isn't the role of the County Commission but I just want to remind people that uh CRA dollars how that works with 1993 it was it it was a designation of the State of Florida to help blighted downtowns blighted areas by taking money from the local County it was an incremental they would take set the level of where you were back in 1993 and whatever uh increases you saw over the years then that money instead of going to the county would stay with the city to continually make improvements to that area because we are in this together the county we want your downtown to be successful as well and so I just wanted to remind you of that one thing and I stand here just ready to listen to whatever plan changes you make today thank you thank you would like to thank Linda for coming out as well thank you for coming out uh how many years were you on the board four just one okay all right well thank you for coming out as well all right Bobby good evening Bobby how interim executive director of the CRA uh it's my pleasure to present Luis NAS reiz from the East Central Florida Regional planning Council he's going to give it a presentation in regards to brownfields also with us this evening is Dr shakenya Jackson of the city staff our grants coordinator who is here in addition and could answer questions in relation to Grants and stuff but without further Ado uh Mr new re thank you mayor Commissioners I'm glad really glad to be here this evening again my name is Luis n I'm the director of economic development for the planning Council and today I bring some amazing news for the city of apopa but before that actually I want to speak a little who we are the E real planning Council was founded in 1962 we are one of 10 similar councils in the State of Florida on basically work task with provided dedic assistance to local governments and organizations with a county region I would like take a moment to thank mayor Nelson for his service to the council for was it two years two years at the council we definitely enjoy those side but we're very glad working with you again so what is a Brownfield a Brownfield is an abandon commercial on industrial property it could be also be a parit where the future use is affected because there's a either a real or Pier cive feeling that there's contamination so usually when you have downtown areas that have been there for several years you you know the properties when you like travel around well the idea here anything from a gas station medical facilities to dry cleaners auto shops all factories all Landfield golf courses those all qualify the purpose of the program is to basically if we invest money in cleaning up or investing in these properties is going to increase your local tax race it facilitates job Road and it's going to protect your community these are some examples for brownfields uh the property the 305 is eight Street was one of the properties we tackle uh last time it was I guess uh a nor uh service center was County own right City yeah was City Own It was owned by the city and we're able to tackle that and I think we might be in the possibility hopefully affordable housing maybe we went there probably go theread the other one or some trail but I give you an example it's all industrial areas that have been abandoned all commercial buildings that they're life already passed and you may want to do something there and people just feel very eerie of investing because they think there might be problems with the property so in 2021 we after five years we finally won our first Bru grants at the council it was at 600,000 Grant and the these are provided by the US Environmental Protection Agency we actually surpass the number of sites that we assess we impacted 22 properties across the region uh phase one phase two assessments and we also did a best best stand property surveys and we participated in over 20 community events in Apopka we actually invested close to $200,000 you can see here we impacted seven sites so so we have seven phase one assessments then if the property has what is recognized factors you will go to the phase two so do you see that there's only three phase twos not All Phase ones go to phase twos and then we did one our best to serve before you some of the properties that we tackle uh one was 207 saion Road uh we know it as ghor Growers this is very uh close to uh camp wewa this is are former Nursery uh our phase one identifi at least six uh areas of concern which required a phase two field activities total amount invested is about $88,000 uh you're pretty much a city like on the grow and we know you have sites like this doting all your landscape all nurseries that probably were pass their life this program may help uh tackle some of those properties another one with is a POA West Station Street the triangle property uh this was a combination of a laundry dry cleaner AO repair facility uh the site is currently plan for uh residential uses about 21 uh $9,000 we're invested in that property and this the third one we're going to talk about is 444 Central Avenue again another former laundry and right cleaner place uh we completed both phase one and phase two at a total cost of $32,000 but here's the great news we actually went again be because we had done such a great job and spent most of the most over 70% of the money we were able to go and ask for another Grant before our current Grant expired so again who do we talk to the great city of foka because Dr Shaka Harris Jackson here has been a great asset for a program is great you have some great staff here but Dr H sha Harris has just been phenomenal through these whole years helping us with that so we worked together we met with cimi again uh now we're doing a lot of work in southbar County uh with C of Palm Bay and little Growers and we they like it so much that after rejecting us for so many years they said well you guys did the work so I'm Gonna Give You $1.5 million so that's about 2.5 times more than what they gave us last time so yeah clap more money for a pop guy so now we're gonna have a fouryear timeline our priority areas are going to be again with a poka Kimi pal Bay as Melbourne we're are planning Council we cover an a County area so we may go outside of our cities it's part of our duty so what I want to do here first our main activity is going to be the property assessments so as a coalition member this what a poka did really effectively like a poka had a property every every meeting pretty much you basically identify sites and make the contacts so we can actually go into the property it's wouldn't be me we have we hire a consultant and the consultant has have assigned permission from the owner to be able to assess the property and get the phase one done so what we need to identify is additional properties in target areas that could be assessed you are all in the community you're welcome you know how property within any of your districts that maybe at Brownfield there you can always give us a call and we can definitely uh verify that for you well our Target area really is going to be the downtown CRA uh Main Street Cor there are a lot of fantastic things happening in apka and we know because of that there's new residential development we will benefit having a strong City Center so priority sites is 604 is Main Street is a vacant site I guess the property burned down there so it's one of the ones we're going to be looking at and we have the old Sona station I think we actually saw it on the way at 485 Main Street so those are going to be the first two properties we're going to try to Target to this program which mean we'll have to make a of course to make sure we have the owners very important thing uh we have as the the way the gr works you need to have strong Community involvement and the way that is represented is what is called the brown advisory Commit This is the commune that serves liation between us the agency and your local communities so each Community is asked to please nominate uh new members these are the members from the previous uh back there's been changes there's commissioner I would love to have Miss Williams SP my back committee I'm just saying but what we want basically has to be comprised of RA and full target areas and people that live in the community so that's something that to think about if you need to add new members if you want to keep this there's no problem with that are those members still active if you tap upon them um some of the names they we only meet twice a year so it's hard to say how engaged they are so some people come in and fall off it's it's a three your program so pretty much we're gonna be communicating with them again because hey we've got a new Grant so we haven't been able to have the back meeting because we're closing the old Grant and getting a new gr ready if you want to add another person what we're going to be trying to do this year uh we are called the resilient coilers initiative we're we want to not only do community events we want to do very handson activities with the community when it comes to ground fields and I want my back members to be part of that so if you know somebody that you think will be a really good member as the expertise tell Dr haris Jackson and we'll definitely add the person even even if even if you get these members here okay because I I recognize some of the names there so that's the end of my presentation again thank you for hosting us and we're really really really excited about this program and the opportunities for the studio fokka I will take any questions if there are any so any question okay I'm sorry go ahead go ahead so these have been determined as ground field so what's you're go in there first pH the first phase is actually it's it's really interesting we are gonna they're going to do a site visit they're also going to L look at the history of the site to determine like well maybe it's a store now but five years ago like 10 15 years ago it was a right cleaner or repair facility so those are kind of the clues that it give you they also conduct a set of interviews with people that may know so this these are really bad reports I want talking about 100 pages one you identify what is called the recognized conditions you basically go in and you do the phase two the phase two is some type of monitoring and sampling so that's when they actually go and actually if you have for example a an abandoned gas H gas station the first thing they're going to want certify is that those tanks were taken out of the property because if those tanks were not taken out of the property they could be leaking into the soil so that requir a much more throughout analysis to really go in and deep down into the property sometimes then if properties I think that happened with that side they may have because it's an older building and it's going to be demolished it has a if prob has asbestos so there's have to be like a whole survey done by the federal government to make sure that it's actually uh disposed the way it's supposed to be and these are all activities we cannot do cleanups but the phase one and the phase two if we can contact the State to see if their voluntary tax credits or anything else that actually is going to help you claim up that property by the way and this is very important anytime as a city you acquire a property you before doing that you have to do a phase one if you don't do the phase one and the property found contam that is contaminated you're not going to be able to access federal funds for the cleanup so remember anytime I know this usually go in your consent agenda but anytime you buy any property be sure you get that face one done it's very very important any other questions for Le yeah oh no no go ahead so it's only this CRA areas only no uh we our Target area Okay is the CRA but again we're the council I don't mind if there's a property outside of the C we should be able to do that for you in the next four years we no issue what we don't want is a situation where we say we have a Target area and we go all our analysis are outside that's what EPA is not going to have they don't want to see that but for example for this previous Grant we we went outside our our core cities we did a couple of like uh analysis in Palm Bay and that's what why Palm Bay is one of our members we did also analysis in growan CR that was another one that we did so if you have any what you think especially very important about this program one is it a catalyst site is it a site that when you develop it is going to generate new economic activity that's going to be like a multiplier two very important is in an underserved area an area that has doesn't receive the attention uh EPA for this grant was very specific about uh targeting on Sur communities under Justice party we're gonna uh keep that commitment uh through the next four years that's going to be very important to us doesn't mean that we cannot go outside though thank you okay member Williams uh yes could you um talk about a little bit more about the significance of once the phase one or phase two is done and why that's a benefit particularly if you have um a developer or somebody interested in in the property anytime you do any Bank track sanction like a commercial transaction you need to have a phase one done that's a requirement of a lot of banks so that that's going to be your end so if I with this grant save you easily 57,000 is a cost that as a developer you're not going to have now if we recognize we had this situation in Longwood Longwood uh had a couple of developments around 1792 and one of them was near a utility area so the phase two was really important to determine that was that side did they had any contamination just clearing that away is going to help the developer feel that they can really come in and invest the money that they need you know a lot of development usually doesn't happen because of some there's something wrong with the property like we or there's a fear that there is you know so that's the benefit of it too because a lot of folks say the gas station for example may not even be interested in it because they assume that there's environmental Maybe do a phase one and it's not so if those if that's already been done then that's an effort you know for the CRA or whoever to kind of offer those properties as you know been already phase one phase two perform or if a phase one is done and no phase two is needed then it's you know it's safer and less expensive I'm not sure how much if you're if you're actually investing any money perfectly acquisition again any property you're thinking of acquiring the phase one and the phase two will be done for you and will save uh most necessary City funds that will spend somewhere and in the case there's an issue you probably going to be able to go either for a Fed cleanup Grant or go use like one of the state programs developers and is really interesting Florida has a brown program too but the issue with the state of Florida the way does it you have to designate the property as a brf it's like basically going to the Dress Shop and finding a dress and telling yeah you have to wear this ugly dress oh because that's what we're telling people our program doesn't do that our program is just we see a property we think it may have issues you don't have to designate as the Brownfield we'll just go in and do the analysis for you you know and that's usually that that's that people feel more comfortable doing that so obviously you're saying that we have to reach out to to the owner of that property I will have a consultant that can uh at some point uh that do that yeah if you know the person yeah it helps but sometimes these sites that are owned by companies that are not even in Florida but we we will try our best to reach out to this property owners to make sure see are you really interested in having res in this property you really want to pay taxes on a bacon property you know what I and and what has been your response have the owners been uh amenable to this or has anyone said no we I I told your story to to inform to inform that question um most owners have been amenable to it when we applied to the regional site though we had a Dr cleaning uh site in downtown Kimi and then they the the property changed it it was so long between the time that we designated the property and used the property versus the time that it came somebody else bought it and they got alarmed because they basically had no idea that they were used for the grant and that they were not interested six months later the economic development person comes to me and asked me well you know this company with this this new business went in and paid $15,000 to do this analysis can you pay for it and I'm like uh no that's not how it works you have to use my consultant because that's was that I chose and it was the same people and it was it was just a it was it was just interesting because they could have saved that amount of money you know money doesn't grow in trees and out of all the properties that we tried to assess that was the only one we had issues and they came back after the fact asking for money Mr or excuse me member Dro I'm sorry thank you mayor uh the recipient of the grant is the planning Council yes okay and the planning Council has a approved list of contractors or Consultants that does phase one and two no we actually we have to take this to bid and it's currently in the bid process uh we submitted I believe October 15 was when we posted in our website approximately and it's going to go through November 18 we know there people companies that are interested and we will go through that uh voting process uh the way it works is that we as a council because I'm going to be the person that have to work with the consultant uh it's going to be me my executive director and my finance person we're going to be evaluating Dr Harris Jackson is going to be the pocka representative and then we're gonna have the other cities and the nonprofit are going to be there too uh we will come together we have to EPA we have a whole set of metrics that we ask uh for the evaluation on cost is one of them that's about 25% of uh what they want us to get the points on we are going to do our best we we each member will rank the firsts on different categories and we'll have a composite score and whoever like goes above the medium or basically not above the medium but actually whoever's like the highest will be selected and uh does phase one include soil borings solar forms uh the solar farm is it a solar farm that is in work or is a solar farm do you think you want soil boring soil soil boring no no no sorry I think the soil boring is actually phase two phase two okay yeah my apologies for that that's okay any other I just had and I appreciate your presentation and thank you Dr Jackson for making this happen in coring as well so you have a million and a half dollars that's going to be mostly spent on identifying properties and conducting phase one or phase twos and providing that to the owners of the properties from there that provides access to Florida funds federal funds for those owners to be able to get after it if there's contamination yes okay if the property is clear of contamination the property owner can move forward sure and do what they yeah so depending what the uh what the strategies for your CRA you may have other incentives that you may want to provide with them but you know so this that million and a half is exclusively used for phase ones and phase twos no the con the actual contract it's gonna for the the RFQ is about a a million 60,000 so like the vast majority of the grant will go to uh for those assessments uh we have separated about yeah about 400 uh $400,000 approximately for my staff to run the program because we're gonna be doing really aggressive reach out to the community sure and we we're very thankful that we got so much money because before we were not able to do it is the difference for us between uh basically meeting with your chamber of commerce versus actually hosting a workshop with your chamber of commerce to explain brownfields and how the program can help sure okay understood that that that's very helpful thank you okay thank any other questions all right I the two properties you identifi in the slid are those only two properties you're going to do in AA what do you mean sorry the uh two properties that you identified in the slides are those the two the only two you're going to be doing in a pop no no those are our Target properties we see remember we always have that Target property we have we want to do now we did s in a popka because a poka Dr Harris Jackson was aggressive you know what I mean I were able to get so we expect to do much more than two that's my hope and My Hope what we found with Gator Growers and that's a conversation have Miss Mr Howell we know that we have some other abandoned uh nurseries that for me it couldn't be the target area because it didn't it was not in the Justice for Block that we needed it was just s of it but we want to make sure part of what we're going to do as staff at the council we are going to be identifying possible Brown in all of our communities across e Florida and see where they're concentrated and that's how we're going to start to reach out to this and actually build capacity if I can do 10 we did seven in a popcast if I can do 10 in a popca 50 in a popcast I will be super happy okay awesome Louise thank you for what you do for the East Central Florida Regional planning Council and we thank you for coming out to be with us in a popit tonight love being here and especially seeing my friend here I haven't seen her in a while so that was can we have that presentation because we don't have it here yes I think staff has a copy of it so it will be provided to you yes and my contact information as well as the contact information for my staff is also there if you have any other questions okay thank you so much appreciate have a good everyone okay all right next up Bobby and I just like to add thank you for the wonderful presentation thank you for coming this evening all right so uh I'd like to talk a little bit about the Redevelopment plan since I've been tasked with being the interim executive director for the CRA done a little bit of a deep dive into the 2017 date of the Redevelopment plan and you know full disclosure cras is not my background it's not my realm of expertise but I've read the Redevelopment plan and I supplied you guys with some of my insights and um thoughts and stuff on it so as you're well aware the CR is 633 acres in size and the boundaries go west to Hawthorne Avenue North to Oak Street East to approximately sheer Avenue and South to 10th 11th Street has been in existence since 1993 CRA is responsible for developing and implementing the community redevelopment plan with the plan includes overall goals for redevelopment area as well as identifying the types of projects that are planned for the area uh as you've heard uh from commissioner Moore this evening as well the Comm the CRA was originally established in 1993 and there was a 1993 Redevelopment plan and then that was updated in 2017 and as my understanding that's the plan that we're currently operating off of is the 2017 update according to the Florida Redevelopment associ iation examples of traditional projects within a CRA Redevelopment plan include Street Scapes and roadway projects neighborhood parks sidewalks and Street tree plannings to name a few plan can also include Redevelopment incentives such as grants and loans for things such as facade improvements which we do have facade Improvement programs we have about seven programs that we currently uh allow reimbursements from sprinkler system upgrades signs and structural improvements those are some of the things that can be qualified for CRA um reimbursements according to the Florida Redevelopment Association Redevelopment plan is a living document that can be updated to meet the changing needs within the CRA however the boundaries of the area cannot be changed without starting the process from the beginning and so I I said I went through the plan this is the map of the CRA district one of the things that really kind of stuck out to me is is that there's a hodgepodge future land uses within the CRA and I've got the adopted future land uses that's in the CRA Redevelopment plan right now um and quite frankly a lot of these future land uses have't been changed since 2017 we've had a few people who've come in and and added mixed use on their properties downtown within the CRA and that mixed use feature land use designation really allows quite a bit of opportunity uh if you read the comprehensive plan currently it says that mixed use can be applied within the future within the CRA and it allows a floor area ratio up to two which allows a lot of building area on a piece of property allows a mix of uses uh you can do Residential you can do commercial you can do mixed use buildings vertical mixed use horizontal mixed use it allows a lot of opportunities and one of the things I noted is is that basically the plan says that they recommended to change the CRA future land use designation to mixed use uh it hasn't been done we've had Property Owners come in on a case-by Case basis and do that not within the seal a but just a little bit outside the CRA heading towards the 451 we had a property owner who was inquiring about developing a hotel they had a commercial future land use designation uh they can only do a maximum F four of 0.25 which is 25% of the site quarter of the site could only be built with building disqualified them from their hotel plan at that point in time however that person's going to come back in and do a a a future land use change to mixed use um hopefully in the near near future uh I believe they said it was a home to Sweets Hotel uh so it' be a nice addition uh near the 451 offramp so that's one of the main things I went to the Redevelopment Association conference over in Tampa a couple weeks ago and I learned some things um and I sat in a couple presentations one was the city of CMI it was a joint presentation between the city of CMI CRA and Meritt Island and one of the things that they had both pointed out is within their CRA they had one future land use designation which was mixed use and allowed a lot of Redevelopment opportunities um that's one thing that in my professional opinion I think would be beneficial here in within the downtown and the CRA probably would help invite some reinvestment opportunities and Redevelopment opportunities would open up a lot of opportunity for properties owners and would probably boost the value of their properties um couple other things is is that the CRA uh the plan talks about it's not a very walkable environment I think with the wind Dixie development that was across the street that was noted as an opportunity Zone within the Redevelopment plan and as you can see on this map here this is right out of the Redevelopment plan there are five opportunity zones a Windixie was noted as five and it was intended it suggested that it would be a mixed use walkable type development however it's kind of turned into an autoc Centric development with a parking field in Front grocery store you have to drive to the grocery store um so that's one of the things where there has been missed opportunity at least from my reading of the plan uh another thing which is is not really a surprise to anybody is is that the CRA is an economically depressed area uh it refers that it within the plan uh the per capita income at least from 2017 uh is the median income is $3,576 this is right out of the plan from the year7 2016 while the remainder of the city City at 2016 numbers was $55,200 so there's obviously a big disparage of difference between uh income levels within the CRA uh one of the things that we have started doing is the crime prevention with the police uh community policing that is going on within the CR uh we budgeted $125,000 uh within the fiscal year for that um so one of the things that the staff is looking for is number one does the CRA board wish to do an update to the Redevelopment plan or would you like to keep the Redevelopment plan as it is and follow what's going on there or would you like to direct um staff to look into the feasibility of at least changing the future land use of the down the CRA to mix use uh and then coming back with some findings for that ultimately if that would be the direction that would have to go through the Planning Commission and then the city council and then public input process probably would entail some public Community visioning workshops I think would be beneficial to have Community input into that as well um we probably do have some Property Owners down here of some of our existing industrial uses that probably would have some questions I would venture to say um but I think a community Workshop visioning exercise would be good that's my understanding when the Redevelopment plan was prior to its adoption there was a community visioning Workshop uh 2016 2017 time frame uh when I went through the files and saw that so as I said uh we're looking for direction and input and um discussion from the CRA board so I'll stop talking so questions for okay I guess my first question is in regards to what commissioner Moore stated out about substantially changing a plan does this apply to yes yeah we would have to work with the county on that in addition in addition to your comp to your to your agreement with the county there's also state law that it's going to trigger that too that's going to trigger county involvement in in that process especially expanding boundaries or expanding time okay Mr BL or member so I did um I did get your CRA the plan observations I mean it's two pages long back in front but my question to you and you reviewing it there two things I I did ask you about a CRA executive director and you said the only time I can really ask for that and I believe even um the HR person our HR Director also said that that was something that I needed to address sitting at the CRA um I know that we received I think we had the we were the lowest in receiving uh Orange County funds was it like 660 and and uh and that we can can use that money to um hire like a contractor to be specifically over the CRA um that's one question then the other one is in your opinion because you reviewed this and you did give a lot of recommendations do you feel that our CRA Redevelopment plan from 217 is outdated yes it's outdated um the map number one uh there's a zoning map within the CRA Redevelopment plan that shows our old zoning District if you'll recall and commissioner you were on the commission when the Land Development code was changed in 2019 we rezone the whole downtown extending out to the 451 to mixed use downtown so that's not reflected in the Redevelopment plan talks about some trends that were popular in the late teens I'll call it now the late 2010s you know um things have changed you know we had a pandemic so that kind of changed some things as well but yeah I think there needs to be an update to reflect you know some Modern Trends and that would require a phib a feasibility yeah we would have to hire a consultant to work on that visibility it would require a visioning session I definitely want to do a community visioning workshop for that within the C and that would be paid out of the funds of the CRA yes through the budget of the CRA a visibility study what is that one uh I mean that I don't know off the top of my head I mean I would venture to guess 50,000 or so well I mean and and also would it be would the board consider hiring a CRA executive director I feel it would be someone that would be solely invested in the CRA rather than I mean you you've done a good job to now but you have other responsibilities and part of why we were kind of put on probation is because the community director before you kind of was juggling a lot of different um uh jobs I should say and so I I feel that at this point you know we we really need to try and concentrate just on the CRA and have someone working on the C directly so and from your recommendations it you're talking about really an overhaul on Division and so for us to even vote to stay with the current Vision it would be un it just wouldn't serve us well or serve the CRA District well because it's outdated right like I said I think and I noticed two connects CI merid Island they both said they had mixed use future land uses within their CRA if the Direction was to evaluate changing at least the future land use of the CRA to mixed use City staff could internally work on that we could do that in house so it wouldn't be a problem um definitely like I said we would want to do some Community visioning workshops however once that would be changed you're not going to see improvements overnight I mean it's it's going to be an incremental thing it's not going to be overnight I mean and you know the C has been existence now for 31 years and so um change takes time you know it's but I think it would help at least build a foundation for there to be at least some investment in the CRA people would know what to expect when they bought a property you know oh I know that I can do up to two two a two F floor area ratio on a property I can do mixed use I can do a whole laundry list of things and when do we have to go before Orange County to show some we if I remember the agreement we have to send them like basically a list of the projects have been funded through the Tiff 90 days after the adoption of the city's budget um working with the finance director and the recreation director on the list of that right now um and then that would be sent I've been in contact with I have a contact at the county Her Name Escapes me right now that I've been working on with the CRA okay oh I'm sorry here says um to extend the C with the potential extend to January 1st 2034 approving the First Amendment to the interlope what's the date on that I guess I'll have to ask member would you have that information Drago Mr MGO I have can you make sure your mic's on something something sorry thank you uh the city adopted resolution 9316 and ordinance 78 7783 it basically lays out the functions of the CRA the authority of the CRA relative to expenditure of money um and it establishes which you have to do in order to get the tip money that this area that you're uh proposing to incorporate a CRA is blighted um because the purpose of the CRA the main purpose is to eliminate blight what it doesn't address is to eliminate visual pollution uh which is up and down that Corridor uh the minute you enter the Cor order heading north and coming south on 441 um so those are the two documents that the city adopted and the adoption date was uh June 1993 on the resolution and uh June 28th 1993 on the ordinance the yeah uh and then the county more or less uh Grant did the permission for the city to have the TC relative to to to accumulating the Tiff money from the county the county could have easily said you can have your CRA but it's your Tiff money not mine and that's common throughout the state uh but the counties saw a benefit to having the Tiff money collected by the county and given to the city in order to use it to uh improve the CRA yeah but we were put on probation I just want to know what's the date that we have to have some kind of movement going on it's my understanding it was a threeyear we got a three-year extension for the CR with the option to go seven is your white going on yeah yeah yeah yeah well it's it's section 2 B beginning with the calendar year 2024 within 90 days of the close of the city's fiscal year the city shall provide an annual update to the county regarding the CR activities in the use of the Tiff yeah and that's what I was referencing commissioner or board member was is that we have to provide that within 90 days of the adoption of the budget I I think her name is Sherry the county I spoke with um and she said that a letter would suffice outlining the expenditures for the Tiff yes can you just speak a little louder yeah can you hear me now yeah now I can hear you fers boost it up a little bit there we go okay member Williams uh just a quick question um when you were at the conference did you by chance you know just noticed maybe how many of the C had dedicated um CRA managers or directors was it a majority or was it it yes ma'am it was a majority um City CMI had one Meritt Island had the Meritt Island guy was Economic Development and CRA manager um I know locally U believe there are some that just have a dedicated CRA malora I think the guy is a CRA uh director or manager whatever they're called so and some here in Orange County I believe as well yes and then my other question was with the um change in the future land use would that be in a manner where the zoning wouldn't be inconsistent with that future land use or would then a property owner have to reone to be consistent and would a overlay some type of overlay be better in the situation or just trying to right so actually what we have right now is an inconsistency in some cases so we have a mixed use downtown zoning uh which was adopted in 2019 in Our Land Development code and rezoned a whole plethora properties but they have underlying future land uses in some cases of industrial or commercial and they can't quite enjoy the zoning that the code allows so we have kind of the opposite so really if we did the mixed use future land use we would probably correct a lot of those inconsistencies and then maybe if I mean if that is the direction that um this goes maybe it's a targeted approach too because I know in some instances where you know the the intent is there right but then you have these inconsistencies that are created and now the burden is on the property y field to try to get it reson or change the future land use or you know they can't because the size of the property for whatever reason they can't meet the requirements and so you kind of still have this conundrum where they can't develop so I think I think it's a good idea but I think a lot of times I've seen that you know municipalities they do it wholesale and then it defeats the purpose so if there's a way if we do take that approach to be more targeted and deliberate about you know what what has what designation and whether it you know can actually be usable within out without requiring somebody to go through another process to potentially use it because then you know that's just a another uh you know not lack that that doesn't incentivize people then to to develop and and you know increase the tax dollars that we'd like to see so understand yeah absolutely and and that could be part of the you know where we have the community workshops where we kind of give an out here's what this would allow here's what you have currently you know this is what you would get and then kind of take a targeted approach um legally we'd probably have to notify Property Owners also that they're future land uses are being changed all the property owners within the CRA we want to make sure we dot all eyes and cross all the te's and do everything correct and do we have to have the authority the approval The Authority from the landowners do we have to have their approval to change that um I mean it would be basically like we did the mixed use downtown it's my understanding but we would probably want to just air on the side of caution and notify everybody M Dro thank you mat uh mayor um I've had uh a couple of conversations with Mr Hal over the the plan so I'm not I may say some things that I may have not said to him so uh when I worked for the city of Daytona Beach I oversaw five C so I know what works and what doesn't work so and I'm going to briefly go down the list that Mr how provided number one uh there's too many overlay zones or districts in the CRA and what happens after a while the developer or the public gets confused as to what overlays do I use and overlays to me is just a lazy way not to amend the code for the residents and the developers to understand what the rules and regulations are uh number two um if you want to reduce development cost and you want to make it userfriendly then besides eliminating the overlay zones you need to eliminate zoning particularly in that crra District so as long as you establish a development district and you can name it any name you want a popka village a popka hamlet um the commission can um only set in motion specific land uses and the development code relative to the land uses now I know Mr how is recommending only one land use which is mixed use downtown but I think there should be at least two additional land uses to protect the residential area uh with the mixu downtown I think there has to be a restriction on the type of uses that is permitted in that quarter for instance you don't want a car wash in that quarter you don't want storage buildings in that quarter if if if the intent is to attract locals to come in and develop whether it's Mom and Pop restaurants um convenience stores Etc then those those uses need to be put in the development code and not allow any other uses other than the ones that are in there uh Mr H also stated that there's structures in there that are 59 years old now in looking at the plan on page uh 23 the plan identifies four structures that on the national register of his historic places now I took a quick glance at the code and I don't see in it any provision that protects those historic structures on the register and the federal government's intent when you grant the register is to protect those structures specific spefically from Demolition because when somebody buys those structures and they want to uh they they want to demolish them because they want to put put up a new modern structure or they want to demolish it in order to have a vacant lot uh that shouldn't be an option for them so I did a little uh research and uh I asked the question of the city and the question is if the house located on 21 East orang Street which is on the national register by the way were to apply for a demolition permit and the application was submitted completely with the city issued a demolition permit the answer is I believe it's possible as we have online Pere now and we wouldn't know if the house or business were on the register so there's a disconnect there and it and I without going back and looking at the federal requirements I think you have a I think you have an issue and there has to be a protection so whatever new development code that you put in place there has to be a component for the uh for those historical structures now the um the component for the historical structures should include a structural forensic audit and that's a process where a developer has to come in and justify why the structure needs to be demolished and he has to have an Engineers report to show it can't be fixed so the city should be able to ascertain oh I think it can be fixed if you use these techniques um the other thing the code should include because we're in the year 2024 and some of these structures may have um some s of material that is not that you can't purchase today but you want to maintain the look especially windows and doors then the code should allow current building materials to be used so if a structure has wood windows and there you don't make wood windows anymore and they have the Rope uh with the balls that you can't raise them up and down then you can allow them to use vinyl or lunaman as long as it's the proper color and it keeps the exterior intent of the building intact so the code should contain those two sections um okay the building parking placement okay so Mr how uh stated here that and I agree with him the building should be in the front and parking should be in the back however the wind Dixie site if I remember correctly required a lot of fill and therefore that prohibited a pedestrian friendly access to the facility because if you're on the sidewalk you got to walk up a steep driveway to get there and I'm not sure given the Topography of the property if that building could have been put to the Street given the elevation and I think the Miller ale ale house is the same way uh let's see Mr how also said block continuity typically in cras you don't want a block to be greater than 2,000 feet long and you want to keep a grid system and that kind of pinches a lot sizes down within that block uh signs I agree with Mr uh pal um there needs to be some not necessarily entrance signs that says welcome to the city of apaka because that's further down 436 and 434 I mean 441 if you want them to know that you're in the CRA then some signage could be welcome to the apaka Village or welcome to the apaka Hamlet uh uh so that tells a person they're in a designated area uh of importance uh the other thing I noticed in the plan and I'm not saying this to be contradictory or to be uh is that some of the pictures that were in the plan specifically of sidewalks uh depicted the sidewalks is not being clean so therefore if somebody gets this document outside the city and reads it picture is worth a thousand words so I'm going to say am I moving into an area where was so dirty uh the other picture that was in here showed trails and uh for and the trails showed asphalt instead of concrete so if you wanted to add a value added accessory which trails are it needs to be done in concrete so if anybody comes into the City and wants to develop in the CRA you can use that as a value added accessory for their development and concrete CES to clean and there's a lot of tinting uh that you can do to concrete if you want to establish a certain color um the floor area ratio that Mr how recommended 2.0 would be in my opinion excessive because you have drainage issues so you want to have the property hold as much drainage as possible and not put everything into the roadway and that would go for um that would go for parking if it where wherever possible there's new techniques out on unpaid parking areas so those would help absorb the runoff uh so the only thing that would be hard surface would be the handicap parking um now as far as the median income is concerned probably back when that uh study was done that's probably the correct number but today when a developer comes and looks at the city and decides I want to build something uh they normally uh calculate the median income in a five mile radius and there's a certain Target number they're looking for and if it doesn't hit the target number they're not going to develop if it hits the target number they'll develop so the city eventually is going to have to ask retain what is that Target number because you can use it as advertising in somebody comes in and wants to build um Mr how talked about demolition of substandard structures well if it's not in historical on the historic register um that's probably okay uh public participation I think uh Mr how's point is correct there needs to be a visioning process in the stakeholders that is the residents and the businesses and the CRA that's their livelihood they they're investors and they should be treated as investors and their investment needs to be protected so therefore if they come up with a vision whatever that Vision looks like the city in my opinion is obligated to put that into code develop it and implement it and don't provide any loopholes to developers in order to get around the code the code is the code you meet it you get approved if you don't you don't and uh there's a lot of local governments use PD zoning uh and that's just an Insidious process to get around development code uh let me see what else guidelines okay he uh he recommends form based code not a problem with that uh now the land acquisition and selling and leasing of public lands all right so here's the issue with CRA uh there's only two philosophies in CRA one philosophy in order to eliminate blight is I'm going to spend the the to spend a lot the money to improve infrastructure infrastructures water Serv and reuse and drainage why because that reduces development cost to the developer if this local government decides I want to buy the blighted property if you can't amass a large number of property you buy little Lots here little Lots there first thing is it's taken off the tax roles and second thing is under Florida law you need to send out an RFP which means requests for problems in order to sell or lease the property that's an extra step that's unnecessary uh let's see oh and also as far as marketing promotions are concerned uh you you funded the a poka Main Street and their responsibility to put on events so if the CRA is redesigned and the plan is re remodeled that helps their um that helps their um their purpose as far as streetscapes are concerned uh Mr how put in here you can make improvements such as decorative Street lighting Street Furniture unified signage sidewalks Etc well I can tell you from experience that the public normally does not recognize those improvements if the corridor is blighted the eye focuses on the blighted areas they focus on the utility lines going across the road they focus on the big utility lines along 441 through the major town so you can do brick sidewalks you can put fancy benches in whatever you want to do the public the traveling public has just got is not going to notice that and especially the transient customers which the businesses want to try to siphon into their business that they're just going they're going to keep going because they just visually they don't see where it's that Corridor is safe okay so with that said uh Mr chairman let me run over a couple of items I don't want to take up too much time relative to what I believe should go into the plan and from the plan you develop code so I first talked about uh providing in the code some sort of regulations to protect those structures on the national register I talked about eliminated zoning and overlays and you only have one code the code is the code you don't have to try to figure out um who's on First and what's on second also I think it's important that the code be written in such a way that a person with a high school education should be able to read and understand the code and if you if the city can't meet that criteria we're in trouble uh okay so as far as a development process is concerned uh you want to try to reduce the time it takes to get the development approved now I remember back in the day uh in Broward County it was 18 months just for a simple development some cities take as much as that uh some are less so if the development process was streamlined relative to the code and eliminating the E bureaucracy of zoning and the rest of the stuff that goes with it then uh then the process should be or the code should be one that is uh should establish an organizational cult culture of facilitation not regulation uh you you reduce the approval time so if they follow the code properly you should uh somebody should be able to walk in and in 45 days get their site plan approved that should be the target if the code is written in such a way and they abide by the code um the uh code should be clear and precise it should be purpose-driven and protect investors property assets which in turn provides predictability to the private sector because as I said before everybody that owns a business in the CRA or a house they're investors they're not taxpayers and they're not voters they're investors and if you view them as investors then your decision-making process is based on economics not on politics um all right now one of the big issues and I looked at the PowerPoint that the city presented to the county and the first thing I noticed was the facade program and I think in a 10-year period the city spent $154,000 $49,000 in change came from the private sector so my question would become for the $150,000 what did the city get visually what did the city get so a more comprehensive program would be a curve appeal program or cap now that program is designed to take the business's tip money and reinvest it into their property so when I looked at the budget uh the revenue was $1.1 Million you get 500 from the city 500 from the county so if you were out if you were if the board were to allocate at let's say a half a million dollars a year and you would spend no more than $50,000 you can improve 10 businesses in a year and you would not ask for any matching funds because it's their money you're reinvested into their business and given the business economy today who's going to contribute 25% of whatever the cost is so um those that particular program um would uh allow these particular improvements to be made cost of new Windows Doors awnings siding paint stonework signage and Landscaping now of all whenever you do a development code I think Mr Hal will agree with you the the biggest sticking point is always signage I want the biggest sign with the gaudiest color because I just think that's advertising but it's not because in today's um environment that those that have fancy phones and you put put in an address when you get there the phone says you reach your destination it doesn't say you reach F 15 Main Street so in so in essence maybe signage is becoming Superfluous but that's the visual pollution signage is a visual pollution so if that program was adopted and there a specific sequence of events that has to be followed you would see instant gratification relative to to the appearance of that quarter so if you go down that quarter you got a hotel you've got a shopping center with a laundr mat you got a gas station um you got Bur King you have a mismatch of stuff and you have a mismatch of colors and Architectural Styles so the purpose of it would be to try to get some Harmony among all those things uh the next thing I think the code should allow would be to uh allow some increased densities and to use what's known as an Adaptive use policy so an Adaptive use policy is basically I'm going to there's um there's an old gas station the old the old gas station down the road so let's say somebody wanted to take that structure and they wanted to convert it into other another use other than a gas station so what's local governments normally do first thing they're going to do is they're going to require you to meet their parking requirements and if they can't meet the parking requirements that means the develop can't develop the property so by using adaptive use policy they get to use the building and the parking that's that companies the building so my next item would be you have to abolish parking minimums because that reduces development cost um because the question becomes is this I've asked this question many times I never get an answer so here's the questions what is the premise behind parking regulations does the government know more than developers about parking needs for their developments if so how I I don't get answers to those I don't get answers to those questions on on a cost basis without the cost of the property national average a single parking space surface is $25,000 if it's in a garage is $5,000 and most cities believe that if the first parking space is 25,000 the 10 is 25,000 doesn't work that way it's not linear it's exponential so and parking requirements are the biggest are the largest single impediment to infield development in CR and it's the biggest development cost is parking so so if that's eliminated now you can start to see how that opens up not only vacant property but buildings that have been sitting there for quite a number of years and not be in used and if you want the locals to develop then you substantially reduce their development cost uh and the last thing I would mention is this uh there's a concept called authorized home and Retail design catalog so what is that concept that concept is for the local government to identify vacant property and then they develop a catalog with templates that has structures in it houses or businesses the structure or the the building plans would include paints colors so everything is in harmony it would include an architectural style that's um that would meet whatever the neighborhood is um and the only thing that the developer would have to pay for would be the cost of the property and the surveyor so when the city develops the catalog with the template building plans the developer gets those plans free that's a big cost savings and he gets a permit immediately because the city has already established those building plans to meet code um so what so you can use that plan for adus single family houses whether it's various sizes of bedrooms um duplexes six unit Apartments small retail establishments um and why that program I think would be beneficial is because it would complement the existing CRA assistance program and offer value added services to the city's business retention and expansion program because if the city is going to continue to have an economic development department you would want the developers to be to come to the department and Shop once once not go around and figure out what's going on so the economic development department would not only do the data collection but they would be able to locate the vacant property they would be able to develop the catalog but more importantly they should pay a visit to the banks and talk to the underwriters to figure out what properties or what businesses would you lend money to and that's important when businesses come in here uh do you think I could get a loan for this well yes I think you can and here's five banks go visit them um so Mr chairman thank you for the time okay thank you how concise anybody else that was really in depth yeah can is there can you send us yeah something along I'll send it I'll send to the of course you know this is not a public document it will be when you send it yeah I'll send it to the I'll send it to miss bone and she'll distribute it to all the members awesome I I have a quick question so the money that we allocated $50,000 that we allocated for Main Street fifth what was it Main Street right I don't we gave that money yet we didn't give it to them yet but we put it on in the budget right so is that something that can come out the CRA because the I think it was H it was the marketing promotion I don't think Main Street was in the budget for the CRA I think it was in the general fund budget general fund budget what I'm asking is can state law has changed since you've adopted this plan and the marketing activities are not they're not as as we're not as able to do them as we were when your plan was created so you probably could not do what your plan contemplates there all right thank you that was a question all right all right so the direction would be would you like for us to pursue uh update to the Redevelopment plan or keep as is or I think so and I think we ought to try to put together a a nice workshop at at the community center and talk about some of these changes and you know we can incorporate some of the things that member Drago was talking about and I mean kind of lay out all the and I think we need to do a real good job of making sure that the CRA Property Owners get notified that you know this this this could really impact hopefully in a positive way your your prop property so let's get with um it and try to put together a nice um from you know not only social media but also print and every every other way to get some things out there so we just we'll come up with a date that works um yeah how much time do you think you need well we got the holidays coming up so you want do J after the holidays January February so sometime in January put other okay and maybe that could double as the CRA meeting as well that Workshop could yeah sure okay that sound good yeah before you do that what about the C executive director you want take that one Mr chairman U if I we've got two other people first okay well I was gonna say is um we've got some good candidates for because as it is right now the community development director is also our CRA executive director director uh the plan was to hire this individual and have this individual be a part of figuring out what we're going to do with the CRA executive we're looking for somebody that would have experience uh with CRA Economic Development planning and so I think that individual will be the good person to uh to Champion that so so whether we have an individual c executive director manager whatever we want to call it or if it can be absorbed like it has been with the community development director or if it's still within the community development department and a position with within that we we will have the those discussions in fact that'll probably be a priority for that community development director when when we hire them yeah that's pretty nebulous that's pretty [Laughter] nebulous I just think it's important it's a maybe because it has shown for me in my time here um and and he's done you know a good job in taking it over but before him the community that he really was he had too many he was juggling a lot of responsibilities and so what was happening to the CRA was no one was really overseeing it directly and I feel like we were kind of moving very slowly and there were times where just nothing was done and um there was a followup and persistence to kind of move things forward and at this stage look where we're at right now which is this is outdated so yeah I don't know the history behind that but yeah that that will be part of the discussion you know um we have some strategic planning that we're moving forward can you hear me okay sorry you said discussion yeah that'll be part of the discussion when we have this other indiv idual on board I just feel like we have to have this one other team member uh so we can get whoever it is their insight as well as their Buy in because they're going to be the individual ultimately over this okay member Williams yes I just had a quick comment um also maybe in advance of the workshop or work session or at the work session if you could maybe present just so people can get a sense of local cras and what they've done like you know wi Garten downtown they've done a really good job so just maybe some examples locally that people can relate to and kind of see what um those successful cras look like and maybe the two that you mentioned was it um CI and Island yeah okay remember Dro you had something yeah um I always thought that the CRA duties and functions are an integral part of Economic Development so therefore I think in my opinion the city would behoove itself if they identified a person for the for the economic development department part of the duties would be the CRA uh and I think uh from a planning perspective I know when Mr hit was here he served Too Many Masters and you just can't serve all those Masters and be effective something's got to GI and the biggest issue you have is the time component I mean you can hire accountants to do your work you can hire lawyers to do your work you can hire this to do your work and one thing you can't hire is people to manage your time you're the only one that can do that so uh I understand there uh there the you know that the Mr hits position is open and you're interviewing but if the other position is open which is my understanding then I think you could probably advertise where the two are linked together as far as duties and responsibilities and you can call whatever you want to call it but I think that particular person if it's hired with those two functions will serve the city and the residents better than if it's attached to the Planning Development director all right anybody else okay all right so we will schedule a community Workshop that will double as a CRA meeting in the new year January February time frame got all right so next item is just an overview um actually it's more informational item this is uh just included everybody's packets the amounts that have been given out for the uh projects that we have uh within the C not the projects the um reimbursement projects as you can see the dollar total so I just provided that for informational purposes as well um any questions any questions are do you have any update on the Station Street project the multif family yes there's none I've not heard anything from the developer I've reached out to them and I've not heard anything back so I will follow up with a phone call I've done emails so I'll follow up with a phone call as well what's I'm sorry I did ask that yesterday yeah what's I guess what's the next step did where were we at with them what did we approve and what's their deadline to so you got a development agreement um that was approved back let's see it was executed on 31st day of July and so there are timelines contained within it as an exhibit project schedule so it says um construction site plans or major development submitt July through September 2024 uh staff has not received anything on that one construction site plan October November 2024 plat November 2024 site and building permits December December 2024 to February 2025 uh preconstruction meeting with the city engineer December of 2024 ground site work January 2025 and public Plaza completion on lot to January 15 2026 um but as of right now we've not heard from the developer we had a meeting with them several months ago where they were inquiring about the major development plans the middle but they've not submitted anything to us so do we have is there a deadline of I know that that's a calendar you know of the timelines that their goals are is there a deadline that everything expires that I don't know um I don't know if uh M Drew if you're familiar with this and I not familiar I I worked on a little bit back back at the time and I don't remember enough of it to get to speak off top of my head now and do you anyone remember whether or not because wasn't there like a deed um given to them but was that done in advance or was there a reverter clause in there that if they didn't do certain things within a certain time frame the property could go back to the the city that know I think I think you're right there yes perfect and what I could do is I could go through the The Da and then provide like a bullet point and I could get with uh Drew and just and him and Andrew H who worked on it and just make sure everything is good before I sent get a response from from Mark wi just so s that out to the members awesome follow up with email so we have it as public rather than phone yeah and I've email yes that uh development did it require a land use change uh had a commercial future land use um and it did not require land use change as I recall it they did uh I don't think they even did a PD I can't remember I have to go back and do the details but I don't remember a land use change on that one I think it met the threshold within the comp plan of the 15 units an acre within the commercial future land use all right thanks everybody for coming out thank you e