[Music] [Music] welcome every body to our June 6th community redevelopment agency meeting um we'll call this meeting to order does anybody wish to come forward and speak to any item that is not on the agenda maybe did the baby want to come forward it's okay all right thank you all right we have the draft minutes from March 7th for the CRA are there any Chang es I can have a motion to approve so move okay vice mayor and commissioner G all in favor signify by saying I I any opposed motion passes unanimously um then we have the uh CRA advisory committee membership recommendation Bob did you want to or yeah or um certainly I just read it off B iron Smith economic Dev director uh staff uh the committee recommended Barbara Burman to regular term ending March 1st 2027 and appoint Zachary Feinstein to a partial regular term ending March 1st 2027 and appoint Eric Peterson to a partial alternate term ending March 1st 2027 I certainly can defer Rebecca if I didn't say that right so okay okay are there any other nominations seeing or hearing none can I have a motion to approve move second commissioner torga and commissioner gal all in favor signify by saying I I any opposed motion passes unanimously thank you okay we have the CRA resolution 24-1 fiscal year 20203 community redevelopment agency carry forward budget amendment Jennifer can you please read cra resol resolution 2401 by title only certainly resolution 2401 a resolution of the city Commission of the city of Duneden as the governing body of the city of Denon Community Development agency CRA amending the operating and capital budget for the CRA for fiscal year beginning October 1 2023 and ending September 30th 2024 and providing an effective date hereof that was resolution 241 read by title only okay can I have a motion to approve so moved second commissioner TGA and vice mayor frainy thank you Bob and Les yeah well obviously wanted to introduce here Les Tyler Finance director these are carry forwards because some of these projects are taking two years to complete you know it's a little bit different environment than it was years past so construction estimates getting contract designed it's taking a little bit longer so I'll go ahead and defer to Les to add any additional detail we might want to anything else Les just one comment uh Les to the director just want to mention that this this carry forward amendment was included in our city resolution 244 we had our first budget amendment by the city Commission on March 19th item 3A and this is this information was included in that carrier forward that was for All City funds in fiscal year 24 including the CRA fund that's my only comment thank you okay any questions for Bob or Les no oh I'm sorry go ahead no that's no problem uh Les so you're just saying we already knew this and this has been presented previously yeah this yeah this this budget amendment uh the CRA fund was included with all the city funds and I could go through some more detail if you'd like but it was uh it was all part of that package that was approved on March 19th yes yeah anybody else okay anybody from the public wish to come forward and speak to this item okay uh back to the commission um commissioner torga makeer the motion now thank you very much I understand uh what happened here and the carry forwards are necessary I probably have some questions later uh perhaps but sure thank you uh vice mayor yeah no I I did owe on that um we we again we knew about it and uh carry forwards are part of business so commissioner gal no no comment question good thank you I'm good too except I need to know who this young man with the suit is sitting next to you this this gentleman is here for the next item yeah okay yeah thank you just checking uh okay uh roll call vote please Rebecca commissioner gal hi commissioner Walker hi Vice chair crany I commissioner TGA and chair bajowski I that motion passes unanimously thank you okay and then we have the community redevelopment agency annual audit yes mayor each year as required the the CRA uh like the city general fund has to do an audit and uh we have John tap here I'll let Les go ahead and introduce him but he's our consultant uh I will say I'm very proud of the audit and he he'll let you know that we're in very good shape thank you Bob uh yeah just a quick comment uh this is the presentation for our 23 annual uh Financial audit for our CRA fund and our C fund uh has Standalone financials and in in in accordance with uh State guidelines and as Bob mentioned we have John tap an audit supervisor with Ms slpa to present that and I'll turn it over to John to go over a few things perfect uh Thank You Les and Bob for the introduction and everything and first I always just want to thank the council for the uh continued partnership with our firm and the ability to perform this audit uh Les and his team have always been great to work with and everything um and as I lay out here over the next few minutes I think you know we show was a pretty clean audit and everything uh the first thing I wanted to go over was the uh required final communication letter um that you should have uh pretty much it just lays out certain things that the standards requires to communicate to the board uh primarily being that there were no significant audit findings during this audit um there are no difficulties encountered performing the audit or any corrected or uncorrected misstatements um there are no difficulties or disagreements with management while performing the audit again Les and his team are Beyond helpful with everything and providing everything that we need so it was a an extremely um smooth and clean audit um moving on to the audit uh report report on page one of the statements we did Issue a clean opinion um which is of course what you want and then um just a few key highlights of the statements and everything the CRA itself is in great shape um I think as property taxes continue to rise and the population continues to increase in the county uh the CRA is only going to perform better which is indicative of its intergovernmental revenue is also its increase in its uh cash and cash equivalence um so with that that's all I have and it was a clean audit and thank you okay uh questions for staff I'll start down this end commissioner gal no questions commissioner Walker vice mayor no commissioner thank you okay anybody from the public wish to speak to this item seeing or hearing none can I have a motion to approve second commissioner Walker and commissioner fry thank you final comments anybody well done yeah if I may just make a comment we're really proud of this because you know the state legislation everything's cracked down much more stringent than it was 5 10 years ago with the county with the state so we're very pleased with John's report here and with working with less so this actually is a big deal I know it sounds pretty simple but it is to have it clean and all the accounting and all that stuff is it makes me pretty excited so happy thank you so yeah I was just going to say the same thing it is a big deal and I still say we are one of the highest performing if not the highest performing sias in the state and um and to have a clean audit and to continue to do everything really by the book and and you know our strategies have been good and and you know the proofs in the pudding we got a great downtown so we just got to stay on that track so thank you Bob unless anybody else okay um all in favor signify by saying I I I any opposed motion passes unanimously thank you then we have the the community redevelopment agency advisory committee chair report yes and I don't see Jen Welsh here so I I I see somebody more handsome there there you go we have Alan male Jen needed to right Alan she had unexpected uh something she had take care of so we you're only saying that because I've got family here that's all good afternoon uh Madam mayor vice mayor Commissioners and staff um Jen does send our apologies uh she had to attend another meeting or something was going on with family today at the last minute so I'm happy to stand in as Vice chairman of the CRA advisory committee meeting uh last month um we discussed two or three different items the first one was we uh received a presentation from am Meredith Carlton and Walter B Dennis from Baker Morton Plant me regarding the repaint job that they've started uh in the process there are seven buildings and over the next 12 to 18 months they're going to be repainting the whole of the hospital in downtown D Eden they showed us the color schemes uh showed us the progress chart and what they had planned and we were delighted to see it it's very clean looking it's very in line with their BR branding and uh CRA did our advisory committee asked some questions and uh we got uh very favorable answers from them and we're quite happy with what they're Pro proposing um after that uh we got an update from Bob regarding the uh projects in downtown that are progressing and will progress over the next 18 months and there's no concerns there and the last and only uh uh pressing item for us as a committee was that has been brought up by two three people regarding concerns over the speed and number of electric bikes and scooters going through downtown either on or off the trail and their apparent disregard for the traffic signs and the the pedestrians on the road yeah and there's been a number of incidents or potential incidents that have been witnessed by members of the committee and we brought it to Bob's attention and uh we're wondering if anything can be done other than that there was nothing else for us to uh to do except to move on uh to the next meeting in July and I think again that that can be we need to share that information with the cpos and we're talking about getting our cpos in the downtown a little bit more and maybe they can uh use their speed guns or I don't know what the thing is part of the problem is that the state wants to consider them the same thing as a normal bike mhm and they're not they no and their their effect I mean they provide such a great service for people who are Maybe physically challenged and want to get exercise all those facts are are very relevant we get that um but I you have a lot of other people using them just to get some more quicker and we were touring around City yesterday and just anecdotally we were watch we were in Weaver Park and the number of bikes going along the trail that were ebikes and the speed at which they were going was really noticeable yeah um and it's roughly the same speed as a golf cart and the golf carts can't go on the trail so I'm sorry I didn't give you a chance to say anything no actually it's very topical because I had my first meeting this morning with our new uh CPO dedicated to downtown um uh uh Deputy Nero and Sergeant Green as well so I will convey and it's it's more than just you know the the unlawful noise ORD anything it's it's the entirety of the activities of bicycles on the trail off the trail uh kids on bikes traffic circulation and all those things so so yeah got very very I'll I'll convey to you uh this conversation to him this convers thank you very much I have nothing else to report and if there are any other questions questions for Alan no no Alan thank you for taking time away from your lovely family thank you very much and joining us they've been sampling all the uh the good things that denan has to offer and we've uh we just came from one of the ice cream shops and that went down that's nice very well very good thank you very much indeed thank you guys thank you very much for filling in thank you okay Bob last but not least your your report right director's report just want to pick up a little bit what Allan said Bayer it's been such a strong partner for us we lease a couple porking Lots from them they're looking to kind of modernize this Hospital what they want to do is paint it all the brick white if you if you see lately they've done a whole bunch of landscaping work so they're spending money out there which is nice that's a pretty big focal point entryway into the downtown so we're excited about it and they did this all as a courtesy it wasn't required we asked them to do it and they did which is which is pretty good uh uh Skinner Boulevard uh we're bid went out the project is continuing we're looking to get this started in the uh late part of the Fall so we're excited about Skinner uh the parking garage we're currently uh getting the designed bid stuff to go out for bid which is kind of an RFP on the parking garage second phase a streetcape this this is the south side of Main Street from the trail to uh Broadway the intersection of Broadway we want to continue what we did with the costantina project which is was a big success we hope to get get that one started in late summer early fall so we're excited about that Old City Hall we just got some Design Concepts on that we're going to start to review them and we certainly be looking to bring them before the commission for input and comment and of course the art incubator which the commission just uh made a vote on we're looking to do that 3-month extension to put that in play Happy answer any questions that you might have relative to the downtown yeah vice mayor any updates you need uh no I don't but you know Bob I just I'm just going to pound the drum that you you pound with us all the time obviously I'm not driving after my wrist accident um and so that means I'm walking a lot a lot more than I would especially in downtown and so I you know I see you know some places that we have the tired pavers and we have you know we have issues and right and that's where like don't want to ever get to where you know we go too far before we start to improve and make sure we're keeping it up and keeping it nice and kind of clean and I think that's a drum you pound it's a drum that we need to remember about when we're looking at our C money and not trying to cramp it too much that we keep that money for the basic maintenance to keep it nice keep it safe um keep it aesthetically pleasing um so uh I just wanted to kind of add that Cu uh very important you say that all the time yeah some of the papers have been down for over 25 years we're also going to be doing some new sewer laterals into those businesses in there it it's time and um D is really built on the walkability the Aesthetics the quaint feel the charm everything that you hear you know in your travels and uh I'm getting definitely a little bit more myopic as far as how's the bench look you know how's the street light work how these things function so we want to make sure we're bringing up the speed and and you could definitely make the argument that as we're rehabbing these places it's too slow it's too slow we have a lot of little side areas that you know they are tired and they need some attention so I do think we have to keep it on our radar thank you absolutely and in next year's budget will be phase three which would be the north side of that main street from where the CAF Fresco Trail is to to Broadway so we kind of got a planned approach here commissioner T any questions I have no questions thank you commissioner gal uh thank you mayor yeah but this is an it's own drum beat that I beat all the time but I was walking downtown uh the other day and I happen to notice uh Remax is now relocated on on Main Street away from they were off of um closer to St Andrew's pub and a house of beer the Max uh realtor and so that has now we got three Realtors on Main Street and it's at least it's my contention that they're not there for residents they're there for for tourists coming in who love our community and um are looking to buy and so it's opportunity but you add for me there's a concern that everything is leaning toward we're becoming that tourist Community whether we like it or not and I know that our residents can't support our downtown the way it is so we need tourists to complement the residents here but I don't know where that line is I don't know where we now we're clear waterer Beach and I know that's kind of a common thing that we're all kind of concerned about that but I really am concerned I don't know where tourists fit in I don't know right we're still talking about noise ordinances and outdoor dining and and and and that balance and I'm just concerned and I don't know where those where are those businesses coming in that in our downtown that are for the residents whether they eye doctors a post office and I know I've had these conversations before and I know they're not new but where's that hard W store you know those residents that are living in our downtown if if they're leaving downtown other than work where are they going what businesses are they going to and what can we do to attract them into our downtown to really make it a a live workpl and just every you know it's a death by a Thousand Cuts and I'm and I'm just concerned we continue to to lead that way I don't know what's in your control I don't know what is in your control but I I just needed to make that comment especially when all of a sudden Remax just snuck right up on me it's like can I ask you a question where is it CU I I know I I didn't I didn't notice it you notice three now that doesn't mean I I drive I'm not paying attention I'm not looking for it what's across street main and what oh it is right it's just by is it by the holiday in Hunt no no that's where it was that's where it was okay right and at first I thought it was additional but I was talking to Kevin yesterday and he said no no that one on by holiday end is gone um I want to say it's closer to to Christie's is it maybe right next door Coastal Coastal Crystal Co I think 9 509 Main Street that's where it is okay well I don't us to be in the chamber didn't it wasn't it second floor chamber for a while may I guess and and nothing you know we're glad we're glad they're here right it's it's a business in our downtown no I understand what you're saying I mean it is a tough balance and and it's something that you know when you look at the evolution of downtowns you know it's something that comes to mind we're so much farther ahead than Clear Water some of the other surrounding places but we are seeing such high rents and different things that's now supporting some of these commercial businesses where your smaller uh mom and pop type businesses are struggling a little bit it it's a tough issue I don't have an easy answer for and it's not but I know that that's always yeah you know I don't I just I just needed to share that it's just a concern that I have no I I I I think that's a a concern I think uh online sales is a concern you know the people you know listen Amazon's going to come to your house by drone right we've just heard that drones are going to come in and drop your oh God your product so um but all in all downtown's doing well but I certainly understand what you're saying commissioner oh it's it's doing I guess it depends by what standard you say well you know it well certainly rents are up things are good right but well for me is is it downtown what it what we want it to be is it going in the right direction and at what point is our cute unique characteristic downtown all of a sudden any downtown USA that just well we're definitely not in any downtown I can tell you that no not yet not yet part of it is we just got featured in sudden living again so you're seeing more and more Southern Living loves us can I tag on to that though sure just something that's been swirling in my head because of all the outdoor dining talk and all that kind of stuff is like you know just the big picture of you know incentivizing that you know again that we're not all bars that we continue to be restaurants and Shops and and I get where you're coming from as well but that we have that mix and I don't know the answer I don't I don't know what creative incentivizing and dis disincentivizing cities can do or or have the power over the market to do but I sure do want us to think about that as we think about you know what does Drive something becoming all breweries I mean I love our breweries but obviously we want our restaurants and we want our shops and that's what makes us special and and as we kind of face our growing pain challenges it just seems like somewhere in the mix is that making sure that that in our our codes or whatever that that we're doing whatever creative things are out there best practice wise to incentivize that mix so and I don't know the answer but but somebody might best practice people around the United States May May and I I think that's kind of part of the challenge to continue to be what we want to be and not to be what we don't want to be right well I also think it's a because you happen to mention real estate I mean just what I'm hearing you know it's a challenging Market mhm and so I think realators are becoming a lot more creative in how they how they promote yeah their product and where they promote their product and now they have those new commission laws too where you can be both a buyer and seller agent I don't know the exact name but they can represent both which a lot of realators don't want to do but others are finding a niche there so there's a lot of things going on so it's probably part of it because of what's happening in that industry because normally it's changing you're not going to find the most expensive place to have your rent you know but but if you're really Bradway right if you're over there on Broadway and I'm sudden you know there's all this traffic on Main Street that's just a smart business decision for them to do that yeah I mean the term is experiential so I mean they're like the bank that wants to offer you coffee now and come in sit and talk with us so that's what they want on the real estate as opposed to just a type of transaction they they want to meet with you have a cup of coffee here's our downtown we can take it to launch so that's why it's attractive to them and that's what switched a little bit I'd like to see a little more diversity in our businesses downtown sure easy easier to say than do I get it well speaking of that I mean where where are we with the um ocean Optics and the Gateway we uh we have not heard anything new on Ocean on the ocean Optics at all um so we initially came and talked to us it's probably been probably six eight months is there anything we can do to push it I I don't know anything I can do to push it and can we have another meeting with him to find out what he's thinking certainly reach out to him Bob's been yeah I mean I know you have and then the same with Gateway because these are two big swas that can provide some of what you're talking about which is why I'm throwing it into the question I do have mixed feelings about ocean Optics though until we solve or parking stuff right so we did um uh code enforcement did a super job code compliance did a super job of of um uh making sure that that some of those graffiti issues were taken care of at Ocean Optics right yes yeah Trevor got in touch with the property man oh it's Trevor sorry Trevor did it I'll defer a little bit to the City attorney on the Gateway yeah so they at at this point um I still I need to send them a letter and then they also still need to transfer the property and my understanding is their intent is still to to terminate the um development agreement so that this all hasn't happened why has this not happened why has what not happened why have I not sent the letter yet well that why haven't they transferred I mean we talked about this like six months ago yeah and we have talked to them about or we have talked to him about transferring the property but it just hasn't happened yet okay but it didn't happen in time for the last for what the year and a half or two years of the development Okay so so I'm not trying to throw anybody on the bus but that should become an immediate priority this has been 2 and a half three years we keep getting told it's going to happen and then it doesn't but they keep saying they want to develop they're just not ready to do it that's what that's what they're telling outside people people outside the city that they want to start over and do something different reimagine reimagine right that's what I was asking about where are we with that I know you wouldn't know that I'm looking at Jennifer and Bob where's his reimagining is is reimagine I mean conveyed to me a while ago he wants to look at a boutique hotel and uh some retail yeah where he's at and drop so how do we how do we meet with him and work with him and make that happen well the termination needs to occur and then well see this is what I'm saying he's dragging so he doesn't have to do it yet I so well there's I'm gonna I'm just not going to say too much on the Das but we we need to do something about this like now okay thank you because a we need the boutique hotel hopefully still considering the the conference space we have no place in this city other than a church that we have 250 seated banquet space and we need that well it's a tax generator too well and I yeah but you know we get accused of that's all we care about no it's more so I don't want to look at it that way it's a stimulus for the East end it is it's part of our East End plan so I don't want us to be like this about it do you think he's just waiting for the market to get better I mean a better time no no I think he's he's waiting for some to see with the termination and then get the proper gotcha he could be waiting for a better market for interest rates to come down but they're not going to come down anytime soon I don't see that occurring so yeah yeah okay sorry I hijacked your it's it's all good I'm done commissioner walker uh scared what's the status on The Old City Hall Park plan well we we just got two concepts from the consultant we're just going to review them uh staff be me Doug Jorge jennif and then we'll be getting back to you so what like August or something uh it could be I know the survey is done he's got a concept um you know we want to bring something to you that's fairly um comprehensive yeah not not phases not a peace meal deal and then are do we have plans for Douglas to pave I know we've been waiting dougas yeah and I I asked this hang on I asked this knowing with a couple caveats we were trying to wait on Ocean Optics right hoping that they would at least the last people were going to be partners with those God aul Center medians that serve no purpose cuz there's no plants in them and then if you look around the the round thing whatever you call that in the middle of Douglas and Main you can see where the bricks are rising away from the pavement and then if you keep heading South we've cut into the pavement to do the projects we're working on it just looks pretty like it needs help it needs help from it feels like from Skinner all the way to at least Scotland yeah I'd have to check on it I I know Virginia's ripped up so I've asked them when they're going to pay Virginia if because they did the Force main there I'd have to talk to engineering I don't think it's going as far up a Skinner but maybe it's south of of Main Street they just did some work in there too so those those iians that have no plants in them look terrible yeah I look they look terrible I I Look to try to get something in there but people continually run over them so that's what let's get rid of them I think they're going to do some hanging plants there probably yeah there you go get on that Rob there you go there you go I mean I'm just saying I mean I understand why they're still there because because the previous developers they were going to do something with us there was a whole partner ship that's correct so we left it there and knowing that they were going to do construction we weren't going to do any we weren't going to touch it let the construction happen let it beat up the pavement we won't worry about the medians until that's done and then then we do it all at once kind of like what we were looking at for salon and Garrison when they were working on the Player Development complex but who knows when this guy's going to do anything and in the meantime it just looks worse and worse and worse aesthetically it looks poor it does help to slow down traffic traffic though it does help to slow down traffic so um well then we should plant something well we can try to put peanut grass or something in there so I can talk to Parks about I mean it just looks terrible looks like we don't care about it yeah and I mean that's our second Main Street is Douglas that's why I say that it's not just it's not like Highland you know which is just kind of used as a thoroughfare maybe the timing's a little better too if we had done this last two months it's been the drought so right so maybe that so I can check with parks and see if we get peanut grass in there something ground cover um outdoor dining status when will that be coming back so we just uh met with the BRC again a special meeting uh we have um uh George has actually yesterday afternoon he and I went over the ordinance um that was responsive to some of those comments going to send it back to Jennifer for her review and then we'll schedule it for um for LPA okay so it's coming it's emminent and also the unlawful noise clarification of that that's coming up next so like July you're thinking yes yeah okay depending on advertisement and all those sorts of things okay and then um Bob I just wanted to let you know that I did speak with Wht yesterday okay he's uh he's going to be at Clearwater city council meeting tonight during the Drew Street conversation and he's going to speak to the fdot hire UPS more of the decision maker people to see if he can bring it on home for us oh it' be great our our talk was so fingers crossed yeah no it'd be fantastic thank you that'd be great okay yeah all right that's all I have thank you all right thank you Bob thank you pleas thank you guys thanks for coming go back out and get some more ice cream or something else [Music]