##VIDEO ID:YrIHGonzqyY## e good evening everyone welcome to City Hall this is a meeting of the CRA uh community redevelopment agency it's 5:30 5:30 p.m. it's Thursday December 12th 2024 is there a quum presentent proper notice been given yes thank you so much first we have the approval of minutes from our August 1st 2024 CRA meeting move for approval thank you sir I second have a first and a second any further discussion not hearing any roll call please Mr Ashcraft hi Miss Cruz hi Mr Mr Hawkins hi Vice chair Lee hi chairman Holland hi next we have CRA items with board discussion public hearing and Direction Tom you going to take us off yeah actually mayor if it's acceptable uh we do not have uh public input or audience to be heard would it be appropriate to open that up uh to hear from the public uh before we get into the meat of the item this is so such important item um for the city uh and the residents of the city I would like to hear from the public on this is that okay with the rest of the commission absolutely thank you so much sure okay so I uh do not have any cards um but I expect that there are people in the audience that would like to speak on this item anybody like to speak on this item George come on up please first uh no other hands went up yet so you're the sole person and may I ask what's the will of the commission on the um the length of audience to be heard meaning are we are are we limiting to three minutes or let's do three minutes and then if we need to go on a little bit we'll make a judgment call on it okay stretch that's stretch it okay what was that um it's great to be seeing this seeing us moving um though I think we've been moving all along a lot of people don't know that in the general public but I think you got guys have been doing great in in trying to move this big tank uh I wanted to share one story with you I I learned that it took U the City of Winter Garden almost 25 years to get to the true Prosper that they were and it took Trails almost 20 years so things never happen as fast as we'd like to especially in in in government for whatever reasons but that being said I wanted to make some comments about the uh the agree mement that you guys have in front of you I think to vote today um and I I feel that this is a a good foundation of an agreement but it doesn't meet important things that we need to have uh in here uh some examples are benchmarks for standards um I know there was talk about that but it never made it to the agreement um there was talk about pre-development agreements that should probably go with these they are not there either uh thresholds they are not there either and taking and creating a uh stop in anything that could be favorable to the Comm to the community uh by locking us into a term uh to not be able to communicate with anybody or any opportunity that might arise would not be in the best interest of the community itself I do understand that there's uh Financial expenses that anybody would make and I think that could be worked into everybody's satisfaction an example would be that we wouldn't enter into any other agreement with anybody else until we gave them an opportunity to present theirs and I'm not seeing saying that any of those would happen but our responsibility I think your responsibility if I could try to imply what your responsibility is which I'm not in a position to properly do but in theory is the best interest of the city which I know all of you have so I think this is a good kickoff I don't know who prepared this but um it it lacks benchmarks standards um it lacks a pre-development agreement it lacks thresholds updates and everything are crucial crucial crucial to an agreement um um I cannot overemphasize that so I would ask that you consider moving this uh giving it back to our attorney I would think um to give back recommendations based on those if she or he uh determines or you determine that those are things that you might want to see in an agreement which I think they are crucial um uh and then put it back on the the agenda as quickly as possible that's it thank you George thank you sir anyone else that would like to address the commission on this subject not seeing any move uh Sean you coming up good afternoon everyone um at the moment after reading this resolution um I am also opposed to it as well as a stance the main reason um I am in opposition of this is because there's really there there's one word in this that really kind of drives it and I'll I will quote the eustus downtown master plan provides a guide for development of the site however the developer is encouraged to create a proposal that is Market driven consistent with the cra's vision and planning principles and that will create a vibrant Town Center what that means is that all the money we we spent all the time we have spent to create a master plan all of that could technically be thrown away because it is not Market driven okay this project should not be Market driven it should be a market driver because of the subsidization and the money that has been given to it this should be actually creating a market it should not be driven by it the way we can fix that is through our own crra okay what I propose and what I'd recommend is that you create a CAC a community advisory committee that will help you it will give you a voice that seems to be silent in the community it is not silent it is there you just don't hear it by having a community advisory committee underneath this board it will give you a better picture it will give you a a better vision and and also too you will also listen to the dreams and the hopes of the people who live here and it will help you guide for the Next Generation I want this project to be something that we are proud of not just four years from now but something that we're proud of 20 years 30 years 40 years from now I'm concerned as well the certain wording in this there was understanding that there was going to be an underground parking garage however in the agreement it's there is not a mention of underground parking it is always onsite surface parking I think that might be a little misleading to a lot of the public that understood that there would be an additional 100 spots 100 parking Lo spots uh for cars and lot I believe it's lot three with an underground parking facility what I really recommends in this project is that we actually subdivide the Lots instead of giving all three lots to one company we actually subdivides subdivide them cut out the public space and the green space that we want and then allow developers to then or developer to develop then those subdivided Lots um thank you anyone else Mr Daniel can I go this way yes sir go whichever direction you want to go good afternoon good evening hello can you hear me Daniel devano uh I I'm gonna follow up with uh George ASB because I think he made some excellent points and also I would uh I I believe this agreement is premature uh I I find it somewhat uh ambiguous and that it is non-binding but you can't talk to anybody else for six months and and guys I just want to give you an overview of where we're at we are going to PO possibly be in one of the hot spots in the United States of America Florida is going to be the location we are in Lake County we're away from the coast uh I get demands for housing every single day Market uh rate housing uh the they haven't qualified their funding sources um they state they're responsible for the funding well what if their funding source is to provide assisted or low-income housing because they can get uh Federal money at substantially reduced rates but now they brought a funding source yes they provided housing and this is what we're going to get uh I think it I think that's a little loose there are um articles a couple of things and I'll be quick here article two I already mentioned non-binding um you you picked up on the public the surface parking I've already done site plans for this entire three three blocks and I'm going to tell you surface parking is not going to cut it for a development of any scale any scale we would be we should be expecting 40 to 70 million spent down here 40 to 70 million and parking surface parking is not going to cut it as it is I mean we all know right now we've got three blocks that we two blocks specifically that we get to use for parking and when we have special events and when the restaurants are busy we're going to bring in this kind of this kind of uh construction we're going to need substantially a much better parking uh plan than surface parking surface parking is not going to work unless you're going to allow them to include every surface parking spot that the city owns within two two blocks of the downtown and even that that won't be enough uh the next thing that is I kind of struggle with here is uh item eight item eight let me look here it was uh oh yes and this was brought up we we have designed guidelines and standards so uh we need to be careful what we get ourselves locked into uh another good point that you picked up on Market driven Market driven means this is what we can get the money to build because this is what we can afford to pay for well guys I want to tell you do you I I'm just going to throw it out there I don't know what Georgia spent downtown I know I've spent over $1 million in the last four years and and the thing is is if this property were opened up I can assure you I could probably in 60 days if it was subdivided at least sell the first lot to individual local guys local guys that would use local people to build this project I think uh I'm out of time but I want I want to thank you I know you all are well intended for the city and that you definitely have the city at C I think this agreement is premature I think it needs to go back and things need to get hashed out thank you Daniel anyone else that would like to address the CRA board on this Mr Mayor I have 10 seconds left I just wanted to say one line in this agreement in number 9B it references Milestones that should have been attached to here that are not attach it's an incomplete agreement just for consideration for that argument all right George I know you're filling it out do you want to speak to the CRA board about any of this project I just wanted to check okay that's fine Madame attorney I I I've you've heard some concerns tonight have you had an opportunity to look at this contract and do you feel this contract is a good contract for the city of Eustace and the people of the city of Eustace have I looked at it no it's fine um have I looked at it uh I looked at it I made slight revisions do I believe it's a good contract unpopular opinion but I don't think it's a good contract there's there's just a lot missing from it and um I know that that there was a lot of back and forth I wasn't involved in the negotiation process of it either so I don't know if Tom wants to maybe chime in here because I don't um you know I I will say that I there was a pre-development agreement that we um started and then I revised a few months ago and it's not this so right so if I may the um so this is the first step in what I expect will be a number of agreements moving forward um we are yes we had initially talked about a more detailed agreement but we're we are not ready to commit to G3 C2 because they still have to flesh out their concept um they don't want to go out and spend a bunch of money without some level of commitment from us and so this was a compromise first step and so what this agreement does is I would call it a uh very low commitment first step in the process meaning we are not committing any dollars to this uh and we're committing to work with them exclusively for six months while they develop um a concept for the project using the master plan as the basis so there are not a lot of details in this contract about parking not a lot of details about what's going to get built because we have the master plan as the framework but now G3 C2 has to develop their initial concept and so what this agreement does is it cuts them loose to go develop their initial concept and then come back to us uh when they've developed that concept or uh if they can't develop that concept they've got six months um once we have a preliminary concept we would then review it and decide do we want to move to the next step um or if 6 months pass and we don't we can't negotiate the next step and we don't have a concept then we can move move in a different direction so uh again this is what I would consider uh a low commitment first step to cut them loose do what they need to do so that we can get more comfortable um as far as being premature uh I think if we were bringing to you tonight the sale of the property or the lease of the property or some kind of long-term commitment on the property I agree that would be premature uh and so this agreement does not have a lot of detail but it is the first step in cutting them loose having them move forward with project concept development uh and then come back to us and see if we want to continue forward or not um and so that's what this is this is not a development agreement it's not even a pre-development agreement it is just us saying we will work with you exclusively for the next six months for you to flesh out this concept um and it doesn't in this agreement doesn't lock us into anything else down the road if we don't like what we get no if if at the end of six months or upon their presentation of a concept we would then decide do we want to continue forward or not um so it does say the only thing it really commits us to is to working with them exclusively for the next six months that's really and and it's only for the conceptual plan that's it and it is also only for the three block Waterman site um so if a developer if a developer other than G3 C2 comes to town and says we'd love to work in Eustace we can meet with them we can we can work with them on different sites but um this is only applicable to the three blocks and it is only through the development of a conceptual plan does anyone up here understand why a company is kind of a little little antsy about working with the city of hust I can take you back three years Atria and I'll say it outright no one else will we screwed them and the word gets out and I can't blame him for wanting that little you know that that that yeah um I can't blame him for doing it uh I think that uh what they're asking and what we're doing I think is a good first step uh they don't trust us and I honestly can't blame them we do have uh representatives of G3 C2 here if you'd like to hear from them um yeah absolutely Jared come on up either one hi everyone I'm uh Jerry Gunther um you know we're anxious to get started uh Derek and I started this process a little over two years ago um you know we decided to do a master plan and spent two years working with the city to come up with the master plan you know all we want to do is have the ball we wanted um actually we wanted a lot more than that but in negotiations with Tom and Al what we said is just give us six months to to show you what we want to do and negotiate a deal and if you don't like it then you can put it back on Market six months goes by quick I mean like I said this has been two years to get for when you you know started the process to where we are now and um this is just the opportunity for us to to show you all our cards show you what we want to do and negotiate a deal and you know we look at it as a partnership we do I mean I understand what you're saying Willie and you know Adam wanas is a friend of mine and I know Atrium very well um we do trust you guys but we just want the opportunity we're we're partnering with you guys and we just want the opportunity to negotiate you don't trust our no no I trust me I I I trust that we will make a decision and at the last minute it'll change because it did okay I'm sorry Ahad no I was and I wasn't trying to undermine what you said I'm just saying we wouldn't be here if we didn't trust you guys so we could we thought we could present something that was good for the city of eustus and get a deal done will will you agree to benchmarks sure I mean dererk and I have been meeting and we're meeting again tomorrow tomorrow um you know we don't want to wait 6 months I mean we realize this is going to take a lot of discussion and a lot of negotiation so we're going to you know be ahead of the curve on presenting stuff um but we' be be okay with presenting a timeline you know fairly quickly to you guys with some benchmarks in it okay where you would come back before the commission with those benchmarks sure welcome Derek how are you good to see you is sorry but isn't the Ben Ben Mark 6 months that's their that's the Benchmark I think we should have benchmarks within the benchmarks that they come back and us because and the reason that I say that is if we wait six months and you know I don't want them to do all this work and then after six months of work we decide we don't want this they have two months four months to work on it for us to see it and us for us to say we like or we don't like and we're following I don't want to happen what happened the last time and and granted this is I Willie I hear you okay but this is of a lesser event I know yeah I know how long do you think it'll take to to to get this conceptual plan together you mean a conceptual plan right I mean it's like Willie said I mean we'll have benchmarks because as we go in the process we're going to spend a lot more money too and so you know within a month we'll probably come up with some ideas and say hey this is what we're thinking and get input from you guys saying way off or yeah we like the X Y and Z um and then we'll go to the next step you every step we go along before we have the conceptual drawings the costs and all that that may take us six months because by then we the whole deal negotiated way before that you'll know what we're going to do want to do and and I agree we should have some back and forth before six months yeah really so I don't know how we work that out as as timeline wise well we can I mean it it may be as simple as saying we want we want we're going to put you on the agenda every every two months or every month and we'll we'll have to figure out what works for everyone but we can pre-schedule yeah I think every month for sure let's do every month every month I think it's time for us to stop doubting and going back and forth we we have been going at this for the longest it's time to get the show on the road and and there's got to be a commitment between them between us to just show us something we've got to move we can't just stop in the middle of the road and then pick up somebody else and then go somewhere else we've got to get this going that's how I feel about it and you know and I agree I don't want every you know every time we have someone that comes before us we decide we don't like them you know and at some point yeah we we we've got to move forward so and I agree with Moses commission where we're saying that we need action and we need to move forward where I am uncomfortable is where the City attorney has read the agreement and she believes that there's some missing items so I would be uncomfortable with an agreement like this when my attorney is stating that she's not comfortable with the agreement as written well that's where I hesitate to to move forward with any portion of this just because of the attorney's opinion that the agreement is not fully fleshed my I'd like to revisit it as soon as possible because I do want action off of it but I've also got to take into account what the City attorney is also recommending that there some there's some holes uh do you saw the predevelopment agreement I prepared I'm sorry did you see the predevelopment agreement I prepared yes I mean it's it's markedly different so if uh we're trying to do an exclusivity component we need to add based on what you're representing here today to the commission a termination language that allows the agreement to end if at one of those benchmarks the commission is unhappy with what's being presented by uh by your company for instance that's not being provided for here think six months a period to we don't prod six months would they have a meeting every month or whatever I don't think they uh is that language within there right now six months is in there the there's the the benchmarks are the L the the term is in there but it's there's there's nothing in there as far as a timeline That was supposed to be uh an exhibit to the agreement I believe I find that very concerning that we're missing bits that concern you as well question I have is why is it just tonight that this happens if this contract has been out and it's been looked at why were why wasn't something done or addressed before tonight and all of a sudden it comes up and here we are facing having this dilemma when was this when was this prepared uh this was presented um probably about four the the template came from Derek Wallace uh he got that to us probably three or four weeks ago um and we've been working on it since then okay this is agreement that we used on which is a70 million student housing project and it's the initial agreement that we use then we move from that point to do a predevelopment agreement Ag and development agreement so it's just something to make a commitment to us and make a commit you that we going to work six months to to bring them about some ideas there's a lot of work that has to be happening six months we got to put the team together like I say you got to get cost you got to get a design it's not anything just simple you know so if I just hope that you go with the six months and and time the miles where and then if we don't produce this so I don't know if I could Sasha does monthly updates alleviate any of your concerns having them come back before us monthly to report on what they've done we can include that but I would like again there is nothing against your entities at all um my job is just to look at the agreements and protect the city right and give the the city the options um the language for termination assuming one of at one of these reports or Milestones if it's not satisfactory to the commission why buying them for another three months or two months so it's really up to what they choose to do I should say the CRA because this is c not commission yet but um it's to give them that flexibility otherwise I mean we really have nothing in there uh to to stop this within the six month and prevent you from spending more funds if you're not going in the direction that the city is looking for well you know and I appreciate you being direct and op be direct too is you know we did send it to your attorney and ask for comments and whatever comments we got back we agreed to and so we can keep going back and forth and then you can make all these comments I didn't even send it to my attorney it's something Derek had used before with FAMU and then we can just have the attorneys go back and forth but I mean this is a very basic agreement six months time is going to go by very quickly dererk and I are in the business to get things done and you know this is just the start for us to start doing things we're not if you guys it blows up I mean the first thing we present we don't expect it to be perfect we expect to have input but if it blows up dere and I back out because our time is what's valuable to us I mean the money is one thing it's our time and you know we're going to put a lot of effort into this very quickly like I said we've been talking on the phone at least a few times a week and now we're going to start meeting once a week to start picking the core projects and who's going to have what responsibility with what so this is going to go quickly um uh over the course of the six months you're putting money out correct over the course of the six months are we putting money out no the agreement states that we would not be financially so over the course of the six months the termination is 6 months okay so what is there for us to lose explain it to me what is there for us to lose the time but we don't lose any time it's going to be six months either way and with the monthly reports and the monthly reports and we're not putting any money out we are not putting any money out they're taking all of the risks you you guys spend a lot of money in doing the master plan and we'll use that with anyone else that comes after you so is it wasn't spent specifically on you guys and you did the master plan it lays out ideas we have to take that and bring it to fruition in some way and see if you like it that way or change a little bit but the concepts are there we can't do all the there there's there's a lot of Concepts there but we want to start and show you that we can bring one part of the central business district to poition and then move to other parts so I mean it's just it's just not one project there many it's housing mix shes town houses Boutique Hotel it's a lot of stuff that we have to concentrate on like one to get y'all approv w we we've got to produce something to show you need to stay with us one last question for me your business relationship still strong still moving together and working together strong stronger I we you know just like all couples we had a little issues up front but now we've worked them all out we ready to go willly and are like that all the time yeah yeah every other day so Ebony and IV oh I'm cheating on you I've got video of that by the way Chief I'll play it for him later all right anybody else have any questions because we need to move along to our commission meeting if um if we have a question Lori do you have any questions don't want to leave you out no I have no questions okay anybody else Tom we looking for a vote on this tonight from the CRA board yes this is a CRA resolution so you would need to vote on it like any other resolution okay board members before us we have cr C resol resolution number 24-1 what's the will of our board so move I'll second have a first we have a second any further discussion I I'd like to see the benchmarks put into the contract I agree we can't vote on this tonight then huh then we can't vote on it tonight then sure we can make a motion can make a motion can we make a motion and to add those in yes let me just make sure the language of the resolution and um yes okay okay well is it only the benchmarks I mean there was a pre-development agreement there were thresholds there were updates there was a pre it's a premature agreement there was multiple things that were brought up this evening not just benchmarks I would like to see I would like to see Sasha be very comfortable with this agreement for the city this is the first one this is just the first step and I I think the thing that we need to do right now I I agree that is that is Def very important part will the final ever come back to the