##VIDEO ID:VFzkqaiJsco## of the United States of America andice CL i r please chairman John Eric Hoover here member Linda Rodriguez here member David Mueller here member Robert hubard the record show that member Robert Hubbert is not currently present for tonight's meeting member Lisa Burke here City attorney Nancy Meyer here city manager Matthew C here thank you um first up there there is a meeting minutes to approve they weren't on the agenda cover sheet but we do have minutes from August 13th 24 cra meeting that I need a motion to approve motion to approve the minutes from 13 yep second is there second second motion second for discussion all all in favor say5 say I I I oppose motion carries okay next up is councilman general public I do not have any signups and I have one speak you want speak okay I bring it back then to comments from the city manager pass Mr cop for comments no comments okay thank you very much comments from the board I'll start to my right with uh member no I'm good I see vice mayor Vice chair Rodriguez I'm good thank you okay M Brook I'm good thanks I'm good as well moving right along to our agenda first item business and only item is business besides Z businesses discussion of CRA commercial exterior Improvement matching grant program for fiscal year 2025 I will pass it to Mr copper for intruction yes based upon uh our last uh discussions on this program I went back and rewrote most of it to try to address a lot of the issues that were brought up uh primarily well one one of the areas that I want to point out is we're the the last go round gave the indication that we would be funding some interior type work my thinking changed quite a bit and wanted to narrow it down to really only those things that that are visible from the exterior because as you look at what our our funding is coming from which CRA a lot of it is about cleaning up light slummed areas um and spending money interior not on the exterior really doesn't necessarily address that um and so trying to keep the the money focused on the the goals of the CRA which is cleaning that up I think at sometime in the future you will see from us a a program to fund those interior type work and more of a business development program we just we're not there yet I mean as you know we're going to be hiring additional staff and I think we'll be able to start working on those type of programs that allow us to look at the economic devel on the side of what CRA can do but uh right now we just want to focus on the exterior side so with that being said um one of the major changes is taking uh the eligible projects eliminating those that were interior and trying to spend the money just on the exterior side um we did put in some language for callbacks which I think is something I want you to discuss and and give direction on um you know I I believe that this is a little bit different than the residential side um so I believe that it is appropriate if they don't live up to what they said they're going to do uh we should have the ability to take that money back I also wrote this from the perspective if they were to sell the building or the businesses um within the the time frame that we say they have to maintain it um my concept would be that uh before the property gets sold the new owner new business would have to agree to take over the responsibilities of What that particular Grant application was for so if there was one more year left they would have to agree in writing before the sell the property to uh maintain that um and if they don't do that then again we could write maybe some some waiver words in there uh depending upon what the project was that you know keep it you know they don't have to give the money back but right now as it's written they would have to return the money if they don't agree to maintain that for whatever remainder time frame there is I think that's the major pieces of this um you know rewrote a lot of of how we present it oh um the the issue of you know how many times can you apply for a grant and what that number is so um if you go to page in the seven of 13 supplements yeah it's the application process um or actually excuse me it's before the application process It's the Grant award um it says each property may receive only one Grant application for funding for fiscal year a project is defined as a set of enhancements to Renovations activities for a qualifying property the maximum grant funding available per property is $40,000 over a fiveyear period a property applies for additional funding in future years those applications will be considered cumulatively to determine total funding eligibility under the program ensuring that no property exceeds a total allowable Grant amount over time so effectively over a five-year period you get two grants at at this level not more than 40 so um you can apply this fiscal year you can apply next fiscal year if it's 20,000 each year then you're done if you apply for $8,000 grants for five years that's 40,000 so there's a lot of different ways it can grow and I think that's probably what you'll see more than people getting $20,000 grants it'll be oh we're gonna do this side and we're gonna do a sign and so over that fiveyear period they' be able to get a maximum of $40,000 again it's a matching Grant so if they're getting you know 8,000 from us that project really is a $166,000 grant so it's a rolling fiveyear period so if I have 20,000 one year 20,000 the next year for three years after that I can't do it but on the fourth year when the 20 drops off I still I can do another 20 um well it's it's not written that way in terms of a rolling period it can be written that way if you want to do that are you so I'm I'm looking at a static five years so this is your first application so five years from that date you know you you can only get $40,000 so you get that 40,000 um and then after till then the next year so that in my example so year year one and two 2020 three four five done year six I can get 20 that's yeah that's the way this is written assuming that the rules don't change I mean you could change the rules in any given year because under my concept you would as CRA be reviewing this every year and you can make amendments because you know maybe it's not $20,000 maybe the need really is $40,000 per year so you'll be able to change that and you'll be able to change this particular section to to modify that but for the period right now it this is how you can do that rolling concept that I kicked it back and forth with that um but I just thought again from from a position of ease this is the easiest way to measure that we So currently of course I think we're going to talk about it later but on the residential side what are we at now we had a we have twoyear rolling that's where we're at now right currently two years yeah it's rolling so yeah and just so what I but it's different in the you can't add up like he just said 20 and 20 so if it's $5,000 and you only use a thousand of it you're done you're done right yeah and and just just let you know I've I've also taken the liberty of rewriting our residential which I place at your desk not for discussion tonight because I don't expect you to discuss something you just got before the meeting but I wanted it in your hand so we can discuss it at the uh the meeting on the 8th um and so I want to make some changes to that as well to address some of these issues well and honestly they can be different but do we want to kind of keep the same methodology if you will we can this is a year that's a year it's rolling roll well I will say that I think businesses are different than res abely and and so you know not only the amount of money that's being spent but also the capital that can be brought to bear is going to be different than potentially different than what we'll see in the residentials we need a motion on this um so all this it's not totally done as the mayor pointed out there's some things in the application that has to be adjusted to this but but what I think if if you're satisfied with the language it's in the the everything except for the um application uh it's good and couple other pieces I want you to be aware of one you know I Envision in this that there will actually be a grant agreement that we have them sign um again because it's different than the residential and so I'll need to work with Nancy to get that put together here really quick uh the other thing with this is and and it probably is going to evolve also for the residential you know I want to have more eyes looking this and and actually approving it and so internally you know we'll have a team that's you know the CRA exterior commercial exterior Grant matching whatever I call it um committee that that will then you know have will'll have minutes in terms of you know this is what we're discussing this is what we discussed we approve it or we don't approve it so it lines up a little bit better I think with with the way that I feel it should be done one thing I was looking through here uh in the application process you talk about uh applicants are encouraged to meet and I would like to see that let the record show that uh member hovert has returned he thought we were I let him I let him know we we were still here I was falling fireman out the that's he went home goad Dave thanks for coming back anyway what I said so okay y I'd like to make it mandatory because now we're having conversation people understand on both sides of the table what their obligations are and what they're bringing to the table so that they get the direction from staff so that everybody's moving forward in the right direction and there's no surprises so and that I think that's good business uh to have that conversation and it'll encourage and maybe even spark some ideas um that where they can maybe even expand beyond what they're thinking you know so I I did Mark a couple things on there and I brought this one up before again this is this is specific to sound like buildings so there there are lots of signies that could be improved in in parking and stuff like that be improved it would be if I read this excluded because it's going to require a building attached to it so I don't know if that's if we want to open that up to um just commercial so Grant funds are strictly for projects significally enhance Aesthetics of a commercial buildings exterior if we just take buildings output commercial uh exterior well commercial um entity um exterior and align with s Community or W leave it out that needs to have a building in there that was the one thing so any thoughts on that no good with that to open it up to leave it as a building or make it just a commercial property I guess we could start the first year and just do commercial property and see where we go because like you said we're going to be reevaluating this every year so um because I commercial property without a building would be know what they can do they signage um fencing and stuff like that we we want it to look we want Port Richie to look better that's the that is the point of this Grand program is to is to improve improve how we look so let's let's start with keeping it very Broad in my opinion and then if next year if we found it was getting abused misused and only parking lots were getting done but buildings weren't then maybe we want to focus on the buildings and let them have some I don't get in the game so that's kind what my thought was is that you know there's things out there we could fix maybe it's a maybe it's a RV storage lot or whatever they could improve the entrance sign make it look nicer than it is actually so it would be good um the other thing I want to bring up um fencing was not on here specifically um it is on residential it is on residential it um should be I think that probably would be an acceptable thing to fix up as well f is it repair of old fencing or is it brand new fencing doesn't matter well it could matter I mean if we're trying to make things better looking um and you have an old fence and replacing an old fence I could see where that is but if you're just bringing brand new fence to the table I I I don't so let me ask this yeah so a a a as an example A rod iron fence might be acceptable but what about a chain link fence I mean if you're trying to improve the appearance of a neighborhood or an area yeah PVC R do you want do you want and I mean to me again a a chain link fence is not necessarily what you want to improve looks I agree with that and so we could put that but we just had to had have to figure out how to word it so it it's not that hey I want to put a chain link fence up and okay maybe make an exclusion if I to choose between the fence and the facade of a building that's really in need of painting and repair I I I mean I don't want to run out of money because we're putting fences for everybody up around their properties but the facades are still falling down but if you had the lapidate fence it looks that's where I was going to if I could if I could I think the other question would be it's it's C money supposed to be helping slum and blight a fence might make it look nice but it's really addressing slum and blight a broken fence a fall down fence that might repair of a fence I would go with repair I think buying a new fence and then having the conversation on what kind of fence or not may it may make it look better but I don't think that would be the goal of CRA money right go with repair for sure but not put up a new fence of that meeting would do to facilitate that discussion and steer them in the in the of the slum and blight and improving the look of the neighborhood right because if you drive around there's some commercial fencing that looks pretty bad right that would make it's already there let's fix it to make it look better but not that's but again let me ask is that just repairing a chain link fence or is that you know a more decorative fence well I think if it's a if it's a chain link fence that's that looks bad there's money available to replace the fence with something better yeah but they might choose to do f chain link again I think is what matters if they do that there would be no Grant yeah from from my perspective I would I would be for to go steer away from so so put in their repair of fence chain link or similar I don't know how you would word it but you know excluding chain link I don't know how you would word that but yeah something like that well at the end of the day the committee is going to give the thumbs up or the thumbs down right when they go through the application they're going to go all the line items and determine this qualifies or does not in in which case they're going to spend 100 Grand on mods they're only going to pay 20 and 20 of them are going to be of the kind that we like and they might say well I'm going to put the chain link fits up anyway and it's outside the scope right I mean if they want to put it up and thr on their done that's fine they don't need the grant that's go ahead go for it they can some M fixing up the facade you know but if we really wanted to make a bold move we'd eliminate chain link fites from our structure totally in the city right but somebody didn't like chain link fitches huh well I think I think chain link has its yeah its purp apprpriate use but when you're trying to improve the looks from the chain Le sends a different message for sure uh what else I so I highlighted this um oh I no so under non-eligible improvements you've got nonvisible improvements improvements that are not visible from the street or do not impact curve appeal but then up in the top when you talk about the Marine related improvements of stocks Morey walls that are visible accessible to the public it's a little contradictory but you're you're you're specific like it's for example right so but I didn't want to make I didn't want to I know if a better way to word that to keep people from misunder understanding that basically if it's and and I use example let's say say gild dogs had a walkway in the back or whatever along the water where they had seating or whatever that's OB this dockage stuff seaw walls that's stuff that fixes BL repairs that the public see it because they're going back there um it doesn't it's it's not visible from the and doesn't impact a safety issue I understand what you're saying I mean from my my perspective I think you address it when you say this is an eligible expenditure and so these are then non-eligible so anything listed there works yeah no and maybe just again I just get people to interpret this in the future you could maybe just put additional thing on that says unless specifically mentioned the B okay and that would that would take care of that would draw it back to that oh this is you wouldn't want to say oh it's not you know it's not visible can't do it that the only call out I understood it myself but it was a little contradictory um the other thing I had I have anything else oh on the on the program timeline when talked about reimbursement period um says it's inspected and approved by the CRA that's not the CRA board I guess it's the CRA coordinator the CRA who who's well I mean in the end you're giving authority to someone to approve it so it's a CRA I mean those individuals are acting on behalf again we can change that if you I didn't know if it was important I just pointed out I understood what you were saying but I think that's other than like said the application in this case wall ceilings of floors are there Electrical Plumbing AC so that just needs to the same thing like I said in a residential whatever we put in accepted uses that should be just a copy paste down there and before the the application was you know worded differently it should mirror that yeah I just apologize you're good uh that's all comments I have anybody else have any comments so we need a motion to you said you're going to rework this application then and just real quick what what I'll intend to do is I'll bring it back to the E for final approval then you can make a a motion to yeah so we don't need to do anything M you can't get your margin orders I like what you got with the cost of improvements I think you ought to have qualified non-qualified in a total because typically a project is going to include both and that way they they know they're getting credit for this or not that uh and you know they added down you know yeah that's all I was GNA have sense one thing I bring up just because somebody reached out about it do you to get the to get approved for the grant you need to get your permit and stuff before you get approved for the grant no so that I think is well you you can get I believe if I'm wrong do you have to have the permit up front no so you're KN you were going to be approved for the grant but you have to do these things right so that's one of you again if they if a permit is required they would have to do that right and the reason I asked because obviously if you have to get the from first and then say oh you don't get the grant well then you might not want to do it so well and then you've beg the work before uh which is a criteria I believe as well so I didn't think you had permit first but I was I heard maybe that was an understanding so any anything else on that on which on the res or commcial commercial is good good yeah I just want again go over the the residential it out um try to be a little bit more clear on what's what's eligible or what's ineligible I think one of one of the the issues I see with with this grant as we talked about at the last meeting was that that there's things people think up that really don't fall into the uh the the realm of improving you know slum and blighted missions or you know improvements to the facade or or the the landscape around it um and so I think in in this we have examples of eligible improvements and just try to start getting people to think away from some of the things that they're thinking of um and I guess and how this kind of maybe intered intersects with what we're we're handling it now for instance we we have a a request in to redo black better to patio work um you know patio is in the back really don't see it and you're not going to see it from the street in any way um and so I think that's that's where you know again that that idea of invisible to the public is is something we need to to weigh in on with this um unless you don't I mean I think you're safe by by saying these things that you know don't improve the curb appeal or you know the structure exterior structure you probably should stay away from and we should be very clear that those type of things are not um why would painting not be eligible house it makes a big difference well painting L is part of a larger exterior Improvement project so if you come in large project well that that would be if you're painting the whole house that would be eligible but if you're saying I want to paint this one wall why would you say the house but shouldn't you say it in the examp I have no idea why you would that's you know just trying to say that you know the expectation is that it's a larger project it's not a small project with with the house we're not going to do trim so if you want to because I know you were saying no patio yeah but you want to replace your sliding glass door in the back that's an exterior door is that acceptable in this you want to replace windows you can only do the windows in the front of the house is that what you're saying in this well I I I think the the difficulty though with that is that that you know Windows whether it's front or back or side is going to help keep that property you know up to Cod keep it airtight so I I I wouldn't recommend that you limit only windows on the front now again the type of door you know if you you have to replace the door because you know you have a code issue or you know that's that's different than saying that you know I want I don't like the sliding doors I want to put French doors in those those are two different projects in my mind because there really isn't anything wrong with the sliding through class stor just you want french Stores um the last one had hurricane windows shutters and stuff that were acceptable but that's not on here that's um if you replace we have to do hurricane I'm sorry if you replace your stuff it has to be hurricane rated unless you have but like like my windows are double pain they're 20 years old but they're not hurricane rated but make believe I want to put hurricane shutters up it was a it was you know to cover those the last one I think you C was covered hurricane shutters and stuff correct and we took that out of here so I'm just asking yeah no no I mean again I'm not saying that I captured everything do make mistak so yeah no no no no it's not a mistake absolutely no no it's I think you know that will help keep our residents safe as well and you know if if we're hardening the the the asset the house I think that's all good things right and what you said is you don't have to put a hurricane window in because they're very expensive you you cover you can put a covering or covering on a door protection is what the requirement is I was just wondering yeah from a from a CRA perspective and maybe you whatever is it if you put hurricane shutters that's really fix some BL I think no I think if I think if you have a broken window that needs to be repaired yes it should be covered within CRA money I think safety is obviously wonderful and that's we all want that but I don't think that's CR CRA money is meant for okay yeah it's important and again we want people not to have their protection but I don't think care the money spent on no I understand yep but a broken window yes even in the back so let me let me ask a question along the same lines so let's say that you have that broken window all right and the cost to replace it with a hurricane window is is X but the cost to replace it with a new window and hurricane protection is actually less than hurricane red window which I think may be the case definitely the case that seems like a valid option that would be okay because you're placing a window and your hurricane protection is just not in the window it's on top of it well it's required you exactly I don't think you can sell a window that's not hurricane proof any yes you can can you yes yeah so the protection the code says either the window itself is protected or you have to protect it after the opening right so think in that case there saves money and you can actually do more windows because you have working Protections in that case I think they'll be okay because you're still underlying the underlying reason is so appropriate so that would be one yeah for 5000 one year in years couple hurricane impact windows for 5,000 get almost two yeah and you can and oh I don't know what I just said I said something really exciting thank you um you made this one year instead of two yeah okay that's good yeah I kind of was thinking again long what the mayor had said looking at a greater I mean originally I thought well you know we shouldn't we should cap how much one house can get but looking at some of our houses and knowing that 5,000 really doesn't get you very far you know if someone can come in with a plan you know we could then prioritize it in the next year that you know this year you do this next year you do that and we can keep moving forward with that yeah maybe they can't make their palace in 60 days but they can do it over a couple years absolutely so that's why I kind of went away from the concept of that that you know fiveyear limit or two-year limit it just you can you can do it every year yeah and you get get looks like it's multiple projects so you could do a, one you can do another thousand one and another thousand one address one of my questions previously as well well so perfect we're still just to let you know we're in this is fresh today um so we're still reviewing it and so there may be some changes when we get to the eth but we'll have the full document in that Council or in that CRA package do with that also have we spent all the funds that we allocated to Residents no so do is that going to roll forward or I I know just that just goes in back it's still it never went anywhere it's still in our cash how much do we have left you know like 30 we have there are still about three applicants out there that have not finalized um and I'm not really sure where they're at in the process um they've been approved so I think there's three of them so that's potentially $155,000 the $15,000 that's going to leave us about I think 5,000 just about spent then yeah it's the majority of it has been spent okay plus all the commercial no that's residential no commercial but all the commercial never so that's still right now yeah did we move it all yeah okay I thought there, 20 or 30 I can't remember what the number there was still some yeah there the rest of it yeah May okay okay that's all any old business Linda you want pick us off with the motion to adjourn second motion second all in favor say by saying I I I I you are the