e e e e e really oh okay probably STI in the back and up front you know okay okay good afternoon everyone we're going to uh start our meeting now call the order chair Bruner yes Vice chair Rich yes here board member Clark president board member Collins here board member McDonald here board member Camp peny here Pledge of Allegiance everyone stand I pled Al to flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible and justice for all can I get approval for the agenda so move second I got a motion and a second um all in favor I I okay approval of the minutes look for approval second approval second um anyone in the audience have anything to speak about all right roll call Board member Camp Penny yes board member McDonald yes Vice chair Rich yes board member Collins yes board member Clark yes and chair Bruner yes okay um any comments from the public this will be uh any non-agenda items I don't see any um any comments by our board no okay we don't have any um action items panal presentation of community redevelopment agency annual report23 good afternoon panal gandi savda CRA director for the record uh we're required to submit this annual report with um all the c activities and financial statement of the previous fiscal year 2023 to the state by March 31st of every year uh we also published a notice in the newspaper if anybody wanted to review the report and comment um at the after approval of the report tonight uh we will be submitting the report to all the taxing authorities um such as Martin County Property Appraisers Martin County Board of County Commissioners school boards and Etc um this is the first year we actually updated the design and the layout of the report uh which was attached to your agenda item um so this is the most professional it's looked in 25 years so I was really excited to present this and I do want to thank Jordan Pinkston for her work on the layout and formatting for this report uh I'm just going to go through the report really briefly and then if you have any questions I'll be happy to answer any questions on the projects and programs um this is the table of content it outlines the sections in the report um and then next we have uh a purpose what is the purpose of this report uh we have to comply with the Florida statute requirements and our mission statement uh this section talks about uh how the C was created and all the Amendments we've had to the C plan since it was adopted um it also cover covers um any amendments um to the C plan uh that we've had over the years and I did briefly cover this in the C plan amendment when we uh when I presented that back in January uh this section describes the C boundary and how the Tiff Works uh it talks about the expansion we've had in the CRA in 2002 2006 and 2015 um and the increment in tax revenue from the base year of those years and 2023 again this is again something I covered during our presentation uh when we amended the CRA plan in January but it's here in the report if anybody wants to review it in the future uh some of our major accomplishments since the Inception of the CRA plan uh acknowledgements of the CR board members and CRA meetings we held in fiscal year 2023 also acknowledging the crb members a brief description of their jobs and responsibilities and all the crb meetings we held in fisical year 2023 um this introduces C staff in their background uh acknowledges the C city manager City attorney and all the head of the Departments that we work closely with on all of our projects uh so the next section describes all the C projects and uh more specifically all the accomplishments in fiscal year 2023 uh in 2023 we funded eight applications through the burp program uh with a total of uh $58,000 in Grant uh the the program does encourage Property Owners to invest their own money for the improvements and in fiscal year 202 three there was about $100,000 of private investment uh for these improvements uh through the Mosaic artwork program we installed a total of six mosaics on the sidewalk in the creek District uh in fiscal year 2023 we contributed funding for two of those Mosaic artworks uh we had uh one application for the mural matching grant program in fiscal year 2023 on the VA building in East Stewart that project has been completed um this year we are seeing more applications so um so you know the program is working and we should have three to five applications this year in fiscal year 2024 uh through the residential facade Improvement and painter program uh we provided funding for minor exterior improvements to Residential Properties and exterior paint we received three applications for the exterior paint program uh for for a total of $1,500 in reimbursement our residential street Tre program was created uh to increase tree canopies in the in the neighborhoods and this was the second year um that we uh implemented the program and we installed six trees in the Sherwood Forest neighborhood which is just east of the East Stewart neighborhood um the CR also provides funding for operation of the tram system uh we were up on the ridership in fiscal year 2023 by 9,000 passengers uh from the previous year uh we also have the those panels on top of the trams for advertisements all of those have been rented and generating approximately $4,000 in revenue and this year we also wrapped one tram with the bright green color to increase visibility uh the other two TRS will be W WRA during the summer of this year uh we partner with Main Street to apply for a grant uh to update the historic property survey report uh that report was adopted in 2023 uh it also provid provided the basis to designate down downtown Stewart on the national register of historic district um so you know although we call it a a historic district it doesn't have the formal designation right now so Main Street did apply and receive another Grant to pursue that nomination of downtown core on the national register of historic district that's great that's great news uh we're also pursuing nomination application to designate East Stewart neighborhood on the national register of historic district uh that application will be submitted and at the end of this month uh we celebrated the dedication of historic marker for Mount Calvary Missionary Baptist Church in May 2023 we amended the neighborhood revitalization program to include self program and that was adopted uh early January 2023 um the program provides grant for up to $2500 for energy efficient home improvements we received two applications under that program and currently it's in the process of executing an agreement uh for the grant we also approved a budget amendment for $40,000 to acquire the parking management system uh for the parking enforcement in downtown um that system has been purchased and it will be in place uh by fall of this year the downtown undergrounding project uh includes Oola Street seminal Street St Lucy Avenue and Colorado Avenue uh the design for the undergrounding streetcape has been completed um as you know we've advertised for RFP twice for this project we had to reject the proposal twice uh the first proposal did not include the price and the second proposal um had too many errors and the price just seemed inflated um so we went off for bid again in January 2024 and we received one proposal um that proposal is on the city commission agenda item tonight for authorization so we can start negotiating with the proposer um but the final price proposal will be presented to the CRA for direction at a later time um here are just some images demonstrating the difference between utility lines uh above ground and uh lines Underground on Oola Colorado and St Lucy and it really demonstrates um you know how it'll improve our downtown aesthetically but not only that um it'll also increase reliability in our downtown we received tap grant for the Riverside Improvement project uh we completed all the project deliverables in 2023 um the project will be advertised for bid in April and award contract in June so construction is anticipated to start in August 2024 um we also made uh we're also going to be making some improvements to the mini Park uh which is allender Park in the neighborhood we completed the design for that Park um it's a small pocket park um which will have some irrigation land uh shade trees paved walkways benches decorative fence and uh new park sign is to improve the user experience um throughout the neighborhood um in 2023 we applied for the water quality grants through D for drainage improvements in the stman neighborhood uh unfortunately we did not receive grants for this project but we did review the scoring sheet um to see where we fell short um um on the on the application so we do plan to apply again and hopefully make a stronger application for the grant next Grant cycle which opens up in summer this year uh we contributed $200,000 for the structural repairs of Waterfront Restaurant uh which is a city-owned property the overall improvements for the property prevented from being becoming blighted and um continue to serve as a public gathering and entertainment space in our downtown we completed 30% design for the MLK streetcape project we met with some of the property owners along MLK and some of the community members who have expressed concerns about the design and road safety um we met with Martin County School District to dis discuss RightWay dedication for sidewalk improvements on the north side of the road um so we're working towards completing 60% of the design and we will schedule a neighborhood meeting meeting sometimes this summer um to go through that plan with with the residents and business owners within the community we completed 30% design for the guide Davis Park project um the consultant is finalizing 60% design uh which will be provided to the city for review we expect to complete 90% by this summer and we'll have uh Community meetings sometimes this summer um also by then we'll have a better idea of the total cost cost estimate for the project uh once we have the 90% design and at that time we can decide what elements we want to keep or remove based on our budget as part of phase one um I do want to inform you that the city made an appropriation request from the state um state budget for this project they have this project in their budget funded at $500,000 and uh we'll have a better idea whether we're going to get that funding by April and that was led through Jim try's group um so thank you to that team thank you the Gateway signage project includes horizontal Monument signage downtown and District signage the construction plan for downtown and District signage was completed in 20123 um the signage was advertised for bid in January and um this was in your agenda at the last meeting uh where the contract was awarded and the construction will take four to five minutes uh four to five five months to complete um this project also includes a horizontal signage along Federal Highway and can caner highway but that requires fot uh permits so that's in process right now and once the fot approves uh those signage we'll go offer bid for the horizontal sign and bring that proposal to the board for review um I did budget $350,000 for that project um but the we only the award for the the uh vertical signs were about 172,000 so there's still remaining funds to do the horizontal Monument signs along Federal Highway uh we also uh during the form base code we worked on updating the East stward master plan and that plan was adopted in July 2023 the Dixie Highway streetcape Improvement project which is from Joan Jefferson to Colorado Avenue we applied for Grant uh tap Grant uh for this project in January 2023 and we received a letter from fot that this project is eligible for grant for program year 2627 so we'll start working on the final design for this project in early 2025 um the Federal Highway Street planting program and master plan was adopted in October 2023 uh we recently uh started promoting that program by sending postcards to property owners and we'll start scheduling meetings with those property owners for site visits and just encouraging them to participate in the program uh we're also working on wrapping the traffic control boxes within the CRA um Martin County operates and maintains those traffic control boxes so we're coordinating with them to amend the maintenance agreement to include City's responsibility for maintaining the W uh we were informed that we can't do any advertising or sponsorship on those WS so um will have to present uh what those images will look like um but it can't have any advertising or sponsorship um for the traffic control boxes along US1 um Martin County uh or fot is coordinating with Martin County to do safety messages on those boxes um so those would be eliminated from our program and it would only be um the traffic control boxes within the CRA uh and not US1 uh we received $750,000 in cdbg housing rehab Grant uh the top 10 uh top 11 applications uh were reviewed uh and the six of those application have cleared their environmental and they signed their contract earlier this month and construction has started on those project and the remaining five applications will go through the bid process and environmental clearance before they sign their contract uh we also received $4.79 million in cdbg covid Grant for acquisition Demolition and new construction for the job training center um as you know we closed on that property earlier this year and we're working with kimley horn to prepare the Civil plans and Architectural PL plans for that project um at the same time we're coordinating with project lift to prepare the memorandum of understanding uh to provide services at the new facility so you should be seeing that memorandum of understanding at the city Commission meeting in April um this just shows that we continue to partner with Main Street and promoting downtown to support downtown businesses um as I mentioned earlier they did apply for grants for um to update our historic property survey report and um designating downtown core as a historic district on the national register of historic places um Tiff revenue of 4.2 million was deposited in the CRA trust fund in fiscal year 2023 uh Tiff Revenue was used for activities like Professional Services incentive programs tram operation designed for improvement projects um such as Dixie Highway guy Davis Park and MLK and here's just the UN audited financial report that we required to submit for fiscal year 2023 um once we have the audited report we will publish that on the website uh within 45 days after it's completed and that uh concludes my presentation and just um requesting to approve the filing of this 2023 CRA annual report that was an excellent presentation yes yes commissioner thank you very much uh pel thank you not really no questions more of just a couple comments uh I'm just going to focus on actually on page I guess it's page five of the report and one of the things I saw was uh that the taxable value within um from 2002 um was 10 was14 m937 28 937 $283 and in 2023 was uh let's see no I guess that was 1998 and 2023 was 460 5,999 594 th000 which is a remarkable increase for and I think that was for uh the north south uh St see Stuart north south and center and did not include some of the other areas but um going off to the right of that the Tiff Fund in 99 was uh $41,000 and TI funding in in uh 202 three was $ 4,237 n58 which is a an impressive increase uh in value that the CRA has created uh over the last uh 24 years and there it you can't there was so much hard work done by so many people especially in the beginning uh that had the vision for it um and having vision for making some changes on Colorado Avenue and creating the CRA in the first place but the see these kind of numbers uh racking up in each area of the CRA including the expansion areas um is uh amazing and uh really knows that tells me that we're heading on the right track and we've been uh doing so many good things so thank you it's all I have any any other Commissioners to uh thank you on the um I looking at that picture on page 28 where you have the people underneath the um the sale and I know that the DBA uh used to do a lot I'm not sure how much a coordination is between the DBA and the um Stuart Main Street but is there a way that do they have like any electronic system where people um maybe do a survey or so every often down there to just kind of gauge interest and that kind of thing does do you know if uh if Candace and them any of that or even just a survey maybe where people come from to participate in some of those activities there I don't know she collects that but I think that's a good idea I can have her um look into something like that maybe do a survey um it could be something she can do online okay okay yeah all right thank you did we make a motion to approve it and send it up uh doesn't I don't do we need a motion p I don't it doesn't say we just need to accept the cor you accept the report to go ahead and file it have a motion to more that we accept the report okay we have a motion accept a second all in favor I I just ask one question yes sir uh panal thank you for that and Jordan as well what part of the CRA you think could benefit from greater attention from us or maybe the coral areas is there an area we haven't paid as much attention to as we should maybe and um there's opportunity I mean the triangle District maybe just may we could pay more attention to but there's no area that we haven't paid enough attention okay it seems to be the triangle that we want to pay a little bit more attention to d uh triangle district and I think the launching of the Dixie Highway Improvement projects will help which is something that I mentioned that we're going to we received a grant for fiscal year 26 27 so we'll start working on that design uh next year which which will complete the improvements on Dixie Highway if you notice right now we have the improvements on one side of uh of Dixie Highway North side of Dixie Highway but not the South Side um so that's where we want to make the improvements and then next would be uh maybe doing more of a complete Street project on Ocean Boulevard to kind of activate that area and my only other comment is I cannot believe how crowded those trams are it doesn't matter what time of day I come down and I was talking to one of the tram drivers the only problem we have is the drivers who don't have the TRS with the wrapping are jealous um but those rappers came out terrific and people comment on them and good that has been just a great success um for the people who visit the city of steart so good for you mayor I know that this is not a new business thing but it's kind of related to the report so mentioning the triangle area it's pretty much when the church is gone and the school is gone uh just a few things here I think the even the um Mr uh uh he has the the sign the the um St stained glass sp there I can't think of his name right now but um when all of that is gone because I think he's closing down that business it's pretty much empty back in there except for the 1895 church and a few other things and so I don't know what you know who's going to come in with something I've talked to Candice about that expanding the Main Street into that area um so that we can start having more activities maybe having some you know just um creating more visibility uh by having events on the streets in that area um I think that will bring draw more people and maybe that will that'll help some of the businesses in that area and eventually draw more businesses so I think we I think we really need to work on activating that area we need some sort of business that's going to draw people there restaurants some you know businesses that'll actually create some pedestrian activity right now it's not even safe to walk if you go on Dixie Highway people don't feel safe to walk along along that road so we have to do the improvements in order to create you know safe pedestrian access and then eventually that'll create more activities and that draws more businesses to the area and we have the plan that the regional planning council did for us when we did the study right of that area right and that's uh one of the improvements identified is the Dixie Highway so that something that we're we're working on Madam chair I think our illustrious city manager wants to say just as a as a historic point if you if you compare the triangle District or the area West Ocean Boulevard and that area compared to say downtown in the late 80s and early 90s downtown had a um similar feeling of the the other side and the commission's uh in the past focused on that had some shetes and it resulted in a push for uh some residential uh components to downtown to get people living in the area after um Friday at five because right now one of the problems you have with the we call the triangle area but everything on the west side of the tracks is that the AT&T building has no windows and then behind that you have the uh building that Mark brick Bill owns but it's 100% commercial on Friday at five o'clock it goes vacant and then there's also some businesses along that secondary street that are all closed as soon as Friday hits then when you get to West Ocean Boulevard the Baptist Church is four blocks long and when the Baptist Church which is a school closes with the exception of Sunday morning those four blocks go dormant and then the south side of West Ocean Boulevard is also primarily businesses that close at 5:00 or at 5:00 on Friday so as uh panel was pointing out as we move forward to address first um in the April um 8th meeting you're going to be hearing a presentation from the develop or not from the development from the public works and engineering department as it relates to confusion corner and quiet zones and some other stuff and and how that connects to West Ocean Boulevard and Dixie Highway and then if in fact the Baptist Church were to ever sell whoever purchases that would probably be coming in for a Redevelopment of some sort regardless of what it is they haven't abandoned right away but they've also got some other streets that interconnect that probably could be reconfigured and the commission will have the discretion to kind of horse trade with them and if you were to have a plan for what you wanted to see over there you could agree with whoever that was to say okay well the city will abandon this street in exchange for this and create some traffic flows because you get as you get closer to the railroad tracks those little triangular Parcels that are cut off by the three di the three streets that go become almost impossible to to navigate in cars and then because of uh some one ways and some other issues and when you get to confusion corner of course you can't turn left to go back onto East Ocean and and other stuff so as that comes forward we will need to come back before both the CRA and the city commission to uh pursue those changes and those design plans and those uh matters I do know that quiet zones and confusion corner is going to be coming forward no matter what I also know as uh panel pointed out that there's the Dixie Highway uh redesign that's also going to be coming forward essentially this following calendar year and those will directly into the treasure Co Regional planning council's ideas as well but it's it's a chicken and an egg kind of thing like does the commission want to design in advance and create um like a form-based code that actually authorizes development and authorizes things or do you want to leave it the way it is so that the applicants need to come to the commission on a caseby casee basis to to go into it obviously the Case by case takes longer um but at the same time uh there's nothing wrong with that are you talking about when you say form based schol you're talking about us going and trying to kind of rezone that area so we make it something that's feasible with traffic future traffic downtown both the traffic pattern as well as the density so we could address traffic without zoning just by designing streets that are one way or both ways or parking on the street or no parking or whatever it might be but in addition to that what you're really observing is that there's not very many businesses over there in comparison to the number of businesses on this side of the tracks and the businesses that are there don't operate on the weekends at all and end at 5:00 p.m. whereas the businesses on this side of the tracks include restaurants and other retail components that may stay up until 8 or N9 and then there's also the uh residential component that has the activities and people walking and things like on the street the aul has already kind of added to it but when you look south of that all the way through it's a it's a very uh similar procedure with every single building that after about six o' you go there and they're all closed um that not that that's bad it's just not the same is on this side of the track so you notice the distinction if the commission wanted to see it differently or wanted to see it like it is on this side of the tracks it could just wait and let people come through for conditional use changes or it could create a form based code and say this is what we want to see over here and literally create it and entitle it in advance and let it be less organic but it's the discretion of the board it depends on what the commission wants to see over there and you know you have to remember that there's a US1 is is a real divider on the furthest west portion because it's you know that's a very busy road there's roughly 65,000 cars a day coming over the Roosevelt bridge that you know that's hard to manage yeah you just had the potential of you know some four story thing whatever that is a hotel or another building or another school Institution or something if somebody wanted to do that there in the in the the church and then we still have the issue of course everybody says you know we're going to come in and uh do parking and maybe they have to meet their parking or would they want to you know do we want to do parking exempt or we don't have a parking garage there's so many things and I think it's a good area that we should take a look at I think that we should we should look at it and we didn't have a part parking garage for any of the downtown area when the commission decided to make Downtown parking exempt um and the the commission for that matter I remember in like 2000 or 2001 fdot wanted to widen us one to eight Lanes all the way from Jensen Beach Boulevard all the way uh through Stewart and that was back when concurrency was a thing and the commission said no they don't care if they have an F rating and if cars have to go slow because they don't want cars to go fast anyway and when the commission voted just you know 10 years ago or so to um uh double lane Colorado from us one to um Oola the same thing occurred everybody said oh but you're you're going to make it so so many less cars there so much less traffic and move through that area and the commission said that's correct that's what we want we want it to be a pedestrian area we don't want it to be an Arterial Highway we want it to be a retail place and if cars have to go 5 or 10 miles an hour then it's a victory and it turned out to work so I don't think we should be doing anything right now until we see what's going to come down with the uh do or your plan and everything else so I for what is for just for clarity I don't have a plan when you say your plan well you have something about closing Dixie Highway there routing Dixie has has a plan for some parking and some other designs there there has been no adoption for the closing of the roads um but that will be coming that will be coming to the board and I think that's the first thing to do and then you could we could talk about that first Street on Dixie because those are the parcels that give us the most problems because they're kind of hard to reuse right so I think that's where you begin and and you'll probably get a i at some point I keep hearing that the Baptist Church is for sale and then I hear that it's not for sale and then I hear it's for sale and back and forth but my experience has been whether it's that one or some other one that all of a sudden one day it sold and then somebody's wanting to redevelop or do a project and here it is and so that will be coming your way at some point in the future and you guys can you know respond to it according ORD inly you know whatever it is that they have in mind that's a big piece of property and also SE Coast those are two big pieces city right impacts um thank you just want to mention as far as the form based code uh we didn't want to just stop after the creek district and E Stewart neighborhood we do want to implement it in um in the Triangle district and or any other areas that needed um but we wanted to see how the code is working first so this year is our trial uh you know using the code and see what's working not working so that way when we start working with the triangle District we can carry some things over and improve on some things so we could put that in the budget for in the next couple of years to work on the form based code for that area I mean I noticed we have a sign that says one of the new signs is the triangle District right yeah yeah exactly all right let's go forward um you have a motion you have a second I have a motion in a second any uh public comments have none take the role please board member Clark yes board member Collins yes chair Bruner yes Vice chair Rich yes board member McDonald yes and board member ceny yes okay CRA budget amendment number three to the fiscal year 2024 thank you P thank you um so this is a budget amendment number three to the fiscal year 2024 for a couple of our um projects and program Riverside Park neighborhood improvements and uh real estate development accelerator uh which is known as Rita program um just a brief background about the Riverside Improvement program just because we have a couple of new Commissioners on the board um the Riverside Improvement project is located just north of the drawbridge on Dixie Highway it's bounded um by sou Palm Street on the North Fern Street um to the South Dixie Highway on the East and River North River Drive on the west um this is a mixed use Community uh where we have professional office Restaurant Marina neighborhood Park Hotel single family homes multif family homes um so this shows the existing conditions in the neighborhood as you can see there's a lack of infrastructure such as sidewalk and crosswalks for connectivity um there's a need for on street parking and bike racks and so uh the project will provide more of a structured on street parking sidewalks that'll connect the existing sidewalk along Dixie Highway resurfacing uh we'll put some new bike racks and street lights and Landscaping to create more of a pedestrian friendly neighborhood um so the CRA budgeted 2.1 million for this project in fiscal year 2024 uh the fot tap grant funding is in the amount of 1.5 million for the project uh the estimated construction for this project is about 2.06 million uh and we have an interlocal agreement with Martin County to administer the Grant and implement the project since they are the lap certified agency and they're sponsoring this project um so the additional costs includes contingency Martin County administrative fees uh CI which is the construction engineering and inspection services uh so the total estimated cost is 2.7 million and staff is requesting a budget amendment of additional $600,000 for this project uh don't forget we are going to get reimbursed 1.5 million after the project is completed and and as I had mentioned earlier we do expect to start construction on this project in August 2024 awesome um we have another amendment also as part of this resolution the second budget amendment is for the real estate development accelerator p uh program again referred to as a de arita agreement between the city of CRA and the new avenia PUD uh to share the tax revenue that is generated from the project itself to complete some of the offsite improvements in the city's RightWay uh adjacent to the development and it should be consistent with the approved offsite plan improvements um that was provided and approved as part of the Pud uh the Improvement plan included sidewalk crosswalk on street park on street parking landscaping and street lights um all the units uh within parcel 2 and 12 have been completed and so the develop has also completed all the offside improvements for for those two Parcels uh the completed sub Parcels uh generated a new tax revenue of $168,000 uh the tax revenue sharing would be 50% of the increased Tiff uh for the 5-year period after Co is issued uh So based on the calculations um that was done the tax revenue sharing is about $80,000 and so the CRA budgeted $40,000 for this program um but there's a balance of 4,108 um that we have to uh pay uh at new avenly PUD as per the agreement uh so at the end the city does benefit from uh from this agreement because of all the improvements that they've provided in the city's RightWay and then once the agreement is terminated all the C tax revenue is reverted back to the CRA uh for any future projects and so today staff is just requesting approval of resolution number 08-20 24 authorizing budget amendment to the fiscal year 2024 CRA budget move approval second any comments any from anyone do we have any comments from the public would like to speak on this all right we have a motion in a second um roll call Board member Collins yes board member Clark yes Vice chair Rich yes mayor Bruner yes board member McDonald yes yes and board member campen yes okay this meeting is a journ thank you thank you good job mad mayor