##VIDEO ID:ekP-6k-wzQo## e e e e [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] uh welcome to the 5:30 p.m. October 15th 2024 CR meeting we do have a quorum so I will call this meeting to order would you please join me in a moment of silence and the pledge to the flag and that was real silent I to the FL flag of the United States of America and to the for it stands one nation under God indivisible andice clerk would you read the rules to speak please yes individuals wishing to speak on agenda items must complete a signup card prior to the item being introduced signup cards are available on the table individuals wishing to speak on non-agenda items May do so under petitions and requests no signup card is required citizens will be given three minutes to speak on all agenda items all signup cards and Exhibits being submitted to the CRA shall be placed in the box on the table thank you very much can I get a motion to approve the minutes for the September 10th 2024 c meeting motion second got a motion in a second all those in favor say yes yes opposed minutes are accepted city manager uh good evening uh mayor vice mayor and CRA board we um administratively we are having some technical issues with the YouTube up feed but we've got to work around it's actually it should be working but the quality of the actual TV won't be what it normally is okay and with that we are on agenda item 8A which is the community redevelopment goal uh goals policies objectives accountability and performance measures per House Bill 7013 section 189 0694 during the 2024 legislative session House Bill 713 dealing with Special Districts implemented some changes affecting CRA the changes in 2024 were made to strengthen accountability First beginning October 1st 2024 each special district must establish goals and objectives for each program and activity undertak by the district as well as performance measures and standards to determine if the district's goals and objectives are being achieved by one December each year thereafter each special district must publish an annual report on the uh District's website describing the goals and objectives achieved by the district as well as performance measures and standards used by the district to for this determination and any goals and objectives that the district failed to achieve the city of Titus so updated the CRA plan in 2022 it does have goals objectives and policies established staff will uh the staff will report the performance measures to um in the annual report attached are the Titusville CRA plan goals and objectives marked up in yellow for your review the items highlighted in yellow are goals policies and objectives that are in progress ongoing or completed the goals policies and objectives that are not highlighted in the items the CRA has not taking any action on and Sue with that Sue will lead you through a review of the goals policies and objectives and our plan once you approve uh moving forward with the current goals and objectives is to bring you back performance measures in November so that we can meet the December um goals with that Sue okay thank you um I know it looked overwhelming when you got it so there hence the the cheat sheet um at your at your your thoughts basically when we're reviewing this what we see is five topics that really we have the CRA we haven't touched on so what staff is really asking of you this evening is to please provide direction to staff and prioritize these five items the five items are new housing uh which Neighborhood Services and affordable housing and a CRA especially on vacant infill Lots utilize grants develop education materials and adopt incentives the second one is Arts district and public art and you see a note about that the third one is economic development that's incentivizing new lodging and restaurants in the CRA um that comprehensive plan Amendment introduces a residential density pool with incentives to encourage new Redevelopment and work with the economic development coordinator on a marketing plan four is public spaces the new comprehensive plan Amendment recommends the continued exploration of a centralized green or open space for events near the downtown um and number five is safety develop new security measures and introduce new pedestrian safety enhancements in the CRA also listed are the where it's located in the plan so if you could please direct us of what is your priority what is the most important to each one of you and let us know that so we know what we need to be focusing on next okay and just for clarification that's really the main thing you want from us is see okay correct uh member Cole I would think that for for our residents the number one thing would be safety the safety and the down now my personal view safety and do you want us to just give you our list and then everybody will give them the list that' be great thank you okay mine would be uh safety uh Economic Development new housing arts and District and uh public spaces that would be mine okay uh member stoko yep um yeah I partially agree with member Cole over there I think uh safety number one for me um and I think we've talked about this at meetings prior um especially with things that we can't control the US1 traffic as we can kind of move things um more West um trying to bring back the Street parties and things that as we get leads into my second one Economic Development like bimber Co um as we have more businesses down there I think then you can spread out who's contributing and going in on these Street parties um but safety number one um otherwise I feel like people won't come there um economic development is definitely number two and then um for the remainder of them I don't know if I'm okay if they're in whichever order but for me and I don't know how it would be but I like the public spaces and I think this goes back to the consultant we had where they talked about doing some things here um forget the name of what we call it but you know what I'm talking about by Babcock that whole area that gets if we can bring people there in their space where we do the farmers markets those types of things again I think that will create foot traffic um I think the housing I think to me as we're doing Those comp plan amendments I and we're doing the D pool those things I think that's going to happen naturally That's My Hope um so I'm not too concerned about that and then same thing I think that we're on the right track with the Arts and things that are happening with the theater as we get more businesses there I think we can highlight the historic district and what's going on at the theater we have the murals we have different things throughout um so I think right now for me the biggest thing is we need people and we need businesses and once that happens I think everything will just domino effect so I I don't know if that really answers your question but there's my vision it does thank you okay uh member Nelson I will say I put safety Last only because we are doing such a good job that increasing the resources to safety didn't seem to be a huge problem so for me that came last um first came the arts district because I think that's going to attract a lot of people downtown and once those people start coming in you're going to have business businesses downtown so to me that was number one and then public space to encourage the families to come down so they go to a play it's one of the kids plays then they go eat they go find a public space and maybe there's something there for them um and I think with that you get the businesses downtown so and then housing um but again I think if you you make it Attractive people are going to want to come downtown so we're all over the board good luck remember ball so when I went and I I will have a question I think you can address after after we all go through and it was basically trying to understand what the thrust the question is the thrust of the of the new requirement levied on us by the legislature uh um without any guidance I suppose but performance measures as I look through all of this the the first problem was the goals are multi-year goals I mean these aren't things that you accomplish and can report in December yep did this did this did you're going to make some incremental movement into them there in lies the problem with performance measures how do you performance measures will say well when you get to the end of all the performance measures you got 100% you're done so is that mean you know certain targets for each year I I was very confused by all of that but having said that as a question to see if you have any better information um I I would say Public Safety um and then and then uh Economic Development specifically with some focus on the arts district and Public Safety as I went through it um fresh in my mind as the dialogue we had with with Florida Department of Transportation but when I look at our goals and objectives uh specifically like goal uh 7.1 um and 7. 1.1.2 7.1.1 do7 evaluate and initiate initiate traffic mitigation measures in targeted areas and then the other one was to reduce travel speeds so there are some very specific goals that we adopted in the plan that we may need F Dot's help with there may be some things we can do without their help but um I I wanted to um mention that doc I think Dr Acer who's not here tonight I think he had was spot on with the recommendation regarding the flashing lights that we we are trained to recognize that red means stop and yellow means slow down or you hurry up because it's going to turn red real soon so I think the yellow is not really effect effective and presumably since fots already approved that being there you know that might not be that big a big a mountain de climb to to look at at least consider that and then with respect to the arts district the the plan recommends the establishment of the Arts District I think maybe some formality to establishing it if we've all agreed it it was a good idea would be an appropriate thing to shoot for um and you know some of the goals and objectives that are listed under under that uh for the Arts District I think are are very uh meaningful uh goals to start working towards wayfinding and and particularly supporting infrastructure um the Julia Street Festival street is in the long-term term implementation plan for dollars to be applied to it in FY 2526 so I think we can always go back and look at what that plan was for actually deploying the the tax increment and we it can change I mean it's a it's a proposed plan it's not going to be there'll be other things that come up that are a higher priority but it's a good plan so your your um summaries here are not the specific goals and objectives but it rolls them up into topical areas so I appreciate that so safety is is at the top I I see the arts district and economic development is one and the same you know with what we're trying to do at at the theater um and and any others I don't know that I have a specific priority on on those new housing is good because it brings more people residence enter the downtown but when you get to reporting these I don't know that maybe you're going to Prior say well these were this was the top priority goal they didn't they didn't ask you to prioritize them they're just saying list your goals and objectives and performance measures for how you're meeting all of them well we have a lot in this plan that's my input yeah I appreciate that and I think part of what uh was member ball was saying is what I don't want to see here tonight is a a workshop we're not going to try to go item by item and and get dig D into this I think a workshop down the road might be a good idea but tonight I hope we just put out our very Basics and you go from there uh vice mayor yes all has has spoken well and um I I look at it as uh my number one uh ISS U uh objective would be Economic Development and why I say that is because my second would be new housing and I think that there's a correlation between the the the two and because if you work on that Economic Development and and bringing dollars in and then it it'll just lend its way to new housing and and and so forth and and that would bring uh uh people to the CRA area and when you get to that point and people start coming in and start enjoying I like the New York atmosphere in a country town uh it's always pleased me St Petersburg used to have it years ago and uh but if you uh do that Economic Development housing and then that that last one that would crouch in would uh would be Public Safety because you want to make sure all of that the other two the others that remain uh you know they they just go along to to make the first three uh the best that they can be similarly I think they um they all tie in together in one way or another um while I'm going to put Public Safety number one because you don't want to go anywhere that you're not safe I do agree with member Nelson that uh I can see putting it somewhere else because we are that is high priority in our budget but I would say Public Safety number one I think Economic Development new housing and a word that we haven't used here but I know we're all in on it is infrastructure which would be everything from sidewalks to seore pipes to lighting so I think uh infrastructure downtown can never be down the list very far so I put that with economic development uh as number two along with new housing as I said they come together and then Community culture and arts I think that's what makes our downtown our downtown I really do I um I'm proud to say I'm a season ticket holder and sometimes count the days till the next performance it's just it's just a Gathering Place place it's a happy place and uh it is um very special but with that I also think that public space goes with that and I think that if you go further I think that our environmental work down there goes with that as well so I couldn't ever really put maybe Public Safety but the rest of them I think economic uh growth and new housing and infrastructure are almost a trifecta in community culture arts public space and environment are a trifecta so I think they they're very much hybrid and uh symbiotic with each other so member stoko yep just to Circle back I think what everyone said it's I think these all kind of intertwin with one another and so and I don't know how we would put this in words on a report to the state essentially but what I'm hoping is that we will have and this goes to our new goal that we added as council members the design of what will our downtown actually look like and feel when you're there um and not forgetting about like the parking components so as we're saying new housing supporting restaurants like we're not leaving out any one thing so it's not well we have all this and now nobody has anywhere to park and so we're going to get those complaints is like how can we have everything kind of hit together all at once so we have the businesses we have the people coming we have that open space we have everyone feeling safe we have things for them to do places for them to live places for them to park um and I think I'm glad we added that that that six goal there um for Council uh so hopefully that gives you an idea and I I don't know if this is on our agenda or not but thank you for these Maps I don't know if you guys have been downtown every time I'm downtown somebody's looking at these Maps so I just wanted to say thank you thank you thank you that's awesome that's uh kind of another thing we can say KCK off we wanted that done every I mean I was I was I knew they would be nice but it's like literally every time I'm there people are looking at them and I'm like this feels nice to see that kind of like those old historical books that went from thing to thing that's very similar yep um anybody else have anything went add on that are you guys feeling like you got enough from us definitely and Mr B you're absolutely correct with the vagueness of the piece of legislation they do not tell us how to do the performance measure staff is working on it um with our legal department and we will be coming back to the CRA board where I am going to the Florida Redevelopment agency Conference next week thank goodness um I think all the cras are trying to figure this out in their own way we've seen a like a handful of samples maybe three and uh so we're we're moving along from there and we'll bring it back to you all right thank you I I'm assuming to call a card on this anyway yeah uh call a card one card Stan Johnson Stan I thought you were tired I to all right if you're part time you get one minute half AE all right let's go go ahead Stan and uh I'm concerned about this this is the uh what you've probably seen this is a photo of me and carrying holding the sign and in the background you can see a fountain and so forth so so this is um uh this was a safety hazard and and uh this was photo was this photo was taken in January and this was sewage on my my car and so forth so uh that's a very safe safe a safety issue and I approach Tec um uh early in this in this episode and uh they asked Council or ask staff to go ahead and see if we could go ahead and get it fenced and uh there was no response back and of course I'm was there as a PE saying it's it's toxic it's unsafe I even set up some signs I set up some signs and and they the signs were removed just and it was uh even in February it was removed and uh destroyed and not replaced and that was at space View Park so here we had sewage coming in and uh a fountain there and blowing businesses there's Burger King right there CVS Pharmacy I think you understand it's when the wind blows hard around there it does blow hard at times it's almost vertical it's almost like horizontal is is is is the sewage spray goes so that is a uh problem that that I I think should be addressed in this uh uh uh goals and that you have is the is the safety and safety of this is that is that uh it's really uh harmful to spray women and children with sewage in fact if I did that to uh my neighbor I would get arrested and I be criminally charged so uh it's very harmful and I think I'm asking you to take it seriously and and and um uh stop it stop it so it's been going on the policy has been going on for over four years I can't understand why uh grown adults will continue a policy like that in spite of uh FD saying it's okay some Anonymous person so I'm asking you to uh stop that policy that's incredibly harm ful all right thanks Dan well maybe someone would like to comment on that you don't see any you don't okay we're having a this this is sometime called what's I read about is is a conspiracy of Silence no resp no response conspiracy of Silence that's what we have here including our City attorney our all all of our pees and our city manager our CRA Council conspiracy of Silence it's interesting so uh thank you very much I'll be up later to talk about something else thank you all right I'm not feeling we need to vote on this no we given what you need to have okay City Manager on on to Item B which is review of CRA Grant criteria update during the 9 January 2024 CRA board meeting the CRA board directed staff to review the CRA grant program and evaluation criteria and proposed changes staff has reviewed the CRA current grant program and um and other successful cities um Grant programs below are a list of proposed changes for discussion at tonight's meeting there's four that um items that you may consider and Sue's here to help guide you through it uh member ball my my only comment on this is I think this is is a really positive start I did see um an objective of this exercise is to make the make make these uh Grant applications consistent in some cases um they're more stringent in one than the other so I don't know which way that would go but um I guess one thought I have that I didn't see in any of this is is is St for staffs maybe to consider places where conditions might warrant a a waiver or at least more than one size fits all for example I think the um the withholding of 25% of the grant amount until one year later began as a as a way to help ensure that a vacant building was actually occupied and the business was going to be up and running but in fact the money is obligated at the time the grant is awarded and if the project does get built they it's reimbursable you don't get the grant so in some in some cases I think that would be you know helpful to an established business that's been there for a while there's really not a question they're not going to be around you know a year from now why why hold the 25% I'm only going to ask you to consider that that maybe in some cases that is appropriate but if you put that in in in the in the application as a hard and fast rule then you know it's one Size fits-all Doesn't Matter member Nelson I agree with member ball um we put that in there what seven eight years ago because people were coming taking the grants uh fixing their buildings up and then selling them so we were trying to stop that remember that we're trying to stop that from Havoc happening but now I think we have enough people downtown that I'm not sure that's a problem um so that might be worth looking at the other question I had was how many applications are we getting per say per year is it it seems like it's slower it seems to run in Spurs you haven't seen any in front of you the last couple of meetings because they've been under the threshold of $10,000 which by the guidelines and and so they've been handled executively by the executive director um signing off we make sure they still have all the criteria submitted um the the one reason why I put the eliminate the two-year waiting period as well is a lot of the businesses say they don't have the entire the money to do the entire job they want to do so they'll do the the the facade work first and then they need signage and Landscaping and so that seems to hinder that business from continuing to upgrade that property and and but um as far as how many we have coming in I don't know the number off the top of my head I think in the annual report last year we' had eight okay so and there right now see there seem seems to be smaller smaller amounts um I have one that's working I thought was going to be over 10,000 but I think it's going to going to be under uh right now it's not slowing down it's just it's just you're correct and the one thing is we are trying to um really get the word out there more often you see it in our newsletter and visiting the businesses just to let them know what's available okay um because in the future we do have in the proposed budget to have more funds as they become available for for um these grants these changes seem to be appropriate so that would be my suggestion than mayor yeah yes what is the the time uh frame for allocations or how often can you uh apply for a grant the way it's stated now it says you have to wait two years so it's two years compared to our space that we have in the Z area for businesses what is that how many empty spaces do we have uh compared to if we had to start allocating more dollars do you have any idea of how many stores that could be put in or how many empty building that that could be regenerated renovated and and put that would um bring more businesses down or are we at full capacity or 2/3 capacity 34s capacity what would you say I'm I'm not sure the amount I know that we're working on a map to have for that availability so that people can see that I know there is a lot of room as you drive around the CRA you can see that there is a lot of room I don't know and a huge success story is the the most recent one is the Cava Roots if you saw the before and after picture it it'll be in this or should be in this talking talking points but what a huge difference um and it's it's a very viable Fe feet are there people are there so that was that's the kind of Grants I know that you all like to see um and that's that's the encouraging part is taking a that was truly blighted okay member stole yes um my question is to staff how do you feel about these four additions and are there other things that maybe people are inquiring and you have to tell them nope that doesn't meet the criteria that we should potentially look at as we all kind of stated that our goal is to see more growth and economic development there is there something that maybe we're missing or that we should consider or do you feel good about these four things um the reason these are recommended for the four is this is what staff could find and and really ours are ours are ours are really good grants I have to say and looking at there is one one item where where we are the only city I found that we we do because we have the contract where it states in there you can't sell it within five years and it's Bing and all all the callbacks and things of that nature and then we are the only city that I have found that we take it a step further and once we do that first payment out of 75% we put a lean on that property for the amount of the grant that's the only thing that I have seen um but for what people are asking for this is really covering it that's the only difference I've really seen but you haven't seen that that was a has been a deterrent where people were like oh I was going to apply but because that's there and i' have to sign it I'm not okay that that would be my thing is what you guys see in the day-to-day working with individuals of That's My Hope Is whatever we can do to help support our businesses in the downtown I'd love to support all of our businesses um but specifically we can do it here in the CRA what we can do to help them be successful and I think we we all know it's Unique challenges that we face I think in downtown just because of where we're situated um but I think we'll get there so yeah the exterior grants particularly we cover we cover a lot we do um more than more than some cities um most definitely the interior we have to be careful of because that's Ada compatibility if we take it any further it can't be used for renovation you know for just putting in the interior things that they should have been doing all along so um ours are really good these were the only four points that's why I kept looking and looking and looking these were were the items that that really stuck out for me very good uh member ball I I think two two other two things that came to mind as we were talking and um I I I think the one when I mentioned the the uh disparity between the two grants in some of the requirements some more stringent than others I noted reading through the the uh commercial Improvement the interior Improvement that ADV valorum Properties or adorm exempt properties are not eligible but whereas on the exterior grants if you're you can be a nonprofit but if you're demonstrably drawing people if you have a commercial activity going on that's bringing people to downtown you're okay so I would say to take a look at that one because if you went one way I mean just when we talk about arts and culture being a key mechanism for bringing people into the downtown it's not just a theater museums are nonprofit Etc you could have uh you could have other examples of things that would be nonprofit but they're actually very attractive to bring people into the downtown um and with with regard to the lean I I I don't know if if um I I'll just say that the division of cultural Affairs State and the Department of State when you get a facilities Grant from them like we did for stage two um they require for their Grant to enter into a restrictive covenant basically and it gets recorded it's not the same as a lean but it has the same effect basically um so maybe it doesn't make any difference but we we could certainly you know share that with you if you wanted to consider that all right thank you I would uh agree with um member Nelson that that's appropriate I also always enjoy hearing you guys speak because obviously your knowledge is great and your commitment is real and between all that I don't worry about it too much I just I'm glad we get to have our input but I would say that what I see is is is solid um city clerk there's no cards we don't need to vote on this one either I don't I don't think so either I think uh what we've asked for is for you to provide feedback and I think we got it all right see manager uh petitions and requests all right petitions requests come on Stan somebody talk to you um Stan John Johnson professional engineer I've sent you an email um dat October the 2nd requesting a motion to terminate City Manager for cause and that's the cause of the sewage spraying women children and babies and so forth with uh which is a very as far as I can see it's criminal activity that the city is continues to have a policy that to not stop it uh in spite of uh people coming to the uh Podium and and uh requesting uh uh um that to stop it because they've had diarrhea vomiting and sickness um so um that's that's what I'm asking so maybe you'd like to do that maybe someone would like to do it somebody's brave enough to do it okay now um following an October 2nd one is I've sent you emails for example to D's on Al for is that that I've been sending you uh been sending you emails and phone calls day after day after day that nobody that you're not responding to and about this particular item of U the sickness and perversion the hypocrisy of dis spraying women children and babies of sewage this began December 2020 and now it's it's been almost four years and the policy continues and uh so uh I have emails dated on October 11th two emails in that and today this morning I sent you an email and I believe I'd like you to confirm this u city clerk is that I I I you have a copy of October 15th letter that's to our governor because I'm telling him that that I can't get anybody to do it I can't get the police to do it I can't get the state attorney to to do it I can't get f f FD to do anything and I can't get city manager I can't get city council CRA nobody will do it here and I called a conspiracy of Silence and in parenthesis on the letter I put on one of these emails I put a criminal activity are you guys so this is going to the this has already been sent to the governor you have a copy of it and uh this c meeting has it has has a copy of this this letter so I'm asking you again determinate City Manager for this cause okay I think what you understand is also I said is you're going to have a legacy left here is the city of tville is the only city in the world under your watch it's deliberately sprays women children and babies with sewage the only city in the world only city in the world that's your responsibility that's what you've done I think it's and and it's a guess by religion thank you very much um I have another minute no not at all um go ahead and have seat go ahead and have seat I'm I'm not going to let that ride without saying it uh I totally believe that's untrue I think you know it's untrue you've been saying it for four years and I'll just leave it at that nobody purposely sprayed anybody with anything and nobody almost nobody got sprayed unless they stood right next to it like you did my car got like you did thank do it have a seat all right anybody else I see none city manager uh last item is the executive director's report information items um subject to your questions and I think Sue wants to show you the new banners that are going to be erected in the downtown district this one of wow oh yeah nice nice I wanted to give a shout out to public works when those Kos came in weekend where we had two events and I contacted works and of beged to see anything else member Paul just a quick comment I um of course uh the recent storm and all the events related to it were Citywide but behalf of the CRA I want to tell the city manager your staff is great and I they worked hard Public Works uh both you know things they had to do before the storm during the storm and clean up after the storm and uh we're very fortunate to have uh the caliber of employees that we have in the city of Titusville and of course they come under the leadership of the city manager so thank you thank you well said um and I may comment on that more later I was fortunate to be in the with so many people who are here right now and uh city manager LED that charge and I got to talk to some firefighters on the way out and some uh Solid Waste people picking things I mean they were just constantly on the go their their week was for us so I appreciate that all right if there is nothing else I'll join this meeting thank you e