came from trium to here so DUS yeah there no he was in Allan did you see yeah he was talking on the phone to somebody talked to him after I saw your father there oh
that's all right ready okay call this meeting to order at um five o'clock and if we would just if everyone vacation Lord God please help us guide
this organization to do great things for defunc Springs and uh we ask for your wisdom and gu in Jesus Christ we pray amen amen to the flag United States of America to
the stands na indivisible liy and justice for all okay all right uh on to the approval of the minutes U has everyone had a chance
to review the last set of meeting minutes and if so does anyone have any Corrections or want to make a motion motion to approve the minutes for
January 29th we got a motion a second and a second all in favor say I I all opposed say no motion carries 5 okay financial report
Josh good evening chair Commissioners uh in your packet you will find the most current financial report um since our last meeting nothing really new to report to you okay if uh does anybody have any questions suggestions comments on the
financial report if not I'll accept a motion to accept motion to accept second got a motion in a second any
discussion all in favor say I I motion all oppos say n okay a motion carries 5 all right thank you very much for that the next item we have is the growth and development assistance grant tracking sheet as you'll see in that sheet we've had uh roughly was there 11 I believe
total uh applications that have been approved I did receive one today and we have another one under new business that will be considering for our income based Roofing Improvement Grant so all in we're we're roughly 48,000 uh in award so far it's about a 57% increase over
where War last year so I'm pretty pleased to to report that um a lot of interest a lot of great projects I'm really excited about where we are with that so are these all approved these are all approved okay yep what are um people
saying kind of you know we had good to hear that increase um are they hearing about it on social media are they hearing about it Word of Mouth what how are they yeah kind of a good mix we've done some advertising ing in the defc herald quite a bit of posting on the city's Facebook page interesting I got a
call today from a gentleman who does pressure washing who somehow found out about it and is sharing the the word for us as well so u a good mixture of opportunities and advertisement there so it's kind of coming from everywhere
great any comments discussion on this questions okay all not any comments we'll go on to Old business number one here update on the culture Arts Alliance interest in 27 Tres drive so for the direction that I received at our last meeting I did reach
out to Mr Jennifer Steele the director of the culture ARS lights we had a lot of conversations about uh what the opportunities could be with uh their individual that has made the offer to um do some scoping for us we have a meeting
scheduled for this Friday where we're going to be meeting with Bradley touchon and Jennifer to kind of identify exactly what our desires are and what he is willing to kind of offer so far uh what he has agreed to is essentially be an
advisor uh through this process uh I think uh through our meeting on Friday we'll be able to further Define what that means um so that's that's kind of where we are with that but by our next meeting I should have if not an actual scope a better understanding as to what
he's willing to do and how that will benefit us if anybody has any comments or any any suggestions please mention to Josh okay all right going on to the next item so an update on 111 and 129 North 6
Street Parcels so we do have here uh check at the Das check and our Clos D's check so we are good he's got a put ink on one piece of paper right to let him have it but it is here so so this is like a celebratory moment we can actually celebrate the y'all have made
money y'all bought property sold property and broke debt even on it that's goal so all right let's put it back to good use do some more yep and I believe uh once the the Deeds have been recorded that paves the way for the county to obtain the demolition permits
and I believe they are in you know they're ready to start bulldozing tomorrow they are good so there is a desire that to move they are they're sitting on good oh good all right that's great good job if CHR where's Chris if
Chris doesn't get on to them for demo without a permit they might just demo there you go I said that ciously make him get a perect but well this has been a h a big success story because it it's a rough that's
about as as good of a blight you know remediation when we get these things sure removed so hopefully we can get some more like this soon definitely definitely all right so uh moving on in new business uh first item we have is a
request to accept the parking study recommendations and findings and approve invoice 4 48450 for payment so this week uh we've had the the pleasure of John Forester with fish being present uh he actually did a similar presentation with
the Council on Monday during their workshop at 4 p.m. we also had a workshop a general public workshop last night at stock Hall brother at 5 and so we are winding up the series of presentations tonight uh with his full
presentation to this board in your packet and provided prior this meeting is a copy of that presentation I think there's what roughly 60 something slides I don't know that John's going to go through each one of those and spend a lot of time on them but you know certainly wants to to go through those
and and take his as much time as you need but he is here tonight and is ready to come to the podium and start the presentation good evening everyone yes it's 60 some slides some of you have heard the shorter version that I gave to council the other night uh please ask
questions and some slides I may say just to give the gist of it keep going I don't want to keep you here all night talking about parking although I love parking and I could talk about it all night but I know you got other business to get to let's see here clicker works I just go through the process again I was here
in October uh watched your uh parking operations how they work did did counts for uh 10 hours a day on two days when I was here we've recorded all that data and now I'm back giv the findings and recommendations so just talk a little bit about Community input we did an
online survey we got 108 responses uh uh pretty good pretty good response lots of people got online we did one-on-one interviews with several U business owners some City staff some some elected officials and met with them over a dozen
people came sat down with me to talk about parking downtown and we did a public open house back in October when I was here uh the survey was open for three weeks I think some of the interesting things where 85%
of the people who took it visit weekly to downtown they are ready regulars which is great 97% drive so you know that that number is accurate I think with how people get downtown um and and just some some
mentions that we'd like to see more parking so we're going to talk about what more parking might mean in the long run um so we measured perceptions a little bit and and almost 60% said it was either convenient easy or somewhat easy to find a parking spot uh so that
means the other 40% found it a little difficult or somewhat difficult to find a spot so we're going to we're going to break that down a little bit more too and say hey is is that a perception do we need to work on perceptions or do we need to work on reality of of what difficult to park means
um by Far and Away the time people hear the most on uh of who Took the survey was uh weekdays 9 to5 Bankers hours um and again when they come downtown to park over 93% park on Street in the public spots and just we'll get to that
in a minute but you don't have any public offstreet parking there's no lots that are owned by the city or or quote unquote public parking for anybody to use at any time they're all private so you're on street parking Supply is the only publicly available parking
Supply again we did interviews with with lots of people um people appreciated the the way downtown's change in the last few years they really like the activity they feel like their business or their organization benefits from being downtown it was really positive um they
are concerned that the increased activity might negatively impact their patrons and customers I heard almost everybody said I don't want paid parking down here we don't want to see meters um there were interestingly enough
frustration that other people's employees park in front of the take up the main spots and and park in front of business um and and there was there was definitely a willingness to ask employees to park around the corner and not take up those Prime spots so patrons
can use them and and and they like the community the way it is in that it's got that Hometown feeling I don't really want to see that change I think that's what makes the place special um a couple people said to me don't don't let us become destined that's not what we want to be uh so those are kind of the
summary of the stakeholder interviews the the workshop really got a lot of the same comments uh at the workshop I think one thing I can say between the survey and the interviews and the public I've kind of heard very consistent messages along those lines we don't want PID
parking please keep our community a nice place to visit um and and just that generalized concern of of when are we when will we be in trouble if it keeps growing and keeps developing and so help us with that real quick on the parking
Supply we counted every we put a dot in the gis system for every single on street parking spot in your entire in the entire downtown uh and then we counted like I said 10 hours a day on Friday October 4th and Tuesday October
8th and it's all recorded electronically in GIS that we're going to turn over to you so any future counts can be added to that real easy comparative the like here's where we were in October here's where we are in a you know and you can make maps and comparisons and in seconds
through the G system that's the real power of using it so on street parking like I said the only on the on street parking is your only true public parking and it's really concentrated in those few blocks right in the core part of downtown where You'
think six s 800 Baldwin and a few blocks either way you get further out and you get a little more that uh I would say Suburban style development there's there's not on street parking there's also not a need for it uh at those parts of town right now we're going to talk a little bit more about north of 90 and
and the need to maybe look at on street parking as that develops maybe if the zoning goes through and it becomes part of the CBD then then um that'll be important to consider up there uh I will say not on Street Ada is not a
requirement by law but you have a lot of ADA spaces out there on street and that's a good thing uh helps people find a spot off street parking again this is all the parking Lots I say they're not public I guess the county ones technically might be um but this is the
busiest time the parking lots are are underutilized there there's often not even 50% of those of the spaces taken in all those private parking lots and so I I talked a lot about it actually last night and talked a lot about it Monday
is is the goal eventually is to not have unused asphalt out there empty parking lots are are a piece of land that could be doing something better um than than holding up Asphalt and so that's kind of the goal of of a central business district as you as you continue
to work on it and grow it but they're empty a lot of them right now so the inventory uh that we took so those on Street spaces there's 603 spaces in that whole 20 block area that
I showed a minute ago um there's and then the that and then there's another 213 on Circle Drive and East Main Street from basically where we show it uh touching East Main all the way over the library not the entire that came up last night
and I I didn't explain that well enough not the entire ring around the lake but just that one quarter from like the library to downtown um and then there's 853 uh parking spaces in all those off Street lots that are spread across town again the majority of those or not the majority but a big chunk of those are in
the county parking lots so we're going to talk a little bit more about the county and and and their role in downtown so there were a couple times uh lunchtime and maybe the evening where a a small section of of a particular block
may get full may even get to 100% full you can't find a spot um especially on Baldwin and those seven and 800 blocks uh but right now the city does not have a parking problem you may not be able to pull up exactly in front of
the door you want to go to but everything I studied over those two days if you wanted a spot within a block or two you can find a spot within a block or two and I would consider that not a parking problem at this point doesn't mean you doesn't mean things won't change I guarantee the one thing
will'll happen is will'll change one way or another we did do a a a little bit of a turnover study to understand if people are are staying on those blocks because I know a lot of the business owners on the 700 block of Baldwin ask their employees to Park not in front of their
building there because that's that's the that's your busiest Block in the whole whole downtown right now and what we found is is on one day 12% and on the other day 19% of the cars stayed over four hours which means they're actually leaving there there's there's not a
whole bunch of them parking there all day there might be a few but you're getting some compliance with that um there are but they're not breaking any rules there's no law there's no sign you're not trying to change them out this is just Goodwill and good neighborliness between the businesses to
try to keep those spots open for their customers as they pull up those three blocks in particular right there 67 800 block of of Baldwin there's about 155,000 square feet of business of of building space there
right now um 81% is occupied which is really good that's that's strong uh but there is almost 30,000 square ft of empty space and so if if those were to become occupied that area would become far busier with vehicles and as I said
um you don't have a lot there's no room for you can't build any more on street parking you have what you have we're going to talk a little bit about refiguring one spot on 700 block and Baldwin to get a few more um but so if those buildings fill with a high intensity use uh parking will get
tighter and just to talk about those uses like retail and office space for every thousand square feet of space that might be three three to four uh Vehicles would would come to use that a medical office space is a little bit higher so
you know we've got physical and the dentist right down town so a little bit but a restaurant then those numbers jump up into the teens per thousand square feet you might pull 12 13 Even 17 vehicles per th Square F feet so the mix
of your land use matters when you're talking about parking if you're an Entertainment District that's nothing but bars and restaurants you have a whole lot more cars than if you were an office Park um so what I say is it's nice to the extent possible and you can't tell people how to do things but
to the extent possible that you have a nice mix of retail office and and entertainment that really helps maximize the use of your parking spaces again Future Park Supply if if those if those occupancy rates were to
go up to 90 and I know the big store and and and some other pieces of property are available uh you you could add 50 I don't think I think 250 is out of it but but running the models we ran if everything became a a bar you could you
could end up with that many more cars downtown uh a highly utilized well attended restaurant something like that um so and the new proposed zoning ordinances coming through is not going to require anybody to add parking with
the development which we'll talk a little bit more about that it's a good thing um but it does it does behoove the city to pay a little more attention to to parking if they're not going to require anybody to add some any questions on land use and
parking you know how how parking is really a derived from how buildings are are used awesome uh looking at some development sites uh there's there's opportunities out there I noticed one of those blocks
as I've got is is going to be the new market that's under construction I was that was empty when I was here in October it was great to see them doing some work there uh so you still have energy I know there was a building further down if it's on 10th or 11th that they're working on now a little white
building so you've got momentum people are are investing in town and that's a that's a really great thing um but there are opportunities uh for more development talking about your policies a little bit uh parking is unregulated
it there's there's very few rules other than if you're not an ad if you don't have an ADA tag you shouldn't be in an ADA space other than that anybody can park anywhere I love the S Simplicity of it there's low overhead to administer um it's it's easy to use patrons customers
know how to use it um and and I really worked throughout this process to try not to add comp complexity to your program I I think part of what makes downtown nice is people go there's a spot I can use it and so I hate for them to have to think too much I really don't
ever want to see you guys issue too many parking tickets those are a pain um no one likes getting a ticket so that's your policy right now and we're working to try to maintain that um just some pictures generalized pictures you do have people bring trailers down I
saw plenty of that a lot of big trucks are around those can impact parking uh you got commercial vehicles downtown actually I think our biggest discussion point last night might have been delivery vehicles and how to handle that um and then you know that just that mix of patrons and employees together uh
which I think is a good thing so talking about that a little bit you really have two types of people you don't have a a lot of residential downtown right now you might in the future um but the how do patrons and employees uh share those parking spaces and really not compete for them and and they're both important
constituents your employees serve those customers the customers spend the money to pay the bills so they're very they're interdependent upon one another so they really need to work together on that um when things get complex is when you have to start separating them out that's when
you end up with time limits and and and different mechanisms to try to keep the employees and the patrons separate and and that's when things get a little harder again Ada parking came up quite a bit a lot of the businesses mentioned that
they they have a lot of people who need that ADA parking uh you do have a lot uh on Street um there's new policies coming down from the US access board both on the number of spaces you need to have and and the design layouts of those it's
not law yet it may be someday um but as you update infrastructure downtown I think it's important to to maybe put new spaces in meeting those requirements that way when and if it becomes law you're ready to go plus it just makes it easier for people who really need those
accommodations to use the spaces so walking distance it came up I think you made a comment when we were just sitting here talking um so 45% of the people who took the survey said that that they a reasonable
distance is less than one block um but another 36% said less than two blocks so what that tells me is people want to be close to to where they're going uh the nice thing is you have a linear downtown even if you were to Bar Park two three
blocks away you can see your destination uh fairly easily and you know where you're going I do think there's probably some cultural this the citizens are going to have to learn that two blocks is not too far um over time because that's just part of a downtown it gets a
little more dense it gets a little busier and walking a bit further is is just part of it and uh you chalk that up to success if you can pull up in front of every single business whenever you want in downtown probably not as busy of downtown as you'd like to be so pat
yourself on the back that people got to walk a little bit um and your pedestrian you do have good sidewalks everywhere I don't think in in the core part of downtown I ran across anywhere where there wasn't a sidewalk and the ability to to walk you even have
a couple good signalized Crossings across 90 uh if that area were to grow uh so so your pedestrian infrastructure is good I will say the railroad crossings they're passable but they're outdated and I I got some recommendations in there for for making
those better o over time too again just you know there's just some interesting things with with pedestrian stuff um one of the nice things is uh concrete lasts forever here um one of the bad things is someone put
something there in 1968 it might still be there so uh you know as you do infrastructure updates uh it's it's great to to put these to have a plan for these things put them in place and make those upgrades as you go along um North
Side a 90 we were asked to look at that obviously right now there's not a lot going on over there it feels a little like that's not part of downtown just because 90 is so busy and it feels hard to cross although I saw people running across it every every place up and down
not necessarily using the signal uh the signalized intersection um but the the zoning policy changes that that would uh not require parking to be part of a site plan approval that that has the opportunity to fire that up and and get
people looking at property on that side and so the the options and the uh opportunities to integrate the two sides of 90 into one downtown are are are a little challenging but really exciting and and a great a great opportunity to do that but you're going to need to do
some planning and and and put some things in motion to do that I'll just say my experience here was people kind of expect to park close to their destination like I said there's a little maybe cultural shift that needs to take place um Walton County is
exploding I was shocked when I pulled the Census Data up and and and S saw that the county went from ,000 people in 2010 to 86,000 people last year I mean it's possible that the county could double in in two decades which is just
amazing um and and what I heard from people is people are willing to change as long as it comes slowly and is explained to them and not just this is what we're doing kind of jam down their throat um and and again people don't want to lose that feel they they people who are here like it here for the way it
feels and they don't want to necessarily lose that uh so just to wrap this all up this is all my findings um you know good growth and economic activity more opportunities exist you don't really have a parking shortage at this time but
but you need to keep an eye on it and uh and the local businesses who are here now they they just want it to work so that their patrons continue to come downtown they they don't want to hear that parking's maybe a reason why their patrons May skip visiting them that's that's the review of
everything I saw does that drive with what you generally feel and see around downtown did did I get it I still think it's a great thing though that we're looking at this proactively instead of we have a huge problem and now we have to fix it it
takes a year to fix a problem so if if you don't start until you've got a problem you'll be behind the eightball forever so I we like to do that in Walton County um so as I started putting together recommendations uh I I just wanted to to
clarify some goals and and really the biggest one is parking should be an asset to downtown it should support the growth and development of downtown it should make it easy for patrons and employees to par there should be clear understandable policy no one should be guessing what they're supposed to be
doing um and then I added that ADA on because it just came up enough so I think uh keeping that as as policies move move forward just remind yourself that that the Ada parking is important to this community some places it's not that big a deal but here it it came up a
lot um I I I want to maximize the shared like we've got to get those parking lots more full and not build more parking lots that are 30% full uh business owners uh should be sharing and and opportunities to put buildings on some
of those uh parking lots that are underutilized it should be a a a high priority um planning for the future needs not just oh we're good now we're not going to worry about it anymore but as you said planning for future needs and getting ready to go uh as things
change and just maintaining that feel uh of the community so some of the considerations on that um as I said there's no off street parking that's there's no Municipal parking lots and um you really
need to pay attention I'm I'm very few tasks I've assigned but one of them is ongoing parking counts to keep up and understand where you st understand where things stand and when it's time to uh to add more parking and there's some there's some loow hanging fruit and some
easy opportunities but the reality is the city especially if they pass the zoning ordinance is going to need to look at the opportunity to put a couple public parking spots around when you were at the city council meeting did the city um did they agree to to kind of put
that into I mean somebody's got to be doing this as it goes along so I mean you know like we can do the studies but I mean somebody has is that something the city agreed they want to do or is it something they they want us to look at doing or did they say I challenged them
I I told them that they passed this zoning policy that they they are taking responsibility for parking that's the implied contract if we're not going to require the private sector to do it when they build uh they that the city has to take that
responsibility I know they heard me I know they understood that because a couple council members stopped me in the hallway and told me they did I don't that's a great question because I don't know if they grabbed it and said oh this is ours we're going to run with it but I think they need to wrestle with that question is how are we going to do this
and how are we going to do it well but we we definitely sparked that thought that they've got to be thinking ahead that they can't just do nothing and wait yeah I I think there was positive from it um but I don't think they know I think the mayor even asked Josh is that he
said who who can who's got to be who's going to be in charge of this we need someone in charge of this yeah I heard that but I didn't hear we're going to be in charge of so that's what I'm kind of trying to ask the question and it's just something the city council and two City councilmen are here which is good I mean
saying like um we did the study but we need direction because we all want this to be successful yeah and I'll just add I think um depending the outcome of of tonight's meeting the next step would be for the park and study to be finalized into a
formal document uh that will then be taken to the council in its entirety and and at that point have those conversations with Council and City staff to identify you know answer some of these questions I think that that we have through this great what is the zoning policy you keep referring to the
proposed zoning policy would be to make those 20 blocks a a central business district um and if I get this wrong please correct me Josh you read it too and that it would be parking exempt which means if you want to put up a building or or or redevelop a building you would not be required to put any
parking with it you could if you felt like you needed to as part of to make your development work but you wouldn't be required to and then I I believe it also limited uh curb Cuts so that any parking that got put in could only come off the alley not off off no new curb
Cuts in any existing uh properties so and I and I will say I've worked with other communities have done that and it it tends to light a fire under development because you've just taken another hurdle out of someone's way you know getting getting something built or getting something redeveloped there's a
lot of hurdles if you can take a couple down that really helps people get where they're going um but if you don't think ahead suddenly you have to deal with the parking I I usually get called two years after they do that and they go help us
we don't know what to do we're swamped so it seems like the first thing is the employee parking yeah and and it's just it's telling people we really want you to park here and then if the
city's if the city police that or whoever police that that Main Street whoever policed it that you know the guy the goal is to try to keep you know not not NE necessarily to you know give people tickets or whatever just just to
just to make sure that people know and then when that layer is expended because things are growing bigger and bigger and then it's like what's that next step is it buying purchasing you you know you
mentioned purchasing future parking or looking at you know I mean there's a lot of spaces that don't have striping around here that could be easily striped when needed know so yeah on that note uh employee parking vers and Patron parking
we are we are recommending that that a couple block faces be designated as as Patron parking not asking you to write tickets or enforce it but just put up signs we we did a sample sign for you that just let's those customers know
this is okay for me uh this the secondary effect is if you're an employee and you know you're not really supposed to be there um you pull up and you park under the sun maybe you'll go down the street another half block and and park in an area where you're supposed to be I expect it to be I would
like to start with it be uh uh self- policing again I would like I don't want you to get into parking tickets if you don't have to um and just the community worked together through Main Street I think is the organization that would
help do that um work together to to just help uh employees have a place Park I I said it last night we talked about quite a bit employees want predictability they'd love to be close but more than anything they're on their way to work they're probably cutting it within two or three minutes of when they're supposed to be there they just where am
I supposed to be and and I'll drive directly there and if I got a four-minute walk I'll build that into my time in my head um but if I got to search that's when they get frustrated so identifying where they can be and that there's generally almost always an empty spot on that block where they can
be is is really what they need and then that leaves the the spaces right in front of the buildings open for for the patrons we we talked about the block down in front of uh the phone company those spaces are rarely is there even a single car down there because they Park
everything internal to that block that they need and they don't really have any patrons coming to visit them maybe occasional one here or there um so there's a there's a bunch of spaces down there that if I were working I would just go there because I know I'm parking and I'm and I got it no one's in my way
I'm always GNA find a spot there at least right now so on that note of of employee parking I think you're right first thing is let's let's get the employees where they have predictable parking and then and then let's measure and see how it's working for the customers we'd love it for the
customers to always be able to to to pull into town and find doesn't have to be a lot but if there's one or two spots per block that hey there's a spot I can get in I get where I'm going um so that's what we recommended on that any other question question or
discussion on that point so I I do think though and I ask the city to consider this I think over time to take uh an opportunity opportunistically looking at some land Parcels that could be a good spot for a public parking lot and again you have a
l that linear downtown you don't need a big parking lot but 20 30 spots strategically placed along with all your on Street spaces would provide that relief that would allow the the the city to continue to grow the downtown to continue to grow so with no
consideration of who owns them and not telling anybody to approach them for sale right away I identified some spots that I think would be good locations that don't have buildings on them right now where that could be looked at as potential parking lots uh in the future
and and like I said it'll take at least a year uh if you decide to do something it'll take at least a year to make that happen so planning ahead especially looking at um funding and financing and and how that would get purchased and and and who
would do it I think is is is critical to being ready to go uh with with that when it needs be and and like I said also I'm not a fan of overp Paving but just being ready to go uh if that opportunity presents itself uh one of the short-term
things that that we looked at is is this the 700 block of Balin because the old train station sat there uh is extra wide and I I'm sure everybody's noticed it um you can switch those spaces from angled to 90 degre and and and and squeeze in a
few more spaces and so we did just a sketch of what that might look like if you did that and then moving those Ada spaces from the ends to the to the the third points just to give a little bit more but there's an opportunity here um you need to get it engineered but there's an opportunity here to add
spaces on your busiest block um so so I would say that needs to be part of the discussion too if the city council wants to move forward with this do do they want I mean I don't know Clay I mean if it's not in their plan could we I mean
if they say yeah we want want it done could we engineer something like this to help kick off some of abolutely so then you we can you come back to the board and see if the board wants to do it because I I just don't want to see any all these great ideas not
implemented that's what I get worried about whenever you do a study is you don't truly implement the ideas and it just sits on a shelf so yeah and I think that that's you know that next step after we get this back uh to the council
letting them accept the similar findings and then identify which ones they would like us to work on uh which on they would want to work on um and which ones we'll work on together so I think that that's definitely you know the implementation phase of this study that would that would be identified after you
know it's put together put before Council yeah um on that note of somebody uh you know somebody owning it because if if no one owns the responsibility we all know things don't get done so
someone's got to own it um you know so it what I've recommended is is maybe under Main Street is a parking working group um that that would gather some of the merchants and and uh and other people once a quarter you know uh for a meeting
and just talk about Park you know bunch of issues but parking's got to be on the agenda and and so and also those regular parking occupancy counts it only takes about an hour and a half to count all the cars in downtown um and so you know to get someone out there and do that and
get it entered into the system and to know where you stand oh we're not at 60% on this block anymore we're at 80% we gota you know we're getting busier things continue to ramp up or hey the big store sold and so and so bought it
and they've got a plan date of X that they're going to open with this type of business we we need to have a plan in place we can't just let them open and say they'll find the spots and and and and to do that I think Main Street again is a good place for that to go I know
they don't have um a lot of authority to to spend money and make this but they can bring ideas forward to council and to you on on hey here's what we're looking at here's maybe what needs to be done uh or here's some ideas can you
help us out I would say let's if we could get help getting real specific when the council you know when when the council agree we we know they they've accepted what they want to do there's something for Main Street we're real specific about what we're asking their
help for yep not to just put together a committee and you know it just kind of I just say be real specific would be help I would think um the the former president of Main Street you I think I think you're the former president are you still the president or you the
former president so maybe you get some thoughts on how to best uh accomplish it I just you know make sure we're real clear you know what I want to be crystal clear on is somebody's got to own it and and that to me right now from the
outside I had trouble finding figuring out who should own it so I I couldn't say hey give it to this person or this department and make them do it um I do think that's maybe a negotiation somewhere you're right sit down with counsel and this Bo some but somebody's
got to own it or won't get done yeah whatever the parts are that are being asked of people I'd say let's make make sure everybody owns whatever that is that's right and then someone needs to Corral that a couple times a year and make sure it gets done
uh I I did put in here that I I think there should be a report to the C CRA and and the city council Council mostly that twice a year here's where we stand here's what's going on here here was the part assigned to us and here's what we did with it UMC and just keep that
momentum going because it's it'll it could be an easy thing to let slip and not pay much attention to and then all a sudden we got a problem um and and we weren't no one was in charge of of working on that problem before it became a
problem and I I hate to leave you with that conundrum uh of figuring out who's going to be in charge of it but but I think that's part of the process of implementation Josh I would say that's the question we need to keep ask you know is make sure the city council wants
to move forward on things that we clearly understand what the roles and responsibility are for whoever is going to be that task Masters that we understand yeah and and and I I would agree I will say that there's a lot to unpack with this study that's probably
going to take some time to define those roles and responsibilities probably through joint workshops with the council um and and so you know I I'll be glad to lead that charge and and hopefully through the creation of this document we'll have a better idea as to where to
start in that effort um but but I agree you know someone has to to own it and someone has to you know leave that charge so be glad to do whatever we can to identify that and let's try not to workshop at death too let's just try to make sure that if there's anything we
can you know accomplish it at at a city council meeting where you're representative of us you know that would you know trying to help help give these parts you know just that' be my suggestion and and that that goes to
leadership and administering it I I want you to keep it simple uh it shouldn't be it's pretty simple I think what you've given so I'm just saying I mean you know I'm not trying I mean I think workshops are great I'm just trying to say we had five workshops about I don't think
that's necessarily efficient use of time we can you know um so anyway that's that was my point I and I don't think it's a job I don't think it's 20 hours a week or anything like that it's it's a few hours here and there but but someone who
has to come and stand here and talk to you and come and stand here and talk to council and explain that hey I'm the one tasked with this and I'm I'm the one bringing it forward that that needs to happen that accountability so that it gets done um and and just my goal for
the whole thing was to keep your parking system simple easy to find a space for patrons and and and employees and minimal oversight um you know once you go to something you know no time limits no meters uh we continue with the honor
System for now I guess my caveat would be if if if the employees and and some businesses don't want to work on that honor System and push people out then you got to go to time limits or else you'll you those spots will consistently be full and once you go to time limits then you got to bring the Marshall in
you got to chalk tires then you got to write tickets it becomes a far bigger an an that you're cring than you want um so I I believe this type of community that can do this without all that and and there can be cooperation and and then to get that done because everybody I talk
to understands I mean they get it parking in front of this the store doesn't doesn't help um but but I I'd hate to see you put up all those signs too all the you know three- hour parking signs and again with the ticketing and everything so I'd love to see you keep it simple as long as you
can someday when you got to put meters in and charge $300 a month for a parking permit you'll know you've made it but maybe that's 50 years off now you can just do QR codes so you don't have that's right we are within 10 years of
of no physical meters on the street um our phones will be will just you'll pay you'll pay for you get out of your car you'll pull up and it'll say hey you're in this spot it's two bucks you want to pay you'll pay it on your screen in your car and then you'll go about your business and so that's already happening in some very very large cities around
the world so it it'll uh it'll trickle down all the way across some point as long as you have reception as long as you have reception um I kind of jumped around oh there's the zoning policy again that we talked about um and again it just it does obligate the city to lead on that
parking and transportation piece if they're not going to require those those spaces be built and again I think it's great policy I really do I think it's good policy you just got to pay attention to it um uh benchmarking benchmarking change
so I am recommending that quarterly counts happen they be added to the database and you pay attention what I'll say is when you've got two full blocks next to each other that are consistently well over 80 85% occupied that's when you that's when you're going to need to make some changes and that may mean
expanding those Patron or the patron only areas uh it may mean it's time for time limits we just can't we can't do it on the honor System anymore we got to move to that point uh or it may mean that's when we need to put in a couple parking lots around so that we can take
that pressure back off um you're not there yet you have some sections of a few blocks that are over 80% at peak times but you don't have entire blocks that are are there um but that's really that's one of your measurements that when you get there we better be ready
with a solution and that that should be somewhat incremental you should be able to see that over time uh that shouldn't happen overnight um now if a card shop becomes a brewery things change real quick on you so Ada parking again as you get the
opportunity to to make improvements to the roadway uh go ahead and make those Ada parking changes uh we talked about pedestrian uh connectivity I think yeah I I did a map with the walking distances each circle
is 5 minutes so if you walk in you can walk probably about five six blocks in 5 minutes or less so your downtown is very walkable right now and I think that's uh that's the point I wanted to make with that let's talk about the train crossings because the the lake is a big
part of your community uh and and a lot of there's a nice neighborhood down there I think on a given day with decent weather most people who are in that neighborhood who want to be in downtown love for them to walk um the tracks feel a little bit like a a a barrier for that
there is I think a lower right uh quite a while back someone built uh some sidewalks and attempted to cross that uh like I said it's not terrible it's just not great and so uh the opportunity to work with the railroad to put in a
Crossing that that a modern Crossing that would really allow you to um to get across that without any concerns feel like this is where I'm supposed to to be it's not a barrier at all I just I'll just move right across it and the US do has some guidelines uh I would love to see it actually came up with a few other
people would like to see it too if that old shakle Crossing could ever come back into use that would be a nice historical thing there um Mid it it seems a little counterintuitive to do a mid block pedestrian Crossing across railroad tracks but I've seen it work really well
in other places and so if if if that were I would study that when it comes time time to to work on that I would study that and see if that's something the city wants to do now I know that what is it 8th Street kind of dead ends into that spot now and you've got the uh
the little what is it opinion Place yeah there you go and there's a hill there there's a there's a number of things that are there to to work through but it would be interesting if you could do that um and that had some momentum from some other people who really like the historical aspect of that plus then you're moving away from the roadway it
it becomes a pedestrian only cross Crossing and you're moving away from the roadway and it it becomes even a nicer Crossing for you so while it seems a little counterintuitive it can be a really good thing and and I'll just say on the railroad they can make their own rules a
lot they can be difficult to work with but my experience over time was when you approach them with hey we'd like to improve what's going on and we'd like your partnership and helping us to maybe improve the infrastructure and make it easy easier to use they're generally uh
fairly receptive um what I've seen us struggle is when we tell them what we're going to do and they start flexing their muscles a little bit that can be rough but usually they're very good partners but it does it's not short again that's the whole point of planning it you're not getting anything done with a
railroad in less than a year maybe two they just they take their time they get back to you when they do so if you want to do something like improving these Crossings it's important to make contact find out who's who's in charge on their side for something like this and some someone needs to own it that we're going
to get this done and and and recognizing that it will take months uh to make progress on that I'd say Josh if the city council wants us to move forward it would be a good idea to have you contact sure and see what we can get the
railroad to to if they'd be interested in doing something like that and then you can come back to the board and see if we want to do a work order or something because that that would be big towards the connectivity of
everything yeah yep and and there's I know for events and different things there's parking people Park on Circle Circle Drive and and so it it to connect that to downtown would only be I think great for all the businesses that are downtown same as getting across 90 the make the easier we make it to get across
90 the easier we make it to get across our railroad tracks the more we connect downtown with everything I'd love to see the county feel like they're part of downtown I'm guessing I'm guessing I haven't spoken to them that they don't necessarily feel like they're a big part of downtown even though they're only two
blocks away so how do we make how do we do that and make them feel like they're more part of downtown where was oh yeah they just bought the Thriftway site and and the other half of that block is already paved I know it's privately owned um I think that block
provides amazing opportunity to tie downtown and the county together it it it if there was some public parking there for downtown it would allow downtown to grow uh more fill in some of those building spaces I think this I I think talking to the county on this and
and getting some momentum with them makes this block a really great opportunity to help downtown continue to grow and and maybe start to narrow that that divide that 90 kind of makes would be awesome if if a fair number of County employes came downtown for lunch every
day or stayed after work and and and went to the restaurants at night or ran their errands downtown I think that would all be really great um so just on that note of that block I think that block provides some very particular opportunities that that again someone
needs to follow up on and pursue on the railroad do we have contact information does has the city worked with them in the past yeah I believe so one thing I I will remind the board that particular processing got put in our Redevelopment Plan update as one of our projects so
you know we're kind of already in the queue to study that it's just a function of when uh we do that so um you know definitely can get with City staff and try to identify you know the the I guess the desire to continue that conversation yeah maybe look at the
other one to the historical one too yeah oh you're saying that's okay good awesome um and even with that historical one I mean the ada8 aspect of it is wonderful and should happen but there's so many people that push strollers that
pull wagons that I mean bicycles everything there really needs to be a dedicated Crossing I think for pedestrian use only I think it does make sense to do it there I mean if everybody else would agree but
I think that's some to me from what I've heard around town that's something that has some momentum or you could get or you could generate some momentum towards But there again there's a cost for sure I'm sure Council Mon Valley will have some comments when he gets up to
the podium so um bicycling we didn't really we found one bike rack in all of downtown um bicycling is is uh is a tough thing there has to be momentum within your
community for people to want to do it but there also has to be infrastructure in place you don't have a lot of bike Lanes around here even leading into downtown but a few bike racks to start out and to uh as Transportation Planning goes forward to look at at how to make
it more friendly to bike uh it it it takes time and and it's a growth over time um and if you concentrate on it you can get some real traction with that and and again I don't you're not going to get from 97% driving to 50% driving in
three years um but you can bring those percentages down a little bit more and and every percentage you bring down that's a few less spaces you have to build that's a little less land you have to pave over time and so if you can bring that down to 90 and 85% through
through uh walking and bicycling and getting people to car poool a little more off you know instead of everybody going hey let's meet at they go I'll pick you up and we'll drive down and get three people in a car instead of three cars for three people at a at his place you know it's just it's a cultural shift
that just takes time but the infrastructure piece of that putting it in is part of that and and so a little bit little bit of information on on on bike rack instulation I think you've got some on those Corners are nice big big pieces of ground that you might be able to do something in and nothing fancy
just a simple bike Loop where you know where I know I can put my bike there and either lock it up or just leave it you know while I go in and have dinner or or do a little shopping um but if you don't have the infrastructure um the bicyclists don't always feel real
welcome so it's important to give them that branding a little bit I don't think you need to do a lot branding I would encourage you no matter what you do continue to use the parking pee unbelievably I go to communities and I can't find a pee anywhere it is this
symbol that tells somebody I'm allowed to be here so continue to use that I I do think um creating a a parking policy one pager that just kind of says here's who we are so when you know businesses could keep them on hand or if someone's talking about I'd like to open a
business or here you go here's here's our parking policy so people just understand it post it on the internet and and then even you know anybody could could uh use it to just understand oh I can park here oh we don't have meters oh there's no time limit you know they can
just understand what's going on it's a simple thing and and and you put that together and and pass it out where would you put a parking pee downtown like any signage uh if you do get an off Street lot you would want to put a nice big pee
up so people know this is because right now either there's the the privately owned Lots there's either nothing or there's a big sign that says if you park here I will tow you um so what the P says to somebody is oh I'm good here here my car will be here when I get back
it won't have a boot on it and everything is okay uh so as you do that I would say you know continue to use that and if you do put up the the patron only signs on those few blocks I'd put the P right on there as well stuff like that it's good it's yeah directional
signage anything like that uh we talked about the north side of 90 uh again the on street parking hasn't been developed over there the way it has on the south side of 90 but the opportunity exists as site plans come up and as that area becomes part of the CBD
[Music] I you have a very wonderful thing with all the angled Pullin parking if all that was parallel parking you would have somewhere around 40% of the spaces that you have now um so the opportunity to
build that in on the north side as you go forward is is tremendous um because it's it's part of the roadway system it's it's you know it's not you're not taking up developable land to do it it's it's a very beneficial uh piece of
parking infrastructure if you can get that on street parking to work well and and we just did a couple sketches there they're in here of both parallel and Pullin angled parking uh um in the rways on the North side there's again it's an
opportunity if you plan ahead that that can that can go in as you do some of those roadway improvements up up there uh there's resources from from the state and opportunities to be part of of programs both uh regionally and in the
State uh on EV charging you've got some EV Chargers in I saw cars at them I know they're being used I've never seen them full up all five being used at once what I would say on EV charging is just uh be cautious measure it add it when it's
needed but but I wouldn't get too far out ahead I've got some communities I work with got half million dollars invested in EV Chargers and they make about 35 bucks a month back and so they're going to end up eating all that cost of infrastructure and we just don't know where EV charging is headed I
talked to a guy uh just last week who who's doing work on it he said 92% of all electric vehicle owners charge at home and so how much infrastructure should we put in and that's a good question I just say don't get too far out of your over your skis with with
putting that in especially if you're bearing the cost of it well we don't bear any cost we're paid we're paid by Tesla to lease that good the city is not CR which is a no-brainer that's good that's good right
there that's a good thing yep so I I wouldn't take a loss on it ever well we didn't put pay to put it in and they take care of it they pay us for it and and in the summer months those things are pretty full I mean good yeah good no you you're doing it right then you're
doing it right um just a couple small specific changes I I I I would like to see on six and 700 block of Baldwin one 30 minute space there that could be allowed for people who need to pull in and make a
quick stop or carrying a lot of stuff into something that that they would be able to do that just one space on each block to allow that that is the one uh thing that the Marshall might have to swing by once every couple of months and just keep an eye on that keep
everybody honest um but but I think that would provide some some relief for some people who just need to make a quick stop and and sometimes onol them feel like oh I just need to run in there I got all this stuff to carry or it would give them the opportunity to be able to do that and again strategically add bicycle
racks so just summarizing everything and I know we skipped a few slides and the conversation went back and forth but I think that's good uh there needs to be someone has to own parking uh in the long run you need to measure that parking occupancy regularly just to
understand where where things are at I would say with all you can keep it simple um seek off street parking locations opportunistically as land comes up for sale sounds like you had a successful land sale already so you got some experience on that that's good um
and collaborate with the County and other partners on on on how to do things uh in a community like this everybody should be working together to promote downtown and I know the county may or may not feel like they're really part of downtown but let's engage them and drag them in and make them feel like they
really are an important piece of that because they are and they're they got a lot of buildings up there they bring a lot of people on their campus every day um so let's engage him on that um and again just the final what does success look like when you're 75 to 85%
occupancy on parking is where you're successful that means you haven't paved too much you don't have a lot of empty pavement but someone can almost always find a space no matter where they go um uh patrons and visitors have a space near their final destination I say that's two or three blocks employees
know where there's they're supposed to park they have predictability uh someone is tasked with measuring and monitoring and uh and and you're planning for the future for future infrastructure needs funding and policy are being plan that someone is paying attention and and planning
that um and that that any other questions discussion points any other questions or discussion any other comments public comments not too long ago um can you
step up to the podium M hona Henderson resident of the city um not too long ago a lot became available face that the city owned facing 90 and I stood and said we're about to get a
National Historic Landmark and within two or three years it's going to draw a lot of tourist we don't want all of them parking around the circle because that will destroy the
Ambiance that people are trying to save you know for their downtown and for our Historical Area so we're going to have to plan for parking lots and they said to me well you can't use that space it's too valuable nobody had one thought
about charging for parking and then when somebody wanted to buy that space they could make another space and utilize it until it sold so we're not thinking
ahead well thank you we're trying to with this so hope okay all right uh public comments um any other councilman Valley well he's walking up here the data collection are we going to be given
like a spreadsheet extracted like the parking data that Main Street us or the city can continually update yeah yes you will be given a spreadsheet but also I would encourage you to continue the use the gis format it makes comparative just a couple
clicks yeah um and and you can layer the data on on top of itself because you now have a full inventory of every space in the district electronically um and and we can help help you with that U it ezri now has a
parking module so it's built right into the base software was about three years ago they added it as part of the Bas software so it's right there I think ideally the city would take that and and you know make make that their responsibility and then if you like kind
like brood saying if you had something Plug and Play easy for the city to go okay here then they don't have to build something that's going to take them it'd be a heck of a lot easier to implement that probably it's it's built we built it for you on this process so inputs
going forward should be real easy and those the the heat maps that I showed those are two minute things once you've got the dat in there so and a lot of people appreciate that graphic representation more than numbers on the sheet some people love numbers on the sheet but a lot of people's oh I I can
look at it and see yeah but like I said those become real easy Once you once you've got the data in there okay thank you all right councilman Valley good evening Anthony Valley pardon my appearance uh and I'm a little sleep deprived so forgive me if I
wander a little bit um I wanted to cover a few things because I've some of you have probably heard this before but I think a lot of you have not um and we've been talking about Downtown parking and and um you haven't asked the question why focus on downtown and I want to make
sure especially for new members why we're even talking about downtown it's numbers is very simple uh one this is something that people love uh in terms of when you ask people what they love about our community they they love the downtown they love the historic district they love the lakeyard uh they
love the ability to get outside of all that and be out on the lake uh but they these are the things that they that they constantly mention about our community as something that they love and brought them here that's number one that's the emotional aspect of it now there's the numbers of it in terms of the CRA by
doing the development north of 90 what you're doing is you're taking value of property that's currently at I just ran one random one that has a nice house on it a decent house on it the one that's not blighted uh and there are plenty of blighted again your mission uh per acre
that valuation is $197,000 per pretty understandable that's with a house you know it averages out well that's that one but what about you know something busy something that we consider to be valuable in the city like what's what's Walmart Walmart's a big
business how much are they well they're about 20 acres but that averages out to about although it's 7 million in change in terms of their building valuation and property valuation what it works out to per acre is $366,000 per acre twice as good as that property North and 90
they're generating more Revenue they're getting more money for you guys and for the city and for the county well let's look at one it's even better let's look at low Lowe's is better they're on smaller property they're actually at if you look at them per acre they are at 528,000 hey we're over half a million
dollars now knocking out of the ballpark that sounds fantastic well what are we talking about with this downtown stuff why are we bothering with downtown well if you look at Nola which isn't actually the most valuable stuff downtown they actually valuation of three $ million per acre over $3 million per acre that's
10 Walmarts to equal that and I don't think anyone really loves that parking lot I don't think anyone emotionally is drawn to that parking lot unless you're pulling your RV and have to have somewhere to sleep tonight I don't think you really care about having that parking lot in your neighborhood I don't think anyone wants to live next door to Walmart I don't think a whole lot of you
would think twice about living next door to NOLA or some of the stuff downtown and it's generating 10 times Revenue well that's not even the most valuable thing downtown most valuable thing downtown is actually on by those things those folks back there they're over $6
million per acre per acre that's a lot of CRA Revenue when you're talking about an increase so you're talking about going from let's say $200,000 per acre for those 30 Acres downtown to potentially let's not go to
Six Million let's say it's $3 million valuation per acre that's money that's going Val value that's going to the people that own it and that's opportunity for people that develop those properties that don't have to do a PUD you don't have to go buy 10 acres of
property to then create what historically we used to be able to do but now illegal to do what we're opening up as an opportunity to be able to for small investors small individuals like meu me go buy a quarter of an acre a tenth of an acre a a half of a percent
of an acre and actually develop property that we could afford to develop as in individuals and create a business a home or both at the same time because that's a beauty of that kind of development now it is true absolutely and that's why we came to the CRA uh over a year ago to
talk about how to partner on this and part of that was the the option to look at hey can we collaborate with the CRA for the development of that parking and that's part of the reason that we're having this Downtown parking discussion it's value it's opportunity and it's and it's options for people because even
though that has a high number of value associated with it what you can actually rent for is actually lower than what you can rent a house for uh again because of the upkeep the overhead and all the other things that go with individual properties so that's that's the why it's blight mitigation it's increasing value
for our stakeholders our community uh and it's adding more of the things that we say we love now I want to piggyback on that uh I'm sorry I didn't get to speak uh to the parking consultant when they were in town originally I think I could have filled in a lot of gaps um because us990 in terms of that north
south thing that we're talking about we've got a a complete streets Road Project that's been on the TPO list for several years we were able to get that on what do that mean that means instead of being a FIV Lane Highway we we would slow down traffic it might be three lanes it might be four but it it would
slow down traffic give you deeper sidewalks along 90 increase the amount of space for the businesses and not take away space but actually add space back uh and it would actually make it safe to cross because it'll slow down traffic a little bit that's our low traffic part of 90 and it's going to be a long time
before we see any kind of growth on that side what we're seeing to the West is a completely different animal um that's really a lot of that's a result of 331 in the way it comes through town and it's really not so much about what we're seeing in M head but mad's about to blow up um but we don't see that kind of development to the east so there's an
opportunity for much safer much lower traffic and part of the reason that you see less people coming from the court house than what we used to see is because they added the parking lots on the east side away from downtown further away from downtown you had to walk farther when you walked out the
door of the courthouse you couldn't see downtown anymore you couldn't see the restaurants anymore and so that parking lot shift impacted businesses in the downtown what we should be looking at with parking as part of the discussion is how do you strategically praise parking so that you are increasing
traffic to the downtown of pedestrian traffic again that complete streets road diet would help with safety it'll help that north south uh and it's a positive thing and that's going to be a DOT project so that's not money that we're spending if we want to invest in it we can make it happen sooner uh but otherwise it can happen organically as
long as we keep pressure on at the TPO level another thing the train crossing that is actually something that we've been talking about for a while uh and we've got a grant for that we've got a reconnecting communities Grant which is Federal grant a lot of federal grants are on freeze right now I don't know the
current status of this I'm going to have a meeting with our grants writer uh here in the next few days and I'm going to get an update but that's actually a partnership that we have actually talked about as CRA and and individually where we're collaborating on that in terms of using match opportunities to have safe
Crossings at the railroad crossings for pedestrians elderly uh children and part of that was actually looking at that uh grade crossing at the historic location which people do love and that actual infrastructure is still there the retaining walls for that original one
are still there it'd be very easily to do an ADA accessible ramp structure that starts from that intersection across next to the opinion place and wind down and cross we would have to have some collaboration with the railroad it is challenging uh that is a slow process
but again that's something that that's why the CRA did the parking uh uh survey or not the parking survey but the survey of the parking area where the farmers market was was actually part of that reconnecting so we can use it as part of the match uh additionally uh we've got
90 we've got that one we've got the East West uh project that's going on that one's going to be providing uh bike Lanes potentially or at least it's going to be a road share on Baldwin it's going to create that linear Park on on live that is going to
be very integral to to the CRA the parking and all that because as part of that if you look at the master uh the landscape plan that we received from Scenic Walton it actually includes parallel parking along Baldwin to the West away from everything so all the way down to the Ace Hardware all the way
right here actually would have parallel parking as well uh now that one we weren't looking at as pool in parking because we don't have the kind of intensity that we do have down downtown it's really residential area that's actually provide walking support to the downtown or to the businesses here like
Ace you know if they expand it would provide support there City Hall large events it would provide support there and that's another one that the CRA and the city can collaborate on we actually had brought forward or I had brought forward uh cdbg as a option for this downtown district in terms of creating
the infrastructure for it because we do the Curbing and the paring along the street um that's still an option but that's not on the table for this year but that's something that we could look at next year but again the CRA is a natural fit for that and I think there's some pilot uh exercises that we can do in terms like at the intersection where
Matrix is on 83 Matrix has been working on a parking reconfiguration they're uh dot is requesting them to eliminate some of the access that they have shifted over the side well it's a great area to do a demonstration project of a corner intersection of what that new downtown district would be like and I I still
think that one's a great location for that I think I mentioned that as a prior CRA meeting again what I'd like to see is you know that cooperation uh that was discussed I have the same fears uh that we're talking around the same problems
and no one's really grabbing their Lane um we have to be cautious in terms how this is done because of the cra's structure and how it has to operate within the state regulations um we have to be cautious in terms of putting things on a uh Capital Improvements plan
and prioritizing that uh and so again there's a Nuance there that doesn't allow me to just come forward and say plant my flag and and say one thing because it might eliminate the CRA as an option I think what you saw in downtown Crestview has been a beautiful example of what you can accomplish uh in a
downtown district and improv the parking improved the safety and improved access throughout for elderly uh uh and children and just everyday citizens wanting to get around so uh again I know it's a lot if anyone ever wants to sit
down I've got a lot I can cover with you and a lot of background I can provide but we got a lot of irons in the fire right now um some of those are tied together in terms of some matches and uh again I look forward I have some fears
but there's amazing possibilities for for our future in terms of getting more of what we say we like and want so um if you have any questions I'd be happy to talk about them but again uh we got a lot a lot of good stuff going on and cooperating with the county um if there's an opportunity to cooperate with
the county especially on that Thriftway parcel um I think it's a good thing for lots of reasons uh you know they're part of this relationship with the CRA and anything that we can do to improve the situation for them uh hey that's that's a positive especially if it because it benefits all of us and the more we can
do together uh the better the results are going to be same is the farmers market still going to be downtown the farmers market right now is really just going to remain as it is as long as main Street's operating it the structure uh the CRA was looking at that
and so that's gone by the way side so that right now that's that's not that's a CRA project so um I think that's Fallen by the wayside for the moment it may reemerge in the future but that's a CRA a c question I think the board voted against moving forward on that at one
point I wouldn't had that meeting so yes so the current status is we haven't moved that project forward there a lot of concerns about you know the location the lack of parking that would exist so that's that's kind of where we are it's it's in our plan but haven't moved it
for and then the TP process like is that what's that what's that about like so uh it's a multi-jurisdiction I mean it's everybody in okoa well in all the cities and the count and the two counties um we've had outstanding success in terms
of getting things on our priorities lists so right now we've got the complete streets project which is us90 here in downtown that one's probably the highest one ranked uh that the city has and I think it's number six uh maybe maybe eight six and eight um really only
the top four are going to be funded in any given year um but um but it's on the list as long as we stay vigilant and maintain pressure we'll get good things but it it is going to require constant engagement and so we've as a city we've
got to maintain that we've got to planning and more of what we're doing plan Department Plan director and that includes with the Land Development code rewrite which yall are doing some signage and some other things associated with that those actually act as matches for reconnecting communities and also
help with that downtown uh project as a whole um because that's going to set the guidelines for that development uh TPO process the other one we have is the East West which is the suntrail that's the multimodal path that goes starts at the airport and goes to the end
at least Anthony Johnson uh Trail but it could even include Anthony Johnson Trail and that provides a safe East West Crossing for pedestrians and bikes and it crosses the golf course again we're including the county yeah uh we're including multiple facilities um other projects on there uh
you know again we've we've got those the 83 realignment is off the table for the time being uh and on that we also have airport projects but there's a lot of good things on there um including some some Bruce Avenue improvements that have been discussed
but it's that one's not ranked right now as long as we stay on it as one through four get completed yes we move up and that's the beauty once and once we really get in that Rhythm it it should kind of go into autopilot to some extent but you until we're every year you gotta
fight to keep it on the list every year you got to fight to move it up but we're also getting new projects to come up like um like you know some trails that we're we're trying to work on anything else thank you I think that um an update on the reconnecting communities for next meeting would be
great if you could update us on that oh well I'll make sure that there's not a freeze uh there has been correspondence regarding that project um all the agreements were signed I think there was one or two that you know late forms that came through but again everything's a little funny right now everything it's
been I know it's a slow process but they got approved like three years ago uh hasn't been quite that long it actually documents didn't get signed until about eight months ago isn't that right Clay is that when we really out sign it's been about six she got you awarded it sometime before that right so
it was announced in advance it took about it took about six to eight months to actually work out all the details to get it signed and then we got it signed and now we're it's the we definitely want to maximize every dollar we can but it would be great to get some of these
things done too so you could get us some update that well it's money if you find me a pot of money we'll go ahead and do it tomorrow let's do it find me a pot of money I'll do it got a 100,000 I guess right yeah that's not gonna cut it I wish it would thank you thank you
Council B any other uh comments from the public okay all right uh so we're at the point where we just need to approve the that's correct so except y accept the the findings and the recommendations and
then as a separate motion approval of the invoice okay motion to accept second motion and second uh any discussion okay all in favor say I I all opposed say nay motion carries 5 I think it's important
if you could get a bullet points and we you know get with the city council get with Main Street get get you know let's get you know where everybody needs to be and let's start chipping away at these things well and I will say further
direction from our last meeting I have been working with the city manager on identifying a workshop in March so it looks like we're going to try to schedule that for that Wednesday of our c meeting before that um so that would be a great opportunity to have that
bullet point list that recommending we can talk about that as bu theil and identify that moving forward and then I believe we've identified that uh Second meeting or first meeting in April uh where that would would come back to the council for their consideration if you
can get the bullet points to all of us in advance I think that'll be be helpful and you need a motion to I'll make that motion to pay the invoice second all right we got a motion in a second any discussion okay all in favor say I I I I'll oppose say nay motion carries F
said motion to pay the invoice don't you also want to accept the report Mr they did we just did this is a second motion nothing clay no I'm here with you I just I just believe I thought the way he phrased that was separate than what we were already doing we're good we're good
thank you so much for your time it's been a pleasure and Josh I'll follow up with Josh and make sure we get everything you need we look forward to continuing to work with you on this and and hope for some successful implementation so thank you with he said you got awesome opportunities here we
got a lot of opportunity and it's really it really is exciting and that's a great thing this this is a start so yeah thank you all right next we've got uh request issue task order 25 501 CRA to doberry
for conceptual designs preliminary engineering for the veterans memorial project so further Direction I received from you all our last meeting I was able to get a proposal from DeBerry based on the Tas order document I put together for the three locations that were previously identified just for your your
recollection that was the original location at East Main in Circle Drive uh just south of shito Hol Brotherhood on Circle Drive and then the other vacant parcel of the city owns off of plateau so in your packet there is a proposal
that's been provided by duberry in accordance with the city's continuing Services agreement with them at $22,500 for the surveying and preliminary engineering along with two public workshops that would go um and explain
responses to the public okay um I guess discussion anybody has comments on this um does someone want to make a motion to uh move forward on I would like to make
a motion to move forward on it got a motion do we have a second second have a motion and a second discussion is there any discussion about this we talked at locations a lot last time but say they do this and then another spot becomes available I'm sure it would I mean it'd be an additional
fee but it probably wouldn't be much compared to this we would come back it would come back to the board if just say and what if all three of them were not suitable then it would come back right so yeah and that's quite possible you know when the engineer goes out and and
does some topographical overlays and determines what the elevations are massages that puts the concept together U that may in theory just say well that site isn't going to work can't make it fully accessible or through the public engagement engagement we may discover
the public just really don't like any of those sites so there's always opportunity to add uh and there are certainly opportunities to take away but as it stands today those are the three locations that I mentioned the last meeting and those are three locations that they provideos okay um any other comments
public comments okay if if not no comments are you speechless she's she's really really closing her mouth everybody in favor all right so um we got a motion in a second
right so all all in favor say I I all oppose say nay look at that okay motion carries f look at the smile on her face has made more progress than I've been able to the last 15 years thank you thank you for that
comment okay um next item is uh requests to improve income based roof Improvement grant for 88 North 20th Street wow and Josh says I'm look I think this is out I think we're all excited one thing I would just say
uh is if you know there's just like where the fence is kind of falling down and where some of this stuff in the a we we could kind of encourage you know it'd be great to take a picture and the thing look you know yeah sure out standing so yeah unfortunately Miss Brian is
actually in the hospital she's planning to be here tonight um but she's very excited uh to apply for this and to know that it is available for her it is our first income basing Improvement Grant application that we have received desperately in need of it but you know I
would certainly think that there's an opportunity to kind of encourage some other clean up along with the issu of this um this award if so desired by the board these trees as close to the house as they look they really are yeah several of them I mean that she get the
tree Grant too uh unfortunately no it's kind of a wonder they look healthy though they are they are probably need to be trimmed up um but you know they they've been there a long time so as has her root are there any organizations
there to Susan's coming are there any organizations that can help with that yard uh just you know you'd encourage I mean I think when I mean hopefully we're gonna get a motion second we can get this approved but I'm just we could the nice to help him out yes sir I you know
I think that there are certainly some opportunities to work with that try to identify you know how to to help them first okay sounds and really publicize that to encourage other people to look into that sure this is good yeah you know what's been interesting to me
is the amount of interest in the program has been strong but most of the interest Falls outside of the city limits which has been surprising to me um but I hope that this is to your point kind of that jump start of okay wow this is a reality
someone actually got a roof and the home at no exent yes so anyway all right motion to approve we got a motion second you got a second any more discussion okay all in favor say I I all
opposed say nay motion carries 5 I would say with this kind of to what Lenny was saying we need to get publicity on this we need to also get publicity on the county thing now that thing's closed I'd like to see it's clear I'd
like to see you somebody shaking their hand and getting a picture because it's a great City County project we're doing together and that is exactly what we want to do and
we need more projects like that because those are disgusting properties that when you get rid of them it's going to be so much better with Y that's all I have on the uh agenda I would like to ask if if that
date that I mentioned to you would be um okay for a workshop at four o00 what's the date it's the 26th of March regular c meeting oh and then we just do it at four instead of oh yeah that's I think that works good it's
tougher when you have a like you had the Monday work shop and then you have a Wednesday meeting it'd be great if we condens so yeah so that that's that's my hope hope I'm still working on the city manager I think he's reaching out individually to try to to gauge interest in that if not uh you know we'll look at
maybe that Monday as an option as well the 24th um but I I'll uh continue those conversations with him and and see if we can't make the 26th work at 4 pm prior to our SI meeting okay um I'll be working early voting that day but we
ended at 4:30 so I can come over as soon as that's all I have for sounds good all right thank you uh any other public comments from everybody who's left any other board member comments not
uh motion to adjourn anybody want to make a motion motion all right motion journ at 631 thank you all