My crib is your crib. Looking forward to seeing you here. >> Duty calls. >> Hello, my name is Jerome Fletcher, city manager of the city of Northport. I'm at the Northport Aquatic Center. I'm on the job today. Let's go.
Morning J. Good. Hey, sir. >> Nice to see you. >> Thanks for having me today. >> Of course. Hey, we're going to go through our opening checklist for this morning to make sure that the facility is safe and operational. >> All right, sounds good. Let's do it. Before anything else, the team walks the
entire area to make sure everything is clean and in good shape. >> Our next part of our task is to make sure that our body of water is one clear. The water must remain clean. We must identify any possible materials that shouldn't be in the water. >> Then it was time to check the surge tanks.
>> You can see the glistening of the water down there. >> If the water is too deep and you hear a rushing of water, that means that this needs to be filled before we can begin operations for this. >> Okay? is part science, part intuition. At the relax river, Jesse showed me the
digital checklist system, the hydro app. >> As soon as I click yes on this checklist that let's say the water is clear and I do not identify that the water is cloudy or any sense, that yes goes directly to my manager and lets them know that at this exact time, I check that water to make sure it was safe and clear.
>> This technology being used at its best job. Now, our rotations, we have evolved to having our lifeguards into a more of a roving position. >> With the competition pool, we still maintain the chairs for the height eligibility. >> Um, but here we have to have a minimum
of five lifeguards just to run this body of water. >> Wow. >> And we actually have a lifeguard positioned in our catch pool over there to help our guests that are coming out of the slides at a bar tarpon twister. >> I've seen that person there. Then Jesse brought up something that most people might not think about, pool skimming.
>> Pool skimming is the sounds of the water being properly flowed. So with those drains, all the water has to constantly filter throughout our pool at least three to four times a day. So not only is the water continuously being pumped in, continuously flowing out, being
cleansed through our sand filters, then being pumped back into the pool. It's a very long process, but it makes sure that the water stays the clear as possible. Then Jesse taught me about the zones. >> It helps maintain that their body of water is theirs to protect anybody that's in their zone. So lifeguard
Brandon right now is actually scanning red one zone. So red one zone is here. Any part of this body of water that reaches let's say all the way from those stairs to the bulkhead and to the side of the corner. This entire zone is his
right now. to make sure that they are staying healthy and hydrated. We do have a 30 minute a rotation here for all of our lifeguards. And lifeguards are not meant to bypass more than 1 hour of continuous lifeguarding. So after every hour, the lifeguards must take either a
visual break or an actual break. After Jesse's walkthrough, I met up with Matt, one of the pool technicians responsible for keeping the water clean and safe every single day. He started by showing me how they test the water across the park. We >> got comp pool, lazy river, kids pool. >> Each sample is dropped in the small disc
and loaded into a device and in just seconds it gives a full readout on the pool's chemistry. >> And before this little machine was created, this was a more of a manual model. >> Yeah. We um a lot of people will use tailored tests. So it involves like little different chemicals. You would
fill up a container and drop them in like a certain amount and basically it'll calculate from there >> um what your pH and chlorine is. >> And this is the daily task. >> Yeah, this is what we do at the start of every day >> inside the control room. He fired up the valves that get the entire water park up
and running. >> When we have everything going, the water level will be back up, but since we're not running everything in the moment, it'll drop it down a couple inches. Next, he showed me the daily checklist for the part. >> Then we have our chemical data sheets. So, basically just making sure like our
comp pool, lazy river, kids pool are all where they need to be, anywhere between two parts per million or 10 parts. And then pH is somewhere between 7.2 and 7.8 for a healthy pool. >> There you go. Then came the back washing and wasting process. flushing the
filters to keep the water flowing freely or removing excess water from the system to keep the water levels balanced. >> And then it'll start coming out in this pit. >> So this this whole pit will fill in about 3 minutes. >> Really? Over there? >> Yep. >> Next, we changed out one of the strainer
baskets which help catch large debris before it can reach the pumps. >> I'll tra that one. Thank you. Then new one goes in just like that. And we usually let those dry out. I'll play him later this week. >> Before joining the team in Northport, Matt worked as a lifeguard in Charlotte
County under Trish Sturgis, our assistant director of parks and recreation. >> So, I've known Trish a very long time. So, that definitely was one of the influences of wanting to come work at the aquatic center. Had me go out for an AFO course recently, which is aquatic facility operator course. basically
anything and everything relating to a facility like water chemistry, safety rules, that this and that. So, I went there. I just passed that class. So, that's a little little bit of knowledge under my belt. It was definitely useful. >> Well, Matt, we're we're grateful for
your time and your experience and all you put into your career here and congratulations on your certification and you do amazing job. >> I appreciate you, sir. >> Thank you for joining me today at the Northport Aquatic Center. It's a great facility. I want to thank director Sandy Funheler, assistant director Trish Sturgis. I have learned so much amazing
things today. I would like to say that the technical expertise that goes to keep the water safe as well as the people safe is an amazing combination. See you on the next job. Thanks for being here. Hey, city of Northport. My name is Sandra Budro. I am with AECOM and I'm
representing the city of Northport on this glorious Price Boulevard project. We are here on Price Boulevard at the Blue Ridge Waterway in which we are building um as we walked in the path. >> All good.
>> Ready. >> Good whack. Good morning. Today is Monday, December 1st, 2025. It's 10:00 a.m. We are in the city chambers, and I call this city commissioner workshop meeting to order. Commissioners present are Commissioner Dval, Commissioner
Stokes, Vice Mayor Langden, Mayor Emer, and Commissioner Petro. There is a quorum present for this meeting. Also present are city manager Fletcher, city attorney Fuino, city clerk Fost, board specialist Linder, police chief
Garrison, and Fire Chief Titus. I'm going to call on Fire Chief Titus since he raised his hand to lead us in the pledge >> to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for it stands. One nation under God,
indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. >> Thank you, sir. >> City clerk, public comment. >> Debbie McDow, the rebranding is pointless. Where's the actual data showing rebranding the city will attract
businesses or residents? There isn't any. Nobody ever said, "Hey, I want to move to Northport or bring my business to Northport because they have a cool logo, a new brand strategy, or their color palette is a pretty shade of blue." It is preposterous to think outsiders give a rat patuti about
rebranding the city's image. If you want to clean up the city's image, start with the maintenance of the things already in place. I sent each commissioner an email yesterday with pictures taken along Sumpter Boulevard Trail. These pictures make the city look shabby. The pictures of the trail are part of the city's image, and the pictures give a poor
image to visitors and citizens who use this trail every single day. Shouldn't the city be focusing on things that really matter instead of trying to change something that has zero benefit of the existing taxpayers? And that is all, mayor. >> Thank you.
Moving on to 25-309. Presentation by the economic development division providing a quarterly economic development update to the commission. City Manager, this is your item. >> Thank you, Mayor. I'm gonna invite Mr. Michael Mirman up as our economic development manager to lead the
conversation. Thank you, sir. >> Thank you. Good morning. Michael Mirman, economic development division. It's been a couple months since I last had the opportunity to present to this group. And today, we're going to give you some updates since we last gathered.
You may or may not be aware, but some more good news in the public eye. And that is that the well now let me talk you through it. House Beautiful magazine rated Northport as a top 10 city for
people in their 50s to come to grow and live. This is a fantastic accolade on on the heels of the last one that we received which was from Lending Tree where we were named the number three boom town in the nation.
The accolades continue to roll in for the city, but I must caution everybody and make sure that everybody understands that these accolades are typically predicated on information that's trailing in nature. So they're gathering data, metrics, statistics that may be
anywhere from 3 months to a year old and then they develop these accolades and publish them. Although we have great trends going on here in the city. So we do expect them to continue. But most of these accolades are coming based on historical trends in the more recent
past. Citing some of the his actual activity that's going on here in the city and that is the business activity, business growth. We track and monitor new businesses here in the city on a monthly basis. We track that using our business
tax receipt information. And for the period ending October, we had the following business activity as represented on the slide. We've had 34 new businesses in the month of October alone split between residential
and commercial interests. If I might get some technical assistance from our technical crew up here, I would appreciate it. And my apologize to you in advance. I suspect we've wrote loaded the wrong presentation.
>> Okay. >> Right here. Go right here. Thank you very much. So that economic development activity that occurs here in the city is in part based on business attraction and of
course based part on retaining the business that we have. We've got just a short brief video that I'd like to share with you that gives you um a little bit of uh a sense of how we are working with existing businesses to maintain them here in the city. The city of Northport is helping local entrepreneurs turn
ideas into reality by connecting them with partners and resources designed to help small businesses start, grow, and succeed. >> I go to all kinds of different things to try to set up those meetings with those people. We gather that information and then we try to put programs together to help them. >> At the heart of it all, keeping
Northport a place where residents can live, work, and play. >> We don't want the whole city to get on I75 every morning when they could be here working here, spending their money here. It's just quality of life at the end of the day. >> To help make that vision a reality, the city partners with organizations that
provide hands-on support for small businesses. >> The Florida SPDC at USF supports local businesses in Northport and throughout Sarasota County with as much free uh consulting as they could ever want. From marketing services, business analysis,
access to capital, government contracting, we provide all these entrepreneurs with as much consultation as they want to help their businesses grow and thrive. SCORE, another city partner, offers free mentorship and guidance from experienced business professionals. >> It's really designed for anyone that has
any business, whether they're starting it from scratch, a service-based business, or even a product business. >> Hosted by the 26 West Entrepreneurship Center at State College of Florida. Northport Next Workshops cover everything from access to capital to business planning and marketing. If you
have a business and you want to take it to the next level, be around the experts who know it. >> Through partnerships with SBDC, SCORE, and Northport Next, the city of Northport's economic development division serves as a hub for small business resources, helping local entrepreneurs build stronger businesses
and a stronger community. I was asked to make sure that we covered what we're doing with regard to developing our workforce here in the community. And so this slide gives you a quick glimpse, a quick overview of the fact that we are working with those bulleted items here on the screen. These
organizations to enhance workforce development here in Northport. State College of Florida. Um, it has just been mentioned in that past short video where we've partnered with them to provide and help us with providing experts on
subject matters that our business community needs, but also to help develop the community itself around those subjects. Sun Technical College has long been a partner here at the city. They continue to grow with their campus over off of Toledo Blade. In
fact, their expansion project is continuing to develop. They're looking to put up another building on that campus to be somewhere in the $25 million range which will increase classroom space and their ability to
expand their programming. I have been in touch with them over the last number of months about expanding the type of programming they're going to be offering over there in that school when those new classes come online. The Imagine School, which we know is
moving from their current location, um staying here in the city, of course. They too have had discussions with us and our team about further developing advanced classes for their um soon to graduate students, the juniors and
seniors, so that they can advance into workforce development programs that suit the future needs of the community. Approximately six months ago, we began to have discussions with the Galen College of Nursing and um they're
headquartered up in St. Pete. They have a campus uh facility in Sarasota and we began to have discussions with them about potentially creating space down here in Northport that would give them both laboratory practical space and
classroom space to expand their nursing programs right here in the community. We recently have done the same thing with Southern Technical College. They are just to the south of us and while they don't have uh nursing specific offerings
at this time. They are open to the idea of that growing trend given the proximity to us, but they have other skilled trade programs that they'd like us to work with them on in helping develop our workforce. And of course, we do our own work as well, not the least
of which includes career fairs, the next one coming up in February of this year, followed by a healthc care specific one in March of this year. We continue to promote the community at all possible times, but one of the most
convenient mechanisms for doing that is by using our digital assets. The digital assets in this particular case on this slide include our website, our newsletter and our LinkedIn. All three of those are unique to the economic development division. And apart from the
city's version of those digital assets, we work closely with the communications team um to make sure that we dovetail our messaging and that it's consistent. You can see here that our digital asset web page which is being displayed the
economic development page branded us as grounded by community and built for business. We are making sure that we're moving through economic development channels in appropriate ways. This represents the boundaries of our
community. And then in the pink shade we have what we call our activity centers. These activity centers are well known to most all of you here in the room today. And I thought I'd just take you on a quick tour of the city and what's going
on. If we move to the uh central western edge of the city where it's noted as AC1. in AC1. I want you to know that in addition to the hotel project that Wellland Park has recently announced that's going on there, I too have a
hotel development project working in that same general vicinity. I'm not able to discuss the specifics of that project, but I can tell you that it's an active ongoing economic development project that's looking very bright for
another hotel. As we move across and head back here to where we are located today in activity center 2, uh most all of you are familiar with the veterans administration project which is ongoing. I'm hosting bi-weekly meetings with the
developer for that project and it's moving nicely along. But also in activity center 2, which you may not be aware of, we do have a new early learning center going up there as well. As we move north on Sumpler to activity
center 3, I'm just going to pause for a momentum and let you know that activity center three and activity center 4 where we have our two main highway interchanges. I am proud to tell you that today, as of this exact moment, all four clover
leaves for those two interchanges have economic development activity in place. either projects that will result in real estate purchase, projects that involve plans that have already been submitted,
or projects that are active within our planning and development services group. All four corners of both interstate intersections are now spoken for. That's huge news for the city itself.
Activity Center 5 continues to be a growth spot for the city. Uh most of us would would recognize it today uh for the development activity, but I can tell you the small business activity that's along
that corridor is extensive as well. We do track small business activity by zip code. And so we can say that with certainty there are a number of small businesses and residential businesses located in the activity 5 corridor.
I will tell you today that while things can change tomorrow, planned in activity center 5 right now is a big box retailer. And so everybody is speculating who that might be, but um um mum's the word. I
don't know myself, but I know that there is a big box retailer that has a signed letter of intent for act for a development project in activity center 5. Activity center 6, we often refer to it
as the wild west. Not much out there. But I can tell you that 30% of the property, that's 30% of 1,500 acres out here in activity center 6, the Yorkshire loop. Many of us refer to it as that.
30% of that property right now is engag. I'm having engaged conversations with development projects for activity center 6. And that is interesting because there are no utilities in activity center 6 at this time. And so it gives you a sense
and a flavor for what's going on in terms of the development cycle here in the city and the fact that there are development um um organizations that are willing to take a look at these type of green field properties. And then right below it on the south
side of 75, Activity Center 10. um not not quite as remote as activity center 6. We do have some some inhabitants who have residences there in that area, but there are a number of queries coming into my office with regularity about the
potential for development in that area as well. In the spring, we will be hosting the first Northport Economic Development Summit, which is designed to bring to the community developers, investment,
real estate investment individuals, and the like to discuss development activity here in our community. We plan to do that in the the latter part of March of this year. Right now we're looking at
about 30 guests. And lastly, I wanted to share with everybody the fact that we participated with the Federal Reserve this year in a small business credit survey. That's a first for the city as well. The Federal Reserve Bank and the city
partnered and they did surveys of the small business community to understand the financial limitations, expectations, and needs of the small business community. That information was um compiled over the last three months. We
look to be getting a copy of that report from the Fed sometime in the early spring. >> Thank you. >> All right. Commission questions, statements.
Commissioner Dal. Thank you, mayor. Uh, I had two questions. Um, one was, um, about the, uh, workforce development.
I'm wondering, uh, is SMH, you know, regarding the fact that they have a new hospital coming here, uh, are they kind of integrated with any of the schools for, you know, development of say, you know, nursing programs? um
radiation technicians, you know, uh I just wondered if SMH is involved in that education process. Um the answer is yes. SMH has a very active role with uh all of those nursing styled programs and health care opportunities in the entire
region mostly out of necessity because the the demand for health care professionals um is is very strong. In fact, there are more openings and positions than there are people to fill them. And so, yes, SMH is looking at all
the feeder avenues on a regular basis. Okay. Thank you. My second question, um, you mentioned activity center 6 and two numbers, 30% and 1500 acres. Is
activity center 6 a total of 1500 acres or is the 30% 1500 acres? Thank you, sir. Sorry I didn't make that clear. Uh, activity center 6 is more or less 1,500 acres by itself and approximately 30% of
the 1,500 is part of the active discussions I'm having with development projects. >> Thank you. >> You're welcome. >> Good, vice mayor. >> Um, thank you, mayor. A couple questions
also. One of your slides talked about residential versus commercial um businesses coming to the city. By residential, did you mean they're homebased or they're home services
companies? >> Thank you. Good question. They are homebased businesses. Not to be confused with what we have known over the past number of years since the pandemic with regard to uh gig
economy individuals. When we say homebased today, we have many substantial businesses here in the city that are just not gig economists. They have, you know, in insurance firms. They do medical coding. We've got uh I can I can tell you of a small manufacturing
company that I know operates out of his home and does over a million dollars a year in revenue. Yeah, that it is to be expected given that we don't have an inventory of available commercial space for a lot of
these folks to go into. Um, do we have a date yet for a groundbreaking on the expansion of the Sun Coast Technical College? It seems like we've been talking about that for a very long time. >> Their project um was underfunded
>> at the time it was initiated. They received some monies from the county about four or five months ago. They were waiting for the as of a week ago, they were waiting to receive the architectural plans back so they would
know how close their current budget is to what the cost escalations have been with all the delays. They're not quite sure. I spoke to the executive director there the week before last to get this information. Um he's hoping that they'll
still be in that $25 million range, but um it's possible that they will grow the campus, put up the structure, but not build out the second floor, leave it as a shell until they have the money to finish it.
>> Okay, thank you for that. Um the Gayen School of Nursing, are they looking to establish a campus here? Is that >> Well, that was on my wish list that I gave them. >> Yes. Um, but they were very receptive.
They they described for us some of the the growth pains they're having in Sarasota uh with their current location and their need for more than just classroom space if they were to come to Northport. They
need um uh practical space for laboratory and other types of training and development. They were encouraged about our invitation because they see the need in this end of the county. And so it wasn't that long ago that they
were only on the other side of Tampa Bay in St. Pete. They made the plunge to Sarasota and now at our urging have um had conversations about possibly doing something further south here by us. Um,
you don't need to tell me where, but do you have a level of confidence that there is land for them to to do that here with appropriate zoning and utilities, etc., etc. >> So, yes, I have confidence that there's
land here, but their model is not a model where they would necessarily build their their model and the model that they used in Sarasota is that they are tenants in a facility. an American. Just a thought. Um, if I
may, one one more question. >> Do we have any idea what might be going into um the imagined schools old property on Toledo Blade once they move out?
>> There have been many discussions and rumors. I don't have anything that I could tell you with confidence that it's going to happen there. They were trying to separate at one point their athletic fields and athletic facilities.
>> They thought there may be some interest in that, but I have not heard specifically. >> Okay. And one last one, the median household income on your slide, was that city or county? Um, I think I was citing statistics here
that came from Lending Tree. Um, oh no, the ones on our website, the ones on our website are our numbers. >> Okay. >> Um, 82,000 is an accurate number for
Northport. >> Wow. That's way up from just >> Yes. Our household income has exceeded the Sarasota household income. Our household income exceeds many of the household incomes in the region. Uh as does our
home value prices. Despite the market correction of about three or four months ago when we saw a 10% change in the housing market here in Northport, we still have a higher average um household value. And and and and commissioner, just quickly, the 82,000
is a median household income. >> Right. Right. >> Right. Household being the key word. >> Okay. Thank you. Thank you, Mayor. >> Commissioner Stokes. >> Yes. Thanks for the presentation. We appreciate these updates. Um,
uh, vice mayor asked a question that I had the little the sort of the difference in definitions between commercial and residential businesses. Um, but what about brick and mortar like
versus inhome businesses? Do we track it like >> Yes, that that is what this references. So residential is is a um short way of saying they operate out of their home and commercial is saying they do not
operate out of the home brick and mortar. >> So those numbers okay that's what I want to make sure. So that >> that number commercial actually reflects brick and mortar and >> and um includes of course the Benderson as as you know he continues to fill that
space or no? Well, it it would include if a new business moved into one of the leased opportunities at that Benderson location. Yes. >> Do we know what percentage is filled yet? Cuz I know that front row is pretty empty still. >> Yes, there is there is substantial
amount of square footage available over there on Toledo Blade at the Benderson area. I believe the number is something greater than 40 to 50% right now. some of it is still being finalized in terms of uh uh putting in all the class A um
facilities that that are required there. And the other the other question I had was are we tracking and it's probably with a lot of the inhome businesses not as easy to do but tracking job growth are are I mean we're we're pretty good
at gauging how many brick and mortar and how many residential business can we tell if our if our labor numbers are up? >> Yes, we do track job growth. We track job growth in two ways. One of course is that we rely upon um outside service
providers who do a much better job than we would be able to do ourselves. Number one um typically getting information from government resources and other independent resources. So we do track job growth in from that perspective. But we do track it ourselves as well. And a
good example of that would be the tracking that we do in the area from Price Boulevard, approximately Price Boulevard north up through past I75 along Toledo Blade. The city received a grant from the
state, right, a couple years ago and we used those dollars to uh facilitate some utility infrastructure in exchange a quid proquo to provide >> jobs, >> right, job growth. And so in that uh two
2 and a half mile radius uh of of uh of area that I just mentioned, we do track job growth as best we can because we are required on a quarterly basis to report that back to the state. >> Are we on track with them?
>> We are on track. Yes. Um on track though is something you know I believe it's a 10-year growth cycle >> is what the grant provides for >> 10 years. I think we come up with about two almost 2,000 jobs. >> Yeah, I don't know if it was quite that high. My the number escapes me. In my
mind, I was thinking it was more like,00, but I'll check on that statistic. Um, but yes, there's there's a growth activity along that corridor that supports it. We are tracking it. And the only other question I have is it's really more of a comment. I've I've
had I've raised the the the issue with city manager in my one-on-one, but the ability I mean, let's face it, as as as our growth explodes and especially in the area of non-residential growth, the ability, you
know, the more and more pressure on two areas. one, job growth, be able to live, work, and play here in the city and affordable housing. And you know, to the extent we we know our our opportunity to
succeed as we expand activity centers 6 and 10 are going to involve good collaboration and partnership with our development partners. At the same time, hopefully the equation of job growth and affordable housing gets played into
those discussions because we're going to need the support and the help of some of those partners in order to do this and make it work. Um, you know, the hospital is a good example. Only so many people
are going to be able to switch out of some of the other locations around the county to come down and work out of Northport. But, you know, people want to be able to like live here and work here and and you know, we're going to have to retool. So, we're going to need all that
support that, you know, we're getting at a, you know, STC, but we're also going to get, you know, with some of these larger businesses coming in, they have a vested interest in seeing a labor force that will help their businesses. So to the extent they can help, you know, I
mean, it's it's it's another tool or stick or carrot or however you want to use it to help put together, you know, that dynamic because it's not enough just to have the land. We got the land has no utilities on it. We got the labor
force, but they're not properly retoled, you know, and we got a lot of people, but even in our own city employment, we see people moving out of Northport sometimes because they can't afford to live here. So, you know, some of these businesses might want to well help in
the workforce housing area. So, anyway, they're the only comments I have. Uh I have more questions on AC 6 and 10, but that's another item on the workshop. So, Mayor. >> All right. Uh, Commissioner Pro, I knew you were up next. I just want to give him a shot first.
>> Thank you, Mayor. U couple questions regarding utilities infrastructure. Do we have any formal agreement with the Charlotte with Charlotte County to extend any utilities to activities uh center six? So that question is best posed to our utility group but I will
tell you that my knowledge of the subject at this point is limited but I am not aware of a formal agreement in place. Okay. And as far as water might be utility question too, but as far as you uh you referenced 30%
of the areas engaging um in some type of development there primarily it depends on utility availability to utilities availability. How do we u reconcile those things that they are
engaging with economic development part without being knowing without knowing about the utilities? How do we where do we stand? Great question. So I I believe there's a presentation um to follow here this morning yet to talk
more about uh utility infrastructure planning. My economic development activity though is a separate component and I am working with economic development practices that attract businesses to our area who they
themselves possibly with their own private investments would support the type of development that they need. And so not all economic development is predicated on um um the type of utility infrastructure that you might think or
the utility usage levels. And so depending upon the economic development project itself, there are different levels of utility usage. And so some of these developers are taking it upon themselves to take a look at and say what can we do independently.
on a question on Chamberlain Apartments. Um what is the status of that project and uh how many units? >> I don't know that particular project sir. >> Timberlane >> Chamberlain >> Chamberlain I don't I don't know the
details of that project. >> The developer who was fined for the clearing of the land. >> Right. I I I'm unfamiliar with the details. Possibly somebody from our planning group could could address that more specifically.
>> Good morning, Elena Ray, director of development services. Uh the Chamberlain Apartments, you're talking I'm I think you're talking about the ones on the north side of Price um or north of Price. uh that has gone back to the
applicant for revisions and we are anticipating a revised plan to be submitted uh prior to I want to say December 16th. I don't have the number off the top of
my head. U they they've looked at a couple different numbers, but I want to say it was in the neighborhood of two Director, Deputy Director Barnes is looking it up now, so I'm waiting for a message, but um I I just don't know the
number off the top of my head. We have received a request for uh zoning uh forms to be signed for a property uh south of Price on Chamberlain um for affordable housing. We have not
seen any plans. We've not received any formal plans or pre-application request. Uh but that would be a separate project. At this point, we've only received uh request for uh forms to be signed stating that uh the proper zoning is in
place uh for that property so that they can apply for funding to um the state. >> And uh I guess that brings me to the next question. Maybe um the information can be shared about um the deleted blade
320 project. Where do we stand on that? Um currently we don't have any um plans in right now. I mean they they've submitted plans but we apparently their project that they were working with um that developer fell through for them. So
they're now looking for a new uh user for their industrial property. >> So it will not be multifamily 15 units. >> They they do still have multif family allowed. Um and I think they are still planning to do that but um they haven't
submitted permit building permits at this point. Um and uh my last question would be are there any exciting news of uh any stores that coming in like
Deathweers or any other >> Well, of course there's exciting news, Commissioner. Um I am unfortunately not at the liberty to talk about all these developers specific business mostly because we do have non-disclosure agreements in place until they're ready to make announcements. There are a lot
of exciting developments and this might be a good opportunity for me to share with everybody. You know, as an economic developer here, a big piece of my role is to attract people to come to this city to learn about our city, to meet with you folks, to meet with our city manager's office, to understand how we
function. Um, as opposed to our planning and development group who works more in the intricacies and and the the nuances related to land development code. Uh, I wanted to share with everybody a good example of that is the property across the street from Lowe's.
Um, there's a there's a parcel there that folks have wondered about for a long time. It's uh it's it's treed. It's owned by the Salvation Army. It is not owned by the city. And that's a good example of something where I am pushing people to go talk to the Salvation Army
if they're interested in a 15 acre plus or minus parcel. There there's a potential. It's not listed for sale, but it's a good example of how in economic development, we push people toward this matchmaking component and say, "Here's a plot of land you might want to consider
that's ideally suited for your project." So, we do that on a routine basis. In fact, uh the question came up a few minutes ago about affordable housing. Same thing. There are a number of folks that would like to do affordable housing projects here in the community. The question is where? question is what is
the city's participation? >> Okay, thank you. >> Commissioner Jason Yarborough, deputy city manager. You asked a question about we don't have anything formal with Charlotte County in regards to utilities, but utility staff has met with Charlotte County utility staff. The county manager of Charlotte County is
aware and we've had um some positive reception uh to that. Water is easy. There's a large water line and that uh kind of running the border of our of our um city limits. Sewer again is the Achilles heel even
for Charlotte County. The the sewer that's available is residential in nature and not robust large size to handle much commercial. So, but there has been conversations and it and it was a positive conversations, but there's no formal agreement in place. Um, if I if I may, I have the number for
you. The the Chamberlain Apartments, it's now known as ALA. So, uh, that's the new name of it, but it's 240 units. And, um, as Michael said, many of our many of the projects that we're that
economic development is working on, we do have NDAs, we do have retailers that we know about. as he mentioned the one in activity center five, we know there's a big box. We don't know who it is, but if we did, it would probably be under an
NDA and we couldn't tell you. Um, however, once those plans are submitted through a pre-application format, we will bring that information to you. So we're going to be doing not only these um presentations that are
very high level but as we go forward um our next quarterly meeting will join it with a current development um component to the presentation so that we will be able to talk to you about specific projects that we have inhouse
that we're working on and it's public information. So, um, it'll be a good format for us to cover both of those bases. >> I have one more question. Are there any, uh, collaboration with the Sarasota County for economic development and
activities center 6 or 10? >> Yes. When you say Sarasota County, you're talking about the Sarasota County Economic Development Group. Yes. I speak to the EDC in Sarasota on a regular basis, multiple times a week. In fact, >> Mhm. >> on later today, I have my regularly
scheduled monthly meeting with them where we have updates and comments, but we we are in regular contact. I share as much as I can with them as well so that they can continue to support the activity here in Northport. >> And in what ways do they support or
willing to support and to what extent either financially or uh in any other way do they do that? I am not aware of any financial methods that they use to support us other than that their team right which is a cost to
the county does engage with us on a regular basis. They are going to go to a trade show with me in the early spring. Uh we're going to be doing a trade show in Miami uh which is an aerospace parts show and they plan to attend that show
with us. Um, through them I was able to receive an invitation with Florida Select to attend another show and be a participant in the trade booth in Orlando also in the spring. Uh we regularly collaborate on potential grant
opportunities and they were instrumental in bringing to us the FPNL and Florida Commerce tour which took place two months ago and they came here to visit the community so that
FPNL and Florida Commerce could learn more about how they could support us. Do they own any land in activity six? Is it in activity center 6 or 10? The Sarasota County, do they own any land there?
>> Does the county own any land? >> I am not aware if they do or don't, sir. There are um a large number of parcels in activity 6 and 10. You know, they're broken up in mostly quarter acre lots.
There have been some folks over the last few years who have aggregated properties there. Um uh but of course there's been no develop on development on them. Uh there are parcels out there that um um are for sale in the 10 acre 30 acre
range. Not many of them, but there are a few. But there are I'm going to guess right now and say there's probably a couple hundred parcels or more. uh with the recent uh ULDC um that took
effect last year, uh individual lots that are owned by individual people or companies, whatever. Um if they're not allowed to build on those lots,
what options do they have? >> Good question. Um it's not that they're not allowed to build, it's what they are allowed to build, right? And so if you're talking about single family home, >> um that's no longer a permitted use
in that area, >> right? So their option would be to sell that property. They could trade or swap that property maybe with somebody who has a property on the other side of town that's more desirable in terms of the intended use.
um they could sell it. Those are their options. They could hold on to it as investment. >> I can I can add some to that. We've seen a lot of u marketing for commercial purposes. A lot of people are um
actively engaging realtors to um market to either developers or commercial real estate investors. So, we're seeing a lot of investor turnover out there um from home building investors, uh residential
investors and and individuals to um more commercial investor type. Um we're seeing some as as as Mr. Rman said, we're seeing some aggregation of lots.
Um we're seeing some activity where um property owners are interested in trading lots um that they have there for lots that are in the single family areas
in the city. Um but the those lots um I think what we're we're going to continue to see is that turnover to commercial investors who are willing to wait out the utility issue
that we're going to talk about more today. Um but we are seeing sort of some of that conversion. they are. I I've I've gone on to the real estate sites to look and and a lot of those lots have transitioned from uh marketing to single
to single family marketing over to commercial. So, we're seeing some of that switch. >> Does the city facilitate an exchange or um promoting that, you know, exchange or um trade?
How does the city help people that are individually? >> We do. We do. We have um connections with commercial investors who may be interested in purchasing lots. Um we've put a lot of owners in touch with those
commercial investors. Um we also, as you're aware, the city owns a lot of single family lots. Um, we have some investors who own a lot of lots in Activity Center 10 and they are interested in building single family.
So, they've approached the city asking if we would be interested in a lot swap. So, that the city ends up owning lots in activity center 10 rather than lots on
lots where single family is allowed. So, we are looking at that. We will likely be bringing the commission some some options um as far as whether the commission would like to trade some lots. Um we're working with one investor
now who's looking at potentially trading the city for about 40 lots that they own in um activity center uh 10 a lot of them right along uh the main thorough affairs. So that would give the city
some leverage with developers um to be able to uh potentially facilitate some economic development deals. >> We keep hearing about one developer who is buying a lot of lots and plans to vacate
uh and do some development. Uh do we know who he is or the company or is it confidential? So that is a that is an in activity center 6. >> That's the the um approximately 30% of
activity center 6 that Mr. Mirman mentioned in his presentation that he is actively working on. Um the the owner is not confidential. It's public record. Um Mr. Mirman can probably share that information as to who the owner is. Um
he has worked for a long time to aggregate those lots. uh and we'll eventually be looking to vacate streets uh so that they can develop a a cohesive development rather than the pattern
that's been uh built out there with the the street system. So, um that is uh that is somebody that we can share with you. Um as far as what they're looking at doing, that's where we get into um an
NDA issue. Um, so but but the ownership is is public record. >> And how many lots or how many acres would you say? Is it 30%? I cannot imagine it's 30%. 400 >> about 400 400 acres. >> 400 acres.
Um, and my last question really less >> said that five times now. >> One question evolves to another question. um the list of properties that the city owns
um how do we market those and uh how do we sell or I we cannot sell without the approval of the commission board. >> So we had brought the list to the commission and we um got some clarification and some direction from
the commission to go back and look at um a legal opinion for public use. So we did request that legal opinion. We have received it. We are going back through the list to rescrub based on the direction that we received from the commission and um we will be bringing
that list back to the commission to see what the commission wants to do with the list. Um there are a lot of properties on there that we likely could consider either selling um or trading for
properties in AC6 or AC10 if that's something a direction that the commission wanted to go to. So uh but we will be bringing that list back to the commission for uh discussion and consideration. >> Thank you. Thank you for your presentation. >> Thank you mayor. >> Commissioner Dval.
>> Yes. Thank you, mayor. Um, this is just a question that comes up in my mind every now and then and it came up today again. Vacation rentals, short-term vacation rentals, you know, VBO
in the city. Do we get any fees, tax benefits from those? Do we track how, you know, how many people are renting out their homes? Either uh, you know, like a weekend or, you know, a short term or, you know, some people,
uh, are here in the winter and maybe in the summer they they rent it out, you know, for kind of a longer term. But do we as a city have a program where we receive some monetary benefit from that? >> We do not. Um the the state preempted us
from regulating um short-term rentals uh several years ago and so we can't prohibit it. We can't we can't regulate it. Um we receive taxes advorum and nonadvalorum as any other house does.
Those properties do not get a homestead exemption. So they are taxed um more than a occupied uh homeowner would be taxed who lives next door. Um but short answer is is no.
We are we are by and large preempted by the state from any type of regulation uh of those properties unless we had an ordinance in effect before that preeemption took place. And even that uh exception, they have sort
of whittleled away at that. I worked in a jurisdiction, Longboat Key, who did have a very solid uh short-term rental program in effect uh prior to that preeemption and was one of just a handful of jurisdictions that were um
actually listed in the statute as being ex um able to continue regulating it. But any other jurisdiction that did not have those ordinances in place prior to that were completely preempted. >> That's not the answer I wanted, but
thank you. >> All right. Anything else? City clerk, we got any public comment? >> There is none. >> All right. Thank you. The presentation was awesome. Moving on to item B 25-3073
presentation regarding brand strategy and workshopping recommended mission vision vision and values by the communications division city manager. >> Thank you Mr. Mayor. I'm going to turn over to Mr. Jason Barlone communications
manager for the presentation. All right. Good morning, mayor and commissioners. I'm Jason Bartalone. I'm the communications manager. Uh today, our team would like to give you an update on our city identity refresh project. Specifically, we're going to be talking about our brand strategy. And
first, I'd like to recap quickly for you how we got here. So, um, those of you who were on the commission back in March of 2024 will remember that we presented to you during, uh, a workshop at that time, uh, a little bit about the city's brand, how it was developed originally
back in 2008 to 2010 by an outside consultant, and we talked about how it was time for an update to that brand. Um, and it was decided that the best way that we could accomplish that was through kind of a a in a much more cost-effective way was through a
combination of our in-house communications team, which has grown um since that time, and uh an outside consultant. So, some time passed since then. Um, we had some turnover both on staff as well as on the commission. We had some other priorities and other
projects that we were working on. Um, and then this past June, we restarted the conversation with you all. We had one-on-one briefings with the current commissioners uh back in June to bring you up to speed on where that project was. And then in July, we put out
requests for information for consultant to help us with um one piece of that project. Um and we brought them on board uh later in the summer. Um we also did a tremendous amount of community outreach.
We did a community survey to get input about our current brand and how people saw Northport and what they liked, what they didn't like about our brand and how we compared to our competitors. Um, in addition to that, we did focus groups with various segments of the population. Um, to get their input, which is now
guiding this project along. Um earlier this fall, we took all that feedback and we gathered it into an insight report which we again presented to each of you in one-on-one briefings um back in October. And then um that brings us to the current phase which is development of
the brand strategy. And so I'm going to turn it over to Katia Sutherland, our marketing and engagement manager. Katia has been the lead on this project. She's done some great work so far um along with the consultant. She'll be telling you more about what a brand strategy is, why it's important, um how it fits
perfectly with the conversation we just had about our economic development efforts. Um and then we'd like to hear from you at the end of this today um for some input from you and how this project is going to move forward. So from here, I'm going to turn it over to Katya.
>> Thank you, Jason. Katya Sutherland, marketing and engagement manager for communications division. Um, so I want to start today with just confirming this is not going to be about logos. This is not going to be about
imagery. This is the part of the brand strategy that divi def defines who we are, what we stand for as a city and how we communicate that to the world. And that's not um us as a city organization,
that's as a community and the people and the residents within our community. Um the brand strategy is really important. Um it will enable us to then move on to that nice bit that we're all looking forward to the imagery um and
the logos and the color palettes that were mentioned earlier. Um and it's really important because it does some key things um referenced earlier in public comment. I think this is some of the data that sits behind why a brand is
important. It gives us as an organization but also us as a city clarity and alignment. So for us as a city to all be talking with the same voice to all be speaking in the same language and to all understand what matters to our community so that we can
engage with them. We can focus on the things that are important to them from the data that we collected from as Jason mentioned the surveys and focus groups that we've been doing. That in itself helps to build trust and transparency. And we'll come on to that
because that was one of the important things that was fed back to us by our residents and citizens, communities, business leaders and visitors that we spoke to during this process. And that is that they want more trust and transparency. Only by us talking all with the same voice and speaking about
the issues that are pertinent to our community can we increase that trust, transparency, and therefore credibility. that helps us to engage with the people that we serve to the people that put you in the seats that you sit in today. It
helps to foster civic pride. It helps to foster participation with our government and with our organization. But more than just that, from a community standpoint, it supports our economic development um team um and our development services
group because it helps to support the economic impact that we can have by attracting investment, attracting new residents, driving sustainable growth, bringing in a workforce that can be utilized across our economic development
um focus and also it gives us that longevity. We all know that there is a plan for this city that spans far past any of us being in this building and we want the brand to sustain with it rather than having to go back and and redo this
again uh in the future. So during as we mentioned we have been out we have been speaking to the community we have been speaking to residents we have been speaking to businesses nonprofit organizations
people who work live and play in our city and the community voice that came back to us focused around sort of five key things. The first was really the pride that our community and our business leaders have in our natural beauty.
You come to this city, you look around every day. You get to be part of beautiful spaces, waterways, whether it's the natural landscape or it's what has been created by our colleagues in parks and recreation. It's that desire for connection and belonging. Words that
came out predominantly in all of the work that we did were welcoming, neighborly, community, and that's what's being used to describe our city by the people that live and work in it. There was also feedback around the balance of growth and preservation.
People want in in section 4, they want that future focused optimism. They want services. They want the innovation. They want to be able to shop locally, send their kids to local schools, have educational opportunities, but they also want us to make sure we're focused on
that pride in our national uh natural beauty. So, how do we balance the preservation of what makes Northport Northport with the future that we have as a city? And again, as mentioned previously, they want that unified identity. They want that trust in not
just their community, but in their city, in their government, in their neighbors. So, where did all of that come from? Well, that came from came from 23,000 data points. And that's what we used our consultant to support us with. 23,000
questions were answered across the survey and across the focus groups. That's a lot of data. That's a lot of opinions, differing opinions. And what we needed to do was to find the thread that linked all of those things together. That one thing that we as a
city government, but also more importantly our residents and our community can agree on makes Northport Northport. 85% cited natural beauty as a defining attribute as mentioned. The family oriented uh piece already discussed
making sure that growth is sustainable and balanced and most residents want us to tell that unified together trustworthy story. So our brand strategy that I'm going to take you through today builds directly on that feedback. It
emphasizes that welcoming nature we have which is important to our residents. the serenity that is provided by the natural uh resources and beauty that we have around us and the sustainability that we need to create from an economic development standpoint.
So what does a unified brand achieve? Well, it achieves that consistent voice, a story for our residents and our businesses, greater trust and transparency and opportunities for economic development. And it's done in this pyramid of marketing. So it starts
with our value proposition. Our value proposition uh tells the story and defines the core benefit that we offer as a city. Why choose us? Why come and live here? Why come and work here? Why come and visit
here? Our brand promise which sits underneath that is how we turn that value into a commitment as a city government to those people. Our brand pillars are the things that support that. Picture it as a house. If we have
our value proposition as the roof and we have our brand promises, the walls, you need the structure inside it that keeps it solid. Underneath that are the foundations which are our vision, our mission and our values. Our mission is what we are doing now,
who we are as a city now. Our vision is where we want to go and our values are what we will make sure we do while we're on that journey. And that's the piece and highlighted in blue that I want us to think about today and would love your feedback on as this was something that
was developed by the commission back when you guys were talking about our strategic pillars. So I'm going to chat you through where we came to from our value proposition. This is the value proposition that was developed from the back of all of that
information that was t uh I chatted you through six seven weeks ago from the insights report but everything I've just mentioned there about what feedback we had from our community and I'm going to read it to you twice um and show you how we have developed
it. So, Northport is a forward-looking community that offers residents, businesses, and visitors an authentic community, natural beauty, and a thriving future. Continually working to improve the city with a sustainable
vision for the future. So, how does that link to the things that were important to our community? Northport is a forward-looking community. There's our future focused optimism that offers residents, businesses, and visitors an authentic community. There's
that desire for connection and belonging, natural beauty. There's our natural beauty and a thriving future. Taking that natural beauty and the thriving future is that balance of growth and preservation. Continually working to improve the city
is our unified trust and identity. And then we bring it full circle by saying with a sustainable vision for the future which brings us back to that future focused optimism. The brand promise underneath that that
we promise to provide for our citizens and our communities is this. for residents, businesses, and visitors. Northport is committed to providing an opportunity to thrive in a flourishing community with an authentic character, natural beauty, and a sustainable
future. If those are our roof and our walls, these are the pillars that keep it standing. Taking those five things and bucketing them into the three pillars, authentic character. There is something that makes Northport distinctly
Northport. We have such motivated, vocal, engaged citizenry. Whether we always agree with everything that is being said, they are out there and they're vocal because they love this community. It is distinctly
Northport. We cannot ignore the fact that we are in one of the most beautiful places in the country. The natural beauty makes Northport also what Northport is because nature is part of our everyday and our thriving future. And as uh Mr.
Mimman spoke about earlier, we work very closely with them. Our thriving future is grounded by our community but built for our businesses and that is um wording that is used by both our team and their team and we work very closely
together. So that brings us on to the foundations of our building. We've got the roof. We've got the walls. We've got the pillars. Now let's talk about our foundations. We've got a mission. We have a vision. We have values. Our suggestions are that
we augment them and change them with the information that has been provided to us by the community. So our current mission is to provide exceptional service to the community for the continuous enrichment of quality of life through transparency,
agent um engagement and respect. Our suggested recommended change is to say to serve our community with excellence, fostering engagement and empowering the success of Northport's
residents, businesses and visitors. Our current vision is to be an innovative, friendly, engaging, and sustainable community where residents, businesses, and visitors can flourish. Our suggested changes would be to be an innovative, sustainable, and thriving
community while preserving the authentic character of Northport for residents, businesses, and visitors. Our current values are accountability, integrity, customer service, teamwork, and empowerment.
We suggest changing these and adding to them. And I shall explain on the next slide why. Just to caveat, we're going to come back to this slide. This is what we're going to be workshopping. Um, but I want to just chat you through a little bit more thinking. So from our current
values, we suggest moving to service, enrichment, opportunity, preservation, reliability, accountability, and resiliency. And don't forget, our mission is where we are now. Our vision is where we want to get to. And our
values are the values we will hold dear whilst we're doing that. The reason we have changed our values and the reason we have enlarged them to seven is so that they can align heavily with the strategic pillars so that when we are
doing things and departments are doing things we all understand the value that sits with us as a department or a division. So from a safe community perspective, when my colleagues in fire
and police and utilities who look after the safety of our community are thinking about how to do things top of mind is service. When we are working with our parks and recreation team and thinking about quality of life, they will be thinking
about the enrichment of our community. When the economic development and development services team are working, they will be thinking about how to bring opportunity to the city for our businesses and for our community. When our colleagues also in development
services and other teams are thinking about environmental resiliency and sustainability, they will be thinking about preservation. when our colleagues in our emergency management team are thinking about disaster response and recovery management and working with public works
and utilities on all of the things that we need to think about when the dreaded winds come. They will be thinking about resiliency. When you are working, when our city managers are working, when our department directors are working and are
thinking about how to be good governors of this city, they will be thinking about accountability. And when we're thinking about the infrastructure and the facilities we need to provide, we will be thinking about reliability. All of those things bring us on to things like tone of voice. I'm not going
to go into a huge amount of detail. This will become part of the brand guidelines that will be sent out to all departments. Once we have our value proposition, our brand promise, our pillars, our vision, our mission and our values agreed, we will be able to make
sure that we have the right tone of voice that no matter who is speaking to our community, we are all doing it with one voice. We will make sure that there are certain words that we use that mean something to our community. These were words that were spoken to by our community and pulled together out of
that 23,000 um questions answered data and we will make sure that we have an overarching brand story that tells our story. So every time we are out with our community, we know who we are, we know what our history was, and we know where
we're going as a community. So with that uh the workshop purpose is to go back to the slide really on mission, vision and values to make sure that we are comfortable with that that you are comfortable with that that you
think that that speaks um to the communities that you represent from your districts. Um, we will then be able to take your review, your input and refine what we have, which will allow us to move forward confidently to the next
phase, which is more of the design, the wording and creating our brand guidelines before we move to workshopping or unless you would like to move straight to workshopping, we can go on to any questions. Thank you very much. >> All right. Thank you. Great
presentation. >> Thank you, M. Commissioners questions, feedback, vice mayor. >> Uh, thank thank you, Mayor. Um, I I just want to make a comment first and and echo uh some points that that Caitlyn
made. Um, and that is that our city, Northport, has gone through major changes in the past five years. Not all of those changes have been wellreceived by folks who live here. Um, but both
inside and outside of our city, there's really a lack of awareness of where North Core is today. And that can inhibit our development and our
growth. It can inhibit what companies want to come here. it can inhibit the willingness of outside organizations to partner with us. So,
um I see this work as a major strategic initiative that impacts our city's progress in in multiple ways. Pride of place um among our residents is a critical component of that. and and
I'll share just a a personal experience that I've had. Um I'll be here this summer, 12 years, when I used to share with people inside and and outside of the city where I lived, people would
kind of look at me with a very quizzical expression, what are you doing in Northport? I don't hear that anymore. Um, and not that it doesn't happen, but I really see one of the positive
outcomes of this work is that no one who lives here feels negatively about living here. And if I never hear the term red-headed stepchild again, it'll be way too soon.
I mean, we really have got to drop that. We're way beyond that. And I see this work as being a critical component of making that happen. How we are viewed both within and outside of our community also has major
impact on our economic development initiatives. This is not about logos and colors. This is about how we view ourselves and how we project that view within and outside
of our city's boundaries. It also has significant impact on our current businesses. You know, if if people outside of our city continue to view us as the one stoplight
Northport, then they're not going to come here to do business. We have great resident great restaurants. We have great businesses and my personal opinion is our residents
to many of them the default is to go outside the city to eat or shop or whatever when we have perfectly wonderful opportunities for people to do that here
within our city limits. So this is a huge deal. It's a big deal and it's important work. So enough of the soapbox. Um, excellent presentation, excellent work. I have one comment in
our values. What I didn't see is sustainability and for me that is really really important. um whether it it's an additional value or if we kind of expand one of the uh
proposed values. But one of the things that motivated me to run for office is I just didn't see our our financial path as a city as being sustainable. I really thought just sort of based on on how we
were doing things that we were on the path to financial disaster in five or 10 years. So, so for me sustainability has a huge financial economic development
um meaning it it also impacts our development code and practices. Um, we need to ensure that as the city develops that we are protecting the environment and that the
way we're going about that development is sustainable. It it really talks to me about that balance between um conservation or environmental concerns and development. So for me, I'd really
love to see sustainability somehow in there because I think it's it's really important. >> Yep. Thanks. >> Thank you, Commissioner Stokes. >> Yes. Um could you refresh us and the public? Uh what's the total investment
budgetarily that the city has allocated to this rebranding? So the um the in comparison to the last time this was done, we spent in 2008 2010, the project cost roughly $100,000.
With the changes to the current team that Jason has put in, the centralization of our team, we're doing the majority of that work inhouse. Uh therefore, our investment has only needed to be 25,000. >> That makes sense for me. Money well spent. Um,
I'm not going to spend time reiterating what vice mayor already said because I am a big proponent of this. I think it's really important that people, you know, as she said, Northport's really changed
who and what we are and and the world at large, the rest of this country needs to understand that. That is what helps attract not only residents but businesses to our city. And so, you know, for that kind of investment, I
think it's it's it's long overdue. And this was a great presentation in my book. The one question I did have was um where you talk about mission, vision, and values. And we want to talk about that traditionally has been part of our
conversations in our strategic planning days, which I guess are coming up in January. Um I think it's January. Um, and yet you've got existing and proposed changes. Are you envisioning us like talking them through, munching them
over, and then following them up at those strategic planning days, or are we preempting that process and and attempting to give you some clear direction on, you know, whether or not these proposed changes are what we want
to run with because they are a change and typically they tie into overall strategic planning. >> Yep. So, some direction would be wonderful. Um, we are planning to attend your strategic workshop and bring with
us some of the imagery that we will be working on as well as some of the taglines. So, we could do it any number of ways. You could feed back between now and then or we could use some of the time at the strategic workshop to do both of those. Those are those publicly noticed
>> strategic planning, the ones that anybody in the community can come and listen to or or watch back if they want. Right. >> The January So the January 6th. >> Yes. >> Good. I just want to make sure. >> Yeah, >> that's all I have. Thank you. And uh
what type of direction were you looking for? I think that's a great plan is to come back and on January 6 and discuss it and everything and go forward pillar by pillar and see what your ideas are and that gives you a little bit more time to
come up with some creative ideas for that meeting. >> That would be wonderful. >> Okay. And if the vice mayor didn't bring up the redheaded stepchild, it might go away, but she seems to do that all the time. So, but it was an excellent presentation
and I look forward to January 6 and we'll work together on that. >> Thank you, sir. >> Thank you. >> Any public comment? >> There is none. >> All right. We've been here almost an hour and a half. Anybody want a break before we get into the big discussion about the
nonprofits? >> 10 minutes. What time is it? Yeah, 10 minute break. Moving on to general business, item A 25-3026. discussion and possible direction regarding the future needs of the
Northport Senior Center Incorporated, Awakened Church, Northport Art Center, and Kowana's Club. Um, city manager, this is your item. >> Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I am going to turn it over to Chuck Peak, our public works director. I don't believe there's a presentation, but there's a lot of
information to go through, so thank you, sir. >> Yes, sir. Chuck Speak, public works director. Uh so commission had requested that we bring back options for the various nonprofits. Uh we worked with social services, parks, and department of
public works and and the city manager's office to do that. Um so I'm going to read through this this staff summary and go through the options. I also have the attachment A which has the cost breakdowns of those on the screen so we can bring that up when we get to that portion as we go through the options so you can see what the options uh actually
would would cost and the breakdown of those costs and how we got those. Okay. >> Yep. So, uh, the recommended action is to provide direction on the needs of the Northport Senior Center, Awaken Church, Northport Arts Center, and Kowanas Club to include the selection of a preferred
option for addressing facility and space needs with additional information being brought back to commission for approval at a later date. So, our intent is to get direction today, bring back uh go out, follow that direction forward, bring that back to commission for any final decisions at a at a normal
commission meeting. Okay. So option one is to demolish the existing community services facility and constructs the new 10,000q foot facility to support senior center, awaken church, and potentially other nonprofit activities. The estimated cost for
option one is 6.88 million. Uh the pros for option one, it provides a new slightly larger code compliant facility designed for senior and other community programs. It addresses all current structural safety
and accessibility deficiencies of the community services facility. It has long-term that's a long-term solution that enhances public service delivery. It's a reduced cost of operations and maintenance with a new energy efficient facility. Uh the cons for this, it's a high cost option and
project timeline of three and a half years for contracts, design, permitting, and construction. It requires attenants to find alternate facilities while construction takes place. and funds committed to this project could otherwise be redirected to support capital improvement projects which may
ser serve a larger portion of city residents. So option two is to demolish the existing community services facility and lease or purchase temporary facilities of similar size as occupied within the existing facility. For the senior
center, it's approximately 4800 square f feet and Awakened Church is approximately 1,850 square ft to support services. Extended estimated leasing cost for option two is $892,61
for the first year, including setup annual including setup, sorry, annual lease is approximately 219,000 in years 2 through 5. Estimated purchase cost for the option two is 1.4 million
including setup. The pros to this option, it allows continued programming at a lower cost than new construction. It allows flexibility in location and facility selection. It has a lower short-term capital outlay compared to
new construction. Cons: ongoing lease costs with no asset ownership. Increase in cost of operations and maintenance due to less durable and energy inefficient modular construction. It may not fully meet space operational or accessibility needs.
Coordination required for setup, utilities, and accessibility compliance. City code only allows temporary facilities to be in place for 5 years. Additional cost of either relocating or disposing of city-owned assets at the end of the 5 years. If the existing site
is utilized as temporary location, parking will be reduced by at least 27 spaces. Each occupant may be required to re-evaluate their operations to comply with the minimum accessibility and parking requirements for these public serving facilities.
And funds committed to this project could otherwise be redirected to support CIPs which may serve a larger portion of city residents. Option three is to demolish the existing community services facility and purchase or lease a temporary facility and
construct a new 10,000 square foot facility to support senior center, Awaken Church, and potentially other nonprofit activities. Estimated for the new construction and leasing temporary facilities option is 8.1 million. Estimated cost for new construction and purchasing temporary
facilities option is 8.3 million. The pros to this option provides operational continuity during a rebuild. Purchased facility could be reused and repurposed for future city needs. Greater control over modifications and
maintenance. The cons, it's the highest cost option and project timeline of three and a half years for contracts, design, permitting, and construction. Increase in cost of operations and maintenance due to less durable and inefficient energy construction of temporary facilities. Additional cost of
either relocation or disposal of city-owned assets at the end of the pro project. Requires suitable site and permitting for temporary setup. Short-term facility may not meet all program needs. It may not fully meet space operational or accessibility
needs. Coordination required for setup, utilities, and accessibility compliance. And if the existing site is utili utilized as before, it will reduce your parking by 27 spaces. Um, so they may have to change their operations to meet the requirements for for these public
serving facilities and the funds committed to this project could otherwise be redirected to support CIPs which may serve a larger portion of city residents. Option four, demolish the existing community services facility and relocate
the senior center to the George Mullen Activity Center. Purchase or lease a modestlysized modular for senior center administration. Estimated cost for the leasing option for five years, a total cost over the five years is 627,000.
Estimated cost for the purchase option is 642,000 including removal at the end of the five years. Please see attached memorandum for additional details related to this option and that's that attachment two that I discussed that we can go through here in a minute.
The pros for this, it utilizes existing facility facilities, minimizing new construction. It consolidates community services in one central location. It's a reduced cost compared to new build. It allows city commission to evaluate
the highest and best use of the former community services facility site to best serve residents. The cons awake awakened church would not be accommodated in this option at the GMAC. Limited space could
be could restrict activities and programming. Potential scheduling conflicts at the GMAC certain times of the year. Administrative trailer add setup and maintenance costs. Reduce parking availability at the GMAC due to the modular placement and additional
activity. modular facility will call for Americans with Disabilities Act compliance through a ramp which may not be conducive to senior center clientele. Funds committed to this project could otherwise be redirected to support CIPs
which may serve a larger portion of the city residents. Uh you have ongoing lease costs with no asset ownership, increase in cost of operations and maintenance due to less durable and energy inefficient modular construction of temporary facilities. A coordination
required for setup utilities and accessibility compliance. City code only allows temporary facilities to be in place for 5 years. An additional cost of either relocation or disposal of city-owned assets at the end of the five years.
So option five is to rehabilitate the current community education center to address known deficiencies and make necessary repairs to current building systems which are at end of their useful life. Estimated cost for option five is 2.9 million. The pros provide some
repairs some repairs of the facility for continued services at the current level. addresses current known deficiencies and all safety and accessibility deficiencies and utilizes ex existing city-owned facility. The cons repairs are limited to the scope identified in
attachment A and currently identified and currently identified as deficient. Some structural repairs will be required for roof replacement. However, it is not possible to bring all existing structural components up to current wind code without full replacement of those structural components, including
footers. Untouched portions of the facility will remain non-compliant until such time as they require require repairs or replacement. Costs of repairs to to identify deficiencies is estimated at $2 or 2.95
million to 3.8 8 million uh or $343 per square foot to 452 per square foot of that space. Once repairs are underway, any unforeseen conditions or out of code construction must be repaired replaced
as part of this project. The cost for unforeseen conditions cannot be known at this time and are not accounted for in the estimated pro estimate provided of repairs. Estimated cost of new construction of a community center a averages $532
per square foot. The building is not large enough to fully support senior center and awaken church operations efficiently and it will require relocation of services while repairs are underway. Option six is to provide space and
facility for Kowanas operations, provide storage, building and use of SC scout house or purchase a lease or lease a modular to be placed at Dallas White Park. Um, please see attachment A. Again, we'll discuss attachment A here in just a minute and a touch memorandum
for additional details on option six. So, the pros to option six, it'll provide immediate operational continuity. It utilizes existing city-owned site and facilities. Flexible solution depending on cost and availability.
The cons, the storage building requires installation, utilities and maintenance, limited amenities versus a permanent purpose-built structure. It requires coordination for shared use facilities. The storage building cannot be open to the public as it will not meet ADA
requirements. and the funds committed to this project could otherwise be redirected to support CIPs which may serve a larger portion of the city's residents. And our last option is the city to collaborate with the Northport Art Center as part of the memorandum of
understanding review to explore a shared use facility to house multiple nonprofits. So the potential for cost sharing is a pro for this one. Inter agency partnerships and a larger potential donor base. It could result in a multifunctional
community- centered facility and it encourages efficiency efficient use of city and community resources. The cons, it's dependent on art center project timeline and funding. It does not meet immediate facility needs and it requires development of
shared use agreements and design alignment. So, I think we remember how we got here. I'm not going to read through the background information. Uh we presented to you back in October that the building that currently is being used by Awaken
and the senior center is at end of life. Uh we were looking for direction on that lease as well as uh planning the demolition of that building after the termination of the lease when that time comes. So here's our options for I know it's a
lot to to think about. Uh there was a lot dug into this. If we could bring the screen up, please, we can kind of look at where these cost estimates come from. So, and there was one on attachment A on your copies of attachment A. There was
one uh mistake where we had had erroneously left in Awaken Church when we referenced moving to the the Mullen Center. That was not an option. It's only the senior center we were looking to put into the Mullen Center if that option was chosen. Okay. So the awaken and that option four would have to uh
they would have to come up with a an alternate location. Um but if you look at option one we come up with that 6.88 million and that one is to demolish the existing community services facility and construct a new facility. Okay. And that's where we came up with
those numbers. The important number to look at, the new construction number right now is about $532 per square foot. Um, to rehabilitate this facility, I think we were somewhere between 350 and 450
per square foot. So, it's not that big of a difference to between new construction and trying to rehab the building. And rehabbing that building is not going to bring it up to code. It's it's going to address the immediate needs. It's not going to address all those structural needs that we know that
we have. Is there any of those numbers that you would like to go through uh with more detail? Are there any questions that you have rather than me continuing to read through this long list of options?
>> No, I think as we discuss each option, if you want to put up like option one, if we're discussing that, we can look at that. Then option two, same thing. >> Um, open this up for questions from the commissioners, but I'm going to start real quick. Is where's this funding
coming from? Like the 6.88 million >> if if we were to choose option one, where's that money coming from? >> Correct. That would be my question to you. >> Well, and I understand. And and and basically it falls on the burden of the taxpayer is what I'm
saying. >> Yes, sir. >> Okay. I just wanted to get that out there when we're discussing numbers on where it's coming from. And another question that I had too, we had talked about getting into these land lease agreements because they are a very
crucial part of the grant process. Have you discussed that? Have you came up with a number on what we would lease land for? Have we discussed any possible areas of of land that we could lease going forward?
Uh but well there's there's several locations that have been discussed over at Dallas White Park for these locations and as we're working now and and preparing to bring back theou for the art center. Uh that's that's not really a land lease. It's an agreement for them to use the land. Anytime that we would
lease the land, we would go through our our real estate consultant to get us a number. If it's a nonprofit and and this the commission decides that we're going to make an agreement to have that nonprofit here and it benefits the city, that can be done differently than if we're leasing something that's that's not for
this, you know, for for city use or or the better of the city's residents. Uh that would have a different cost to that, but all of that would come before commission. >> Sure. and and it would be based on the market honestly if it was a a one that
they you didn't feel was a held a city purpose. >> I see you're in the queue city manager. I'll let you go before I ask another question. So go ahead sir. >> Thank you Mr. Mayor. I just wanted to talk briefly about the where the funding is coming from situation as we look at what we are preparing to bring back to
you as a commission in early 2026. uh we are looking at how do we go out and obtain the funding for other uh facilities and projects that we know that we need. We believe that these that are being discussed today should be in that conversation. Now when we put those
in this conversation that means that ultimately taxpayer dollars as you mentioned earlier are going to have to be found within the current budget that we have. So any money that we potentially can borrow from needs to be done without any sort of tax increase or
any sort of additional obligation or uh pressure from the public. Uh what that process looks like is um as we bring to you in early 2026 the unfunded CIP projects, they will be ranked and then you will be able to decide how much or
how few you want to go through a court validated process to see if we can borrow for those projects. Now before you get to the court validation portion of the project, you will need to engage we will need to engage the citizens to see, you know, get their feedback on the projects of what we're doing. But these
buildings are ones that we have had for years and ones that we were maintaining. And now that they're no longer there, putting them in this bucket of borrowing and not having a tax increase put with that should go a long way with us making sure that we can take care of buildings
that are within the city under our umbrella. >> Right. And as we've grown throughout time, we've like put those other buildings to the side and repurposed them to our nonprofits, but we don't have that space anymore. We're not moving out of a building and leaving it
vacant because we need all the space >> for city workers and employees and everything. And so it it's this is a a huge project that we need to discuss and and go through. And uh I'll let Vice Mayor go.
Yeah, thanks, Mayor. That was a lot. Um, and I won't pretend that I've sort of internalized all of the pros and cons of of each approach,
but I do have a couple of questions and that is option la. I think it's where is it? I'm sorry. Okay. Option four,
which was demolish the current building and relocate senior center in Awaken Church to the Mullen Center. Did I hear you say that? >> Just a senior center. >> Yeah. >> Yes, ma'am. So why would the
Awaken food pantry not be able to relocate there? What are the issues? >> So I I don't think that the I think there's too much conflicting activity there for that operation >> on a Saturday.
>> The Awaken is running what? Five days a week. >> So they're they're working five days a week, >> right, for their walk-in. Um ha have we discussed it with awaken?
>> Okay. >> So it awaken doesn't want to be at the mullet. They would prefer to be where they are now. >> Want to be at the mall, >> right? >> Okay. >> Good morning. Janet Kario, social services manager for the record. No, I've spoken with the weekend. they would
like to stay at their location because they have people that walk to the pantry um specifically from like Willow Creek and surrounding areas. So that would be difficult. If we move it here then people would not be able to travel. >> Okay. Thank you.
>> I have nothing else at this time. >> Anybody else up here have any questions? We're still going to look for direction, too. Go ahead, city manager. You're wanting to sign language me down there, but that's all right.
>> I was I was just going to say our goal today is to keep giving you updated information as the conversations keep taking place and making sure that you know that we're still working with the partners that you instructed us to work with. and also how it combined into the big picture of if you decide uh as a
board that you would like to um borrow at some point with the ability to pay it back within ourselves that this is a part of that conversation so that way you can have time to think about it because like it was said it is a lot of information with a lot of options uh none of them are easy so to speak but I
think that as we keep sort of talking about this and making sure we all have the same information we can come to a conclusion in earlier 26 what if you want to do it. >> Oh, they woke up now. They want to talk too. Thank you, Commissioner Petro. >> Thank you, Mayor. Um, question regarding
the attachment A on all these options. It says community services facility options cost estimate estimates. And when I look at option four, it does not include um so some of the options do not include
the Oh, option six, I'm sorry. Option six does not include the senior center or does not include anything else. Are these do we look at all of the options as one option to choose from of the list or we can choose many options several
options or none of them? >> Sure. We would take direction however you you wanted to give it. So some of these include some of the other nonprofits which which are the the Kuanas which is kind of an offset of the what our initial conversation was with the senior center and Awaken church. Uh so there's there's an option that
addresses that if we wanted to move forward with that. U there's also options as we said the Mullen option does not address uh awaken. So you could choose the Mullen option for senior center and choose to keep awaken in
portables at at the current facility because that was seems to work best for them is that location. So this is this is I couldn't have 37 options. This was a lot to to kind of put together. So, I wanted to just kind of,
you know, we got together to put these in here. We can make whatever work out of these options. This just kind of gives you a breakdown of what those costs might look like. Because either way, if we're going to put a modular unit at at the current location, you know, you have that cost in here of what
that unit's going to cost. Whether it's for both, you know, we have to put two units in there to keep both facilities running or we move one to the Mullen and we keep awake in there. um we can break that down out of these options. >> Uh my question about the leases, if we
choose to build a new look uh new facility um and I heard the the phrase that fair market value lease, are we going to be charging nonforprofits fair market value lease? How they going to afford or what are the options for them?
>> Right. So that any lease will come back to the commission. We have the facilities uh lease policy which gives the commission the opportunity at a reduced rate for nonprofits. Uh and I think that one's getting very close to coming back. It's I believe through
legal and we're preparing to bring that back to you. But that in that policy uh that does give you the option to reduce rates for nonprofits >> and the construction cost 532 per square foot. Uh that seems a bit high since it's a shell construction and with the
bathrooms and limited kitchen. Uh it's mostly um open space if you will. Uh the building which is 10,000 square ft facility. How did we arrive at that? I mean it to me it seems a bit higher.
>> So if I'm not mistaken that is uh if we keep it on that site you you have to go vertical. So it would be a two-story building. >> Is that that's the reason why are we planning to do if we do that we're planning to go vertical
>> if you want to do it on that site because of the the space we have and the parking and everything there. I can't take any more parking away because it's shared with all those other buildings. >> Uh you would have to go vertical >> to capture the price reflects the vertical construction. >> Correct.
>> Okay. Do we uh accommodate for the vertical as far as um the nonforprofits? Will they be okay with that? We have to have elevators then all of that. >> Yes, you would have to have elevators. >> Um and this would provide with the
provide them with the square footage that they requested. You asked us to to get with them and see what not what they have but what they need. Uh that's what we had asked them. So that 10,000 square feet would provide that um that want from the two nonprofits that would be
there. >> And if we go uh closer to the road site, there seem to be a space there. Can we keep it one level >> there? On that site, just at a at first blush, there is not room to go 10,000
square feet in that current location >> without going vertical. What is the current square footage of that existing building right now? >> It's about 8,000 square feet. >> Yeah, just over 8,000 square feet. >> But we're talking about the difference
between 8,000 and 10,000 square ft. >> Right. You're adding another 2,000 square feet at the request of the nonprofits. >> Okay. >> Okay. That's it for now. >> Vice Mayor. >> Uh thank you, Mayor. Just a few more
questions um and then I'll I'll make some comments. Um on option five, rehabbing the current community education center,
the the second option, the multi-million dollar option, is that bringing the facility up to current code from a FEMA point of view? Nope. Well, let me ask it differently. What What are the pros and
cons? Are the differences between um 5A, which is sort of just minimally improving what's there versus um alterations required to meet Florida
building codes? Is that 5B FEMA compliance or something different? So, good morning, Kim Humphrey public works. Uh, so this is a combination of the deferred maintenance that's existing right now and the alterations that would
be required um if we were to bring the roof up to code, if we were to do the plumbing, all of those things have to be brought into compliance. Uh, I I wouldn't say that that is meeting all Florida building code, but it would be meeting for those repairs
that we're doing. There could still be some items in the building that are untouched as part of this scope that would remain as they are. On option four, um if regardless of how we do it, we
provide space for the senior center, why would they need a modular for administration if we're giving them space? I was very concern um confused >> by that. >> Wouldn't Wouldn't they get space for
administration? >> Good morning. Sandy Funheller, parks and recreation director. Uh there is not space available for offices for their administration. Uh the building is currently being utilized not only by city staff offices but by programming.
So if you are going to allocate >> this is at the Mullen Center. >> At the Mullen Center specifically. So if you're going to allocate space there, you would be displacing existing city services or discontinuing them um completely in order to provide that space. So we can provide programming
space um after talking with the senior center representatives um in the different the multi-purpose room and the gymnasium and um those spaces we can schedule around what we have going on and they were flexible with their scheduling but to have a
dedicated currently they have three dedicated office spaces we don't have that available. >> Okay. Um, I'll sort of share with you. I still want to hear what my other um fellow commissioners have to say, but I'm sort
of tempted. Well, let me just make a a comment first and and that is I believe that it's the activity of our nonprofit organizations that really contribute in a major way to
the authenticity of our community and that sense of engagement with the community. So, I I see our nonprofits as a critical component of the quality of
life here at Northport for a lot of our residents. Having said that, I I just bending millions of taxpayer dollars to provide
facilities for them. I think it's it's no surprise to anyone that I'm a huge economic development person. I still wouldn't budget or approve a budget to buy land for
economic development purposes. So to spend that kind of money for nonprofits, it it's a gulpable moment for me. So, in reviewing all of this information, just a few things pop out and then I'll yield the floor
because I want to hear what the rest of us have to say. Um, the art center and Kowanas have activities in process, particularly Kowanas is in the end stages of getting
a grant. I'm inclined to make that land available out by the scout house. So, whatever that sort of chunk in all of this was, let's sort of continue to move down that
path. It's not a whole lot of dollars. It would um maintain Kowanas, the arts center. Um, we are in conversations about the current footprint out at Dallas White.
Let's continue those conversations. And so potentially those two nonprofits would be taken care of. I'm inclined to move the senior center to the Mullen center and and uh request
that parks and w take over the administration of that. So then not requiring office space, they would just need space for programming and and the city would manage it, etc., etc. and
uh I minimally patch up the current community center and I'd want to have more conversations about that in terms of how much we'd really have to invest there. I'm not one
to throw good money after bad, but I'd like to talk more about what it would take to maintain the Awakened Food Pantry at that current location and give them the entire space. Um, in
conversations I've had with leadership, it it's become clear to me that they really need more space for the storage of food and blah blah blah blah blah blah. So just as sort of first blush, that's sort of how I'm seeing a path
forward, but I'd be interested in how others are looking at this. So I yield. >> Commissioner Stokes. >> Yeah. So this is an interesting one. Lots of options here. Um first, you know, I have
to say that any plan that does not include Awaken is something I would have a hard time supporting. That's first off. Um I do think that the city has an obligation to provide
what resources it legally can do within reason, within limits, within cost because I think these nonprofits are critical critical part of our city. And you know, if money weren't an option, it it'd be an easy decision. I'm I'm
tempted to look at the least expensive option here, which is do a patch job on what we've got. Granted, it won't bring everything up to code, but it will stabilize things for a
period of years. It'll allow hopefully both nonprofits to continue to operate right where they are. the the dynamics of relocating the food pantry. I I mean the traffic alone is a nightmare on Pan-Amean. I
can't even I have thought long and hard where else could you do this? And I just don't know where. I can't even envision it in and around city all green. I I can't think of a location that would make sense. Not to mention relocating it
a a great distance from where it is is a problem. So, if we deal with that location, I hate the thought of not I'd love a a master facility that affords a good number of nonprofits equal opportunity to participate in the
utilization of that space. For that reason, I like the idea of of having one facility that that does all, but I don't think we're there yet. I really think that every time something comes across this dis regarding a capital improvement
investment like we're like okay uh well we're we're going to be going through our CIP projects and we're going to be figuring out where to spend the money and where the money is coming from and you know there isn't nearly enough money to cover any of these projects. So, you
know, my thought is to to create a plan for options one, two, three. I I I just don't see it as realistic cuz I don't see I I think it'll get destroyed. Whatever plans and effort go into moving down that path is going to get blown out
of the water when we get into budget cycle. None of us know what next year is going to bring. There's so many questionable items we have. You know, we could just do nothing. absolutely nothing for a year, two years till a building
falls down probably not a good idea. But, you know, doing something short term out of a million dollars here or there to restore what's there or at least stabilize it while we figure out how we could do this. I really think
this city owes all our nonprofits a facility at somewhat of an affordable rate that allows them to operate and support our citizens. I really, really do. And the idea of peacemealing them all over the place, I don't think is the solution
here. This is a bigger issue. It's going to involve an investment at some point in time. Question is where and when and how much and and how we're going to pay for it. So, I I don't think we're there yet. I think we got so many CIP projects that every other month it's like, "Oh, this one's a priority. This one's a
priority. We got to figure out what the hell our real priorities are and and quite frankly, we got a lot of them and we don't have anywhere near the money to pay for any of them. So, you know, with that, you know, the only option I'm
leaning towards is is just do a patch job on what we got so that it's safe and and let them operate and and while we try to figure out how we skin this cat cuz it's it's Anyway, that's all I have to say on this. And thank you very much because
you really laid out all the options really, really well. I'm not a big proponent of, you know, messing around at the the scout house. I think whatever we do K wantan to sort of have the space available in a facility along with all the others I you know I'm not so
comfortable with building more stuff on Dallas White Park that's going to be temporary and this and that. I think that whole area needs a rethink anyway and a new master plan. So I'm not really all that desirous to go down that route now and throw up some buildings that are
just going to get knocked down again and disabled, you know, and storms and everything else. I think it's a waste of the taxpayers's money at this point. You know, let's do this right. Let's do this right. Let's think it through. And if it involves an investment, then we got to figure out how to pay for it if it's if
it's a high enough priority. >> You may think Commissioner Dval, >> unless you had something to say. >> No, I was just saying thank you. This is this is a lot and
there's so many different options, so many different things, you know, um so many different feelings on things. Uh not the mayor, the commissioner that just spoke uh said that, you know, using the scout
house for the kanas, you know, that's not a good option. You know, I looked at that as I was like, "Oh, $45,000 we can get the Kowanas doing what they do." And they do a lot. Um, you know, even if it's a a temporary
temporary situation, u, I also I look at use of the Mullen Center. I liked Commissioner Langden's idea of parks and reccks taking over the administration
so that u the senior center couldn't fit in that facility. Uh also there's been mention about our capital improvement projects. I believe that we've had some uh talks recently
that we're going to be repprior repprioritizing those um that's important the feasibility you know uh oh
just rehabbing the senior center that's a that's a dicey situ situation, uh, we'd be spending money. But again, Awaken Church, you know, wants to stay near where they are. Um, where else could they be? Um,
I just happen to notice that if you go further north, uh, you have the Garden of the Five Senses and across the street there's an open plot of land there that I haven't checked it out yet, but I I have some belief that maybe the city
owns that property. Um, you know, and maybe that could be, you know, put some double wides in there. You know, it's got room. It's in that area. Um, there are so many combinations that are
possible here. Um, the art center. Oh, and and before I forget, um I believe Commissioner Langden mentioned something about um the Kuanas and a grant. I thought I read somewhere where they they
didn't get a grant they were looking for. Maybe they're going to be reapplying. Uh I don't know. >> I thought they were facing a deadline. They were very close. So would need an update on that. I think >> I I >> and they're meeting they're meeting with
Kowanas and uh we'll get that update. >> Yeah. So, um, other than, you know, temporarily for the Kowanas, you know, use of the scout house, I mean, $45,000,
um, that would keep them going and it's a it's a minimum amount and I hate kicking things cans down the road, but when you've got so many different options, so many different
needs, And what we've talked about here so far is four nonprofits. I'm sure there are others in the city that, you know, could use some help somewhere along the line and and may
have some asks. So, thanks for all your hard work. It's and again, it is a lot. >> Yes, sir. Thank you. >> That's it for me. >> Commissioner Petro. >> Thank you, Mayor. Um just to my
surprise, I do agree with the vice mayor on many thanks and um Commissioner Stokes. Uh we do owe to the non non to our non forprofits um
especially awaken what they do and I do believe we have to help them in a way we can legally poss legally allowed and I do think we need to carefully examine
option five um and stick to that plan. Um, let me pull this up. So, when we look at the option five, the immediate
uh needs that can be addressed, we can do those. I think I'm leaning towards that. Um, and uh, as far as bringing the building to the current Florida building code of
2023, I I do want to ask uh, do we have to I mean, nobody's asking us to update to the current building code because unless we do a large amount of investment and rehabilitation of that
building, but as far as I see the the first uh paragraph of the list. Uh those would not uh trigger us to do the alternation to to bring the building to meet the current Florida building code. Am I
correct or I mean >> because to bring it up to the Florida building code we have to do a lot and I don't think we have to do it from my um visual uh examination and I did schedule a tour
through the uh through that building outside and inside and it was very informative and I could see it myself. I took a couple pictures. I do think we can patch it and continue to use it and plan ahead what we can do but at least
for a year or two or three or even longer uh we can do that. Um and that brings me to a different discussion that um we have art center that they kind of st that that land to
be theirs only. But I think we have to adapt and do invest into researching how can we multiuse our facilities and that brings to the senior center as well. Um, as far as art center, I don't know how much
land uh precisely we have there, but uh I would not want to isolate one nonforprofit over the other one and give them much more incentives and total use of building completely over the other
one because all of them matter to the citizens of this city. And uh as a board member, I have to be uh unbiased, if you will, to all of them. and be uh be
willing to look at the on a same playing field all across. Um so I do think we have to have a more discussion about art center building and um uh awakening definitely I I don't
recommend interrupting day services because they do a lot. They basically literally feed the city if you will. So, at this point, I'm not willing to to go and I'm just saying out loud that
I I'm not supporting to demolish the building as of right now. Um because that will I we have much more immediate priorities in the city than just that building to demolish and erect a new
building which again leads us into more um financial strain and putting that amount on taxpayers. Um, but I think we can we can do what we can as far as the patching up this building and go go on
from there. Meanwhile, we should plan and have like maybe discussion of uh what we can do as far as where what um nonforprofit to put where and talk to those nonforprofits directly
if they're willing. So, I'm glad that somebody talked to the Awaken and they're not willing to be at the Morgan Center. Am I correct? >> Morgan Center. >> Morgan Center. I'm sorry. Um, so at least we have that discussion going behind the scenes. Uh, and we should
continue to do that. But at this moment, I think option five looks much more appealing to me. Uh, and I hear some consensus at least from a couple commissioners. done. >> Thank you.
>> Yeah. When you were discussing I'm just going to use the Kowanas rehab, putting them over there in the scout house. I know that there was discussions that you put on on the list here that it was going to cost the city 15,000 for this,
15,000 for that. In the discussions and negotiations, the Kanas said they would have paid for that using grants. So, I mean, I I think that negotiation's still up in the air because it wouldn't cost the city
anything if the Kowanas received grants to put that storage container by the scout house. So, my point is is with the other nonprofits as well, Kowanas is trying to have skin in the game. They're trying to get grants to be able to go
ahead and go forward so it's not a burden on the taxpayers. All they want is permission or access. And that should be something across the board with other nonprofits as well. You know, I mean, here's just an off-the-wall idea. Let's
say you brought up that you can move the senior center out to the Mullen Center, but Awaken is still over at the um place where they're at on Pan-American. What if you signed an agreement with Awaken that they did the repairs throughout
time going forward at that senior center building? I mean, there's a lot of different things that can be thought of to accomplish that goal is what I'm getting at, you know, to where everything is not on the city. It's a joint partnership with either grants,
fundraisers, whatever the case may be. Same with the art center, you know, but at least a couple of them do have a place to go with our very limited space that we have in the city right now. So, I mean, I I think we still need to
discuss more options with the nonprofits and come up with a better game plan and like you you I guess you guys have met with Kuanas this week and next week or whatever going forward, meet with all of them and see what their intentions are and and what they can give in response
with the city, you know, stuff like that. That's the way I look at it. >> Sure. And we're, if I could jump in, we're having those conversations with Kuanas now. We've had those conversations with the art center thatou that we're going to bring back. Right. The art cent's just for the space. They're asking the
city for the space and they're funding the building themselves. >> Correct. >> Um so I mean that's we we love that model. That model works for us. Just some of these other organizations may not have uh that funding or the the ability to or or want to go get that
funding. >> Right. But my point is it's it's you know we we've got like Commissioner Stoke says we've got hundreds of projects out there that need to be >> you know done if it's infrastructure this that and the other and we do want
to support our nonprofits in the best way possible. But right now we're just at the crossroads where we don't have a lot that we can give right and and we got to figure that out. That's all I'm getting at. and and we can if you give direction we can talk to
those the other two that we haven't engaged in uh in that manner as far as what they can offer the funding and look at some other sources um rather than the city and and we can certainly bring that back.
>> What you got? >> Uh Commissioner Langden or Vice Mayor, sorry. >> Wait a minute. She's back. Um, >> Janica, do you actually we've already had those discussions with both Awaken and the Senior Center on what they can provide in assistance to us um either
with building a new building or uh fundraising. So, they have said um they've stated that they are more than willing to help um fund raise also um fund raise for match dollars as well as just fundra for whatever grant. Also, um, they've mentioned that they are
willing to apply for grants that may not be applicable for us as a city. >> Okay. And everything helps. That's what I'm trying to get at. Chop away those big number. >> They are very cooperative and whatever they have to do to assist us, those discussions have already been in place. >> Yes. Thank you.
>> Thank you, Vice Mayor. >> Uh, yes, Mayor. I have some consensuses when we're ready. >> Okay. Commissioner Petro. >> Yes. with Kanis. Um, I think this is was my impression that we as a city don't
pay anything. We just let them use the space and I'm all for that. The more the better. I mean, we have the city space. Why not let them use? So, let them use it at no cost to us. So, I'm all for that. Um, that was my
>> Yeah, it's pretty much the same thing with the senior center out at the Mullen Center. And also maybe as as the mayor said uh for the option five if if uh Awaken wants to do some repairs uh as
they go that not immediate like crucial repairs but some something breaks um they if they can offer um a repair that would be nice but uh I don't know if we ask them or not but uh yeah I'm sticking with option five.
All right. Anybody else? We're going to go to public comment, please. City clerk. >> Sheila Miller. Commissioners, please make it make sense. Why is there a conversation today to allocate taxpayer dollars to support the needs of not for-profit organizations? While there is
valuable work many notfor-profits perform, the use of taxpayer dollars to help fund and subsidize these entities raises several serious concerns regarding fiscal responsibility, transparency, and fairness. How many nonforprofits are being prioritized out of the hundreds that serve city residents? The city places itself at
risk should taxpayer money intended for general public benefit be used to advance specific social or political agendas that not all taxpayers agree with. Have you asked the taxpayers if there is support for this effort? Do they know what it will cost them or what will be given up to make it happen?
Using public funds to support one not for profofit over another creates an uneven playing field and the perception of favoritism. And most obviously, it would be a conflict of interest of for several of the voting body. Residents should have the right to decide through their own voluntary donations which
specific causes and organizations they wish to support. Taxpayer dollars need to be prioritized for existing government services. Period. Diverting funds to not for profofits even for seemingly beneficial projects only further strains the city's budget. In the last few months, I have listened to commissioners debate and vote against
needed projects due to financial reasons. And even more exasperating is thinking of the referendum that did not pass. Yet you are now considering directing support to not forprofits over city needs. Make it make sense. Nonprofits commissioners. Thank you for allowing staff and then the city manager
to meet with Kuanas regarding space to operate and help the community. The club originally asked for space across from the art center. However, we did not receive the $110,000 grant because we didn't have a land lease in place by the deadline. After speaking to city staff, we believe the scout house and an area
on its campus would work to continue our mission. If we could put a shedlike structure on the grounds, we could use the scout house when the scouts aren't using it for a community pop-up event to give donated items. We could house these items inside the shed. This would be helpful for those in need, including
foster family, schools, residents who suffer a disaster like a fire or hurricane impacts. Having an agreement with the city will help the club with the next round of grants in 2026. It will help us purchase a new sturdy unit. We have always served a public purpose for children and families in Northport,
providing school supplies, clothing, food for the summer program, books, holiday gifts, and more. We would also like to see if the scouts would like to do joint projects with our club. It's great community service for them, too. If there's an opportunity in the future for a community nonprofit building, Kuanas is very interested in working
with the city for some space in that building. But until then, we would appreciate access to the scout house on his campus. It would free up the space near the art center for the rowing group. Thank you for your consideration. The Kuanas Club of Northport in person. I have Jacqueline Sislo and
Larry Grant. Jacqueline Sislo, president of Kuanis. Thank you for uh giving me the time to speak. Unfortunately, we were one of the finalists for the grant. We lost that last month as we didn't have any legal or any um agreement with the city for
the land. We're not asking you to build us a building. We're not asking you to find a spot, you know, for us. The land's there. It's not being used for anything. We're still going to keep applying for grants. We want to do this.
We're going to do this on our own. Um, the most important thing, it would be nice if we could have a portable and have it where we wanted across from the art center because that allows the public to come in. We can fix that up, get it, you know, put in a few parking
spots, whatever. That would help so we can get the people inside. They can shop for what it is that they need just like they used to. We have the people to do that with. The shed would be great because it would give us extra storage.
We can schedule with the scouts to be able to use the inside when we need or want to. Hopefully, um either one would be great, but this is something that we are trying to do on our own. We've been raising money. We've been applying for grants.
Um, I don't know even with the portables if there's some way the city could take um, you know, for nonprofits that five-year um, code could be removed for nonprofits anyways. That would make a big difference with the portable because
again that would get people inside that they'd be able to get what it is that they need. They wouldn't be settling for what we gave them. But again, storage is great at the scout house. So, either one of those, but we've been doing this all on our own. Um, we've been homeless for
19 months. Um, if you would just consider um, you know, giving us the use of the land, either piece would we'd really appreciate it. All right. Thank you. Commissioner, city manager Larry Grant,
director, Awaken Outreach Center. Just wanted to say thank you so much for all the support that you've given over the last 5 years to Awaken Outreach and coming out and serving our community with us. uh you've allowed us to serve
5,000 to 6,000 families every month through a at least a dozen different outreaches every month. And it's just you're making such an impact in our community. We have
um just such a blessing as in last Thursday and Friday, many of you came out to serve on our Thanksgiving outreach. We've served 1,430 families in two days. That's over 75,000
pounds of food in two days that you blessed all the people in our city with. And that's just incredible. And it's just a blessing to have so many of you in support of us. And the main point
though that I wanted to bring not my appreciation but in the last week over 50 separate people have come to me and were just shocked at the support that you gave our community that you were
there serving and distributing food. They they couldn't believe it. From neighbors coming to get assistance to volunteers to pastors to business owners, leaders of nonprofits, board
members of nonprofits, from anywhere from Pangorta to Bradensson and they were just amazed at how much you all do for our city, for all of our citizens. and just want to thank you for that and let you know how
much of an impact that you are making. And uh also about um the Mullen Center is not that they were unwilling to move there. It would just be terribly impractical and it would cause more problems for this city instead of, you
know, creating a better solution to the problem. But thank you for everything you do. That's >> okay. Thank you. I'll be looking for consensuses. >> You want me to give it a shot? >> Sure.
>> Okay. Thank you, mayor. Um, as much as I would love to house all of our nonprofits in one location, I just don't think that is a doable solution at this point in time. So, I'd like to make three consensuses.
um if you would allow that. The first being to instruct city manager to work with staff and the awakened food pre pantry to explore rehabbing the existing community educational center to repair
deficiencies and to allow the awaken food pantry and outreach center to continue at that location. >> One more time. >> Sure. to instruct city manager to work with staff and the awakened food pantry
and outreach center to explore rehabbing the existing community educational center to repair deficiencies and to allow um the Awaken food pantry and outreach center to continue at that
location. >> Get that, city clerk. >> Yes. Okay, that's our first consensus. Commissioner Dval, >> I'm okay with that. >> I'm a yes. >> I'm a yes. >> I'm a yes. >> Yes. >> All right, that consensus passes.
>> Okay, >> I'm on a roll. >> Go for it. Um so the second would be instruct city manager to work with the senior center to move its operations to the Mullen
center and to also explore that move with either having city staff to manage programming
or the senior centeri continue managing programming. >> Get that. City clerk. >> Can you read that back, please? >> To direct the city manager to work with the senior center to move its operations to the Mullen Center and to explore the move with either city staff managing the
programming or the senior center to continue managing programming. Thank you, Commissioner Dval. >> Yes, sir. Mr. >> Stokes, I'm a yes. >> I'm a yes. >> I'm a yes. >> Yes. >> Wow. Okay. >> Okay. Let's go for two for two for
three. Wow. >> Okay. >> And that consensus has passed. instruct city manager to work with both the art um and staff to work with both the arts center and Kowanas
to find available land for them to locate their operations. >> Get that city clerk. >> Yes. to direct the city manager to work with the art center and the kowanas to find available land for them to locate
their operations. >> I think it's to continue conversations because both of them are underway. So >> you add to include lease agreements, land lease agreements to be worked on. >> Sure. >> You want to give it a shot, city clerk,
or do you want me to try again? to work with the art center and the Kuanas to find available land for them to locate their operations and to draft a land agreement. >> Land lease options. >> Land lease options. >> Something like that.
>> All good. >> Okay. Commissioner Dval. Yes. >> Commissioner Stokes, >> I'm a yes on that. >> I'm a yes. >> I'm a yes. >> And Commissioner Pro. >> All right. Any more consensuses? >> Yes, sir.
>> That's it. Thank you, Mr. Speaks. Great presentation. I know it was a lot of work and a lot of figuring. So, very good. Thank you very much. >> A lot of help from the other departments. >> Oh, absolutely. It's a it's it's a team effort. All right,
moving on to item B 25-3069. Discussion and possible direction regarding an im implementation plan for a special district to fund infrastructure for activity center 6 and 10.
City manager, this be your item. >> Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I am going to turn it over to Deputy City Manager Jason Yarborough to lead us through a presentation and discussion. >> Thank you. >> Good afternoon, Mayor, Commissioners. Thank you for this opportunity. Um the
city commission at the July 23rd uh budget workshop gave uh some consensus about us uh staff working on uh an implementation plan for a special district to provide infrastructure for the northeast part of the city which is
aka activity 6 and 10. And that's how we got here. And uh staff's done a lot of research. We've had we've been working with the various departments that would need to put in infrastructure in six and 10. We've uh worked with the city
attorney's office and outside council. Uh and and now we're back to kind of have a conversation. Um so activity 6 and 10. Uh I'm going to start throwing out some some statistics. Um Michael Marman previously said there were about
1500. So, activity uh activity 6 is actually 1,750 acres and activity center 10 is actually 1,941 acres, but combined they're a little over 3,600 acres. Uh more importantly,
besides their size, which is phenomenal, um they are strategically clustered around our our third interchange. Um, I'm not telling you something you don't know, but for the just for the record, the city commission went through a long long multi-year process to reszone the
city to um uh reszone the city so as to um rebalance our our tax base and move away from over reliance on residential tax base to more commercial industrial. Um, as a as a result of that, six and 10
are kind of like the major cornerstone of rebalancing our tax base away from residential, which is uh and more to commercial industrial like as I'm I'm I'm quoting statistics you probably already have memorized, but on average
currently um uh or prior to the reasonzoning, we were about 8% commercial/industrial. Uh with the reszoning we're about between 16 and 17%. Um we're still not at the ideal which is like 25% but um I
don't think it takes a rocket scientist to drive around Venice or city of Sarasota. And even though we're larger in population, our non-residential development uh is woefully
small compared to those other two cities. even though we're four times the size of Venice and about almost 50% 40 to 50% larger than the city of Sarasota. So there are key things that that need to
happen from an infrastructure perspective in order to make activity C 6 and 10 um fully and optimize develop. Uh first of all would be bringing water and sewer into the heart of those two districts.
There are some things you can do and and and Mr. Mayorman alluded to that. You know, some of the larger parcels may be able to do their own water and sewer plants. Uh it's not ideal. It is a nightmare u from an operations
perspective, but it's doable. Uh when you have hundreds of acres, you can definitely do that. But that's only a portion of activity 6 and 10 centralized water and sewer is ideal. Also um the um the other thing is the besides water and
sewer and other infrastructure we'll talk a little bit more about the interchange itself. The interchange uh is really relying upon um based off of some input we got from the metropolitan planning organization. Rainree and Yorkshire have to be
extended. uh they need to be extended east into Dotto County and they need to be extended further into uh Charlotte County and link up with Veterans so that you have a connectivity corridor. The other thing is we probably will be required to widen those two roads as
well as put in traffic signalization where they cross um Price. So without those road network improvements, the interchange is slim chance it's going to happen. uh in fact it won't happen because we've already been given our our
feedback about that. So so you've got various infrastructures that need to be done and and how do you do that? So special district is is a a good solid plan. Um and staff is recommending and we'll go into more detail but uh a
two-phaseed approach. uh we get started out of the grade immediately as fast as we can with the creation of a a dependent district that's created by the city and then that dependent district would be absorbed by an independent district which would be created by the
state legislature and and we've already seen several of these uh Wellen Park's a perfect example of a state created um uh improvement district uh and you see the good things there coming out of the ground in Wellen Park as a result of that district Um
this uh special district concept um it advances strategic uh pillar three which is economic development and and growth management going backwards. So uh again activity center 6 uh is predominantly commercial industrial and
residential mix. It's about 62% non-residential aka commercial industrial and about 34% with a new resoning. Um high dens high density residential activity center uh 10 is about 87%
uh non-residential aka commercial industrial and about 10% highdensity residential. But but why does it matter? You know I I talked earlier about tax base and moving away from residential. It's not really financially sustainable.
That's one of the reasons why uh the commission at the time made a decision to reszone large swats of land in the city is to move away uh from residential over reliance on residential tax base because it's not really financially sustainable. Um it it's not um Yeah,
it's not. And then the other thing is about 90% of our eligible workforce leaves the city limits to go find jobs. For a city of 100,000, that's weird. It's not normal. It's unusual. Uh you don't want to do that. That's not how
you want to be as a community. I mean, you've got people spending hours and hours in their car. They're not they're not being with their families. They're not volunteer. They're not volunteering in your community. It's just a an unusual way to and and displacement of
focus. So uh we really need to bring the jobs uh into back to Northport and activity 6 and 10 with their full optimized development is the way to do that. One of the ways to do that also we
have a ton of new businesses starting as um Mr. Mayman's stats show, but and and and Commissioner Vice Mayor Langden hit on it is that we don't have vertical buildings for them to grow out of to
grow from their their homebased business into a storefront or to a a a a structure that's separated from their their residence. And so that's one of the things that 6 and10 can do with their with their uh development is to bring uh all kinds of various size
commercial and industrial space that that people can grow into once they they kick off and start off at home. They need a place to grow to. So we need small, medium and large uh commercial industrial uh spots for them, structures for them to to grow into their their
business and take it to the next level. Um, so again, what's needed to activate 6 and 10? Well, the interchange is important, but water and sewer is probably
the most important uh or the top. Um, but uh cuz you could still get some development in 6 and 10 with water and sewer uh brought deep into the heart of those two activity centers. But if you want to optimize and maximize the development of 6 and 10, you're going to
need the interchange. And the interchange, like I said before, you're going to need to extend Yorkshire and Rainree, and you're probably going to need to widen them and then add traffic signalization to where they cross price. So, um, the other thing, uh, like I said before, is water, but you're also going
to probably need, uh, some more robust storm water. If you want to take it off the backs of the development community, you could do a master more robust um storm water master plan and implementation like you would see in Wellen Park. Uh the you're going to need
multimodal um elements improvements and and the special districts will be able to pay for all this. The other thing is like and we're hearing a lot of feedback is for 6 and 10 they want to know about electricity they want to know about the
fiber they want you know like if you were to put in a data center data center needs fast connection to the internet so fiber is the way to do that uh also the other thing is like some of the the manufacturing data centers require electricity so say a data center needs 1 million
megawatts of power that's $25 million bill from Florida Power and Light. U so so these are the various infrastructures. The other thing is activity 6 and 10 is broken up into a lot of many tiny parcels. There are some large parcels and we have some investors
and developers who are gobbling them up and aggregating them. But another thing that the district could possibly do is aggregate by buying um properties, redeveloping, replatting, and then um um partnering with developers to make
things happen because the city, I'm not saying the city should, but it's something to consider. The city may be a better able to aggregate property than individual u investors or run simultaneously with investors at the same time. Um, so we're going to need to
partner with Dodto County and Charlotte County on the beefing up the connectivity to make the interchange happen. Um, the the special district concept is probably the best way that we have the best tool in
the toolbox that we have to do that. So what is a special district? Um it's a limited purpose local government entity. Um it's created to finance, construct. Uh it can also maintain and operate uh assets. Uh it it it has the ability to
levy Avalorum taxes, assessments, non-avalorum and service charges. um uh the uh and it and and it links if if from an assessment perspective, it links back to the property that gets the
benefit. So, uh one of one of the messages we want to stay on target with is the assessment route allows the people who are going to get the most benefit from the infrastructure in 6 and 10 and the interchange, which is the property
owners in six and 10. So the people who are going to get the most benefit should pick up the bill for the infrastructure and that's what uh an assessment based system using special districts would do. Um a dependent district like I said could be created by the city relatively
fast. Um the the the one caveat we have with that you can create a special district relatively fast, but getting it on the tax roles requires you to u do like a uniform method of collection resolution and you would have to do that
by January of the year you're going to put it on the tax roll. That's one of the reasons why when we get further in the the timeline why we wouldn't necessarily be able to do it um this uh in 2026. Um it it uh the only one of the
caveats for a dependent district is it's going because it's created by the city, it's going to have the same limitations on borrowing as the city's charter has. Uh but it doesn't prevent the district that a
deep in a district. It doesn't prevent the city from using that revenue and then going through um court validation processes to explore certificates of participation and traditional bank loans and those kind of things. Um the financial reporting it's very it's the
same thing as you've already seen with your fire district, your your road and drains district and your solid waste district. It's audited with the rest of the city. it it the reporting is incorporated and then uh an independent district. Um the the state legislature
would need to create by special act an independent district and um it has its own board and it uh but one of the benefits is the independent district would not have the uh limitation that our charter has on the ability to
borrow. Uh because it's fully um uh created by the state. It it that limitation isn't necessarily in there. um but it the the um finances would be audited separately and it would be a completely independent entity. However,
there are ways that the city could still be integrated into a an independent district. One of the ways would be uh for an independent district the the city commission can't appoint the entire board, but you could appoint the majority of the board. City Commission
can't remove any of the board members, but if you made four of your own people as part of the four of five, I'm not saying you should do that, but you you get the point of of how that would work. And then third is that you wouldn't be able to um you wouldn't be able to
remove anybody, but you also wouldn't be able to approve their budget. But again, if you appointed four of your own onto the board, you still have control. The other way to do that also is instead of trying to recreate an administrative arm
for an independent agency, you could also uh have that independent agency or independent district contract for the city for like administrative management and operations. So you don't want to you want to make your money go far, you want your money to do capital projects, you don't want your money being spent a lot
of administrative red tape and re reinvent the wheel. We've already got a really good management and we've already got a great administration. You would want to I would recommend that you consider if you go this route that you would u the district independent district would contract with the city
for those and a lot of these I've already hit on so I'm not going to to to re uh recommunicate those. Uh we talked about that um you know from a process perspective how this would work. Um it's all driven by the Florida Florida
statute. Uh we would create we would work on a if the city commission decided to go in this direction on the dependent district we would propose working on an ordinance this uh 2026
and then um it would be y'all would pass that and then you would do a resolution of uniform method of collection which would allow you to put your assessment on the tax bill. Uh and then you would start collecting monies in 2027. At the
same time in 2026, um uh because of the the two-phed approach, um you would um start working with your legislative delegation on drafting a special bill. That special bill will then be heard by the legislative delegation at the and those
de delegation hearings are usually at the end of the year. So you would you would that would be done towards the end fall of of 2026. And then u the the the entire legislation uh action or during legis legislative session would happen
during um um 2027 and then you would start uh seeing money flowing in from the independent district in 2028. Um it could possibly happen in 2027. It all depends um on the calendar uh for that
legislative session. So, you may be you may be wondering why would staff recommend a two-phase approach. Well, the the the the primary reason is to get straight out of the gate and get the money flowing in as soon as possible because you before you start building it, you got to engineer it. You got to
plan it. You got to make sure it's it's all linked up. Um you got to do a methodology. Um and the methodology for for the dependent district would be almost a cut and paste for the independent district. And then uh the the the idea being that in phase two the
independent district would absorb the dependent district and and then you would have not the same limitations that the dependent district has based off of our charter. Now if something unfortunate happened like the independent district didn't get
approved, you would still have money flowing in. You could still do projects. Uh, so it's kind of a a safety in a way, another way of looking at as we looked at it. And I got I'm not going to read all this all this good stuff. And it was also in
the in the memo we talked about previously. Oh, that was attached. I'm not going to go a little bit more into the engagement strategy or communication. It's it's important. The three main things we want to communicate and engagement. First of all, this is
about bringing jobs back into Northport. Second of all, this is about um moving away from an over reliance on residential tax base. And third of all, it is about making sure that growth pays for growth. In other words, the taxpayer out in Wellland Park or the taxpayer in
the legacy uh part of town, they're not going to be on the hook for this. It's going to be for the the property owners that are in activity six and 10 that are going to pay uh the the bill for the infrastructure that's coming in along with grants and and any state appropriations we're able to get.
But that's the important thing. You know, a lot of people get, you know, real sensitive. They like the idea of improvements, but they don't want to pay for it. In this case, you have a and we've had contact with um property owners in six and 10 and they're real excited about the idea of of infra
infrastructure coming out there and making their property more valuable and and the people who benefit the most are the ones that really should pick up the bill and and that's and this method or this uh plan would do that. Um we will need a lot of coordination.
We from the road network perspective uh for the interchange, we'll need to work with DInnesota County. We'll need to work with Charlotte County, but for the legislative coordination and making sure the the independent district gets approved, you know, we're going to have to work with all all three counties and
um and and our and our delegates uh to make sure that that happens if this is the direction the city commission decides to go. Again, I'm not going to uh go back over. This
is just a a kind of a a a um a uh a a regurgitation of what's already been recommended. And then what are the next steps? You know, um staff has a whole list of five consensuses. We'd be
seeking um consensus to direct the city manager and city attorney to draft an ordinance establishing the deepened district in uh in 2026. And then uh this um another consensus uh for the city for uh the city commission to consider directing the city manager and city
attorney to prepare a resolution uh for the uniform method of collection which would put it on the tax bill uh for fiscal year 2027. The third consensus staff will be seeking direction on is for the city manager direct the city
manager to develop and advance a legislative concept coordinating with the Florida legislative delegation and the city's contracted lobbyists uh for the 2027 regular legislative session uh to create an independent special district with merging language. In other
words, absorbing the dependent district into the independent district. Uh and then fourth um staff will be seeking consensus to direct the city manager to develop the assessment methodology for the proposed districts. And then finally, um staff will be seeking
consensus to direct the city manager to seek assistance from Sarasota, Dotto, and Charlotte County on the legislative action to create the independent district as well as whatever is needed for the um uh I75 interchange uh potentially. And with that,
thank you for your time and I'm here to answer any questions to the best of my ability. >> Happy to lead off on this one. Um, great presentation. Um, if we are, if there was ever a way or we ever found
ourselves in a position to set the course for this city for the next 50 years, it is this right here. If we're going to have any chance of maintaining property tax rates
anywhere near where they are now and not experiencing double and triple the property taxes, this is the project that's got to get done. leaving it to the property owners who
are out there to cobble together a special district. It's doable. It's certainly been done before. God knows how long it would take. Certainly beyond my years on the deis and probably my years on this
earth. So I would say that controlling your own destiny is the direction to go here. this if there was an example of how how to do it. So growth pays for growth. This is
how to do it because it will assess the property owners within that geographic area and as it should look at what it's done. You cited well in part perfect example. Okay. They're they are a true independent district.
Yet they are not controlled by the developer, but they control their employees control the board until such time as it's mostly built out and can turn over and be run by, you know, a board of property owners. If we were to
leave this in the hands of speculators and developers, I I I don't think that's as wise as doing this as a city. Um, and I like the idea that in the early stages, we set up the structure. We start to generate tax revenues for it.
We're bound by the same financial constrictions as a city that we are presently. And at a point down the road, a year or so out, when we go to the legislature, you know, if in fact this becomes an independent district, then it'll have its own board. It'll be
regulated. There's a whole lot of reporting processes that go on, but this is the way to get this done. Short of this, there is no other way. The city, taxpayers in Northport, in their wildest dreams, we could not
support the cost of developing these two activity centers on our backs. There is no way on God's green earth. It's got to be done by the developers and property owners who own the land in activity center 6 and 10. That's the way to get it done. I'm totally supportive of this
and and every one of the consensuses staff's looking for. So I yield. >> Vice Mayor, >> for the first time in five years, I am optimistic
that we're really going to be able to put this city financially on a road to a much brighter future. And I really want to compliment you, Deputy City Manager, and everyone who worked on
this proposal. This is and and I won't repeat Commissioner Stokes, but but this is the work we have to get done and sooner rather than later. you know, for some time now, um,
I've I've sat on the Metropolitan Planning Organization for about four years, and in the time I've been involved, we've been playing chicken and egg with the Florida Department of Transportation regarding what comes
first, the interchange or infrastructure. And the reality is F DOT is not going to move on building that interchange until this city starts improving the
infrastructure. So there is no choice here. This is something we have to do. The special district is, as far as I can tell, not only the best way to go, but the only way to go
without having the burden of the cost of infrastructure falling on the city citywide as Commissioner Stokes mentioned. So, I am delighted with this. Whatever you need, you know, let's get it done. We've got
to get this done sooner rather than later. and thank you so much for the work and for the presentation. It's terrific. >> Thank you, Mayor. >> Commissioner Dval. >> Thank you, Mayor. Um, included in your excuse me, included
in your presentation, there was a a memorandum. >> Yes, sir. Uh there's a paragraph that says, "In contrast, an independent district created by special act of the state is not bound by the city's debt
limitations, allowing access to more traditional capital financing methods, including revenue bonds." And my question is those revenue bonds would they be paid for by
the special district, the independent district or by all of the taxpayers of the city? >> It would be on the backs of the dis of the independent district which would be localized to activity six and 10 property owners. It wouldn't be
citywide. And if if I could interject like in Wellen Park, literally there are master um master debt obligations and then individual areas and zones. So that those activity
centers may well break down and there are separate finances, but always tied to the property owners within that district so it doesn't fall on the backs of the rest of the city. >> Correct. Yes, sir. >> All right. Thank you. I had to ask. >> No. Yeah. It's good good ask excellent
question and that's the message we want to get out. >> This is not on the backs of all the all all the taxpayers of of of Northport. This is localized to the property owners and activities 6 and 10 >> who are going to get the most benefit from the from the
>> Could I ask >> because now we're talking Dotto County, >> right? >> Charlotte County, >> right? What's our best bet as to are we going to work together or is it going to be a knocking
of heads? We want this and we won't give in until we get >> We have an excellent working relationship with Charlotte County. I mean, we're in Sarasota, but we have more in common from some perspectives with Charlotte County than we do with
Sarasota. And we have an excellent working relationship. City Manager Fletcher has an awesome relationship with uh county administrator, county manager, uh Hector Flores. Um so, uh I don't think it's going to be knocked down. I I think both counties want the
interchange to happen. >> Um they're both going to have to pony up money to increase their portion because we can't take money outside and let it go out. We can't spend on things in their county. We can only stay inside our sandbox. So, they're going to have to pony up money, but we have an
excellent relationship. I mean, um it's taken 90 forevers, but you've got um uh the Cranberry Hillsboro uh improvements that was a 50-50 cost share between us and the Charlotte County. Um we play
well together and I don't I don't foresee it being uh a posturing or you know, you know, my way or the highway. That's just not how we play ball with those two counties. >> Thank you,
>> Commissioner Pro. >> Thank you, Mayor. Um, my question is, um, how is Do we have to do both, independent, independent district? >> No, you don't. Uh, it it was just um
staff's way to get the money flowing as fast as possible. Otherwise, you're going to have probably have to wait till uh 2028 if you just do the independent or or if you don't do the independent, you know, you um the other thing is it's
a fail safe in case something wacky happens up in Tallahassee, you would you can control the dependent district in its formation. You're at the whims of others with the independent. So, it it allows you to still be able to move
forward. Now you would still like I said before I mean you have some you would have to explore going through a court validation process for like certificate of participation or or other financing mechanisms if you just use the defendant but it is doable. The other thing I I
forgot to mention was it districts can levy millillage. I'm not saying you should do that, but they can. With a dependent, your millage is mixed with the city's millillage for a total cap of 10 um 10 mills. Whereas an independent
district has its own millage independent of your city cap of 10. It would be on top of your your cap of 10. Good point. I I do think we putting the card before the horse. Um and the reason is I'll be very clear. We keep referencing Wellen
Park as an example, but the city did not um have to create pendant district in the Wellen Park. Am I correct? >> Uh the city had to approve it. Yes. >> Yeah. I mean, we were, if I remember right, I mean this happened 20 plus
years ago, but the city was part of it of the approval process if I'm not mistaken. I mean, at the end of the day, it required a special legislative act up in Tallahassee, but um Yeah. Yes. So
there especially in district um activity center six there are number of homes are built and people live there. Are they going to be they probably >> I think that I think that would be a decision that you are going to have to decide. Maybe you want to carve out
because you already carved out a part of six to remain single family residential. Maybe you want to carve them out, but they won't be getting sewer either, and they won't be getting centralized water. And that you may want to have a we may want to have a conversation with that
neighborhood. Maybe they don't want water, maybe they don't want sewer, and maybe you carve them out and you don't make them part of that. Um, you know, the these are nuances that will have to be worked out. I just think that the current residents that live there would
be paying for the services that might not be of interest to them. Uh and uh and in fact they already paid impact fee for that and and a lot of them will be paying for
something that they might not even enjoy or use um because this is not going to happen in a year or two. But if they sell it or they move out. So my question is um how do we go about those people? We have to respect
>> easy easy you can create uh you know um you can make a decision that you're going to carve them out and if somebody wants to buy in a later date they pay their water and sewer capital connection charges plus any other additional charges that uh y'all deem necessary in
order to make the district whole uh and have them buy in at a later date. I mean I mean there's a lot of there's a lot of different ways to skin this cat. It doesn't have to be one way or this way or the highway. There's a lot of different ways to handle it. Um you know
you probably want to carve out that remember that one neighborhood where you left the zoning um residential. You probably don't want to include them because they're pro, you know, anyway they're not zoned for that. their zone residential and and you may want to or
but before you do that, you may want to have a conversation with the property owners in there and see if they're interested. I'm just trying to figure out um we I guess we're not showing the entire picture and the question is the real question is why are we rushing this
in um to do that um and we at the earlier presentations we were told that there's a 240 acres uh already owned by one >> 400 >> 400 >> oh okay that's even better it's 400
acres that is owned by uh one developer. >> Correct. >> So they they might want to create something on their own or they will have to be >> compelled to do something on their own because >> I'm sure they have some some something in plans
>> uh to do that because 400 acres is is a lot. >> Absolutely. And it's like we are going and subsidizing again some developers and putting the tax burden on you know on on someone else but uh the real
question is what is the rush to do that? Um well you can choose maybe you don't want to bring water and sewer out to activity 6 and 10. You think somebody's going to do it on their own. You're still going to have to make road network improvements if you're going to have the third interchange
happen. It's got to be paid for somehow. So maybe you don't want to maybe you don't want to bring water and sewer out there. Maybe you want the district just to make road network improvements that are going to make the interchange happen and you going to rely on free market forces to bring water and sewer.
It's an interesting way of doing it, but you could do it that way if that's the way you want to do it. That compels me to think maybe we doing this as a city uh to have u property owners to unload whatever they own and someone else will
be buying them and do a complete revamping of the area. I'm not sure. But my real question is uh do we have a master plans for activities centers six and 10? >> No. No, we don't have a master plan for
six and 10. I mean, I'll ask uh Atlanta, Miss Elena Ray, development services director, come down, but uh we don't have a master plan because at the end of the day, whatever you design, market forces and property owners have their own ideas.
>> Good afternoon. So, a master plan really is intended to demonstrate what could go in an area. Um we have we we worked very hard and very long to establish
activity center 10 and modify activity center 6 through the comprehensive plan and uldc process. We talked at length about doing a master plan for activity center 6, activity center 10, or one
master plan for all of it. At the end of the day, we know where Yorkshire is going. It It's already there. It just needs to be widened. We know where Rainree is. We know where Hillsboro and Veterans are.
We know the interchanges are going in. At the end of the day, it is a market issue as to exactly where in activity center 6 and 10 certain uses happen. We already have
some larger parcels in certain areas of activity center 10 that would be conducive to development now if they had water, sewer, and electricity. Activity Center six,
a third of that is already taken by one owner who has his own um vision for what he wants to do. In that instance, a master plan would be redundant.
That person already owns all of that land. They have their plan that they want to do in activity center 10. really we just need the infrastructure and the development will come. Um we already
know what uses are allowed. We've left it very open as to what uses are allowed from a an industrial and uh commercial perspective because we essentially need everything. We don't need just one type of use or
two types of uses. We need everything out there. So a master plan would would really at the most give you a bubble that says all of these uses can go in these areas, but we already have that with the comprehensive plan.
>> Since that developer owns majority of that activity center six, doesn't they have doesn't he have any plans or what? He has to have some plans. So his what he would have to do
at this point to develop out there is he would have to put his in his own self-contained sewer and and water system >> or run lines back to >> or run lines back which is extremely expensive. And when you're running lines back all of those other properties in
between now they have access to that. So there is a there is a a benefit to a special district putting it in and then
those uh those properties as they develop they're they're still going to be paying impact fees um to to hook up um and for improvements. Um, so the advantage to doing the special district
is to get the funding to do that in advance because that spurs the development faster. if a developer is going into a parcel on 41 that already has access to um water and sewer or um
to the interchanges at Toledo Blade and and Sumpter where they already have water and sewer or to an interchange or property in Charlotte County that already has water and sewer. they're going to be much more apt to go to one
of those places than they are to AC 6 or 10 because it's going to cost them a whole lot more. But if there's a district in place that funding is already coming in, we're able the district is able to put in some of those utilities. It will spur that development
to occur much faster so that they will develop there rather than going to Charlotte County or Lee County. And then we the district or the city um is still going to be collecting the impact fees um when those properties
individual properties hook up. >> I just I do understand independent district directly benefits the city which is a good thing. Let them have whatever they want to do. Let the market dictate. uh I just as a city to
interject and do some something and stimulate that area and paying uh just dependent district I'm not not really in favor of that. So, and there could be a couple reasons why
we are rushing to do this to to have um property owners to unload whatever the inventory they have so that that could be consolidated with certain specific developers or um doing a favor for that
specific developer or for that matter any developer. Um I just >> Yeah, staff has had no conversations about doing a favor for the developers. That's not happened. We have received when we go and market as part of economic development, we market, do you
have water and sewer there? Do you have power there? Do you have fiber there? And and our answer is no. And then tumble weeds come across and and that we don't we lose contact with those people. So, uh we have had no conversations about doing favors for the development
community. So that brings me to this question and I was asking that question earlier about uh utilities um and that could be I don't know if you're uh if you can answer those questions uh for the water water man we do have water man
going along the price to an activity center six correct it just needs to be extended and >> yeah I mean it it kind of terminates u where the or will terminate with the charter school but I don't know if it's enough size to depends on what came in
six and 10. We also have 100 acres of of utility land up in that area uh that was envisioned for another utility site. Um that that may be an option as well. Um yeah, so that that may be an option as
well. >> How much expensive or how what are we talking about in terms of uh amount of >> I don't know. It depends. You tell me. You tell me what's going to come in six and 10. I'll tell you how much it's going to cost. probably about 60 million if I had to go off the top of my head. >> Just the water,
>> water and sewer. Uh and and some some road road stuff. Just first blush. Don't hold me to it. Uh that's just first blush. But if you can tell me what's going to come in six and 10, I can tell give you a whole lot better number. We don't know.
>> We don't know. Yes. Okay. Thank you, >> Commissioner Stokes. >> Yeah. Um, I don't know where that the idea that this is like all of a sudden some bumrush deal. I I don't know. I I kind of think that this planning's been in the works for years and years and
years, well before the ULDC and comp plan work and all the efforts that have gone into aligning this city in a position to be able to take advantage of these two activity centers. Um, you know why the
rush? Well, I don't want my taxes to go up anymore. I don't want to have to keep paying and more and more people keep moving here residentially and the cost of providing all those services continue to fall in the backs of us residential
taxpayers. So, delay it 5 years, delay it 10 years, we're just going to keep paying more and more and more and more and more. And there's no denying it. It's going to happen. The answer is to allow and to promote and to nurture the
development in these two activity centers. The sooner the better. Should have happened a long time ago, but it didn't. Special districts are the way to go here. And dependent districts, okay?
It'd be nice to think that a dependent district could do all the things that an independent district could do. Not so. Okay. Not so. especially in the area of financing its infrastructure. There's only so much you can do as a dependent district. You are bound by the
city's borrowing limits and everything else. Okay? So, it makes it that much more difficult. An independent district can do what it needs to do. It needs to financially be sound. It needs to be able to service its debt that it incurs,
but it falls on the backs of the property owners within that those two activity centers within that special district. And as as deputy city manager said, we can do a lot of things to try to accommodate some of those residential property owners in in and around those
activity centers. But the reality is those two activity centers are the salvation for this city. Again, if we don't, if we future commissions choose not to do this, that's fine. Plan on doubling your property taxes
because you can't sustain the population growth with tax revenues from residential taxpayers. It is not sustainable. We are heading into the hole. Between all our CIP projects and all the costs of day-to-day
operations, this city cannot survive on 9 10 11 12% commercial tax base. It can't. So, is there a rush? Damn right there is. Is it something we all of a sudden woke up yesterday and decided to do? No way,
Commissioner. This has been in the plans for a long time. Carefully thought out, carefully planned out. It takes the ability to see the big picture and understand what the unintended consequences are of delaying this process because there is no other
solution. To sit around and wait for a bunch of developers to figure out what and how they're going to fund their infrastructure is a dream. You'll be dead. I'll definitely be dead, but you'll probably be dead. the the city needs to take this bull by the horns and
get these two areas developed because otherwise I can tell you F dot they'll find plenty other places to spend money and it'll be goodbye Yorkshire exchange and without that we're in deep deep dudoo. So, I'm telling you this, if
somebody can think this through in a better way, fine. The only people that aren't grasping this are the people who haven't spent the time and thought this thing through because give me alternatives. I'm all wide open to all the alternatives. Nobody has any alternatives except
we just we let's not do anything. And look at how well that worked for us on Price Boulevard. So, I yield. Commissioner Dval. >> Thank you, Mayor. Um, Deputy Manager,
I'm going to use a an example here. In Syracuse, New York, right now, they're building a chip plant. It's going to employ 5,000 workers. >> Yes, sir. >> That's what we need. Okay. We have
restaurants coming in. uh you know we're working on workforce housing the hospital SMH you know that that's that's the biggest thing we've got economically coming in >> for now you know for jobs
do we have any companies you know industries that are interested in saying if we get this interchange, we get this infrastructure,
we will be there. Do we have any that are currently? >> Yes. >> That we can name >> I can't name non-disclosed. I can't >> Okay. Yeah. >> Yes. >> Yeah. I see this as as you know it's
it's that circle you know the you know we want the interchange state wants us to have the the water and sewer uh I the state doesn't care about the utilities they care about the road network and the connectivity uh but you would have an interchange with nothing really h
happening around it because there would be no water and sewer there to make it happen so it's kind of a that yeah they kind of come together yeah The state doesn't care about water and sewer. The state cares about the road network. And >> yeah, I was just trying to look at it
from the from the idea of if we had, you know, the names of some uh industries that were willing to come in, you know, then we can go to the state and say, "Hey, get this infrastructure for the interchanges built a little faster."
>> The state revenue for the state. Besides, >> I apologize, uh, Commissioner. the states told us. >> Yeah. Um we've got software companies and data um >> technology research and development.
Um and yeah, high-tech research and development are the big ones. Um high very highpaying jobs. >> That's what I want to hear. >> Yeah. >> Thank you. >> But the state or the metropolitan planning organization has already told given us our marching orders. They've
told us specifically what roads need to be extended and um there there's a high likelihood they also need to be widened as well as traffic signalization. So, we've been given our merchant orders what it's going to take in order to land the interchange. >> City clerk, any public comment?
>> There is none. >> None. Okay. I'll be looking for some consensuses. I'll kick us off. I'd like a consensus to direct the city manager and the city attorney to draft
an ordinance establishing a city created dependent special district for commission consideration in early 2026. >> You got that city clerk? >> Yes.
>> Commissioner Dval. Okay. From from the information that was given, it was going to be CDD first and then the independent special district. >> Sorry. Um
the way you worded it, it sounded like you were asking for the independent special district first. >> No, I said create a city. create a dependent >> special district. >> Okay. All right. Yeah,
>> my mistake. >> Still need a yay or nay, sir. I'm a yes. >> I'm a yes. >> I'm in. >> Mr. Pro, he's a no.
>> Second. You can more consensuses. >> Oh, go again. >> I don't have them in front of me. That's why if you can They're right there on your sheet. >> Put your glasses on. >> Nice little short. I'll do I'll I'll do
consensus too. Direct the city manager and city attorney to prepare a resolution of intent to use the uniform method of collection under Florida statute 197.3632 for implementation beginning of fiscal
year 27 uh for commission consideration. >> Do you have that city clerk? >> Yes. >> Okay. >> Commissioner Dval. >> Yes. >> Stoam. I'm a yes. >> I'm a yes. >> Question is that for independent.
>> That's option number two on your sheet. >> Yes. Yes. I'm reading it. But to prepare resolution of intent to use the uniform method of collection under floor 197. I have not read the statute. >> That would need to be done regardless of whether it's dependent or independent district.
>> Um. Yes. >> All right. >> I'll do a consensus number three. Okay. >> Uh to direct city manager to develop and advance a legislative concept coordinating with the Florida legislative delegation and the city's
contracted lobbyist for the 2027 regular session to create a state authorized independent special district with merging language and and I think that's specific to the independent district
assum Assuming the dependent correct district, >> I'm going to start off with you, Commissioner Pro. >> Yes. >> Good. Because that's what you wanted. Thank you. >> I'm a yes. >> I'm a yes. >> I'm a yes. >> Yes.
>> All right. >> Any more? >> Yep. Authorize city manager to develop the assessment methodology for the proposed districts. That needs to be done. >> Got that, city clerk? >> Yes. Commissioner Dval.
>> Yes. >> Yes. I'm a yes. >> I'm a yes. >> Yes. >> All right. I'll do the last one. Okay. Authorize city manager to seek assistance from Sarasota, Dninnesota, and Charlotte counties on legislative action to create the independent special
district, including support related to its future York Shire Range Interchange of State 75. >> Good with that one, too. >> Okay. Commissioner Deval. >> Yes. >> Yes. Yes. Yes. >> Yes. >> All right,
>> commissioners. Thank you. >> Thank you very much, sir. It was a great presentation. >> Thank you, >> city clerk. Do we have any general public comment? >> We're out of here at 133. >> Great.