City Richie City Council workshop Friday, January 23rd, 26. To the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice
for all. [clears throat and cough] >> I guess Mr. Clerk, can I have a role, please? >> Today. >> Yep. Today. >> Mayor John Cooper >> here. Vice Mayor Chris Mayer >> here. >> Councilman Robert Huard >> here. >> Councilwoman Lisa Burke >> here. >> Councilwoman Christine Sullivan >> here.
>> City Manager Don King >> here. >> And city attorney Nancy Meyer. Let the record show that city attorney Nancy Meyer is not present at this meeting. >> Thank you. Um first up we got public comment. Um public participation is encouraged. If you're addressing the
council, please step to the podium and state your name and address for the record. Please limit your general comments to three minutes for comments on action items. Uh we don't have any action items tonight, but we do have agent items. Um please limit comments to three minutes on the current topic. Please limit your conversations while sitting in the audience during council business. Silence your cell phones as to
not interfere with everyone's ability to hear the comments of both public and the council. Um I do have one signed up uh Ed Cowan. Is that correct? >> Comm. Yes, sir. >> Comm welcome. >> Thank you. Um mayor, council people, uh I'm Ed K. I'm kind of the rabbit in the
background. I've been uh coaching by been doing and I thank you for your uh uh your support that you've been giving him and also giving me I know he's brought to you guys to have me help with some RFP stuff uh to do what we started
over 12 years ago here I I am just give your address >> okay 2384 Santa Cruz Avenue Clearwater >> thanks 7764 [clears throat] sorry mayor you're good >> uh just to give you all a heads up so 12 years ago 15 years ago, we started down a path to re really develop the coast.
I'm just here to fully support that. I think you really need to look at your form-based uh permitting and how you guys go about what the next steps are going to be because you have several big players that are looking at you all to invest some money here. And I think that if you show them that you're coming
forward with the CRA credits that you guys are using and some form-based stuff, I think you'll find that you're going to have some investment here in the area that like I said started really about 15 years ago uh when I worked for Pasco County. So with that, anything you guys need of me, I'm a I'm an avid
volunteer. I won't cost you nothing. I'll be honest with you and straightforward. If there's something you need done, let me know. >> Thanks, Ed. Appreciate it. I appreciate that price. I like that. Um, that's all the science I have for general comment. Is there show hands? >> I signed this paper here.
>> Wait. So, I've got you for the second one. You want you want to go down? >> Wait to comment after the >> You can comment now and you can comment then as well if you want. >> Okay, I'll wait till later. >> Okay. Anyone else? Show hands. I can comment. Okay. See, I bring it back to uh our first order council business. Um, number
one, guest speaker Paul Lef France, benefits of a theme. And I think he's joining us via Zoom. >> Do a little intro. >> Yeah. Joe Buff, you want to introduce? Absolutely. >> Yeah. So, I just wanted to first I want to thank everyone uh for for being here. Uh, it's a special day for all of us,
uh, especially Adam Thomas and the team of Sports Coast as well as Richard Jenkins. Um, for decades, many of us have wanted to see positive development on our waterfront. through a variety of shortfalls, development has been slow. We have a council that is now willing
and welcome and incentivize current property owners and businesses as well as current developers which we're blessed to have uh for future developers and entrepreneurs. This can be done many ways such as CRA funds, marketing upgrade codes, tax incentives, and so
on. We are working on that now. Uh we're doing a lot of landscaping on the 19 corridor. We got new signs and we're in the progress of of putting together a place of people. So, we need to check that out. So, what we're going to discuss today is going to be kind of like icing on a cake.
So, many of us believe that providing our waterfront district with a theme or a unique image that is fun and inviting. We will create an environment that everyone will want to be a part of. This will also help marketing the district the same as branding. The positive
growth of Port Richie's waterfront district is obviously of great benefit to all West Pasco and neighboring communities. This will create a destination, a place that everyone will want to be a part of, a great place for festivals and a vacation destination for
tourism that can generate the income the city and the county needs. We will see today the difference of having a hotel versus condos or apartments. Not that we don't need those, we need those as well. But it's important to have hotels if you're going to have a destination. The development of our waterfront district
was not just a place for our residents to enjoy and a place to be proud of, but also a source of revenue the city requires for developing infrastructure. And now with the looming tax structure changes possible, loss of residential property tax that could be a matter of
survival for the city. So council is in the process of installing new landscaping on the highway quarter which I I just said hopefully a nice splash pad for waterfront park, new public docks, replica still at house and pressure park and everything that that the families
would would welcome when they come here. I think to help with growth there needs to be more available park public parking with shuttle service as we grow which we have discussed and this will increase the property value in the district and stimulate growth. We have with us today
per zoom uh a gentleman with decades of success as a design builder with acclaimed recognition worldwide. He is sought after by developers and hotel execs everywhere. He has six successful television series and is also a
musician. And I'd like to please welcome Paul to France. Paul, floor is yours. >> Thank you very much. And uh it's the first time I've been called a a magician instead of a musician, but uh I'll take magician. That sounds pretty cool, too.
Uh like to say uh first uh thanks for Bob Hubard for we had wonderful chats before um just for having me on today. uh Don King, the new city manager. We haven't actually met yet, but uh I'm looking forward to having conversations
with you. And I believe uh Adam Thomas, Donna's friends Adam Thomas and George Nicholas uh are are logged in today as well or they're there in person. This is an odd thing because normally I can't see anyone, but everyone can see me. So that's [clears throat] kind of normal
for me. And then uh Mike and Tim Malo, I think the owners of Catches are are there as well. Just uh we had previous conversations. Just want to say hi to them, too. Um, I think what we're starting with here, am I able to share my screen? Do I have permission to do that?
>> Yes. >> All right, let me uh sharing is not turned on. So, I'm sending a request. >> Oh, he's send a request to share. He's allowed. [snorts]
>> We're trying [clears throat] to fix that camera so you can see the council, too. Oh, good. Well, >> so bear with us. >> No problem. No problem. Yes. As soon as that sharing is ready, then let me know because I'm going to start with uh just
kind of firing over a Google Earth image of the of the area. So, kind of what I've started with here. So, the idea screen just yet. >> I wait here. There we go. There we go. Okay. Okay. So, we're just going to kind
of do go to a Google Earth here. Can you guys see? What do you guys >> We still see you. >> You still just see me. All right. One second here. There we go. And
>> there's coming. >> There we go. All right. So, let me just fire this up. There. All right. Can you guys see that? the image of uh >> there there it is coming in.
>> Yeah, it might be a slight delay. Okay, you guys can you guys see the uh the image? >> Yeah. >> of the All right. So, we're starting with this this kind of central area. So, the kind the way I kind of verbalize this in meetings such as this is to kind of put a proverbial mold on the table.
So, what I've worked on is this entire boat launch area. I've not touched the waterfront as of yet, but because the main purpose and everything we discussed is I believe right back here is where the is where the city owns the property uh toward the back near the highway and
there were discussions about kind of getting this land here where the bait shop is. So, everyone kind of familiarized with this particular neck of the woods? >> Yes. Is that fair enough? >> Good. So, so I'm going to show you a
concept now of of a parking structure that doesn't feel like a parking structure and utilizing this entire area as kind of like the catch all that kind of brings everybody in. That really kind of sets the tone
for the area. So, I'm going to share my other screen now. And uh let's make sure everyone can see this. Let me know when you see that. >> Not yet. We We still see the old image
compressed. >> Well, it's going to space and back. We'll give it a second here. a new screen. >> Is that coming through? >> We're there. >> Awesome. Okay. So, the image we're seeing here is the existing kind of
waterfront which is uh I haven't touched that yet because I have a lot of questions there. But what we are seeing is right back here. Can you see my cursor? I'm going to make sure this is coming through as I'm talking.
>> Yep. >> All right. Right. So what we got in in kind of the original proposal was this very large kind of parking structure. So the idea is that that's where everyone goes not just uh so not just people
coming to the waterfront uh anyone going to the hotel anyone coming to the restaurants there is a unified centralized parking structure that also looks awesome. And so the concept is that from the
front of this parking structure is to create this whole this whole area is to create like a prominade, right? So if we're looking down I think it's Bay View Street, you know, everyone see this? Okay. >> Mhm. >> How quickly is it changing here? That's good. So driving in and the concept of
pulling in tourism, we want to have visually catching, visually striking prominads, you know. So the idea is that we have created this multi-purpose area. So we'll start with the parking garage here. So this is was as I'm changing my
screen. Is it kind of coming through like as I'm turning or is it it'll lag? >> I think it's keeping up with you. Seems to be. We're looking at the parking structure now. >> Good. So we got our parking structure. This is where everyone's going to be parking even boats with trailers using
the launch. But the idea is that this is becomes the very first thing that's visible from the highway. So we kind of scan back here. We've got Port Richie. We've got, you know, our entrances into the parking structure down below here, right? So you can see the the back lane
way. And this, you know, all, like I said, this is a mold on the table. There's a lot of things we can change. We have an upper area. Everything is shaded from the sun. [snorts] But this leads to now as we kind of come down, I'll give you the overview here. So we've created
these structures. So coming off the front kind of rep really eye-catching kind of representing the waves coming off the parking structure, we have this this kind of large, you know, uh swooping structure
for shade. And the idea is that this the minute you leave this area, whether you're catching a shuttle to a hotel or whether you're going to the restaurant, the area also functions uh as shaded areas for like farmers markets. Uh if
you go down to this main area here, you can see very eye-catching. We've got we've got food trucks, which is revenue generating. We have vendor spaces. And so all of this kind of I'm just going to now kind of just walk through this a little bit here.
And so there's kind of a system to the queue for people wanting to use the boat launch that doesn't affect anything. But as we can kind of see here, you look up through this structure and we've got vendors, but we've, you know, there was
a the one of the inventions was about having this amphitheater, but you can see like it's just really kind of eye-catching all the way through. Underneath here, we've got this little amphitheater. We've got tons and tons of space for vendors, for mar for events.
You know, we kind of spin around here. You can see we got a we got a concert going on underneath. So, this kind of and this is before I've touched the waterfront, right? So, you know, we really want that, you know, we
really want to be able to draw people in from the water as well. Uh, I'm just going to change my perspective here a little bit just so I can uh walk through this without it being so zoomed in. Everyone following so far? Is it making sense? >> Yeah.
>> Right. So So this is just it's something that is eye-catching. It's something that uh that that works with this kind of flow of traffic. We have this center roundabout here. So this this land that this is on is uh so this this is heading toward
where the bait shop is right now. The bait shop is like right behind this, you know, right right where these palm trees are in this area. >> But as we kind of go underneath here, we can see exiting from the parking garage. And again guys, this is the whole point of this is just to show use of this
space and you know what would draw people out. There's tons of ideas we can discuss. Like I said, this is the mold on the table. So, I just threw some structures in around like to show developments. Uh not condos as we were saying, but more uh you know, that can be the hotel there. You know, I know
that uh we've got uh you know, some some ideal locations for a hotel. Shade structures everywhere. Just like a real, you know, when you leave this, you're not go you're not when you're going to a hotel, but you're parking in a parking structure. You want it to feel like, you
know, it's a tourism destination the minute you leave. something as utilitarian as a parking structure. That that's that would be my goal here. And so everything is just really beautified, you know, as you kind of walk through. This is multi-purpose. We can do anything here. We farmers markets, we
can have flea markets, we can have, you know, specialized events. You know, these could be rented. These areas could be rented for wedding venues. You know, just all kinds of area of ways that we can uh utilize this space. So, and remember this this is this existing
space right now. I mean, where this whole large section is here, this right now is is simply just where uh you know, cars with with boat trailers are kind of parking, right? It's just kind of a wasted space as we kind of come through
here. >> Can you explain Can you explain where the boat trailers will park? >> You're mike, please. >> Where the boat trailers will park? Yeah. So the so conceptually when you're coming in there's a queue on the far side here, right? So I'm just going to
kind of zoom up here quickly. So as you can see, you know, we'd have a queue here. Then the, you know, as both vehicles are spinning around, they they're backing in. But now you have a vehicle with a long trailer. And so the concept is that back here in the parking
structure, the lower level is specifically made for parking of of cars with trailers. And again, there's a lot there's a lot to fine-tune here, but as far as just a a to have a concept together of how
you're not having this clutter, you know, this this parking structure is the catchall for everything. And that's, you know, as well as it being something that's visually attractive. But this is where you go to park and then you're then you walk you're walking back to the boat. Now there are some elements here
that have yet to be added in um such as like the you know right now we have our public washrooms and you know kind of have like a just a loose concept of a shape something that's again eye-catching you know looking from this you know this this structure here could
be you know something that would be this would be like in that last 15%. I think Donna had shared that I was like you know kind of 85% done. I'm a little more than that, but again, it's just showing the possibilities. So, restrooms at the
front, but then there's still all kinds of opportunities here to add elements because we've got lots of space and in, you know, once we kind of figure out, you know, just where the where the rest of this is
going to go because the idea of creating this boardwalk community like other areas, you know, this kind of starts right down here on the on the boardwalk here and then extends down to other areas. You know, there's a kind of a structure in the back over there that could be a
hotel kind of idea, you know, going either way. Um, but we're kind of just, like I said, we're just kind of centralizing in this section right here. But this is So, there's also the idea of having like shuttles or bike paths that can, you know, like creating these
prominods that go to each individual section. Um, you know, there's a lot to discuss there when it comes to, you know, what what everyone else is thinking of doing because, you know, it's not you can't just throw bike lanes through the center of someone else's
property. You know, you want it to kind of align with what's being built. So, that kind of stuff will all develop as it goes. But the idea of having this this kind of uh the boardwalk that follows the waterfront that you know kind of encompasses the whole area in a loop um where you could have the like I
said you can have like the shuttles you can have bike paths you know there's there's all kinds of possibilities but I mean for the most part what we're kind of taking in here again in this mold on the table is just developing this area
to be able to create just taking what we have and be able to utilize the space without even changing roadways or anything just just actual proper infrastructure. you can create something that is uh absolutely going to be a draw
you know and that and that all begins in my opinion with leaving you know to make this work you know EV vehicles are are plugging in everything flows out of this this this kind of rear structure and to [clears throat] service
the entire area which I think is a really smart way to do things um to really minimize traffic and make it really easy to get in and out But then the rest of it, you know, plays off really, really well without uh crazy traffic congestion worries. [clears throat] Um,
and like I said, there's all kinds of ways we can adjust and play, but this mold on the table just kind of gives a, you know, a very strong visual, a very strong kind of idea that you can we can have all we can create something just
amazing in this space that's going to draw people out. you know, uh there's also other opportunities within uh the area, particularly with uh you know, areas where the city maybe already owns it. Um or we can do, you know, maybe this particular venue down here with a
little mini amphitheater. I mean you can see here this you know this this can be this this is fantastic for just for not large not large uh you know concerts for instance that we could create another another
section another area where it's a you know much larger amphitheater. But as far as uh any public speaking venues you know small musical you know events you can kind of get an idea how it would be a great little drawing place. Um,
and there's, like I said, there's all kinds of opportunities to add uh other other elements to this that are going to draw people in, but for the most part, this takes what we have and shows you
what can be done in that space. And I really am looking forward to creating this waterfront portion, right? Because right now, this is our existing boat ramp. Everyone kind of recognizes that. [clears throat] And uh adding to this so that you know we have you know more slips uh the
ability to have larger you know uh larger vessels that are leaving from here and having this set this this existing dock kind of align with this really beautiful focal point and maybe having a spot out on the edge of the water with a structure out there as
well. um you know mimicking you know again a draw that kind of pulls you out onto the dock area even if you're not getting in and out of a boat. um lots and lots of uh of opportunities, but um
like I said, this is the mold on the table that shows just a simple concept of what we can do and anything can tweak and anything can change. But we but I often find when you're trying to trying to visualize
things, it helps just to start with a visual that allows you to tweak, allows you to change, but shows what is possible and from what we have existing to what this can look like.
That was that's kind of been my goal as to how this whole area can be developed. And you'll know you'll see here that even on the prominads and the you know walkways and bike paths and all you know the entrances to the other properties I've kind of just uh left it as you know
the entrance ways are you know along these streets. Uh but I've kind of just left it out for now just uh until we kind of get a sense from everyone else what we want to do and then we can show this entire area as a you know as a concept. >> Yeah. Paul you
>> any questions for me? Any questions, guys? >> Yeah, I had a a little quiz. This is the first time I've seen this that you drew up and it looked very good. I I will tell you I am not a fan of roundabouts. That is the best looking roundabout I've ever seen though, probably. [laughter]
>> Thank you. You sent me an image of a boardwalk [clears throat] with like a shiplap sighting or a shake sighting building with metal roof. U an image like that, like a a fishing village with a boardwalk on the water. >> Yeah. Yeah. Um, that looked really
sharp. It kind of really relates to our history and kind of what we're all about. However, that that's very impressive. But I I mean, like you saying, it's very versatile of what you can do. And that one image you show you
showed me of the uh the waterfront um is like a realization um of a wooden building with the boardwalk looked very impressive, too. It seems >> Yeah. And that's and that's what would extend from this waterfront here, right?
So going left and right, you know, this is what we kind of we we want to we want to get people to the location and have the journey from a practical space of where our uh of of where you would park, you know, when you're coming to this
location to make the journey to the waterfront as enjoyable as possible to make it like you're walking through a village, right? You're walking through all kinds of events that are happening. You're walking through, you know, opportunities to buy things and, you know, that's tourism. And once you get down to this waterfront, and this is
kind of where I'd like to go from here, is to show once you get here and you spread out across the water, you know, that's where the real that's where it gets even better, right? So, as you can see, none of this is touched because we have some existing areas there. We kind of just want to know, you know, with
with with get people excited about this concept because while there's a lot of beauty here, this is this is uh this is pure ergonomics. This is practicality. We got to address how do you address practicality and make it a wow factor.
If you can do that, then everything else falls into place much much easier. And so, uh, and that's kind of where it would spread out from here because once you get down to the waterfront, you're and you're now on the water, we have, you know, we have more restaurants, we have more shops, we have the connection
to any of the other development that that takes place to the left or right of this particular image. Uh, does that make does that make sense what I'm saying? >> Absolutely. >> It looks good. It looks good if you don't have a boat ramp there. with a boat ramp. It just looks like a cluster
because there's absolutely no way you're going to get boats around all those food trucks and everything else. And let me tell you, that boat ramp is important to a lot of people. >> Oh, yeah. >> So, this this year, >> you know, it's it it's too much for
boats and uh vehicles and trailers, and that's too much all the way to the waterfront. So, you're saying you're uh you're saying this would be too much for the for for boats to [clears throat] access. >> Well, if you're having if you're if you're having uh vehicles with boats on
them come around that and now you've got food trucks all the way down the side. No, that's >> So, so I I put a I did put a lot of thought into that. So, as you can see over here, this is like uh this would be, you know, and like I said, this is this is probably going to go a bit
longer, but as you can see, the the we could have a queue for six to seven boats at uh boats and trailers at a time over in this area, right? This is going to extend more. We have like another lineup. And so, as you kind the concept would be, and I and I've done this in other areas before, is that as you're
coming in, there is a very strong visual cue and directions. This is where you're waiting for your turn to launch. And then it's one at a time. And then as they as as the boat comes as the vehicle comes around, you're coming in, you're backing down, and then you're driving out, right? You're driving out and
you're parking in the park. >> You hope you are if your boat starts because it doesn't work that simple every time. [laughter] >> Yeah. And so there's all kinds of ways to be able to to make sure that works. So like right now right now this entire
patch of greenery here you know and like the food trucks can go easily on the other side you know where we've got you know we have a wider prominade right that's simple but let's say you have a vehicle and your boat's not starting and this is an area on the side here where
regular traffic can still spread around but you can you can be parking along this edge here while you're dealing with the fact you forgot to put gas in the boat. You know what I mean? Uh, and I'm a I'm a heavy boater myself and and marine and boat launches before and so
so make no mistake the this has to work. have all the confidence in the world that it that it will and it makes a hu but it just makes a really big difference that once that once that boat is in the water that a vehicle with a trailer has a place to go and it's not
just sitting here cluttering up this entire you know this entire front area. >> So the does that make any sense? >> The lower level of the parking garage will be high enough for more than just speed type boats. >> Correct. Yeah. because it's actually
designed that way now. >> Boats with their tops. >> Yeah. So once once the boat is launched, the the the lower level of the parking garage is as of right now just in its basic design form. Um has a much higher
ceiling than the subsequent levels up which is for you know just for regular vehicles, cars and trucks. But it is it is done with with ample clearance so that uh trucks and trucks with trailers and they can be driving in and out. Now you're not the idea is that
you're not taking a sailboat and parking it in the lower level of a parking garage. You're you know you'd be driving that around to here launching and then parking. >> Right. Right. >> So yeah. No, but but you're very you're absolutely correct. >> The boat launch is imperative.
I just want to make the boat launch flow into this awesome area uh as seamlessly as possible so that you have the functionality without robbing us of the ability for this to be a draw as opposed to it just being littered with uh you
know trucks and trailers. I think I think this does that. >> Any questions for Paul? [snorts] Well, like I said, this was like one of a few concepts, but if we want people
coming down 19, they say, "Oh, we need to check that place out." This is one idea that will definitely work u just with the parking garage alone. But there's there's other concepts, but yeah, it's it's something definitely to start with.
>> And that's that's what I mean by the mold on the table. So any >> the boat ramp is only certain hours. It's it's like closes at sunset. So after hours and it's it's open and you can have certain activities after that and you can actually close the boat ramp
on once the other boat ramps open. There are certain days if you have a festival you can actually close the boat ramp for a couple days as long as people are notified. >> Yeah, exactly. And I and I think I the focus on the design is that even if this place is absolutely jammed with a
festival that [snorts] it's still if it it doesn't automatically mean that uh you know a family a family wanting to come with their boat uh to spend time here you know to stay at the hotel uh that it doesn't prohibit them from being
able to do so even if it's jammed. And so I mean for me like that would be important for me you know to be able to come down with my four daughters and say hey we're you know this is what we're going to do and we're going to stay at the hotel and we're going to go to all these fun restaurants. We're going to walk along the boardwalk and we're going to go boating and then uh you know and
they're having a festival this weekend but oh no the boat ranch the boat ramp is closed. But I let's just say that uh the whole purpose of this design is to make sure that it functions um that that area can function. But you're right, when the typical, you know, closing at
at uh at sunset, that just eliminates that level of traffic at at certain times of day, for sure. And like I said, this the whole point of this initial is to go, ooh, this opens
up all kinds of parameters. It gives the visual of how a space that's being you know which is just you know uh utilitarian at best right now can be just in this single corridor just this
one strip from the water back to the highway immediately is a draw for all kinds of you know like the fact and the fact that this is visible from the highway you know that's what people saying and there's all kinds of festival like the the way that I've
designed one second I'm just going to move myself in here the way that I've kind of designed the um you know the this this [clears throat] structure here is that you know I put these trees here just cuz it's block you know just gives me a backdrop to play with but you know we haven't if we're having festivals
this is designed so we can hang banners right at the back so you're seeing from the highway if there's a festival happening we have interchangeable banners that can be hung here and you know It just the fun part is taking something as
utilitarian as a parking garage, make it look stunning as opposed to it just being uh you know what parking garages typically are. And if we can if we can succeed in doing that and and then it almost you know it
creates the feel of it doesn't become this behemoth this great big monolith that you're trying to beautify around it actually becomes part of the beauty. Any other questions or comments? I'm not sure I'm not sure about my time
here guys. So you guys let me know if uh >> No, you're good. Um so so is there any more comments from council? Any public comment on this? Anybody have any questions for Paul? >> Lori. >> Yeah. Name and address for the record.
>> Uh Lori Simpson, 5006 Sunset Boulevard. That's the most amazing parking garage I've ever seen. But I've never parking garage where you park boat trailers. I've driven a truck with a 30-foot boat trailer. I would not go in that parking lot. I'd be too afraid. The columns are
going to be tricky. I can barely make the turn on US19. >> So that's a concern, you know, going around columns inside of a parking garage with a boat trailer. >> Yep. And that's where and that's
that when it comes down to designing this with engineering, it is it's there's a a specific flow of traffic and there's all kinds of studying that we have to do uh looking at, you know, existing traffic uh versus boat like
boat launch traffic versus expected like uh being able to look ahead and say, you know, what would we be expecting and so that we're and and so that the flow is really simple so that you when you're when you're driving in as we're you know we're seeing with the vehicle ahead you know it you're driving into a larger
section but there's lots of space for turning and because of the overall width of the parking garage um I don't have any any doubt that that could that that can be taken into account and believe as I said as a boater because uh as we all know anyone boating and pulling trailers
we know that the boat does not follow uh the same way you know that that uh you know other towed vehicles would you know so you have to take wider turning radiuses and you know all that would be taken into account and you know it has to function right but right now if we you know where there's where there
are that's pretty classic where there are those issues you want to be able to address um those are those are practical issues and that's those are the questions that have to get asked that's uh that's perfectly reasonable here's kind of just a daytime shot as we're kind of flowing through
right so Another part about this this structure is you know this is right now is is made for shade but you know this can be this can be rainproof as well right and so just to have you know water run off
any other comments any public comment now any Paul just uh and I don't know if you have have got this far into that but uh what will be a price tag on something like this.
>> Yeah. And that is something that uh that is something where that would take a lot more before we can even start looking at pricing. We have to we have to make sure we're checking off all the marks on a you know on a on a on what we need
checklist and then we can and then we can actually start looking at structures because again the once the conceptual elements are in place uh you know we'd be talking with local builders and getting you know getting quotes on things and it would be ball that would be ballp that would be a follow-up stage
for sure um because then there's budgets and then what what can we do and then you know you what materials would be used for the, you know, for facades and things like that. All that stuff just kind of that, you know, that stuff would follow up in subsequent. I'd love to be able to throw a number at you, but I wouldn't I wouldn't insult you by even
pretending to to uh to know that off top. >> No, I I didn't know if you had just an idea ballpark because obviously what it appears to me this would be more of a a city type project because I mean, >> Right. >> Right. So, it um obviously that would that would matter. Mayor, the one
question I have on this is I love it and and the question is is do the logistics come first before we start building the waterfront or does the water come first when we build the logistics? That being said, if this is something we invest in,
Paul, did you do any analysis for a business model on this um you know, as far as probably revenue to break even point um with the regards of of potentially using this as probably a revenue
generating parking garage because, you know, there there's maintenance going to have to be upkept in it, you know, and that's the only way we'll be able to sustain it. But in the same breath, you know, something that if we invest in within, let's say, five years, we make our money back and this thing becomes,
you know, self- sustaining, but yet a a a central focal piece of Fort Richie because there's a lot of things that I can see that the council can really do with it. I mean, there's a variety of different
projects and events that you can do with it if it's built the way it is. >> Now, this is just an example also. >> Yeah. [snorts] I I will say it when I as I as I look at this, it gives me the feel that uh this is what it would look like if I was launching my boat in Las Vegas.
And it uh it's it's a bit overwhelming. It's very very elegant. So, I I I applaud you for your your design for sure. Um, and again, it it that being said, it's probably a very, very, very expensive uh project, but it does have some elements that uh are intriguing for sure,
especially as you come off with your little water structure there kind of underneath that with the mini amphitheater and and that. Um, that's really kind of been the challenge as we look at, you know, what are we going to do in that area? Um, trying to integrate something with a boat ramp is is a challenge. So, you've definitely come up
with a way to do that, which is interesting. Thank you. >> It reminds me of a lot of Sims Park actually. I mean maybe an upgraded version >> that structure there. Yeah. >> Well, you know, just all of it. And if
Port Richie could get a Sims part type of location, um I think we'd be doing very well. >> Any other questions for Paul? Okay. Thank you, Paul. Appreciate it. And uh we're going to move along the
next item. Did you have anything else you want to add before I move on to the next item? >> Yeah, I was just your final comment was just going to be um uh that just to address that question of um in order to
in order to kind of draw draw in developers for sure. I mean the it to for developers to know that this is something that Port Reggie is serious about. Um it's it's pretty common that it is kind of like a putting your money where your mouth is type of thing. And
this this this goes in any city in the world. Uh well we'll say North America just for kicks. Uh you know there's if it's like hey we really want this and so the infrastructure being you know kind of set up because you know let's let's you know hey we want a hotel. you know,
in order to have a hotel, we got to know, you know, well, we're, you know, we have we with the with the individual plots of land that we have, you know, can we can we do an amazing hotel here? Yeah, we can. Um, but parking having
that parking structure just even as the initial, you know, even if even if there's a stage one and a stage two of beautifification factor, there's all kinds of ways to do it. But, you know, as far as uh as far as the investment into the central park, if you will, you
know, that is going to say a lot to uh to moving the, you know, the dream forward as to making this, you know, what it absolutely should be. And that is a a an absolute magnet for tourism. Hey, in your experience, Paul, is it uh
is it normal that a hotel would would look for places that they would there would be adequate parking before they build their hotel or would it be that the hotel when they build their hotel, they build parking with their hotel? I I was kind of my understanding would be when I build a hotel, I'm actually building the parking integrated with my
hotel, not not looking for places that have parking, but >> well, that would be the the issue there is that you know, let's say, and I I work with a lot of hotel owners. Hey, we have this plot of land and we can build the parking right into it. What we're dealing with here is we have we have uh
ownership of land whether either existing owners or future developers are going to are going to buy that land to be and to be able to maximize the actual footprint, right? Because each individual plot is not like this, you know, a very large space. It's big
enough for the hotel. Um, but to be able to uh to know that the parking isn't going to minimize the space of the hotel so it becomes so small that it becomes u because of the fact that we're on the waterfront. And that's that's the key, >> right?
>> You know, you go back you go back a kilometer or a mile into in in land and there's it's a whole different ball of wax because you're the water is the draw. >> Yeah. >> Being able to have that. So that that's that's what that's what makes this kind of uh it's it's not unique by any stretch of the imagination, but it it
does create that challenge and that's where the town, you know, step stepping in and saying, "Hey, you know, we we really want this. This is going to bring revenue to Port Richie. This is going to put us on the map from a tourism, which we we darn well should be." Um that's what makes the difference. Does that hope that answers the question?
>> Yeah, absolutely. And a lot of hotels will build public parking as well as parking for themselves for the district because it, you know, they want the public also to come to some of their events. They could have like a sky a rooftop restaurant or different activities or clubs inside the
the hotel that they entertain the public. And of course, this is also for us to look at as far as incentives for them to do that. Um would help. So it wouldn't cost the city much or anything. There could be grants involved with that, but it's something that public parking
>> is critical for the growth >> no matter what it is. >> Correct. >> Yeah. You got to have access. We're we're already working on docks and so forth, but yeah, we need parking. Um we were >> Exactly. >> the history of the of the city is more like um the fishing village and I know
that we had looked at some of the boardwalks that you had drawn up. That's very good. But yeah, functionality and and logistics has to tie in with design and u it looked like you put some thought into that. But obviously you're available if say the city manager in our
planning and zoning committee has a question for you, you'd be available. >> Of course I would be. Yeah. I mean, so for me, this is the stuff I get excited about. I like I like uh anything that gets me into creating communities that
brings family together that draws that that creates those de that type of destination where you know I'm a I'm a big sees the day time standing still you know in in the fastest moving culture in the history of humanity that always gets me excited. So projects like this um
[snorts] are uh the ones that I get up in the morning for now that I I get really excited about them. So that's why that's why I'm here. >> Yeah. Thanks Paul. Appreciate it. Okay, that >> Thank you guys very much for having me on. >> Thanks, Paul. >> Thanks, Paul. Okay, next up, item number two, uh, Pasco Tours of Sports Coast,
benefits of tourism hotels. Pass it over to Adam. >> Thank you, Mayor Hoover. Um, I I wanted to uh comment real fast. Uh, first of all, Adam Thomas, 8731 Citizens Drive, Newport Richie. Um, I wanted to comment on on the renderings and the design or the design concept of of the parking structure because it's one I wanted to
ask a question. what are the what are the number of parking spots because there's a need throughout Pasco County along our waterfront and that's parking truck and trailer parking. So if you fill that need you start creating demand in the marketplace right and you start creating demand you start creating foot traffic and activity. So this
opportunity opens up a huge door not only for visitors but residents alike because there's a lot of foot traffic that already goes down to catches that go to the whiskey Joe's they go to Hooters they used to go to Gild Dogs when Gildogs was there. So there's a lot of foot traffic already. So parking is definitely a need in in in our county,
specifically on our waterfront. So this is a huge opportunity for us to start creating demand in the marketplace for us to actually have a spot to where we can tell visitors to go for adequate uh truck and trailer parking for experiences because at the end of the
day when you start creating demand, you have to think about your visitor experience. Is it at the all-time level or are we just chipping at it just to get away, just to get by? >> [clears throat] >> This sets us apart. This is a unique selling proposition and that's what we need and that's what we look at for
tourism. Unique selling propositions to where it can position Pasco for a brighter future so we can keep drawing visitors into our market to create an economic impact. And that's what we're going to talk here today on how we're going to do that or how we do that. So,
with me today, uh, my team, I have my deputy director, uh, Consuelo Sanchez, uh, my sales manager, Gabby Loginus, um, and my marketing manager, Rahul Nard's here. Um, and he's going to walk through, um, how we're positioning Pasco County and how we're talking to our
visitors as it pertains to the experiences on our waterways. And afterwards, we have our lead analyst here from Downs and St. Germaine, who does our visitor research study and our economic impact analysis. and he's going to walk us through the impact we create
at the county level and then we're going to go down to the to the community level at the Port Richie community level and show what the visitor economy does for Port Richie. So, with that being said, I'd like to introduce um Rardi to to walk
through how we're marketing and how we're talking through some of our programs and our projects that are in the marketplace currently right now. Yeah, right there. >> Yeah, he's got it. One thing,
he focused on the on the land portion of that design. Didn't really touch the waterfront, right? I would ask when he does start designing that waterfront that he looks for my keys, my wallet, my my glasses still in the water [laughter]
over at by Whiskey Joe's. Thank you. >> Well, thank you, Adam, and uh good afternoon everyone. So what our goal is today is to be able to just present kind of like the foundation of the economic impact and other information we're going to be presenting. So from a marketing perspective, this is how Florida Sports
Coast has kind of packaged and um showcased the the destination Pasco County. Uh so we are Florida Sports Coast. Here are a few of our spotlight um advertising campaigns from last year. We did one with a vendor called Mobile Fuse. Uh we did smart banner uh ads.
These um generated 1.5 over 1.5 million impressions and basically showcase different aspects or different elements of the destination. So you can see here scalloping on the right hand side and the lower side we have wakeboarding down at the lift. Continuing on we did
another advertisement campaign with Cortex. This was an uh interactive multimedia display. So these ad um ads actually um moved and had multimedia components. So the uh skydiving taking place at Skydive City, the actual um
picture creative moved along with the advertisement. So it made it very engaging and kind of made it stand out a little bit more. Moving on, we did some advertisement in We Connect. So this is the Wi-Fi provider for these airlines here, which were American Airlines, JetBlue, and Breeze Airways uh through
inbound flights to Tampa from Orlando International Airport, West Palm Beach, Atlanta, and Fort Myers. So these uh this captive audience was served um this advertisement and destination video in order to gain access to the free Wi-Fi. So it truly was a captive audience and
it generated over 10,000 almost 11,000 impressions. So um very successful campaign. Moving on, we did a campaign with Hopper. Hopper is almost like a group on. It's a much more uh interactive version of Groupon, I'd say. uh where the advertisements or the
offers for each destination are displayed in tiles as you can see here on the uh um phone uh display on the left hand side. This generated uh over 1.4 million impressions. So again, another exciting campaign we did ran
through uh quarter three and quarter four of last year and it was a sponsored destination tile. So, as the uh user of the application went onto the tile or onto the um app, they clicked on the Florida Sports Coast destination and there they had different promotions and things that they can do in destination.
So, we had fishing, we had charters, we had scalloping activities listed on there as well. So, we had a lot of really g great engagement with this uh placement as well. Moving on, we did a placement with West Orlando. This is a news station in Orlando which which is
one of our uh target u markets local uh markets in which we had a dedicated um destination video uh showcasing the lift adventure park and also tree hoppers aerial park. So we thought it would be nice to showcase both the west side of the county and the east side of the county showcasing different things to
do. Um so this also did very well during fourth quarter of last year. Finally we just wanted to show an example of publications. So, this is from Undiscovered Florida. Uh, it's an advertisement featuring um our our slogan, life's a game. Uh, this specific
one tags the dive in. So, it's playing into the scalloping season, diving into the waters um here in Pasco County to being able to harvest uh our beloved scallops, right? It's a lot of fun. We're trying to get the word out there that it's an family activity that draws in. Um, it's very popular. So this is
again just us showcasing that activity as well as other uh points of interest in this u publication. Again just wanted to showcase kind of the different things that we're offering here. We have fishing scalloping once again and just a deeper dive within uh
this example is for Newport Richie, but we're doing these dives all throughout the county. Our goal is to really showcase the best that um Pasco County has to offer and really bring in those people to stay in our hotels. Lastly, these are just interactive banner ads. So, the um arrow icons that
you see, those move around and it really helps to kind of make these stand out a little bit more than your standard um banner ads when you're visiting any uh websites. We also conduct uh tours, media tours throughout the the county. Uh they're
called familiarization tours or FAM for short. So, this is a group of German tour operators. So, they operate tour agencies in Germany. And so we host this group here showcasing everything the p the county has to offer. Uh here you can see the guests were at Wernern Boyce
State Park, Salt Spring State Park, and they um parttook in a kayaking tour at with Salty Dogs kayaks. They love that activity. Uh we showed them around the Hienda Hotel and did various activities as well. So this is just another way we're placing the destination in front
of uh potential outlets to just get the word out there. So, this was a very successful uh fam tour or media tour which will be taking place again in a couple of weeks. So, we're excited that we're bringing another group of German tour operators to the destination uh the beginning of February.
Any questions uh with any of the marketing materials? >> Questions? >> No. Well, thank you so much. I'm going to go ahead and hand it over to uh to Joe here. Uh I I I want to um just add something before I uh hand the clicker over to to
Joe to to kind of show you uh the economic impact that we that we generate throughout the county. But this is uh this campaign of of life is a gameplay your way just won a national award through U uh through HSMAI and it's the
Adrian Award and we won a Browns a bronze um award for this campaign. Uh the Adrian Awards is the Oscars of destination marketing and tourism marketing. So this is our second time we've ever won an Adrian Award and we were going to be going up to New York
next month to receive that award. But this is the kind of activities and the kind of things that we do for the surrounding area and this is why this partnership between our cities Port Richie, Newport Richie, Zephr Hills, Dade City are so important to us because we can't do this alone, right? So we
partner with Newport Richie, we partner with Dade City, partner with Zephr Hills to tell that story. our our our hotel on the water and Newport Richie will be that story. Okay. So, >> Port Richie. >> Port I'm sorry. Port Richie will be that story. Um so, now I'm gonna introduce
our our senior analyst. >> Yes. Um >> sorry, Consuelo Sanchez, deputy director for Floria Sports Coast, 8731 Citizens Drive, Newport Richie, Florida. So, one of the things that we want to highlight
is that we're trying to actually tackle the international market. So, with the new flies that are flying into the Tamper International Airport, we have great opportunities to actually bring people from Europe, from places like Germany. They spend more money and stay
longer. Also with the Boota Tampa flight with South America, we're actually going to go next month with Visit Florida and we're going to start connecting with travel operators and wholesalers, people especially from Colombia. I'm from Colombia. So, I know a little bit about
this. They know Florida just because of Orlando and Miami, not even Tampa. So, they're trying to find hidden gems and we consider that we're a hidden gem. We don't want to keep that as a hidden gem. We want to go there and promote. So places like a district, tourism district
are going to provide huge opportunities for us. >> With that being said, Joe Walters, [laughter] >> um, first, [clears throat] as a Pasco County resident and as a former Port Richie resident, um, I love this idea. I think it's great. Um, I wish I wish I
still lived on the coast and would have been able to access it more often. Um, I definitely second um Adam's point about induced demand. I think that when you build a um a ramp or the the U-turn with the ramp and then a parking garage for the the boats, I think you're going to
have people coming down just to use that. Um it reminds me a lot that sort of solving an efficiency problem with um a parking garage reminds me a lot of what they did in St. Augustine um next to St. George and Castillo San Marcus.
They built that huge parking garage, solved the traffic problem, gave everyone a place to park. I mean, I've been going to St. Augustine for years, and the before and after of building that parking garage just solved so many headache head headaches of visiting that area. [snorts] Um, so it reminds me a
lot of what they did. And it looks great. You never would have thought I never would have thought that like a parking garage could be a a center place, you know, where you kind of already are getting the feel for what you're about to see. That being said, um let's talk about the
value of tourism. Okay, so these numbers are for Pasco County as a whole. Uh this is for fiscal year 25 um from October 2024 to September 2025. Um, and the the point
with kind of showing you these numbers is that um if there were more tourist destinations, attractions, hotels in the Port Richie area, then Port Richie would receive more of a share of these
numbers, a higher share of these numbers while also increasing these numbers. [snorts] Uh so you can see here that in FY25 um Florida Sports Coast attracted over 1 and a half million visitors.
Uh we generated over a million and a half room nights as well. Uh and that's an 8.9% increase from FY24. I haven't presented this to TDC yet, but uh you guys getting a little sneak peek.
Um, in FY25, uh, over a billion dollars of economic impact were generated for Florida Sports Coast, um, for Pasco County as a whole
and 760 over 764 million of spending um, in the area in Pasco County alone. Uh, and that's a 13.2% increase from FY24. So, uh, this is we're already seeing huge increases in
the area. Uh, spending to visitors um to Florida Sports Coast generated or supported over 9,000 jobs in FY25. Um, and again, just to kind of reiterate what we're what we're saying here is
that um, the more tourism in Port Richie, the more of that is going to be in Port Richie, the more jobs going to be supported in the Port Richie area. Um, over $330 million in wages and salaries were
supported by the tourism sector in fiscal year 25 for Pasco County. and um every 165 visitors to Pasco County supported one job in the area.
Um now let's uh look at Port Richie in uh specifically. So what we've done here is you can see that um we have we've broken out Port Richie from the rest of the visitors. uh to Pasco County. Um so
this is done by with survey data and so these are people that have said that they visited Port Richie while they were in Pasco County. Okay, it doesn't necessarily mean that they were staying in Port Richie, just that they visited Port Richie while they were in Pasco
County. Um and we're comparing that to Florida Sports Coast as a whole. So all Pasco County visitors. Um you can see here that uh people that visited Port Richie were much more likely to come to the area um for a vacation. Nearly half
of Port Richard Port Richie visitors come to the area for vacation. Um visitors to Port Richie are also more likely to come here to visit friends and family. >> [snorts] >> And that's really uh we started with this slide because that's really the
theme of data that we see when we break out Port Richie visitors from Pasco County visitors as a whole is that people that are visiting Port Richie tend to be more likely to be coming to Pasco County as a destination. They're
more likely to stay overnight. They're more likely to be here to vacation. They're not people that are just crossing a county border to go shopping or something like that. They're coming here to stay here. >> How are you getting those numbers? I mean, I see the company, but how do they
get those numbers? >> Yeah, so um we do intercept surveys. Um so we um survey visitors across the county. Um and so these come from those intercept surveys. >> How do you find them?
How do we >> how do you find >> how do we find visitors? We go to where the visitors are. Uh so we're um in uh different areas up and down the coast. Um and we are in um where visitors are
in the middle of the county. Uh just wherever we know that visitors are going to be, we try to have our intercepts there throughout the year. And so obviously this this we say Port Richie it's not just Richie but the entire zip code Port Richie I'm assuming
and I'm assuming some of these answers surveys maybe Newport Richie is bleeding over into this and vice versa. >> That's a great question. So the the answer to that is what people consider Port Richie. Um they are we are asking them which of these areas did you visit
while visiting Pasco County? And they are saying Port Richie. Um, Newport Richie is a separate answer. Um, both are listed there. Both are within the top destinations uh, visited in Pasco County. Um, but yeah, the answer to that is it probably is more than the city
because it is just a survey response. People are doing that themselves in the survey, >> right? Yeah. >> How many how many people thousand person survey? Is this a 500 person? What? >> Yeah, great question. Um, so over the um
fiscal year 25 I I want to say it's about 2,000 surveys and that puts us at a um a a margin of error of of about 5%. Uh so it's a normal um for this population.
>> Were there any questions that related to what they were doing in Port Richie if they were here on vacation? If they're already coming here for a vacation, I'm curious what they're doing. >> For sure. We've got a few more slides to show you. >> I bet you visit Walmart. [laughter] >> When you're talking about answering the
questions for the different things, there's a lot of different ways that we're mining data, if you will, and and Adam can speak to this as well as I can being retired now. Uh we know exactly what you're doing and what you're spending pretty much any time of any day based on your zip code. So, we pretty
much know what you're doing, where you're going, where you're traveling. We also have Smith Travel Research, which also tells us what you're doing, and what you're spending when you're staying at a hotel, and we know how full your hotels are. So, there's a whole lot of ways that we're mining data that we're
marketing to you on the fly. I mean, it's stuff that's out there for us to get and we can mine that. But he's he's the new expert. I'm the old kid. >> I'm I'm not an expert. So to add on to the mining um we partner with uh Zardico
who does cell phone tracking data and there are points of interests in that Port Richie has multiple points of of of interest in its city or unincorporated city. Um so if you enter if you are 50 miles and beyond and you enter that that
that polygon of a point cell phone data gets picked up your IP address gets picked up and now you're trackable. So now you're trackable in that in that points of interest and we can see where you're spending money on on credit card data and then we can see
on the other points of interest that you go throughout the destination while you're here and then we also see you leave as well. So face-to-face intercepts is one, emails is another. We also get research secondary and p our primary research is through um downs and
stermaine and zordico and the star report the smith travel report as well for hotel data. U we also do key data for uh for hotel for not hotels for for vacation rentals as well. So, we're getting vacation rental data in. There's a plethora of primary and secondary
research that we that we use to to drive decisions and this is just a just a portion of that >> that data. >> So, cell phone providers and credit card companies are selling you that information or giving it. >> No, we're not sell we're not buying that
information as a database of collective information that we're using. Wow. >> That's why you got the award. >> Congratulations. [laughter]
>> And so while this visitor tracking data is survey research, uh the the numbers I just presented the economic impact numbers, uh those use star, they use key data, and then we also use implan uh to model those economic impact figures.
Um, okay. So, uh, they're here to vacation. And, uh, you can see that they're also, uh, much more likely to fly, uh, to the destination than to drive. Um, so you can see that 42% are flying into Tampa International Airport.
Um, again, that just kind of reinforces that they're here to stay a while. They're not just driving over the border. Um you can see that the while um 58% of Pasco County visitors come from Florida, the spread of people that are
visiting Port Richie are is is much greater. Uh so there's a higher share of visitors from the southeast, the Northeast, the Midwest, and the West regions of the country. If you have any questions or need me to slow down, just let me know. um travel party uh over three and four
Port Richie visitors are traveling in a party of two. Um that's just uh kind of showing another data point which is that um the people that are traveling to Port Richie seem to be uh as of right now um older couples rather than where in like
the central central part of the county we see more family visitors. [clears throat] Uh, Port Richie visitors are less likely to travel with children than all of Sports Coast visitors. Uh, like we just said, um, 77% of Port Richie visitors are over
50 years old compared to 57% of all Sports Coast visitors. Um, destination familiarity. Uh, this is pretty interesting and it really just enforces that first point. Um, so we see fewer firsttime visitors, but also fewer
um 11 plus times visitors. Um, again, you know, these are not people that just happen to live in Hernando or Hillsboro County that are crossing the border. These are people that are coming here and staying here and they've done so between two and 10 times.
>> Excuse me. Again, I'm wondering what they're doing while we're here. We don't really have much to offer at the moment. So to hear that people are coming here repeatedly for vacations. What are they doing since you can track that? >> Yeah. So um we're going to see that uh
they do a lot of activities. Let me see if it's like the next slide. But we do have an activities slide. Um but another thing that they're doing and again this is on the activities slide as well is visiting friends and family. Uh that's one of the most popular activities. Uh visitor length of stay. Uh you can
see that um over nine and 10 Port Richie visitors stay in Pasco overnight. That's a huge difference from Pasco County as a whole. Um and over half of Port Richie visitors stay in the county for six nights or more. Again, you can see that difference between the Pasco County
visitor and the Port Richie visitor. >> Yeah, they >> don't really change drastically. Um, again, just kind of aligning with that overnight, uh, you can see that they're more likely to stay in hotels. They're more likely to stay with friends and family. Um, and that's just because
they're also more likely to stay overnight. Daily travel party spending. Um, here you can see that uh, again, this includes um, people staying in paid accommodations, people staying with friends and family, and people that are
just visiting for the day. Um, that's why the accommodations spending for poor Richie is so much higher. Um, because they're so much more com so much more likely to stay overnight. Um, but you can see that they also spend more on restaurants and entertainment than uh,
Pasco County visitors as a whole. People that visit Port Richie are more likely to spend more money on entertainment and restaurants. um while they're in the area, they're using social media, they're using navigation, and they're using Florida
Sports Coast more often than Pasco County visitors as a whole. So, they're looking for things to do is what we'd say. And then here are those visitor activities. Uh so, uh you can see that when compared to Pasco County as a whole, um they're more likely to be
dining. These are people that have saying that they they have visited Port Richie as part of their trip. Uh they're more likely to have uh been at restaurants, been shopping, been at nature's, u visiting parks, and visiting friends and family. Uh, and you can see
one of the biggest differences there is on attractions. Um, 85% of Port Richie visitors are visiting some sort of attraction in Pasco County and 35% as of Pasco County visitors as a whole. We ask um survey respondents what they
want more of in the county. uh desired additional activities. And you can see that people that visit Pasco County or and people that visit Port Richie want more restaurants. They want more shopping options. Um and you can see that family-friendly activities is not
as important to Port Richie um visitors as Pasco County res Pasco County visitors as a whole. Um but still very important. I >> I do want to point out that the hotel multil very low 1%. Evidently, right? Is that what I'm saying? Are you saying here?
>> Yes. Yep. Yep. Um >> less hotel, more for restaurant, shopping, and and family fun type things, festivals. >> And mayor, if you think about that, it makes sense because if you're going to have a lot of sports tourism, which is what we rely on a lot here, it's going
to be the two queens with six kids in that room. >> And then out here on this side, they're going to want better accommodations, which is why we need to go a little more hoidy toy, if you will. When we put hotels on this side and there's a demand for it, they're going to stay longer.
They're gonna spend more. >> Everyone that we ask is staying somewhere. So, they they have a kind of a place to stay already. They they don't know that they want those additional options until they see them. Any other questions? >> How are the visitors introduced to the
sports coast app? >> An airport. I think is if you >> app uh it's our website. We drive them to our website if not our social media pages. >> You guys want to get in the airport? Don't you got some signage too that's >> um we have been in talks with the airport. Um it's pretty expensive to to
have advertisement in the airport. I mean, we're talking six digits uh per month. >> I was thinking I saw some stuff for sports cuz maybe I did. >> Uh you probably saw some. So when we have major events coming in on the sports side, we do throw up banners and welcome people that are coming in from
from T uh TPA. >> So I just want to thank you again for the conversation. I know this is the first step uh to something greater and something bigger. And I know that the conversation's happened a lot longer than I've been here. I've been here for nine years, but I've always said in 30 years, you're an overnight success. So
hopefully we're at closer to that 30-year mark and we're going to be an overnight success and and again drive that visitor demand. >> Thanks Adam. >> Thank you. >> Any questions? Council for Adam. >> Thank you. >> I do have one sign of Lori. Did you want to speak on this? >> Yeah, I had a question.
>> Yeah. >> Um I'm sorry if I'm the only person that doesn't know this, but Lori Simpson 5006 Sunset Boulevard, but I don't understand that. What's the difference between uh Sports Coast and um Nature Coast if anybody can explain that? >> Uh thank you. So quick answer the Nature
Coast is comprised of six or seven uh counties. >> Eight. Is it eight? >> Is it eight? Okay. So eight counties. Uh we wanted to separate ourselves and really take ownership of what our product is and our product is sports. It's nature, but it's sports and and and
nature involves or it it's encompassing in the sports because our leisure activities, even though they are sports, they're out in nature. So, our sports coast is what are truly truly makes us who we are. >> Do you market to all the Go ahead. >> Are they one and the same?
>> No. No, ma'am. So, they're two two separate entities. Even Hernando County is the adventure coast. of all of the cities within the sports cokes. Is Port Richie the only one not actively participating uh with you at this moment?
>> Well, we [sighs] that's a tricky question because we >> we we're partnering with everyone. >> Yeah. And we have not >> scallop thing. >> Yeah. >> There's a couple sports that that we have tried to introduce is very
difficult. One is a fishing tournament which is a sport. >> Yeah. >> And it would be very popular. Of course, you need the boat ramp with parking and you need a hotel and you need secure parking. So that's something that is something we would like to work on, but that would be very valuable to as far as
as a sport for the coast for the county. And so far we're the only city in >> No, we're you're you're partner we're partnering on the activities. So any any activity that that that around in our marketing efforts there's there's [clears throat] there's verbiage in our marketing that
incorporates the cities. So it's not necessar we're not pushing out Newport Richie or Port Richie or Zepha Hills or Dade City. We're pushing out the activities within those communities that that the city gets highlighted regardless. So that in in our marketing efforts, in our language, and when we're
speaking to them, we're talking about Port Richie. We're talking about Newport Richie. We're talking about Dade City and Zephr Hills, but it's focused on the activities within those communities, if that makes sense. So you see the scalloping, you see the fishing, you see the biking, the hiking, this, you know, name the activity. That's the
forefront of the ad. But when we're talking to them in the captions, in our taglines or in our uh in our verbiage on our marketing efforts, the description is about the area. >> Yeah. And depending on what the activity is, you send them to different places obviously. >> Correct. And then >> there's probably
>> and then on our website, you guys are on our website as well. So when we're clicking when visitors are clicking to the website, they're landing on our website and then they're they're they're searching through our our communities. Okay. And so with the research you do,
what you need from Port Richie is actually a hotel. You find that Port Richie is the spot for a hotel to make this work better. >> Yes. So you guys are on the water. >> Mhm. >> We need more hotels on our water to
drive visitor demand. >> We have beautiful estuaries, but we have to get to them. So we need truck and trailer parking and we need a hotel that we can partner with but outside of the hosianda to drive visitor demand. So we need more hotels on the
water. >> So everything we saw today is what you need. >> Yes. >> You see Port Richie is the place to provide it the best. >> Port Richie and throughout the entire 23 miles of coastline. >> Gotcha. I've talked to several businesses and other owners in
businesses in Paswood County and anytime they see somebody at Port, oh, what are we doing over there? They want to know what's going on here. Saddlebrook would love for us to have some kind of activity resort [clears throat] and develop this area because that would help them. >> Yeah. >> As well as Zephr Hills and Date City and
everybody else because when they come to Florida, they want to enjoy the coastline whether it's a day or two days as part of their their vacation here. And you think about the uh the guides that that pick up and drop off their clients at Nick's Park. I mean, think about picking up a client at Nick's Park
with looking like that design. I mean, now you're talk now you're hitting on the visitor experience, right? People are going to come happy and they're going to leave happy because the the surrounding areas >> questions. First though, we're still limited on our land though. >> Yeah.
>> 2. square miles. I mean, we can a lot, but we also have have some place to put it at >> and the city is not building a hotel, but there are people that do want to. And of course, the next stage is the formbbased zoning is part of incentive,
which well, a lot of the incentives we're creating now. That's like icing on the cake to help bring the hotel here and to get the money that they need to be successful here as well as anybody else in the district. >> These are all great ideas. It's just but you still got the logistics of
>> right >> it's 2.6 square miles. So you got to make that work to the best advantage all the way around. >> Yep. >> Not just for one thing for all of it. >> That's where the formbased zoning >> that's where you need the smart people
for the designing and and the promoting and right but it's it still comes down to we got this much area to work with. Well, so what so what I guess the question is is if you know cuz city don't build hotels obviously so why is Marriott or Hilton not came in and and
purchase some of this property for sale build a hotel obviously there's we have uh probably some density issues that would prevent that but uh outside of that I guess where why are they not knocking the door down to build a hotel because they're the ones that would build >> it's a great question I have to ask the
developers yeah It it comes down to folks who are willing to put their money where their mouth is, bring their money to the city, and take chances. And we have a group of people who have already done that right now. They've bought property, they've cleared property, and they've got a
vision or that vision's changing as we go, which quite often happens in development, >> you know. Um, I see this taking off and getting legs, but we got to get something down there. Right now, we don't. We have collapsing, closing stuff and we need stuff to start going the other way. >> Correct. >> Um,
>> so obviously and that's been um I guess it's obvious you got to have something to come and stay for, right? Which is probably why we haven't seen many large hotel in the area because yeah, we have the water and whatnot. Um, but people that are coming in, you know, they're,
you know, if they're driving in, they may bring their boat down from somewhere or whatever somewhere in the county, but they're not flying in with a with a boat, right? renting it. You know, that's why the the rental business is good. Um, so I don't, you know, I think once some things start to happen down
there, which they are, then I think you'll see more of that demand and somebody might step up and actually want to put something in there. Absolutely. >> Yeah. So, we'll get into that in a little bit with the formb zoning. >> That will answer your question. >> We have some large plots of land out there that you do. with cooperation from
local business owners that own that land, you know, you may be able to develop, you know, a substantial portion of that. Yes, sir. >> And we do have some money right now, like I said, that's coming in there that they put their money where their mouth is and they're starting to do stuff. So, I would love to see >> not only things like this here, you
know, take legs and run, but also, you know, some additional money start to come in to say, "Hey, I see the the vision as well." The the scalloping, that's awesome. The fishing, that's awesome. We did do a fishing tournament recently and that was a success. It was a lot of fun. Everybody came out. There was winners and they all had a great
time. Um so there is lots of opportunity to do that. We just happen to get some people that see the vision and or one developer who gets the fire started. >> You know when that fire gets started then all of a sudden you have more people, hey that that place is developing. Even right now with the land clearing where our radars are all going
up, we're like hey what's going on over there? Is this going to change? are we getting away from trailers and old septic tanks down to having something that we could actually build something on. So, it is happening. Um, I'm excited that we're doing this today and I'm thankful, Bob, that you brought folks in and help. >> There are hotel execs looking right now.
What we're what I've talked to a couple of them. They're done. I'm not done. Well, what's your plan? Well, I mean they at this point here the it would be the opportunity for them to partner with local businesses that are interested in either selling their properties, partner with hotels, whatever it may be,
>> right? >> And then come to us and say, "Hey, by the way, we can't fit 10 widgets into this four widget zoning thing here. We need you to make this adjustment or something." That's where we come in. >> Um >> that's what exactly happened with the last with the developers did invest, right? They came to city with with some
some ask. uh we looked at it and we uh we made some adjustments and they were able to um you know purchase that land and do that. So on the outsets that's always the process. >> Um I can tell you outside of um a 5 acre parcel our our our density is very unemic uh down to water only just at 15
units per acre which you can't build a hotel with 15 units per acre. So >> yeah, >> um if that's something that you know we as a council want to look at in the community, we we want to incentivize that and we have to make some changes or you know they got to buy a large parcel of land to be able to unlock the
additional density that we have. So >> well that's that's the key thing that we're doing which is that's extremely important is the incentives and we need to incentivize the current developer, future developers and it needs to be equally but uniquely because everybody's
different. It could be offices above a retail space or it could be condos above a retail space, >> meeting space. >> And you're [clears throat] protecting them because they know that they look exactly the same outside. They're very inviting, but it's going to create their
their project a lot of value in it. If they're unique and they're the same, they know they're not going to have storage sheds next to them. Not going to have a fast food drive-thru or a car wash or anything like that. It's going to be retail specific and it's going to be design specific and hotels. One
reason he's here main reason because tourism and hotel is the key to the development down there. Whether it's one or it's two or it's three dependent in virtually any property on the river commercial property should be a part of this. Uh but if that's what they're looking for, they don't see any plan.
They don't know why do they have to come up that's a lot of expense a lot of redesigning codes and trying to figure out codes if you have the codes installed they know well it's going to be shiplap or shake or you have the option of both what type of roof it is the color oh that makes it simple for
them and they're going to want to be a part of that. >> [snorts] >> Um so anyway that's the importance is hotel is a key to development of the waterfront and to bring in a lot of revenue and the tax revenue from tourism
is very important. Yep. >> You guys have um numbers on see rates for the Disney hotels in area like take the poor Richie with the hosianda. There's like there's a there's I think a Hampton up the road here, a day in some of the larger chain hotels that are around. I know we don't have one
specifically right here, Paul Richie, but within three miles we have several. >> We when we get our star report and we get our um our our our market report from Smith Travel, it's for the entire 52 properties in the in the entire county. So we can we can call directly
uh and see if we can get the data from some of the hotels that you're referring to. There are >> you see the what you know are they 50% utilized are they 100% you know obviously if it's always full >> the year 2025 >> more but it's not full
>> okay >> and we're not being pessimistic none of us we're being realistic and like you said some you know some things take 30 years well sometimes things take 40 years because it just depends on whether anything gets done or not >> right >> and if we do it we want to do it right
>> correct >> we want to move forward but we have to be realistic and >> and we have to be in a position to be able to do those things. And one one thing too is as [clears throat] a resident um you know a hotel unless my family comes in and needs a place to stay close by a hotel does really
nothing for me unless that hotel offers you know on the lower level has some shops retail whatever some amenities >> for purpose hotel doesn't really do anything from a res perspective right um you know as we as we talk about growing and all that I think first and foremost we need to take care of our residents
and have things to do that you know we can leave our house come downtown and eat and do things And obviously we want to share that with the world. Um so as that grows, we start to have a vibrant waterfront. Then we need a a hotel probably somewhere around there so people can come in and enjoy that as well. But first and foremost, we need to
take care of our own. >> Yes, sir. >> Yeah. I can tell you a hotel properly designed and built with commercial on the bottom, you know, meeting rooms, you know, things that people can come to to have meetings and those things. That would go over well. And my family would
stay in a local hotel. They'd come to visit me and I'd say, "Hey, you're not staying in my house. stand out the hotel, right? And let them stay down there, but it would have to have a combination of retail and have to have all >> got to have the amenities >> rooms. Yeah. So, you could bring in, you know, groups of people, training, whatever it may be. >> Absolutely.
>> You know, so that that's important. And >> so, I understand what the mayor's saying about just a hotel, you know, dropping a Hampton in right there, you know, is not quite the answer. We have to have a theme behind this, something that ties into the community. >> Absolutely. It's into the fabric. The
old hotels had restaurants. >> What's the draw? Welcome back. >> Well, as Consuelo was saying earlier, Columbia or South America, we target Europe now. Paradise Marketing, I you want to talk a little bit about that, but they target people in Europe go on vacation for a month and like you said,
they love Orlando, Miami. >> They're a week, maybe two weeks in Orlando. What is the other hot spots here? Well, they would be marketing Port Richie very successfully and you'd be have a European market obviously staying for a few days or whatever in Port
Richie to enjoy the coastline, take a boat ride to the island, go fishing, enjoy the parks, maybe for a wedding, but I've I've married people on the island from 32 different countries. >> So, our rate >> from outside this country to this area.
Our rate for uh for 2025 was um 64% occupancy. That's up 9 and a half% year-over-year from 2024. And our average daily rate for 2024 2025 was around $134 a night. >> And that's up almost 11.5% year-over-year.
>> And that's that's Pasco wide. >> That's Pasco wide. Yes, sir. >> So Pasco wide basically a third empty hotels we have roughly. Right. >> You see 64%. >> Yeah. 64% but usually um the hotels
depending on where they're at. We have the corridor of of of the Sun Coast and 54. Those hotels are 98% booked um throughout the year. So >> there's hotels that are operating really high and there's operating that the average it balances out.
>> Yeah. I mean, there's a big difference between a hotel that's stuck in an old neighborhood somewhere surrounded by trailer parks and and a hotel that's right on the water that is, you know, correct the the Gulf of America is our view, you know. >> Correct. >> Yeah. No, I think if there's a hotel on the water, that's going to be one of the more popular ones for sure.
>> Absolutely. >> Absolutely. >> So, we're all for that. We've got some business owners in the audience here right now. Their ears are tweaked and they're listening. you know, we we we just need somebody with a checkbook to step forward and say, "Hey, we're willing to jump in with our money and start to make these things happen." So
far, we only have one player doing that. >> We also want to mention something like we're constantly attending group sales conferences, people trying to come here for corporate association, higher income because they don't pay out of pocket.
It's basically professionals coming into the area. And there's something in the tourism segment called leisure which is business but you extend your trip so you can be here. So a water from property is something that people [clears throat]
are always looking for especially coming from other places or states in this time of the year and having that with enough space to accommodate meetings and groups that would be wonderful. Mhm. [clears throat] >> It's another need um that that we have
throughout the county is meeting space, >> which is which is we have quite a bit of it down there, but they would have to partner with these other business owners some correct >> or buy them out or whatever they may do, you know, to create that meeting space, restaurant space, you know, sleeping space, that kind of stuff,
>> right? >> Any other questions? You have a public comment? >> Thank you, sir. >> It will be working. You all have that same study. Mike, if I get you come to the P. Sorry. >> So everybody can hear. >> Just wondering Mike Low catches 7811 Bay
View. Just wondering if they have that same study with other cities that are close to us like Newport Richie just to see how our data compares. >> Yeah. Right. >> We can extrapolate that and do a comparison. >> Yeah. >> And I've looked at a star report for, you know, this immediate area and the
occupancy rate is much higher than the countywide rate. So >> to the point of, you know, waterfront and whatnot, obviously that's a bigger draw, >> right? So, >> yeah. >> And I say, and Adam, I don't know if you know about um the hotel in Newport Richie that's getting ready to be built. I know that's going to be a major chain
there, Aqua Harbors. Do you know what that anything about that? I know Chopper is here. >> The one in front of Golf Harbors. >> Yeah, >> I'm I'm going to refer to the mayor of of Newport Richie. >> It's coming slowly. >> Yeah. Do you Is it Do you know what the
the the chain is or is it okay? >> I don't think I don't think a flag has been Yeah. >> Yeah. But I It's residential and and >> 96 hotels. >> Okay. >> The last time I talked to her, she said Marriott up, but it could have changed. So >> 96 rooms.
>> 96 rooms. >> Yeah. >> Not hotels. >> But they won't have meeting space. >> They can't make money off meeting space. >> And that's not corporate. >> That's different. >> If you're going to speak any kind of thing he space, they're not going to have meeting space there. So,
>> right. So when you're looking at developing an area, I think the idea that you guys had earlier was really good to have parking, which is needed everywhere along here, and then also de develop out some meeting space so that a developer doesn't have to come in and build something uh that they won't use
all that all the time. That that's the key. If you can remove something off of the table to spend good taxpayer dollars on, you guys are going to get reimbursed for it. like a parking garage, paid parking, right? And then a meeting space that people could come and then Adam and
his team could market. It'd be it'd be awesome. It'd be an awesome combination. It'd be a win-win. But they're also going to want to look at as they're talking about how you guys are developing the whole waterfront. Okay? So, keep keep that all in mind as you do this. form-based marketing or
form-based uh zoning is great because when a developer comes in, he says, "Well, I know that everything down here is going to look this way." Okay? It's consistency. It's it's destination management. And then your destination marketers can take off and
market the destination. So, keep that in mind. You guys are talking about all the right stuff. just you got to decide what you're going to put your where you're going to put your eggs, but you you've been given a couple gifts here today with what they're telling you. So, you guys just got to decide how you can
share it with your, you know, constituents. >> Uh, Mr. Mayor, I I'll leave you with one thought of what we're working on to drive demand. Um, and I believe we we talked about this up in Tallahassee and I wanted to make it public here because
it was it was a presentation the TDC board last year and it's something that's going to support our destination development strategy that the board of county commissioners implemented in 2024 and it's a 10-year strategy. One of them is to focus on our leisure activities and our leisure product on
the waterfront. Right. And so what we're working on is an artificial reef program um that will provide water better water quality u better fishing uh and also sustainability for for hurricanes um for storm surge. So we are working on that
right now. It's a passion project of of Commissioner Marianos um and we are working to see that come to fruition hopefully in the next few years. Obviously money uh is a big factor when it comes to stuff like this. So we are uh looking at that right now. But again, to drive visitor demand, we're trying to
create that need um in artificial reef. We have again 23 miles of coastline and we're going to try to develop it to to to try to increase the visitor experience. So, an artificial reef program is something that we are heavily looking into. >> Yeah, I' I'd say we 100%.
Sure. Anything we do to improve our water quality definitely need. Any other questions? >> Thank you, Mayor H. Appreciate. >> Thanks, Adam. Uh, next up I'm number three, Pasco program director Richard Jenkins on form zoning. [snorts] Says
firm zoning in here. I think it's form. >> It's form. I'm sorry. [laughter] >> So, uh, Rich Jenkins, uh, 8731 Citizens Drive. I'm with Pasco County, uh, Planning, Development, and Office of Economic Growth. I we had some technical
issues here and, um, so my little slideshow won't show up here, I don't think. Um, it might not show it all. And if that's the case, I'll just >> on a flash drive. So, he's going to have to go ahead and present it from here.
>> I We tried that and it I think it might have been too large. >> We can just come down. We can sit right down there and watch if that's what it is. >> Oh, we can probably see if you guys want. >> I can't see. >> Well, and the audience wants to see you guys sit over here. >> We'll just come over there.
>> Yeah. The audience see. >> All right. So, and I'm going to stand right in front of the screen so that I mess it up for everybody. Um, >> I don't know which side I should probably be on. Let's see here.
So, so, uh, one of the things I wanted to talk about is the very basics when you're deciding to build out this waterfront district. You're gonna have to assemble and or you're gonna have to uh acquire and assemble a lot of
properties. You've got a lot of smaller lots down here that uh um you're going to have to put together. Either you as a city will put them together or a developer will put them together. So, when you do that, you're going to do
some very basic things. Obviously, you're going to get a contract for sale. You're going to ask for surveys. You're going to ask for appraisals. You're going to ask for title searches. But one thing that's really, really important that people don't always think of unless
you're really in the business, and that is you're going to need a phase one environmental search. That phase one environmental search does several things for you. Uh number one, it tells you how that property has been used. And uh
what's important about that, like with your title search, that tells you that uh you know, maybe uh Mayor Hoover sold me a property and then I turned around and I sold it to to Bob and then uh and we all paid our mortgages and we all
paid our taxes and everything is is fine. However, it what it doesn't say is that maybe Mayor Hoover used it as a motorcycle repair shop for 30 years and then Bob used it as a marina for another 10 years and then I bought it and I used
it as uh I don't know a a clothing store. That's very very important information to have because that will then inform whether or not there's any latent issues with that property. uh the latent issues
in particular uh EPA calls them brown fields. Uh brown fields sounds like a scary word, but in reality it's really not. What it is is it's just saying that there is a possibility that there is something going on there, not that
there's a probability. And that's that's really important as well. Uh brownfields can be they can come in any uh form and they can come on any property. You can have industrials, commercial, manufacturing, old junkyards, even vacant lots and gas
stations. Um, [snorts] what's what is uh >> important about this is that >> um >> as you're looking at these different properties, they could all have any number of issues [snorts] that you that
aren't necessarily visible. So, we do the phase one that tells us uh oh, you guys know why redevelopment matters. I'm going to kind of brings uh if you're redeveloping, it's obviously going to bring some uh public
benefit back. It's going to uh utilize an existing infrastructure. There's likely to be uh roadways already established. There's likely to be uh sewer lines, electrical power, that type of thing already servicing a property
that uh has been developed before. Um oops, I went too far. Okay, the phase one assessment. So, they review all of the same records that a title search would review, but then they go even more in depth. We might look at old insurance
documents. They may uh uh obviously they're going to look at all the government databases. Uh if there's a if you have a uh fuel spill that actually gets logged uh at the state of Florida and they know, oh, we lost 200 gallons
of diesel there in 1989. And so that's something that we need to look at because maybe the uh maybe it was cleaned up, maybe the cleanup efforts didn't do a good enough job. So that's uh uh and then when we get to our
phase two, the phase two is directed by that phase one. The phase two report does actual physical testing. They go out and they do core samples. They may do water samples. In some cases, we've done vapor
samples. So, uh again, really crucial information. And I'm going to get to a piece of it that's really important uh for you guys as a city. Um, let me go back a slide or two. Whoops, wrong way.
So, a sentence that I left off on here. Uh, the reason why you want to do these phase ones is that uh it buys you some protection. EPA came out with a rule in 2001, I believe it was. It's called the
all appropriate inquiries rule. What it does is it will hold you harmless as a buyer, whether you're the city or just Rich Jenkins buying a a piece of property if you do all appropriate inquiries, including an
environmental search. So then you buy this property and all of a sudden you find out that uh as you're going to develop it that maybe you've got an underground storage tank. It's going to cost you several hundred,000 to take that tank out and remediate this issue. Well,
ordinarily you would think, "Oh, well, you bought it. It's yours." However, if you have done these, you are now held harmless and you can go to EPA and EPA has a fund uh a grant fund that we can use to clean up that
property. Now, it's no longer your issue. And uh but if you don't do these phase ones ahead of time, you bought it, you're paying for it. Uh and it can make or break, especially a large project like you guys are talking about. Uh so
as you're assembling these properties or helping to assemble them, make sure to use this. Pasco County has a grant right now. It sunsets in October of this year that will pay for these reports. A phase
one report runs on a average parcel runs around $5,000 $6,000. Uh the larger and the more complex the property, the more it costs, but the average right now is running about five grand. Phase 2 start
at around 50 grand. So, uh it's extremely valuable to have this done. Also for your my property owners, if you're trying to market your property, if you have these already done and in place, that's something that can be
extremely valuable from a marketing standpoint because now your buyer doesn't have to spend upwards of, you know, $50 $60,000 before he even gets started. So um
so far we have done 14 uh phase ones under our current grant. Uh of those 14 phase 1 ones, four of them have become phase 2s. And this is the part that I like the best. None of my phase 2s have
shown up with any major issues. There's been some dimminimous stuff, but nothing that required any kind of cleanup. So, that's actually kind of surprising and and positive. Uh, this might be hard to see on the screen
here, but there's little green stars uh especially over here on the West Coast. Uh, those are where those properties are located that we've done the uh the reports. And I wanted to show you really quickly. This is a former dry
cleaner. It was a dry cleaning plant over on uh US 41 in Land of Lakes. [clears throat] It backed up to a lake. It backed up to a rail line. Uh the before it was a or no, I'm sorry, after the
before it was a rail or I mean before it was a dry cleaner, it was a propane substation. They would uh bring giant propane tanks in on the rail cars and then move the propane into a larger propane tank right there on site. I was
certain this was going to end up as a cleanup. As it turns out, it was a very well-run dry cleaner and uh and the propane had no effect on the property either. So, um but it it certainly
looked ugly. Um, this is an old warehouse and storage facility. It's actually here in the city of Port Richie. It's uh over here uh behind Home Depot. Uh, it's another one that we did both a phase one and a phase
two on. Um, this is a one of our newer projects. Uh, it's a auto repair shop that has changed hands. It's here in Port Richie, uh, at the Well, it's close to the intersection of, uh, 19 and Ridge
Road. It's on Ridge Road, though. Um, this is a uh, uh, print shop that was uh, it's also over on 41. And again, I it was one of those I'm thinking with print shops, you're thinking, you know, chemicals and dyes and, you know, that
type of thing. turned out there. It was actually pretty wellrun. Um, and then, uh, oh, this is just some, uh, some stuff that I'm going to be doing over the next little bit. We have, uh, two more, uh, public engagement events
that we have scheduled, uh, for the county to talk about brownfields. One of them is in Zephr Hills, one of them's in Land of Lakes. And um we're continuing to look for phase ones and phase 2 opportunities to spend this grant money
down because it does sunset in October. So now is a perfect time uh for you guys as a city and also for your property owners to take advantage of this. So I think that is Yep, that is it. So, um I
know that uh Bob wanted to talk about formbbased design. I uh in formbbased code, I uh I work in the in with a bunch of planners and at Pasco County. They're the experts on it. I am not. I probably
know enough to at least smile and nod during a conversation, but I don't know all of it. Uh what's interesting about the formbbased code I can tell you is that uh if you decide that you want instead of a six foot wide sidewalk that
you want everything in district to be 8 foot wide sidewalks you can do that. You set it up ahead of time. Uh if you want matching street lights, even if you're not putting them in as a city, you can have your developer, he knows, oh, I'm
going to have to put in street lights and they're going to be this type. That way everything matches, everything is is uh complete. And that of course adds to your appeal for the area. Um, I think beyond that, I I think I would
defer to some of the other experts when it comes to form-based. >> Do we have someone that was wasn't able to make it today that was was an expert? >> We do. We we actually uh have a couple of people the county is working on uh implementing some formbbased code along
Grand Boulevard so that it intersects better with the city of Newport Richie uh starting at about Cecilia and running uh out to 54. Uh we want it to kind of match what they've already started and so we have people working on it right
now. Uh and they would be happy to come here. They didn't have enough time. They didn't feel like to put together a real presentation for you, but uh they did say that they'd be happy to come at a different time. >> Question for public comment.
>> There we go. one place that um he didn't mention um where this environmental checking of property that you buy is schools. We just bought the Swatman Educational Center and we did a environmental check and it happened to have a oil tank that had been um in the ground there for who
knows how many years but it was taken out in ' 87 or 88 and so it became a a situation where we're going to the state and they're going to come in and then clean it up for us and not costing us anything. So the importance of that environmental check of the properties that you buy assessed, go ahead and do
that. >> How much would that cost the property owner if they didn't do that? >> It's not the property owner's time and when it went out. Oh, you know, we we we just I'm saying due diligence. That's my my point. >> You still have grant money available for
phase one and phase two, Rich? >> Yes, sir. We had uh our grant was for $500,000. We have spent it down now to I have about 127,000 uh still available. So, uh um like I
say, I'm trying to spend it down. I've got a few months left to do it. Uh I would like to do it here because I really believe in this waterfront district and what you guys are trying to accomplish. >> What is that phase one cost? >> It depends on the size of the property
and the complexity. Okay. Uh however the average right now is running about five grand. >> Phase one is a visual walkover, >> right? They do a they do a visual walk over identify things like with our dry cleaner. One of the big concerns was
there was a big uh uh drain in the center of the of the dry cleaning plant. And we knew from the walk around that there was an old septic tank there as well. I was certain we were going to find all kinds of uh dry cleaning chemicals in that septic tank.
>> We corded that septic tank twice. Okay. >> Had no issues. >> You just did this on the field property. They had a brownfield on the old field property, didn't they? >> Uh they didn't do it through our office. >> They did their own phase one, I think. >> Yeah, I I I did speak with the uh with
the developer about it, but uh I think he had already completed his his environmental work. questions. >> Thanks for ask for
um the forum based zoning. Um you can look at a lot of things on YouTube, a lot of studies on it. There's a lot of things for you guys to look at to get ideas and how it works and how uh different communities benefits. Some of the examples is like
Rosemary Beach in the panhandle. Uh it's beautiful. It's like a colonial Bermuda type district and that's all they allow there and they got fountains and walkounds and it's beautiful. People it it people look at and they say they got to stop there. So it draws traffic just on its appearance. That's one section.
Another section of Rosemary Beach is like Santini, Greece. So it kind of aderes to a lot of people. St. Augustine is another one. Newport Richie has has has done uh the same thing. Tarkman Springs, there's several in Orlando. One
part of Orlando may look appear like one district. Another part goes around this park. It's a city park and the outside of the park looks like the inside of park with special signs and everything that match the park. So it it's right in the middle of the city too, but it doesn't feel like you're in the middle
of a city. It feels like you're in like Pennsylvania in the country or something the way it appears. What I'm saying important thing is if we this is what a lot of developers looking for. They're looking for a consistency. They're looking for
security. The current business owners down there, property owners, the current developer and future developers. This is a big incentive for them. It it it it creates a um
let's see it. U it makes it very simple, very affordable developed architecture. They don't have to go through all the codes, the big code books. They have a small book for that district. this is what we want. They're going to want to be a part of that. So, it simplifies the process and
it creates security knowing that if someone builds a specific building there with a certain appearance that the neighbor's going to do the same thing which instills value in that project and of course the neighbors going to want to do the same he's going to have the same kind of value. Paul or France image
there. That's the first time I saw it. But I also saw an image where he had shiplap. It matches our signs or shake and you can take that parking garage and click on it. You got a shake sighting. It's completely different appearance. Um and you can change it a lot of different ways. That's kind of what we need for
people to see when they're going down 19. They look at that say, I want we need to check that out. I want everybody to go by that district and look at that. They want to check that out. And like I said, it it steals value. Temple Terrace, if you ever been on a 56th Street, it's like a dead zone. Some of
the shopping centers, the malls, they're closing down. There's nothing out there. Tampa Temple Terrace just form zone that whole district. They're putting in like a New Orleans type colonial structures in there only that's going to create a lot of pedestrian traffic and more
traffic downtown. That'll vitalize that whole area. So we have a district right now as I said that should be tourism bound form zoning that will create that and the builders and developers and the
current property owners. This is what they want. This is what they've been waiting for direction from the city to make it easy for development. It's going to create a lot more commerce once someone starts a hotel down there and once they start building this everybody's going to want to be a part of it. [snorts] Don, you're familiar
with uh formbbased zoning? >> Yes. Um, one of the big things that I've been looking at though is as we discuss this is like uh Councilman Hug is is one having that vision that we need in order
to develop the community that we want. I think right now we're kind of in a spot where we really don't know. We we have an idea, but we really don't know what we want. So, it's kind of hard to move in that direction without, you know, where I feel that we might make mistakes here and there because we got to get it
right, especially when like uh Councilman Hover said with with the zoning piece and getting that right up front and working with developers so that like you said, they want to come because that's going to be the big thing. What they want is they want they want predictability. They want um
[cough] I won't say affordability, but they want a community that they come into that they know is going to be a long-term investment for them. So, it's not like, hey, hotel, they're going to come up, they're going to stay until they can't make anymore, and they leave. What we want is for them to come in with the mindset, hey, I'm coming here to improve
the community and what can I do as I build my my place based on how we allow it to be zoned. How we how we bring that. Let's say it's a hotel, it doesn't matter. It could be almost anything, but how we allow that to have the ability to
expand and create, you know, within the community because what we really want is I don't want to speak for the council, but in my mind is have those companies and and and let's say hotels or businesses that come in that do want to make the investment because they they
are confident in Port Richie and the future that it has because right now we're in a prime we're in the prime spot for all that right now. But where we're where we're failing is to get those right agencies in here to make those
investments. And I think that's on me to help, you know, in that process, you know, and talking with some of you because I think so I'm going to talk with some of you after after the meeting on on some strategic ideas I have. But I think we can get there um quicker than we know. But it's something that I'd
have to ask the council for, you know, at least a review for um at least direction for a strategic plan as we move forward towards the development of Port Richie as that waterfront project that we all envision that we know can be accomplished, but being able to
accomplish it with investment dollars, not just, you know, uh city dollars because if it's city dollars, we're not going to get much accomplished. But if we get those investments, we're going to get we're going to get big, better, broader, and we're also going to get buyin from all the companies, all the businesses that move
here because they're going to be like, "Hey, this is our home, too." And so, they'll invest more. They'll participate more, and they'll they'll they'll help the uh the government grow even more with the its abilities and capabilities in support of tourism. That's [snorts]
how I kind of see it. >> Anybody else who want to speak? County people are here. >> I'm Lori Simpson, 5006 Sunset Boulevard, and I've lived here for 30 years. And when I first moved here, we were supposed to have a Hyatt over S.
probably remembers this. They were supposed to put a Hyatt over there on US 19 where they're building now. And two of my daughter, my two daughters recently got married in the past couple years. and we had 100 people coming in out of out of state for each wedding and
they want to stay at a vacation hotel on the water. They're not going to stay at any of those hotels along, you know, US19. They're they're not rich people, but they want to live they want to stay at like Inennisbrook or Saddlebrook. They don't want to stay at one of these >> hotels on US 19. I think there's a great
need for that, a really nice waterfront hotel with a pool. And also um I run a Facebook page for the for the city for the not for the city but just for to talk about city issues and somebody just mentioned um we should have a Bass Pro
Shop up by GIMO. I think that's a great idea. >> Yeah, that's that's a great point because Whiskey Joe's is trying to create they are creating a wedding venue as well as Brasha Park is a great wedding venue. No place for people and family. You got 100 people like you said
come in 150 people hotel will give them a special rate obviously to to stay there and that's something that would be very beneficial absolutely >> Mike you stood up did you want to >> and I take you next
>> Mike Low Catches Waterfront Grill um you know when you think about Pasco County and you go up and down the coastline there aren't any other cities really with what Port Richie has to really. Um, this bayou district is
tremendous and it really could be a draw for the entire county. When you think about the Angeline project and the Ridge Ridge Road extension, obviously that that funnels everyone right here, right? So, I think it's a no-brainer. It's just how do we pay for it, right? How do we
get it done? Whether the design is truly elevated like the one we saw today, which I thought was incredible, or it's like we looked at two, three years ago, I forget when the last workshop was on the on the hardcaping here within the city, but I think it would all from a from a business owner's perspective, it
would be very welcomed, of course, right? Who who wouldn't want it? Um, but I do think we need a hotel in in the Bayou district. There's no question. Um, something on the water, no doubt. You know, I I question some of the numbers on on the study from the standpoint of, you know, six nights is the typical stay
for people visiting Port Richie. I think that has everything to do with who they're going to see and they're staying with family for the most part, right? So, I think that number would come down, but certainly occupancy rates are higher on the water and they would be higher in this area than they are countywide. So,
with that, I think I think it's a no-brainer. It's just how do we pay for it? >> So, thank you. >> I got a I got a question for you. >> Yes, sir. in your discussion that you just had, what do you think is going to help that move forward? >> Help >> like >> the overall project move forward
>> provide certain infrastructure items that would help pull that in or are there is it just relationship building to the point where we're offering areas of of of opportunity? Yeah, I think you know in the past and I
think I think we're taking huge steps forward here with this council because I think this council's a lot more friendly, business friendly. Um, and I think, you know, Eric, you had posed the question as to why maybe Marriott or these others haven't done anything here in in Port Richie in the past. And I
think it all has to do with just their confidence in the city and being able to do what they want to do or what they need to do from a development standpoint. And I think we're headed in the right direction with the council because I I I think we've seen a tremendous difference and we we're very appreciative of that. Um but I think,
you know, beyond that, it's someone up here had said it earlier. It's the first project. When that first project goes, I think then the others all see it and they'll start to fall in line. It's just that's the hardest one to get going. It's the first one. >> So, >> but I've got to get that first project done.
>> Yes. >> You said it though. They've got to do a confident. >> Yes. Council. Absolutely. >> Get behind them and their their strategy because they don't want to get into this million dollars then all of a sudden you're like, "Hey, good luck with 14." >> Yeah. The slightest the slightest doubt
and they're just going to move on to the next area, right? That's just >> something done that we could work on. You know, where do we get assurances in place? >> I've got some strategies already devel. >> Yes. And I and I think with that with that first big entity that comes in that
there's there's there's there's certain we're going to have to treat it different upfront than than most places that are going to come after because if not we won't get it established. And I think that's going to be key is you know what what what risk are we willing to
accept to get that first business in to build the empire. I I don't even know if this the first thing though because >> as a businessman I know a lot of communities that their boards are not businessfriendly you know and they're
you know they're you know I get environmental stuff I get all that stuff but you can kill a lot of business by not allowing people to get out there and take their dollars and then run with them and so I think some if we could put together something that would cause them to feel comfortable coming in and put it in writing and make that part of what we
do. So if one of us left, it wouldn't [clears throat] change what we do. Agree. >> You know, because that can change real quick. You can go to, you know, a [snorts] businessfriendly community to like, hey, we don't mind renting out two kayaks for the rest of our lives. You know, that kind of thing real quick. >> Well, that and that's the incentives that we have been starting to work on,
which this council has done, is which is the best council I've seen since I've been here in 40 years as far as >> it's the best one we've seen as well. So, absolutely. But the tax incentives, the CRA incentives, all that's is important. But I know the form based
zoning also is a security that the developer wants, knowing that he's not going to have car wash open next to him or the building next to him is going to be the same as his. And we're going to provide parking for other businesses, maybe not just for his, but we're going
to have parking for the traffic. We can get the water traffic. We can get the traffic off 19 as well as European and South American traffic. And if we can provide that the formbbased zoning is going to be the ticket [snorts] to market it for the security and the ease
of development. >> Agreed. Thank you all. >> Frank Raldi Treadway Drive out on the waterfront and u tight think you guys are doing great. Um we're feeling a lot better that there's more continuity. Things that'll help us now will be the
incentives. The developers are looking for incentives and they're really um I'm meeting with hotel developers and the higherend hotel developers and they do want a concept for the waterfront district. They don't want to build their
high-end hotel right there if nothing else is happening. Um some things that'll hap help us drastically right now though would be um our infrastructure and it would make a big difference immediately. The simplest things that have already been approved the CR money
CRA money is there. Um it's going to be like surfacing the roads, putting in our sidewalks and um landscaping and then lighting. If we do those things there with with um advertising to get people off of 19 over into the district, we
want to have that this as a destination area. They drive they can drive right through um Port Richie right now and go to Tarpon Springs, Dun Eden, uh >> Newport Richie, >> Newport still there
>> in uh John's Pass. So, at one point our theme was going to be it's going to be a a fishing type village and and it really should be a whole theme for our waterfront district as a maybe a fishing village, but it needs to have a real modern spin to it together. And with the
lighting, the sidewalks, these things immediately would make a big difference. Um, everyone will know the continuity down there and they'll know that the city's got their back and they're going to want to develop there. Um, some of the issues that the developers look at when they're talking about devel u
resort hotels are they call them ADRs. Uh, it's an an S um, let me see the ADR is the average daily rate that a hotel can make for that room. And so they need they're
looking for certain numbers and those are the cities that they go into. And right now our averages in Pasco County are between $102 a night and 175. And the higherend resort hotels want to be up around 230 maybe there or better.
But a waterfront hotel does can bring that. But once again, they just want the continuity and your support which we're getting now. We really appreciate it. And we've got property there. um got a little over an acre and a half and then we have rights to expand out into the
water. Um we would like to do a waterfront a walking walkway that would go along our property. So we support that and we would just offer that just to get you know to help you know help with the boardwalk
>> and um I'm sure Hooters would do the same thing and every other business owner in there as well. And uh but thank you very much for what you're doing. Thank you, >> Frank. I've got >> Yes, sir. One second. This I've heard twice now talking about sidewalks,
lighting, paving roads. >> X amount of dollars of the CRA, >> you know, you've seen uh polar fronts put up some pretty impressive Vegas style sidewalks and trees and everything else, which you're into the multiple tens of millions of dollars and stuff
like that. real quick. I I'm struggling as a businessman and a realtor professional and those things, you know, going out there and just dropping money, dropping electric lines in the ground, paving sidewalks, and putting and putting in asphalt for something we have no clue what it's going to look like later. It's like before you get in there
and develop it, let's go ahead and put these things in, but they're not going to be those things. It's not going to be that way. And and I've heard you said, so please explain to me why you say that. So I >> these Okay, >> before you got here, this these were already approved. These were um feasibility plans that were already in
place and approved. >> Understand >> heirs did the the study, >> right? >> And it was all laid out exactly and I think they had uh the support >> eight years ago. >> Let me let me let me comment on that. Okay. >> Because the guy who beat on 550 doors to
get to this seat right here talk. >> Okay. I don't think we had the board in place then that we do now. And it said by Mr. Low. And so just because they said, "Hey, we need a a baseball field because they'll come." Doesn't mean we need to build a baseball field. It means we need to make sure we do it the
correct way. And having a wise board that we have right now, I think it's important that we look at different options. So, as I can appreciate, you're ready to go build the sidewalks and the lights on stuff. I don't know if that's our best bet. I think that getting getting folks involved by Pasco County
and, you know, this design, [clears throat] you know, being portrayed to us, these are things that we need to get going on versus just taking our CRA money, just dump it into something that may not, it might be dug up in a year from now with a bulldozer. Does that make sense?
>> It's been neglected down there. We I thought we had the money to do this and they did the feasibility studies on it and everything was laid out and it showed the roads, the sidewalks and the lighting. That's why we bought that property. We bought the property because of the city. We went to the city and had
meetings and they said we are doing this. Well, maybe we're still doing it and it's in the works and we know it is. Um same with the dredging. So th but those are reasons why we wanted to be down there and if the city's not going to take care of the roads and surface the roads and put you know how long do
we have to wait for those things >> I don't want to wait for two more years for a developer we want it now and that's going to spark really believe that that's going to spark energy down there now >> to to do that >> if I could so obviously um we're small city very limited budget um true we work
well within that um the so we can't afford to make mistakes. Okay, I think that's the biggest part and it was it that was a it was a great project. Um, and I think if you if you look at it uh in a vacuum at the businesses that are there now in the in the footprint that they take, I think that's a great
project for the area. Um, however, as we start talking about all that being for sale, which is when I first got elected, that was kind of the the the what's going on. Everybody's selling the property. And so that being said, um it was my thinking, why do I want to invest
millions of dollars in road infrastructure for something that may be totally different five years from now? So, you know, we still have the money. It hadn't been spent. Um and and we have that and that's something we could deploy relatively quickly because we have all these plans. But I think as you've seen
the the 8 and 12 acres of that Gildog owns has sold and there's it's been cleared now. And so they're going to bring proposals forward. Uh we did get a sneak peek today of what they're going to bring forward. Um the uh and so as that happens, that landscape may change
a little bit. Now, there are issues down there really that we need to address from a from a patching perspective regardless of what happens. Do we go down there mill and put a new road in? I think that's probably premature, but I think we need to fix at least get it safe and drivable. But as these plans
and I know that property you're talking about is for sale, right? And I know there's been conversations for that. Um [laughter] these things aren't moving because of price, right? Um so everybody wants to get the most for their property and that's that's noble. Um I think if if if the you know the market is was was
there, you'd see those properties change of hands, but since it's it's it's not to that value. I mean, we've got like you said, there's people looking. um why they haven't stroked the check is probably because it's it's it's it's outside the price range to make it work. So I think as as those uh market factors
come together and you have the buyers that are willing to pay X amount and you have the sellers that are willing to meet them at that X amount, those change hands and then we start having things come in, hey, we want to do this and then the city is all about obviously putting forth the infrastructure to support those things and we can do that
and we have we have some some dry powder to be able to do that. But if we just go down there with with the hope that let's let's do it this way, um we're going to be ripping those roads back back up. And I can tell you right now with the development that's going to happen on um uh where the Gil Dog restaurant was and
that's one of the worst roads right there treadway um you're going to have trucks and stuff going they're going to destroy it as soon as we put it down. So it doesn't make sense for us to do that because it's it just becomes a waste. It's it's throw away. So, I I I feel your your concern and again, I think as
like you all said, I think the council wants to support that, but we want to be good stewards of the money we have and we want to make sure that when we do lay it out there that it's going to last several years and we're going to get the the most value out of that for the residents. Otherwise, we just got to go back to the well and have tax residents more to pay for roads two and three
times to get it right. So, uh if it wasn't for the fact that entire area was on the market, I think we would we'd probably move forward that. the sense at all. We need kind see how that shakes out. Um if if you if your property goes off the market and you guys want to stay there as it is and maybe do something
with it, then Austin let us know that we can probably start to look at way more. >> We just don't want to wait. Uh the whole waterfront district is over 20 acres. Gild Dogs is 8 acres. How long is it going to take for that property to be developed? A couple years. We have to wait. >> They're talking about shovels in the ground this year. >> We still have to wait for a couple years
for for the rest of our road. So the rest of the waterfront district gets kind of put on hold until that project happens. >> I'm saying >> we don't want to wait. >> Yeah. I don't say put the whole district on hold, but I think we need to see uh what we need to put in there and how it's going to lay out. Like I said,
let's just say for for argument sake that we love this thing that Paul Fry showed and we want to move forward on that. That's a total rip up of all that down there, right? And so we got to lay that out. But yeah, that's >> that takes a long time to do. Costs a lot of money. But what you can do
immediately is the simplest thing. Take care of the roads. Take care of where the people walk, where they walk on the sidewalks. Give them some lighting. And that's all they need down there. And it'll change the whole area. That's going to be the cheapest way to move something very quickly. >> Yeah. I really believe that.
>> Yeah. And I'm not opposed >> all the others. >> And I'm not opposed to spending some money down there where where it's smart. >> Smart [clears throat] money. Yeah. And I agree with you and I appreciate >> incentivize um the um developers to rebuild the roads if we
were to build it build something now something adequate now that drew people to the area to even bring them >> bringers in we could incentiv incentivize the takeover of the cost to the developers who come in later. like
transfer the cost to the developers and give those discounts that we were talking about at our last meeting. >> Yeah, they're going to they're going to be impact fees and all kind of things and they're going to have infrastructure. Had a conversation today about some of the infrastructure needs that they're going to need for their project and so that's obviously something we'll be working through very soon too. So you're talking about the
entire north side of the waterfront is going to be addressed relatively quickly and that's a direct road right to your property back there. So, um, and that's that's actually the worst. Treadway is probably the worst road down there. I would say >> I do feel like we we have to do something sooner than later. Those roads
are they're terrible. >> Yeah. I mean, I don't know what it is. >> We We could We could send a patch truck down there and and work wonders. >> Can I ask this? What business do you run down there right now? >> I'm in the commercial real estate business. >> So, you don't run any business yet? >> No, sir. >> So, you're just fishing for somebody to
buy the property? Um, >> we own many properties and every we own many properties and they're all on the market. Every property we own >> down there specifically because that's >> everywhere. I hope Frank >> down there. >> Down there. >> They're on the market. >> They're on the market. So, you want me to put sidewalks and lights and streets
in. >> So, I can put a developer in there that's going to build something big for the city. Right now, when they look at it, it's not real exciting. >> What's exciting is they've just cleared eight and a half acres down. Very exciting. Yeah.
>> Now hundreds of millions of dollars in there and your properties are attached to that. That's what's exciting. You know what I'm saying? And and and and we want to make sure we use the money we have as like powder cake, you know, when develop goes in there like, hey, we need this. We're like, we throw it there and all of a sudden that thing takes off and
flies. We want to do that. We don't want to build it by we'll build it, they'll come kind of thing because I don't think that's a wide thing. I would love to for us to if we have unsafe >> areas down there. Yeah. Let's go patch it up. Let's get that done. That's fine. I'm all for that. But we can't we can't
make that place look like a brand new community down there when we're getting ready to get all kinds of developers coming in from different directions. >> I think that would be very poor of us to spend the taxpayer dollars like that. >> Understood. >> I think the next step is before our city
manager, which we're very fortunate to have, by the way. I'm very happy to have Don King here. He does have some knowledge of this. you deal with before with Pasco County's um firm form based zoning people that they write that stuff
and developers can come with we want four fouroot sidewalks, six foot sidewalks, 8ft sidewalks, we want shrubs, trees, what kind of trees or maybe certain roads don't want that. So we can find out what that some developers, even current
developers would like and then Don can get with that people and they can come in and show our planning and zoning board what it would take to create a district like what Paul France might create or somebody might create and say well this is what we want to do based on
what developers have said and what's possible uh with bay zoning. So I think that would be our next step. We got to take the step though. >> One thing too, Bob, that and and Frank, obviously we've got uh we're looking at replacing the mains down there to
upgrade the mains because they're currently at what 4 in I think down there. Is that >> and we need to go about 8 inch mains in the waterfront to serve some of the stuff. >> Well, that's also been put on hold because of the future development. So, we don't we don't know the needs of that area. That was actually part of the
entire Cody Riverlanding project was replacing the water manes, replacing the roads, the sidewalks, the lighting, you know, which was like I said, we do have the plans for, but obviously wasn't executed because now of this future development. So all of that now is up in the air until we know what the needs of
that development is going to be. So there's a lot of missing information here for us to make the right moves from infrastructure perspective, right? All the way down below the water pipes, sewer pipes, and all that. So, uh, that's why we're really kind of waiting to see how these all these things that
are for sale go and what they're going to put there so that we can service it properly. Uh, if we just put lipstick on a pig so everybody sells a property, uh, we're going to be ripping all that back up and that's millions of dollars just get thrown. >> Yeah, we may not have fuel money we have to incentivize people. >> Yeah.
From my perspective, if I'm looking for a property to do something with and I see what's going on down there, um yeah, it might be a little more uh nice to drive over nice roads, nice lines, see sidewalks, whatever. If I'm if I'm focused on that one particular restaurant or whatever's down there that
I want to just fix that up, that's great. But if I'm looking at it much bigger picture, if I'm going to am I going to put a hotel there, am I going to put a conference center or whatever? Um, I may want to have that flexibility that I can move that stuff around and
the city can help me do that. Uh, talking about the boardwalk along the water. I think >> that's that has to happen with any development. We need to make sure that that's open all the way around that corridor that people residents can walk around that water and I think that's what people going to want to do. >> We got a marina there. You can't go through the marina. It's a private marine.
>> Well, we Yeah. I mean, we can snake around. We want to as much as possible. We want to walk along that water. So, [snorts] >> well, we we the the water lines can be put in pretty simple. Daryl said according to, you know, the development and demand. >> Um, as far as I mean, some may want to
tear up a road. They may, well, if we eliminate this road, I can build this here. So, like you said, we paved it and put sidewalks in and say, well, we want we'll build your parking garage, but you need to tear this road up in order for it to fit. So, like I said, if Mr. King
can get with, you know, the the zone developers in Pasco County and new developers, see what they want to do. May take a little bit of time, but he can bring that to planning and zoning and they can kind of give us some kind of direction like we were talking about
sidewalks, lighting. Paul Friends be happy to help if you want that. That's up to Don. I think that would be the first step in doing this. And I think there's some opportunity with partners that are out there that are that have not been mentioned yet that I have an
idea that I'm going to probably go and engage with that will help, you know, with that with the overall project. I think that that they will be willing partners. I just got to sit down with them and and have that detailed conversation on, you know, benefits
worth uh against risk. >> Something helps on the way. It's uh >> it would help drastically and any developer that that ruins a road or destroys something. >> They're going to repair it and they're not going to access treadway, they're just going to come off at 19 to access
that development anyway. But >> if we were able to do anything in the infrastructure, it would it would help drastically and everyone in the community would see it immediately and they would know and they'll spend more time down there. If we can't afford to do the garage or the big concepts, let's do something down there, not just sit on
the money. You know, we have to come up here and talk about it all the time. Well, that >> I mean, how many times we have to come up and talk about what we need down in the >> this is the reason for the meeting and I appreciate everybody being here, especially you, [clears throat] Frank, because you've been here quite a long time. Been here 40 years, but the reason
I'm meeting is because we're starting incentives and we got a mayor and a council that wants to do something, but we want to do it right. That the this is everything we presented today is incentives. Why why it's important to incentivize tourism in a hotel. Why it's important to incentivize public parking.
A hotel may build a parking garage for us, you know, if we incentivize it properly. And the form bay zoning is going to create the security and the ease of doing that. That's the first step. And I think like I said, Don can can meet with the right people to get
the right message and to bring to us what we need to do. In the meantime, we can look at different ideas of form-based zoning. It's on YouTube. They got all kinds of different ideas like five minutes, some 10 minutes, but it gives you really good ideas. So, when we start doing these incentives in
meetings, we understand what they can do and how much value. So, tax incentives might or CR might be more higher for these projects than it would be for this project. Like I said, everybody, our current developer, he
should be incentivized, >> and so should Mike or anybody else and you that are down there too equally. So, we got to figure out how we can do that tax- wise and CRA wise, but this is this is all this stuff is important for to help us figure out how to do that to get
it right the first time. >> And that incentive policy, we're working on that now. That's underway. It's there's a draft form out there. And so actually that's going to help when that's finalized from a from a real estate perspective. Here's what the city has from incentive package to be able to develop things that helps market that
property. So I think we're doing that and by all means >> we appreciate it. >> This I mean if if we got issues have utilities go down drive those roads down there get patches on them. It needs to be >> right >> taken care of until we do something more. >> We're going to do the docks at the boat ramp. We need to fix that south side of
the boat ramp so we can put that finger out first so we can still use the the boat ramp while we're building the other docks. And it needs to be dredged as well. There's a lot of things. >> Boat ramps open now, right? >> Yeah, but that boat ramp is dangerous. >> The dock. >> We've already we've already kind of crossed over that and talked about that.
They've been down there and passed it. Here's the answer. Help us on the way. >> Yes, sir. really when they go down there and they've got Pasco news down there and they're taking pictures and we got shovels in the ground and we're putting our feet on those. You ought to be going, "Yeah, yeah, yeah, let's go." Because you're going to start to get some action and right now I think that's
the best action we can do is get that thing started because it's attached to that whole area down there and that's >> Yep. Thank you all for your support and I appreciate what you're doing. Definitely. I know it's a tough job. >> Thank you. >> Anyone else like speaking? Lori
>> Lori Simpson 50006 Sunset Boulevard. Um, all the development that I've seen on this side of 19, they have to add like, I don't know, 6 to 10 feet of dirt first before they start developing. So, if you put any sidewalks down there, it's just going to be a waste of money. >> So, find out how much dirt they have to
put down before they start developing. [laughter] >> Anyone else? Okay. See that? So, the last thing we have on here is I think we kind of ended this is a question and answer session. >> We kind of went through that. >> Is there anything else before we uh entertain a motion to journ anybody wants to ask while we're here?
>> No. >> Just say thank you to everybody for coming. >> Yeah, absolutely. It's uh you know the the the important part of our jobs is is we can't do them without public input and so we appreciate your your being here and and voicing your opinions. And like I said, we uh as May said, I think
you see a difference as council. just cuz we care and we want to try to do something. I think uh the city in the past has run a many project off um and so we don't uh we're not there anymore. We want to we want to be business friendly. We want to be resident friendly. We really want to make the city the best can be and and we're definitely doing that. So get a motion
to adjurnn. >> Motion to second. Second. Motion second. All in favor say I. I.