I take them and they make me feel bring it on I'm too into it I fought two of those CS off I'm good I knew that was a slow [Laughter] pitch I'm Tove my son's got my son's got three of them so I'm good to
go I'm calling this meeting to order of the Community Development agency the 24th of March 2025 roll call please Madam clerk chair Rich here Vice chair Collins here board member Clark here board member goobi
here board member Reed board member brickville here board member James here I do not have an invocation so please stand for the Pledge of Allegiance I pledge Al to the flag of the United States of America and to the
Republic it stands one nation under God indivisible and liberty andice for all need to learn song 71 he came in okay I get a motion for approval of the agenda so moved second we have a
motion by the vice mayor and a second by commissioner Clark any public comment seeing none any comments or questions by the Commissioners see none all in favor I do we have any comments from the public do
we have any public Mr Shear you in fact count as public do we have any comments from the public on non-agenda items negative seeing none comments by board members commissioner giobi do you have any comments no I do not thank you commissioner Clark it was just amazing
to read the annual report I'm sorry board member Clark board yes sorry it was amazing to read the annual report and I'm looking forward to the presentation by Miss pingston Board member James no comments at this time thank you board member
bricka uh just one General comment for this board to think about um with the changes that we're making um in in the city okay uh right now I think that the CRA
is going to need a little guidance relative to um what types of things that that we should approach and what types of things that we should get involved with and how that relationship or or that symbiotic relationship between the
CRA and the city can work so that we maximize the the revenue that's coming out of the CRA um you know our goal in that CRA is to produce really as much revenue as possible in that CRA because it's tax dollars that we get to keep versus tax dollars that go elsewhere and
so U but we have to figure out how we're going to do that um you know so that we can maximize that value and I think right now uh I I'm just mentioning I think that there's a need to kind of explore has that Focus changed at the CR
level should we change at the CR a level and if so what is that vision and I'm I'm kind of talking about like like we did 40 years ago or whatever it was 45 years ago when we first looked at the Vision 4 downtown um I think it might be
a good idea to to relook at that just to see what you know what the situation is anyway that's just a comment I have have you made that suggestion to the I would think those specific suggestions would come from the crb board crb well the crb we've we've looked at that we were just
asked you know what what kind of money we thought should be allocated to what and it was kind of in that process that it came to my attention um I personally kind of thought about well you know what I'm not really sure because I'm not sure that we should go down you know this alley per se and uh or that the CRA
should maybe their direction should be different at this point and you know that's the CRA ultimately although it's an independent board it it needs to take its direction from the city Commission and and from the people so I I'm just I'm just wondering if it's not time to
re it's been a long time maybe we should rethink all of that and see what we want to do um board member Collins so it one of our recent meetings panal had asked a similar question she was trying to get
some feedback from us and my comments were that I would like to see us moving away from these large scale um projects who investing all of the capital that's available like uh the undergrounding or a bright line and and starting to move in the direction
of U picking different areas and just making it nicer you pump all of that money into one thing it sort of at the expense of the rest of the city so when downtown gets $10 million out of the CRA budget um what about all the other parts
of the city so you know more in the direction of instead of changing the infrastructure just make sure that the roads are paved the sidewalks are nice if we want to do some streetscaping beautification
but this this sort of thing that we've been doing where it's large scale projects and even streetscaping to the point of creating complete streets where it's like totally changing the street I think is overkill you know and and I I would rather see and I think the average
resident would rather see that you know there's no Pooles the roads are paved the sidewalks are functional it's nice but it's not and and and to your point it's it's antagonistic somewhat to to your point which is um what do we do for greatest
revenue and greatest Revenue might be some of these larger projects but um well it's not even that Chris as much I I I pr you're you're getting to what I'm getting at is that you know for we if we put a little thought into it there are
ways without getting into legal issues or any in trouble or anything else there are ways that we can we can structure some of the improvements so that we can spend that CRA money we have to I mean and that's producing put all was I think it was a 40 45% return um if we can
produce that and that keeps us and that allows us as a city to not have to spend any general funds at all in the CRA then we can then spend that money out in the city we can't spend C money out in the city the example I use is it's a it's a
kind of a a dumb example but I'll just use it if we replaced a garbage truck in downtown Stewart all right and we paid $500,000 for a garbage truck we can do that out of CRA money if that garbage truck was in the CRA now that frees up a
c a garbage truck that goes somewhere else right so what I'm saying is if we can think about this a little bit in terms of what that symbiotic relationship ship should be so that we do spend the money in the C that makes us the most money to be able to reduce
the taxes or at least keep them low for those people who live in the city but not this is an accountant move this it borderline tax evasion for the it's not tax evasion it's perfectly legit that's all I'm saying it's good it's
good board member Collins are you done I'm sorry I'm done um um I would just say board member BR Bill uh don't sell yourself short I mean the
purpose of the CRA is to attract private investment encourage economic growth and enhance the quality of life within the steward CRA it is not never to me has it been explicitly to maximize the revenue that sounds a little odd to me um you
have some very qualified people on your uh on your board and I would very much value your suggestions or recommendations along the lines that you've just suggested that doesn't mean of course that we're not bound to take them but uh I would hope you would take
the time and seek input from your members and the public and make some you know very sensible suggestions to us that we can consider so good um okay actionism we have the
presentation of the community redevelopment agency annual report 2024 Jordan you are the staff doing this this evening yes panal is in India so I will be doing the presentation today um good afternoon CRA board members I'm
Jordan Pinkston CRA program manager for the record uh the CRA is required to submit an annual report of activities and financial statement for the previous fiscal year which would be fiscal year 2024 um to the state by March 31st of each year a notice was published in the
newspaper if anyone wants to review the report and it will be mailed to all the taxing authorities after the report is reviewed and approved by the boards the annual report was presented to the crb on March 4th and the board had no objections at this time I will give a brief overview of the 2024 annual
report um this is the table of contents that outlines the sections within the report um this slide explains the purpose of the report and the Florida statute requirements to remain in compliance it also includes our CRA mission statement this section describes that
the CRA was originally created in 1986 and it was reestablished and the trust fund was created in 1998 which is the base tax year for calculating the tax increments the CRA was expanded in 20 uh 2002 to include the East Stewart neighborhood in 2006 we included the
public safety building on M and then in 2015 2016 we expanded the boundary to include an additional 400 186 Acres of of continuous continuous property um and then currently the C boundary area
including water is 92386 Acres um we also amended the CRA plan from time to time it was last amended and adopted by the C board last year uh the plan serves as a guide to implementing specific projects that are
necessary for revitalization um this section describes the C boundary and the expansion of the CRA in 2002 and 2006 and 2015 it explains how the tax increment funding Finance works and the and the increment
tax in revenue from the base years to 2024 values um here are listed some of the major accomplishments since the Inception of the CRA just to name a few we've had the acquisition of the trans system streetscape improvements green
bike Lanes triangle district and Federal Highway tree program master plan land and the acquisition of the triangle property and 710 ml Boulevard um this is the acknowledgement of the C board members and C meetings held in
2024 acknowledgement of C board members and a brief description of their responsibilities and the crb meetings held in 2024 this introduces uh our CRA staff and our backgrounds as well as acknowledgement of the city manager City attorney and department heads who we
worked closely with on those projects this section highlights all the CRA projects but more specifically accomplishments within fiscal year 2024 um the CRA has a business Improvement reimbursement program which we refer to as burp for exterior
improvements to commercial properties this is a matching grant program so we'll reimburse 50% of the total project cost up to $10,000 in 2024 we funded four applications through the bur program with a total award amount of 37,000 the program encourages Property
Owners to invest their own money for the improvements the business owners invested approximately 44,000 of their own money for the projects funded in 2024 as of 2024 the program has awarded 55 BS businesses with a total private
investment of 1.8 million with an additional CRA contribution of 388,000 the city allocates 50,000 for this program annually last year we created the commercial landscape Improvement Pro grant program also known as clip to
encourage commercial properties to upgrade landscaping and provide shade trees along the permitter of the property and parking areas to improve walkability appearance of the property and bring them into compliance with Land Development code this is a matching grant program as well so we'll reimburse
50% of the total project cost up to $5,000 for eligible landscape improvements um that includes irrigation systems as well um the CRA allocated 25,000 for this program in fiscal year 2025 and the applications will be
processed based on a first come first serve basis we rolled this program out in January 2025 we also have a mural matching grant program to encourage murals within the CRA this is also a matching program where we reimburse 50% of the total
project cost up to $3,000 we had three applications for a mural matching program in 2024 the mural was installed on mccardy building along MLK Boulevard and East Stewart the mural represents the community leaders who help shape and and improve the Eed your
community this project has been completed and the second mural will be installed at 11 Southeast aola Street in downtown showing the old Colorado Inn then and now the third mural will be installed in downtown Publix on the building featuring manatees Pelicans
Turtles and other sea life and it's honoring the Environmental Studies Center which has been serving the community since 1974 the residential facade Improvement grant program is an incentive program to make minor exterior improvements to
Residential Properties we pay 50% of the total project cost up to $500 and an additional 500 for exterior paint can be requested in 2024 we had three facade Improvement applications and six paint up program applications
totaling 4,500 in reimbursement we also initiated ated the residential street tree program a few years ago to increase the tree canopy in the residential areas within the CRA we did data analyst to identify residential areas of greatest need for tree planting
and we phased and prioritized neighborhoods based on the existing tree count data the property owner can request a free tree in the front yard from a list of recommended tree species including shade trees medium trees and under story trees which may have overhead utility lines that need to be
accommodated we coordinate with the contractor to plant the trees in springtime so we can take advantage of rainfall and maximize their chances of survival since the implementation of the program we planted 27 trees the deadline to apply this fiscal year is April 30th
and is open to all residential homes within the CRA and to note so far we have nine applications how many nine okay we are also pursuing designating the East Stewart neighborhood on the national
register of the historic district the national register nomination application was submitted in Fall 2024 the state is reviewing all the nomination documents and plan to hold Community meetings hopefully in May once the designate once designated we would like to do a plaque
and the designation would give recognition to the community and acknowledge the importance of the area and its history in the anticipation of the national register designation we launched a website to increase awareness of the rich history eor Community also known as Lincoln Park and preserve the
buildings and sites with historical significance through grants looking forward to 2025 we plan to be following the same designation process to register downtown Stewart in the National register of historic places the application is currently under review
with the Florida Division of historical resources um we did want to mention it was brought to our attention after the commission meeting on March 10th that certain properties within the triangle District were not included in the proposed Historic downtown district
nomination um the reason is that most of those properties in the district have been demolished and therefore it's causing a void in historic buildings in that area to have a contiguous boundary um property owners who are interested in their building being deemed historic in that area would have the option to
submit a separate application for individual for their individual building to pursue the national nomination or the city could choose to pursue another historic district nomination for the triangle District which would have to include the whole process of a survey
and identifying the boundaries and another nomination application um okay we launched a new program called the Air's property assistance program um to help clear titles to qualifying properties so Property Owners can take advantage of
certain property benefits um if they have a clear title they can apply for loans to improve their property obtain grants qualify for home stead exemptions and get homeowners insurance the program will provide legal assistance for up to $3,000 per property so far we've had an
interest in a few Property Owners but have received one only one application so far in May 2024 during the historic preservation month we celebrated um dedication of historic marker for the Women's Club Women's Club of Stewart
Clubhouse um the CRA would be contributing about 1 million in Tiff for the construction of the outdoor Amphitheater at Memorial Park the improvements will include cover stage area lawn seating Landscaping lighting and other Park amenities the total cost of the project is 2.7 million majority
of the costs will be paid from the arpa grant funding and the public works department is the lead on this project the CRA provides funding for the operation of the tram system the tram route was ex um expanded to include the Wells Fargo Building after the city
acquired the property the parking lot is converted to public parking after 5:00 p.m. and on weekends creating additional parking for downtown visitors which increased the tram ridership from that location in 2024 we have advertising panels on the top of the trams that
generate 4,000 in Revenue in 2024 and we went the trams for private events which generated about 1,500 in Revenue in 2024 we will also um wrapping the trams with bright colors and images to increase the visibility and promote ridership there
are are seven trams and we should have them all wrapped by this summer the construction for the downtown undergrounding and seminal streetscape is underway barart construction was awarded the contract for 8.7 million for the construction in in October 2024 um
we received um 354,000 FD grant for the project and it's a 2-year project the project is expected to be completed in November 2027 the Riverside Park neighborhood Improvement project is also underway
it's located just north of the old bridge and a residential and mixed use neighborhood the total project cost is 2.5 million we received a tap Grant in the amount of 1.5 million for this project and the construction began in August 2024 but it will be completed in
summer 2025 we also plan to make improvements to the mini park within the neighborhood the improvements will include irrigation shade trees pave walkways benches decorative fencing a new park signage to improve user experience and the improvements of the park will begin in summer and be
completed by this fall we completed 30% design for the MLK Street skate project this project includes a 10-ft sidewalk on both sides of the street on street parking crosswalks mid block Plaza area uh street lights traffic calming to address
safety concerns at intersections and Landscaping we are working towards completing 60% plans and will schedule a neighborhood meetings sometime in the next few months the 60% design for the guide Davis Community Park is also underway in
October 20124 the scope of work was amended to include the skate park design the city's design consultant finalized an agreement with um spawn Ranch to design the skate park we expect to get Concepts from Spawn Ranch for review by the end of this month the skate park component will be added to the 60% plans
and submitted to the city for review by late spring the plans will be presented to the board and cost estimat so the board can decide what items to stay or to be removed from the Project based on the budget um the CRA has been working on the Gateway and District signage project
since 2021 we went through multiple Concepts and surveys for feedback from the community and every time we did the survey the wave theme concept which you see now installed um was the most preferred by all the responses we completed the first phase
by installing the downtown Gateway and District signs the second phase with horizontal Monument signs is in progress because those signs will be on Federal Highway and caner Highway so it does require fdot permitting which takes a little longer um we expect to go out for bid for the remaining Monument signs
this summer and install the signs by fall of this year the Dixie Highway streetcape Improvement project is from Jan Jefferson to Colorado Avenue we were approved for a tap Grant in the amount of $436,000 for the project um we held
Outreach meetings and presented the plans to the boards for feedback last year the final plans went uh the final plans and Grant deliverables will be completed in 2025 and 2026 and construction is anticipated to begin in 2027 the board approved the wrapping of
the utility boxes last year the traffic control boxes our County operated and maintained so we had to amend the maintenance agreement to include the maintenance of the W so that process took some time the W installation began this week so make sure you're on the lookout um there are 12
boxes um and then also the CRA applied and received the cdbg housing rehab Grant to rehab homes and preserve the affordable housing stock in the city there are 11 property owners who um received this assistance through the program we completed four of the
projects so far five of the projects are expected to be completed this summer of this year one projects who waiting for environmental clearance and one is waiting for direction from Florida commerce since there were some concerns with the work to be completed by a contractor um we will be working
with the property owning owner City consultant in Florida commerce to resolve the issues we received 6.2 million in cdbg covid Grant for acquisition de Demolition and new construction for a job training center at 710 Southeast MLK
Boulevard in East Stewart neighborhood we acquired the property for 1.6 million in January 2024 we have completed the design for the new facility had public meetings went through the permitting processes and advertised for bid in December we've received a bid for 6.4
million we have insufficient funds to award the contract so we have requested an additional 4 million from the for from from Florida commerce to complete the project the state is reviewing our request and we will hope to get additional funding to make this project a
reality um we continue to partner with Stewart Main Street to promote downtown and support downtown businesses Stuart Main Street was recently awarded a grant from the division of historical resources to prepare a nomination application to the to designate downtown as as a historic
district on the national register of historic places they went through the RFP process and hired a consultant to help prepare the application they expect to submit the application to the state for review this summer and then excuse me and the designation will promote
downtown increase eligibility for state and federal Grant programs and most importantly provide Community Pride Tiff Revenue in the amount of 5.3 million was deposited in the CRA trust fun
sorry oh you have water she has water man [Music] um you just you like to for um fiscal year 2024 Tiff Revenue was used for
activities like incentive programs you need you need to take sounds bad you need to take a few want to recess take five take five she needs to take a few moments to let that settle it's only going to get worse don't say that I came from Chief I
don't think she needs the chief chair we do have a public comment chair chair we do have a public comment so it is on this item but if you'd like to wait let's go ahead and hear from Mr sheer pretty special being right but you
have to go to the um so I was just going to sort of echo or please introduce yourself and your address please um I'm clay Sherer I represent the public today um 200 Southeast for Winds
Drive um I wanted to Echo the comments of of my peers on the Redevelopment board uh and support them here in this um CRA meeting so the I think our strategy will be um looking at projects
or considering projects after getting obviously Community input as we reach out and we do that the pro the the thing is we should proceed with the no-brainers that's pretty simple so the ones that like streetscapes uh improving uh pedestrian interaction these kinds of
things I call them no-brainers I might throw undergrounding in there as well those are more expensive of course but everybody would like the wires underground so as we can do that we can the reason I'm bring that up is um you know some projects that are discussed or proposed are very big picture very big
Vision type uh projects and although there might not be total a agreement with some of those we shouldn't stop doing everything until we find until we solve everything so we proceed with the um as again I I call it the no-brainers while maybe we work on finding the right
Vision or the right uh agreement among folks for some of the much bigger larger uh projects I share that just to to again to support my my peers here today uh from the board that that's what this I think that's the direction of the crb
proceed um with the easy things will will help and support and cook on those that are more complex more difficult to tackle that's my comment thank you thank the uh
Mike Mr M Mr mortell in light of the recent difficulty with the cdbg Grant have we made any changes to that or without mentioning any specific names so I I actually um was was on a telephone conference with the Florida
commerce um recently and the uh issue as it relates to the homeowners uh thing has uh the one of the main company for them is doing a site plan and putting together a what
would be acceptable but it would require both the city and the homeowner to agree on um every single term of it which means it'll come before the board for the board to review and approve and then um
the speaking of cdbg there's also the um project lift property and there's went that went out to bid and there was also uh bid issues at with that but the Florida commerce is reviewing the bid we received and they brought it up during that phone call and said by the way just
want to let you know we're still reviewing it and so the funds that are in the cdbg grant cycle right now are allocated funds so they haven't been pulled back by any federal government and they're already essentially spent in
last year's budget so they're already out there we'll probably know more over the next couple of weeks and hopefully I'll be able to put the first issue that you raised on in April maybe the last meeting in April or the first weekend in May to address it so just to be clear
this commission will have to approve putting new doors in somebody's house if it goes if if it's $1 over the amount that was allocated the
answer is yes and okay it's likely going to be based upon the homeowners request okay thank you Jordan have you rallied try again okay pull myself together okay so Tiff Revenue in the
amount of 5 .3 million was deposited in the CRA trust fund for fiscal year 2024 um Tiff Revenue was used for activities a incentive programs tram operations Riverside Park neighborhood improvements only under Park improvements Gateway signs wraps for trams and traffic
control boxes and other Design Services and then we are required to include the financial statement of income and expensives for fiscal year 2024 the financial statement included in the report is currently unaudited so it does not reflect the actual expenses for
fiscal year 2024 um the audited report will be published on the website within 45 days after the audit is complete um and the annual report as mentioned was presented to crb on March 4th and the board had no objection so at this time staff is seeking approval to
send the 2024 annual report to the state and taxing authorities Jordan that was 2.9 from the county in Anor um 296 yes it's I see
2968 um okay are there any questions of staff from the board members I I just had a couple questions for Jordan uh on the triangle property that you're talking about does the properties that are excluded does that include the the church and the Thomas building and the
uh Oldtown Grill and does it does it include are those included in the historic or not not so there there's the historic survey that they are a part of that's already been established but as far as being part of the historic
designation that was is being done is in the process of being done for the historic downtown piece we did not include the triangle District historic buildings okay that's kind of weird yeah but because there's probably more historic properties right in that
concentrated area than anywhere else and I thought that the church was already in for historic the city doesn't designate private property as historic because we don't have the property rights to designate that on behalf of private property the city
commission last meeting or the meeting before made application to designate the historic downtown area as historic the triangle area West Ocean Boulevard US1 Joan Jefferson are not part of the
geographic area known as historic downtown Stewart and that was always on the east side of the railroad tracks so the designation of downtown district not individual there's no individual property post office arcade's not part
of it Woodman Hall's not part of it the crer building is not part of it none of that are in it it's the district as a historic downtown the triangle portion West Ocean Boulevard Baptist Church was not part of the historic downtown
whether it was designated in the um CRA plan whether it was designated in the city code whether it's been designated in the comp plans ever if you look in our code and it has the actual Geographic uh borders of it another way
of thinking about it is when you think of the uh parking exempt District that's also known as the historic downtown area and it's very close to that in the future if the board wanted it could
expand the downtown and expand certain criteria and things that are that are in that and apply for a larger historic designation it doesn't come with it any of the tax credits that you may be thinking of it's just allows
the city to apply for grants in that area so you could do it but like the private property owners that have a building that's more than 50 years old that may designate it as historic for example people with the
cdbg Grant had applied for on their own an historic designation and had their property designated as a historic church that then came with restrictions so when they applied for the cdbg grant funds and picked out the
windows the windows didn't meet the restrictions that they had and so that's where you get into the things you also get into colors roofs Styles all the stuff and depending on what the historic designations are so the city has never applied on behalf of a property owner to
give them a historic designation they must be the applicant because they are the owner yeah no I wasn't talking about that because I know that's very restrictive and you know and and that kind of thing I was just because there are some historic properties there it would be nice to to get some of those recognized as part of the but I guess it
can't be so that's okay well it could be you had the two options each individual property owner could apply to be yeah on the historic you know have their own historic designation or the city as mik mentioned can apply for the triangle district and go through the same
processes we did for East Stewart and are doing for historic downtown and make the triangle District um historical as well okay board member goob yes thank you um question I guess for Mike um a little off of what we're
talking about but if some entity whether it's the whole District of downtown or individual um buildings that are historic how is that affected by all of the implications with the live local act would they be so it's that's one of the
reasons that the city did apply for that designation the live local act I I I believe there are some exemptions but I know the uh a couple years ago the state preempted
the municipalities from providing any architectural design requirements and it was Exempted from C and historical neighborhoods so if the state comes in and preempts something having that historical designation gives us the
ability to continue to enforce the architectural design requirements and things like that I don't know if downtown is currently individ of local but I'll look took of the City attorney um but it was I remember at one point it
did have certain uh preemptions and that would be included okay because as we all know the legislative sessions that's now I mean they they continue to tweak the live local act not in our favor so they yeah they the the current pending live local act modifications that they have
right now would expand um the live local act to any uh land uses that could be described as mixxed use like for example our downtown land use is called downtown
it's not called mixed use so they go through this whole litany to say that that counts as mixed use so it would count and then they also said that it's going to be expanded to puds and then they also said that the density is going to apply to the highest density back to
July 1st of 2023 um but again that hasn't passed it's in committee and so you know we'll have to wait and see what the the word tweaking is completely inadequate for this new bill it completely strips our
ability to regulate and they can build anything anywhere even on Church property but but again administratively again there's you'll have to wait and see what ends up being the final thing there's a lot of bills being submitted in
Tallahassee um right that are competing with each other for headlines and everybody want wants to you know bring it up a notch but then when it gets to committee sometimes it does get rain down a little bit Mr Mayor um commissioner J board member J I
just want to take this opportunity because people do look at this meeting even though there's not many people here but I take this opportunity to ask everyone who lives in the city uh to please write to your representatives and ask them to certainly not vote for this
bill because it is detrimental to the city and so and needless to say board member James you have any questions no I see his light is on oh I'm sorry board member Clark okay thank you um I didn't reread the report today
but I um just wanted you to go over a project that we've had before and that's the US One Corridor and doing the landscaping and so on I know like outside 215 South Federal Highway when
is going to happen so we are in the process of talking to business owners along that Corridor the um Federal Highway tree planting program uhhuh um so we are in that's in the works behind the scenes we just haven't had enough people for to make a patch
happen yet okay that's it that's the update on that program that's all I yeah that's all I have right now how much has been expended nothing nothing we have anything only staff time uh I know that
some people were waiting on it and then of course the hotel property would have been on us one but then there's a lot of rechange of some property hands along us one so exactly some business closures along the way yeah I realize that yeah board member
brickville just a couple things one um does it make sense this is maybe not a CRA issue necessarily but since it came up does it make sense for certain parts of the city to look for a historic
designation that could then protect that neighborhood similar to the way that you know HOA rules do protect you know the rights of what can be built it's possible that we could look for a designation a historic designation for
you know out on East Ocean and out towards Riverside now that way which would maybe protect um the guidelines that we're putting in right now for for development growth in that area of the city so yeah that would come more through an
ordinance right that's yeah historic designation doesn't really do that well neighborhood obviously have to be commission action right but if but if yeah it would be commission action but that that would maybe push a little bit
of a a shot into the side of the live local so that they couldn't you know if they exempt out historic neighborhoods and and U you know other things like that maybe if we designated a certain portion of that historic neighborhood we
could protect the zoning that we're trying to do down there is all that's what's happened with when we tried to push for the East Stewart designation to get that there to keep the neighborhood a certain um way so that it matches so the other two I had two other quick things
one's I I wanted to mention that as as you noticed we've got the uh we've got the building in there for the uh project lift but um I would remind everybody that you know we have to have blight
right the definition of a CRA is it it's blight but we forget sometimes that that's economic blight and so if we're looking at pushing dollars we can potentially push dollars into Economic Development um including including going
out and recruiting for that you know doing some of the things that we might want to do to use those that money and to get that in but but also you know just from a from we've talked about incubators we used to have an incubator in town for for businesses to get
started there's nothing to help business owners who are trying to get started uh I don't care whether you're talking E Stewart or Stewart there's no kind of incubator program left anymore really that that is geared towards that type of activity and so you know
I'd like to see if if we could look at at doing something in that regard you know in terms of um in terms of maybe steering maybe more of our dollars in the CRA towards Economic Development including things like um you know
incubator systems or things like that that we could absolutely so and uh so um first of all thank you penal for the report and that's not P she's she's I can pretend to be I had my speech
already prepared okay thank you Jordan um so anyway um I I'm I'm I'm glad you you you brought that up um up Mark because that that is um that is I totally forgot what I was
going to say because you guys miss me Mark what were you talking about again the uh incubator Sy okay yes incubator so when we were working on the thing with uh IRSC um that was uh one of the issues to to get that to get that working together
uh in that area and um of course we have that with uh the project lift whatever work they're doing and the Grant and was listed as also Incorporated incubator system and people are asking but that
needs to still be um fleshed out and worked on with Dr zaku and what is implemented but definitely that's um that's one of the areas that uh was talked about when we um we we did that Grant and it's it's listed so um it's
something that that needs to happen because people are asking about um that as a a way to get new businesses but in order to get new businesses I think that commissioner um Collins was it commissioner no maybe it wasn't commiss
Collins it was probably M Mr Brew who talked about the um the vision we have to stay with that vision of vibrancy and trying to assist with improvements because then uh I'm not saying that it
will be um big growth but it will be just managed and will meet the needs of the people who want to to to do and and grow something in the city because you don't want to have uh 10 years from now or 20 years from now where instead of
the city maintaining its vibrancy you have more stores closing and more people moving away from the um the downtown area and we're not relevant as an economic um uh Focus for the community
so I think it's important to keep planning and keep doing that so I think I know that the CRA has um guidelin and sunset time frame but whatever we have with the CRA now it's good that we've
been taking advantage of those things and making the the improvements that need to happen and I look forward to hearing from the crb in the future of some things that um they want to do and I don't know if we need to have some
type of a summit or open house maybe just a open house to let people know what the CRA does and and how we do things things and maybe allow people to you know hand in some comments or something just a short open house an hour and a half it would be helpful I
think just to get that message out uh board member goob first I'd like to thank board member brv I like everything that you said I mean I think I really do I think it's uh great to um let's look at a different Vision how to
use the money uh and then free up money in the general fund I like that idea lot of small project to improve and uh I really like the whole idea of historic but I understand that would be a commission driven uh situation so Mr um
city manager sorry uh um would that be something that we could put on the agenda as to how do we address that where do we start in setting up the applications for those historic areas within the city that we would like to make historic you can it's obviously we don't
we we didn't budge anything for this year it's not CRA budgeted I don't think it's that expensive to have an agenda item at this time but start doing the surveys and design and and what the basis for the historic is probably matters but I'm happy to put it on a
discussion item or could we ask the crb to give us specific recommendations and well their recommendations will be limited to those neighborhoods in the CRA obviously so youde what you where you want to go but yeah and to your first point about while you're up there
to your first point about opportunity to offset general fund costs is there some kind of audit you could do internally where you could see if there's opportunity to use you have to be very careful because the CRA laws state that
you can't use CRA funds to pay for already existing expenses like for example if we were maintaining Memorial Park mhm once the CRA came along we can't just use CRA dollars to pay for every
single lawn moer and everything in Memorial Park because that was already an expense that was being operated by the um general fund the comment about the garbage truck if you invested in garbage trucks they can't leave the CRA
so those trucks couldn't be used to pick up garbage anywhere else in the city or else they would violate the CRA plan you there's any opportunity there there we we do it all the time like for example the project lift project lift
will be coming forward at some point to build this building and there's $40,000 in fees related to project lift but the CRA is going to pay the development department whatever
those fees cost are and those fees don't go into the CRA they go into the general fund now really realistically the city commission could have just said we're going to wave the fees because we're the city and we're not going to do it but the but legally the CRA is this is a CRA project
it's a grant involved and so the CRA can use CRA funds to pay those expenses that are directly related to it to the city and it it effectively does transfer those costs and when we get into some of the pond maintenance that has gone above
and beyond what we've done in the past we've used CRA funds for it when we get into enhancing some of the parks and doing some of the uh Landscaping throughout the CRA and doing stuff like that obviously we always um try to use C funds but you know I could tell you that
Jolie will be at the meeting tonight you can ask him too but there's never a time that Jolie doesn't think to himself can we transfer CRA funds to the general fund and panel sees us and runs from us because she's always afraid of it we'll do it now while she's in India that's
right care you know it's it's funny a number of years ago when the finances were tight um and we were concerned about downtown Stewart in terms of um uh in terms of security and things like that we actually added uh police to the
downtown now they were technically for the downtown but if there's a call you know they're not they they don't have to stop at the CRA border right so it actually helped us cover some situation when we were kind of tight back in the
day and you have to be you know you have to be careful about it you can't but but like I say there's opportunities to shift legitimately and even I would I would disagree with Mike from the standpoint of yes if we bought garbage trucks that got to be used in the area but if we've got one left over that we
don't need anymore we don't have to just sit it there we could just transfer it out say okay we don't need this anymore we've got our two here already and these two that we were using before we don't need anymore yeah I'm not sure we should really be having this discussion I just
it's good to have in the public I mean we're having in the public the only opportunity we get to discuss it our our compliance with the restrictions of the CRA is of utmost importance and I'm confident that the staff Mike do you mind do you mind mentioning what what
would happen if we violated that there's I don't know if acknowledging that's first of all if you violated it and got audited you'd obviously have you'd lose all your um you'd go from a AAA Bond rating to probably a c or a d but on top of that
you'd lose the ability to collect Tiff it would come to a screeching H and the $5.3 million or whatever it is would go to zero um plus you'd have to pay back the money I and it's the state correct well it's well it's it's the tax
collector the state regulates it we have to file a annual report with the CRA and it also gets annually audited as part of our audit and you know I don't blame the county for this but most counties don't want cities to have C right so if we
were playing fast and loose there'd probably be somebody paying attention to that to make sure that we could terminate that CRA so that they could get that money rather than us they'd rather have that $3 million right agreed I you know I would do the same I'm not blaming them because I get it I would feel the same way but it's and again you
know you have there's the CRA plan that we've adopted sets forth the parameters of what the CRA can do but in addition to that the I think it's Florida statute 163 3164 is what describes the CRA plans
or community redevelopment act and provides the parameters of what it is and as as pointed out it's the the blighted it has to be declared blighted and you're like you know obviously the intention still have more to get through commissioner Clark do you have any questions commissioner clerk okay with
regard to this member CL this um trying to improve um business ideas like commissioner I mean board member Bret will was saying I just wanted to ask staff both Mr mortell the city manager
as well as the CRA staff what is is there any Major Impact to the fact that we won't have that direct coordination with the um Business Development board because they didn't get a grant from us and is that going to impact anything
that we could have done in terms of trying to help with um vibrancy of business or anything I would probably defer okay yes I've been assured and and they did it publicly both here and at the meeting at the uh Business Development board that they will
continue to um certainly focus on yeah assist us focus on uh the city um they're they're part of the count we're part of the county and it they do for the whole County so I think that we need to be diligent in moving forward to ask them and put those things on the agenda
for them uh and I will certainly be there to be able to guide them to make sure that they do but I think that there's opportunities and it was one of the things I did ask them to please ensure for the fact that for I know they're focused on large bring in large businesses and but to focus on the small
business and also to help new businesses which would be similar to your incubator to to set up a system where they could help new businesses to open uh and and help them and guide them so I think that that would be important but uh no it's my understanding that really I mean we're part of the county
the county donates money to them uh and uh all will continue as it has okay you could probably reach out to Troy and see how he feels he's he's working with the bdb now you have any additional questions board member Council so you don't need a motion have some questions
the airs property assistance program are we do you have an additional comment board member go finish yeah it's not that important but go ahead okay are do we feel we're being successful are we doing sufficient Outreach did we hope we would get more
than one or um well it's baby steps with this program but yes I do feel like we've had s sufficient Outreach thus far and of course it's ongoing um we did have the one um the attorney has reviewed it she actually got back to us
so they're in that process um I I think that there's only think there's 33 three total the majority of them in East Stewart so we can 33 who could benefit from the program youve sent them letters so it's easy I would reach 33 people y
we've sent them letters um we've done mailers um we've done Word of Mouth um so we just got to you know keep squeaky wheel gets the grease so board member James are are are you familiar with this program yes I am and I've received
information on a 31 I think it was that we're notle here and um we've been reaching out to them good we're developing that I did have a comment though before we Mo um so in the CRA boundaries um are there regulations that
would prevent the CR we talked about blighted areas from the helping the home or Property Owners develop their properties let's say um if if I own the property I want it to build but it cost me $500,000 to build this property so uh
the person that that gets this property that I built would have to pay a mortgage of $2500 at least but if is in within the CRA um funds are there funds available that would Aid those persons in developing their properties so we don't
currently have any programs for new development um or I don't know if Mike wants to speak on this but last last budget cycle and last year the CR ncra boards discussed the idea of providing
loans Andor grants to Property Owners as it related to this exact thing that you're discussing it was decided that first of all the city couldn't possibly manage loans because we'd have to hire people to manage them but more importantly than that the city doesn't want to be
foreclosing on its residents and it really would create a horrible situation if you loan somebody the money and they didn't pay and you had to close on them especially if you loan somebody a second mortgage and they had a first mortgage of $300,000 and we loaned them $25,000
but we had to pay the 300 off to get the 25 and that's how a lot of banks failed in 2009 10 11 12 because they had loaned more money than the value of the assets and the city would be in a difficult situation to do those valuations but the CRA could in fact
say we're going to dedicate $500,000 a year to give away or to seed money provide yeah to people for and and but going through the crb and uh
the CRA even the burp program which was mentioned by uh Jordan earlier there was always been discussions of is it a requirement that the person match the funding or we giving them the
funding and it's been historically the city has wanted the the property owner to have some skin in the game and to require them to get like pay the funding up front and then we pay them back later so in the burp program you get up to
$10,000 but to get the 10,000 as the homeowner you have to spend 20 because you have to spend the 20 up front then the C City reimburses you for 50% which is 10 on the backside if the if the CRA changed the program it could be
under the burp program and I heard last Thursday night the discussions were somebody said well what we should do is build a house for $500,000 and then the city pays off 400,000 of it and then the person has the $100,000 mortgage that sounds great
let's start with my house but the the problem with it is is that the the how do you decide right who's first and who who get who qualifies and what makes one person qualify over another for a for a program like that and I think that's
when you start get into the details of that it gets really complicated but that's not to say that the CRA couldn't invest in a community or an invest in that way or adjust the burp programs matching and things like that that's simply a policy decision you need to
make up and decide thank you and what I was suggesting Mike was not that the city would make loans but that we would act more like the SBA we would guarantee not make so the banks would be responsible for determining who same thing well it's it's not because now
you're putting the underwriting the responsibility of the bank which is what happens with an SBA loan it's sort of how we find ourselves with the cdbg grant but if we if we guaranteed the loans right right we I I mean honestly you could do it it's again you could I
just I just know that the city does not want to foreclose on any resident I mean there's no scenario that we want to take someone's land from them the bank ever I know that the resident that loses
their house think is going to be blaming the city and say we took it from them and that's the that's the if you could get that perception out of it it might be better but that that is a big deal yeah and and I'll get off of it just real quick but but let me just say I'm just is Bo member James are you done
with your I I did have one other comment um so I I was trying to understand how the lift project was funded so from what I understand that came through the CR a
CR um CRA lied for a cdbg grant okay it received grant funding to buy the land and it also received grant funding to build a certain spec of a building I understand we then went out to bid on
the building and it came in at a higher number than there was grant funding so as a result we've reapplied to the cdbg and said hey here's the problem we have here's the the difference can you give us additional funding if they say no it
will come back to the CRA and right now the building is 12,000 square feet if we can still and again it depends on how much costs have to be cut but let's say it was 50% under well if we could drop it to a 6,000 foot building we could still build the building but could you do project lift
in a 6,000 building and it might be that you simply can't do the program because of the size of the building and if that's the case it'd be over so it'll be you know we'll have to re-evaluate that once Florida commerce has responded to us and my last question is um if
there're environmental issues does the city of Steward foot that bill also and again there's a distinction but it's the CRA and not the city of Stewart thank you but before we acquired the property we did phase one and phase two
testing to make sure that it would have an environmental clearance just as you would as you were buying any property before you get title insurance so in theory if the city owns property that has pollution on it the city is liable for the cleanup of that property so if
it went to sell the property and it didn't pass the phase two test it would not be able to sell the property and ultimately would be responsible for cleaning it up so in acquiring proper property we try not to do that as well and in fact when the city acquired the
triangle piece it took the bank about five months to get a no further action letter on a small triangular piece on the very edge of that property that had come up in the phase two testing for us as it as potentially an issue but it was clarified we're able to do it and just my last comment so the city
uh who went after the grants funding the CRA the C the applicant could they not also go out the grant funding for property owners who wanted to redevelop their properties we did so yes except for there is no grant that just gives
you 500 Grand like we did the cdbg grants where people over a certain age I think was 55 years old that met a certain income threshold that owned their property could qualify for up to $80,000 in improvements to their home or
or uh I don't if it was hurricane or it was a it had to be in in reinforcing or cleaning up the house and so they could give new roofs new windows insulation air conditioning things like that that also made it more more efficient and I think we did 11 or was 11 we had 11
applicants that qualified and we uh did the programs just this year or last year for those thank you very muchard member bref do you have an additional comments yeah I just wanted to put into perspective a little bit what I was talking about cuz this came
up at the crb meeting a while back and I'm not proposing that the city get in the business of loaning money that's not not per se but what I was getting at is we've done some Redevelopment we've done some rezoning where we're encouraging a certain thing like say single single
family housing okay let's just take that as an example well if we want to have single family housing in Frasier Creek over there right you can't get financing for it those properties the way that the way that it works out because the designation over there is
residential transitional all right you can't get a standard mortgage the only way you could do it is treat it as a business property and go SBA if you can even meet their requirements or you don't get it funded
and so what I was talking about is that if we are going to encourage certain types of development we need to look at how those people will be able to develop that property and and make sure that there's an Avenue for them to be able to do that because in in Fraser Creek
condition right now for example if you go in there and you want to buy a piece of property and you want it to live in as your home you're going to have to go in there and convince people it's a business but obviously so that's what I was getting at and that's why I was talking about the funding we wouldn't make the loans we'd guarantee potentially to help in a situation where
they can't get where that particular type of property can't get financing because of the the zoning that's there or that the the way that the bank are looking at the zoning that's there and that's the problem they look as high as best use as commercial so we're not going to do a residential loan and um
and it's an issue so that's why I bring that how would we secure the guarantee how would we secure the guarantee if we loaned if somebody wanted to build a $500,000 house in an area that they couldn't get a loan because it was zon wrong and they came
to us and we said to sunrust bank we'll guarantee it so SunTrust gave them the 500 and then they went to Vegas well so that's not what happened so what what we would do Mike is we we would hire we would hire someone to uh review
the applications see that they meet the requirements make sure they meet the underwriting requirements that's what the SBA does right now they have these little cdds their uh their individual development departments around the state that oversee the SBA itself uh on the
lending process the bank actually makes the loan for the bank Bank to make the loan they have to follow their own underwriting guidelines so they can't they can't make a loan if they wouldn't have approved the loan themselves they can't approve a loan just because it's got a guarantee from the city the city
like with the SBA would guarantee the first um you know would guarantee the the second 90% the bank would have to guarantee the first 10% and then the city would be with the last 90% and at that point if you have to you have to
foreclose on the property but it's the bank that's foreclosing on the property because they're not getting paid they're the ones that are getting the revenue from the transaction not the city we're just a guarantor just trying to move this the property had gone down in value you could lose money yeah you
coulds so the the the the city can't use tax dollars in any kind of risky investment right and it can't be used tax dollars for Investments it's got to use them So you you're again you're playing flirting with CRA and you're
saying you're going to not have it be an investment but you're doing a Improvement and you're playing some semantics with the things but if we were actually charging an interest rate the uh CRA requires it to be 12% so I probably wouldn't be doing it
but the the issue of the the risk the governments are supposed to be risk averse they're not supposed to go into risky Investments or or anything close to that and if you started placing tax dollars in Jeopardy
you you probably couldn't just lose money on the Foreclosure you would have to on the front side of it give that away I would assume unless you created some kind of ship program or some housing program that you had this you have to live there 20 years you're going
to work it off and do all the all the criteria with it and again something for the crb to continue talking about and I understand the logic behind it the other side to it is is that our CRA while $5 million seems like an enormous amount of money to us as we sit here if you start
spreading that out over $500,000 houses you get to 10 I mean it's not it's not a lot it like goes like that and so it would be very difficult to limit who got it and who didn't and who qualified for how much board member Collins so I'll say what I said to you last time when we
talked about is the philosophical objection of is this really how the government should be functioning is this the highest and best use of government is uh this kind of a thing private companies do this because they can make profit off of it there's no incentive
for the government to be involved in this kind of risk and I think a good um you know generally right like uh whatever I would do personally with my finances right would I take that kind of
a risk would you would you find and guarantee people probably not right personally so I would I would hate to do that with other people's money if I had a mortgage it's a different story but again what I'm getting at Chris is really what
you're trying to do I'm going to ask this is why you have the crb you don't bring a vague concept here this is what you hash out with the crb you understand what the city is legally able to do and legally prohibited from doing and to
then bring before us a more specific idea that's possible great concept but flush it out there let's not do it here okay if that's okay that's fine I'm just a member so I just like to finish my
questions Mike Mr mortell so it was created in 1998 the CRA amended in 02106 and 19 our amended Amendment window is getting shorter do you anticipate needing to to amend it again uh it's
going to expire in 58 so you have to do a uh it's a cert it's not a certificate of need but it's I can't think of the term of art but it requires an application it has to go to the county the county has to vet it the county has to
agree when these expanses were done it really times with the recession and so it'd be fairly difficult to go right now and say you know these houses over here that are selling for
$700,000 each this is our blighted community so you know when 50% of the houses in Stewart were in foreclosure it was a little bit easier to address so I don't believe that we'll be anywhere close to being able to expand the CRA to
any additional land just because the criteria to do so and the method that would have to go through the county for the objection and being able to say that it's blighted or that it's um depressed whatever it might be absent financial
crisis that I I would rather not have Okay because we'd have bigger problems and Mr Martel do we need to vote on this to accept the plan no it's just a presentation okay board member Collins do you have a question uh Mike a final question
yes just along the lines of the the CRA setting with the HB 991 and sb42 with regard to cras have you look at that so I I I haven't read this year's
rendition but um every year you get a bill that's probably sponsored by a county in Disguise that says the CRA should either be uh cancelled
sunsetted can't expand or restrictions and they they do move around you got to keep an eye on them as we do and I know the one this year has the same language the original project to start doing the enhancements to guy
Davis was generated from a CRA bill that said if your CRA doesn't have any debt then the cras are going to cancel and cras are going to go away but if you're CRA has outstanding debt it can stay in
existence until that debt is paid off so every CRA in the state ran out to create some kind of debt vehicle so that their CRA could last until the sunset vision of that thing now the truth of it is is
that the uh bill at the time didn't pass didn't create the thing and we didn't never get any create any of the debt either but the same bills that you're referring to this year have the same language in it that it would Sunset the CRA unless of course it had debt so the question is as a CRA should we run out
and borrow 20 M million dollars and like create all this debt and I we haven't and you know obviously the desire for the city is not to create debt so we watch it you know every year and wonder is this going to be the year that we should have created the debt but again I
go back to like our C in the terms of the state our c ra is extremely small the valuations are very low when you start looking at the Fort Lauderdale and Orlando and Miami that
have 50 and 80 and hundred million cras and multiple cras our $5 million is rounding air so every year we anticipate that the big boys will do that fighting for us because they have a lot more to lose
than we do that's a good point thank you yeah there's not much uh there's not much anticipation that this will succeed as so right here um see no more questions thank you Jordan thank you so
item number two I will read that Stuart Main Street letter of support for a mural on City owned property resolution number 02-2020 CRA a resolution of the board of the community redevelopment agency of the city of Stewart Florida authorizing the
city manager to sign a letter of support for Stuart Main Street proposed large scale mural project on the city owned proper property located at 221 Southwest Flagler Avenue Stuart Florida providing an effective date and for other purposes
Jordan are you going to explain this to us sure um so the Stuart Main Street is requesting a letter of support for the proposed large scale mural project on City owned property located at 221 Southwest Flagger Avenue in Stewart um the proposed mural will beautify the public space and highlight the
significance of the St Lucy River ecosystems um which is inspiring residents and visitors to appreciate and protect the critical natural resource the mural will reflect the city's unique spirit and identity um St Main Street is applying for the grant um to commission
um mural and the artist for creation of the public art and since the proposed artwork is located on City owned property um the Grant application requires a letter of support for the mural project um instead of giving you the address the city owned property that we're talking about is the bathroom in
Flagler Park yeah yes I have a map up on on the screen if you didn't see that um but yeah it's it's the bathroom with located and um so initially they weren't going to go for out out for a grant through Main Street and then they decided that they wanted to do something
a little bit more large scale similar to maybe what you might see at Memorial Park and that's the reason for them going out to the grant there's of the Green Market yes is it all three walls or all four walls or just one I believe they're going to do all four wow will
that come back to us for approval yeah it will actual mural before the crb and then yeah and then if they do which I anticipate after they receive the Grant and see how much they receive they may even apply for our mural matching grant program and that will
also um require them going before the crb mayor I'd like to move resolution number 02 2025 second we have a Bo motion by board member Collins and a second by board member Clark is there any public comment on this
item are there any comments or questions by board members yes Mr bre board member Breck Bell I have I the only thing I would say is that hopefully if it goes out to RFP that there's a provision in there to that
favors local artists for uh for credit on the on the mural and uh that would be my only change to this was was that that would be included the only other thing I would mention is I I think it's great that we're we're putting it on a bathroom I spend a lot of time in those
uh but at my age but but anyway but um but you know we could take a look at the public the Annex Building and it's got a whole big wall that's got nothing on it and I stood there and looked at that when I was trying to figure out where they were going to put this and I'm looking at that Annex Building thinking
why the heck don't we do something with with cleaning up if we're do a mural why why don't we do something with cleaning up that Annex Building but anyway just my comment have your board forward a proposal to the CRA Mr Breck bill so Candace was just texting me and she said you're looking at three walls the one
wall that can't be done is the one with the doors right and that she would absolutely be looking at local artists is it is it formally is there a language that formally favors a local artist Mr Mortel we've never used anybody local artist
right yeah any questions or comments by any other board members if not roll call please Madam clerk board member James yes board member Brill yes board member goobe yes board member Clark yes
Vice chair Collins yes chair Rich yes and seeing no other items for our consideration this meeting is adjourned y thank you we will convene at uh 10 minutes for the