City Council - Regular Meeting

Good morning. I'm Antonet Mosley, the vice mayor of the city of Asheville, and I'd like to welcome you to the April 23rd, 2026 agenda briefing work session. All council members and staff are participating virtually. This meeting is intended for discussion purposes only and no formal actions or votes will be taken. In addition, no public comment is taken during this meeting. The live meeting will be streamed on the city's YouTube channel accessible through the YouTube icon on the city's website or via the live stream. You will also have the option to listen to the meeting live by phone by calling 855-925-2801 and entering meeting code 3380. Mayor Esther Mannheimer is with us today but traveling from an event. Council member Maggie Olman will be joining us later. Council and staff, when I call your name, please say a quick hello. Council member Kim Rooney,

good morning. Council member Bo Hess. Council member Sage Turo, good morning. Okay, thanks. Oh, good morning. Okay. Council member Shemica Smith, good morning. City Manager DK Wesley. Good morning. Assistant City Manager Ben Woody. Good morning. Assistant City Manager Jay Dundis. Good morning. City Attorney Brad Brandom. Good morning. City Clerk Maggie Berles. Good morning. And Mayor, did you want to say a quick hello?

Yes. Hi everyone. Quick hello and and pardon the transition here. We're coming from the um NC DOT event that just wrapped up. Thank you. Excellent. Excellent. I'll now turn it over to city manager DK Wesley. DK.

Thank you, Vice Mayor Mosley. Uh good morning everybody again. Uh today we will review a couple of agendas coming forward next week. Um we have a work session on Tuesday, April 28th at 3 p.m. Our policy, finance, and infrastructure work session. And then our formal meeting will start at 5:00 pm on Tuesday as well. Today, Assistant City Manager Bian Woody will be facilitating this review. So, I'll turn it over to you.

Thank you, uh, Manager Wesley, and good morning, Vice Mayor, members of council. Um, I'm going to go ahead and jump right into your agenda for April 28th. As Manager Wesley mentioned, you'll start the day at three with the PFI work session. Jay Dundus is actually going to cover that later in the agenda. So, I'm going to go ahead and move into the formal meeting. So, um for your formal meeting, you have four proclamations. So, we're going to have a lot of proclamations to start the meeting off uh on Tuesday. Moving into consent, I'm going to cover a number of items of interest. Again, as always, if there's a question, just raise your hand. Or if there's something I don't cover you want to discuss, um please stop me and let me know. So, I'm going to start with item D. Um, this is in response to a winter storm we had back in February during which our code purple providers collaborated to stay open during the day due to life-threatening temperatures. So, this is a budget amendment of um just over $8,700. We're going to split it between the city and county. And what this basically does is reimburse those ser service providers for staying open that additional time um in February. pretty simple budget amendment but just wanted to highlight that and demonstrate you know the ability of our service providers to be flexible when needed. U moving on we have uh four water res water water resources related items on this consent agenda. So I want to kind of cover those as a package. Um item E is a not to exceed contract that provides free lead testing for all city of Asheville water customers. So that means anybody in the city can have lead testing done at no expense and that helps us continue with our lead awareness education program. Couple things about this contract. One is it will pay for it's not to exceed so it

doesn't mean we're going to spend all the money but it will pay for uh some mandatory testing that we have to do associated with the EPA's lead and copper program but also serves as a pre-position contract. So this contract can provide up to 10,000 tests if needed. So if we ever had a situation where we did need to test because of water disruption, this contract would allow us to put that into place quickly. The other item is item F. This is also connected to our lead and copper program. This is a little bit different. This is an amendment to our existing contract uh to cover unexpected fuel cost. As everybody knows, fuel costs have been rising. Um, this actually supports the fieldwork associated with the development of a lead and copper predictive model. And so again, this is in direct response of our EPA requirements we have to meet. Um, moving on, items F or excuse me, item F, uh, the other water items, and actually I'm going to group these together. So items G through N do include two water items, but we haven't had this in a while, but collectively items G through N on our consent are all related to recovery efforts. So we've got a lot of recovery contracts and information that are moving forward. Um G and H in particular support the ongoing recovery and resilience efforts to support our water system. So these are the other two water items. They do two things. One contract includes the reinstallation of the tipped fuse gate, the North Fork Dam auxiliary spillway. Most of council are familiar with that and you've actually seen the fuse gate that tipped over during Helen. This is actually going to replace that uh giant concrete bucket. And the other thing is this continues our design and engineering work for an alternative transmission line. So this would be the transmission line that would come out of Northfor connect to our distribution system. it would not be uh in any close proximity to our spillway. So again,

this is kind of our additional redundancy for our distribution system. Moving on to the others, we have items I, J, and K. These are three separate contracts that support design and engineering services for the repair of Helen damaged storm water infrastructure. I think there's more than 50 projects associated with these three contracts. uh by breaking this work into three separate contracts, what staff is trying to do is expedite the design work. So rather than using one firm for all these projects, we're going to split it among three firms to hopefully keep things moving. The first two contracts, A and B is our term. They're they're kind of simpler repairs, a little more straightforward. The third contracts is focused on more of the complex storm water control project. So collectively, um, these three contracts will advance that recovery work. We're going to make a stop at the May 5th Infrastructure and Recovery Board to get their feedback on this work. These three three contracts total over $2.6 million and they're funded through the FEMA public assistance program. So big steps in terms of our storm water recovery efforts. Um, item L, another recovery item is a pass through of federal funding to NC DOT. So what this does, it allows NC DOT to make repairs to storm damaged city streets that at some time in their history receive federal funding. So again, these are city streets that for whatever reason or whatever project have received federal funding. So they'll go through this process with the FHWA through NC DOT, but the net outcome is these are repairs to storm damaged city streets. Um item M is a budget amendment. So, this is funds that are coming into the city of Asheville. Um, these support our ongoing recovery projects. And quite simply, this is putting uh $5.1 million

of FEMA funding uh to work and it's putting $2.1 million of insurance funding to work. So, again, this is a $7.2 million budget amendment that's just helping us to continue to pay for recovery related items. The last Helen related item is item N and this is an exciting project. This is a budget amendment that accepts a grant the city received from the state of North Carolina Department of Commerce. This is going to let us make infrastructure repairs and improve streetscapes in Builmore Village. Very important project. And the other thing I just want to note is the city is also applying for TDA funds to support this project. And if we're awarded those TDA funds, we'll actually be able to expand the scope of the village project. So, a lot of lot of things happening in the village as well. And then the last item on consent I'm going to cover, I'm going to do this as a package, is items P through S, these are all from our transportation department, and they include the renewal of the contract for the city's parking deck access system. That's how we basically manage entry, exit, and revenue collection to our parking deck. So, this just renews that contract. And then finally, there's a handful of federal grants. These federal grants come through every year, then we're supporting these funds to support our transit services and operations. So, I will pause there to see if there are any questions on consent.

I don't see any, Ben.

Okay, we'll keep moving. Um, we have a manager report on this uh agenda. We're going to have Emily Ball from our CED department or HED department. um she has already provided a similar report to the county commission. I think that was earlier this week actually and she's going to give an update on the activities and work of our continuum of care. So really excited about that update from Emily. You have one public hearing on your agenda. This is a project a conditional zoning request at 50 Cox Avenue. Um, this is a project that the county is moving through the approval process and this supports an affordable housing project the counties proposed at this location. The project consists of a new sevenstory mixeduse development that includes 203 affordable multifamily units and 5,000 square feet of retail space. So, it's a fairly significant project um for downtown and Cox Avenue. Couple things related to it. They are requesting technical modifications including a reduction in the tree preservation requirements and a modification of the minimum building heights. So that'll be part of this CZ request. It did go to planning and zoning commission who unanimously recommended approval and planning staff also recommends approval. Any questions on the public hearing item? Okay, I'm going to keep moving. unfinished business. You do have a second reading of the uh changes to the graffiti ordinance. This was heard by council last meeting. You did uh vote to or vote for approval, but because the ordinance includes criminal penalties, state law does require you to make a second reading. So, you'll just simply have to vote a second time on this. Any questions on that? We've done a few of these before in the

past. Well, with that then that concludes review of the regular agenda item. So, with no objections, I'm going to I'm going to keep moving. Um, and I am going to we're going to move into council committees. We've got two committee agendas to review. So, Jay, I will turn it over to you to talk about PFI.

Thank you, Ben. Um, good morning, mayor, vice mayor, and members of council. Jay Dundus, assistant city manager. Uh we've got three items on the uh PFI agenda and that uh meeting will start at three o'clock um on next Tuesday before the council meeting. Um the first item on the agenda actually is supports item V on the consent agenda. It is an HCA engagement resolution. uh that is a resolution asking HCA CEO Sam Hazen uh to engage directly with stakeholders in western North Carolina. So that resolution is attached for your review. Um and this will just be an opportunity to to discuss that and to uh provide any kind of information that we need to have on that to be informed on voting for items B on the consent agenda. Item two is the CDBGDR planning recommendations. Uh this this uh planning uh process has is uh followed similar we've followed similar processes for other CDBGDR funding. Uh this is an internal application process. Staff has reviewed these applications and is recommending projects to move forward. Uh this will be an opportunity for council to hear what those projects are and ask questions about this. This is sharing information on those projects. The uh third item on the PFI agenda is a discussion of the real time intelligence center and the acceptance of the community project funding award. This was on a uh uh this was on a previous agenda was taken off the agenda for uh to create some additional time for information sharing and to create some awareness around uh how what how these funds would be used. Uh the strategy for uh providing that information um is to

get this in front of the the PFI uh committee on Tuesday. Uh go through a presentation the police will provide they will be present and and work through that presentation and then put that on a a future council agenda and I believe the first idea being maybe the first one in May. So, um, this is just, like I said, follow up to previous conversations that had taken place at at the last council meeting. Um, so that would uh that's all three items on the consent or on the PFI agenda. Uh, Councilwoman Ro.

Yes. Thank you. Um, as we prepare for the conversation about real time intelligence center at our policy and finance committee meeting, um, one of the things that came from the tour yesterday that I was curious about is we currently use a free version of the fuchsia software and I understand we're going to be moving to um, a paid version. Um it it might help us to know what the ongoing costs for that are projected to be um beyond grant funding, what future grants would be applied for. Um and what are the additional features that um are available between the free version and the paid version?

Yeah, that's a fantastic question. I know that uh Chief Stepp and the other members of the police department are absolutely ready to to answer that. I I we'll put that on our followup and make sure that we address that in the in the presentation. Thank you. May I guess back over to you? Yeah, thank you Jade. And so the other committee we have meeting is HCD, Housing and Community Development. They will meet Excuse me. Kim, do you have another question? Council member Rooney. No, thank you. I see. Council member Hess, go ahead.

Um, yes, sir. Regarding the previous item, Jade, um, also is there a way in our follow-up documents, I know that Axon or that the city basically deletes the data within a certain time frame. I believe it's 30 days. Um, but I'm not sure that if we actually don't own the server, um, that that data isn't kind of just floating out there. So, I would like to know like does Axon retain that data even past that 30 days or is it, you know, at that 30 days when the data is erased from the city, it's like gone from all servers forever. Um, so just some a little bit of clarity around that would be helpful. Yes, that that's a really great question as well. There police have have definitely touched on the retention uh aspects of of the various technology. So, we'll definitely make sure that that's we're prepared to answer that.

Thank you for that.

Okay. Thank you. And so, I'll go ahead and now move to HCD. So, we have two items scheduled for HCD. The first is an update um on the Oakill development. That's a city-owned piece of land that we have um earlier this actually last year, excuse me, RFP was released um to try to attract a affordable housing developer and Eden Rock developers or builders, excuse me, responded to that um and they were awarded uh you know the opportunity to develop that property. So uh what they are looking to do is create an affordable home ownership project on this property. Um the project involves developing 42 Forcale town homes with approximately half being affordable. Um right now what staff is doing is finalizing the deal including the financing and affordability period. We'll review this with HCD at their meeting and then the idea is to bring the development agreement to full council in June of this year. And the other item is the CDBGDR housing recommendation. So, there's really two two parts to this. The first is the city released a $10 million no to attract a multifamily housing developer. We had a significant response to that, far more responses than funds available, but we are going to bring forward uh funding recommendations for that $10 million allocation for consideration of HCD. Um, of course, HCD would then receive those and make a recommendation before we bring it to full council. The other part of this we want to talk about at HCD is finalizing uh what the next steps may be for the single family housing program. And so again, we'd like to get some feedback and discussion with HCD and that too will eventually uh most likely it should require a

substantial amendment. So eventually any changes related to that program will also need to come to full counsel for consideration. Any questions on HCD? Okay. Um so I'm going to go ahead and move then next item is the 8week agenda review. So our look ahead. I really only have one topic to cover and it's the most important topic this time of year and that's budget. And just just to review the sequencing real quick. So the May 12th meeting, so your first meeting in May, that is when the city manager's proposed budget will be presented to council and the community. Um the May 26 meeting, your second meeting in May is when the budget public hearing will occur required by state statutes. And of course, state also requires that action on the budget be taken in a different meeting. So right now the June 9th meeting, your first meeting in June, you're scheduled for budget adoption. So those are three important steps coming up. Managers proposed budget, public hearing, budget adoption. And if there no other questions on the 8week agenda, I am going to turn it back over to manager Wesley to introduce our other items and updates. Thank you.

Thank you, Ben. I want to make sure council member Hes your hand is still up. Was that from your previous comment? Are we okay? Thank you. Um thank you Ben. Um up next I think is also a very um exciting topic. We have Nikki Reid here to uh give council a update and a briefing on some of the work and planning that's happening around our city owned underutilized city-owned property. So, I'll pass it over to Nikki.

Great. Thank you so much. Appreciate the introduction and um yes, thanks Talia for sharing slides. So, today we just want to follow up on some additional city property opportunities and the focus of our conversation today 91 Riverside Drive and the historic fire station at 300 Marman. So, next slide. Okay. So, yes, we have two underutilized properties in our real estate portfolio and we're here today to talk about next steps. We're at the beginning of the process. We wanted to check in with council early. Um, these sites were really selected based on the following criteria. We want to advance council strategic goals and comprehensive plan goals. We also hope that we could advance the municipal climate action plan. I'll kind of speak to that a little bit later. These properties are considered surplus. They're either underutilized or vacant. They're not slated for future city use, so they are available for consideration. The property was not acquired through urban renewal. Um, and there is available partnerships in our community that we're hoping to leverage um to really see some activation with these sites. So, all those factors really have led us here today. Um, I am going to be going over some of the disposition options. So that's lease, sale, donation really in hopes that these processes can provide council with data and that's really understanding what opportunities are out there um so that we can make the informed decisions about next steps for the properties. Um so again today's just an overview. Ultimately, final decisions will be made at a regular meeting of city council and that will take place for any type of transaction be it lease or sale and that will occur at a future city council meeting. Next slide. So, a bit of background. So, in early 2024, city staff presented a multi-year strategy to peed um to talk about

city-owned land. Um and at that time we looked at action plans for five city parcels. And so um it's kind of interesting to reflect on the fact that at in 2026 we've made progress on three of those parcels. So Parkside of course we have the landhold for the future performing arts center. Um art place was also included in that original strategy and of course that property is being considered for transit improvements and affordable housing. Um, we were at HCD a couple weeks ago to talk about the DE review properties and how we're partnering with the housing authority and the Peak Academy and Parks and Recreation for a joint planning process. So, really excited about that. Um, which is why we're here to talk about next steps with the two other parcels that were referenced in that strategy, 91 and 300 Marman. And I think um I'm also really curious too just to point out that you'll note with each property there's different strategies really and different opportunities that we have and that's really just because each property is very unique and so we really need to be flexible and nimble in our approach on how we seek to um use these properties and make them available for community use. So, yes, Mayor

Nikki. Um, sorry if I missed it. Is um what about the Buildmore Avenue property 319? That is in our what I call our affordable housing portfolio. And so, while that was not presented as part of this five property um uh part of those peed presentation slides, we are absolutely moving forward with the 319 site. So, thanks for referencing that. I just think of it a little bit differently and that it's really explicitly for affordable housing. And council member Hess, I see you have your hand raised.

Hey Nikki, you mentioned two under underutilized city properties. Were you just saying that you're presenting us with two or that the city only has two? Great point. I'll just share that for today's purposes, I'm really focused on those two.

Thank you. Great. Okay, next slide. And um so let's talk about options. So um and of course Brad is here. He is um he is someone who really knows this information in and out. It's really the city's opportunities that we have um within our statutory limitations with how we sell or dispose of property. Um so really just thinking through that one option, sell to the highest bidder, right? So that that statutory authority really helps us to guarantee a high financial return. Uh with the caveat of course that there's limited control in selecting the buyer typically because that's a result of a bidding process. Um another option for consideration is a lease for fair market value. Again hoping to realize high financial return um but then limited control in selecting the lei. Um other options um lease to nonprofits to perform a public purpose and that public purpose provision is very specific in the statutes that can be carried out by a nonprofit partner. Um but again the trade-off is perhaps there's limited or no financial return to the city while there might be some public benefit that we realize at the same time. Similar with a donation an outright donation of a property to a nonprofit to perform a public purpose. public benefit is carried out by a partner but limited financial return to the city. So this is just really an overview of some of the different options that we can select from in really advancing these properties. Next slide. All right. So 91 Riverside. So let's do a bit of background and next slide Talia and we can talk about the property. So there is an image of the site. It is the property that has the smoke stack in the middle of the property. The city purchased it in 2012. Um there was an ice house, old ice house on the property at the time and we demolished that

building, but we kept the historic smoke stack in place. Um when we purchased it, there was also a brownfields agreement on the site um which restricts the uses and limits the soil disturbance. The property, as you know, is within the flood plane and was flooded during Helen and it's also constrained by the railroad. You can kind of see that in the image there as well. Next slide. So, um, in working with Clay Mitchell, um, we tried to take a look at some of the development opportunities again just to further understand, um, the the options with this site and really help inform this this process. And so, what you'll see there outlined in blue is actually the development footprint. So when we take into consideration the railroad and the distance from the railroad ride rightway that you must maintain really that blue triangle is what is considered unbburdened and could be developed on. Um we also looked at the flood plane concerns and and really tried to understand what would be the opportunities with this site. Um and so coupled with floodplane and the atypical building dimensions which really drives cost um very high on on on building in a place like this. We really saw that there might be limited development opportunity but there might still be some activation. So um next slide I'll I'll talk to you about what our conclusions were then. So with this what we hope to do is really identify a partner to lease the property for 10 to 15 years. We still want to maintain this property in long-term city ownership, but the goal here would really be to activate this property with a partner who can make investments on that time horizon of 10 to 15 years. And so we're really pulling from the French Broad parks recovery projects, what we're hoping to do there, how can we help uh further that work. Um the Wilma Dykeman

Riverway master plan is something we reference. Of course, URAD has done a lot of work to really uh vision this area, really understand what's possible as well as the ULI work that we did. Of course, they also encouraged us to be bold and really take action when we had the opportunity to do so. And I think that's what we're also trying to accomplish with this site is really to see how we can serve our residents um and really lift up um this property. Next slide. Overall, what we're really hoping to accomplish with activating the site is really to partner and and see some some vitality at this site um contribute to the overall recovery of the district. Right. So, having some intentional maintenance, some intentional care to the site is really something that we see could um could happen alongside some of the other exciting investments that we see in the River Arts District recovery. So, we're wanting to really partner with that process and really help to advance that um together as the city. Um I also think it's an opportunity to integrate the municipal climate action plan. It is a Brownfield's property. So, we really want a partner who is able to steward that brownfield's legacy and ensure that we are taking care of that property as well as we can look at the potential uses that we uh we learn about in this process and see how that could also advance the municipal climate action plan. So, we want to have a keen ear on how that goal could be met as well. Um, next slide. Okay, so next step. So given all those pieces, what we hope to do is advertise a request for proposals, request for letters of interest, um do that type of process to really understand what partners and entities are in our community that would like to lease the per the the property for a period of up to 10 to 15 years. We also want to ensure that any lease has

measures um for revitalization, progress, accountability so that we can ensure that there's successful implementation. And once that proposal is in hand, we will come back to city council. So really having that RFP be intentionally broad. Um we really just hope to bring back proposals data uh you know to understand what options that we have to really activate this site. So more to come, but really just wanting to share and forecast with council what we hope um the process will be and how we will um come back when we have more information. So that's it for 91. I'm going to move on, but any questions about that so far? Any feedback?

Yes, Council Member El go ahead. I love this thinking. I think this is just fantastic, especially as we want to revitalize, make people feel welcome, create destinations, um have experiences in our river as um we're safely building back. So, um and I see it says this is a recommendation. Um, do you know when it's going to come back to council for approval? I don't know. I don't know yet. Okay. This year. Let's say this year. That would be my hope is that yes, this is a short. Okay. I love it. Great work.

Great. All right, let's move on to 300 Maramman. Go ahead. Next couple slides. Great. Okay. Beautiful building. All right. 300 Marmen. So, um, we all know this as the historic fire station. It was an operation in 1927 to 75. Arson task force was in there. It is listed on the National Register. Um, it's been vacant since 2014. And so, um, it was it was closed due to the presence of some potentially hazardous materials, lead based paint, asbestous given that it's an older building. Um, next slide, please. Here's some just background about the property just at a glance. Um, small footprint in terms of land area. Small small footprint, a third of an acre there. The building is about 6,000 square ft. And on the tower that's um there on the property, we actually have a cell tower. Um, so it's a concealed cell tower, so it looks kind of like a flag pole, but that is an active cell tower. So in 2023, we did assess the property to understand what kind of reuse cost there would be for the city. So this is if the city would want to make it habit habitable. And we found that it would be a significant investment um such that it could make more sense for the city to seek to meet its needs with with other other properties. Um we did have an appraisal done um in 2020 and that valued the property at the time for $930,000. And so um with that with you know just acknowledging that it has been um minally maintained since 2014 but we really kept it active because of um this lease. So it's leased to T-Mobile. Um it the lease ends in 2027 but it does have an op option to extend to 2032 and we do

receive rental from that tower and the amount about $35,000 per year and that escalates over time. So that's some background. Next slide we can talk about some thinking around um oh again just an image again that's showing you kind of the small footprint as I shared earlier. Um, and you're also seeing where that concealed telecom tower uh sits on top of the building. And the T-Mobile also has a server room um that was built um kind of tucked in behind as well. Okay, next slide. Okay, so because this is a a treasured historic asset for our community, what we really hope to accomplish is to work in tandem with the preservation society. Um really to work with them on their process. They're a subject matter expert when it comes to preservation and really they have the ability to look at different tools to restrict the property to prevent demolition, preserve the historic features of the property. They charge a nominal fee for this service, but at the same time, we could market and consider offers on the property that would allow us to see what kind of fair market value or transaction that could occur um to seek a financial return. the cell tower would be conveyed as part of that transaction and we would seek to evaluate um that lease and really incorporate that into a sales price. So, working with the preservation society, we're hopeful that we can accommodate the the historic preservation features of the property, but also really consider what options exist um in the market for this type of property.

Yes, Council Member Rooney. I'm glad to hear that we're um looking at partnership with the preservation society because um it seems appropriate for this building. Um I was also curious because I was under the impression that our firefighters union was considering um ways to use this building. And I know that the Five Points neighborhood and parts of North Asheville have said we don't have an active community center. So what does the multi-solving look like around um some sort of resilience hub infrastructure? Um so thank you for looping in the preservation society, but I would also be curious to know what our other options are have been considered um and how we might be able to leverage this for long-term use.

Great. Thank you. I certainly appreciate the feedback. Um and I think I think this process with the preservation society, we could absolutely understand other alternate offers. Um as you referenced the um firefighters association, so really understanding what that offer would be um and then provide that option to council. So again, I think because there's so much interest in this property, I do think that what we're hoping to do is provide council with those options so that you can clearly assess the pros and cons of each and understand what's what the opportunities are um and make those decisions with that information. Yes, Council Member Smith.

Um this presentation makes me wonder what are we doing about the city-owned property at 8 River Arts Place? I think it's the location. It is the location where we lease to Black Wall Street. It's also on the river.

That is a great question. I know it was impacted by the flood damage with Hurricane Helen and I understand that that assessment um on the options with repairing the building are currently underway. Um, I don't know if I have any further information if if any of the city management office has any information, but I just understand that we're we're currently assessing the options with that building uh in relation to the damage that was was done by the storm. That Yes, Nikki, that's that's correct. It's in the public assist the FEMA public assistance process. It's one of the projects that we have uh underway right now.

Okay. Thank you. And so if if you can go to the next slide. Um start to just talk about benefits. Um so we can so this is an opportunity to sell the property and receive proceeds from that sale. I'm also hearing what what are the other options. So we certainly want to understand those as well. Um I think it's good to hear there's some alignment with working with preservation society. It seems like um an excellent opportunity for us to uh work with them on not only just the market and and and hopefully getting a buyer, but that long-term historic component as well. Um Council Member Hess.

Yes. Hey, thank you, Nikki. Thanks for all your hard work and your wealth of knowledge. It's really uh helpful. I I would also kind of um I know that already the actual firefighters association has paired up with the preservation society and they've actually done a feasibility analysis that costs somewhere about $20,000 that the union paid for. And um I think it was under the impression that that was going to kind of what meet all of our goals at once. It was going to be um somewhat of a resilience hub uh for fair weather and uh disaster days. It was going to be a community center. There was going to be a museum there so that retired firefighters could have something to do and still stay engaged with the force. uh they were going to have community safety classes and um there also isn't any asbestous in the walls um after their feasibility analysis came back which was a a huge win because that was going to cost a lot of money. So I would um just encourage us to um really take a look at that idea and maybe lean into that uh for our folks. Thank you. I appreciate the feedback there. I think that's very helpful as we as we start to to bring those those options back to council. So, um and and you referenced the asbestos. I mean, when we think about the municipal climate action plan again, how it maps on to each, you know, individual property in our portfolio. Yes. What are the environmental conditions of the property that we hope will be stewarded by a future owner? um and how could the property be used to help serve climate

action goals um is just something that we're also going to be thinking about um alongside preserving the historic character which I I I know is important to council. So next slide I think we'll can wrap it up with some next steps. So yes, our our first order of business is really starting to talk with preservation society, lean into their expertise, understand the preservation tools. Um, for full transparency, we wanted to procure an appraisal of the property to really understand that value. Um, even as we begin to entertain other other options for the site, just having that as a data point, I think is necessary just to be transparent. Um, yes, Council Member Alman,

sorry to interrupt. Um, I just want to like plus one that practice. Um, as we're having a really hard budget year, you know, say they tell us it's like $3 million and that could contribute to uh budget gaps or what have you. I just I think it's a good practice for us to understand the financial impacts of what we're doing, whether it's approving a CZ or reviewing our property or any of it. I I think I I appreciate being able to have those data points. There's so much we do for the public that isn't about a financial return. Parks are parks for their sake. We should never charge revenue off of them. And I think having awareness of the financial implications is really really meaningful and important to me in decision-m. So, thank you for your commitment to that

and council member Hess.

Yes, I agree. And also that with that to that point council member Omen of getting more revenue. I guess that was my question or curiosity in the very beginning. We have many properties that we could be selling off for revenue. And so why these two and why this one are we moving so fast on with other things besides the the thing that we kind of agreed on um when Deborah was here. But um yes, I agree and um you know there's other properties that we could get that that revenue from.

Bo, that brings up a great point. It's been a long time since I've looked at our surplus property list, but could that be shared with us? Because I was under the impression that we don't have a ton of surplus property um particularly property that's not um being held as we consider our urban renewal impacts. But that's a data point. If you could share that, I would I would be curious to see that information. Certainly, that was one of my early assignments from uh city manager DK is how can we refresh that list? So, um, and that work's underway and I I I have a little work to do, but then I can I can share that. Um, so go ahead.

And just maybe a reminder, I mean, you all built a website that that inventories all of the city property and gives some status regarding city property, like if we lease it to a third party or Right. I mean, what happened with that? Is that still in existence?

Absolutely. and and what you're referencing is that years ago we had built um a city-owned property map that even went into detail around how are we using these sites. So we characterize them as surplus or operational or under lease um etc. And we had really hoped to get a a strong grip on our inventory. We also did analysis around the urban renewal aspects as well. That's the the the site that we're going to currently be revamping and so as soon as that occurs we can share that out certainly.

Great. So if I could also just answer Council Member Hess's question. Um we started this conversation back in 2024 and we were focusing on five properties and what we wanted to do here was build on and really complete that project. And so the remaining there's there's progress on three of the five which is great. Um and the remaining properties are the two properties here. We absolutely know that there are uh other properties that we need to consider and we'll move forward with those as well. But we wanted to close out this project, give council, remind council of the options that they have uh with these properties and start moving forward uh in the progress of making some final decisions on these two. the two out of the five remaining. So that's why we're here with these two specifically.

Thank you so much. So um I think the next slide is our our question slide and then just wrapping back up next slide with key takeaways. So I really appreciate the discussion today. Um hopefully we can come back to you with some data around the different offers or opportunities that exist in our community um alongside additional details um to really help make informed decisions. So we'll certainly be in touch. Appreciate your partnership on this process um and then more to come. So wish us luck. But thank you so much for your your comments today. We'll take those into consideration and account as we move forward.

All right. Thank you uh council. That is all we have um in our followup. We're also glad to hear that you all support this path forward on Nikki's presentation and we'll go back and uh develop a timeline on kind of when you you can expect to see these things come forward. Other than that, that's all we have. I'll pass it back over to uh Danny. All right. Well, um, if there's nothing else from council members, I think that's it. So, vice mayor, I guess you're, uh, are you going to pass it to me to pass to Esther to say? Yeah, I don't know. It's end It's going to end up somewhere eventually.

So, I think if there are no other questions or comments, I think we can adjourn the meeting. Is everyone in agreement with that? Yeah, sounds good. Yes. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. You have a good day. Bye. Bye.