Economic Development Commission - Regular Meeting

Rebecca, can you also email Vivian and see if she's coming or not? Okay, thank you. Okay, it is 8.32 a.m. on Tuesday, August 11th, 2026. I'm calling the meeting to order. Can I confirm, John, that we go under the rules of just a simple majority of the commissioners, or are we also the minimum of four to conduct businesses?

Um, you're a minimum of, of the, of the, the quorum is a minimum of the membership. So it's three. No, it's three. No, it's three. Okay.

So we can conduct business. That's good. Alrighty. So in that, that case, I will ask for approval of the minutes. Would someone like to make a motion? Somebody on. and unmute themselves and say, ah, here's Viv. Hi, Viv. Could somebody please unmute themselves and make a motion?

So moved.

Thank you, Sadiq. Second? Second. Thank you, Viv. Any additions, deletions, corrections, comments? Okay. Hearing none, all those in favor of approving the minutes of July 14th, 2026, signify by saying aye. Aye. Aye. Okay. Approved. Thank you. Old business. John, anything?

I don't think so. I don't know if Linda does. I do not.

And thank you for that monthly report. That is really, really helpful.

Glad to provide it.

Happy to have it. Linda, anything at all?

Yeah. Old business, I guess. I just want to say the Capaco Center is moving forward with improvements. They're starting with the first rate. I'm sorry. I'm not sure what that is.

I got to say, it's like coming from somewhere.

They're starting with a facade improvement now. There's going to be an overall improvement happening there, and they've applied for building permits already for the facade. And as you know, 529 is moving forward with their construction. Yeah, I think for now, that's just about it. Also, Bonnie, and if you want to state, we're working with 39 Toby Road, and they... when it come before the commission with an informal presentation with a revised site plan. That's for the end of the month they're coming for? Well, no, that for September and we'll talk about it, Bonnie. Okay. All right. And then 92 Granby Street, they were approved for, I'm sorry, no, they were continued to August for the gasoline station. I did meet with the engineers and they are preparing to submit changes to their site plan for a gasoline, full service gasoline station at 92 Granby. Currently, there's just a building where a repair shop was existing. That's right across 95 Granby Street. We continue to work with 95 Granby Street. They have to come back before the commission for a Revised site plan approval. Their site plan expired. Can you tell us who that is, Linda? 95 Granby is, sorry, yeah, the retail furniture store in the front and the pita bread in the rear.

And is their cease and desist order gone?

no it's not lifted um but if they want to continue to operate they would have to come back with a revised full site plan again i don't know if you got my email but i was there i think thursday or friday and they had a saturday special sale so they're operating yes uh so i did forward that to the building department I'm not sure where the unsafe building structure, if it's still in place or not. So I did forward your email to them for their action or investigation and action, just because I'm not sure what the status is. Dwight Carlson is on vacation this week and he was the one, you know, heading that investigation.

They also have still have trailers back there. Things have not changed much since.

Yeah.

Yeah.

And they're aware. Um, and, um, and also the six, eight Toby road, they received a letter, um, regarding blighted properties. I did speak with their consultant. Um, they want to move forward now, uh, with their plans for a restaurant, not necessarily a nightclub. Um, So it's changed, but I, you know, they haven't submitted. I haven't heard from them in a couple of weeks. So I had instructed our CEO to send out a notification for, you know, creating blighted premises.

Is there any chance they could at least get rid of the graffiti that's been on the windows for months, which is, you know, it's a great entranceway to the area. Yeah.

Well, so hopefully they'll come back. They'll come around this time.

And Linda six, eight, is that the old gas station and the two existing buildings, or is that back from the gas gas where there used to be a church office facility?

Um, it's like an unfinished second story structure where they were supposed to have some sort of event space nightclub, um, and the building right next to it, which is 10 Toby. They've met with Dwight Carlson for demolition permits, requirements, but I don't think there has been any activity. But the corner lot is still vacant and not part of the...

It's still vacant.

Well, it's the ownership belongs to 6-8 Toby.

Yeah, no. Oh, so does that mean that it's part of that new development or we don't really know?

It could be. It could be, again, depending on how they come before the... Okay. it was sold to them with the expectation that they were going to develop it together.

Yeah.

Okay. Yeah.

Well, that's good. We have any idea when they're coming before any of the commissions?

Well, again, the consultant reached out to me about two and a half weeks ago. I reached out back to them and I have not heard back. Okay.

Yeah. Anyone have any questions about any of these? I have one more question once before we leave. Okay. What I want to do is once we get at least one more new member, I want to take a field trip and drive that area in a bus altogether so that you can give us a commentary because I I'm there all the time and it's hard for me to remember who's what street number, you know, funny with that being said, I know Copaco when I moved forward with improvements, they have not submitted on plants, you know, to the commission for it's, it's a major improvement. um to the commission talent planning zoning commission did you want them to come before you um i i not that it's necessary but i know there's effort i would suggest to them linda that for their benefit it probably wouldn't hurt one because of my involvement with it and two because we're informal and and advisory and we don't really you know have any power but they want to kind of talk to us and get a feel for it i think it might be helpful

Yeah, I just think also, it's helpful for this commission, given that you're working on rebranding the area.

And yeah, and I'm glad you mentioned that. Because in my opinion, even though that's not part of the TIFF, I think that that whole rebranding area starts at Copaco and then goes down to Toby Road. I think it's that's the gateway, basically. I have one other question comment about the gas station. I was there for the hearing for their presentation. I am very, very concerned about two things. One, that site doesn't look big enough for what they're trying to do. That's not my purview, but that's my reaction. And I'm extremely concerned about what they think they're going to do with that repair shop. Because if they're just going to take it and put board up where the doors were, and painted or something, it's going to look like what we don't want the whole area to look like. And I don't know whether there's, whether TPZ can do anything about it. I don't know whether Jawboning will do it, but I think we've got to be very, very careful what they do with it. Cause, cause to me it sounded, I don't know how you guys feel. It sounded like they were going to do, they're going to cheap out. They're going to make believe it was kind of a convenience store, but it's not going to be one. And it was going to look terrible.

Yeah, no, it's part of the application, they have to submit renderings, elevations, design, it has to fit on, you know, the appropriate you know, it does right now.

That's the problem.

I want to know the commission will not approve it without.

Yeah, yeah. Thank you. That's exciting. This stuff going on. Any questions from the commission? Is there anyone here from the public? And if so, do they have any questions?

No, you have none.

No one's here? Okay, good. New business. Do you want me to talk about this? Because I did ask to have this put on the agenda. There are a couple of zone changes that I think might be helpful for the redevelopment of the area. And I had talked to John and Linda about it, both of whom thought that it was, you know, that was something that was appropriate for us as a commission to bring before TPZ as a recommendation. So I'd like to talk to everyone here. What I'm suggesting as a change to the zoning regulation to the TIF zone is actually a change to any I-1 use. And Linda, do you want to give them a quick recap of what can't be done in I-1? You're muted, Linda. You're muted, Linda.

I'm sorry, are you asking again what uses are permitted in the I-1?

Yeah, I think we should talk about what my impression is I-1 permits almost everything except a couple of things. I was just curious at this point. I know that housing is one, which is what I was wanting to talk about. Are there any other uses that are not permitted currently?

In the I-1 district, outdoor storage. Okay. Yeah. Although storage is not permitted. And there's, you know, normally the I-1 district isn't as restrictive as the I-2, but more of small scale warehouse type manufacturing. That's what the intent of the I-1 district is. It does allow, yeah. And it does allow for retail through a site plan. Right. So retail establishments are permitted in the I-1 as well. So it could really be looked at as, you know, a commercial use mix, not only just industrial. I know the Future Land Use Map has it as an I and the I-1 is industrial one. But, you know, one can say like, you know, Retail is permitted. So it's more of a kind of mix.

But housing is not currently permitted. No, it's not. No. Okay. That's what I would like to talk about. And first, I would need to disclose I am still a partial owner of the property behind Lowe's. This is still 33 acres. The most recent use was the people backed away. They decided they didn't want to put a solar array there. Back in... I think the 1980s, and John, I don't know if you remember or not, but this was when we were working with Hesketh to figure out how to redevelop that property. And we had looked at commercial and we also looked at housing and we looked at mixed use. And my recommendation or what I would like to discuss with the commission is, I think that in quote, industrial use or commercial use has changed over the years. I think there's much more of a combination of housing and small retail or small commercial. And I would like to suggest that the I-1 zone be amended, that the use be amended to include residential. And I'd like to hear first from our commission, our staff, and then see, I'd like to get some comments from the commission.

So the one quick, I'm sure John is going to want to speak on this, but the I-1 could also be looked at as a commercial use, depending on the town planning zoning commission makes that determination, but based on the regulations, It could be a commercial and or a mixed use, meaning that the new housing bill by right will allow middle housing and also the community transit oriented. And maybe Justin could speak more on that. But currently, one of the things with my communication with CROG, with Heidi, is that the I-1, you know, being that it allows for retail and all those other mixed kind of uses can be looked at as a commercial district, meaning that the middle housing, then the housing for that would be permitted by right through an expedited process. Justin, would you like to kind of shine a little bit more light on that and then what the maximum density and lowest is?

sure so so linda is correct there so this new uh special act public act 25-1 um they had the state legislature approved that any zone that is either mixed use or business retail commercial use um has to allow for residential uses by right and what's what they call uh it's it's a longer term but it's middle housing what that means is any residential development between two units and nine units has to be allowed by right so that means it would just be a site plan at most it wouldn't be a public hearing or anything like that so it does max out at nine units but anything between those two and nine you would have to allow this doesn't apply to any residential zones or any strictly industrial zones now Bloomfield is a little unusual keep in mind because your industrial zones are You've never really had commercial zones. So all of your industrial zones are basically commercial zones. So because they are business uses, essentially, they would apply for this two to nine units.

So if we wanted to do a large mixed use, that would not be allowed currently under the way the provision is written?

Correct. If you wanted to do anything more than nine units, you would need a text amendment, right? Okay.

Do you think that that's something, and does that go to Kroc or is that local? Tax amendment? Yeah.

I would go, well, it would be sent to Kroc for their regional review. For a review of the regional plan to see how it aligns with their plan.

I mean, when I'm talking about anywhere in the community, and it's partly of what this town center is talking about, am I correct? That they're envisioning a mixed use. And I don't know whether they're allowed because they're in a special zone or whatever. I mean, this is the part I'm not too clear on, guys. I just know conceptually, I would like to have I would like the town to have the ability and specifically this zone to have the ability to have. maybe duplexes, something with public space, public gardens. I mean, it would be a wonderful adjunct to what I think we're trying to achieve in the area. And it would certainly revitalize it. It would also reflect what's going on on the other side of town in Hartford, where they have a pretty, you know, dense use there as well. Bonnie, your TIF,

plan for Bloomfield for that area does call for, and it specifically calls out the 55 acres would make an ideal location for multifamily residential. It says 300 up to 400 units possible.

We're down to 33 acres, but there's still land there.

And again, I'm assuming- But it's called out in your plan, so that is something to reference back to.

And do I have a conflict of interest discussing this now once I reveal it?

Bonnie, I think you do. I think you need to be careful getting into too much detail because you are the property owner. Right. And this is a general meeting in response to your I have. Concerns about text changes always have because they don't affect a single property. If you do a text to change to the I-1 district, it would apply townwide. And there are probably a number of areas where we have industrial slash commercial development where we don't want housing and we don't want to allow it other than what the state may require us to allow. So I think, and it's going to happen, once the POCD is adopted, there's going to have to be an extensive review of the zoning regulations, both text and map.

Okay.

To conform to what the POCD is suggesting as a policy. And we've started those conversations with the commission, but that's going to be probably an 18 month process to get it completely done. We'll probably start with a few text changes initially to protect the integrity of the POCD. Uh, but, um, I think you'll see a number of, um, revisions, both map and otherwise. The one thing we have to be careful of is that when we make the map changes, we don't, in essence, take somebody's property by quote downzoning it.

Yeah.

But I think that that's, that's when the real look will happen on, on Toby road, uh, and other areas across town, but certainly Toby can be looked at.

I don't.

linda may remember i don't recollect exactly what we wound up doing on the on the future land use map we um the commission one is going to is going to address the map and the text separately so that they can act on one and not the other if that's appropriate um and they will be having hopefully they will take a preliminary action no later than 27th of this month and set up public hearing for some time in September, particularly on the map where the public can come out and look at the map and comment on the map. And at that point, I think it's well within your purview without a conflict as a landowner to make comments on the map relative to any area in town, but particularly to Toby Road. I would have that conversation then as opposed to in one of these meetings.

I have one other question. If I understood you correctly, currently two to nine units would be permissible in an I-1. Is that correct?

By state statute.

So therefore, there are other landowners that would have enough land to do something like that. that's correct okay so that is something that they could go forward whether they decided to with the development okay um thank you that that explains what i'm not going to be talking about now and then the update on the artifacts branding proposal that actually is going to come under the development agency if you don't mind so i'm i have nothing else that i want to ask about new business uh do the commissioners have any comments at all about um what we're talking about in general about housing and housing in a mixed use area? No? Okay.

I don't know if it's related to what you're asking, but I heard there's a big bill passed for affordable housing. And I think some federal funding or state funding can flow to the towns who can provide in affordable housing areas. So I don't know how does this apply to us from Bloomfield. Is there something like that? Maybe John would know that. I think it was a federal bill passed recently called Road to Housing or something, which kind of encourages affordable housing at local level, at town level.

I think that's the statute that... Justin was talking about has a variety of new regulations, requirements, and incentives built into it. There will be state money available for affordable, quote, housing in communities. Some of it, it depends on where it is done. They want to be near transit stops or near transportation. near town centers, we can meet all of those criteria. We have every development that's being proposed right now in town that has an affordable housing component. And one of them is relying almost entirely on public funding from the state and federal level. Not necessarily as part of the new 25-1 statute that provides avenues for state funding. And a lot of that is still not really clearly in place. We have another, the state has another year to get their act together. And the towns have, depending on where they're located, have anywhere from a year to two years to get their act together.

Does that answer your question?

Yeah, thank you. I mean, it's good information. Thank you.

Okay, thank you. I have nothing else on that commissioner commission member updates. Does anyone have any updates that they'd like to talk about? Okay, consultants report we have the report any. Questions or comments or additions that you folks would like to add. Okay. Dead silence. Okay. Okay. All right. Um, town planner report again. Thank you very much, John, for providing that month or report. Do you want to, uh, you've sort of gave us an update in the POCD. Would you mind going over that one more time?

Yeah. On the POCD, they were hopefully coming down to the end of all the commissioners still, um, reviewing and making, um, corrections, but we have sent to them the latest draft of, uh, of the, uh, Towns of the Future Land Use Map. There's been a few comments on that. That will be reviewed at their special planning meeting next week on the 20th. We also anticipate sending to them by early next week the first but complete book, if you will, that'll have both the text and the accompanying tables and charts. which will either be reviewed at the 20th meeting or the 27th meeting. And hopefully at the 27th meeting, they can informally release a document for public review and institute the required referral to the town council. The town council has up to 30 days to review it. They don't have to take that long and they don't have to comment at all. The council has no authority. They just have the opportunity to comment and also schedule a public hearing to get public input, particularly on the map, which would lead hopefully to formal adoption at the September TPZ meeting. I would give that an 80% chance. I think there's still a possibility that it could move into October in terms of whatever revisions come out of additional commission review and particularly public review.

And John, once this is approved, how many more years before we have to do it again? Cause I know we're late. 10.

I think the clock starts when we adopted.

So. Okay. Not, not when we were supposed to. Okay.

That's not when we were supposed to, but 10 years from now.

Okay. That's, that's good news.

On the town center. Um, The RFQ is out. Any questions on it are due back on the 25th of this month. And final submissions are due no later than the 15th of September. And then we will begin the review process. I would think that hopefully a selection would be made by early October. There is a basic committee in-house that reviews All RFQs, depending on what the RFQ is, there's some regular members and then there's additional members, depending on where it's coming from. And that hopefully, you know, we'll get more than one response and, you know, we'll have something to select from.

And the funding, John, or Denise?

The funding, the CIF grant is Round nine was submitted in June and we expect a decision in September. I think the latter part of September when they're scheduled to act. And we also have still hanging out there. I have not heard anything one way or the other, the $4 million grant through Congressman Larson.

Okay. Well, let's keep our fingers crossed that we get the money and we finally move forward with that.

In terms of the development report itself, I think the key things are that First Cathedral is moving along. They have not yet formally started their conversations on a pilot slash tax agreement that needs to happen, but they have started their land use process. They are at wetlands and will be coming to the TPZ, not this month, but next month, if I'm correct. 800 Cottage Grove Road, 230 apartments has completed. It's REIS, which is the report that Goldman and York does for the tax agreement. And there are some positive alternatives in there and it's really up to the town now to decide which alternative any they want to pursue, the developer is ready to move at that point. So we've not had any land use submissions yet. We have had a preliminary meeting, a staff meeting with them.

Sadiq has a question, John.

Let him finish. Simple question, my old question, the story about Aldi.

Okay, we'll get to that one. John, I do have a question about that. Do we know the size of apartments and kind of the general rental range, or they haven't gotten that far?

We've had general conversations that the size is... I think typical what's around, there are some three bedrooms. There are a number of amenities. There will be an affordable component. So I think staff was very pleased with what we saw.

Oh, that's good. That's going to be. Are there any issues with the traffic pattern if they add the housing there?

Not from our perspective. I'm not going to wait to hear from the state.

Okay. Thank you.

Paul Butler's phase four. He is starting his presentation process and is also under agreement with Goldman and York to conduct his REIS, which I would expect would be completed in the next four to five weeks. So that project's moving along as well. Great. Okay. I think those are the major ones in response to... Sadiq's question, all these is, it will be coming back as far as I know. They are waiting for the adoption of the POCD. And so depending on when that happens, I think all these will come back in. I cannot, I will not project what the reception will be.

Does the new POCG make it easier for them to do what they want to do or they just want to see what it says?

I can't comment on that at this point.

Okay. Okay. Any other questions? Okay. Thank you, John. I'm sorry.

Thank you, John.

You're welcome. I have a question, but I'm not sure where it relates and if it's even for this group, but the, I think it was said that there is either a Popeye's, maybe a Chick-fil-A that's gonna go right near the plaza where Geisler's is. Is there any, does anyone know when that might be complete? I'm just curious just because I passed by there and it's on, off, and now it's on an off cycle, it seems.

Vivian, you're not alone. It's not a judgment.

I was just being curious. So glad to know I'm not the only one.

Popeyes has been an extended issue. They were granted a permit two years ago, and the last inspection we did was in February. I have been constantly in the last three months trying to get the contractor to get going. And then I'll finish up with where we are. The issues seem to be two, in two categories. One is the contractor tells me that he is working on three Popeye locations at the same time, and that as he receives funding and materials, he works on the next one. Supplies and funding seem to be an issue on Popeyes. The second is they've been very challenged in reaching agreements with Eversource and MDC for the utility installations, which is not unusual. Both those organizations are difficult and slow and we are working on. So I finally got totally frustrated about two weeks, about a week ago, And we looked up and found out who was the CEO of Popeyes. And it turns out that the CEO of Popeyes is the CEO of Purdue. And so I sent an email to the president of Purdue, Mr. Peter Perdue, expressing our exasperation and frustration and asking if this is how His brand wanted to be recognized in our community, if any community. And within an hour, I got a response from his senior staff that obviously this was not what they wanted and that they would right away get on the franchisee and the contractor. And I appreciated that for him. I've also made a couple of calls to Eversource and MDC on their behalf. Unfortunately, I have not seen anything on the ground yet. So I will give him till the end of this week. And if nothing happens, I will be back in contact with him, but it's, it should have been done within about nine to 10 months. That's the normal construction process for one of those, one of those buildings. We have requested that at a minimum, they properly screen it. They properly improve the erosion controls. They put up a proper fence and that they, um, reduce the soil piles so that they don't look like a bunch of mountains and that they basically clean the property up so it isn't in a blighted condition, quote unquote, until they are indeed going to finish the work.

And John, they might want to take down the pad side available sign if they actually are going to put a Popeyes there.

I agree. Okay. I mean, the last thing the guy from there told me they would be open by September. Well, that's obviously not going to happen. Yeah. But we're on them, Vivian, and, you know, we get calls every day. What's going on with Popeyes? Can't we fix the site? You know, it's in one of the most visual sites in town. You know, everyone in town goes by it probably at least once a day. Yep. So we need to get it fixed.

Glad you're on top of it, John. Thank you. Thank you. Okay. Did everybody receive the first set of drawings from Artifex? And if so, have you all had a chance to look at it? Because if not, we're going to take a look at it now. just to review what we're doing. The commission received funding to go to artifacts for a proposal that would include rebranding the TIF zone and using new signage. And this, I'll be very interested to hear people's response to it. I thought it was a very interesting presentation. So can we share a screen and then, just scroll through it and then I'd like to hear comments. I can do that if it's easier. Yeah, if you don't mind, Rebecca, thank you. Has everybody had a chance to at least look at it or will this be your first time?

Honestly, I haven't yet, so this will be.

Okay, you're in for a treat. Lauren Rosen, who was the the owner of Artifex and who I've known for over 40 years, is very, very creative. And he's and he's absolutely energized about working on something to change the whole feel of Granby Street. So and no, he doesn't know how to spell my last name after all these years, but that's okay.

All right, so you can see my screen?

Yes.

All right. Just let me know when you'd like me to flip through.

Yeah, start start the scrolling. So this is the first what you're going to see is the logo and then how he's proposing to use the logo. So this is the first one. It would either be a sort of a stained glass color logo or a black and white. Go ahead, Rebecca. This is what it might look like on a monument sign. And they're giving you, I'm assuming it's like a six foot tall person, just to give you an idea of the size. Now, if everyone recalls, there are existing monument signs, both on the corner of Granby and Cottage Grove and on the corner of Granby and Toby. Those would most likely not be able to be used again, but we're not sure yet. Next. Another look. Okay. What would banners would look like? Okay. That was the first. This is the second suggestion. A little more of an open design, different color. Tell us, do you want to stop at any point? And we will. Okay. This is the third. Just see, and this is the fourth. And the 5th. I had talked to Lauren about potential. Can you go back to the to the the arch? Archers are not in favor these days. Anyway, I talked to Lauren of potentially doing some kind of an arch. I'm not sure. Whether that's something we actually want to do or not, but at least he gave me an idea of what it would look like, and this would be. Cottage Grove into Granby St. Okay. Would you like to see it one more time, everyone? Or are you ready to talk about it? One more time, please, if nobody minds. Yeah, I think it would help. Let's start all over again. And anytime you want it to stop, just let Rebecca know and she'll halt it, okay? I know it's a lot to absorb, but I wanted to at least get it in front of you. Okay, here you go.

Bonnie, there was a concept E that we didn't roll through.

There was?

Yeah, on page 32. Okay, we'll get to it. Going on from page 32 from where we stopped.

Oh, okay. Sorry about that. And stop for a second, Rebecca. What these designs are showing you is first it shows you the logo, then it shows you the way it would be used on a pylons line, then it shows you the way it would be used in a banner. Go ahead. And they're all based on the BAD Bloomfield Art District. Yeah, sorry about that. Okay, and again, this is the first shot. I had a conversation with both Lauren, the owner, and I think the fellow's name is Dave, who's their preferred design architect, but he's worked with Lauren for a long, long time. And they were both very energized by what we were hoping to do. So if anyone wants to make any comments, if you need more information, I would like to start the discussion to be able to at least give them some feedback. And then, um, I'm thinking that I would then, once we've had our conversation and decided how we feel about the designs, if we want to take them forward, uh, I would go to the design review committee and I would go to the arts commission because I think that both of those should have input in this. And then eventually it goes, I would assume to council. Am I right about that, John?

Yeah. Council will have to include TBZ at some point as well.

Oh, yeah. Yeah. I'm sorry. OK, Sadiq.

Yeah, I mean, I am not so thrilled with the acronym that has been adopted. It's bad. So instead of doing bad, it could be a DA be arts district at Bloomfield. So I mean, bad gives me a bad taste. I hear you.

It's very generational, Sadiq. I find the reaction to it. Let's talk about that first. How do people feel about the acronym?

I would probably say I agree in terms of it's generational or it's in context. And so it's like, oh, if I say, oh, those shoes are bad, then that's an insult, but I'm like, oh, you have some bad shoes on. So I think it is generational, but I can understand the sentiment.

Anyone else? I mean, from a staff point, I agree, it's generational, but as you all know, generations past and will also. I'm a little with Sadiq, but it's whatever this commission likes. And if you want to even to put it out there for people to vote on.

Yeah. I mean, what the attempt is, is to really catch your attention. And this will probably catch your attention.

My only thing, Bonnie, is that we're focusing a lot on the arts, but we're not focusing on the businesses that are in that district too. So if it was an arts and business district. Because you have a lot of businesses down there.

I like that and you know that that's a very good. Yeah. Yeah.

Let me go back to them and see if they can come up with another acronym. This is 1 that was proposed by Andrew Kaplan and I gave it to them as a beginning. Point, and I will go back and tell them that there is some concern about. Negative connotations to it and see what else and that we want to have something that's a little more oriented towards the business. But but I will say that. what I think eventually could and should happen in that area may be businesses, but they may not be industrial type businesses. They may be something that's closer to an arts district.

But you do have some large businesses that are down there that have just built and are expanding too. And long standing ones that I don't think are going anywhere for a while.

Well, maybe we should have a conversation with a couple of them and ask them how they feel about it. Again, I'm not doing it to have a bunch of tenants on a sign necessarily. I'm doing it to try to have almost a certain amount of shock value to say we're really changing the way things look. I'll ask Copaco because Copaco in a way is going to be part of this as well and see if they have the same reaction. So would you like me to take the logo? back to artifacts and ask them to come up with something else or some other alternatives, I can certainly do that.

Yeah. I mean, if you allow me, I understand what you said about the generational thing, but my impression is we should not really adopt it, even if it's generational. Adoption of this represents that we agree with that, but I don't. I mean, even if it's generational, so my generation would not agree.

Well, speak for yourself, Sadiq. Okay, I hear you. No, this is the very first attempt at doing something. So this is good. This is good feedback. And I'll take it back to you.

I have a slightly contrary opinion. I think that there's a lot of value to basically a shock value. I think that... I think a conversation with the existing businesses to see whether they have any objection to being part of the Bloomfield Art District concerns them before I would just walk away from this. I think there's, you know, I understand the concerns about bad, but I mean, I think that if we really want to revitalize the area, I think that something that's really dramatically different is what's called for.

And that's exactly why he did what he did. That's where I'm at. I am too.

And in terms of the design themselves, it's an easy decision for me. Which one did you like? Number one.

Interesting. Dave?

Yeah, when I've talked to those large businesses down on Toby, Um, they frequently say it's bad. And I think that, um, you open yourself up to some ridicule, not yourself, but the area, because it's going to be bad for a while.

Right. What's the saying that any publicity is good publicity.

Just spell my name. Right.

Um, yeah, they didn't get that either, but that's okay. Right.

Now, anyway, that's, that's my opinion. I, I hear you. I like the shock value, but I like a more subdued.

I think the idea of going to the larger businesses is a great suggestion, Dave, and maybe maybe you and I can go together and talk to them. once we're a little farther along with this. I knew this was gonna be a conversation and I knew there was gonna be, I'm expecting pretty strong reactions to it, but that's what you want when you're trying to do something artistic. You want people to respond and sometimes you want them to respond very emotionally. So it isn't bad that we're getting that kind of response. Excuse me.

Bonnie, can I just make one suggestion? And John, I do like number one. I think the stained glass, the coloring and everything is good. My only thought was to keep it in line with Bloomfield's green and use of green throughout that black major portion. Rebecca, if you can go back up to screen number seven, please. that where there is that black, where the Bloomfield Arts District is, that you incorporate the green instead of the town. So you keep the green knowing it's part of Bloomfield and that everybody identifies with that green. It's on all their logos and everything.

No, that was one thing I did tell them. I did ask them to incorporate, if not the B, then at least the color design. So I think there's one of these has like a pale green. Maybe that's what you're trying to do.

I think one of the later ones uses the dark green.

This is very pretty, but I thought this was... Maybe you don't want them to be able to read it because I think it's very hard to read. That may be intentional.

What about Bloomfield Entertainment Arts and Trade, which would be beat, like feel the beat?

We're open to things. Arts and trade, yeah. OK, that's arts, entertainment and trade.

I went back and it's different from just calling it a district.

But yeah, right. You know, yeah, I mean the people who choose this kind of titles when they're starting business with the name choices, people spend money with the focus groups to get the feedback and also I mean simply adopting bad. It's bad. Well, again, this was the first shot.

But bad is sometimes good. Yes. So let me do this. Let me take this back to artifacts, tell them that there is an ongoing discussion about the logo, which they loved, so they didn't really make any different, any changes. Do people... Is the... there any consensus i think everyone should look at these a few times and then we'll come back and we'll talk about it again because um they're very different and i think you need to think about it a little bit vivian

Yeah, I also just had a question about, and you don't have to answer it now, but as they're going through the process in terms of accessibility and translating that logo into, not to say, I know it's meant to be seen in a certain way, like outside, but just being how it translates to if we ever needed to print something with it on it. And then again, accessibility, what kind of work they did on that end.

What if they used a green and white, a dark green for the, because I think the other, one other option for this is a black and white, if I remember correctly. Can we go down? They have a green and they have a black. Don't they have one that's like, yeah. So something, maybe not those colors, but maybe green and black is another way of doing it. It wouldn't be as dramatic, but this is, I'm just going to, I'm going to bring our interests back to them and let them work on it. So is the consensus at this point that folks like the sort of flat pylon sign rather than anything other than that?

Yeah. And Bonnie, I will tell you where they show banners on page eight with the black background, you don't get as many years use out of banners in black because they do fade. Yeah. So I mean, I've done probably 5060 shopping centers with banners. So yeah.

Okay, any Vivian just cut your Oh, hello. I used to have a comment or hand is still up. Oh, sorry. No, no, it's okay. And this is kind of your your house, I think that so I shaped the the input. Trish as a as a small business owner, you have any feelings one way or the other?

I kind of agree with what Denise said about incorporating the other businesses and not just zoning in and calling it the arts district. I definitely like number one on doing it like in the black and white, but like she said, incorporating the green, like a green with a black and white, but maybe not using the arts district.

Okay. All right. I'm going to take this back to artifacts and hopefully we will have some revisions and some new ideas for the next meeting. Any other comments, questions, No. Okay. All right. Thank you very much. I mean, I'm very enthused because I think this is finally the beginning of doing something. Does anyone disagree about taking this to go pack? I'm just giving them a heads up what we're doing because one of the signs that could be redone is the sign they have that goes into Lowe's where they get that gas station. They actually do have access from Granby Street into the shopping center.

So they are working on that. I think it would be a great time to, you know, to have a conversation with them, Bonnie. As I mentioned, they're doing a whole improvement and signed replacements as part of it. We have not seen any renderings. They haven't shared it with us. But I think it would be, you know.

I may just send this to, is it Hicks? And just tell him this is what we're starting to work on. It's very preliminary. Any feedback and see if we get a response or not. Okay. All right. Public comment. There is no public here. Any updates? John, I have one other question.

Bonnie, you do have one member of the public now.

Oh, okay. I can't see that for some reason. Oh, there we go.

Okay.

Is there a hand up?

No, there isn't. There's about, you know, there is one attendee.

Oh, okay. Any one from the public care to make a comment or question or. Right. Is there anything else that anyone wants to talk about right now? No, these are good. All right. I will, the plan is that I will take this back to Artifex, come back to you with their response to the questions we've had. And if anyone has any other thoughts about it, please let me know. In the meantime, I'm going to send this out to Copaco. And Dave, if you come up with a list of the people that you think we should visit, I'm available. You let me know when, and we'll just do a quick tour. And then I would very much like to do a tour of the property again in a bus. Um, let me ask you about that. John and Linda, if we do that, we had this, we did this once before. Does it have to be an, it's sort of an informal meeting because we can't have the public. We don't have, we can't do it with zoom. unless you invite the public to meet us.

If you have a quorum, it has to be declared as a meeting and you'd have to.

So how did we do it last time? We just told people if they wanted to join us, we'd give them the list of sites we were visiting.

I think we made sure that there wasn't a quorum in any group that went through. You might have to do it twice. Okay. You just do it with a minimum number. Got it. That's what we do with the other commissions if they want to do site visits. Um, we do it in, we do it in partial groups, so they're not in violation of the FOI, uh, minimum open meeting.

Okay. I'll talk to you and, or Linda about that. And cause I really think, I don't know if anyone else, even though I'm down there all the time, I still have trouble remembering which number is what, oh, I had one other question about that. Is it the, the dent wizard that has grass that's about three feet high now? Have they been cited?

I don't know. I haven't heard about it, but I'll make a notification.

You might want to go down there and take a look. I'm pretty sure it's Dent Wizard. I don't know if anyone, if they're actually still occupying that or not, but they're the only site that was not mowed and has not been mowed for a while.

We'll check it out.

Okay. Okay. If there are no other questions, I remind everybody that our next meeting is going to be Tuesday, September 8th at 830. And hopefully by the end of September, we are going to have another commissioner. John, is that what we think will happen?

Hopefully.

Hopefully.

Yeah. I can't control that.

I know you can't, but you are a force of nature, John. So we'll just leave it at that. Okay. Call for adjournment.

Motion to adjourn. John, we're staying on with you. Yeah, I don't know who controls the meeting. Is it Rebecca or Linda? Rebecca, you control the meeting. Can we stay on?

Okay. I just need a motion to adjourn.

So moved.

Second. Okay, good. All in favor?