Town Center Economic Development Commission - Special Meeting

let the record reflects that the meeting for the Town Center economic develop development commission is is called To Order special meeting uh call to order at march on Tuesday March 11th at 6 pm thank you very much uh link can you do a roll call please commissioner Michelle present commissioner Kio present commissioner Gully absent commissioner hudin present commissioner Riley present um thank you much establish that we do have a Callum present to conduct this meeting we're going to move on uh to item three on the agenda can I get a motion to approve two special meetings uh one was on on January F January 21st 2025 and the other one was on February 11 2025 so moved it's been moved by commissioner H hudgin can I get a second second uh thank you it's been second any um discussion changes seeing none hearing none uh ERS in favor of both meeting minutes as presented signify by saying I I I I chair what I the Motions carry carry unanimously item four on the agenda is public comments anyone present with public comments no one signed up than thank you very much so let's move on to item five work session with Gman yor a revised plan presentation and discussion this is revised based on the input we received at the public meeting we had in February um Professor thank you chairman uh members of the committee for the record Don Poland with the firm of Gman York

property advisers and we are your consultant for the creation of this town center economic development plan in chapter 132 uh Municipal development plan uh I apologize for the late submission of these documents to you uh and I also apologize for the cancelling of our last meeting all of these delays are related to me and no one else at Gan York uh had some eye surgery that had to be taken care of on a short notice so that's why the delays occurred that puts us about a week behind where I would like to be right now and once again I apologize for that uh with that said the document you received I believe Monday morning if my timing's right yes my days are blurring together sorry uh is kind of a refashioning of a document that you received back in either November early December where I started framing kind of what the plan would entail and so forth and over time uh through our various activities whether it be research of existing conditions the public Outreach programs the most recent public uh meeting from last month and so forth we have continually refined kind of our thoughts and ideas and strategies related to the center so uh this document is kind of created as a bunch of one or two pages that kind of stand on their own and I just want to provide a summary of what's in there uh and then I guess at the end of each page I can ask you guys if you have any questions or comments so the first page once again you guys have seen this in multiple forms is just kind of the general findings related to the town center and

the challenges related to the challenges that confronting the Town Center big picture wise you know your town center is not awful uh but it has some challenges we've worked in places that are much more struggling and so forth that's what I mean by saying it's not awful uh and But ultimately it's going to take which kind of the final bullets there at the bottom emphasize it's going to take for you guys to kind of be intentional and do specific things to reposition it to actually compete so with that I'll say you know any questions or comments related to the findings and probably most specifically anything you think I missed that you think should be added to that any questions from my colleagues and the commission none of M looks like we are moving on sure so then the page two is uh really about the big picture kind of first half of the document we're producing uh the economic development strategy uh for the center this is kind of the general overview of the entire Center and things that you guys should engage in in the attempts to reposition the center and make it more competitive more vibrant more prosperous uh and has a greater focal point in the community so in this we lay out everything from you know attention to detail on building designs to Landscaping of public spaces to the promotion of things like mixed use development including both you know commercial and

residential uh encouraging you know multifam in and near the Town Center providing greater flexibility within zoning uh uh providing public and shared parking within the center uh creating unique and identifiable spaces especially the town green programming the green uh so forth and so on these are kind of all the things that can systematically be engaged in uh and implemented to kind of move the center uh into a more pos positive position so any question comments or thoughts there I think we're good good uh the next one kind of plays off of that prior one kind of the investment in the public realm what you as the community should be investing in so there's two types of land owners in the center there's the public land owners that you guys you know all the public properties that you own including you know Street rways and sidewalk and so forth and then all the properties there in private ownership whether those be retail establishments or churches or what have you other people own them so we kind of break this down into two areas the Investments you can make as the public to improve the center and that's what pages three and four get at you've seen uh page four previously uh a bit of a further refinement on numbers kind of adjusting for inflation uh but ultimately public investment into uh the public realm within the

center I would categorize this as a ultimate wish list it's not something that we're going to outright say you need to do this tomorrow uh but I think you have kind of a fiveyear maybe strategy here to slowly you know start working on and implementing some of these things I know also from previous meetings that some things are already in discussion a meeting with the OT the bus shelters and so forth and maybe there'll be help from the state in that sense uh so that maybe all these costs aren't yours but this is kind of a road map to improving the public realm within the core um uh of the center of the community of the center of the center uh to create a more aesthetically pleasing and functional space so once again I'll pause there chairman sure um any questions before I have a quick comment or quick question anyone yeah sure and I'm not sure it was it there before if it was I probably wasn't thinking at the at Point the town hall Paving it's $550,000 um could that be could that be waited upon that's a lot of money that could be set aside versus this yeah saving that area yeah and there there's two things with that one is yeah I wouldn't put that as a priority I think some of the sidewalk stuff bus shelters you know the stuff that makes the space more inviting and usable is more important than maybe the town hall Center there uh the parking area that being said also in the Redevelopment concept ccept for cross the street we conceptualize relocating

the entrance to the town hall parking lot to the West a bit and theoretically when if and when that were to occur that could also address the paving of the front area there I'll also say that Paving recommendation from me has dated back to probably about 2 16 in various forms and things that we've done related to the town center and since the painting of the that area I'm not saying the pavement has improved it's still the same but actually the athetics and appearance are better now uh there was a lot of cracking a lot of chipping there was a lot of sealant put down to hold it together and then the painting has kind of lessened the aesthetic negative appeal of it um so yeah I don't view it as a pressing issue and you can kind of wait and see in the context of you know what goes on with across the street and maybe an entrance way realignment and I just did have one comment for the shared Working Connections below y that was taken from the first go round of looking at this and the reference to WR Aid in the funeral home should be updated oh as we do it's a it's a Walgreens now instead of a right AG right is no funeral home at least that I am aware of on Jerome yeah that was actually that one I saw it the last time I forgot to to mention it but seeing it again yep my apologies one I knew on the right a that dates back to the uh Tiff plan yeah that's what I fig and then for whatever reason I've always thought that hair salon in spa in my head wrongly it has been a funeral home and I don't know why before then it was Insurance yeah so don't know how don't know why yeah does have that kind of

that kind of appeal traffic entrance and exit so no so thank you I will make sure those are corrected um you mentioned earlier that like the repaving of the uh Town Hall was not a a priority necessarily is there a way prior to us finalizing um a recommendation to the council that we can almost like get a color coding like a red yellow green right of what should be priority or what you suggest is priority over other things and what can for lack of a better term be on like the back burner after the priority stuff gets done yeah I can definitely do a kind of short middle and longterm uh prioritization recommendation as part of the final plan as it comes to you thank you I think it's fair to say it's all the prior it's just a matter of timing right we start saying what's a priority what's not then people you know stuff that's not so hot people don't look at it but they are important to be it's just matter of when when they have to be done it's timing absolutely yeah what to spend money on first really right yep the the only question I had was um as I read this um some of the especially on um page three page four the Jerome Avenue parking and know I know the the the the bigger plan uh have us moving Jerome Jerome Avenue around can that be incorporated into the bigger plan as opposed to the town paying for it or does it have to be yeah some of the Jerome a parking is conceptualized on the south portion of Jerome down around Republic uh anything that was in here

and I'd have to go back back and relook uh and refresh my memory anything on the North side yeah I would say incorporates in with the bigger plans or ideas for the north side of the road both north has both yeah so yep I can uh just as with the funeral home in rid I can refine there I was wondering where is your Funeral Home in town center I mean I spend good half an hour just figure out where did I miss something I'm serious or maybe maybe there's a new business coming into [Laughter] town I get an idea stuck in my head and it just doesn't go away uh all right moving on to page five right yes uh so then page five is the uh is the strategy for private property investment you know we can't tell property on knows what to do we can't say you have to invest in your property you have to do a facade you have to repay your parking lot we can't make them do any of that so what this strategy frames here is actually a process of engaging the property owners in a discussion around the town center in investment and kind of you know the town leveraging its investment saying you know we're in this for the Long Haul we're committed to it we're going to make these public improvements to uh you know benefit the town center and we would like you as Property Owners to also make investments uh in your properties you know that we do this collectively and then um yeah so let me stop there I thought this was a continuation one so this

basically lays out you know that process of engaging uh the property owners so hey Don you you you saying this committee who would be do who would be engaging you said the town the town any particular part of the town that you recommend his most his best position to do that in one sense of it it's it's a leadership role by this committee uh you know you guys are the Town Center economic development committee and Development Authority so you guys would be in the leadership role uh and then Town staff especially John's Department sorry John uh would be key in this I think the manager's office uh is a part of it the Communications office is a part of it and I think in part uh through our other work with the community that Gan York would be a part of it so so so we need have a whole strategy around engaging with the communication Vis them and and that's where I said you know you can view this document as kind of an executive summary of ideas and that by the end of next week we'll be issuing a full plan that will flesh out greater details under each of these bullet items on all of these Pages not just this one is that the plan we're going to vote on to go through the council yes there that next Tuesday not by next Tuesday we'll have it by to you by the end of the we'll do a schedule at the end I I'll have a schedule for you at the end I don't want to get ahead of myself there thank you yep any other questions my colleague no thank you so then page six is kind of a continuation of the prior page and I believe it's a list of 16 or 17 I know I say 17 there I think I

deleted one that was duplicate uh it's a list of approximately 16 properties is it 16 more I saw you counting yeah a list of approximately 16 properties that we have identified in the center as kind of opportunity properties and all of them we have discussed at various times in differing level of details so the office building on the South Side Southeast on the south end of Jerome on the east side is one of them the police station is another one the office building just south of Republic is another the up there the little culdesac with the six Office Buildings I believe off of Bloomfield a is another one of those properties identified the properties within the triangle between tungus Park and winon Berry all the properties in that block other than the senica ones are identified there uh the tax the tax business property that's kind of deteriorated further down on Park a near the ra nearer to the railroad tracks as identified there so just giving you kind of an overview all these properties that we have discussed over the course of this have been identified as having opportunities and in that sense well any property from the big picture Economic Development strategy uh any property within the boundary of the Town Center that we've identified is you know fair game for whatever uh these properties kind of get elevated to a place of priority for opportunities so in the context of the

idea of engaging property owners and trying to get them to come along that property on Jerome the office building you know I think is a prime candidate of a property owner that should be reached out to early and engaged and by the town and talked to about opportunities for that property and this following page page seven is a continuation of that in a discussion of kind of some of the tools that you have done before we go to page seven sure page six um I didn't see anything on Mountain Road you know P library is and you you you go down Jerome all the way down to that brown you know that's quite an unattractive office building and you go up um gry LA with the office park with six buildings but uh but you're not going past you're not going west of um yep of um Bloomfield and Tas Avenue you know past the library and pass the Park library and you have that little development in there um Isaac and then so I a while ago you did mention that that little Plaza may need an facelift is there any reason why it's not on this list just because of me uh ju I I've been going back and forth on it and it was actually in here as an address and I guess in that moment uh I keep on struggling with the West Side uh the other side there out Mountain Road uh limited opportunities to do things uh so I've been going back and forth but yeah I I can shift ISAC that property not ISAC itself but that

property into this and that's causing me to once again reconsider the other Plaza next to it where I think at one point I did kind of feel there's an opportunity maybe for a pad site addition to it for some additional commercial there so I'd gladly revisit and enter those two properties here I'm not I'm just wondering why was in I'm not saying you have to include it to is is investing a lot of money in the uh in the uh Library there and a lot of Y aesthetically improving it so it's behind it and yep you definitely aging it's dated right and U yep uh I'll definitely revisit so I appreciate it uh so that following page page seven really gets at kind of some of the key incentives that you have uh tax abatements tax increment financing District which also allows for credit enhancements the Tiff stuff is really good for large stuff you know someone doing a facade Improvement on a uh on a plaza isn't going to come in through the Tiff or the credit enhancement Provisions your tax abatements can be a way of not putting cash out that is the town not coming up with money so oftentimes communities create uh grants or loan funds for facade improvements and basically you know you'll give a lowest loan or Grant of $155,000 to help a property owner update their facade and so forth uh another way of doing that without actually putting out the cash having to come up with another pool of money would to be would be to use the tax abatement

statute which allows you to fix the value of real estate for set times so you could simply develop a you know an a property Improvement policy around Tiff that basically says if a property makes an investment in excess of x amount of dollar or in excess of x amount the percentage of the value of the property that the town is willing to fix the assessment for a period of three or five years that from doing that investment they're not going to instantly get taxed on it you know next year or in three years or whatever so there's other levers you can kind of use there rather than coming up with money to run loan funds or grants and so forth and so on so the intent here once again in the more detailed plan is to provide a greater explanation of you know those tools and what's there for you to actually do as a way to try and incentivize uh Property Owners to make some Investments so uh I appreciate the the description of each one of these but not most folks are Finance folks like you and I are so it it's but when people he tax tax abatement tax the Tiff and CA that it's foreign to them y even reading it they may have a hard time processing because it's it's not something they de with so as you go can you just kind of uh for the public who may be watching n now or later on just kind of give a real example you know this property I want to invest this assessment value is this and the town gives them batement for next three to five years yeah and

how does this impact the business owner and also how does it impact the town Y at a very high level right okay right so very just going to do a very hypothetical let's say you had a building that was valued at uh I don't know a million dollars and the assessed value then based on 70% of market value would be $700,000 and now this property owner owner is willing to do I don't know $100,000 investments in their facade they're going to redo the whole facade of the building uh or another way of looking at that they're going to do an addition they're going to expand the size of the building in either scenario the Improvement to the facade or the addition to expand the building would likely add value to the property so let's just say for round numbers the one point the $1 million property now maybe has a market value of $1.1 million let's say and so now the assessed value goes from $700,000 I can't do the math that quickly on my feet but say 730,000 becomes that assessed value the mill rate is then attach is then applied to the assessed value come up with the taxes that the town that the property pays so if anyone can do math really quick for me uh I can do it with a calculator so if we take let's just say $730,000 and I'm going to do roughly roughly 35 Ms you know roughly 35 Mills that property would pay

$2,550 in uh property taxes the difference between the pre-immersed on for value for that period of time it would probably work out in that scenario on $100,000 you know you're not talking a ton of money uh 035 you know you're probably talking about $3500 per year so that per that property would save say $3,355 per year in taxes over three years or five years so 3 * three you know is 105 and 16 so between 10 and $15,000 so you know that's basically you're giving them a 15% incentive on the $100,000 investment that they made uh you never have to take money out of your pocket to do that you don't have to come up with those funds you're just freezing that assessment and uh and you're not losing anything you're still getting the same tax value as you are today over the next 3 to five years when it then expires and then you would start C capturing that new value so for three years There's an opportunity cost for the town right town is giving up some money for three years yep yep so the town know that 15 grand would have been in Town's budget to pay for school right kiss so right and that's the one thing to remember about the Tiff the the so the Tiff district is another mechanism

similar to a tax abatement it just applies it's just the procedure of how applies but in the Tiff District basically tax increment financing is the increment difference between current value and future value so you have a million dollar property that's say dilapidated you're going to tear it down and build something new and bigger that's then going to be worth $10 million so the property continues to pay the tax value on the $1 million and then for the period of the Tiff the tax value on the difference between the 1 million and the 10 million is the increment and that value is captured to either pay a bond that's helping to fund that project or to Abate taxes on the back end to help stabilize it or in the form of a credit Hansen agreement the developer would come up with that $9 million in funding and you would pay them back with the increment over the length of the Tiff deal this is this is the point I want to make though without getting without doing all that detail I just did is at the end of the day the Tiff District provides a mechanism to incentivizing fund development within the center and it does so in a way once again that you're not necessarily reaching into your pocket even if you do reach into your pocket to issue a bond you're then capturing that new Revenue coming in to pay that Bond so in theory you're not coming up with new dollars the development itself is funding the bond the the issue though on the

townwide level when you start using those mechanisms you're capturing that tax value in the center and putting it back into the Center so that tax value and revenue is no longer funding the general budget it's funding directly into the center so I think you were kind of getting at that a little bit with the abatement that you're forgoing some Revenue that could be used elsewhere There's an opportunity cost for the town right so the uh so I just want to make sure going back to Tiff Bas on no document and Y my own reading the town Rond yep all to pay for the entire project or portion thereof a portion of it combination in the town would continue to tax you based on your current y all the old value of the property yep and the difference that incremental whether it's a million dollars or 10 million or100 million the the town pay for all that but the property owner would pay that back to the town taxes and right that tax that would be dedicated to paying back to bonds right and not are those go are they are the general obligation bonds or are they revenue bonds when issues them they they can be either there there I believe and I'm not a bond expert but I believe the general the general bonds are more favorable to the municipality and there's higher risk in the special bonds right so typically uh a municipality if you are full and in supportive and want this to do this you do it under the general obligation cuz the full whole weight of the municipality's credit is behind those there are times where towns go with the special revenue bonds where I think the development's as much on the hook as the municipality and so forth you pay higher interest rates

so I'll save that for later my next I just want to make sure this is very complicated transaction make sure and we're going to vote on this Y and we're going possibly put the town of Bloomfield on hook for this stuff I want to make sure the public know what we are what we are talking about and the commitment that we are making on their behalf yep we may know what it is but I want make sure everybody understand what what we are doing what we're voting on yep and if I could just State just for the record because I think it's important that moving forward every step of this process would have public meetings and public hearings and votes so you know your first vote will be on adopting a plan your a later important vote may be on acquisition of property and then when you get into the nuts and bolts of a development you would then have votes on the Tiff District you would then have votes on bonds you would then have e every single step of the way is going to be in public View and done through a process with one or more Town agencies voting to approve those actions thank you thanks so then the next I was going to say Slide the next page page can you talk about the credit enhancement as well oh yeah so my apologies the credit enhancement agreement is is a provision within the Tiff statute that's allows it's really it's really the same mechanism as the Tiff just it's structured differently in the sense that $1 million property $10 million future value you capture the the increment of the $9 million in between and the tax value of it and then that tax value is committed uh to a payment the difference

here is the credit enhancement agreement is an agreement between the town and the developer and basically you are committing to that developer that you will capture the Tiff value uh that the the value of the Tiff will be captured to pay the debt related to those improvements they take the the credit enhancement agreement letter to their lender as an equity investment into the development that you have committed you know $10 million let's say over 10 years to pay off the public infrastructure improvements or whatever and they're using that as credit that million dooll project the town is investing hundred million project the town's investing 10 million into it and then they're going to have their Equity investors and then they're going to be asking their lender for debt going into it they're showing their lenders that they already have a $10 million deal with the town to help pay for those those public improvements so any questions yeah one one question now what about in you have a property where um the owner is not not interested at all they don't want to play uh playball with it now does chapter 132 uh get executed or if it's a it's it is just do that get executed chap 132 so that's where I'm going next oh when when we move on to the next page uh if I can move on if that was

okay oh okay um John go ahead John thank you Mr chairman I just wanted to note that there are thresholds in the town Charter re on bonding requiring actual referendums um I'm not sure what the levels are but I think almost any bond of any significance that the town wants to issue uh will require a referendum John even even in the Tiff even in Tiff in CA I believe so I think that any you know I'm not I don't think the U the charter discriminates between or designates between uh types of bonds and whatnot and I'm not sure whether the whether the charter or the state statutes would prevail um we need to get an opinion from the town attorney but I do know that um there are definite thresholds in the charter for referendums for bonds okay we can look into that further with the town attorney also see if the state supered the town ched okay yeah we'll follow up um with Town attorney you got his opinion on this yeah thank you John thanks John you're welcome so then uh so page eight starts so this plan document that's ultimately going to come to you for a vote uh the first portion of it is going to be this General Economic Development strategy for the center which is everything up until this point through Page seven the second portion of that document is going to be a Chapter 13 to Municipal de development plan which is a statutory provision in state law that allows a

Redevelopment Authority which the T the Town Center Economic Development commission is to engage in a bunch of activities uh related to the acquisition development ownership leasing so forth and so on of real property uh it provides greater abilities for engaging in the development of real property than a town typically has so it's a special Authority granted to you guys as that uh Authority and in that it allows you to acquire properties uh for development or Redevelopment and so forth so on the previous page in the first half where we identified approximately 16 and if we incorporate the properties to the West there approximately 18 properties as opportunities a handful of those properties identified previously as opportunities are now identified here on page eight as kind of specific opportunities that is they relate to what will be identified as the municipal plan area the chapter 132 Municipal plan area and that is the properties Bound by Park a to the South tungus AV to the west and Luger Town green uh winon bberry to the North and the railroad tracks to the east down to s and then Jerome becomes the eastern

boundary so those properties that are both on senica and Jerome are not included it's only the depot lot to the north that's included in that boundary that area will be identified as a municipal development plan area and that plan or that portion of the overall plan will follow the statutory requirements authorizing you as the committee as the Redevelopment Authority with the authority to enact the various powers of chapter 132 to acquire own operate develop sell so forth and so on properties I just uh so that we're all on the same page uh two tus Avenue is that the town green that is the town green um well those who are land chall 836 836 Park M that's the plaza across the street yeah 836 Plaza 836m is the plaza itself and 836 is the bank property 64 Jerome the depot site the depot site up against the railway the vacant L against the rail line and 29 winberry the package store property 247 Jerome uh the gas station at the corner of Jerome and perk have with that triangle you may just gu everybody everything included in there corre including up to the rail up to the railroad correct the East side of um Jerome going down that way okay yep all right so that's the Redevelopment plan area the following page on or the

municipal development plan area my apologies uh the following page page nine then lays out kind of the findings and findings and yeah the findings and reasons uh in summary for the municipal development plan and those properties as part of the larger document that we're Drafting and we'll get to you guys next week there is actually statutorily a section that lays out all the findings you as a commission need to make that go beyond these they things like consistency with the town plan of conservation development consistency with the regional plan and conservation development so forth and so on far more details will be laid out in the full document but this gives you a summary of the very specifics related to that uh bounded Municipal development plan area this this is where the heavy lifting is going to be absolutely so it's important that as a committee we understand this is going to be really um intense lot of reading lot of meetings to make sure that we are carrying out carrying out our responsibilities and so that we don't trip and miss something I'm sure with you and your team there and that's not g to happen you guys guiding us but I'm just I'm want to implore my my colleagues on the committee uh be ready this is really G to be heavy and LIF heavy lifting and intense yep and plus a lot of public meetings as required by

law for everything that we're going to do right and I'll talk some procedure at the end here so then the following page page 10 uh when we met with you guys in executive session that was to discuss kind of preliminary thoughts and ideas on financing and development of property acquisition uh and so forth and the Redevelopment in that Municipal plan area since then uh we've had meetings with Town leadership and staff uh We've also gone back to the drawing board multiple times we've continued to refine numbers and I believe when we last met with you we had approximately 160 some odd residential units and we had 85,000 square feet of commercial space we've played around with numbers if you look at the finances on scenario one and two which we discussed previously the irrs it's the commercial portion of the development that is the weakest and it's the commercial portion of the development that pulls all the numbers down uh so we've refined back from 85,000 square feet to 65,000 Square fet the plan recommendation is going to be we've refined back to that in these numbers to kind of show some things the plan recommendation is going to be for commercial development somewhere between 50 and 85,000 Square F feet uh for that site uh we think that's a reasonable range

uh we think that the lower square footage will work better with the parking challenges uh that have been noted in previous discussions around the limited parking around the commercial sites uh We've also played with a three-story version of The Depot site residential units and we've played with a fivestory a four and a five-story version of The Depot site residential units uh and while I know this everyone's concerned about height that arom effect I've talked about the fact is the greater density the greater residential units uh improves the development financials overall uh so I think that needs to be considered now the one key thing I want to point out here at this point is all of this is conceptual in the context of the chapter 130 development plan requires us to plan for development require Ires us to do the finances for the development as we've shown here in summary as part of its incorporation if the town is to adopt the chapter 130 plan if the town is to follow the other authorities in chapter 132 and ultimately acquire these properties uh the town would then most likely go out to an RFP process to attract interested developers to do the Redevelopment of the site it would be the RFP would be issued with the conceptuals that we've come up with kind of these are how we've envisioned the layout these are how we've envisioned

the uses these are how we've envisioned the square footage and the units but ultimately whoever the selected developer is is in the end is going to return to the town with a proposal that is inspired by what we've done here but is their own proposal for what can be achieved there uh so I just want you to be aware like this is not cast in stone that like those exact buildings those exact Square footages those exact units uh and that's why I think the re mendation of the plan needs to be like 50,000 to 85,000 Square ft of commercial space is what you're looking for that between 140 and 200 units or 160 and 200 units of residential is what you're looking for uh and now frame the RFP process but in the end ultimately you're going to get a proposal back to you and the other things included in the RFP would be things like the relocation the reorientation location of Jerome the closing of Winterberry uh to expand the uh Town green the town green included in here uh because also probably part of other currently privately owned lands would be used to also expand the town green as we've identified that as a key asset as an undersized asset that it needs to be more and offer more to the community so thank you uh any questions for my colleagues this is where you know the r is starting hit the road now so any questions

um buio any questions Julio no I'm good on M thank you you know I would I would expect the town to invite uh respondents to the RFP to come up with strategies to come up be creative B we give you framework but you come with your best plan AB that so that we pick the plan that's going to that's going to meet our concept concept conceptual as you have put it but the point is the I assume this committee is going to be the RFP revie or is it gonna be us in the toown um staff uh but however it's going out the point here when we put the RFB out we would expect developers to come in with their own approach um that's going to W us and they so we pick the best person for the job at the end of the day it will be your process at the end of the day you guys are the controlling agency just remember in the end any financial decision by you guys also needs to be voted on by the commission but issuing an RFP is your decision no one else selecting the you know proposal from the RFP rest with you guys the financing mechanism the bonding the Tiff all that stuff is also going to require you know votes by the councils and others but at the end of the day you guys are driving the show uh as far as the municipal development plan goes okay so um thank you much appreciate that any um 112 you talk about the process yeah so talking about it throughout the evening but go ahead yeah I'm going to pause on 11 and 12 and go to the document that has a proposed schedule and I'm just going to talk about the

process in the context of the proposed schedule to you uh I do recognize that everyone you guys as a committee uh the Town Council uh and the community as a whole is eager to get moving on this uh and I've appreciated the the enthusiasm that I've seen on that that being said there's statutory Provisions as to the procedures that have to be followed in uh this process of adopting the chapter 132 portion of this town center economic development plan so as we are today proposing to get you a draft next week week uh actually let me because I didn't do that I started counting dates one second so we we would get you a draft uh targeting the 21st which is a week from Friday uh that being said how the timelines work it doesn't really matter if it's Friday or if it's Monday so I've used Friday's date just in uh Monday's datee just in case or the Tuesday the Monday dat of the 24th just in case uh when I work the timelines going forward whether I start with the 21st or the 24th things stay on the same schedule so just buying a little time there we should probably tonight make a decision for this committee to meet um the 20 either the night of the 24th or the night of the

25th for you guys to formally adopt the plan as it's provided to you uh no thinking about this accepting the draft as it's provided to you and making the referrals to kog and to your town plan and Zone commission by Statute both those entities have to receive the plan once you receive the plan on either the 21st or the 24th I'm using the 24th is that date because if we send it to you at 5 o'clock on Friday it's probably not getting posted to the website until uh the Monday so that's why the 24th I think is a more reasonable date but you have to post the plan the draft plan online for 35 days before you can hold a statutorily required public hearing on it also kog gets 35 days to do their review in common so that's why we want it posted to the website and referred to kog basically within a day or two of each other it's then kicked to the plan it's also kicked to the Planning Commission for their review in uh vote on it they there is no statutory timeline on the Planning Commission review we would hope that town staff uh that supports both this commission this committee and ultimately the uh Town plan committee uh to actually expedite that and move that along and make sure it happens within the 35 days that we're playing with on both kog and the website posting

that would set us up for you guys hosting a public hearing on the plan on April 29th I think the best bet would be to close that hearing and then meet within a very short time period 29th maybe meet on on April 1st or I'm sorry May 1st to actually do your motion for adoption on that plan once you adopt it you then forward it to the council and I've already gone and looked ahead their next meeting after that public hearing and your adoption would be May 12th once they adopt statutorily it has to be kicked to decd for review by the commissioner and there's no time frame on that that being said I believe you would be able to start some of the procedural stuff for the next steps of executing the chapter 132 once the council has adopted and it's been sent to decd so so that is the timeline that we're on and I know it's a bit lengthy that 35 day hold for it to be online and that crog is kind of the biggest length to it uh so is there review it's either in accordance or it's not come back with it needs this to be in accordance that we

would have to build in any right frame in here so in the plan itself Justin and myself are working on the plan requires that the chapter 132 plan that we're preparing for you requires that we consider the local plan of conservation development and the regional so we will be incorporating sections that address both those documents and demonstrates how it's in accordance with them based on my knowledge of your local plan your current draft plan and the regional plan I'm confident that it's going to be in accordance with those things they then get to review yeah they could come back with a recommendation or something and that can be incorporated as part of the public hearing testimony and we could make a tweak in that 48 hour period I'm giving us to tighten things up I wouldn't expect extensive changes most likely they will find it's in accordance and that's it without comment same with your Planning and Zoning Commission in both in that scenario also do they normally take 35 days or could could be done before well this is the whole thing the uh I would hope it could be done before we could ask them to at the end of the day you're on the 35 day hold for the hearing anyways so it doesn't really matter uh I think kog in general has been pretty good in beating their 35 days uh so you could probably expect it between like 20 and 30 days reasonably yeah I mean but you just never know yeah my experience lately with them has been much quicker than the required time frames um but to Don's earlier Point can't do the public hearing regardless

because you have to have it online 35 days for the public notice period um so um little bit to add into what you were saying um the the sections that I've sort of written highlight how your plan is in direct compliance with the regional and state and local pccd so I wouldn't anticipate them finding any issues um but you know we have to do it anyway just with the tightness of the time frames had to ask the question absolutely absolutely the the the bigger question mark I would say at the end of the day is when it get gets kicked to the decd commissioner for review their review on it uh once again we will show compliance with the state uh plan of conservation development so forth we'll check all the boxes we'll make sure everything's done uh I just uh I've done chapter 130 plans I haven't done a 132 chapter 130 doesn't require the decd review this one does I don't know what to anticipate on that process and it does say in the statutory language where it requires the referral to decd for the commissioner to review and approve it does actually have language that the commissioner could come back with recommendations for changes once again I highly doubt they would because they just they're not going to have the intimate knowledge of the town that we have in going through this process but it's possible so but they got some boxes they got to check make sure certain things are done right we gonna make sure those are done yeah we have a whole checklist we are working from that basically I broke out the statute into a table and it's kind of checked the box we have to do this we have to do this we have to do this we have to make sure the 132 includes all those things so that they can find nothing wrong with it so and the one thing I'll add is the the nice thing

with decd is in a lot of ways they anticipate this coming to them because the grant for this whole project was a decd grant so okay um any oh go ahead go ahead Don sorry no no finish what you're doing then I I want to just I was ask my colleag one thing any more questions Leo okay the last line on that table says property acquisition just to know if you were going to pursue the acquisition of property then there is a whole another statuto driven process that you have to engage in for the acquisition of each parcel of land in individ individually now if you were acquiring multiple Parcels each parcel would require to have a public hearing but you could combine those all into one hearing so procedurally they all have to be dealt with individually however they can all be clustered together and all heard in the same night and so forth but so there is a statuto driven process for property acquisition and then just so you know moving forward exercising all the powers and authorities that you do when you do key things like issue bonds and so forth and so on there are statutory authorities that you know determine how you can do that when you can do that they determine whether you need a majority vote in some instances the Town Council needs a 2third majority vote rather than just a simple majority so we will constantly be driven by the chapter 132 statutes procedurally on everything we do so I

just want to give you that awareness now so moving forward when I come back to you again and say we have another process we have to follow you're aware of it and not surprised so thank you thank you I'm done thank you very much appreciate your very um educational and thorough presentation this evening appreciate it uh any questions oh Mr Coleman please thank you Mr chairman um two things one on your comment on the on the request proposals you have or the writers of the RFQ which are going to be you um have a lot basically what you put in there is what you're going to strive to get back so you can direct specifically in the RFP what type of responses you want what you want them to address and what you want them to say because you will be specifically writing that RFP so you can be very specific as to the flexibility and the and the types of responses you're looking for and then on the um on the calendar I will uh Endeavor and probably be successful uh the Planning Commission will meet whatever um calendar you need to meet thank you Don thank you John appreciate it okay any other questions okay see none uh I will entertain a motion for adjournment our next meeting is on March 2 or is it March 24th or March 25th do the 255th 25th that Tuesday yep all right Tuesday the 25th all right you can get us so next meeting will be two weeks from today yep okay uh thank you very much can I get a

motion forment so moved it's been moved by Lenny can I get a second second my is Riley got it before all all in favor signify by say I hi hi CH carries unanimously thank you very much meeting is over thank you all see you guys in two weeks