Common Council - Regular Meeting

Good evening everyone. Welcome to the regular meeting of the city of Charles Town Council. Today's February 2nd, 2026. It's 6:30 p.m. We begin our meeting with our custom which is the pledge of allegiance to please to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all. Thank you. Tonight, our invocation will be led by Pastor Freud Daniel with the Rock Family Worship Center. Pastor Daniel,

thank you for this honor. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we thank you for your mercy and the grace. We thank you for this council. We thank you for our mayor and her leadership. God, we pray that your hands of healing virtue be upon her and upon this council. God, we pray that you would bless this council with wisdom and knowledge. Help them to be the strength of this city, the eyes of this city and the hope for this city. God, help them to have the connections, have the peace, and have the prosperities in set and in mind for this city. God, you set the rule. God, help them to follow. God, we will not fail to give you the praise, the glory, and the honor as you do this and all things with them and through them and through this city in this community. We give you the praise, the glory, and honor for it in Jesus blessed name. Amen.

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you all for indulging me uh wearing my mask here tonight. Just have a little bit of congestion. I'm trying to be respectful to everybody. So um just bear with me. If you can't understand me, ask for clarification. We have a roll call. Bo Bertram here. Ronnie Bleven here. Shannon Elder here. Brian Hester here. Chuck Deon here. Let the record show this meeting is being live stream by under production multimedia. also in attendance of course for Mayor Hodes as well as deputy clerk treasurer Deborah Miles and we have both of our attorneys Mr. Wilder and Mr. McCall here tonight been provided with an agenda. Do I have a motion to approve? I make a motion. Motion by Ronnie Blevens. Second.

Second by Shannon Elder. Any edits to the agenda? Hearing none. All in favor say I. I. Any opposed? That's unanimous. Moving into our standing business, which includes our meeting minutes from January 5th, our current claims, and our payroll allowance docket from December 29th to January 25th. Entertain a motion to approve. I make a motion. Motion by Ronnie Blevens. Second. Second by Shannon Elder. Any questions or edits on those items? Hearing none. All in favor say I. Any opposed? That's unanimous. Has anyone signed up for public comment tonight? Has anyone signed up for public comment? I didn't see anybody.

Okay. As our legislative youth advisor, Mercedes, I saw you sneaking in there. We'll get an update from Mercedes. Good to see you. Good to see you, too. Hi, everybody. There's a lot to go through today, so I'll go ahead and get started. First, uh, the pirate wrestling team captured their fourth sectional title this past Saturday. Three individuals were sectional champions, Dustin Collier, Josh Latch, and Jackson Brody. 13 total wrestlers advanced to this weekend's regional. The wrestling team also won the Mid Southern Conference Championship in the Pioneer Invite with multiple individual champions. Pirate Boomer Hester is ranked 14th in the state. Fresh freshman Dustin um has a record of 31 to four, becoming the first third Pirate freshman in history with 30 plus wins and only the second Pirate freshman to win a sectional title. The girls basketball team finished one of their best regular seasons on record with 20 wins and just three losses. The fifth ranked Lady Pirate will play the winning team of Scotsburg versus Silver Creek game this Friday and the sectional will be at Charles Town. Chzn Jackson scored her 10,000th career point against Dupont Emanuel two weeks ago. Lexi Finchen broke the school record for most assists in a game as well as most career assists. Anthony Fresh from the boys basketball team was named McDonald's All-American nominee, the first in CHS history. and he recently signed with Miami of Ohio who is currently undefeated and ranked in division one men's basketball. Hubert Livers from the boys swim team did what no swimmer has done before and he won eight events in the Mids Conference Championship over the course of his four-year career. He also holds multiple records in those events as well as one that was just broken along with teammates Thaddius

Dietrich, Cam Wel, and Wyatt Abbott in the 200 free relay. Both the boys and the girls swim teams earned MSSE runner up. The CHS cheerleaders earned a bronze medal at the National High School cheerleading competition in Orlando, Florida yesterday. And the JV team earned fifth place in their division. Jared Nelson, Lane E. Marshall, and Javanni Basham from the CHS bowling team competed at regionals in Evansville. Jared advanced not only to semi state but also to state finals which will take place in Fort Wayne on February 15th. Madison Liscoco, Sabrina Robbie, Caitlyn Brown, and Ellis Shaw all advanced to the girls wrestling regional. Ellis Shaw won the sectional championship for the second year in a row. Four Charletown Pirate football players were recognized for their academic allstate honors and for their academic excellence. Eli Adams, Boomer Hester, Liam Gracias, and AJ Todd. Lyanna Roando and Boomer Hester were crowned 2026 basketball homecoming queen and king. And the Pirate Pioneer 4 group is hosting a prom closet at school for those in need. U promoter during impact and after school until 4 p.m. on Thursdays now up until April 16th and then prom is on the 25th. And we would also like to congratulate our Clark County Martin Luther King Jr. scholarship recipients for 2026, which is Kimberly Dhy and myself. But I would like to end off with the CHS um National Honor Society food drive, and it's open now until February 27th. We would like the community to come together and just donate as much as possible. There are boxes around town, but they can also be dropped off at the school.

Wonderful. Congratulations on I heard the name Pester mentioned a few times too there's name a few times

congratulations to all our students. That's fantastic. As far as my comments, just two quick things. One, um, of course the staff did a fantastic job with their snow response. Um, they were out in 12-hour shifts until it was all moved. This was a challenging snow just because of the amount that came down and how heavy and wet it was. Um, and so they of course prioritize the roads, getting it done. I think by the time the second day came around, the people were driving to other communities. That's when it really sunk in with what a great job our crew does with that. So, um, we've had a few requests about snow on sidewalks. And just to be clear, the ordinance makes it clear that cleaning up sidewalk is the responsibility of the property owner. Uh, there's just no physical way or costefficient way that the city itself could clear every sidewalk in the city. Um, I have put it out to our staff um to help try to brainstorm solutions for how the city can do a better job of removing the snow against the adjacent properties that the city owns. Um, just as a nice way to set an example of what should be done, especially with our businesses and things, but it is my it is my belief um and the council is certainly welcome to we could have a conversation. It's my belief that enforcing that ordinance on homeowners would be unfair. Um, and here's why. Not everybody has the income to pay someone to remove snow from the sidewalk in front of their house. And likewise, not everyone is in the visible condition to do it themselves. Um, every year when there's a massive snow, you hear people dying from heart attacks and other things because shoveling snow can create those situations where that happens. Kentucky has had several deaths just because of that. And although it is a pain and I understand that it limits movement and those things, um there there's a line that we have to draw and it's my belief that our our health and safety and finances of our residents are

more are the most important thing. And so um I think that what is great is that it's true Charles Town fashion, there have been some places where people have asked for assistance and our volunteer network has activated and I'm incredibly proud of those who have stepped up to help donate their time to clear some of the pathways and driveways for those that are shut in or elderly or who needed to get out. And I think that is something that we should continue to promote in our city and encourage um is that kind of volunteer spirit. Charles Town does it like nobody else does. And so those that might be listening um who did volunteer their time, thank you. Um that really helped a lot of people out. There's no quick solution for this, but I do have staff trying to look into what can be done. Um, and I'm happy to entertain ideas from anyone, but that's kind of out of date on on that. With this amount of snow, I don't know how to move it off the sidewalks. I really don't. Um, there's just nowhere to put it unless you guys got a great deal of blow torches. I don't know what else to do. We just got to be patient and ride it out. Um, also wanted to let uh council know that as of yesterday, we have a new shop on the square. There is a new dress shop down here at the old leader building, a row um prom dress and formal dresses. They're gonna we're trying to work with them to do a formal ribbon cutting, but of course we'll be notified if we get that done.

Make it after 3:30. I told them we actually specifically told them that we've got people who teach and we really need to have it in the afternoon possible. So, we're working on that. Um and of course, Shannon was able to attend um the ribbon cutting with Indian-American water uh who now are offering the first PAS filtration in the state. right here in Charle Town. So, it is fair to say that Charles Town, Indiana has, if you're on Indiana American Water in Charletown, Indiana, you now have the cleanest water in the state of Indiana. That's pretty that's pretty amazing. So, um those are my updates. Um at this time, we'll take any comments or updates from the council.

Um I'll I just kind of stand back on what you said. It's the city done a great job around the clock. A lot of people are not shoveling driveways. And I mean, when they shovel a driveway, depending on what they're using, it may leave it in the street. People come in, you're I mean, our team come in right behind them. Kept the street clean. Uh I I I get the part about the sidewalks. Not much you can do. And if you're if you're trying to keep it off the street, it's going to blow right back on the sidewalks. I think brainstorming is a great idea. I mean, I don't know what the fix for it is, but you know, I went to Jeff, I went to New Albony, I went to a lot of other places, and they are bigger, don't get me wrong. Um, but the response we had, and it was out, we were out before, we were out during, and we were out after, and I know those other municipalities were as well. We got it, we we got it clean, we kept it clean. So, it means a lot uh for that. I know uh a lot of parents got tired of their kids being home. of one of them. But um I think I think everybody got a good hard reset and uh hopefully it don't come in tomorrow night, but I'm sure if it does, we're ready. So I appreciate what everybody in the city done.

Any other comments from council? Yeah, I second that. You know, um awesome job to the city workers who got out there and did it, but also awesome job to you for the communication. Thank you. Um, so I mean you you've had great communication out there putting out there the you know uh the process and um the um it was a mess. It was definitely a mess. You haven't lived until you've done a snow ride along the tubby. I'm just saying.

Yeah. Yeah. But no, you did awesome job communicating to the people out there. I've heard a lot of residents talked to a lot of residents uh that um that's one thing I heard was Tree was doing a great job communicating. Yeah. Anything else? All right, we'll move into our agenda. First up, old business. We passed the parking restriction ordinance 2026 O1 in first reading last time. We've made some changes in order to have it considered. I would ask for a motion to consider it for second reading. Uh, can we talk about it before? So,

we can. Um, so you have a letter. I just want to quickly go through the changes that were made. So, just to update the council, um we had aboutund I think the final number was 136 responses to the job form um with recommendations. And they came in really about three main themes. One was I live in a neighborhood. I already have parking restrictions in my HOA. I don't need you to do more than that. And I think that was something that was unclear in the first ordinance. That's what we were trying to communicate was that we were adopting those. So that was the majority of the comments were were those. Second thing was um I need to be able to have temporary parking for yard sales, birthday parties, family events, dropping off my groceries deliveries, that kind of stuff made it more clear. And then the third one, there were some people who were saying, you know, this maybe this appendix list needs to be revisited. So Tony and Tubby went back out and they we sent Chief Eric Cruz from the police department out and to talk to the officers since they're the ones that drive through here at all hours. And so here are the revi revisions that were made to the ordinance. So the first deals with street parking. We took a lot of the streets off of the appendix by adding a blanket statement that just says that you cannot ever park in a way that limits traffic to less than 12 ft. We verified with the fire department that that is the width or that would allow for the largest equipment they have to move through the lane. And so on no street at any time can you block the parking less than 12 ft. That allowed us to move a lot of streets off of the no parking list by just having that statement. Second, we clarified in parking and alleys, sidewalks, and other areas there was a little bit of confusion between the 50 ft from intersection or 30. So we kept 30 which is normal for setbacks and stop signs parking longer than 72 hours. We made it clear that we do not enforce these

restrictions in for temporary parking. So if it's a yard sale, birthday party, those kinds of things, open houses and gatherings, we're not going to come out and block it. As long as you have left that 12oot lane open, we are not going to do anything about your park. Um parking prohibited specific places. We did add a couple of following. There were a couple of of comments that helped us add some things. One was parking in front of mailboxes. It's been a problem in some places where people are parking and blocking people's access to their postal box. So, we put that in, but you cannot do that. um nor by their driveways um or restricting in any way deliveries or amount. Um and then on the appendix list on exhibit A where we've listed, we sent them back out and what they did was in some places where they had no parking at all the street, they revised certain of those to say which side of the street you can park on, which side you can't. Um that opened up significantly. There are still some that are no parking at Level Street. However, again, that 72-hour apply. So, if you live on Level Street, you're having them in as long as you're not blocking it within 12 feet, you can still do that for temporary parking. And then, um, we also included the subdivision. So, essentially, they clarified that if you live in a subdivision with an HOA, whatever the rules for the HOA are, we are adopting those rules. And Tony keeps a copy of those rules in his office. Um, previously, we were not able to enforce those rules. So we would get calls from subdivisions where people were um wanting to file a complaint with us about enforcing these rules and we could not because an HO HOA rule is not a city ordinance. Now it this would give us the ability to enforce that as it is in the HOA but no more strict than what is in the HOA. So, that's those are the changes that we made in response to the feedback we received and I'm happy to answer any questions. Um, or have Tony answer things that I might not.

Well, I've got I mean, I know we did we did the job form. I appreciate you all doing that. I appreciate Tony you all going through that and going back out and looking at things. We did get this back uh about 10 days ago. Uh, and due to the weather, I haven't nor does anybody had much time to do much else. Um, me personally, I think there's still a few things that you're we're being talked to about. There's a lot of really good changes in it. Uh, went through it myself. I would like a little bit more time to sit down and talk to Tony about some of the revisions that could be made or just looked at. Um, I'd like a little bit more than a week to do so. Uh, so I was going to suggest say that maybe we could table it for another month, give it time to where we can sit down and just kind of go through the whatifs and whatn nots if if Tony will make time for me. Just my opinion.

I like to do that so we can drive the streets and we can take, you know, with the snow we haven't been able to get out and with the snow you can't see the curbs. So I think that's a good idea, Chuck. I think that would give us time to get out, take a little better peek. So, do we have a motion to table? I'll make that motion. Motion to table made by Chuck Deon. Second. Second by Shannon Elder. Any questions? All in favor of tableing for next month say I. I do want to say one thing. I greatly appreciate you putting that job form out there so that the city so the city can can give their input and people can, you know, you're busy. We're busy. We don't see everything. So, it's nice to get other people's opinions so we can see different viewpoints. So, we talked about it the other day.

I appreciate that. Thank you. And I'm not I'm just adding to it. We talked about the other night. It went out the first time and it was just an absolute oh my good gosh, what happened? It went out the second time. You didn't get as much comment and I haven't gotten as many calls, couple revisions, but I would just like to work for the next month and just try to work through a few little things. Sure, no problem. Um, all right. So, that's tabled. We'll move into our new business. Up first is ordinance 2026 O2. This uh clears out checks that are over two years old. They're checks that we've written to pay various people for different things and they never catch them for over two years. So we're just putting money need a motion to approve. I'll make a motion. Motion by check.

Second. Second by Leven. Any questions on that? Hearing none. All in favor say I. I. Any opposed? Excuse me. That's unanimous. Seeing as how they would like to move this forward, I would entertain a motion to suspend the rules in anticipation of passing this on second and final reading tonight. So move motion by Brian Hester. Second second by Shannon Elder. Any questions on the motion to suspend the rules? Hearing none. All in favor say I. I. I. Any opposed? That's unanimous. So I'll call for the second and final reading of 2026 O2 on the checks over two years. I'll make the motion. Motion by Chuck Deon. Second. Second by Ronnie Leven. Any questions? Hearing none. All in favor say I. I.

Any opposed? That changes. Thank you. Next up is ordinance 20263. It's additional appropriation of $50,000 into the epic fund. This relates to the ordinance or the provision that the council has in place whereby if the city saves a minimum of 7% on its budget from the previous year, you will appropriate 50,000 into the epic fund. Uh we really didn't use that fund much last year. So there is quite significant residual. It's kind of a emergency based fund that we use when something breaks like slides at a park or some unexpected expense comes up. I will say that this year we know we're going to have to buy some new computers for the light show just because the software has not kept pace with the hardware and we're adding the commons. So I imagine some of it will go towards that. But we did reach our 7% minimum um savings off of last year's budget and so that's what this ordinance is. I'll entertain a motion to approve. I'll make a motion.

Motion by Ronnie Leven. Second by Shannon Elder. Questions for me on that. You know the percentage we did? Oh, Deborah, what was it at round? It was like 6.8 6.97. So rounds to seven. Okay. If that's acceptable, what was what we say on the year? 6.97 percent. Yes. Even in a hard year, I thought that was pretty good. I don't know if you remember, but the the circuit breaker came back at significantly higher in May than what the DGF had approved in January. So despite that, we still were able to save 7% on the budget.

U any other questions? All in favor say I. I opposed. In order to move that forward, I would entertain a motion to suspend second or to suspend the rules and consider passing on second reading. I'll make a motion. Motion by Chuck Deon. Second. Second by Shannon Elder. Any questions of this rule extension? Hearing none. All in favor say I. I. Any opposed? That's unanimous. The second final reading of the additional appropriation for the epic fun ordinance 2026 3. Have a motion. Make a motion. Shannon Elder makes the motion. Second. Second by Ronnie Blevens. Any final questions? Hearing none. All in favor say I.

Any opposed? Thank you. All right. Up next, you have a rec a resolution. So, this is one reading resolution for a tax abatement request. Try to pull it up on my form here. Hold on. Um, there it is. For global polymers. So, Global Polymers reached out a while back um through once Indiana because the state in order to receive any state benefits, there needs to be local And so they ask us for local support in the form of a personal property 50% abatement. And what this looks like is explain. So Global Powers, they are a recycling or operation. They are here if you have any questions for them about what they do. But they are going into the former Mater building. It's on the corner of Quality Court Industrial Way right behind the middle school in that corner.

For the people that's been here a while, it's a rogues building. Yeah. Yeah. And it's been vacant now for three or four years. It's been vacant for a while. Starting Yeah. Starting to deteriorate. Actually a fire back there.

I think there was. Yeah. So, they are um making an $8 million investment into this property to bring it to put their operation there. They've chosen us. They've they're multi-state search. They're coming here from another state and they've chosen Charles Town to move their business to. This brings 30 jobs at a higher than average wage, $31 an hour, compared to the Fortnite average wage, which just hit 27 this year. Um, so they're bringing jobs at a higher quality pay rate to the area. And what they're requesting is a 5year 50% abatement on personal property that equates to $64,175 over the five years. That's not per year. That is the total for the 5year period. So essentially one salary that they're bringing and we still get that amount back because we wouldn't be getting it's a 50% abatement. So they're still going to be paying half of that personal property.

So it is my recommendation that that we award this abatement um because it to me it meets the the quality of economic development. We're seeking higher wages, renovation and use of an existing vacant, soon to be blighted building. Um, and the state is providing incentives as well for this. I think it would benefit the economic situation to those in the city who the opportunity had the opportunity to work here. So,

I know we've not talked about property tax abatements before, but you know, I mean, it's going to going to better a building that's been sitting vacant for almost 5 years. Going to bring a lot of jobs here. 30 jobs don't sound like a whole lot, but it it really is, especially with all the factories going up River Ridge. I mean, I think it's a great thing. I mean, it ain't going to hurt us. And these are not low wage jobs. These are high quality jobs. You save over five years what somebody will make in one year. So, it's worth it. Do we have a motion to approve? I'll make it. Make the motion. Second. Second by Ronnie Gleven. Any questions? Hearing none. All in favor say I. I.

Any oppose? That's unanimous. Thank you. And then last up, we have our comprehensive plan. This is a redevelopment of the PL. This is a recommendation from the plan commission. The public hearing was held at the plan commission meeting. We do have some folks here who can make a presentation, answer any questions. I know Shannon Elder has been involved in a lot of the stakeholder meetings for this. Appreciate that. Um, so we'll listen to the presentation. If you'll just give your name for your company prior to register.

Yeah. Um, hi everyone. My name is Bronte Merl. I'm with Taylor Williams Design Group. We are the planning and design firm that's been working on the comprehensive plan with you all over this last year. Um, what I want to do briefly is just give a quick presentation on what's included in the plan and then answer any questions if you have them. Um, so you can go ahead and go to the next slide. Um, so real quickly here, Yeah. What I want to cover is really just um some background on how the plan was created. Um the an overview of the goals and strategies in the plan um and then talk about some of the land use plan and transportation plan elements and then uh some of the top items for the implementation piece. You might if it's Adobe PDF it might make you scroll instead of

I don't have that. Okay. Ability. So let's see if I saw the other page below it. So

well, all right. They can do it like that. That's all right. Can you guys Okay, cool. Give me just a second. Sorry. Perfect. Amazing. Thank you.

Awesome. So, you can just scroll past the agenda because I want to talk through it. Um what I do want to briefly talk about is what a comprehensive plan is just really briefly in the main parts of it that we're required to have by the state. Um so on the next slide uh really a comprehensive plan is about creating um a overarching vision for a community and a set of tools and strategies to help you achieve that vision. Uh really comprehensive plans are intended to answer four questions. Um where where is Charles Town today? where is Charles Town heading? Um where do you all want to go? So that's a lot of the community input we receive through this process. And then how will we get there? And the how will we get there is really the more strategic part. So what are what are your overall objectives? What are the strategies for getting us there? And how do we phase that out over the next 20 years? Uh Indiana code does have does have a few requirements for a comprehensive plan. The first one is that includes a statement of goals and objectives for future development. The second is that it has statement of policy for land use development and that it also must have statements of policy for development of public ways, public spaces, public lands, public structures and public utilities. Um and then it can include many other elements as you'd like. Next slide please. Uh typically a comprehensive plan is going to address a wide variety of issues as does yours. Um, so we look at things from transportation to utilities, community services, parks and trails, water bodies, flood planes, zoning, you name it. Um, it's really all these different layers that have to work together to create that cohesive vision for uh, Charles Town. Um, and if you go to the next slide, um, really a comprehensive plan just to clarify a few points. Uh, this is a legislative document. It's not a legally binding enforceable document. Meaning that this is supposed to be a guiding document, but if you all change your minds about something you want to

do in the future, uh this is not a hard and fast commitment to do exactly as what's written in the plan. Um you guys can come back and amendment amend it. Um and you can pivot from what's in here. But this is supposed to be an overall policy guide. Um it is a vision for the future. It's not a reszoning of any property. So people have questions about how land use and zoning work together, we can definitely talk about that as well. Um, and it should serve as a foundation for land use decisions going forward. So as you're considering reszonings, your land use plan is going to be one of those main components that help you make some of those decisions for your planning commission. Um, next slide, please. Um, and I just want to briefly cover the schedule. I know some of you all in the back probably can't see that. Um, but I just really want to point out some of the yellow boxes on here. So, we started the process in April of last year. We had four steering committee meetings and our steering committee was really composed of a mix of different city staff, um, local community members who really helped guide the process and gave us really good insight into what Charles Town needs. Um we also had two public workshops, one early on in the process to get some input um on the big ideas for the community and we uh did that as part of the um the celebration in June uh at the family activity spark. Um then we also did an online survey uh which got over 500 responses from it. Uh so you guys really showed up for that one. Uh and then we had a second public meeting in October as well. Um so that's just a broad look at the community engagement process. The next slide includes some highlights uh from what people told us. Um and so from the survey itself, we asked people about the types of housing they want to see. Not shockingly, single family housing is one of your biggest ones at 60 uh 59 to 60%. Um we also heard about senior housing

and assisted living. Um and then an interest in patio homes as well. you're feeling some more affordable options for people who, you know, can't afford to do the full single family home. Um, we heard a lot about trans needed transportation improvements. So, better maintenance and repairs on roads was our top issue there. Um, and then when we asked people about the most needed types of development in Charles Town overall, um, our top one at 86%, so over 80% of everyone who took the survey said retail and dining um, was kind of your big piece there. Um, and the whole plan document, we have the same kind of overview in there and we have a full appendix that gets into the nitty-gritty of all the survey questions and public meeting input and all of that. So, you can really see the details of what people had to say. Um, I do want to talk through on the next slide um just some of the major goals and strategies from the plan. Uh, so yes, thank you. Awesome. Uh so really this plan document has five main goals uh each covering a different theme. So for example goal one public spaces and placemaking is to expand parks, public spaces, events and programming that bring people together. Goal two for downtown is to enhance downtown to establish establish it as a key destination that defines Charles Town. Goal number three for housing is to expand housing options to meet the needs of a variety of households and people at all stages of life. Goal number four is connectivity. So that's to enhance transport the transportation system to support safe connected and efficient travel for automobiles and people. Uh and then number five is economic development. So create a sound economic base for the city and attract uses that support a high quality of life uh for residents. Uh so each of these goals, if you go to the next slide, is really supported by a set of strategies and then action steps. Um so if you see here, we pulled out the housing goals and example. Um so you've got your

little blurb on what we're trying to get done with housing. Um but then we need to provide more of that detail and direction on how you actually accomplish that goal. So there are two strategies underneath housing and then for each strategy we have a series of action steps. uh and in the document itself, if you go to the next slide, each strategy has its own page that will give you some background about the doc uh background about the strategy and outline how we can get this accomplished. Um so on the next slide just to show you in a little bit more detail. Uh we have the about paragraph that tells you a little bit more about why uh we need the strategy um and how it can get done. Uh if you go to the next slide, you can see that they has the set of action items underneath it. So these are the three steps, the three strategies you should be looking at to help get this accomplished. And then the next slide will show you that there's a list of different partners and resources to get each strategy accomplished. Um so the partners are really going to be mostly local organizations, agencies, departments that can really be involved, some state level ones as well. And we also identify a lead for each of these strategies. So, whoever is going to take charge of it um and help make that strategy come to life. Um and then the resources can be things from grant funding that might help accomplish some things as well as state or federal resources uh that can provide you some guidance and support in accomplishing uh some of the strategies as well. Um and then if you keep going, Awesome. Thank you. I do just want to briefly talk about the land use plan and transportation plans. So the land use plan is really an update to the land use plan that was in your uh previous or current really uh comprehensive plan. Um the major changes here uh I just want to call out uh is that we break the residential up into three different categories of residential. uh really being able to say you've got your low

density, medium density, high density with your high density really being apartments and town homes that are going to be closer to say your downtown area and your lower density housing being further out um on the edges of town. Um the other main difference here from what you all had before is really breaking up two different types of mixeduse development. So, in your downtown area, you might want to see a mix of uses that looks like you've got, you know, maybe a restaurant or retail on a ground floor and maybe some housing or offices up above it. Um whereas along um in some other areas of town, you might do uh something that's more like uh commercial in one building and then next door to it, you've got your um maybe like your little clinic or something like that. So, it's really providing that mix of different uses um but just in a different form. Um so really breaking that up. Um those are the two major differences there. But ultimately this land use plan is there to guide some of those future development and land use decisions. And anytime you go for a reszoning of any property um this will be one of those things that you look at that's required by the state that is one of the five things you got to look at uh so that you can help make that decision. Um so this tells you really what that intended future use of that property would be. Uh and then on the next slide just very high level you guys have the transportation plan. So this identifies some of the major projects uh to be working on and investing in over the next 20 years. Uh we really developed this map by uh of course working with uh crash data and uh traffic analysis data but then also getting input from the steering committee and input from the public. When we had our second steering committee, I think this was the map we got the most comment on uh and said people were saying, "Hey, we need a crosswalk here and this intersection is really a problem." And so really just making sure that the transportation projects here really reflect uh what you all need to have addressed as a

community. Um so it identifies those intersections and corridors where we're having safety and capacity issues as well. Um and the last thing that I want to talk to you all about then uh is really the plan phasing. So you can keep scrolling down. Thank you. Um so taking all the recommendations you have a series of action steps for each strategy and what we did is we took all those action steps and organized them into different phases. Uh so that you know which ones are priority for the short short term um and which ones might be more you know higher investment long-term kinds of projects as well. Um so we have a set that are just ongoing things that are regular maintenance. Um but what I do want to talk through is are those immediate strategies. Um or sorry those immediate action steps. So if you go down um yes awesome. Um so we do have a few that are related to public spaces downtown and connectivity. And it's really looking um at really just getting the ball rolling on some of these. So your first action step you might look at this year is determining if a main street organization would benefit uh downtown development, right? So that's that's kind of an easier programmatic one to check off. Um downtown would be to construct phase one of the commons um which is part of the Charlestown Square vision plan and that's something you guys are already you know working on and working towards. Um and the third one here would be on the connectivity piece. says supporting the use of locally uh public sorry uh publicized state incentives through the IH CDA or the IEDC um or targeted local incentives. So those are the first three and then there are a bunch more uh but they're all focused around zoning. Um so these are all updates as you guys are working on developing your UDO, your unified development ordinance. These are all different action steps that you're going to be able to address at the same time. So, as you go through the UDO

process, one of the first things your committee for that is going to be able to do is look at this list and say from the comprehensive planning process, these are things we definitely need to be looking at addressing uh in our development ordinances. Um, and so it's really just there to um kind of help keep you guys focused on some of those big issues that came up on the comp plan process. Um, those are really my main highlights. The last thing I want to point out is that towards the end of the document, we do have a few resources uh to highlight that can help uh with the implementation process as well. Um so just feel free to check those out as well. Um other than that, those are highlights and I'll take any questions that you guys have. Thanks. Thank you. Are there any questions?

So Brian, you saw it in the play commission, but I asked for some changes. Yes. Um, page 32, state rule 62 is not north south. Yes. And we did make that change. It's in the one here that I'm looking at right now. U, it may not be the updated one. It may Brian may have just linked you back to the um I don't know if he linked you to the old one or not. Did we get that updated one? Yes, I did send it out. Um, so let's make sure I we definitely cuz I got your two changes down and we we made those. That's on the document I was reading. That's linked to our agenda, so I didn't know. Okay. Okay. Do you want them? I have a couple more. You're Oh, you got a couple more changes.

Yeah. All right. Is not north south. State level three does not connect to 265. Yes. And so that was one that we we corrected. And there's no Jonathan James RPR. Y. Yeah. That's Yes, those are the Yeah, those are the two. Yep. Sorry, but Oh, absolutely. Oh, we should have the basic facts correct in your document. Like, no worries at all. Any other questions? All right. Uh, we do have to vote to adopt it. The recommendation from the play commission is in favor of adopting.

I I will make a recommendation we we adopt this as long as we verify those changes are made. Yep, we will. All right. Brian Hester makes the motion. Is there a second? Second. Second by Shannon Elder. Any other questions? All in favor say I. I. Any oppose? That's unanimous. Thank you all. Thank you.

Um I did forget one thing in my announcement that I'm going to blame the decongestance for the break that I forgot to make. It's in my comments, but I think it's worth mentioning uh in case anyone missed it. Um the char the city of Charleston is receiving $4 million in community project funding out of Congresswoman Eric Halchin's u district office to remove light related to our public works facility. So what this will do is allow us to redo the public works facility. If you haven't been out to the quantit and seen how bad they are, I recommend a trip. But Brian's been posted several pictures of them as they sit today on the Facebook page to announce that this is a wonderful opportunity for us. That project has been something we've been to do for a long time and we just financially could not afford it on our own. Um and so to be federal government owes the city of Charletown for leaving the the plant the way they did and I think this goes a long way towards making that up. I've also authorized Jill say there on our part to apply for ready 2.0 funding in the amount of $4 million to match that. Um those applications were due Friday. She got it submitted. We'll know as soon as the RDA does, but basically they had some money that they had to reallocate due to projects not moved forward in this latest round of ready and we are in consideration for that as well. So I will of course update you once we know more about that. U I'll say thank you on behalf of me and other people out there that we appreciate what you done meeting Aaron over there going through everything fighting for uh what's right in the city. U I we'll publicly thank Aaron as well for helping with that process. Uh it does mean a lot. Hopefully we do get that ready 2.0. It'd be really nice. Uh, but I think and I know talking to you the other day, I asked a few questions

about it, but I think what you got planned over there and all the support and people coming in, I think it'll be a real good thing for especially on that corner. All right, that said, I have nothing else unless you guys make a motion. Have a motion by Chuck De. Is there a second? All in favor say I. I see I'm so tired to go. Come on. Thank you all. Don't forget to sign what you need to sign.