City Council - Regular Meeting

We'd like to call to order the Thursday, July 9th Concord City Council meeting. Welcome, everyone. Good to have you with us tonight. First up, we would like to have the Pledge of Allegiance and a moment of silent prayer. If you would please join me. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation, Thank you. Okay, council, first up is the approval of the minutes, and I think we have three sets from June 9th, June 11th, and June 23rd. Do I hear of any corrections or a motion to approve? Mayor, I'll make a motion to approve.

I'll second.

All right, we have a motion and a second. Is there any discussion? All in favor, please say aye.

Aye.

All opposed, no. That motion passes. And we have next up, presentations. And I'm going to step down front to do that. Okay, we have some folks that are completing terms of service on some of our city committees, and first up is Cesar Carrera. If you would come up. Cesar made me aware that he had another meeting at 7 o'clock that's pretty important to him, and so I told him he would definitely be very first. but I'll just read this certificate of appreciation. Whereas Cesar Carrera has rendered service to the city of Concord, which deserves special recognition, and whereas Cesar served as a Board of Adjustment member for the city of Concord for two consecutive three-year terms, and served as a Planning and Zoning Commission member for one consecutive three-year term, And whereas this position required him to give an impartial judgment after hearing any oral or written information pertinent to any application to the Board of Adjustment and the Planning and Zoning Commission. And whereas his performance in the execution of his duties and responsibilities as a member of both our commissions has been characterized as excellent with constructive contributions to our city. Now, therefore, I, Stephen M. Morris, on behalf of the City Council, am pleased to tender this certificate of appreciation to Cesar Carrera with our sincere appreciation and thanks for his distinguished service to our city and highly commend him for the manner in which he carried out his duties and responsibilities. Thank you, sir. We appreciate it very much. And... a cutting board for you as well. Thank you very much. And Cesar is leaving our community to move way far down the road to Locust where he has been city manager for almost 10 years and while serving the city of Concord as well. So that's a special thanks. Yes, sir. Okay, next is Charles Collier. Is Chuck with us tonight? I think we want to wait and see if he can come back next time. And then I think Coretta Grant. Good evening. How are you? Good. Good. Okay, and so I'll read the certificate for Coretta. Whereas Coretta Grant has rendered service to the City of Concord, which deserves special recognition, and whereas Coretta Grant has served as a Board of Adjustment member for the City of Concord for two consecutive three-year terms, and whereas this position required her to give an impartial judgment after hearing any oral or written information pertinent to any application to the Board of Adjustment, and whereas her performance in the execution of her duties and responsibilities as a member of the Board has been characterized as excellent with constructive contributions to our city. Now therefore, I, Stephen M. Morris, on behalf of the city council, am pleased to tender this certificate of appreciation to Coretta Grant with our sincere appreciation and thanks for her distinguished service to our city and highly commend her for the manner in which she carried out her duties and responsibilities. Thank you very much. Very appreciated. And here's your... gift as well, thank you. These folks attend meetings after hours in the evenings and give of their time and really provide a valuable service to our city. And so next up, we have a proclamation recognizing July as Parks and Recreation Month. And I know there's a slideshow.

We do have a video, Mayor, and then Jay will come up.

Okay. And then we can go from there. Excellent.

Okay. Whereas parks and recreation is an integral part of communities throughout this country, including Concord, North Carolina, and whereas parks and recreation promotes health and wellness, improving the physical and mental health of people who live near parks, and whereas parks and recreation promotes time spent in nature, which positively impacts mental health by increasing cognitive performance and well-being and alleviating illnesses such as depression, attention deficit disorders and Alzheimer's. And whereas parks and recreation encourages physical activities, by providing space for popular sports, hiking trails, swimming pools, and many other activities designed to promote active lifestyles and as a leading provider of healthy meals, nutrition services, and education. And whereas parks and recreation programming and education activities such as out of school time programming, youth sports and environmental education, are critical to childhood development, and whereas parks and recreation increases a community's economic prosperity through increased property values, expansion of the local tax base, increased tourism, the attraction and retention of businesses, and crime reduction, and whereas parks and recreation is fundamental to the environmental well-being of our community, And whereas parks and recreation is essential and adaptable infrastructure that makes our communities resilient in the face of natural disasters and climate change. And whereas our parks and natural recreation areas ensure the ecological beauty of our community and provide a space for children and adults to connect with nature. and Recreate Outdoors, and whereas the U.S. House of Representatives has designated July as Parks and Recreation Month, now therefore I, Stephen M. Morris, Mayor of the City of Concord, and the City Council of the City of Concord, recognize July as Park and Recreation Month. Thank you very much. Yes. I think it's especially relevant after we just had a wonderful park groundbreaking this afternoon, the David Phillips Park, which embodies a lot of those things.

Absolutely. And just to kind of give a little bit more overview of what July does. So every year, July is Park and Recreation Month. And NRPA, which is the National Recreation Parks Association, does a theme. And this year's theme is the power of parks and recreation. And there's a lot of subcategories that they're identifying throughout the month, including the power of community, the power of connection, the power of play, the power of bringing people together. And that's a great example of today of the groundbreaking ceremony at David Phillips. We're celebrating with here in Concord a variety of different ways. One thing we do every year is at the end of the fiscal year, because July is always the month, is kind of just looking at some of the data points every year and just kind of knowing that that power is really impactful because we see an increase of our visitation for our greenways every year, our rec centers. Our greenways this past fiscal year almost hit 500,000 visitors. There's 491,000, which was up 40,000 more from last year. Our recreation center jumped up to 147,000 visitors this past year, which was up 7,000. Our programmers actually implemented over 680 programs and had 102,000 visitors for those programs. So a variety of things that we're celebrating. And every year we actually do a marketing campaign. We team up with the public affairs team, which has been phenomenal to work with every year. And this year, instead of last year, the last couple years, we've actually done videos of our staff, getting to know them and letting the public know them and what their favorite parks are, what their favorite programs are. We wanted to connect with our users, connect with our participants of our program. So we're going to have a video every week coming out this month to share their testimonials of what Parks and Rec means to them in Concord. And we have a video to show from one of our participants from the Ceramic Center of what it means to them to be able to have that facility here in Concord. Great.

are like way lower. It's definitely a great way to de-stress, to have a creative outlet, something fun to do. We decided to take a class together, my two daughters and I, and it was just an eight week course and it's a year later. It like stuck. It's definitely the community. That was the aspect I don't think I was expecting. And then you kind of come together and it's like a potpourri of different people and backgrounds. And I don't know, it's just a beautiful thing. I certainly wasn't expecting, but it's been the greatest surprise blessing. It's a very encouraging environment. People are constantly building each other up. I've never been in a city that has had this. So for me, I'm extremely grateful.

Like I said, each week this month, there'll be different videos coming out, just sharing what it means to other residents of Concord. What's beautiful is this was something that was completely unprompted. We did not give her a script. This just came from the heart, and you'll see that in other videos. One came out last week from a yoga participant, and then we have several others that will come out the rest of this month.

Great. Well, they're very effective. You have inspired me to want to take a pottery course. There you go. Everyone, come on down. Yes. Great. Thank you. All right, next up is new business, and no, actually, next up is our departmental reports, which we have a Parks and Recreation bond update, and I think right in line with what we just talked about, and we're happy to have Jessica and Sheila to talk about that.

Good evening, Mayor, members of council, Mr. Payne, Ms. Kolchinski, Ms. Jenkins. I'm going to start by just going over the financial update since there was an update this month. As you're aware, on the agenda this month is the final design for the David Phillips Foundation. skate park pump track sorry the other park was on my mind so the final design for the skate park and so every time we get 100% design estimates we do update these cost estimates that we bring to you it is still the estimate at this point but didn't want to go ahead and present to you what that picture looks like based on the updated cost estimate from our design firm so I The increase was about $800,000 over what we originally had in this estimate. And so you'll see that additional cost reflected in this. It's in that cost estimates only portion that's showing on the screen. And then also, as we do every month, updated the investment earnings through the end of June. So the investment earnings have been updated as well. And so you can see that the current over funding available is about 1.5 million. So even with the cost increase, we're still sitting where we have enough funding to do all the projects as currently projected. And so I'm happy to take any questions, but just wanted to kind of make sure y'all knew that that was the update that happened this month because of the project being at 100% design.

Okay. Under funding availability. Positive. Correct. Okay. John and I both saw that and I'm like, It's not red, so that's good, but your terminology there, I just wanted to make sure.

Yeah, currently we're showing with all the investment earnings in the bond proceeds, $67.5 million, and then the projects are $66. So, yeah, we're still to the good, about $1.5 million. We will be getting an arbitrage estimate in September, so we'll see. That may decrease that slightly. It depends on what the market's been doing. We have spent down quite a bit of funds in this last year because of the Ramsborough Park going, Caldwell Park going, So it may not have as big an impact as it has in prior years, but that will potentially change as well when we get that, yeah.

Any other questions for Jessica? Okay, I'll turn it over to Cheryl.

Thank you, Mayor, members of council, Mr. Payne, Ms. Kulczynski, Ms. Jenkins. Today or tonight, I'll provide you the bond updates for July. First up are the two parks that are completed. Next are projects under construction. First up is Marvin Caldwell Park. We are finishing the final touches on this park. We are planning, or it is planned to open to the public on July 14th at 3 p.m. The ribbon cutting is scheduled for 2. I want to call out a little bit of the pictures. The top right, you can see the new multipurpose field that has lights. In the back, you can see the covered basketball courts, two full-size courts. You can see the new restroom building. And then at the restroom building to the right is the new playground. To the left is the new splash pad. To the bottom right, you see the new Logan Optimist Shelter. To the left, you will see near the tennis courts, we have two new full-size outdoor basketball courts near the tennis court shelter, and you also can see a climbing playground apparatus that is near the tennis courts, which was requested. Previously, we only had swings located at that location as a part of the public input. They wanted a playground unit, so we provided a climbing unit at the tennis court. In the top left, is the new Robert Mathis Amphitheater. Next is J.E. Jim Ramseur Park. We continue construction at this site, including site grading. The footers have been completed for the retaining wall. We're hoping in the next few months we start seeing some of the amenities and the park start coming out of the ground. Next is the Academy Gibson Athletic Fields. They are nearing completion for this project also. The up top left is the new inside of the new storage building. They are finishing the final touches on the storage building. The picture to the right, the new inclusive changing table has been installed by Willow's Wish. And the bottom right, the new padding for the new diamond field has been installed. Next is Dave Phillips Park. This project, the firm Hoss Construction is mobilizing to this site, and today we had the wonderful groundbreaking celebration for this park. This park will begin construction now. Next projects. First up is the Academy Gibson Skate Park Pump Track Sculpture Garden. This is before council tonight to approve final design. Once and if council approves final design, the next step for us will be to move to bidding the project, getting the final bids together and going out to bid for this project. And then we'll be back to council to approve final bid. Also, next up is Hartzell Park. Hartzell Park, we are nearing completion of final design. This will be the next project brought to council to approve for final design for this bond project. Next projects that are in design, but we hadn't quite completed yet is the poplar tent trailhead This project is internal design with engineering they are currently finishing design and permitting for this project and Next is Wilson Street Park. Again, this is internal design. Currently, staff and the, for this project, we're looking at amenity locations and sizes as a part of the design process for this park. Next is WW Flow. Staff is working with McAdams to fine tune the scope of design for this project. This will be coming back to council for final approval to move forward with design. Next, in the last project, we will begin design for the Academy Recreation Center in FY27. We have no updates to the timeline. It is still current with the projects that we have, and I will be glad to answer any questions.

Questions for Sheila? Well, not a question, but compliments on the event this afternoon at Dave Phillips Park. It was very, very nice, except the air conditioning was not great.

That's Jennifer's fault.

Yeah.

Thank you, Mayor.

Appreciate it. Okay. Thank you. Okay. Next up is our public comment. section persons requesting to be heard and we do not have anyone that has signed up tonight and I don't see anybody protesting that so so we will move on to public hearings first up we have a public hearing for case z0426 to consider adopting an ordinance amending the official zoning map for plus or minus 0.468 acres located at 600 Hyde Drive Northeast and lot 215 of Rockwood from C2 to RC, and to amend the 2030 Future Land Use Plan to modify the Future Land Use Plan use designation of the parcels from suburban neighborhood to urban neighborhood. Chris Kelly talked with us about this on Tuesday night. Does anybody have any questions before we open the public hearing? Okay, I will open the public hearing and invite anyone to the podium that wants to speak on this matter. I do not have anybody signed up. And I do not see anybody moving in this direction. So we will close the public hearing. Council, what would be your, well, I think we got the legal stuff to look at.

Can we get the slides up, please? You don't have the statement of consistency, because I don't have it. There we go. Yes, go back one. So the first step in this case is going to be to adopt a statement of consistency.

Okay.

You have two on there for you, one supporting approval, one supporting denial.

All right, council, what would be your pleasure on this item?

Mayor, I move that we support the approval part of this for the statement of consistency on this project. Thank you.

Okay, we have a motion and a second supporting approval and the statement as is on the screen. Is there any discussion? All in favor, please say aye. Aye. All opposed, no. That motion passes.

Okay, your next step is to approve or deny the zoning map amendment.

Okay, I think we looked at that on Tuesday night as well. Had a couple questions about it that were answered. Do I hear a motion to approve the zoning map amendment? Okay, we have a motion and a second. Any discussion? All in favor, please say aye. Aye. All opposed, no. That motion passes.

And your final step is to approve or deny the land use plan amendment.

Right, and the land use plan amendment I just mentioned in the opening statements from suburban neighborhood to urban neighborhood. Do I hear a motion to approve that change?

I have a quick question on this. How often are we changing our land use plan when these requests are being made, or is this the first time? Is that consistent with the past?

It happens sometimes. I wouldn't say it's frequent. Two or three times a year maybe. And it's largely it's going to be a result of a property that is not zoned consistently with where it's located. if that makes sense, with the land use designation. Does that make sense? Yeah, please.

It does, and one simple explanation, when we adopted the land use plan, a lot of the land use categories were based on existing zoning. So that's the reason that you have a land use designation that may differ from what they want, if that makes sense at all.

Yes, it does make sense. I guess, I thought about this one just a little bit deeper because realistically then that means that someone can come every single month and ask us to look at something and change their zoning. Is that correct?

Yes, they could file a petition. There are a couple of ways they could do it. In this case, zoning map amendment the the land use plan would would track along with it if someone wanted to change the land use plan separate from a rezoning they could do that also I don't know if that makes if that makes sense also it does and I don't want to confuse anyone and we can move from this my concern is

If someone or anyone keeps doing that, are we always going to change our land use plan? And what does it even look like then at the end if we're consistently making changes?

Yeah, I think I can answer this one. Typically when we do these, they're very small parcels, typically on the border of where a land use plan is. And from a planning perspective, it's not really significant because the land use plan is also parcel-based. It's typically not a broad area, and when they shift, they shift by one or two parcels typically on the border. We very rarely change 20 acres in the middle of somewhere from residential to commercial, if that makes sense. They're typically on the edges.

Thank you.

Okay, you're welcome.

Great. Okay, any other questions? And I don't think we had a motion yet on step three. So do I hear a motion to approve the land use plan amendment?

So moved, Mayor.

Okay, we have a motion and a second. Any further discussion? All in favor, please say aye. Aye. All opposed, no. That motion passes. Thank you. Next up, we have a public hearing to approve the submission of the fiscal year 2627 action plan to the US Department of Housing and Urban Development for community development block grant and home investment partnership program. Mary Carr talked with us about this on Tuesday night as well. Does anybody have any questions or comments before we go into the public hearing? All right, then I will open the public hearing on this matter. and invite anyone to the podium that would like to speak on this item. We do not have anybody signed up, and I do not see anybody gesturing in this direction, so we will close the public hearing. And council, do I hear a motion to approve the submission of the fiscal year 2627 action plan to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, HUD, for community development block grant, CDBG, and home investment partnerships, home programs. Okay, we have a motion and a second. Any discussion? All in favor, please say aye. All opposed no. That motion passes. Next up is consider approving the fiscal year 26-27 neighborhood matching grant awards. We talked about that. Rashawn led that discussion on Tuesday night. I think the city received 16 applications and 12 Projects have been recommended for funding, and you have a list of all of those in your agenda packet. So do I hear a motion to, first of all, does anybody have any additional questions? If not, do I hear a motion to approve the fiscal year 26-27 neighborhood matching grant awards? Okay, we have a motion and a second. Any discussion? All in favor, please say aye. Aye. All opposed, no. That motion passes. Next up is consider authorizing the city manager to negotiate and execute a contract with NJR Group Incorporated for construction services related to the City of Concord's annual street preservation program. Once again, we talked about that on Tuesday night, Philip Graham, led that discussion, and I think the bid from this company is $5.59 million to make improvements to a long list of streets in the city. Anybody have any additional questions or discussions? Okay, then I would entertain a motion to authorize the city manager to negotiate and execute a contract with NJR Group Incorporated in the amount of $5,590,792.74 for construction services related to the City of Concord's annual street preservation program. Okay, we have a motion and a second. Any discussion? All in favor, please say aye. Aye. All opposed, no. That motion passes. Next up is item three. Consider authorizing the city manager to approve the final design for the new Academy Gibson Skate Park Pump Track and Sculpture Garden as part of a general obligation bond referendum and permit staff to proceed to the project bid stage. Taylor Morris led that discussion on Tuesday night about that project. We saw it in our bond update as well. So does anybody have any additional questions on that one? If not, I would entertain a motion to authorize the city manager and staff to move forward with the bidding process. for the bond-funded new Academy Gibson Skate Park pump track and sculpture garden as identified in the final design documents. Okay, we have a motion and a second. Any discussion? All in favor, please say aye. Aye. All opposed, no. That motion passes. Next up is item four, consider an amendment to the interlocal agreement with Cabarrus County related to the economic development agreement with Concord Master Venture, LL. As we discussed, this involves the apartment projects here in the city, which we had already agreed to several years ago, and this is just some clarification that the county wanted. Does anybody have any questions about that one? If not, I would entertain a motion to amend the interlocal agreement with Cabarrus County related to the economic development agreement with Concord Master Venture, LL. Okay, we have a motion and a second. Any discussion? All in favor, please say aye. Aye. All opposed, no. That motion passes. Next up, item five, which we had added to the agenda by virtue of our discussion on Tuesday night, and that is a discussion about the Concord United Committee. Councilman Langford and I met with that group And Betty, yes. About two weeks ago, approximately, we shared with them concerns that we had discussed previously over the last year regarding the impact of legislation that had been passed by the House and Senate in the General Assembly. and we were concerned, and it had been vetoed, and we were concerned that the veto would be overridden. Hopefully the people we were talking to, and the meeting went extremely well, I thought we had an excellent discussion, but we did not know that the veto that we were concerned about was actually overturned the following morning. That was a coincidence, but I hope it made us look smart like we knew what was going on. So Andy, did you want to add to that?

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. A little bit of history. Six years ago, George Floyd was murdered. and it created a round of conversation throughout our country about the relationship between persons of different cultures and races, ethnicities. And some of you will remember we had over 2,000 people who gathered in front of the old city hall. saying, how are you Concord going to respond to this? Are you going to listen to our voices that sometimes are not heard? For the next year, this council vigorously debated how we can respond to that. I want to give thanks to Ella Mae Small for leading that work and doing that. Five years ago, we created the Concord United Committee, which I think is the first committee ever created in the city of Concord that was majority minority persons. We had Native Americans, we had Hispanics, we had Asians, we had African Americans and Anglos, all who have together for the last five years sat together, talked with one another, discussed city policies and city strategies. I do want to give great thanks for city staff who really did engage in that process of not only speaking but listening to all of these diverse voices. I think it was a great committee that was important at its time. Unfortunately, because of the North Carolina legislature, we are essentially being forced to say we must eliminate this committee under threat of losing state and maybe federal monies. And so it's from my standpoint with great sadness but also a sense of responsibility that we need to discontinue this group. The conversation you, Betty, and I had two weeks ago was a very helpful conversation. The committee was pleased by what they had done. They understood what we were facing. And I think there's a real possibility that some of them are going to create a committee, a task force, to continue to keep these sort of issues before us. It will address not only Concord, but Cabarrus County and the wider situation. I think there's some energy there. on their part to create their own independent group that's not appointed by us nor accountable to us. And so with great sadness, but also again a sense of responsibility, I'd make a motion that we discontinue the Concord United Committee.

I'd just like to add a few comments before I second. It was a good conversation, good heartfelt conversation. The committee has done some great work within the city. And, you know, we hope that they will continue in some shape, form, or fashion. Again, it was good, heartfelt conversation. Difficult, but heartfelt conversation. And I believe that they understood. Thank you. And I'll second that.

I would like to just add a comment. because when Concord United started, I wasn't on council and I was not involved in part of that. And it was also, a tough conversation that we all had when we had our retreat. And the reality is that anything that's going to put our critical services that are being utilized every single day at risk is something that we really have to start considering and taking very serious. We need police, we need fire, we need buses, we need all these different things. And while I do agree that we have to Get rid of the Concord United. I do urge everyone in council, take this as an opportunity because something written on paper doesn't mean that it's truly felt, that it's believed in, but I do ask, take this as a chance to get involved with different communities, not because a piece of paper is telling you or a committee, but because all these people matter. as part of our ecosystem, as part of what we do. And those are some of the things where I say, taking away this committee, it wouldn't really impact us as much as what we do next as council and as individuals within the community.

Mr. Mayor, if it's possible, I'd like to amend my motion to disband it, but I would also like there to be a letter from the council to the persons who have been serving on this committee and give them our deep appreciation for their time, their work, their effort, their wisdom. I want them to recognize that what they have done was significant.

Absolutely. Do you accept that amendment, Betty? I do. As the seconder. Okay. Is there additional discussion? Hearing none, all in favor, please say aye. Aye. All opposed, no. That motion passes. And just to add to what's been said, just because the committee stops, that doesn't mean the conversations have to stop. So there are a lot of different ways to approach that, but we appreciate the understanding of the committee when we met with them and they were extremely gracious in that conversation. Okay, we move now to item six, which was also added. This is an item that we have all discussed over some period of time. which is support of the Cooperative Christian Ministry and their effort to build the Rebuilders Campus, which is a conversion of the Brown Mill facility on Cabarrus Avenue. With some of the progress, I think we have all toured it at one point. And some of the progress that's been made is there's been a substantial investment there by the Cabarrus Health Alliance. They are now up and running and offering services there. Cooperative Christian Ministries is very close. I think they're ready to begin some infrastructure work. for the construction of the first grouping of apartments there, which will house people that have been unhoused previously with the provision that they enroll in programs that will be offered there at that facility to take them to self-sufficiency. There are gonna be some employment opportunities there, et cetera. It's a pretty comprehensive, that includes some, food bank warehouse space which will benefit food banks throughout the entire community and we have several of those and a number of items on the list but we had as a council This is an ordinance to amend the fiscal year 26-27 budget ordinance, which appropriates $3 million from fund balance, which was available after our annual audit to go towards this affordable housing efforts in addition to the other things that we're already funding. Is there,

So first of all, I want to thank Lloyd and city staff for finding this money. I think there really is unanimity not only on the council but in our community that we need the Brown Mill redevelopment to work. It could be a real major important part of our community. And so I wanna thank staff for working on this. We've gotten lots of support from the community for doing this. It's a major commitment, $3 million to them. But I'm very pleased that we are able to do that in light of our budget process.

Okay, thank you.

Okay, any other discussion?

Do I hear a motion to approve the ordinance to amend the fiscal year 26-27 budget ordinance? Okay, we have a motion and a second. Further discussion?

I don't have any discussion, but I just wanted to say that I know many other organizations over the years, the past several years when the when CCM kind of came up with this project, had put their dollars in the pot, if you will. And I think this council, and I just kind of want it noted that we've been supporting affordable housing in a lot of different ways. I think one of the things that we uniquely have and what we're positioned to do is with WeBuild and with our housing repositioning, like we just have so many facets. And I just personally felt like this just enhanced that even more. And I'm just really proud to represent a city that just really sees the need for this. but yet our decisions are very calculated. And so I just, you know, I know that, yeah, it's not a flippant $3 million. I just want to make sure that that's, you know, this was, this has been worked on for a long time. So I'm glad to see this day because I personally have been a proponent of CCM for many years and their work that they do. So thank you.

Thank you for those comments. And I think probably this discussion has been going on for at least five years. And and of course, you know at the point it makes me very proud of our city That anywhere we go anywhere across the nation or certainly the state the topic of discussion amongst governments is Homelessness and affordable housing has been big issues in their community and I for our community to be taking concrete efforts through the efforts of WeBuild, the things that you talked about, Jennifer, and then to help further this. I think it all works together as a system, and so I'm very proud that we're addressing some of those causes. Any other discussion?

It's not really a discussion, it's just my, personal opinion, I don't think I've ever seen anybody like Ed Hosack have a dream so grandiose and make it happen. It's awe-inspiring to me, and I think it lends itself somewhat to the power of prayer. And so I support this just because I just love seeing that miracle happen in our city and for our county. And I really do personally think it is miraculous what he's done.

Thank you. Okay, any other discussion? If not, we'll move to a vote. All in favor, please say aye. Aye. All opposed, no. That is approved unanimously. Thank you. Okay, we have a number of items on consent agenda. I have not gotten a request from anybody for any of those items to be moved for discussion. So at this time, I would entertain a motion to approve the consent agenda as presented. Second. Okay, we have a motion and a second. Any discussion?

Yes, Mayor. Yes. I just want to say, our budget is very fresh for this next year, and this is very timely because every time I look at a consent agenda, there's something on there that some of Lloyd's staff or the team has put forward in a grant. That's how we continue to have the budget and offer the services that we do, especially with public safety. So I just want to put out kudos to the department heads for looking for this money and finding these grants so we can stay ahead of things and so we can keep that balanced budget as we do. As they do. So thank you so much. Thanks, Mayor.

Thank you. Thank you for pointing that out. Any other discussion? Hearing none, all in favor, please say aye.

Aye.

All opposed, no. That motion passes. And we move now to advisory board and partner reports. First up is transit. We're happy to have LJ with us.

Good evening, Mayor, members of council, Mr. Payne, Ms. Galchinski, Ms. Jenkins. So a few updates. I attended the last MTC meeting as our ex-officio representative in May. It was mostly a ceremonial meeting. They did have an item related to their fair modernization program that I mentioned where they're going to be revamping their system, and we'll see how we'll interact with that new system, but mostly a celebration of the 31 years and awaiting the transition. As part of that process, since we, I, no longer have a seat there, in the transition process of being on the email list to be able to be included in the new transit authority meeting list. So once I just touch base with cats on that today, so hopefully that'll re-engage soon and I'll be able to kind of get back in the saddle with the right meetings because they're having a million of them to be able to provide an update on the new cats moving forward. So that's a little bit of transition that may be another month or so working out. In terms of for rider, it's been a busy three months since the last briefing. You all know about some of that. Obviously, we were able to fortunately avoid the service reduction that was potentially pending for a period of time, which has been met with great relief by the passengers. The fare increases on the consent agenda you just approved, that was sort of part of the reversing of losing service in exchange for doing that. We received a fraction of the public input that we did previously, and there were about a handful of folks that had a real issue with it, but most people understood the growing cost and were, I will say, happy almost to make the tradeoff to say at least we didn't lose service. So that kind of covers those, what have been two big things that staff's been working on, and a number of you all have as well. And then just a couple of other items just in terms of what staff's working on that Andy will brief you on further in September, but we are underway with our ADA transition project for our bus stop. So some of you are familiar, we've been working for years on getting bus shelters and seating in. This study is actually a past budget study that we're just catching up to that we already have the money set aside for, which will look at all 266 bus stops and create a ranking system of those that are most accessible the least in the guide path of what we'll need to do to get those addressed which are not necessarily putting in shelters and lighting if that makes sense so that's a new project we'll be looking at related to the bus stops and also not the shelters in the seating but we're going to be replacing all of our solar pole lights with a new modern brighter version with a better brand new batteries, that's all 60 of the locations that we have up currently. And about 90% of our existing shelter lights will also be upgraded to newer, brighter, longer lasting sets. About 10% won't because tree growth over the last five to 20 years. In some cases, it's kind of rendered solar unusable where it might have once been a decade or so ago. So those will either have to retrofit with a long-term battery pack or those won't have lighting in them just due to the growth of nature that we don't necessarily get to control. So that's all the pieces I have for you this evening. I'll be glad to take any questions.

Questions for LJ? All right, thank you very much. Okay, and from the Concord Downtown Development Corporation, we're happy to have Paige to report tonight.

Good evening, Mayor, Council, Mr. Payne, Ms. Kolchinski, and Ms. Jenkins. Good evening. It's nice to see you all. Not as rushed this time. We're much better time schedule for my update today. CDDC, the committees and board have been very active over the past several months. So we have two committees within the board The first committee is the premier destination committee, and their economic strategy is for Concord to be a premier destination of unique shopping, flavorful local cuisine, entertainment for all, and immersive performing and visual arts. So within that economic strategy, they find goals that they want to work towards. And so we've been working on, I mentioned last time, reviving the self-guided historic walking tour. Jim Ramsor and staff, CDDC staff years ago put a lot of effort into a self-guided walking tour and when the app and the website got held hostage for ransom, which no one paid, it went away. But we still had all the records and so it's been a goal of this committee to get that back up and running. So Kyle White is the manager of the downtown library and she graciously, she's also on this committee, she graciously offered her staff's time and expertise to painstakingly look through each of these folders to verify that the information in them was correct, add any updates. So that took a ton of time away from staff having to do that. So we really appreciate their partnership. They have completed that. I think there were probably 80-something folders for them to look through, electronic folders. So they have completed that process. So the next steps include the committee researching how we want to get this up. How do we want it to be viewed by the public Does that look like a page on our website with an interactive map? So they're in the process of looking at what other communities have so we can start researching how we can revive this. In addition to that, this committee is really focused on being the premier holiday destination for our region. Some of you may have heard of other places like Conway, South Carolina, of course, McAddenville at Christmas. So these communities have really taken on a new identity in some of the holidays, whether it's Halloween or Christmas. So they're really focused on finding ways that we can do that. We already have that sense of, the community already has that passion. We see it in the neighborhoods. So they're really trying to leverage that. So in looking at that, not only did the city purchase new holiday decorations to put up on the light poles and things like that, city staff has helped us take inventory of the old and the new so that we have a better handle on what we have. And then the committee is also looking at other ways to add to that, whether that's additional string lights, bows, archways that we can decorate at the passageways, things like that. So the committee is taking their holiday spirit very, very seriously. One additional idea that we are exploring and seeing ways that we can incorporate the community into this is at Halloween, having elementary age students make some decorations to put in windows of participating storefronts. So getting the elementary age students involved, their families, their parents will want to come down and see those. That's always a great opportunity to get people down that maybe haven't been downtown before. And then in the holiday, excuse me, in the Christmas time holidays, reaching out to high school students and doing maybe more of an elevated window decorating competition. So something that really stands out and having... We've discussed having a competition in years past, but it's just a lot to put on the businesses. So really thinking outside the box, maybe there's other outlets. And so looking at engaging those two groups. The Urban Living Committee is focused on building an urban lifestyle within the historic fabric of downtown. So that's their economic strategy. And how they're doing that, they really focus on what's going to draw somebody in to want to live here, not just visit or come from another area of the city, but truly live in downtown and experience that. So one of the opportunities we've been working on is a busking grant. So we're working on the language for that. And we'll get that over to legal to make sure that's something that we can do. We've already done preliminary. We'll get the finalized. Another opportunity is a free service that we have available to us as a Main Street community. UNCG, UNC Greensboro, their architectural program has a fellowship that allows any Main Street community to submit properties for facade renderings. And these aren't just a quick pop it in to change the paint color. They really take time to dig into the history of the property and they really look at ways to make sure that it stays in keeping with that history so that not changing the building and taking away from the original characteristics of it and then giving those property owners exactly the instructions that they need to make that happen down to how to mortar and I forget the terminology, but adding windows, what types of windows, things like that. And we have our first application submitted since I've been on staff. And so we've submitted an application for 18 Cabarrus Avenue West, which is the Tectegra building. One of the challenges that that property owner has had with leasing is it's a really large space for office, and we just don't have a need in the community for that. I haven't seen a need. So we're looking at ways to maybe add a front entrance that could just be to the second floor. So we've reached out to UNCG for their free design services, and so we're waiting to hear back. So we're excited about that. Again, business recruitment is another top priority. When we think about why do I wanna come and live in downtown Concord versus why do I wanna, you know, I might wanna choose an apartment off Poplar Tent that's right next to 85 and has a pool and these other things. The amenities are downtown. The amenities are the businesses there, where do you eat, where do you visit with your friends, where do you build community. And so really focusing on making sure that we have the right retail mix, the right business mix is a focus of this committee. So we use the retail snapshot that was provided to us by North Carolina Main Street and have put together a wish list for basically a specialty gift shop, stationery, I mean, think paper skyscraper, Moxie Mercantile, some Charlotte well-known gift shops. So we do have, we've put together based on the information, a recruitment sheet. However, we are kind of stuck a little bit on inventory, which is a great thing, but there's not a lot of inventory left for a space that would be a great retail space. It might be too big or might need too much upfit or maybe the cost is maybe more of a, leans itself to more of a restaurant where they can get a higher yield. So still working on kind of pinpointing if we've got this recruitment strategy, where are we now gonna put them? So working with property owners on that. New business updates. This committee heavily follows that, of course, as does the whole board of directors. So things to keep on the radar for the next, I would say, end of summer, early fall. Mestiza Steakhouse is coming along very well. You can see some of the updates on their social media. They've gotten their tables and chairs. They were looking, hopefully, to open by August 1st. I think it'll be a little more into August, late August probably. Bay's Burgers is weeks away, so we're excited for that. I'm waiting to hear a final date from them on when they expect to be opening, but they are hiring if you know anyone looking to get a job. 1122 Coffee Company, they're going to be going to the old high ground space, and they are expected to open this fall, hopefully on the earlier end of fall, maybe September. and Synchrony Wellness, a wellness studio that will be located on Union Street where Market 94 used to be. So look for those. We have additional businesses that are in the works and working on getting ready, but these are probably the ones that you'll see sooner rather than later. And lastly, we are working on, so one of the things that we do for our Main Street accreditation every year to maintain that accreditation is we complete a statistics report and send that into North Carolina Main Street, and they actually send it to National Main Street, so that all of the Main Street communities can say, this is the impact that this program is having, these are the dollars, these are the jobs that are generated, and really put numbers behind the work that we do. So with that, just to kind of give a highlight of what we're seeing and what will be in that report, and then we'll put that into an infographic type of report that we'll have on our website and you all will have access to, But so far, we're seeing that we've got 31 new businesses in the past fiscal year. So that's a really, really strong number and something we should definitely be proud of. That's a net of 22. We did lose nine businesses, but net 22 is pretty strong. So we are very happy about that, but we'll get that done by the deadline at the end of the month and get that report out to you. Questions?

Questions for Paige? Good report. The net of 22 is a fact we need to retain and make people aware of.

I'll put it on the infographic, and that way you don't have to remember it. Excellent.

I do want to give you a comment. My son works downtown Charlotte, and he lived down in South End for quite a while and moved back home. Anyway, he and I live... in downtown while my house is being more destroyed than renovated, but that's another story. And so he's had friends come to Concord, you know, from Charlotte and all this, and they have liked it so much that one of them is moving to Concord out of South End, where it's supposed to be so hip and so cool, is moving up here and isn't giving any consideration for the drive back to Charlotte at all because he said that the quality of life that he has seen, and of course we're just so much fun, in Concord has just made him want to move up here. So he's going to be right on Union Street at the middle of August. So I think that just speaks to what's happening, that this is this young guy who's not wanting to live center city, doesn't care about the drive, you know, the things that you think. So the quality of life downtown is really coming up. So it's great.

Thank you for that feedback. We agree. And I think when we see the rooftop, the steakhouse, those kinds of things, those are the amenities that I think are really going to fulfill those wishes of the people looking to rent the apartments. And we are seeing an uptick on those. I didn't write down the numbers, but we are seeing an uptick on the NOVA apartments.

Okay.

Thank you. Thank you very much. Okay. Jeff Corley has an update on stormwater.

All right, good evening, Mayor, Council, Mr. Payne, Ms. Kolchinski, Ms. Jenkins. Don Seitz, your committee chair for the Stormwater Management Advisory Committee, sends his regrets for not being able to be here today. He is out of town. So you get me, and we'll talk about stormwater a little bit. The board was very active in the winter and spring of 2025. The board had a lot of discussion concerning the needed rate increase that council ultimately adopted in the fiscal year 25-26 budget. While there is no, currently no urgent new business in front of the committee, the committee continues to receive project and funding updates. The committee reviewed the proposed 26-27 CIP and operating budget to assure alignment with departmental goals. Most of the discussion by the committee has centered around several risks to the stormwater funds, specifically aging infrastructure, increased project cost, and regulatory changes. First, aging infrastructure. Continued aging and failure of corrugated metal pipes is taking up much of the available project funding. These failures or sometimes imminent failures are often emergency repairs and replacements that cannot be delayed or planned for in advance and sometimes result in scheduled projects being delayed to future years. The department has conducted a citywide metal pipe inspection program to more closely monitor potential unexpected metal pipe issues and he's even begun programming some of the larger needs into the five-year capital improvement program. Overall project costs continue to rise. While the stormwater fund continues to grow based on increased impervious area billing, the cost of construction continues to outpace that growth. Regulatory changes. Staff continues to monitor potential changes to the city's stormwater phase two permit. First issued in 2006 and renewed in 2011, again in 2017, and most recently in 2023, This permit requires many things of the city, including stormwater requirements for new developments, spill response activities, public education and involvement, and other regulatory activities. The state has expressed interest in adding significant additional requirements in the next permit cycle that would begin in 2029, specifically due to our growing population. If added, this new regulatory burden could require multiple new positions and additional funding dedicated to those new efforts. And a reminder that 100% of our stormwater activities are funded by our stormwater utility fee. The Stormwater Management Advisory Committee also serves as an appeals board. for staff and management decisions related to the stormwater ordinance. Historically these appeals have generally been related to potential private property work by the city and I'm extremely happy to report that the board heard no appeals during FY 25-26 and I'll be happy to answer any questions you may have. Questions? Yes, ma'am.

Did I have a question on the regulatory piece with, are you seeing that, when you say that permitting, like more internal, that that's gonna require more on staff, so that piece, or also on the development side? Do you understand the question I'm asking?

I do. It's a great question. Most of those changes will be internal programmatic changes. We do have pretty strict development requirements already between the permit requirements as well as the county detention requirements that will remain. But most of those, things like analytical water quality data collecting, potentially bringing erosion control review and enforcement locally rather than at the state level. So there's a few things that we're monitoring. Luckily, we have two cities that are sort of venturing into this process right now throughout the state. So we're watching and talking with them closely to kind of see how that journey goes and what the burden of those requirements are. So we're watching them close. Thank you. Thank you.

Okay, we move now to general comments by council, if anybody has anything.

So I do have a comment. So in two days, it'll be six months since I was sworn in, but who's counting anyways? It's been a privilege to really just grasp a lot of knowledge to take back to the communities. I've learned a lot. There's still so much more to learn. One of the things I've learned is also my neighbors think I can fix everything. I have the power to do it all. But it's just kind of that learning opportunity as we go to ensure that people understand the work that separates local government, state governments, federal, and just really having all those discussions. I'll also say I've attended a lot of different events for the elderly and have been able to get to know a lot of people in the community that I once didn't know about before. But it also shows me how much more work we need to do. And we can't do it alone. We can't do it just as a council or staff in the city. It really takes everyone to do a lot of this work. And one thing that I do want to task everyone on council is to, for us to really start thinking about future budgets and how we support the elder community. And I do want to just point out two different stories that stuck with me. One is a 94 year old woman has lived in Concord for over 40 years. and has a tree that fell into her house. It was able to be repaired, but still needs additional trees to be cut. Now she's considering taking a second mortgage on her home at the age of 94. And what I'm really wanting to task us with, we support nonprofits, we support organizations, we amend budgets in order to do those things. But for us to be intentional, What opportunities, what grants or what aid can we provide to individuals that have been in our community for decades and really need that support, anything that supports critical home repairs? And there's a lot of grants, lots of opportunities at the state and federal level that can be sought out. But with the understanding that we have to be compliant, but we also can't create a cumbersome project for individuals that don't have digital fluency. So I am looking forward to getting that conversation started with this council because our elderly, they, they urgently need our help. They need our support. And on a fixed income, when everything else is rising, they just can't do it. And we can't expect for them to pull by their bootstraps. They can't. They physically can't. So that's something that I, and I'm going to put Lloyd on the spot because they mentioned that he's able to find money. I'm not sure if you're a magician or what it is, but I'm looking forward to us being able to look at future budgets and have something where we support the subsegment of our population.

Any other comments? If not, we do have need of a closed session tonight. So I would entertain a motion that we go into closed session pursuant to North Carolina General Statute 143-318.11 , in order to consider the qualifications, competence, performance, character fitness conditions of appointment or conditions of initial employment for an individual public officer or employee or prospective public officer or employee okay we have a motion and a second any discussion all in favor please say aye all opposed no we are now in closed session thank you

Now I can.